Baseball teams are divided into two: players who pitch and those who hit.. Both roles are highly specialized, with pitchers rarely hitting and hitters never, ever, ever pitching.. In the history of the best league in the world, the American MLB, there have been several players who have combined both tasks, but no one had done it successfully since Babe Ruth literally a century ago.. Until Shohei Ohtani appeared. In 2017, the one who was already a phenomenon in Japan arrived at the Los Angeles Angels at the age of 24 amid enormous expectations – something similar to what he experienced with LeBron James or Victor Wembanyama in the NBA – and turned the competition upside down: always among the best in pitching and hitting, he was chosen All-Star in both tasks for the first time in history and named MVP in both 2021 and 2023.

“There is no one like him in all of history, it is very complicated to do both at the highest level and, in fact, I would say that it is an unrepeatable case. If he had not grown up in Japan and had grown up in the United States, they would have forced him to specialize,” analyzes Fernando Díaz, Movistar's MLB commentator, and adds: “That's why all the teams want him now.”

And that's the story. Ohtani is about to break with everything beyond baseball: he can sign the highest contract in the history of world sports. It will not do so in annual salary, but it threatens Leo Messi's record thanks to the tradition of MLB teams of establishing very long agreements – 10 seasons or even 11, 12, 13 or 14 -. If the Argentine footballer earned 555 million euros in four years at Barcelona as revealed by EL MUNDO, the Japanese could secure up to 624 million euros to earn in a decade.

A fortune for an injured person

The figure is a matter of debate in all sports gatherings in the United States – it ranges between 366 and 624 million – and depends on several factors.. One, for example, is the competition between the teams that aspire to sign him. The New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, Seattle Mariners, Boston Red Sox and New York Mets are suitors, but we will have to see to what extent they are willing to risk. Because another factor is that Ohtani is currently injured.

“Until August I was having the most brilliant season ever, crazy, and I could have asked for anything I wanted.”. Now there are more things to value, although there is only one Ohtani,” explains Díaz. In September, the star underwent surgery on his good elbow for the second time in his career and will not be able to pitch until 2025 at the earliest, so he will spend a year focused only on hitting.. The player's agents have assured that in 2026 he will once again be the historic 'two-ways player' that he has been in recent years, but, of course, there are doubts. Maybe the best version of the Japanese will not return, perhaps his most brilliant moment has already passed.

Objective: be a planetary idol

In the Angels, in addition, Ohtani hardly had any pressure, since the team has been adrift for some time, out of the playoffs and in the shadow of their neighbors, the Dodgers, who won the World Series in 2020. When he signs for a title contender, he must be a leader as well as an excellent hitter and an excellent pitcher.. He will also need to mature off the field.

Because until now the Japanese has dedicated himself to shining and that's it. In the shadow of his translator, Ippei Mizuhara, who is at the same time his assistant and a kind of coach, does not respond in English in interviews and has barely revealed his personality in them.. If anything, his parents were also athletes – his father played baseball and his mother played badminton -, that he practiced swimming as a child and that he likes to sleep more than 10 hours a day..

All this has prevented him from being a planetary star, even the biggest idol in the United States, but not in Japan.. In his country Ohtani is considered a star among stars, with millions of followers who buy his shirt and everything he advertises.. “The translator is a barrier, but if he ends up in one of the best teams in the league, like the Yankees, the Dodgers or the Cubs, his media profile will grow infinitely,” analyzes Díaz, who awaits a decision from the Japanese before end of the year. The next season in the MLB will begin in March and a couple of months before the teams must already know if they should take charge of the largest contract in the history of sports or not..

There is no sports gathering that has not raised the topic of whether or not Joao Félix will celebrate a goal against Atlético de Madrid. The football talk regarding the Portuguese is even surpassing the interest aroused by one of the great matches of this first third of LaLiga on this 15th matchday: the fourth, FC Barcelona, against the red and whites, third.

The majority opinion, of course, is that Viseu will celebrate and, furthermore, ostensibly. While there are few who believe that he will not do it out of respect for the club to which he belongs or, more than believing it, they want it.. “I hope he doesn't celebrate it,” said the president of Atlético, Enrique Cerezo, during the presentation of his book. Although later Cerezo himself expressed that if he kisses the culé shield it is “because he feels Barcelona.”

However, club sources told EL MUNDO that “the normal thing is for him to be happy if he scores a goal” and he is not worried nor will his gestures be “monitored” in the event that he plays a good game today against Atlético or ends up scoring a goal. so much.

The one who didn't do it when he scored against 'his' team at home last year was Rodrigo Riquelme. In fact, he apologized as soon as he scored and received a standing ovation from the Metropolitan.. “I didn't expect the applause. I had to play against them. “I defend the Girona shield, but I thank the Atlético fans,” he expressed.

The situation is obviously not the same.. Riquelme has been a red-and-white youth player since he was young and has always defended that his dream is to succeed at Atlético de Madrid, which he is now achieving. Joao Félix, on the other hand, expressed last summer, when he was still a member of the red and white ranks, that his dream was different.. “It has always been my first option and I would love to join Barça,” he told journalist Fabrizio Romano.. And he achieved it on the last day of the market despite the fact that the club believes that he “crossed a red line” with that announcement.

Assignment

Atlético and Barça agreed on the transfer of the Portuguese, without an option to purchase, without a bonus for the movement, but the Catalans assuming the player's entire record. Movement that occurred after Félix renewed his contract with the Colchoneros until 2029 (he had a contract until 2027) to facilitate the amortization of his salary at the time of being registered in the LaLiga by Barcelona.. “He is poorly advised when it comes to achieving the transfer and could have achieved it another way,” Atlético sources say, although they also report that the player has already “apologized through the appropriate channels” for that announcement.

The intention of the transfer was, obviously, the revaluation of a footballer who had not finished meeting the high expectations generated by his signing for 126 million euros in 2019.. At Atlético he had had good moments, but he had not finished emerging as a world star. The disagreements with his coach over some attitudes and gestures took away his prominence and, finally, a gap in the squad.. And the club regrets that these disagreements between the two have been aired.

The locker room no longer liked his declaration of love for Barcelona, and some red and white players have recently come out to question the way in which Félix has approached his time at Atlético. If Antoine Griezmann believed that the Portuguese had lacked perseverance and that he “got tired” of trying, Saúl Ñíguez was something more specific: “You have to want, you have to adapt, you have to try to do many things that maybe if your head doesn't I was in the best moment, because it couldn't be here. I wish him all the best, that everything goes very well at Barça. “He has started very strong, I think he could have done things better too, he hasn't, and I think that has taken its toll on the club and the team.”

Numbers with Barça

Joao Félix's figures at Barcelona are not stratospheric in the domestic championship, but they do improve in Europe. The Portuguese has a goal and two assists in LaLiga in 11 games of the 14 played and three goals and an assist in the Champions League, in five of five. He has played good times, yes; but he still doesn't have a superstar performance.

What does not change and will not change whatever happens tonight are the intentions of Atlético de Madrid with Joao Félix. The club remains at a minimum of 80 million to let the player leave this summer. “Atlético is not going to lose the investment it made,” they explain. And if he finally stays, “it has been seen that he is not incompatible with Simeone,” they say about the last rojiblanco league title, the 2020/21 season, in which Joao Félix has a great role with 31 games, seven goals and six assists.

There were few doubts that Luis de la Fuente will be the one who sits on the bench in the Euro Cup but, with elections in the RFEF in sight, the sports director, Albert Luque, dispelled them. The Riojan will close his renewal as coach until the 2026 World Cup in the coming weeks. “There are small details left and in the coming weeks there will be information. We are in one of the best sporting moments and Luis's work has been magnificent. With that I say it all,” Luque warned from Hamburg in statements to Cadena SER.

This decision, under the interim presidency of Pedro Rocha, will have to be assumed by the winner of the elections to be held by the RFEF, which will have to be called during the month of January.. Luis Rubiales' successor will then have to decide whether to run for re-election or, on the other hand, resign and remain at the head of the management committee that will oversee the process.

The intention is that the coach, whose contract ends on June 30, before the end of the Euro Cup, can work safely for the seven months remaining until the start of the competition, which will be his biggest challenge since he sat on the bench. Spain at the beginning of 2023.

“Apply ourselves from the first moment”

“If it is not the most difficult group, it is one of the most. All the games are going to be complicated, because Albania, for example, was first in the classification ahead of the Czech Republic or Poland. It is a group that will require us to apply ourselves from the first moment to offer the best image,” he warned that, although he is prudent, he does not hesitate either.

“No team would want to have had Italy or Croatia, but neither would Spain. We are confident and we have already seen the growth and potential of our players, who are among the best in the world,” said the coach.

For Luque, the group offers confrontations “of those that footballers like, but in the box we preferred other rivals to start and then meet teams like Italy or Croatia.

Sarri and Dalic

If De la Fuente saw difficulty, so did Zlatko Dalic. For the Croatian it will be a “difficult and uncertain group, because we play with the current champion of Europe and the National League. We will have a very difficult job because we open against Spain in Berlin and in the probably decisive match we will play against Italy.”

Sarri is not confident either: “The draw could have been better, but nothing takes away our awareness of being Italy and having to play every game with pride.”

Girona has rescued 19 points when the games were cloudy and the obituaries began to be written. Survive every death announced and not by chance. Míchel's team never loses faith and that allows them to live firmly in the leadership of LaLiga. They defend their status as the best team in the championship without meanness, with a brilliant, brave and, above all, effective game. With a strategist on the bench and a leader on the field, Stuani, whose humble experience appears to deliver painful blows like the one Valencia took. [Narrative and statistics (2-1)]

The Valencians managed to tie up the co-leader for many minutes. Girona never changes its style, least of all in Montilivi, and that allowed Baraja to instruct his team to sustain the duel.. They wouldn't have much of the ball and what they had to do was prevent it from going through Sávio. Thierry became very strong on that wing, aided by Foulquier, who embittered the Brazilian in his attempts to rush down the wing.

Tsygankov, on the right, could not even test the young Yarek, the last to join the Quinta del Pipo due to Gayà's injury. Míchel's team had more control, but neither Aleix García was comfortable in command with Pepelu's nuisance nor could they translate that possession into danger and with Dovbyk permanently falling into the offside trap that Mosquera and Paulista set for him.

Yangel Herrera injury

The Valencians' priority was firmness, because from there they could force errors. It was understood when, from a robbery by Foulquier, Fran Pérez crossed a shot that grazed Gazzaniga's corner.. It was a whiplash that did not have continuity, like those that the co-leader had. Without a brilliant game, having lost Yangel Herrera in the first minutes, he managed to reach the area and Dovbyk forced Mamardashvili to use a cat's hand on the stroke of half-time.

The Georgian goalkeeper was once again the protagonist in the return, saving two sharp shots from Aleix García that were beginning to make Míchel's team desperate.. Valencia choked him and forced him to take risks. From there the Valencians took advantage, guided by an incombustible Hugo Duro who takes gold from one meter. That is the hallmark of this Valencia, barely conceding and striking boldly whenever possible.

Míchel looked for a way to come back again, he changed Sávio to the left, but Foulquier also chased him there, who was able to close the game and failed inexplicably alone against Girona's goal.. There were 70 minutes of resistance that ended with the offensive variation that came from the local bench.

Hole on the left

Stuani sat down a defender and Girona began to fuel. A worn-out rival with few weapons on the bench made things easier, and despite strengthening in the middle with Diakhaby, he left a huge hole on his left bank.. Tsygankov tried with a cross that Mosquera saved, as did Mamardashvili with Stuani's header on the ball that came from that side.

Valencia was bleeding and Yan Couto dug into the wound mercilessly. From his centers and his connection with Stuani the comeback was born in six minutes after the 80th minute. The pink-haired Brazilian, who jumped onto the pitch with a yellow card for protesting, roamed freely on the side of the area and his two assists were found by the Uruguayan veteran forcing Mosquera's errors. Girona's smartest player anchors it to the leadership. They didn't even need Sávio, who saw his goal, Girona's third, disallowed. Nothing eclipsed the celebration of watching the League from the top.