男友太凶猛1v1高h,大地资源在线资源免费观看 ,人妻少妇精品视频二区,极度sm残忍bdsm变态

US EUROPE AFRICA ASIA 中文
Sports / Soccer

Rodriguez trying to steal Neymar's spotlight

(Agencies) Updated: 2014-07-04 17:36

Rodriguez trying to steal Neymar's spotlight

Colombia's James Rodriguez (R) kisses his jersey after scoring a goal against Uruguay during their 2014 World Cup round of 16 game at the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro, June 28, 2014. [Photo/Agencies]

The man trying to ruin Brazil's World Cup run and overshadow its anointed hero is so new to soccer stardom that he doesn't even get his name pronounced correctly by play-by-play commentators.

However, the biggest conundrum about Colombia's James Rodriguez isn't whether you should say his first name like "Jay-mz" or "Ham-ez." No, the far more pertinent question is how can it possibly be that he stayed under the radar for so long? A World Cup is a boiled down affair of intense focus, so much so that a handful of whirlwind performances on the grandest stage of all can falsely inflate a player's reputation.

Even with that in mind, though, Rodriguez (now known universally as James, the moniker he wears on his shirt back, with the correct Ham-ez pronunciation) is a genuine star. He looks every bit the real deal, a contender for player of the tournament, and the main reason why many suspect host nation Brazil might be in danger of elimination in Friday's quarterfinal in Fortaleza.

The individual attention foisted upon Rodriguez, who plays his club soccer for Monaco in the French league, might have been greater than for any other player over the past week apart from local golden boy Neymar, the face of expectation for a hungry country.

Rodriguez has been an icon in Colombia for a minute and more, and to a lesser extent in France since Monaco bought him from Portugal's Porto for $61 million just under a year ago.

Yet even that huge transfer did not catapult him into the global mainstream, perhaps a result of France's Ligue 1 being somewhat lower on the totem pole than other competitions such as Spain's La Liga or the English Premier League.

Back home in Colombia, they love him in the kind of way that young, wealthy and ludicrously talented athletes tend to get loved, and his face adorns a small range of commercial products ranging from shampoos to soft drinks, as well as adidas. By comparison, a Brazilian newspaper recently counted 17 companies that sponsor Neymar, but hey, the boy with the golden hair has had a few years' head start in the spotlight on the fellow 22-year-old in the golden shirt.

One of soccer's more obvious but grotesquely overused generalizations is that it is a team game, not an individual one. In this case, though, the tired old cliché might apply a little less than usual.

Previous Page 1 2 Next Page

Most Popular
What's Hot
Highlights
Special
...
主站蜘蛛池模板: 石狮市| 吴桥县| 萝北县| 光山县| 陕西省| 怀化市| 三河市| 冀州市| 锡林浩特市| 杭州市| 凌云县| 呼图壁县| 保山市| 突泉县| 宜阳县| 万荣县| 绩溪县| 商城县| 剑河县| 延安市| 包头市| 汶上县| 博湖县| 通州区| 桐乡市| 东阳市| 安阳县| 辛集市| 苏尼特右旗| 麦盖提县| 神池县| 礼泉县| 日喀则市| 子洲县| 永德县| 都江堰市| 隆昌县| 临湘市| 梁山县| 昔阳县| 天津市|