My New Favorite Portuguese Liga Player Is…

By: Greg | September 6th, 2007

rmlsp …Benfica’s own Ángel Di María. However, in spite of this fantastic award Mr. Di Maria is receiving today, I reserve the right to switch at any given moment, as “new favorite player” has an inherently fleeting feeling to it. Why, you may ask, is the 19 year old Benfica “newboy” (oh God I do hate this nickname/designation for a ‘rookie,’ but it’s rather prevalent in football writing, so I guess I’ll have to stay within convention) the apple of my eye as of late? Aside from an earlier snub of Arsenal which landed him in Portugalia, Di María took time out to comment on the upcoming season and how he sees himself fitting in the Benfica XI after a recent training session that was watched and well-commented upon by Portuguese journalists.

These press conferences are usually filled with your garden variety canned statements. If you aren’t familiar with the whole “Take one game at a time” and “We’re more focused on playing João’s Bar and Restaurant FC this week rather than Porto next week” type of statements, watch a Derek Jeter postgamer. He’s fantastic for these. Di María did, in fact, have some of the typical canned talking head B.S., such as “Benfica is great” and “Coach is a super dude.” Forget this nonsense. What I’m more interested in is the fact that he basically says that he’s not there to substitute for or be the “next” Simão. He’d much rather “make his own history” or mark.

Now I’m not so naive or dumb as to think that when a team has a player come in to fill a slot that another player who has just left, that there won’t be any type of comparison. It’s human nature. Think about it: “This hot dog is great, but I really like the recession special over at Gray’s Papaya.” Or “Wow, Don’s new girlfriend really doesn’t compare to that model he used to be with.” You get the point. However, I like Di María’s double purpose comment. He gives his due respect to a beloved player who has since departed for Spanish pastures but at the same time says, essentially, “That I’m here to kick ass in my own way, so screw off with the Simão stuff.” The kid (19) is obviously mature beyond his years and has already begun to endear himself to the Benfiquistas at the Stadium of Radiant Nimbuses and Luminescence. It’ll be exciting to see him create on the wing for the fleshes-color and hopefully continue with the youthful spunk as well as shots like you’ll see below, which is an absolute BrahMos.