Football! or...Soccer! vol.1

Yes, I love football. Also known as soccer. What's the deal with calling the same sports differently!? Okay, soccer it is. Just in case people expecting NFL talk won't get confused when I start talking about my all-time favorite players and dropping names like Franz Beckenbauer, Canarinho, and Man-U.

Franz Beckenbauer

Unfortunately...I wasn't born early enough to see him play live. But! He's one of the soccer legends who is very closely tied to Bayern Munich, one of the Bundesliga (that's German soccer league) teams I now support. He played for the team, then after retiring, went on to become a coach and until recently, served as the president of the club. I bet it was so awesome to see him play...

Ronaldinho

Meet Ronny. The only soccer player I know who is smiling when he's playing at one of the rather big matches. I think the first time I saw him play was with the Canarinho in 2002 Japan-S.Korea World Cup.  When every other players look like they're bringing their A-game and looking serious, you can almost hear Ronny whistling his way across the pitch. By the way, I still think he should have played in South Africa...

David Beckham

Seriously, how is it that I had to enter "David Beckham, soccer" to get the picture of him actually playing soccer? Else all I got was his model shots. All that aside, I do like him as a soccer player. His free kick is definitely golden! He's probably one of the reason I started following Euro Soccer, and my first ever Euro team was Man-U. :)

By the way, who else is so used to vuvuzela horns that you wonder why the supporters are so quiet when watching soccer matches without vuvuzela?

xx - N