Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Kakaphony - A War of Tabloids

Posted by-Shibarjun Ghosh,India



Kaka almost had one foot in Manchester, Now he has two in Milan…with a head in Madrid", AS wrote in its article regarding Kaka's much lampooned and finally failed transfer speculations . Come to think of it, it makes quite a good line. Ever since the big money transfer of Kaka to Manchester City broke down the cacophony regarding his future has already started. The rumour mill has been working overtime and now there are speculations and predictions galore. Predictably, the Madrid based (or should I say Madrid biased) daily have seem to taken the upper hand on this one keeping well in mind that their cross town rivals took the cake, pie and cherry in the Ronaldo saga that enfolded in the summer of last year. AS chipped in with trivias here and there, but its a known fact that it was MARCA that was running the "Cristiano Ronaldo Show".

But who are these guys in AS??? Well they are very much like u and me; Madrid over-enthusiasts, but also a bit more imaginative. AS is so pumped up and so over excited about the fact that they have got the best seller plot of the month they don't care if the facts they are stating are true or not; like stating the fact that that Kaka's contract ends in 2011 instead of 2013, which in fact is the case.

So much so is their verve about the new scoop that they have not hesitated taking digs at the recently crowned FIFA player of the year Ronaldo (who of course was the main protagonist of the summer blockbuster scripted by Marca) and have also gone on the extent of saying that "Ronaldo needs a team to shine whereas Kaka makes a team shine", not exactly true by my diagnosis. Ronaldo has scored 42 goals last season and has won the Double with Man Utd, leading the charge from the front, enough for Real Madrid to go on a wild goose chase with the a possiblity of smashing transfer records left right and centre. As for Kaka, no doubt he is a great player, probably one of the greatest to have graced the footballing world of late, but playing in the uefa cup certainly is not my definition of "shining".

However AS is taking no chance; they are doing everything to juice it up, like putting words in people's mouth, citing "undisclosed inside sources" and also introducing Barcelona as the new "twist in the tale". People like Emerson with their few predictions and on-the-record antics have got more media coverage than they have managed in the whole of this season with their onfield activities. Suddenly everyone wants to be part of this blockbuster and have been contributing in with their share of lip service. And Emerson has apparently also gone to the extent that not only Kaka, but even Pato would be joining Madrid in the near future. And in this saga fraught with contradictions, Emerson has again gone on record denying that he made any such claims!

Now AS certainly doesn't want to leave anything to chance this time. Once bitten, twice shy, they have learnt from their mistakes and have not forgotten the lesson they learnt the last summer when Marca stole all the limelight with the Ronaldo saga and AS was relegated to playing second fiddle in the war of the tabloids. However, what if all these reports are really true? I would be shouting “Vamos!” at the top of my voice but for the time being it’s not about Kaka, Milan, Madrid or City because the real action is in the tabloid columns and not anywhere else. It’s 2009 and the score is Marca 0-1 AS.

As of now, I am waiting for a fitting reply from Marca with the hope that they can come up with an equally engrossing and exciting plot where there is no shortage of drama, emotions, betrayal, loyalty and lots of money (like this one). There are a lot of protagonists up for the taking. Benzema, Villa, Walcott, Ibrahimovic or may be Ronaldo once more, to name a few. Until then guys, grab your popcorn and enjoy the bytes; this show is not over as yet, and another blockbuster’s already blooming!...hope its just AS good.

1 comment:

  1. haha you forgot ribery the 150 mil euro man and the supposedly next real madrid coach ;)... Marca, goal and tribal are the trashy magazines of soccer and ronaldo and kaka the brad and angelina ;)

    ReplyDelete