Jump to content

Lionel Messi


AVFC-Prideofbrum

Recommended Posts

  • 1 year later...

as strange an article you will see today

 

 

The Football Association of Ireland has denied a report in Argentina claimingRepublic of Ireland players were allegedly paid $10,000 each to prevent injuring Lionel Messi during a 2010 friendly in Dublin.

The FAI, in response to the allegations in La Nacion, has called the report baseless and is taking legal advice: “The Football Association of Ireland completely refutes the allegations made about the Republic of Ireland v Argentina friendly match in La Nacion as baseless. The match in question was organised by Kentaro and announced by press release prior to the World Cup play-offs in 2009. We are consulting our legal advisers in relation to the article and will be taking further steps.”

La Nacion alleges that the friendly was suggested by Julio Grondona, who was head of the Argentine FA at the time and a close ally of Sepp Blatter, “to calm Ireland down” but when the AFA was unable to stump up a $5m insurance fee for Messi, who should have been on a pre-season tour in China with Barcelona, Grondona suggested making the payment to the Irish players.

The fixture, the first international football match at the Aviva Stadium, was played soon after Fifa controversially agreed to pay the Football Association of Ireland €5m in the wake of Thierry Henry’s handball in their 2010 World Cup play-off against France – but the FAI says the Argentina match was announced before that.

The source quoted in La Nacion said he asked Grondona, who died last year, “how did you solve the Messi problem?” The AFA president, who had been in the role for 35 years, responded to the source by saying “$10,000 for each Irish player as payment not to hit Messi”.

Argentina won 1-0 courtesy of a first-half goal from Ángel di María, with Messi a peripheral figure before being substituted after 58 minutes. The report does not assert whether any payment was received by the Irish players.

 

 

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/jun/24/republic-of-ireland-players-paid-lionel-messi

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

 

Diego Maradonahas waded into the storm in Argentina surroundingLionel Messiand the Copa América final defeat to Chile, insisting that it is time to stop giving the star special treatment.

The legend labelled the Barcelona forward a "phenomenon", but that didn't hold him back from questioning the 28-year-old's performances in the Copa América, where Maradona felt Argentina should have been too good for Chile, "even playing bowls".

"It's logical that he's come in for flak, it's easy to explain. We've got the best player in the world, who goes and scores four goals against Real Sociedad, and then he comes here and doesn't touch the ball. You're left saying to yourself, 'Dammit, are you Argentinian or Swedish?'" Maradona stated in an interview with sports paper Olé.

"People have got to stop droning on about Messi needing to be pampered.Messi should be treated just like any other player who pulls on the national-team shirt. Like the best in the world, for better or worse. Still, it's not like Messi killed or raped someone; we mustn't make a drama out of this", the 1986 World Cup winner continued.

Maradona went on to back criticism of Messi "so that he improves", while calling out some of the more over-the-top opinions. "That said, running a poll to ask if he should play for the national team or not, no, that's losing the plot guys. We mustn't be extremist, but we mustn't get used to always finishing second either", he added.

 

 

http://www.marca.com/en/2015/07/13/en/football/international_football/1436805421.html

 

apologies to any Swedes but he does describe a few of your countrymen ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 months later...

he really didnt deserve it this year, he wasnt fit for the whole year and went missing in the Copa America(again)

then again not many great candidates this year but I would have awarded to Suarez, Neymar or maybe Claudio Bravo

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

he didnt even score as many goals as ronaldo :rolleyes:

seriously though if you were unsure about the whole thing when you saw ronaldo in the top 3 you must have asked questions when you saw ramos and silva in the team of the year

saw lewandowski's votes (poland captain?) neuer, vidal and muller

Link to comment
Share on other sites

thats what i mean, its a popularity contest

that said i dont know what the answer is or how much of an impact the captains voting actually has

my knowledge on the voting (from FM...) is that the national team managers cant vote for their own players, maybe the captains shouldnt be able to vote for team mates

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The voting is done by national team captains, national team coaches and 1 journalist from each of those countries. I loathe award ceremonies of any kind but it's difficult to suggest that the end result can't in any way form a decent overall opinion, and that includes the always controversial "team of the year". I know a lot of people don't think Ramos is any good, for example. but I just think those people are plain wrong. So do the 50,000 professional footballers who always also vote him into the Fifpro team.

My point is that it doesn't matter what your own opinions are, someone will always have a different one. FCS I've seen the pre-match threads on here and Villa fans can't even agree on what their own best team is, let alone with the manager - and that's without every player in the world to choose from.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...
×
×
  • Create New...
Â