A Football Report

Interview conducted by Dominic Vieira

Marvin Sordell is promising striker who plays for Watford. Sordell is not yet a world-renowned superstar, but we’ll certainly be hearing more about his talent over the next few years. He signed his first professional contract with the Championship side last April and played the 2009/2010 season for his club and represented Tranmere Rovers on a 2 month loan spell.

Sordell, at the brisk age of 19, has been compared to the likes of Gabriel Agbonlahor and is set to have a prosperous future ahead of him. He has yet to represent the England youth teams, but if he continues to work hard, keep his feet on the grown and improve he could certainly get the call.

AFR had the great opportunity to talk with the young talent and the interview focuses on his career and the World Cup.

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By Dylan Lebecki

Knocking on the doors of greatness

Kévin Gameiro is a name which will be constantly heard for many years in French football. The highly talented player is currently 22-years-old and is the star in the FC Lorient formation.

His youth career started at Marly-la-Ville and then Chantilly, Kévin made his breakthrough when he was scouted by RC Strasbourg at the age of 13. He worked his way up through the RC Strasbourg youth ranks and after excelling with both the under-16’s and under-18’s. On the 10th of September 2005, he made his debut as a substitute against PSG. Gameiro soon became an essential piece to Jacky Duguépéroux’s side playing 58 matches and scoring 10 goals.

RC Strasbourg’s relegation from League 1 led to Gameiro’s departure and in 2008, he joined FC Lorient for 3 million euros. While playing for Lorient, Gameiro has shown that his transfer fee was not gone to waste. 61 games later, Gameiro who wears the number 9 jersey, became extremely important player for Lorient with 21 goals to his name. Last season, Gameiro led Lorient to a 10th Ligue 1 finish, their best record yet. Lorient currently sits comfortably at 10th place and Gameiro is leading the goalscoring charts alongside Niang, both having scored 15 times.

Naturally a striker, Kévin Gameiro can also play on the wings. He may lack height as he is 1.72m, but his biggest asset is his physical attributes, in particular his pace. With first-class technique Kévin Gameiro is also very proficient at both dribbling and finishing. He is a very determined player who works hard and always fights for the ball. His consistency has gained most of his recognition and is one of the reasons why he is such an important element in Lorient’s team.

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By Dominic Vieira

In 2008, Croatian superstar Luka Modric joined Tottenahm Hotspur for approximately 18 million euros. This may have left the Dinamo Zagreb bank account full of cash, but on the other hand, there were some big boots in the centre of the field that needed to be filled.

A new playmaker was needed and that position was appointed to the young and inexperienced, but highly talented, Milan Badelj. Before playing in his new role, the youngster spent the 2007/2008 season on loan at Lokomotiva. After a brilliant season playing in the third division, he was recalled by Dinamo and ready for a new challenge. Milan Badelj was the natural successor of Luka Modric’s throne and the fans soon learned to forget about their former star.

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By Fernando Sell

Brazil is universally acclaimed for consistently producing world-class football players. Brazil’s unique style of football and positive disposition of the players has attracted fans from all over the world to appreciate their brand of football. Another talented player comes from the south of the country, and his name is Giuliano. He is 19 years old, a creative midfielder who represents Sport Club Internacional and has been making a big name for himself. Europe will soon be calling for Giuliano…

Giuliano was born on 31/05/1990 in Curitiba. He grew up loving the beautiful game and actually started playing as a goalkeeper. His idol was 1994 World Cup Champion - Cláudio Taffarel, who defended the Brazilian goal for many years; Taffarel also played for Internacional. There were many goalkeepers in Giuliano’s neighbourhood and after fierce competition he stopped defending the nets. And what a talented midfielder he turned out to be!

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By Dominic Vieira

Sporting does not possess the history and recognition of producing solid, commanding, and successful centre backs, however, 21 year-old Daniel Carriço is a different case. The defender has represented the Sporting since an early age, joining them from Estoril Praia. He rapidly worked his way up the Sporting youth ranks, where he captained many teams. He captained the Sporting Under-19s to winning the youth title in 2006. In the 2006/2007 season, Sporting manager Paulo Bento, who admired the youngster, promoted him to the first team. Unfortunately, Daniel Carriço failed to make his debut as there was fierce competition for his position. The following season Daniel was sent on loan to, he failed to play regularly. In January he travelled to Cyprus to play the remainder of the season for AEL Limassol, where he worked under Portuguese manager Mariano Barreto. Sporting normally send out on loan their most prospering talents so they can further develop and grow before they are capable to fight for a place in the main team. Miguel Veloso, Yannick Djaló and Bruno Pereirinha have all played a season on loan to smaller clubs before they broke into the first team.

Daniel Carriço made his impact in the squad last season, he made his debut in October 2008 and since then he has worked hard to earn his place in the starting place. He is a natural born leader, which is one of his key characteristics that has helped him work his way through Sporting. He may be at the tender age of 21 but Carriço had no problem imposing presence, and leadership across the pitch; he is most definitely a future Sporting captain in the making.

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By Dominic Vieira

Israel may not be a dominant nation in the world of football, nor has it produced too many world-class players. But one of the world’s most talented youngsters plays for current Israeli champions Maccabi Haifa, the club which he signed for in 2008. His name is Eyal Golasa and he is 18 years old. Eyal may not be widely renowned as football top future stars, but the wonderkid has been rapidly improving and developing since his debut in 2008. At the of 14, young Eyal Golasa underwent trials at Tottenham Hotspur and PSG; he was due to move to the French side but the deal failed because he was unable to be granted European citizenship. The Israeli starlet has recently appeared in the papers often as he was set to join Lazio during the winter transfer window. A four and a half year contract was agreed and all that remained was for the player to sign it. However, Eyal changed his mind on the last minute and opted to continue playing in the Israeli Premier League.

Eyal Golasa is a skilful, modern versatile midfielder who is most comfortable playing an attacking midfielder role; he also can play as a winger or a central midfielder. He has similar characteristics to Barcelona boys Xavi and Iniesta, as well as Mezut Ozil. He has very good touch on the ball, the ability to use both feet, has a great vision and is a great dribbler. He enjoys making fast offensive bursts in the final 3^rd of the pitch and has an eye for the goal. He frequently tries scoring long distance goals, but his accuracy and power have to be heavily refined before he will become a deadly long range striker on the ball. In recent times, he has been improving his finishing attributes and Maccabi has already benefitted from his vital goals. In order for Eyal Golasa to develop into a solid, elegant, all round midfielder, he needs to improve on his strength and fitness; this will then allow him to enter the football elite. Moving to a big club directly may not be the best idea, but playing in the Dutch, French or Portuguese league for a couple of seasons is the perfect bridge to prepare for him for Europe’s biggest leagues.

The future looks bright for Eyal Golasa; sooner or later, like any ambitious talented young football star, he will want to make a move to a bigger and competitive league. This move will also be done because the player will want to further develop as a footballer and achieve new challenges at a large scale. During the Champions League, Maccabi played against Bayern Munich and in the game which Bayern won 3-0; Eyal made a name for him and impressed the Bavarian coaches and scout. Bayern Munich has been closely monitoring him and rumoured to be interested in signing the star. Also in Germany, Bayer Leverkusen have claimed been interested in him as well as other clubs. In England, Isreali Portsmouth manager Avram Grant is chasing the attacking midfielder. Along with the interest from Lazio, numerous Italian clubs are looking at him. There will be many offers coming in for the attacking midfielder but Italy or Germany will be the most likely destinations. It won’t take long until Eyal Golasa becomes a key figure in the Israeli national team and maybe one day we will be able to see him guide his country to a major international tournament. Golasa recently completed his first cap for Israel and there will be many more to follow.

Feel free to ask your questions or post your comments below! What do you think of the rising Israeli star?

Hope all has been going well, despite it being a Tuesday. I have been extremely busy over the past few days, but only because AFR is continuing to expand its top-class coverage of the beautiful game. By the way, it’s that time of the week again; go on and recommend us as Tumblr’s Best Sports Site!

There are three great things we plan on introducing this week:

1) Lawrence Prince-Wright, English and Greek football specialist

An expert on English and Greek football, Lawrence will join the AFR team. For all of you hoping for more coverage of the footy-mad mediterranean, Lawrence is more than willing to share his analysis on the happenings throughout Super League Greece. He will write a masterful column known as “The Classy Cockney Connection”, which will consistently focus on Greek and English football, as well as the occasional coverage on the Europa League and the World Cup.

Despite growing up in London, Lawrence is half-English, half-Greek. Lawrence, who grew up going to matches at Stamford Bridge on a weekly basis with his father, moved to Greece in 2001 where he lived until coming to university (the same one I go to) in the States. In Greece, Lawrence played football throughout high school, went to support his Olympiakos side, and played for two seasons at local club, “Pefki A.O.” (but was forced to quit due to shin splints). He is still an avid Chelsea (his favourite player is Frank Lampard) and Olympiakos fan, and is currently playing football on a regular basis while studying politics and history.

2) AFR Scouting, Our Weekly Focus on a Top Young Talent

Whether you’re an established scout or someone just trying to figure out who to add to your squad on Football Manager, we’ll be providing quality insight on young players who have everything it takes to go on and bloom into world-class footballers. Dominic Vieira, our excellent Lisbon-based writer, will be in charge of AFR Scouting and will write the vast majority of the the player profiles.

3) Insight on the American Game with “The Yanks Are Coming”

AFR has teamed up with the United States’ premier independent U.S. Men’s National Team football blog, “The Yanks Are Coming”. From US Soccer to the World Cup and beyond, AFR is honoured to feature excellent articles written by some of the best football writers in the States. So for all you supporters of Landon, Deuce, Gooch, Jozy, and the rest of the squad, we finally have you covered.

So there it is, our little update. Hope you guys are as excited about the new features on AFR as we are! Enjoy the footy-filled week!

Cheers,

Eric Beard, afootballreport.com Co-Founder