THE SPANISH GIGANTE : LOS BLANCOS AND BLAUGRANES

After the showering of wealth on the best players in the world by the spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona,
are ready to begin on their quest to prove themselves the best team in the world. Both have spent heavily
over the summer and stacked each and every position with players good enough to get in the best team in the world.
So how do they weigh up in each department?

Forwards:

Forwards score your goals.Thats it.

Starting with the catalan club Barcelona whose artistry in the field would make even God's Architect Gaudi proud.They have some of the best forwards going on now in the form of Thiery Henry,young Bojan,Zlatan Ibrahamovic(a 40 million pound + Samuel Eto'o signing in the summer from Inter) and the little magician Lionel Messi,who is looking to take over from Maradona,the supremacy of Argentine football.This kind of lineup is almost a dream come true for any team in the world,and so the firepower is    much to be scared of for other teams.                                                  

                                                                                                      

On the other hand Madrid have dished out 80 million pounds for Cristiano Ronaldo,the reigining world footballer
of the year,56 million pounds for Kaka,the 2007 world footballer of the year,and 35 million pounds for Karim
benzema,the most sought after young striker in the world.Apart from that the quality of record goalscorer Raul,
Dutch maestro Ruud Van Nistelroy, and Gonzalo Higuain,add to form a forward lineup, which on paper is the best in
the world.







      

Midfielders:
Midfield is where the game is won or lost.Enough said.

Here the Blaugranes are the strongest in the world,not only on paper,but in reality ,the glimpses of which were seen during the semi-finals and finals of the Champions League as well as the whole of La Liga season last year. Names such as Xavi,Iniesta,Yaya Toure,young Sergio Bousquets,Seydou Kieta are enough to astonish any football
team(God knows why they are still after Cesc fabregas and javier Mascherano).Their midfield is so strong they did not need to buy even after selling a few squad players.

                                                                                                               

Los Galácticos have at their disposal equal talent to their rivals in the shape of new 30 million pound signing Xabi Alonso,experienced Fernando Gago,immaculate Lassana Diara,Hard working Momadou Diara,Guti, versatile Rafael van der Vaart and young Esteban Granero to go with squad players such as Drenthe.Such a hugely potent
midfield is wary of no opponent and capable of drubbing any side on a given day.

              

Defenders:
They save your skin!!!

Barca have a strong defence capable of weathering any storm.Captain Carles Puyol has been there and done that for
years,Gerard Pique has grown over the last year after arriving from Manchester United,Add to that Marquez.
Dani Alves a bursting wing back creating great crosses.New signing Dmytro Chygrynskiy coming for 22 million pound
from Sakhtar is an interesting addition to go with Eric Abidal.

                                              
                                                                                                                                

Madrid not the best defensively have names such as Pepe,the talented Sergio Ramos,Marcelo,Metzelder,Garay,
along with the new signings,spanish centre back Raul Albiol and right back Alvaro Arbeloa.Overall an average
defence.




.




Goalkeeper:

                                                                              
                                                                                      
Victor Valdes is not the best keeper in the world.FULL STOP.

Iker Casillas is amongst the best keeper in the world and the spainish captain is someone who you can rely on
in the worst of conditions against you.




        

And The Most Important Men:

THE BOSSES:

Pep has had a dream first year managing the team he made his name with as a player,but its hard to continue in
the same fashion as others would have better stratergies to counter Barcelona and so has a hard task at hand.
Having said all that,Pep has created a dream team,he has his players and the historic treble's repeat is
first priority of the man.



                                                                                                                                     Pep Guardiola
                                                                                                

Manuel Pellegrini the ex-Villareal boss is going to have the toughest of times handling the best players int the
world,not only trying to find the best formation,but to take care of the egoes of the giants of the modern era.
He comes in with a reputation for being a solid boss and the NEW GALACTICOS sucess depends solely on him.





            Manuel Pellegrini



THE MOST IMPORTANT PLAYER FROM BOTH SIDES:    Ricardo Kaka

THE GIANTS : THEN AND NOW

                                                                                                 

Football-The most popular game on earth,a game whose beauty mesmerizes one and all. The slick passing,dribbling and immense potential for creativity makes this game unique in sea of sports dominating the world.Like every discipline in life, this game has mostly below average and average players,some good players,some brilliant players,who come,ply there trade and then go away just to be forgotten. But only a few people in this age old game still stand out and are remembered as the crown jewels of this 90-minute nerve racking sport.

Among the sea of names like Beckenbauer,Cryuff,Platini,Best,Esuebio,Zico,Zidane,and inumerable others stand out two names,whom even those who have never seen a football match or touched a football in life , know about- Pele and Maradona.

Pele or "The Black Pearl" hails from the great soccer nation of Brasil,which is renowned for producing awesome talents most recently Ronaldo,Ronaldinho and Kaka.He is the most feared striker of all time and his stats of more than a thousand goals in alomst as many appearences is overwhelming, to say the least.

From the biggest rival nation of  Brasil comes the other undoubted great of the game, Argentine Diego Armando Maradona.Little Guy Maradona stood only  5foot 5 inches tall but still displayed the strength and a touch of magic to trick the best defenders in the game.

Both of these greats are forwards and forwards are known more then defenders because you score to win.Both had great club careers- Pele was part of Santos,the brasilian outfit,which was the best team in the world at that time,while Maradona was a big impact at Napoli, winning the scudetto with the team almost single handedly. Both had great international careers- Pele winning World Cups in 1958,1962 and 1970(with a team considered to be the best ever football team),whereas Maradona winning the 1986 world cup (scoring the infamous "Hand of god" goal and "The best goal ever" in the process),with an average bunch of players.

Who the greatest is of all time will always remain disputable although its safe to say that Maradona would have been far better without a drug addicton.

Nowadays amongst people like Rooney,Torres, Villa, Ibrahamovic,Maldini,Gerrard,Lampard,Xavi,Iniesta,Ribery,Ronaldinho and other excellent players,the ones catching most attention are the Real Madrid Duo of Kaka and Ronaldo,and the Barca Star Messi.

The Brazilian Kaka is amongst the best passers of ball of the present age,while Ronaldo is amongst the most complete attacking players around while Messi is constant threat from the Right and the centre.

At the club levels, Ronaldo and Messi have done a lot,just look at Manchester United's last three seasons and Barcelona last year,  but when it comes to international football more is wanted of them,infact both Argentina and Portugal are struggling to qualify for the world cup.

So my question is... is the world of football changing... where the best players play their hearts out for their clubs and just don national colours for the sake of it?