football, maths, life, whatever else...but mainly football and life

Monday, October 22, 2007

Anonymous Dejagah

I have a hard time with internet and the whole anonymity issue. I quite understand it when someone in a difficult position tries to reveal information on the internet but remains anonymous, like this whole Wonkette blog and political blogs and whatever else. I also understand it to a degree in forums.
The problem I have is when it comes to character assasination and when people simply go on to discredit a person, with their anonymity. Somehow, through being anonymous, you can't address and target them, but they are just anonymous figures, hiding behind their name and in my opinion pretty low figures. If you call out a person by name and claim that he did this and that or accuse him of something, at least be man enough to tell us who you are, because you obviously also know who that person is. There have been a lot of cases on this issue I came across and although it has always somehow been an issue to me, I never really cared, but now I do.

On another issue, Dejagah scored again for Wolfsburg. I still don't believe that he will ever play more than 15 national team games for Germany, but I feel okay about him choosing Germany and although I think he is a real stupid guy, I felt it was absolutely ridiculous how the German public treated his case. Everybody sort of knows, that you get into trouble when you are Iranian and travel to Israel. Now a lot of Iranians do it with a different passport, but when you play an international game there, how can you remain anonymous?
Something else that strikes me and makes me go "hmmm" on Iranian football is how Dejagah was treated by Iran, Iranian players and IFF. Some friends of mine got to know him when he was a kid and played for Hertha Berlin on youth level. They said that his eyes glowed when they asked him about playing for Iran. He said that he only wanted to play for Iran and no other country. That was when he was about 15 or something. However, Iran never invited him to anything.
Worse still, Daei, who back then also played for Hertha, said something like "We have enough of these talents in Iran. We don't need them!". Nevermind that I really hate Daei for a lot of things, but the guy is seriously saying that a guy who is considered one of the biggest talents in Germany, a nation of 3 world cups, 80 Million people, and 100 world class players, would be nothing special in Iran of....nevermind?!?
This is what's wrong with Iranian football and I don't see it getting better. When Messi joined Argentina's national team, people like Zanetti, Milito, Ayala, Sorin, etc. always had an eye on him. At Barcelona, Sylvinho, Deco and Edmilson treated him like their young nephew, Xavi and Puyol did the same for Iniesta and Eto'o, Messi and Henry do it for Bojan Krkic. They protect the guy, help him grow into the team, respect him and take him serious, because he has to learn it one day too.
And then we have Daei, Karimi and the rest....