Javier Mascherano
Mascherano as he is more widely known was born in San Lorenzo in South America in 1984. After finishing his education, his football career began with River Plate whom he joined in 2003. Mascherano made his mark very quickly and it was not long before clubs such as Real Madrid came knocking at the door. River Plate who were anxious to keep hold of their new star turned down all offers saying that no one would be able to afford the asking price. River Plate went on to win the Clausura Closing Championship in 2004 partly due to the contribution that Mascherano made during each of the competition heats. It was during this period that he won his first caps for the Argentinian U21's national team. He is still part of that set up today but has of course moved up to the senior squad and become their captain under the management of Diego Maradona.
Although River Plate had previously refused any offers for the young Javier Mascherano, a successful offer was made and accepted in 2005 from Brazilian club, Corinthians. Unfortunately, nine games into his opening season with them; he was injured badly and could not complete the season. The injury itself was a severe stress fracture to his left foot and after seeking advice headed home to Argentina for treatment and to recuperate. Corinthians though still went onto win the Serie A Championship under the captaincy of a certain Carlos Tevez - a player who would several years later make his mark on the English Premiership. After being out of football for a total of six months he returned to the side in 2006, just in time to compete in one of the major cup competitions. Unfortunately this was not Corinthians season and they were very quickly beaten in all competitions plus the league. With them now facing a relegation battle they were interrupted by the arrival of the 2006 World Cup.
This bought unwelcome attention from clubs as far away as Europe and Mascherano publicly stated that he wanted to stay and help the Corinthians fight their ongoing relegation battle. However hours before the Northern Transfer window closed in January he, along with Carlos Tevez became West Ham players. This move surprised many people within the football fraternity who had expected him to transfer to the likes of Real Madrid as he held an Italian passport. Almost immediately rumours began to fly around about the nature of the transfer deal that involved Media Sports Investment's interest in a buyout of West Ham United. People began to wonder if West Ham did actually own the players and what would happen if a high enough offer was made for either player
Before he arrived West Ham were going into free fall and all hopes that he would rescue the team came to nothing. Although he was installed at Upon Park very quickly, he rarely featured in any of the games. This started another round of rumours which centred around his contract. It was feared that he was only allowed to play so many hours of football - hence his lack of appearances for West Ham. It then got to the point where the Argentinean National Coach prayed that he would be transferred to a team such as Real Madrid to ensure that he would get the match fitness he needed.
It was in 2007 that Mascherano's career with Liverpool Football Club began. They applied to FIFA for permission to take him on loan. This was approved on 31st January 2007 by FIFA and Liverpool immediately submitted his registration papers but due to other mitigating circumstances, the loan was delayed and he did not become a Liverpool player until 20th February 2007. During this time his name had been added to Liverpool's champion's league squad in anticipation that the registration would be approved. It was as though they had bought a different player. Javier Mascherano quickly settled down at Liverpool Football Club and immediately made an impression on the team.
Having made such a vast impact on the team, he also quickly became a favourite with the supporters. Things were beginning to move in the right direction for him and he signed a four year contract in February 2008. As he was not contracted to another club at the time, the transfer was allowed to go through outside of that January's transfer window. Now part of the team, he again made an impact which this time included the obligatory yellow and red cards. He has very few faults and is normally a model player. Unfortunately his fiery temper becomes very evident when he feels that a decision goes against him. This has had him sent off more than once. His career now seemed to be going well and he was also enjoying being part of the national team. It was in November of this year that the new Argentinian coach, Diego Maradona asked if he would accept the captaincy. There was no hesitation and Mascherano became the captain, a position he still holds today.
It was towards the end of the 2008/2009 season that rumours began to surface implying that he was getting restless at Liverpool and wanted a move to Spain. His game certainly seemed to suffer but he helped Liverpool Football Club, achieve their highest position in the Premiership for several years. The summer transfer window arrived and the speculation continued with Real Madrid stating that they had in fact put an offer in for him. Liverpool Football Club quickly turned around and said that he was not for sale. It eventually got to the point of would it be him or Alonso. Eventually, it was Alonso who was allowed to go and Mascherano was told to knuckle down and basically get on with it. He was told that new contract negotiations would take place and the club would hopefully be able to offer him better terms. It had at the time been put out into the public domain that he was looking for a better remuneration package to bring him in line with his teammates.
The new 2009/2010 season started and it was immediately apparent that Mascherano was not happy. His play and his body language immediately gave everyone, players and supporters alike that he just could not be bothered. People were beginning to ask questions and certain newspapers reported that his agent had been talking about a move to Real Madrid or Barcelona in the next transfer window. Thankfully, these were quickly silenced with Liverpool Football Club coming out and publicly stating that he was a Liverpool Player and going nowhere. What happened behind the scenes nobody knows, but in recent weeks, the old Mascherano appears to have reappeared. His play has improved and he is again enjoying his game. The look of pleasure on his face last week during the Liverpool Derby was marvellous. The goal he scored and the way he pulled his shirt up and kissed the badge cemented that fact that he was a Liverpool player and I honestly believe he has no intention of going anywhere.
We are now approaching yet another transfer window and the rumours have started to fly around again. For the last few weeks, it has been reported that Barcelona are interested in luring him away from Liverpool. Rafa Benitez has come out and said that the club have received an offer but it is nowhere near what Mascherano has been valued at. Without giving that value, he felt it was something very few clubs would be able to afford. He also revealed that he, Mascherano and the player's agent are having positive talks about his future at the club. They have I understand been talking for the last month, with ideas coming from both sides about how his contract can be improved. With all the continued speculation, even though Mascherano has two years left on his contract it was felt that now was the time to reopen the negotiations.
I hope that a new deal is signed and that Mascherano agrees to extend his contract. With the problems Liverpool are having at the moment, he is one of the few bright sparks that we have in the team. I have watched his improvement this season and when he lifted the shirt and kissed the badge last week, that was did it for me. He is, as far as I am concerned an adopted son of Liverpool and deserves to be in the team.
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I think Rafa has made a shrewd decision by refusing to release Masch for the upcoming Argentina gama against Catalonia. It was an open secret that Messi was close to Masch and that Barca was using the former to unsettle Masch and to convince him of a move to Barca. The game would also be played in Camp Nou which would give another opportunity for Barca to prise Masch away from us.
While everybody seems to be laying blame on the decision to allow Xabi to leave, I think our indifferent start to the season is due more to the whole saga over Masch in the summer. Xabi was always expected to move on after the situation the year before but the possibility that Masch might leave had thrown Rafa's summer plans into complete disarray. While the summer should be spent on building on last year's progress to mount a serious title challange this year, Rafa was completely consumed by efforts to persuade Masch to stay / identify a replacement if he decides not to. I think there was one point when Rafa had even contemplated forcing Xabi to stay as there is no way the team would be able to withstand the loss of two key midfielders within such a short period of time. It is important for managers to know what his best team is during preseason such that his best eleven can be allowed to gel and each of them would know what his best role is. But this was never allowed to happen for us this year with Xabi continuing to feature a week or so before the season starts and Masch's mind wandering elsewhere. This has affected the team as a whole and you can almost feel that some players (notably our captain) seemed to have difficulty coming to terms with the fact that Xabi was gone in the first game against Spurs. The fact that the media and certain sections of fans continue to cite Xabi as the root of our difficulties perpetuates the problem and it is inevitable that it gets into the heads of the players and you can almost feel that some (and that again includes our captain) are feeling sorry for themselves.
In short, I think we could cope a lot better with Xabi's departure if we sold him a lot earlier. But that was made impossible by Masch's situation in the summer. And now that we are finally beginning to accept that Xabi is gone, I think it is of paramount importance that the club offers the best deal to make Masch stay. He is integral to our plans and another midfield departure would kill the team.