Today's write has nothing to do with your mum's 'don't use those, they're for the visitors' crockery.
Really all to do with players from the continents of South America and Africa.
Today MUFC are linked with a certain Lucas Moura. Highly spoken of attacking midfielder from Brazil.
I firstly did a little jig in the lounge...then cast my mind back to Kleberson, Djemba x2 and more recently Anderson and composed myself quickly.
What's the deal with [some] Continental players?!
Another South American footballers' career gone up in smoke
Just last week the court ruling on Breno was given, sentencing the talented Brasileiro to 3yrs9months in prison for arson. The defenders mental state was spoken of at length...could this however not have been prevented IF the right guidance/mentoring was given?
Another absolute waste of ability is Adriano Leite Ribeiro. Anyone remember his class at the '04 COPA America and then in the '05 Confed Cup. If we look at his goals-to-games ratio, he had no issue scoring every other game. One of the fiercest shots in the game. A damn shame he could not keep it together off the pitch. Ill-disciplined, poor dieting and just a total lack of respect for the game of football has cost him dearly.
'Old John' has not always been a Clever Boy
How about Mbulelo Mabizela? Definitely a talent, when he puts his mind to it. So much of a talent that Glenn Hoddle signed him for Tottenham Hotspur FC after seeing him in 2003, while Spurs were on tour here. That love-affair didn't last too long and was released by the club a year later. A few years later he signs for the richest club side in the PSL, Sundowns...but, true to form, had lands himself in hot-water for drug related offenses.
He now finds himself at Bidvest Wits, which isn't a disaster, but we have to wonder...what could have been.
Others on the local front we could mention, include Wayne Roberts, arguably the finest goalkeeper of his generation, but his off-field shenanigans meant he stayed in the game a lot shorter than he should have.
There's also Junior Khanye. Goodness, he had skill, but again bright lights did him no good. Same goes for Jabu Pule [or Mahlangu].
Others we've read [horror] stories about are Ronaldo [IT was not a transvestite] de Lima. Diego [whose line is it anyway] Maradona...and so on.
So there's a problem with players from South America and Africa?! There's a problem when it comes to fame and fortune and how to deal with it.
For many footballers, who have come from impoverished backgrounds, it all just gets too much and there really seems no other way but to muck it up GOOD AND SOLID.
You hardly hear of players from Europe getting it wrong. Yes there's George Best and one or two more, but hardly as common a thread as it would seem for players from [South] Africa and South America.
How do 'we' fix this?
What can be done to avoid this sorta thing happening to today's young talents? Especially in the modern game, driven by fame and finance.
This game has given many a new lease on life...a future, however, for others it has become too much
Leaving them behind
To pick up the pieces
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