Diego Lopez
is the living proof that sometimes it doesn´t depend on how good you are in
what you do, you just might not succeed in getting people love you and
appreciate your work. There is no doubt whatsoever that Iker Casillas has in
the last decade been one of the best goalkeepers in the world if not the very best.,
but sports is one very funny profession where most times it doesn´t matter what
you have done or who you have been in the past but who you are at the moment.
The truth is that right now, with all the unmerited opportunities given to Casillas
to prove himself in the last three years or thereabout, even when it was evident that he was not in his best form, he
had not been in the outstanding level we are accustomed to.
For a very long time now, since Jose Mourinho
was Real Madrid coach, Casillas has lost his unquestionable first choice
position to even a less known goalkeeper like Antonio Adan, a decision that
sparked off a lot of controversies at Real Madrid and even in the world of
football. The lackluster and almost a disgraceful exit of Jose Mourinho from
Real Madrid is not unconnected with his decision to sign Diego Lopez and bench
Casillas and a host of other big players who were becoming uncontrollable,
among them Pepe, Sergio Ramos and a few more.
But since the exit of Mourinho and the
signing on of Ancelotti as the new coach, the situation of Casillas has not
changed for the better; the controversy is still very much alive today. All
through the last season, Ancelotti has had to alternate between Casillas and
Diego Lopez, using Diego Lopez in all the league matches and Casillas in the
King´s cup and the Champions League.
The injury of Victor Valdes months before the
world cup and the national team coach, Vicente De Bosque´s questionable decision of using Casillas as his first choice goalkeeper even when it was obvious that he
had done near nothing to deserve it that season and then his very poor
performance in the world cup where Spain was eliminated in the first round of the competition further corroborated what has been widely said about him, his not being in his
best form.
Ironically, while all these was happening to
Casillas, Diego Lopez was doing his job perfectly well as Real Madrid´s first
choice goalkeeper in the league against all odds and with less support than he
really deserved even amongst Real Madrid fans who were continuously immersed in
an eternal nostalgic pool with all their support for Iker casillas. Diego Lopez
demonstrated throughout the league that he was a goalkeeper with a very high mental
capacity because in most of the matches even at home he had a large section of
the Real Madrid fans booing him and singing songs in favour of Iker Casillas.
This year while everyone thought that the
status quo established last year by Carlo Ancelotti was most likely going to
continue, Fernando Hiero, one of the most liked footballers ever to play in the
Real Madrid team and as a matter of fact its captain for many years has
returned to the team as the assistant coach in the place of Zinedine Zidane who
has moved to coach the Real Madrid feeder team, Castilla. It is no secret that Fernando
Hierro and Casillas are very good friends from their days together as Real
Madrid players before Fernando Hierro retired
from the team , this no doubt will affect the continuity of Diego Lopez in the
team. So far, there have been clear indications that Real Madrid is trying to
boot out Diego Lopez from the team in favour of Iker Casillas. The signing on
of Costa-Rican national team goalkeeper Keylor Navas is a confirmed strategy to
force Diego Lopez to leave the team.
The fact
remains that Diego Lopez does not deserve this kind of treatment from Real Madrid;
his only offence was being in a better form than Iker Casillas, at least this
last year. He took his chance like every good professional would have done and
maintained it. The only just thing would have been for Iker Casillas to fight
back and win his position. Don´t get me wrong, I am not saying that Casillas
had not done a great job as Real Madrid or Spanish goalkeeper, but in football as
in other sports only the present counts. And as I write today, Iker Casillas is
just a shadow of himself, living in his past glory. He should fight to come back to be who he was or do what honourable sportmen do when their time to say farewell comes, leave when the ovation is loudest.
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