Friday, July 14, 2006
Tristan no Sporting!!! Será Possível???
Há 4 anos era para mim o melhor jogador do Mundo!!!
Tristán is amongst the best European strikers around. Had Lorenzo Sanz remained president of Real Madrid in 2000, Tristán would have been playing for Deportivo's great rivals now. Instead he joined the Galician club in the summer of that year, being a replacement for the injured Roy Makaay.
The Andalucian player came from the youth team of Real Betis to RCD Mallorca where he impressed by scoring 18 goals. It earned him a transfer to Deportivo although he threatened to quit early in 2000-01 season when he found himself in and out of the side, but eventually he got a regular place and repaid coach Javier Irureta's faith in him by scoring freely. In total he produced 23 goals in his first campaign with Deportivo (19 Liga goals, 2 Champions League goals and 1 in both the Copa and Supercopa). The season after that he did even better, scoring 32 goals in total. His 21 Liga goals made him the top scorer of the La Liga while he added 6 in the Champions League and 5 in the Copa.
Therefore, the summer of 2002 became the highlight in his career as he was picked for the 2002 World Cup tournament. Tristán has all the physical and technical attributes necessary for success at the top level. He's good in the air and takes up good positions when he is not in possession. The fact that he scored culminated in his international debut on 2 June 2001. Although he wore Spain's Number 10 shirt for the 2002 World Cup in Korea/Japan, he got injured early in the campaign and did not manage to find the net.
Since then his career seems to be going down. His injury made Roy Makaay the main striker of Deportivo again and the Dutch striker even won the European Golden Boot for his performances. Tristán could not adapt to his secondary role, but still scored 19 goals that season (9 in the Liga, 4 in the Champions League and 6 in the Copa).
But even since Makaay left the club, Tristán's form has never been like it was in 2002. In the 2003-04 season he played just 10 full matches and was taken off in 20 matches. His 18 entrances made him miss only 8 out of 56 matches, but he only produced 13 goals (8 in the Liga, 3 in the Champions League and 2 in the Copa del Rey). His strike against Monaco (in the notorious 8-3 defeat) was chosen by Eurosport as Champions League Goal of the Year.
Numbers don't hide the truth though that Diego Tristán has scored 87 goals in the shirt of Deportivo in 4 seasons. But his numbers don't only go down, as the patience of Irureta and Lendoiro might run out too. It's been said that Tristán doesn't live like a professional athlete and doesn't do all he's capable of to reach his best level.
In July 2006 rumors about his transfer have been arround, tipping him with a move to Sporting CP, Bayer Leverkusen, Celtic and Tottenham Hotspur.
