Reuters Soccer Blog

Unlike Del Piero et al, at least Beckham may get a farewell game

Fabio Capello’s impromptu announcement that David Beckham was too old to play for England has divided opinion across the blogosphere.

Some have said it was typical of Capello’s hard-nosed, no-nonsense style. Why should he have informed the 35-year-old? Why should he have made the announcement in a more official way? As coach he has the right to do as he wants and Beckham should have had the know-how to quit the international scene long ago.

Then again there are other bloggers who think Capello has been unnecessarily mean and that England’s most capped outfield player deserved better, especially as he is injured and went to the World Cup anyway to help out.

At least Capello has shown one slight chink of sentimentality and said Beckham can have a farewell in a friendly. There is a list of top players who never got that chance.

In Italy, Alessandro Del Piero and Filippo Inzaghi entered their mid-30s not knowing if they had played their last game for the Azzurri or not. As time went on through the reigns of Roberto Donadoni and Marcello Lippi, it became clear they would never be picked again but there was no soppiness. No goodbye for two good servants.

Raul had a similar experience in Spain. Perhaps it all goes to show that it is better to do a Zidane, Maldini or Shearer and nominate your retirement game so you can decide when to say goodbye and not the coach.

Predictions league hails the power of Drogba

Didier Drogba’s second goal in Sunday’s 2-0 win over Arsenal was the epitome of the Chelsea striker’s immense power.

It’s hard to know how any defence can stop him, even Inter Milan’s…

Top Premier League strikers are certainly having the best of it at the moment with Manchester United talisman Wayne Rooney scoring another in the 5-0 thrashing of Portsmouth.

Constrast Drogba and Rooney with Barcelona’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who has scored once in his last 10 matches, and misfiring Juventus forward Alessandro Del Piero. His side have slid all the way to seventh in Serie A.

Talking of who is in or out of form, our Premier League predictions competition had one standout performer at the weekend — leader Paul Radford, who was spot on with Chelsea’s 2-0 win. Paul racked up four correct scores in all, bagging a maximum five points for each, while he picked up three singles for guessing the right result in three other games.

A midweek fixtures programme awaits and as many of our panel are away at the Winter Olympics, here is a perfect chance to sneak up on them while their minds are focused on luge and freestyle skiing.

If that doesn’t tempt you, any new entrants get double points for the rest of the season. Oh, and we trust you to total up your own points too.

Who’s the best one-club player?

One-club players are rare and precious.

The likes of Paolo Maldini, Raul, Steven Gerrard and Paul Scholes might be handsomely paid by their clubs, but the fact they have spurned chances to get even richer elsewhere suggests they share at least some of the fans’ devotion to the colours they wear.

Inter Milan’s Patrick Vieira recognised this recently when talking about his former Juventus team mate Alessandro Del Piero.

“What I like about him, and envy a little, is that he has played all his career for the same team and won everything with that team,” Vieira told La Gazzetta dello Sport.

Indeed, Del Piero has a good claim to being the world’s top one-club man.

Five Serie A titles and a Champions League are part of the 34-year-old’s trophy haul at Juventus. He also holds the Turin club’s record for appearances and goals — he netted his 250th for Juve in Saturday’s 4-0 win at Reggina.

AC Milan’s Maldini has more Serie A and Italy appearances than Del Piero, Real Madrid’s Raul has scored more European goals and both have won more Champions Leagues, as have Scholes and his Manchester United team mate Ryan Giggs.

Friday afternoon question: Who’s the best free kick taker?

The above question came up in Mark’s blog about Del Piero (see below) and it stuck in my mind after my colleague Andre Assier interviewed Juninho this week.

Here’s an extract from Andre’s piece, which you can read in full here:

Olympique Lyon’s dead ball specialist Juninho scored his 40th free kick goal for the club against Steaua Bucharest in a Champions League game on Wednesday to make his mark on the French side’s scoring records.

The strike in a 2-0 home win meant the Brazilian midfielder joined compatriot Sonny Anderson as the club’s all-time top scorer in European competition with 16 by netting his 94th goal in all competitions for the French champions.

 ”I knew the goalkeeper would try and anticipate on one side so I just shot and wrongfooted him,” the 33-year-old told Reuters in an interview.

So, to get back to the question in hand, is Juninho the best free kick taker out there, or is Mark right in plumping for Del Piero?

It’s interesting that from January, AC Milan will have three of the best dead ball specialists, at least by repute. David Beckham, Ronaldinho and Andrea Pirlo will all be lining up for Milan in the New Year, meaning a lot of pushing and shoving when free kicks are awarded, I’d expect.

If the field is limited to the players already mentioned, I’d go for Juninho, but then again, I bet there are loads of other gifted free kick takers out there who just don’t get the credit that goes to that Famous Five.

So who deserves to be on the list? And is there anyone better than Juninho? Let us know in the comments.

Del Piero…34 years young

Italy coach Marcello Lippi doesn’t want him, his predecessor Roberto Donadoni wasn’t keen, but Juventus striker Alessandro Del Piero just keeps on coming up with the goods.

Few visiting players get standing ovations at the Bernabeu, but Il Capitano deserved it after two sublime strikes in Juve’s shock 2-0 win over Real Madrid on Wednesday which sent the in-form Turin club to the Champions League last 16.

Del Piero had already outshone that other great talisman Raul by scoring another beauty in Juve’s 2-1 home win over Real two weeks ago.

He is surely in the best form of his long and successful career, which kicked off when he played in Juve’s 1996 Champions League-winning side.

He is undoubtedly the most famous Italian still playing the game and yet he has only ever been a bit part player for Italy, playing as a substitute for most of their triumphant 2006 World Cup campaign and sneaking into the Euro 2008 squad after finishing top of the Serie A scoring charts last term.

Lippi has said he wants to look at other players during Italy’s 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign, but where will he find better than Ale?

Wednesday’s glorious free kick past Iker Casillas followed another deadball special in last weekend’s 2-0 win over AS Roma.

Why is Bruce Springsteen playing for Italy? Euro 2008 lookalikes

Wow, Donald Sutherland seems very upset by that penalty decision!      

A lot of people in football look like a lot of other people but more people in Euro 2008 seem to have doubles than in any other tournament.     

It’s well known by now of course that Portugal and soon to be Chelsea boss Luiz Felipe Scolari is the spitting image of Hollywood actor Gene Hackman. 

But has anyone else noticed the incredible similarity between Italian striker Alessandro Del Piero and rock legend Bruce Springsteen. I went to see Springsteen at the Emirates stadium the other week and when he did his knee slides I thought I was watching Del Piero celebrating a goal against Arsenal.      

George Clooney has been in goal for Greece here, or rather George Clooney-alike Antonios Nikopolidis while Donald Sutherland has temporarily left his role in the TV series Dirty Sexy Money to coach the Polish team, or was that Leo Beenhakker complaining about Howard Webb’s refereeing decisions?      

Fatih Terim, the dashing Turkish coach could, I reckon, walk into Hollywood passing himself off as either Robert de Niro’s older brother, or Joe Pesci’s taller brother. And while we are with the Turks Nihat Kahveci is a dead ringer for Mads Mikkelsen, who played the villain Le Chiffre in the latest 007 movie Casino Royale.