Source: Daily_Mail
MARTIN SAMUEL: Here's a real deal, Ronaldo... there's history to be made
At Manchester United, as long as Sir Alex Ferguson remains manager, there will always be something for which to aim. A fresh peak, a new page in the history book. That is why, as we prepare to enter another Cristiano Ronaldo debating season, the one argument that can be discounted is that he has done all he can at his present club.
Ronaldo insists he will be staying, yet the rumours persist. Certainly, there are a number of men who stand to make many millions if they can facilitate the deal that takes him to Real Madrid, and who therefore have a vested interest in perpetuating the idea that he is unsettled, even if it is untrue.
Yet why should he not wish to do another year at Old Trafford. Indeed, why would he not do another 10? This time last season, the speculation was that Ronaldo wanted to go out on the high of winning the first all-English European Cup final, as if nothing could beat that.
Should he stay or should he go? Ronaldo has unfinished business at United - even if Sir Alex Ferguson's side triumph in Rome
Now here we are, 12 months on, and Manchester United stand on the brink of an even greater achievement: to be the first club to retain the trophy in its modern, Champions League, format. First, they must overcome Barcelona, who have been laying waste to their own recordbooks in Spain.
Top that? Well, incredibly, United could if next season they become the only English club to win four straight league titles. This would bring their total to 19, the most to be won (although Liverpool are now claiming two wartime titles to take their total to 20, which seems even more desperate than some of Rafael Benitez's most recent press conference pronouncements).
For this team, at this unique moment in history, there is always a new milestone to be passed. In the excitement at the prospect of United retaining the Champions League, it has almost been overlooked that this season they have become the first club to win three consecutive league titles over two periods in history.
Real Madrid have won the Spanish league five times on the turn, so too Juventus and Torino in Italy and Porto in Portugal, but three has long been the ceiling in the English game. Huddersfield Town, Arsenal and Liverpool have done it, and United twice. And, of course, it is hard for somebody from outside the country to be responsive to the saga of the English game spanning three centuries, but every time Ronaldo stepped on the field this season, each time he helped Manchester United to victory, he was becoming part of England's sporting folklore.
That will be true next season, too, if he can inspire a fourth triumph. With the exception of The Wednesday, every English league champion is still a member of the English league, and bearing the same name, today. Yet none have won it four times consecutively. And, yes, football clubs are about more than black and white columns in books on dusty shelves, they are about people and passion and the emotion Ronaldo clearly experiences when he thinks of Real Madrid.
Yet he may wish to consider why he felt that way, as a boy growing up in Funchal, on the island of Madeira; why he was bewitched by a club that played in a foreign league, in a foreign city, over 900 miles away. And the answer would be that he fellin love with their history, with their achievement, with the legends of special players and special football.
And, if he would only realise, that is what he is creating atManchester United now. It is why Ronaldo's work is not yet done, even if he leaves Rome triumphant once more.
Ciao, Paolo... e grazie! Il Capitano said farewell to AC Milan yesterday. After 901 appearances and 25 seasons in the first team (which Ryan Giggs would require seven more years to equal) Paolo Maldini played his final game in red and black at the San Siro stadium against Roma. The goodbye to the extended football family comes next week, away to Fiorentina, but this was the big one.
It is hard to believe there will be another, even if the club bring his No 3 shirt out of retirement for the third generation of the Maldini family, sons Christian or Daniel (Paolo's father Cesare also captained the club).
For them, this is some act to follow. Maldini, 41 next month, will endure in the memory as one of the greats. He is the most capped Italian player, has made the most appearances in Serie A, the most for AC Milan, he has featured in eight European Cup finals and won five of them (the same as Liverpool) and he has won seven Serie A titles.
His success spans three decades and 26 trophies and, when he emerged at the San Siro yesterday, a capacity crowd showed their appreciation in a uniquely colourful and Italian way.
The club had issued them all with a scarf to mark the occasion. Tre, solo per te, it read. Three, only for you.
Grazie mille, Paolo Maldini.
Boy, do Barca have a cheek! For a club with a forward line comprising a Frenchman, an Argentine and a Cameroonian, a holding midfield player from the Ivory Coast and (when available) a Mexican centre half and full backs from Brazil and France, Barcelona of Spain do like sticking it to everybody about foreign footballers.
Latest to sound the alarm is club devotee Johan Cruyff, a Dutchman, who said that Manchester United did not have enough English players.
Meanwhile, Michel Platini, the UEFA president, has weighed in by attaching moral superiority to Barcelona's youth system.
'Barcelona represent my philosophy, not just in their style of play, but how they form their footballers,' Platini said. 'I believe players should be protected until they are 18, more for moral reasons than economic ones.'
Wise words. Among those currently under the moral protection of Barcelona are Gai Yigaal Assulin, an 18-year-old Israeli who joined Barcelona when he was 12, Jeffren Suarez, a 21-year-old from Venezuela(now helpfully converted to a Spanish Under 21 international), who joined Barcelona when he was 16 from Tenerife and has recently bemoaned his lack of first-team opportunity, and Thiago Alcantara, who was with Brazilian club Flamengo, before joining Ureca in the Spanish region of Galicia and being spirited away to Barcelona at the age of 14.
Lionel Messi went to Spain as a schoolboy after Barcelona agreed to fund his growth hormone treatment. He would not have been allowed to sign for a Premier League club in those circumstances.
Different leagues have different rules.
We cannot doubt, however, that Barcelona's youth transfers are all conducted to the high standards espoused by Platini. Perish the thought that there should be moral compromise at football's most perfect club.
And while we're at it...Stan Kroenke, Arsenal's major shareholder and owner of basketball franchise the Denver Nuggets, was left embarrassed after double booking his home stadium for an NBA play-off semi-final with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Tonight, Denver's Pepsi Arena had been due to house Monday Night RAW for World Wrestling Entertainment instead. The matter has now been resolved, presumably at a price. A takeover by Kroenke, or Alisher Usmanov, is often cited as the answer to Arsenal's problems.
Be careful what you wish for.
Those noted champions of all that is pious and good in football, the German football federation, wish Michael Ballack to miss Chelsea's FA Cup final against Everton on Saturday to fulfil an international commitment. What national duty is so significant that a player should forgo playing in the oldest club competition in the world?
End-of-season friendly games in China and the United Arab Emirates, apparently. 'We decided on this trip because the Chinese market is important for economic reasons,' said Joachim Loew, the national coach.
And to think there are some fools that take these people seriously when they lecture English football on what is good for the game.
Bid goes off the rails After all the hoop-la of England's World Cup bid, reality kicked in with the arrival of a document from FIFA setting out what the host country is expected to provide.
This is said to have come as a surprise to the Government, and contains stipulations involving security, taxation, visas and transportation. 'There are more guarantees than we expected,' said Gerry Sutcliffe, the Sports Minister.
Shall we examine just one?
At modern World Cups, transport is free for officials, press and for anyone carrying a valid match ticket until 12pm the day after a game is played.
Extra trains run through the night to get supporters home, meaning lucrative freight services are disrupted or abandoned. In many countries, organising this is a relatively straightforward process as the railways are state --controlled. Not in Britain.
To deliver on that promise, the Government would have to reach agreement with roughly 30 privatised companies, plus six freight operators, who would no doubt demand significant compensation. Just synchronising Wembley trains would require the co-operation of three rail networks: Chiltern Railways, who service Wembley Stadium station, London Overground, who run trains into Wembley Central, and London Underground, who supply Wembley Park. This is how costs spiral.
That Sutcliffe is already expressing shock at FIFA's requirements suggests this has not been thought through as thoroughly as the bid team would like us to believe. Here we go again.
We await your response with interest, Monsieur Platini...
Last week, Michel Platini, the UEFA president, presented the last UEFA Cup to Shakhtar Donetsk, who defeated Werder Bremen of Germany to become the first team from Ukraine to win a European competition. The prize was held aloft by Darijo Srna, their Croatian captain, and was then passed along a line of players that included five Brazilians, a Romanian and a Pole.
In all, only three of Shakhtar's starting line-up were from Ukraine. Since being parachuted in from the Champions League, after finishing third in their group behind Barcelona and Sporting Lisbon, Shakhtar have scored 14 goals, one by a Ukrainian, one by a Czech and 12 from Brazilians. No Ukrainian player scored beyond the round of 32.
It was much the same in the Champions League: 11 goals, eight by Brazilians. We await comment from Platini on this triumph for the plucky little nation of Brazil, sorry Ukraine, with interest; or maybe we don't.
For a politician, Lord Mawhinney, chairman of the Football League, does not appear too clever at politics. Speaking at the announcement of the bid to host the 2018 World Cup finals, he struck the only sour note by using his platform as a means to dig slyly at the Premier League.
'Ours is the oldest league competition in the world,' he boasted. 'It is the authentic league.'
A couple of days later, Mawhinney had the begging bowl out on behalf of his clubs, claiming handouts from the Premier League should increase based on percentage rise in total wage bill.
As it is, the Premier League delivers £31.8m to the Football League, including parachute payments to relegated clubs. Few see that changing greatly now. Smart move, your Lordship.
m.samuel@dailymail.co.uk
