How Ronaldinho Gets His Groove Back

Well it is official. Ronaldinho has found a new how with a few less dollar signs.

 

I think this is a very good move for Ronaldinho and has the opportunity to be a great move for Milan.

 

Let’s start with the player. Ronaldinho has not set the world on fire for quit some time now. First things first, lets get him back in shape. Milan love talking about the Milan Labs, now lets work on him. Have him get back into playing shape and ready for the season. We all know Ronaldinho possesses the skills to dazzle millions. But will he change his recent ways in Milan? I think he will. Yes there are still a huge party environment in Milan but I think for at least the mean time he will be good and get back on track by training and watching the weight. How long that lasts well, I hope until the day his contract runs out.

 

Let’s go over to the club. Milan know that his name will sell and sell a lot. He will sell even more for the team if they are performing well on the pitch. Which takes me to my next point, as long as Milan do well on the pitch, we really can’t complain.

 

I am looking forward to this season beginning and I am hopeful we will see Ronaldinho back at his best entertaining millions and winning games for Milan.

Football Slavery? I don’t think so.

‘I think in football there’s too much modern slavery in transferring players or buying players here and there, and putting them somewhere,’ Sepp Blatter.

 

‘I agree with the comments of the president of FIFA. What he said is right,’ he told Portuguese channel TVI. Cristiano Ronaldo.

 

Cristiano Ronaldo believes he is being treated like a slave? Last time I checked slaves didn’t get paid. I am appalled anyone would make such a statement, not surprising it comes from Blatter. That is utterly ridiculous and extremely offensive. You might want to check yourself Cristiano, you get paid to do a job, no one holds a gun to your head or chains you to a post. Last time I checked you get paid a nice penny for your job and are under contract which apparently means nothing to you, FIFA or UEFA.

 

Yes, Sepp Blatter first made the analogy but I think it is absolutely ridiculous for the statement in the first place and then for the comment by Ronaldo agreeing with him. I’m sick of the run around about is he going is he not. If Manchester United are smart they will sell Ronaldo to Real Madrid and soon. Get as much as they can for him and stop this circus of crap coming out of everyone’s mouth.

 

Blatter quote taken from http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=554472&sec=england&cc=5901

 

Ronaldo quote taken from http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=554655&sec=england&cc=5901

Silly Nonsense

If you ask me how silly it really is, then I’ll tell you that January is rarely as silly as it gets. There are always players in these European leagues that are unsettled, with new management, new coaching, and new “directions” because the carousel keeps moving and a FIFA World Player of the Year candidate one year, can be an injured, unhappy grump the next: surplus to the needs of the club, country and curva. (exhibit: Didier Drogba).

Still, those huge transfers never get resolved until the Summer usually. Teams are wary of over-spending on a player, they rarely let great players leave that early and clubs are always getting gouged on good players that are valued as great during just that time of the year. Therefore, this really isn’t about what’ll happen to the Ronaldinhos, Drogbas, Lampards, Essiens or Eto’os of the world. What this will be is where it looks like some of the best young talent in the world will end up. Call this a companion piece to the last two posts, the one about Kaka and the one about Boca.

We’ll start with my list of up and coming starlets, those that haven’t made the big money transfer yet (so, don’t get on me because I didn’t mention Alexandre Pato, Anderson or some other young talent that’s been scooped up by the G-14 or whatever they’re calling themselves today).

In no particular order:

Ever Banega: Valencia have the upper hand, in that they’ve made the largest bid, but Real Madrid apparently have rights of refusal over him. Spain is obviously the right choice for a player that would find it difficult to play as rumoured in Juventus. More than likely Valencia, but mainly because he’ll get a better opportunity to play. At Madrid, he’ll have the man he replaced at Boca (Fernando Gago) right in front of him. It would be interesting though to see him at a place like Milan so that he cold learn the position from a guy like Pirlo, though.

Karim Benzema: While it may have been unlikely that a player of his caliber would have made the switch during the January window in the past, there are certain storylines that are increasing demand. Chelsea are losing two of their top strikers to either injury, ineffectiveness of their summer transfers, the Africa Cup of Nations or a combination of the three. Manchester United have never replaced Ruud van Nistelrooj and Arsenal are always a likely destination if you’re talented and French, but it seems to me that AC Milan would be the perfect place for the player some are calling the next Fenomeno, especially if he plays as expected alongside Kaka and Alexandre Pato.

Giovanni Dos Santos: There are some who are saying that this kid is letting the attention get to his head, that he’s becoming more and more like the player he most resembles (Ronaldinho) in more ways than just how he handles the ball at his feet, but it seems unlikely that Barcelona would cash in on the Mexican international, despite how well regarded his teammate Bojan Krkic has become. The stories of his diva-like behavior smack of AS or Marca propaganda. In the end, the Barca cantera may yet save a side that have strayed into the path of Galacticism for too long.

Hedwiges Maduro: The Ajax midfielder is set to leave the club after contract talks stalled, it’s clear by his own hand, so the signs are that he’ll be looking towards a big payday. If the signs are correct that Sven City are interested and are lining up a bid, I’d still be wary of Chelsea in England as they have what teams usually need to buy in January (desperation), and they have what most teams lack (money) to finance the 20-30% markup that players usually get in the January transfer window.

Luka Modric: The Dinamo Zagreb playmaker is thought to be headed to Manchester City or Chelsea but his club want to hld onto him for another year. In the past, players like Modric (Alex Hleb) take awhile to adjust to the physical nature of the league, so it may be best for the player to stay in the East.

Diego: After starring for Santos, along with his strike partner Robinho, Diego made his move to FC Porto and failed, only to turn his career around at Bremen. Real Madrid have been looking for his type of creative force in the midfield for awhile, but it seems that Guti has emerged as that player, and he may have to look elsewhere. Roma and Fiorentina have also been rumored, but it looks to me that Diego might be the kind of player that Claudio Ranieri needs. Tiago, and Almiron have both been unimpressive lightweights and the club would be perfect for little Diego who is clearly made of stronger stuff.

This is just a small list, more than likely nothing of the sort will happen as I’ve set it, but it’s a neat little exercise that I do for myself everytime the transfer window opens in Europe. Thanks for putting up with it.

Forza Futbol

with Mando, Hannah and Elisa


“My name is Mando and I’m a Blogger…” Yeah, I know this stuff sometimes sounds like an AA confessional, but relax I’m not trying to be pretentious, I really do talk this way.

I began this cycle writing about American sports and the absurdity of it all, I opened a Blogger.com account and made predictions, wrote about my collective Los Angeles sports obsessions and covered the 2000 election. I lost faith and a bit of passion for all of it. Call it self imposed ex-pat syndrome, or a general lack of trust, but I’ve come out the other side relaxed and refreshed but maniacally focused on soccer of all sports.

So I deleted my L.A. Dodgers blog, and my general interest political blog and started up a new one about football, Arsenal FC as a general focus, but one where I could talk about Italy or La Liga if I wanted to. Granted, I never knew anything about blogrolls or ways to advertise and link with other related sites, but in the 3 years I wrote about futbol there I got one unsolicited non spam response.

Great, so looked at a different way to connect with people and tried message boards, by this time I had already bought my first iPod and discovered the joys of podcasting, listening I might add, the thought of putting one together seemed too remote to even bother, so I sought out message boards for some like minded people who enjoyed the beautiful game and my favorite podcast: The Treble. Wasn’t for me.

Instead, I found myspace and stumbled onto my friends Hannah and Elisa there. Both were frequent callers to the Treble as well, and far more coherent usually than I was. I know the idea is kind of weird, “How much of a friend can you be if the initial connection was electronic?” Still, we all started hanging out there, and then we actually met a few months later at a pub in Pasadena, California during a Manchester United match last year in April. United lost.

Despite the “tragedy”, the idea for Forza Futbol began. Hannah had this idea to do a podcast and she thought about us; since her “non-myspace” friends weren’t sufficiently committed enough I guess. Elisa immediately said, “We should just talk about Real Madrid.” Thankfully we talked her down from the ledge, but we came up with a great idea. We wanted to talk about Spain and Italy, two leagues that are still consistently and shamelessly underreported here in the States, and we wanted to make some friends along the way.

We did. We were privileged in covering last years’ exciting final in La Liga. We interviewed all of our heroes and realized they were just great people who loved the game just like us. We got better at doing this podcast thing.

All that we have been doing for the last 8 months has gotten us to this point. Despite some detours along the way, Hannah, Elisa and I are back here at Forza Futbol. I’d like to announce too, that starting in January we are going to be part of Champions Soccer Radio network. The place where I might add we all met originally I might add.

Nice, huh? Thanks for listening.

Merry Christmas

I’m sorry if it offends anyone, I was going to say Happy Holidays but I’ve always felt odd saying it, as if I was an outsider, but you know what, too bad. Last week was Hanukkah and next week will be Kwanzaa and the next time you know it’ll be Ramadan or Easter 0r Passover and I’m always conscious of my friend’s celebrations, and sometimes I’ll be honest that I’m going through the motions with my own, but this year I’m holding on for dear life. I’d tell you what my life is like, but it’d sound too much like a telenovela and you wouldn’t believe me. Needless to say if I had a truck and/or a dog, I’d sound like a Country and Western song.

But, even so I’m a spiritual person, a Catholic if you want to get me to open up some, my grandparents were from Salamanca, my allegiances are in Barcelona if you want a football context. RCD Espanyol yes, but if you look at our neighbors Barca : there’s a red and white cross on their badge. There’s a cross on the AC Milan badge, and the Parma shirt and there are at least 11 clubs in the top flight of Italy who have some sort of Christian symbolism to their heritage. No matter where you look, you are going to find a badge, a kit, or a flag that offends someone.

I’m aware of history, and the Crusades that split the world in two more than a thousand years ago, but the symbols that our football clubs are using, are cheap imitations, just shadows of their original meaning. Does anyone but a Milanista know that the cross on Milan’s badge and Inter’s shirt is NOT the St. George’s cross on the England shirt, but the crest of St. Ambrose who was the patron saint and first bishop of Milan? Does it matter that the same cross is on the royal seal of the Kingdom of Aragon in Spain that once ruled over parts of Spain and Italy?

Nah, I don’t care either. Frankly, what happened 500 to 1,000 or more years ago has little to do with what is happening today. These ancient images that people toss around have developed new contexts, new meanings, and in this case have more to do with the fact that Inter Milan beat a Turkish football team on the field, than what happened on a battlefield in Palestine in the 12th century. The Nerazzurri wore a slightly modified emblem of the city crest, one large red cross on a white background, and one particularly irate fan, a lawyer in fact, is suing the club for damages and one thousand years of social distress leading back to the Crusades. What he’s really angry with is the loss on the field, or else he wouldn’t be suing to get the result overturned.

I’m no fan of the past history of my Church, let alone the recent history, but no terrestrial institution is without fault. We could look at the socio-political and religious significance of the Fenerbahce crest, the Besiktas slogan, or the Galatasaray colors, and how they would be offensive to a Christian or a Jew, and yes I did research them, but it’s not important.

The cross, the crescent, the shield, the badge: all of these symbols have a Christian or Muslim or Jewish origin. Actually they were all symbols of pagan religions from centuries before monotheism, they were adapted to suit the needs of the new religion, and they have all changed over time. They will ALL offend someone at sometime or another. No one said this life would be freely inoffensive. Deal with it.
Merry Christmas.

Being a Fan, part 2

The last time I asked this sort of question, it was whether or not someone could call themselves a true fan if you questioned a manager or the direction that your team was going in (clearly I don´t know what I´m talking about because my team is first place in the Premiership in spite of the criticisms I gave it), but instead I have another question for you all.

Can someone support more than one club?

Well, I interviewed Tim Stannardt of football365.com the other day here in Barcelona, you´ll hear the interview when I get back and not a minute sooner, but one of the questions I asked him was if you still support a club. and while I won´t reveal his club, he did say that you couldn´t in his opinion support more than one club. A club chooses you, it defines who you are, and you could no more choose more than one club as choose more than one set of parents. Those are my words, not his in case anyone cares.

Well, I support Arsenal in England and they define who I am in that sense. I´ve watched them since Dennis Bergkamp came to them in the early 1990´s and they have a style that suits what I like about football, but I also care deeply about AS Roma, for not as long and yes I´ve only followed them since Batistuta went there to win Fabio Capello a scudetto, but I have the scarf and I sing the songs, and I consider myself a fan. Which makes sense to you?

I´m ambivalent about it actually, there were times that I felt like I was cheating on my girlfriend, but I´ve sort of squared it by saying to myself that Arsenal hold my interest intellectually, they define what I think is good and precise, almost mathematical about football.

AS Roma on the other hand hold my heart, and I root for them despite them not being very good most years and when they´re good I rub it in people´s faces and when they lose I spin out of control by it, it has nothing to do with my head or a choice I´ve made but a gut feeling I had all along.

If asked to choose between the two I almost always say Roma, but I still think you can support more than one team in one league or else I wouldn´t be struggling with really finding a squad to support in La Liga, or the fact that I like Werder Bremen, PSG or Ajax, Chivas de Guadalajara or especially Boca Juniors in other leagues around the world.

What do you think? Send us your comments and we´ll read them out loud

The Real G-14

Everybody knows the G-14: The 14 or so most powerful clubs in Europe, but who really are the best clubs in Europe? You couldn’t just look at 1 or 2 years. 5 years is a trend, and a good start, but I decided to go with 10 years. I figured that competing against each other meant most when factoring these choices, so I looked at European competitions, but knockout competitions are never a real determining factor when weighed against a long season, so I looked at average points per season over those years and I had to make tough choices. I valued momentum. I valued stability: other than one exception I didn’t believe that spending a significant amount of time in the second division gave you the right to brag about being top of the heap. So here’s my list. 1. Manchester United: 2. Real Madrid: 3. Barcelona 4. Chelsea 5. Bayern Munich 6. Arsenal 7. AC Milan 8. Liverpool 9. Valencia 10. Juventus 11. Inter Milan 12. Lyon 13. AS Roma 14. Bayer Leverkeusen Some observations: Dominance domestically gives United the top spot, and that 1999 season cements it. Chelsea was a surprising pick, but factor in those two monster years that upped their average tally per season, plus their cup record and I picked them fourth over Bayern and Arsenal. Momentum is important: both Munich and my Gunners are years removed from glory. Over 10 years in Spain, Barcelona and Real Madrid are level in points separated by decimal points. Overall European victories give Madrid the edge, despite Barcelona’s edge in the cup competitions. I knew Liverpool had never won the Premiership and so they were very much a European cup-centric side, but I had no idea how poor AC Milan had been domestically over that span despite their 2 Champions League titles, so I couldn’t move them past any of the top 6. I hated putting Juventus in the mix but Europe is not something that Luciano Moggi had much control of but I docked them places nontheless. Opinions? What’s do you think?