Legends of club football: Franck Ribery

Bayern hat wieder einen konig= Bavaria has a new King.. Indeed!

For Ribery and Bayern, the European championship had just barely eluded them on two occasions, but everyone knew that on a good day, they had the quality and class to go all the way. Their first outing to the finals was an announcement to the world about the comeback they had made. It was quite the comeback indeed, going from the semi finals of the Europa league to the finals of the champions league in just 2 seasons. But Jose’s Inter weren’t going to be denied bragging rights on that night, and they beat Bayern Munich convincingly to stake their claims of European domination.

Bayern’s second outing was the more tragic of the two, since everyone had been expecting Bayern Munich to win the crown on the second occasion. Chelsea had a defense that was as porous as polythene, and they managed to resist Bayern’s fierce onslaught just enough to take the game to the penalty shootouts. Ribery had to be subbed off due to yet another injury, and it was perhaps Muller’s and his absence in the shootouts that allowed Chelsea to win a cup that most would assume, rightfully belonged in the Allianz Arena.

Their loss at the hands of Chelsea had completed their treble of coming second. Neither Bayern nor Ribery could swallow this bitter pill, and they set about to amend their errors. Bayern became hungrier in their pursuit of the crown, and Ribery’s skills became far more feral. He would play as if he were a wounded animal, as if he had to win even if it cost his life. Yet, when he would take his shirt off after a game, the smile on his face said that he played primarily to enjoy, and a win for Bayern was a secondary target.

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Ribery had come a long way to be the man in the spotlight at the Allianz Arena, and the pure ecstasy etched on his face would show exactly how much he relished it all. The crowd would write songs that were glowing tributes to his skill and contribution to Bayern Munich, and he would continue displaying tenacity like no other player. Despite being one of the most frequently injured players, Ribery would still play his heart out on the pitch week after week, to give Bayern his gratitude for letting him play the game he so loves.

The third Champions League finals Ribery would participate in finally broke the jinx. There were romantics who wanted Dortmund to win against all odds, but most football lovers wanted Bayern to finally win the Champions league, and most of this crowd wanted Ribery to be the one delivering the trophy to Munich. They had come a long way, knocking out Juventus, beating Arsenal, and clobbering Barcelona. Their campaign for this season had started the day they signed Ribery, and Ribery had set his sights on the UEFA player of the year award the day he went professional. This match made in heaven proved to be too strong for Borussia Dortmund to deal with, and Bayern finally won the UEFA Cup. Ribery finally lifted the silver chalice he had only seen and dreamt of touching from a distance. And UEFA finally became fair enough to award the honor of being the best player in Europe to someone more deserving than Lionel Messi. The Frenchman had conquered Europe.

While Ribery is currently the best player in Europe for his club, he still has some room for improvement for his national team. The French national team, however, seems to have come back from their slump in 2010, and Ribery, being one of the most experienced players on the team, has a lot of responsibility on his shoulders to mentor the younger generation and lead the team into games. The French national team might be rebuilding themselves, but it wouldn’t be prudent on our part to say that international honors will not go to the French in the foreseeable future. After all, Ribery has already proved to all of us what he alone can do to a team.

Ribery has come a long way since he was signed for Bayern. From a player who would be injured and sidelined every second game, to a player without whom the Bayern Munich of now is unimaginable. Ribery might be Muslim, French, a teetotaler, and a pedophile (he was in hot water for allegedly having intercourse with an underage prostitute), but he is a typical Bavarian player in every sense of the word; efficient, tenacious, aggressive, skillful and one with a never-say-die attitude. Franck Ribery represents the one value has come to expect from Bayern Munich: absolute ruthless efficiency.

Bayern Munich without Ribery is unimaginable, but a Ribery out of Bayern Munich is equally weird to picture. Both of them complement each other like no player has complemented a club since Lionel Messi did to Barcelona. And we all saw what how both of these behemoths face-off against each other. Different clubs had won the Champions league, and there were many players such as Ronaldo and Sneijder who could be considered better than Messi on their day, but only Barcelona and Messi could claim to be the best in Europe. All that changed after Ribery and Bayern showed Europe and indeed, the rest of the world, exactly what they can do. They conquered Europe to establish a new era of footballing excellence, knocked Barcelona and Messi “off their f*cking perch”, and yes, you can print that!

Ribery will continue to be Bayern’s best for quite some time to come, and you can see why he is the best right here.