#1 Biography - Printable Version +- SSL Forum (https://forum.simulationsoccer.com) +-- Forum: Player Development (https://forum.simulationsoccer.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=5) +--- Forum: Career Point Tasks (https://forum.simulationsoccer.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=88) +--- Thread: #1 Biography (/showthread.php?tid=224) |
- Gordon Bombay - 2021-12-10 The ballad of Ricky Bobby<br><br>Ricky Bobby was born in the backseat of a 1969 Chevrolet Chevelle on the country roads of West River, North Carolina. His father left him after his birth.<br><br>All he ever wanted to do since his birth was to go fast. His first words were «Go Fast», at school he was not the brightest, except when he needed to go fast. <br><br>One day during career day, his dad returned. Ricky learned that his dad was a race car driver. In front of the class, before being kicked out, his father said something that changed Ricky’s life: ``If you are not first you are last``. After this moment Ricky tried to be his best in everything. <br><br>His passion for going fast made him pursue a career as a Nascar crew member. He was the fastest of all the garage. One day the driver of the team was sick and Rocky got the be the substitute driver. <br><br>His dream came true, he was about to win a Nascar race.<br><br>But Ricky was not a race car driver, he was a car mechanic. After ten laps he got into a huge accident. He spent 3 months in a coma. When he woke up after 3 months he spoke Bemba and thought he was a pro-Zambian soccer player. He had no interest in going fast in a car, he wanted to go fast on the pitch.<br><br>So Rocky quit racing and started playing soccer. At 34 years old he started playing in a North Carolina beer league. The overweight race car driver was pretty bad in the beginning. But his desire to be the best and to go fast made him improve pretty fast. He became the best player in his league. The most surprising thing was his soccer IQ, he was a genius on the pitch and he always knew the right thing to do. <br><br>After dominating the beer league tournament of the South, Ricky went to the big city. At the age of 38, he was scouted by a LA semi-pro team. There is play got noticed and soon he was drafted into the new SSL league. He was drafted by the Hollywood Football Club.<br><br><br><!--c1--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1' id='CODE-WRAP'><tr><td><b>CODE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='CODE'><!--ec1-->368 words<!--c2--></td></tr></table><!--ec2--><br><br><br>APPROVED - sulovilen - 2021-12-11 Zinedine Gintonic was born in Netherlands, and football was immediately a part of his life: his father, a big football fan, wanted to name him after his favorite player, Zinedine Zidane. Little Zinedine was watching a lot of football on TV when he was very little, and always played a lot on the streets with his friends. Around when he started school, he also joined a local team in Amsterdam.<br><br>Gintonic was already from young age very creative. He watched his favorite players play and tried to copy what they did. He looked up to players like Zidane, Ronaldinho, Kaka, Iniesta and others. This turned him into a playmaker. The biggest challenge for him growing up was to fit into the teams that demanded him to play according to a certain system. He often felt that he was being bound and limited, and enjoyed more playing street games with his friends.<br><br>Around high school age, Zinedine often had problems with his coaches due to him making too risky and unusual plays with the ball. This lead to his playing time being limited, and he was on the verge of dropping out of club football. Zinedine's family supported him and agreed to start looking for a new club that would give him a fresh start. When Zinedine was 15, his father contacted an old friend of his, who was coaching a team in the outskirts of Amsterdam. The two had a long discussion about the issues holding Zinedine back, and the coach assured he would be able to handle these things. <br><br>Zinedine agreed to the transfer, and before joining the new team, he had a one-on-one with the coach to discuss the hopes and expectations from both sides. The coach promised to give Zinedine a free role and a lot of room to use his creativity, but he also hooked Zinedine up with a mentor. The mentor was a local legend Jari Litmanen, who used to play for Ajax in Amsterdam in the 90s and early 2000s. <br><br>Litmanen was the perfect mentor, because he was at the same time very creative and offensively efficient player, but also had great mental strength and work ethic. After all, it was Litmanen's help that led Gintonic to find the perfect balance of flair, artistry and teamwork. This combination made Gintonic a highly touted young player, who - before signing the first professional contract with Athênai Football Club - was considered to be on track to become a successor to the players he looked up to as a little kid.<br><br>(425 words)<br><br><br>APPROVED - AgentSmith - 2021-12-15 Scott Sterling: The Man, The Myth, The Legend<br><br>Scott Sterling grew up in New England, in a quiet town only miles from where he would gain his stardom. He was always a clumsy child, but said clumsiness never stopped his love for sports, specifically soccer. He felt a natural attraction to the goalkeeper position, and played there all through childhood, all while steadily gaining the confidence to play at a higher level. Not only was he an above average goaltender, Sterling was an above average student as well, and attended Yale for his postgraduate studies. <br><br>It was while he was here that he gained international visibility. Sterling is either infamous or famous (depending on who you were rooting for) for his goaltending skill in the notorious video that was posted from the 2014 Men’s College Cup, where he was the goaltender for Yale, defending against the North Carolina Tar Heels in a shootout that would leave his face a mess, and from which he still can hardly breathe out of the left side of his nose after it was broken to the point of no return. The video can be found on YouTube if you so wish to watch it now, but Sterling, after the glory of winning that cup, has aimed a little bit higher now. He yearns to return to the pitch, where his legend started. <br><br>When the announcement for the Simulation Soccer League was broadcast worldwide, he found his keeper gloves and cleats and went back to the gym to try and get back to his prime. His main goal this time was to work on his hand-eye coordination, as he knew that not every game was going to rely on his uncanny ability to put his face between the ball and the back of the net, with no hands needed. He knew he had to focus on surviving an entire season, and more if he was going to make a new name for himself. With the inaugural season starting soon, he put in his registration to be entered into the pool of players to be selected in the first draft. It can be seen in some of the footage from the first few matches played that he has indeed succeeded in improving his coordination, though he has a long way to go before he reaches the level of stardom.<br><br><span style='color:blue'>APPROVED</span> - Sermokala - 2021-12-19 When most people look back on games they often boil down the entire game to the "highlights" Milan hates the highlights that so many have hyper-focused on. Football isn't in the tight save or glorious finish, not the awkward and ugly corner kick that somehow ends up in the net. Idolized are the people who take dives in the box or scream at refs after they get a red card for punching someone else on the field. Football is in the pass that unlocks the defense and smashes open the formation. Often he is described as "knows how to speak the language of violence" but the truth is far more than that. Milan is a very well-versed philosopher that has simply applied his talents and gifts to the fullest he is capable of. He is not the 11 men on the field, he is the player acting on a series of instructions according to a tactic instructed to him by a manager. If others make mistakes or are incapable of acting to the standard needed to attain victory that is not a reflection on him. The rules say nothing of inflicting violence on other players. It defines its limits through phrases like "brutality" and "violent conduct". Simply line up a slide tackle where you get your foot on the ball and every ref looks the other way while you crash into them from any angle. Simply touch the ball while it is under the control of another player and their ability to decide the next action collapses. Continue this repeatedly and a player will begin to frustrate until they are broken mentally as surly as a well-timed challenge for a header will. Milan has never imagined himself as becoming the player the world considered the greatest. Everything he has been given is a gift beyond what he needs. From the moment he left his boyhood club his life has been a carnival that doesn't stop. While he dreams of the day he will stop and rest while looking on the mountains of his childhood he will enjoy every twist and turn that this crazy ride takes him.<br><br><span style='color:blue'>APPROVED</span> - Canadice - 2021-12-23 Henrik grew up in the north of Sweden where the number of days spent without snow was very few. His older brother Tomas Lind took to the more winter-focused sport of hockey and became very successful, currently playing abroad in Manhattan. Henrik was more interested in football, having more fun in the warmup prior to a hockey game where the players would know a ball around than during the actual hockey game. Eventually he found himself playing for IFK Luleå, that had access to the indoor arenas of the city all throughout the year. Henrik had now found a place to play around with the ball, even when the temperature outside dropped to -30. <br><br>The first couple of years at the team were tough as IFK had seen themselves falling in the league structure. The team had no morale and the management wasn't able to find assets that could help claw their way back up. When Henrik joined the team, most of the older players had moved on to Boden BK that played in the higher division. This has been the case for multiple years, that the highest ranked team siphons off the big talents from the other regional teams. IFK consisted now of a bunch of youngsters, eager to play for their club and show the older players what they are missing out on. <br><br>It did not start great, a young and inexperienced club facing clubs with less talent but with much better teamwork and a sense of the game. Henrik soon realized that you don't have to be quick on your feet as long as you think and can anticipate where the ball is going to end up. Being a defensively minded player he learned how to read the opposition, where they are passing the ball, how they set up their offense, and soon Henrik became one of the better players in the division using his strength and knowledge of the play to break up any opportunities the other team has. It didn't take long for IFK to move up in the league structure eventually playing in the same division as Boden. At this time IFK had attracted a lot more players from the region but still had the same core of players that started out with Henrik. Unfortunately for the team, Henrik's play had also attracted some international attention, especially from a newly started international league with teams from all over the world.<br><br><span style='color:blue'>APPROVED</span> - Sopath - 2021-12-24 Mazrim Taim was a mid tier prospect in America before coming to the SSL. After doing very well in his hometown of Saldea he decided to move on to better things in Europe. Mazrim Taim arrived in Berlin for the SSL prospect training camp. There with dozens of other prospects competing for a spot in the SSL Taim wondered if he still loved this sport. Growing up he played it just for fun but then around 12 a coach recommended him to a youth academy. The game had been so rigid since then. The game turned into an academic exercise. Suddenly what was once fun had become work and Taim lost some of the love for the game. But yet he continued to grow and eventually turned pro. Taim's first pro team was the Rochester Dragons of the New York State League. From the moment he showed up he was better than players in his 20s even though he was in his teens. He scored his first goal on a set piece after 3 games. It was a rocket into the top part of the net. After two seasons competing on the American Semi Pro circuit a scout approached Taim about the new SSL that was creating massive global soccer. Taim was one of just 60 or so prospects to be invited for a tryout at the SSL prospect camp. Taim thought about it hard but ultimately decided to take the opportunity. Now the youngster is in Berlin for the SSL prospect camp and SSL Draft. When the draft began, Taim knew he probably wasn't going to be a high pick. There were so many incredible prospects but Taim didn't know quite how long he'd have to wait. Ultimately after having to wait a really long time, Mazrim Taim was taken in the 8th round 46th overall by Inter London. For Taim it was nice to go to a team in one of the biggest markets in the league. While the development got off to a really slow start things began to pick up and now Mazrim Taim is looking forward to a fun career in the SSL. <br><br>word count: 358<br><br><span style='color:blue'>APPROVED</span> - 4D Chess - 2021-12-29 Enrique Posible is the newest goalkeeping prospect to hit the Sim Soccer League, and he already has scouts on notice.<br><br>Though is name is eerily similar to the Possible brothers who are also in the draft class - Posible is a unique prospect unrelated to the possible brothers.<br><br>Born in Tel Aviv, Israel to Mexican parents - Posible holds both Israeli and Mexican citizenships, and he has grown up between the two countries. Most recently, he was playing on the UNAM Pumas development team in La Liga MX - where he wowed scouts with his ability to control the box at such a young age. Enrique is perhaps a bit unknown to the decision-makers at a lot of SSL teams, but he has a deep passion for soccer and particularly goalkeeping. <br><br>As someone who grew up between two countries, Enrique is a bit on the quieter side - but he also has an innate ability to make friends with various different backgrounds. As a goalkeeper, this allows him to win respect both on the pitch and in the locker room. When asked what team he'd prefer to go to, he said that he is open to playing his heart out for whichever team takes a chance on him. When pressed further, he said "Well, I guess I really like the Cairo and Hollywood logos and branding - so perhaps those would be my favorite? I also have always wanted to visit Rio - so I'd like that too. But wherever I end up, I promise I'll play my hardest."<br><br>While it's too early to say exactly when he may go in the draft, Enrique is remaining focused in his daily training sessions in Mexico City where the high altitude gives him the ability to work on expanding his endurance and getting it at an elite level. Whatever happens in the SSL draft, and wherever Enrique ends up, he will give his team a reliable goalkeeper from day one. Though he may be unkown to many in the SSL war rooms - he is a known quantity who will give his all to whichever team decides to select him, an he'll be as active as he can in helping the club win trophies from now into the future.<br><br>Enrique Posible - a world of possibilities. <br><br>376 words<br><br><span style='color:blue'>APPROVED</span> - MN_Moosey - 2021-12-29 Jökull Júlíusson (JJ) is an Icelandic association football fullback from just outside Reykjavik in a town called Mosfellsbær. He grew up watching his countrymen take the pitch in smaller clubs around the world. Not many Icelanders find themselves on a top club’s roster as there are simply not as many of them at the professional level. His favorite player to watch growing up was Gylfi Sigurðsson as he made it big in the EPL, one of the highest leagues in the world. JJ would try to emulate his ball skills while watching games and once broke a window mimicking a free kick of which he had to clean up the shards of glass and was grounded from television for a month. <br><br>When JJ was 13, he traveled to England to take part in a football camp over the summer. His skills were still raw compared to others his age, but he went in with extreme passion. He stood out heavily compared to the other kids and was teased a bit for his accent and how bad he was with the ball. While he had middling ball control skills, his confidence and vision proved his strongest qualities. The coaches helped send him in the right direction and suggested that he focus on the defensive side of the ball. As he grew older, he filled out his 6-foot frame and was compared to a brick wall that you had to go through to get to the goal.<br><br>After taking the time to hone in on his skills and improve, JJ set his sights on playing for a small club in Ireland to get his name out there as a prospect for the SSL. He is one of the only Icelanders that dare attempt to make it in the SSL, granted there are not many to begin with. It would be an uphill battle, but he knew what he had to stand out. His skills in the backfield are unmatched and he is not afraid to throw his body around. Soon he will make his way into the SSL following the draft. Wherever he may go, they will appreciate his skills and talents like no other. <br><br>(363 words)<br><br><span style='color:blue'>APPROVED</span> - Aneeqs - 2021-12-31 Xherdan Xhaka was born in a quaint small town located in the Kanton of Zurich, Switzerland. Born to a Swiss mother and a father of Albanian/Kosovan heritage was not always the easiest thing to grow up with. At the time when Xherdan Xhaka was very young, there was a strong sense that the locals did not like that he was different than the others. You see, in the town where Xherdan Xhaka was born, the most popular sports were tennis or winter sports such as skiing or snowboarding. Xherdan Xhaka, became infatuated with Football and begged and begged his family to let him try out and play for various local clubs in his younger years. Xherdan Xhaka was lucky to find himself being picked up by a local club called FC Kusnacht, a very inconspicuous team with no real desire to improve their position within the local league systems. This lack of ambition did not faze Xherdan Xhaka as he was just looking forward to being able to play. Over time, Xherdan Xhaka gained more and more playing time and ultimately won himself a spot as a starter in the team, operating as a attacking wingback primarily on the right hand side, but could be deployed on the left if the team needed the extra cover. As Xherdan Xhaka grew older, he found himself moving across the swiss league system and found himself a spot in the Promotion league with FC Zurich II. It was a dream come true for Xherdan Xhaka as he grew up admiring the greats of his hometown club FC Zurich. Greats such as Almen Abdi, Blerim Dzemaili and Josip Drmic. Obviously he was not considered for the first team in the Swiss Super League division, but he was slowly making his strides. Xherdan Xhaka however, had recently heard of a new league that had formed and was taking an interest in it. The SSL sounded exciting and offered a different experience to what Xherdan Xhaka was normally used to. He was never the star in a youth academy or the first name on a team sheet, but with the SSL he saw an opportunity to change his fortunes and hopefully make a name for himself. One day hoping to realise his potential and return home to finish what he started at FC Zurich.<br><br>Word count: 389<br><br><span style='color:blue'>APPROVED</span> - Toast - 2022-01-02 Being born in Ottawa, ON, Canada, there wasn’t much soccer for Dorian Lexington to get involved in but that didn’t stop the young defender from getting invested in the sport. Through watching the odd English Premiere League game, getting involved in youth sports through school and playing all the video games available to him, Lexington was dedicated to pursue a career in the sport. <br><br>Being a successful defender at the youth level for his school, Lexington received a scholarship offer to join the Carleton University varsity team. Through his university career, Lexington was a player that did not develop as offensively as fans were hoping but he did show exceptional intelligence and ability to close in on the opponent attackers to kill some opportunities for the other team.<br><br>Through two seasons with the school, it was clear that Lexington has an opportunity to excel in the sport and even found himself reporting to the Canada soccer program to develop as his player and hopefully represent his nation down the road. With that goal in mind, Lexington had to find a way to pursue the game as a sport. <br><br>Lexington announced that he would be withdrawing from the varsity program to pursue a career with the new Simulation Soccer League after watching the success of the league through season one from afar. The news came as a surprise but with the explanation that Lexington was pursuing success on the national stage with his country, it should not really be that much of a shock to see this player turn pro.<br><br>Lexington has announced his intention to be one of the most effective technical defenders on the pitch and will be working towards that with Canada’s soccer program while this player waits to join the league through the S2 waiver claims that are expected to open in the next few weeks. This time for Lexington to develop his game is going to be crucial and analysts believe that Lexington will end up as a prospect that current teams and expansion teams alike will be fighting over to add to their teams in hopes to increase their defensive play. Keep an eye out for this player to become an SSL icon over the next few seasons.<br><br><!--c1--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1' id='CODE-WRAP'><tr><td><b>CODE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='CODE'><!--ec1-->373<!--c2--></td></tr></table><!--ec2--><br><br><span style='color:blue'>APPROVED</span> |