(Davy expects African sides to edge traditional Latin and Continental powers, but fancies England for the Cup. Below he discusses the likely England squad, highlighting what he expects to be the historic contribution of England’s black players.)
To be King in Africa, a useful prerequisite is to be a Black Prince. Africans have high expectations in 2010. Prince Michael of Ghana is regal. Didier of Orange, deadly. Other African Princes will soon have noble claims.
European and Latin Princes will not relinquish supremacy easily. Castilian legions led by the Boy Prince Fernando occupy the high ground. The colours of the canary have been sighted. Animals grow restless at the approaching beat of the Samba. Caravans of dancing distractions cannot be far behind.
England’s Princes are now schooled in the Florentine art of obtaining and maintaining possession. Possession is power. The tongue and territory will be familiar. Their opponents fattened at the premier table.
Category: Players
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‘The 100 Best Players in the World’
British football magazine FourFourTwo, just published (in the November issue) the list of the “100 Best Players in the World.” The choices are based on the input of the magazine’s journalists. Of course it will lead to all kinds of debate as “lists” are always subjective and don’t mean anything beyond getting fans talking. Generally I agree with the list. If you haven’t seen the list, here’s the top ten (I’ve listed them by country, since that’s an affiliation that does not change):
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BLACK STARS WIN U20 WORLD CUP
History was made in Cairo tonight. Ghana won the U20 after an exciting penalty shoot out against Brazil. I was privileged to witness the first African team to win the U20 World Cup. Match report and analysis to follow.
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Pharma-calcio
By now you’ve heard the news: 2006 World Player of the Year and Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro failed a doping test in late August, testing positive for cortisone. The Italian football establishment–players, coaches, officials, media–came out in his defense. “The cortisone was lifesaving treatment for a bee sting!” it was claimed. “I was once stung by a wasp,” joked his manager at Juve, “but it was not the same as Cannavaro’s, as there was no need for me to use cortisone.” (I thought adrenaline injections or inhalers were the best emergency treatment for stings.) Skeptics wonder why it took two months for the positive test to be publicized. “It’s just a bureaucratic mistake,” proffered the Italian national team doctor. Given the well documented history of performance-enhancing drugs in Italian football, and in world sport more broadly, these explanations invite scrutiny.
It was in August 1998 that AS Roma manager Zdenek Zeman stunned us with revelations about widespread doping in Serie A. A few weeks later, Italy’s only IOC-accredited anti-doping laboratory was shut down (for one year). Cannavaro himself was implicated in PED use after being shown on national TV enjoying an IV drip of Neoton in a Moscow hotel room before the 1999 UEFA Cup final, a fact confirmed by his lawyer. And Juve’s current manager, Ciro Ferrara, played for Marcello Lippi’s pharmaceutically enhanced Juve side in the 1990s, a team whose physician received a 22-month suspended sentence for his involvement. Several years and one World Cup triumph later, the specter of pharma-calcio is still with us.
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The Recidivist
How not to clear a football. Hamburg SV’s Ze Roberto and David Jarolim score 2 nearly identical goals within 86 seconds against Hertha Berlin. Berlin’s goalkeeper Burchert can certainly head the ball. But he was not hired for that purpose.
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15 minutes that shook the world
Excerpt from the new spoof film, “15 Minutes that Shook the World,” that uncovers what really happened in the Liverpool dressing room at half time during the Champions League Final, 2005 (when Liverpool came back to beat AC Milan in Istanbul, Turkey).
The Vatican has weighed in on Real Madrid’s nearly $300 million spending spree for three players (Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaká and Karim Benzema). The Vatican’s newspaper, Osservatore Romano, said in an editorial that exorbitant transfer fees would bankrupt teams and could increase the influence of organized crime. “It is good to ask oneself whether the figures paid by Real Madrid’s president in a period of economic and financial crisis are justifiable from a purely economic viewpoint or whether they are inexplicable even under market laws,” the editorial said. “It is also necessary to see whether they are compatible with, or destabilizing for, the soccer world.
[Via Goal]