Underrated: Alex Song & Mikel Arteta (Arsenal)

The team at the Republic Sport decided to celebrate the unsung heroes who do all the hard yards but hardly ever get their names in the headlines. So here is the first instalment of Underrated...

  

Song & Arteta: Arsenal's Unsung Heroes.

All the talk at the Gunners this season has been about Robin Van Persie and all the goals he scored, but little is ever said about where the goals come from. Monsieur Song and Senor Arteta are the 2 components that make the Arsenal machine work. Song makes the hard tackles in the middle of the park and cleans up in front of the back four, but he is not the ‘traditional’ defensive midfielder in the sense that he does make forward runs and he has the ability to pick the perfect pass. An apt description of Song came to me when I was talking to a friend about the Cameroonian player. After trying at length to sum up the player that Song is, my friend said “Well, I don’t know what he does exactly, but nobody else in the league does it.” I would actually go as far as to say that Alex Song is in the same league as Yaya Toure, the only player I can compare him to. Arteta in the middle links up play. He has added some fluidity to Arsenal’s play. The Gunners lost some of the slick football and silky touches that were the norm when Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri wore the red and white jersey but Arteta fitted in pretty seamlessly and become a player that the Gunners rely heavily upon. To put it simply, he brings the team together. This was demonstrated when Arsenal produced their worst performance of the season when they played AC Milan in the Champions League at the San Siro, without Arteta in the team.

Mawande wrote this.

Could Benni be South Africa's David Beckham?

Not the David Beckham we're talking about.

Mawande Says...

If you are thinking about David Beckham the underwear model, then this article would be complete in just 2 letters. There is no way that I can, or want to, imagine Benni McCarthy in tight, white underwear on a billboard overlooking the M1. But Benni could match David Beckham, the footballer, and his exploits in Major League Soccer in the United States, right here in South Africa’s Premier Soccer League.

The MLS was an obscure league up until 2007 when David Beckham signed for the Los Angeles Galaxy. His popularity on and off the field helped to raise the profile of the league and now it is arguably one of the most popular professional football leagues outside of Europe. One only needs to look at the quality of footballers that the MLS has attracted since Beckham signed for the Galaxy to confirm this. Mexican captain Rafael Marquez signed for the New York Red Bulls from Spanish giants Barcelona as did Arsenal legend Thierry Henry. Other notable players to sign for MLS clubs have been former Germany midfielder Torsten Frings, Scottish Premier League record goal scorer Kris Boyd, former South Korean captain Young Pyo Lee, Freddie Ljungberg and Robbie Keane.

Can you imagine this guy advertsing underwear on a billboard?



 Now Benni is not a popular figure in South Africa. He is somewhat controversial and he divides public opinion. I’ll admit to being skeptical when it was announced that Benni McCarthy had signed for Orlando Pirates at the beginning of the current PSL season. Having watched his last few performances for West Ham in 2010, I felt that he was well past his prime and cashing in on a last pay cheque. From what has transpired this season, it is safe to say my skepticism was misplaced.

Benni has been a good acquisition for the Buccaneers. He scored on debut and has gone on to score a further 7 goals for the Bucs, despite picking up leg injuries that kept him on the sidelines for a while. I have watched Benni play this season and I have been very impressed with him. His interplay with the Pirates midfield and forward players has been stellar. He has been able to find passes that ordinary players aren’t able to and he has been making telling runs that leave defenders unaware. Watching Benni for just a while, you notice that he is a class above the average player in the PSL. I have also enjoyed that he does the basics very well. His ball control and heading abilities are superior to any other striker in the PSL. In all, Benni has added a new level of professionalism into the local game and hopefully other players will learn a lot from watching and playing with him. 

Ambitious: Pirates sign Benni. The start of greater things to come in the PSL?

The signing of Benni was very ambitious of Pirates and hopefully the beginning of a new trend in South African football. The PSL has been riddled with a problem of below average foreign internationals who pretend to be good footballers so that can collect mega bucks and end up bouncing from club to club until they either surface at a club in the National First Division or disappear altogether. It seems that for every single foreign international that is a success in the PSL, there are a handful of players who turn out to be frauds. Benni is the kind of experienced and well traveled professional that the PSL should attract.



Another Class Signing. Boa Morte join the Buccaneers. Will other clubs follow suit? 



The local rumour mill suggests that Benni played a big part in Pirates signing Luis Boa Morte, who has played for Arsenal, Fulham, West Ham and Portugal. Boa Morte is the kind of foreign international the PSL clubs should want to have on their books. He is a quality player with a proven track record of success and a big name player. If he can sign for a South African team, maybe it would raise the consciousness of other SA clubs and they can look to signing big stars as well. In the case of the MLS, it took one big signing to raise the league from obscurity; it took one big signing for others to follow. Hopefully the signings of Benni and Boa Morte will be the catalyst that sees SA clubs become more ambitious with the transfer dealings and aim for the best. I don’t see why Sundowns or Chiefs cannot make a bid attractive enough to lure Didier Drogba, for instance.  

There is a lot of money in the South African game. Supersport recently paid close to R 1.6 billion for the PSL broadcast rights, so there is really nothing stopping PSL clubs from going out and signing some of the more well-known international stars. It can only improve the standard of play on the field and bring fans back into the stadiums and attract more sponsors. If clubs can take it upon themselves to think outside the box and have a bigger vision for themselves they will realize that signing players like Benni can only benefit all of South African football. One day when Rio Ferdinand and Kaka' are playing for Ajax Cape Town or Platinum Stars, we’ll look back and say, it started when Benni signed for Pirates.