Death of a footballing legend

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One day in 1960, Bela Guttman sat in a chair in the barbers to get a hair cut. Guttman was a successful football coach at the time who had become a man of the people when he led Benfica, the Portuguese football club, into the European Cup.

Despite this success, the coach wanted more. He was pondering how to make his club better and mulling over his options. Sat in the next chair across was the coach of the Sao Paulo football club from Brazil whose club regularly toured around for away matches.

The coach shared a secret – coach to coach – about a young man who the top clubs were chasing and no one had successfully managed to recruit to their own team yet. His name was Eusébio da Silva Ferreira, who in some circles was known more simply as the Black Panther.

The player had been kicking balls around in the youth team in what later become the capital of Mozambique, Maputo. He was the son of a white father and a black mother from a local community in Mozambique.

The swarthy mother had already spurned substantial offers from clubs such as Juventus offering to snatch up the young player in exchange for a lucrative multi-year deal. Bela Guttman liked what he heard and decided to make an offer of his own.

Some time later, Eusébio da Silva Ferreira came to play at Benfica football club where his record of 733 goals spread over 745 matches impressed everyone who loved the game and came to watch the panther play.

At the end of his playing career, the legendary footballer maintained his connection with Benfica by becoming their Ambassador.

At his death recently, Portugal declared a three day period of mourning for the nation. The funeral was held in Lisbon where thousands came out, including both Portugese and fans from around the world, who all came together to celebrate the legacy of the man Portugal came to call their own.

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Lewandowski moves to Bayern Munich

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There was much debate and speculation recently over the fate of Borussia Dortmund’s Robert Lewandowski who looked set for a move away from the club to pastures new. Ultimately, the player agreed to be transferred to Bayern Munich who are Bundesliga league rivals, as a free transfer.

Arsene Wenger, the popular Arsenal manager has said that he did consider Lewandowski for the Arsenal Football Club, but he knew that the played signed with Bayern over a year ago so unless that situation changed he wouldn’t be able to seriously consider him.

Wenger also went on to point out that the team at Arsenal continue, like with all other clubs, to keep and eye on the transfer market to see which players might be looking to change teams or whose contract is coming up for renewal.

It is difficult to get big players because they are already at the largest clubs. Occasionally it’s possible to pick one up if the football club is experiencing some financially difficulties, but otherwise it is quite difficult, Wenger pointed out.

As with most clubs, they look at their youth teams and the youth teams of other clubs to see where there might be undiscovered talent that can develop with their club.

With Lewandowski going to Bayern Munich this summer, this brings into question the future role of Mandzukic who is another forward at the same club. The player from Croatia is not looking to move away, according to his football agent.

While the Bayern CEO Rummenigge stated that Mandzukic is not on the market, Wenger didn’t act surprised because the football season is not finished yet. At that time, people may start to sing a different tune and eventually be wearing different football jerseys too.

 

 

Vitessa Arnhem player refused entry into UAE

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The Dutch football club Vitessa Arnhem was dealt a blow recently when a member of its squad, Dan Mori, was refused entry into the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to attend a training camp there.

The position is a confusing one because the club says that they had sought and received a verbal confirmation that the defender from Israel would be allowed into the UAE, but this proved later to be worthless.

A spokesperson for Vitesse Arnhem said that the move was strange because both Israel and the United Arab Emirates are both members of the football organisation, FIFA.

The plan has been for players to practise at the training camp at UAE before playing in some friendly matches with German Bundesliga clubs, namely Hamburg SV and Vfl Wolfsburg.

The club felt they did not wish to walk away from their commitment to play the German teams, however the Dutch minster for finance, Jeroen Dijsselbloem was on television recently to condemn the decision to still go ahead with the trip to the UAE. He felt that the club should have backed their player, rather than leave him back practicing with the reserve team.

This is not the first time that the great sport of football has become a political punching bag instead of being a simple game of sport to be enjoyed by club owners, players and their supporters.

One would have hoped that in one of the more progressive and forward-thinking of nations in the Middle East that is experiencing a steady growth in visitors from tourism and luxury shopping markets, that the United Arab Emirates would have a more open stance when it comes to international football, including the players who participate in it.

With this kind of old fashioned political thinking, it is difficult to imagine peace in the Middle East region when even the simple elegance of a game of football cannot see people overcome their differences.

 

Michael Owen blames football academy structures for lack of young English players

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Michael Owen has urged the footballing authorities in the UK to adopt a draft system similar to the one used in the US for young English footballers. He says this will allow teams in the Premiership to effectively field B teams elsewhere in the football league this ensuring the future success of football in England. The blog from ex England star Owen appeared on  Sportlobster  the dedicated sports social network  which is also launching its new iPhone app today.

Michael Owen has the credentials to make this statement being one of the most famous, and successful, products of the youth set up in England. Nevertheless, he feels that this is now failing in its task and his idea of bringing in a system similar to that of the NFL draft in America is certainly an interesting one,

Owen said on Sportlobster :

“I feel what would be hugely beneficial to the state of our national game is the creation of a loan system whereby every team in the Premier League provides a set number of English players to be distributed fairly among The Championship, League One and Two clubs. This is similar to the draft system they use in American Football.

“Each league club would receive two or three players per season in two waves (start of the season until Christmas then Christmas until the end of the season) from random Premier League clubs which would not only help our lower league teams but more importantly help the development of our future talent. Fairly distributing these young English players across all teams in every league as this would be much fairer than the current system.

“Imagine 150 or so young English players learning their trade in the lower leagues. It would do absolute wonders for their development. The experience gained and the ability to perform under pressure would be priceless. These are the challenges our youngsters need to be exposed to early on if we are to expect them to rise to the challenge later in their careers.”

Sportlobster co-founder and CEO Andy Meikle said:

“It’s important to have sporting heroes like Michael Owen using Sportlobster to talk about issues in sport and voice their honest opinions. It is also important for everyone else to get involved in such debates and be heard. This is exactly why we created Sportlobster, it gives fans a way to interact in an environment completely dedicated to sport.”

Read Michael’s full article and join the debate: https://sportlobster.com/themichaelowen

Link to the app: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/sportlobster/id726335461?ls=1&mt=8

 

Muamba urges young players to look beyond football

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Fabrice Muamba’s football dreams came crashing down last year after collapsing on the pitch suffering from a cardiac arrest, and the Bolton midfielder had to retire from football in August 2012.

Today, in conjunction with the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA), he is warning young footballers that they should consider what to do after they are through with football. He plays in the backyard with his son, but will not return to the active pitch. He says that it would be great to come back but his health comes first.

Over 100 people leave the game every year so Muamba’s situation is not strange. According to the League Football Education (LFE) only 45% of apprentice footballers get a professional contract. In the following years many of them still drop out.

Fabrice Muamba has now been encouraging players of ages 16 to 18 to consider education, on his many visits to clubs. They need to consider their plans since only 10 – 15 will be accepted into the first teams.

The assistant PFA director of education, Oshor Williams, said that clubs have suffered even as the economy took a downward trend. Players who leave the football pitch and look for jobs find it tougher to secure these positions, and they are unable to adapt to a new career.

He goes on to say that this situation will be aggravated in future since the clubs are taking players into the team when they are aged as young as 9 years. When the player leaves the teams aged 18, half their lives may have been in elite development. Many lose their identity and also have poor self-esteem. This means that they need to redefine themselves as who they are, and not the profession that they had.