Apparently, Lamine was a bright-eyed boy until he held up a Palestine flag. Then, he became controversial.
The journalists who make a living romanticising athletes like Muhammad Ali are the first to punish those who try to use their voice for something meaningful today.
“Football was popular because the poor were happy to play with a ball. When football turned into dishonest business, that is when the wealthy classes saw an opportunity in it, and since then it no longer belongs to the poor.”
— Marcelo Bielsa
I’m here to debunk one of the biggest myths used to glaze Cristiano Ronaldo:
“Portugal were nothing before Ronaldo.”
That’s simply false.
Portugal has always been a major football nation. The average Portuguese child has a far higher chance of becoming a professional footballer than most countries. This isn’t some tiny footballing underdog like Iceland.
Before Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal had already produced:
• 3 Ballon d’Or winners
• A record 4 European Golden Boots (most by any nation)
At club level, Portuguese football was elite long before Ronaldo.
Benfica were one of Europe’s first superpowers, dominating alongside Real Madrid in the early European Cup era. They reached 9 European Cup/Champions League finals — more than clubs from most footballing nations — and represented Europe on the world stage in the Intercontinental Cup.
Internationally, people love saying Portugal couldn’t qualify for tournaments before Ronaldo.
What they won’t tell you is that World Cups and Euros had only 12-16 teams back then. By today’s qualification formats, Portugal would’ve qualified for several more tournaments, using the old format Ronaldo would have missed 3-4 championships
And Portugal’s greatest World Cup achievement remains their 3rd-place finish in 1966, when Eusébio delivered one of the greatest World Cup performances ever against an era featuring Pelé’s Brazil.
Now people want to use the Nations League — essentially a glorified friendly tournament created for World Cup preparation — to erase over half a century of Portuguese football history and credit everything to one man.
Portugal didn’t become a football nation because of Ronaldo.
Ronaldo was fortunate enough to be born into a football nation that was already great.
فاز ب5 دوري أبطال مع ريال مدريد
الناس تذكر فترته في اسبانيا بأنها أفضل فترات مسيرته
هذا هو ينهار بالدموع بوداعه لمانشستر يونايتد
"أحب هذا النادي بشكل لا يوصف!"
😔❤️
El Tottenham está muy cerca de llegar a un acuerdo con Mateus Fernandes sobre el contrato.
Todavía no ha habido ninguna negociación oficial con el West Ham.
Mateus Fernandes, en el punto de mira también de otros grandes clubes, está abierto a fichar por el Tottenham.