Lionel Messi might be the best soccer players in the world. He’s also a low-key superstar. Check out this recent interview of Messi.

Journalists are evenly split on whether or not they should interview their personal heroes: some say you shouldn’t because you’ll find your idol has feet of clay, others argue the opportunity is too good to miss. For me, it was a no-brainer. Lionel Messi is not only the shining star of my favorite team, FC Barcelona, (although among my sentimental favorites, he ranks behind stalwarts Carles Puyol, Xavi Hernández and Andres Iniesta) he’s also a highly unusual sporting icon. In an era when many sports celebrities swagger extravagantly, on and off the field, Messi is something of a throwback: a well-behaved young man who keeps his nose scrupulously clean.

On the field, he shows little of the petulance and amateur dramatics of so many soccer players, including one or two in Barcelona colors. When he scores, he always raises two forefingers to the sky, dedicating the goal to his late grandmother. When he’s fouled, he rarely — rarely — exaggerates his pain: he’s too much in a hurry to get the ball back at his feet. Off the field, he lives a quiet life, with his father in the Barcelona suburb of Castelldefels. Unlike many top players (including some of his recent teammates), he’s rarely seen in the city’s bars and discos, with a supermodel on his arm.

Read the entire interview. He seems like a classy guy.

It was a good year fro Soccer games, but a bad year for FIFA according to this year in review.

Everyone has been hailing Spain, but England defeated Spain yesterday 1-0.

Just the day before, Theodore Furchtgott wrote that there was no end in sight for Spain’s dominance, but that was also the prevailing view.

Will Italy’s National Team ever be the same?

Here’s a great profile of Manchester City’s Mario Balotelli who also plays on Italy’s National Team.

Here’s an interesting article from The Guardian that highlights some different perspectives.

It was not what Arsenal supporters, or indeed any supporters of Premier League clubs, might have expected to hear in Stan Kroenke’s first interview in England. Kroenke, however, made little attempt to sugar the pill. What had the Glazer family, he wondered, done wrong at Manchester United? In his deep Missouri drawl, the largest shareholder at Arsenal made it sound like they had his admiration.

“What was so tough about the Glazers’ situation?” Kroenke said. “They won. And they have increased revenues by a huge amount. If I was a fan of that club, I would sit there and go, ‘Wow.’ Because how could you do it any better? That’s what I would say.”

It was put to Kroenke that United fans were deeply unhappy at how the American owners had taken money out of the club, following their heavily leveraged takeover. “But they still won,” Kroenke said. “We don’t need to get into an exchange here but I don’t know as a fan … how could you do it much better? They have increased massively. Some of their players have taken money out and maybe they haven’t performed.

“We have a whole different philosophy in the States but I think it’s time, maybe, for everybody to think a little bit and, maybe I’m saying too much but I think they ought to think a little bit about who invests in these clubs. What do you want for the long term?

The entire article is worth reading.

No one in the world feels the least bit sorry for you, Chelski, so enough already. Yes, it was a bit unfortunate that both of your top keepers got injured. It happens, though. There was no conspiracy.

The whole world does hate you. No mistake there. But the entire world knows Roman will just plunk down yet more Russian wonga and supply you with the best keeper that money can buy. There’s no such thing as bad luck for you lot. You just drop more money and the problem is solved.

That’s why you’re hated.

Among several other reasons.

The only dispicable occurance in this situation was when the ref incomprehensibly made the dying Petr Cech crawl off the pitch to be treated. That was a poor sight even for the biggest Chelsea bashers. It must be said, it was bound to happen eventually. The players, with all the overly dramatic diving, make it impossible to discern between a serious injury and an attempt to win a card. Everything comes with a price in the end.

But don’t worry Chelsea frontrunners, Abramovich will pick-up the tab.

The shocking news story of the week was the disclosure that some Premier League managers might actually be taking bungs–that is, taking money for themselves from agents to make transfer deals. This nothing story shouldn’t surprise anyone, except for the lack of any real bombshells. For me, they’re going after the wrong side anyway. It’s the agents that are the evil bastards and need to be stopped–the more painfully the better. They are right on the cusp of doing serious damage to the game. Especially with these new companies owning the rights to players. Agents already have entirely too much power in football and the weight needs to be shifted back. Quickly. It’s going to get very ugly very soon, and it’ll be too late to ever make it right again.

With that backdrop, the season rolls merrily along with a week of coming routs. Most of the big guns have easy matches and they’ll make quick work of their hapless opponents. Sheffield Utd, Fulham, Reading–better luck next week. The match to watch this weekend is Liverpool/Tottenham. Unfortunately, I can’t owing to my vow not to contribute to the Spurs demise by personally witnessing it. Although, it’s beginning to be apparent that they struggle whether I watch them or not. Defoe must play. They miss Carrick. Keane is overrated. But, that team is too good to be as spotty as they’ve been. Liverpool is only slightly less spotty due to Tinker Benitez constantly fiddling with the line-up. Should be an interesting match. Things will start to look very serious for the loser.

But, that’s the great thing about the Premier League. Every match means something. Even the Wigan/Watford match is worth a look.

Ipswich gets to take on Roy Keane’s Sunderland in the Championship. The novelty of that might be better than the match. A match I will be forced to miss due to uncontrollable convolutions of the universe. Good luck Town–I’ll be thinking about you.

I’m big enough to admit it. I have no idea what the hell is going on. Does Rafa Benitez have any idea what he’s doing at Liverpool? By almost everyone’s estimate, he came into the season with the second best team in the Premiership. They’ve struggled for their form to say the least so far. Everton just dusted them in the derby at the weekend 3-0. I can understand perfectly well that he may have been less than thrilled with some of the perfomances.

Tonight in the Champions League he sat most of the usual suspects and PSV Eindhoven held them to a 0-0 draw. They used to accuse sweet Claudio Ranieri of being too much of a ‘tinker’ when he was at Chelsea, but Benitez is taking it well beyond even that. Liverpool is much stronger this year, but still not Chelsea-like–being able to field an entire second team with enough talent to beat just about anyone. Liverpool has to field the likes of Gerrard, Alonso, Hyppia, and Crouch to have much of a chance against a quality team. He sat them all.

Maybe he had a point to prove, but it seems like lately every time a manager decides to drive home a point it costs them a big game. There must be better way.

No such slip-ups for Chelsea. They took care of Werder Bremen fairly easily, 2-0. That was the one team in the group good enough to surprise Chelski, especially this early, if they looked past them, but Mourinho had them awake and ready to play. Looks like they’ll get through along with Barcelona. Their chances look much better than they did when the draw first came out. It was wonderful to delude myself into thinking they could get knocked out in the group stage. It’s not going to happen, but I still don’t think they’ll win the thing either.

I also can’t begin to figure out Tottenham. I’ve kept up my end and have been avoiding watching them live. No matter. They still look shaky. Actually, they look fine, they just can’t seem to be able to score. Not playing Defoe is obviously not wise. He wants out, but play him while you have him. Of course, he only wants to leave because Jol, for some reason only he must know, doesn’t use him much.

Ipswich has always been beyond me. I’ve decided to just ride the wave and not get too bothered about where they’re going. They looked awful to start the season, but have managed to win three on the trot now. They are a mid-table team, through and through. They’ll be streaky all season, I’m afraid. Just when I start getting my hopes up that they may be good enough to contend, they’ll drop several points to teams they should easily beat. I blame Magilton for some of that, but the reality is they’re just a very average Chamionship side.

One manager that can easily be blamed for his team’s up and down performance is Gareth Southgate at Middlesborough. They look absolutely great one week, and absolute rubbish the next. Southgate is a great guy and I hope he eventually succeeds, but you can’t tell me ‘Boro wouldn’t be better off with practically anybody else at the helm. He should be learning the ropes somewhere in the lower leagues. Well, he may have ‘Boro down there where he belongs soon enough anyway.

One other thing that has become glaringly obvious is how great Martin O’Neill really is. He won’t be out-coached by anyone, and Aston Villa already look like a completely different team. Randy Lerner should be very pleased with his English football team, unlike the American one.

Is the US ever going to name a national coach? One should have been hired as soon as Arena left. I don’t think they’re cannily waiting to land the one they want. I’m convinced they have no idea what they’re doing at all. I think they want an American, but none strike me as being capable of taking the team beyond where Arena had them. They had a quick chance to do something dramatic and make a difference right after the World Cup. That moment looks to be gone.

The season has been an odd one so far.

Chelsea finally looked like Chelsea in beating Blackburn. Of course most teams look like Chelsea whenever they’re fortunate enough to play Blackburn. Jose can claim it was the return of a few of the superstars finally recovering from injuries, but they are so deep that should never matter.

Arsenal have looked awful and find themselves on the wrong end of the table with their worst start in ages. Thierry Henry is doing nothing, and everyone else seems to be standing around waiting for him to get something done. They’ll eventually get it together, but they are in for a disappointing year by their standards. Seems like only yesterday they were ‘invincible’.

Martin O’Neill continues to have Aston Villa looking sharp. They got a win in front of the new chairman Randy Lerner this weekend. Suddenly, everything is roses in that part of Birmingham. Villa still needs a fair few parts, O’Neill can’t do it all on his own. It’ll be interesting what Lerner will let him buy while the transfer window is open. I doubt there will be any huge names coming in, but a few, moderately priced, well-thought out signings will cement their place in mid-table–and possibly even a bit beyond. It’s a good time to be a Villan, after many years of dispair.

It’s also a rare good time to be a tractor boy. Ipswich finally lodged win number one this season. First one in something like sixteen tries, going back to last year. I’m sure the pints at the Cock and Pye were tasting much better Friday night.

What a Wednesday. Great stories abound from the world of football–at least the part of the world that is England.

What soap opera writer is penning the Sunderland script? Whoever it is, a hearty thank you. Just when you think it can’t get any crazier, a completely novel twist comes flying out of nowhere. The latest installment is sure to supply interesting storylines for months. Or until the murder (probably set for Christmas to boost the ratings). Niall Quinn’s big-name coach has turned out to be none other than one Roy Keane. Put aside the fact that they reputedly hated one another while playing for Ireland, Keano is simply a lunatic. Hard as nails and about as clever. This is going to be brilliant.

If you’re unfamiliar with the profundity of Roy Keane, or just want a quick laugh, football365 has helpfully compiled a list of some of his deeper insights.

In apparent emulation of Mr. Keane, ManCiteh’s Ben Thatcher tried to remove the head of Pedro Mendes with a brutal elbow in the match against Pompey. It was as cheap of a shot as I can remember seeing, but somehow was only worth a yellow from the ref. It might have been some sort of cruel karmic fate, giving a Portuguese player an actual real reason to dive to the turf for all their disgusting play-acting in Germany. In any case, Thatcher needs to go. English football is rough, but that’s uncalled for.

Finally, a double shot of happy news from the Chelsea camp. First, the shocking loss to lowly Middlesbrough made the day for billions around the world. There was much laughing and partying in the streets–you probably missed all that revelry while you were at work. It’s not going to be so easy this time around for the Real of the North. I suspect Ashley Cole will now be bought for the ransom Arsenal is demanding. If I were them, the ransom would have just doubled. Chelsea will pay it–whatever it is. The millionaires are too good to bother playing defense, so something must be done. The only answer for that team is to throw more Roman money at the problems. I hope Abramovich is having a good time. I suspect he’ll be getting tired of this expensive toy soon, and Chelsea will revert back to their inocuous selves. What a day that’ll be.

Then, just as hoped, they managed to draw Barcelona in the group stage of the Champions League. They’re clearly not living right at Stamford Bridge.