Saw this on YNWA. Interesting insight into Babel who seems a bit weird a la Agger.
Ryan Babel still lives alone in Liverpool - or accompanied only by
the Lord, as he sees it - but he needs company. "We're still deciding
whether my mother will join me, or my girlfriend," the footballer
confides. "In Holland I hadn't moved out of my parents' home yet.
That's a big step." Can he boil an egg? "No, that doesn't work."
Though Liverpool paid {GBP}12m for him this summer, the Dutch striker
still seems something of a nai{"}f. Above that big body is a little
boyish face, with slight buckteeth and the faintest beard. His hair
is shaven into a neat square.
Babel is 20, but you would guess him to be younger. Talking in the
Dutch national team's beach hotel beside the dunes the other day, he
offered a refreshingly innocent view of England and its football - a
game he has all the qualities to conquer.
Babel was born in Amsterdam, but his accent reveals family origins in
Surinam, the former Dutch colony on South America's northern tip.
There are only 70,000 Amsterdam Surinamese, but they produce more
footballers per capita than possibly any other ethnic group in the
world. Their stars - Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard, Clarence Seedorf,
Patrick Kluivert and Edgar Davids - would staff half a world 11, and
behind them are many other Dutch internationals and hundreds of good
professionals.
Babel joined Ajax Amsterdam aged 11. Everyone saw his gifts - the big
kid who moved like a gymnast and did wonders with the ball - but he
rarely scored. Nobody could quite work out what he was for. Criticism
was unceasing. Two Ajax youth coaches told me about a kid by the
weird name of Babel, who, when the legend Marco van Basten had
arrived to help coach his team, remained entirely blase{'}. "Aren't
you pleased Marco has come?" one coach asked him. Babel just shrugged
beneath his baseball cap. "Mwaaa," he said.
Nonetheless, by 18 he had become the youngest man to score for
Holland since the war. Yet when Van Basten, by this time Holland's
manager, inquired after his career plans, Babel replied: "I'm going
to go into music, coach." A devoted rapper, he has approximately
5,000 songs on his iPod.
In the beach hotel, Babel recalls the chastisements of Ajax's coach
Henk ten Cate, another Surinamer. If Babel got too intricate trying
to dribble past a defender, Ten Cate would scream: "Ryan, you're the
fastest in Holland, dammit! Just kick the ball and run."
Babel never became a key player for Ajax, but over this summer he
improved quickly. "Purely because of confidence," he told me. In June
he led Holland to victory in the European Under-21 Championships,
during which the Dutch football journal Hard Gras noted this
vignette: Babel, at a gymnastics training session, standing on a
balancing bar with a ball on his foot.
Rafael Benitez, Liverpool's manager, had had Babel watched since the
boy was 16. This summer Benitez signed him. Entering Liverpool's
legendary Anfield stadium, Babel was unawed. "At first it did nothing
to me. It still doesn't." Doesn't he like legendary grounds? "It
doesn't matter to me. I feel happiest if the stadium looks decent."
He does admit to touching the legendary "This is Anfield" sign before
taking the field, but only because his team-mates do.
His bigger priority in Liverpool was finding a church. "I drove past
a couple, but in principle you can't understand people in Liverpool.
It's a very strange dialect."
Stranger still were British taboids. Benitez, who is "like an uncle",
instructed him: "If they ask something, they want to hear A, but you
think B, and you say C."
In training, Babel noticed that Liverpool's players didn't berate
each other as was customary at Ajax. If he screamed, "Where's your
control?" everyone looked at him uncomprehendingly. Another surprise
was how much Liverpool practised defending. "We are very compact, and
then we come out with two, three passes, like madmen, and shoot."
Yet judging by his first, good performances, he has Benitez's licence
to run with the ball. "Of course. When it comes to attacking in
matches, he has said almost nothing to me. I have tasks only when we
defend."
At Ajax, Babel had learned his trademark but ineffective "hip shot",
struck from underneath the body with almost no backlift, from Gaston
Sangoy, an obscure Argentine reserve. At Liverpool, he imitates a
more celebrated team-mate. "I just use Steven Gerrard as my shooting
coach. He really can shoot."
Physically, surely, Babel is already complete? "A big body doesn't
mean you're strong. I understand from Robin van Persie at Arsenal
that Julio Baptista isn't strong at all, even though he's a massive
guy." Is Babel strong? "I feel strong."
Are Liverpool, top of the league, strong enough to win their first
title since 1990? "At first, when people said we had to be champions,
I thought, 'Well, I don't know about that.' But now we're growing."
Not half as fast as Babel is, though.
the Lord, as he sees it - but he needs company. "We're still deciding
whether my mother will join me, or my girlfriend," the footballer
confides. "In Holland I hadn't moved out of my parents' home yet.
That's a big step." Can he boil an egg? "No, that doesn't work."
Though Liverpool paid {GBP}12m for him this summer, the Dutch striker
still seems something of a nai{"}f. Above that big body is a little
boyish face, with slight buckteeth and the faintest beard. His hair
is shaven into a neat square.
Babel is 20, but you would guess him to be younger. Talking in the
Dutch national team's beach hotel beside the dunes the other day, he
offered a refreshingly innocent view of England and its football - a
game he has all the qualities to conquer.
Babel was born in Amsterdam, but his accent reveals family origins in
Surinam, the former Dutch colony on South America's northern tip.
There are only 70,000 Amsterdam Surinamese, but they produce more
footballers per capita than possibly any other ethnic group in the
world. Their stars - Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard, Clarence Seedorf,
Patrick Kluivert and Edgar Davids - would staff half a world 11, and
behind them are many other Dutch internationals and hundreds of good
professionals.
Babel joined Ajax Amsterdam aged 11. Everyone saw his gifts - the big
kid who moved like a gymnast and did wonders with the ball - but he
rarely scored. Nobody could quite work out what he was for. Criticism
was unceasing. Two Ajax youth coaches told me about a kid by the
weird name of Babel, who, when the legend Marco van Basten had
arrived to help coach his team, remained entirely blase{'}. "Aren't
you pleased Marco has come?" one coach asked him. Babel just shrugged
beneath his baseball cap. "Mwaaa," he said.
Nonetheless, by 18 he had become the youngest man to score for
Holland since the war. Yet when Van Basten, by this time Holland's
manager, inquired after his career plans, Babel replied: "I'm going
to go into music, coach." A devoted rapper, he has approximately
5,000 songs on his iPod.
In the beach hotel, Babel recalls the chastisements of Ajax's coach
Henk ten Cate, another Surinamer. If Babel got too intricate trying
to dribble past a defender, Ten Cate would scream: "Ryan, you're the
fastest in Holland, dammit! Just kick the ball and run."
Babel never became a key player for Ajax, but over this summer he
improved quickly. "Purely because of confidence," he told me. In June
he led Holland to victory in the European Under-21 Championships,
during which the Dutch football journal Hard Gras noted this
vignette: Babel, at a gymnastics training session, standing on a
balancing bar with a ball on his foot.
Rafael Benitez, Liverpool's manager, had had Babel watched since the
boy was 16. This summer Benitez signed him. Entering Liverpool's
legendary Anfield stadium, Babel was unawed. "At first it did nothing
to me. It still doesn't." Doesn't he like legendary grounds? "It
doesn't matter to me. I feel happiest if the stadium looks decent."
He does admit to touching the legendary "This is Anfield" sign before
taking the field, but only because his team-mates do.
His bigger priority in Liverpool was finding a church. "I drove past
a couple, but in principle you can't understand people in Liverpool.
It's a very strange dialect."
Stranger still were British taboids. Benitez, who is "like an uncle",
instructed him: "If they ask something, they want to hear A, but you
think B, and you say C."
In training, Babel noticed that Liverpool's players didn't berate
each other as was customary at Ajax. If he screamed, "Where's your
control?" everyone looked at him uncomprehendingly. Another surprise
was how much Liverpool practised defending. "We are very compact, and
then we come out with two, three passes, like madmen, and shoot."
Yet judging by his first, good performances, he has Benitez's licence
to run with the ball. "Of course. When it comes to attacking in
matches, he has said almost nothing to me. I have tasks only when we
defend."
At Ajax, Babel had learned his trademark but ineffective "hip shot",
struck from underneath the body with almost no backlift, from Gaston
Sangoy, an obscure Argentine reserve. At Liverpool, he imitates a
more celebrated team-mate. "I just use Steven Gerrard as my shooting
coach. He really can shoot."
Physically, surely, Babel is already complete? "A big body doesn't
mean you're strong. I understand from Robin van Persie at Arsenal
that Julio Baptista isn't strong at all, even though he's a massive
guy." Is Babel strong? "I feel strong."
Are Liverpool, top of the league, strong enough to win their first
title since 1990? "At first, when people said we had to be champions,
I thought, 'Well, I don't know about that.' But now we're growing."
Not half as fast as Babel is, though.
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