FIFA World Cup 2010: Nike Advertisement Acts As Curse To Players
Before the start of the World Cup, Nike launched an ad campaign called Write The Future. It was a beautifully constructed add which saw every action, having a reaction to it. The main players in the advertisement were, Drogba, Cannavaro, Rooney, Ribery, Howard, Donovan, Ronaldhino and Ronaldo. However the advertisement has somehow managed to act as a curse to the players.
To start things off, Ronaldinho wasn’t even picked for the Brazilian squad that flew to South Africa for the World Cup. Didier Drogba, fractured his elbow in a warm up match before the tournament even began and it was majorly doubted that he would play. Eventually he managed to recover enough to participate but had to sit out the first game. Ivory Coast failed to make it past the group stage, even though they managed to win their last match in a convincing manner.
Fabio Cannavaro, who was referred to as ‘El Capitano’ in the advertisement, displayed some of the worst defending every witnessed on the international level. He managed to captain his team to the bottom of quite possibly the weakest group in the tournament. The group consisted of, Italy, Paraguay, Slovakia and New Zealand.
Wayne Rooney has been by far the biggest flop of the tournament. He scored no goals, failed to register more than a handful of shots and didn’t really display the integrity that everyone has come to expect from him over the years. There was no theoretical explanation for his performances and he himself had nothing to say about it.
Franck Ribery was part of a French team, which failed to perform as a team. There were numerous issues going on with the French squad and because of them they failed to qualify for the knock out stages. Ribery performed terribly, failed to score and hardly managed to pass the ball. It was almost like he was under some sort of mind control.
Tim Howard and Landon Donovan, both performed better than most of the people on the list but still got knocked out in the round of sixteen by Ghana.
Cristiano Ronaldo failed to deliver the lethal blows that one expects from him, he was way below par and the only time he actually made the headlines was for spitting at the camera man after Portugal lost to Spain. Even Roger Federer, who made a short appearance in the advertisement lost at Wimbledon in what appears to be ages.
The only players that were featured in the advertisement and are left in the tournament so far are, Fabregas, Iniesta and Pique. All three play for Spain but Fabregas has barely played more than fifty minutes so far, Iniesta has constantly been facing an injury scare or two. Pique on the other hand has taken more knocks and has shed more blood than anyone else in tournament so far.
Its rather interesting when you look at these facts, it’s almost like Nike were actually writing the future only, some ne forgot to tell the players in the advertisement that the future wasn’t too bright for them.
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