NEYMAR TO CAMP NOU

Barcelona has confirmed the signing of the 21 year old Santos super striker. On Monday Neymar will sign his 5 year contract which will keep him in Barcelona until 2018. The striker who has been with the Brazilian club Santos since he was 17 has been on the transfer news for the last two years. The club (Santos) has said that they have tried their utmost best to keep the player in Brazil by turning down a number of deals. In the last two days Santos had confirmed that they had received two offers.

Barcelona like every year is trying to improve their attack. It is clear that they want to stay the best club in the world even with the embarrassing defeats to Bayern in the Champions league and to Real Madrid in the Copa Del Ray. When Neymar joins the squad it will be strengthened for sure and it will take a lot of pressure off Messi. In the recent past Barcelona has not played well when Messi hasn’t played well. It is not sure if Messi will have great synergy with Neymar but there is one thing that is sure, with passes and plays created by Xavi and Iniesta. Neymar’s chances of scoring goals will improve tremendously. One of the negatives that Barca might face is the fact that Neymar coming into the team will reduce the starting appearances of Alexis Sanchez, David Villa, Tello and Pedro.

WAYNE ROONEY AND ARSENAL: TO BE OR NOT TO BE

While it is known to all that Wayne Rooney’s deep-seated allegiance to the legendary English football club Manchester United has waned away for the second time in the last three years, it is unknown whether he will join any other football club in the near future or choose to dismiss the idea and retain his loyalty for his existing club. However, it is rumored that the highly acclaimed football player does not wish to resume his career as a footballer hailing from a club in the United Kingdom, and instead wishes to expand his horizons by exploring football clubs in other nations.

When it comes to the subject of Wayne Rooney joining the ranks of the esteemed football club Arsenal, the chances are grim. A large contributing factor to this almost inevitable conclusion is that Rooney’s weekly wage is more than double of the highest-grossing Arsenal player Lucas Podolski, whose weekly wage is just in excess of £100,000 though Arsenal has more than enough funds to afford the transfer fee for Rooney; a fact that contradicts the above statement. Despite this, chances of Rooney joining Arsenal FC are still slim, as he is rumored to be in contact with two other clubs who are more capable of meeting his financial demands; PSG and Real Madrid.
Rooney’s enigmatic career while at a seemingly long hiatus is surely far from an ending altogether, but we are sure to see Rooney at action for years to come.

IS ANGEL DI MARIA, BECKHAM'S SUCCESSOR AT PSG

Angel Di Maria had an unsettled season with Real Madrid. The 25 year old versatile winger was only able to score 7 goals and give 5 assists in the league while he only managed 8 goals and 10 assists in the whole season. He only had 33 starts in his 48 appearances in the 2012/2013 season. Jose Mourinho, the Real Madrid manager had completely lost his trust of Di Maria after his poor start to season with the Los Blancos (18 appearances, 2 goals and 1 assist). The Argentinian only had three-four good matches in the whole season

Real Madrid is reportedly trying to offload both Di Maria and Gonzalo Higuain to facilitate the transfer of Gareth Bale (£60 million) from Tottenham Hotspur who is considered to be one of the best players in the world. Both Manchester United and PSG have been looking at the versatile winger from Real Madrid for various reasons. While Manchester united has been looking at him as a replacement for Nani if he leaves, PSG the Ligue 1 champions have been looking at him as a replacement for David Beckham. Manchester United and PSG aren’t afraid to spend money on him as they have sufficient funds. PSG are supposedly ready to make a 17 million bid for him. Wherever he goes, his career is going upwards.

THE GOAL OF THE YEAR

Miroslav Stoch won the Ballon D`or award for the best goal for an absolute stunner from right outside the penalty box. I seriously don’t think that Miroslav Stoch’s goal from just outside even though that was an absolute beauty. Zlatan Ibrahamovic (Sweden vs England), Philippe Mexes (Milan vs Anderlecht), Radamel Falcao (Athletico Madrid vs America De Cali), Lionel Messi (Argentina vs Brazil), Portia Modise (South Africa vs Sweeden) all of these people also scored fantastic goals please check these goals and then decide if Miroslav Stoch’s goal was better than all these goals.

ARE THE RICH CLUBS INTELLIGENT?

 

Well I seriously doubt that rich clubs are intelligent as you see teams like PSG, Anzhi Makhachkala, Galatasaray and Manchester city don’t have players who play for their team and they only have players that play only play for their own fame. I am not saying that they don’t have any player who plays for his team. What I am saying is that big players in teams like Manchester city take a long while before they get adjusted to their teams. For example Sergio Aguero, Edin Dzeko, Ballotelli, Samuel Eto’o and  Zlatan Ibrahamovic when they first joined their respective teams it was obvious that they had left their old teams just because they will get better wages in their new teams, not that choosing another team for better wages is wrong. 

Well as we all saw it took all the Manchester city players half a season to get adjusted to their teams even though they pulled through to win the League title. PSG took more than a whole season to get adjusted with their giant striker Zlatan Ibrahamovic and all the other stars they bought. Now in the 2012- 2013 summer transfer these teams again signed better but more expensive players. What is the problem of this is that their coming will cause the starting XI players of the respective teams feel uncomfortable as they think that they will have to fight for their spot in the first team which can be both extremely good and extremely bad as the player would maybe want to leave the club as they would want more first team appearances.    

THE BALLON D`OR 2013

The Ballon d`Or award ceremony had all the significant personalities from the football world, including all the legends. Lionel Messi has won the Ballon D`or award, the Argentinian continues to build his epic legacy. With this award coming as his record-breaking fourth Ballon d'Or, Messi has made his case for best ever. Messi kicked off his year right, capturing one of the most prestigious awards in world football . Of course, it's nothing new to Messi, who has now taken home the Ballond'Or each of the last four years. As he scored 91 goals in 2012 it was pretty easy to decide to decide that he was going to win Ballon D`or again.

Meanwhile Vicente del Bosque was named the best coach of the year for his contributions with the Spain to win the Euro 2012 which aloowed Spain to become the first team to win three major titles in a row. Miroslav Stoch got the best goal award for a stunner from just outside the penalty box.

Pia Sundhage won the best coach of the year award (woman’s) for her contributions to her old team USA womans team. Franz Beckenbauer won the FIFA Presidential award. Abby Wambach won the best woman’s footballer award for her wonderful performance with USA womans team.

This year’s world XI is:

GK: Iker Casillas

DEF: Dani Alves, Gerard Pique, Sergio Ramos, Marcelo.

MID: Xabi Alonso, Xavi, Iniesta.

ATT: Messi, Falcao, Ronaldo.

The year’s World XI was the only part of the award ceremony that I and a lot others would disagree as I clearly think that there should have been other players in the World XI from BPL, Bundesliga and Seria A.

WILL PEP GUARDIOLA BE GOOD FOR BAYERN? 

I think that Pep Guardiola is a perfect for Bayern Munich as Guardiola is the man who embodies FC Barcelona firstly. He turned FC Barcelona into one of the greatest clubs in the history of the game. Pep, as ironic as this might sound, brought Barca level with Bayern in European terms. Prior to his stint as manager, the Catalans had won two European Cups. He added two more to their closet to bring them up to a total of four—the same as that of Bayern

However, Bayern has incredibly lost five European Cup finals. The main purpose of bringing in Pep is to perhaps get them to cross the finish line—something which failed them in the 2010 and 2012 Champions League finals, especially in 2012.
 

Obviously Bayern Munich is not Barcelona but the similarities of course exist. They both have a great youth system. They both possess the kind of players who can pass the ball for hours and drain the opponent of energy. However, Bayern possesses a physical presence which Barca does not.Bayern’s players are bigger and taller than the Barca boys if this statement is to be translated into simple English. 

Bayern presses incessantly. Barca does that too, but Bayern does it a bit differently. Also, Bayern is perhaps a bit more direct than Barcelona. The likes of Thomas Müllercame through the system by playing directly; that cannot simply be changed. Guardiolawill have to adapt his coaching to the kind of style Bayern employs. While their style is not exactly the same as that of Barca, they are just brilliant to watch on any day. 

Guardiola experimented with different strikers but ended up playing with a "false nine" at Barcelona at the end. At Bayern, he will have the perfect strikers at his disposal in Mario Gomez and Mario Mandzukic. Nils Petersen will add to that if he returns from loan as will Claudio Pizarro if he extends his contract with Bayern.

Guardiola is surely aware of the fact that he is stepping into the coach’s role, not the manager’s. He played the same role at Barca but perhaps had more influence than he will have at Bayern. The difference between a coach and a manager is that a manager has part of the sporting director’s responsibilities on his shoulders too, unlike a coach.

Even though all these similarites and differences are there he will be good for the team as the team already passes well and that is the style he seems to prefer. So that is why Pep Guardiola will do good in Bayern Munich