Specialists.
There are many millions of people who would like to be a footballer and there are many footballers who would like to be a goalscorer.
But only a few have made the goal a science and a profession.
The goals measure just over seven meters, the rest of the world is not a goal.
Such is the obsession of these characters that this data must seem like a waste.
However, none of these specimens await the goal in the immediate vicinity of the area like a bird on a branch.
They work it with clever moves, tricking opponents with thief- or wizard-like distractions, and when the opportunity presents itself, they have a thousand resources to deliver the most beautiful thrust in the world.
Benzema is one of those whom the "Golden Ball" has already placed above good and evil.
But today he has to analyze three others.
How the goal can change everything.
The classic is always in fashion and Lewandowski is the proof.
A striker who, at 34 years old, gets into that pond full of crocodiles that is the area as if it were his own house.
Calling someone a scorer is a reducing praise, as if he only knew how to do the most difficult thing in football.
On the other hand, there are times when the phonetics of a name are misleading.
One says Lewandowski and takes for granted the forcefulness of someone who scores goals by running over.
In these few games in which Spain has become familiar with its pattern of play, we have verified that before a scorer, we are dealing with a player;
that is, before someone who is given a ball and never disappoints.
Only those who improve on their teammates should be considered stars, and Lewandowski's wide range of goals has filled Barca with confidence, from Ter Stegen to Xavi.
If beauty also counts: Mbappé.
Success-ridden Kylian Mbappe may have come out of the summer a different person, but on the pitch he remains a harmonious player with unstoppable speed accuracy.
He runs fast, thinks fast and executes fast.
Escaping is not elegant, as long as one is not Mbappé, whom we see in the summaries pursued by resigned rivals who only manage to see the goal from a little closer.
He has the urgent brilliance of lightning, the beauty of a thoroughbred, and the efficiency of a hammer.
At the moment, the soccer throne of the next decade has him as a sure candidate.
But beware, there is a threat coming from the north and it will stop at nothing.
My new toy.
Like everything that comes from the future, Haaland's personality and appearance provoke a fascinating curiosity in me.
A genuine representative of football to come, he refers us to efficiency from an exuberant power.
He has the concentration of a computer put at the service of the most difficult mission: that of the goal.
He is so perfect that, despite his android figure, he doesn't show a single wire.
He looks human.
Starting from behind it is unstoppable, with that somewhat gross stride that only lacks a howl and that prevails by overwhelming.
He barely fits in the area, but his divinatory skills allow him to reach the place where, moments later, the ball will arrive before anyone else.
There, an instinct stands out, not only human, but also animal, which takes advantage in small spaces guarded by rivals.
He uses the anticipation,
of deception and a dancer's elasticity to finish off any ball that crosses the area.
The three couldn't be more different.
Not better.
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