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Friday, December 10, 2010

The Ballon d'Or

Well, the time of year has come to name the best football player on earth. The 3 shortlisted for the award is Lionel Messi (not surprising), Andres Iniesta & Xavi. Also not surprising is that all 3 shortlisted players are from Barcelona's Football Club. What's also amazing is that all 3 players are also from Barcelona's youth academy. This is why I respect this football club, they nurture talent from a young age rather than buy it and aspect them to win thing right away(pun attended Real Madrid).


Don't get me wrong, Barca has the money to compete with any rich club in Europe or in the world for that matter, they can attract any big name to their club without even being interested in the player, but why they dont' follow in their rival's footsteps and just by talent? for one, to cut cost which is the obvious. Second, Barca knows that a team can't be built in a day and a team can win titles in overnight. Footballers are humans after all. We need to adapt to our surroundings, get to know your staff and other players and everyone knows that that can't happen right away. Barcelona has set this in motion behind close doors without anyone knowing what was about to come. Then suddenly with out warning, in 2009 they we unleashed.  Winning a Treble of titles under Pep Guardiola in his first season as manager, a beloved son of Barcelona FC. Footballers at Barcelona are not just players, they are family, they would die for each other and this shows with every football match. The team spirit at that football club is second to none. If there is one bad apple among the group of player with could ruin the team spirit, that bad apple will be shifted out and there are a few in recent years.


When we talk about these 3 shortlisted players for the FIFA Player of the Year Award coming through the youth ranks with  in Barcelona, we are not talking about only these 3 players , 7 players out of a possible 11 came trough their youth ranks. These same 7 also went on to represent their National team at the 2010 World Cup and won it after years of under achievements.Going back to Barca's youth academy, I believe that there are many more to come as we all witnessed when Barcelona put out a second string starting 11 in the Champions League last week. All 11 players we from the Club's youth academy and actually won the match convincingly. I do believe that this second string players will also one day be known to the world as magnificent football players, trust me.


I don't have any connections to the club nor do I support it, but by what their philosophies are and sticking to what they believe in is what makes me respect this football club.Owh yeah! and the style of football they play is not bad at all and is a joy to watch. Magnifico!!

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