Rodrigo Palacio
This kid is amazing, hes 25 years old and is a product of the intense and physical Argentina Football league. He is being scouted out by Barcelona lately. His price tag is high, Boca recently rejected a £12.7m offer from Barcelona.
Boca's President Mauricio Macri said this: "For Palacio we will have to receive the biggest offer in the world because for me he is the best forward in Argentina."
He's been a very influential force on Boca Juniors, and is incredible to watch him as a striker. Hes the best striker outside of Europe and one of the top 10 in the world for sure. His 34 goals in the 2005 Apertura secured the league for Boca. He also has a trademark haircut.
Watch out for this guy hes coming to Europe and hes coming to make an impact.
8 comments:
He's 25 and still at Boca? Some superstar. Not! Pretty average looking goals too. Must be a slow blogging day.
Mike
25 and still at Boca? So he likes to play football in a certain place and that makes him a bad player? Its not about his goals being mediocre either, its the fact that he puts them in the net and knows where to be. Man U could use a striker to help them score, stop relying on their defense to score lol. You'll see, Palacio is a gem in the rough.
Uhhh..think you better check the Premiership goal differential.
25....considering the average athlete peaks at 27, I'm going to have to say this guy is a mediocre talent at best to be 25 and still toiling on a minor league team.
Brad
Most football players peak from 25 - 29 or 30, look at Thierry Henry, Frank Lampard, Samuel Eto'o. Then you have to look at players like Figo, Ronaldo, Beckham, Zidane before he retired. These players are still elite.
Again because you have never seen this kid play, you knowledge doesn't allow much for any sort of argument here. The thing is, would Barcelona be willing to spend so much money on a mediocre player? If you believe yes, then you are very foolish.
While I can't draw examples from soccer as I admittedly don't know as much, I can look at other sports. I've read lots of stuff on peaks, etc. and 27 tends to be the average golden age for athletes across almost every sport. The guys over at Baseball and Football (North American) Prospectus have done plenty of work on this subject.
While there are truly elite athletes that maintain a superb skill set well beyond this age and even into their late 30's (from baseball we've got our Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson types and in hockey you can take your Ray Bourque, Joe Sakic and Patrick Roys), these players tend to be exceptions to the rule. For every Joe Sakic out there that plays well deep into his old age, there are plenty of Pavel Bures, Alexei Yashins, and Chris Grattons out there that simply fade off once they hit their late 20's/early 30's.
The general rule for prospects is that if they aren't making significant contributions by the age of 24 at the highest level, they are simply going to be good but most likely not great players. For this Palacio guy, I could see him putting together 4 or 5 decent seasons, but at 25 I think his time has run out at developing into an elite player.
Thing is, he is an Elite player in Argentina.
Just like Hideki Irabu and So Taguchi were elite baseball players in Japan?
Post a Comment