Sportswise 2006 has been a controversial, remarkable, outstanding year:
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Italy winning the WC football, after that infamous headbutt
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Landis, the tour the France winner, accused of doping
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Ullricht and Basso not participating in the tour due to doping
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Shoaib and Asif banned for doping, and then being cleared
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Australia winning back the Ashes (
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Federer winning three grand slams
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Yousuf breaking the record of most runs in a year
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Barca winning La Liga and the Champion’s League
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Europe winning the Ryder Cup in golf
But 2006 will be remembered as the year in which three of the best sportsmen in their respective fields retired:
Zinedine “Zizou” Zidane
Unanimously considered the best footballer in the era between Maradona and Ronaldinho, Zizou has won every single award a footballer can dream of, both at the team and individual level. His skill, ball-control are the best ever displayed; his passing exquisite; his influence on the team as big as Maradona or Pele’s. With his retirement, the era of the classic number 10 playmaker (like Platini, Baggio, Bergkamp etc) comes to an end.
Andre Agassi
The most charismatic tennis player the world has ever seen. The only person being able to stand up against Pete Sampras. Not only having one of the most feared returns in the game, he was a great all-round tennis player. Testimony to this is that Agassi has the impressive record of having won each Grand Slam title. His retirement marks the end of the past generation of great tennis players (Sampras, Becker, Edberg, Agassi)
Michael Schumacher
Not only the best Formula 1 driver, but perhaps one of the best sportsmen ever. Schumacher should clearly be mentioned among the likes of Mohammed Ali, Pele, Armstrong. His record of 7 world titles, 93 GP wins will probably never be equalled. His control over his own car and other cars ( :D) was phenomenal. Considered to be the best driver in the rain, he has many famous victories in testing circumstances (e.g. Spain '96 when he lapped the whole grid). His retirement marks the end of a dominance rarely seen in any sport. Among his rivals/contestents throughout his career are names like Prost, Senna, Hill, Villeneuve, Hakkinen, Alonso.
All these sporting greats will thoroughly be missed in the coming years, and it is hard to see any of the current players filling up the void left by these extraordinary players. :k:
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