Reason for Coolness – He has hair like a mid-90s gangsta rapper
Reason for Obscurity – He has hair like a mid-90s gangsta rapper
Young Hugo is currently making headlines with a move to join Steve Bruce’s South American revolution at Wigan apparently on the cards early next year, after impressing for Mexican outfit Necaxa over the last two years. Originally from Columbia, Senor Rodallega announced his arrival on the scene a few years ago when he became the all time top goal scorer of the South American qualification for the FIFA U-20 World Cup, scoring 11 goals in just 9 games.
A nice little debut season for home team Deportes Quindio produced a rather healthy haul of 31 goals in 32 games, earning a (ahem) dream move to the Mexican top flight. After pretty uninspiring spells at Monterrey and the awesomely-named Atlas, Hugo moved to Necaxa for the 2007 Apertura and made an instant impact with 9 goals in 15 games. Since joining the central Mexico outfit he has averaged almost a goal every other game, and subsequently bagged a spot in the improving Columbian national team.
So we’re looking forward to seeing him at the JJB in January then, if you believe the press reports, he looks like he could do a pretty decent job alongside the quality of Zaki, Palacios and Valencia.
Finally, here’s him scoring a pretty sweet goal last season and celebrating with an even sweeter dance. Sorry, this is literally the only video I could find:
After, let’s be honest, a pretty flat summer of press conjecture and outright lies, the transfer quagmire finally unravelled itself last night in spectacular fashion, causing many members of the STT editorial staff to actually indulge in an inadvertent speed binge just to stay awake in front of Sky Sports News through the night. Ok so there was nothing inadvertent about the meth, but still, I’m sure you’ll appreciate the commitment.
Anyway, the day got off to an interesting start with the breakfast takeover of Manchester City by a multi-billionaire Arab consortium, fronted by a nice chap called Dr Sulaiman Al Fahim, who made his first million at some ridiculously young age ‘playing’ with his dad’s stock market portfolio. The Eastlands outfit are now poised to become the world’s richest football club after the takeover was revealed to be worth £220million. The buyers, Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment, are reportedly worth between around £650billion and £800billion, compared to Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich’s pathetic fortune of £11.7billion, so to describe them as having “deep pockets” is a bit of an understatement. Following the announcement of this takeover, City began making many audacious bids, including Valencia striker David Villa, Stuttgart’s Mario Gomez, and even wantaway Spurs sulker Dimitar Berbatov. The real coup however came with the British transfer record signing of Real Madrid forward Robinho, who just two days ago had earmarked himself for Chelsea. In a press conference this past weekend, the Brazilian said: “I’ve already told (coach) Schuster, Pedja (Mijatovic, Madrid’s technical director) and the club that I want to leave, and I’m saying it in front of the press again, as I have many times. The coach thinks he can get me back, but my head is in Chelsea.” Unfortunately for him, it seems that for once Chelsea were a bit too complacent, and thus miraculously beaten to the punch in a £33million deal which will reportedly earn Robinho £90,000-a-week. Understandably he was a little non-plussed at the whole Ronaldo transfer saga this summer, which saw the one-time golden boy of Madrid cast aside, and even offered as a makeweight to Manchester United in the deal. Real have of course been quick to castigate the flighty superstar, saying that his move to Manchester City is not “for sporting reasons,” but whatever; the fact of the matter is that, for the so-called Biggest Club in the World™, this whole summer has been a bit of an embarrassment. You do wonder though why a player of this caliber, and ambition, would willingly move to a team without Champions League football this season. The only answer unfortunately is money, but surely his wage at Real was equal to £90,000-a-week? Who knows what went on behind the scenes. All we do know is that Manchester City’s next game is against Chelsea, and that Mark Hughes has just under two weeks to learn how to say “just play it long to the big guy up front” in Portuguese.
So moving on then, and to the biggest story that everyone already knew. Yes, Dimitar Berbatov has finally left Spurs and completed his dream move to Manchester United. Ultimately he was never going anywhere else, although ManchesterCity’s cheeky lunchtime offer ruffled a few feathers. Berbs will undoubtedly cast himself in the mould of other great temperamental United talents as Eric Cantona, but has he really got the work ethic to make that kind of impact? Going the other way in a deal-sweetener was Frazier Campbell, the young United prospect who made such a good impression on loan at Hull last year. The sprightly forward was linked with many other teams yesterday, including Hull and Wigan, but a year-long loan at Spurs could be a great move for all interested parties. Campbell joins other quality deadline-day signings Vedran Corluka and Roman Pavlyuchenko at Juande Ramos’ new-look Tottenham, as they look to build on their decent draw this past weekend at StamfordBridge.
Looking elsewhere then, and Arsenal once more decided to keep the moths trapped in their wallet, stoically not boosting their thread-bare squad with anyone else. Liverpool meanwhile completed their signing of Albert Riera from Espanyol, as well as picking up two kids I’ve never heard of called Vitor Flora and Peter Guloisi. Newcastle United’s Spanish-speaking revolution also continues, with Ignacio ‘Nacho’ Gonzalaez from Valencia on a season-long loan and Deportivo La Coruna’s creative midfielder Xisco joining Coloccini and Spiderman at St James’ Park, as Kevin Keegan returns to the top-heavy approach that saw him achieve nothing in his previous spell at the Toon. Everton also managed a couple of signings at last, with Louis Saha and keeper Carlo Nash two pretty astute signings on the cheap for the Merseyside outfit. The biggest news though is the club-record signing of Standard Liege playmaker Marouane Fellaini for £15m. Who the hell is he, you might reasonably ask. And our response? Er, no idea really, but he’s noJoao Moutinho.If you believe the media then the Toffees have also agreed a fee for CSKA Moscow’s Brazilian striker Wagner Love, an STT favourite, although word is that the dreadlocked star won’t actually be over here until after the end of the Russian season in January.
Finally, the only other really busy team yesterday was Premier League new boys Stoke City, who look set to consolidate their excellent summer signings with the return of Danny Higginbotham from Sunderland, the addition of Sheffield United string-puller Michael Tonge for £2million, and finally, the interesting purchase of highly-rated Crystal Palace prospect Tom Soares for £1.25million. At least no-one can accuse them of not showing enough intent to stay put in the top flight…
Reason for Coolness – He’s bigger than most hatchbacks and looks impressively like a murderous film villain who could kill you with one hand. Not that we think all Hispanic chaps are scary criminals.
Reason for Obscurity – Well he’s Paraguayan and plays in the Mexican top flight, so he’s stayed under the radar quite easily. He’s also successfully managed to not have any of his relatives kidnapped so the world press has left him well alone.
As the clock ticks down on the transfer window, and many clubs look like they could use a proven striker, we at STT thought we would once again put on our scouting hat and cast an envious gaze over at South America. This chap you will almost certainly not have heard of, but was earlier this summer linked with many of the big guns in La Liga, so he must know what he’s doing.
Senor Cabañas started his career in his native Paraguay for the strangely-named club 12 de Octubre, before a brief stint in Club Guaraní earned him a prestigious move to Chilean top dogs Audax Italiano. In the 2003 Apertura tournament of the Chilean league, Cabañas netted an impressive 18 goals and was the top scorer, and his record over two years at Audax was such that the Mexicans came a sniffing, impressed by an average of more than a goal every two games. Cabañas came into his own though in the 2004 Clausura for the Jaguares in Chiapas, Mexico, scoring 15 goals in 20 games for the club.
In his three years with Chiapas, the Praguayan netted an amazing 59 times in 103 games, attracting the attention of Mexican heavyweights Club America, one of the biggest clubs in the country. Cabañas has become América's most prolific goal-scorer for 2007, finishing up the first half of the year with an impressive 19 goals. He started the second half of the year as he meant to continue, continuing to take no prisoners as he battle-rammed his way through the Mexican league, finishing with an impressive 33 goals for the year. His top form in 2007 earned him the not-too-prestigious award of Paraguayan Footballer of the Year, but also the actually-quite-impressive title of South American Footballer of the Year too.
So far this year Cabanas has already finished top scorer of the Copa Libertadores (for a consecutive second time), and in all competitions reached the milestone of 20 goals for four months of the year still to go.
He’s basically just a beast. Someone sign him up soon! Here then are his Top 10 goals for your consumative pleasure:
Reason for Coolness – He looks a lot like a pirate and his nickname is El Tigre. That’s Spanish for The Tiger!
Reason for Obscurity – Unless you’re a murderous drug dealer with aspirations of pulling the strings behind a puppet government intent on draining your homeland of all profitable resources that aren’t nailed down, Columbians in general tend to fly pretty much under the radar.
Radamel Falcao Garcia Zarate, known simply as Falcao to his friends, is without doubt one of the most talented players to have emerged from South America in recent years, and it seems to be just a matter of time before the prolific striker joins one of Europe's big guns.
The 22-year-old Colombian international has attracted interest from arch-rivals Real Madrid and Manchester United this closed season, a fact which his agent Nestor Sivori is obviously not eager to play down. Reports from Argentina also indicate that a move to one of these clubs could be on the cards, with the player himself even admitting recently that he may have already played his final match for River Plate.
The ace forward was one of River's key players in their recent Clausura Championship title triumph last season, netting several crucial goals throughout the campaign. Based on his performances in 2007, Falcao was voted a member of the prestigious ‘XI of America’ in the annual survey of South American sports journalists, while on an individual level, he also came fifth in overall voting for South American Player of the Year. In total he has bagged 38 goals in 58 appearances for River Plate and at an international level he has played 15 times with 9 goals to his name.
Finally, a pointless unrelated side-fact is that, like many other famous South American stars, Falcao is a devout Catholic and leader of two church youth groups: ‘Locos Por Jesus’ and ‘Atletas de Cristo.’ Enough of that though, check here to see a handy compilation of all his 2007 goals; there are some seriously sweet ones in here so don’t miss out:
Reason for Coolness – His nickname is ‘El Matador.’ Nuff said.
Reason for Obscurity – He’s from Bolivia, a country which is completely anonymous unless you really like doing blow.
Senor Moreno has been in the papers this week then, linked with a move to join Juande Ramos’ Spanish-speaking revolution in cosmopolitan Tottenham. Unfortunately the 20-year-old chose the icy plains of the Ukraine and Shakhtar Donetsk instead, but this chap is still very much one to watch for the future. Born in Bolivia to a Brazilian father and Bolivian mother, Marcelo Moreno played initially for the Brazilian Uunder-20 national team before choosing to play his senior international football for Bolivia, so you know he’s pretty handy. When asked by fifa.com last year about this decision, he answered: “It was a very difficult decision…Bolivia opened their doors to me and showed their confidence in my football. They gave me the chance to play in the World Cup qualifiers and this was a big incentive.” Marcelo attributes much of his success to the advice and guidance of his father, former Palmeiras player Mauro Martins.
Looking very similar to Barcelona wonderkid Giovanni Dos Santos, Marcelo has been the talk of the town in the Brazilian league for the last couple of years, impressing since his debut in 2005 for Vitoria. The striker bagged 24 goals in 36 games that season, earning him a prestigious move to big guns Cruzeiro last year. Due to his successful return of 19 goals in 32 games for Cruzeiro, Marcelo received his first senior international call-up against Peru late last year, and impressed so much that he is already considered the future of the Bolivian team. Following links at youth level with Liverpool and Manchester United over here, Marcelo is clearly an ambitious guy, with a dream of one day playing for Real Madrid. If his progress continues at the same rate, don’t bet against it; Shakhtar has a reputation as a breading ground for stars of the future, so expect to see Marcelo following in the foot-steps of Andrei Kanchelskis, and more recently Elano, in the next couple of years. Check out some of his madd skillz here:
Reason for coolness – He has dreadlocks and looks a bit like Snoop from 15 years ago.
Reason for obscurity – Like so many others featured in this column, the combination of an obscure club side and a small number of international appearances to date mean that he’s still an unknown quantity outside of Brazil and Russia.
You may have heard this week then that ManchesterCity are almost certain to splash out their highest ever transfer fee on some Brazilian kid with a girl’s name who plays in Russia. Standing at 6’2”, the 21-year-old certainly has the pace, power and technique to help solve City’s rapidly declining form since such a promising start to the season lined them up a potential top-4 finish. But £20million? Really?!
Jo was signed by the Russian club two years ago now from his native Corinthians, and after scoring two goals in his opening two games, became a quick favourite with the Moscow faithful. Having just played his 50th game for the club, Jo’s scoring record stands at an impressive 29, playing alongside fellow Brazilian and STT favourite Wagner Love. He attracted plenty of attention throughout Europe following some superb Champions League performances this season, most notably bagging a goal in each of the side’s clashes with defending Serie A champions Inter Milan. The second leg was a cracker so watch the full highlights again here, taking in Jo’s ridiculously sweet goal just before the minute mark:
Despite being a little old for a Brazilian debut at 20, he received his first call-up to the squad in May last year and made his international debut in friendly against Turkey, in June 2007. Following this however, Jo was then said to have the traditional bust up with national team coach Dunga, and reportedly joined the increasing ranks of those claiming they will not play for Brazil again until the 1994 World Cup winning captain steps down.
Earlier this year in March, Russian Newspaper Peterburgsky Metropoliten stated that Arsenal were reportedly looking to secure the services of the Brazilian wonder kid, possibly because, while he has the build of Adebayor, he is actually able to play football as well. Later that month, the Italian press then linked him with a move to AC Milan, with record European Cup holders looking to revitalize their aging team this summer, but as of today it seems that ManchesterCity is his destination of choice. With Elano and Geovanni already at Eastlands, the move to the freezing North would be softened somewhat already, but if rumours of a last minute swoop for Barcelona’s Ronaldinho are to be believed, then this could have played a major part in Jo’s decision-making process. Watch this space, as they say…
Some of you might remember a little while ago now we showed you a brief glimpse into the vindictive and petty world of South American football rivalries, chronicling the quite brilliant way Guatemala screwed Mexico over in the CONCACAF Olympic qualifiers. This kind of commitment to holding a grudge can only be applauded, and here then is another fantastic example of just why football in that continent is so much more serious than most of the whinging that goes on over here between so-called rivals. I’m sorry, but if you’re not constantly on the look-out for ways you as a fan can cause severe financial or physical damage to your main rivals, then you’re letting both yourself, as well as STT, down.
As regular city-riots go, Argentinian football derbies are about as hardcore as you can get. The Superclásico is the most important rivalry in the country, contested between Buenos Aires clubs River Plate and Boca Juniors, the two most popular and successful teams in Argentine football. Wiki helpfully informs me that approximately 70% of all football fans in Argentina follow one of these two teams, and during the games the stadiums are known to bounce with the simultaneous jumping of the fans. Most times the matches end with fights between the fans and then the police, but still, it’s a once in a lifetime experience (included in The Observer’s 50 Sporting Things You Must Do Before you Die)
These days however, River Plate are not so hot, so a triumverate of sorts has come into play, with Avellaneda side Independiente also embroiled in the fierce rivalry with the two Buenos Aires giants. Now going back to the 1970s, Independiente were the team in Argentina, winning 7 Copa Libertadores titles, including an unequalled series of 4 straight wins from 1972 to 1975. This amazingly dominant feat earned them the distinguished nickname of “el Rey de Copas,” or the “King of Cups” in the Queen’s English. Earlier this year however, Boca Juniors secured their second consecutive Recopa Sudamericana cup, taking their total to a record-breaking 16 major titles in total (Independiente have 15, and so to do AC Milan etc).
Never ones to miss a good marketing opportunity then, some of the top bods at Nike, Boca’s kit sponsor, cooked up a great line of merchandising based on the fact that Boca had effectively just become the “King of Cups” themselves. How naïve. In a showing of quite genius spite, an Independiente fan heard of this plan, and actually registered a worldwide copyright on the branding of “el Rey de Copas,” along with the internet domain name. Put simply, Nike are in all sorts of problems, having promised Boca this prestigious ceremony and dedicated line of sportswear, so are now still embroiled in a bidding war with this unknown Independiente fan to buy the trademark back off him, but understandably he literally refuses to ever sell! As you can see from the picture below, Independiente have stuck a further middle-finger up at Boca by actually incorporating the “Rey de Copas” tag onto their own shirts this season.
This is truly hilarious. If anyone knows this Independiente fan, buy him a couple of cervezas on STT, you know we’re good for em.
It would be a severe understatement to say that Central American countries take their football pretty seriously. They take tacos and Catholicism ‘pretty seriously;’ football is a matter of life and death, often quite literally. A brief glance back through the history books tells us that in 1969 El Salvador and Honduras actually fought the 100-Hours War after rioting at a football match between the two countries sparked the conflict. While some sources may tell you that the war was actually caused by complex political differences between the neighbours, including immigration issues from El Salvador to Honduras, the actual truth is that the Hondurans just got a dodgy penalty in the 90th minute and thus all hell broke loose.
Anyway, back to the matter at hand. I doubt any of you remember, but two years ago during the final round of CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football) World Cup qualifying, Guatemala needed Mexico to get a draw against Trinidad & Tobago to have a shot at finishing fourth in their group and therefore making it into the play-offs against Bahrain. However, since Mexico had already earned its qualification spot, they decided to field a severely weakened side against Trinidad & Tobago, who subsequently won the match 2 - 1 and thus eliminated Guatemala altogether.
Now apparently the Guatemalans have very good memories, and sure can hold a grudge, because having put Mexico to the sword 2 – 1 this past Friday in the penultimate round of CONCACAF Olympic qualifiers, they basically threw their final group match against Canada just to screw over Mexico. The lacklustre Canadians were allowed to score 5 goals against Guatemala, leaving Mexico in the difficult position of needing to beat footballing behemoths Haiti by at least six clear goals to advance to the tournament itself. Mexico totally choked though, and since they only won 5 – 1, are now out of the competition and will have to watch the hi-jinks from Beijing this summer back home in a cheap strip club (maybe).
There’s something about this kind of commitment to fucking someone over just to satisfy one’s own thirst for revenge that really warms the heart on a cold March day. From personal experience I know the Guatemalans to be a friendly and accomdating race, but let this be a lesson to you: do not spill one of their pints, otherwise in six months time you might wake up wearing your girlfriend’s intestines. I for one cannot freaking wait until Round 3 next year when Guatemala and Mexico meet again in the 2010 World Cup qualifiers, here’s hoping for another 100-Hours War…
Finally, quick thanks to our pals over at withleather.com for the heads up on this excellent tale of national rivalry and playground theatrics. You guys are awesome, awesome to the max.
Reason for coolness – He often celebrates goals by pulling out the corner flag and pretending to fire it like a machine gun. That’s gangsta.
Reason for obscurity – I guess it’s kind of just assumed these days that anyone decent from the Portuguese league has already been snapped up by a Spanish side, so there’s no real point in watching it. However, while Porto might not be the same Deco-inspired side that triumphed under Mourinho, they are still a very decent attacking outfit with flair down both wings and Lisandro as it’s cutting edge.
Hailing from Argentina, Lisandro started his career with Racing Club in the national top flight, quickly earning a reputation for being a hard-working forward who could play wide or down the middle. Finishing top scorer in the 2004 Apertura tournament, (see previous entries for an explanation of Argentine season format) he understandably attracted attention from all over Europe, with Arsenal linked at one point too. Faced with the final difficult decision between Charlton and Porto though, Lisandro strangely chose the Portuguese champions for a small fee of €2.5 million, and helped them retain their crown the next two subsequent seasons.
It is this current year however that Lisandro has really started to draw attention, functioning superbly as a central striker with a record this season of more than a goal in every other game across all competitions. What’s strange is that Lisandro isn’t really that quick, or that strong, or even that good running with the ball at his feet. He is simply a natural striker with a great sense of positioning and anticipation, feeding off the superlative service of Porto midfield stars Ricardo Quaresmo and Lucho Gonzalez. His approach in front of goal is a simple, old-fashioned one, as he is able to make the most of his ability to somehow effortlessly turn defenders and hit the top corners with power time and time again. His goal this week in the Champions League against Schalke was a textbook Lisandro finish actually; tight hold up play and turn, followed up by an early-taken rocket past the excellent Neuer:
Unfortunately Porto are now out of the competition so that’s basically all you’re gonna see of Lisandro this year. However, if this form continues and he ends the season with more than 20 league goals as expected, do not be surprised to see him staring alongside Carlos Tevez and Lionel Messi for Argentina in the very near future, after already popping up as a substitute a couple of times during the 2006 World Cup qualification campaign. Peep some skills and a literal hatful of goals for Porto here -
Reason for coolness – Well this one writes itself. When he scores, he puts on a freaking Spiderman mask and then pretends to shoot webs! Peep if for yourself here:
Reason for obscurity – Let’s be honest, the only thing that really springs to mind when you think about Mallorca (or Majorca as we tend to call it) is thousands of pikey sunburned Brits wearing England shirts and being sick on themselves in Shagaluf. It’s a pretty ugly reputation so anything associated is usually tarred with the same enormous herpes-infested brush.
Perhaps the most obscure chap we’ve featured here to date, Jonas is actually in the public eye at the moment due to speculated interested from Manchester City and Portsmouth. A right-sided wing forward originally from the Buenos Aires Province in Argentina, he played for league side Velez Sarsfield for nearly 5 seasons, making his debut at the age of 17. Before moving to Mallorca in 2005, he celebrated winning the Primera Division Argentina Clausura Tournament with Velez, meaning they finished one of the two league champions that year. To briefly explain, Argentinian football has no cup competitions, so each year the 20 teams in the top flight just play two single-round tournaments, the Clausura (February to June) and the Apertura (August to December), thus there are two champions each season. Thanks for that Wiki, very concise.
Anyway, the 25-year-old, who also made his international debut early last year, seems likely to move to either of the aforementioned clubs before midnight tonight. Having lost Bianchi on loan till the end of the season, Man City are keen to find a superior replacement, and if they decide against Gutierrez in favour of Portsmouth’s own Benjani, then the Mallorca star would clearly also fit in nicely down on the south coast too. The only potential complication for any move is that 50% of his transfer value would go to his former club Velez, which is why Mallorca are holding out for a high price of around £8m.
Ok enough boring facts, let’s talk Spiderman. Let’s get the logistics out of the way first; yes, he must play with that mask shoved down his sweaty shorts every game, which makes the feat even more impressive, as presumably he does not stow it in a sealed vacuum bag. From the first instance he did it a couple of years back in La Liga, Gutierrez has become somewhat of a cult at Mallorca, with many fans and press actually just calling him Spiderman now. The exact meaning behind the act, if there is one other than its looks cool, escapes us at the moment since we are not blessed with enough (or in fact any) fluency in Spanish to read his online interviews. Therefore, please insert your own incongruous / sexual / both speculation here.
Anyway, I’m generally a little jealous, and wonder if I started wearing similar superhero masks whenever I completed an important presentation or something, would people then start calling me Batman etc around the office? That would be ace, and would make work almost worthwhile. Alternatively I could just roam the streets, violently drunk wearing a selection masks and pretending to be crazy, that way people would call me whatever I wanted…remember that kids, fear is a powerful tool to obtain the seemingly unobtainable.
Reason for coolness – He is officially recognised by FIFA as the goalkeeper to have scored the most goals in the history of football, a frankly staggering 78 at last count, with many absolutely sublime free-kicks. To put this figure into perspective, alleged striker Jermaine Defoe has only scored 69 Premier League goals.
Reason for obscurity – With only 16 appearances for Brazil in his 17 year career (and counting) no-one in Europe has ever seemed that interested in signing him unfortunately.
Again, this legendary chap’s obscurity is bizarre because, in addition to the amazing free-kick antics, he actually a very good keeper, miles better than those Dida and Doni clowns currently favoured ahead of him for the national side anyway. With over 700 appearances for his club he is by far the most capped player in São Paulo FC’s history, and up there with anyone else in world football history; Ryan Giggs has only 520 appearances for Man United, while even the great Paulo Maldini is still over 100 short from his 23 years at AC Milan.
In terms of accolades and achievements too, Ceni’s record is formidable. He has now won the Copa Libertadores three times, leading São Paulo as captain against the very best club sides throughout South and Central America, while finally last year, he also led them to his first Campeonato Brasileiro (the Brazilian top flight league title). To celebrate his phenomenal personal career, Ceni was also named last season’s Best Player by governing body, the Brazilian Football Confederation. Furthermore, in December 2005, he was named Man of the Match for his outstanding performance during the 1 - 0 victory against Liverpool in the Club World Championships final match, while also being honoured by FIFA as the Best Player of the tournament.
Supposedly Arsenal once toyed with the idea of signing him, but the charismatic and individual displays that rubbed ‘Big’ Phil Scolari up the wrong way clearly waved a red flag with Arsene Wenger too. Current Brazilian coach Dunga meanwhile, has struggled to justify his continued lack of inclusion, especially after admitting that Ceni was “the biggest idol in Brazilian football at the moment and has a fantastic history with the titles that he has won.” Even Julio Cesar, a man groomed by Dunga for the 2010 World Cup campaign has praised the legend, saying: “The supporters are moved by passion and, after everything that has happened in the last three years, he is a goalkeeper who deserves respect.”
So there you have it. A brilliant shot-stopping goalkeeper who’s scoring record is better than that of 90% of the English national strikers of the last 10 years, yet he still can’t get a game for Brazil.
At the end of the day though there’s just something so incongruously funny about that fact that he never taking his gloves off when taking set pieces, it kind of looks like he’s scoring with foam hands on.
Anyway, see the freekick videos for yourself, starting here -
Reason for coolness – 15 goals in 14 games so far this season. Also, his mum was held hostage for 61 days in 2005 before the police stormed the gunmen’s hideout and presumably killed them. Gangsta.
Reason for obscurity – Labelled a ‘bad boy’ early on in his career following numerous brawls on the pitch, and then in a 2004 match for São Paulo against River Plate of Argentina, studded someone violently in the neck and was banned for three games. As you can see from this though, he’s actually a bit of lady when it comes to fighting, not that I’d tell him that :
Yet another fantastic striker with a great career record that has never really made an impact for the Brazilian national side, playing only 14 times since his debut in 2003. At aged 27 however, it seems that Fabiano is now finally starting to settle down as a regular goal machine for the third best team in Spain, helping them secure two consecutive EUFA Cup victories since joining the club from FC Porto in 2005.
He enjoyed great success for home sideSao Paulo, notching up a phenomenal 118 goals in 160 games at the start of his career, but faltering spells in France as well as Portugal followed, before he finally became settled at Sevilla. Quietly, a superb squad has been assembled there over the years by head coach Juande Ramos, featuring stars such as ex-Spurs man Fredi Kanoute and rising Brazilian wonder-kid Daniel Alves, but having no huge egos has been the secret to their success.
On paper, Fabiano has everything you want from a striker; he’s big, strong, fast and can finish with any appendix on his body (well maybe not that one.) With Sevilla going well in the Champions League this season, hopefully we will see if Fabiano can cut it at the very top level, and if his form this season has been anything to go by, a move to one of Europe’s footballing elite may not be too far off.
See some of his 118 goals for São Paulo here, and also more importantly, his kung-fu kick to the back of some Argentinian guy’s neck:
As regular city-riots go, Argentinian football derbies are about as hardcore as you can get. The Superclásico is the most important rivalry in the country, contested between Buenos Aires clubs River Plate and Boca Juniors, the two most popular and successful teams in Argentine football. Wiki helpfully informs me that approximately 70% of all football fans in Argentina follow one of these two teams, and during the games the stadiums are known to bounce with the simultaneous jumping of the fans. Most times the matches end with fights between the fans and then the police, but still, it’s a once in a lifetime experience (
