Today I share a new section of my blog called "Football quotes". In this opportunity I bring you one of my personal favorites. It was said by the great Santiago Bernabéu, the legendary Real Madrid President and the main proponent of the European Champions Cup.
"There are no young and old players, there are only good and bad" (Santiago Bernabéu).
This is where the wisdom of Santiago comes in: *Age does not mark the talent of a player. If you are good and talented you will be with 20, 30 or 40 years*, that does not matter. It is unfortunate when I hear someone say that a certain player has to be sold because he is 28 years old. Are we hearing? 28 years! Are we all crazy!?
What many do not know is that the football and physical maturity of a player is between 26 and 29 years. Actually that is the best moment of his career, not when they are 19-year-old kids. In fact, the average age of the winners of the Golden Ball in history is 27 years (And that Lio Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo were responsible for low enough that average).
Then we have another thing: if a player does not explode at age 19, it must be discarded. No, things are not like that. Each footballer is different, not all end up exploiting at the same age. If this were true, Drogba, Diego Milito, Di Natale or Klose would never have become someone in this sport. And currently Salah, De Bruyne and Lingard are examples that your best time comes after 25 years.
And how many examples do we have of players who after 30 years showed their best version? Players like Pirlo, Ibrahimovic, Buffon or the same Cristiano Ronaldo who is intractable. They show that they are like good wine: The older the better. Even Zidane himself showed that, if it had not been for Materazzi's header, he would have won the Golden Ball at 35 without any discussion.
The next time you want to judge a player because of their age, don't be stupid and remember:
"There are no young and old players, there are only good and bad" (Don Santiago Bernabéu)
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