Who should be captain?

April 4th, 2006 | by: Chriso | View Comments

I’ve been reading Patrick Vieira’s autobiography and in it he has a chapter called Being Captain, where he talks about getting the captaincy of Arsenal and France and the national captains he’s played under.

Vieira says Raymond Domenech encouraged him to take responsibility rather than forced it on him and that taking that responsibility didn’t frighten him. Patrick describes himself as someone who is naturally quiet, who had to learn to shout on the pitch, he says he’s open but reserved.

Speaking about the France captains he’s played with, Deschamps comes over as the most natural leader, a skipper who was open minded , a good listener and a quick and strong decision maker.
Vieira says Desailly was a more stand back, take it easy kind of captain, not having Deschamps’s intensity.

The surprising one and obviously with the most relevance to this World Cup is Zidane. Vieira says of Zidane ‘ Did he really want to be captain? I don’t know….I don’t actually think so. He did it for the good of the team.’

I’m sure Zidane will still want to do it for France this time but looking at the France squad I don’t see to many natural team leaders who could take his place.

Vieira sure, but he likes to lead by playing example rather than vocally motivating his team. Barthez? I don’t like goalies as captains. Of the defenders Thuram is Mr Experience, similarly Makelele in midfield but can they inspire the others? Henry is the current Arsenal captain but he has a very young team who are probably in awe of him.

You need great players to win a World Cup but I think having a really strong, dominant captain to drive the team on really helps.