Topic: ⚽ UEFA Euro 2024 in Germany ⚽ - Qualifiers - page 398. (Read 46401 times)

That is why I am saying that European countries are stagnating. England, Spain, France and Portugal (?) are exceptions, but the European dominance in general is declining or starting to decline. Some of the countries really performed pathetically during Qatar 2022. I am not talking about Spain or Netherlands. I am talking about teams such as Danmark, Germany and Belgium, who couldn't even get past the group phase. Before the kickoff, who would have thought that Germany would fail to make it to the round of 16? It was pathetic. 

the choice of the image though anywas, I'm going to expect a lot from teams that failed to perform good in the World Cup, or even didn't qualify like Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Portugal...etc i have doubts on Germany though, i don't think playing in their home country will get them the trophy, they need more than that, i was not impressed at all with their world cup performance and i didn't see something in them that could make things different in Euro 2024.

this thought that some coaches have to choose young players because they think the team needs young players to be with good results for many years and a very wrong way of thinking we saw this with barcelona when they removed many players because of their advanced age, we saw the brazil that somehow didn't call up certain players because they weren't very young, what these coaches must realize is that in a team the most important thing is to have good players, it doesn't matter if they are old players, what matters is that they bring good results

while the team is bringing good results everything is fine, but unfortunately in the soccer market another big business has entered, I'm talking about the sale of players, so the teams have already seen that just by selling players it already gives them a lot of profit to the point of not having to win nothing, that's why the race started by putting very young players in the teams, when a team puts a young player with great talent, that team will sell that player for a high price, and the other team that bought the player will sell the player after a few years for a high price, but when the player gets old, even if he has great talent, nobody will want to buy him for fear of buying someone who is about to retire and they won't be able to sell him

Why is it just the World Cups? Wouldn't you agree that a team that wins one or even two consecutive EURO tournaments probably also is a pretty strong team?

Even though when France lost against Argentina I still believe that they are the strongest team in Europe and probably in the whole world. You can still lose even when you are stronger on paper. Argentina lost against Saudi Arabia but that doesn't mean anything. Germany will have to change lots of things before they can be counted into the circle of the strongest contenders for the EURO title. Since the cup will be in Germany they will be extra motivated, but they will still need a higher quality in the team.

There is a very simple way to recognize the best national teams in the world, and that is based on the results at the world cups. That is the only objective criterion and everything else is subjective.
Yes, I can agree with you that Morocco and Japan played well at the World Cup in Qatar and achieved some surprising victories, but in the end it is obvious that the best football was played by Argentina and France, and that the best football players were Messi and Mbappe.
At every world cup, some national team surprises and achieves some unexpected victory, but only the national teams that continuously achieve top results, such as Brazil, Argentina, France, Spain, can be considered a football superpower.
However, I agree that the difference in quality between Europe and other continents is slowly decreasing.
Germany seems to have dropped out of this group of top national teams, so this EURO will be very interesting from that point of view. Will we finally see the return of Germany to the top of European and world football?

Yes, in fact I am one of those who is very convinced that the teams already need their replacement generation, but for Spain it was a mistake not to take Sergio Ramos, Lucas, and in one of the games that Hakimi won, he let him know his mistake to Luis Enrique for not having taken them precisely when he did the penguin dance as a celebration when he scored the goal since he always does it at PSG with Sergio Ramos, that day was epic, just seeing Luis Enrique's face was a pleasure, without However, I am one of those who think when it comes to good players, you have to mature that rivalry for the simple fact of playing for Real Madrid.

In this sense, I believe that a technical director must mature, I prefer that Luis Enrique dedicates himself simply to being an influencer on Twitch.

As I mentioned before, Saudis don't want Ronaldo representing their national team. Their main aim is to host the FIFA World Cup of 2030. And they believe that Ronaldo can help them with this. And now for the question what would that mean for football - it would mean a lot. It is another proof for the rising fortunes of Asian and African teams.


Well.. I don't know whether Ronaldo or Beckham got a better package. What I know is that in both cases, the players received much higher salary when compared to their previous salary.

It is not as low as Beckhams neither though, this one is for 75 million a year now matter what, and that is a ton of money, plus the extra that you are talking about. Basically what Beckham had was 30 million or so plus the incentives, and he got the incentives, and in this case we are talking about 75 million plus incentives, so if Ronaldo does get it like Beckham did, it will be 100+ million a year, not similar.

Obviously there are some calculations to be made regarding inflation, and maybe they are quite close to each other but I honestly believe that we are talking about a situation where it is much bigger payment for Ronaldo, doesn't look even similar to me.

Even if Ronaldo gets Saudi citizenship, what would that mean for the football? Nothing. Even if he could, he still wouldn't be able to play for the Saudi national team because he played for Portugal. I really don't see the point in him getting their citizenship because as dar as I know, it's not forbidden for a foreigner to be a part of the group that will bid to host the 2030 World Cup.

In Ronaldo's case also, he is not getting the entire amount upfront. $250 million will be paid over several installments, during his stay with Al Nassr. And then there is another payment for $250 million (so the total goes to $500 million), which is linked to Ronaldo being a part of the Saudi team, which will bid to host the 2030 World Cup. Usually the bid team includes only citizens of that particular country and that is the reason why there is speculation on Ronaldo accepting citizenship from Saudi Arabia. But we need to remember here that dual citizenship is not recognized in Saudi Arabia and therefore if he gets the Saudi passport, then Ronaldo need to forfeit the Portuguese nationality.

I highly doubt that he would be getting Saudi citizenship, that is basically a rumour to make Saudi Arabia to look better, just the fact that you can't live with your girlfriend there, and he was given a special consideration, when any other person can't, is the proof that he won't be doing it.

In any case, Beckham deal was basically filled with incentives, whereas Ronaldo straight up gets this much money, they are not the same thing at all and it would not be considered the same now. Plus Beckham didn't get it in a year, he got it over course of many years, Ronaldo is getting a ton of money if we are looking at the whole thing and maybe even after that.

I might agree the best football is with club football, but I actually can't say I watch a lot of non-European football these days. But a lot of that is because of non-European players playing in those leagues.

But national teams? Surely the World Cups prove that the home of the best football is arguable. I think I've seen plenty of the past 2 or 3, and even when stretching back my memory to 1998 and 2002, some of the worst football is played by European teams, the very best from South America, while we get exciting moments from Asia and Africa.

Of course, what is "best" is subjective. I personally like physicality and positive play. I watched some of the worst top football in recent memory seeing England, Germany, Belgium, even Spain minus their first game... but I loved how Japan served powerful dogged battles in every game. Hell, even Morocco was adrenaline-inducing most of their games. I believe it's more common than that small sample.

I don’t believe that the European team’s dominance is over just yet, but I feel that they’ll definitely perform well now knowing that they can be beaten by small teams and they can no longer underestimate them. Furthermore upsets happen in each and every tournament, but if these upsets keep on repeating themselves then I’ll agree with you that European team’s dominance is finally over.

I would not say that the quality of football in Europe is falling, but in fact the quality of football is increasing every day on all continents, due to better organizational and financial conditions for football in many nations, and thus the difference in the quality of teams from different continents is decreasing.
However, the best football is still played in Europe, both national team and club football, and Europe still invests the most in football.
Qatar is the first world cup after 2002 in which the European national team did not win, and in club football we continue to see the dominance of European clubs at the world club cup.
I think it is too early to conclude that European football is stagnating or declining.
It's one thing to beat a European team in one game, and quite another to win an entire tournament.

Check this:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2012/11/30/david-beckham-departs-mls-after-earning-255-million/?sh=42dce3794da5

David Beckham got the best possible deal and as per Forbes he earned $255 million while playing for the Los Angeles Galaxy (and that was one decade ago, when the USD had more value). The initial deal was worth $32.5 million in 5 years, but stock option clause made him insanely rich. But the case with Ronaldo is different. He is part of the Saudi bidding team for the 2030 FIFA World Cup and has already taken up residence in Saudi Arabia along with his partner Georgina Rodríguez. And there are rumors that he may go for the Saudi citizenship soon.

I don't deny that you may be absolutely right, however I think that if he intends to be in the national team and has the level to be, I don't think the coach won't put him in, as such, he's a good player and somehow scores goals I know that age is relentless but one of the ways he fights against it is due to his great discipline in his training, and that helps a lot, in part I would like him to be in the Portugal team, because I think He needs to fulfill certain dreams and I think that age should not be an impediment, if he sets his mind to it he can achieve it, the same happens with Messi, I would like to see him in one more World Cup.

I don't deny that CR7 is in a football league that one says is of a lower level, however I think that level is not so low anymore, the surprise came against Argentina in Qatar, and that is something that the whole world saw I believe that soccer has grown in every corner of the world.

Didn't David Beckham also sign for a MLS team? I can't remember which one, but I think it was a team that was playing in the MLS. What I want to say is there is nothing wrong with that. Starts in their "old age" like those you mentioned or Beckham probably won't bring much quality to a club. But they will bring much media attention and money from marketing. Look at Christiano Ronaldo for example. He signed for a club that I never heard of until media started writing about them signing Ronaldo. And they have enough money to pay him much more than he would have earned in Europe.

That is not a new trend. It is very standard for players who are at the end of their career and want to make big money for a last time. Just see how many players went to China or Japan when they didn't have salary caps. Iniesta plays for Vissel Kobe or Hulk played for Shanghai. Xavi played for al-Sadd for even four years. Nothing new about it and not to forget how many stars went to the MLS. Ibrahimovic, Henry etc. It is all about the money.

From what I can see, the current trend (a very recent one, I'd say) is for European players to get contracts with less known leagues around the world (one example is that of Cristiano Ronaldo playing for Al Nassr), and at the same time players from AFC and CAF participating in the top leagues such as Serie A and the English Premier League. European leagues always had Asian and African players to a certain degree. But this trend has really accelerated during the last few years, which is helping the Asian and African national teams in a big way.

I think it is because soccer has become more and more of an international sport and players are highly mobile these days. The team of Senegal is a great example of that. They have a relatively high number of superstars playing for European top clubs. Due to that they have the experience on the pitch to play under the highest pressure. The number of South American and African players playing for top European teams has significantly increased over the last decades at least as per my perception. I have no statistics at hand right now, but my guess would be that that is the case.

I think the trend of teams other than the typical favorites competing stronger and stronger will continue in the future. Scouting is so strong and global, when there is an African or American or etc. player, it won't go unnoticed anymore. These players will be supported and promoted very early on and can then give back to their national teams later on. The competition will even out even more in the future.