Angel Di Maria - the true fighter

Once considered as “Argentina’s next superstar” by Maradona, Angel Di Maria is in search of an opening berth in Los Blancos’s team line-up.

Los Blancos broke all the transfer records this season when they acquired the services of Gareth Frank Bale from the Spurs (Tottenham FC) for a whooping 85.3 million pounds. The speculations routing Bale to Madrid started well before the start of this season, creating qualms in the minds of various Glacticos regarding their future.

Meanwhile, Arsene Wenger had his eye on three Glacticos, Gunzolo Higuain, Angel Di Maria and Mesut Ozil to strengthen Arsenal’s lacklustre attack line.

Higuain snubbed the Gunners and instead chose Napoli. Mesut Ozil was signed by Wenger on the deadline day for an astonishing (as per Arsenal’s spending standards) 42.5 million pounds.

Angel Di Maria could have also left for the Gunners, alike his counterpart Ozil, but, he chose to “ stay and fight”.

The Argentine from the city of Rosario started his senior career with his boyhood club, Rosario Central in 2005. After playing only 35 games for Rosario Central, he caught the eye of Luis Philipo, President of Benfica FC who saw Angel as the perfect replacement for club’s captain Simao and procured his services in 2007.

Three years down the line, Jose Mourinho spotted the winger and immediately shelled down 25 million euros to mark his first signing for Real Madrid.

Angel Di Maria’s performances against the club’s biggest rival, FC Barcelona, have always been inspiring for his fellow team-mates. Di Maria has a knack of scoring crucial goals and against tougher opponents.

The right flank winger helped Madrid in claiming the La Liga trophy in 2011-12, when he scored seven goals and assisted six other.

The signings of ‘creative’ Isco and ‘sensational’ Bale has put Angel under tremendous pressure. Isco is designated to the midfield; therefore the real competition for Angel is Gareth Bale. Gareth Bale is the first choice winger for the new Italian boss, Carlos Ancelotti and rightly so.

Now, let’s put ourselves in Ancelotti’s shoes and choose a winger for the Los Blancos.

1. Both, Bale and Di Maria are too dependent on their favourite left foot and this at times works against them.

2. Both have thumping pace and amazing dribbling skills, but Bale, will clearly run past Angel in a sprint.

3. Physically, Bale is much stronger than Angel, who is easily taken to ground with a meagre challenge. Strength added to the pace, makes for a formidable winger. Bale wins this battle, hands down.

4. Now, comes, the shooting ability. Both of them can shoot the ball from well outside the box and from difficult angles. Again, Bale seems to be taking this one. The ball struck by Bale travels a few miles quicker than the one struck by Angel, making it more difficult for the goalkeeper to deny the effort.

5. Bale has a very lethal dipping free-kick, which earned him the stature of the free-kick specialist in Tottenham. This quality makes him favourable over Angel, even though Madrid already have quite a few free-kick experts (led by CR7).

These qualities make Bale, an obvious choice for Carlos Ancelotti over Angel Di Maria but there are a few things that work in favour of Angel Di Maria, also.

1. Angel has a good three year experience at Estadio Santiago Bernabeu and is loved by the fans. He understands the Spanish league better.

2. He has been playing in Champions league for some years now and has a good idea of the psyche of the elite European clubs.

3. Angel has a good work-rate. He goes down the pitch and helps his defenders.

4. He might not have a huge frame but the 64 kg galactico is a true fighter. He performs against stronger rivals and helps his team during crunching times.

As Zidane said, to silent rumours surrounding his transfer, “Angel wants to stay and fight”.

The only advice that anyone can offer Angel is to grab every opportunity that comes his way with both the ‘feet’. (Pun Intended)

This is exactly what Angel did when he got the chance to start the Champions League game against FC Copenhagen, as a muscle injury ruled out Gareth Bale for the clash. Di Maria scored 2 and assisted 1(a stupendous wrong footed cross to Ronaldo) to sail his team to an easy 4-0 victory over the Danish rivals.

Now, that Angel is determined to give a tough fight to the other 2 Star wingers (Ronaldo and Bale) for an opening berth in the team, he must continuously endeavour to take his game to the next level and make sure that he puts his boss in a dilemma.