Thursday, June 11, 2009

Ronaldo to Madrid for Record Transfer Amount, or Rooting for Laundry is Passe

I am at a loss for the written word today. Cristiano Ronaldo is going to Real Madrid. The deal is for a record transfer amount of $131 million. It will be completed by the end of the month. Kaka who?

Frankly, I don't care. Honestly. I'm not a Real Madrid fan; nothing personal, just not my club. I like to watch them play, I watch El Classico without fail. I don't care that they've spent a quarter of Billion dollars this week on talent. I don't care that their president is setting the team, its fans and coach up for the biggest failure in the history of not only professional sports, but business.

Doesn't matter to me.

I am kinda saddened by this cherry-picking of talent. Now before you call me a hypocrite (I stick by my stand that clubs should spend and scoop up players as they please), it bugs me that guys like Cristiano Ronaldo don't stick with the same club for their whole careers. Yeah, yeah, I know that's the way of the world, that we shouldn't root for laundry any more. But what the hell, for one day, I'll root for laundry.

Thank God Larry Bird never wore any jersey other than a Celtics'. Equal praise that Magic Johnson never wore anything other than Laker purple. Didn't it suck when Michael Jordan played for the Wizards? Bobby Orr playing for the Blackhawks (ugh, pass the puke bucket). Terry Bradshaw stuck with the Steelers (I'm flipping off Joe Montana as we speak). Imagine Mickey Mantle wearing the Padres diarrhea brown?

Like or loathe him, you associate Cristiano Ronaldo with Manchester red. No more. There is no identity in sports. Imagine if Eusebio played today? Benfica? Sure, for the first season of his career then it's off to one of the Milans; I hear Barcelona is lovely this time of year. Pele? Santos? Hahahaha. How long is the flight from Rio to Europe again?

I have to laugh every time my kid wants a pro sports jersey or t-shirt. Yesterday he wore a Jonathan Papelbon jersey. Luckily he'll outgrow it soon because by the time he does, he can get the Yankee version of a Papelbon T.

Point is, I guess (I'm ranting in case you can't tell), that the players will soon become the soverign nations of football, and the clubs will be secondary. Hell, it's that way already. They shouldn't sell Ronaldo Madrid jerseys; Ronaldo should come up with his own logo and marketing and sell CR7 kits. Cuz, hell, he won't play out his career in Madrid, you know it, I know it.

How do you think Ronaldo would look in Galaxy white? Tune in, oh, say, 10 years from now to find out.

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