Two big stars are out of alignment
They are two of the most accomplished players in the world. They are both from South America. They are under contract to two of the planet’s most successful teams.
So why has Brazilian international striker Adriano, 27, abandoned Italian Serie A leader and defending champion Inter Milan?
And why has Argentine international striker Carlos Tevez, 25, indicated he wants to get away from English Premier League leader and defending champion Manchester United?
On the surface, the cases would seem similar, but the unhappiness of the pair stems from vastly different causes.
Adriano already has made his break. He failed to return to Italy after playing for Brazil in a World Cup qualifier two weeks ago, and on Friday he had his contract torn up by Inter Milan.
“Everyone at Inter would like to give Adriano a warm embrace for his eight years and 74 goals here,” the club said in a prepared statement.
Adriano’s troubled personal life has led him to conclude that he is happier in Brazil than in Italy and so he has decided to take an extended break from soccer.
“I have stopped my career for a while because I have lost the joy of playing,” he said in Rio de Janeiro.
Tevez’s case is just the opposite. He wants to be playing more and told Argentina’s Radio Del Plata last week that he was dissatisfied despite having appeared in more than half of Manchester United’s games this season.
“I have not played in important matches,” he said.
“There are many very good players, but I need to play. I have trained every day and never said anything against my teammates or anyone, but it is true that there are options for next season.”
Tevez will be a free agent in June and his likely asking price of more than $30 million means that only the wealthiest clubs will be in the running for his signature.
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The Bora and Afshin show
What are the odds that two men from the same Southern California county, neighbors and friends separated by only a few miles, would end up coaching national teams whose shared border is one of the most dangerous spots on Earth?
Yet that is exactly what has taken place in the last few days.
First, Bora Milutinovic, lately of Laguna Niguel but more often to be found in Mexico City, accepted the job as coach of Iraq, officially signing the contract in Baghdad on Thursday.
The day before, on Wednesday, Afshin Ghotbi, lately of Rancho Santa Margarita but more recently to be found in Dubai, accepted the job as coach of Iran.
Milutinovic, 64, who was tipped to the Iraq opening by Ghotbi and who has previously coached the national teams of Mexico, Costa Rica, the U.S., Nigeria, China, Honduras and Jamaica, has made an interesting move.
As the defending Asian champion, Iraq will be playing South Africa, Spain and New Zealand in the FIFA Confederations Cup in South Africa in June.
A good showing there could perhaps land the man known worldwide simply as Bora a World Cup team and the chance to return to South Africa in 2010.
Ghotbi, 45, has taken on a more difficult challenge. The former U.S. and South Korea assistant coach is Iran’s third coach in less than a month, following the dismissal of Ali Daei after a humbling 2-1 World Cup qualifying loss to Saudi Arabia in Tehran and the resignation of successor Mohammad Mayelikohan after less than two weeks.
Iran will have an uphill fight getting to South Africa and the odds are slim. If it fails, Iranian American Ghotbi is set up to take the fall.
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The life of Jurgen
All in all, the week went horribly wrong for Jurgen Klinsmann, erstwhile resident of Newport Beach and, for the moment at least, the coach of Bayern Munich in Germany.
On Saturday, with a chance to move into first place in the Bundesliga, defending champion Bayern was beaten, 1-0, by Schalke 04 and dropped into third place in the league with only five games remaining.
By the end, fans in the crowd of 69,000 at the Allianz Arena were chanting “Klinsmann out,” which is much the same thing that a court in Munich was saying earlier in the week.
Klinsmann had filed a $130,000 lawsuit against the German newspaper Die Tageszeitung for depicting him as a crucified Jesus in a front-page illustration published at Easter after Bayern had been trounced, 5-1, by Wolfsburg and 4-0 by Barcelona.
The image was accompanied by the headline “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,” the title of the song sung by a group of crucified people in the 1979 Monty Python film “Life of Brian.”
Klinsmann’s lawyers argued that the caricature “profoundly and massively” affected the coach’s personal rights, but a Munich tribunal dismissed the lawsuit.
“This type of representation is to be classed in the domain of satire, or, more specifically, caricature,” the judgment stated. “It was not at all a real crucifixion. The complainant’s professional decline is instead represented in symbolic fashion.”
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Europe’s leading goal scorers
These are the players leading the scoring charts in England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain going into today’s matches.
*--* Player League Team Goals Samuel Eto’o Spanish Barcelona 27 David Villa Spanish Valencia 25 Diego Forlan Spanish Atletico Madrid 22 Grafite German VfL Wolfsburg 22 Lionel Messi Spanish Barcelona 21 Zlatan Ibrahimovic Italian Inter Milan 20 Marco Di Vaio Italian Bologna 20 Andre-Pierre Gignac French Toulouse 19 Mario Gomez German VfB Stuttgart 19 Vedad Ibisevic German TSG Hoffenheim 18 Patrick Helmes German Bayer Leverkusen 18 Alberto Gilardino Italian Fiorentina 18 Cristiano Ronaldo English Manchester United 17 Guillaume Hoarau French Paris Saint-Germain 17 Alberto Diego Milito Italian Genoa 16 Nicolas Anelka English Chelsea 15 *--*
