My 100th post and my favorite #10 players

This is my 100^th post!!! J 

wow.

When I started this blog, this was really just my outlet for all my football “obsession” because I don’t really have anyone to talk to about football in where I am based now.  Before, I had a  couple of football-mad friends who, like me, would also stay up all night just to watch live games and the next day we’d talk about anything and everything about the match like analyzing the strategies, reliving the highlights and just sharing the love of the game.

Sadly, Philippines is not (yet) a football-loving country, there are very few people who have a passion for this sport.  So with no one to share my brimming excitement for football and the matches I watched or planned to watch, I decided to start this blog to write things I would have discussed with my football friends.

But I never really thought I’d reach 100 posts or even to be still be blogging up to now.  As with my previous attempts to blog, I thought I wouldn’t be able to sustain this beyond two weeks.  I guess, timing was a major factor as to why I lasted this long. When I started this blog, it was during the end part of the football season where the Champions League is already in the Round of 16, making it very exciting to watch the matches.  It also coincided with the rise (and I do hope it continues) of football and the Azkals in the Philippines.

In honor of my 100^th post, here are my favorite number players who donned the number 10 jersey (because there is no number 100 jersey in football J)

Zinedine Zidane

The playmaker.  Love this guy, the 1^st time I saw him play was when he was still in Juventus.  I’m amazed at this guy’s vision and creativity on the pitch.  Teammates have said that when they didn’t know what to do with the ball, they just pass it to him and he’ll think of something.

Diego Maradona

Infamous for his “hand of God” goal and his off the pitch issues of alcoholism, drug addition and weight struggle, he is also one of the football legends who I admire for turning his life around and becoming the coach off Argentina in last year’s World Cup.

Pele

The legend.  Of course, I don’t think I need to explain this (even the non-fans know about him).  I love that he continues to promote and be an ambassador for football.

Alessandro Del Piero

Wears number 10 for Juventus and before, for Italy.  I think he peaked in 1998-2002 but when I started to follow football, he was one of the “players-to-watch” and was being compared to Ronaldo at that time but all the talk kinda stopped when he got injured just weeks before the 1998 World Cup and in the same year got sidelined again from a serious injury.  When I watched him return, he wasn’t like before anymore (don’t get me wrong, he’s a great player, but I think he never got to lived up to the earlier hype).  Off the pitch, people say he’s a really classy and nice guy, winning three awards in Italy for gentlemanly conduct.  And yeah, he’s one hot DILF :P

Luis Figo

Wore the number ten for Real Madrid.  His signing to Real Madrid started the club’s Galactico era.  Very classy player.  He still works with Inter Milan as an ambassador.

Cesc Fabregas

number 10 for Spain.  He is currently Arsenal’s captain and has a reputation as one of the best young players for his position, central midfielder and a playmaker.  Great player… and gorgeous too… J he has this whole bromance going on with Gerard Pique.

Lionel Messi

Dons the #10 for Barca & Argentina.  I love, love, love this guy.  He’s my new favorite player.  I don’t think I have to explain how good of a football player he is, experts have raved about his “inhuman” football skills, but beyond the football prowess, breaking various records and the numerous awards, what I really like about him is that he seems to be a really genuine nice guy.  Very humble and down to earth.  At 19, he started the Leo Messi Foundation (it started from his experience hospital visit to kids with cancer).  Maradona considers Messi as his successor.

I know there are many football greats who wore the number 10 jersey like Michael Platini, Roberto Baggio, Dennis Bergkamp, Johan Cruyff, Ronaldinho, Drogba, etc. (and the list can go on as usually the best strikers use this number) but I these are the players that I really like and usually, I like a player because of who he is off the pitch.

Where Are They Now: Galacticos

When Florentino Perez started his first term as Real Madrid's President in 2000, he created a new policy of signing a galactico (superstar), or the best player in the world at the end of every season, no matter how much money it would take.  This policy began the period in Real Madrid’s history known as the Galacticos Era.

Zidane still has hair! ...but why is his shorts so… short?

The principal Galacticos were:

Luis Figo:  retired on May 2009

Zinedine Zidane: retired after the 2006 World Cup

Ronaldo:  recently retired (February 2011)

David Beckham: playing for Los Angeles Galaxy in Major League Soccer

Post Galactico Careers:

Luís Figo: joined Real Madrid in 2000 for £38.7 million from Barcelona FC

Figo left Real Madrid to join Intern Milan on a free transfer on the summer of 2005 when his contract with RM expired.  He stayed with the club until his retirement.  His last game was against Atalanta, and captained the team (at the insistence of then skipper, Javier Zanetti).  He received a standing ovation from the crowd as he was substituted in the match.

Still a fixture in the football world, Figo was briefly a joint seat holder for A1 Team Portugal and in A1 Grand Prix (in the 2005–06 season).  He was on the sidelines when Inter Milan won the Champions League on May 2010.  He is Inter Milan’s ambassador for functions across Europe and a board member of the club’s charity project, Inter Campus.

He now owns an upscale bar in the Algarve region of Portugal and an ambassador for the Stop TB Partnership in the fight against tuberculosis

Zinedine Zidane: joined Real Madrid in 2001 for £46 million from Juventus FC

Zidane ended his career with Real Madrid, after the 2006 World Cup.  Since his retirement, Zidane regularly plays for the Real Madrid Veterans team and made several futsal appearances.

He became an Advisor to Florentino Perez in his 2^nd term as Real Madrid President in 2009.  Zidane is one of the key decision makers on the sporting side of the club.

On September 2010, he was appointed to be Qatar's ambassador for their bid to host the 2022 World Cup.  By November, Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho appealed to Zidane to work with the first team, so he was appointed as a special adviser where he is expected to participate in Champions League events and functions. He would also to travel with the first team on a regular basis and participate in pre-match gatherings, training sessions and meetings with the head coach.

Ronaldo: joined Real Madrid in 2002 for £30 million from Inter Milan

Ronaldo transferred to AC Milan on the early part of January 2007, forcing him to pay for the remaining period on his contract with Real Madrid as the club did not want to release him.  Due to recurring injury problems and weight issues, Ronaldo rarely played on matches and was only with the club for one season.  On February 2008, he suffered a severe knee injury, rupturing his kneecap and had to be taken directly to the hospital.  His contract with the club was not renewed after the season ended.

After recovering from his knee surgery, he trained with Flamengo prompting fans to speculate that he would sign with the club as he had publicly declared himself a Flamengo lover and had promised to defend the club.  However, by end of 2009, he unexpectedly signed a one year deal with Flamengo’s league rival, Corinthians.  He extended his contract with the club for another year and said he would then retire.  After their club was eliminated from the 2011 Copa Libertadores, Ronaldo officially announced his retirement from football in a very emotional press con.  He admitted that the injuries he sustained throughout his career have finally caught up with him.

Since 2005, Ronaldo has been the co-owner of A1 Team Brazil.

David Beckham: joined Real Madrid in 2003 for £25 million from Manchester United

Early 2007, Beckham’s contract with RM was not renewed.  He then signed with the Los Angeles Galaxies for a 5-year contract (for me, this does not bode well for him as European players usually transfer to MLS when their career has passed its peak… remember Thiery Henry, Franz Beckenbauer, Lothar Matthaus? even Pele went the MLS route).  Since his signing, he was loaned to AC Milan for two seasons. 

He missed the latest World Cup due to suffering from a torn Achilles tendon and instead worked as a mediator between management and the national squad becoming a member of the coaching staff for the England national football team.

During the early part of this year, he trained with Tottenham Hotspurs and there was talk that there might be another club loan for Beckham.

Other RM players who were also considered galacticos even though they were already with the team when Perez became president are:

Raul (product of RM Youth Team): left the club on July 2010 and now plays for Schalke 04

Iker Casillas (product of RM Youth Team): still plays for Real Madrid on a lifetime contract

Roberto Carlos: left RM on March 2007, played for Fenerbahce for two years.  In 2010 he signed with Corinthians, playing alongside Ronaldo.  Days before Ronaldo announced retirement, Roberto Carlos signed with FC Anzhi Makhachkala of the Russian Premiere League

The Galacticos era initially began as a success with the club winning the 2001 and 2003 Champions League.  But it after signing the last galactico (I guess I was right in thinking when they signed Beckham that he would be the ruin of RM, haha!) had started the trophy draught for the club, failing to progress in European football or attain domestic success.  To this day, it has yet to go beyond the Round of 16 stage of the Champions League.

Click here and here to for an interesting read on the downfall (too many egos, loosing one of the best defensive players, sacking of Del Bosque, releasing great players because they were “not pretty enough”) of Florentino’s ostentatious plan to showcase the world’s greatest players in one formidable Dream Team. 

Even though the Galactico Policy did not make Real Madrid the champions in their league and in Europe, one thing you can credit it for is making the club one of the richest in the world.  Maybe Perez is a shrewd businessman but I guess a shrewd businessman does not make a winning team.

With his second term as Real Madrid President, Perez seems to be making another batch of galacticos with Ozil, Kaka, Cronaldo, Xabi Alonso and Karim Benzema.  Will they learn their lesson this time and balance the team with the right amount of offense and defense?