ATTENTION: NEW BLOG LAUNCH

As I'm sure you are all aware, the 2012 Olympics are about to hit London so for the next three weeks, Born In An Offside Position will be taking a break. During this period, I will be running a new blog, called 'The Search For Excellence' which you can find at tsfe2012.blogspot.com . This blog will launch on Monday 23rd July and will be updated regularly. I anticipate at least 18 posts before the Olympics end on Sunday 12th August. I will be based in London and attending many events which should put me in a good position to provide comment pieces on individual sports, athletes, and the Olympics as a whole. Follow me on Twitter @TSFE2012.

For the record, the blog title is taken from a fantastic quote by Australian triple-gold winning swimmer Dawn Fraser 'The Olympics remain the most compelling search for excellence that exists in sport, and maybe in life itself.' I hope you enjoy my work, and please spread the word.

Photograph: Helen Crane

Drogba, Kanoute, Barrios and co. usher in China's football revolution

There is a football revolution afoot in the Far East. With Didier Drogba the biggest name amongst a host of top quality arrivals in the Chinese Super League, there is plenty of potential for China to finally become a superpower and rival the European and American leagues. As the world's most populous country, home to 1.3billion people, the Asian republic is finally showing ambition to compete at the highest level in the world's most popular sport. Currently ranked only 68th in FIFA's admittedly dubious world ranking system, the Chinese, who have an equally dubious claim to inventing football in the first place, are hoping that the arrival of some global superstars in their domestic league can help improve football in their country from the top down.


The former Chelsea striker Drogba, who left Stamford Bridge after scoring the winning penalty in this year's UEFA Champions League final, is stealing most of the limelight with his arrival at East coast club Shanghai Shenhua, but the revolution is reverberating throughout Chinese football. Reigning champions Guangzhou Evergrande signed Argentine midfielder Dario Conca for £6.4million in July 2011, after he had twice been crowned the Brazilian league's Player of the Year while playing for Fluminense. Conca is just one of several South Americans who have been making the move to China in recent years and he has recently been joined at Evergrande by highly-rated  Paraguayan striker Lucas Barrios who cost £6.7million from German champions Borrusia Dortmund. Another South American is the former Argentina boss Sergio Batista who will be managing Drogba at Shenhua after he replaced Frenchman Jean Tigana earlier this year.


As well as South Americans, a whole host of African players have been tempted to the CSL, including Seydou Keita, the 32-year-old Malian midfielder who won two Champions Leagues in his four-year spell at Barcelona before joining Dalian Aerbin. The Nigerian forward Yakubu, who still has plenty to offer at 29, and Fredi Kanoute, another Malian formerly of Spurs and more recently Sevilla, have joined Guangzhou R & F and Beijing Guoan respectively. This large scale arrival of proven talents is drawing the footballing world's eye to China and it will be interesting to see how their clubs fare in the Asian Champions League over the coming years as no Chinese team has won the tournament since 1990 when it was called the Asian Club Championship. However, with Drogba's signature in place, the biggest focus is on Shanghai Shenhua (which means 'the flower of Shanghai') and although the team currently languish in 12th place out of 16 teams, they will be targeting trophies in the near future.


Drogba isn't the only man with English connections at Shenhua as he is linking up with his former Chelsea team-mate Nicolas Anelka, who made the move back in December 2011 but has struggled to make a major impact so far. Anelka was asked to be part of the coaching staff towards the end of Jean Tigana's failed regime but has reverted to simply player status under Batista. Interestingly, Anelka's former Bolton Wanderers team-mate Ian Walker, who played many times in the Premier League for Tottenham and Leicester City, as well as appearing for England, joined Shenhua as goalkeeping coach earlier this year. Anelka has since announced his intention to remain at the club until he retires and was clearly pleased with the arrival of Drogba which will take some of the pressure from his shoulders. That pressure lead to an argument with some fans after the Frenchman refused to take part in the traditional Chinese ritual of bowing to the fans at the end of a recent poor performance.


Although the CSL was only founded  in 2004 in its current format ( it was previously called the Chinese Jia-A league), Shenhua are yet to win the title, finishing runners-up on three separate occasions.  An aspect of the league's rules which should allow for local talent to develop under the influence of the big name superstars is that only five foreigners are permitted per squad, including one from another AFC (Asian Football Confederation) affiliated country. At Shenhua, Drogba and Anelka are joined by Columbian international midfielder Giovanni Moreno, Brazilian defender Moises and erstwhile Australian international forward Joel Griffiths (Australia is part of the AFC) and between they will be expected to lead their Chinese team-mates to success in the coming seasons. The money to fund Shenhua's big name signings has come from controversial chairman Zhu Jun, a Chinese-Irish businessman who has been known to interfere with team matters since his appointment in 2007. Along with the Evergrande Real Estate Group, who are bankrolling Guangzhou Evergrande's investments, Zhu Jun and the Shanghai Media & Entertainment Group and Huangpu Investment Ltd. companies who are at the helm of Shenhua will be looking to Drogba, Barrios and co. to usher in a new era for Chinese football. Only time will tell whether they will succeed.

Spain have proven that they are the greatest.

On Sunday this current Spain side proved emphatically that they are the greatest international team of the modern era. There is no doubt in my mind that they have risen to first place in the all-time rankings of natonal teams  with their triumph at Euro 2012, with which they simultaneously became the first team ever to win consecutive European Championships and the first team to win three major international tournaments in a row (if you exclude the Uruguay side who won the Olympics in 1924 and 1928 and the inaugural 1930 World Cup). People have levelled the criticism that they play 'boring' football at them, particularly in this year's Euros tournament, yet it is impossible to argue with their success and the aesthetically pleasing qualities of many of their goals. Amongst their best were Jordi Alba's in the Final, Xabi Alonso's first in the quarter-final with France and Cesc Fabregas's in the opening group game with Italy, the team they again met in the Final.

Spain have an undeniably extremely talented and sophisticated group of players,many of whom have been playing together for years. That the majority of their opposition choose to defend en masse does admittedly render several of their games lacking in goalmouth action, but over their four-year period of dominance, this has never prevented them from winning a match. Sublime in possession going forward, their ability to regain the ball is also second to none with a formidable back-line protected by energetic midfielders who close down opponents more effectively than the majority of ultra-defensive teams in the world. Indeed, they haven't conceded a single goal in a knockout match at any of the last three tournaments. Spain have practically become unbeatable and know exactly how to play to their strengths.

Alongside their tactical and technical supremacy, one of their greatest advantages is the familiarity of their players with each other. Seven of their players have featured in all three of the Finals they have reached since Euro 2008. A further seven have featured in at least two. These figures would be increased if not for injuries sustained by Carles Puyol and David Villa. A huge amount of their players are familiar at club level (the Barcelona and Real Madrid contingents forming the core of the national team) and others have played with each other for years in the Spanish national youth teams. This truly incredible generation are record-breakers. A quick look at La Furia Roja's records sees Villa out in front as all time top scorer on 51 goals with Fernando Torres lodged in third place on 31. The former is only 30 and the latter only 28. Iker Casillas is by far the most-capped Spanish player with 137 at the age of 31 and is the first ever international player to rack up a century of victories. However, Xavi and Xabi Alonso are also centurions (with the former Liverpool man reaching the mark in the quarter-final win over France) and Torres, Puyol and remarkably the 26-year-old Ramos are all currently between the 90 and 100 cap marks. In contrast to England's David Beckham, Michael Owen and co, this generation is truly golden.

But what marks out Spain as definitively the greatest international team of the modern era, and almost certainly of all time is the fact they can let their trophies do the talking. Brazil of 1970 only won one World Cup (their were admittedly no Copa America tournaments between 1967 and '75). The 'Total Football' Holland team of Johan Cruyff famously failed to win anything. The West Germany of Franz Beckenbauer got to three finals in a row, but unlike Spain, they lost the third one. The Brazil of the 90s lost spectacularly to France in 1998 and the France side from that year and 2000 were sharply humiliated in the group stage of the 2002 World Cup and even if they hadn't have been, they could never quite dominate or convince as much as Vicente Del Bosque's men have. It is unthinkable for a group stage exit to happen to Spain any time soon. Three in a row could well become four or more as they are showing no sign of slowing down just yet. With the likes of Iniesta, Fabregas, Silva, Pique, Ramos, Pedro Rodriguez and Jesus Navas still with plenty of years ahead of them, and youngsters such as Barcelona's Thiago Alcantara and Cristian Tello, Marseille's Cesar Azpilicueta and Manchester United's David de Gea coming through the ranks, this incredible team of tiki-taka Spaniards is going to take some stopping.