The Pride of Vallekas

Sometimes, I have thoughts and snippets that don't always deserve a full article, but also don't deserve to go into the heap. In other words, welcome to my drafts folder. Watch out for this type of article occasionally - on Sundays (Sunday Snippets) and Thursdays (Thursday Thoughts). The secret to long throws, their power (up to 60 kilometers per hour), and the distance traveled (up to 38 meters), is the technique. The explosive force that makes the long throw successful comes from the the shoulders and lower back. The release angle never exceeds 20 degrees, so that the ball increases its velocity and does not dip quickly - otherwise it can be easily cleared. They called him the catapult. No, not Morten Gamst Pedersen of Blackburn, or Rory Delap of Stoke City - even if they had the same technique. No, they say that about Marius Stankevičius - a former Sevilla, Valencia and Córdoba defender, currently seeing out his career in amateur football in Italy with AC Crema 19...

Today's article is not filled with words. Rather, it is a mini-project I've been working on for a week but have decided to end. I was trying to assemble photos of Abdoulaye Ba in the news - all of them. Yes, every transfer rumor and done deal that I could find. Why, you ask?  I was trying to see what attention a "promising" youngster actually gets. I attempted to do all, but settled on news mentions to Premier League clubs, a league he has never played in. And even if I missed out a mention here or there, what I found was a fabricated ecosystem that we all consume. I hope you enjoy watching it from the outside. The first time Abdoulaye Ba became a "thing" was July 3, 2012, when talkSPORT linked him to West Ham, Stoke City and QPR. Then ESPN linked him to Aston Villa: And then the Daily Mail reported that the deal looked dead: But Mail Online wouldn't give up, saying that Aston Villa wouldn't give up. But then nothing. ...