When I was younger, I wanted to be the captain on my football team because back then, I assumed that the armband was given to the best player. It was a goal of mine for so long that, even as my youth teams won tournaments and trophies, and I won top scorer and best player awards, I still felt unsatisfied because someone else always had the armband. Whenever I saw another teammate sprinting around with the armband on, I took it as an indictment.
I had forgotten this childish way of thinking until France v Belgium in the Uefa Nations League last week. Ousmane Dembélé, who was wearing the armband for France, was particularly active. Had it not been for the wastefulness of his teammates, he would have had several assists during his time on the field.
That time came to an end in the 60th minute, when France manager Zinedine Zidane decided to make changes in order to galvanize his team. Dembélé was doing well, but Belgium were nullifying the threat that he presented. They would double or triple team him, knowing that he wasn’t the best passer and that he would often dally on the ball.
Those extra touches and extra dribbles allowed the Belgium defenders time to close in, or to recover before the pass made it to a teammate. On came Michael Olise as Dembélé’s direct replacement, with Dembélé handing Olise the captain’s armband. There’s a clip online of the moment zoomed in, which shows what the broadcast cameras seemed to miss.
When Dembélé gave Olise the armband, Olise accepted it with a look of confusion, seemingly not understanding why he was being given the honor, since he is not usually the captain or vice-captain. Seeing this, I remembered that I used to believe that the best player on the team is – and should be – the one who wears the armband and in that moment, the exchange made perfect sense. You can always tell the quality of a player by how the crowd reacts to them.
When Olise came on, the crowd roared, behaving as if victory was inevitable, even though France were down when he made his entrance. Whenever he touched the ball, they rose and took a deep breath in anticipation. He had wowed them throughout the World Cup, where he provided seven assists and innumerable moments of magic, and he had already scored a late goal to beat Belgium at the end of September.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
