Ronaldo Redux

So as you’ve heard the longest running transfer saga on record is over. Real Madrid, who have been like a hyperactive kid on a long road trip in the backseat of your car asking, “Are we there yet, are we there yet, are we there yet?”, have finally gotten Manchester United’s attention and sold the Madera showpony for 130 million simoleons. The player can finally wipe that year-long frown upside down, the merengues can finally admit to the world that they got their man (the always get their man), and Manchester United can run laughing back to the bank because they just made themselves over 80 million pounds profit on just the one player.

Still, like a bad spaghetti western that ends with the two leads unhitching their horses and riding off into the sunset, this saga may be finished but it’s the town’s people who are going to have to pick up the pieces. The first question, and it’s a valid one, is whether the reigning World Player of the Year is worth this amount of money? The pat answer, and you’ll hear it from pretty much everyone else is that no player is, but I contend that it’s not a question whether or not he’s worth 94 million pounds to Madrid but that he might actually be a bargain.

Real Madrid Castilla, the reserve team for Real Madrid that perpetually plays in the Spanish second division with no hope of ever promoting itself against the parent club, has been trying to mold one of their youth team prospects into a world class player at least since the last one came through the system; that was Iker Casillas over 10 years ago. It just highlights the difficulty a team faces in finding a Messi, an Aguero, a Torres and, unlike almost any other club in the world, Real Madrid don’t have the luxury or the patience to wait around for a cantera prospect to develop into one. So, rather than build a perfect player, the answer is to buy one that’s prefabricated.

Secondly, and this is key for a club that prides itself on leading the way internationally, with debts running into the half billion euro mark and profits plateauing, most clubs would cut costs and rescue what they could from a sinking ship (see Valencia), but Real Madrid are in an enviable position that few of even the old G-14 had: an international presence large enough to be essentially recession proof. What they have not had a face and a name to brand themselves with since Beckham left for Los Angeles, Old Ronaldo got fat and Zidane head-butted the Matrix. Enter Cristiano Ronaldo.

Now, don’t confuse an economic windfall with a footballing windfall. Their success on the field is still not assured. They have not one but two Ballon D’or winners but they have even less in defense than they had last year. They still lack a consistent ballwinner (Lass is no Makelele), a creative midfielder to partner him with (Kaka is more support striker these days) and the treble winners Barcelona are going to get stronger. In the meantime the supporters have an illusion of strength if not the reality of it just yet.

A steaming load of Kaka

If you had been following the twitter posts yesterday, we were one of the first sites to comment on the Ricardo Kaka signing. We were also one of the few sites to comment in January on that failed bid for Ricky by Manchester City and even then we said that he’d be holding out for Real Madrid. So needless to say that Forza Futbol, without trying to sound self serving (I know it’s hard but sometimes you have to toot the old horn a bit), had the pulse of the deal even then.

So, while it may have been surprising to hear that Kaka had been sold to Real Madrid CF yesterday for somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 million euros it wasn’t really shocking in the least. The shocking part took place an hour or two later when reports started coming in that the deal had been scuppered and that Chelsea FC’s billionaire owner Roman Abramovich had decided to get Kaka as a housewarming present for new manager Carlo Ancellotti.

Don’t buy it. The deal is being finalized and Kaka will be a Real Madrid player this season probably by the middle of next week. Perez has been orchestrating his first 100 days in charge and probably wouldn’t risk the bad publicity of a failed deal so soon; it would smack to much of his predecessor’s business acumen. The Chelsea bid is greater, but if he took the bait Kaka would be found out as a mercenary and ridiculed in Italy and abroad. He’ll need a few days to plan an exit strategy, finalize details for his father’s compensation (he’s the agent), and detail his move to Spain. Milan may also figure in player compensation going the other way; they need players.

La Liga Team of the Season

Well, since everyone else on the site is given their team of the year, and I can’t just pick FC Barcelona’s starting eleven, here are my best in La Liga for the 2008-2009 season.

GK:
Andres Palop, Sevilla

Fullbacks
Sergio Ramos, Real Madrid
Dani Alvez, FC Barcelona

Centerbacks:
Cata Diaz, Getafe
Jarque, RCD Espanyol

Midfielders:
Xavi Hernandez, FC Barcelona
Jesus Navas, Sevilla
Andres Iniesta, FC Barcelona
Pedro Leon, Real Valladolid

Forwards:
Diego Forlan, Atletico Madrid
Lionel Messi, FC Barcelona

A Lesson to Learn

There was a clear moment after the Champions League final, when Barcelona had just walked off the field and the interviews were coming in and the pundits were trying to explain how this inexplicable turn of events had happened, and after the excuses came in; that Manchester United had had an off day, that Rio Ferdinand hadn’t been fit, or Nemanja Vidic hadn’t recovered from the kicked ego that he had suffered from Fernando Torres, that Wayne Rooney had never bothered to show up, that poor Darrin Fletcher had been suspended unfairly, or that the much lauded midfield had bottled it completely, or even that Sir Alex Ferguson such a paragon of managerial  had gotten his tactics totally wrong, and the cameras settled on Cristiano Ronaldo and they asked him his opinion of the turn of events. Well, he said all the right words, you might have figured him for a humble chap giving props to his opponents, and if you had been off your game and not listened carefully you might have missed him say to the Portuguese television cameras that, “Barcelona were a bit lucky, since they didn’t deserve to have gone through against Chelsea.”

I won’t trash him, it’s not necessary for this piece, and actually I’m rather fond of him as a player, one with skill and technique, but he’s been plying his trade in a league unfit for him. What’s the first thing they said about him in England when he got off the plane from Sporting Lisbon? He’s an interesting player but a bit of a show pony. Too many step-overs, a diver, petulant and selfish, with no definition and lacks a scoring touch. Now that he’s the Ballon D’or winner, the English (as is their wont) have knocked him down a peg, comparing him unfairly to Messi or Kaka, or Pele even, but his greatest fault in their eyes it seems is his desire to play for a club…outside of England?!? So he placates the press, spinning the reports, refusing to talk about the pre-agreement he has with Real Madrid and he tells the English what they want to hear. The UEFA conspiracy kept an all English final from happening again. Chelsea’s negative tactics had won them the game and the European referee wasn’t on board with the plan.

After Manchester United’s humiliating 2-0 defeat, the call from home has been to marshal the resources, examine the midfield where I agree the battle was lost, and instead of doing the intelligent thing, buying midfield players with that gift of possession, the love of the ball as the Spanish refer to it, the English solution is to buy more holding mid-fielders, stop the Barcelonas of the world from doing their thing and redouble their efforts to “get stuck in.”

The English league is today what the Italian league used to be: all tactics, waiting for the counter-attack, like professional heavyweights juking and feinting, waiting for the right opening to attack. Now that’s all well and good if you’re a non-ranked boxer but what if you have the talent and by choice you still decide to shadow-box?  The English talk about teams like FC Barcelona not having a plan B, all flair and no bite, but neither do they. They don’t know what to do when a club actually plays the game the way it’s supposed to be played; frustrating them when the opposition play them unfairly and won’t lump the ball back to them. Go ahead, buy some Essien clones, pressure “Xaviesta” and see if that works next time around. The fact is that there has been a fundamental change in the way that the game is being played. The little guys are winning again.

Look at Lionel Messi. He’s the one who should be diving all the time. He doesn’t or at least he doesn’t do it as often as a short kid like him should when elbows are flying at jaw level all around him. Unbelievable skill on the ball, we admire how he beats defenders much larger than him meanwhile the ball looks like it’s stuck to his feet. There are people, the Capellos of the world, Rafa Benitez is one too, that would say that the Messi’s of the world don’t fit in the modern game, that the level of athleticism required in the modern game challenges clubs to pick athletes of a certain size, weight and lung capacity, those that can muster the energy for the hectic modern schedule for club and country. Then a result like last Wednesday’s final happens and it changes our viewpoint; a little for some and lot for others.

The first lot complain: our club can’t afford to play like Barcelona can. We’d be killed if we played a player like Andres Iniesta or Xavi Hernandez in the midfield in England on a cold night at Stoke City. It’s short-sighted. Certainly there is a place for the inspirational box-to-box play of a Steven Gerrard, but what people forget is that football is not rugby and that there will always be a place for the little guy on the pitch. You need a balance, a system that rewards directness and creativity, a place where the flair of a Sebastien Giovinco, Diego, Mikel Arteta and Cesc Fabregas can influence the game as much as the steel of a Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, or Daniele DeRossi can.

That’s the lesson to be learned from the loss to Baca at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, I just don’t think a lot of people are listening.

Best League in the World

It’s a simple question. What is the best soccer league in the word? Is it the English Premier League? It’s certainly the most watched by the hordes of Asian gambling syndicates and sycophantic Saturday beer league Eurosnob muppets. Is it Spain where beautiful futbol is a sign of divine intervention? Or what about Italy where ultras rule, the stadia are horrible and the games are rigged? The stereotypes have a kernel of truth but we shouldn’t base our comparison on a feeling or a stereotype. Examine facts and compare them between the 3 leagues. Don’t look at a couple of years and diagnose a trend. Look back further, 5 or 10 years at the most, so I went back to the beginning of the decade. I tossed this year out since it’s not over yet, and I tracked the stats, but I interpreted them the way that I think is right. If I’m wrong, well I guess I’ll be hearing from you. Yes, I could have included Germany, France or the Netherlands but decided not to because the life I lead doesn’t allow time for the leagues we don’t cover here on Forza Futbol.

Most Goals: Most people look at goals as the measure of the overall excitement of a game and that might be oversimplifying it, but let’s start there and see where it leads. Over the period of 2000-2008, Spain at 2.62 comes just ahead of Italy no less at 2.61, with England way behind the leaders at 2.58 goals per game. If that doesn’t seem like a lot it’s because it isn’t. The English have a theory, that lumping it up the park, no more than 3 touches per possession, will increase the chances at goal. Uh, nope not even close. In fact all it really does is increase the opportunity to give the ball away. Therefore something else, or more likely a combination of factors needs to be examined, before the final determination of which is the best league in the world.

Overs and Unders
What about the percentage of games that end above the expected  amount of total goals per game, in gambling terms, the overs. For me at least this describes how open matches are, how much scoring is involved over-all and (since I am an American) I sarcastically equate the level of action with the over-all viability of a league based on the scoring. The league with the highest level of matches ended above the over? The league with the least expectation of scoring: Italy at 48.72% of games finishing on the over, followed by Spain this time at 47.89 and England again falling short comfortably in last at 47.17%. Conversely of course, the English games fall overwhelmingly on the under; a measure of how exceedingly dull the English game really is? Nope. The difference again is negligible at about 2% between the leagues.

Home vs. Away Performance
For me the home winning percentage of a club is a measure of how strong a club’s home form is of course but also indirectly related to how influential their crowd is or as we say here in the States, how powerful  “12th man” is whereas a club’s draw percentage is partly a measure of the league’s parity. It could also be construed as a measure of pragmatism or lack of risk taking to some extent. For me, a league’s away percentage is a measure a league’s away support obviously. The expectation is that English teams travel better than anyone else therefore they influence the outcome more than their Spanish or Italian counterparts. Home winning percentage is greatest in Spain with 47.40%, with England at 46.9% and Italy at 45.49%. There are more draws in Italy as expected with the least amount of draws in England but even so the difference is a matter of less than 4%. The away percentage is greater in England but what we’re talking is less than 1% difference between England and Spain.

In the end, really, it’s what you like and what you can stomach. The EPL brands itself as the greatest league in the world with the most action and the best games. It’s not. The difference between the leagues is minuscule. Football is football. Do I prefer one league over the other. Sure, I’d rather watch the Italian teams or the Spanish teams face-off but that’s just a personal preference.

Real Madrid 2.0: La Plantilla

The last part of the puzzle is by far the most complicated: la plantilla, or the template, a formation of players built around a philosophy of play, a structure that is balanced honoring the successes of the past under a body of principles that represents the club. It’s more than just buying players to suit financial or sporting needs but finding the right balance of players, building a system that outlasts the contributions of one coach or one set of players. Real Madrid had it with the DiStefano/Puskas teams. Butragueno’s quinta had that. It looks like a return to the mismatched team-building of the Galactico era is set, but is that the right call for this squad at this time? Heresy to say, but should they look at the Barcelona model?

Iker Casillas is clearly paying attention to his Catalan team-mates on the national team. “I’d like the club (Madrid) to be more Spanish”, he said. Some people took it to be a thinly veiled xenophobia, that the club had become too dominated by Dutch players under Mijatovich, but Iker wasn’t talking just about the foreigners at the club, he was talking about the template: their style of play as well. People confuse the play of Barca, that tiqui-taqui, small ball, possession game and label it the Catalan-way, or the Ajax way, or the Barca way, but this is also primarily the way that Spain play and have always played. It is as much their footballing identity as that route-1, hoof it up the park nonsense is England’s.

Spain are European champions. Its players have taken la furia roja, never valued all that much in a fractured society, whistled at in Bilbao and Barcelona, ignored in much of the rest of the country, and made them national heroes. The madridistas though wonder why there are so few merengues on the squad? They see its captain Iker Casillas and fullback Sergio Ramos representing the club, but the blaugrana have Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol and a slew of young players like Busquets and Pique getting call-ups. They see faces like Diego Lopez of Villareal, Alvaro Arbeloa of Liverpool, and now Juan Mata of Valencia, all ex-Castilla players donning the red, gold and blue kit of Spain. They realize too that, if Real Madrid are yin to Barca’s yang in Spain’s footballing club culture, then the club need to recapture that template for themselves or else be usurped by their rivals in the national footballing debate.

When Florentino Perez fired Vicente del Bosque after the 2003 Champions League final and hired Carlos Queroz right from under Sir Alex Ferguson’s nose, no one could possibly have imagined that the club would endure 2 failed presidencies, numerous club presidents and sporting directors, 2 Primera titles and no European trophies. More importantly they have gone through 8 first team coaches: Carlos Queroz, Jose Antonio Camacho, Mariano Garcia Remon, Wanderlei Luxemburgo, Fabio Capello, Bernd Schuster, and now Juande Ramos. With them came an infinite series of tactical formations and systems; defensive 4-5-1’s, attacking 4-3-3’s, direct 4-4-2’s, even combinations of the sort: 4-3-1-2, 4-2-3-1, and even Luxemburgo’s “magic quadrilateral” or 4-2-2-2. It didn’t work, but it was sure cool. In the same time, Barca have had 1 president, two coaches and one system: a Dutch 4-3-3 that has its roots in the 1970’s when Rinus Michels and Johann Cruyff brought it to the Camp Nou.

It’s no wonder Barca play with such flair, they have players who come prebuilt for their style of play. New signings like a Samuel Eto’o, a Thierry Henry, or a Seydou Keita can be plugged in to suit their need. Madrid on the other hand have been built like a patchwork quilt, a hodge podge of players who don’t fit together, culled from the failed transfer policies of the last 4 management teams. Whomever takes control has to address this ineffectiveness of design and use the Spanish National Team as the template. Remove players who don’t fit and bring in those that do. Here’s what I would do.

Goalkeeping
No doubts there. Iker Casillas is captain of Spain. He should be captain at Real Madrid. The backup ought to be Jordi Codina for cup games. Dudek is a liability. Cheap, but a liability.

Defense
Use a flat back four and play high up the pitch. Get rid of Salgado and Heinze. Let Metzelder go back to Germany and sanction the removal of Cannavaro back to Juve. While Sergio Ramos is first choice right-back for Spain, and a talent like no other, he is not a world class right-back. He gets caught out of position, he doesn’t have the pace to be a winger, but his instincts are to attack. If there were a role like the one Franz Beckenbauer played for Germany this would be the guy to play it. Put him with a disciplined centerback next to him and he thrives. Short of that they have Pepe. This is where they need help: Maicon from Inter would help. He attacks well, but he tracks back, too. Left back is also a problem: Philip Lahm is a disciplined and talented German international and a perfect signing.

Midfield
This is where Madrid are strongest. Short of contracting Xavi, Iniesta and Toure they have the next best thing with Lassana Diarra, Wesley Snejder, and Rafael Van der Vaart.  The last two Dutchmen played the Xavi and Iniesta roles for Ajax as youngsters so they would be willing, but neither Schuster nor Ramos had the faith in the defense to play such an attacking formation. With the back shored-up they can take advantage of their main strength: creative midfielders who play possession football up front and an attacking doberman ball-winner at the back. Fernando Gago can back them up, as can Dani Parejo. Loan out Javi Garcia and let Ruben de la Red retire with his heart condition. Signings: Cesc Fabregas would be perfect in this role but he is still a few years away from leaving the captain’s badge at Arsenal. Kaka is too expensive, so why not get his understudy Yoann Gourcuff who played at Bordeaux this year and stood out in that role. Rotate Snejder, Van der Vaart and Gourcuff along the way in fact keeping them all fresh.

Forward
This is where the balance of Madrid is tested. Keep Huntelaar in the striker’s role. He has enough pace to play away from goal and enough strength to play with his back to goal. Higuain gives you the intangibles on the right or just behind Klaas-Jan. If you must sell Huntelaar and think he isn’t material for the Spanish Primera, then get Villa or Benzema here, although I think both are also too expensive.  You can’t give Raul the Fernando Hierro treatment yet, but take minutes off, make him a super-sub, but get him away from the spine of the team. Let Saviola leave, give Ruud van Nistelrooj a way out and boot Arjen Robben off the squad. Signings: This is where you buy and buy big. The three names I’m thinking of here are David Silva, Franck Ribery, or even Simao Sabrosa. Better yet, if Diego is going to Juve, would the bianconeri sell the atomic ant Sebastian Giovinco for this role?

That’s what I would do. What would you?

Real Madrid 2.0: El Jefe del Bernabeu

When I think of the Bernabeu I am reminded of a quote by Jorge Valdano. After the 2007 Champions League semifinal between Liverpool and Chelsea, the self-professed “football intellectual wrote in Marca that “Football is made up of a subjective feeling, of suggestion and in that Anfield is unbeatable. Put shit hanging from a stick in the middle of this passionate, crazy stadium and there are people who will tell you, it’s a work of art. It’s not: it’s shit hanging from a stick”

He chastised fellow Real Madrid alumnus Rafa Benitez for orchestrating a dour, turgid encounter: tactical and defensive. A game without short passes, no feints, no backheels or periods of invention. He implied that Liverpool or Chelsea might accept a match so controlled by the equivalent micromanagement of a footballing George S. Patton, but certainly not at the Santiago Bernabeu where they expect nutmegs, sombreros and chilenas.

Well, that attractiveness is precisely the sort of football that has been missing at the Bernabeu for a long time now, and Valdano means to change that. So then the last two names on that list would be Rafa Benitez and Jose Mourinho? Why then was Valdano quoted this week that the Special One, tired of his Italian Holiday, might just be considered as a primary option? Ignore that. He was never a primary option (neither was Benitez I might add before he resined with the Reds) and despite reports to the contrary, Mourinho will be back at Inter for at least one more year.  No, the primary option is Arsene Wenger as it was the last time that Perez took over and he was the first attempted signing for every Summer thereafter.

What is it about Perez that has him returning to the Frenchman so often? Is it the accent or the tailored suits? The tenured-college professor stubbornness? Arsenal are one of the few teams that rival Barcelona for their creativity, but nothing in Wenger’s make-up points toward any ability to handle the high-stakes pressure cooker that is Real Madrid today. He won’t take outside direction easily (Madrid are top-heavy with upper-management with little to know football experience). He is an idealogue in a club that doesn’t have the patience to wait for a Dream Team to materialize and grow into a squad. He would be undermined from both within the club, the shadowy cliques of current and former players that have backstabbed every new manager hired there since Del Bosque, and from without, the Madrid and Barcelona papers who create a shooting gallery of sorts for the morning cafe.

Real Madrid may not want the kind of football that Rafa Benitez and Jose Mourinho bring with them, but they are the only sort of managers that can live in that hothouse environment; the only kind that would survive and flourish. Benitez would bring a seriousness in preparation that only Capello had before him but without the combative baggage that a veteran of the Madrid media wars like Don Fabio had. Mourinho on the other hand, would play the media game better than anyone has, baiting and switching, cajoling them to turn their glare at him and not at his players. Both would break the favored status that certain players have had and fix the transfer mess that has gripped the club since before Mijatovic took over.

No, Wenger and Mourinho are smokescreens. They want Carlo Ancelotti, but they don’t want to get into a bidding war with Chelsea or with Manchester City. I say let them bid against each other. The Italian will bring organization and preparedness to the club and certainly Milan have played for years with the sort of flair that Madrid want. He’s won the Champions League twice, and lost it another time in spectacular fashion, so he’ll know how to manage Real Madrid through that European minefield. He also works for the only President who is probably harder to work for than Don Florentino. What he won’t bring is experience in Spain unfortunately and I don’t think that’s a small thing. For every Capello there is a Claudio Ranieri. Capello had a string of successes at Milan, Roma and Juventus sandwiched inbetween his times at Madrid. Ancelotti had a year at Reggiana, two at Parma and a disappointing year at Juve before stepping into the role of club saviour for the club that he played for. Milan has been comfortable for him, and no doubt he would do well at another comfort zone: AS Roma where he was club captain, or even England might be easier for him where the tactical nous is measured by “how much a player can get stuck-in or not”. In Madrid though, he’d be Vanderlei Luxemburgo with a better suit.

Everyone has a candidate for Florentino. Zidane wants former teamate Laurent Blanc now at Bordeaux. Valdano wants Manuel Pellegrini from Villareal and one of the other candidates even threw around the name of Hugo Sanchez. The only more laughable name I guess would be Juande Ramos. No, you need someone who either played in Spain or has managed successfully in Spain over the last few years. Pep Guardiola was an inspired signing, and a risky one at that for such an inexperienced coach, but not as risky as people thought. Barca play the same way from top to bottom. Madrid need someone with the credentials to lead that group of players and set the groundwork for the integration of a new blend of Galacticos. I would prefer Pellegrini, or better yet a Spanish manager like Marcelino Garcia Toral from Zaragoza, or Unai Emery from Valencia; a young coach with an attacking sensibility and an ability to lead players from the lowest second division defender to the Ballon D’or winner. It would be an exciting change to the older, foreign coaches that have dominated at the Bernabeu recently. If it must be an international manager, then Luciano Spalletti or Slaven Bilic are good shots, too. Whatever the choice, and I think it’ll be Carletto, he must be able to change the dynamic around Ciudad Real Madrid.

Best Player in the World

Who is the best player in the world? Every generation has that one player that changed the way the game was played. Is it necessarily the most talented? I’m sure talent has a lot to do with it, but then again so does efficacy; that ability to use his talent and impose his will on not just a match or a tournament, but on a league and an era and helps define it.

Pele and Garrincha might have left their mark on the 1958 World Cup for the legendary Brazil squad, but it was someone who never won it that defined that decade. Alfredo Di Stefano’s career started at River Plate in Argentina, he helped create the myth of the Millonarios in Colombia and was already an albiceleste international long before he committed himself to los merengues in Spain. Anyone who saw him play, and Sir Bobby Charlton is one of them, said that he was the most complete player they ever saw. Essentially an attacking midfielder, el diez original, he tracked back like any of the classic box-to-box mid-fielders in defense and supported the likes of Ferenc Puskas in attack. He played all over the pitch, passed better than anyone else and scored more goals than any other Real Madrid player until recently. Do we value him less because he left such a small footprint internationally first for Argentina and then later on for his adopted country of Spain? No, his legacy endures in the trophy cabinet of Real Madrid.

Pele’s career straddled the space between two World Cups, a decade of world-wide success for a smallish club from a small port city outside of Sao Paolo. Pele helped Santos win 8 state championships, 6 national championships, 2 Copa Libertadores and 2 World Club competitions beating the likes of Benfica and AC Milan. Pele was the sport’s first global superstar, its first goodwill ambassador, a political figure on the level of certain revered religious leaders, and ultimately he earned his nickname well on the pitch long before he retired: O Rei, the King.The 1960’s was Pele’s but his legacy endures in the value that we assign to that legendary 1970 Brazil team that won it all.

Like Di Stefano, Johann Cruyff never won a World Cup. They should have beaten Germany in ‘74 and his conspicuous absence from Argentina ‘78 might have cost them the title. He wasn’t the most prolific scorer on the list and quite often when developing these lists of the best player ever, his name is skipped over for more famous or more controversial, but on the whole he might just be the most important player of all time. He was one of the prime architects of Total Football at Ajax and Clockwork Oranje, a science experiment that maximized space, created oppositional confusion, and developed players whose roles were interchangeable and greater than the sum of each part. Every fine-tuned machine though needs a gifted operator to run it and no one ever ran it better than he did. His legacy endures through the club he built as manager in Barcelona; the dream team that he managed and the philosophy of play that endures for the blaugrana.

Diego Maradona missed out on that 1978 final, but his decade: the decade of excess was the 1980’s. For me he was the hero of Mexico 86, where he scored the goal of the century accompanied by that other ball, the handball that sunk the English, but he was far more for the residents of Naples, Italy. After his relative failure in La Liga, Diego put that provincial club on his back and killed the northern monsters winning scudetti where there hadn’t been before. His skill lives on in the smallish kids like Lionel Messi, Pablito Aimar, Javier Saviola, Kun Aguero, Diego Buonanotte, and Ezequiel Lavezzi that continue to come out of Argentina looking for a prize that is less and less likely for boys of their stature. The only reason they still attract attention, is the fact that the greatest player who ever lived was no bigger than they.

Since then we have had the likes of Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo O Fenomeno, team-mates at Real Madrid who have won individual honours and players for their national teams who have won World Cups. They have had highs like no others and lows all the same. The sport is different because they played. Every young Frenchman is the next Zidane. The greatest scorer in Brazilian World Cup history has no replacement and might never have. Have they left their mark? Quite certainly. In that time we’ve also had the likes of Ronaldinho, Rivaldo, Thierry Henry, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Deco, Shevchenko, Roberto Carlos who have shown for periods of time but for varying reasons their stars have waned. What separates Zidane and Ronaldo from their contemporaries is their individual and club accomplishments and their sustained excellence.

So, when someone asks me, “Who is the best player in the World?”, I stop and I think. I place them in my long list of players who matter for their time and also those who continue to influence today. Is it Lionel Messi who is still being compared to the Argentine masters? Will he ever escape their shadows and be the best Messi who ever lived rather than the second best to Maradona or DiStefano? Is it Cristiano Ronaldo who petulantly sulks off the pitch at Old Trafford because he won’t make some monetary incentive? In his case did the club make the man or vice versa? His influence is clearly not enough for Portugal. Does that count against him? Absolutely. Or is it neither of the two and the best player in the world actually Ricky Kaka at AC Milan; the future captain of the rossoneri? They’ve all won individual honors, and trophies both domestic and European, but the deciding factors for me will be:

1. Can they win a World Cup?
2. Can they set a standard of excellence for a defining period of time: 5-10 years of defining excellence.

Right now, it’s too close to call.

Real Madrid 2.0: The Trickle down Theory

Ramon Calderon was always going to be seen as the guy who couldn’t carry Florentino Perez’s lunchbox. Perez brought in Luis Figo, Zine dine Zidane, Ronaldo, David Beckham and Michael Owen. Calderon promised lots but is Arjen Robben the only success to his credit? He mishandled the Cristiano Ronaldo affair, lost out on numerous other signings from indecision. He hired Fabio Capello and no sooner wanted him fired. Let him go, hiring Berndt Schuster only to create an even larger power struggle in the board room as no one could agree on a long-term transfer market policy. They made impulse buys, they never identified their strengths and poorly patched up their glaring weaknesses, and ultimately they put the club into disrepute or can we just examine at the evidence brought to a Madrid court this week charging him and his successor Boluda with “destruction, suppression or concealment of public documents and using false documents.”

Now the Galactico ghosts of Figo and Zidane are returning, as I don’t think the 100 pound gorilla of Florentino Perez can suffer defeat in June’s elections. The public’s initial reaction is of relief. Here we go, someone imminently qualified to return Real Madrid to prominence; someone to right the damage inflicted by Ramon Calderon’s administration. Many though are skeptical. They remember that Real Madrid won nothing of note in his first time in charge of Real Madrid. They also remember what the likes of Johann Cruyff said about him. “He does not have enough knowledge about football to make decisions. He has to rely on others to make them and that’s why he needs all these other people to decide for him.” Granted, “what did we expect King Cule number 1 to say?”, but there’s a kernel of truth there. Real Madrid made glaring mistakes under Perez that were counter-intuitive to anyone who knew anything about football. Selling Makelele and bringing in Beckham and Owen? Neglecting defenders because there’s no market for their shirts? If Perez is going to right this ship and challenge he is going to need to address this correctly.

Late last year, the cules were out for blood. Barça had just lost the league to Madrid. The talk was that after two disappointing years, Frank Ryjkaard was getting the sack and that the disruptive elements in the club(Deco and Ronaldinho) were leaving. Instead of an experienced coach like Jose Mourinho, Laporta turned to ex-club captain and cantera coach Pep Guardiola. Now, there’s little indication that Barça’s supremo has any more knowledge about the game than Florentino Perez, but he’s hired good football people around him and he has trusted in them to make the tough footballing decisions. The Catalans turned it around so quickly because they had a system in place and talent that had been nurturing in the cantera for the better part of a decade. Plus, they’ve had continuity at the top, a trickle-down effect that has allowed them to withstand the ups and downs of modern football management. This is what Madrid needs:

• Leadership: The first thing that people noticed about Madrid recently was what a complete tool they had running the club; they had no leadership. He said the wrong things in interviews. He negotiated contracts in the media; instantly tacking on an extra 10% to agent requests because he was bidding against himself. He argued with other clubs. He tapped up other players. Granted, those may all be part of the job in question, and Florentino Perez might actually be required to committ all of those himself, but he’ll be savvy enough not to be caught in the light of day doing them. The hole in Real Madrid’s ozone layer will be patched up immediately by Perez’s return. He just needs to set up the rest of his club managers.
• Finances: The Spanish Primera division like many of the top flight divisions in World Football is suffering the effects of the global recession acutely. Even the global brand name that is Real Madrid is not immune. The last time Perez took over Real Madrid were deeply in debt and suffering from a lack of capital and financial solvency. Perez turned that around significantly, using his real estate connections and governmental contacts to turn over land they owned, bringing in lucrative sponsorship deals and opening markets abroad for the Real Madrid brand. The net-worth of the company shot up exponentially. This new test for Perez will be more difficult than before, but his experience will be invaluable for a club that has lacked a clear business model for the last 3 years.
• Football Management: This is where the jury is still out on Perez. Like Barcelona, Real Madrid has a footballing philosophy in place to organize the club’s football operations, the transfer targets, and the cantera or youth team all for the service of the club. They have a history of playing attractive, attacking football, hardwired to their footballing DNA going back to the golden age of DiStefano and Puskas. They haven’t had the players to play that way, nor the will to impose themselves, and some would say that those days are over and a club needs to adapt or die, but not a great club like Real Madrid. Perez had the right idea when he offered that role to Arsene Wenger, the sort of manager who can tap into the standard of artistry that the club aspires to, but Wenger’s place at Arsenal gives him the sort of security that he would never have at Real Madrid. Instead, Florentino Perez will return to Jorge Valdano who will bring his studied and artful intelligence to the club he played for. Valdano will have Zinedine Zidane to help him out but to me that’s more of a cosmetic appointment. I would prefer a guy like Ramon Rodriguez “Monchi”, the sporting director of Sevilla, or any one of the sporting triumvirate that runs Villareal, but again it takes a special character to run in the heels of Santiago Bernabeu and Perez will ultimately have the final say as to the brand of player that Real Madrid buys
• Coaching: This is where I’ll stop, as coaching is the most important assignment in Florentino Perez’s tenure and it would be unwise of me to give the selection of the first team coach a small paragraph in this article. Suffice it to say I’ll give it more weight in next week’s article. Real Madrid 2.0: El Jefe del Bernabeu.

Chelsea 1-1 FC Barcelona

An F-ing disgrace he called it; in an obscenity laden rant caught on camera at the end of the match that saw the Ivorian striker chasing after the Norwegian referee Tom Henning Ovrebo off the field and into the tunnel. 5 penalties were due for Chelsea and they were not going to go into the night without venting their fury. Guus Hiddink supported his players. The cameras showed a clear obstruction in the area by fullback Dani Alves on Flourent Malouda in the 25th minute. Then a minute later we saw Eric Abidal tugging at Didier Drogba down for a clear-cut diamond studded penalty: none was awarded. The wonder-goal by Essien in the 9th minute should have been 3 for the Blues at that point. After the break we saw Yaya Toure deputized as an emergency center back fouling the Ivorian again from behind in the 56th minute. The pressure was mounting on both sides for that game-changing goal, Chelsea were winning balls despite a 29% possession of the ball, and Barca were reeling with the unfortunate sending off of Eric Abidal-a make up red card if ever there was one for a non-contact dive by Nico Anelka. Two handballs later, one by Pique and another by Eto’o and the stage was set for Andres Iniesta to provide the only clear shot on goal (top right corner of the net) for the La Liga club to pull through and reach the final against Manchester United in Rome.

The whistle blew and a game that was chippy and foul-ridden, 33 fouls for both squads and 7 yellows with a red card for Barcelona, disintegrated in a stadium filled howl directed through the Ivorian’s outstretched finger at a Norwegian ref best known for his offside call on a Luca Toni goal for Italy at the last Euros that incorrectly awarded a draw between the Azzurri and Romania. He did not referee another match at Euro 2008. The inconsolable Drogba will probably face a severe ban for his tirade but his coach Hiddink defended his player. “When you see two, three or four situations waved away, then, yes, it is the worst (refereeing) I have seen. It was the overall feeling of being robbed, of an injustice. That it why it was so hot and angry in the dressing room. I could fully understand the feeling of the players.” As for what his players were also saying, “Conspiracy is a very tough word and, if there is, you have to prove it. Obviously there is a lot written and said prior to this game. I can only mention what I see. I cannot say whether UEFA wouldn’t like another English final.” He didn’t say anything there, but he implied it.

Now, I’m not making excuses. At least 2 of those were clear-cut in my book, but in the words of the self-same Hiddink, “It is a man’s game. They shouldn’t try to create things that are not a reality.” He said that after the first match in Barcelona when Xavi and Pep Guardiola angrily decried the German refs supposed past relationship with Ballack. You can’t have it both ways., Mr. Potato. In the first leg, Chelsea mugged Barcelona for 90 minutes accruing 3 times more cards and fouls than the blaugrana. Ballack should have been sent off for a putrid foul on Iniesta and Bosingwa committed a diamond-studded stone cold penalty. In this match, missing Thierry Henry and Rafa Marquez due to injury, and Carles Puyol from suspension, Guardiola slotted in Toure at centerback where his more famous brother Kolo plays and brought in Seydou Keita in Yaya’s place. He brought in young Sergi Busquets as another physical presence in the midfield and took Hiddink’s advice to make it a man’s game. Evenly matched this time around in fouls and in cards given, the “cheating, lying Spanish bastards” gave the English a taste of their own bitter medicine.

The much-maligned Victor Valdez was the unsung hero of the tie; a remarkable double-save on Drogba last week and numerous ones today. Andres Iniesta showed that Barcelona is not Messi-dependent and teams that place three, four and sometimes five defenders on your best player, will have to allow for the skill and determination of his Spanish equal on the other side of the pitch. As for Chelsea? They should have played football at the Camp Nou and they wouldn’t have had to beg for a penalty at Stamford Bridge. Does UEFA have a conspiracy against English clubs? Not a chance. It just shows that the English sense of entitlement, that their brand of football is the best in the world come fell or high water, is self-delusional and very fleeting.