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Sid LoweSpain writer
Here’s a little game everyone can play, which is ironic, really, because it’s the games not everyone can play that brings it to mind. Of all the managers at Spain’s first division LaLiga clubs, who do you think is the best player? If you stuck them in their team, how good would they be?
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A year ago, you would have probably said Zinedine Zidane when he was still at Real Madrid. Or perhaps Atletico Madrid’s Diego Simeone. You wouldn’t fancy fighting him, for sure: He still looks pretty hard. These days, it’s probably Barcelona’s new boss, Xavi Hernández: That brain hasn’t slowed, and it was never really about the legs anyway. But if you actually think about it, the winner is probably Rayo Vallecano’s Andoni Iraola, who’s still not even 40. Not that it’s just about age. It’s true that Alessio Lisci is younger — only five months older than his own striker Roberto Soldado, in fact — but he wasn’t an especially good footballer in the first place. Still, he looks like he could run about a bit.
OK, here’s another one: Of all the outfield players, who would be the best in goal? And of all the goalkeepers, who would be the best on the pitch?
The first of those might be a bit easier, although Ghana might not thank you for the reminder. In Uruguay training games, Luis Suarez is often the rush goalkeeper. In his home in Montevideo, there is a wooden trophy of a goalkeeper stretching for the ball, thanking him for making that save at the 2010 World Cup. There’s also a worn-out photo his mother had. In it, Suarez is 6, smiling alongside his Deportivo Artigas teammates. He’s the one wearing the goalie gloves.
There have been a few hints for the goalkeeper on the pitch question, too. Everyone keeps going on about how good Marc-Andre ter Stegen is with the ball at his feet, and he started there until about age 10, when a coach reckoned he ran “strange.” Then there’s Thibaut…
Source : espn
