|
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Taneo: The love you don’t get
By Paul J. Taneo
Free-for-all
Ronaldo has always been a fan favorite. Gifted with footballing skills that make goal-scoring look easy, the Brazilian has lived up to “The Phenom” tag attached to him when he was still in his teens.
With two World Cup championships and three World Player of the Year awards in his resume plus a starting slot in the most glamorous (if lately not the winningest) team in the world – the Real Madrid Galacticos – which he joined after the 2002 World Cup for a transfer fee of $35 million from Inter Milan of the Italian League, Ronaldo is worshipped like a god by football fanatics.
Most football fanatics, not all.
After being jeered by a section of the Bernabeu, Real Madrid’s home pitch, as he was substituted in the 58th minute in last week’s game against Alaves, Ronaldo made his sentiments public, sounding like a jilted lover.
“I’ve never felt at home at the Bernabeu; the fans have never treated me with affection,” said the 29-year-old Brazilian. “The fans have never accepted me. The reaction of the fans is something to take into account when thinking about my future.
“I‘ve always said that I don’t want to be where I’m not loved. I will make a decision at the end of the season. After all the effort I made to come to this club I don’t understand why I’m treated like this. I will decide after the World Cup.”
Madrid vice-president Emilio Butragueño understands Rolando. A former Madrid star striker himself, Butragueño knows the fickleness of the faceless individuals in the stands.
“It happened to me too. When I played badly or didn’t offer what the crowd wanted, they whistled me, even though I was always liked by people,” Butragueño said.
With 94 goals in 144 games for Real Madrid, Rolando has been the top scorer for the Galacticos every season since his transfer.
Such excellence demands high expectations, thus the expressions of discontent by the fans. Rolando’s previous stint with Real Madrid archrival Barcelona will also help explain the fans’ displeasure with him.
Even if Rolando scores a goal every time he plays for Real from now on, his days with the team may be numbered. A poll has shown that 70 percent of Real’s fans favor selling Rolando to another team.
A COLD ONE. The Winter Olympics came and went and it hardly caused a ripple in this country. Naturally…a tropical nation whose idea of a Winter Games is watching who twitches first in the US-Russia Cold War and pushes a stubbly finger on the nuclear missiles button. And we have been deprived of that pleasure for more than a decade.
An international sporting event that is rivaled in grandeur only by the Summer Olympics and Fifa World Cup, the TV ratings of the recent Winter Games were probably lower than that of The Late Night with Conan O’Brien…reruns.
It is hard to get excited on the Winter Games, especially when no channel, not even on cable, carried the games here. All we know is that Germany, with 11 golds from a total tally of 29 medals (12 silvers-6 bronzes) topped the overall standings followed by the US (9-9-7) and Austria (9-7-7).
Of the Asian countries, South Korea (6-3-2) was in seventh place, China (2-4-5) was 14th and Japan was 18th among 26 nations on the merit of a single medal – a gold.
Practically all the events in the Winter Olympics don’t require height to excel.
This is the ideal sporting competition for us height-challenged Filipinos. Sadly, it requires snow for us to be able to compete.
But that didn’t stop those crazy Jamaicans from taking part in the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics (get a video copy of the movie Cool Runnings). With a population of less than 3 million, Jamaica put together a four-man bobsled team. We are a nation of more than 80 million, there is no reason we can’t assemble a bobsled squad of our own, or a biathlon team. Since biathlon involves skiing and rifle shooting, there should be enough athletic Filipinos out there who could be taught how to ski.
As to rifle shooting, that should be easy. With probably 10,000 deaths caused by firearms annually in this country, we have a large pool of sharpshooters.
Substitute skis for motorcycles and rifles for handguns, Team Philippines Biathlon should be set for Canada 2010. That long-desired Olympic gold medal may soon be ours.
(paulotaneo@yahoo.com)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (March 1, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
|
[return to top]
[home]
[network page]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
SUPERBALITA
WEEKEND
|
