The Best Is Yet To Come

Controversy, Oligarchs, match fixing and some quite handy footballers, everything a good footballing spectacle needs. But it’s those quite handy footballers that I will be taking a look at today.

Stoichkov shone at Barca but never forgot his roots

The rich quarry of talent that Eastern Europe provides has regularly been excavated by the cash friendly giants of the European game. Hristo Stoichkov, armed with a deadly left foot to match his feisty temper, regularly delighted the fans at the footballing cathedral that is the Camp Nou. He continued to carry the banner for the whole of Eastern Europe as he and his fellow Bulgarians reached the semi-finals of the 1994 World Cup. The Western world watched, aghast, although many fell in love.

Since then numerous Eastern Europeans have regularly turned out for Europe’s elite as Andriy Shevchenko and Andrey Arshavin will no doubt testify. The big clubs now have extensive scouting networks that stretch world wide, allowing them to snap up any potential talent in a race against time. Each desperately trying to find “the next Stoichkov” before their Champion’s League rivals.

Let’s give those scouts a helping hand by listing three of the brightest Eastern European talents who are yet to cross the void to the wild west.

Badelj with Dinamo

1. Milan Badelj

Luka Modric’s transfer to Tottenham in 2008 signalled two things to the fans of Dinamo Zagreb: a mourning period, as their latest bright spark was whisked away by the attraction of the English league, and the uneasy question of who would will the gap left by the influential playmaker. Step forward Milan Badelj. Aged twenty-one and standing at 6 ft 1, the attacking midfielder rose to prominence during the 2008-2009 season, playing fourty-eight times in his debut season, as Dinamo won the Croatian league. He continued to build on the spectacular performances of his debut season and managed to net nine goals in his twenty-five matches last term. Expect big things!

Gatagov- a mercurial talent

2. Alan Gatagov

Pace? Check. Dribbling ability? Check. Consitency? Not so much. The Lokomotiv Moscow winger has played twenty-six times for his club, scoring a solitary goal. Gatagov is not a flying winger in the Ronaldo mode but posseses a great sense of balance and poise that allows him to manoevre his way out of tight situations and create opportunities for his team-mates. Think Yossi Benayoun. Most people agree that the Lokomotiv midfielder has a great amount of talent; the difficult thing for the nineteen-year-old is trying to harness the potential at his disposal and turn it into a series of match winning performances. The best is yet to come from Gatagov.

3. Alan Dzagoev

Dzagoev in goal scoring form

Born to Ossetian parents, who emigrated from Georgia to Beslan, Dzagoev’s footballing career could have been over before it even began. In 2004, when one of Beslan’s seven schools was taken over by armed rebels, news came to Dzagoev’s father, Tariel, telling him that Alan’s school was the one that had been taken over. It was not. Nevertheless Tariel took his son home in a bid to escape any further incidents. His decison was terribly justified by the death of 186 children, as the security forces attempted to regain control of the school. Fifty-seven appearences and nineteen goals later Dzagoev has become a prized asset of the staff at CSKA Moscow. One of those goals, scored against Manchester United in this years Champion’s League group stage, announced the playmaker to the rest of Europe. Rumours of a move to Real Madrid circled in 2008 but Alan has retained a life long affection for the blue and white of Chelsea, with a move to the London club being his preference. Perhaps it’s only a matter of time before the midfielder, described by current Chelsea player Yury Zhirkov as “just a super player,” moves elswhere.