Khabib Nurmagomedov: commitment

Transcript context

…Right. I personally didn’t see his games live. I was younger then. But I did watch many of his matches later on. I remember the goals he scored in World Cup finals in 1998 and 2006, especially the headers, and even that penalty, the Champions League final, European championships, the way he played, the way he handled the ball, the way the ball was glued to his feet, his movements, and then his charisma. It’s rare to find all of that in one player. You don’t see that combination often. There are many very good players, but sometimes they’re just not that interesting to watch. You know what I mean? I don’t want to give specific examples because someone might take it the wrong way, so I won’t name anyone. But there are players who are phenomenal in terms of their physical attributes: fast, explosive, effective. But they don’t have charisma, that energy that makes people want to watch them, and I don’t think that’s their fault. But with Zidane, everything came together. You always wanted to watch him play. You always want to watch Ronaldo play. You always want to watch Beckham play. You want to watch Edgar Davids running around the field in those glasses, his hair bouncing behind him, right? You still wanted to watch the way Barthez played in goal. No matter how many bizarre goals he conceded, you still wanted to watch him play. Or Oliver Kahn, the way he stood in goal and directed the whole team, the way he would rush out to the ball, the way strikers were afraid of him. I mean, so many strikers have admitted that they were afraid if they found themselves one-on-one with Oliver Kahn in the penalty area. You always wanted to watch Roberto Carlos take a free kick or storm down the left flank. You always wanted to see Cafu or Míchel Salgado make an overlapping run. The way Vieira stood there as the defensive midfielder or somebody like Maldini or like Rio Ferdinand or somebody like that, you wanted to watch Casillas in goal. So, you know, for me, and maybe for our generation, those players had something special. Can you try to explain what charisma is? Like you said, there are good players, and then there is Zidane.…

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