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Acum, când o finală germană e în cărţi, e timpul potrivit să ne aducem aminte cum s-a ajuns aici. După Euro 2000, când Germania era eliminată dintr-o grupă cu Anglia şi România, nemţii şi-au dat seama că ceva trebuie schimbat. Dintr-un articol mai vechi al lui Rafa Honigstein:

The German FA realized that something had to be done. It looked at the French system and decided that something similar was needed. In May 1999, FA vice president Beckenbauer, first-team manager Ribbeck, Bayer Leverkusen general manager Reiner Calmund and FA Director of Youth Development Dietrich Weise presented a new concept for producing young German footballers. All across the country, 121 national talent centers would be built to help 10- to 17-year-olds with technical practice. Each center would employ two full-time coaches at a cost of $15.6 million over five years. The second key point was a new requirement for all 36 professional clubs in Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 to build youth academies.

Sursa foto: www.freestock.ca

Aş fi vrut să scriu o cronică la Arsenal – Everton dar cel mai interesant lucru care s-a întâmplat aseară pe Emirates a fost răfuiala de la pauză dintre Wilshere şi Mirallas. Mai degrabă v-aş recomanda filmulețul behind-the-scenes al coregrafiei speciale a Borussiei cu Malaga:

Sursa foto: www.supportersnotcustomers.com

Brian Phillips scrie pe Grantland despre revenirea lui Matt le Tissier, care la 44 de ani va juca câteva meciuri pentru Guernsey FC, echipa oraşului în care s-a născut şi al cărei preşedinte onorific a devenit între timp:

He was a great player because you can look at any clip of him and see that he was a great player — because he could do things hardly anyone else could do, because he played soccer in a way that could make you feel something. I’m going to type that again, because it contains words that deserve to be repeated. He played soccer in a way that could make you feel something. What else do you want from an athlete?

Adică făcea lucruri de genul ăsta:

Sursa foto: Ronnie MacDonald.

Două despre jurnalism din ultimul Blizzard. Barry Fry, directorul sportiv de 68 de ani al lui Peterborough, întrebat dacă mentalitatea jurnaliştilor s-a schimbat odată cu vremurile:

When I started, journalists used to come on the team coach with us. If anything happened, it was kept quiet. You treated ’em like one of yours, you give ’em all the facilities, all the interviews and they respected that if there was a fight on the bus, they didn’t report it. Now, you’ve only got to spit, fart or f**king giggle and it’s on the front pages. Times have changed.

Apoi, într-un interviu despre vechii jurnalişti sportivi din Anglia, maestrul Brian Glanville îşi aduce aminte despre un anume ziarist de la The Times:

I’ll say this about him: he had tremendous prestige that he never used. He never led the way morally. He could have been a beacon for the sport but didn’t do it. He liked to be liked.

Sursa foto: carmichaellibrary