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Indian Express
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
Why Barcelona's wunderkind Lamine Yamal has a target on his back this season
Lamine Yamal turned 18 last month and inherited Lionel Messi's iconic number 10 jersey. 'This is a big step, the start of a road which I hope can be long and full of victories,' he would say, spotting a beige blazer contrasted with blond-dyed locks dancing on his temple. Like Messi for nearly two decades, Yamal would be the reason the multitudes would stop to watch the La Liga next season. To see him twist and tease, tear best-laid plans of men and mice apart, make the ball swerve and swirl to the back of the net. This could be the era of systems and structures, of function than flair, but Yamal has asserted the still undiminished pull of solo acts, the power to lure the world into the magnetic field of one slender silhouette, confirming the Great Man Theory that the history of the world is the biography of great men. The weight of the number doesn't seem to crush him. If he were of a flakier mind, he would have been crushed to pieces long ago. The Messi shadow had tailed since his first step at the La Masia Academy. 'Messi did his own path, I'll do mine,' he said during the shirt function. Some, though, worry about his lifestyle. He was spotted with Neymar, the pin-up boy of talent gone astray, he hired dwarf entertainers for his birthday party, raising eyebrows of his faithfuls. Yamal calmly defused it. 'If (criticism and praise) does not come from my family, friends, or people I care about, it makes no difference to me. I can't feel too up with praise nor too down when I'm criticised. Now it's time to focus on football and enjoy it.' In the backdrop of all these, the attention around him would only swell. The frenzy would spike, the expectations would soar, the margin for errors become less, and the scrutiny on mistakes would turn withering. Every match, every season, the audience would expect thunder strikes and magic assists. He would feel the squeeze of the defenders even more suffocatingly. Those that deified him would burn him down at the first instance of a fallow patch. He would no longer be viewed as a wunderkind that keeps un-peeling layer after layer of ingenuity, but an infallible celebrity, with little tolerance to slip-ups on and off the turf. Invariably, rival managers would have already begun sketching plans to lock him up. As has been the theme for the last decade, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid would be the chief plotters of his and Barcelona's downfall. Both have considerably repaired the squads that fell apart in the final lap of the race last season. At one juncture, just three points separated the top three, before Barcelona sealed the title by four points. 🤩 YAMAL DOING IT ALL TO SCORE BARCELONA'S 2ND GOAL IN SOUTH KOREA ❗️ GLOBAL HOME OF FOOTBALL | Live All Summer Long | | — DAZN Football (@DAZNFootball) July 31, 2025 Fiercest foes Madrid have acquired former legend Xabi Alonso as the manager. Alonso is a dynamic and progressive manager, aware of the club's ravenous quest for titles and its ruthless intolerance towards failures. Some of the ageing and familiar faces were given the golden handshake, among them the gladiator in a Rolls Royce, Luka Modric and Lucas Vazquez. Financial strangle restricted the incomers to just four players, but among them are Trent Alexander-Arnold, Spain international centre-back Dean Huijsen, Uruguayan left-back Alvaro Carreras and Argentine playmaker Franco Mastantuono. The squad at Alonso's disposal has title-winning credentials. Kylian Mbappe leads the line, and lest one forgets, he was last season's most prolific goal-scorer (31). In Vinicius Junior, Jude Bellingham, Brahim Diaz and Endrick, they have ample firepower to blow out defences. A bigger worry, though, would be guarding their fort, as they shipped 84 goals last season. It is not an indictment of their backline porousness alone, but the press-shyness of Mbappe and Vinicius. How Alonso, a press-master, makes his alpha-forward work harder would have a decisive impact on the trophy-winning ambitions. Eyes of doubt would lurk on Mbappe. He was not shy of goals last season, but Real Madrid icons are expected to do more. To wield an aura, to land the big trophies and to score in clutch games. Mbappe, for all his spark, has not shown the force of personality, like Cristiano Ronaldo or Zinedine Zidane. If he emerges from the shadows, the Yamal-Mbappe rivalry could finally take off. Neighbours Atletico have spent big by their frugal standards and brought nine players, that include two wingers, a forward and a clutch of defenders, for 146 million pounds. Eleven, of them nine starters, have left the club too, suggesting a massive rebuild. But Diego Simeone's philosophy would remain unshakeable. Solid, at times even rugged, defending would be the essence of Atletico. But they have adequate creative prowess to vie for the title. This number is his now 🔟💙❤️ — FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) July 16, 2025 Some of the new recruits would catch the eyes of other European powerhouses. Simeone said he had been searching for a defensive midfielder in the Johnny Cardoso mould. The American Cardoso sits alone in front of the back four or functions in a double pivot. He is aggressive in ball retrieval, supremely confident on the ball and consistently nips the opposition counters, besides blessed with an expansive passing range. Spanish winger Alex Baena had 24 assists in his last La Liga seasons with Villarreal. In comparison, Barcelona, handcuffed by financial regulation watchdogs, handcuffed to splurge in the market. They had to be satisfied with three incomers—goalkeeper Joan Garcia for the injured Marc-André ter Stegen, teenage winger Roony Bardghji and forward Marcus Rashford on a loan deal from Manchester United. They missed out on their most wanted target, winger Nico Williams. But the bottomless pit of La Masia academy trainees keeps overflowing. Pedro 'Dro' Fernandez, who impressed in their preseason tour of Japan and South Korea, is the latest. But the eyes of the world will be on Yamal. The reason the world descends on La Liga.
Business Recorder
5 days ago
- Business
- Business Recorder
Leading with versatility
Turbulence. Volatile. Uncertainty. Unrest. Upheaval. Up and down. Disruptive. These are the times that were the exception to the rule. These were the times that were supposed to be part of the contingency plans. These are norms today. The world has become fragmented and unsure. Economies are under duress. Businesses are in a spin. And it is not just a phase. This has made the text book rules look archaic. These have made business laws irrelevant. In this world of shifting sands; how to be steady, how to be stable and how to be sustainable is a tough ask. Leaders are being questioned. Despite all, leadership is still the key. There is no set of answers that can settle this debate. There are no new rules that can anchor the leader 'ship'. Having said that, the rise of a new type of leader is mostly with the fall of the stable type of environments. The old fables of the rise of leaders from ashes are dramatic but symbolically true. From Henry Ford who said that 'Any customer can have a car painted any colour as long as it is black' to Jack Welch who said, 'Change before you have to'; there have been rules that have worked. Leadership theories have evolved over time. The Great Man Theory gave way to the leadership trait theories. Then came the McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y and Blanchard's Situational Leadership Theory. They all have made contribution to understanding what works and what does not work. Many critics feel that in today's world we need a different approach. Many argue that what has happened and is happening today all across the world is unprecedented. Others feel that the gap between theory and practice is widening. All these thoughts have validity. Thus, there's the need to explore more and discover more. COVID was not just a health pandemic, it was a human revelation. An exposé of what an illusion prosperity is. A reminder of how shallow the leadership reserves of the world are. A reminder of how deceptive the pretence of stability is. Ripped off the mask of development, the post-COVID world has been even more stormy. COVID was a human tragedy and was supposed to make the world leadership reflect and focus on the healing process. To the shock of all, the world has gone into more geopolitical strife. Europe is facing the never ending Russia-Ukraine war and the Middle East is facing the horrors of Israel war on Palestine. That is why the word 'VUCA' has emerged to describe the complexity businesses are facing. VUCA stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity. The combination of these four words means that the human brain is being subject the very feelings it abhors, i.e., fear of the unknown and lack of clarity- classic causes of stress and breakdown. In these times, a readiness and preparedness approach would require leaders to have agility and versatility. As one size does not fit all, one style does not fit all. Let us look at the various styles that the leader needs to learn and practice in these disruptive times: Leading from the front— The most repeated and revered style mantra is that leaders lead from the front. The image is of the one man leaping ahead, setting the direction and making it easier for people to follow. That is true. It is especially true when the business is in early days. It is also needed when business is old but goes through extreme uncertainty and disruption. With things being hazy the vision of the top man provides the light in the tunnel. That is why names like Zuckerberg and Bill Gates are synonymous with leading to the next frontier in IT. COVID was a big test of VUCA and many companies and countries failed in it. Surprisingly, Pakistan fared much better than the US, Europe and India. The reason was that it led from the front with refusing to follow the complete lockdown strategy of the world and chose to practice the smart lockdown strategy. In the beginning everybody criticized it, but later case studies by the WHO were written on it to appreciate this leading from the front and not blindly following other country strategies. However, every situation is not dire, and every team is not paralysed. When a leader is used to marching in front, he or she is likely to miss out on the team potential. Most startups are the brainchild of the whizz kids who take the industry by storm with leading ahead of their competition. Many a time we have seen with startups that they come in grow quickly only to slow and stall. The ability to manage and sustain growth needs a different approach that many leaders could not adopt. Leading from the side— The wise leader also needs to know when to step aside. Leadership is not just the Pied Piper way. Sometimes you have to let people join the leading march. This is not easy for the leaders who enjoy the spot-light on themselves when they are the ones leading from the front. This is a different approach. This involves letting others shine. In times when either you need to grow quickly or change substantially it is best to involve and engage people in the process. Make people change champions. Let them come up with ideas. Pick up the good ideas. Let them implement them. This will create ownership and excitement. Then celebrate their success together. Be there to hand hold the slow ones. Do not abdicate. Take ownership of any risks. This of course requires a team maturity that has a mix of initiators and laggards. Leading from the behind— This is another approach that is needed when the talent pool of the leadership team is strong. In such teams if the leader keeps on leading from the front, the talent will find growth elsewhere. The focus has to be on developing other leaders. In family-owned businesses in Pakistan the major reason of growth not sustaining is that the family members stifle the talent of people in the lead. Wherever the family has stepped back and given the driving seat to the leadership team results have transformed. More than style, leadership is about principles. If the leaders have integrity and wisdom, they will have a versatility of approach that adapts to the maturity of its team and the requirement of the situation. When you sow the seeds of integrity and capability you harvest the fruits of versatility. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
Yahoo
22-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Author of Upcoming Elon Musk Biography Says ‘There Is No Evidence' Billionaire Has Any ‘Intellectual Achievements'
Attorney, journalist, and Elon Musk biographer Seth Abramson eviscerated both Elon Musk and his 'fanboys' who have attempted to use the billionaire's IQ as an indication of his intellectual prowess in a series of messages shared on X Thursday evening and into Friday. 'You are in a cult,' he wrote in one before he later noted Musk 'has zero *personal* intellectual achievements.' 'As an Elon Musk biographer, I would peg his IQ as between 100 and 110,' Abramson tweeted Thursday afternoon. 'There's zero evidence in his biography of anything higher. And I want to repeat that now, lest you think it a typo. There's zero evidence, from his life history, of Musk having anything higher than a 110 IQ.' The author then stepped away from the platform ('on the basis of this not being a platform worth spending time on') only to return Friday morning and find his initial message had gone viral in online MAGA communities — and 'because Nate Silver thinks Carlyle's 1800s theory of history, the Great Man Theory, is still relevant to historians in 2025,' Abramson continued. What followed was a lengthy series of messages, each designed to decimate Musk's reputation among some circles as a kind of genius. Musk 'was sued for stealing the idea for Zip2—which fired him as soon as investors got involved' and 'was going to run PayPal into the ground after his company merged with it—again he was fired.' He then 'invested in Tesla when it was distressed and quickly began running it into the ground.' Musk founded Zip2, described as 'a sort of digital Yellowpages' by Belmont Hill School's The Panel Online, with his brother. The outlet reported that in an attempt to impress investors in the company, Musk 'created a large, fake casing around the Zip2 computer to make it seem like an extremely advanced supercomputer' — a move that worked, but investors who put $3 million into the company did so only after Musk agreed to step down so 'someone more experienced to take his place.' The code used by the program, which Musk taught himself, 'was soon exposed to be so scrambled that a majority of the program had to be rewritten by more advanced programmers.' Musk ultimately returned to the company as CEO and benefitted financially when it was sold to COMPAQ in 1999. He used the $22 million his 7% share brought in to an 'internet bank' at — the same company he merged with the founders of Paypal. He was named CEO after the merger in April 2000 but was removed from the position six months later. SpaceX, Abramson continued, is Musk's only 'truly successful and novel company' and a chunk of its success was owed to President Obama, who Musk 'successfully lobbied' after 'Russians had laughed Musk out of Moscow.' 'I needn't tell you the Boring Company is a failure that has done no more than produce an illegal flamethrower for fun, one that cannot be legally shipped and has caused lots of people legal issues,' Abramson added. 'Neuralink is mired in ethics investigations, and Musk does none of its science.' 'Everything' Musk has said about Twitter/X was 'a lie,' he also said, 'and business schools will teach how he ran this platform into the ground for 200 years.' 'Feel free to Google all the things Musk did to scam people into thinking he'd made a successful foray into robotics,' Abramson continued. 'It does not take intelligence to throw money around and buy a company or buy a politician. Anyone would/could.' 'It does not take intelligence to, having thrown money at a politician, use the clout you accrued from that to advantage your own businesses—businesses you are well aware you have nothing to do with the success of, which is why you mess around with their patents to hide that fact.' 'If you assign intelligence to just spending money, you're in a cult,' he also added. 'If you attach intelligence to simply owning a successful company whose work on a day-to-day basis you have nothing to do with and who you are considerably more of a hindrance to than a help to, you're in a cult.' Toward the end of his messages, Abramson noted, 'It is also a particularly American disease to confuse wealth with intelligence and corporations with those who own them. In most of the world the conversation we are having would seem utterly preposterous, as again there is no evidence of Musk having *intellectual* achievements.' 'I don't find IQ to be a valuable measure,' he also clarified. 'I introduced the term to this conversation because it's used by *you fans* as some sort of supposed proof of Musk's intelligence—though none of you have any proof whatsoever of any IQ test the man's ever taken.' Abramson's entire thread can be read on X, formerly Twitter. The post Author of Upcoming Elon Musk Biography Says 'There Is No Evidence' Billionaire Has Any 'Intellectual Achievements' appeared first on TheWrap.
Yahoo
22-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Author of Upcoming Elon Musk Biography Says ‘There Is No Evidence' Billionaire Has Any ‘Intellectual Achievements'
Attorney, journalist, and Elon Musk biographer Seth Abramson eviscerated both Elon Musk and his 'fanboys' who have attempted to use the billionaire's IQ as an indication of his intellectual prowess in a series of messages shared on X Thursday evening and into Friday. 'You are in a cult,' he wrote in one before he later noted Musk 'has zero *personal* intellectual achievements.' 'As an Elon Musk biographer, I would peg his IQ as between 100 and 110,' Abramson tweeted Thursday afternoon. 'There's zero evidence in his biography of anything higher. And I want to repeat that now, lest you think it a typo. There's zero evidence, from his life history, of Musk having anything higher than a 110 IQ.' The author then stepped away from the platform ('on the basis of this not being a platform worth spending time on') only to return Friday morning and find his initial message had gone viral in online MAGA communities — and 'because Nate Silver thinks Carlyle's 1800s theory of history, the Great Man Theory, is still relevant to historians in 2025,' Abramson continued. What followed was a lengthy series of messages, each designed to decimate Musk's reputation among some circles as a kind of genius. Musk 'was sued for stealing the idea for Zip2—which fired him as soon as investors got involved' and 'was going to run PayPal into the ground after his company merged with it—again he was fired.' He then 'invested in Tesla when it was distressed and quickly began running it into the ground.' Musk founded Zip2, described as 'a sort of digital Yellowpages' by Belmont Hill School's The Panel Online, with his brother. The outlet reported that in an attempt to impress investors in the company, Musk 'created a large, fake casing around the Zip2 computer to make it seem like an extremely advanced supercomputer' — a move that worked, but investors who put $3 million into the company did so only after Musk agreed to step down so 'someone more experienced to take his place.' The code used by the program, which Musk taught himself, 'was soon exposed to be so scrambled that a majority of the program had to be rewritten by more advanced programmers.' Musk ultimately returned to the company as CEO and benefitted financially when it was sold to COMPAQ in 1999. He used the $22 million his 7% share brought in to an 'internet bank' at — the same company he merged with the founders of Paypal. He was named CEO after the merger in April 2000 but was removed from the position six months later. SpaceX, Abramson continued, is Musk's only 'truly successful and novel company' and a chunk of its success was owed to President Obama, who Musk 'successfully lobbied' after 'Russians had laughed Musk out of Moscow.' 'I needn't tell you the Boring Company is a failure that has done no more than produce an illegal flamethrower for fun, one that cannot be legally shipped and has caused lots of people legal issues,' Abramson added. 'Neuralink is mired in ethics investigations, and Musk does none of its science.' 'Everything' Musk has said about Twitter/X was 'a lie,' he also said, 'and business schools will teach how he ran this platform into the ground for 200 years.' 'Feel free to Google all the things Musk did to scam people into thinking he'd made a successful foray into robotics,' Abramson continued. 'It does not take intelligence to throw money around and buy a company or buy a politician. Anyone would/could.' 'It does not take intelligence to, having thrown money at a politician, use the clout you accrued from that to advantage your own businesses—businesses you are well aware you have nothing to do with the success of, which is why you mess around with their patents to hide that fact.' 'If you assign intelligence to just spending money, you're in a cult,' he also added. 'If you attach intelligence to simply owning a successful company whose work on a day-to-day basis you have nothing to do with and who you are considerably more of a hindrance to than a help to, you're in a cult.' Toward the end of his messages, Abramson noted, 'It is also a particularly American disease to confuse wealth with intelligence and corporations with those who own them. In most of the world the conversation we are having would seem utterly preposterous, as again there is no evidence of Musk having *intellectual* achievements.' 'I don't find IQ to be a valuable measure,' he also clarified. 'I introduced the term to this conversation because it's used by *you fans* as some sort of supposed proof of Musk's intelligence—though none of you have any proof whatsoever of any IQ test the man's ever taken.' Abramson's entire thread can be read on X, formerly Twitter. The post Author of Upcoming Elon Musk Biography Says 'There Is No Evidence' Billionaire Has Any 'Intellectual Achievements' appeared first on TheWrap.
