BELO HORIZONTE // Unless you have spent the past four days in the middle of the Amazon rainforest avoiding all conversation with local tribespeople by perhaps wearing a pair of oversized Beats by Dre headphones, you will be well aware Brazil face Germany today in a World Cup semi-final without their most indispensable player. Such is the hyperbolic importance placed on the comically over-marketed Neymar and his less-comically fractured frame, it has been almost entirely overlooked that Brazil stands to benefit this afternoon from the return of a key figure in midfield. Luiz Gustavo's antithetical approach to fame and football means that while coach Luiz Felipe Scolari calls him “one of the most important players in my team”, many of his own compatriots could not pick the tough-tackling 26 year-old out of a police line-up (as evidenced when a local TV programme recently showed Rio residents unable to recognise his photo). “I'm very quiet,” Gustavo said this week. “I do not care to be known at all. I just want to keep winning.” To continue reading, click here |
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Below are a series of short features published in The National looking at some of the World Cup's most memorable figures. While not necessarily the greatest players the game has ever seen, they are undoubtedly among football's most intriguing characters. The object of the series was to uncover some little-known facts about these iconically popular players. From René Higuita and his new home in Saudi Arabia to a Swedish magazine named after a long-forgotten Brazilian defender, the collection includes plenty. The wonderful illustrations are by Matthew Kurian. ISWAS The Goalkeepers The Defenders The Midfielders The Strikers The Managers
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Gary MeenaghanSports scribbler. Pedant with prose. Alliteration addict. Omnivore. Archives
June 2015
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