[轉錄] Who is Pedro?

[missal (那些日子)]

Who is Pedro? He's Barcelona's brilliant Mr Nobdy.

來源
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1353464/Game-Spain
-Who-Pedro-Hes-Barcelonas-brilliant-Mr-Nobody.html#ixzz1D0G4X8UI


Last week when Fernando Torres handed in his transfer request it was suggested
Liverpool could turn down Chelsea’s offer and auction off their prize asset at
the end of the season to the highest bidder. Barcelona would surely be at the
front of the queue, desperate to pair Torres with David Villa and Leo Messi.


Torres would also do well to wait for a move to the Nou Camp, it was suggested.
That way he would avoid upsetting Liverpool fans by moving to another English
club. The fantasy football team-selection of Torres, Messi and Villa had the
marketing men salivating. Nobody mentioned Pedro.


Back in 2004 nobody was mentioning Pedro either when Barcelona went on a spying
mission to Tenerife to take one last look at a promising young winger by the
name of Jeffren Suarez before signing him. Killing time in the city before
heading home there was a chance meeting with a youth football coach and Barca
contact on the Island who asked what he thought was an obvious question:
‘And you’ll be taking Pedro too?’ ‘Who is Pedro?’ came back the reply.


Seven years down the line and with a World Cup, a Champions League, a Spanish
League, a Spanish Cup, a Spanish Super Cup, a European Super Cup and a World
Club Cup winner’s medal in his locker the question remains the same – who
is Pedro?


When Barcelona beat Real Madrid 5-0 earlier in the season Cristiano Ronaldo
clashed with Pep Guardiola and as Barcelona players rushed to defend their
manager Pedro was on the scene as a peacemaker. The Portuguese was overheard
looking down on the diminutive winger and sniping: ‘And you, who are you?’.


The original ‘Who is Pedro?’ question had the Barcelona scouts cancelling
their flight out of Tenerife so they could watch the new target in action the
following day. Barca still went through with the signing of Jeffren but they
made sure they also secured the signature of Pedro Rodriguez before heading
back home.


The son of a retired construction worker, who now works in a petrol station in
Tenerife filling tanks while his son’s stellar performances play-out on the
portable TV in the forecourt shop, Pedro now forms part of the world’s most
formidable forward line.


He just edged out Fernando Torres in South Africa being picked ahead of him for
both the semi-final and the final and it would be hard to see how El Nino could
possibly have dethroned Barca’s brilliant Mr Nobody on the right hand-side of
the club’s front three, if he had signed.

Villa, Messi and Pedro have scored 47 goals in the league between them –
that’s one less than the entire Real Madrid squad put together. Pedro has
scored 19 in his last 21 games. He is the world’s second most prolific scorer
over the last 20 matches behind only Messi.
He has hit eight goals in his last six games scoring in each of those matches
and if he nets against Atletico Madrid on Saturday night he will equal the great
Johan Cruyff by scoring in seven straight games. Only Mariano Martin with nine
and the Brazilian Ronaldo with 10 will be able to boast better scoring runs.


Only Messi has scored more goals for Barcelona since Pep Guardiola took over
two-and-a-half seasons ago. Pedro is now ahead of Thierry Henry and Samuel
Eto’o, stars of Barcelona’s first ‘Pep-season’ when the team hit 105 goals.
If they can top that mark by three this season then they will beat Real
Madrid’s all-time record of 107 goals in a season from the 1989-90 campaign.


Pedro has even crept into the Golden Boot top-25, level with Villarreal’s
Giuseppe Rossi and Athletic Bilbao’s Fernando Llorente – who as Spurs found
out during the transfer window are both rated in excess of ￡30million.


‘If Pedro was Brazilian the club would be struggling to find the
money to sign him’ says coach Pep Guardiola who has never had any doubts
about Barcelona’s number 17.


At the start of Guardiola’s second season in charge Wigan Athletic were among
a clutch of clubs, including Zaragoza and Olympiakos ready to take him on loan
but Guardiola told his President ‘nobody touches him – he stays here’.


And although the season began with Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henry partnering
Messi it ended with Pedro ahead of both the big stars in the first team
shooting his way into Vicente del Bosque’s World Cup plans.


He came on as a substitute in the quarter-final win over Paraguay and was then
picked to start ahead of Fernando Torres in the semi-final. He was guilty of
not playing-in Torres for what would have been a late nerve-calming second goal
against Germany, going alone instead and being dispossessed by Arne Friedrich.
But he calmly rode out the storm claiming he simply never heard the call. That
miss aside, he had been outstanding and he kept his place for the final.


As things stand Barcelona could not have afforded ￡50m outlay on someone whose
signing would force them to leave out a player who scored in every competition
he played in during his first full year in the first team (six different
tournaments in 2009) and who will equal Cruyff on Saturday if he bags goal
number 20 of the season.


Who is Pedro? He’s the player you just can’t leave out.


===

感謝當初問了會不會把Pedro帶上的人還有瓜帥



--
※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc) 
◆ From: 71.179.221.25
推 Ivanov:話說 瓜帥當二隊教練感覺帶出了一堆很讚的人
→ Ivanov:希望LE可以把這個傳統繼續維持下去:)
推 chiachieh1:CR那段好笑  XD
推 juuto:Guardiola:'nobody touches him–he stays here' 伯樂！