The Second Ball

Football stories behind football

[The Second Ball @Sec2ndball]

Football is rarely just about the football.
Tactics. Transfers. Politics. History. The stories behind the headlines.
Second Ball.
Football stories behind the football.

[The Second Ball @Sec2ndball]

Kalo untuk Bangladesh, mereka memang punya ikatan emosional dengan Argentina. Kemenangan Argentina atas Inggris di pildun 1986 itu dianggap sebagai kemenangan melawan penjajahan, khususnya gol tangan tuhan Maradona. Bangladesh yang dulunya jajahan Inggris bersimpati kepada Argentina ketika perang perebutan Malvinas 1980an.
Uniknya, TV pertama masuk ke Bangladesh adalah tahun 1986, untuk pertama kalinya mereka bisa menyaksikan piala dunia, sekaligus menjadi pendukung no.1 Argentina, di luar Argentina.

[abbi @coastalreverb]

@TalkAlbiceleste orang sana india-bangladesh kok pada bisa die hard fans messi yaa, ampe banyak banget yg lewat fyp gua orang pd rame bejibun nontonin messi di bangladesh

[The Second Ball @Sec2ndball]

@cimicimi2004 @FergieLadsID @ViaplayFotball Masalah City bukan hanya suntikan modal dari pemilik. Tapi juga memanipulasi pembukuan, yang mana dengan itu City bisa bebas berbelanja tanpa mengkhawatirkan ambang batas FFP.

[The Second Ball @Sec2ndball]

@andyflash33 @saludosparatii Exactly, di situlah federasi berperan.

[fizzy @fizzywizzys]

small accounts tweeting:

[The Second Ball @Sec2ndball]

Jorge Jesus may have found the cleanest way to end the Ronaldo era without ever ending it himself.
He only needs to make one thing clear; if Ronaldo comes back, he comes back as a player, not as a parallel authority.
And that may be the real significance of this entire dispute.
For years, Jorge Mendes helped keep Ronaldo’s conflicts with institutions behind closed doors.
Post-Mendes, the conflicts themselves increasingly become public.
This time, Jesus doesn’t appear interested in managing Ronaldo’s image. He appears interested in managing Portugal.
If Ronaldo accepts that hierarchy, the door stays open.
If he doesn’t, Jesus never technically had to kick him out at all.

[Piers Morgan @piersmorgan]

No denial of anything @Cristiano said…

[The Second Ball @Sec2ndball]

@rioferdy5 @HarryBrent Jorge Jesus may have found the cleanest way to end the Ronaldo national team era without ever ending it himself.

[The Second Ball @Sec2ndball]

@forsakenentity_ @JunQrT_777 @Info_SerieA IMO, tujuan JJ emang untuk kicked out Ronaldo, dengan memanfaatkan karakter Ronaldo dan PR Ronaldo yang udah gak sebagus ketika dipegang Mendes.

[The Second Ball @Sec2ndball]

Ronaldo spent two decades with Jorge Mendes managing one of football’s most valuable public images. Since they split, his biggest disputes increasingly seem to play out in public, and Piers Morgan keeps appearing in the middle of them.
That pattern is worth looking at.

[Eddie Gibbs @eddiegibbs]

🇵🇹 Ronaldo Has Become a Parody of Himself

📖 Narcissism: an excessive preoccupation with oneself, accompanied by a craving for admiration and an inflated sense of one's own importance.

I’m not diagnosing Cristiano Ronaldo. I’m describing behaviour.

And his extraordinary 1,740 word tantrum provides quite the case study.

This entire saga began because a 41 year old footballer was told he might play 30 minutes for Portugal and then didn't. Jorge Jesus changed his mind during a match. Ronaldo considered this betrayal worthy of a manifesto.

Then comes the truly extraordinary part.

Ronaldo reveals that a document was prepared detailing what Jesus should say publicly. Among the proposed lines was an apology for warming up someone of the "stature of Pele or Diego Maradona" without bringing him on.

Imagine the staggering vanity required to approve those words about yourself and then publish them believing they strengthen your case.

Portugal created this monster.

For years they indulged Ronaldo, massaged the ego and hoped Father Time might eventually introduce the realism nobody around him possessed the courage to provide.

They waited too long.

Last week I asked whether anybody in Portuguese football had the balls to tell Ronaldo his time was up.

Jorge Jesus finally did.

Ronaldo responded like a pampered child being told no. He left the camp, blamed others and has now produced nearly 2,000 words explaining why Cristiano Ronaldo remains the victim in the continuing tragedy of Cristiano Ronaldo.

He even wants "one or more farewell matches". Naturally. Apparently even his goodbye requires a tour.

An extraordinary footballer has become a deeply embarrassing spectacle.

Father Time won.

Ronaldo simply cannot accept the result.

✍️ P.S. Last time I dared question Ronaldo, the cult descended. So, for clarity, as a footballer and athlete he was extraordinary, one of the greatest we've ever seen. I don’t need his goal statistics from the Saudi league waved at me as proof that he somehow remains an elite footballer. My eyes have told me for years that he’s washed at the highest level. His devoted following can continue to delude themselves if they wish. His reputation cannot outrun reality forever.

[The Second Ball @Sec2ndball]

@TalkAlbiceleste Nico bahkan gak sadar untuk beberapa saat kalo itu laga farewell Pak Doctor.

[The Second Ball @Sec2ndball]

@membarcaid More than that, Barca masih butuh banget karakter pemain seperti Olmo. Ceritanya mungkin beda kalo Barca gak ambil Gabsus di jendela transfer kemaren.

[The Second Ball @Sec2ndball]

On June 29, 2004, Argentina hurriedly arranged a youth game because Spain could still take Lionel Messi. Back then, they were in such a rush they even misspelled his name as 'Leonel Mecci' on the official call-up list. Today, Scaloni said they could have filled five Monumentals to say goodbye to him.

[The Second Ball @Sec2ndball]

From this To this
GRACIAS POR TODO

[The Second Ball @Sec2ndball]

@SoccMedico Naturalisasi atau diaspora sudah menjadi hal yang lumrah di era Olahraga modern, tapi...

[The Second Ball @Sec2ndball]

@gretaamelia7 @idextratime YouTube give him golden play button for reason

[The Second Ball @Sec2ndball]

From this To this
GRACIAS POR TODO

[The Second Ball @Sec2ndball]

@tonifreixa Ronaldo spent two decades with Jorge Mendes managing one of football’s most valuable public images. Since they split, his biggest disputes increasingly seem to play out in public, and Piers Morgan keeps appearing in the middle of them.
That pattern is worth looking at.

[The Second Ball @Sec2ndball]

The match is almost underway. The strange part is that Argentina spent almost half his international career wondering whether he truly belonged to them. Today they’ll spend 90 minutes proving the opposite.

[All About Argentina 🛎🇦🇷 @AlbicelesteTalk]

🚨 LEO MESSI CRYING IN THE BUS 😭

[The Second Ball @Sec2ndball]

@KingCharles_DK Habis pertandingan itu, anak dan istri Medel ngambek. Pertandingan selanjutnya Medel minta jersey Messi.