The feint of a footballer

Who is the new boy? A puny little chap. He personifies littleness. The group of other boys his age, all admire him and like to play in his team. He is unselfish. His skill with the ball is so good. The ball  sticks to his boots like a magnet. He swerves and feints towards the goal. He cannot be stopped , even with rough tackles. His strength is to keep on playing with the ball, and develop his skills even more.

The group gets left behind, with all his sprightliness. They may be taller, but cannot match his skills. He can grab a ball from another’s feet. He has developed a lot of immunity to rough tackles and very often gets hurt so badly, that one would think he would retire.

The finals are about to commence. The latest strategy is to ensure that he is not allowed to touch the ball. So the entire opposing team, keeps a close watch on hum. The moment the ball seems to go to him , we find about 3-4 players surrounding him to snatch the ball away.

What is his response. At first he is surprised at this new manoevre. But soon he catches on.

He then ducks, and swerves and wriggles out of the scramble , to dash away with the ball. They all set up a chase , but cannot match his speed with the ball. He approaches the goal post and then unleashes a tremendous pass to his teammate, who volleys it into the goal.

The game restarts after this, but again the strategy is put into play. Again the ploy fails.

Final score reads 5-0

The end of the game shows that skill  beats stategy, and strategy works when it combines with skill. Lets hope that more good players will show up with an improved display of skill and strategy.

Note: this little story is dedicated to one of the best footballers of our time; the match and score line is fictional . I leave it to you, the reader to guess his name.