Football Coffeeshop Talk

Wouldn't you like to be in his shoes? He has everything at his dancing feet. Women, song, drink and a hundred thousand pounds a week.

Flair players always have it better. In our daddies' era, there was George Best. Turning and twisting defenders into knots, he was the star of 1968 when Manchester United won the European Cup, the then-edition of today's Champions League Cup.

We also know he bathed and revelled in his success. He was a well-known playboy and often referred to as the "fifth Beetle". Every boy then wanted to be in his boots. Its a pity alcoholism claimed the great winger's life in the end.

Fast forward 40 years later to today, the star of the Manchester United team is (who else?) Cristiano Ronaldo.

I can't say I am a fan of the dancing winger though he has an outstanding record in front of goal. But to me, he hasn't lit up the stage that Best and some other players had single-handedly.

My yardstick for a great player (compared to a good one) is to be able to swing matches his team's way single-handedly. George Best is one. Gerrard is the heartbeat of under-achieving Liverpool. Ronaldo (the Brazilian) has done it too. Michael Ballack shone during the 2002 and 2006 World Cups. Zidane, of course, is the successor in the same way that his predecessor Platini conducted the French symphony. And who can forget Gullit, van Basten, the Laudrups, Schmeichel...

I must reiterate that I am not a fan of Manchester United though lately over the past 2 years I have been rooting for them to win. In this age of your everyday coffeeshop EPL pretenders, it is not easy to separate the true-blue fans (e.g. my boss Aloysius who has supported Chelsea ever since the 1950s) from the um... pretenders who swing their allegiance every time there is a new champion.

I do have my personal favourites, both of whom are incidently Manchester United players.

Here's the first... the snarling Roy Keane.

He moved from Nottingham Forest to Manchester United for a record 3.75m pounds (which was then a British record) and went on to become the team's conductor and great leader. His snarling personality and biting tackles was constantly replicated by me on the pitch, but to much less success. Yet he remains very much an inspiration to me.

And the other... Paul Scholes.

Scholes is the best pass-master of the ball I have seen, though some contend that Zidane is better. To me, the Frenchman may have more flair and pull-back stepovers, but Scholes is the ultimate passer of the ball. Pin-point fifty yard cross-field swings to the feet of a charging rightback is not something a good player could do; it is rightfully great. He sits in front of the defence so he provides space for a tensed defender to pass the ball to, and makes play from there in his simple way. Of course, and many would agree with me, he isn't one of the better tacklers in the game but in terms of intelligence and playmaking, he is up there with the greats.

One of the other traits that I admire Scholes is that he does not revel in limelight the way C.Ron does. He does not even have an agent! Very much a family man and goes about doing his things quietly, he is very much a role model to how I could conduct myself in public.

But again, don't you wish you are in his shoes right now?