Football injuries

Recent injuries of Ronaldo and Eduardo da Silva made me thinking that injuries are the worst thing that can happen to a football player. Will they come back in the fields?
Well, Arsenal’s Eduardo’s injury was really bad and saving his left foot was doctor’s success. He will be able to walk in few months, but it’s only a question if will he play football again.
Ronaldo had bad knee injury less than 2 weeks before Eduardo. But if Eduardo (age 25) still has possibilities to continue his football career, Ronaldo’s chances are much smaller, coz he is 31.
Unfortunately, many players were forced to end active playing and many others never retrieved the form they had before. Even if the injury has been completely healed the formerly injured player feel “posttraumatic fear” that can be noticed through his performance.
But, there were situations in the past when the badly injured player recovered from the injury and came back on the pitch with brilliant appearances.
In the “Pele” era Brazil won three World Cups - “58,”62 and “70. One is missing. In the 1966 Pele got a bad blow and he missed the most important match against Hungary. Brazil lost. Many people then, thought that Pele’s career was over, but he denied them and got back on the field with the same elegancy and magic. Brazil won the WC in 1970 again with him.
Similar accident happened to Maradona – also one of the best players of all time. He singed for Barcelona in “82 but his shine was eclipsed due to an injury. He never showed the best of him and he moved in Italy to play for Napoli. He raised the club high and led them to the victory in the UEFA cup in “89. Maradona also won the WC with Argentina in “86.
Latest example of all is Ronaldo. In his early days he showed his great potential. By many, Ronaldo spent the time of his life playing for Barcelona, and then he moved to Italy. First year spent in Inter brought him a title in the UEFA cup.
In 1999 and 2000 Ronaldo went injured twice. Hard trainings resulted with knee ligament injury and he missed the season after. Later that season, Ronaldo ruptured his knee again and it was obviously the end of his career in Inter.
In the 2002 Ronaldo won the World Cup with Brazil, the record he didn’t managed to achieve in 1998. He was most influential player in the Carioca squad, also. Already transferred to Real Madrid, Ronaldo kept playing in high level. He won the FIFA Player of the year prize and he won the Spanish Primera that season, which he failed to win with Barcelona.
In 2007 Ronaldo was transferred to Milan and kept playing on high level. Unfortunately on Feb. 13 Ronaldo’s knee cracked down again. After successfully surgery, the doctors said he will be all right, but they are not sure is he going to play football again. Its bad way to finish someone’s career, especially someone’s like Ronaldo.

Nicknames of football teams and players

A lot of football teams and players around the world nave nicknames and few of them are even more known by their nicknames than their real names. For example, one of the best players of all times was Edson Arantes do Nascimento, but he was wide known as Pele. “Pele” came from the wrong pronunciation of Bile’ (which meant goalkeeper those days). Actually Pele wanted to become goalkeeper in his early days and that’s why he called himself Bile’.

One of his teammates in the national team of Brazil and in the same time one of the best players in the world was Manoel dos Santos, but very, very much known as Garincha. Garincha is a small bird that lives in Brazil and Manoel used to hunt this kind of birds when he was a little boy.

So, national teams, clubs, fan clubs and players have their nicknames. Some of the team nicknames are given because of their club colors like NT of Italy – Azzurri which means Blues, France national team is also called “Les Bleus” because of their club colors, “Oranje” is the nickname of Netherlands team and Spanish national squad is called La Furia Roja (The red fury).
Often named by their club colors are some Italian teams like: A.C. Milan – Rossoneri, Inter – Neroazzurri. Juventus are called Bianconeri but also “La Vecchia Signora” which means old lady. You may ask why lady, but not gentleman. That’s because "Juventus" (Youth) is a Latin word of feminine gender and “old” because it’s one of the oldest clubs in Italy, of course. Roma are called Wolves because of the legend of Rome.
In Spain most popular club nicknames are “Los Merengues” – for Real Madrid and “Blaugrana” for Barcelona. Blaugrana in Spanish means blue and deep red color and Merengue is a delicious and very expensive dessert in Spain and only the wealthiest can afford it. In the era of Figo, Zidane, Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos and Beckham, Real Madrid was also called “Los Galacticos” because of their big names and all the fame around them. You can find somewhere “Los Blancos” which refers on Real Madrid too because of their all white uniforms. Atletico Madrid’s nickname is “Colchoneros”, name given because of their red and white stripes which reminds of the old-fashioned mattresses. Villareal is “The Yellow Submarine” coz of their yellow shirts and their mascot “Groguet” who is dressed all yellow and has submarine head. Racing Santander are “Montañeses” which means highlanders.
English clubs has their nicknames too. Manchester United is often called Red Devils for their red shirts and their city rivals Manchester City are called simply The Citizens. Arsenal nickname is Gunners and Newcastle’s nickname Magpies is about their black shirts. Tottenham Hotspur is simply called Spurs and Chelsea is called London Blues, of course, because of their all blue uniforms.
From the other popular nicknames of the famous clubs we can mention Bayern Munich who were called F.C. Hollywood in the “90s coz the club was full of stars. Monaco is sometimes called The Princes because Monaco is not a part of French republic and it’s constituted as principality.

Some famous football player’s nicknames:
Zinedine Zidane – Zizou
Paul Gascoigne – Gazza
Kevin Keegan – Mighty Mouse
Ruud Gullit – "Il Tulipo Nero" (The black tulip)
Eusebio – The Black Panther
Ferenc Puskas – The Galloping Major
Alfredo di Stefano – "La Saeta Rubia" (The Blond Arrow)
Gerd Muller – Bomber
Franz Beckenbauer – Der Kaiser
Lev Yashin - The Black Spider (a goalkeeper with fantastic anticipation)
Del Piero – Pinturicchio
Di Livio – Little Soldier
Batistuta – Bati-goal
Ruud van Nistelrooy – Ruud van Goal
Dragan Stojkovic - Piksi

So if you know any other nicknames, please put a comment with it.

Football quotes

Those guys sometimes can be very funny! Some of them said:


“We lost because we didn't win.” - Ronaldo

“I'd like to play for an Italian club, like Barcelona.” - Mark Draper

“I'm as happy as I can be - but I have been happier.” - Ugo Ehiogu

“I was watching the Blackburn game on TV on Sunday when it flashed on the screen that George Ndah had scored in the first minute at Birmingham. My first reaction was to ring him up. Then I remembered he was out there playing.” - Ade Akinbiyi

“The opening ceremony was good, although I missed it.” - Graeme Le Saux

“It was like the ref had a brand new yellow card and wanted to see if it worked.” - Richard Rufus

“I couldn't settle in Italy - it was like living in a foreign country.” - Ian Rush

"Italy cannot beat you but you can lose to Italy." - Johan Cruijff

“I would not be bothered if we lost every game as long as we won the league.” - Mark Viduka

"The philosophy of a lot of European teams, even in home matches, is not to give a goal away." -Sir Alex Ferguson

“The Brazilians were South America, and the Ukranians will be more European.” - Phil Neville

“Sometimes in football you have to score goals.” - Thierry Henry

“I've had 14 bookings this season - 8 of which were my fault, but 7 of which were disputable.”
- Paul Gascoigne

"I think that France, Germany, Spain, Holland and England will join Brazil in the semi-finals." - Pele

"I've never wanted to leave. I'm here for the rest of my life, and hopefully after that as well." -Alan Shearer

"In 1969 I gave up women and alcohol; it was the worst 20 minutes of my life." – George Best

“My parents have been there for me, ever since I was about 7.” - David Beckham

“Winning doesn't really matter as long as you win.” - Vinny Jones

“I always used to put my right boot on first, and then obviously my right sock.” - Barry Venison

"As we say in Portugal, they brought the bus and they left the bus in front of the goal. I would have been frustrated if I had been a supporter who paid £50 to watch this game because Spurs came to defend. There was only one team looking to win, they only came not to concede - it’s not fair for the football we played." – Jose Mourinho