Offside Sound-Off: Tell us about the Player You Love the Most

I was going to write today’s Sound-off on “the player you hate the most.” But then the player I hated the most (Carlos Ruiz) came to my team, the LA Galaxy. Which seems to mean I can’t hate him anymore.

So instead let’s talk about the players we love the most. The ones who make our hearts sing every time they touch the ball or make a great tackle or save. The ones we think about even when they’re not on the field.

I think I have three.

Top has to be Nicolas Anelka, newly signed by Chelsea. The guy who had the awful reputation. I think there’s a feeling of discovery for me when it comes to Nico, because I saw the turnaround while most people were still saying he had a rotten attitude. So the new Nico feels like my own personal invention. This means that, in some odd way, I feel somehow responsible for the fact that everybody now loves him. (Or at least the Chelsea fans. And at least for the honeymoom period.)

Isn’t being a fan strange sometimes?

Second is twenty-year-old Lyon and France player Karim Benzema (pictured). Another discovery. I picked him out of the crowd awhile ago, before most English-speakers had ever heard of him. (Well, except for Inara, of course. You can never beat Inara when it comes to Lyon players.) And because in my mind I “discovered” him, again, he somehow became “my” player. (As I have said before, I have a longstanding invitation to adopt him. For some reason he hasn’t taken me up on it.)

When it comes to US players, I think it has to be Mike Randolph. An out-of-nowhere success story. In 2006 he was playing in the USL for the Portland Timbers. He moved from there to the LA Galaxy bench. Then all of a sudden a slew of injuries put him in the starting lineup, and he made the most of it. And now he’s in training with the US U-23s and may well play in the Olympics. And he comes across as a nice kid, too. What’s not to like?

Those are the players I love. Now it’s your turn. We at the Offside want to know:

Which players make your heart beat faster when they take the field?

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Category: World Football