A Real Madrid legend has thanked himself for lifting his 26th title with the club.
At the same time, it was celebrated, somewhat surprisingly, even by those who lost the Champions League final on Saturday in Paris.
Here are Makoto Asahara’s three thoughts from last weekend’s CL Championship.
Was Marcelo the last of his kind?
More than 500 competitive matches under 15.5 years at Real Madrid. 26 titles. More than any other player in the world’s most successful football club.
When 34-year-old Marcelo, in his captain’s tie, stretched the Champions League straight into the Paris sky, it was his fifth (!) CL dent.
His contribution to the playing field on the way to the fifth may be intermittent. But the team leader is the team leader.
And he couldn’t have finished better than a career that deserves more attention than it does.
After all, he’s always been taken for granted at left-back. When he came to the club in 2007 as an untested 18-year-old, he was impolite, a security risk and anything but an end product. But it grew every year. Take the starting point. He lost his starting point but regained it. For a while he was the best in the world in his position, offensively and defensively. Until later, on the verge of aging, somehow ends the cycle of being a constant defensive security risk by using offensive samba tactics.
But above all, he was, from the first minute at the club, a cheerleading leader in everything.
An artist, not a machine. A player who played defensive games as if lounging on the beach, usually generally in a positive way. Which he did well when he was between 18 and 34 years old.
As it turned out over time, he was a natural leader and a pure winner. It turned out that he was not only the heir to Roberto Carlos, but also a player who surpassed him.
With a permanent smile on his face.
Now that he has terminated his contract with Real Madrid, as one of the greatest acts in the club’s history, I ask myself if he broke today.
Did he have the opportunity to develop as quickly as he did? Was the Real Madrid coach today, in today’s football, patient and daring to let uncut diamonds grow the way Marcelo got them? Was he labeled early as a security risk and shipped out on loan to a mediocre team in another league?
Impossible to know. But I dare say with almost one hundred percent certainty that we will probably never experience an artist in the back line the way Marcelo was in the white shirt.
Above all, he is not such a successful artist.
Victory parade raises questions
On Sunday, Real Madrid celebrated their 14th Champions League title with a traditional visit to the Cibeles Fountain, which was followed by a golden gala at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Final loser Liverpool? They are still celebrating a victory parade across town – less than a day after the final loss.
Pictures of Liverpool players looking overjoyed raise real question marks in me.
Before delving into the reason, a few things should be clarified to avoid misunderstanding:
Supporting the fans and supporting them despite CL losing a final and second place in the league is unbelievably beautiful no matter what.
Liverpool won two trophies and overall had a really great season that deserves all the attention.
– The show was planned earlier to not prevent players from going on missions/holidays for the national team.
– Players could not stand and express their anger on the bus fence when many fans joined in to show their support for them.
Maybe I’m the one who has really big ideas about how big and strong Liverpool FC actually is – but it’s very strange to me anyway.
For a club that aspires to be one of the best in the world, like Liverpool and should be, it is incredibly strange to see two so happy players dancing to the beat of loud music having missed out on PL in a week as well as the CL Cup. Above all, it’s curious to see players who seemingly left CL’s ultimate grief behind in less than a day. And the FA Cup and the League Cup in all the glory, PL and CL are two much bigger things.
Of course they’re really frustrated, guys. But shouldn’t it be seen more? Shouldn’t the team consist of strong winning bosses so that the show isn’t after a massive final loss on the map? Shouldn’t the celebration be something more conservative than it actually appears?
Especially after the final where they were pre-favourites?
Now, to be Liverpool, a somewhat uncertain transfer summer awaits with Sadio Mane on his way and an increasingly close contract for Mohamed Salah. Difficult decisions must be made.
But above all else, perhaps the heads of the most stubborn winners need polishing. This review, no matter how beautiful it is, shows after all that the winning mentality is still not up to the absolute big club.
If Mane leaves, Bowen must be relevant
When we still mention Sadio Mane, we can finish there too.
While all the headlines during the spring were about Mohamed Salah’s presence or absence at Liverpool, the status of Sadio Mane’s contract, such as Salah expiring in 2023, ended up in the shadows.
Currently? Now it seems almost impossible to imagine a different scenario than the Senegal striker’s departure this summer.
If he does, he will do so with great success on his resume, as a major part of Liverpool’s renaissance since Jurgen Klopp joined the club. And he does so with a logical timing for a logical destination (if it is now Bayern Munich).
On the Liverpool side, trying to sell this summer is also very reasonable in terms of terms. The price picture that Liverpool see themselves as being able to sell seems reasonable in terms of terms too (although Bayern would of course want to pay less).
I have said so. What is this invested money?
There is no doubt that Luis Diaz was a signing that was already supposed to take place this summer. And don’t be surprised if it’s actually intended as a replacement for Mane. But is there still a feeling that more is needed when such a major player is gone? The money is there, right?
And if any club knows how to use money transfer in a smart way, it is Liverpool today. That efficiency must be used.
In West Ham sits Jarrod Bowen. A player who has had a remarkably good season with the Hammers and has been said to have been on Liverpool’s radar before. I’m not alone in believing he could go to another level with a red shirt.
If Mane is gone, it should really be relevant this summer.
