Football (real)

[betiko]

And yes, none of them has the talent of Ronaldo, but how can they be so damn consistent? how can they be never injured and play every freaking game??

You might not remember, but Ronaldo was injured (badly) a few times...

of course I remember, but unless you missread I mentioned his career was full of up and downs and his best season was when he was 19 playing for barcelona and "only" scored 34 goals. He never had the consistency of cristiano ronaldo or messi as these guys are able to score 30+ goals year after year. Having a great phisical condition is part of the abilities of a player. Look at Robben for example, this guy is an awesome player but he can't play half of the games in a full season ever because he is too fragile. Nevertheless, ronaldo with the ball was the scariest shit I had ever witnessed when he was at his best.

regarding gerd "torpedo" muller, I didn't have the chance to really see him in action, but from my understanding he was more the type of guy who was an excellent finisher inside the box, one of the very best ever, not a guy who would create stuff that much.

[HardAttack]

Not sure, but i believe today's footballers playing 10 maybe even more games than footballes of 10-15 years ago due to new shape and schedule of european competitions.

[betiko]

Well, there sure were great names, with excellent finishing abilities. To me Former Brazillian Ronaldo is not one of them. If he had such finishing capabilities, then it wudnt be surprise to me him to finish a season with 80 goals, 2 goals/game avarage or even more. What used to make him amazing, mostly his ball control, technique, speed/pace, acceleration, intelligence in game play, fakes, astonishing moves, and more, but not finishing abilities. It was year 2000, Lazio-Inter game, coppa italia quarter finals, it was the only moment i saw him was a human, other than that i used to believe he was something else but not a human truely. Hey, how can ever happen a player to maximize his control, intelligence, athletic capacities all in harmony working amazing to the max ? Really really unbelievable it was...And another interesting point, he had been transferred to inter from barcelona for 19 million. If it wud happened today, no no little doubt, it wudnt be any less than 130 million. Maradona's coming to barca, not sure i think it is in 1982 or somewhere around there, it was 0.5 million barca paid to boca.

Maradona signed for Barcelona for 8 million dollars back in 82, which was a huge thing, not 0,5. In the early 80s the spanish league was dominated by the bask teams (athletic and real sociedad) that won nearly everything, and maradona just won a copa del rey there. That team was not extraordinary, he really did great things when he played for napoli.

And Ronaldo signed up for Inter for 30,5 million euros one year after being recruited for 18 million euros by the Barça from the PSV.

But yes, prices have become more and more crazy, we know that, with so many clubs increasing their debts year after year because there has been very little control on the budgets. Hopefully Platini is changing this with the financial fair play.

[Jamie]

How misleading. I see a thread called "Football (real)" and when I click on it, is's not about football at all, it's about soccer. Just call the thread "soccer" or "European football"

Or the 'beautiful game',as it is known worldwide.Go back to your parochial minority interest sports which the rest of the world couldn't care less about..

Really?? The Superbowl is viewed by over 1 BILLION people each year, 2nd only to the world cup final, and not by much. The US population is just short of 350 million people, and only about 100 million of those watch the game, so there are TEN times as many people watching the superbowl outside of the US then within it. The NFL also plays games in Canada and England every year, and wants to place a team in London at Wembley Stadium. It would seem to me that Football is the 3rd most popular sport in the world behind only Soccer and Baseball, both of whom have a worldwide tournament. Football has already surpassed baseball in popularity here in the US, and it will soon be number 2 in the world, and in time it may even surpass soccer.

[Jamie]

How misleading. I see a thread called "Football (real)" and when I click on it, is's not about football at all, it's about soccer. Just call the thread "soccer" or "European football"

lol, 4% of the world thinks of a sport only about commercials played with the hands when you mention football. You are a minority, deal with it.

um the US population represents 5% of the world population just by itself, so your figure is already wrong, and then your figures doesnt account for the fact Canada prefers football over soccer, and the millions more around the world who prefer football over soccer. I would say the figure is much closer to 10% rather then 4%. And the fact that the sport does NOT involve hands is one of the major flaws in the game. Soccer would be FAR more interesting if the players could volley the ball with their hands or balled up fist. The hands are the two most coordinated athletic parts on the human body, and they are eliminated from use in the worlds most popular sport. And for the record, I did NOT insult soccer, I just said the title of the thread is misleading, and offered two very real unsarcastic suggestions. If anything the title does in fact insult American football, the worlds 3rd most popular sport.

[betiko]

How misleading. I see a thread called "Football (real)" and when I click on it, is's not about football at all, it's about soccer. Just call the thread "soccer" or "European football"

Or the 'beautiful game',as it is known worldwide.Go back to your parochial minority interest sports which the rest of the world couldn't care less about..

Really?? The Superbowl is viewed by over 1 BILLION people each year, 2nd only to the world cup final, and not by much. The US population is just short of 350 million people, and only about 100 million of those watch the game, so there are TEN times as many people watching the superbowl outside of the US then within it. The NFL also plays games in Canada and England every year, and wants to place a team in London at Wembley Stadium. It would seem to me that Football is the 3rd most popular sport in the world behind only Soccer and Baseball, both of whom have a worldwide tournament. Football has already surpassed baseball in popularity here in the US, and it will soon be number 2 in the world, and in time it may even surpass soccer.

baseball seriously? who watched baseball other than americans, cubans and japanese?

And seriously, maybe someone will tell me I'm wrong, but for any european the most followed US sport championship is the NBA by far.
Absolutely no one gives a f*ck about baseball in europe, and then I'd say people are equally interested in NHL and NFL once in a while. The fact that the NFL is selling well it's TV rights for the superbowl doesn't mean people really watch it. Someone watching 10 minutes just to see what's it's about or to see the half time show is not interested in the sport, but just curious about the event. How many people worldwide are able to tell you the next day who won the superbowl? not even half of the supposed audience for sure. Also, the superbowl usually ends on sundays at 3 or 4 in the morning european time, only trully passionate would watch it.
They have already tried to create a european NFL, and trully no one gives a f*ck. Rugby is way too popular in the uk+ireland+france+ maybe italy to see american football as competition.

[betiko]

How misleading. I see a thread called "Football (real)" and when I click on it, is's not about football at all, it's about soccer. Just call the thread "soccer" or "European football"

lol, 4% of the world thinks of a sport only about commercials played with the hands when you mention football. You are a minority, deal with it.

um the US population represents 5% of the world population just by itself, so your figure is already wrong, and then your figures doesnt account for the fact Canada prefers football over soccer, and the millions more around the world who prefer football over soccer. I would say the figure is much closer to 10% rather then 4%. And the fact that the sport does NOT involve hands is one of the major flaws in the game. Soccer would be FAR more interesting if the players could volley the ball with their hands or balled up fist. The hands are the two most coordinated athletic parts on the human body, and they are eliminated from use in the worlds most popular sport. And for the record, I did NOT insult soccer, I just said the title of the thread is misleading, and offered two very real unsarcastic suggestions. If anything the title does in fact insult American football, the worlds 3rd most popular sport.

Football is called football everywhere. What you guys call football is called american football everywhere.
The US population is 315M in 2012, not 350M, and the world population is 7,06B, so yeah, almost 4,5% if you want, still closer to 4%. Add canada's 34M and yes, maybe you reach 5%. You are talking about people outside of NA who prefer american football, but not counting people in NA who prefer football... Or just people in NA who don't care about sports or american football. The point is that Football was created way before, has a self explanatory name compared to american football and means the same thing for 95% of the world population except for you guys. Therefore I criticize your ethnocentric view of the world as it often happens with americans.
If you want to see a sport involving hands, foot and contact, go for australian football. It's all about what you are describing, and it's obviously less popular worldwide.
The essence of football is to have the best skills with your lesser agile members, which are also the most powerfull. The restrition from using your hands is all the fun of it.

[sempaispellcheck]

how can they be never injured and play every freaking game??

That goes back to what HA was saying about how times have changed. The training and medical staffs on those teams know a lot more know about how the body works and what is good or bad for it than they did when Ronaldo, Pélé, and Maradona played. Teams even have nutritionists know cooking up specialized diets for players - even youth players.

[betiko]

how can they be never injured and play every freaking game??

That goes back to what HA was saying about how times have changed. The training and medical staffs on those teams know a lot more know about how the body works and what is good or bad for it than they did when Ronaldo, Pélé, and Maradona played. Teams even have nutritionists know cooking up specialized diets for players - even youth players.

you are mixing the star from the 50s-70s with the star from the 80s early 90s and the star from the late 90's early 00's.
Do you really think you can't compare ronaldo with messi in terms of physical preparation? Of course you can. I was also giving the example of Robben. Ronaldo had shit knees and a metabolic problem!

[Pirlo]

I think Ronaldo changed the football philosophy... He's probably the first great striker with pace and skills.. I don't think he got the best talent ever.. I think Ronaldinho did! A common problem for Brazilian footballers now is that their career is too short!

[HardAttack]

I think Ronaldo changed the football philosophy... He's probably the first great striker with pace and skills.. I don't think he got the best talent ever.. I think Ronaldinho did! A common problem for Brazilian footballers now is that their career is too short!

cafu, rivaldo, i guess leonardo, bebeto, romario, and there was one used to play in french league, monaco ? free kick expert midfielder and a few to count more had long enough careers mate.

IMO, ronaldinho can not come close to ronaldo more than 100 feet when we speak about talent ) but talent, if we are speaking of the same thing ? define talent.

[Nola_Lifer]

I think Ronaldo changed the football philosophy... He's probably the first great striker with pace and skills.. I don't think he got the best talent ever.. I think Ronaldinho did! A common problem for Brazilian footballers now is that their career is too short!

cafu, rivaldo, i guess leonardo, bebeto, romario, and there was one used to play in french league, monaco ? free kick expert midfielder and a few to count more had long enough careers mate.

IMO, ronaldinho can not come close to ronaldo more than 100 feet when we speak about talent ) but talent, if we are speaking of the same thing ? define talent.

Juninho?

[HardAttack]

I think Ronaldo changed the football philosophy... He's probably the first great striker with pace and skills.. I don't think he got the best talent ever.. I think Ronaldinho did! A common problem for Brazilian footballers now is that their career is too short!

cafu, rivaldo, i guess leonardo, bebeto, romario, and there was one used to play in french league, monaco ? free kick expert midfielder and a few to count more had long enough careers mate.

IMO, ronaldinho can not come close to ronaldo more than 100 feet when we speak about talent ) but talent, if we are speaking of the same thing ? define talent.

Juninho?

Juninho it is

[GreecePwns]

Juninho is actually still playing at 38 years old

[Nola_Lifer]

Rivaldo's contract just ended too. He has to be 40 something.