FIFA World Cup 2010 : Why superstar football players Messi, Rooney and Ronaldo did not perform
In 2007, the Brazilian forward, Kaka won the Champions League for his club AC Milan, and became the FIFA Player of the year. In 2008, Cristiano Ronaldo achieved the same feat for Manchester United, while Lionel Messi repeated it in 2009 with Barcelona. During the past three to four years, these players have been dominating the leagues of Europe. Due to this, these players have always been found in the top 5 list of footballers every year. They are like a new generation of football players, after the retirement of the likes of Zidane, Figo and others, and the competition for the best player in the World is hot right now. Both Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka have moved to Real Madrid to challenge Messi’s domination in the Spanish football, and to re-claim the top spot.
In the World of Football, these three players and recently Wayne Rooney of Manchester United are the most talked about players. A lot was expected of them in the World Cup in South Africa, as their teams had great odds to go a long way. In addition, the football fans always love to see these super-stars play, as they have displayed some breath-taking skills and some great quality football, over the years. However, the fans have been disappointed as none of these players was able to get their teams past the quarter-finals stage. The fans now have to see through to the rest of the World Cup without the big players.
If we take a closer look at the World Cup so far, we would see that all these players were a real disappointment for their teams. No player scored a single goal in the tournament, despite coming into the World Cup with good scoring records in the previous season. Cristiano Ronaldo was the only exception, but his goal came against the North Koreans who lost by 7-0. Thus, the goal carries no importance whatsoever, and Ronaldo had not a single ‘moment’ in the whole World Cup.
Among these four players, no one had a real impact on any victory for their team. Not a single player was able to become Man of the Match in any particular game, which clearly shows the disappointments of their fans, all over the World.
Many reasons can be given for the failures of the biggest names in football. The first reason can be that the team relies on the super-stars too much, due to which the rest of the team suffers. This happened in the case of Cristiano Ronaldo, as the Portuguese relied heavily on the forward to score goals for the team. As he failed to do so, there was no one in the team that could fill his shoes.
In case of Wayne Rooney, there were different sets of problems. Rooney came back from an injury, and throughout the tournament, he struggled to regain his form. In addition, the English coach, Fabio Capello made a big tactical error by removing Rooney from the central position, which resulted in the further loss of confidence by the forward.
Lionel Messi, on the contrary, had a decent tournament, but he was not supported by a great squad. The Argentinean squad, especially their defence and midfield, was prone to commit suicidal errors, which resulted in their eventual elimination from the tournament. Kaka had a decent tournament as well for Brazil, but the defensive errors and complacency led to the disaster of the team.
It would always be hard to say that the big players screwed-up in the biggest tournament of football; rather they failed to meet the expectations of the fans. Many teams planned well for these stars, as they hardly got any spaces to manoeuvre. It is for certain that a player would not be recognized as the best in the world, unless he has won everything. All these big players would definitely get another chance, in the next World Cup, to redeem themselves. May be that time the fans would not be disappointed, but right now, these players would have to come out of the trauma of the shame that they brought to their sides and shoes.
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