Five Simple and Effective Ways to Become a Better Football Player

These are tips that I developed from my playing days. These techniques worked well for me and I hope they can help others become the player they want to be.


1. Run every day

Running 3 miles every day is a great cardiovascular workout and will help keep you at your peak fitness. Run uphill as much as possible. At around 2 miles, find a steep hill and sprint up it for about 20-30 meters then turn round and walk back down. Repeat this 5 to ten times before finishing the run. If you do this every day you will find you can play at your best for longer because you'll be stronger and fitter.

2. Do exercises to increase your speed

Find a drop of around 150cm or stand on a barrel or safe object of a similar height. Jump off, landing on both feet in a squatting position and stand up straight as quickly as possible. Make sure you are well warmed up and stretched before doing this exercise to avoid injury. This exercise will strengthen quick reflex muscles in the legs, improving speed.


3. Learn to play with both feet

Most footballers play far better with one foot than the other, it's difficult to improve your touch with your stronger foot. Concentrating on your weaker foot is a quick win as bigger improvements can be made with less work. Kick a ball against a wall using only your weaker foot. Have a scratch game in training where everyone plays only with their weaker foot. It doesn't take much effort and you will notice results within a short space of time.

4. Learn a new trick

When you see a new trick by a professional, watch it closely, over and over again before attempting it. Online video is good for this purpose. Spend 10 minutes every day learning and perfecting the trick. Don't try it in a game until you can do it perfectly every time and don't overuse it or your opponents will figure you out.

5. Learn from the professionals

Watch professional footballers play and copy them. Sounds obvious but you'd be amazed how few players do this. Pick a player who plays in the same position as you and watch him closely, learn his tricks and pay attention to his positions when not on the ball. The player you choose should be someone you look up to and aspire to. The player I liked to learn from was Franck Sauzee, the ex-France, Marseilles and Hibernian midfield player. An excellent all round player who was always at the peak of his game.

Finally, don't be put off if you don't become Maradona over night. It takes time to become a great player and improving every part of your game gradually is the important thing. Sticking to a good routine and training properly are the key things to remember.

Manchester Or Madrid? A Question Of Culture

The English Premier League touts itself as the greatest in the world. It’s certainly up there. It’s the most watched domestic championship globally and few teams anywhere can better the big four of Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool.


The Premiership is a major success story, a true money spinner and has attracted some classy individuals. There’s just one problem with it: it’s in England.

I love watching the Premier League. I enjoy the coverage of the games, I think the stadia are terrific (far better than you’ll see in either Italy or Spain) and for me there’s no finer city in the world than London. But I’m an Englishman, not a South American superstar.


A comment from Bayern Munich defender Lucio got me thinking: The Brazil captain has played in the Bundesliga for many years and enjoyed enormous success there, but Germany will never be his true aim.


“I dream of playing in Spain or Italy,” he admitted. “It’s almost impossible to convince Brazilian stars playing in Serie A or La Liga to move to the Bundesliga. It’s not to do with Bayern, but the country. In Italy and Spain, the culture, the habits and the language are much more similar to Brazil. Bayern can’t compare to that.”


Swap ‘Munich’ for ‘Manchester’ and you get my point. In a climate where so many of the game’s greatest players are of Latin origin, English football will find it hard to compete for the top players. For the Portuguese or the South Americans, top Spanish and Italian sides are the pinnacle. Once there, not even whopping great bundles of English cash are likely to force their hands unless, like former Barcelona man Juliano Belletti, they are told it’s time to go.


This doesn’t mean Latin talents won’t ever come to England and succeed (Cristiano Ronaldo, arguably the best player in the world at the moment, proves they do and can), but it does mean that Premiership sides must act swiftly to beat their Spanish and Italian cousins to emerging talents. England is a step up for a player at a club in South America, Portugal, France or Eastern Europe. But if he’s a Spanish, Italian or Portuguese speaker, it’s likely he considers the Premier League a poor relation to Serie A or La Liga for cultural rather than footballing reasons. United beats Parma, Liverpool beats Atlético (as we saw with Fernando Torres) but neither beats Real Madrid.


A look at the most successful Latin players in the Premiership illustrates this: Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano reached the north west via West Ham and the Brazilian league; Anderson left Porto; Elano came to City via Shakhtar Donetsk; Xabi Alonso to Liverpool from a smaller Spanish side. Even Cesc Fabregas was tempted by London because he feared for his chances at Camp Nou. Those who do move from Real, Barcelona or Milan to England were usually outcasts or, like Andriy Shevchenko, from an entirely different culture altogether.


Just like we never got to see Diego Maradona, French legend Zinedine Zidane or Brazilian duo Ronaldo and Rivaldo in England, the likelihood is that we have now also missed the boat on Lionel Messi, Kaká and Alexander Pato, who already play at top Spanish or Italian sides. Even Ronaldinho appears to favour Serie A over the Premier League should he leave Barcelona in the summer.


Yet, like Lucio at Bayern, the threat always exists that one day stars such as Tevez, Torres or Cristiano Ronaldo will head south to seek new challenges in a country that tugs more forcefully on their emotional heartstrings. And while it might be frustrating for fans to see these players leave, there’s little we English can do about it short of turning Manchester into a continental metropolis (and who among us would want that anyway?). In terms of bringing Latin talents to our league, English football’s task remains to discover promising individuals before rival clubs in Spain or Italy do.


Of course, the cultural divide has its advantages, too: Wayne Rooney, Ryan Giggs or Steven Gerrard are unlikely to ever trade their respective red shirts for the white of Madrid or the black and blue of Inter. And northern European stars like Petr Cech, Michael Ballack and Alexander Hleb could probably remain happily in England for the rest of their careers.


But for as long as southern Europe and South America continue to produce many of the best players, the world’s top stars will continue to consider the Premier League second best, even if the football is first class.

Source Goal.com