By the flavor of the text, you guys might get the idea, but I’ll remind you that the idea here is for the long run, not particular matches where a team manages a great comeback like the Istambul Miracle or that crazy Arsenal-Reading league match

Ah, yes, he has indeed become kind of spoiled (I’m saying “kind of” because my current reference frame for spoiled players is Neymar) and arrogant. I did overlook that when thinking about why kids like him, because, as I said, he has many, many qualities that get a child’s attention, even that thing with wanting to take all the penalties and getting frustrated for not receiving the ball because he knows he can score and all

However, Ronaldo is a team player. He does want and take the spotlight, but he’s also a great motivator and can infuse his teammates with a lot of confidence.

Ronaldo is much more expansive, extroverted and likes to be on the media and stating out his value. He also makes an excellent case about talent, endurance, training hard, taking care of your career and taking up challenges. That’s not only a good role model, but much more captivating for a kid looking for an idol. Of course Messi is also all that, but there’s an idea that “Messi just plays and Ronaldo works”, and Messi is much more reclusive

Tajikistan U-17 vs Audax U-20 in 2019

Yes, a bunch of youngsters from Central Asia faced a bunch of youngsters of an obscure Brazilian team from Osasco (a city in greater São Paulo).

The final score was 2-2.

But wait! There’s more!

After conceding a goal and a corner that resulted in a goal, the Tajik coach subbed the goalkeeper before halftime. The poor kid came out and cried on the bench, only to see his replacement pick up an injury and… the starter came back on and saved a penalty!

But wait! There’s more!

The assistant coach for Tajikistan was Musashi Mizushima, a Japanese former midfielder who became a pro and spent most of his career in Brazil, and eventually was an inspiration for the creation for the titular character and the anime Captain Tsubasa

I agree. Perhaps I’d disagree about Özil, because Zidane was more of a controller, as you said, but, again, there aren’t really players today who take up that kind of role. Football changed too much.

However, when it comes to having that je ne sais quoi of dominating the game on a good day and rising to the occasion at an important match, perhaps Modric would be my pick. He doesn’t carry and coordinate the offense, but he distributes the ball and dictates tempo like nobody else today.

Perhaps if we threw Özil and Modric into a blender?

Last time Diniz left Martinelli out of the call-up because Arsenal said he was injured, but he returned before the FIFA break or something like that.

This time, when Arsenal said Jesus was a no-no, Diniz preferred to verify that himself

For kids who are believed to be so promising, it is. And, yes, it creates a lot of pressure, not always in a positive way. Neymar, Vini Jr., Fat Ronaldo and Rodrygo, just to name a few Brazilians, faced the same treatment. They all became top tier footballers, but if you take Neymar, for example, you get a 32-year-old spoiled man-child. Ronaldo hat a breakdown hours away from the '98 final.

I don’t remember Ripped Ronaldo getting the same treatment, he was promising, yes, but I really have no memory of that. Maybe he rose slowly (by slowly I mean “until he became a pro”), maybe I just don’t know about the media on him. Barça, on the other hand, “protected” Messi very well. We would hear about him, and all, but he wasn’t in the spotlight the whole time as a youngster.

But, you know, just take all the “new Messis” that flopped at Barça and you’ll see that: 1. it’s much harder to establish yourself as a professional, and 2. the impact of all this attention isn’t always good. There are many, many more failed wonderkids than there are footballing superstars.

Now, you have to consider also that many high-level players only came to get the attention of the media and the public already in the professional scenario.

To me (1998 onwards), I’d say it goes Argentina 2022, France 1998, France 2018, Brazil 2002, Germany 2014, Spain 2010 and Italy 2006.

What bugs me the most is the case of a country that declares independence and players from there can’t play. I think that happened to the Swiss-Kosovar players?

Yes! We need the rest of the story!

To be fair, Woodgate was a sensible bet at the time for a team that needed defenders. Flopped horrendously, though

Cruzeiro fan here. I have 3 names

Duvier Riascos, or, as I like to call him, Fiascos. He missed a penalty for Tijuana against Atlético in 2013 that would knock them out of the Libertadores, which they eventually won, with the penalty being the peak moment. Now, Riascos wasn’t a great player, but you could see a club signing him if there weren’t many options available. But you wouldn’t expect Atlético’s greatest rivals signing a player so decisive in their continental run less than 2 years later. The only way for Riascos to be a good signing would be if he became one of Cruzeiro’s all-time greats, which he clearly wouldn’t be. And I’m only talking about the signing here. He was terrible for the club, left with only 1 goal (ironically, against Atlético), and eventually even cursed the team on a live interview.

Fast forward to 2023

After 3 years of struggle in the 2nd tier, Cruzeiro finally returned to the Brazilian First Division, but are struggling to keep their place in the elite, now occupying the first spot in the league relegation zone. The problem is simple: the team can’t score. Really, it’s been almost the full season and the team probably has more matches played than goals scored, not to mention not winning at home, but that’s a different story. The defense is solid, the team creates many opportunities every match (like 15 attempts or more) and misses 2 or 3 unbelievable goals. That’s not an exaggeration, that happens every single match.

The board (now led by Fat Ronaldo, the Brazilian legend) signed Henrique Dourado. Now, this guy has been incredibly bad for years. If I’m not mistaken, he had a good amount of goals in the 2015 League for Palmeiras, but most were penalties (he’s a world class penalty taker, I’ll give him that). Even Palmeiras’s fans didn’t like him much. Now, his numbers granted him a spot in major clubs in Brazil and eventually in China, but he failed to make a kind of name for himself at every single step. The guy can’t score if the ball isn’t on the 11-meter spot. And, as you can imagine, having had chances to play where he did, he isn’t cheap. So his signing was tragic. Everybody knew it, particularly when the team needed urgently someone with a positive record of scoring. “Hey, maybe the club will do him good”. Well… Thing is, he had already played for Cruzeiro a few years prior, and scored like 1 goal. He also didn’t do anything special that made him a character to the club or a dear figure to the fans. His peak with Cruzeiro was in like his 2nd match this year: there was a penalty and he wanted to take it so bad that he got into a heated argument with the team’s official taker, Bruno Rodrigues. They had to be kept apart by their teammates. Eventually, a destabilized Bruno missed the shot and Cruzeiro lost

But wait, there’s more! As you’ve read here, Cruzeiro consistently creates chances. Creative and skillful players aren’t the major problem and there are already many names for these roles. So what does Ronaldo do? Well, he also owns Real Valladolid. Valladolid has been kind of a yo-yo club in Spain and are trying to get a firmer grip at a La Liga place. They’re currently in the Spanish 2nd division. Some time ago, Valladolid signed Paulo Vitor, an unimpressive winger who failed to start for the club’s main squad and only played for the B team. He eventually was loaned out to Portuguese sides. In Portugal, PV amassed an impressive 1 goal in 25 matches. In his 6th year as a pro, he has enviable 5 goals for main squads plus 9 for Valladolid B. So Ronaldo didn’t think twice and brought him to Cruzeiro to continue on his glorious path and save the team from relegation.

Neymar gets fouled a lot, and after that foot injury, he became injury prone, he did become more fragile. Also, age is catching up with him, but there’s more to it.

When a player is younger, they are naturally more resistant and recover faster. Neymar isn’t a guy who skips practice, but he was never the guy to take it easy in his private life. That’s fine, everyone does whatever they want as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone, and, again, Neymar doesn’t slack off with the club. But when someone picks up an injury, said injury doesn’t take breaks. If you twist your ankle, you treat it, but it’s still hurt when you’re at home, when you go out, etc. That’s the thing with Neymar: slowing down to give his body time to get better when he isn’t obligated to was never his thing. That left a toll in his body as injuries accumulated, and now every now and then he’s missing games. And there’s still more to it.

Let’s talk about how Neymar gets fouled a lot. He wants that. He wants to have the ball as much as possible, and often prefers an individual challenge to passing the ball a teammate, even if the latter is the better option. Neymar actively seeks challenges. Being such a player, he should have always worked a bit differently when it comes to getting his body for blows, but he never did that work specifically.

And remember that the injuries on the list are just the ones that took him out of action for longer than 30 days. Neymar missed a lot of games with shorter bumps, bruises and pulled muscles over the past few years.

PS: Neymar definitely isn’t fat, but look at those cheeks. I mean, I’m sure your aunt would die to pinch those if she ever met him, right? He’s definitely losing track of how much mashed potatoes he should eat at the team lunch.