Sunday, July 27, 2014

TOP 10 Little Known Facts about Neymar

Over the last 70 years or so Brazil has always produced footballer who can capture the imagination of the entire football world and the latest in that pantheon of talented footballers is Neymar Jr., who is well on his way to becoming another great of the beautiful game. These are the top 10 facts then about a legend in the making that you might not be aware of. More sports facts at www.top10reviews.in
Most Brazilian footballer incuding former legends go by only one name like Pele, Garrincha, Falcao, Romario, Rivaldo, Ronaldo and others, however all these players actually have a different name which might be quite long as opposed to their more popular name. In the same way, Neymar’s actual name is also not what you see on his jersey. His full name is actually one of the longest that you will ever see since he is named Neymar da Silva Santos Junior and it is indeed a good thing that he only goes by the name Neymar, otherwise his fans would have had a nightmare remembering his full name.
Merely the presence of precocious talent is not enough for a footballer to grow into a professional footballer in the modern ultra competitive world of football and hence all young prodigies need a guiding hand that would take care of everything else other than footballing side of things. In case of Neymar, it was his father Neymar da Silva Sr., who took care of his son’s development as a footballer as well as a human being from an early age. The fact that Neymar Sr was also a former footballer, made him the perfect guide for the footballer and has allowed Neymar to solely concentrate on his career.
Footballer with prodigious talent often become rich at an early age, however it is often noticed that they end up spending most of their money on women, alcohol and other expensive things that is of little long term value. In case of Neymar, it was different and as soon as he signed a professional contract with Brazilian club Santos he decided to invest his income into a new home for his family. There are very few footballers who have managed to do such a thing at such an early age and that is an act that speaks volumes about the sort of person Neymar really is.
It is a given that if a hugely talented player comes along in South America then it is quite likely they would eventually end up in either of Real Madrid or Barcelona and Neymar did join Barcelona last summer, he could easily have been a Real Madrid player. When he was 14 years old, the global scouting team at Real Madrid had signed him up but Santos, for whom he used to play, wanted him to be with them. Eventually Real were paid a substantial compensation in order to bring Neymar back to Brazil and in hindsight it must have been proven to be an excellent investment for Neymar since he was sold for an astronomical sum of money to Barcelona.
Considering Brazil’s huge population, a footballer is always a safe bet for major corporations as far as marketing duties are concerned and hence it is not really surprise that Neymar is nowadays considered the biggest deal as far as endorsements are concerned. Additionally, he is nowadays considered a huge draw across the world and since is a global game people recognise him quite easily. So, even if Ronaldo comes across as perhaps a better looking man; it is Neymar, all of 22 years old who is regarded as the ‘most marketable footballer’.
Football is now a big business in which players get transferred from one club to the other huge amounts of money and that is the reason why shrewd investors bet their money on young talents so that they can earn handsome profit n the future. It was the same with Neymar, who was actually owned by 3 different entities including his club Santos. Other than Santos, two companies, TIESA and DIS Esporte, had invested in Neymar. The amount of money they invested in Neymar is unknown but considering the sort of money Barcelona paid for him, you can be sure that they got an excellent return.
At an age when most people are busy going through college, Neymar became a proud parent but then again footballers with that sort of talent can always afford to do things that a person with a far more traditional view towards life won’t be able to. The baby was born 3 years back in the month of August to Neymar and his then girlfriend Carolina Dantes. The boy lives with Neymar and it must be said that the added responsibility at such an early age has certainly pushed him to newer heights as far as football is concerned.
The complications of the football transfer market in which any club with pots of money can start making bids for a player has forced some of the clubs to insert release clauses in the contracts of the top players in order to avoid such unpleasant interactions. The release clause indicates the minimum amount of money that a club should bid in order to even start talking about a transfer and in case of Neymar, Barcelona have set the release clause at a jaw dropping £160 million. Don’t expect a club to stump of that sort of money on a transfer anytime soon.
Over the years, you might have seen players getting sent off for a variety of reasons, some of which must have come across as bizarre, however Neymar was sent off for a reason that you might never come across again. Playing for Santos in a game against Colo Colo, Neymar celebrated an outstanding goal by wearing a mask and the mask was actually his own face. However, the referee deemed it offensive and sent him off. You can watch the bizarre incident here. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPF9erXTbu4 )
At number 1 is his achievement of being on the cover of the renowned TIME magazine as a 21 year old and the fact that he is the first Brazil sportsman to be on the cover makes it an even more colossal achievement. The cover story on him was done by TIME Magazine world editor Bobby Ghosh and is regarded as one of the best pieces ever written on the Brazilian footballer. When you consider the number of world class sportsman that Brazil has produced this is surely an achievement that no one would ever be able to take away from him.
Hopefully you have enjoyed the top 10 little known facts about Neymar. Feel free to share the article with your friends and read some more at www.top10reviews.in/FIFA2014
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Saturday, July 19, 2014

Top 10 Overseas Test Performances by Team India



Historically India has not been a great touring team and over the years the team has suffered plenty of embarrassing losses when playing overseas. However, over the last 82 years of Test match cricket, India has produced performances in overseas Test series that have been the source of immense pride for the fans and this article looks at 10 of the very best. With the current India Vs England Invertec test series going on currently in England it becomes even more important for us to know our facts in cricket.
The 2007 series in England remains one of the India’s best performances overseas in recent memory and under the captaincy of Rahul Dravid the team responded brilliantly to win the 3 Test series 1-0, thanks to a thumping victory in the second Test at Nottingham. India were lucky to escape with a draw in the first Test at Lords as the last wicket pair of Dhoni and Sreesanth hung after a lot of time had been lost due to rain. In the second Test, India blew England away due to an outstanding performance by Zaheer Khan, who took 9 wickets. The last Test at the oval was a high scoring draw as India came up trumps in England after a gap of 21 years.
At a time when World Series Cricket had hijacked the leading stars in world cricket, a full strength Indian side went to Australia to face a depleted side and in a thrilling series they ran the hosts close but lost the series 3-2. You might be surprised as to why a lost series is in the list but you need to remember that in those days India used to fare pretty poorly in Australia and this series showed that they could run them close. India lost the first Test at Adelaide by 47 runs chasing a mammoth 492 in the 4 then stormed back at Sydney and then led the series 2-1 after a victory at Melbourne. Australia then turned the screws in the last 2 Tests and ended up winning the series. However, the Indian team got a grand reception from their fans as no one expected them to play so bravely.
It looked like it would be business as usual for India in South Africa when they were shot out for 136 runs in the first innings at Centurion Park and ended up losing the first Test by an innings and 25 runs. Things were expected to get worse at Kingsmead, Durban and they did as India did not last the first day to be dismissed for 205 runs, however the bowlers led by Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh responded to bundle out the South Africans for 131. V V S Laxman then scored a superb 96 to hold the Indian innigs together as South Africa were set a challenging target of 303 runs. It was Zaheer Khan again and Sreesanth who did the damage as India won the game by 87 runs. The third Test ended in a draw to make sure that India came back with their honour intact for the first time from South Africa.
This was India’s first series win after 41 years in Kiwi country and they had to win it the hard way. India won the first Test at Hamilton comfortably due to the stellar efforts of Ishant Sharma and Harbhajan Singh in the first and second innings respectively, in addition to Sachin Tendulkar’s masterly 160 that set the game up fir India. In the second test at Napier, New Zealand scored big and it was only because of Gautam Gambhir’s legendary innings of 137 runs in 643 minutes that made sure that India were able to hold on to their lead. India could have won the third Test at Basin Reserve had rain not intervened with New Zealand struggling to save the Test with 8 wickets down in the 4th innings, however the 1-0 victory was without a doubt a commendable one.
India were beaten 2-1 after leading the series 1-0 at one point in their previous tour of the West Indies in 2002 and in 2006 they wanted to make amends for that blip as a strong team went to the West Indies. The first three Tests of the 4 Test series were all high scoring draws and so the final Test at Jamaica became the series decider. On an uneven pitch at Jamaica, captain Rahul Dravid held the team together in both the innings with scores of 81 and 68 in this low scoring game. India scored 200 in the first innings but then dismissed the Windies for 103 with Harbhajan picking up a fiver. India could only manage 171 in their second innings to set West Indies a target of 270. West Indies were dismissed for 219 thanks to Anil Kumble’s 6 wicket haul and India registered a famous series win.
When India went to Australia in the Australian summer of 2003, everyone thought that it will be one sided affair considering the sort of team the Australians had, however India surprised everyone with an outstanding display of attacking cricket that took the hosts by surprise. After Ganguly rubbished the Aussies’ threat of ‘chin music’ with a superb 144 in the first Test at Brisbane, the Indians won the second Test at Adelaide thanks to centuries from Dravid and Laxman as well as a 6 wicket burst from Agarkar in the second innings. The Australians fought back in the 3rd Test at Melbourne to square the series but it was India who dominated the drawn 4th Test at Sydney by posting a mammoth 705 in the first innings as the Australians held on nervously for a draw.
This was a win that cost David Gower the captaincy mid series and firmly proved that the Indian team were not the World Champions for nothing. India won the first Test at Lord’s by 5 wickets after superb bowling performances by Chetan Sharma and Kapil Dev, while in the second Test at Leeds they thrashed England by 279 runs. Dilip Vengsarkar was the batting star of the series and scored a century in each of the first two tests to set up a historic series win for India.


The English summer of 1971 was a decidedly glorious one for a young Indian team under captain Ajit Wadekar as they recorded India’s first Test series win in Old Blighty. The first two Tests at Lord’s and Old Trafford were drawn, however India would have been one down at Lord’s if rain hadn’t intervened with the team staring down the barrel at 145-8 in the last innings of the game. However, it all came together on the 4th day at the Oval as B S Chandrashekhar bowled a devastating spell to pick up 6-38 as England crashed to 101 all out leaving India with a target of 173 runs. After a bit of a struggle India scored the runs and sent the nation into collective frenzy.
1971 was in fact one of the greatest seasons in Indian cricket as they finally came into their own as a cricketing nation and it started with their remarkable win against the Gary Sobers led West Indian team. India won the second Test of the series by 7 wickets after stellar performances from the spin trio of Bedi, Prasanna and Chandrashekhar to go with the brilliant century scored by Dilip Sardesai in the first innings. The rest of the Tests were drawn but Sunil Gavaskar emerged as the young star in his debut series as he plundered 774 runs in the 5 Tests.
At number 1 is the glorious series victory against arch rivals Pakistan at their own backyard and what makes the victory even more important in Indian cricket history is the way in which India bullied Pakistan away from home. In the first Test at Multan, Virender Sehwag scored a record breaking 309 while Sachin Tendulkar scored 194 not out to take India to a mammoth 675 and Indie won it by an innings. They lost the second one in Rawalpindi but stormed back to beat Pakistan by an innings once again in the rd Test at Karachi. The 3rd Test saw Dravid scoring a brilliant 270.
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