#after being compared to MARADONA all season

[lukamodric]

kvara crying after realising they won the league and alex comforting him. 💙

[cant-get-no-worse]

I mean Messi and Ronaldo both won lots of ballon d'or young but wasn't it just because there wasn't any other good player around? like Messi was good, but not a young prodigy like Erling or Mbappé. He became very good after a few years though. Ronaldo too he was alright in United but only became really good at Real Madrid, meanwhile Erling for his first season at City broke every record and Mbappé is considered amongst the best while still in PSG. He won the world cup at 18 I mean!!

Why... are we having this debate, again? It makes it seem like I have a beef with these players when in fact I don't. Love Erling, like Kylian as persons. But buckle up because I won't stand for career revisionism of the two grandads, even Ronaldo, cause ain't no fucking way the football world held ten years of obsessional, insufferable rivalry for youngsters to barge in and say oh, actually, were they that good?

I don't know a whole lot about Ronaldo because I only followed him through the Clasicos/RM era. But he wasn't "alright" in United. He was, at 18, compared to G. Best, David Beckham, etc. Was already decisive in finals. Won his first Ballon d'Or there at 23. There's a reason his transfer to Real was costly and such a show; he was way more than "alright". As much as I despise the guy's guts — I liked him alright when he was younger, but the traits that irked me at that time that I could dismiss as youth are now still present and even worse as a grown ass man, and I can't stand it — he was a fantastic football player. Will of winning, his work ethic, his football. He was absolutely lethal to play against.

Messi, well. I won't ramble on it because you can find that anywhere, really. Before he reached 20 years old, he was considered amidst the world best players. At 18 years old, Maradona said of him he was "the player who will inherit my place in Argentinian football". Ronaldinho (at the time ballon d'or winner and viewed as best player in the world) said he "wasn't even the best at Barcelona", refering to then 18 years old teammate Leo. He was seen as one of the key players carrying a failing Barcelona team while being fucking 18/20 years old or something. I haven't got words for him. Genuinely. He's a magician, a genius with the ball, he embodied football. At 18 just like as 25 or 33 he was making you shake your head in disbelief at the sheer insanity of his goals, assists or playmaking.

Both Messi and Ronaldo being 36/38 now kind of make new football fans think they're just those washed versions of themselves and overrated. I assure you. Those fanboys, medias, pundits, coaches and ex-players were not obnoxiously talking about them h/24 for nothing. 18 - 28 years old versions of Ronaldo and Messi would make an utter mockery of any current player in the world, and I'm weighting my words.

Those two hags both embody the exact meaning of young prodigy, and I'd say Messi even more so. Personal preference, I leave it up to people. The fact that they were considered as such before they won any international trophy such as the world cup as, as you pointed out, Mbappé won with the French NT at 18, answers your own question and tells you stricly everything you need to know. They were the best players in the world all seasons long, from when they were 18/20 to more than ten years. They were absolutely ridiculous. Hope we can enjoy such rivalry with Erling and Kylian, but it's not the same, since it's all about stats and awards now, football is taking airs of NBA. It's different. It's not style versus style. That 2007 - 2020 decade was wild, and as much as I dislike this saying, you just had to be there.

So yeah, they were that good. They were even better than that.

[akjshdkdzdq8qok]

Lionel Messi

Lionel Andrés Messi Cuccittini (Rosario, Argentina, June 24, 1987), known as Leo Messi, is an Argentine soccer player who plays as a striker. Historical player of the Fútbol Club Barcelona, he is currently a free agent after ending his contract with Paris Saint-Germain of Ligue 1 in France. He is also an international with the Argentina team, a team of which he is captain.

Often considered the best player in the world and one of the best of all time,[9] he is the only footballer in history to have won, among other distinctions, seven Ballon d'Or awards, seven FIFA awards for best player of the world, six Golden Boots and two Golden Balls of the Soccer World Cup. In 2020, he became the first soccer player and the first Argentine to receive a Laureus award and was included in the Ballon d'Or Dream Team.

With Barcelona he has won 35 titles, including ten in La Liga, four in the UEFA Champions League and seven in the Copa del Rey.

A prolific scorer, he holds, among others, the records for the most goals in a season, [10] in the same club and in a calendar year. He is also the all-time top scorer for Barcelona and the Argentine team, in La Liga, the Spanish Super Cup, the European Super Cup and the non-European player with the most goals in the UEFA Champions League.

Born and raised in the city of Rosario, at the age of 13 he settled in Spain, where Barcelona agreed to pay for treatment of the hormonal disease he had been diagnosed with as a child. After rapid progression through the Barcelona Youth Academy, he made his official first-team debut in October 2004, aged seventeen. Despite being injury prone early in his career, as early as 2006 he established himself as a pivotal player for the club. His first uninterrupted campaign was the 2008-09 season, in which Barcelona reached the first treble in Spanish football. Due to his style of playing as a small left-handed dribbler, [11] he was soon compared to compatriot Diego Maradona who, in 2007, declared him his "successor".

In 2009, at the age of twenty-two, he won his first Ballon d'Or and the FIFA World Player of the Year award. Three successful seasons followed, in which he won an unprecedented four Ballon d'Ors in a row. His personal best campaign so far is the 2011-12 season, in which he set the record for most goals in a season, both in La Liga and in other European competitions. Over the next two seasons, he too suffered injuries and, in 2014, lost the Ballon d'Or to Cristiano Ronaldo, whom he considers his rival. He returned to his best form during the 2014-15 campaign, in which he surpassed the records for absolute top scorer in La Liga and the Champions League and achieved a historic second treble with Barcelona, as well as winning his fifth Ballon d'Or. winning it for the sixth and seventh time in 2019 and 2021.

As an Argentine international, he has represented his country in fourteen major tournaments. At the youth level, in 2005 he participated with the under-20 team in the South American Cup in Colombia and won the World Cup in the Netherlands, a tournament in which he finished as the best player and top scorer and, with the under-23, received the medal of gold at the 2008 Olympic Games. After making his debut in the senior team in August 2005, at the 2006 World Cup in Germany he became the youngest Argentine to play and score in a World Cup. The following year, in the Copa América, he was named the best young player of the tournament. As captain since August 2011, he reached the finals of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, the 2015 Copa América and the Copa América Centenario with his team, as well as winning the 2021 Copa América against Brazil at the Maracana and, in 2022, the Finalissima against Italy at Wembley and the World Cup in Qatar against France at the Lusail stadium.

[anytimebitchess]

Actually no, psg is a club with no history whatsoever so having players like Messi neymar and Mbappé brings legitimacy and prestige to their club as well as their league. It’s true they didn’t win the ucl but she has psg ever in their 50 years?

Comparing PSG to other major clubs, it is a relatively young club, yes. It was just founded in 1970, whereas many other well-known clubs were formed at the turn of the 20th century. The club had a rocky first few decades after it was founded. By being a relatively young club, PSG doesn’t have the same history as, e.g., FC Barcelona, Bayern Munich, or Manchester United. So saying that PSG doesn’t have a history tells me that you don’t know much about the club. PSG have played the most consecutive seasons in France's top league and are one of only two French clubs to have won a major European title. Saying that a club's worthiness is based on their UCL titles can prove that you don’t know much about football. Atletico Madrid, AS Roma, Tottenham, Manchester City, and Arsenal haven’t won one, and are they also clubs that don’t have a history and less worthy just because they don’t have a UCL title? No. As I understood your question, implying that PSG’s history will only start when they win the UCL is false.

Speaking of Neymar, Mbappé, and Messi, on paper, the three of them seemed to create the most legendary and dynamic trio in football’s history. But not every theory works out well in practice. The chemistry between them was off, and on top of that, there was just an overall lack of commitment. Them three together was supposed to make PSG win the UCL, but they just reached round of 16. PSG has preformed better than that in UCL. The missed chances were surprising for football players at this level. Messi’s stay at PSG wasn’t great; this club wasn’t for him. It reminds me of Maradona’s stay in Barcelona. So I will say that having them three together on the pitch was overcrowded and not the best thing to happened to the club. It proved that having an "all-star team" doesn’t always work out. Did it give more legitimacy and prestige to the club? I don’t think so. PSG was a well-known club before any of them played in it, so I don’t know if it changed anything.

[allsports4123]

Ronaldo is a former Brazilian footballer, chairman of Real Valladolid CF and owner of Cruzeiro EC.

Ronaldo is a former Brazilian footballer, chairman of Real Valladolid CF and owner of Cruzeiro EC.

He has won five international tournaments, including two World Cups, two Ballon d'Or titles, and three FIFA Player of the Year titles through Barcelona, Inter and Real Madrid.

As a typical center forward, a player with a solid physique of 183cm ran as fast as Kaka, played footwork like Ronaldinho, and made a reckless dribble like Maradona, hitting accurate shots like Van Basten with both feet. Simply put, it's incredibly fast, but it dribbles incredibly well, shoots incredibly well, has incredible physicality, and uses both feet incredibly well. And most of all, he was good at instantly breaking the offside line by taking advantage of his overwhelmingly fast main power and ball control, which are his biggest strengths. Despite being a striker, one of his strengths is his phenomenal ability to dribble past defenders with his amazing footwork. Even after his skills fell significantly due to injuries and self-management problems, he showed excellent goal-determining ability to score eight goals by hitting 28 shots in seven games at the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup.

The biggest features of his play in his heyday are perfect body balance, explosive instant acceleration, painting, dribbling using techniques, exquisite shooting techniques, and relatively even bipedal skills. In his heyday, he ran the 100m in 10 seconds, was the top runner in the 30m race in Real Madrid, where he gained weight and lost speed, and he ran the 100m in 11 seconds and had explosive instantaneous acceleration to 36km/h just before retirement.

Ronaldo's biggest strength was to drive the ball based on this tremendous moment of acceleration. On top of that, it was evaluated that there was no change in speed when he owned the ball or not, and he had excellent ball control, excellent body balance, excellent physical strength, and various personal skills such as false leg picking, flip flaps, La Croqueta, Marseille turn, and scoop turn. Using this, I was able to dribble at a great speed and mix colorful individual skills at the same time, change directions, or turn rapidly.

In particular, he used it very well and used it as a representative technique for him, and while most players use it mainly for disturbance, Ronaldo can be seen flicking past defenders or goalkeepers using false legs. And due to the nature of the false bridge, it is necessary to slow down or stop, but Ronaldo wrote well while maintaining the speed completely. He was also good at Nutmeg in English and so-called "Alkkagi" in Korean, which took the ball out between the defender's legs. As such, there are many scenes where two or three players are beaten, and sometimes even six players are mentioned as the best dribbler in soccer history.

In Barcelona, he was more of a striker in the No. 9 role, focusing on straight breakthroughs and finishes, but in Inter, he was not as good as in Barcelona, and often had to rely on Ronaldo's personal tactics due to Serie's defensive and static tactics and counterattacks.

Therefore, the frequency of side and pass plays has increased compared to the Barcelona days, and as a result, his talent as a free-roll was blooming in his first season at Inter. The misunderstanding that Ronaldo's turnovers are significant is likely to have been caused by this situation during his time at Inter. Many people value Barcelona more because its turnovers have increased and the number of goals has decreased compared to Barcelona, but many people value Inter's first season more in that its skills and potential as a free roll were blooming.

And although soccer fans don't know much about it, the sense of pass was also excellent among strikers. As such, he was also a striker with talent as a playmaker, so many say that if his skills were in full bloom without injury, it would have been quite different from now on, which is considered an authentic striker. Since he started his career as an attacking midfielder, he showed considerable ability in killer passes and had a wide range of activities.

In other words, Ronaldo in his heyday had the personal tactical ability to discuss the best of all time and was a near-perfect striker. To find the shortcomings, there is a lack of air combat capability and a slight decrease in judgment when passing.

Ronaldo, who showed his worst performance with an unknown seizure in the 1998 World Cup finals, fell into a slump and did not perform as well as before, but as mentioned above, his heyday ended with two knee injuries in 1999 and 2000 and a two-year hiatus. Since 2002, after his return, he has been a striker who has reduced dribbling and changed closer to the catcher, focusing on scoring goals from the front rather than on all-round game influence. Of course, Ronaldo's foot skills, acceleration, off-the-ball sense, and goal determination were still scary enough to play a role as a catcher, and he scored more than 20 league goals in three consecutive seasons at Real Madrid. However, since his injury in 2004, even his remaining skills have fallen significantly, and his performance has been criticized as a disastrous stat ghost as he scored goals with his unique sense of scoring.

Ronaldo's biggest weakness is his glass body. In 1999 and 2000, two consecutive knee injuries and a two-year hiatus led to the disappearance of athletic ability in his heyday and the collapse of his body balance, ending his heyday, and his skills quickly declined as he suffered several large and small injuries. In other words, his heyday ended at the age of only 24 years old, which may be the age of going to the World Cup for the first time for someone who is still in full swing. Ronaldo used to use the expression, "The human body couldn't stand God's ability." To be exact, it can be said that excessive play style based on natural physicality caused frequent injuries. According to medical staff when he underwent his first knee surgery in 1996, the injury was caused by excessive development of his thigh muscles. Nevertheless, as shown in the above GIF, he suffered chronic injuries throughout his career due to his dribbling, which focuses the weight of his entire upper body on his knees while using very fast, dynamic, and brilliant movements and paint. The fact that his cleft tendon was cut and carried off twice during the game, and both sides were cut in turn proves that his style of play was accompanied by a tremendous strain on the body. In addition, in the late 20s, weight gain due to decreased thyroid function overlapped, becoming a Hodon that we are familiar with. One of the causes of Ronaldo's injury is excessive overwork, regardless of national team and club.

Also, Ronaldo's biggest problem, which is not well mentioned due to his multiple injuries, is that he is a lazy genius. If you were lazy, you wouldn't know, but self-management was serious. Despite the injury caused by weight problems, numerous photos and testimonies prove that he ate high-calorie foods constantly, and in addition, he enjoyed alcohol and cigarettes that were not physically good for soccer players. In addition, Ronaldo's laziness and self-indulgence can be seen in interviews with Christian Vieri, who was close to him during his inter career, Carlo Ancelotti's autobiography, and testimony from fellow players. According to Vieri's autobiography, Ronaldo came to his house every evening when he was in Inter, banging on the car's class until the door was opened, and Vieri didn't want to go some days, but eventually played with Ronaldo until dawn. Still, Vieri went out to train with a little snow, but Ronaldo reportedly went to work right away. Despite his physically demanding style of play, he continued his fairly profligate private life, including alcohol, cigarettes, and sex, as the Brazilian striker's genealogy, which inevitably shortened his heyday.

Due to the frequent injuries that were inevitable due to this style of play and lack of self-management, the period of showing their capabilities fully even with unrivaled skills was short. One season at Barca, first season at Inter, and the 1998/2002 World Cup are over, but during this brief heyday, many players have had careers that they have never experienced in their lives, including two Ballon d'Or, three FIFA Player of the Year, two World Cups, two Copa America, and two Copa America. In particular, there is no player in the history of world football who can be certain to be better than Ronaldo unless Pele has won three World Cups.

[kevkesblog]

Translation: kicker magazine profile about Julian Brandt (July 27, 2020)

By Thomas Hennecke and Matthias Dersch

Had he made this artistic pass during the corona pandemic with empty stands in the stadium, it would have been a pity. A week before Christmas however, there is almost no free space in the Signal Iduna Park left. Everybody is ripped off their seats – except the RB Leipzig fans – the moment Julian Brandt marks the second goal. Brandt digs deep into his toolbox. Receiving the pass by Sancho, processing the ball, shot. Three actions in one fluent move, south American suppleness with ice-cold efficiency, a master class. Goal of the month December.

This cool blonde with the jersey number 19 – he is a man for the special moments. A player who makes a difference. And a gambler. A footballer having fun and who lets the difficult things look easy and made his relaxed demeanor a trademark. You can guess why he named Diego (the Bremer, not Maradona”, like Brandt said in BVB-TV) is his idol. The Brazilian used to have the blessings to do great things on the pitch. Diego also had a dream goal in his repertoire: 62,5 meter distance on April 20, 2007 against Alemannia Aachen. End score: 3:1.

The fact Brandt coolness also comes from a sometimes fatal way of risking things, relativizes his actions. You are torn a bit. People who appreciate show, spontaneity, art and creativity will love him more than people adding statistics and all mistakes and how they translate onto the pitch. The ‘Süddeutsche Zeitung’ looks beyond that and celebrated Brandt as a “Player with the Wow-Effect”. Brandt plays passes, so precise they will find almost every gap. As if they were managed by an electronic brain. He celebrates chop passes which look good and find their goals. But he also screws up counter chances with sloppy passes. He gives goals to his opponents with carless back passes. Or he shoots x-times against the goal, without a slightest danger to the goal keepers.

2019 is the second year with coach Lucien Favre and the so-called “restart”. BVB manager Zorc took a lot of money into his hands, in order to optimize the team. Looking back he wouldn’t be as passionate about some transfers as he was back then – but the 25 million euros for Brandt are still a good and useful investment, Zorc thinks: “Julian is a talented football player and has a lot of potential. He is very active on the pitch, demanding the ball, plays in a self-confidend way and doesn’t hide.”

Then follows the “but”. Zorc follows everything very closely from his box seat on the team bench. He sees mistakes by Brandt, unnecessary mistakes – calles “unforced errors” in tennis. “He still does a lot of them”, Zorc complains. “He has still work to do when it comes to working against the ball, Julian knows that best himself.” Indeed one doesn’t have to look far to find weaknesses. He himself is his biggest critic, the professional once claimed. Yet, he never lets that sort of self-reflection get out of his hands: “I always question myself, whenever I’m not performing well. But I never question the fact that I still can do it.”

It’s easy to spot: this Brandt-guy is not Mr. Perfect nor a football-playing robot. Rather he is an un-adjusted fine spirit on the pitch. Always in a good mood, with a fresh quote on his lips. During the USA-journey to Seattle last year, he was walking interested through the Museum of Pop Culture where Borussia was celebrating its “Black and Yellow night”. He had some small talk with journalists, he seems relaxed, approachable and cool. The opposite of the footballer clicheé of being arrogant. Brandt is “a fantastic guy” says Captian Marco Reus, “he’s a funny and open guy”.

As engaging, positive and uncomplicated his persona comes across: sometimes however Brandt appears to be less serious about stuff. It’s seems as if an extra scoop of ambition is missing, based on his body language. Unlike many other professionals. “I heard from many people before, about me looking like I’m sort of listlessness I embody”, Brandt said during an interview with the former BVB-player Patrick Owomoyela. Yet he assures: “My inner drive is always there.”

Brandt shows both faces during the game against Leipzig. Magical and faulty. He serves Timo Werner the 2:2-goal on a silver platter with his horrible wrong pass. “Perhaps someday there will be the award: wrong pass of the month”, says the 24 year-old. “I’m sure, I’ll get into the top 5.” BVB-boss Hans Joachim Watzke is face-palming on the stands in that moment. With some distance he likes Brandt’s way of playing. The BVB-boss says: “Julian makes extraordinary mistakes, because you can only play extraordinary if you take risky passes or have risky ideas.”

Five months later, both major teams in Germany play against each other on the evening of May 26. Borussia against Bayern; light house 2 against light house 1. Dortmund has to win, otherwise the Bundesliga title will be gone and Dortmund starts in a rush. Erling Haaland gets the ball in the midfield after 17 seconds, by winning a head ball against Joshua Kimmich. From the back Brandt storms in front like a speed train, captures the situation, speeds up the game and passes over to Thorgan Hazard with his left foot. The clock ticks – 19 seconds into the game – Manuel Neuer gets out of his goal and saves the situation for Bayern at the last moment. But he passes the ball into Haalands feet. His shot rushes through Neuers feet until Jerome Boating saves it for Bayern on the goal line. Brandt goal celebration dies on his lips. The blitz goal after just one minute – it would have been his act as well.

Same game, 43rd minute. Mats Hummels defending for Dortmund, the ball moves a few meters to the left. Kimmich gets the ball, looks up, sees Roman Bürki standing a bit too far away from the goal, shoots and scores. The guy standing the closest to Kimmich: Brandt. It would have been unfair to make him responsible for the goal alone, half of the team is responsible as well. Yet some people who’s heart is beating for black and yellow would have preferred Brandt at least trying to hinder Kimmich on making his genius shot. He does: nothing.

He's a day dreamer, Brandt once said. Day dreamers keep strolling through their thoughts. A study found out: day dreamers are capable finding time to dream because their brains have enough space left. In the past day dreaming was understood as a sign of lack of concentration and attention – today people see it as a sign of intelligence and creativity. Like a lost professor: brilliant, sharp mind, yet sunk into his own world.

 It is however no explanation for him being passive in front of the goal in May that basically pre-decided the German championship. Brandt made his day dreamer confession in a different context – when asked about a career plan. He doesn’t have one, he said: “Everything that happens in my life, happens spontaneously. I don’t even know what I will be doing in three weeks from now.” Brandt lives his live as free and individual as possible and as disciplined as necessary. He likes to sleep long in the morning and only leave “shortly” in order to just barley making it on time at the training ground. “Every minute is sacred” he says with a wink of an eye. “I don’t know how often I had to pay a penalty for being too late.”

A year Brandt is employed in Dortmund. The statistics are showing respectable numbers. 42 games, seven goals, 13 assists, ten second-pass assists. The season prior in Leverkusen he had seven goals and 15 assists – just in the Bundesliga. He added six scorer points in the DFB Cup then and the Europa League. “I had to find my place during the first months. I played on many positions and didn’t know many of the boys yet. It’s why it was a bit un-harmonic”, says Brandt. “Nevertheless, now I’m “in”. I had a nice year with great moments. I have to say: I’m really satisfied. Everything can get much better. However its was fine for the first year.”

Brandt wanders through the BVB team, gets put into five different roles. The center midfield is the place where he can show his class the best – whenever he has the game in front of him. He can put his instincts and creativity into force and can create chances with his passes. He is basically a lost force when playing way in front. Except against Slavia Prag in the Champions League he confirmed with two assists, Favre decision putting him into the front as a striker. His abilities are also limited once he plays on the wings.

He never has a lack of commitment and engagement. Brandt is running on average 11,85 kilometers in 90 minutes. Nobody of the permanent Dortmund players is running more. He wins 52,4 % of his one-on-ones – more than Sancho (45,6%), Marco Reus (44,6%), Hazard (42,0%) or Haaland (41,4%). His passing with a 84 percent accuracy however still has room for improvement compared to the other specialists like Axel Witsel (94,1%), Dan-Axel Zagadou (91,1%) or Raphael Guerreiro (89,2%).

Brandt is brilliant in games like against Gladbach (DFB Cup, kicker-grade: 1,5), against Fortuna Düsseldorf or Schalke in the Bundesliga (both 1,5). He has personal low points in Freiburg (sub in and out of the same game; grade: 5), in Munich (grade: 6) and against Milan in the Champions League, where he basically loses the ball in almost every scene. Every game becomes a personal balancing act for the highly skilled national player: he dances on a high wire – here and there he loses his grip and crashes down.

His time in Dortmund started with a glitch. He makes a mistake and drives onto the parking lot of the youth time at 7.45am in the morning. A BVB employee has to show him the way. Brandt decided to leave the comfort zone Leverkusen on purpose. “Dortmund” – he says, “Dortmund is much bigger in terms of media interest, the stadium, the number of fans and in terms of pressure. It’s a different game here. It could make a mark on me and will serve me good.” And then there is the wish to win a title which made him to transfer to Dortmund. It’s about a basic attitude in sports, Brandt said a year ago, “everybody should have the drive to win every game.”

Because Dortmund only won 28 of their 46 games this past season (seven draws, eleven defeats) a lively debate about coach Favré heats up as well as a discussion about the mentality of the team. No fans will get together in Dortmund and celebrate the fifth second place finish of the team since 2013. Nobody will fill extra pages in historic club chronicles, some BVB players are now suspecting. “We are not satisfied to finish second”, Brandt confesses. “We aren’t angry, but also not satisfied. We want more.” He then sticks up for his colleagues who get criticized for some bad performances and whenever there are doubts about their mentality and the harsh criticism: “We want to the big price. The team is hungry, they are in for it to win titles. The team is capable of that. You have to always aim high.”

Children who are having their first day of school this year, have lived a life only knowing Bayern Munich as German football champions. In order for them to understand that other teams can be successful as well, Dortmund needs to win the “all-or-nothing”-games, Brandt thinks. The duels with the other Bundesliga havy weights: Bayern Munich, Leipzig, Mönchengladbach, Leverkusen. “You have to win those games, if you want to stay on top”, he says. “Yet you also have to take smaller teams seriously. Something like a 3-3 draw against Paderborn is fatal.”

Borussia Dortmund gave the players four weeks vacation. This Thursday the team will come back together well rested. The months during the corona crisis, the tough hygiene rules of the German Bundesliga, left a mark on Brandt. “It does something to you”, he confesses, “you don’t see many people. You see your family, perhaps a few friends. Otherwise: nobody. You are happy to be able to go out and have some freedoms again.” Now he can go out again – at least a bit.

[liamhaydn-blog]

The Argentina Problem & The need for Dictator Messi

Lionel Messi uses week old babies to do kickups with, he spits in the face of elderly women and burns money infront of the homeless. These are all headlines you won’t ever see, and that’s because they aren’t things that have ever or will ever happen, but he must  have done something.  

Something morally wrong, something really corruptible for otherwise there is no fair reason why a simple humble guy who has done nothing other than raise a family with his one true love and entertain us with breathtakingly consistent talent with a football should be forced to play in the Argentina national side.

On Saturday night Argentina began their Copa America campaign. The first step towards ending their 26 year wait for a major trophy. For Messi, it is his ninth major international tournament for the Argies, and his 5th Copa America.

It’s hard to recall a time Argentina had gone into a Copa America less fancied (it didn’t take long to see why). There was some fleeting hope among the more optimistic Messi/Argentina supporters that maybe these low expectations would work in the teams favour. After the huge pressure of going into the last two Copas expecting themselves to win, maybe the lack of expectation this time would allow them to play with less pressure and they could end up surprising a few people.

As it turned out, no one was surprised with Argentina on Saturday night. The only slight surprise maybe, is that somehow they’ve managed to get worse from the World Cup last summer. 

It was a match we’ve seen Argentina involved in time and time again over the last several years. The defence and midfield too poor with the ball to regularly involve the teams star attackers (not just Messi, the team also has Aguero and Di Maria who play for two of the best teams of the world, but you would be forgiven for forgetting as they’re rarely spotted for the Albiceleste), then the forwards when they do receive the ball usually only have one player ahead or level with them with no sign of the Argentine full backs being anywhere near the opposition final 3rd (atleast they make up for it with their defending right...Right!?..) 

Regarding Lionel Messi, apart from big players who have represented proper minnow nations (George Weah with Liberia for example) it is hard to imagine any player having to deal with more of a stark contrast between their current club side and international side. 

But this is not a minnow nation, this is  Argentina, one of the most formidable powerhouses in International Football. 14 time champions of South America and since they made the final of the inaugural World Cup in 1930, they’ve been back in the showpiece final 4 more times twice winning the greatest prize of them all.

And yet for the last few years the difference between Argentina and FC Barcelona has been the difference between night and day. That’s not to say it’s been all plain sailing at Barca, just one Champions League semi final appearance since they lifted the trophy in 2015 is underachieving by their standards, and the Roma and Liverpool defeats were unforgivable. 

Barca’s hysterical fanbase have been relentless in their insistence that their club is in a real crisis and whilst undoubtedly they are not without issues, in the real world they’ve won a major trophy in 10 out of the last 11 seasons and they’ve claimed the domestic crown (in the opinion of many including me the strongest league in the world) 5 out of the last 7 seasons. 

In 10 games Barca will win 8 of them, Messi will score 9 and assist another 4. Some crisis. It seems as though Messi sees more of the ball and is involved in more openings in the first 10 minutes of a Barcelona game at the Nou Camp than in 90 minutes of an Argentina game. 

Watching Messi in an Argentina match has a strange effect. Simultaneously the 90 minutes drags along, time crawls by whilst also feeling nowhere near long enough for Messi to impact the game. It feels like only by extending Argentina matches to 4 hours long could we hope to see Messi do half of what he does in a game for Barcelona, in an Argentina shirt. 

With just the standard 90 minutes, Messi is usually limited to one good piece of play per Argentina game (be it one good dribble, pass, shot etc.) and one half chance (usually a free kick from a long way out). 

Compared to the dramatic transformation of the European game, South American football feels like a throwback to the game of old, it doesn’t appear to have changed that much since the days of Diego Maradona. The pitches aren’t perfect, the games are very rough, physical, often even ugly. To highlight the difference in style and approach between Football’s two most successful continents, take this statistic: in 51 games at Euro 2016, there were 3 red cards. After 5 matches at this years Copa America, two red cards had already been shown.

Most South American teams seem to take a very conservative, defence first approach. The number of players teams put between the ball and their goal only serves to highlight further just how isolating it is playing as an attacking player in this Argentina team. They’re regularly attacking with just 3 or 4 bodies with 7 opposition players back defending their goal. Of course the only South American team bar the minnows who don’t have a solid defence in place is...Argentina. Nicolas Otamendi? How did this guy actually convince people he can defend? All over the show.

Though the problem has undoubtedly got worse in recent years, in this ‘Messi Era’  Argentina have often had issues scoring against South American opposition in competitive football. Messi’s combined Copa America and World Cup Qualifier record  is 29 goals in 67 games which is by no means a disgrace, but this is a player who at his scoring peak scored 91 goals in a calendar year, who has scored over 40 goals a season for 10(!) consecutive seasons.

Sergio Aguero has 16 Copa America + WCQ goals and Angel Di Maria just 9. In comparison, 22 of Chile International Eduardo Vargas’ 38 international goals have been scored at either the Copa America or in a WCQ.

These problems in finding the net will likely continue for the Argies against Paraguay and if not, the respite will only be a short one, resuming as soon as they face above mediocre opposition in the next stage. That is assuming they get that far, as failing to get the right results against Paraguay and Qatar would be their first group stage exit at the tournament since 1983 and would surely be one of the lowest moments in the history of Argentinian football.

So what can Argentina do about it? well there’s lot they could do about it, lots they could try, but what *will* they do about it? what are they willing to do about it? very little would be my guess. 

All hope of change from the fairly disastrous 2018 World Cup had been pinned on the introduction of Lo Celso into the side and how he would be able to link the midfield to the attack and establish a good partnership with Leo Messi. If Saturday night is anything to go by, this one player will not be enough to remotely come close to lifting Argentina’s fortunes. 

So it appears Argentina will insist on plodding on with the same tried and failed formula, perhaps doing enough to scrape past Paraguay and Qatar before succumbing against the next above mediocre team they face.

It is maddening how little Argentina seem to be willing to change, and whenever they do make a change it always seems like such a random throwaway selection of personnel, done without any real conviction or hope it will bring about improvement. 

For arguments sake here’s how I would look to address The Argentina Problem. First I would move Messi into Midfield. It’s maybe a bit bold to move a player into a position he’s never played before in the middle of a tournament and I can’t understand why its never been experimented with before in friendlies. 

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Messi is the best footballer Argentina have, the best footballer anyone has, there is zero benefit to having him play in a forward position at the moment where he is so isolated and seeing the ball so rarely. He is the best passer in the world, he will be able to keep the ball better than any of their other midfield options and can hit passes that few can see, but as well he is also a calm player with a cool head who can steady Argentina from the middle and allow them to keep the ball for a while, which at the moment they are completely unable to do.

This also gives Messi the opportunity to dribble from deep and have options infront of him, he will attract many opposition players when he has the ball which should free up more space for the attackers. It’s long been thought that Messi would flourish in centre midfield when his pace left him and though we’re not at that stage yet, with Messi’s passing range and football intelligence combined with his current ineffectiveness in the side I believe the time is now here to try Messi in centre midfield for these final 2 group games.

Ahead of Messi, I would make Dybala a starter in the side. At the moment he doesn’t ever even feature off the bench. Imagine that, a team struggling as much as this one for goals and for quality completely ignores a man who can give them both in abundance if his Juventus career is anything to go by. He’s 25 years old, not a kid and only has 1 goal for his national side due to opportunities being so stark. 

Unless they want another Carlos Tevez on their hands (a world class player whose international career was wasted, scoring just 13 goals over 11 years due to being in and out of the side)  Argentina must trust Dybala sooner rather than later and give him the opportunity to prove himself. It was ridiculous that at last years World Cup he was behind Higuaín in the pecking order and its ridiculous that he still now isn't getting a look-in.

Adding another top class attacker into this side would also give defences more to think about and give the current attackers so much needed support. There needs to be much more fluidity and movement in the Argentine attack, Di Maria is allowing games to pass him by whilst he stands out wide not doing anything. Dybala and Di Maria could switch positions during games, drifting all over.  

Argentina’s defence are appalling so the best way to combat that in the short term could be to just go top heavy, try to outscore teams and hope that by stacking their attack with the best players they have, teams are more wary and respectful of them. Because at the moment they are causing zero fear or worry for the opposition. 

Looking past this tournament, I would also ensure Mauro Icardi is included in every squad from now on, playing as much as possible. I get that he’s a dick and has a bad attitude which may prevent him from hitting the heights he could hit in football, but he’s a brilliant goalscorer. He only needs one chance, one touch. He scored 55 goals in 77 games in 2 seasons for Inter before souring his relationship with the fans. He has been awarded just 8 international caps. 8. He’s 26 years old and Argentina look set to waste having another top striker. And for what? what are they possibly gaining from completely freezing him out.

Looking to the 2022 World Cup, there is only one man who can make Argentina from also rans to serious contenders. Diego Cholo Simeone.

Simeone took control of Atletico in December 2011 days after the team had lost 3-0 at home to a 3rd division team in the cup. They were in 10th place. By May 2014 Atletico had won La Liga in doing so breaking the longest duopoly in Spanish Football since the last time they won it in 1996 when Cholo was a player for them. 

The same season they were literal seconds away from winning their first ever European Cup, this was all achieved with a starting 11 costing 35M pounds. In 8 full seasons at the club Simeone has won La Liga at the Nou Camp against Barca, The Copa Del Rey at the Bernabeu against Real, the Spanish Super Cup, 2 Europa Leagues and 2 Uefa Super Cups. He has made 2 Champions League Finals, and finished in the top 3 for 7 straight years. He has transitioned the club into a new era with a new modern stadium and he has done all of this whilst regularly losing big players and having to rebuild. Prior to taking the Atleti job he was also at the helm of Estudiantes de la Plata when they won their first Argentine league title for 23 years.

Basically, if anyone is going to fix Argentina, it’s going to be him. It has to be him. One day it inevitably will be. The proud Argentine who made 106 appearances for his country will undoubtedly one day fall to the temptation of managing his beloved nation at the FIFA World Cup.

And the way I see it, if you’re going to do it what better time to do it than at the 2022 World Cup where you’ll have a 29 year old Dybala, 30 year old Icardi and the greatest player of all time playing in his last ever World Cup. 

Messi has scored 67 goals in 131 caps for Argentina, better than 1 in 2 which is a solid return if not as mind-blowing as his 603 in 687 games for Barcelona (though given the context of the Argentina team he’s scored 67 in, who knows maybe it is) and though in recent times he’s seemingly grown tired and less able of carrying Argentina on his back, no one should deny that for many years that’s exactly what he did.

Argentina reached extra time of the World Cup Final and 2 Copa America finals in 3 years (Where they was only Higuaín not being shit away from glory. How they must long for them days now). Without Messi that wouldn’t have been possible. He dragged those average teams to touching distance of silverware, and that’s why I hope he is given the chance to play his final World Cup with a truly world class manager in charge.

Just give Messi a chance of winning the biggest prize of all, just a chance. Get Simeone in to coach the defence, get everyone running through brick walls for the shirt and for him and get Messi playing behind Dybala and Icardi, knowing that it’s a collective team effort now and all the responsibility is no longer his. 

It’s what the greatest player of all time deserves and for that reason I hope he picks up the phone soon and calls Simeone. And tells him personally how much he wants him to take the job for the World Cup. It’s hard to imagine that wouldn’t have an effect on Cholo, such a big legend of the game asking personally for you. Then after he’s had time to think on it, I would leak the call to the world, so huge pressure builds on him to accept and he can see the huge fanfare from Argentina fans for him.

Whether Messi the dictator is real or fake, he needs to come out now and take action to save his international career. 

[thisdaynews]

Pele Ranked The Greatest Footballer Of All Time By BBC Poll, Messi 2nd.

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Pele Ranked The Greatest Footballer Of All Time By BBC Poll, Messi 2nd.

As Pele turned 80, BBC Sport asked it’s thousands of readers to rate his achievements among some of the other GOATs

The results have now been counted and Pele was ranked as the greatest, with Barcelona’s Lionel Messi in second and Juventus’ Cristiano Ronaldo in third.

We have put the players in order of the results below.

Note: The Ballon d’Or could only be won by a European player until 1995

1: Pele (Santos, NY Cosmos & Brazil)

World Cup wins: 1958, 1962, 1970 European Cup/Champions League wins: 0 Ballons d’Or: 0 League titles: 7 International caps/goals: 92/77

A teenage dream who was the highest-paid and highest-profile sports star in the world in his pomp, Pele was a phenomenon.

Breaking on to the global scene aged 17 with a hat-trick in the World Cup semi-final and two more in the final, Brazil’s leading goalscorer is one of just four players to have scored in four different World Cup tournaments (1958, 1962, 1966 and 1970).

He won three of those and was kicked out of the ’66 tournament in England through some brutal defending – the only way to stop him.

Not just a goalscorer, Pele had a hand in 53% of Brazil’s 19 goals as they won the 1970 World Cup (four goals, six assists) and was as adept at playing behind the main striker as he was leading the line.

The greatest? Or does the fact he never played club football in Europe hold him back in your eyes?

“Had he been playing now, Pele would surely have made the move to Europe,” says BBC Radio 5 Live football correspondent John Murray.

“It’s the difficulty with comparing generations. We can only judge him on the record he has and it is truly phenomenal.

“The achievements of Maradona, Messi, and Cristiano Ronaldo make it a close call but, even now, Pele still has a strong claim to be considered the game’s greatest player.”

2: Lionel Messi (Barcelona & Argentina)

World Cup wins: 0 European Cup/Champions League wins: 4 Ballons d’Or: 6 League titles: 10 International caps/goals: 140/71

“No-one else does the things he does, the way he does them – and no-one ever has done. He is simply the greatest to have ever played the game.”

The words of Gary Lineker no less.

Can you even mount an argument against Messi being number one on this list? We all know just how good he is. Perhaps a lack of international success with Argentina and ‘only’ winning things with Barcelona? But we’re splitting hairs there.

An absolute genius.

3: Cristiano Ronaldo (Sporting Lisbon, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Juventus & Portugal)

World Cup wins: 0 European Cup/Champions League wins: 5 Ballons d’Or: 5 League titles: 7 International caps/goals: 167/101

The Champions League’s all-time top goalscorer and scorer of 100 goals for Portugal – Cristiano Ronaldo is a remarkable player. Especially when you consider how he has reinvented himself from spindly winger to powerful number nine.

Whether you rank him ahead of Messi or not is the debate of our footballing time – unlike Messi, though, he has won titles in three countries. And won a major tournament with his national side.

4: Diego Maradona (Argentinos Juniors, Boca Juniors, Barcelona, Napoli, Sevilla, Newell’s Old Boys & Argentina)

World Cup wins: 1986 European Cup/Champions League wins: 0 Ballons d’Or: 0 League titles: 3 International caps/goals: 91/34

What a player. If you haven’t seen it, please go and watch the recent documentary about his time in Naples. It’s superb.

Single-handedly (pretty much) dragged his Argentina team to World Cup glory, and carried Napoli to two Serie A titles. Does that separate him from Lionel Messi? Up to you.

5: Johan Cruyff (Ajax, Barcelona, LA Aztecs, Washington Diplomats, Levante, Feyenoord & the Netherlands)

World Cup wins: 0 European Cup/Champions League wins: 3 Ballons d’Or: 3 League titles: 10 International caps/goals: 48/33

A supremely gifted individual who was also all about the team – not winning a World Cup with his band of ludicrously good Dutch brothers in the 1970s may be the only blot on his copybook.

Produced one of the World Cup’s most famous moments, had a turn named after him, and went on to inspire Pep Guardiola and countless others when coaching Barca’s so-called ‘dream team’ of the early 1990s.

Lost a lot of money with an unwise investment in pig farming – which is not a line you’re likely to ever read about Messi or Ronaldo…

6: Ronaldo de Lima (Cruzeiro, PSV, Barcelona, Inter, Real Madrid, Milan, Corinthians & Brazil)

World Cup wins: 1994, 2002 European Cup/Champions League wins: 0 Ballons d’Or: 2 League titles: 1 International caps/goals: 98/62

Wherever you end up ranking Ronaldo, we can all agree he would be higher if it wasn’t for horrific injuries. At his peak, perhaps in his season at Barcelona or his first year at Inter before yet another setback, he was as close to unplayable as it gets. It’s no wonder he broke the world transfer record twice by the age of 21.

Take a look at his highlights reel and observe – the jaw-dropping close control, the trademark step-overs at speed that humiliated a decade of goalkeepers, the powerful finish with either foot – he really was something else.

It’s bordering on criminal that he only won one league title in his career. One!

7: Franz Beckenbauer (Bayern Munich, NY Cosmos, Hamburg & West Germany)

World Cup wins: 1974 European Cup/Champions League wins: 3 Ballons d’Or: 2 League titles: 8 International caps/goals: 103/14

‘Der Kaiser’ won the World Cup as player and manager and is living proof you don’t have to be an attacker to rank among the very best.

A playmaker even from centre-back, Beckenbauer was equally at home in midfield or defence and made his debut on the left wing. What you call a total player.

He won three European Cups in a row for the dominant Bayern side of the mid-1970s.

8: Zinedine Zidane (Cannes, Bordeaux, Juventus, Real Madrid & France)

World Cup wins: 1998 European Cup/Champions League wins: 1 Ballons d’Or: 1 League titles: 3 International caps/goals: 108/31

Another player who didn’t win nearly enough honours, and much like Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane re-imagined a position.

Before ‘Zizou’ the stereotypical number 10 was your playmaker but could be kicked out of the game, was there to be shot at. Not a chance with Zidane, who combined the speed of thought and foot of a ballerina with the frame and menace of a cruiserweight.

At his best Zidane was so good I couldn’t even really tell you where he played. A number 10, sure, but he’d often end up on the left, drop deep to take the ball from the defence or goalkeeper, and yet somehow still pop up in the area as well.

Not an out-and-out goalscorer or a striker, but still won the World Cup for France with two headers and scored the best goal ever seen in a Champions League final.

A complete player, who even knew how to sign off in disgrace with a red card for a headbutt after scoring in his second World Cup final.

9: Ferenc Puskas (Budapest Honved, Real Madrid & Hungary & Spain)

World Cup wins: 0 European Cup/Champions League wins: 3 Ballons d’Or: 0 League titles: 10 International caps/goals: 89/87

There is a legitimate case for stating the ‘Magic Magyars’ Hungary team of the 1950s was the best in the world. They lost just one match in six years – which, unfortunately, happened to be the World Cup final.

That’s how good Ferenc Puskas was. He was 31 when he joined Real Madrid and still won five league titles, three European Cups and scored 242 goals.

He scored 514 goals in 529 matches in the Hungarian and Spanish leagues. Ridiculous really, isn’t it?

10: Alfredo di Stefano (River Plate, Millionarios, Real Madrid, Espanyol & Argentina, Colombia & Spain)

World Cup wins: 0 European Cup/Champions League wins: 5 Ballons d’Or: 2 League titles: 13 International caps/goals: 41/29

Di Stefano won his fifth and final European Cup in 1960 – still only one player has more wins.

He scored in five finals in a row, and won them all.

And, yes, he played for three countries on the international scene. Beat that.

[torentialtribute]

Raheem Sterling reveals his pain at losing his 13-year-old friend Damary Dawkins to cancer

Raheem Sterling has a catch in his throat while being transported back to last December, to the emotion of an afternoon that might never leave him.

His eye contact is usually strong, but not if there is Damary Dawkins, the 13-year-old boy who lost his battle with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in March.

Sterling stares into the distance and looks back to when they first met at the University College Hospital in London . Their encounter and subsequent friendship had a profound effect.

Raheem Sterling (left) taking a photo with Damary Dawkins (right), the 13-year-old boy who lost his battle with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in March

The Manchester City unveiled a t-shirt to celebrate the young man's life after five days after the young boy's death had scored against the Czech Republic

& # 39; I'm getting really emotional with things like that & # 39 ;, Sterling says. & # 39; I don't handle it that well.

& # 39; We always go on a hospital visit and because you want to see as many children as possible, you don't get much time.

& # 39; This was much more like a sitdown, a conversation and getting to know and understand him. I looked at him and thought of me at that age. How would I be. It touched me. & # 39;

Sterling was on a free day in London for a special visit, after he had heard about a young person's condition through a friend. He took the train down with his family and the couple played pool together, then stayed in touch.

Damary was an attractive child who dreamed of becoming a professional football player and had been in the Crystal Palace development program. There is a lack of Afro-Caribbean stem cell donors and that is why Sterling contacted his family.

Damary eventually found a donor following worldwide public calls with support from Sterling, but he fell back. The city ahead unveiled a T-shirt to celebrate the young person's life after being scored against the Czech Republic five days after the boy's death in England. Sterling paid for the funeral.

The Manchester City forward is pictured playing a game of pool with his deceased friend

& # 39; It was about making these communities, my community, aware, & # 39; he says. & # 39; People need help. Sometimes you sit at home and complain that your Sky or internet is not working and you realize that there are many people who are worse than you.

& # 39; When I saw him, how happy and outgoing he was – not giving up something or falling down, just being himself – it made me appreciate my life and everything that was going on with me was

& # 39; Thanks to everything you have been given. It's just something that really touched me and I had to keep communicating with him. It wasn't long, but it was definitely something that will stay with me for a long time. & # 39;

Sterling meant business on the trip from Manchester City to Asia.

Operating as a central striker in the absence of Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus, he scored twice against West Ham last week and once in a club of Kitchee in Hong Kong. His only stain was a penalty miss against Wolves in Shanghai.

There is extra certainty when he breaks through on goal, a little more definitively. Pep Guardiola has the & # 39; small details & # 39; perfected and Sterling has benefited from simplifying his game.

Thirty-one goals for club and country last season were clearly not enough for a superstar who has very real ambitions to become the Balloon d & # 39; Or.

Sterling benefits from one-on-one tuition from Manchester City- boss Pep Guardiola

Sterling scored three goals during the preseason of City – including this one against Kitchee

The 24-year-old is desperately seeking to improve those figures, but in terrifying, has not attached great importance to City lifting the European Cup. For him, the Premier League remains the Holy Grail and defending that is the superior performance over any Champions League glory.

& # 39; I was really happy for Liverpool, happy for some of the players I know to lift the Champions League & he said.

& # 39; What we did last season – every day, week in, week out – was exceptional. The Champions League is huge for us as a club, but our most important thing is winning the Premier League. That is our main goal to enter this season.

& # 39; The Premier League is your bread and butter. The Champions League looks nicer, the most prestigious as people say, but you switch on every weekend. You go to difficult places … you go to Crystal Palace, Burnley, it's hard, you know. You have put so much time into it. That is why we cherish it.

& # 39; It will be harder than last season. Doing this three times in a row is a huge challenge for us.

& Liverpool, all these big clubs, will try to get titles from us. But there is not a single player here who thinks he is at his best. There are no egos in our dressing room, no player who thinks he is Skin or Maradona. & # 39;

Sterling would rather win the Premier League next season than the Champions League

One Guardiola thinks it wouldn't allow anyway. The TV cameras zoomed in on the manager and Sterling on the Wembley grass after City completed an unprecedented domestic treble in May.

Sterling had scored twice in a one-sided final against Watford, but Guardiola saw room for tweaks. The conversation was surprisingly animated, even for Guardiola. There are plenty of them during their three years together.

& # 39; Oh, I don't know how to explain it … you see excerpts from him talking to you, but it's not like that every day! & # 39; says Sterling.

& # 39; It is an incident in which he speaks to me. He talks to us as a group. You learn If you don't learn, you don't play.

& # 39; It's not like he was in a room with a pen and paper writing things down about what I should do.

& # 39; People will judge me from now on, so I have to get better every season. If you don't want to improve yourself, there's nothing that Pep can do to help.

The English international is happy to learn his trade under the energetic Guardiola

& # 39; He sets such high demands and it rubs off. That has improved me the most: the standards that he sets. It makes sure that I don't fall out of mine. & # 39;

The importance of self-criticism is something that Guardiola has impressed on Sterling and he is also happy to help others.

He sees a lot of himself in England, teammate Jadon Sancho: a flamboyant winger, black, from London. Sterling knows what a teenager can mean in the spotlight.

He sends Sancho subtle advice messages about facets of the life of the young Borussia Dortmund. & # 39; Even when I got a lot of negative things, I would never sit there and be someone I am not, & # 39; says Sterling.

& # 39; I talk how I talk. I want people to accept me for who I do and they do that now. I am really grateful.

& # 39; If there is anything that I think can put Jadon in a bad light, I make sure I pull it on. He is a good child. He does much more outside the field than I was at that age in terms of his preparatory work.

I am pretty close with Ian Poveda (teenage Colombian midfielder) in City. It is a similar story: the north came from London. He always sat next to me in the coach. He is sometimes a bit annoying, I tell him that every day!

& # 39; He is my little friend, I am trying to give him advice. I let him feel things myself, but when I see something, I go there. & # 39;

[1945909] Sterling accompanied England teammate Jadon Sancho because of their similar upbringing "class =" blkBorder img-share "/>

Sterling has accompanied England teammate Jadon Sancho because of their comparable upbringing

Sterling has an extremely relaxed appearance. He discusses how life goes well when football goes well. Since he and City have hardly taken a wrong step in the last two years, it is safe to assume that this is the happiest he has ever been.

He and fiancé Paige Milian and their children mill restlessly around Knutsford, Cheshire, just south of Manchester and spend the summer vacations in Miami or Jamaica, where Sterling was born. He was only two when his father was killed there.

By staying away from friends in the game, he also helps to keep a lower profile and Sterling only really expects to maintain a handful of football friendships after his career.

Sterling likes to keep himself low with Paige Milian when he dismisses football

& # 39; At the end of a day, I don't want to talk about football when I get home. I just want to relax, & he says.

& # 39; If you are with three or four other football players, there is more attention than you need.

& # 39; It doesn't mean that there are people I don't like or that I can go on with, but when you're done playing football, you just want to go back to your normal life.

& # 39; It's just like finishing. I can't drink a glass of wine every night, but you have to work around it.

& # 39; Manchester is a wonderful place. I love the small villages. I can go out, have a little lunch and chill with my family without needing the center of town. We are really very happy up there. From childhood I have always wanted to play abroad, but I am happy in Manchester City. & # 39;

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[stevenhwicker]

The many faces of Yerba Mate

Aside from being two of the most talented and famous footballers in the world, Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi have something else in common; they have both been spotted on different occasions drinking Yerba Mate tea. Suarez has been seen leaving Barcelona and Uruguay games drinking directly from his gourd. Even the legendary Diego Maradona who is sometimes accredited as the greatest footballer of his time loved this South American traditional tea. Historically, Yerba Mate tea has been enjoyed since as early as the 16th century. It is made by steeping the ground leaves and round stems of the Yerba Mate plant. Although it can be currently found taken as a modern tea, the most authentic way to enjoy this special brew is traditionally serving it in a ‘mate’ Spanish name for gourd and drink using a straw famously known as the bombilla, or as we like to call it – Bombisha!

Footballers are not the only ones known to drink Yerba Mate tea. It is also a favourite among several Olympians. This August over 10,000 talented athletes had the unique opportunity to call Rio de Janeiro home for the Olympic Games. Some of the successful Olympians from these games such as Sam Mikulak admit that Yerba Mate tea is as essential and prominent part of their diet. American Olympic gymnast Sam Mikulak swears by Yerba Mate tea and even started a company called MateBros in the US which makes healthy energy drinks from it. Sam Mikulak claims that Yerba Mate tea helps him tune into his body and mind during practice. Other world class Olympians who swear by Yerba Mate tea include ultra marathon runner Scott Jurek and women’s United States ski racer Lauren Ross.

Recently at Bombisha we have been speaking to customers and Mate aficionados about how Mate supports their general wellness and exercise regime. We thought this deserved a blog post of its own as there seems to be a surge in Yerba Mate being used as a healthy alternative in the pre-workout energiser space and for number of other health areas. Here is a brief but detailed overview of some of the indispensable benefits of drinking Yerba Mate tea that have made it a popular choice for athletes and talented sportsmen and women, like our recent Olympians.

1). Yerba Mate tea is an excellent pre-work out energizer

Antoine Griezman scored not one, but two goals in the Euro 2016 that saw France thrash Germany! One would wonder where all his energy comes from. The answer might actually be Yerba Mate tea. Antoine Griezman has a YouTube video that shows him drinking mate and explaining how to prepare it. Guess what! He drinks it every morning before training sessions. Scientific evidence shows that Yerba Tea helps combat mental and physical fatigue and also boosts cognitive performance significantly. It provides a smooth increase in energy that has been described as calm, gentle and clean.

Unlike other stimulants such as tea , kola nut and coffee that provide a boost in energy accompanied with numerous side effects, Yerba Mate tea delivers a balanced energy boost that prepares a user for a an energetic and long work out session. This type of tea causes a state of alert wakefulness and is free from side effects that can slow down and impair training such as caffeine jitters. This is why athletes use it to enhance their exercise regimen; it can enhance their physical performance particularly for people suffering from physical and mental fatigue which is a common occurrence considering most athletes need to train consistently hence end up overworking their bodies.

2). Drinking Yerba Mate tea helps build strong bones and keeps the heart healthy

Even when not exercising Yerba Mate tea can help build strong bones through increasing bone density. According to an exhaustive study, post-menopausal women at risk of developing osteoporosis had a 10% greater bone density in the spine after consistently drinking mate as compared to women who did not drink it. The study did not involve exercise. Additionally, Yerba mate also comes in handy in preventing the development of heart related issues such as irregular heartbeats, heart failure and decreased low blood pressure. This tea naturally contains theobromine which helps to relax blood vessel and allow for better blood flow. Better blood flow is essential for persons who are very active physically because there is more oxygen supply to major organs which improves endurance. Furthermore, Yerba mate also has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties which also protect the cardiovascular system and the heart.

3). Yerba Mate tea is a nutritional powerhouse loaded with antioxidants, minerals and vitamins

The health benefits of Yerba Mate go beyond merely boosting energy and mental stimulation. This tea also has a powerful nutrient profile making it preferred over tea and coffee in some parts of the world. The athletes and Olympians drinking this tea are not only boosting their physical performance, they are also drinking a nutritious and healthy drink that boosts their immune system. This kind of tea is loaded with practically all the essential micro-nutrients needed to sustain a healthy body and active mind. Each serving of mate contains a high concentration of the following minerals and vitamins; B1, B2, B3, B5, E and C, Zinc, Calcium Manganese, Iron, Sulfur, Phosphorous, Sodium, Potassium, Magnesium and Selenium.

4). Yerba Mate boosts the immune system and has a long history of traditional medicinal uses

This tea is highly concentrated with saponins which are natural emulsifiers that not only boost the immune system but also have anti inflammatory and antioxidant properties. This tea comes in handy in modulating overactive immune responses which are a characteristic of seasonal allergies. Additionally, it has a long history of traditional medicinal uses. In her highly informational book, Dr Leslie Taylor a herbalist and naturopath lists dozens of uses for Yerba Mate tea including; as a treatment for sinusitis and allergies, a general nerve tonic for depression, pain and fatigues.

5). Yerba Mate boosts mental functions and helps lose weight

It is not only popular in South America and Australia; renowned American personality Dr Oz included a segment in his show that features Yerba Mate as a natural tea way to lose weight. Is this a legit claim? There is adequate evidence that suggests that this kind of tea can help lose weight through increasing energy expenditure, reducing appetite, burning stored fat and improving insulin sensitivity.

We all want to be smart, focused and productive, right! It is possible that Yerba Mate Tea can help you do just that! It contains moderate amount of caffeine therefore also has added benefits such as enhancing mood, alertness and memory.

Yerba Mate is quickly becoming widely accepted on a global base and is no longer just a preserve for South Americans. This is because the benefits are indisputable, especially for individuals involved in high-performance sporting activities. Even the leader of the Catholic Church is a regular Yerba Mate drinker. He has proudly carried his gourd and bombilla around the world. He credits this drink with helping him manage nerve complications he has been dealing with for a while. Yerba Mate also locally known as chimarrão or cimarrón in South America may have started out as a simple traditional delicacy; however, its numerous benefits have catapulted it to global acceptance.

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Now Is The Time For You To Know The Fact Regarding team.

Why Is Everybody Talking About team?

The start of every program brings brand-new and returning students together to discover principles or to strengthen ideas on coursework product. This combination of work experiences has given Alan with a strong foundation from which to own W3C's business advancement activities. When working with a virtual group, we highly feel that communication is the key to success. Improved Unity - The greater each participant of a group trust funds various other members, the better toughness the team thinks. Supervisors need to be able to inspire and lead their telesales team to success with their actions in addition to with their decisions as well as judgments. No question a team with Bobby Orr and also Phil Esposito along with goaltender Garry Cheevers was highly remarkable, but not control over an extended time period. I completely concur with that team building video games must be a lot more about reflection than just fun video games. It was in the Maradona era that the team has actually accomplished its highest possible accomplishments. Re-calculating next year's sales or production objectives with team structure does not constantly mix. I've only seen Season 1 of The Technique and was hooked on it. Intending to obtain Season 2 quickly. Establishing clear goals and objectives is vital to success in team structure. With Kevin Minter now in Cincinnati, that might suggest a set of brand-new starters inside when the Cardinals open up the season in Motown on September 10. Because of the interactive group building tasks, the individuals claimed they recognized each various other much better after a half day session compared to after a year sitting next to each various other in workstations. While at Reuters in London carrying out a Client Connection Management job, I led a team of five people. As team members reach understand and appreciate each other much better, office politics, back stabbing and cheats all appear less very unnecessary and appealing. During this stage, leadership needs to stress company thankfulness as well as both group and also individual acknowledgment. With business and innovation accelerating at the speed they are at, each individual within an organization needs to play the role of a leader by being an Outstanding Team Gamer. The bottom line is that when a group works together, it has a massive variety of abilities available that it can utilise to provide remarkable outcomes. Problems with your staff member could not always be their mistake - make sure to inspect your team's structure and also whether they have the direction and also resources had to meet your expectations. . And also, if they rely on the procedure, they'll supply valuable hints and point of views on team problems.

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Don’t compare Paulo Dybala to Lionel Messi

The Juventus star made Barcelona look silly in Messiesque fashion, but he’s not the next version of his countryman. He’s his own man.

This is what sporting genius looks like. It is less about the big moment, the actual goal, than it is about the lead up to it.

Paulo Dybala’s first goal against Barcelona was a wonderful marriage of footballing magic and pragmatism. The balletic pivot and spin, the finessed finish into the far post around several defenders, without looking up after receiving the ball; having the vision of the goal, the position of the defenders and goalkeeper in his mind before even receiving the pass, and the technique and audacity to bury such a difficult attempt, is unbelievable enough that the only remaining rationalization is to see the field where it happened as a land of magic realism.

But in that same fabulous world exists the fact that everything Dybala did to score that goal was efficient. He took one touch to control, turned and shot without looking because if he were to take any more touches, if he had taken the time to look or try to create space, if Dybala had hesitated, the chance would have gone. It was ruthlessly robotic as it was divine.

An Argentinian stole the show in Juventus vs. Barcelona, and it wasn't Leo Messi. Hi, Paulo Dybala. https://t.co/MLoxxchXQw

— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) April 11, 2017

Dybala did the only thing that was possible at that moment, but it takes a genius to see that small window. It’s ordinarily closed to most people and footballers. The reasonable thing would have been for him to get a better angle, or to pass it off to a better positioned teammate, but he could see beyond the immediate answers. He could see a path not revealed to ordinary people and players. It’s hard to even determine if had planned to shoot before getting the ball. Or if at that precise moment when the ball touched his right foot, a greater power — in the manner that many great artists attribute their best works to the spiritual world, to being possessed by the art itself or some grand emotion — overrode his thinking brain and took control of his body.

The second goal though, is such a lovely display of sporting intelligence. It’s in the way that Dybala makes the run towards Mario Mandzukic knowing that the Croatian is looking to cut the ball back into the box. It’s that when the pass is deflected and heads towards the edge of the box, away from his path, Dybala, at full speed, changes his run and curls out while shifting his hips as to still keep the ball on the outside of his shoulder, before striking it. The intelligence is in how he uses Gerard Pique as a reference point on how much bend to put on the shot. And there’s intelligence in putting so much force in the shot that a usually sure-handed Marc-André ter Stegen was beaten at his near-post.

Lionel Messi is the Albert Einstein of the footballing world. What Dybala did, Messi had done a hundred times over. Messi has scored those type of goals so many times that his genius has become standard operating procedure. He exists in that plane that normal footballers aren’t even allowed to glimpse. And because Dybala has shown that he has a similar ability, because he is diminutive, left-footed and an Argentine, he inevitably falls under the shadow of the man whose team he put to the sword with two goals.

This comparison is one that Messi himself knows all too well. When he was first starting to see the code in the Matrix, he was labeled the next Maradona. As was Pablo Aimar, Sergio Aguero, Carlos Tevez, Ariel Ortega, Franco di Santo and numerous others. It took him a lifetime of doing the impossible to be known as his own person.

Now, after banishing the ghost of Maradona, he is just Messi. But now his own shadow looms over the next generation as Maradona did to him and his contemporaries. Now there are the new Messis, any small player with a mazy dribbling style: Maxi Romero, Juan Manuel Iturbe, Claudio Nancufil, Ryan Gauld, Lorenzo Insigne, Jose Angel Pozo. The closer Messi gets to retirement, the more intense the search for his heir.

Dybala fits the stereotype perfectly. What’s more, he’s productive enough to justify the label. Out of all the new Messis, he’s the closest to the real thing. Just as out of all the new Maradonas, Messi’s resemblance was almost uncanny. Dybala’s two goals against Messi’s Barcelona only works to strengthen the belief that he is Messi reborn. If Juventus are to knock out Barcelona, the drive to see the achievement as a passing of the torch from Messi to Dybala will be hard to suppress.

When asked about the comparison before the game against Barcelona, Dybala pleaded for his own life. Asked about being Messi’s successor, he responded:

"People have to know that I am not Messi. I am Dybala and I want to only be Dybala, although I understand that there are comparisons. There's only one Messi, as there was only one Maradona. You can't replace players like them and it's a huge burden that people have expectations about me. I will try to give maximum effort in every game — including those that Leo can't play for the national team."

Photo by Emilio Andreoli/Getty Images

Dybala is a legitimate superstar. He is great in his own right. The two goals that he scored were not Messi-esque, they were goals of Dybala. Just as everything that he’s done this season or the season before do not need the reference or comparison of Messi, they should only be attributed to the beardless Argentine who looks a few years away from puberty.

Dybala has earned the right to be his own person and player. Genius may take the same forms on the field, it may take the shape of similar goals or dribbling style, but each individual has a right to be themselves. There was no new or old Maradona, there was just Maradona. There is no new or old Messi. Messi is Messi and will always be. And Dybala is Dybala. What Dybala is, is an incredibly talented, intelligent and celestial left-footed Argentine with a knack for clutch and surreal goals.

To compare him to Messi is flattering but it only serves to burden and diminish Dybala. The comparison takes away his own path, degrades his individual achievements by constantly putting them in the context of Messi’s, and does nothing to appreciate the wonder of watching Dybala play. The spectre of Messi can only serve to distract from the great little moment of changed runs, switched hips and a perfectly bended ball that puts Juventus in the driving seat to progress to the next round. There is no need to invoke any other player, Paulo Dybala is full of wonder all by himself.

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A young clinical forward with potential as high as the ceiling. The hardest thing to acquire and the hardest thing to keep. Over the past few years, there haven’t been many more young players who’ve excited and impressed more than Juventus’ Paulo Dybala and Atletico Madrid’s Antoine Griezmann. Both spearhead their respective teams’ attack although this is more the case with Griezmann, as Dybala has a certain £75 million Argentine to share the workload and forward line with. In an age where the quality of striker has dramatically decreased from the days of Ronaldo, Van Nistelrooy, Totti, Owen and the ilk, Dybala and Griezmann breathe a new age of striker which is set to take over the footballing world. Both the Frenchman and Argentine are touted to become world players, competing for Ballon D’ors after the Messi/Ronaldo duopoly is long over.

Dyblala Born in Cordoba which is situated in the center of Argentina in 1993 on the 15th of November although has Polish and Italian heritage through his grandparents. Paulo Dybala joined local club Instituto Atletico Central Cordoba as a young kid in 2003, working and continuously impressing his way up the youth ranks until making his first team debut aged 17 in 2011 and spent a season at his boyhood club, notching 17 goals in 40 appearances for the Central Argentine club before attracting major attention from mainland Europe and opted for Italian club Palermo and club president Maurizio Zamparini confirmed the capture of the pint-sized Argentine in April 2012, citing him as the new Sergio Aguero although due to legal technicalities and issues, he was officially announced as a Rosanero player in July and scored his first goals for the Italian club in November against Sampdoria. He carried on his steady progression over the next two years, the 2014/15 season was his real breakout year, creating a formidable partnership with Italian forward Franco Vazquez as Dybala clocked up 10 goals in the first half of the season as the duo helped the club stay in the Italian top flight as Paulo finished the season with 13 goals and 10 assists in Serie A, a joint top highest for assists tied with Hamsik, Pjanic, Berardi and fellow team-mate Vazquez. Having spent the season constantly linked with a host of top European clubs, Dybala joined Turin’s Old Lady, Juventus for a fee of €32m potentially rising to €40m with €8m being performance related add-ons and clauses. He impressed for the Turin club and gained praise from fans and media alike as he began to fill the Carlos Tevez shaped hole left by the former Manchester United forward. In his first 16 appearances for the club, he notched up six goals and two assists, which gave him a ratio of a goal every 151 minutes. He ended the season as Juventus’ top scorer with 23 goals in all competitions and propelling Juventus to another Serie A title, after a dodgy start. This season he currently has 7 goals and 4 assists in 19 goals, continuing his skyrocketing progression. In terms of his style of play, he has been compared to forwards like Maradona, Messi, Aguero, Riquelme among others, which isn’t bad company to be in. Dybala is known as a quick creative forward which is quick on the turn and has a deadly left strike who incidentally, is very similar to a certain Antoine Greizmann.

Here are Paulo Dybala’s strengths and weaknesses.

Antoine Griezmann was born in a small little town called Macon, which is in the center of France. He began his footballing journey  at his local club of UF Macon and whilst there, had many trials in an effort to get into a professional club’s academy, but was turned away due to their questions and worries of Antoine making it into the professional game due to the Frenchman’s lack of size and lightweight narrow frame. He carried on having trials at numerous French clubs unsuccessfully before being spotted by Real Sociedad scouts while playing against PSG’s reserves for Montpelier. The Spanish club offered him a week trial which was then extended by a further week before formally being offered and accepting a youth contract with Real Sociedad. Griezmann steadily progressed with the Basque club through the youth ranks for four years before being called up for the 1st team squad for the 09-10 season while the club were in the second division and made a handful of appearances for the team and had his real breakout season in 2012/13, where he got 11 goals in all competitions, including 10 in La Liga as he led the Basque club to Champions League football for the first time in nearly 10 years. He impressed further in the following season as although he did not have an impact on their short-lived Champions League run he did finish the season with his highest goal tally as he finished the season with 20 goals. This brought him attention from a whole host of big clubs around the globe, but eventually moved to the capital of Spain to Atletico Madrid for a fee of €30m and skyrocketed as he finished the season with 25 goals and the season he finished 4th top scorer of La Liga and led Atleti to a 2nd Champions League final in three years, although missed his penalty for them and lost to Real Madrid on penalties. He also led France to the Euro final, although they lost to Portugal and finished top scorer of the tournament on home soil. He ended 2016 3rd in both the Ballon D’or and FIFA The Best award as well as getting into the team of the year, which capped off an amazing individual year. He currently has 14 goals and 7 assists in 27 games this season, showing his progress to the very top. His playing style entails being able to play all over the forward line who possesses great dribbling and an acute eye for goal which he’s showed over the past few years. Despite his 5’7 frame, he is a very good header of the ball and has a leap even the mightiest CB’s would be proud of.

Here are Antoine Griezmann’s strengths and weaknesses.

When comparing Dybala and Griezmann in terms of play style and size, they are both extremely similar as both are relatively short, both are left-footed, possessing great dribbling skills and both are potential finishers in front of goal. In terms of output Griezmann comes out on top in that department in each of the past 4 seasons, however, there is a number of contributing factors as to why the numbers are so stacked up against the young Argentine. One is the fact that Greizmann is simply more experienced in the professional game with two more professional seasons under his belt as well as the fact that Griezmann has been Atletico’s main forward for years now who play a high pressing game and the Madrid club are somewhat dependant on the Frenchman, whereas Dybala is played in somewhat a more conservative system often deployed with another striker and shares the spotlight with Gonzalo Higuain, arguably one of the deadliest strikers on the planet.

Infographic comparing the two in their respective leagues.

Infographic comparing the two in the Champions League

Both Dybala and Griezmann are amazing talents for both their club and country and are destined for the very top. If they can keep up their upwards trajectory in progress and stay injury free, we can be looking at the next top footballing rivalry.

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Player Comparison – Paulo Dybala and Antoine Griezmann A young clinical forward with potential as high as the ceiling. The hardest thing to acquire and the hardest thing to keep.