Is it even the 'best' footballer?

In sports it's all about the prices. The goal of every football club is to win the League, the National Cup and an European price. Next to that you have individual prices. This time I will talk about the Ballon d'or and the new 'UEFA best player in Europe'. Football has four main positions: The goalkeeper, the defenders, the midfielders and the forwards. So which position wins the best player price the most? The midfielders and the forwards. But why is it like that? Aren't the goalkeepers and the defenders playing on the same level? Or is it just for the show?

In 1963 Lev Yashin won the Ballon d'Or. He is the only keeper to ever win that price. Franz Beckenbauer (1972, 1976), Matthias Sammer (1996) and Fabio Cannavaro (2006) are the only defenders to win the Ballon d'Or. So of the 57 prices (Ballon d'Or + UEFA best player in Europe) there are 4 defensive players. Isn't that weird? How is it that when we talk about the best footballer in the world we never think of Oliver Kahn, Edwin van der Sar, Gordon Banks or Grégory Coupet for example? The role that only one man can fill, the one who has the 'most important role'. If the goalkeeper makes one mistake it can cost you the game. Doesn't that make their position more difficult? Why don't they get the same praise?
The defenders are forgotten too. The best defense is a good offense is a very famous adage, but in football the defenders and goalkeepers are overshadowed by the midfielders and forwards.

The reason why is simple. I'll give you an example to show you why. A goalkeeper denies a striker to score in a one vs one situation. What will people say in general? Good safe? Amazingly played by the goalkeeper? No. People will curse the striker and shout at him that he's very bad. Nobody 'cares' about the goalkeeper making the safe. People don't see the beauty in defense. Thousands of people got mad at Jose Mourinho for playing anti-football with Chelsea against Liverpool (27-04-2014), but that was just a tactical masterpiece of him. Liverpool had no chance of scoring. Isn't defense a part of football? How is it that you play anti-football when you play defensive? It all makes no sense. We football fans have created such a 'hate' against safe football. Football is an entertainment source for all of us, but I don't think losing and playing offensively is better than winning and playing defensively.

Another reason is that celebrating defensive plays feels weird. I don't see the players jumping on each other after their keepers saving a penalty. You prevented damage, but you didn't deal any to the enemy either. It's like surviving from an attack in the middle of the war; you can still die. The same counts for football; you can still lose a game. But when you score a goal you gain a lead. Without scoring you can never win a game. Good defense is a mental lead, but since it's not on paper you can't do anything with it.

Offense is more enjoyable to watch. If a winger is tearing the defense apart there is action in the game. If the defense is impossible to get through and therefor there is no action. You have a price for the best goal of the year (Puskás award), but nothing for the best safe of the year.
The price for the 'best' footballer doesn't exist. You can't compare a goalkeeper to a striker. You can't compare a box-to-box midfielder to a winger. Why can't we have a price per position? Just because one position is more popular doesn't mean that those type of players are 'better'. The offensive players are getting more attention. The best player price has become a popularity contest. Too bad that will most likely not change.

The link between freedom and happiness

Can you see a link between freedom and happiness? Because I partly can. With freedom you can do or say what you want and that must be a good feeling. But doesn't your freedom make someone else unhappy? And isn't having too much choices something that can actually stress you out?

Your freedom can make someone else unhappy. Let's take Dutch politician Geert Wilders. He is the founder of the Party for Freedom (Partij voor de Vrijheid) and he is using his freedom of speech to the maximum. He thinks that in the Netherlands there should be less Islam and Moroccans. His statements has created a lot of hate under the Moroccans and other Muslims in the Netherlands. His freedom of speech has hurt and caused irritation to others. But now let's look at this problem from the view of Geert Wilders. Moroccans have the highest crime rate in the Netherlands. This is one of the reasons why Geert Wilders thinks why Islam is anything but a peaceful religion. The freedom of religion of the Moroccans has caused irritation to Geert Wilders and his supporters.

This is just an example. Geert Wilders doesn't want to kill every Muslim on earth and most Moroccans have never committed a crime. In this example you see that the freedom of others have made others angry and/or unhappy.

Having too many options to choose from can make you unhappy too. Having more option causes more hesitation. What is the best thing to choose? Having more options will lead to a bigger chance of regretting the choice you made. You went for option A, but what if you took option B? Or even option C? Option D didn't look bad either.

Freedom is a weird thing. With full freedom we would be in a chaos, but with no freedom we would have a dictatorship. Look at North Korea for example. Freedom and happiness were the last words you thought of when I mentioned North Korea. Now think of a country without the police, national security, politicians or the army. Would there be happiness in a country like that? Wouldn't that be total disaster. We need a group of people limiting our freedom to keep peace. We need balance in life. The key to life is balance. Limited freedom is life. Life is happiness.

Gender 'equality' and Female/Male competitions

'You can't hit me, I'm a woman!' is a very famous sentence used by some feminist. The feminists who are fighting for 'equal rights' are being hypocritical here. What is the point of having equal rights when we are, mentally and physically, not the same? We can never have the same rights.

We have standard laws that apply to everybody. You have no permission to steal, no permission to commit a murder, you have freedom of speech, freedom of religion, etc. Those are needed to keep a healthy environment. Men and women are technically equal, but you still can't deny the fact that both genders are treated differently. The reason why is simple: We are not the same.

Life is a competition. At school you try to get the highest marks for your tests and your goal is to be the best student of your school. At work you try to be the employee who works the hardest and achieves the most. In sports athletes compete with each other to win prizes and to be the best. In the sport world we have separated competitions for men and women. Why do we have these separated competitions? Shouldn't we have a mixed competition with men and women? Isn't that gender equality? No. Women are physically weaker than men. That's why the level in the competitions for men is way higher than for the competitions for women. Let me give you an example: The 100 meter sprint. The world record holder is Usain Bolt (9,52 s). The female record holder is Florence Griffith-Joyner (10,49 s). A lot of male sprinters are able to break the female sprinting record.
Let's now look at the Olympics. A man runs the 100 m in 10 seconds and gets placed 5-6th. A woman runs the 100 m in 10 seconds and she wins a gold medal. The man achieves the same, but doesn't get the same praise.

Shouldn't we put the both genders in one mixed competition then? Isn't this what gender equality really is? If we have mixed competitions I can guarantee you that at least 90% of the medals will go to male athletes. Female athletes will get demotivated due to them being physically weaker. They need to put 2 times the work to get the same result.

'We can never have the same rights'. - Me

I quoted myself. We should understand that men and women can never be treated equally. You should never be discriminated because of your gender, but just because we are all human doesn't mean we all have the same treatment. Sometimes not having a gender equality is in favor of men and sometimes for women. Diversity is enrichment, see the beauty in our differences.


What do you think about this topic? Please share your thoughts with me.

The light turns off, the brains turns on... temporarily.

Maybe everyone has ever had this before. It's bedtime and you are preparing yourself to go sleep. You put on your pyjamas, you turn off the lights and crawl under your bed. You are lying for already 10 minutes, but still can't sleep. You suddenly start philosophizing. You think about being super productive, you are very motivated and really excited for tomorrow. You suddenly get a motivation to do something worth your time. You set your alarm at 7:00. You got to sleep with an excited feeling and wake up the next morning... with nothing. Nothing. Your dreams of being productive have disappeared. Your motivation is gone and you are really tired. You decide to sleep for a couple more hours. What is going on?

Why does this have to happen every time? Why can't I have the urge to do something productive after waking up? Is your body fooling yourself? Is it just an excuse to not feel bad for doing nothing all day long? 'You did nothing all day, but that's okay. I'll just give you this motivation boost. You'll think that you will be productive tomorrow, but nah, who has the time for that? I got you, bro.' Your mind is fooling you. And you just accept it. We should do the things we want without our minds fooling us. We should be strong enough to crawl out of your bed, man up and do something good! You are never too late to get off your lazy ass and start doing what you always wanted to do. Every day is a new day and should be treated like that. 

It doesn´t matter what you want to do. Do it. You want to lose weight? Do it. You want to study? Do it. You want to train? Freaking do it. Instead of turning the brains on when the light is off do it while the lights are on... permanently.