Futbols24 magazine - April 2012 #2

Futbols24m a g a z i n e

April 2012 # 2

VALERY REINGOLD

I NTERVIEW WITH LEGENDARYSPARTAK MOSCOW FOOTBALLER

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1960GRAND WIN OF USSRTEAM IN FIRST EVER EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP

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MARTINPALERMOTITAN FROM ARGENTINABOCA JUNIORS LEGEND

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235 GOALSLIONEL MESSI STRIKES ONCE AGAIN AND WRITES HIS NAMEINTO HISTORY OF BARCELONA

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In this edition3... 1960 - USSR triumph in first European championship

7... MLS - no rich and no poor

10... Interview with Vugar Askerov

13... Valery Reingold - red n white Electric train

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23... Martin Palermo - Titan from Argentina

28... Do we have a new one Gerd Muller?

33... Proudness of Samtredia

21... Hidden talent or forever perspective?

35... He has it all. Almost...

37... Polish national star - Jacek Krzynowek

39... We wait for something better. Again...

43... Champions League 1/4 finals first leg review

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1960This year was special for European football. First European Championship was held in France. It was won by Soviet foot-ballers. In final they faced very well motivated Yugoslavs. De-spite all odds, Soviet footballers showed great teammowrk,

which led them to the European title.

10 July 1960, Parc de Princes, Paris, France. Little showering rain, mud and twenty two best European footballers have their hearts beating fast. It’s a meeting of two socialistic countries. So close, but so far from each other in same time. USSR national team has quite simple motivation. They want to win and bring this title to their homeland. They want feel proud in front of Soviet government. Another socialistic republic - Yugoslavia also has it’s best football talents on pitch. They are hoping not only to please their government and president Broz Tito, who promised various bonuses for footballers, if they will win this title. Soviet government didn’t promised any-thing, just told: “You need to win and make our nation proud!” Soviet and Yugoslavian nation were considered as brother nations, but footballers of these countries had differ-ent stories and possibilities. Soviet footballers could only dream about playing in best clubs in national championship, while many Yugo-slavian footballers had chance to play abroad and experience career of professional foot-baller with all bonuses possible in that era. No one can say that Soviet footballers felt miser-able playing in Soviet Top League. They were proud, but they had only rare trips around Europe and other continents. Everything had it’s limits in USSR. Captains led their teammates on pitch. Soviet Union footballers gave captain armband to legendary Spartak midfielder Igor Netto, but Yugoslavian captain was Bora Kostič, who was star of Red Star Belgrade and later also had abroad experience in Italy and USA. Soviet football fans were calm, because they had goalkeeper Lev Yashin. His reputation was outstanding and opponents respected him as

much, as his teammates. Yashin was very consistent and he gave confidence to his teammates too. Mistakes were rare thing for Yashin. Captain Igor Netto was an inspir-ing player to watch. If something was going wrong on pitch, Netto always noticed mistakes and quickly told his teammates to solve them.Main expectations on offense were on two Georgian football talents - Slava Metreveli and Mikheil Meskhi. Both wingers had great crea-tivity, but in this game it was much harder to showcase their skills because of muddy pitch. Such presents from nature required much more patience and stamina to lead attacks to success.

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#1 L.Yashin#2 G.Chokheli#3 A.Maslyonkin#4 A.Krutikov#5 Y.Voinov#6 I.Netto (c)#7 S.Metreveli#8 V.Ivanov#9 V.Ponedelnik#10 V.Bubukin#11 M.Meskhi

#1 B.Vidinič#2 V.Durkovič#3 F.Jusufi#4 A.Žanetič#5 J.Miladinovič#6 Ž.Perušič#7 D.Šekularac#8 D.Jerkovič#9 M.Galič#10 Ž.Matuš#11 B.Kostič (c)

2 1USSR YUGOSLAVIA

1960 EUROPEAN NATIONS CUP FINAL

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After referee whistled start of final match, Yugoslavian footballers started to play attacking football. They slowly tried to keep posession and keep rhytm of game in their hands. Yugoslavs played very disciplined on defense, when Soviets tried to attack. Each Yugoslavian defender got his man to cover. There was no mercy and in some moments they played very rough against opponents. On offensive line, Yugoslavs tried to confuse op-ponents, playing very versatile. Attacking play-ers switched their positions all the time and that wasn’t easy for Soviet defenders to trace such intensive actions. USSR built their game on both wings. There was a lot of work to do for Metreveli and Meskhi. If there wouldn’t be wet and muddy field, there would be a lot more advantage for Soviet team. Those two wingers were very gifter technically and they were able to get past every defence. On this evening, it was very hard to do and overall, both teams had lot’s of mistakes, especially in passing.

''After we got one goal back, it was much easier to play. But still Yugoslavs didn't wanted to give up. They continued to at-tack and there was no signs, that they would give up. It was almost impossible to get past disciplined defense of Yugo-

slavian team.''Igor Netto, captain of USSR team

43th minute they scored opener. After great pass from Dražan Jerkovič goal was scored by Milan Galič. In last few minutes of half Yugo-slavs continued to attack, but with no results and first half ended 1-0. Second half brought even more tempo into game. This time Soviets took initiative and quickly created first attack. After few min-utes Valentin Bubukin from around 25 meters

Moment of the final game. Lev Yashin does his job and clears the ball from danger.

In first half, there was more moments near Soviet goal. Yashin had to save his team few times. He showed great confidence and that slowly led to bit more nervous game of Yugoslavian footballers. They attacked a lot, but Yashin stopped all shots. Seemed, that first half will end without goals, but in the end Yugoslavs achieved what they wanted and in

striked powerful shot and Yugoslavian goal-keeper Vidinič couldn’t catch ball and it bounced left, where Metreveli was running and Georgian footballer scored easy goal. 1-1! Soon good position for shot got Meskhi, but ball was cleaned and danger was removed by Yugoslavian defender Perušič. On 75th min-ute, after corner kick ball bounced to Anatoly

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Who was man of match in final? There were two such men. Me-treveli and Meskhi. Despite all odds, they still brought victory to USSR team. Every team has some players, who can ignite and bring energy on pitch. Me-treveli and Meskhi were batter-ies, who gave additional power and inspiration to teammates.

Krutikov, who had good position for a shot. Ball hits one of defenders and flies into goal, but there’s fantastic save from Yugoslavian goalkeeper. This was 100% chance to score. In last minutes of game, Valentin Ivanov miss-es opportunity to score, hitting ball past goal from just five meters. 90 minutes were played and result didn’t changed. 1-1 and game went

into extra time. Because of successful second half, Soviet footballers had more confidence than opponents and they again took iniative. Yugoslavs could only hope on counter attacks. Like tank slowly crushing everything on it’s way, Soviet footballers went forward and on 113th minute they got winning goal. Metreveli got past everyone on right wing and crossed to the opposite side, where Meskhi was run-ning. He got ball and crossed into penalty area to Viktor Ponedelnik, who scored goal with header. After final whistle, there were two different emotional states. Soviet footballers were happy for such major title and they felt very proud. Yugoslavs felt crushed and they knew, that there will be no prizes and bo-nuses at home. They lost possibility to live like kings in their homeland. Only one thing was giving some optimism - many of them later got offers from abroad and that was at least little compensation for losing this game. First European trophy was given to Soviets captain Igor Netto and he together with teammates slowly went to lap of honor. Local French pub-lic wasn’t very excited, because their national team didn’t made it to finals, but still fans de-voted some applause. Soviet footballers won in hard, but interesting game. Their victory was fair and later in evening, they had award

ceremony in Eiffel Tower. Soviet footballers were awarded with gold medals, but Yugo-slavs got silver medals. Despite dissapoint-ment about losing, Yugoslavian footballers still felt familiar with their Soviet brothers and they celebrated this evening together. That was beautiful evening in memories of many Soviet footballers. Not only because winning title, but also about fact, that they done that in Paris, France. Magical and one of the most beautiful cities in the world. From Eiffel Tower they saw all Paris under their legs and those were fan-tastic emotions. Just rare people from Soviet Union had such chance to see some beauty of evil and capitalistic world. It was also very im-portant political victory, because in final there was two communism ideology based countries facing each other. Footballers didn’t had much thoughts about that, but for Soviet politicians that was moment of joy. Take that capitalists! Soviet footballers returned home and they had status of heroes. They made lap of honor in France and they did it again in Moscow. From airport to Luzhniki staduim, where 100 000 fans waited for their heroes. Footballers slowly walked around stadium, so everyone could see silver trophy they won in France. After lap of honor, footballers from na-tional team had some rest and only one player from trophy winners had to play in upcoming match between Spartak Moscow and Loko-motiv Moscow. Trophy was sent to Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy of the USSR, where every Soviet citizen had chance to look at it. Soon after that, trophy was sent to Museum of Sport, but shortly after 1964 European Championship, it was sent back to Switzerland. Trophy never returned back to Russia... It was most memorable tournament in history of Soviet football. Four years later most of this champions squad made it again to the finals of European Championship, but this time they lost to Spanish footballers. Soviets had some success in World Cup too, reaching fourth place in 1966 World Cup. In European Championship they were runners up in 1972 and 1988. Despite not being best team in the world, this generation of Soviet football deserves to be well respected and re-membered. We will tell you even more about Soviet football and it’s legends in this and next editions of our magazine. Stay tuned.

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David Beckham was superstar in Europe, but for last few seasons, he's playin Los Ange-les Galaxy and helping to raise popularity of

football in North America.

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Championship, where are no rich and poor ones

North American soccer league MLS - ''Mayor League Soccer'' is clearly different from all other country leagues.

Everywhere you can see that one team's budget is head - on bigger or opposite - one team is more poor other.

MLS is some kind of revolution in 21st century soccer. Team real owners are not companies or businessmen. All clubs by itself belongs to league and noone else. Periodically the idea of unitary soccer team managing for one or the other league comes from different functionaries of this game. Someone is dreaming about salary cap, others – about balance in transfer mar-ket. However, in soccer world exists occasion, when overall equality is not fiction or dream – it is reality. Talk is about North American soccer league MLS, which since 2002 follow to these rules, when all teams are managed by one unitary organization. Teams from MLS belongs to whole league. No owner-billionaire, no oligarchs and rock-oil companies are owners of any of MLS soccer clubs. In the same time MLS is open free for investors. There are three groups of corporation of shares, which have all rights for managing and organizing championship. Direct connection to soccer goes for share-holders from category A. Buying concrete block of shares, they sign contracts with league for managing one or the other team. Having these category A shares company with its shareholders gets access for making exact decisions in managing the team but it can’t make any influence on the politics of league. MLS has not only rights for team own-ing. It owns also author’s rights, TV and ticket selling and symbolism rights. But the most interesting thing is that team coaches and operators are not substantive for forming the squad before the new season starts. Share-holders from category A, managing the teams, have to decide together, which one of football players will play for each of the clubs. Budget of the wages in league also is the only one which protects the interests of investors better

rather salary cup systems. Players sign their contracts with MLS but not with club or its op-erator. This system sometimes gets called communistic, however at such order it is impossible to distribute teams in the rich and the poor ones by de jure. Fans can’t insist for their favorite club owners to buy some football star or spend more money on transferts as it is not dependant from the owners of the teams. If someone like Roman Abramovich or sheik Mansour will get such wish to make his owned club the best in MLS, they won’t be able to take out their millions out of the pock-ets and buy best players. They have to invest money into the league and try to achieve the most highest goals only through effec-tive team managing with approximately equal team resources.

Major League Soccer was founded back in USA, before 1994 World Cup. Now it's major North American football compe-tition, but rules are quite opposite those, what we see in Europe. It has quite unique rules and system how invest-

ments are shared between clubs.

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Of course, there are working some mecha-nisms, which protect the interests of team operators-shareholders, otherwise David Beck-ham every new season would have to start in any other team. But these mechanisms are based on collective deals, not on power be-tween the rich and the poor one. Connected to all this many advantages give high results and the development of the team as well. Clubs-winners get bonuses, also those, who attract the biggest amount of fans in the sta-diums, raise more talented youth players and so on and so on. In the beginning of such unitary system created players who disagreed to all rules got a chance not to sign contract with league but find for themselves other championsip who has more attractive system for them. Initially there were just few operators for the clubs, for example, company Anschutz Entertainment Group was owned for six teams together. However then slowly increased the amount of the clubs and also the amount of sharehold-ers. From one side, MLS doesn’t give an op-portunity for team operators to realize things and manage their household only according to their personal looks, how it is in usual soccer world. From the other, shareholders are in the collective development of the league and fran-chise’s politics attracts more and more new sponsors. Red Bull as one of the operators for

the New York team is just one example. In 2007 was made decision within commercial events to allow for partners of the league put on player shirts logotypes from spon-sors on separate football clubs. For company it is some kind of commercial targetting. For example, football players of Montreal Impact advertise Bank of Montreal but Los Angeles Galaxy – Herbalife. For shareholders it is ad-ditional income source. If till 2004 MLS financial balance was around 350 million dollars with the sign of mi-nus, then in the last 2-3 years income for both league and clubs has increased greatly. More and more players from Mayor League Soccer are in the area of interests from many Europe-an clubs, more American and Canadian people go to stadiums and follow not only basketball, baseball, ice hockey and American football but also soccer on TV and internet. Possible is also situation – when MLS becomes com-pletely profitable organization, shareholders of the category A might get not satisfied with such exotic approach to soccer championship. When at first place comes profit getting, it can be the end for equality and fellowship. Some investors will think their investment in the league is more remarkable, others will deny to go for compromises. What in such case will happen with such collectivism of soccer? Will such system lead to success?

Landon Donovan and David Beckham holding MLS trophy. Two of the brightest stars in league.

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Vugar AskerovFutbols24 magazine presents you interview with

Azerbaijani footballer Vugar Askerov, who has quite inter-esting career. He made huge step forward in his career just

in a single season, earning invitation to national team.

26 years old Vugar Askerov is one of those footballers, who’s late bloomer. Just season ago, he played in Latvian second divi-sion, but then he joined one of the strongest Latvian teams - Liepājas Metalurgs. Askerov had solid debut in Latvian Highest division and that helped earn call-up to Azerbaijan national team. Futbols24 magazine presents little inter-view with Vugar Askerov.

It’s not a secret that you’re Azerbaijani, but many people in Latvia considers you as local guy. How you got to Latvia?That’s true, I’m living in Latvia since child-hood. My parents came here in Soviet times and they stayed there, because they liked this country.

Why you chose football as your sport?My father also played football and that’s why he sent me to football trainings.

Many people think that footballers, who have born in southern countries, have more talent on technical skills. Do you agree and is this about you?Yes, I agree with that, but looking on myself, I can’t really tell nothing much about that (smiles).

Last season was probably best in your career. From club, who recently played in third division, to one of leading clubs of country. Why this season was so suc-cessful for you? You worked harder in trainings or it’s simply your time to rise?I think there’re many factors what helped me to achieve more than before. First of all, I can say huge thanks to coach Dmitry Kalashnikov (manager of SFK Varavīksne). He helped me a lot. Also, I worked very hard and had huge motivation to make progress in my career.

We know that your progress and perfor-mance together with Liepājas Metalurgs was main reason, why you got called-up to Azerbaijan national team. How it was to train together with international level footballers? And when we could see your debut?I was glad, that manager of national team called me to training camp and friendly games. Everyone were friendly and I felt good there. I already made debut and played two friendly games.

Vugar AskerovAge: 26 yearsNationality: AzerbaijaniPosition: StrikerClub: Liepājas MetalurgsPrevious clubs: FK Jelgava, FC Jūrmala, SFK Varavīksne2 caps for Azerbaijan national team

For Azerbaijan national team man-ager you seemed good enough to get a chance. What’s about Latvia national team? Had they any interest about you?I don’t know really, haven’t heard that anyone would like to see me in Latvia national team. Maybe that’s because I have Azerbaijani pass-port.

Photo:liepajniekiem.lv


Soon you will turn 27. It’s best age for footballer. You see yourself with Liepājas Metalurgs in near future or you would like to try yourself abroad?For now, I can’t say anything much, because I didn’t had idea to play abroad. In future, maybe.

In recent years, many Latvian football-ers choose to join Azerbaijani clubs. Do you follow this league and would you like to play there in future?Yes, I’m following to results of Azerbaijani league, but I haven’t thought about playing there. At this moment, I’m happy about play-ing for Liepājas Metalurgs.

Vugar Askerov played for Lat-vian second division club SFK Varaviksne. His club met one of leading Latvian clubs Liepajas Metalurgs in Latvian Cup. Vara-viksne lost, but Askerov scored goal and attracted attention from Metalurgs. Soon he joined them and helped to win silver

medals.

There’s a lots of opinions about Latvian league. Some say it’s growing, some say there’s a lot of mess from organizers. At-tendance is quite low. How do you think, how football could become more popular and beloved in Latvia?I think main reason, why people doesn’t like to attend football games is level of league and lack of success for clubs. If they will achieve more and show interesting football, I think people will be more interested in local league. There’s quite a lot of people coming to sup-port Liepājas Metalurgs at home games.

For footballer, it’s important to stay motivated. Some gets motivation from his family, another one believes in God. What’s your motivation on pitch and outside it?I believe in Allah and it’s my main motivation. When I have some problems in life, I always ask him help to solve them.

Many young players make a lots of mistakes in beginning of career. What should they be aware of?I think that’s normal to have mistakes. Every footballer have such and I think there’s no one who wouldn’t had mistakes in their career.

Had you any idols in football, when you were younger?Actually, I never had such and I never wanted to be like someone from top footballers. I don’t have such now too.

This summer will be Euro 2012 tourna-ment. What’s your opinion about pos-sible winners and which team or teams you will support?Yes, I’m waiting for this tournament. It should bring very exciting and interesting football for all fans. I think that this year Holland could win the title. My favorites are Russia national team. I will support them.

Thanks for your time and Futbols24 magazine would like to wish you all the best in your career! We hope you will achieve everything you want!Thank you, wish you the same!



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Valery ReingoldFor many of you this name could be unfamiliar, but for So-viet football fans, especially for Spartak Moscow fans, this man is legend. Nicknamed ''Electric Train'', he was known as

lightning fast striker. Probably, one of the fastest footballers in history of football.

Valery Reingold was well known foot-baller in Soviet Union. He spent his best years in Spartak Moscow, playing seven seasons and winning various titles. Reingold was just 168 cm tall, but he was lightning quick and for de-fenders it was nightmare to try catch him. His personal best in 100 meters sprint was 10.8 seconds [!!!]. For footballer, it’s simply amaz-ing speed. Here’s translation of interview with Valery Reingold, taken in March 2011.

Which were the toughest defenders you had to play against in your career?Yuriy Istyomin from CSKA Moscow, very quick guy. I had nickname “Electric Train”. I could run 30 meters in 2.9 seconds. My starting speed was fantastic. Logofet (teammate in Spartak Moscow) once said: “Never seen such fast footballer.” And he had chance to play against Garrincha. I never was an outstanding footballer, but I played in outstanding team. There I had fantastic teammates and I could learn something new all the time. From Netto, Husainov, Sevidov...

Husainov and Sevidov died last year...Yes, they both died within week. One week later, died two former goalkeepers - Ivankin and Maslachenko. Both weren’t smokers or drinkers, but they still died... Many from that generation could live longer. There was player named Leonard Adamov in Spartak. He couldn’t make into our squad, then he moved to Dynamo Minsk and became one of leading players there. But he did suicide and jumped out of window.

We even know why he did that...For our generation there was no secrets. His wife left him and choosed goalkeeper Sasha

Prokhorov. Same fortune had Mikhail Bulga-kov. Jumped out of window and... Anatoly Soldatov and Vladimr Lisicin hanged them-selves. Vyacheslav Ammartsumyan was hit by a car. For nine hours he layed down on street. No one came to him, thougt that he was drunk. In hospital he died not from hit, but from pneumonia. Vladimir Redin was beaten up by his son. He came to hospital for help and died. Vasiliy Kalinov dissapeared without trace. Vladimir Polikarpov was beaten up by OMON. Valery Voronin became beggar. Some gave money, some didn’t gave, some people offered beer. Team, where he spent all his life, didn’t gave any help to him. Same situation was with me and Spartak...

What do you mean by that?I don’t need their money, but I’m angry about another fact. Spartak veterans team played and brought $20 000. They at least could ask: “Guys, oldest Spartak veterans are still alive, let’s give $100 each to them.” We did that by ourselves. Some gave 10, some 20 rubels and we gave that money to Lovchev, who distrib-uted this money to veterans, who needed it the most and who couldn’t play in exhibition matches anymore. This younger generation is simply rotten. I have enough money to live, but there was no money for funerals of many former players.

Does Spartak pay pension to you?Egorovich came to Leonid Fedun (owner of Spartak Moscow) around five years ago with documents. “That’s Reingold. Soviet champion and cup winner.” Fedun told: “Haven’t heard about such!” Through media I answered to him: “I was Spartak footballer and I will die such, but you will never become an owner of

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Spartak! You will remain only manager!”

Was there any reaction after such an-swer from you?They started to call me with threats. I told them to leave me alone. They didn’t called anymore. Once I met Gazaev and he asked me: “Do you get pension from Spartak?” I told him the truth and he was shocked. “Every player, who has played for CSKA for at least five years, has rights to get pension.”

Do you have German origins?German or Jewish, I don’t know really. One of my teammates joked, that my father went to Berlin, then to Moscow and then back again to Berlin.

Had you any problems because of your surname in Soviet time?Once to Luzhniki came Kirilenko, who was from Politburo. He asked: “Who’s that Rein-gold? Interesting surname.” Next day Starostin (founder of Spartak Moscow) had to visit Central Committee and explain everything. “Reingold is good player, people are happy to see him on pitch.” After that this question was closed. I remember we once played in Cologne and when crowd heard my surname, they applauded and made ovations.

People also applauded, when you scored fantastic goal against Tblisi Dinamo.Soon I will turn 70, but I remember that day as yesterday. 1-1 and only few minutes left to play. Simonyan (then manager of Spartak) says: “Get ready to play!” And then I see, that I forgot my boots in locker room. Dammit! I quickly ran there to get them, but locker room is closed. Woman, who got keys were drinking tea in Dinamo locker room. Also my bootlace broke and after all that mess happening I finally got to the pitch. Coach was angry and couldn’t understand why it took so long to get my boots. I ran onto pitch and after few moments my first touch on ball. I saw that Dinamo goalkeeper was quite far outside goal. I took shot and it went in! All fans on Luzhniki went crazy!

Do you remember something special from 1962 championship season?We had terrible start. In July we had to play in

Valery Reingold

Born - 1942Position - strikerHeight - 168 cmWeight - 72 kg

Career1960-1967 - Spartak M 176 games 32 goals1968-1969 - Trud Voronezh55 games 7 goals1970-1974 - Shinnik Yaroslavl147 games 30 goals

Tashkent. Our management got letter from Moscow: “If Spartak will lose game, Simon-yan and Starostin will be fired.” Uzbeks were tricky and game was arranged on mid-day time. Weather was very hot at day. Tempera-ture was around +50. Also we were living in hotel and our rooms were on sunny side. Five people lived in small and hot room. Game also wasn’t easy. In first half Pakhtakor scored two goals and one of our players was taken to hospital because of sunstroke. In half time we went to shower and stood under ice cold water. Simonyan told to Starostin: “What can we say to them? Let’s go away.” And they did. Then Krutikov said: “We can’t give up like that. Let’s show what we can!” We had noth-ing to lose and second half was great for us. We played being very angry. Husainov scored two goals, I also scored once. After this game we had long streak of wins and in the end of season we became champions.

After many years, when you played in Shinnik, you sold game to Pakhtakor.Not really, we not sold it, but simply gave away. For us that game wasn’t important, but they were heading to First division. Abdurai-mov came to us and said: “Guys, we need your help. We will give you same bonus, you would get for winning this game.”

You remember such situations in Spar-tak?In 1966 we played in Baku. Sevidov was in


Valery Reingold playing for Spartak Moscow. Overal l , he spent 7 years with Spartak.

already in jail, Simonyan and Starostin were fired. Gulyaev coached Spartak in that time. We played in Baku. Winner gets bronze med-als. I watched this game from stands. Maslak, Dikarev and Korneev played terrible. I think they gave away that game. But I didn’t told them anything.

Maybe they played so bad because of Gulyaev? Logofet, for example, said that he wasn’t very smart person.I think Gena (Logofet) was angry, because he was benched at age of 34. Gulyaev was as-sistant coach before, so it was logical step to make him head coach. Maybe he wasn’t very well educated in football nuances, but he was very cultural and kind person. But once I got into problems because of him.

Where?In Odessa. We sat near hotel, while waiting for bus. Gulyaev told us: “Why you’re sitting here? Go and practice some passing.” We did so well, that after my touch ball crushed into glass case.

You crushed it?Yes, it was crushed. After few seconds there

were no one around me. Everyone ran into hotel, including Gulyaev. Administrator was running to me and he said: “You will need to pay for this.” “How much,” I asked. When he told sum, I was shocked: “I will need to play football for a half year, to pay for your win-dow!” Gulyaev said from his balcony: “Valera, you can’t do anything about it.” There was representative travelling around with us. Logofet went to him and said: “You see that it wasn’t Reingold fault. Why should he pay for this, if coach told us to play?” Representative thought a bit and later in bus, he sat near me and told: “If you will win this game and score, Spartak will pay for this incident.”

It gave some optimism to you?Sure. I asked to guys: “Please, help me out. I need to score goal.” “No problems.” But game wasn’t so easy. There were almost no scoring opportunities. Only chance came after shot of Ambartsumyan. After hitting the bar, ball was heading into goal. There was no use to touch it anymore, but still I wanted to score. I had only one thought in my head: “I will score and tear that net.” But instead of scoring, I kicked it out of empty goal and it went to stands. Odessa defenders were laughing on me, but

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Slavka was screaming: “What are you doing?”

There was no happy end?Game ended 0-0. But Spartak still paid for that window... When we played with Torpedo, there was another funny situation. We got two against one defender with Sevidov. If i would give pass to him, he would easily score, but I decided to score with powerful shot, as I used to do before. But shot went far over goal and ball hit lady, who were selling ice cream. Lady fell down together with ice cream. Yuriy was looking on me: “You’re such a stupid...”

Is it true, that in away games only Netto lived in luxury hotel room?Yes. Once in Alma-Ata I lived together with him in hotel. Netto says to Nikolai Petrovich (Starostin): “I want Reingold stay with me. There’s no use for him to play cards with youngsters. I will prepare him well to game.” Then he says to me: “I will let you go only in Vnukovo (airport).” “Are you serious?” “Yes, Valer, don’t even complain about that. We will take something to eat, read some books and do useful things.” He tried to educate me for two days. Game day. I scored on 10th min-ute and we won 1-0. I thought he will leave me alone and I will have some relax. I say to him in hotel: “Okay, Igor Aleksandrovich, I’m going to chill with guys.” He swings his head and says: “I told you, that I will let you go in Vkunovo.” Later he got call from Moscow, from his wife - famous actress Olga Yakovleva. Asks about game and result. Netto answers: “There’s little ram laying on bed - he scored.”

You enjoyed card games?Preferans. Mostly there were four players around the table - Logofet, Sevidov, Falin and me. This game requires some quick think-ing and it’s not so easy in beginning. It took around half year to learn this game. I lost my salary all the time. But I never stopped! Char-acter! I said to Sevidov: “It’s okay. Soon you will lose your salary to me.” And it really hap-pened. Soon I started to win more and more. Sometimes I could win around 1500 rubels, which was quite solid sum, because our salary in Spartak was 190 rubels. We got also paid some bonuses for won games and for being Masters of Sport. Bonus for win was 75 rubels and 80 cents.

Many had doubts that Netto and Yakov-leva won’t be happy together?Sevidov since beginning was telling: “Igor will leave football, but she will leave Igor.” She was nothing, girl from province. Igor made diva from her. But later she started to cheat him.

With Efros?Yes and she didn’t even tried to hide that. She slowly killed Igor with such attitude. He was very unhappy about that. In last years he had problems with memory, terrible period for him. When Netto was taken to veteran matches, there were lot’s of problems with him. I was taking his money, because otherwise he would forget it somewhere. I always told him: “I will give you money in airport.” He just answered: “Yes, yes.” After 10 minutes he comes back to me and asks: “Where’s my money?” I lived with him in hotel. I say: “Your name is writ-ten on all posters. You will go on pitch for two minutes and then leave under applause.” We needed legendary names to attract fans. But we couldn’t take him out of pitch. He didn’t wanted to leave, despite moving very slowly and falling all the time.

Netto was screaming on you when you were young player?Oh, he did. At some players he was really an-gry, because we came as young players, but Igor didn’t wanted to understand our game. Previous generation played trough him. He was main person on pitch. Me and Sevidov could play without his touch. When we got ball, we quickly went on counter attack. Sevi-dov passes ball forward and I’m running after it. Netto wasn’t happy about our style and once he came angry to bench telling Starostin and Simonyan: “What are they doing? Where did you got these clowns?”

Once someone answered him about these comments...Sevidov was that guy. We played against Kiev and before game we had visited by one im-portant person from Moscow. He told: “Guys, you need to help Torpedo and win this game. If you will win game against Kiev, everyone will get bonus.” No problems, we were ready for win. Sevidov got the ball and went for-ward. Netto was running after him and saying


“Hey tall dude, where the hell are you going?” Yurka (Sevidov) stopped and said to Igor: “Fuck off...” At half time, Netto was very nerv-ous and said: “I can’t play together with him, Nikolai Petrovich! I can’t!” “What’s happened?” “He told me to fuck off...”

And how reacted Starostin?“Igor, it’s part of football. Handle this situation by yourselves,” said Starostin and left locker room. Since that, Netto was screaming only on me and Gilya.

Had you good relationship with Husain-ov?I had friendship with Sevidov and Logofet. We we neighbours with Husainov, when I lived on Vernadskov prospect. There Gilya had huge tragedy. He was heading to practice and bus stop was near his house. His wife Lyuba and little daughter waved to him from window. Then Lyuba went to kitchen and forgot about window. His little daughter somehow climbed on sill and felt out of window from sixth floor...

Who told him about tragedy?Andrei Starostin came to Tarasovka: “How can I say it to him?” Later he still said: “Gilya, there was tragedy today.” We all were stand-ing together at that moment. Everyone was shocked and no one thought about practice anymore. We had game ahead against Cher-nomorec. But Gilya still played, because he said, that’s only thing what can save him.

Which was the longest team meeting in your career?We lost 0-5 to Torpedo. In first few minutes of match, Sevidov three times hit the bar. Ivanov played great and got past Netto all the time, scoring goals. We couldn’t do anything. Simonyan said to Netto: “That’s not right. Ivanov is doing everything he wants against you.” “Screw you! Team isn’t playing seriously, but you talk only about Igor...” And he threw boot to Simonyan.

Was hit precise?It hit chest. Next day we had team meeting, which lasted 4 hours. Igor was sitting and cry-ing. I said: “I’m still young, but I want to ask you Nikita Palich, please, forgive Igor Aleksan-drovich.” He was forgiven.

Was there situations when someone tried to defend you?Sevidov once did it in Rostov. Dementiev came before match and told: “Valer, today we play from defense, you’re on bench.” Unexpectedly, Yurka says: “Then I will not play too. And we will leave team and join Dynamo.” Scared Dementiev went to Simonyan, who soon had little conversation with Starostin. Then he told, that I will play. “That’s what I understand!” said Yurka. We won 6-1. Gilya scored four goals, Yurka two.

You probably celebrated such victory well?Yes, we did it with passion. But next morning our flight was scheduled at seven am. We had quite long time to wait till our flight, so Sevi-dov went to taxi drivers and asked them to bring some champagne bottles to us. Before that, he had little conversation with Starostin. When we went back to hall, we felt asleep. Starostin was going near us and he said to Simonyan: “Look how our boys got tired, they played hard yesterday.” Simonyan knew what’s wrong with us: “Tired? They’re simply drunk!” Nikolai Petrovich took off his glasses and said: “It can’t be true, I recently talked with that bastard.”

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In Torpedo, Voronin and Posuelo could drink champagne before matches. Was there something like that in Spartak?We had one guy in reserve squad - Yura Ivanov. He drank beer a lot, but Starostin still kept him in squad, because he was nephew of Suslov (important politician at that time). Once he called to Starostin and asked, why Yura isn’t playing in first team for a long time.And it was decided to let him play. Back then, we were going from Tarasovka to stadium by electric train...

Why so?Because it was risk to take a bus. If barrier on railway crossing would be closed, we would have to wait for a long time. There was risk to miss the game. That’s why our administrator always bought all tickets in a single wagon, so no one could disturb us. After ride with train, there was bus waiting for us and it took us to stadium. Once, me and Sevidov went last from training base. We had around 15 minutes till train. And then we saw Ivanov, who was standing near bar with two huge beer mugs. He thought, that all team was already on platform waiting for train. Sevidov went to him and told: “Hey, you have game today!” Ivanov almost fell to the ground: “Brothers, don’t tell anyone. I will warm up, sweat and I will feel fresh. I won’t let you down!”

Was his performance good?Quite okay. Although he was sweating a lot and it look, like he was in sauna or swim-ming pool. Also Papaev told funny stories about Kalinov. I already left Spartak. Half time, everyone is in locker room, but no one knows where’s Vasya. “Where’s Kalinov?” asks Starostin. “Maybe he went to shower?” said someone. And such situations were in five games. Later there was match again and Spartak were losing. Simonyan comes to locker room very angry looking for Kalinov. But no one knew where he is again. “Where the hell he is?” says Simonyan. He opens door from shower and gets shocked.

What happened?There was Kalinov and he was drinking port wine. Then everyone understood, why he was hiding all the time. That’s why he didn’t had long lasting career in Spartak.

Is that true that once Logofet and Sevi-dov tied up you before the game?Yes, there was such situation. It was in 1963, before cup game against Dynamo Moscow. There was a lot’s of emotions before the game and I annoyed everyone. Team was relaxing after lunch, but I couldn’t simply be calm. I was running around the base and then I met Maslachenko. “Hey monkey!” I said to him. Next moment he was running after me, but he had no chance to catch me. In the end, teammates decided to tie me up. Logofet and Sevidov tied me up to the bed. I layed there till the pre match meeting, when Starostin gave some concert.

What concert?Simonyan told us, how to play and then asked Starostin: “Have you anything to add?” “Sure,” said Starostin, took newspaper and rolled up it. In room there was a fly flying around. It landed near window. Starostin came closer and smashed it near my ear. He sweared rarely, but very pointedly and refined. He said: “Same, damn, will be with Dynamo today!”

Others say that he said simply: “Damn Dynamo!”No, no. Everything was like I said. At warm up in Luzhniki, Maslachenko said to us: “Please hit ball as strong, as you can, I need to take my stress off.” Someone hit the ball, it bounced to me and I took powerful shot from about 13 meters. Ball hit Maslachenko head, his hat fell off, nose and face were red and full of anger. He ran out of goal and tried to catch me. I felt that he will kill me, if catch. I was on running track and Maslachenko was right after me. Fans were laughing. Starostin just came to bench and asked Simonyan: “Why those two clowns are running around when everyone is already playing the ball?”

Did Maslachenko catch you?I was saved by whistle, which meant that warm up is over. Teams already were ready to come onto pitch, but referee Lukyanov says: “I can’t bring teams on pitch, while Reingold is standing near long jump sector. What he’s do-ing there?” Maslyak said: “Come here! I won’t harm you!” I slowly came and joined team-mates. I heard Maslyak voice again: “If you will score to Dynamo - I will forgive you!”


You scored?No, but I earned penalty. I was one on one against Yashin. I already kicked ball past him and he has only one option left to do - take me to the ground. I didn’t reached penalty area, but referee Lukyanov showed that it’s penalty! Many years after, in veterans meet-ing he was asked: “Uncle Vanya, how did you gave wrong penalty back then?” “Yes, it was mistake, but that moment was so funny...” I was hit so hard, that I fainted. I woke up only when Logofet scored a penalty. Ball was in net, Yashin was laying down, but Logofet with smile in his face said: “Pull it, Vasya!” He said such sarcasm to best goalkeeper in the world! Yashin was very angry.

What he did?Genka was celebrating goal, but Leva took the ball and shot it right to the back of Logofet. But ball hit head of Ambartsumyan. Slavka turned around and said: “Lev Ivanich, what wrong I did?” After match Yashin came to me and said: “Valer, are you okay?” I was shocked. Lev Ivanovich came to say sorry to youngster and after such penalty. Legend!

Tell more about Sevidov. Did he returned mentally broken from prison?No, despite that sentence was tough. He wasn’t so guilty as judge decided. Yes, he hit academic Ryabchikov with his car, but aca-demic died from heart failure, not from hit. Ryabchikov’s son told at court: “I don’t blame Sevidov.” But despite that, there was call from Kremlin and they said: “Maximum sentence!” Some even wanted to sentence Sevidov to death. I heard it myself. First two years in Kirov oblast weren’t easy for Yura, but he be-haved honorable. There you needed to forget, that you’re footballer. Streltsov acted different way and he quickly was calmed down.

How?He was simply beaten up. And he couldn’t do much about that. After that, attitude changed and prisoners respected him bit more. Strelt-sov told me, that he had offed: “Play for Dynamo Moscow and we will let you out the next day.” But he refused. Sevidov’s father was coach in Dynamo Minsk and he could help son and Yurka was moved to Bobruisk. There life was bit more easier.

Why noone came to visit Sevidov?It was impossible. No one would let us to do that. There was possible to visit Streltsov. They got permission from ministery and then his teammates could make visit.

Sevidov told that he didn’t got even a single letter from Spartak players?I wrote to him. But once we’re called to Soly-anka, where guys from Central Committee. They told: “There’s no use to write letters. He will not get them.” And they were right, he didn’t received any letters.

Lovchev remembered, that KGB tried to recruit him, so he could follow Logofet, who was often seen in new clothes and cars.Yes, Genka was fashion fan. He loved to buy newest clothes. In those years, for many sportsmans and artists foreign visits was chance to earn good money. Many of them ate canned food, just to save given money and have chance to buy something there.

Was there any problems at border?Once they caught Kazavashvili, Logofet, Lovchev and Olshanskiy. I think someone told to officials about them. Maybe Dynamo helped...

They could?Easily. Problem was, that we arrived on Sun-day and Starostin couldn’t call people, who would solve all problems. In the end, eve-rything was solved, despite fact, that guys were taken for confiscate items they bought abroad.

Who broke all records on brought items from abroad?Krutikov. He brought coats, carpets, jackets... I remember tournament in Italy, where we met Bologna, Atletico and Steaua. We won Spanish team in semi final and in final we had to play against Bologna. Day before final, owner of club died and they quickly made new golden medals with his portrait. I asked one of medals before final for a few minutes.

Why?I wanted to show it to Krutikov. “Tolya, this medal is made from gold!” “Nah, it’s probably

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a simple badge...” he said. But then he took bit more closer look and accepted, it’s made from gold. I saw that there was little fire in his eyes, simply another motivation. I told to Logodet: “Krutikov today will crush Amancio.” That was Bolognese forward, most dangerous player in their squad. Very fast and he had one leg shorter, similar as Garrincha. It was simply hell, to try stop him. But this time, Kru-tikov was better and Spanish footballer had no chance. We won 2-0. By the way, medal from 1962 USSR championship is also from gold.

You left Spartak with some scandal?Yes, I had some controversy with Simonyan. We lost to Kairat and in half time he told some negative comments to me. It wasn’t really my fault that we lost. I told him that and later simply told him to fuck off... Dikarev and Korn-eev stood for me, also Yura Semin said some-thing. When we returned to Moscow, all four footballers were released from Spartak. Now I have great relationship with Nikita Palich. He admits, that he did wrong thing by releasing me back then. But I also was too emotional and rude.

Why you worked as taxi driver after end of footballer career?I didn’t had many options what to do. I had no desire to work as youth football coach and earn 110 rubels. But for me it took just one month to understand, that I will not have any

success as taxi driver. If you want to earn good money, you need to be more cheeky - cheat clients and do such bad things. I can’t do like that. But I need to admit, that I had one quite interesting story while working there. I almost entered Kremlin.

How did you manage to do such?I was driving near it and there was quite intense traffic, so I had no other options, only to turn to right. I entered gate and po-liceman, who was guarding it, almost fell of from tower: “Where the hell are you going?” He took my driving license and recognized me: “Reingold, are you going to Brezhnev? I could almost shoot you!” Thanks God, he was football fan. After this curious situation, I left taxi driver job. Some friends offered me job in construction. I told them: “But I don’t know anything about construction.” “That’s okay. You will need to play football for our trest and that’s all.” For 10 years I played for their trest and scored a lots of goals. At morning I still came to work. Later I worked as Lokomotiv stadium director in Perov. There I worked until pension. My main treasure is my family. I’m married for almost 50 years with my wife. Have two daughters, four grandsons. Daugh-ters have good husbands, one of them made big present to me - new car. Toyota RAV4. Be-fore I was driving around with old Zhiguli car. New car once saved my life. If I would drive with my old car, I probably would died...


H idden talent or forever perspective?

Not rare is such occasion when footballer seems very tal-ented, skilled, many expect him bright future and playing in the strongest football clubs of the world. And it goes on so long until that same amount of people and perhaps foot-baller as well understands his time has gone, years have

walked away and time is relentless.

Now at that moment he becomes one from many and day after day goes to the bot-tom of deep silence. Will the same destiny oc-curs to Latvian football talent, one of the most perspective forwards Artjom Rudnev? Who in reality is Rudnev and what are his possibilities for achievements? Artjom Rudnev was born in January 13, 1988 in Latvian city Daugavpils. Professional football career he started in 2005, playing for FC Daugava from Daugavpils in Latvian high-est football league for 3 years. In 2008 he became a winner of Latvian Cup. After that he went into squad for Hungarian team Zalae-gerszegi TE, where in 30 appearances scored 20 goals. Such successful performance was clearly visible for other clubs. In July 2010 rumors appeared that the Ekstraklasa club Lech Poznań were interested in signing him. Later on these rumors were verified and Rud-nev joined the club on trial. After a successful trial at the club and after passing the medi-cal tests, Lech started signing talks with ZTE. Clubs couldn’t agree the transfer fee for a long time and, when it was done, the Polish side failed in talks with the player about the indi-vidual contract. It seemed that the talks were over but in August, after Rudnev had scored two goals in the season opener, the Polish club board and ZTE reopened the discussions. This time talks were successful and Rudnev signed a four-year contract with the Polish side. Now Rudnev plays for Lech Poznan in Poland since 2010. In total he has scored a lot of goals but the main turning point for his possible career continuing in more higher level was season 2010/2011. Lech played in Europe League competition and had group stage

game against Juventus. That match ended in a draw 3:3, but Rudnev scored a hattrick. Later he scored also in second game against Juventus (draw 1:1) and after that against Braga from Portugal, however it didn’t help to go through the knocnkout stage. Braga went even to final in that season in Europa League. So from that moment Rudnev caught many football club manager eyes as very good striker and potential scoring leader in future in one of TOP 5 leagues. This season is great so far for him as well. Such matches, where he scored at least 2 goals in Polish league, are quite many. But in last games, how it was expected, he started to score less and less. And it is the key moment which is clearly con-nected with the title of this article. At the end of 2011 appeared such rumours that Italian Serie A club Genoa wants to buy Rudnev for 7 million euro. Later it came clear they already bought striker what they need – only it was not Rudnev but Alberto Gilardino. Smart choice. It was not just Genoa after all. Rumours said also Borussia Dort-mund wants to buy him and some other quite serious football clubs. One question is about how trusty are these talks but it is not the main one. The main question is – why Rud-nev and his agent doesn’t react on these bids and what is expecting Lech, if they refused even 7 million bid? He became an immedi-ate top-scorer of the league, as of December 2011, having scored 18 goals in 17 league matches. In the start of January 2012 Rudnev was named the best player of the Ekstraklasa in 2011 by Polish Footballers’ Association. But now, seeing Rudnev’s last games it is clear his price can only drop, not raise up. He is not

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level player who can score almost every game in a long period of time. And 7 millions is very big money for such player like Rudnev. Why? If we rate Rudnev’s advantages and minus-es... As the biggest advantage for him as a player as why he have scored so many goals is great positional play. He knows where to stay to receive the ball and score it into empty net. Most of his scored goals were exactly such. Another positive thing is great shooting. Actually, hard to find any other advantages, which are very important for striker. Speed? Yes, very good, probably above average but at highest level you won’t see any turtle on the pitch. Defenders are even more faster strikers nowadays. If we go to his minuses, then it is not needed to sum up each after the other, it can be taken in one sentence – Rudnev can’t cre-ate goal scoring chances by himself and also score in the same way. He is not and probably won’t be a real leader for any high level or just good team. Such player, who could make solution to problems alone. In Lech all goals he scored, he used great passes from mid-field players. No doubt – many can’t take also such chances, so it is also good ability. But he never scored, going past for 2 defenders, then dribbling away from another and puttingball into the net. This fact approves hisperformance in the national team ofLatvia games. Latvia has not thatgood midfielders, who can createscoring chances for strikers. Mid-fielders in this Latvian modelhelps mostly for defence - it issuch playing style and to behonest - also player skills allowonly that. So what comes from it? Midfield-ers can’t create chances and Rudnev in 16 games has scored just 1 goal. It only sayshe is finisher, not creator. This article doesn’t say Rudnev isbad player. No, surely not. If team hasvery good midfield play, he perhapscould score some goals even in Ger-man Bundesliga or Serie A. Worryingfact is that Rudnev awaits for some-thing, Lech awaits (probably for gett-ing even bigger transfer money fromselling him), his agent and also Lat-vian fans seem satisfied with curr-

ent situation. However, this is the right mo-ment when make things moving much faster. He still can be hidden talent, who really be-comes talent, if he leaves Lech this summer to some of TOP leagues. His contract with Lech is working till 2014 but no matter that he just have to go away from this club. Otherwise he can become forever perspective. Comparison is not far away to search. His compatriot, Maris Verpakovskis had great performance in Euro 2004 and after that signed long term contract with Dynamo Kiev. Many expected him bright career as well. At the beginning that all went to such. Even more when Maris scored a goal against Real Madrid un UEFA Champions League. But then, slowly he started to score less and less, then mostly sat on the bench, later Dynamo loaned him out to different clubs and till now he has never been close for that performance 7-8 years ago. With Rudnev story can be the same if he stays at Lech one more season. They are good players but not as good as they would never disappear. Even more famous football players in the world from very talented have gone to forever perspective and never got back on their real level. Some injury, bad luck or something else can be cruicial for player when he has not proved himself for 100% at highest level. In Rudnev’s case even if he goes to such, let’s say, Dortmund and sits at reserve mostly, it will be the only right step. At least he he will try to do all he can, to get his place in squad. In case of misery, it will be not so painful as he will never get there and have at least some chance to try himself in some of the strongest European football leagues. Rudnev anyway had interesting turning points in his career. From his local club to Hungary and later to Poland. Sure that he already have somenice memories and bright moments in his ca-reer. But why don’t take a new step forward?He must find new club from TOP leagues to avoid from saying later after many years – but he was very perspective footballer and noth-ing else than forever perspective...

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Martin Palermo Titan from Argentina

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Every Professional football player always has a dream in-side of his head about playing in the highest level, reaching the most greatest success and gain title baggage. In this case not every footballer can be similar to Martin Palermo

who had his career fully saturated of events. Retired from Professional football, Palermo is now spending more time with fam-ily but he has some plans for future connected with football anyway... Biography for Martin Palermo as a football player is not simple. Argentinian in his career had both sunny and cheerful and very dramatic and even awkward moments. Mostly because of such moments he is not as popular as Cristiano Ronaldo, David Beckham or Lionel Messi nowadays. No matter that Martin is very bright as a person and football player in the same time. Martin started his professional career in 1991 in his home side club Estudiantes de La Plata and showed there quite good perfor-mance. In 1997 he got calling from one of the strongest Argentinian teams Boca Juniors. In this club Palermo opened his real abilities and skills. He scored almost in every game. That made him to be named the best footballer of South America in 1998. It gave some impact for European clubs which started to pay more attention on him, including such teams like Lazio and Milan. Later things started to go just unbelieveable. He was put into squad of national team of Argentina and already in the first game against Ecuador in Copa America tournament he scored 2 of his teams 3 goals, what helped to win the game 3:1. That was a fantastic start and seemed new football star has appeared on the line. However, later fol-lowed nightmare... Next game Argentina had against Colombia and here Palermo gave big shock for whole world. He didn’t score any of 3 given penalty shots. At the end his team lost the game 0:3. Unfortunately, this misery is written in Guiness Book of World Records. On the next game Martin was able to prove him-self again though. He scored a goal against Uruguay. But in quarterfinal Argentina lost to Brazil and was eliminated from the tourna-ment. Those 3 missed penalty shots hardly made a bad influence on Palermo’s reputation. Finally he lost his place at the national team

and it was really tough because at that time Argentina had enormous competition in the attacking line – Batistuta, Crespo, Balbo and others.

Talented underdog?

Not everything for Martin went so bad because he continued to show great perfor-mance and scoring at Boca Juniors. Because of such boom Palermo got an invite from Lazio. At that moment Lazio was one of the strongest team not only in Italy but whole Eu-rope. But the deal was not completed because of another misery. On November 13, 1999 on a game against Colón, he had a complete tear of the anterior cruciate ligament of his right knee, before he left the game and without him knowing the seriousness of the injury, he managed to score his 100th goal in the Argen-tine First Division. The injury required a six-month recovery period. During that and com-ing back on the pitch, Palermo was not losing his abilities. On May 24, 2000, he returned to football after more than six months of inactiv-ity after his first major injury. He played the last fifteen minutes of the quarterfinal match of the Copa Libertadores against River Plate, and scored the goal that sealed the victory with what he called “the most emotional goal of my career,” leaving the score at 3–0 to Boca Juniors (the first match ended 1–2). Boca Juniors fans started to consider him an idol during his first stint with the club, not only because of the number of goals he scored for the team, but also for scoring many im-portant goals against Boca’s arch rivals River Plate. The peak of his career was probably the Intercontinental Cup in 2000, when he scored two goals in Boca’s 2–1 victory over Real Madrid, catching the attention of football clubs in Spain and Europe. Nevertheless, he made quite unexpected move to Spanish Villarreal in 2001. This team was fairly average by its level. Palermo, in the same time, played well in this team, despite lost some effectiveness.


At the end of 2001 Palermo suffered kinda stupid injury. After celebrating a goal, Palermo stood on a small concrete wall, which col-lapsed under the weight of Villarreal’s fans and broke both the tibia and fibula of his left leg, leading to two months of inactivity. Palermo never regained his form and after two and half seasons with Villarreal, on August 20, 2003, he decided to cut his ties with the club. Season 2003/2004 Palermo began in Betis but later went to other Spanish side Ala-ves. Neither of the clubs he felt well and could not score many goals. In 2004 Palermo re-turned to Boca Juniors and again made teams fans happy and showed amazing effective-ness. Later that year on December 17, Martín scored his 100th goal with Boca on the final of the 2004 Copa Sudamericana a 2–0 victory over Bolívar. Finally, in 2007, Palermo helped his club to win Copa Libertadores which is very prestige trophy in South American foot-ball. At that time he was already 34 but he had no mind for quitting football and end up his career. He still wanted to make happy fans. And... it was worth that. In october 2009 Argentinian forward once again shocked football world. In the Argentinian championship he scored a goal for Boca Juniors with a header from 45 metres! This goal was written into records book as a farthest of distance scored goal with a header in football history.

left Palermo will play once again for Argentina. But miracle happened. Palermo came into the view for Argentina coaches for one more time. He was supposed to play already in 2008, if nota n injury. Then Argentine national coach Alfio Basile stated that he had been consider-ing offering Palermo a return to international football and was disappointed that Palermo was injured at the time. Finally luck came to Palermo. No matter his age then – 36 years, he got called to play for Argentina. And he got this calling not from any other than Diego Maradona, coach of Argentina from 2008-2010. The coach of the 2010 national team, Diego Maradona, recalled Palermo to the national team and introduced him as a sub-stitute in a 2010 World Cup qualifying match against Paraguay after a 10-year exile from the international scene. A couple of weeks later he was once again called up to play a friendly against Ghana. In this game, Palermo was part of the starting eleven and made the most of it by scoring both of Argentina’s goals, resulting in a 2–0 win. Palermo’s next match was on October 10, a 2010 World Cup quali-fier against Peru. Palermo sealed a 2–1 victory for Argentina with a 93rd minute strike, caus-ing Maradona to describe the goal after the game as “one more miracle of Saint Palermo.” It was not the end. Palermo got this unique chance (as unique was his comeback to team after 10 years) to play in the World Cup 2010 in South Africa. On May 19, 2010, Palermo was selected as part of the Argentina national team’s 23-man final roster for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, Paler-mo’s first World Cup. No one expected him to be on the starting lineup as attacking line for Argentina was (and still is) very impres-sive. Carlos Tevez, Diego Milito, Lionel Messi, Gonzalo Iguain, Segio Aguero – they all are younger than already a veteran Palermo.

Return after 10 years Probably such can happen mostly in fairy tales but Martin Palermo is a living evi-dence such luck can come also in real life. Af-ter poor performance and 3 missed penalties against Colombia put a cross over Palermo’s career in the national team, at least for that time. His international career seemed to be over at the end of 1999 and the more time was spend and years gone, the less belief was

26

But no matter that on June 22, 2010, Palermo played his first World Cup match, coming in as a substitute in the second half of Argen-tina’s final group match against Greece. In the 89th minute, he scored his first ever World Cup goal on a rebound from a shot by Lionel Messi. Argentina won the match 2–0 and fin-ished at the top of their group. This goal also made Palermo the oldest Argentine national footballer to score a goal in World Cup play, an honor previously held by Diego Maradona.

Good-bye game and future

On June 12, 2011, Palermo played his last home match at La Bombonera, after the match Martín was honored by Boca Juniors and was given several gifts, among the gifts was one of the goal frames of the stadium. Palermo officially retired from football on June 18, 2011, with his farewell game. He in the squad of team White scored one goal, which made a victory over team Black with the score 3:2. Guillermo Barros Schelotto, Ivan Zamo-rano, Roberto Baggio, Oscar Cordoba, Calos Tevez and many other famous players took part in this match. With this game Palermo put hard dot to his playing career but it was not a good-bye for football. At all not. Now lately Palermo has claimed his future aim is to become a coach.

„Now I plan to relax a bit and spend more time with my family. When I will return, I am focused to start my coaching career. I already chose my coaching team: my assistant will be Guillermo Barros Schelotto but I will have to wait 6 months more as in this summer profes-sional career as a player will end also Rolando Schiavi. I will add him to my group as well. After this I will begin coaching job,” claimed 38 years old Palermo.

Career of Martin Palermo is an ideal ex-ample for all other sportsmen. Example in that plan that no matter anything it is not worth to fall into desperation and lose heart but con-tinue to work, struggle and go for your goal. Then you get your reward back.

Martin Palermo career

1992-1997 Estudiantes93 games, 34 goals

1997-2000 Boca Juniors102 games, 81 goals

2001-2003 Villarreal70 games, 18 goals

2003-2004 Real Betis11 games, 1 goal

2003-2004 Alaves14 games, 3 goals

2004-2011 Boca Juniors216 games, 113 goals

1592361336

caps in just three seasons with Argentina national team. Palermo was called back to national team after 10 years absence. Such hap-pens rarely.

goals were scored by Martin Paler-mo in national team games. He scored three goals in every sea-son he played for national team.

goals for Boca Juniors made Palermo team's all time leading scorer. His record probably will re-main for a long period.

titles were won together with Boca Juniors. Six of them are Argentine titles, others are won in South American compe-titions.

years old Palermo be-came oldest player to score for Argentina national team.

/futbols24magazine

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He's one of the best strik-ers Bundesliga have seen in last few seasons. Goal, after goal, after goal.... Bayern Mu-nich striker Mario Gomez is terrorizing Bundesliga teams. Last year he was top scorer of Bundesliga and this sea-son he plays on same level. He's still young and has best years ahead. How high will his fame rise?


Do we have a new one Gerd Muller?

Long ago was that time when we were able to watch in action one of the greatest football stars in European and World football. Unstoppable German striker Gerd Muller. He

showed amazing scoring ability.

In 62 games played for West Germany Müller scored 68 goals. It is fantastic indicator – more than 1 goal in a game. Now we have another such star, who has all possibilities to become a real legend like it is Gerd now. It is noone else than Mario Gomez. They both are not like clones – for example, Gerd Müller’s height is 176 cm, while Gomez stands for 189 cm. However, they have many things in com-mon, and two from which are very important to compare them – they both are Germans and play for one of the best German and Eu-ropean clubs Bayern Munich.

Playing style

This is one of the main areas where these two footballers are more or less differ-ent but not so much different either. Gerd Mül-ler has written a book which is called “Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Foot-ball”. In this book David Winner, English au-thor and journalist, writes, “Müller was short, squat, awkward-looking and not notably fast; he never fit the conventional idea of a great footballer, but he had lethal acceleration over short distances, a remarkable aerial game, and uncanny goalscoring instincts. His short legs gave him a strangely low center of grav-ity, so he could turn quickly and with perfect balance in spaces and at speeds that would cause other players to fall over. He also had a knack of scoring in unlikely situations.” Gomez in the same time is a player who goes closer to the net which is con-nected with his tall height. He is not sprinter or very technical player who would go past 3 and more defenders usually. He is great that he feels the right place where to wait the ball coming for him, great shooting and heading abilities. Even here, halfly they are similar.

Bayern Munich

Gerd Müller played in this club for 15 years (1964-1979), made 453 appearances and scored 398 goals. Impressive and not less than that. He joined FC Bayern Munich in 1964 where he teamed up with future stars Franz Beckenbauer and Sepp Maier. The club, which would go on to become the most suc-cessful German club in history was then still in the Regionalliga Süd (Regional League South), which was one level below the Bundesliga at the time. After one season, Bayern Munich advanced to the Bundesliga and started a long string of successes. With his club, Mül-ler amassed titles during the 60s and 70s: He won the German Championship four times, the German Cup four times, the European Champions’ Cup three times, the Intercon-tinental Cup once, and the European Cup Winners’ Cup once. A supremely opportunis-tic goal-scorer, he also became German top scorer seven times and European top scorer twice. Müller scored 365 goals in 427 Bundes-liga matches for Bayern Munich, almost 100 goals more than the second most successful Bundesliga scorer, Klaus Fischer. He holds the single-season Bundesliga record with 40 goals in season 1971–72. He scored 68 goals in 62 German Cup games. His record of 66 goals in 74 appearances at European Cups was just re-cently surpassed by Raúl González of Schalke 04. As we can see, Bayern at that time was not so big club as it is now. So when Mario Gomez joined the team from VfB Stutt-gart, where he played from 2003 to 2009 and scored 63 goals in 121 games, Bayern already was on the peak of European club football elite. So quite unfair would be to compare

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their playing in Bayern from series – who is the best playing for Bayern goal scorer. First of all, Gomez is turning just 27 this summer, so he is probably in the middle of his whole career and might has not reached its high-est point yet. Secondly, the transfer fee says how different are 60ties-70ties and nowa-days. On 26 May 2009, Gómez was eventually transferred to Bayern Munich on a Bundesliga record transfer fee, signing a four-year con-tract. The amount of the transfer fee varies from 30–35 million euro, depending on differ-ent sources. 35 million euros? Just before 20 years by such money it would be real to buy 10 Mario Gomezs. Within this we can connect it to playing style as well. Bayern is big club and nowadays football style which is played is clearly not the same. No matter that, Gomez also till this momen has been showing greatperformance -60 goals in 82games for Bay-ern. Percentuallyit’s even betterthan Muller’sdestinations atBayern. Whatcomes from thisall? Comparisonis impossible.Some will say itwas harder toplay in those ti-mes, some willsay opposite.Unfortunately, we can’t check and put two times – present and past – together and then see who was better, faster, stronger. From this all we can make only one conclusion – both these footballers are the icons of Bayern, yes, also Gomez, no matter he is so young, he has showed he is almost half of this team. Arjen Robben, Franck Ribery and Bastian Schwein-steiger give a lot to the team’s midfield and also they have made Gomez so great and sta-ble. But would untallented player score goals no matter receiving brilliant passes? Clear doubt comes.

It's hard to compare those two players, because of their physical parameters, playing style and character, but Mario Gomez deserves some atten-tion, because even Gerd Mul-ler himself has told, that Gomez has chances to beat some of his scoring record. If master says such pleasing comments,

then it's really possible.

National team

In this area Müller is still in some way better Gomez if we look on his statistics. 62 games and 68 goals for Müller playing German

National team of West Germany and 21 scor-ed goal in 51 game for Gomez. Müller played in the team for 8 years, Gomez was called up

since 2007. If we look just onstatistics, thenquite obvious

Muller is better.But here, oppo-site club football

comes one big but - like it or

not but at thosetimes national team football

was not so muchtended to def-

ence, like it is attoday’s football.

Many lower level teams just didn’t know how it is to play well against Brazil, Argen-tina or Italy just because they had no idea about real and tough defence. Now more and more national teams start to show resistance against big teams and key of this success is defence. In this way even for TOP team strikers (one of such is Mario Gomez) is hard to score many goals like it was before many decades of time, because there’s some changes in football and it’s newest generation. So now, if statistics would show player scores almost each goal per game or close to that, it says he is better striker than some others with the same statistics before. In this comparision between Müller and Gomez we surely can put some sign of equality.


Gomez for Bayern and Bayern for Gomez?

A lot of rumours are going around now about future of Mario Gomez. Some con-nect his future to Real Madrid, some to other teams. However, the best choice for Gomez would be to stay at Bayern for many years. It has many advantages. First of all, Bayern is TOP European club and regularly plays for Champions League. Team is builded for very high destinations and big success, so he will be able to collect more trophies. Very impor-tant point is adaptation. Gomez is like a fish in the water right now in Bayern. Why to go to some other club and risk with situation he can’t adapt? It is not worth that. Meanwhile, he can set one not so noteless record... It is the biggest amount of goals scored in one season in Bundesliga. Ironic or not but here again comes Gomez comparision to Gerd Müller. Not any other than he offered his

Mario Gomez have proved, that he is fantastic player for his club. Now he need to make step forward and show up his skills in upcoming Euro 2012. If he will become leader in national team, it will only add some fame. If he can help Germany to win World Cup again, he could be

considered as a legend of German football.

his comments on Gomez, opining that the former Stuttgart man will one day exceed his Bundesliga scoring record. “At some point, he will beat my record of 40 goals in a season,” the German football legend said. These are not empty words, especially, if they come from such legend, as Gerd Müller. Who else would know better what it means to play for Bayern Munich and be part of legend-ary team with long traditions and huge ambi-tions? No doubt that Gomez can become the greatest Bundesliga and Bayern scorer of all time. And then we will say it clear – Gerd Mül-ler still is on the pitch!

Mario Gomez honours

Club

• Bundesliga: 2006–07, 2009–10• DFB-Pokal: 2009–10• DFL-Supercup: 2010• UEFA Champions League Runner-up: 2009–10

National team

Germany• FIFA World Cup 2010: Third place – Bronze medal• UEFA European Football Championship Runner-up: 2008

Individual

• Bundesliga Top Goalscorer (28 goals): 2011• German Footballer of the Year: 2007• Most expensive Bundesliga transfer

Gerd Müller honours:

Club

• Intercontinental Cup: 1976• European Champions’ Cup: 1974, 1975, 1976• European Cup Winners’ Cup: 1967• Bundesliga: 1969, 1972, 1973, 1974• German Cup: 1966, 1967, 1969, 1971

International

• World Cup: 1974, Third-Place: 1970• European Championship: 1972

Personal honours

• European Footballer of the Year: 1970• German Footballer of the Year: 1967, 1969• European top scorer: 1970, 1972• German top scorer: 1967, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1978• World Cup top scorer: 1970• European Championship top scorer: 1972• European Cup top scorer: 1973, 1974, 1975, 1977

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Head to head

Mario GomezGerd Mu l le r

14Muller spent 14 seasons in Bundesliga together with Bayern Munich. He made his debut in 1965.

3For last 3 seasons Gomez is playing for Bayern Munich.

40Muller scored 40 goals in Bundesliga in 1971-72.

427Appearances in Bundesliga for Gerd Muller.

1 1Muller scored atleast 20goals in 11conse-cutiveseasons

365Gerd Muller scored 365 goals in Bundesliga. It’s the best result in history of German Bundesliga.

62

Appearances in West Germany national team.

68 Goals for West Germany team, all time leader.

207

Mario Gomez has played 207 games in Bundesliga, together with VfB Stuttgart and Bayern Munich. He had debut in 2003/04 season with Stuttgart.

28Gomez scored 28 goals in 2010/2011 season, becoming league top scorer.

Appearances for Germany national team.

51

21

Goals scored by Mario Gomez for Germany national team.

41

Gerd Muller has scored poker in a single game 4 times in national team matches, but Gomez only once.


Proudness of SamtrediaFormer Georgia national team captain Kakha Kaladze is playing professional football for almost 20 years. He turned 34 in February, but he's still valuable player for Se-rie A level. Kaladze have been trough various difficult sit-

uations in his life, but went trough everything.

Georgian football had many bright tal-ents in Soviet period. They were well known in Soviet Union, but they didn’t had even a single chance to prove themself in leading European clubs. Football was in difficult situation after Georgia regained independence, but there still were a lots of talents looking for chance to shine. There was no borders anymore and many Georgian footballers had chance to play abroad and earn their first real money. They felt taste of new world - fame, money and almost unlimited possibilities. Many Georgians became well respected in European clubs, but Kakha Kaladze is probably most respected and most famous Georgian footballer in era of independent Georgia. Despite, being cruical part of Georgia national team, Kaladze is product of Soviet football school. As a young boy, he grew up with local club Lokomotiv, where his father Karlo also was playing before. Kakha followed father footsteps and soon he joined Georgian strongest team Tblisi Dinamo being just 16 years old. Despite young age, Kaladze quickly earned trust from manager. Dinamo was very successful in Georgia, winning 5 national titles in a row with Kaladze in squad. National team manager also got eye on talented young-ster and in 1996, just 18 years old defender got his first appearance in national team. He played quite well in both - club and na-tional team and his performance was noticed by legendary Dynamo Kyiv manager Valeriy Lobanovskyi, who invited young Kaladze to Ukrainian football grand. Kaladze admits himself, that transfer to Dynamo was most important in his career, because without Lobanovskyi, he probably wouldn’t become European top level player. Dynamo was very successful back then, with talented and strong squad. It was leaded by young Ukrainian superstar Andriy Shevchenko.

With Kyiv, Kaladze had chance to shine not only in Ukrainian league, but also in European competitions. Dynamo showed really impres-sive football in 1998-99 UEFA Champions League edition. Kaladze appeared in all 12 games and scored one goal in group stage against Lens. Dynamo went past such Europe-an powerhouses as Arsenal and Real Madrid. Only team, who could stop them was Bayern Munich in semi finals. After this fantastic run, Andriy Shevchenko got offer from A.C. Milan and soon joined it. After few seasons, Kaladze did the same.

''Dynamo was trampline in my career. If not the guidance of Valeriy Lobanovskyi, I wouldn't reach level of Milan. He raised me as son. I once bought Ferrari and he saw that: ''Boy, you're too young to drive with such cars.'' His lessons were

very valuable for me.''Kakha Kaladze

Three league and cup titles in Ukraine. Valuable experience in European competitions and some school of life, by teacher Lobanovs-kyi. If you earned place in Dynamo starting eleven, then it was proof of your quality. Leg-endary Ukrainian manager took only the best talents in his team. Only those, who had love and dedication for football. Kaladze grew from young Georgian boy into serious and mature young man. He felt some taste of good life in Kyiv. Fame and money, which was quite im-portant aspect for someone, who grew up in Soviet Union and always felt hungry for better life. In 2001, there was even more fabulous

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life to come. Milan - city of fashion and good football. A.C. Milan paid €16 millions for Kaladze and that was highest sum ever paid for Georgian footballer. It was new level, more competition inside team. Kaladze overall spent solid career in Milan, helped them to win Serie A in 2004 and twice UEFA Champions League. He had some great games, some unlucky ones and there were also injuries between all that. In middle of his career in Milan, Kaladze had chance to transfer to Chelsea, but deal failed and he stayed in Italy. Kaladze did eve-rything he could to help his team, but injuries and some unlucky games started speculations about possible transfers. In 2010, he left Milan and joined another Serie A team Genoa. There he’s regular first team played and defensive coordinator. Kaladze few years ago told, that he would like to join team from England. Who knows, maybe he will have such chance in future? 34 years isn’t any limit for quality footballer. If football career of Kaladze wasquite successful and with, then hispersonal life experienced somereal tragedies. In 2001, therewas kidnapped his brother inGeorgia. There was demandfor ransom, but this story hadno happy end and after almostfive years, his brother was iden-tified dead. Kaladze was readyto take Ukrainian citizehnshipbut in the end he decided tonot to do that and continueto play for Georgia nationalteam. It’s a honor for everyfootballer, to play for nationalteam and Kaladze isn’t anyexception. He always hopedto play together with nationalteam in major European orWorld competition. Despitefact that Georgia always hadmany talented players in theirsquad, they couldn’t qualifyfor any major tournament.This is only achievement, which wasnot reached by Kaladze. He did all hecould for national team, but it wasn’tenough with his talent to make dreamcome true. In 2011, he retired fromnational team after being part of it for

for 15 years. Now he’s thinking only about his club career and also about life after end of active footballer career. No doubt, that he will be good addition for every team for next few seasons too, but retirement isn’t far away. Age is one of things you can’t change or stop. If many footballers are becoming con-fused when career comes to end, then it’s not in case of Kakha Kaladze. He wants to get into serious business. Kaladze already has made various investments and it’s only start. Kaladze is ready to learn all secrets of successful busi-ness and also bring some investments into his native Georgia. And there will be same Kaladze’s character of maximalist in business as in football. He’s never afraid to take some new challenges and try himself in various areas. There’s no secret, that Kaladze has some conflict with president of his native Georgia. It wouldn’t be surprise, if Kaladze would try himself on political arena. He’s quite popular figure in Geo- rgia and many respects him. Foundation of Kaladze has done a lot of good and useful things for Georgian people. If you have chance to help the country you were born, you need to do that. Georgia has economical and political crisis now. They had war with Russia not a long time ago and that was an serious hit to Georgia. President is losing trust of his people and maybe a sportsman, who always was good example for everyone, could try to do something different and bring some positive changes. Kakha Kaladze will always remain one of the best Georgian footballers. But what’s even more important, that Kaladze has most of the characteristics to be not only a good and successful sportsman, but also a very intelligent, ambitious and simply a good man, who tries to do something good to other people. That deserves dome respect. It’s clear that he will not continue to work in football area after ending career of professional footballer. He already has told, that there was enough football in his life and it’s time to do something else and different. It’s time for some real changes.


He has it all. Almost...On 20 March 2012, Messi scored three goals against Gra-nada CF, making him FC Barcelona's leading goalscorer of all time, surpassing club legend Cesar Rodriguez, who had

previously held the record with 232.

How many football players of the world you know? Probably quite a lot. But how many football players do you know, which follow to such conditions: 24 years old, five times win-ner of Spanish La Liga and Spanish Supercup, three UEFA Champions League trophies, two UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup winner once have won also Copa del Rey, has olympic gold medal, has got all main possible main individual trophies in the world of foot-ball. In the same time, has become the best scorer in history for Barcelona only at the age of 24. Yes, he is a legend – Lionel Messi. From early days this talent had some health problems and noone gave big chances that he will play football in highest level, not even thinking about such club like Barcelona. At the age of 11, he was diagnosed with a growth hormone deficiency. Local power-house River Plate showed interest in Messi’s progress, but did not have enough money to pay for treatment for his condition, which cost $900 a month. Carles Rexach, the sporting di-rector of FC Barcelona, had been made aware of his talent as Messi had relatives in Lleida, Catalonia, and Messi and his father were able to arrange a trial. Rexach, with no other paper at hand, offered Messi a contract written on a paper napkin. Barcelona offered to pay for Messi’s medical bills if he was willing to move to Spain. Messi and his father moved to Barce-lona where Messi enrolled in the club’s youth academy. Barcelona saw the potential of Messi and he was treated finally. Then he started to surprise the whole world... Less than a year after his start, Frank Rijkaard gave him his league debut against RCD Espanyol on 16 October 2004 (at 17 years and 114 days), becoming the third-youngest player ever to play for Barcelona and youngest club player who played in La Liga. This record was broken by Bojan Krkić in Sep-tember 2007. When he scored his first senior

goal for the club against Albacete Balompié on 1 May 2005, Messi was 17 years, ten months and seven days old, becoming the youngest to ever score in a La Liga game for Barcelona un-til it was again broken by Bojan Krkić in 2007, scoring from a Messi assist. Messi said about his ex-coach Rijkaard: “I’ll never forget the fact that he launched my career, that he had confidence in me while I was only sixteen or seventeen.” During the season, Messi played also in Barcelona B (Segunda División B) scor-ing 6 goals in 17 matches. Later his career just went on uplift. Trophies came one after the other – first with the team but later, when Messi got more experience and development – also individual. Last achievement was something special and amazing – on March 20 (Tuesday), in a La Liga game against Granada, which Barcelona won by 5:3, Messi scored two goals. He went two goals clear of the former top scorer Cesar Rodriguez, with 234 strikes in 314 official ap-pearances for the Barcelona. His achievement has attracted praise from across the football-ing world. Speaking for the first time since that historic evening, Messi affirmed that he could not believe his new status as Barca’s highest scorer, although he added that every goal for the Catalan giants meant just as much to him. “The truth is that I am overjoyed. I never dreamed that one day I could be Bar-celona’s top scorer. I don’t know if it was my best goal. When a game finishes, the first goal I scored for Barcelona, just like the last one and just like all the others, they are all very special to me. I have always wanted to repay Barcelona for all they have done for me. It makes me very proud to be part of the club’s history. I could not have done this without the support of my companions. I am delighted to see that in my own people are happy for me,” said Messi.

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Would be strange, if he would say dif-ferent things. Messi and Barcelona or Barce-lona and Messi is like brand nowadays. Messi for Barcelona is the same what was Paolo Maldini for AC Milan or Ser Alex Ferguson now for Manchester United as a head coach. They are like symbols and noone can imagine them at different club. And maybe it is not needed either. Rumours have appeared about Messi to leave Barcelona, play for other strong team but why? Why to change something that works perfectly. Only, if for changing circum-stances. But in such case no guarantee things will be the same. They can go worse and then will be hard to get back your game. Messi fits well into Barcelona, team is one of the strong-est in the world, can get many trophies and fans adore him. Nothing can be more impor-tant for a professional football player. If go back to achievements... Messi achievements as his life quality as well are made up only thanks to Barcelona. Thats why he often has claimed he will never forget this team’s influence on his life. But to get full package of trophies and stay legendary in all ways, he is still without one very important trophy and dream for every footballer. It is World Cup trophy. This is one of the hardest points. Ar-gentina is a very good football team but World Cup 2010 in South Africa showed that nowa-days Argentina is not the same as before at least 10 years. Of course, with good condi-tions and luck every team can win something. But then there is needed big luck. If we look to this team for this moment, then we can conclude that it has one of the best attack-ing lines from all teams and that is actually it. Midfield is not as strong as attacking line but defence and goalkeeping section is even more worse. Team has good players but not as good as were Batistuta, Veron, Crespo or... Diego Maradona. By the way, very often compared to Lionel Messi. It is like neverend-ing story where right answer, probably, wont come about who is better. Different times and different football. It doesn’t mean Messi won’t get World Cup trophy. He can still get if team gets some good coach and brings luck also. Only pre-tenders for this trophy are even more than for UEFA Champions League trophy. And also some aspects goes against Messi if talk about

Argentina. First – Argentina now is just good team but Barcelona one of the best clubs in the world with balanced squad, so they can’t be compared. Second – for good scoring is needed good midfield. Here also comes some questions. Finally – Messi has not much time for getting this trophy either. Maximum he could participate in the three World Champi-onships. If he goes for forth, then he is almost 40. Who knows, of course... No matter that Messi already now is one of the best (or the best) football players of football history. No doubt he will pay big attention in future for his national team to stay a real legend. Will he be strong enough to reach his last one „in need to reach” big trophy? Destiny might be kind to him after all he has done...

235goals of

Lionel Messi9 1

2004-200525 8

2005-2006

36172006-2007

40162007-2008

51 382008-2009 53

472009-2010

4655

2011-2012

5553

2010-2011


Polish national starJacek Krzynowek

Most of all sportsmen are hardworkers, who truly love what they do. Footballers are not exception. Some get the high-est achievements, some are unlucky most of their career

time, struggling against injuries. Some are just good players in overall level and national stars for their ethnical coun-tries. When they end their career, then mostly they stay memorable just at own native land. In this category fills in Jacek Krzynowek – Pol-ish midfielder, who was not typical goal scorer and visible in all parts of the football. He was just doing his job, scoring not many but very important goals for his teams, helping them to reach fine accomplishments. Some are just good players in overall level and national stars for their ethnical coun-tries. When they end their career, then mostly they stay memorable just at own native land. In this category fills in Jacek Krzynowek – Pol-ish midfielder, who was not typical goal scorer and visible in all parts of the football. He was just doing his job, scoring not many but very important goals for his teams, helping them to reach fine accomplishments. After a season

with Rakow, he moved to second league club, GKS Bełchatów. In the 1997–98 season, he with his team advanced to the Ekstraklasa. Un-fortunately, his club was unable to keep itself in the Polish first league, and was demoted back to the second league. Despite this, his skills and play impressed scouts from other clubs, including 1. FC Nuremberg, as well as coach of the Polish National Team, Janusz Wojcik. He spent several seasons at Nuremberg and it was worth that – team finally got pro-moted to the Bundesliga from Bundesliga 2 in 2002. Also in 2002, he went to South Korea and Japan for the 2002 World Cup with Poland. Despite a poor performance by Poland, he was praised for his play, and appeared in all three matches. As a result of an injury, he missed most of the 2002–03 season. In the fall of 2003, he played in crucial Euro 2004 qualifying matches for Poland. Unfortunately, Poland was

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unable to qualify and 1. FC Nuremberg was unable to stay in the Bundesliga. As a result of his excellent play, he was transferred to a top Bundesliga club, Bayer Leverkusen. In the 2004–05 season, he was one of the best play-ers for the club, and the trio of Krzynowek, An-driy Voronin, and Dimitar Berbatov drew the attention of many top European clubs. First season spent at Leverkusen was one of the best of all Krzynowek’s career. At this club he played 52 games and scored 9 goals but they were not just usual goals. One of the most glorious moments of his career was scoring a rocket shot against Real Madrid in the 2004–05 UEFA Champions League group cam-paign. That game was won by Leverkusen with the result 3:0 and this Krzynowek’s goal made big impact of this win. Finally this win helped to come through the group stage for Bayer in first place beside Real Madrid. Both teams collected 11 points and just 1 point less got Dynamo Kiev, which stood in third place. Such club like Roma got just 1 point. 2005-2006 season was much worse. As a result of another injury during the spring of 2006, he was unable to play regularly at his club, Bayer Leverkusen. This was evident in his poor form during the 2006 FIFA World Cup and was one of the poorest performers in the Polish team as they lost 2-0 to the surpris-ing Ecuador and 1-0 to hosts Germany. After a disappointing 2005-2006 season, he moved to VfL Wolfsburg.

Three seasons at Wolfsburg was slowly moving him closer to the end of career. Inju-ries came once again, so he could play just 55 games scoring 7 goals and then went to an-other Bundesliga club – Hannover 96. There he played for just one year, appearing in only 14 games and scoring 2 goals. This season was last in his playing career. Polish football fan fa-vorite had quite quiet end of his career. With-out any bright highlights or farewells. Health didn’t wanted him to continue career and fight against various injuries. And that was right step, because Krzynowek had solid career with many pleasant moments. And most important - he had respect and from German and his native Poland fans. Krzynowek has claimed he is clear pa-triot of his country, probably that’s why he showed great performance while playing in the national team of Poland. He was a key player in the UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying campaign for Poland where he scored 4 goals; 3 against Azerbaijan and an astonishing equalizer in the 87th minute against Portugal. His left-foot strike from 40 yards hit the post and the back of Portuguese keeper Ricardo before squeez-ing into the back of the net. Thanks to a very successful all around performance he was then picked into Eurosport’s dream team as the left midfielder and Poland’s squad for Euro 2008 where the poles competed for the first time in their history. For Polish football Krzynowek is like na-tional hero. Fans always loved him because of his play which included poweful shots and also his attitude on the pitch and out of it. He is regarded as one of the best Polish footballers and has earned many awards and trophies. He has earned the honour of twice being named the Polish Footballer of the Year by magazine Pilka Nozna in 2003 and 2004. Such achieve-ments can’t be gotten by beautiful eyes. Under it hides hard work and only that. Such is professional football player’s way in life. Not everyone can become superstar as Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo and it is not necessary to be such. The main point is to do your job from full heart and stay memorable for your loyal fans. Jacek Krzynowek has become one of such proving that it is not important how many games you play and how many goals you score but... how you work on the pitch.


We wait again for something better. Again...

In Eastern Europe there's small country, named Latvia. In this country, there's many popular sports. Football is one of them, but unfortunately it's not the most beloved. Why it's

so? Let me give you some answers... First of all, Latvia is quite small coun-try and it has bit more than 2 million inhabit-ants. Also, historically in Latvia there’ve been various sports, who had quite big popularity. Basketball, hockey and also football. In every of these sports, Latvians had some success. But football always has been underdog, espe-cially in infrastructure and attitude from fans. Local league never had huge popularity and if attendance in few games reaches 3000-4000 it’s something amazing. Mostly, there’s just few hundreds of interesents coming to games. In some of them even less. Imagine, it’s highest level football competition in country and there’s just 50 people watching game between teams of this level... Sounds, mmm... Pathetic? When Latvia was part of Soviet Union, there was one team, which could make some surprises. That was Daugava Rīga, where for many seasons, leader role was taken by cur-rent Latvia national team manager Aleksan-drs Starkovs. He played more than 400 games and scored almost 200 goals for Daugava. It played in Soviet Top League for seven seasons, but mostly Daugava was average second level team. When Latvia got independence, it wasn’t the best situation for local football. Main prob-lem was money. Despite that, there were some talented footballers, who later grew up and led Latvia national team to Euro 2004. Most famous are Marian Pahars, Igors Stepanovs and Māris Verpakovskis. All they got transfered from 14-time Latvian champions Skonto to much higher level teams. Pahars played in EPL for seven seasons, Stepanovs was sold to Arsenal F.C., where he didn’t had much success, but still he’s only Latvian player, who has played in such high level team. Māris Verpakovskis continued his career in Dynamo Kiev and later played in various European clubs, including La Liga side Getafe. There were also few more players, who

had good seasons abroad. In Russian Premier-league, in Polish league. But local league still wasn’t good enough to surprise someone. Since most talented footballers mentioned before left Skonto, their strenght slowly decreased. If once they could fight against such teams as Barcelona, Inter Milan and Chelsea, then later they somehow managed lose to semi profes-sional clubs... We’re living in year 2012. And this sea-son brought some changes in Latvian football.There was founded new football society, called “Latvijas futbola Virslīga”. They now are organ-izing Latvian Higher League, which already has started. Founding of this society should mean, that there will be some major changes in Lat-vian football and we will see some rise of this sport. Different ambitions and vision on football development. New director of this society is Normunds Malnačs. He worked before as direc-tor in Blackpool F.C., where one of the owners is Latvian businessman Valērijs Belokoņs. As always, founding of something new needs for some presentation and press conference. Said - done! There was held presentation, where almost all coaches of Higher League teams were attending. As usually, there were a lot’s of journalists from local media. It was supposed to be cool event with some optimism beaming around. There was some optimism, some posi-tive and hopefull comments from director. But still it looked like rotten apple, which has only a new skin and nothing more. Because that’s quite silly situation. This new society is promis-ing that there will be some changed and also Latvian Football federation is working hard to find solutions for multiple problems surround-ing Latvian Higher League. But those are only words. There’s 20 years gone since independ-ence, but some of things are still on same level as in 1990! That’s not normal!

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Latvian Higher League

Founded: 1927Teams: 10Title holder: FK VentspilsMost titles: Skonto FC (14)

Latvian champion qualifies to UEFA Champions League Sec-ond qualifiying round. Second

and third placed teams qualify to UEFA Europa League first qualifiying round. Also Lat-vian Cup winner gets chance to participate in UEFA Europa League first qualifiying round.Latvian Higher League is usu-ally played from Spring till Autumn. This year, season started in end of March.

FK Ventspils Latvian champi-ons 2011 are set to fight for title again and they have quite good chances for it. Experienced enough players, also solid manager with good level experience as player and as manager. Start in new season wasn’t very impressive, but Ventspils probably will improve as season goes.

Daugavpils DaugavaTeam from Daugavpils last season showed, that it can become a title contender. Leader of this team is 38 years old Mihails Ziziļevs, who’s like old wine - the older, the better. There’s also one of the best strikers in league playing - Mamuka Ghonghadze. He scored 21 goals last season.

Liepajas MetalurgsOne of the leading Latvian teams for many seasons. Their main target is also Latvian title 2012. Last season showed, that team can play well, it has solid budget and squad for Latvian level and everyone hopes, that they can also play well in Europa League qualification.

Skonto FC This team has more Latvian titles as any other team. Last season was quite dissapointing and team, managed by Marian Pahars didn’t qualified for European competitions. Many thought that Skonto has some financial problems, but they have quite solid and more experienced squad than before.

FC Jurmala Last season was quite positive and it brought good emotions for fans of Jurmala. Not a title contender, but a team who can take away points from leaders for sure. If team would have bit bigger financial opportunities, it could step up even higher and fight for medals.

FK Jelgava This team is one of the most popular teams in Latvia. Fans love them, but Jelgava still is only semi professional team. Many consider midfielder Artis Lazdiņš as leader, but last seasons showed not only some progress, but also that he’s won’t able to play in higher level. Fifth place could be real for them.

FB Gulbene Club from Latvi-an eastern region, who has a lot’s of foreign players from Japan. Probably a team, which will keep it’s place in Higher League, because they’re able to show solid football against lead-ers. Club is semi professional, so ambitions aren’t very high.

FK Spartaks Newcomers of Latvian elite made real effort against cham-pion. Club which brings young foreign players and later sells them successfully to much high-er level clubs. That’s the way how club earns money. Good example is Daniel Buitrago, who now plays in Russian Premier League club.

FK Daugava Riga This team was formed from former club Jurmala V.V., which had financial problems and now team is located in Riga. For sure, this team will have to fight in relegation zone and I think they has not much chance to stay in Higher League. Give 95% that they will be relegated.

FS Metta Student team with some colors of Latvian nacionalism. No foreign play-ers, mostly local studiying footballers in squad. Team has done quite good job with fans, but overall it will be hard to do against leaders, so probably team will fight in relegation zone and spent there most of the season.


2012... Small stands, just few hun-dreds of spectators and that's called Latvian Higher League. Elite league of Latvian football. For 21st century, looks bad...

If you become director, president or any other leading person of some organization, society or whatever, you need to be ready to take some initiative, be leader and very re-sponsible person. Respect for Mister Malnačs, who worked in English Premier League club, but come on, why are you director of this new football society, if you can’t answer to simple questions asked by journalists? Some journal-ist asked in this press conference: “Why quality of stadiums and pitches are so bad and when there will be solutions?” Quite an usual ques-tion, because there are only few good stadi-ums in country. But many Higher League teams don’t have normal stadiums. And that’s quite embarrasing, that teams play on some fields, where you could rather cultivate potatoes, than play football. It’s responsibility of clubs partici-pating in Higher League to have normal stadi-um. With bathrooms, with internet, with park-ing and everything else. Those are simple, very simple conditions. Because it’s Higher League of country! If any of teams can’t offer needed conditions, then there should be financial fines for those teams. Pay 10, 100, 1000 or 10 000 euros if you can’t provide normal conditions. If team participate in Higher League of country, it needs to care about reputation of itself and of league overall. Because any of teams can make this reputation better and also worse. And sit-uation doesn’t change for 20 years!!! All

the same all the time. Stadiums are in bad con-ditions, teams have financial problems, there was also scandals about betting and such things in Latvian football. Same bunch of people, who every year talks about progress, but there’s NO progress. Now there’s new bunch of people, who try to make some illusions, that Latvian league will have new quality and it will raise to new level. But it looks same as those old guys, who talked the same every year, but nothing changed at all. If you make reglament of tour-nament, then it has to have some strict rules. If team wants to participate in Higher League, then it should be 100% sure, that there will be no embarrasing problems troughout the season and that everything will be on required level. But it won’t happen. And after 20 years of doing nothing. Simply nothing. Sure, some will say I’m too harsh and my opinion is too negative, but come on, it’s 21st century! We live almost same as in 90’s. Just results in club football were even better than now. Latvian champions were base team for national team and such squad could fight well even against grands. Now there’s nothing and I doubt that something will go positive way. Sure, it’s may-be positive that some people come and try to do something, but let’s be more realistic. If all those rules and reglaments are made just for nothing, why then they exist? If rules will be more strict, there will be more professional and

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serious attitude around Latvian football. Then we will have only professionals around. Now there’s many directors, managers and other people, who say: “Our team has the most pro-fessional attitude and such...” For me, profe-sionalism also means ability to get sponsors and make solid budget. So there would be money for improving facilities, spend some money on transfers and improve overall level of Latvian football. I see that there’s category of people who critisise richest football clubs in the world just because of their wealth. But let’s be real. In modern football, without huge money, it’s impossible to win titles in European competi-tions. Money rule the world and money rule the football. Let’s return to the answer of Mr. Malnačs to journalist. He simply told, that everyone need to understand this situation right, that LFF (Latvian Football Federation) is working hard and overall, that he simply don’t know what to answer... Sure, in beginning of press confer-ence Mr. Malnačs told, that he isn’t very good speaker, but in same time, if you work in such sphere and have such role in newly builded so-ciety, you need to know how to answer. And about that problem of stadiums everyone knew before season started, that there will be mess and problems again. Why no one tried to do something before problems occured? Everyone knew that this will happen and fans will see

some dissapointment again. Because it’s prob-ably fantastic feeling to visit Higher League game in bad weather, go trough the mud, because there’s no normal entrance in stadi-um, later find out that there’s almost no place where to sit and also that you need to play a game - “Find a bathroom!” Isn’t it interest-ing? Understand me right, there’s teams, who have solid stadiums and all needed facilities. But isn’t that should be normal for all teams competing in Latvian football elite? Feel that all teams can’t fulfill those requirements? Let them play in second division, while they will work on those problems and will meet at least minimum requirements. I don’t see some teams should get exceptional rules. I’m not an optimist in everything men-tioned before, because Latvia isn’t and won’t be country, where football will be sport number 1. Latvian people don’t have such love and pas-sion for football as in England, Germany, Spain or any other football nation. And it’s sad, be-cause this beautiful sport would deserve more attention, more interest and highlights around it. But it probably won’t happen and if it will, then in not the nearest future. Maybe I see everything in dark colors, but without criticism and some look without pink glasses, there will be no changes. Less acting and telling, that: “We are working hard.” Less words, more ac-tions to make situation better.

Photo: Andris Gertsons, liepajniekiem.lv


Champions League 1/4 finals first leg review

First leg games of UEFA Champions League 1/4 finals are finished and all teams are looking for second match. In some pairs, it's almost predictable, which team will advance to the

next round, but in some there's still some intrigue.

In UEFA Champions League first leg of 1/4 finals is over. There wasn’t much surprises this time, because there’s already only 8 teams left at this stage. Despite budgets, squads or anything else, those eight teams are strong-est teams in Europe now. Because Champions League is forum of strongest European teams and if even some of you will read this with smile on your face, thinking about APOEL and it’s strenght, you still need to respect all these teams, because you can’t make it to 1/4 finals being just lucky.

APOEL d ream f ina l l y ends . . .

Dream is finally over, now we can say that for sure. If we can believe to rumors, situ-ation in Real Madrid isn’t very good and there’s conflict between Jose Mourinho and captain Iker Casillas. But if we look at results, it looks quite solid, because Real is showing confident

and effective football. Game against APOEL was quite unique, because at such level, it’s rare situation, that one of teams can’t make even a single shot to the goal. That’s amaz-ing! I think that’s not a surprise, that Real won this game and it’s clear that they already are in semi-finals. APOEL manager Ivan Jovanovič admitted that after the game. It’s even a bit sad, that Cypriot fans didn’t had opportunity to see at least some action on offense from their beloved football heroes. Real was too strong, to good and there’s nothing you can do about it, when it comes to play against grand. Now it’s all about honor, because in Madrid it will be even more difficult to play and I think no team would like to write it’s name in Champions League anti-records section. If they couldn’t make even a single shot at home, I’m afraid to think how devastating game could be in Ma-drid.

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Jose Mourinho had to change starting line-up a bit, because of injuries and disqualifi-cation of Xabi Alonso. Despite playing without few players from starting line-up, Real did eve-rything to make this evening to be remembered for fans of Cypriot club. Real didn’t showed any mercy and from the first minutes took initiative and posession of this game. For APOEL, this game was almost like a war, because Real tried to create attacks all the time and there was a lot’s of good moments to score. Only thing, what APOEL could do was trying to not let op-ponent score and hope to get chance for coun-ter. Surprisingly, but in first half they did quite well and Real couldn’t score. Everyone waited for at least one goal in first half, but their ex-pectations were broken.

Many later will say, that Real Ma-drid just played cat&mouse against APOEL, showing their real strenght only in last 15 min-utes. Two goals from Benzema and one from Kaka erased dreams about another miracle for even the most optimistic

fans of Cypriot club.

APOEL REAL MADRID

0 3APOEL: D.Chiotis, P.Jorge, M.Oliveira, S.Poursaitides, Ailton, C.Charalambides (c), I.Tričkovski, H.Pinto, N.Morais, N.Alexandrou, W.Boaventura, Kaka, H.Sousa, E.Solari

REAL MADRID: I.Casillas (c), Pepe, S.Ramos, N.Sahin, S.Khedira, C.Ronaldo, K.Benzema, M.Ozil, F.Coentrao, A.Arbeloa, G.Higuain, Kaka, Marcelo, E.GraneroGoals: Benzema 74‘, 90’, Kaka 82’

clear, that he feels less confident and his form also wasn’t on so high level as before. Prob-ably, Mourinho helped to step over this psycho-logical barrier. He knows, that well motivated Ozil can do a lot and bring amazing creativity into game of Real. That’s what they need. And it’s almost clear that Real will play against Bay-ern in semi-finals. It’s advantage for Real that many players from their squad have played in Bundesliga and they know how to play against Bayern.

After the game...Real Madrid head coach Jose Mourinho said many good comments about APOEL after Champions League 1/4 finals draw. After game, he also said some pleasing phrases about op-ponents.

''We showed respect to our op-ponents. We did all possible, to win this game. No doubt, that APOEL is favorite of many fans this year and they deserve such attention. We will play seri-ously in Madrid too and show re-spect to our opponents as we did it today. Our tactic worked

well today.''

It was probably one of the hardest games in career of APOEL goalkeeper Dionisis Chiotis. He was under pressure all them time, but overall he played solid game and made some fantastic saves. Without any doubts, he was one of the best APOEL players in this game. In the end, everyone simply lacked some stamina. They simply were too tired at the end of game and that led to three straight goals. Mourinho made smart move, when he took off Higuain&Coentrao and brought into game Kaka&Marcelo. Those two brought some energy in the end of game. Created some good moments, scored goals and gave away great passes. It wasn’t the best game for Cristiano Ronaldo. He had few good moments, but ball went over the bar. Mesut Ozil showed more confident and consistent performance trough-out the game and it looks, that German in-ternational slowly regains his previous level. Beginning of season was more quiet and Ozil looked much worse, than in last season. It was


''In this game we could earn vic-tory only in case of good per-formance. APOEL is showing fantastic football this season and we had to show all we can to win. When we made substi-tutions, opponents were too tired to keep play in high tempo

football.''Jose Mourinho

APOEL manager Ivan Jovanovič was quite straight and he agreed, that end result of this game is fair.

If we look at competitive side, then it’s clear that APOEL will have quite hard end of this Champions League edition. But from the other side - it was most fantastic season in APOEL history. Fantastic emotions for players, some amazing nights for all fans and for all coun-try. People love football in Cyprus and such achievements in greatest club football tourna-ment in the World will be remembered forever. APOEL now lost at home and they probably will have very hard game in Madrid, but that won;t make this achievement less beautiful or less important. Cyprus will celebrate this fantastic season for a long time and they have one more game to surprise everyone. There’s no pressure on APOEL anymore. They can play relaxed and don’t worry about result anymore. No one will critisise them or make harsh comments about their performance. Whole Cyprus can enjoy last 90 minutes in this season Champions League edition. Fans can enjoy moments of joy, when they see favorite their favorite footballers fight-ing as equals against Cristiano Ronaldo, Sergio Ramos, Mesut Ozil, Iker Casillas and many oth-er superstars of modern football. Who knows, maybe APOEL will have great season againt, but maybe not. That’s why they all need to en-joy every moment on Santiago Bernabeu.

''Result is fair. We tried to keep result equal, but at the end of game Real increased tem-po of game and we couldn't do against that. We should be proud, that we had chance to play against legendary team.''

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M i lan s t i l l w i th a chance . . .

If one Spanish grand had quite easy opponent, than we can’t say the same about Barcelona. They had to play against well ex-perienced Italian grand Milan. Current leaders of Serie A still were underdogs in this duel. No doubt, which one is main favorite of this tour-nament. Barcelona still is the best team in the world and they didn’t want to let this honor go away after this season. Spaniards still are well motivated and in quite good shape. They are in difficult situation in La Liga, but in Champi-ons League they had successful matches and no major problems. Just remember games against Bayer 04. They didn’t have even a sin-gle chance to team, which is quite strong. Ex-pectations are high, but reality this time wasn’t so pleasing as always. Usually, Barcelona gets some help from referees. Understand me right, I don’t have anything against Catalan team, but that’s a fact, that often there’s some mo-ments, where referee tries to help them. This time, situation was opposite. In beginning of this game, there was almost 100% sure pen-alty. But referee didn’t saw or didn’t wanted to see, that there was foul in penalty area against

MILAN BARCELONA

0 0MILAN: C.Abbiati (c), P.Mexes, C.Seedorf, Z.Ibrahimovič, A.Nesta, M.Ambrossini (c), A.Nocerino, D.Bonera, K.Prince-Boateng, Robinho, L.Antonini, J.Mesba, S.El Shaarawy, U.EmanuelsonYellow cards: C.Seedorf 23’, A.Nesta 57’, M.Ambrossini 70’

BARCELONA: V.Valdes, D.Alves, G.Pique, C.Puyol (c), Xavi, A.Iniesta, L.Messi, A.Sanchez, X.Mascherano, S.Keita, S.Busquets, Pedro, TelloYellow cards: S.Keita

Alexis Sanchez. I think this moment would change everything in this game, because even one goal could be cruicial hit for opponent. But that didn’t happened and Milan has some ad-vantage, because they’re less under pressure,

they have nothing to lose in next game and reaching of quarter-finals is already a solid re-sult and no one should blame Milan for bad performance. I’m sure, that Barcelona will have double motivation at Camp Nou and it will be much harder for Milan to stop offense of Cata-lan grand. But in same time, Barcelona will be under huge pressure. They’re still human, not a robot team, so that can play some evil joke against them. Even the best players can have some fails and become overly nervous. Barcelona left Milan with some negative emotions. They also sent protest to UEFA, be-cause pitch of San Siro seemed to be in bad condition for such level match. Sure, that this protest won’t change anything and I’m bit dis-sapointed, that Barca is trying to achieve some-thing with protests and complains. That’s not an attitude of champions. They need to prove themselves on pitch and they will have great chance to do that at home. About chances... I will say 50-50, because of all mentioned rea-sons above. Everything can happen in Barce-lona and even one goal from Milan can change everything.

After the game...Milan manager Massimiliano Allegri was pleased about such result and he admitted, that it gives some optimism about second leg game. Milan looked much better, than in previ-ous games against Barcelona.

''I want to congratulate our team with successful result. In first half we had much more to do, then in second. Luca An-tonini well marked Lionel Mes-si, despite it's very hard to do. We had to let play many play-ers, which recently had injuries. They couldn't play for all match, so we made some substitu-tions. Those players played well

and didn't let us down.''


Barcelona manager Josep Guardiola was quite optimistic about his team chances ad-vance to the next round.

''Fact, that Milan is glad to play draw against us, tells that we're on right way. It's hard to make everything clear in first leg, but we still lack away goal. Person-ally, I'm proud about footballers, who could make 17 shots on goal. To become a champion, you need to step over various problems and difficult moments. We are doing that now and we

will continue fight for titles.''

Former Barcelona striker and current leader of A.C. Milan Zlatan Ibrahimovič also have his comment about this game. He admitted, that such result before second leg isn’t bad and that Milan still has ambitions to advance to the next round. He believes, that nothing is impossible and next game will be even more interesting.

''Goalless draw is good result before second leg. One goal away and we would have a huge advantage. There was also negative aspect in this game. We couldn't use our scor-ing opportunities well. Before game in Camp Nou, I feel very optimistic and I think we still have very good chances to make it to the semi-finals. There's still

game ahead.

Not so positive about everything was Barce-lona leader Lionel Messi, who has no good emotions after such match.

''I leave Milan dissatisfied. We didn't played so well, but we still deserved to win this match. At home we need to play better.''

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Che lsea fo r beat ing up Benf ica ba r r i e r

Quite good chances for reaching UEFA Champions League ½ final are for English Pre-mierleague side Chelsea. Going back to their level after hard season with many loses in league games, enormous wish for Champions League title and also some pleasure for stay-ing the only one English team in this prestige tournament can be main mover for team to win in series of 2 games against Benfica. Half of the way is already done. First game in Lisbon Chelsea managed to win by 1:0. The opening stages were cautious and scrappy, the game not seeing any sign of life until, in the 19th minute, Cardozo moved ahead of John Terry to take control of an overhead pass from Bruno Cesar, the Cardozo attempt-ing to volley it in but unable to find sufficient space and shooting wide. The game became more open, with Torres notably shooting over from distance, but Cardozo remained the main target of Benfica’s attacks, first heading high from an awkward position before forcing Luiz to execute a difficult but stylish juggle of an at-tempted cross before he could hit it out of play.

BENFICA CHELSEA

0 1BENFICA: Artur, Emerson, Luisao (c), X.Garcia, O.Cardozo, B.Cesar, P.Aimar, M.Pereira, N.Gaitan, A.Witsel, Jardel, Nolito, N.Matič, RodrigoYellow cards: B.Cesar 26’, Luisao 67’,

X.Garcia 75’

CHELSEA: P.Čech, A.Cole, D.Luiz, Ramirez, F.Torres, J.Mata, J.Obi Mikel, R.Meireles, P.Fereira, S.Kalou, J.Terry (c), F.Lampard, J.Bosingwa, D.SturrigdeYellow cards: S.KeitaGoals: S.Kalou 80’

The second period began with howls for handball. Benfica were forward in numbers for a long throw and Cardozo picked the ball up just outside the area. The Paraguayan un-leashed a rasping left-footed shot bound for

goal but Luiz reacted on the line to block, to the fury of the home fans who felt that he had handled. After an optimistic penalty shout from Benfica when Maxi Pereira’s shot cannoned back off Terry’s arm following an admirable Ashley Cole block, the Blues’ clearest chance arrived when Jardel failed to anticipate a long ball forward and allowed Juan Mata to run in behind him. Benfica kept coming, crossing once from a corner and being repulsed before Gaitan delivered a second ball, this time find-ing Jardel unmarked at the post. His header was poor, however, and Cech’s good reactions were enough to keep it out. Chelsea, though, found the vital away goal on 75 minutes. Ram-ires fought hard on the right of midfield, sup-plying Torres further forward on the wing. The Spaniard did most of the work, closing in with purpose before feeding Kalou in the middle. With Artur taken out of the picture, the forward needed only to poke home simply to take the lead. Benfica desperately tried to score a goal and get the draw but it was not to happen and Chelsea won first ¼ final game in guests.

After the game...Head coach of Chelsea Roberto Di Matteo was delighted after the game. Italian manager felt good after his team got important victory in away game. Despite only one goal, Chelsea have now quite good chances advance to the semi-finals, where they could face old friends from Barcelona.

''It's terrific. We couldn't have hoped for a better result. I told you before the game we would need to score and we went close on a number of oc-casions, and then to keep a clean sheet as well - another one - I think we looked defen-sively very, very good again. De-fensively, we never looked in

any danger.''


''They obviously had some set-plays where they were danger-ous because they are a physi-cal, big side but, apart from that, I think Petr Cech had a few saves to make but they were

mostly long-range.''Roberto Di Mateo

Di Matteo made some big decisions before the game, benching veterans Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard and Michael Essien as well as fielding Paulo Ferreira at right-back in the Portuguese’s first start of 2012. Apparently this risk proved it is right. Hard to say that this result is bad for Chelsea. 1:0 against Benfica in Lisbon means a lot and team is eager to at least save this advan-tage at home and go through to next stage.

Benfica head coach Jorge Jesus thought that no matter loss, his team was not so hopeless on the pitch. He agreed, that this match was interesting and spectacular for both team fans and that Benfica is ready for secong leg.

''It was a good match, as ex-pected. Chelsea are a strong side with a lot of experience in European competition. We dominated for almost the entire game and created more scor-ing opportunities but ultimately luck was not on our side today. We were mature, played well and did not let Chelsea create a lot. I don't think we deserved to lose tonight, but there is still a game to play and we feel we have the quality to score in London.''

Both teams will have some time to pre-pare for the decisive second leg. Both teams feel hungry for success, especially Chelsea. Just look at their results in Premier League and you will understand, that this team has only one tournament where they could compensate all loses in Premier League.

50

Bayern Munich took a big step towards progression in the Champions League ¼ final after a 2-0 win away to Marseille. Franck Ribery’s return to the Stade Velo-drome was not exactly a comfortable one, but the visitors overcame stiff resistance as they ensured a sizable advantage ahead of the sec-ond leg of the quarter-final clash in Munich. After a tough start, Bayern gathered some fluency in midfield and carved out a cou-ple of openings inside the Marseille penalty area. However, Robben slipped before seeing his window to shoot close, and Thomas Muel-ler’s low cross found no team-mate in the centre

Bayern did all they could to give as less chance to Marseille, as they can. Now they can be con-fident about advancing into semi-finals. Marseille now has mission impossible, because it's very hard to play against Bay-ern at their home and it's even

harder to beat them there.

MARSEILLE BAYERN

0 2MARSEILLE: Andrade, S.Azpilicueta, N.N’Kolou, A.Diarra, L.Remy, S.Mbia, M.Amalfitano, A.Ayew, R.Fanni, M.Valbuena (c)B.Cheyrou, BrandaoYellow cards: A.Diarra 34’, S.Mbia 64’

BAYERN MUNICH: M.Neuer, F.Ribery, A.Robben, J.Boateng, P.Lahm (c), T.Muller, D.Alaba, H.Badstuber, L.Gustavo, M.Gomez, T.Kroos, D.Pranjič, A.Tymoshchuk, B.SchweinsteigerYellow cards: P.Lahm 32’, T.Kroos 32’

L.Gustavo 36’, B.Schweinsteiger 82’ D.Alaba 89’

Goals: Gomez 44’, Robben 69’

After the game...Marseille head coach Didier Deschamps said after such result in the first leg he finds it complicated to go through to the next stage of UEFA Champions League.

'Obviously the return leg will be very complicated after a defeat of 2-0. I knew this before, but there are many qualities in this Bayern team. They do many things very well and they have this strength in attack which is impressive. Even if we did good things, the goal just before half-time hurt us because they had not had many opportuni-ties. That's also what the great teams have, even with little am-

munition

before rolling wide. Marseille recovered, and shortly before half-time a botched clear-ance from Jerome Boateng saw the ball roll to Remy. The striker was quick to shoot from the edge of the penalty area, but Neuer pounced to make a save. Bayern would benefit from a mis-take shortly after, but the Germans took their chance as Gomez fired in off Elinton Andrade’s hands. Seconds before, Mathieu Valbuena had kicked the ball off Philipp Lahm’s hand, but play continued as Robben slipped in Gomez, whose finish appeared to be covered by the goalkeep-er before it deflected into the net. After the break, Marseille had an en-couraging start, with Valbuena nodding over the bar from Remy’s cross. Andre Ayew headed on goal in the 56th minute, but Neuer had lit-tle trouble in making a stop. Shortly before the hour mark, Remy muscled Boateng off the ball, but Neuer was quick off his line and blocked the forward’s attempt. The balance swung in the visitors’ favour around the hour mark,

Baye rn c lose fo r supe r -match se r ies aga inst Rea l

however. Andrade did well to deny Gomez, but with 21 minutes left, Robben made it 2-0, handing the visitors a big advantage heading into the second leg.


''We achieved our aim by winning the first leg without conceding a goal. There is another match to do and another 90 minutes to play, so I'm not going to dis-cuss the semi-final or our po-tential opponents. I know foot-ball too well, and have too much respect for Marseille, to do that.''

Bayern Munich manager Jupp Heynckes said his defence achieved their aim of keeping a clean sheet in the opening leg, to hold the upper hand heading into their home match but refused to concede the tie was a done deal.

a 1-0 victory. We played with a lot of discipline and we deserved to win. It is always difficult for me to play in France. But now I play for Bayern, who are a great family. I have been here for five years. I feel just fine, everything

is perfect for me.''

Bayern Munich star Franck Ribery was de-lighted to beat old side Marseille in their Champi-ons League quarter-final first leg on Wednesday.

''This is a very good situation for us. The result is perfect, it is better than a goalless draw or

What can we expect from secong leg games? It is clear that nothing is clear in a duo Chelsea-Benfica. Portuguese side will put all en-ergy to score at least a goal in London and fight for reaching ½ final, which would be amazing result for this team. In other pair there are very little chances left for Marseille because of 0:2 loss at home. Even if they would lose with such result in guests against Bayern, it would be hard to make comeback at home. But this situ-ation is even more harder, almost impossible one. For make things to happen they will need some more luck in the second game.


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Futbols24 magazine - April 2012 #2

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Transcript of Futbols24 magazine - April 2012 #2