The Trash Talk Begins

The soccer world has not been kind me in the last 24 hours. I had Guti staring at me from the front page of Marca.com all day, I will not be able to watch Messi and Alves tomorrow, and the only interesting thing happening is Iniesta's new book that I'll never read and Pique tooting his own horn saying Real Madrid was always interested in him but he chose Barcelona because that's what he wanted.

What I woke up to this morning put me in a slightly better mood. Wesley Sneijder, former midfielder for Real Madrid who was transferred to Inter Milan this summer, decided to speak out about his two seasons at Real. In the interview, Sneijder states that Real treated him "like a child" and that they treated their players "without much respect" in general. He also talks about how happy he now is at Inter, saying that he feels more at home at the Italian superclub and whatnot.

Now, I appreciate the bashing of Real at all levels, As a fan (to put it lightly) of Barcelona, I thrive on any sort of trashtalk about Real, and I actually have to wonder if Sneijder is telling the truth. He was only there for two years (he transferred from Ajax Amsterdam after the '06-07 season) and already he's at Inter. Was he really being treated like a child, or is he bitter because he didn't get much playing time?

I looked at this stats, and he played 27/48 (56%) games this season, and 35/52 (67%) games during his debut season. This guy is 25 years old- he should be at the top of his game right now. But whatever. We'll see how he does at Inter. This guy should be at the top of his game right now, and maybe things will pan out better at Inter.

UPDATE: I was looking at the Wikipedia for Sneijder. I'm aware that Wikipedia doesn't hold much weight, but what I found was quite interesting. Apparently Sneijder has a hotshot younger brother, Rodney, who is 18 and coming up through the Ajax Amsterdam youth leages. According to the Wikipedia page, Real Madrid was interested in purchasing Rodney, but Wesley stopped the discussions when he found out, telling his brother he'd have to make his break in the Ajax youth leagues, because Wesley isn't "in favor of juniors increasingly going to top clubs."

I smell either a HUGE amount of jealousy, or someone treating their little brother "like a child!" It doesn't feel good to be treated like you're 4-yrs-old, does it, Sneijder? Nope, it doesn't. Just for that I hope his little brother is the next Messi or Roberto Carlos. Just to spite him.