But the thing is France and Holland both focus on futsal and small pitch games where the focus is on dribbling and technique. They learned them off Brazil to start with and they were adaptations of street football. Ronaldinho's the perfect example of a great player with a futsal background. If the infrastructure is there but they are still nurtured correctly it'll only be an improvement.
In saying that I'd agree that guys like Riquelme and Zidane are a dying breed, but the thing is players like that would never be seen in English or German teams for example. It's about the coaches style and national "beliefs" if you know what I mean. Bielsa barely gave Riquelme a look-in while Pekerman absolutely loved the guy (as do I
). I'm fairly sure we'll continue to see guys like them coming through but it'll be through countries which focus more on the technique, vision and flair of players than the physical attributes. The thing is Riquelme's not fast, not that strong, doesn't have a great leap and is by no means an athlete. But at the very least his performances highlight the need and use of players like him in today's world. The best example that I can think of from years gone by is Roberto Rivelino. The guy wasn't too quick, wasn't big and wasn't strong but just had an amazing touch and a creative instinct. But again, Rivelino was a futsal player.
The avenues are still there to nurture the creative type players and the mentaility is also there from some countries IMO. However most of the European countries are yet to embrace it because it almost goes directly against their nature and they way they've played football since abotu the 50's. It's what the Champions League has exhibited so well with the Italian domination in the last few years. But English football is changing and that's why I'd agree with Matteh that it's the influx of foreigners in the Premiership that's done it.
Perhaps one of the biggest mysteries that's always plagued me is the reasoning behind Le Tissier's lack of English caps. But once again you look at Terry "I even managed to make Barca boring" Venables, Graham "Long Ball" Taylor and Glenn "I rely on karma and faith but still play 4-4-2's involving boring football" Hoddle (Although he played exactly the opposite to how he coached) and you instantly get your answer.
The "lazy" Le Tisser probably worked 100 times harder than Romario, but that didn't stop the little man becoming the world's best player or scoring nigh on 1000 goals including 55 in 70 games for England. Meanwhile Le Tissier managed 0 out of 8 games. I hate the English mentality TBH and it's what Australia (Like appointing Terry ****ing Venables) has naturally adopted, but we're finally moving away from it.
It's not a shot at England or the English people, it's a shot at the English Football mentality which has been instilled over the years (and who knows, maybe it's been the reason for so many failures). Too long have English teams been about bulky strikers, entire backlines with laughably poor technique, punting it forward, crossing and scoring with their head or simply hacking the **** out of each other as opposed to playing "beautiful football". However it's great to see guys like Rooney and Cole coming through and not getting screwed around. Gazza was a right **** but he still didn't play for England nearly as often as he deserved to for example. I certainly hope Australia keeps moving towards the Dutch and Brazilian style youth schemes though and as far away from the English (although it's improving) as possible.
