He has been around and is very street-wise.”Shearer would not compare himself with the Brazilian as he is “not happy taking about myself”, but Hoddle was only too glad to praise his striker. “We chatted through his interpreter for a couple of hours,” Shearer said “He was very level-headed, very down to earth. He is so young and he has already played for possibly the biggest club in the world.”He is very strong, very pacy. Shearer is more intelligent, he is always in the right place. Ronaldo has more power, pace and skill.”The pair met this year at the World Player of the Year Awards in Lisbon (Ronaldo was first, Shearer third). His goal in Sunday night’s spectacular in Lyon was quite brilliant, as was his pass in a claustrophobic penalty area to set up Romario’s equaliser.Franck Leboeuf, who has watched both Shearer and Ronaldo from the French bench in this tournament, said: “They are both outstanding players in different ways. More than ever goalscorers are a pre- requisite of success at the top level.”You need that cutting edge to win the World Cup in the modern game,” Glenn Hoddle said as England prepared in Versailles yesterday.
“Any team can build a side with good organisation and technique but it is not enough.”France’s performances in the Tournoi de France prove this. Technically adept and well-structured, they have a clutch of outstanding players but no goalscorer. In attack they are choosing from Nicolas Ouedec, Christophe Dugarry, Patrice Loko and Florian Maurice, strikers who have 10 goals in 54 matches between them. Alan Shearer alone has surpassed that in his last 11 internationals.Ronaldo, meanwhile, is coming back to his best after being distracted by contract and transfer negotiations. Gary Hetherington, the Leeds chief executive, wants his marketing department to exchange ideas and personnel with their counterparts at the Townsville-based club.. Gerd Muller, Mario Kempes, Paolo Rossi, Diego Maradona, Jurgen Klinsmann, Romario. Over the past quarter of a century these men have gone down in football lore as the strikers who delivered the World Cup for their country.
Who will add their name to the legend in France one year from now?
Two of the leading candidates meet in Paris tonight: Ronaldo, of Brazil, widely accepted as the game’s best striker, and England’s Alan Shearer, arguably his leading rival.
While neither player is likely to follow Maradona in 1986 and virtually win the World Cup on their own both will be key figures if Brazil or England are to triumph. He has severe bruising, but will be fit for the game against Cronulla on Monday.Leeds Rhinos are hoping to forge a commercial link with North Queensland Cowboys. Italy’s Alpine skiing champion Alberto Tomba travelled to Bosnia yesterday to promote the first peacetime slalom race in Sarajevo, where ski resorts were ripped apart during the long-running Balkan conflict. Tomba said the “Slalom of Peace” on Mount Bjelasnica outside Sarajevo would be held on 23 December and pledged to bring 100 of the world’s top skiers for the event. “With this competition, I want to show the world what has happened here,” Tomba said.
Mount Bjelasnica, where Tomba competed in the World Cup in 1987, now features skeletons of ski lifts strewn on the mountain, and rubble where hotels were burned to the ground by the Bosnian Serb army in the summer of 1993..
