BARÇA WANT TO START AGAIN WITHOUT THEIR THREE TENORS

The first season of the former Galacticos that joined the Blaugranas team ended without a single title for FC Barcelona of president Joan Laporta’s. The second season without the Liga title cost Frank Rijikaard his job in favour to Pep Guardiola, the man of the Cantera of Barça and captain of the legendary Dream Team of Johan Cruijff. Guardiola is going to make a new team without counting on three players that have written the recent history of Barcelona such as Ronaldinho, Eto’o and Deco, all included in the club’s transfer list. But is it really necessary to change Barça that much? Can these players do really nothing to help Barcelona? Rijikaard has defended his players until his dismissal, Guardiola, instead, presented himself as a really tough man, ready to do without them…

WHO IS THE BEST AFRICAN PLAYER?

Didier Drogba's claim, according to which the African Player of the
Year title should have been given to him and not to Frédéric Kanouté
who got it just because the Ivorian could not be present at the prize-giving ceremony, caused a sensation. Who is really the number one player of the African continent for 2007? Kanouté can make merit of his Sevilla FC exploits (a Copa del Rey and the second UEFA Cup in a row), Drogba, instead, has not won anything important with Chelsea FC, but he seems largely considered the most representative player of the black continent football. What do you think about it?

DROGBA, THE MOVIE

TOTTI AND IBRAHIMOVICH OUT OF THE FIFA WORLD PLAYER CANDIDATES LIST

Two of the international football greatest talents such as Italian Francesco Totti and Swedish Zlatan Ibrahimovich have been excluded from the race for one of the most prestigious individual awards: the FIFA World Player of the Year. The coaches and the captains of the national selections affiliated to FIFA have not included them among the best players in the year 2007, that has nearly ended. Obviously, these exclusions have immediately aroused harsh polemics. What do you think about this choice? For sure these two players have not got great international achievements with their clubs yet (Totti, however, is the reigning world champion with Italy); however, only the absolute value of the player during the solar year should be taken into account, not only the wins, which are an achievement of the team, not of the single player. How does it come that a phenomenon like Totti is not valued for his own merits because his club does not have a great international tradition? How does it come that Ibrahimovich, one of the most entertaining and on the up-and-up players, has not bewitched also the football specialists who are not Italian? The debate is opened.

FRANCESCO TOTTI, THE GLADIATOR

ARAGONÉS: "HOW MANY WORLD CUPS DID RAÚL WIN?!"

The nonsense in our blog title belongs to the Spanish national selection coach, who, just before the Euro 2008 qualifier against Denmark, bothered by the continual questions about the fact that Raúl Gonzales Blanco had not been called up, answered the journalists as mentioned in the title. No objections about it, Aragonés is right, Real Madrid CF flag and captain never won a World Cup. However, it is also true that no player has ever won a World Cup by himself. As a matter of fact, great stars such as Di Stéfano, Best and Weah never played a World Cup tournament, yet nobody ever dared raise doubts about their class. After the unfortunate phrase (frankly, somewhat racist) about Henry uttered to urge one of his players (Reyes), this is another of Aragonés'(heavy) falls in style. Besides, if he really considers having a stack of wins so important, then, we should suggest him to compare his own (fairly good and not more than that) with Raúl's (extraordinary!).

RAUL GONZALES COMPILATION

VAN BASTEN’S ODD CHOICES

In the last two EURO 2008 qualifiers we could watch Ruud Van Nistelrooy and Clarence Seedorf playing with the Dutch national selection once again. The Real Madrid CF forward was called up again by coach Van Basten after the hard clash that caused his exclusion from the 2006 World Cup crucial match against Portugal. Two goals for "Van the Man" on his return to the pitch, which is not bad for a player that was left out of the national selection for months. An even worse fate for Clarence Seedorf, who had to watch Germany 2006 World Cup at home and played only 15 minutes in all of the last two matches against Bulgaria and Albania even though we are speaking about the UEFA 2006/2007 Champions League Best Midfielder, the one that alongside Kaká guided AC Milan to gain the tournament. What do you think about Van Basten's choices?

THE 2007 GOLDEN FOOT WINNER: DEL PIERO

IS RIQUELME ONE OF THE GREATEST?

Talking about the greatest number 10s still in activity, the names of Ronaldinho, Kaká and Totti immediately come up. Lately, however, also Argentine Juan Román Riquelme came to the forefront, or, to be more exact, made a comeback. "El mudo" has always been considered a great talent. Right from his first spell at CA Boca Juniors (1996-2002) we would have expected him, given that his playing level was much higher than the continental players’ standard, to come to Europe and do very well; on the contrary, he did not have success at FC Barcelona (2002-2003). Last year he guided small Villareal CF up to the Champions League semi-final after four seasons during which he played at a good level, but still without making a real qualitative leap. Then, Riquelme returned to Boca Juniors where in few months he was able to hold the South American audience spell-bound winning the Copa Libertadores (he had already done it in 2000 and 2001, when he was also elected Best Player in South America). Besides, he was called up by public acclaim to play with the national team again, and also Maradona has praised the star of "his" Boca Juniors. "El mago" seems to have eventually made it.

RIQUELME COMPILATION

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE OR COPA LIBERTADORES?

Many people believe that the Champions League is the most important and prestigious clubs’ tournament in the world. As a matter of fact, however, in the direct matches between the Champions League winning team and the Copa Libertadores de América (i.e. the South American “sister” competition) winning team, the latter is generally more successful. Since 1960 the clubs’ World Champion title was awarded, without the endorsement of FIFA, with the Intercontinental Cup (created by an idea of Santiago Bernabeu, the great madridist president) which was replaced by the FIFA Club World Championship in 2006. The South American clubs, since a few years deprived of their best talents who leave to wear the European clubs shirts,  won 21 out of the 24 matches played up to now. Is it, then, true that the best football is played in Europe? And how come that the South American clubs more often win the direct contests?