sport

Michael Mifsud is MaltaToday’s Sportsman of the Year

It was not easy choosing one person to be Malta’ s Sportsman of the year of 2001. Many sportsmen did well this year, not only in the local scene but also abroad

We can start with Stefan Farrugia, who not only won the gold medal at the Games of Small States (GSSE) but has recently joined Italian giants Mediolanum, Milano. There is also the Middle Sea Race crew, who for the first time made Malta proud by winning the race, and there are also the likes of Steve Mifsud, Snooker Champion in Australia and Tony Drago, another professional snooker player.

But Malta Today’s vote went to Michael Mifsud, the young prodigy from Sliema who at the beginning of the season joined German giants Kaiserslautern.

It is not easy for a local football player to make the grade abroad. Carmel Busuttil made it in Belgium with Genk and at present there is also Stefan Giglio who plays for Bulgarian giants CSKA Sofia. But to make it in the Bundesliga at the tender age of 20 is really a feat.

Admittedly he is not a regular player with the senior team, but Mifsud is playing for the Under 21 side and scoring regularly, having made the bench at the team several times, and even coming in as a substitute is an amazing feat.

He caught the eye of famous coach Andreas Brehme, in his time a prime player for Italian side Inter and the German national coach, also winning the World Cup for his country in Italy with a penalty against Argentina.

It is not easy for Michael to make the team at present as the side has got some remarkable strikers, but as Brehme said more than once, Mifsud’s chance will come and he will make it as a regular with the side.

The Kaiserslautern squad:

Team schedule and results-chairman: Jürgen Friedrich; Manager: Andreas Brehme. coach: Reinhard Stumpf

Goalkeepers
1 Georg Koch, Lajos Szucs, 12 Roman Weidenfeller, Uwe Gospodarek

Defenders
6 Hany Ramzy, Murat Yakin, 27 Marco Stark, Michael Schjonberg, Samir Ibrahim, Axel Roos, 21 Jeff Strasser, Slobodan Komljenovic, 4 Aleksander Knavs, 19 Markus Kullig, 24 Harry Koch, 3 Petr Gabriel, 20 Tomasz Klos

Midfielders
14 Youri Djorkaeff, 30 Mario Basler, 22 Andreas Buck, 29 Rainer Hauck, 7 Marian Hristov, 17 Everson Ratinho, 26 Torsten Reuter, 10 Cassi de Souza Suares Lincoln, 16 Stefan Malz, 8 Dimitrios Grammozis, 13 Thomas Riedl, 15 Nenad Bjelica

Forwards
33 Branko Boskovic, 23 Silvio Adzic, 18 Jorgen Pettersson, 11 Olaf Marschall, 9 Vratislav Lokvenc, 25 Miroslav Klose, 34 Michael Mifsud, 32 Josè Domi

While Germany is still suffering from intensely cold weather, 17 out of 18 clubs playing in the German national championship received a nice Christmas present from their officials. Eight of the Bundesliga clubs will travel to Spain and five clubs to Portugal to get ready for the national championship second round matches.

Kaiserslautern will hold their training session in the Canary Islands and play in a friendly tournament with the Sweden Helsingborgs and Feyenoord Rotterdam. Mifsud can be given a leading role to play in friendlies such as these.

Bayern Munich, Hertha BSC and FC Koln will establish a soccer camp next to the fashionable resort Marbella. Borussia Dortmund is set to stay at Jerez, Hamburger SV at Alicante and St. Pauli at La Manga.

Meanwhile, Stuttgart, Freiburg, Borussia Monchengladbach, Nurnberg, Wolfsburg and Hansa Rostock will conduct their training in Portugal.

Werder Bremen preferred to travel to Antalya, Energie Cottbus to Dubai and Munchen 1860 to La Borghesiana, Rome’s suburb, while only Schalke 04 chose to stay in Germany.

2001 was also quite a good year for Mifsud while he was playing for the Maltese national side. He scored the winning goal for Malta in a friendly at the Hibs ground against Canada, although Iceland came back from a goal down to hammer Malta 4–1 in their group three World Cup qualifier on Wednesday.
It was then Maltese newcomer (for the senior national side) Michael Mifsud who opened the scoring in the 14th minute but the Maltese team failed to capitalise on the lead and Iceland dominated long periods of the match.

The only positive note for Malta was former Sliema young star Michael Mifsud who was given his chance. The media, including SportToday, has been crying out for a long time to give Malta’s top scorer a chance, and his baptism by fire finally happened last Wednesday. He proved the media and the critics right, he was indeed a joy to watch, a player who gives Maltese football enthusiasts the hope that we can do well. We are not saying that we will qualify for the finals of a big competition, such as the World Cup or the European Championships, but at least foreign teams, especially in Malta, will be made to sweat to win their points.

Michael Mifsud’s goal against Iceland was superb. The way he controlled the ball and blasted it into the net was a real joy to watch. For me he is already of an international standard and if this lad keeps his head, I won’t be surprised to hear that he will make it with a big European club in the very near future.

He is the type of player who resembles Michael Owen of Liverpool. His pace, his control of the ball and his change of speed is amazing. Having a partner who could shied the ball well and open spaces for him will make him more deadly and surely a better player.

It is reported that Kaiserslautern are paying Mifsud around Lm2,000 a month and he has been given accommodation. Although his salary is not a very big one by Bundesliga standards, he could end up earning ten times as much if Kaiserslautern decide to keep him on for a longer contract.

It is understood that Mifsud will be entitled for the bonus if the major side win honours or qualify for the Champions League.