Age and drugs take India's athletics way off track in a year filled with controversy

Renjith Maheshwary’s doping controversy prevented him from receiving the Arjuna Award

Indian mythology and folklore the world over has given us our fair share of multi-headed monsters; creatures that often bring about chaos and destruction, only to be saved in the end by a great hero or heroine. In many a case, it involves chopping off each of the heads. But some of these mythic monsters were so well-equipped that at the fall of a head, another one would rear, just like new.

The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) have had quite a torrid time this year dealing with precisely such monsters, ones that have kept rearing their ugly heads over and over again. At a time of the year when the season is closed and there isn’t much to deal with for authorities, athletes and pretty much everyone else as they wind down for the season and prepare to usher in the new one, the AFI dished out some Christmas presents to a number of athletes and their respective state associations.

Boxing Day is earmarked as the occasion you get to uncover your presents, and boy, were the athletes in for a rude shock!

The AFI banned six states including Delhi and Haryana for fielding over-aged athletes. 14 other athletes also received suspensions, for duration of two whole years, after having been found guilty of doping.

These decisions were the two big talking points to emerge from the body’s two-day Executive Committee meeting on December 22nd and 23rd.

“In order to curb the overage and doping menace the Executive Committee of Athletics Federation of India, which met here on 22nd and 23rd, have decided to enforce stringent measures on both erring athletes and their respective state-units,” AFI said in a release.

The implication of this ruling is that the six states in question – Delhi, Haryana, Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh – will not be able to take part in any competitions organized under the banner of the AFI in the coming season.

However, the athletes from these states can participate in the events, but they would do so under the AFI banner as independent athletes; that too, post an approval from the President/Secretary of the AFI.
The report claims that 44 athletes were found to be over the age limit in various competitions through the year. For the erring athletes, the punishment is even harsher, an exile of two years.

You do wonder if the punishment is fair, because as much as it is an athlete’s responsibility to ensure that he/she is not engaging in any activity that contravenes the established norms of fair play, the fact that the state federations were accomplices in it cannot be discounted.

You could argue that giving the state bodies a two-year ban will affect the careers of other athletes from the states involved as they would see their development stalled by a lack of funds and exposure resulting from the ban. But, isn’t that a strong message worth sending to ensure that they do not err again?

The other magic number is 14 – which is the number of athletes banned for doping. The lot that tested positive have also been given a two-year suspension from the sport. There is nothing to complain about here at all.

The damning verdict at the close of the year was bad enough, but what makes it even more worrying is the emergence of a trend in Indian athletics this year, one of repeated faux pas and goof-ups and doping instances.

It has been a tumultuous year so far filled with many embarrassing instances for the national athletics body as well as many fires that it had to go about extinguishing.

The National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA), in its dope tests through the year, found 23 track and field athletes to be guilty of doping; that number was among the highest from any discipline and earned athletics a place on the leader board in number of dope-tainted athletes.

There was also the huge fracas involving national record holding triple-jumper Renjith Maheshwary. The past caught up with Maheshwary as the jumper got caught up in a doping scandal from five years ago that snowballed into a huge controversy.

Maheshwary was accused of having failed a dope test at the 2008 Nationals in Kochi. The AFI for a long time refuted claims that he had been found guilty of doping, in order to save face, as they had recommended his name for the Arjuna Award for the third consecutive year, after doing so in 2011 and 2012 as well.

The Sports Ministry wanted a final clearance from the AFI before it went ahead and bestowed the award on Maheshwary. Finally the pressure came through, and the AFI admitted that Maheshwary had indeed committed a dope violation in Kochi, though they could not locate the files which would serve as evidence.

However, a letter from the AFI to the Railways, Maheshwary’s employers at the time, documenting his doping offence, proved to be the clincher in the end.

All this while, the Sports Ministry and Maheshwary himself, were in a state of suspended stasis as to the status of his Arjuna Award. Eventually, in a most embarrassing sequence of events, Maheshwary was intimated just hours before the awards function, that he was being hauled off the awardees’ list.

The issue of over-aged athletes too was not the first instance, and what’s more, it happened at an international event. At the Asian Youth Games in August in Nanjing, China, 17 young track and field athletes were sent back home from the games for being over the prescribed age limit.

For athletics, there was a different age criteria as compared to the other disciplines and this was overlooked, as the AFI sent athletes who were born before January 1, 1997, the date that was set for the athletics events.

This led to another administrative scuffle, this time between the AFI and the Sports Authority of India (SAI) which demanded compensation to the tune of Rs.10 lakh that it had spent to send the 17 athletes to China.

A moot point here is the oversight on the part of the organizers to provide some defence to the Indian authorities. As is the case with most international events, the name lists of the participants are sent across well in advance, and only after confirmation from the organizers are the participants sent. So how was it that the organizers failed to spot the discrepancy during verification? The Indian media likes a story and pounces on any given opportunity to beat up the sporting authorities, but there lies some share of the blame elsewhere too on this occasion.

Still, the fact that the AFI allowed such an oversight to happen under its watch is a major indictment of its operational efficiency.

Another instance where the ugly head of doping cropped up to cause more loss of face for the AFI was at the Asian Championships in Pune in July, when shot-putter Udaya Laxmi had to be forcibly withdrawn after she tested positive for a stimulant.

And if you thought that 2013 just happened to be an extremely unfortunate year for the AFI, if anything, it was a continuation of a deep-rooted malaise that has been in existence for a few years now.

The NADA furnished a report recently, in response to an RTI petition filed by a citizen, detailing instances of doping between January 2009 and July 2013. The figures were shocking.

In the above period, a total of 500 athletes were said to have tested positive for doping and 423 out of them had sanctions imposed on them by the Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel (ADDP). Topping the list, in terms of number of offenders, was athletics.

Athletics had 113 doping violations in that period with weightlifting in tow in second place with 92 violations. The other disciplines to feature in the top were Kabaddi, Bodybuilding, Powerlifting, Wrestling, Boxing and Judo, in that order.

In some further indictment, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) revealed through one of its reports in August that India had the second-highest number of dope cheats placed in suspension in athletics, with 43, one behind Russia who had 44.

Certainly not the lists which the AFI would have wanted to be topping!

To cause further consternation to an already worried community, the NADA revealed that doping as an acceptable practice was starting young, with school-going athletes found to be rampantly using syringe-based performance enhancing drugs at an inter-school meet in Kerala.

During another event at the Kanteerava Stadium in Bangalore, TOI reported to have again found a number of used syringes in both the boys and girls toilets. In fact, two of them, after having been caught red-handed by the Doping Control Officer (DCO) at the stadium, proceeded to run away from him. They were subsequently disqualified.

A similar expose was carried out by TOI at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium in Chennai in July-August.
Even internally, there wasn’t nothing for the AFI to write home about, as elections to its posts were held twice, after the first one was said to have violated the Sports Code put in place by the Sports Ministry. The President, treasurer and secretary elected through the first election were not recognized by the ministry and it threatened to de-recognize the AFI, similar to the IOC’s threat to India’s Olympic body.

After changes to the constitution, Adille Sumariwala, CK Valson and PK Srivastava were elected president, secretary and treasurer, respectively.

Going into 2014, a year in which the country will be participating in the Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games, the signs are bad with the national athletic body seemingly exhibiting an alarming level of operational inefficiency.

The recurring instances of doping violations and age and eligibility related faux pas have cast a dark shadow on the capability of the administrators to lead the nation’s athletic federation on the right track.

There are many issues to mend, notable amongst them being repairing the discord and acrimony that was create between the AFI and other agencies such as the Sports Ministry and the SAI. Maintaining good relationships with these bodies is a must, if at all the athletes’ interests are to be well taken care of.

It’s tough stand to stamp out doping and cheating by handing out lengthy bans and suspensions is also a welcome move, as much as the state associations may crib about it. After all, India needs athletes that are clean and meeting the required eligibility criteria to be representing it at the major events. Falling prey to last minute withdrawals due to one issue or another in front of the global sporting community is not something the country would want to see at this juncture.

The multi-headed monster is at the shores threatening to swallow up Indian athletics. The proverbial hero, a saviour is needed to rescue the situation and men and women donning the posts at the AFI have a major task at hand. Indian athletics not so much needs as demands a new dawn in 2014.

India's shining stars: The sportpersons who did India proud in 2013

As the year 2013 draws to a close, it is time to relive some of the best moments of the year 2013. India as such had some mixed results in the sporting arena – there were some major highs accompanied by some disappointing results along the way.

The highs came in both team sports as well as some of the individual events.

Here’s a summary of the men and women who shone the brightest through the year in no particular order.

Indian Cricket Team

The Indian team celebrates winning the Champions Trophy

The Men in Blue have had another successful season under the able stewardship of captain MS Dhoni with the highlight being the Champions Trophy triumph in England.

The team won each of the six Test matches that it played. You could argue that all of them were at home and hence the team was expected to win, but the best teams begin with staying strong at home. The team did that, and convincingly too, with series wins over the Aussies and the West Indies. The latter ended with the retirement of Sachin Tendulkar, but many new faces were unearthed, offering much promise into the future.

Cheteshwar Pujara had a tremendous year notching up two centuries that included a big double century providing solidity at the number three position, vacated by Rahul Dravid. Shikhar Dhawan announced his Test entry with a bang, through a stroke-filled century against the Aussies and Ravichandran Ashwin demonstrated the ability to be India’s lead bowler in home conditions and also added further credibility with the bat towards the end of the season.

The ODI side also performed admirably, winning 22 and losing 10 of their 34 matches in total, with 2 games providing no result. In fact, the team had a better win record abroad and on neutral territory this year, winning 7 of 10 games on the opposition’s home turf and winning all but one of their games on neutral grounds.

They won the Champions Trophy with a perfect record winning every game, including a remarkable fight back in the final against hosts England. Rohit Sharma finally came through on his promise, while Virat Kohli continued his rapid rise up the ODI batting echelons opening the batting and new talents such as Mohammad Shami emerged later in the season.

PV Sindhu

PV Sindhu returned with the bronze from the BWF World Championships

The badminton fraternity found a new face dominating the headlines this year in the form of teenager PV Sindhu who made the rather giant leap from the national scene to the international one winning two Grand Prix Gold titles and making history by winning bronze at the BWF World Championships. What was even more impressive was the fact that she took down former Olympic champion Wang Shixian and reigning World Champion Wang Yihan, both of China, en route to the semi-finals.

Another product of the Gopichand Academy in Hyderabad and tutored under the auspices of national coach Pullela Gopichand.

The lanky Hyderabadi, still just a teenager, caused a ripple when she won the Malaysian Open early on in the season. But, the shockwaves came when she made her way into the semi-finals of the BWF World Championship in Guangzhou, China, where she was assured of a bronze after falling to eventual champion Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand.

The achievement was a monumental one, as it was the first medal for India in women’s singles at the World Championships and it was also just India’s third medal overall after Prakash Padukone’s bronze in men’s singles at Copenhagen in 1983 and Ashwini Ponnappa and Jwala Gutta’s bronze in women’s doubles in the 2011 edition.

She ended the season too on a high with victory at the Macau Open, where she was the top seed and currently sits an impressive 11th in the world rankings after starting the year ranked 25th.

Heena Sidhu

Heena Sidhu

Heena Sidhu made history by becoming the first pistol shooter to win a gold medal at the ISSF World Cup Finals.

And it’s not like she had an easy run in the tournament; she overcame stiff odds by overcoming the challenge of double Olympic champion Guo Wenjun of China, world champion Zorana Arunovic of Serbia and multiple-Olympic medallist Olena Kostevych of Ukraine.

Two Indians had previously won gold medals at the World Cup – Anjali Bhagwat in 2002 and Gagan Narang in 2008 – but both of them had come in the rifle events, making this a first in pistol shooting.

After making a shaky start in the final, she went on to hit 15 consecutive bulls’ eyes to finish with a comfortable lead of 5.2 points over her nearest competitor.

Even more astonishing was the fact that she was not even supposed to be participating at the event, and only received a late call up after two other competitors withdrew at the last minute.

Talk about a dream win!

Women’s hockey teams

Indian girls hockey team return with bronze medal from Germany

The trend of winning a first ever medal in an event was common amongst India’s female athletes this year.

The junior hockey girls, achieved something on par with what Sindhu did when they finished the third-best team at their world cup and brought home a bronze medal, which was India’s first medal ever from the competition in Monchengladbach, Germany.

They beat England 3-2 on penalties in the decisive bronze medal playoff match.

The Indian girls proved to be a dangerous outfit right through the competition, surprising many of the top sides and making their way into the final four. They also went one better from the previous edition, where they had made their way to the bronze medal match, only to be pipped by South Korea.

Hockey India deservedly felicitated the achievement by granting a cash bonus of Rs. 1 lakh to each of the players and chief coach Neil Hawgood while the other members of the coaching staff received Rs. 50,000 each.

18-year-old Rani, who was not only the star of the Indian team, but of the whole tournament, vindicated by the Player-of-the-Tournament award bestowed upon her, was awarded a further lakh.

In general, the women outdid the men through the year.

The senior team, despite not picking up any gold, performed admirably in collecting the bronze at the Asia Cup and the silver in the Champions Trophy.

Leander Paes

Leander Paes (R) of India and Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic pose with their trophy after winning their men’s doubles final against Alexander Peya of Austria and Bruno Soares of Brazil at the 2013 US Open

The 40-year old veteran won the US Open mixed doubles title with his Czech partner Radek Stepanek. It was his 8th men’s doubles title in Grand Slams and 14th overall.

Paes and Stepanek clinched their second major title together with a dominant 6-1, 6-3 win over the Austrian-Brazilian pairing of Alexander Peya and Bruno Soares.

The Indian tennis star proved that age is merely a number, collecting his third doubles title at the US Open at the age of 40.

In the other two Slams that they played together, they were bumped out in the first round at the Australian Open and reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon where they went down to Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo in a five-set thriller.

They did not play together at the French Open due to Stepanek’s injury, with Paes partnering Austrian Jurgen Melzer instead.

Paes and Stepanek finished the year ranked at No. 7.

Men’s and women’s kabaddi teams

The Indian men’s kabaddi team

The men’s team won their 4th title in as many World Cups, maintaining their perfect streak with a win over Pakistan. The final this time around wasn’t as easy as in previous editions as the Pakistanis put up a game fight, but the 3-time defending champions edged them out in the end. The tournament has become something of a favourite stomping ground for the kabaddi team and it once again demonstrated that they were still the best in the sport, despite improvement from the other teams over the years.

The women too faced Pakistan, but in their semi-final, and after overcoming the neighbours proceeded to beat New Zealand in the final. This was the second instance of the women’s world cup and India made it a clean sweep of both the trophies by triumphing in this one as well.

Women’s Recurve Archery team

Indian women archers Rimil Buriuly (L), Deepika Kumari (C) and Bombayla Devi pose with their gold medals during a meeting with the V. K. Malhotra President of Archery Association of India in New Delhi on August 27, 2013.

Individually they may not have struck gold, but the famed women’s recurve team as a group performed really well to come out with two gold medals to their name.

India’s leading recurve archer Deepika Kumari, along with Laishram Bombayla Devi and Rimil Buriuly had a highly successful year together as a team.

The trio had bagged gold in the World Cup Stage 3 final in Medellin, Colombia after beating China in the title clash.

They then went on to cause a stunning upset of world and Olympic champions Korea in the World Cup Stage 4 final in Wroclaw, Poland in August.

Deepika Kumari also had a fine year overall individually as she ended the year with seven international medals to her name – three gold, three silver and one bronze.

Deepika’s third gold medal, after the twin team triumphs at the World Cup, came in the mixed team event at the 18th Asian Archery Championship in Chinese Taipei where she went on to win in the company of Jayanta Talukdar, the leading male recurve archer.

She picked up two silvers early in the year at World Cup Stage 1 final in Shanghai, China, in the mixed team event and in the individual category.

The third silver medal came at the prestigious World Cup Final in Paris where she had to settle for silver for a third year in succession as she was edged out by Korea’s Ok-Hee Hyun.

She finished the year ranked No.3 in the individual recurve rankings.

The lone bronze also came with Talukdar at the World Cup Stage 3 final in Medellin, Colombia, in the mixed team event.

Indian Compound Archery team

The men’s compound archery team that achieved gold at the Asian Championships

While the women’s recurve team put up consistent good shows, it was a breakout year for India’s compound archers who emerged from the shadows of their more famous compatriots.

The compound team took inspiration from the women recurve’s world-beating efforts as the trio of Abhishek Verma, Ratan Singh Khuraijam and Sandeep Kumar caused a major upset of their own when they beat the Koreans to take gold in the men’s team event at the Asian Archery Championships in Taipei.

It was the second gold for India in the men’s compound category at the event after an individual gold for IR Sanam at the 2009 edition in Bali.

The team grew from strength to strength through the year and came ever so close to winning a historic gold at the World Cup Stage 2 in Turkey, where the mixed team of Rajat Chauhan and Majudha Soy finished runners-up to the Italian team by a solitary point.

After qualifying third, the team of Chauhan and Soy went on a fairy tale run defeating all before them, that included the likes of fancied nations such as Great Britain, Canada and Russia, to make their first ever final.

Their performance was in fact the saving grace for India at the World Cup Stage 2 as the fancied recurve archers finished empty-handed after a disastrous showing.

At World Cup Stage 3 in Colombia, the men’s team won bronze and at the Asian Youth Championships in Wuxi, China, the team returned with one silver and four bronze medals.

Rajat Chauhan bagged that lone silver in the men’s individual event.

At the Asian Archery Championships, they had another successful run, collecting two gold, one silver and one bronze to further add to their tally. One of those golds, as mentioned earlier, came when the men’s team upset the Koreans. The second came in the mixed category as the team of Abhishek Verma and Lily Chanu beat the Iranians by one point in the title clash

Vijay Kumar Malhotra, President of the Archery Association of India, was unwavering in his praise for the compound archers.

“This year is entirely dedicated to compound archers in view of their brilliant performance in all international competitions attended during 2013 which is a good sign for the preparation of ensuing 2014 Asian Games, Incheon where Compound event has been included for the first time,” said Malhotra.

Indian Wrestlers

Amit Kumar (L) came home with the silver in the freestyle 55 kg category at the World Championships

At the 2013 Asian Wrestling Championships held in New Delhi, India finished with nine medals overall – two gold, one silver and six bronze.

However, that was good enough only for fifth place overall in the medal standings behind South Korea, Uzbekistan, Japan and China.

In the men’s freestyle though, India finished as the top nation with 48 points, three ahead of Iran who finished second with 45. India finished seventh in men’s Greco-Roman and fourth in women’s freestyle.

Two Amits, Amit Kumar and Amit Kumar Dhankar, won gold in the men’s freestyle 55 kg and  66 kg categories respectively while Bajrang Kumar took bronze in the 60 kg category and Hitender in the 120 kg category.

In women’s freestyle, Vinesh, Babita Kumari, Geetika Jakhar and Jyoti won bronze medals while Navjot Kaur took silver in the 67 kg category.

There was more good news to come for India in the World Championships held at Budapest, Hungary in September. For the first time, India won two medals in the men’s events at the World Championship.

Wrestler Bajrang bagged a bronze in the 60 kg freestyle category with a 9-2 win over Nyam-Ochir Enkhsaikhan of Mongolia which took him to the final. The second medal came from Amit Kumar Dahiya when he won silver in the 55 kg weight category.

The performance meant India scored 23 points at the tournament to finish sixth in the rankings behind Iran, Russia, Georgia, Ukraine and USA and in addition, their performance earned them a first ever berth in the World Cup to be held next year.

“I am very happy with my performance. I was gunning for the gold medal as I had practiced hard for the tournament but unfortunately couldn’t get it due to bad umpiring decision. The referee warned me for not attacking the Iranian and awarded him the point. I was a contender for gold. Nevertheless, I am happy with my performance and overwhelmed by the reception received here,” said Amit.

India’s Barjang Barjang celerates his bronze medal on the podium of the men’s free style 60 kg category of the World Wrestling Championships in Budapest

“I am happy to have made the whole country proud. I am happy with my performance. This is India’s best-ever finish in the World Championship,” said Bajrang

Not to be left behind, the Greco-Roman contingent also provided a medal as Sandeep Tulsi Yadav won bronze in the 60 kg category.

Amit received a cash award of Rs. 5 lakh from the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) while Sandeep and Bajrang each received Rs. 3 lakh.

And in the final major competition of the year, the freestyle men’s wrestlers returned with 14 medals at the Commonwealth Wrestling Championships in Johannesburg to successfully defend their title. They bagged seven gold, four silver and three bronze medals.

Sandeep Tomar (55kg), Jaideep (60kg) and Amit Kumar Dhankar (66kg), Praveen Rana (74kg), Pawan Kumar (84kg) Satyavart Kadian (96kg) and Joginder Kumar (120kg) clinched gold medals in their respective weight categories.

Silver was won by Narender (55kg), Ravinder Singh (60kg), Naresh (84kg) and Rohit Patel (120kg), and bronze went to Arun Kumar (66kg), Pardeep (74kg) and Hardeep (96kg).

The men’s Greco-Roman contingent also came back with a rich haul of seven gold, five silver and two bronze. The women’s team finished runner-up with two gold, four silver and five bronze.

European football: Zeroes of the weekend featuring Ramires, Dortmund and Manuel Pellegrini

They say a moment of brilliance can decide close games, but so can some horrific blunders, moments of madness that tend to change the game for the worse.

Along with its collection of heroes, the game throws up its fair share of villains who did their best to help their team in a losing cause or at worst leave a bad taste in the mouth with their actions.

Here are this week’s candidates:

Andre Marriner and Robert Madley

West Brom pair Boaz Myhill and Gareth McAuley appeal to referee Andre Marriner after he awards a late penalty to Chelsea during the Barclays Premier League match between Chelsea and West Bromwich Albion at Stamford Bridge on November 09, 2013 in London, England.

The two gentlemen Andre Mariner and Robert Madley were put on the spot, quite literally, as another week of Premier League action came to a close with two games being talked about for the referees and the decisions they made.

On Saturday, Mariner awarded the controversial last gasp penalty when he deemed that Ramires had been fouled in the box. West Brom were on the verge of a famous win at Stamford Bridge leading 2-1, before the penalty incident and Eden Hazard stepped up to slot home and keep intact Jose Mourinho’s record of never having lost a league game at home as Chelsea manager.

On Sunday, Madley was in the spotlight for similar reasons when he acted equally late in the game to award a rather harsh penalty to Stoke City when the ball brushed the hands of Wayne Routledge on its way out.

In Chelsea’s case, it was a clear dive from Ramires, who went down under the challenge of a normal shoulder dash. It was a harsh decision on West Brom, as even after conceding the second goal, Chelsea really had not looked very threatening.

The other game was in a very similar situation. An entertaining game at the Liberty Stadium had seen Swansea fight back from going a goal down to lead 3-2 going into the final minutes thanks to Wilfried Bony’s well taken double. The ball did brush Routledge’s hand, but he did not have his arms up in an unnatural position and the contact was merely  the consequence of the winger being in the way of the shot.

Charlie Adam converted the spot kick and Swansea were denied the full three points, just like West Brom.

Manuel Pellegrini

Manchester City’s Chilean manager Manuel Pellegrini looks on from the touchline during the English Premier League football match between Sunderland and Manchester City at Stadium of Light in Sunderland, northeast England on November 10, 2013. Sunderland won 1-0

City have been woeful away from home this term; they have won just one of their five games, drawn another and lost three.

The pattern is getting a little worrisome for City fans as they see their team resplendent at home, putting away opponents with minimal fuss, yet the same sort of magic has not been replicated away.

Manuel Pellegrini will be asked some serious questions after his team selection left plenty of room for introspection. He fielded a back-four which has never played together before in Aleksandr Kolarov, Micah Richards, Joleon Lescott and Martin Demichelis.

He left out experienced heads Pablo Zabaleta and Matija Nastasic and played Javi Garcia in midfield ahead of Fernandinho. Did he think that Sunderland, being bottom of the table, afforded him that opportunity? Was it a case of complacency from City’s manager?

If yes, it did come back to bite them, especially so in the absence of their most creative player, David Silva, through injury.

Against Aston Villa, where they lost 2-3 at Villa Park, Garcia was played at centre-back ahead of Lescott.

Some of Pellegrini’s decisions have been baffling and a fair share of criticism for their away form could be apportioned to the Chilean.

Ramires

Ramires of Chelsea runs with the ball during the UEFA Champions League Group E match between Chelsea and FC Schalke 04 at Stamford Bridge on November 6, 2013 in London, England

Chelsea’s Brazilian midfielder Ramires hit the headlines for his Ashley Young-esque dive on Saturday that earned his side a crucial last gasp penalty which was converted by Hazard to help them draw the game.
It was a blatant dive from the Brazilian and as much as Jose Mourinho ranted on about it being a knock-down penalty, he’s not fooling anyone.

The video replays clearly show that Ramires goes down under the most minimalist of shoulder brushes from Steven Reid.

The referee was at fault for not spotting the act from Ramires, but it was an ugly incident that Chelsea and the Brazilian could have done without.

Juanfran

Atletico Madrid were held by Villareal to a 1-1 draw in an exciting clash at the El Madrigal. And the result meant that the one point lead to league leaders Barcelona is now three points.

Atletico had quite fortuitously taken the lead with an own goal, but Diego Simeone’s side returned the favour when Juanfran put through his own net with about 15 minutes to go to give the game a 1-1 ending.

Real Madrid also closed the gap to their city rivals with a thumping 5-1 win over Sociedad.

Borussia Dortmund

Marco Reus (#11) of Dortmund argues with referee Jochen Drees (R) after the Bundesliga match between VfL Wolfsburg and Borussia Dortmund at Volkswagen Arena on November 9, 2013 in Wolfsburg, Germany.

Having lost their midweek game to Arsenal, Dortmund suffered a second successive loss when they were beaten by Wolfsburg 1-2.

And on a day when Bayern Munich created a new record unbeaten streak with 37 games to further strengthen their position at the top of the table, it was lost ground for Dortmund.

Dortmund also suffered a major setback as Serbian defender Neven Subotic suffered torn ligaments and has been ruled out for an extended period, said to be a minimum of six weeks.

Klopp’s side were beaten by a wonder strike from Croatian striker Ivica Olic that sailed past the reach of Roman Weidenfeller.

You can’t really blame Dortmund for making any callous mistakes that cost them the game, but they were guilty of not finishing off some of the chances in both their games, against Wolfsburg as well as Arsenal.

As the home side, they did have good control of the game against Arsenal in the opening one hour, but failed to make the most of it. At one stage, the match stats read 14 attempts from Dortmund with 3 on target, while Arsenal’s was one attempt with one on target.

The goal made it two attempts with both on target.

These missed chances could have a larger implication in the larger scheme of things. Their loss to Arsenal pushed them back to third place in the group in the Champions League, and though they can still qualify, it would require a perfect performance in their remaining games.

In the Bundesliga, they have lost further ground to Bayern, who are still unbeaten. The gap is now four points with Dortmund set to welcome the champions to the Signal Iduna Park when hostilities resume on November 23 after the international break.

Lots of hot air and very little substance

Ah! Hot air balloons, things of beauty!

The hot air balloon is the oldest successful flight technology available to man, and it’s one that allows us to fly high above the skies giving one a sense of elevation that one does not get when one’s feet are on the ground.

If you’re a football fan, every summer you get bombarded with plenty of these hot air balloons. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Annual round of summer transfer gossip!

Taking an imaginary flight in the realms of the footballing stratosphere with leading players and their agents making a beeline for the next big money move, and the fans’ wildest fantasies being plucked out of their imagination and used as cannon fodder in the endless stream of transfer-related tattle that floods our internet space and takes much of our waking time; that is the transfer gossip machine at its best, where most of the information that comes along is gibberish.

There’s a reason why the news from the gossip mill is called transfer dope; it is aimed to precisely have that effect, to get the fans hooked on to it, eager and waiting for the next shot of news and then the next and one more thereafter, until such stage when the fan can no longer live without a shot of transfer news. With only a handful of teams competing for top honours each season, the transfer window represents clubs’ chance to make a key transfer signing and get the fans fired up.

Edinson Cavani, formerly of Napoli and now with French champions Paris Saint Germain, was one of the big fishes in this year’s summer transfer market. Chelsea and Real Madrid made the early running on the Uruguayan, but sometime in between all the speculation emerged a report, straight out of the blue, which claimed that Manchester United were in the race to sign the forward; this came out when just the previous evening another paper reported that Chelsea were on the verge of completing the signing of Cavani.

Manchester United fans over the last 3 years or so have been assured that their team has been close to sealing the transfer of ___________ (fill in the blanks with either of Wesley Sneijder, Kevin Strootman, Lucas Moura and Thiago Alcantara), only to still be stuck with the likes of Tom Cleverley and Anderson in midfield and being forced to recall a veteran out of retirement a couple of seasons ago.

Reportedly, Thiago lost about 400,000 followers on Twitter the day he signalled his intention to re-unite with former coach Pep Guardiola at Bayern Munich, while Cesc Fabregas found 800,000 new followers when he woke up to the news that Man United had made a bid for him. The desperation in those fans for a world class midfielder is palpable; Messrs’ David Moyes and Ed Woodward are you listening?

And, if you are someone who’s been paying close attention to the transfer window, you would just be astounded at the amount of info in the hands of janitors, nurses, doctors and airport attendants who seemingly tip off reporters that they’ve just seen Cristiano Ronaldo arrive at Manchester airport via a private jet, Wayne Rooney with Jose Mourinho in a café, Eden Hazard doing the rounds of London and visiting a public toilet while at it!

The common joke going around a few weeks ago was that According to latest reports, Strootman has undergone so many medical tests at United, that he's now a qualified doctor!

Meanwhile in North London, ‘Le Professeur’ Arsene Wenger has been the talk of town for the “war chest” that he has been handed by the Arsenal board to fill the squad with some quality players. No day has been complete without at least 2 reports on how Arsenal have neared signing Gonzalo Higuain from Real Madrid (who, if today morning’s dope is to be believed is on the way to Napoli, hard luck Arsenal fans) while also courting Luis Suarez of Liverpool with Champions League football.

The main actors are in this are always the players, figuratively and quite literally. The range of emotions that they go through outshines that of most soap opera and movie stars. Rooney has been left “angry and confused” after manager Moyes’ comments, last year Cristiano Ronaldo was “sad” at Madrid. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who moved from AC Milan to PSG in the summer of 2012 on a salary of £11 million-a-year, claimed to “miss his freebies” from Italy.

That is the crazy, mad world of the football transfer window; propelled by fantasy football, dearth of stories in other spheres, hero worship and ‘insider’ info filled with lots of hot air and very little substance.

So, if you can keep your head above water for the most part, and enjoy the rumour mill making judicious use of the information that comes hurtling down, one should be in a good place. Just make sure not to get too high on the transfer dope though!

Band of Brothers - Part III

Right from the Neville's to the Laudrup's, we have gone globe-trotting to look at the most famous brother pairings to have played international football for their countries. And this is the concluding part of our mini series - "Band of Brothers"

The De Jong’s – Luuk and Siem

Siem, the elder, has played 4 times for the Dutch national team scoring twice; this after coming through steadfastly at the Under-17, Under-19, Under-21 and Netherlands B teams. He is the club captain of Ajax where he has been a prolific scorer with 50 goals in 148 appearances and has won 3 consecutive Eredivisie titles.

Brother Luuk has 3 more caps at the international level and currently plays for Borussia Monchengladbach where he moved last summer after 3 years with FC Twente where he won the Eredivisie in 2009-10.

The Bender’s – Lars and Sven

The Bender twins – Lars and Sven – one plays for Bayer Leverkusen, the other plies his trade with Borussia Dortmund, runners-up in this year’s Champions League. Lars and Sven are both midfielders and started their careers with 1860 Munchen before going to Leverkusen and Dortmund respectively. The twins have represented Germany at every level – the Under-17’s, Under-19’s, Under-20’s, Under-21’s and Senior level. Sven has 4 senior caps while Lars has 14 with 3 goals to boot. They were part of the side that won the 2008 European Under-19 Championship.

The Charlton’s – Sir Bobby and Jack

Just like how the Koeman’s won the Euro together, so did the Charlton’s; except that it was the World Cup that they won in 1966 on home soil, England’s lone triumph to date.

Sir Bobby is a Manchester United legend having played all but 2 seasons of his football as a player with the Red Devils. Regarded by many as one of the best midfielders to have ever played the game, Sir Bobby was a midfield maestro who ran the show for United with great passing. He was also a great shooter from distance. The England legend was a survivor from the Munich air crash that claimed the lives of many of the famed ‘Busby babes’ of United. He went on to win 3 First Division titles, 1 FA Cup and that famous European Cup triumph in 1968. His performances at the World Cup in 1966 got him the Golden Ball award for best player as well as the Ballon d’Or. He is currently a director with Manchester United.

Brother Jack played for the other United – Leeds. While Sir Bobby was the beating heart of United in midfield, Jack shored up the backline as a powerful centre-back and was part of the successful Leeds sides of the 1960’s and early 70’s. In comparison to his brother’s 106, Jack was capped only 35 times. , but the defensive partnership he forged with England captain Bobby Moore was instrumental in their title run in ’66. Much like Sir Bobby, Jack too was a one-club man; he spent each of his 11 seasons at Elland Road winning the First Division and FA Cup once. He enjoyed some brief seasons in management at Middlesbrough and Newcastle United, but really hit it big with the Republic of Ireland whom he managed for 10 years between 1986-1996.During that time, Ireland qualified for the Euros in 1988 and also qualified for the World Cup for the first time in 1990.

The Berezutsky twins – Aleksei and Vasili

The 2 twins even have identical footballing careers. Both of them defenders, they started off at Torpedo-ZIL and then made the move to CSKA Moscow where they continue to play currently. Aleksei has 261 appearances for CSKA  with 5 goals, while Vasili has played 252 times and scored 6 goals. Vasili though has more international caps with 70 caps for Russia  to his brother’s 51. They have jointly have 1 UEFA Super Cup to their name along with 4 Russian league titles and the Bronze medal from the 2008 European Championships.

The Milito’s – Diego and Gabriel

Diego, at 34 is still playing and is a lead striker for Inter Milan. He has however missed a good part of the season due to injury. The 2009-10 was his best when his prolific scoring helped Inter to a historic treble winning the Serie A, the Italian Cup and the Champions League. Nicknamed ‘El Principe’ (The Prince), Diego has 24 international caps and was voted the UEFA Club Footballer of the Year as well as the Serie A Footballer of the Year in the 2009-10 season.

Gabriel has 42 caps, but is now retired despite being 2 years younger. He too played at Zaragoza from where they got their big moves – Diego moved to Inter while Gabriel moved to Barcelona. He won 1 Champions League and 2 La Liga titles with the Catalans. He did win the Spanish Cup once with Zaragoza earlier.

The Olsson’s – Martin and Marcus

The Olsson twins (not Ashley and Mary-Kate) represent Sweden and both play for English club Blackburn Rovers which is owned by Venky’s. Martin who plays left-back or left midfield has 15 caps for Sweden, 13 more than his brother. The two of them usually play in front of each other, at left-back and left midfield, and that flank has hence come to be known as the ‘Olsson flank’. German NBA star Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks is their brother-in-law.

The Baresi’s – Franco and Giuseppe

One Milan legend. One Inter legend.

These 2 are as one club as they get. Franco played all 25 years of his career with AC Milan including 5 of his Youth years.  Giuseppe did the same with Inter, spending 21 seasons there; it was only in the fag end of his career that he had 2 years with Modena.

Franco is considered one of the greatest defenders of all time. He was a sweeper, who won 3 Champions League titles, 6 Serie A titles, 4 Supercoppas, 3 European Super Cups and 2 Intercontinental Cups. In 1999, he was voted the AC Milan Player of the Century by the Giallorossi. He has coached the Under-19 and Under-20 teams of Milan too. He played 82 times for Italy and won the 1982 World Cup with the Azzuri.

Giuseppe didn’t have the same success with Italy; he only played 18 times. But, he had a stellar club career with Inter winning 2 Scudettos, 2 Coppa Italias and 1 Supercoppa in his 16 senior seasons with the club. He is currently the assistant manager of the Inter first team.

Band of Brothers (Part-II)

Part 2 of our look at the most famous brothers to have represented their countries in international football.

The Ravelli twins – Thomas and Andreas

The 1994 World Cup in the USA saw Thomas Ravelli at his best. In an international career that spanned almost two decades, starting in 1981, Ravelli played in the 1990 FIFA World Cup, Euro 1992, and the 1994 World Cup, in which Sweden finished 3rd, amassing 143 caps for his country in the process. His finest moment came when he saved 2 penalties during the shootout of the ’94 World Cup against Romania, that saw the Swedes progress into the semi-finals. Thomas is a Swedish football legend and also had club success as he won won an incredible 9 Swedish league championships and a Swedish Cup in his fantastic career.

Andrea won 41 caps for Sweden and 3 Swedish league titles.

The Ayew’s – Andre, Abdul Rahim and Jordan

Andre Ayew, the most successful of the three, has played his entire senior career with Marseille. He starred for and captained the under-20 Ghana team that won both the 2009 African Youth Championship and the 2009 FIFA U-20 World Cup. Andre plays as a striker and has 43 caps for Ghana with 4 goals. He is the middle brother in the trio.

Eldest of the lot, Abdul Ibrahim has only played 6 times for country as a defensive midfielder and picked up the silver medal at the African Cup of Nations in 2010. The youngest, Jordan, has 10 international caps and like Andre has so far played only for Marseiller since joining in 2009. Jordan has won the 2009-10 Ligue 1 title.

The Laudrup’s – Michael and Brian

One of the most decorated set of brothers to have ever played the game and the two greatest Danish players ever in the history of the game. We often see in most cases, one of the siblings doing markedly better than the other. There is as much width as a single strand of hair between these two.

Brian Laudrup played for Bayern Munich, AC Milan, Fiorentina, Rangers, Chelsea and Ajax; he played 82 times for Denmark and won the 1992 European Championships. He was named in the team of the tournament at both Euro ‘92 and the ‘98 World Cup; a 4-time Danish footballer of the year, he won the Champions League, Serie A, 3 Scottish titles, UEFA super cup and 2 Danish league titles. He was named on the FIFA 100 list of greatest living players ever.

If you think Brian’s career was impressive, how’s this for a list…. Michael earned 104 caps for Denmark, played for some of the biggest clubs in world football- Barcelona, Real Madrid, Juventus, Lazio and Ajax. He won 5 La Ligas in a row, a European Cup, a World Club Cup and a Serie A title. The brilliance of the man is best encompassed through these quotes by fellow footballers:

Romário: “The best player I have ever played with and the 4th best in the history of the game”

Raúl: “The best I have ever played with”

Andres Iniesta: “Who is the best player in history? Laudrup.”

Lionel Messi: “I fully understand why he is considered one of the best players in Barcelonas history and even the world.”

Franz Beckenbauer: “Pelé was the best in the 60s, Cruyff in the 70s, Maradona in the 80s and Laudrup in the 90s.”

Brian currently works as a commentator, pundit and analyst on Swedish channel TV3+. He also manages a football academy back home which aims to help out marginalized youth. Michael is currently manager of Premier League side Swansea City.

The Kalou’s – Bonaventure and Salomon

For both brothers, Feyenoord proved to be the starting point after they left their home country for European football. Bonaventure played 6 seasons with Feyenoord as a winger predominantly; Salomon, who once came to visit his brother, impressed the folks at the club who signed him on as a youth player. The signing was almost as a replacement as it came the year that Bonaventure left Feyenoord for Auxerre and then went on to PSG. He played 47 times for Cote d’Ivoire scoring 10 goals. At club level, he won the Eredivisie once with Feyenoord and 2 French Cups (with Auxerre and PSG).

Salomon picked up the pieces left by his brother at Feyenoord and had a very impressive 3 seasons there scoring 35 goals in his 69 appearances. That caught the attention of Chelsea who signed him in the summer of ’06. After 6 years with the Blues, he moved to Lille in 2012 where he has been contributing handsomely with 13 goals in 26 appearances so far. He was more prolific than his elder brother for country, scoring 21 times in his 57 appearances. He won 1 Premier League title and 4 FA Cups with Chelsea and was part of their maiden Champions League triumph in the 2011-12 season. In 2010, he set up the Kalou Foundation aimed at providing facilities for social welfare.

The Neville’s – Gary and Phil

Gary is England’s most capped right-back and is synonymous with Manchester United having been a one-club man. Having joined as an apprentice at the age of 16, he emerged through the ranks as a part of now famous ‘Fergie’s Fledglings’ that included his brother and other United stalwarts such as David Beckham, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs. He went on to captain the club for 5 years in the 2000’s.His potent partnership with Beckham on that right flank for United provided a regular supply of assists for the club. Gary won 8 Premier League titles, 3 FA Cups and 2 Champions League winners medals. He currently works for Sky Sports as pundit and commentator.

Younger brother Phil pretty much won the same trophies – he won 2 fewer league titles and one less Champions League. Both of them played in the right-back position and after 10 years at United, Phil decided to move on to Everton with whom he finished his career this past season. A very versatile player who could also play in midfield, Neville currently holds a UEFA B coaching license and is on the radar of quite a few clubs post his retirement.

The Toure’s – Kolo and Yaya

The Cote d’Ivoire has a fair share of such brothers, none more famous than Yaya and Kolo Toure. The two of them in fact have even played for the same club – Manchester City – since 2010.

Yaya is one of the most dominating, physical midfielders around who also happens to have great technique. He has 78 caps for his country and after starting with Olympiacos and Monaco, secured his move to Barcelona where he caught everyone’s attention. He has won league titles in 4 countries – in the Cote d’Ivoire, Greece, Spain and England. He received the prestigious African Footballer of the Year award twice in a row in 2011 and 2012.

Kolo, 2 years elder, first arrived in the English Premier League in 2002 with Arsenal and spent 7 seasons with the Gunners before making the switch to Manchester City. He was part of the winning ‘Invincibles’ squad at Arsene Wenger’s disposal in 2003. He has a century of caps (103) to his name and with Arsenal won 1 Premier League title and 2 FA Cups. With Manchester City he added another league title and another FA Cup. He has moved to Liverpool FC in the summer transfer window as a free agent after his contract expired with City.

They have another brother, Ibrahim, who plays football but has not donned national colours.

The Koeman’s – Ronald and Erwin

The Koeman’s are second generation footballers as sons of former Dutch player Martin Koeman who had a solitary cap to his name. Erwin Koeman, the elder of the two by a year, played for PSV Eindhoven, FC Groningen and Mechelen and was capped 31 times by his country. At Mechelen, he won 1 Belgian First Division title and the European Super Cup as well as Cup Winners’ Cup. He was a double Eredivisie winner with PSV in 1991 and 1992. After retirement, he has had stop-start spells in management at PSV, RKC Waalwijk, Feyenoord and Utrecht. He even managed the Hungarian national football team for 2 years. He is currently manager at RKC in his 2^nd spell there.

Ronald, the younger and more famous of the two, played for all of Hollands “big 3″ picking up 4 league titles and 3 Dutch cups. He is a double European Cup winner, first with PSV in 1987-88 and later with Barcelona in 1991-92 with whom he also won 4 La Liga titles. Ronald was a strong centre-back who has scored more goals than any other defender in the history of football. He had 187 goals in his 532 professional appearances at club level and 14 more in 78 caps with the Netherlands. A lot of it had to do with his powerful right-footed free-kicks and his ability from set pieces. He is currently the manager of Feyenoord and has managed at some of the biggest clubs around such as Ajax, PSV and Valencia. He added title wins in his stints at PSV and Ajax, this time as manager. His teammates at Barcelona gave him the name ‘Tintin’ for his resemblance to Herge’s fictional character.

The brothers have one rare distinction that has eluded some of the finest Dutch players ever – a winner’s medal at a major international tournament. The Koeman’s were a part of the Dutch team that won Euro’88. Ronald was voted Dutch Footballer of the Year 2 years running in 1987 and 1988.

Band of Brothers (Part-I)

Tahiti, the island nation from French Polynesia, are in the 2013 Confederations Cup as OFC champions. In their squad for the tournament, they have 3 brothers and a cousin playing together and one of them, Jonathan Tehau, did score in the first game against Nigeria. Familial presence across various sports is quite a feature. On that note, in a 3-part series, we look at some of the most famous band of brothers who have represented their countries at the national level including the Tehau’s of Tahiti.

The Tehau’s – Alvin, Lorenzo and Jonathan

Alvin and Lorenzo are twins and both play as an attacking midfielder or forward. They represent the same club in the Tahitian League, AS Tefana, and have almost the same number of international caps as well. Lorenzo was the leading scorer for Tahiti in the OFC Nations Cup which they won to qualify for the Confederations tournament. Jonathan meanwhile is the eldest of the trio, a year older at 25 and plays in the defensive midfielder role. The trio have a cousin, Teanoui Tehau, who is also in the 23-man squad at Brazil.

The Hassan’s – Hossam and Ibrahim

The pair are the most capped twins in international sport with Hossam playing 169 times and Ibrahim 125 times for Egypt. Hossam and Ibrahim spent the majority of their careers together. They played for fierce rivals Al Ahly and Zamalek as well as spending time at Greek Club PAOK Salonika. They won 13 Egyptian league titles and 5 cups. As well as 2 African Champions Leagues. Hossam added 3 African Nations cups onto his glittering career and was named the greatest African player of the last 50 years.

The Souza Viera de Oliveira’s – Socrates and Rai

Forget that family name, Socrates and Rai are the names that need remembering. Socrates is a legend in this game, just like his namesake from ancient Greece was in his own right (perhaps it’s in the name). Standing at 6’3”, he was an imposing physical presence and one of the greatest playmakers to ever play the game. Socrates was superbly two-footed and was as skilled as they come – his signature move was the blind heel pass. Sporting a beard and headband almost always, he became a very recognizable figure on the football field and became the symbol of cool for an entire generation. Socrates represented the Selecao in 2 World Cups (1982 & 1986), including captaining the side in the ’82 edition.

Socrates was not just a great footballer, he was also a very intellectual one; he worked as a columnist for several newspapers and magazines writing on sport, economics and politics. He was also a qualified doctor, a very rare feat amongst professional footballers. What is even more astounding is that he earned that medical degree while parallely playing football. Socrates breathed his last on 4 December, 2011. He was one of the greatest footballers to have never won the World Cup.

Rai, his younger brother by 9 years, did manage that World Cup win – as part of the 1994 squad led by Dunga. He spent most of his footballing career with 2 clubs – Sao Paulo and Paris Saint-Germain. He won the intercontinental cup once, the Libertadores cup twice and the Brazilian league once with Sao Paulo and the French league once, the French Cup twice and the Cup Winners Cup once with Paris Saint-Germain.

Both received the South American Footballer of the Year award once – Socrates in 1983 and Rai in 1992.

The Altintop twins – Halil and Hamit

Turk Hamit Altintop has been one of the most versatile midfielders in the game in the past 15 years or so. He has even played at right back sometimes. His thundering missiles from long distance have been a feature of his play right through his playing time at Schalke, Bayern Munich and Galatasaray. He has turned out 79 times for Turkey with 7 goals in them. He won 2 Bundesliga titles and 2 German cups in his time with Bayern.

Little is it known, that Hamit has a twin brother Halil, born 10 minutes after him, who plays as either a centre forward or winger. Halil too has played for most of his career in the Bundesliga with Kaiserslautern, Frankfurt and Schalke. He currently is with Trabzonspor in Turkey. He has 38 international caps with 8 goals to show.

The Inzaghi’s – Filippo and Simone

‘Pippo’ Inzaghi, the master poacher, represented two of Italy’s biggest clubs – Juventus and AC Milan. He turned out for Italy 57 times netting 25 goals. At Juve, he formed a formidable attacking partnership with Alessandro Del Piero and Zinedine Zidane scoring 57 goals for the Bianconeri in 4 seasons. The arrival of David Trezeguet instigated his move to rivals Milan where he became a club legend. He retired after playing 11 seasons with Milan post the 2011-12 season, making 202 appearances and scoring 73 goals. ‘Pippo’ won 3 Serie A titles (2 with Milan, 1 with Juve) and 2 Champions League crowns (both with Milan). He was part of the Gold medal winning Italy U-21team in 1994 as well as the World Cup winning senior team in 2006. 

One of the most prolific goal-scorers of all time, he is 5^th overall in Italy, with 313 goals. He is also the second all-time most prolific goal scorer in European club competitions with 70 goals, only beaten by Raúl's 77 goals and happens to hold the record for most hat-tricks in Serie A (10), and the Champions League (3, jointly with Michael Owen, Lionel Messi, and Mario Gómez). Filippo is currently the head coach of Milan’s Under-17 team.

The lesser known Inzaghi, Simone played 11 seasons with Lazio during the first decade of the 21^st century. He too was a striker and scored 28 times for the Eagles. He was restricted to just 3 international caps though and did not win any major titles.

The Da Silva twins – Rafael and Fabio

Only 22 and at the beginning of their international careers, both have 2 caps each to their name. Both are full-backs with Manchester United but while Rafael has grown and broken through into the starting XI at United, Fabio has not enjoyed the same success and spent last season on loan with QPR. Hence Rafael has 3 Premier League winners’ medals while Fabio has 1. Rafael was also part of the Brazil team that finished runner-up and earned the Silver medal at last year’s London Olympics. They have been compared to the Neville brothers of England.

The De Boer’s – Ronald and Frank

Both brothers were products of the famous Ajax youth academy which to this day continues to churn out some of the best talent around. They played together at Ajax, Barcelona and at Rangers in Scotland. Frank was the Netherlands’ most capped player, until Edwin Van der Sar surpassed him. He was a mainstay of the Dutch defence for over a decade. Ronald played 67 times for the country as attacking mid/forward. They were part of the 1995 UEFA Champions League winning Ajax side and also went on to win 5 Eredivisie titles and 1 La Liga with Barcelona. Ronald with Celtic won the Scottish league too once.

Frank is currently the manager of Ajax after being youth team manager between 2007-2010 and also working as assistant to Bert Van Marwijk with the national side.

CONFEDERATIONS CUP 2013: PLAYERS TO WATCH (Part II)

In the second part of a look at the players to whom the tournament will be an important one, we examine the teams from Group B of the Confederations Cup.

SPAIN

Iker Casillas, Real Madrid (Goalkeeper)

After being hung out to dry by Jose Mourinho for the majority of the season at Real Madrid, Casillas will be hungry to get back between the posts. We should perhaps not fault him for being a little rusty in the initial games from the elongated period of time spent warming the benches. Captaining the national team to yet another success could well prove to be the shot in the arm that provides Casillas a boost to his confidence.

Gerard Pique, Barcelona (Centre-back)

It has been a season of torment for the Barcelona stopper. After reports emerged from Spain that the club had placed Pique under surveillance for his rather ‘generous’ spending ways and his relationship with music star Shakira, his game on the field too has been well short over the last few months. Pique is very good in the air and with the ball at his feet, but he has been exposed time and time again by pacy, athletic forwards. He will need a big tournament in Brazil to restore some of his reputation; if it goes south he could find himself vacating that starting spot to someone else.

Fernando Torres, Chelsea/Roberto Soldado, Valencia/David Villa, Spain (Forwards)

This is the one area, where coach Vicente del Bosque and Spain are yet to arrive at a conclusion. Villa, Spain’s leading goal scorer of all time was the undoubted top dog in the team before his injury happened and the Barcelona striker has not been in the same lethal form since. ‘El Guaje’ has also been surrounded by talk of a move to the Premier League which could materialize now that Barca have also added Neymar to their ranks. The move could be good as it would get him more playing time with the World Cup around the corner.

Torres has had a revival under Rafa Benitez and though not quite striking fear into opponents as he used to, managed to put in a good account of himself with a return of 22 goals for the season, double that of last year. He also had an excellent Euro 2012 chipping in with 3 goals and 1 assist in Spain’s defence of their continental crown.

Soldado meanwhile continues to do what he does best – score goals, lots and lots of goals. He finished with 30 goals from 46 appearances for Valencia, a better return than either of the two above. Just for the record, his last goal scoring record for the last 5 seasons goes like this – 13, 20, 25, 27, 30! How is this guy not starting for ‘La Furia Roja’ you wonder? A technically proficient striker more than capable of the spectacular, this tournament could prove to be Soldado’s big break.

A fully fit Villa still remains Del Bosque’s first choice and at times he has even played a striker-less starting XI preferring to keep Torres and Soldado on the bench. It will be interesting to see how Del Bosque goes about sorting out this position ahead of the World Cup.

URUGUAY

Luis Suarez, Liverpool (Forward)

It’s been a while since we’ve seen Liverpool’s talented striker Luis Suarez on the pitch. All of the blame for that does lie at the Uruguayan’s unsavoury attempt at sinking his teeth into Branislav Ivanovic of Chelsea. Since then, Liverpool have again finished behind Everton and out of European competition, Suarez has made all sorts of noises back home about a move away from Anfield with Real Madrid seemingly on his mind.

But, come Sunday night, all of that will go to the back burner and the only thing that will matter is how he turns up for his national side through the tournament. If he showcases any of the form that kept him atop the goal-scorers’ standings until his ban, we will be in for quite a treat. Suarez already has 8 goals for his country in the 10 qualifiers that he’s played in. Edinson Cavani, in comparison, has played all 12 qualifiers yet scored only 3 times.

Diego Godin, Atletico Madrid (Centre-back)

While Radamel Falcao grabbed all the headlines with his goal scoring exploits, as strikers generally do, Diego Godin was the bedrock of Atletico’s stingy defence that propelled them to a 3^rd place finish in La Liga. Under Diego Simeone, Atletico have added some defensive ruggedness to their team which has been as important to their fortunes as the potency of Falcao up top.

Godin was one of the players of the season for Atleti alongside Falcao and amongst the top defenders in the league. He made 35 appearances (all start) and was the most used player behind keeper Thibaut Courtois. Marshalled by Godin, Atletico had the meanest defence in La Liga conceding just 31 goals, under a goal a game – a fantastic effort. Also, Atletico as a team have been very good at defending set pieces and at aerial duels, which comes as no surprise.

Gaston Ramirez, Southampton (Attacking midfielder)

The Saints dished out £12 million to acquire the services of Ramirez, one of the most promising young talents around. In his first season in England he built up a nice combination with Ricky Lambert and Adam Lallana which saw Southampton play some attractive attacking football.

He is very good with his dribble and likes to play those short passes amongst his teammates to open up space. It is early days yet at the national level for Ramirez, he’s made 7 appearances in the qualifying campaign, but with his talent and ability one reckons he will become a regular feature in the sky blue shirt of Uruguay in the coming years.

NIGERIA

Vincent Enyeama, LOSC Lille (Goalkeeper)

A veteran of the national side, Enyeama has been playing for the Super Eagles since 2002. Inspite of signing for Lille in 2011, he spent last season on loan in Israel with Maccabi Tel Aviv. He captained Nigeria to the 2013 African Cup of Nations title. Enyeama is rated amongst the best shot stoppers in football.

Ahmed Musa, CSKA Moscow (Forward)

20-year old Musa currently plays for CSKA in the Russian league. He often plays as a winger or a second striker and is a hot prospect amongst the emerging group of African footballers. He found the net 15 times for his club side last season and has 5 at the international level so far.

Efe Ambrose, Celtic (Centre-back)

We saw a lot of Ambrose in the UEFA Champions League this season as Celtic progressed to the last 16. He had a nightmare game in the 1^st leg at home against Juventus which his side ended up losing 3-0 effectively sealing the tie. However, one has to consider that Ambrose had just got off the flight a mere 24 hours before that game after winning the African Cup of Nations with Nigeria.

In the 2 games against Barcelona in the group stages, he was impressive in the rear guard action that Celtic put up. That performance earned him a place in the UEFA Champions League Team of the Week. He was also named in the African Cup of Nations Team of the Tournament.

TAHITI

In all honesty, I don’t think I can pick the three players to watch out for!

Only 1 of the 23 man squad is not from the Tahitian Division Federale. Tahiti won an international tournament for the first time when they lifted the OFC Nations Cup in 2012, thereby booking their tickets for this year’s Confederations Cup.

They will be led by defender Nicolas Vallar. Keeper Xavier Samin and defenders Teheivarii Ludivion and Vincent Simon are amongst the most experienced members of the travelling group.