inspired by dart adam's originator series, and helped by my lack of originality, i'm just gonna blog about early influences that resulted in me getting hooked on football (thats soccer, yanks), music, and computers/games. my 3 passions.
part uno: football. two people are responsible for this: my pops, and maradona. i can't remember what age i was when i began to understand the purpose of a box with bright flickering images which they called a TV (maybe 3), but every weekend i was intrigued at why my dad would spend the whole day staring at that box supposedly watching some dudes kicking some ball around. that was football and the coolest part was of course was the scream "GOAL!" and the happy and sometimes sad faces after. by fate i was hooked. my pops had a freaking library of VHS tapes filled up with complete world cup matches from beyond my time and i was literally forced to watch them cos i liked bright lights and that TV stole the show. my dad explained the rules of the game and i was in. and then there was diego. first, a fact and a shame: i actually started supporting argentina before my own country, nigeria. at age 5, i could name every player in the '86 world cup argentine team meanwhile i was often mistaking our flying eagles for our green eagles (blame the miracle of dammam for that). shameful i know.
every budding kid footballer always has a hero to look up to. at that time, maradona was the best in the world so naturally he was my hero. it's a known fact that the guy was a f**king genius so i won't bore you. he was truly an "i" in a "team". argentina's confirmation as world football superpowers and napoli's rise from mediocrity are obvious testaments to that. during my years under-10, when i got the chance, i'd watch my dad's argentina world cup tapes, watching all of maradona's moves carefully and then practice them when/where i could: in school, on the streets (my legs are infested with scars), in the house (living room/bedroom regularly smashing light bulbs, picture frames, anything breakable). maradona got me playing and i learned my early moves from him. my best footballer yet, though, is zidane. from age 15, i improved immensely and understood the game better by just watching zidane. i so badly wanted to be a professional footballer because of that dude. when he joined juve in '96 which had only just become my favorite team, i realised i was a juventino for life. but hey this post is supposed to about originators, and it's getting long, and i'm tired, so i'll stop. you get the point. oh BTW, i kick ass on winning eleven aka pro evo. though i don't play as much as i used to, niggys know, i'm a legend! 1997 - 2004 i was unfukwitable!
after reading unconfirmed reports about the punishment of the players in the valencia-inter CL brawl, i was wondering why maicon would get a 4-month ban. so i did a little digging on youtube for video evidence and found this instead:
i was totally disgusted by the ignorance of these so-called pundits. luckily the guy who uploaded the video posted his opinions which mirrors mine: "This is Sky Sports' reaction following the match in the UK, which was their main game on Sky Sports 2. Presenter Richard Keys with (left to right) Andy Gray, Jamie Redknapp and Gary McAllister. Here are a few points I picked up from the video... With 01.02secs gone on the video: McAllister says these "shocking" scenes are like those pictures that come from South American football. He then says the pictures clearly show several South American players invloved - Argentina etc. 01.28secs: Keys says, "[Marco] Materazzi's always involved isn't he?" Not conclusive on the video, Materazzi was in the challenge just before the whistle went, but left before the brawl kicked off? 02.00secs: They then all laugh and 'try' to name the South American/Argentinian players involved - "Another Argentinian, and another...". 04.08secs: Gray 'feels a little sorry for Valencia'. And he talks with Keys about Inter "kicking lumps" out of Arsenal at Highbury a few years ago. Keys adds there were "two or three" Inter players sent off as well for their poor discipline. Reading the official UEFA website, Arsenal and Inter have only met in the Group Stages - twice in the 2003-04 season. Inter won 3-0 at Highbury (no yellow or red cards) and then lost 5-1 at the San Siro (again no yellow or red cards). Looks like Keys mixed things up with Juventus' match at Highbury - just shows his knowledge? 06.19sec: 'Burdisso and [Dejan] Stankovic started it kicking each other' - they're on the same team Gray! He saw the number 5 on the back of Marchena's shirt, and somehow concluded it's Stankovic (who also wears 5 at Inter). 08.15secs: Redknapp says, "Italian football, I mean its just Italian football full stop at the moment, isn't it?" He concluded later, "Italian football at the moment is in complete decline and this is adding to it. Discusting!" The video clip ends after that discussion. They then quickly rounded up all the rest of the evenings matches. Claire Tomlinson (reporter) did her round-up of results and handed back to Keys who said... "Yes Inter out tonight, and if there's any justice they should be out of this competition for some time to come as well." So he decides the punishments, banning just Inter, does he?"
and this comment on the video by lasanliburd: "racists! what justifies their rant against south americans?! in the league cup final, arsenal and chelsea were all over each other and when the dust settled, only five Africans were suspended!! did no one from the FA see Caravalho, Fabregas or Lampard's contribution among many?! And Adebayor was fined more than Spain's racist coach was. Nuff said!"
first, let me make things clear, the brawl started with marchena insulting burdisso (i guess that's ok when you're not italian and the victim isn't zidane). burdisso then got angry and tried to retaliate but was held back by players from both teams. then that bitch, navarro sucker-punched burdisso and well, if i was an inter player i would have chased that coward myself. now i so f**king hate inter and was very glad valencia knocked them out but i hate ignorant f**kers even more. as a fan of italian football i've witnessed countless times how most british football pundits continue to slate italian football and stereotype italians as "cheats" and "thugs" (even after winning the world cup fair and square). now i agree italian football is going through probably it's worst season ever but that doesn't give anyone license to talk trash. in the video, those clowns kept insisting UEFA should ban inter (nobody mentions valencia). if it was a british team, UEFA would ban blah blah blah. still UEFA bent rules to allow a 5th english team in the CL last year. FIFA bent rules to allow mascherano join liverpool (his 3rd club in one year). uhm... couple that with mr. blatter refusing to present the world cup to italy. seems to me something is going on here. i've had friends (mostly english football fans) who know nothing about calciopoli make jokes about how we bribed referees with cash when infact no referee saw a single lira from us. none of them don't even know that the scandal started from a phone call. they just heard some piece of trash information from the british media. still yet to find out what maicon did. oh well, FORZA JUVE! :)
with signs that juve will be back to the top-flight next season, there has been a lot of transfer talk. one thing that bothers me is our recently "rumored" transfer targets. they are either defenders (samuel, heintze etc) or strikers (klose, toni, saviola, etc). what freaking happened to the creative midfield department? i thought this was a crapello problem. milan got kaka, now they've got another kaka in the making, gourcuff. freaking hell! juve, deschamps show more ambition.
ever since '96 when i officially became a juve fan, we've had some of the best players hold our midfield down, producing 2 world and 2 european footballer awards. some names include: moeller, jugovic, lombardo, paulo sousa, davids, deschamps, tacchinardi, zidane, nedved. nedved, 34, though still a performer is past his prime now. shouldn't all the transfer talk be about his possible replacement? pesonally, camoranesi, 30, frustrates me a lot as he seems to have a lot of bad days as well as good days and his supposed replacement, marchionni, doesn't impress me all that much. i know we desperately need solid defenders, no doubt, but i don't understand why much of the talk has been centred around strikers. i believe it's more important getting a creative midfielder (following zizou and nedved) than poaching for new strikers. DP, trez, palladino are doing fine. we also have the likes of miccoli at our disposal. talk of gerrard and lampard are in the air but thats just freaking unrealistic (BTW, lampard sucks big time!). moggi is gone so juve's transfer plans can't be much of a secret anymore as it used to be and i believe there's a hint of truth in these speculations. i need more interesting news please! i want to hear names like quaresma, messi, robinho... deschamps may be no lippi but my expectations next season are very high. anyway, i can go on for days ranting about juve but i'll stop here. oh how i reminisce about lippi's juve of the late 90s when zidane was god. yes! his best years were at juve. the following link is proof:
another beckham rant (this time in figures). as you know, davy boy has moved to the MLS for a deal worth $250 million for 5 years. that is ridiculous, considering his new club, LA galaxy was sold for $30 million. heck, davy boy might as well buy some MLS clubs while he's there. i did some calculation at work with my colleagues and it turns our davy boy will be earning approx 57 pounds sterling per minute for the every minute of his life for 5 years after he starts his new job! the salary calculator here shows that he will be currently earning way higher than what bill gates was earning in 2003. bill was earning $1.65 per minute - davy boy will be earning $95.13 per minute! after a lot of recent criticism, davy boy now has the last long hard laugh. watch out hollywood!
on the less worldly range, my favourite ex-blogger, obi just had his 2nd boy. though he doesn't write anymore, he still blogs in sounds and images. congratulations man.
