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Posted by Humphrey Plugg on 4 December 2011 - 9:23am.
Some say that football today is full of overpaid mercenaries. Some suggest that my club, Manchester City, is the worst offender. But what City have in fact done is to distill all their best and worst traits over the last 30 years and put them all into one player. After all, when was the last time you saw a player score with his shoulder?
For those unfamiliar with his early work, check out this article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/oct/28/mario-balotelli-mancheste...
Why always him? Well, who else could it be?
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Hmmmm....
I find it very difficult to accept anything related to the City "project" as a refreshing antidote to modern football.
Balotelli looks very much like an overpaid mercenary to me.
That said, I have huge sympathy for him given his extremely difficult background (it can't be fun getting racially abused by your own fans while playing for the national team) and wish that the press would stop treating this quite damaged young man like some sort of circus act.
It will end in tears.
Handball
Surely?
Precisely what
I thought. If he had done that in his own area - penalty. Despite everything, I have warmed to him and critics should make some allowance for the fact that growing up in Italy and being accepted as Italian has not been easy for him.
An arsehole writes...
Top of the shoulder = not handball.
When was the last time I saw a player score with his shoulder?
Last Sunday, Vincent Kompany, City against Liverpool.
He meant to head it, mind.
Her shoulder
My daughter.... in a 7 a-side semi-final game that should have been against a mixed sexes team this very weekend. Instead the so-far unbeaten opposition (their coach can loosely be described as overly competitive) fielded 7 rather big boys who proceeded to run my kid's team ragged. Somehow they managed to get it even-stevens in the second half (she scored two!) and in the final few minutes a long pass into the oppo's half saw my 11 year old run rings round three defenders, make a pass to her mate who chipped it back for her - please excuse parental pride here - and then she somehow battered her way through a few players and managed to get it in off her shoulder.
Pre-pubescent yells of hand ball were ignored.... final whistle blows.
Result! 4 - 3.
Joy oh joy oh joy.
A final beckons.
* gets coat.... leaves with huge grin.
Bloody hell
I got a buzz off reading that and it wasn't even my kid!
Ain't parenthood grand?
McLongWhiteCloud has to post this here.
Talking about it at home would get him the cold-shoulder. Allowing, nay, encouraging your children to play the round-ball game?
Perish the thought.
The other game
After the All Whites winning the World Cup (according to the Duckworth Lewis Method, at least) football has really taken off in NZ but yes, rugby is still the game. My daughter wants to play for the local ladies' rugby team .. Eketahuna Girls. It has two internationals, an amazing cup record and a lively attitude to Saturday nights. One of the players got done for manslaughter last year (a very abusive boyfriend was the victim) and when her coach was interviewed for the local paper he came out with the classic "I wish she was as aggressive on the pitch".
Blimey!
Girls just wanna, etc..
I know!
It is indeed. She just got player of the year for her local league side.
I am super proud.
I have to say I took no pleasure in seeing the look of sheer disbelief on the faces of the other coach and certain gobby parents when their team lost. Honestly. Really... I didn't.... well.... just a teeny bit.
I'm delighted
for the City fans who've stuck with their team through thick and thin that their loyalty is being repaid. Football nowadays is full of 'overpaid mercenaries', so that jibe doesn't stick.
As for Balotelli, he's an exceptional, if wayward, talent, but he's still a young lad. He certainly adds to the gaiety of nations, particularly on fireworks night.