OPINION LEADERS ISSUE 10

SPORTS
For every golf fan around the world,
springtime is the period of one of the
four major golf tournaments, the Masters
Tournament or US Masters. Which just
like every year was held in Augusta, Georgia,
USA.
The big question for the event was
solely one: Would it be the comeback to
major tournaments for the legendary Tiger
Woods? As– he had mentioned in the
past, he feels good again but not sure
if he will ever feel great again. Even
though, Woods was desperate to get back to
action, and millions of golf fans around the
world were hoping that they would see
him compete against the odds, unfortunately
due to a back injury he was forced
to cancel his participation admitting that
there is no schedule date for his return yet.
On the contrary, Danny Willett, the US
Masters 2016 champion returned to defend
his title. Danny who was only the
second English golfer to achieve winning
the US masters, which at the same time
was his first major championship, did not
manage to win the championship for two
consecutive years and a new champion
was crowned. That was another athlete
who won his first major championship,
the Spanish golfer Sergio Garcia. Garcia, who
became only the third Spanish player that
ever wins the US Masters, came up with
the victory after defeating Englishman Jus-
tin Rose. It was a dramatic finale where
Garcia claimed the win and the tournament
over the first sudden-death playoff.
However, another reason that made
the event so special was no other of the
fact that this was the first major tournament
without Arnold Palmer, who passed away at
the age of 87. Arnold Palmer has been regarded
as one of the greatest players in the
history of golf, with 62 PGA tour titles
and 7 major championships, and had been
awarded numerous times for his contribution
to the sport of golf. Palmer, who is
usually referred as ‘’The King’’, is considered
as one of the people who made
golf what it is today. His affection and
his popularity made him one of the icons
for the sports. After a great and emotional
ceremony, most of attendees wore Arnold’s
Army pins to pay their respect to Palmer,
while his green jacket was laid across to a
white lawn chair. As Master’s Chairman,
William Payne, said: ‘’It was a wonderful
and a difficult day. Arnold Palmer was
more than just a King. He was my friend.
He was your friend.’’
US Masters was a great tournament,
where the expectations of the fans were totally
met. Next on the line is the U.S.
Open, which is taking place in Erin, Wisconsin
during these June days, and golfers
expect to live one more great experience.
Only a couple of weeks after Monaco
hosted the Formula E Grand Prix, it
was the turn of one of the traditional
and most difficult races in Formula 1 to take
place in Monte Carlo. Fans from all over the
world will remember this year´s race for
two reasons. For the shocking and terrifying
accident that occurred only 20 laps before
the end of the race, when Pascal Wehrlein,
a German-Mauritian driver, currently racing
for Sauber, crushed on the walls after a
collision with James Button. Of course both
drivers were forced to retire from the rest of
the race (fortunately completely unharmed)
and the safety cars were deployed. The other
(this time) pleasant reason, especially for the
Ferrari fans, was that Sebastian Vettel ended
a 16-year strike that disabled the Italian
team from winning on “the Principality” and
led his team to the victory. It was Vettel´s
second victory in Monaco, continuing a
great traditio for German drivers in this
race, where along with Nico Rosberg and the
great Michael Schumacher have summed
up a total of 10 victories in the last 24 races.
However the four-time World Champion still
seems more capable than ever to regain the
championship, the first with Ferrari. Besides
Vettel´s victory in Monaco Grand Prix, the
2nd place of his teammate Kimi Räikkönen
completed a great race for Ferrari. Their
performances put the Italian team to the
first place, however it took Mercedes only
one Grand Prix to regain the lead. After
the Canadian Grand Prix, Mercedes
leads with 222 points, while Ferrari
has 214. It is way too early for any
prediction, especially since we are not even
in the middle of the current championship
but who isn´t curious to find out
whether Ferrari has what it takes
to win its first championship since 2008.
The next “battle” is about to take place in
Azerbaijan, yet another Grand Prix that will
make millions of fans holding their breath.
Since F1 is a kind of a competition where
predictions cannot be made until November
where the next Champions will be
crowned, best thing one can do is to relax
and enjoy each and every race!
Sport editor Konstantinos Arapostathis
CHAMPIONS
LEAGUE
One more UEFA Champions League is history
after another amazing season with
loads of great games, great memories, especially
in the knock out games. Best highlights
in a synopsis could be said to be the following.
Barcelona, one of the favorites, did not arrive at
another comeback as they managed to do in the
unforgettable quarter final against PSG. Leicester
City, the “Cinderella” of European football,
reached to the second game too but they did not
complete another miracle. A.S. Monaco had a
great year and defeated two giants of European
football, Manchester City and Dortmund but they
were disqualified at the semi-finals by Juventus.
And of course who can forget Bayern Munich who
seemed unstoppable until the second games but
were defeated in the extra time by Real Madrid.
In this year’s final, two football giants gave another
great performance to millions of spectators.
Juventus vs Real Madrid. Two world renowned
clubs, from two traditional football superpower
countries. Fans from all over the world may not
have dreamt a better finale. Especially when
only a few days before, Manchester United
and Ajax two other traditional football clubs had
competed for the Europa League final.
Real Madrid was the better team in the final,
which took place in Cardiff, and became the first
team who wins the Champions League for two consecutive
years! The final score (4-1) did not leave
I
cannot hide my excitement that I will
finally be able to introduce to you our
dear readers my favorite competition,
which is no-other than the Basketball’s
Euroleague. And I do not think I could
find a better chance from the Final-4 of
Euroleague (Istanbul, 19-21 May) where
history was made. Fenerbahce became the
first Turkish team ever winning the biggest
championship in Europe, by defeating
Real Madrid in the semi-finals and
Olympiakos in the final.
It cannot be doubted that Fenerbahce
had few advantages over its competitors. For
those who are not aware, Turkish Airlines is
the sponsor of the whole Euroleague competition.
Also the Final 4 was held in Turkey
in a stadium where 80-85% of the
spectators were supporters of the Turkish
team while rumours said that even President
Erdogan was going to attend the final; then
one can easily realize that this was not just
another game for the Turkish team. Does
this mean that the Turkish team had an unfair
advantage to win the championship? An
easy answer would be yes.
However one should admit that Fenerbahce
truly deserved the championship.
The full answer to that goes back 4 years,
when the owner of Fenerbahce achieved to
change the destiny of the Turkish club. After
many years, where they had invested a
lot of money to some good players but
with zero return on their investment, they
decided to change their plan and start all
over again by bringing the best manager
in the history of European championship,
Coach Zeljko Obradovic.
Some of Obradovic’s achievement were
8 European championships with 4 different
teams, along with gold medals with
the national team of Yugoslavia in European
and World championships. The owners gave
the manager unlimited budget and time as
well in order to bring the club to the top, and
he did. After a first unsuccessful year in Euroleague,
Coach Obradovic led Fenerbahce
to three consecutive Final-4. In this year’s
Finals Fenerbahce proved its dominant position.
The ability that coach Obradovic has
to adjust to the needs of each specific game,
how he improves the performance of his
players, game after game in order to beat the
competition, is remarkable. The first European
championship of the Turkish club
became also the 9th for him. And unfortunately
for his opponents, his hunger and
his motivation to beat himself will not stop
there! In my opinion this Final 4 was not just
a victory for Fenerbahce. It was also a victory
for European basketball, where it has to
face the tough competition of the NBA.
It succeeded by hosting the Final 4 in a city
where the crowd was living for the game,
a crowd that really appreciate basketball.
Considering the fact that the next Final 4
will also be held in another city where
basketball is popular, that of Belgrade, can
be a tangible proof that there is still pulse in
European basketball…
any doubt about Real’s dominance in the European
football as it was their third trophy in four years.
An extraordinary performance that only two more
teams have ever achieved. Barcelona, by winning 3
Champions Leagues in 6 years (2009, 2011, 2015)
and.....“another version” of Real Madrid !!! (1998,
2000, 2002). Wonder why they are regarded as
the best team in World Football of all times…
The other finalist, Juventus will have to
wait until next year to reclaim the Champions
League. But one thing that will not be forgotten,
no matter what happens in the near future, is the
presence of one of the greatest goalkeepers of all
times, Gianluigi Buffon. With more than 1.000 appearances
for Parma, Juventus and the National
team of Italy, Buffon is regarded by many
the greatest goalkeeper of all times. Especially
when Buffon did something that in the new era of
world professional football, we do not meet quite
often. When Juventus relegated to Serie B in 2006,
Buffon was one of the players that showed his
loyalty to the club and remained in the team. So,
what a better story could have been than winning
the Champions League in the twilight of his football
career? A career with so many individual
and team awards, without a Champions League
trophy though… For those who believe in fate,
the God of Football owed Buffon that trophy, before
he retired; So will he? Only one knows…
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