Javier Mascherano. DM at River Plate and almost exclusively for Argentina. Moved to CB at Barca because of Buesquiets being the better distributor. Defensively Mascherano all the way.
Completely different circumstances. Pogba had played in United's first team when he left for Juventus and it was his decision not the clubs. Rice was 14 when he was released by Chelsea's academy. You can't retain every 14 year-old just in case one is a late developer.
I was kicking a ball against a wall repeatedly when I was 4. So were all my friends. None of us went on to play international soccer.
I hate those NBC Olympic cutaways that tell us that so and so "always dreamed of being in the Olympics". We've all dreamed of being in the Olympics at some point in our lives! The difference is that the rest of us didn't have the talent, determination and/or opportunity. Kicking a ball against a wall didn't turn Christian into a world-class soccer player, that was my point.
Yes, takes something special to make it He had the desire, some genes and was provided continual opportunity. The one thing that stood out to me when you saw him play as a young kid was certainly the skill, but he also obviously had an incredible engine. Add to that excellent training and something good can happen.
Yes Dr Jack Daniels, the college track and field coach, not the bourbon or the main character in The Shining, Jack Daniel Torrance, says there are 4 types of athlete, roughly those that are: 1. Talented and determined 2. Talented but not determined 3. Not talented but determined 4. Not talented or determined and that as an elite coach he's only interested in number 1.
You miss the other interation Determined but not Talented. Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard. Tim Tebow
anybody wanting to fact check can go back and read this thread around his early days at BVB. all of this was talked about then and is pretty much known to most of the old timers around this thread. His mom is quoted as saying the even tried to get Christian to play other sports. He did try organized basketball for a short time, a season or two IIRC but the common theme through out his childhood was soccer was his passion.He is just one of those peopel who founds their passion early in life. Now it might be a stretch to say his parents were "hands-off." I think they were always very much involved, but they were always as was stated earlier "facilitating" him. That is just good parenting. Today in America at least, words don't always mean what we think they mean, but in this case I believe facilitate means exactly that. They made sure he could pursue his dream and provided opportunity and Christian seemed to relish them. I liken it to me taking my kid fishing, well they did soccer just like some dads and kids do pointy ball. In this case it was a perfect storm of an incredibly precocious young player, and a parent who knew people, and those people knew people. At every step it appears Chris impressed. The eligibility for a Croatian Passport certainly didn't hurt as he got older. It is also worth noting dude bought his sister a house on a few acres, a small horse farm IIRC. I guess you never know what goes on behind closed doors, but from all appearances they are a modern day "Rockwell" or "Leave it to Beaver" type family. I think him buying his sister a house and a small farm speaks to how close they are, and what a fine person he is. I think he also realizes his entire family made sacrifices so he could pursue his dream. I believe it is, was, and always has been, "his dream" as opposed to him fulfilling his parents dreams.
I guess it's whether you think talent is naturally given instead of learned. We know some people are more inclined to just be better at some things. But you don't see tons of people in careers they should have no business being in because they weren't lucky enough to be born with the innate ability to do things better in that field. You'll see some yes, but most had to be taught, struggle, and learn to get to that specialty.
I can't give everyone a dab but man some great nuanced discussion the last few pages. He clearly had his family as a major asset but Pulisic was the kid that went out and hit rocks with a stick before he ever picked up a glove in this analogy. He's Tiger swinging his dad's sawed off 4 iron. Agassi was def forced, to an abusive level, but Pulisic and Woods loved the game and their parents fostered it perfectly. That soulja boy highlight his sister put together a decade ago is incredible, honestly it's one of the craizest things I've ever seen. It's like America's first world class talent against kids that mostly just wanted orange slices and in hindsight even given the competition level you can see that kid is special.
It won't be many more years before you could remake that video of him doing that to elite World class defenders. He really is that good.
You can tell he's always loved the game. This is the shit you see in countries with heavy futbol culture. And it's why we aren't that good at the sport. You have to love working alone with the ball from a young age. Just like basketball. At 10 his touch was better than Zardes's is as a full pro.
With the way youth sports is now in this country parents are often almost forced to be very involved in their kids sports career and development especially with how time consuming youth sports have become in this country.
I've long thought soccer and basketball have a lot of similarities as far as development. The sort of skill some guys have on the ball (and finding team mates) is something you mostly hone before puberty. The rest, at least in basketball, is up to genetics and dealing with adversity as a pro adult. Clearly soccer allows for more diversity in body type.
Zardes is the typical American soccer players. Great athlete with incredible genes, but absolutely no soccer skills or IQ. Eddie Johnson was one of the most frustrating players I've ever watched. Ran like a Ferrari to chase down a long pass, only to hold it and pass back to the midfield. Had no clue where to goal with the ball or how to attack the defense.
Talents are nurtured and developed as a kid. Professionalism is built as an adult. You need to be successful at both to reach elite levels.
I don’t really see Zardes as a top 10% athlete so great is a massive stretch. He doesn’t have another gear that the great athletes have sprinting even without the ball. Pulisic would absolutely bury him in a sprint, as would at least 5+ other NT pool players. If Zardes is great at anything, it’s Mason Mountesque effort and fitness (and he’s actually pretty good at positioning and making decent runs).