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Larsson finds his niche Celtic striker is a remarkable success story
Go ask Brazilian old-timers who the finest all-around midfielder ever was and, odds are, they'll mention a guy named Didi. All he did was lead Brazil to two World Cups in 1958 and 1962, while making 70 appearances for his country. He would sit in front of the back four, win balls and essentially run the game, a cross between your friendly traffic cop and Herbert Von Karajan. It's fair to say that, without him, the likes of Amarildo and even Pele would not have seen anywhere near as much of the ball. In 1959, he moved from Botafogo to Real Madrid. The world's best midfielder joining the world's best team (in the middle of its incredible five straight European Cup victories), it looked a perfect match.
And yet something went wrong. Didi simply never settled at Real; he rarely got into the side and did not play a single minute in the team that won the 1959-60 European Cup. A year later he was back in Brazil. What went wrong? How could a player of his talent, vision and work ethic possibly fail at the highest level? The answer is simple. Real ignored one of the most basic rules of the game. Some players only produce in certain environments. It's not just a question of ability. The Brazilian league at the time was easily equal to (if not better than) La Liga. Rather, some players find a cocoon, a niche, which enables them to focus on one thing only, their job, and to maximize their productivity at the same time. It's comforting to know that soccer is not math. Few players can guarantee top performances wherever they go. I'm sure we can all cite dozens of examples of quality guys who flopped at some stage, for a variety of reasons. But let's focus on one of the brightest success stories in Europe: Celtic Glasow's Swedish striker Henrik Larsson. OK, so the guy plays in the Scottish league, which means he probably has heard all the big-fish-in-a-small-pond stories in the book. Yes, the level of play may be laughable, but his feats in Scotland border on the superhuman. Larsson has scored 84 goals in his last 111 matches. Those are monster numbers. And his contribution goes well beyond goals. His passing, movement and leadership on the pitch are second to none. This season he has once again willed Celtic to the title, ahead of a Rangers side which, player for player, is light-years ahead. Right, I can already see you scrunching up your noses and saying: "So what? If that Larsson guy can bag 84 goals in 111 games, then Romario, Andriy Shevchenko or Gabriel Batistuta surely would score a few hundred." Maybe, maybe not. Players like Tore Andre Flo and Pierre Van Hooijdonk have also strutted their stuff in Scotland, without scoring anywhere near as many goals. But in a sense that's not the point. The point here is that this Henrik Larsson is not the same Henrik Larsson who played for Feyenoord in the early 1990s. His transformation since recovering from a horrific injury is one of the more remarkable success stories of our time. Larsson spent four years at Feyenoord between 1993 and 1997, scoring just 25 goals. This season, he had already eclipsed that figure by January. Now the Dutch league may be better than the Scottish Premiersship, but the gap is not big enough to explain the difference. So what happened? Simple. Larsson found his niche at Celtic. He joined a big club that plays in front of 60,000 fans every week. He found a supportive management team, a squad that fits him like a glove and fans who adore him. The club bent over backwards to accommodate him, his family settled well in Scotland and every worry was erased from his life. When that happens, you're bound to produce your best. There is a tiny percentage of footballers who will produce no matter what. Put Zinedine Zidane on an amateur team that plays only kick-and-rush, feed him only lentils, force him to play with lead ankle weights, make him sleep in a cardboard box in the corner of a public toilet and, odds are, he'll still dominate. But most players aren't like that. The difference between a very good player (like Larsson in his Celtic incarnation) and an average player (Feyenoord's Larsson) simply is not that big. Provide a player with a fertile environment in which he can thrive and he will prodce. But if you think that simply throwing money at someone will enable him to give his best, you're badly mistaken. It seems obvious, but it's a lesson far too many clubs have failed to learn. Extra timeYou may have heard about Australia beating Tonga 22-0 in World Cup qualifying. Now that FIFA has expanded, people complain about substandard teams taking part in World Cup qualifying and some have suggested a pre-qualifying system. The reality is that every confederation will have its minnows. It's a fact of life. Rather than complaining about beating someone 20-0, it would be nice if the bigger nations had a little bit of foresight. To a country like Tonga (or American Samoa, which is in for a similar beating from Australia given the fact that its average age is 19), this is a chance to be a part of the world's biggest sporting event and what Sepp Blatter calls the "football family." It is of crucial importance and, for weaker nations, it's their moment in the sun. Here's hoping the powers-that-be learn to lighten up and not complain about winning by double-digit margins. It doesn't matter if Tonga does not have a snowball's chance in hell of qualifying for the World Cup (heck, until recently, Australia didn't have a snowball's chance in hell either). It does matter that everyone gets a chance to participate. Based in London, Gabriele Marcotti writes a weekly column on international soccer for CNNSI.com.
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