Michael Jordan He is unquestionably the best basketball player in history, for me the number one athlete to dry, but it would not have been so great without great rivals on the field. Without the Detroit Pistons, without their leader, he as nice as he is malevolent Isaiah Thomassin Magic Johnson and without Karl Malone he would not have won six NBA rings. Or yes, because it was God dressed as a basketball player, but the legend would have been reduced by half or a third. Dog-faced matches, including fistfights, with the great rivals of Lake America, the Michigan Bad Boys, sharpened his wits and his will to win. Three quarters of the same thing happened against Magic: he wanted to be bigger than him and he managed to be the greatest of all time, but the losses he inflicted on the Lakers in the early ’90s contributed to that.
The script was repeated with Muhammad Ali. The Louisville boxer, whom I was lucky enough to do the last interview he gave in life in 2010, is number one in his specialty, but his quasi-eternal fame is largely due to the tremendous quality of his two antagonists of him: Frazier y Foreman.
What to say about the tennis that lives, languishing, yes, its Golden Age when the three most important coincide in time and form: Nadal, Djokovic y Federer. The one who had won the most Grand Slams was a Pete Sampras who, with his 14, seemed unattainable to us. We thought the same way before with the Borg of the 11. But this trio, not exactly skull, blew up all the classifications: the Spanish and the Serbian already accumulate 22, for the 20 of the Swiss, who is not a small feat either.
He Real Madrid is, beyond all reasonable doubt, despite the native and European Negreiras, the best soccer team in history: 14 European Cups they contemplate it. And statistically it is likely that he will finish the century without anyone having surpassed him quantitatively or, of course, qualitatively, in titles. The second in the Champions League, Milan, treasures half; the third, Liverpool and Bayern, have to settle for 6, and Barça de Negreira, Ovrebo, Stark and Aytekin exhibits 5 in their showcases.
At Anfield Road we certify that the great adversary of recent times, the Liverpool, against which he has played the last two finals, is a sad imitation of the team that won its sixth in Madrid in 2019 with Salah, Mané and Van Dijk as franchise footballers. He PSG is in a tris of being eliminated from the great continental competition despite spending handfuls going through the triumphal arch the fair play because they are friends of the UEFA kingpin, Aleksander Ceferin. When you have Mbappé, Neymar and Messi in your squad, not winning everything seems like an insult to the fans. He City It is not that of other years. He touched the European Cup with the fingers of his hand in the last edition, but the umpteenth impossible comeback of the meringues left them with honey on their lips. In the Premier he can’t beat Arteta’s Arsenal. He Bayern He is still a danger, but not by far the one who humiliated Barça 8-2 in 2020, ultimately being champion. The only one I see at this point with the ability to steal from Ancelotti La Orejona’s men is Naples of that player with such an unpronounceable name as his unpredictable future: Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. And the culés are neither there nor are they expected. Conclusion: the whites have it theoretically to egg to repeat.
Y In the economic section, it is the only entity that has done its financial duties as God commands. Barça owes 1,500 million despite inflating its budget to 1,200 with accounting tricks and various levers, a figure that contrasts with the 770 of the very healthy Real Madrid. City is going to be penalized for perpetrating 100 irregularities with its treasury: they will put a stick worth many millions of pounds and perhaps another sports car with a loss of points. The same as a Juve from which 15 have been taken away for also falsifying his numbers. In short, what Florentino is left without opponents in the economic section and Ancelotti without competitors on the pitch. Consequence: more championships will arrive but there will be less emotion.
