Manchester United’s Luis Nani: The Tall Claims of a Short Footballer
Recently, English papers carried on their football pages an extraordinary boast by – well, a less than extraordinary player. As most readers would have guessed, the player in question here is one Luis Carlo Almeida da Cunha or
‘Nani’, to give him the name most football fans know him by.
The claim he has made after Saturday’s ridiculous goal against Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford in the Premier league is that he is one of the best players in the world, and it was perhaps scoring the wildly unsportsmanlike goal
that give him that idea. Because if that is the benchmark of a great player, then certainly he can call himself great, since no one would remember the likes of Pele or Zidane or Ronaldo (the Brazilian) scoring a goal like that; even Maradona, the bad boy amongst
the greats of football, might stop to think before putting the ball in the back of the net in such fashion. Manchester United fans and management can go on justifying the goal by stating that Nani was just playing to the whistle, but the fact remains that
Sir Alex Ferguson would have raised h**l with the English FA had a player from an opposing team scored a goal like that.
The characteristics that always define a great player are his performances (statistics), his ability to lead the team to victories single-handedly, and perhaps above all - at least where character is valued, his sportsman spirit.
Let us then objectively look at Nani’s claim of him being one of the best players in the world with respect to the above mentioned general attributes, disregarding the events of Saturday.
First of all, let’s analyze his record and statistics. He is a 23-year-old Portuguese winger-slash-striker who currently plays for English giants Manchester United. He was signed by Manchester United from little known Portuguese
club Sporting CP, for whom he scored 9 goals in 58 matches, which roughly comes out to a goal every 6-and-a-half games, hardly a record an attacking player can boast about. One might have thought his performances would improve drastically once he moved to
one of the best clubs in the world, but that is not the case either. He has scored all of 12 goals in 72 appearances for Manchester United, again definitely not a stellar performance by any means. For his national side, his record is slightly better, having
scored 9 goals in 40 matches; still, that is a record players who are true greats of the game have certainly surpassed.
His ability to win his team games too is not what one would call world-class. Although he has improved a little this season, regular followers of the Barclays Premier League can confirm that he has an average first touch and a
very limited range of passing. Granted, he can get past many Premier League defenders, but that is down more to his pace than his skill, of which he has precious little of.
There can be no doubt about his character, even if one chooses to forget his antics in Saturday’s game. The footballer started getting into fights at Sporting CP even before anyone outside the club knew his name. He is also a known
show-boater and has a much higher opinion of himself than any decent player should have. After a match against Arsenal in 2008, the Arsenal captain William Gallas felt he was ‘showboating’; also, experienced Brazil and Arsenal midfielder Gilberto Silva described
him as ‘big-headed’. Nani’s impudence can be judged from the fact that he even criticized the tactics and management style of Sir Alex Ferguson, the man who has been the architect of countless silverware-winning campaigns at Old Trafford, after his own disappointing
performances in the start of 2009. Last but not the least, his famous dives (whenever a player passes within 5 yards of him) should leave no one in any uncertainty about his honesty.
All said and done, it can easily be concluded - using facts and not only rants - that even though Nani may be a decent player, he is certainly not entitled to call himself ‘one of the best’ on the basis of his performances up to
date. One does wonder, however, where the days when football players were above all good and humble human beings, despite possessing buckets more of talent than the likes of Nani, have gone.
Tags: