Geb

@kwakujr23 frontotemporal dementia, you can see how he leans forward to such a great extent lmaoo

Tears is Trump like 5'9 now???? Or is that even Trump?

absolute domination lmao

@DivingxDown miruro.com

Anyone know where to watch the 2006 higurashi anime

@kwakujr23 ?

Olise just represents everything wrong with modern stars innit

upamecano such a complete cb jeez

olise just cant score goals lmao

@jasehoops try rateyourmusic, I find all my new music there

using AI for discovering new music has been life changing. i don’t feel great about it ethically but as someone who consumes all different types of media, music is by far the hardest to find. streaming platforms recommendations and their playlists are slop, and because

@DivingxDown osimhen, that XGoT so 🤤, super underrated, especially if its around that 70M~ mark

Guess the striker (UCL football)

@TrulyRich_ bot

@DivingxDown not falling for ip grabber bud

Peep number 4 and 6....

@someballfacts Great read. Do you occasionally do these types of longer posts? Thoroughly enjoyed this, even if I don't necessarily agree with every single thing mentioned

My Thoughts on the Ronaldo-Messi Debate I've been asked by a few to provide my thoughts on the matter. Needless to say, this needs some contextualization about me: My first live World Cup was 1998. This makes me ancient in X terms relative to most commentators. It also means I entered the Ronaldo/Messi generation with the background knowledge and experience of the Ronaldo/Zidane/Figo/Ronaldinho generation, and that coloured my approach differently. Growing up, I never had the opportunity to watch Pele or Maradona live - but I benefitted from watching lots of tapes and documentaries about their exploits. They were myths of a bygone past with unbelievable feats, and unimaginable skills. There was no point in questioning their status - nobody ever bothered or cared to - because the people who watched them were still the primary custodians of the sport and because, well, our sport has to be built on myths. On history. If we forgot where we came from, we forget who are. And that sentence encapsulates football today - which has been gutted, commercialized, packaged, cheated of its essence, fabricated. No better than a Coca Cola can - except probably perpetuates even greater injustices. Football is dirty. It is the dirtiest sport. It always has been. But it is worse than ever. Growing up, we never focalized on statistics. Yes, goal tallies would be mentioned in passing, but they were never the crux of the question. Tuning in to cheer our favorite player or against another player happened - that's normal - but we were enjoying football, not picking fights over who's the greatest or what next exploit would mathematically tip the tables. We weren't tuning into a World Cup and arguing with our mates if a match vs Switzerland or Paraguay in the group stage made a player the greatest. The concept of discussing a "GOAT" campaign, or a "GOAT" goal was foreign. I have the benefit of having watched all Messi and Ronaldo's careers. Not just the benefit of perspective, but the feeling that it has been an immense gift to myself and billions to watch them play. I remember Ronaldo in 2003-04. I remember Messi in 2005-06. And everything that came after that. How I felt about them. How the people felt about them. How the media felt about them. So here goes. Two different players, with different stories, different trajectories, but of the same caliber. That is the fundamental truth, and how you feel about them comes down to when you gravitated toward football, club allegiance, stylistic preferences, personality preferences. There is no, and will be no objective answer. Because the media has always had, and now especially, an overwhelming tilt toward Messi, the majority of the essay will be focused on refuting some myths. When Ronaldo first broke out, I was among those that did not like him - he was divisive from the start. Flashy, a showboat, and sometimes lacking in efficiency. These are true. Courageous, ambitious, hard working, freakishly talented, with untold potential. Also true. Passionate, a lover of the game, selfish. All true. He was the clear, most talented youngster on the planet and one of the clear best players in the world by the conclusion of Euro 2004 (His performance in the FA cup Final alone would have earned him the top contract in today's game: "Everyone's got their ideas about what potential is," an unusually expansive Sir Alex Ferguson said afterwards, "but there's no question we've seen the potential of that player today - better than anything in Europe. To my mind he was the man of the match." and "I think you saw that today. The first thing he did today was cross the ball. Right away he just clipped it in. Ruud wasn't expecting it. I didn't expect it, either. I expected him to attack the full-back. So the variety in his game will be a special part - when to cross, when to pass, when to dribble." I want to dwell on this point. In 2004, Ronaldo had already achieved the summit of Portuguese NT football: "Character. Personality. Responsibility. Portugal have come to expect the same from Ronaldo already and thus far he has delivered, with some undefendable wing play. His ability from set pieces, which has yielded two headed goals from corners, is a bonus to a team lacking a killer instinct in the box." in an article entitled "Hopes of a nation rest with Ronaldo". Today, I feel I live in bizarro land. In a world, whose reality has been rewritten by teenagers with no grasp on history. When I read about pressure, responsibility, and NT, what other youth in the 2000s showed up like Cristiano? Zidane? No, his first Euro 1996 was middling. From 19 years of age, Cristiano assumed the mantle of the best player for United and Portugal - and delivered. This was the FARTHEST Portugal had ever made it in a NT tournament - after facing Greece, Spain, Russia, England, Netherlands. Not Algeria, Jordan, Cape Verde, Egypt, Switzerland. Not with widespread controversy. From 2004 to 2008, we witnessed not only one of the best wingers and dribblers in the game - a monster physically and technically who consistently managed the most vertical dribbles and runs in the 2000s. Source: bigsoccer.com/threads/advanc… He played in a brutal Premier League - nothing like what you are used to today. Against tough, built defenders who went in with violent tackles meant to hurt, incapacitate, and cause fear. And he never backed down. After 2006, he was booed in every single stadium of England including his own! What footballer has ever dealt with this degree of hate and rejection? Nobody. His response: he transformed into the world's greatest goalscorer: 42 goals in 49 appearances across all competitions during the 2007–08 season. This was in 2008, not 2020 - a much, much different eras, while providing immense work with and off the ball, advancing the ball from deep zones in transition. Left foot, right foot, volleys, controls, dribbles, free kicks, power. What more do you want? He won all the awards. By 2008, with a Euro final (again, the farthest Portugal has ever been), a World Cup semifinal (the farthest Portugal has ever been), a UCL win, PLs, goal records, decisive, dribbles - he had already written a career better than 99.9% of footballers and a complete career. Was the expectation that Cristiano wins these trophies for Portugal? Have you seen the squads he was up against? And to do so as a skinny 19 year old in a sport that is basically unrecognizable? What more was there to ask of him at this point? Not much. All this story has been erased. It's like it never happened. A whole career - dissolved. His profile as a footballer, the challenges he overcame. He was never the golden child, rejected by the English from the get-go, but he became the golden black sheep. Now let's backtrack to 2005-06. By 2005-06, Cristiano is comfortably one of the best in the world. An established player. The technical leader of Manchester and Portugal. A top 10 player on the planet depending on your preferences. Messi announces himself in this season. At Barca, are arguably the two best players for the last two seasons in world football: Etoo and Ronaldinho - the latter is being hailed as possible the greatest talent we have seen. Barcelona has taken La Liga by storm as Madrid has completely collapsed and the Galactico project is an embarrassing joke. La Liga is a noncompetitive championship: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005%E2%8… And this same Barcelona comfortably wins the Champions League (without Messi who only featured in the Ro16). Messi was, indeed, hailed as a Maradona successor - namely by the Catalans and SOME Argentines (and Diego himself). This was due to his talent and his style - small, diminutive, rapid, close control dribbling with cuts. It drew comparisons. In no way was Messi at the time one of the best players on the planet, nor remotely on Diego's level. For live reactions, you can consult this thread: redcafe.net/threads/leo-me… "first of all finishing is some way off the mark, takes too many shots out of the box, dribbles a lot, when he could pass it players in better positions," and "Messi's just walked into the best team in Europe and the best attacking side around.." This is not criticism of Messi - he's proven every single one of his fans right, and all his detractors wrong. But it's to illustrate that Messi in 2005-2006 still had a long, long way to go, and could have fallen off like any other talented youngster - nor was he delivering at a world class level. I also want to draw the contrast between a player that earns a transfer from Portugal to the Premier League as a teenager, in a new world, new language, new style of play, and is told to integrate the biggest team in world football and lead it. To ignore the hate of the press, and the violence of the defenders. These are very, very different conditions. But bear these in mind, because they are critical to how their careers developed. There is an ocean of a difference between overcoming the significant challenges Cristiano did to reach the heights of world football, and evolving as a talented teenager in a winning team led by the best players in the world. There is a difference between getting booed in every stadium and hit-pieces in the media vs. playing in your home environment. By 2010, Messi is the best player in the world. He had fully formed physically, and technically (though he never stopped working on new aspects of his game to his credit). He was playing for a team many styled "the greatest club team of all time" - surrounded, again, by an elite backbone of players who established the greatest NT dynasty without him. This is not downplaying Messi at all. He was the best on the team, the best on the planet, and in no way, would Barcelona have been the best or won those trophies without him. But it's relevant insofar as Messi has pretty much only known dominance. Only known winning. Only known playing with the upper hand. Expressing your talents in that scenario is a far cry from working uphill with a team that only has 30% possession for example. It also brings us to a philosophical question: to what extent is the best player the best because of their team and to what extent is it due to their individual potentialities. Probably, in 99% of cases in world football, it has always been about the best team. Because it's a team game. When Ronaldo succeeded, Manchester United was at the top of its game. When Pele succeeded, Brazil and Santos were at the top of the world. When Messi succeeded, Barca was hailed as the best team. You can't be the best if you're not evolving with the best players who allow you to express that talent. There has to be a degree of context when judging a players' abilities, production, successes and failures. To what extent have they maximized the potential of their circumstances is probably always the best question. A bit of perspective. In 2010, Ronaldo did something I have never seen a player successfully do before or since: he went to a failing, derelict Madrid and challenged Messi in his home ground - his own house - in his very first year. As we know, Zidane had some growing pains in his first 6 months. Mbappe had a tougher first season. Cristiano was asked to perform at the best level from day 1. In a new world, new style, new team, new interpretation of the rules, and on a losing team. When Messi stepped out of his world and comfort zone for the first time, at the World Cup 2010, it was not the Messi we were accustomed to. And I repeat, by 2010, Ronaldo had already written a fully successful career! He had pushed Portugal to its most successful period, and Manchester's in the 21st century. And now he's at Madrid challenging for the crown. And around this time, from 2010 and beyond, something about football in terms of media consumption, and marketing changed. It was all about the stats. All about the records. And that's when the Messi/Ronaldo rivalry was born (technically around the build up of the 2009 UCL final). Where they leveraged all their team's resources in a personal battle of who would have the bigger numbers. Embarrassing. A stain on football and La Liga. Football is a team sport - the trophy and win is all that matters. Who and how the goal is scored is of tertiary importance. Berating teammates. Teammates squandering their own chances to pass to these guys. A whole machine built to maximize their goal output which looked good on the stat sheet. And what does that say about the quality of La Liga (which was bankrupt top to bottom: theguardian.com/football/2010/…) - only bad things. I grew to dislike these two, because that wasn't the football I grew up with. Worse, all the credit always went to them! Even if a performance was poor - as long as the goal came... and yes it always did - their teammates' efforts were always ignored. A crying shame. As the football world devolved around a marketing scheme. Their respective failures in the 2010 WC illustrated that - extraordinary in the right context, ordinary in the wrong one. Were these really the aliens we were told they were? On eye test, I saw numerous technical errors, poor decision-making, selfish play. The assist numbers do not hide that. Football is lived and breathed and I know what I saw. Barcelona's dominance came crashing down in an embarrassing, impotent loss against 10-man Chelsea in 2012 after the referee probably gave the Catalans everything: an early red, and a pen were not enough to overturn the result. The team cycle had finished, and they were in need of new ideas. Pep understood it and left. Madrid responded with the acquisition of Bale - who ended up being the missing piece. And Carlo, building on Mourinho's framework, brought a more pragmatic approach to the dressing room and media, and comforted the public with a style of football that was easier on the eye. Ronaldo, too, adapted. He increased his presence in the box, and started trusting his teammates better. There was a leap in maturity that accompanied a slight physical decline - but this made him a more potent player. And Madrid won back its first UCL after a decade of humiliation. That's another huge achievement. Not every UCL is the same. Bringing it back to Madrid after leaving the biggest club in the world, when Madrid was crestfallen, is a different level of achievement. It's not Porto winning it. But it's a big achievement in the history of the world's most storied club. How does Messi respond? Well, brilliantly! He had suffered some injuries in 2013, and he had a (for Messi standards) a difficult season (in spite of what the numbers might say). His body changed. The coach changed. The team changed. This was his second big test. He reinvents himself. In 2014-15, we saw Messi transition back at times to the right wing, where he was most potent. He introduced the long ball to his game, and much of Barcelona's play was predicated on his unbelievably reliable ability to switch play. He matured in his ball distribution, his rhythm, and understanding of the game. He was no longer solely playing for himself, but building the game around him. It was the start of his development as a playmaker. Enrique built a team that could beat you on transition, and Messi adapted perfectly. Combining with Neymar and Suarez, he led the team to another European title - his most impressive win at club stage. Messi firmly responded that he wasn't going quietly into the night, a trophy-laden, but front-loaded career with its best years behind it. But this is where things turn. And this is where the fans will simply never agree. Both players took very different trajectories, individually and collectively. As Messi aged, he leaned increasingly on being a playmaker and providing in the construction and build up of his team's attack. As Ronaldo aged, he adapted by becoming a center forward, the most reliable at the highest level that we have ever seen in the modern era. For Messi, these were difficult years - successive, bad losses in Europe: a second-leg collapse against liverpool ushered an era of bad defeats where Barca and Messi were competitive locally, but could not perform against the very best: sportsnet.ca/soccer/messi-b… skysports.com/football/news/… Contrary to what his most die-hard fans online might say (surely they must have been 4 to 12 years old), Messi played a hand in all those defeats. The UCL matches at that level required a level of work-rate, commitment, sacrifice, inventiveness that he simply was not ready to provide. Remember what I said about coming into a winning team? Well, it's a blessing and a curse. When you haven't had to fight an uphill battle, you don't have the tools to do so. Ronaldo went on to write the third and most successful chapter of his career: an unimaginable record of 3 champions league on the back of unimaginable records. Because he had figured out that trusting world-class teammates to express themselves, and being decisive when the going gets tough... wins. And remember what I said about the excellence of a player mirroring the excellence of a team? Well Ronaldo was surrounded by some of the greatest players that ever lived - Benzema, Bale, Kroos, Marcelo, Ramos, Modric... these are no small names. These are no small players. Ronaldo isn't doing it without them. And wait. Wait. He did all this while leading his team to the Euro 2016 trophy. A massive, massive achievement. Again, writing the highest chapter of his country's history. And with a new generation! What more could be asked of him after this? How many more impossible challenges to overcome? How many more times must he adapt, deliver, adapt? Is this the player we are denigrating? How many times does he have to write the careers of some of the greatest players, thrice over? If that wasn't enough, he left the next season - as an old man in football terms - for Juventus. The toughest league for attackers in the sport. A rougher, tactical, tighter affair. It would have been a challenge in his 20s. This man did it a decade post his prime. At what point do we not realize that the mere fact of going to a storied team like Juventus and playing all those minutes, scoring all those goals years past a footballer's expiration date is NOT a huge achievement. Achievements are relative, remember? A League win for Real Madrid and Barca isn't a league win for Leicester City. Ronaldo proving himself all over again, outside his comfort zone, in a new championship, style, language of football, language of speech is a whole massive achievement in and of itself! And in doing so, after he was elected as the best player in Serie A - he matched another record: only other player besides Zidane to be the best player in 3 leagues. Again. How can you not look at this in awe? And if it wasn't enough, this man at 36-37 thought he could go and play in the Premier League! Which was back, again, at the forefront of football in terms of physical intensity. It was a difficult season for Manchester, but can we stop for a moment and appreciate the insanity of what Ronaldo just accomplished? Of what Ronaldo dreamed he was capable of? Scoring hattricks at that age? In that championship? With that team? Against THOSE opponents? At some point, we need to understand just how awe-inspiring this is. He imagines mountains and he climbs them. Mountains WE don't dare to perceive. On the other hand, Messi was having a difficult time at PSG. Whether the weather, illness, foreign language, new championship conspired to do so, but he had a middling first season - another failed challenge. Another opportunity to adapt that seemingly did not work out. But Messi had other plans. I suspect he had understood the limitations of his body at this age - and was specifically pacing himself to peak physically at the 2022 WC - the one major achievement that had eluded him. The one he did come awfully close to in 2014, but famously had struggled through in the knockout stages on heavy legs and a contentious, Adidas-sponsored golden ball: npr.org/2014/07/11/330… (Messi's father, recognizing the criticism around the poor performances, famously said: "He is exhausted and feels as if his legs weigh 100 kilos each.") bbc.com/sport/football… And the 2022 World Cup seemed to be tracking in the wrong direction with a shock loss to Saudi Arabia... But something changed in Messi. Some screw got loose. Something deep inside him told him that he wouldn't go quiet into the night. Now or never. A spectacular goal in the following match against Mexico provided Argentina with momentum, and Messi with belief that if they just tried hard enough, if they poured their souls onto the pitch - they would succeed. And succeed they did. Messi, author of a wonderful pass vs Netherlands, and an electric, feisty performance delivered. And when things seemed to be slipping away, he doubled down and found a way out in the dying minutes of extra time against France. Messi had finally shown us that he, too, can overcome difficult odds - that he too can pour everything on the pitch and figure it out. It was a momentous achievement and recovery in his story. Now in 2026, what do we have? Ronaldo, again, at 41, present. A relic of a bygone age. The guy that faced the likes of Henry in his prime, representing and fighting for his flag, while the latter is in the commentary booth. Dichotomies. Achievements. Do not belittle what is impossible for other men. Appreciate the impossible. Author of 3 goals, one of which against a superior Croatian squad, amid a derelict Portuguese performance, Ronaldo can walk away with his head held high and the knowledge that there is nothing more to prove for one that has proven everything. And Messi? Likewise, pushing the barriers of what is possible? His mere participation an unbelievable epic. Author crucial goals left and right pushing his team forward from the brink. Doing the impossible at this advanced age. Free from pressure. Free to play and enjoy himself. I hope you are enjoying him. I hope you enjoyed them. Where does that leave us? Two of the greatest players you will ever see. Cherish them, do not scorn them. Do I personally think either is the greatest player ever? No, but there are strong arguments for both. For me I am of the school of Pele, Maradona - their achievements have no been surpassed in my eyes, the skill of the latter unmatched. I am of the school of Zidane, my GOAT growing up. But on purely rational grounds, as I said before, both Messi and Ronaldo deservedly can carry that label. The choice ultimately comes to your personal feelings about both - just don't let them come in the way of appreciating these two pillars of the culture we call football.

yes olise is absolutely 200M+ good for madrid. rodri would be a more needed player, ideally both would be perfect, but perez for some reason refused rodri

@lezico8 yeah, even a tiny increase in leg length exponentially increases the rotational inertia, bcuz of this the hamstring has to work way harder to catch and decelerate a longer leg swinging at high speeds, also, bone growth occurs much faster than muscular/tendon

Do long levers contribute to increased chances of hamstring injury? I feel like his quads and hamstrings are still a bit underdeveloped for the level of football he's competing in

absolute mismanagement by tuchel, wow wow wow

rodri + olise to madrid? tchouameni + rodri double pivot 👀

@HOFS0T0 comparing wemby to "yamal"😅😅😅😅

Lamine Yamal 🤝 Wemby Making the Finals in their first playoff/World Cup run

@RoyalKimmich @ChxssSZN preach

@ChxssSZN he's already better and that's okay

Love him but he will never be as good as Robben and thats okay

Masterclass from Spain. They looked so much better as a collective than they have this tournament and I expect them to win in the final now

@c4de23 sad that you can't watch football, really sad, no player "pocketed" him, personal mistakes. Yamal didn't outperform shit, he's yet to have a good game😂😂😂

@GebGer @damien_rmcf Olise stinker and hooked and pocketed by Cucurella 😭😭 lamine on one hamstring outperformed him today

@someballfacts the discipline is just utter insanity

This Spain is truly one of the best NTs I have ever seen. A league above the 2008-2012 squad. Insane the intensity with which they play, the coordination, the sheer TACTICAL and technical brilliance of the players.

@abdel2raw1 watch the games lmao, plus olise played as a 10 for some reason, not an excuse but contributes. Yamal another shitshow, faced a bum lb that can't keep up with him somehow😂

@GebGer @damien_rmcf ur brains asleep