Didier Drogba is all about the money

The Ivory Coast international believes he has already proven himself on the pitch. Now, he  wants to pick up a huge check, even if it means coming to MLS.

Didier Drogba comes with a buyer beware label and it’s got nothing to do with the fact that the world-class striker is on the wrong side of 33 years old.

No, Drogba can still score goals but just so there is no misunderstanding he wants every club team from Russia to the United States to know that he’s in it for one thing: money.

But if the Los Angeles Galaxy, one of the club’s supposedly interested in Drogba, are looking for a goodwill ambassador to replace David Beckham they’d better think this one through before opening the vault.Beckham also came with a hefty price tag and early on and you wondered if his heart was really in it. That all changed this past season and right through the Galaxy’s run to the MLS Cup. Beckham proved he can still play, win and draw fans.

Drogba is a huge international name but he does not have the crossover appeal like Beckham. Very few do. But Drogba does have plenty of cache, having spent the prime years of his career with Chelsea and appearing in two World Cups with Ivory Coast.

In theory, the addition of Drogba with Robbie Keane and Landon Donovan would make the league’s most popular team the favorite to repeat. And MLS should be searching for “name” players who still have three to five years of quality soccer left in them.

For now, getting major international stars at the tail end of their respective careers is the most logical way for MLS teams to augment their mostly anonymous rosters. But that is not a fail-proof formula. For Exhibit A we present you Lothar Matthäus with the MetroStars and for Exhibit B Rafa Marquez with New York Red Bulls.

The former was essentially on a New York vacation while the latter plays as if he’s been sentenced to hard time at San Quentin State Prison.   

Everything about it makes a lot of sense for MLS and the Galaxy, especially with Beckham likely to sign with a French team. But just remember one thing: Didier isn’t coming for cents. He wants dollars. Lots of them.

Buyer beware indeed.  

source: www.goal.com 

Bright Young Thing: 'They said I was too small, so I asked to stay and play part-time for free.'

Ashley Young, 16 years old and in Year 11 at John Henry Newman, a Roman Catholic secondary school in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, is sitting in the office of a careers adviser.

She asks him what he wants to do. He says he wants to be a footballer. 

She looks sceptical. His face does not crack. Utter conviction. She shuffles a few papers, scans his GCSE results and repeats the question, adding that it might not work out for him in his chosen profession. What is the alternative? The teenager remains adamant. He has a dream and intends to live it.

'I said I didn’t know because I hadn’t thought about it and I hadn’t thought about it because it didn’t matter because I was going to become a footballer,’ Young, 10 years older and a somewhat justified shining light for Manchester United and England, explains. 

‘So she started again, a fourth time, with the question about it not working out. She wasn’t happy. Even less so when I got up and walked out of the room.’

Young’s determination at the time was made all the more remarkable by another meeting that had taken place previously. It was with four coaches attached to Watford’s youth and academy system: Dave Hockaday, David Dodds, John McDermott and Chris Cummins. They sat with Young in a  private room after a youth team match and it was there he discovered he was not to be offered a professional youth training scheme contract. It felt like the end of his world.

'That was the biggest struggle for me. There were other clubs I could have gone to, I think, but Watford had said I would never be good enough to get in the first team and I was determined to prove them wrong.

‘I could have left the game, or looked elsewhere, but I asked to stay on part-time. I did a sports tech course three days a week and played for the youth team, unpaid, to try to make my point. It was then that I realised how hard I needed to work to succeed. Kids ask me about what they should do to make it and I tell them, “Just get your head down and work, work, work”. 

I came back part-time and they put me in with the Under 18s. They told me I had to show my ability against those boys. 

I worked after training every day, I worked on everything I could to improve my game and I never looked back. I started in the Under 18s, within a month I was in the reserves and a year later I was offered a professional contract.’ 

Young, now 26, sits at Manchester United’s Trafford Training Centre in Carrington and shows off the tattoo that dominates the lower half of his right arm. Its central motif is a quotation: ‘In life, if it’s not worth fighting for, it’s not worth having.’

Fast forward and this season finds him a mainstay of Manchester United’s first team following a summer move from Aston Villa, and now as established as any player can reasonably be in Fabio Capello’s England team, where his willingness to exchange central and wide forward positions makes him crucial to a new pattern of play.

source: www.theguardian.co.uk

Fairytale ending for Beckham in MLS triumph

Hollywood loves a happy ending. In true movie style, David Beckham signed off his five-year American adventure with a trophy as LA Galaxy lifted the MLS Cup on Sunday night. 

The Galaxy's leading man has still to decide whether to extend his stay in California, but his performance had all the hallmarks of a final act. 

He staggered through the game nursing a hamstring injury but still defied the odds to become only the second Englishman after Trevor Steven to win championships in three countries.

Who knows, with Paris Saint-Germain still courting the 36-year-old, there could yet be time to add a French title to the honours won in England, Spain and the United States. Yet, until Landon Donovan's 72nd minute winner, it had looked as if Houston Dynamo had failed to read the script.  

Basking in their role as the rugged underdogs, they engineered to frustrate Galaxy's array of stars. But it seems you really do get what you pay for in the City of Angels. 

It was the Galaxy's three 'Designated Players' – whose wages only count in part towards the team's salary cap – who combined to put the Californian side ahead. Beckham to Robbie Keane to Landon Donovan. It was a marketing guru's dream.  

It took £20million and five seasons but, finally, Beckham can add  a piece of silverware to 
his Stateside success story.  

source: www.dailymail.co.uk

Fabio hails Lion cubs after blooding Euro stars: Jones, Rodwell and Walker praised after England win

Fabio Capello hailed his three young lions as the main reason to celebrate a win against Sweden sealed at Wembley by England’s 2000th international goal. 

Phil Jones, Kyle Walker and Jack Rodwell came in for special praise from Capello after his England team won 1-0 to end 2011 unbeaten.

It was England’s first victory against Sweden since 1968, courtesy of a goal initially awarded to Gareth Barry.

But the ball skidded in off Sweden defender Daniel Majstorovic and was credited as an own goal.

'It's important to beat Sweden after 43 years but it was more important to see Jones, Rodwell and Walker play against a team which is really organised and difficult to play against.

'The answer that I received from the performance is really important for me. And these three players played really well.'

 Having only made his debut as a substitute in Saturday's win over Spain, Rodwell has made rapid strides over the last few days.

Once again this evening, he played with a freedom all too often missing from England stars at Wembley.

Now he must maintain that momentum in a struggling Everton side in order to have a chance of making the final cut for Poland and Ukraine next summer. 

John Terry was captain for the first time since police launched an investigation into allegations he aimed a racist remark at Anton Ferdinand in Chelsea’s recent game at QPR. 

'There's no chance I would ever step down,’ said Terry. 'It’s something I dreamed of as a boy. I’m passionate and very confident being England captain.'

source: www.dailymail.co.uk 

England vs Sweden Highlight Video

Kenny Dalglish: Don’t watch Liverpool play at Chelsea

KENNY DALGLISH has amazingly told Liverpool fans NOT to buy tickets for the Carling Cup clash with Chelsea.

The angry Kop boss is ready to play kids in the quarter-final on November 29 in protest at the scheduling.

It is just 48 hours after Liverpool's Prem crunch with Manchester City.

Dalglish said: "It is disgraceful in this day and age players are being asked to play a key Premier League game on Sunday and then a League Cup quarter-final in London just 48 hours later.

"If the Football League want to devalue their own competition, it's up to them.

"But they shouldn't be upset if people use these games to help in the development of young players.

"The one thing I will say to our fans is to think carefully before buying tickets for the League Cup game.

"We do not want them spending their money and then we decide there is no other option but to use only young players. 

"It's understandable, with the Spurs v PAOK Salonika match and the TUC rally, that the Metropolitan Police have said our game cannot be played on the Wednesday.

"But it's surely the duty of the football authorities to think of other solutions which consider the welfare of the players — and this clearly hasn't happened.

"City are in a similar position to us with their game at Arsenal.

"Here you have two clubs who have treated this competition with the utmost respect over the years and they are being treated like this.

"I'd be interested to know what the sponsors think of the situation and what it does for the reputation of the competition.

"It seems irresponsible the quarter-finals are scheduled in the same week as Europa League games.

"Both ourselves and City were happy for the League game to be moved back to the Saturday. But we are told this is not possible either for TV reasons."

A Football League spokesman said: "Despite extensive efforts, no alternative solution acceptable to all parties could be found."

source: www.thesun.co.uk

How United kept the Sir Alex Ferguson Stand a secret

THERE was another first at Manchester United on Saturday as Alex Ferguson celebrated 25 years in charge — something happened at the club without him knowing about it – the renaming of the North Stand to the Sir Alex Ferguson Stand!

Fergie has always prided himself on being in complete control and knowing everything that goes on at Old Trafford.
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But he wasn't aware that a stand was already bearing his name ahead of the weekend's victory with Sunderland.

Just how did United keep the operation secret as the huge red letters were put into place at the front of the roof of The North Stand?

Well it was all done under darkness on Thursday after the last of the public tours of Old Trafford had finished and work continued until 2am Friday.

Six abseilers put the letters into place and they and the company who made the letters had to sign confidentiality agreements so word did not leak out.

A 20-metre banner was then draped over the words 'Sir Alex Ferguson Stand' saying 'Old Trafford Manchester' in the same design.

It had been the idea of chief executive David Gill.

And only eight other people at the club knew about it — including three from the group property department, one from marketing design and Joel Glazer.

Even they were not brought into the secret until Wednesday and only at 5pm on Friday were they informed that a statue was also being commissioned.

The need for utmost secrecy was constantly expressed so it would be a genuine surprise for Fergie which indeed it was when his name was unveiled just before kick-off on Saturday.

Fergie was also presented with a painting of the renamed stand.

source: www.thesun.co.uk