Pablo AIMAR: Roman RIQUELME and Lionel MESSI are animals

By
Roy Nemer
-
21
Pablo Aimar Juan Roman Riquelme Argentina
Pablo Aimar Juan Roman Riquelme Argentina

Pablo AIMAR spoke about Juan Roman RIQUELME and Lionel MESSI, calling them animals.

The Valencia legend played with (and against) the world’s best players. Having played for the biggest teams in some of the biggest footballing countries, the current coach of the Argentina youth team, gave his opinion on a few subjects. Speaking in an interview with La Nacion, AIMAR had this to say:

Which players fascinated you on the pitch?

“ZIDANE, RONALDO the Brazilian, Roman (RIQUELME) is an animal, MESSI is an animal, AYALA was a beast, with ORTEGA I loved playing, with Marcelo (GALLARDO) as well. But I would see SAVIOLA’s shirt in front of me and it would give me more of a desire to play. We played on the same team, spent 3 years at River, 3 years in Lison (at Benfica) and a few times with the National Team. I’d go with more enthusiasm because I would think that this guy sees the same thing as I do and it’s likely that we’ll play well on that day.”

Were you the player you dreamed of being?

“No, no. I would have liked to have won five Balon d’Ors.”

What kind of player were you?

“I don’t know how I would categorize myself. What I can say, being humble about it, is that I enjoyed my team mates’ admiration, a lot of them having played with incredible players. And when they’re asked, they mention me.”

Pablo AIMAR on Marcelo BIELSA:

“He’s one of the best coaches (he had in his career). BIELSA marked a lot of coaches in his way of coaching and living football. He’s someone different. He makes his players better.”

Pablo AIMAR on Jose PEKERMAN:

“Jose is synonymous with tranquility. He transmitted that and a lot of security. He’ll tell you that today this will hapen and it would. And at 15, 16 or 20 years of age, to have someone give you those guaranteed was fantastic.”

Pablo AIMAR and Juan Roman RIQUELME linking up for a goal:

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21 Comments

  6. Mateo Musacchio is good CB.Quite fast,good timing,nice ball control and above that have a great confidence he looks like steel.In 3 men defence he should be used.Good at bringing the ball out of defence,pick out the players with his passing range,and prefers to play vertical balls than sideways.we have very good defenders both as starters and as substitute. Pezzela is also good.

  9. One thing which is always constant in all aspect is THE GOOD OLD DAYS, OLD TIMES WERE BETTER, etc etc. Why is it like that??NOW IS BETTER, NOW IS THE TIME, There is no use in sitting in Past.

    Football is evolving like everything around the World. Now its more fast paced, We cant say that Olden days were better etc etc. Now a days every player is measured inch by inch, (I Heard the Germans even have an APPLICATION developed to get details about any Player even in their phones, like a certain player favors which side while taking a Penalty etc etc, Remember when Jens Lehmann had a piece of paper during the Penalty shoot out in 2006) Everything is developing & fast paced now. Does the olden day player had to go through such minute detailing, Of course it was more brutal playing conditions.Man Marking was always there.

    We cant live in the Past, Before we had a Maradona, Now we have a Messi, Tomorrow someone else. Nowadays we hardly see any Midfielder with the PAUSE. Can they survive in todays fast paced game.May be in future we will again find the players like Riquelme, Aimar again. Its a cycle. the formations have changed. Everything is becoming fast either we become fast or we will be way behind in the pecking order. JUST SAYING..

  11. Messi+++++++Xavi+++++++Iniesta
    .
    vsvsvsvsvsvsvsvsvsvsvsvsvsvsvs
    .
    Aimar++++++Riquelme++++++Messi
    .
    ==============================
    Romantic Football

  12. Oh the mention of the 2006 Argentina Team 😍😍😍💙💙💙 … an era that will always be in my memory.
    .
    The icing on the cake was ofcourse Riquelme, Aimar, Messi. artists who etched on the canvas, composers who created symphony on strings.
    .
    We will not see that beautiful Argentina or that romantic football ever again (now its all about ‘hit and run’ football 😴 ).
    .
    Guardiola’s Barcelona played romantic football… that is over too.
    .
    all etched and hummed in memories.

    • To be honest 2006 team is overrated here on Mundo. That team played only one beautiful match vs Serbia and a decent match against the Germans. Apart from that, the matches vs Ivory Coast, Holland and Mexico were not any classics to remember. In fact, Argentina struggled in those games.

      • And the 1994 team is underrated. They had two Copa America’s back to back and headed into the WC with Maradona added to a squad that had Batistuta, Caniggia, Balbo, Redondo, Simeone and Ruggeri. If Maradona had not been caught the team could have gone very far.

  13. Cruyef’s Netherlands zico’s Brazil and 2006 Argentina were played absolutely brilliant but without anything to show for it

  14. I wish Argentina play like that 2006 team that was fantastic a little bit luck and 2006 Argentina could easily be champions I wish this time my dream to see Messi holding the cup becomes a reality

  15. Aimar was always better than Riquelme in my eyes. If only Pekerman had the balls to send Messi and Aimar in for Crespo and Riquelme instead of Cambiasso and Cruz that day, it would have been a different game for the Germans.

    • same old story for Argentina being a manager makes another strange decision and we pay the untimate price.
      we can point fingers at a succession of managers from as far back as 1998 no redondo and letting the players drink for 2 days after the england game and some were still drunk into day 3 being the dutch match, 2002 no plan b, refusing to change at all, took to many injured and out of form players, refusing to play batoi and craspo together 2006 no zanetti and of course those subs, 2010 every thing was wrong about this guy but the grand finalie was trying to play 4 c.b vs ger and we know what happened, 2014 did not experimant enough before 14 as we have qualified with 4 games to spare, took to many injured and returning players, that lavezzi sub in the final was a brain explosion to say the least.

      • Heard a story long time ago that the non-selection of Zanetti in 2006 was due to some relationship issue between Veron and Villareal guys(Sorin and Riquelme). As Zanetti took the position to defend his teammate, he was dropped as Veron. If true, then really a waste.

        I won’t say Aimar is better than Riquelme. It’s different style of playmaker. I like both of them actually, maybe slighly more Riquelme. Aimar’s style is closed to Isco/Silva who like dribbling and cover bigger zone. Riqulme is more static and stayed more in the midfield, like Zidane. Today, it would be possible to have them play together but not the case 10y ago.

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