A Zebra And His Stripes.

By: chris | January 7th, 2008

The news of recent on the Brazilian front has circled around the rotund duo of Ronaldo and Adriano, as they try and get their careers back on track in the homeland. Well before them came a legend in the world of unfulfilled expectations and rotundness with a career which could be slipped into Days of our Lives and blended in seamlessly.

After winning German Football of the year - which is nothing to scoff at, it encompasses both players in the Bundesliga and Germans playing abroad - with a massive 28 goals in 2003 (and being the first foreigner to do so ever, no less), Ailton has gone on to play for, or not play for, 6 teams in the last 4 seasons. Well, he’s (kinda) unemployed again, looking for a new sucker to take him on, and it wasn’t hit footballing which got him cut. Not that you should be surprised by any of that.

Ailton came to MSV Duisberg after Swiss footballing juggernauts Grasshopper failed to renew his contract last spring despite scoring 8 goals in just 13 games for them, a ratio which I’m sure doesn’t exactly show up on their doorstep all that often. Can’t imagine why. And as you can tell from the picture above, his arrival back in Germany was met with much fanfare and absurdity. Either that or there was a circus in town and Ailton just wanted to take a ride. You could convince me of either. But maybe, just maybe, the club officials in Duisburg should have taken a little closer look at the similarities between the portly Brazilian and his zebra.

So this time, he farked it up by giving himself an extended holiday without telling his club where or what he was doing, then showing up back at training saying he had the flu. So that’s nice. Now he’s been told to go find a new club. After all the drama and idiocy he’s provided over the years, you know what? I don’t blame Ailton. I blame MSV Duisburg. They got exactly what they deserve. The guy is 34 years old. It’s pretty obvious he’s not going to be changing his ways at this point in his life, or career. They knew what they were getting, they got it. Now why any club would sign this guy is beyond me.

(Though I hear MLS is looking for some overweight, geriatric European superstars to spearhead the league’s rise to legitimacy…)