Football News: Review Of The Day 19th November 2018

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Review of the Day

Niguez Released

Former Rangers forward, and brother of Saul Niguez, Aaron Niguez has been released by Real Oviedo. The much travelled former Valencia youth player has had 11 teams at the age of 29, playing in Greece, Scotland and Portugal, as well as his native Spain.

Spain Honour Silva's International Career

Rather than give Manchester City playmaker David Silva a unwarranted cap in a meaningless friendly, Spain chose to honour a true legend of the game with a presentation prior to the kick-off of their friendly with Bosnia-Herzegovina. The 32 year old made 125 appearances for a, at times, great Spain side and was given a special commemorative Spain shirt with 125 on the back. He brought 10 month old son Mateo onto the pitch with him, after he overcame his premature birth and illness which led to Silva missing portions of last season and City to offer him the chance to return to Spain to play.

And Finally.....

With such a shortage of news away from match results this 'And Finally' is going to have to be a long one, so apologies to all those who read this just for the news! Today there will even be a theme, 'Politics & Football'.

In Uganda at the beginning of this season their deputy prime minister (and deputy leader of government business in parliament, whatever that is) General Moses Ali showed all the grace of a rhino in clogs as he took the kick off to launch this season's Ugandan Premier League. His run up went fine, but he clearly had no idea how to kick the ball and swung his leg so far through that he ended up overbalancing and landing on his well-padded backside. On live TV. Makes your slip when kicking a ball back to kids in the park feel a lot less embarrassing!

There was Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond, who also has obviously never kicked a ball in his life as his football-related photo session ended up with pictures that looked like he was doing 'Riverdance' rather than kicking a ball.

Politicians do often use football to 'connect with the masses' when they want to show they are 'one of us' rather than a spoilt rich kid born with a silver spoon in their mouth. Case in point is former British PM David 'Lord Snooty' Cameron, who claimed to be an Aston Villa supporter, though wanted everyone to support West Ham United. Presumably because they wear the same colours so they must be the same team right? Or maybe he was just trying to get on the good side of Barrack Obama, who is said to be a Hammers fan.

Not all politicians fake their love for football, Viktor Orban who has been PM of Hungary since 2010, is a genuine player with a team called Felcsut FC and once cancelled a cabinet meeting because he was taking part in the club's mid-season training camp. You could even sign him in the 2006 version of Football Manager.

Of course there are footballers that became politicians, George Weah the stand out example but there are other great footballers that got involved in politics. Another notable example is Italy legend Gianni Rivera, who went into politics after his retirement and ended up with an MP and then later a Euro MP. Romario famously entered politics in his home country Brazil on retirement from playing becoming a senator in 2014. Not all have been successful, Sol Campbell, a member of the Conservative party, is fond of throwing his hat in the ring whenever a job is available, but failing to get anywhere. That included his attempt to get a nomination for the Mayor of London, when he, as usual, failed to make the shortlist.

Another former Tottenham Hotspur player, Roman Pavlyuchenko was on the local city council prior to his move to England. It was claimed at the time that he was just worried that the local financial crisis was affecting his wages! I just wonder if that prepared him for his time with 'Arry Redknapp and his instructions to the Russian when bringing him off the bench to "f***ing run round a bit"?

Written by Tris Burke November 19 2018 05:37:02