While I've grown up watching the beautiful game, I have often wondered, who are the greatest set of players that I have been priviliged to grow up watching. If there was ever a dream team of the greatest players of our generation, who would it be. Here's my list. Opinions and refutations are mot welcome.
Goal Keeper - Iker Casillas - He's my favourite. He's won so many titles in so few years, when he's so young. And in my opinion the number 1 shot blocker in the game. Buffon's better in some aspects, but Casillas is the overall package for me.
Right Back - Cafu - What a joy he was to watch spring up and down that right wing. A great champion, a great man, and also a great football player. Probably one of the greatest ever to play the position, barring Garrincha. He's an automatic choice in this team.
Centre Backs - Alesandro Nesta and Paolo Maldini - Nesta is one of the modern day greats and Italians have always led the way in showing how one defends. Maldini, is one of the game's elites, possibly the greatest defender. These two would make a killer twosome at the centre of the defence.
Left Back - Roberto Carlos - Complementing Cafu on the right, Carlos would be an awesome add to the left side. One of the best long range shooters ever to have played the game, he was a terror on the wing in his days, and is almost an automatic choice for this position
Right Wing - Luis Figo - What a winger, multiple winner of the World and European player of the year awards and a menace down the wing in his days, has scored plenty of wonderful goals and almost carried the Portugal team when he led it.
Centre Midfielders - Claude Makelele and Pavel Nedved - Makelele is the best ever DM that I have seen. Pre Galactico era, Madrid were that stable because of him, and Galactico and post that, they weren't because of the same guy. Rock in front of the defense, is actually a pleasure to watch even if he is the DM. Nedved, although plays for my most hated team Juve, takes this place mainly because of one performance against Real where he scored a hat-trick to send us out of the CL. What a class performer, truly deserves the spot on this team.
Left Wing - Zinedine Zidane - My footballing god, the greatest player to have ever touched a football, the scorer of the most beautiful goal, I cannot stop talking about this guy. If there's one person I miss in the Real team and the world of football its my beloved Zizou. So versatile, so classy, nothing more needs to be told I suppose.
Forwards - Thierry Henry and Ronaldo - Henry, I personally do not like him that much, but his records stand out. He will always be one step below the greats because of his money minded move to Barca, but he is a classy striker he is on the pitch. Fatty Ronaldo, who is the greatest striker of our generation, is well, a shame to a young fan, but his talent was undeniable. Those stepovers, those quick dashes, and not to mention, the great finishing skills make him truly deserve this spot.
PS - Near Misses : Del Piero, Giggs, Pirlo, Ferdinand
PPS - Far Misses : Kaka, Messi, Iniesta, CR9? They have to achieve lots more before being considered for this.
Comment away people.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Monday, June 15, 2009
Criminal Financial Dealings
About a year back, I wrote an entry on this blog about how Marca sells newspapers by publishing false football rumours. Some of these news items materialise into deals, and most don't. While the earlier article talks about the hype rumours create, this one is for the hype, the actual transfers that come through, create.
Yes, Yes everybody knows Real Madrid splashed out 65m Euro for Kaka and 93m for Ronaldo. That's a hell of a lot of money. Now it would be a legitimate question if people ask, why Madrid overpay for their transfers. A possible explanation to that is that, teams know Madrid will pay close to whatever they demand, so they just inflate the transfer fee. This does have its bad effects on the transfer market, yes. What I find ridiculous is, not just fans or players or managers, but the management of several clubs are criticising the Madrid transfer system.
Some facts before you start jumping at me. Clubs in Spain are not owned by individuals, like the case is in England. You have Oil tycoons, Arab Sheikhs, American finance big shots and many more funding the English clubs, whereas in Spain, specifically Real Madrid, no single owner exists. There is a president who is the authority on the business dealings, and Perez being the shrewd businessman that he is, has pulled off some amazing deals. Our money, Our dealings, anything wrong with that?
People often complain, why do Madrid buy superstars of every club, why can't they grow or develop talent like some of the other clubs. The answer to that is pretty complicated. Madrid is a club where patience is unheard of, fans want success all the time. Such is their history and they have every right to be that way. It is not as if they do not produce good kids at all. They don't use them properly, but that's a different issue altogether. People who know the Spanish game will know that Negredo, Granero, Mata, Diego Lopez, all of whom are product of the Real Madrid Castilla, are superstars in the making at lower clubs. Coming back to the point, one way, and the right way in my opinion, to look at the transfers is this. A club X develops a player from its youth system, and his value increases. They do well with him, but after a point, he seeks newer challenges and better avenues for success/money whatever. This is where Real come into the picture. They pay a lavish sum and all parties are happy. X has not much more it can offer to the player, and also end up making a profit on the sale. This is how most transfers to Madrid work. Now your non Madrid big shot clubs, cannot afford such lavish sums, what do they do instead? Steal other clubs' youth talent for dirt cheap sums and 'develop them'. Such is the case with the top 3 players in the world at the moment. Ronaldo was nicked off a Portuguese club, Kaka similarly from a Brazilian club, both at around 18 years of age. Messi, the third was stolen at 12! 12- the kid would not be knowing percentages by then, but Barca recruit him and now call him one of their own. Now which policy is more criminal? You tell me.
Yes, Yes everybody knows Real Madrid splashed out 65m Euro for Kaka and 93m for Ronaldo. That's a hell of a lot of money. Now it would be a legitimate question if people ask, why Madrid overpay for their transfers. A possible explanation to that is that, teams know Madrid will pay close to whatever they demand, so they just inflate the transfer fee. This does have its bad effects on the transfer market, yes. What I find ridiculous is, not just fans or players or managers, but the management of several clubs are criticising the Madrid transfer system.
Some facts before you start jumping at me. Clubs in Spain are not owned by individuals, like the case is in England. You have Oil tycoons, Arab Sheikhs, American finance big shots and many more funding the English clubs, whereas in Spain, specifically Real Madrid, no single owner exists. There is a president who is the authority on the business dealings, and Perez being the shrewd businessman that he is, has pulled off some amazing deals. Our money, Our dealings, anything wrong with that?
People often complain, why do Madrid buy superstars of every club, why can't they grow or develop talent like some of the other clubs. The answer to that is pretty complicated. Madrid is a club where patience is unheard of, fans want success all the time. Such is their history and they have every right to be that way. It is not as if they do not produce good kids at all. They don't use them properly, but that's a different issue altogether. People who know the Spanish game will know that Negredo, Granero, Mata, Diego Lopez, all of whom are product of the Real Madrid Castilla, are superstars in the making at lower clubs. Coming back to the point, one way, and the right way in my opinion, to look at the transfers is this. A club X develops a player from its youth system, and his value increases. They do well with him, but after a point, he seeks newer challenges and better avenues for success/money whatever. This is where Real come into the picture. They pay a lavish sum and all parties are happy. X has not much more it can offer to the player, and also end up making a profit on the sale. This is how most transfers to Madrid work. Now your non Madrid big shot clubs, cannot afford such lavish sums, what do they do instead? Steal other clubs' youth talent for dirt cheap sums and 'develop them'. Such is the case with the top 3 players in the world at the moment. Ronaldo was nicked off a Portuguese club, Kaka similarly from a Brazilian club, both at around 18 years of age. Messi, the third was stolen at 12! 12- the kid would not be knowing percentages by then, but Barca recruit him and now call him one of their own. Now which policy is more criminal? You tell me.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Inci Bball Review
It's that time of the year again. When everything that you looked forward to in the year is over. You are terribly bugged and experiencing a hangover of sorts. You tend to look back and think of how you got to where you got. You tend to look at what you wanted to achieve and whether you did. You think about whether you justified all the work that you put in. You finally boil down to whether you are happy with what happened or not. Before you think I'm getting really philosophical, all I'm thinking of is just reviewing how Inci went from the viewpoint of my team.
People said our team wouldn't be any good. Every now and then we heard 'Oh - What will your team do without him?', 'NITK team is not that strong this year right?' etc. We wanted to set and end to all that. The way we trained changed, the way we played changed. And the results showed just that. We've made a few friends, a few enemies as well in the course of the year. But all that seemed worth it. Until last year we were known as a team that plays fairly well at home, a team that has some great shooters and not much else. A bit of that changed when we went to PESIT this year, and all of it was about to change during Inci.
We were a little apprehensive while making fixtures this year. Because the standard of the tournament was going to be so high, we had to take on a semi-decent team in the quarterfinal league itself. After lots of speculation and arguments we decided to put PESIT and MVJCE in our group. Our debut game was against PESIT. Although we beat them by 20ish we had a big team talk after the game because clearly we could have played a lot better, and wouldn't get away with the tougher teams if we played like that. Next day our previous captain arrived with the idea of helping us in the form of a coach. Apart from that we went out with the intention of seeing to it that we did not make the same mistakes as we did the previous night. Also, we had no idea how MVJCE were and usually not knowing the opponent has always worked to our favour. A nearly perfect game was played that night by us, resulting in another 20 point win. Now for the hurdle of semi-finals that we hadn't cleared ever in the previous five years of our home tournament. RNSIT did us a favour by beating Ramaiah, Jain and Josephs would meet in the other semis as we had planned it out earlier. The prospect of playing RNS was scary, yet comforting. Scary because they had 2 huge 6 foot 5 giants and a good defence. Comforting because they are a poor offensive team and we are one of the best defences in the tournament. Come Saturday evening, we had a good chance to finally break the jinx and reach Inci finals for the first time. The first semi between the two powerhouses Jain and Josephs was a humdinger of a game. A buzzer beater three pointer to settle it says it all. That was followed by arguably the best dunk contest performance ever seen live for us here in college. A little tension was in the air, but that had to be gotten rid of. Smart play and some sweet shooting by our star shooter made sure of another 20 point win. Finally, we were there. A hurdle for all these years had been passed. There was so much joy that it felt as if we were content enough to have got this far. But we wouldn't let that ruin a golden opportunity. We could feel the nerves even before the game began. A tough game, after which a little inexperience probably showed but a lot of character was also shown when we lost to Jain, Basketball royalty in the state just by five, thus bringing to a close, by far the most successful year for our college's basketball team.
As, I reflect back upon these memories, I only wonder of what's to come next year. As of now, I'm just sitting, wishing and waiting.
People said our team wouldn't be any good. Every now and then we heard 'Oh - What will your team do without him?', 'NITK team is not that strong this year right?' etc. We wanted to set and end to all that. The way we trained changed, the way we played changed. And the results showed just that. We've made a few friends, a few enemies as well in the course of the year. But all that seemed worth it. Until last year we were known as a team that plays fairly well at home, a team that has some great shooters and not much else. A bit of that changed when we went to PESIT this year, and all of it was about to change during Inci.
We were a little apprehensive while making fixtures this year. Because the standard of the tournament was going to be so high, we had to take on a semi-decent team in the quarterfinal league itself. After lots of speculation and arguments we decided to put PESIT and MVJCE in our group. Our debut game was against PESIT. Although we beat them by 20ish we had a big team talk after the game because clearly we could have played a lot better, and wouldn't get away with the tougher teams if we played like that. Next day our previous captain arrived with the idea of helping us in the form of a coach. Apart from that we went out with the intention of seeing to it that we did not make the same mistakes as we did the previous night. Also, we had no idea how MVJCE were and usually not knowing the opponent has always worked to our favour. A nearly perfect game was played that night by us, resulting in another 20 point win. Now for the hurdle of semi-finals that we hadn't cleared ever in the previous five years of our home tournament. RNSIT did us a favour by beating Ramaiah, Jain and Josephs would meet in the other semis as we had planned it out earlier. The prospect of playing RNS was scary, yet comforting. Scary because they had 2 huge 6 foot 5 giants and a good defence. Comforting because they are a poor offensive team and we are one of the best defences in the tournament. Come Saturday evening, we had a good chance to finally break the jinx and reach Inci finals for the first time. The first semi between the two powerhouses Jain and Josephs was a humdinger of a game. A buzzer beater three pointer to settle it says it all. That was followed by arguably the best dunk contest performance ever seen live for us here in college. A little tension was in the air, but that had to be gotten rid of. Smart play and some sweet shooting by our star shooter made sure of another 20 point win. Finally, we were there. A hurdle for all these years had been passed. There was so much joy that it felt as if we were content enough to have got this far. But we wouldn't let that ruin a golden opportunity. We could feel the nerves even before the game began. A tough game, after which a little inexperience probably showed but a lot of character was also shown when we lost to Jain, Basketball royalty in the state just by five, thus bringing to a close, by far the most successful year for our college's basketball team.
As, I reflect back upon these memories, I only wonder of what's to come next year. As of now, I'm just sitting, wishing and waiting.
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