The Future of Ronaldo

            Christiano Ronaldo is definitely one of the best soccer players in the world right now, with his recent winning of the Ballon d’Or being current proof of that. The Ballon d’Or could also be called the player of the year, and the top player is chosen to receive the award based on the last year’s performance. Playing for Real Madrid, Ronaldo is a key player for the team, playing an important role in almost any attack by the team. Quite often he will score multiple goals per game, and the number of hat tricks that he has is astounding. Unlike his club performance, Ronaldo was not able to have the same success with the Portuguese national team in the world cup this summer, and many, myself included, felt like that had an effect on the success of the year. The other two candidates in the top three shortlist included Messi and Neuer, two players on opposing sides of the World Cup final. Still, I felt that Ronaldo was as deserving as any player to win the award this year, and I would’ve had trouble setting a winner apart from the three.

            However, all doesn't seem to be well in the world of Ronaldo, as many will recall that he had a knee issue going into the World Cup this summer. I would say around a week before the World Cup that Ronaldo was showing signs of injury and it was even questioned as to whether he would play or not. He played, but the tournament was unsuccessful for him, and 6 months later, the problem seems to persist. While he can play through it and still be successful, I don’t think that he will ever fully recover from the issue and he will remain to have a bad knee. While little information is released to keep his full condition confidential, it looks like the problem will ensue. However, Ronaldo is obviously able to play better than most, and I don’t see his standing as a top player to go down any time soon.

Transfers: Behind the Scenes

            When most people see or hear about transfers, they think about who was traded, where they were traded to, and for how much. Most of the time, people don’t realize the time and effort that has gone into making the switch from all parties. First of all, the team that is looking to take in the player has most likely been researching the move for over a year in many cases. The club sends scouts that will watch practices and games of the player for a long time before even the player knows of their intentions. An individual club will often have a set list of target players based on their needs in certain positions or areas. These players are then watched and the list gets modified.

            Once a club has decided to pursue a certain player, they often will hire a middleman, or an agent that will approach the player and let them know that the club is interested. This isn’t really the negotiation stage, just a point where the player will tell if he has any real interest in the move or not, as clubs don’t want to negotiate and bid for a player that will just turn them down. Next, the clubs (agents) will negotiate along with the player to fit the needs of all three parties. What the player wants out of the move, what the selling club wants for him, and what the pursuing club is able to do to fulfill both of those needs is discussed. Once the negotiation stage is reached, the transfer will most likely continue through all the way and few end beyond here. So really, if a player shows enough of an interest and has reasonable needs, clubs will often do what they need to in order to get the player if they have pursued him this far.

Most of what happens from there is just finalization, and the only real reason for the process to end before the trade would be an avoidance of fees or medical issues. First, the receiving club will have the player have a medical to check on his physical condition and hopefully weed out any problems that could be worse in the future. Unfortunately, the medical aspect is not in the control of the buying club which could be a problem should there be any medical issues. Finally, if everything checks out, the player will sign onto the new team for the negotiated price. Typically, this entire process could have taken a few years to complete, and only a couple players will be transferred out of one hundred that were initially scouted. There is obviously a lot of work and planning that goes into a transfer, which makes sense considering that these deals are potentially for millions of dollars.

Offside: Good or Bad?

            One thing that is hard for many people that don’t know a lot about soccer but like to watch it sometimes to understand is offsides. While I don’t want to discuss the rule or how it works, I do want to look at how it changes the game. Often, people talk about how soccer takes a long time and moves slowly, with a low goal count per game and little action. While I disagree with the slow and low action part of it, I do understand that more goals could be more exciting. They go on to say that they believe that offsides is what slows the game down and creates a lack of goals. I have had friends suggest that removing the rule of offsides and decreasing the size of the field would create a much more intense game that would catch on faster in places like the United States and become more popular. I can see where they are coming from with this belief, but I can’t say that I fully agree with them and their suggestions.

            First of all, there is a sport that is soccer without offsides and a much smaller field, or court, which is often referred to by indoor soccer or is truly called futsal. With five players on a side including a goalkeeper, futsal is played on a basketball-sized court and lacks an offside rule. Generally, this is a faster paced game based on creativity and skills which is what many want out of soccer. However, futsal is a completely different game than soccer, with different tactics, rules, and most importantly, fans. Later, I will discuss the importance of fans to a sport and their role in shaping it.

            In defense of the offside rule, it does what it is said to be meant to do, by stopping the attacking team from cherry-picking, or leaving someone down at the other side of the field waiting to receive a ball dumped from his own defender. Without this rule, defenders would just get the ball in their half and play long balls down the field to a waiting player. It would just go back and forth like this, and any beauty or old tactics in the game would be lost. You might ask why this would matter, and if it makes a better and more action-packed game then why it would be a bad thing. This leads me back to the fans. Soccer is the most popular sport in the world with around 3.5 billion fans around the world. These fans are accustomed to offsides, and they love the game they support. Fans are the ones who go home and play the sport after the game. Fans are what make the game, because they play the game, and the game they play is soccer. Anyone who has been to a soccer game, or even watched one with some other fans, knows the excitement that a goal brings, or the disappointment that the lack of one brings. The fact is that the reason that they are fans is because they love the game and all of its parts, and the reason that people aren't fans is because they don’t love it, and there’s no way of changing that besides creating a completely different sport.