I CAN’T SEE ANY OTHER THING BUT SIMEONE…! I have a friend, a very good friend, who though not an Arsenal fan, supports everything about the London Club… he is a real Madrid fan…he loves the Spanish club as much as I love Arsenal…for just his sake…for just that mental chemistry to reciprocate goodwill, I was almost supporting Madrid for this one. My friend’s name is Chelly Uche Richards Jnr But I’m a moviemaker…a script writer for that matter! All my 16 years as a novelist and script writer, I’ve been dealing with stories built around heroes…I’ve followed the path of Diego Simeone since he joined Athletico Madrid as a player…and here is a perfect story for a bestseller. Whether as a novel or movie, we have a great work of maximum appeal if his journey is articulated and pushed through the magnificent world of creative arts. Let me quote Goal “Diego Simeones squad cost a grand total of €79.05m, with Arda Turan and Raul Garcia the most expensive signings in the group at €13m apiece, closely followed by Filipe Luis, bought from Deportivo La Coruna for €12m in 2010. Goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois remains on loan from Chelsea, while Diego Costa was purchased for under €2.5m, David Villa was somehow snapped up from Barcelona for a grand total of €5.1m, Diego Godin acquired for the bargain figure of €8m and many more arriving for free or for minimal fees. “Madrid, meanwhile, have brought in 11 players for more than Atletis most expensive footballers: Angel Di Maria (€25m), Isco (€27m), Sergio Ramos (€28m), Fabio Coentrao, Luka Modric and Pepe (€30m each), Karim Benzema (€35m), Xabi Alonso (€35.4m), Asier Illarramendi (€38m), Ronaldo (€94m) and Bale (€100m). Whats the difference between Real Madrid and Atletico? About €400 million, Simeone has said in the past. And although the Argentine is referring to the respective annual incomes of the two teams (Madrid €518m last year; Atleti €120m), he could have been talking about the sums spent by each side in the confection of the current squads - a difference of almost €443m.” I go off Goal and ask ... how then could David have triumphed over Goliath if God didn’t fight for the under-privileged? The underdogs as we’d say in this beautiful game? But believe me, when Atleti play, they do not play like underdogs. They wouldn’t have beaten AC Milan (home and away), beaten Barcelona, beaten Chelsea, beaten their opponents today… beaten any big side before them, including breaking the duopoly called the La Liga... if they werent very good. They remain the only side that haven’t lost a game in this year’s UCL. They’d of course, be worthy Champions! Past ten seasons of UCL have always followed the pattern of any team that ever knocks off Barca winning it. Atleti hasn’t only knocked out Barca, they added Chelsea to the pool too. And even though Real took care of Dortmund and Bayern as well, the history path points the way of Athletico. Simeone will become the first non-European manager to win it in 50 years…! So much history to be made by this modest but very compact side by winning it today! I’m a writer but believe me, God is the only perfect scriptwriter…and something tells me the Almighty himself wrote this one! I’m sorry, Chelly…but I’m going with Atleti to Lisbon and I’ll be routing for them all the way. The future of the beautiful game will be positively influenced with Atleti’s winning than Real’s. Money alone shouldn’t be deciding factors in football…astute planning, organization and perseverance should have a say too.
Posted on: Sat, 24 May 2014 14:00:15 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015