Newspaper article for S5 to analyse from Steve

UNSUNG SUPERSTAR

It seems that every November when the annual World Player of the Year jamboree emerges from the heat, pressure and glory of another season’s competition and the eyes of the football cognoscenti turn to Zurich the same hallowed names emerge to take their seemingly pre-ordained place amidst the effulgent glare of the world soccer firmament.

Cristiano Ronaldo, for all his histrionics, and recalcitrant mood swings demands attention for his stunning goal output. Forty two times he troubled the scoring charts last year, even if his penchant for missing vital spot kicks could have (some might argue, should have) cost his club dearly. Kaka, the brightest star of an otherwise aging and prosaic Milan side, also seems to exist in a perpetual state of grace as far as the critics are concerned, despite the fact that his league goal output has dwindled somewhat in recent seasons. Lionel Messi, combines mesmerising dribbling skills with pace and power; the whole package being wrapped in an aura of wide-eyed innocence that heralds him as the most promising of a long line of successors to Maradona’s throne. He has finally added prolific goalscoring (29 this season at the time of writing) to his myriad other qualities. The aura such players create is dreamy and fantastic and as such the most gifted practitioners of the esoteric arts of forward play are lauded and deified. However, what the annual awards rarely if ever seem to do (Fabio Cannavaro’s deserved win in 2006 being the recent exception) is reward season long brilliance that does not encompasses the scorers art. So spare a thought for the most under appreciated genius of the modern game: Andres Lujan Iniesta

At 1.69 metres the diminutive Spaniard looks more like a bookish undergraduate than an international regular. His pale features and slight frame accentuating his status a Lilliputian among the muscled bruisers of the modern European game. Certainly he is no frenzied bulldozer in the mode of a Gennaro Gattuso. Nor does he possess the obvious grace and poise of a Michael Ballack or even the passing range of a Deco or Andrea Pirlo. He has averaged only a handful league goals a year in his six seasons as a professional and yet despite these seeming shortcomings he is rated by many, alongside his compatriot in the Barcelona engine room Xavi, as the most complete midfielder in Europe. So what exactly does he do then? In two words: almost everything. He can operate deftly anywhere outside of defence, being equally adept in central midfield or on either flank. Witness his sparkling performances against both Russia and Germany in last summer’s European Championships. Games in which he started wide on the left but switched effortlessly between flanks, dovetailing delightfully with Valencia’s David Silva. His natural ability to beat his marker coupled with the visionary and penetrative nature of his final ball all helped him gain a place in FIFA’s All Star team of the tournament. Ally these qualities to a tireless work ethic and a playing style built around purposeful movement and ball retention and you have an all-round midfielder coveted by every major club side on the continent. Not that any of them have much hope of prising the player away.

His present contract with Los Cules does not end until June of 2014 and if that seems like sensible forward planning by the Catalan giants then there is method in their foresight. At 24 Iniesta undoubedtly has his best playing years ahead of him. On July 19th last year he was allegedly linked with a move to rivals Real Madrid. Reports in Spain hinted Real was prepared to pay the 60 million euros that would activate his release clause. However, the Barca faithful need not have feared. Their man remains deeply attached to the club he joined as a 12 year old in 1996. Iniesta himself, despite Barcelona having markedly underperformed during each of the last two seasons, nailed his colours to the mast saying, " When I say I want to retire in Barça, I say it with all my heart."

Strangely Iniesta almost joined Los Meringues as a youngster. Young Andres and his family visited Madrid to run the rule over their youth set up. Instead of leaving dazzled by the bright lights of the capital they returned home peturbed by the level of crime around the apartment block where the club’s youngsters would be stationed. Madrid’s loss proved Barcelona’s gain as Andres was swiftly ensconsced within their La Masia training camp. His rise speaks volumes for both his own effervescent talent and the clubs unparalled ability to promote from within their own ranks. Making his debut in Louis Van Gaal’s underachieving 2002 side Iniesta has quickly amassed over 160 league appearances. With only 14 league goals it is clear that his finshing could use a polishing gloss. However time is on his side and recent seasons have seen him hit the target with increasing regularity. His stunning goal in the friendly with England in 2007 highlighted his abilty to strike the ball from distance and started Spain on the record breaking run that would lead to their eventual triumph in Switzerland.

Whether he is dropping deep to instigate attacks and win back the ball (cast your mind back to his eye catching role in Barcelona’s triumphant 2006 Champions League Final victory over Arsenal), linking the play as a central midfielder or cutting in from either flank Iniesta is rarley less than excellent. Even Lionel Messi was moved to refer to his teammate as “an animal,” while expressing bewilderment at his eventual absence from the World Player of the Year reckoning. Former manager Frank Rijkaard compard Iniesta’s passing ability to a child handing out sweets and the comparison is an apt one. There is something of the school team innocent about the diminutive playmaker. His willingness to apply himself unstintingly to the cause, to turn his hand to any position or adapt to the myriad tactical variations of the modern game highlight him as a throw back to a more Corinthian era.

Some have suggested that Iniesta’s very versatility may prove detremental to his progress as a player. Like many talented players who excel in multiple positions he risks being shunted around the side, filling in where gaps arise. However, unlike many utilty makeweights Iniesta seems comfortable wherever he lines up. His dribbling is reminiscent of Dejan Savicevic in his Milan pomp, while his incisive passing bears many of the hallmarks of Paul Scholes. Many see in Scholes the precursory template for the type of player Iniesta has become. Yet ultimately Iniesta is his own man. A strangely reticent iconoclast, playing the game to a tune that has become increasingly unfashionable in modern football circles. One can imagine him crisscrossing the Nou Camp turf happily if all they were offering were bed and board at the end of the match. As a player he offers the viewer an intoxicating paradox: boundless creativity sublimated to the needs of the team dynamic. Capable of the sublime yet happy to revel in the everyday if it furthers the interests of his side. Wherever Iniesta lines up his play rarely, if ever descends to the level of the mundane.

Unlike many of his more lauded contemporaries (the aforementioned Ronaldo looms large here) Iniesta also appears to revel in the pressures of the big game environment. His burgeoning medal collection pays testament to this: UEFA European Under-16 and under-19 Championship winning success was followed by a silver medal in the FIFA World Youth Championship final in the United Arab Emirates. Indeed in the later competition he was named in the FIFA All-Star Team. As a senior he has already amassed 2 La Liga titles to go with the Champions League medal from 2006. With 34 caps (6 goals) to his name he looks set to star in the heart of the Spanish midfield for years to come.

Graham Armstrong, the Sky Television journalist, once famously joked that Iniesta was more likely to urinate in the communion chalice than leave the imprint of his studs down an opponents calf. While the point is affectionately made the clean living and sportsmanlike dynamo would be unikely to countenance either form of sacrilege. Not for him the distasteful feigning of injury or the badge kissing cupboard love espoused by so many of the Premiership’s highest paid performers. Andres runs with a ball the way you did when you were ten and the sun dripped lazily into an endless series of summer holiday evenings. No amount of money can buy football like this.

In an age where the desultory behaviour of too many players polarises fans and drags the games often tarnished reputation into further disrepute Iniesta remains a beacon of fair play and sportsmanship that all lovers of football can marvel at while admiring unreservedly. When plodding domestiques such as Didier Zokora and Javier Mascherano are paid small fortunes to regularly bog down games in defensive treacle it takes a player like Iniesta to remind us all that football really is the beautiful game. We should all enjoy him while we can, his like may be a long time coming around again.


This is a newspaper article that I have written to allow you to test out your analytical skills. The article is written for an educated audience as in intended to be published in a broadsheet newspaper. So what do you have to do?

Write a detailed analytical commentary on the piece in which you analyse the language choices made by the writer. You cannot do the adaptation and reshaping half of the task because you have not reshaped it. However, the language is rich and varied. There are many different types of sentence structure and grammatical issues for you to get your teeth into. See if you can spot any bias or subjectivity in the article. What is the tone? What does the writer think of Iniesta and some of his footballing contemporaries? What do you think the purpose of the article is? Do you feel that it achieves its purpose?