Earlier this week, Patrick Vieira hung up his boots after a long and distinguished football career. Whether by coincidence or not, he chose the 14th of July to make the announcement of his retirement from the professional game. Bastille Day, the French National Day, falls on this date and it seemed only fitting that one of the men who revolutionised the French national team in the late nineties decided to call it quits on this day.
While Vieira's presence and overall play diminished in the latter stages of his playing career, he will always be remembered as the hard tackling, box to box central midfield general who dominated games for both Arsenal & France and to a lesser extent Juventus, Inter Milan and Manchester City. He was a colossus for the Gunners after Arsene Wenger brought the then relatively unknown 20 year old to north London in 1996 and he proved to be one of Wenger's best ever signings. He won the double in his first full season at the club and was part of 'The Invincibles' team of '03-'04 when Arsenal became only the second English side, and the first in over 100 years, to go through the entire league campaign unbeaten. He went on to be an integral part of the French World Cup winning squad of 1998 and again at the European Championships two years later where the French were victorious once again. His decision to call time on his playing career means sport has lost another one of its toughest competitors and, when in his prime, best footballers of his generation.
Vieira was not the only person to bring their sporting career to an end this year. We've also lost the likes of Paul Scholes, Shaquille O'Neal, Ricky Hatton and Gary Neville and as a fellow poster pointed out earlier in the week, Yao Ming has also been rumoured to have retired. As much as it pains me to say it as a staunch Liverpool fan, Paul Scholes was a fantastic football player. His tremendous range of passing and blistering shots from distance made him one of the stand out performers in the Premier League and the Champions League from 1994 until his retirement this summer. Replacing a man that has been such an important cog in the Manchester United machine for the past 17 years will be one of Alex Ferguson's biggest challenges as a manager.
Shaquille O'Neal was one of the most popular and charismatic players ever to play in the NBA but he was also one its best players when on song. He had a glittering basketball career as he dominated out on the court for such teams as the Orlando Magic, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Miami Heat, the Phoenix Suns, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Boston Celtics. All in all, Shaq won four NBA championships, three NBA Finals MVP's and he was named the league's most valuable player in 2000. He was known as much for his personality off the court as for his dominant displays on it. He was a man with no fewer than 17 nicknames, nearly one for every season he played in the league, even giving himself the name "The Big Aristotle and Hobo Master". He will be sorely missed as he really was one of sports real entertainers.
While many people have criticised Ricky Hatton in the wake of his two losses to Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, I think those views are extremely harsh on the man. The man known as "The Hitman" has a career record of 45-2 (32ko's) and his two losses were against men who will go down as all time greats in the boxing world. He never shirked an opponent and was one of the most feared body punchers in the game. He was a two weight world champion and held a succession of belts throughout his career. The manner of his two losses, especially the Pacquiao one where he was obliterated in two rounds, take away from his legacy but he was still a supreme fighter in his prime. His finest hour came at the MEN Arena in Manchester where he defeated one of his heroes, Kostya Tszyu, in eleven pulsating rounds to claim the IBF and The Ring light welterweight titles. If nothing else, his fights proved to be exciting and that's one of the things most boxing fans look for in a fighter.
I won't go in to detail on the other two names I mentioned as Greg more than covered Yao Ming's career in Wednesday's post. And as for Gary Neville, well the less said about him the better. All these players had distinguished careers that have now come to an end. A career in sport is often a short one so you've got to give the maximum effort to be remembered after you've called it a day. So these players have retired and it's now time for a new generation to step forward. Whether they'll be able to emulate the likes of Scholes and Shaq is an altogether different proposition.
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