River Plate coach Nestor Gorosito yesterday told recent signing Christian Fabbiani that he needs to trim down. This is the type of thing one might hear from a manager from time to time, but this is a special case. Fabbiani, pictured on the right, recently weighed in at 100 kilos (220 pounds) and is nicknamed "the ogre" in his native Argentina. Here are a few words from his coach on the topic:"Because a cow eats grass and it's a cow, it eats all day and it's a cow.
"Fabbiani needs to accept responsibility and lose weight. I don't need him to go down to 92 or 93 kilos, but he has to get down to 97 and at the moment he's a hundred and a bit.
"We want him to play 90 minutes, not just half an hour."Fabbiani, who is actually quite a good player at times, is not the first footballer who looks like he could have been purchased at Costco. Here are some of my personal favorites:
Ronaldo:
The Brazilian World Cup winner is probably the most famous and most successful of the "large" footballers. What always amazed me about Ronaldo was how he was still so fast despite carrying so much weight. It makes you wonder how good he might have been had he been a little leaner. His more recent weight issues can perhaps be attributed to knee injuries, but even in his prime, he was the crop of the (ice) cream.
John Barnes:Like Ronaldo, the former Liverpool and England star did in fact put on weight with age. Back in his time, the striker did have his way in front of goal, and apparently in front of the dinner table as well. On a slightly unrelated but equally amusing note, I invite you to watch the big man rap in England's official 1990 World Cup song.
Diego Maradona:
Although technically not fat until after his playing days were over, he was always quite a chubby little man. He has the distinguished honor of being the only man on my list to have had stomach surgery to deal with his weight problems. Oddly enough, like fellow fat-man Ronaldo, he was renowned for his quick feet. Interesting trend developing here.
Although technically not fat until after his playing days were over, he was always quite a chubby little man. He has the distinguished honor of being the only man on my list to have had stomach surgery to deal with his weight problems. Oddly enough, like fellow fat-man Ronaldo, he was renowned for his quick feet. Interesting trend developing here.
Ferenc Puskas:
Aptly named and an absolute magician on the ball, the Hungarian maestro was probably the first of the fat footballers. Like the others, his weight fluctuated over the years, but his play certainly did not. He was known for being an incredible shooter of the ball, and it's not too difficult to tell where the extra power came from.
Aptly named and an absolute magician on the ball, the Hungarian maestro was probably the first of the fat footballers. Like the others, his weight fluctuated over the years, but his play certainly did not. He was known for being an incredible shooter of the ball, and it's not too difficult to tell where the extra power came from.
Perhaps the big-boned footballer is a dying breed, which is quite a shame considering some of the names on this list. Anyway, as long as the ogre has something to say about, the legacy of Puskas and others will live on:
"It's my physique and I can't change it much. But I'm going to play Sunday, I'm not going to get left out of the team again"
