Player profile – Goran Pandev

Lazio’s forward, “Il grande Macedone” – Goran Pandev with his brilliant appearances lately, has promoted himself as one of the best forwards in Serie A and beyond.
He is only 23 and he has already fascinated major European clubs with his physical strength and goalscoring abilities alongside his maturity display.
Goran Pandev was born in Strumica on July 27, 1983.
He made his first football steps in the youth academy of FK Belasica and in 2000 he made his debut for the first team when he was only 17.
His career turned upstairs when he and his teammate from Belasica, Ace Stojkov got offer from FC Inter.
In 2001 Pandev moved to Milano and joined the youth squad of Inter. He kept developing there but he hasn’t got a chance for first team appearance. He spent 2002/03 on a loan to Spezia, and the next 2003/04 in Ancona. Scoring few goals in about 40 matches is not much of a success, but knowing the age of the striker, it wasn’t such a bad achievement.
Pandev experienced playing in Italian lower leagues and improved his physical and technical abilities. Then the real challenge came.

In 2004 Goran Pandev was transferred from Inter to Lazio as a part of Stankovic’s transfer of to Inter. Very quickly, Goran Pandev became popular among the Lazio fans, and also among the fans of Macedonian NT. With his 25 goals in 3 seasons at Lazio he turned himself into the one of the best Lazio players nowadays. Pandev is playing another brilliant season at Lazio (2007/08) and he has chances to finish the season with more than 20 goals in every competition.

Goran Pandev is not a classic forward. His position in Lazio is right behind the full striker (Rocchi). In Macedonia he has free role and plays something like attacking midfield. This speaks about his contribution in connecting the midfield and the attack.
Pandev is a hard player with great body balance and it’s almost impossible for opponent defenders to beat him in physical duel. He is cleaver enough and can be stopped only with foul. The ball is secure in his legs.
Other great qualities are dribbling and passing. I can never forget the mach against Juventus and Pandev’s magic while Buffone, Canavarro, Thuram and Zebina were out of their shoes, and many other fantastic moves.
And at last, I think that his biggest quality is the shoot accuracy. He strikes precisely and steady and a lot of goalkeepers are helpless in that situation.
His speed and stamina are not his biggest strengths, but he can handle with them.

Take a look at some of his goals:





Goran Pandev has a great career in front of him. Major European clubs like Bayern, Arsenal and Real Madrid are interested in his services.

Highest transfer fees in football

We all know that football today is more than just a game. But sometimes it’s not very clear how much more. It is unbelievable just how much money circle in and out of this game. Not only for tickets but for TV rights, shirt sponsors, commercials...

I was actually astonished when I heard the numbers of some transfer fees. Read on about the top 10 highest transfer fees in history of football. For starters, guess which team paid the top two highest transfer fees. It was Real Madrid of course. They paid 75 million euros to get Zinedine Zidane from Juventus in 2001. Just to compare, this amount covers for 300 000 average monthly Macedonian wages. The year before Real led the top 10 with the now second highest transfer of Luis Figo, whom they got from Barcelona for 61 millions. Right behind Real, on the third place comes Lazio. They paid 56 million euros for the transfer of Hernan Crespo from Parma in 2000. Amounted in euros the fourth place goes for Gaizka Mendieta’s transfer from Valencia to Lazio in 2001 for 48 millions. I say amounted in euros because using a different currency produces a slightly different list due to exchange rate fluctuations. If we go on, on the fifth place we find Rio Ferdinand. His transfer fee from Leeds United to Manchester United in 2002 was 47 millions. The year before that Manchester United paid Lazio 46 millions for the transfer of Juan Veron. On the seventh place we meet Real Madrid again. The transfer of Ronaldo from Inter Milan in 2002 brought them once more on the top 10 list. They paid 45 millions this time. As we can see so far, European football experienced a so called "transfer bubble" between 1999 and 2002. The most expensive transfer since that time was Chelsea's purchase of Andriy Shevchenko in 2006. The fee was amounted as 45 millions of euros. The last two transfers are also from the "transfer bubble" era. The transfer of Rui Costa in 2001 that was 43 millions and the one of Christian Vieri in 1999 for 42 millions.
So these are the highest transfer fees so far. As we can see they were all made by Italian, English and Spanish clubs. It is harder today to produce a definitive list of largest transfer fees than was the case in the past. This is due, as I mentioned before, to exchange rate fluctuations, non official reports, and different sources. Anyway this is big money we’re talking about. And that is one of the reasons why football is the main secondary thing in the world.

by Cana

The 2006 Serie A scandal - "Calciopoli"

So, how many titles Juventus won? 28? Nope. Juventus actually won 29 Scudettos but in the 2006 Serie A scandal they lost two of them.

So, officially Juventus are holders of 27 Calcio Serie A titles what makes them still the leaders of this competition. A. C. Milan is second with 17 and Inter third with 15 titles.

Well, Juvents won the Scudetto in 2004/05 and 2005/06 season but in the “Calciopoli” scandal in 2006 they lost those 2 titles and were relegated to Serie B plus starting with 9 points negative. And what was Calciopoli all about?

In May 2006 Italian police exposed evidence for match fixing in the professional football league Serie A. Teams involved were Juventus, Fiorentina, Lazio, Milan and Reggina. The police intercepted calls between officials of those teams and the referees who were appointed to their matches. The process begun immediately and the prosecutor demanded relegation “lower than Serie B” (what means C1) for Juventus and relegation to Serie B for the rest of the teams.
At the end of the trial drama, Italian Football Federation came up with these decisions:
- Juventus - Relegated to Serie B and starting with 9 points negative in the next (2006/07) season. Their 2005 and 2006 title taken off (last one given to Inter F.C.)
- A.C. Milan – Brought down on the table from 2nd to 3rd place (enough to qualify for the next season’s Champions League) and starting with only 8 points negative in the 2006/07 season.
- Fiorentina – Lowered from 4th to 9th place and 15 points negative for the next season.
- Lazio – Inclined from 6th to 16th place and starting with only 3 points less.

Other consequences: Inter earned 2005/06 Scudetto on the “green table” and Roma made their way to the Champions League.

See the full table

Juventus, champion’s team led by Capello due to relegation to Serie B was crashed! The team lost their coach and some of their best players like Cannavaro (FIFA World Player of the year), Ibrahimovic, Emerson, Zambrotta, Vieira, Thuram and others. Yes! They deserved it!
Milan did not enter the Champions League directly, but they qualified for it however.
Fiorentina and Lazio avoided relegation.
What is the most curious Italy became World Champion the same year!

See club punishments

So, what you think? Did everybody involved in this drama get what deserved?
Is match fixing in the world’s top leagues OK by you?

Well, this is what I think:
According to the football laws, everything is OK and the justice came up in front! Juventus, the team with most charges got relegated one level lower. The rest of the teams dropped few places lower on the table and started with negative points next season.
But!
If Italian Football Federation took off 5 more points to Milan they wouldn’t qualify for the CL (Remember: Milan won this competition next season). Four points less to Lazio and they wouldn’t see Serie A matches for next season etc…
Oh, I forgot to mention that Inter got Scudetto for free :)
And where those cheater clubs should be?
They ALL should be out of Serie A!
Match fixers! Cheaters! Out!

Many people will disagree with me. They will say: Who I’m gonna watch in Serie A? Catania, Monza, AlbinoLeffe?
I will say yes! Better lower-quality but “clean” team, rather than cheaters!

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Thanks for reading this story!