Gracias Leo

I have been a massive football fan since 1986, the year of Diego Armando Maradona, who still means the world to me. It has been forty years, but for half of that time, and for almost the entire lifetime of this very blog, there has been another Argentine who has dominated world football. '

I cannot deny that I have also been smitten by Lionel Messi. Although in my old nostalgic mind Diego remains the GOAT, I completely understand that young people who have grown up with Lionel Messi will always see him as the GOAT.

His statistics and trophies are undeniable, and he came to the fore at the exact same time as internet moved into the era of mass social media, thus creating a craze that has probably never been greater for any footballer. The narrative was perfect: the small shy kid from Argentina, taken in by one of the greatest teams in the world, where he became the legend amongst other superstars like Puyol, Iniesta and Xavi. Where his rivalry with another genius, Cristiano Ronaldo, became the stuff of epic battles, and where Messi contributed to making the Champions League the best in the world.

For a while success with Argentina eluded him, but in 2022 he carried Argentina to their first title since the one by the great Maradona. As Maradona, he made it to a final to defend the title, only to be defeated by his adopted country in an ugly match that seems not to have tainted his image.

Messi also took the craze to the USA, and Miami has strangely become one of the most popular teams in the world because of him alone. And for the last years of his career, he will only be seen there, as he announced his retirement from the national team.

It was expected, but still special. We are seeing the end of a legendary career.

I have seen Messi play twice: in Barcelona and in Miami. I have written a lot of posts about him on this blog; some very critical - some even angry. In his long career I have changed, just as he has changed. I do not feel I have a connection with Messi, but I cannot deny that I have followed his impressive career, and that he has also been part of my footballing life.

I guess that after all this reflection I just want to say thank you. I have been privileged to see you; privileged to live at the same time as you, one of the Greatest ever.

Gracias Leo. 

RIP Pelé

Edson Arantes do Nascimiento, better known as Pelé, has sadly passed away at the age of 82. 

People continue to discuss who is the GOAT (Greatest Player of All Time), in particularly now, as Messi has taken his coveted World Cup title. 

It is a non-sensical and subjective discussion. Football is a team sport; any player depends on his or her team, and the number of titles or goals do not define a great player. 

There is simply no GOAT.

This said, Pelé was someone who defined the game; the first truly global superstar, a player who defined football, and who was a pioneer in terms of many of the brilliant details that we so often take for granted. Coming from deep poverty he was one of the most gifted players of all time, and came on with storm at the World Cup in 1958, when at 17 years he was the youngest player to score a World Cup goal against Wales in the quarterfinals. Then he went on to score three goals in the final against Sweden, remaining the youngest goalscorer in a World Cup final.

The 1958 title was Brazil's first World Cup title, and they went on to win again in 1962 and the legendary 1970 final, where Pelé captained and was the architect behind the spectacular 4-1 victory over Italy. 

Pelé is the only player ever to have won three World Cup titles.

Brazil has declared three days of official mourning for the passing of the Great Pelé, The King, showing what he meant to the country, but he was not only a Brazilian icon, but a global icon.

When Maradona passed, Pelé tweeted that "Um dia, eu espero que possamos jogar bola juntos no céu." (one day I hope we can play football together in Heaven).

That day has come, and they are playing some outstanding football today!

RIP Pelé.

Pelé

I recently watched a documentary on Netflix about Pelé, the legendary Brazilian footballer.

Pelé is perhaps the greatest player of all time, but certainly the greatest player of his generation. The documentary circles around his four World Cups and his importance at a time when Brazilian society was undergoing profound changes, with modernization and the wake of a dictatorship. The documentary dwells relatively much on the dictatorship, with an implicit criticism of Pelé never taking a clear stand against the dictatorship. Pelé at no time appears to be much interested in politics, and the issue remains relevant to this day: what can or should we expect from footballers, who have been thrown into an unlikely fame for the mere fact of kicking a ball. At the same time the documentary also shows how Pelé transcended football, becoming a world-wide super-star that symbolized and represented Brazil beyond all the political upheavals.

Pelé actually describes himself as an average guy that happened to be good at kicking a ball, and his enormous humility is extremely likeable, but it also borders on boring for a documentary about such a nice guy outside the pitch.

The footballing part is both the most relevant and interesting part of the tournament, and Pelé crying when he recalls the finals of 1958 and 1970 truly shows how much football and the finals meant for him. The interviews with many of his teammates such as Mario Zagallo, Jairzinho or Clodoaldo, also gives weight to Pelé as not only a great player, but also a great friend. At the same time I think that the very interesting stories behind the Brazilian team in each World Cup (including the 1966 World Cup, when opposing teams violently struck down on Pelé's brilliance) could have benefited greatly from including some of the opponents, in particular defenders and goalkeepers who had to struggle with a player of a quality that was almost unseen back then.

In the end the documentary is great for anyone interested in football history, and the focus of Pelé, who remains a legend among legends in international football, but the documentary could have been better.

RIP Gerd Muller

 This week one of the greatest footballers of all-time passed away at the age of 75: Gerd Müller, is arguably the best striker of all time; although some of his records have been broken over the last years, he remains the most scoring player of the German league. He was for many years the most scoring player of the German national team with 62 goals in 68 matches (until Miroslav Klose beat him, but with more than 100 matches). He was European Footballer of the year in 1970, after he had become top-scorer at the 1970 World Cup, and his legend was perhaps cemented by his goal in the 1974 World Cup final, which gave West Germany the world championship:

Diego Armando Maradona

I was at a meeting when I received a message of the passing away of Diego Armando Maradona, and it frankly blew me away. I grew up with Maradona; he was one of the main reasons for me becoming a football fan; he embodied the magic of football like no other, and has, and will always be, a reference point for any footballer today and tomorrow.

God needed Maradona for his team of Angels.

Maradona rose from deep poverty to the heights of fame and money through the apparently trivial talent of kicking a ball. With this talent he brought about admiration and happiness to millions of fans across the world (among which I count myself); but despite fame and money Maradona was always his own man, for good and for bad, an imperfect man, like all of us.

As the football fans mourn, we must also have gratitude to have lived as a contemporary of Diego Armando Maradona.

Gracias Diego!