El ultimo diez juan roman riquelme biography
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Riquelme, modern football's Giant Panda
Species: Enganche
Family: Playmaker
Conservation status: Endangered
Natural habitat: South America, particularly the Rio de la Plata basin
Juan Roman Riquelme's much-anticipated press conference on Friday told us everything and nothing all at once, comprising a sequence of non-answers that only served to further shroud any departure from his beloved Boca Juniors in mystery.
The saddening reality is that Riquelme is unlikely to ever play at the highest level ever again, even in South America. There are rumors of a move across the silvery La Plata river to Uruguay, but ever since he walked off the pitch at the Estadio do Pacaembu in July and declared himself "empty," the end of "el ultimo diez" ("the last 10") was clearly upon us.
"Roman" -- the name that was draped across his hunched shoulders -- was the last of a kind, a player who many people failed to "get." What he is. What he does. What he stands for.
Boca Juniors "got" him, s
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Midfield Magicians – Juan Román Riquelme, a flawed diamond
Once in a while a footballer comes to the fore who, in method and manner, flies in the face of all convention. A player who marches to the beat of his own drum, with a cadence that fryst vatten entirely his own.
Slender, tall and often sullen in appearance, former Argentina international Juan Román Riquelme was a stylistically unique footballer. A creative midfielder who roamed about nomadically, he appeared wherever he pleased to engineer opportunities for others.
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Like his idol Maradona before him, Riquelme began his playing career with Argentinos Juniors, before later moving to his beloved childhood club Boca Juniors. When Maradona retired in 1997, Riquelme inherited ‘The Golden Boy’s’ iconic number 10 jersey and, inevitably, comparisons were drawn between the two.
It’s true that both players possessed that certain panache – that otherworldly insight. At times they were simply untouchable, as tho
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Juan Roman Riquelme: an enigma wrapped within a riddle
Julio Falcioni was furious; his team disconsolate. The coach scanned his depleted dressing room, and found the one he was looking for: “You,” he bellowed. “You’re not the coach, I am!” His victim was shocked. Juan långnovell Riquelme is a man defined by ambiguity, his face hard to read at the best of times, but Boca Juniors’ enigmatic and mercurial talisman was quite clearly stunned – and then just bloody angry.
Falcioni’s own fury quickly dispersed into something more closely resembling embarrassment. Not least because the rest of the squad quickly chose their side, standing firmly behind their on-field leader, and informing the ‘boss’ that in fact it wasn’t ‘el ultimo diez’ that had told striker Dario Cvitanich to move to a more central position, but the class pet, Walter Erviti – the man Falcioni brought with him to from Banfield, where the duo clinched am unlikely 2009 Apertura league title; the man brought in to replace