As we discussed this today in a small chat - or better briefly spoke about it - here some more meat to the story of famous national players that lived the unhealthy lifestyle - I have to confess I am also like that - not one of these young generation types that do all perfect. They do school and university in time with the ideal results. They never smoke, they do not drink alcohol, they are nice towards their parents, they are perfect - I am from an older generation, we have not been perfect, we did a lot of shit - but we had fun. If I die soon I can at least say I was not living a boring lifestyle. However this is a personal and very individual thing. I was and still am shocked by certain governments to restrict all kind of addiction (they call drugs) across countries, landscape and whatever - the reasons to protect kids and others is one of the biggest bullshits - but that is a different topic - it is big business between the former drug producing companies, the lobbying team and the government that anyway will benefit from it most - no matter what the results are - and believe me it has nothing to do with improving anything amongst population.
My first real life shock happened in San Diego where smokers had to go outside and do their thing in a 1 square metre area - that felt refugee wise or like you are one of the bad people. That was 16 years ago and now it is the same here in Europe. Second time San Diego 12 years later a similar thing where a US policemen was forcing me to switch of my mobile without reason apart it was written on a shield t the airport - I was arguing but stopped before he would bring me to jail. Some rules are simply ridiculous and I am used to fight for what I think is right (to me at least...)
But we wanna talk sports oriented things - don't we?
Mario Basler - German National Player - a personality we eagerly miss at the moment
Do not get me wrong - I am not saying that smoking or drinking alcohol is beneficial or should be a role model - I am just trying to tell why I think Mario Basler along with other similar players like Stefan Effenberg are the last personalities we had in the German Football team. They were fighting for the best of the team, they were not the ones doing anything because someone senior (manager or president) told them to do - they had their own brain and really USED it. This is one reason the German Football team got ther disaster at the World Cup - not the only one but a general problem within the new generation of players- all technically well educated but no balls! Did I write that? Yes - Balls - I mean Balls. Oliver Kahn mentioned it often - we need more balls! To be a successful team and individual you have to have balls.
Mario Basler was born 1968 not far from my home town and sometimes I meet him in shops (that is true) - he comes from the Kaiserslautern area and played their during his youth (he returned when he was old) but has his major success at other clubs such as Werder Bremen and Bayern Munich. He was a dead-ball specialist, and scored numerous goals from free-kicks and two directly from corner kicks during his career. Internationally he played 30 games for the Germany national football team between 1994 and 1998 and worked as manager after his active career - officially still does but he is more visible in German Sports TV as an expert.
He is considered as one of the most naturally talented players of his generation and had a nick name as 'Super' Mario - people loved him, or hated him - same goes for the supporters. He was a lazy bastard and chronic smoker who had no interest in training and was described by the big Franz Beckenbauer as "incorrigible" but he was a personality the people liked him for - at the end of his career he confessed that he could have achieved more by more discipline but..... he was happy!
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