gareth bale – a future best?

quite a few young and promising players are appearing from many countries. candidates for the main individual crown with no more than 21 years of age are as numerous as ever. this might become even clearer if you list world famous players at the current age of 22 years: the argentinians gonzalo higuain, angel di maria and sergio aguero, the german mesut özil, the spaniards busquets, javi martinez and juan manuel mata, the frenchman karim benzema. all of them have what it takes to become the main stars in the sport, in a few years time. and all of them, curiously, play in the spanish first league.

 

maybe a future best: alex pato, milan and brazil, and still 21

if you think of the 21 year olds and younger, maybe the brazilian alexandre pato (ac milan) comes to mind. he’s been one of football’s greatest promises for years now, and he seems to be living up to expectations. thomas müller, the bayern munich player, was virtually unknown just a year ago, and is now a major star and world cup top striker. and of course, there is the talented, but somewhat troubled italian mario balotelli, who’s trying his luck in england, at manchester city. and i’d mention toni kroos, still looking to fulfill his great potential at bayern munich – he’s only 20. and why not remember neymar, who didn’t accept a chelsea bid in pre-season and continues to play for santos in brazil, and the new brazilian national team.

 

gareth bale might be the next great player on the football planet.

but a young player has been stealing the show in this new european season. gareth bale was in the news four years ago, when he became the youngest welshman to play an international. yes, he was 16. and yes, he is from wales; what might be a disadvantage for a future bid to become the best player in the world could actually be overcome by his incredible talent. bale has been at tottenham since he was 17, and has extended his contract for another four years, in may. last season, his career seemed to take a little out time from the quick ascend to the top, with him only playing in 23 matches and scoring only 3 goals. but he has definetly learned from that year.

in the 2009-10 season, bale is not only the most valiable player of his team – he has also scored important goals and become of the most notable names in the uefa champions league. tottenham is in there instead of liverpool, and gale has shown his talent in almost every single game. fantastic and decisve in bremen, a one-man show at the holder in milano, even with the 3-4 loss, and finally the man of the match at a convincing 3-1 win over inter. tottenham lead that difficult group and are set to reach the next round – and gale has scored 4 goals in 4 matches. he’s been scoring important goals in the premiership, too – one of them in the incredible 3-2 comeback after 0-2 at arsenal, in the london city derby, just yesterday.

 

two fantastic matches against champions internazionale in the champions league have captured people's attention and fascination.

gareth bale, of course, is much more than goals. he’s a smart player, very fast, with a great left foot, finesse in his passing, and the confidence that might just be capeable of dribbling on or the other defender. he is as effective assisting to goals as he is scoring them. and with his young age, he has made it onto the wish list of the greatest british and european clubs. the welshman has promised to fulfill his 4-year contract at tottenham, but doesn’t seem to be the very likely.

in any case, it’ll be worth it to watch the uefa champions league match against werder bremen, on wednesday. games envolving bremen are always exciting, tottenham might celebrate classification to the round of the last 16 – and you’ll probably see another gala by gareth bale.

the beginning of an era for bayern munich

in 1988, i became a bayern munich supporter. I already liked to play football, but i didn’t really follow the sport – there was no such culture in my family. actually, I don’t really know how i came to fall in love with the game, playing it. but i do remember when I started watching it. the euro 88 was held In germany, where I had been living for three years. I followed the national team closely, and i still remember the first game against italy, with andreas brehme’s goal to tie it up, 1×1. i still remember the 2×0 victory over denmark, with olaf thon scoring the decisive second goal with his head – being the shortest man on the team. the semifinal loss against the netherlands, with the classical matchup kohler against van basten went to the dutch attacker and best player in the world of his time. van basten scored two minutes from time, and germany, who had lead by a matthäus penalty, was out.

and i was in. since that tournament, i remember almost all of germany’s matches in euros and world cups. and i became a bayern-fan under the influence of my best childhood friend, who oddly enough lived not too far away from  dortmund – and i grew up close to hamburg.

the past of bayern: mehmet scholl

bayern had painfully lost the 1987 european cup final to porto, their second defeat in a final, in the decade. at the time, of course, only champions participated in the champions cup, and bayern represented germany pretty frequently in the 80s, mostly reaching the semifinals. my first favorite player was andreas brehme, who played for bayern at the time. after he left for inter milan, olaf thon was my number one; and then, with the arrival of mehmet scholl, he became my favorite player for over a decade. bayern always had pretty good teams and did win the bundesliga quite a few times in these 22 full seasons of being a fan. but there was really never on as good as the current team.

after scholl ended his exciting and somewhat tragic career, i kept looking for a new favorite player. i finally made my decision in the preseason before 2009/10. a young attacker i was following in bayern’s second team had been offered a pro contract; he’d been at the club since he was a young teenager, and the had a certain style to his play that i liked. before the first game of the season, i bought a jersey with the number 25, from the up to then unknown thomas müller. and what a run he has had.

the future of bayern: müller & badstuber...

müller is an important piece of the current team. he represents bayerns strengths quite well: confident without being cocky, intense, willing to play for the team (including defensively), ready to risk – and pretty successful, to say the least. when i first put on my jersey in august 2009, i couldn’t have imagined that he would become the world cup top scorer in south africa, and probably the most exciting german player in an exciting german team.

the question is, though: were should müller play? with his stamina and creativity, the winger postions seem to suit him well – but bayern has maybe the best wingers in the world: arjen robben at the right and franck ribéry at the left! so the middle then, right behind the attack? bayern has toni kroos, only 20 and probably even more talented than müller, technically. he seems like the more typical “10” player. so maybe into the center of the attack? well, besides bayern having players like miroslav klose, mario gomez and ivica olic there, it would seem a waste of creativity and good ideas to let müller play upfront. which basically means that bayern have a very strong offensive game, with great players sitting on the bench and able to bring quality into the game, if they have to. even hamit altintop, a hero in the turkish national team, can’t get a starting spot.

... breno...

so what about the defensive part? it starts in the attack, with olic and/or klose working extremely well to help the defense, and even ribéry / robben doing much more than they would be used to doing in previous clubs. this is how a total domination of a club like as roma was even made possible on wednesday – francesco totti wouldn’t help his defense at all. this really helps the two world class defensive midfielders schweinsteiger and van bommel to be in total control in almost every match. both of them give quality to the attacking game, and are close enough to the opponents to get into the man-to-man fights and win them: a near-to-perfect symbiosis between technical skills, strategic abilities and physical skills. this strong system will help the younger members of the four-man defensive line to grow over the years. holger badstuber has finally moved into “his” center back position, leaving the bench place to argentinian international martin demichelis. daniel van buyten could play out this season as the boss in the back, but i would love to see talented breno playing in that position and growing into it alongside badstuber – a duo for the future. another future talent has been at bayern since he was five: diego contento has gained coach louis van gaal’s trust and will be given time to grow into his left back position, to find the right balance between defensive work and positioning, and attacking skills. contento has it all: a classy technique, physical strength, speed and creativity. he is still lacking courage and total acceptance within the team, but that is only natural – since he, too, is only 19. on the other side, you have german captain philipp lahm, only 26 but already extremely experienced. he decided to stay at bayern instead of moving to barcelona, and the champions league title is all he really cares about. finally, we have jörg butt in the goal. he went from being an experienced number 2 to help michael rensings development to a world cup squad member last summer – his performances have been better than ever. but his career is coming to an end, and bayern is looking for a new keeper for 2011. manuel neuer (schalke) is the clear cut favorite, but a lloris (from lyon) or even an adler (leverkusen) could be options, too. all of these are young, and a new era seems to have started, with bayern reaching the champions league final in 2010.

... and toni kroos!

for 2011, this would be my dream team (with their respective ages):

neuer (then 25) – contento (20), badstuber (21), breno (20), lahm (27) – schweinsteiger (26), kroos (21), ribéry (28), robben (27), müller (21) – gomez (25)

this team could play for quite a few years…