Think Forward.

"Mbappé in Madrid, Hakimi in Paris: A Tale of Two Paths" 3368

Aziz Daouda, 24 d.
He was meant to be the ultimate Galáctico of the second quarter of the 21st century—the new chosen one of the Bernabéu and its demanding, football-savvy crowd. Long hailed as the jewel of French football, everything pointed to, and even made us believe, that he was destined to leave a lasting mark on Real Madrid’s history—perhaps even surpassing Zidane, the other legendary Frenchman to wear white. But football has a logic of its own, one that remains impenetrable to us mere mortals. And we’ve just been reminded of that, as not even Florentino Pérez the mythical president with a fabulous track record seems able to escape it. Barely arrived, Kylian Mbappé is already disappointing. A thousand and one excuses will be made for his early struggles. But it’s getting harder and harder to find new ones. His adaptation is sluggish, his play sterile. He seems lost on the pitch. His teammates can’t seem to connect with him. A team that, just a season ago, was steamrolling opponents now looks disjointed on the same pitch, suddenly unfamiliar. The effectiveness of the squad—with Mbappé as the only new addition, has evaporated. Quietly, but increasingly openly, the Madrid locker room is beginning to ask questions. Then came the slap in the face, twice delivered by Arsenal. The team was lifeless, their rhythm gone, goals pouring in from all sides. Real Madrid’s legendary efficiency has turned into a mirage. Did they bet on the wrong man? The long-running Mbappé saga finally concluded with a fanfare in 2024. The fans expected a new Cristiano Ronaldo. What they’re discovering is a player lacking inspiration, who doesn’t fit into the team’s collective structure, incapable of making the difference, and throwing off his teammates’ rhythm. He’s scored a few goals, but without brilliance or leadership. The weight of the merengue jersey seems too heavy for the once-wonderkid from Bondy. What remains is disillusionment and heartbreak. Real Madrid was brought to its knees in the Champions League. And it stings. Talk is growing about the president’s obsession with Mbappé, a fixation that finally came to fruition, but to what end? Pérez and his golden boy are now on the hot seat. And if Real finishes the season empty-handed, the consequences could be dire. The risk is real. Even Ancelotti doesn’t seem to believe in his team anymore. At the end of the match against Arsenal, his expression betrayed him. He wants out, probably sooner than we think. The crisis at Real is here, and as always in such cases, the coach is the first to go. The weakest link in the chain. Mbappé at Real is unremarkable. He tends to drop too deep, lacks chemistry with the team, and his body language says it all: less sharp, less committed, almost withdrawn. Vinícius and Bellingham, dragged down, have lost their spark. They’ve become ordinary, the rest of the team unremarkable. The heated argument and near-physical altercation between Mbappé and Vinícius in the tunnel speaks volumes about the tension and frustration inside the club. Has Mbappé been a curse on this team? Meanwhile, in Paris, his friend Achraf Hakimi by first name, the one Real let go has become the true leader of PSG. And PSG without Mbappé looks better than ever, even making it to the semifinals against another English team, no less. The irony is thick. It is in Paris that the counter-example shines the brightest. Achraf Hakimi, long relegated to the media background during the Mbappé era at PSG, has emerged this season as the true leader of the Parisian club. Defensively solid, offensively decisive, the Moroccan fullback is delivering top-class performances one after another. Scoring, assisting, orchestrating from the right flank, Hakimi is carrying a rebuilding PSG—with love, commitment, solidarity, selflessness, and ruthless efficiency. His stats speak for themselves: a record number of interceptions, crucial goals in the Champions League. His consistency commands respect. The captain’s armband is well-earned. More than anything, it’s his mental and tactical impact that stands out: Hakimi is no longer just a modern fullback; he’s become the cornerstone of PSG’s project. Is this the revenge of a man who was perhaps underestimated when he shared the same flank with Mbappé? Arriving at PSG with the reputation of a “Real Madrid academy product” after a stint in Germany, Hakimi now seems to remind the Bernabéu of the strategic mistake they made letting him go. Madrid sought the glitter of Mbappé but perhaps what they truly lacked was the solidity and loyalty of Achraf Hakimi. Modern football’s irony sometimes boils down to a single name, mispronounced at just the right time. While Kylian Mbappé had been hailed as the savior of Real Madrid after years of buildup, it is Achraf Hakimi, who stayed in Paris, who now stands out as one of Europe’s most influential players. Two opposite trajectories, two readings of the same summer of 2024, and perhaps an analytical error that may prove hard to correct. Mbappé chose the prestige of Madrid. He probably believed he could lift the European trophy more easily with the club that’s won it the most. He was likely tired of PSG’s repeated failures. Hakimi, on the other hand, chose continuity, stability, and a playing project that fully embraced him. Today, the stats and performances seem to vindicate the Moroccan. His influence goes beyond the pitch: he’s become a technical and mental leader, respected by the locker room, trusted by the coach, and adored by the fans. And what if it’s Hakimi who ends up lifting the trophy in 2025, with the very PSG that Mbappé once left with apparent disdain? For that to happen, Hakimi will need to shine again, this time against another English club, the same type that humiliated Mbappé, Ancelotti, Pérez, and all of Madrid. While Paris celebrates, in Madrid, doubt is creeping in. Did they pay too much for a player whose game depends almost entirely on individual bursts of brilliance? And above all, how do you make multiple stars of similar stature coexist without eroding the cohesion of a group that used to be united and solid? It would still be premature to write off Mbappé and his Spanish adventure—his raw talent remains undeniable. But this rough beginning raises an important question: what if the future of football no longer lies in glitz and glamour, but in game intelligence, versatility, and collective discipline? If that’s the case, Achraf Hakimi may already be one of its most complete symbols.
Aziz Daouda

Aziz Daouda

Directeur Technique et du Développement de la Confédération Africaine d'Athlétisme. Passionné du Maroc, passionné d'Afrique. Concerné par ce qui se passe, formulant mon point de vue quand j'en ai un. Humaniste, j'essaye de l'être, humain je veux l'être. Mon histoire est intimement liée à l'athlétisme marocain et mondial. J'ai eu le privilège de participer à la gloire de mon pays .


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THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER - PREFACE 1509

Bluwr X Commons: Mark Twain, 2 y.
1 min read.
Most of the adventures recorded in this book really occurred; one or two were experiences of my own, the rest those of boys who were schoolmates of mine. Huck Finn is drawn from life; Tom Sawyer also, but not from an individual—he is a combination of the characteristics of three boys whom I knew, and therefore belongs to the composite order of architecture. The odd superstitions touched upon were all prevalent among children and slaves in the West at the period of this story—that is to say, thirty or forty years ago. Although my book is intended mainly for the entertainment of boys and girls, I hope it will not be shunned by men and women on that account, for part of my plan has been to try to pleasantly remind adults of what they once were themselves, and of how they felt and thought and talked, and what queer enterprises they sometimes engaged in. THE AUTHOR. HARTFORD, 1876.

THE MEDITATIONS - Book I.[1/3] 1536

Bluwr X Commons: Marcus Aurelius, 2 y.
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4 min read.
1. I learned from my grandfather, Verus, to use good manners, and to put restraint on anger. 2. In the famous memory of my father I had a pattern of modesty and manliness. 3. Of my mother I learned to be pious and generous; to keep myself not only from evil deeds, but even from evil thoughts; and to live with a simplicity which is far from customary among the rich. 4. I owe it to my great-grandfather that I did not attend public lectures and discussions, but had good and able teachers at home; and I owe him also the knowledge that for things of this nature a man should count no expense too great. 5. My tutor taught me not to favour either green or blue at the chariot races, nor, in the contests of gladiators, to be a supporter either of light or heavy armed. He taught me also to endure labour; not to need many things; to serve myself without troubling others; not to intermeddle in the affairs of others, and not easily to listen to slanders against them. 6. Of Diognetus I had the lesson not to busy myself about vain things; not to credit the great professions of such as pretend to work wonders, or of sorcerers about their charms, and their expelling of Demons and the like; not to keep quails (for fighting or divination), nor to run after such things; to suffer freedom of speech in others, and to apply myself heartily to philosophy. Him also I must thank for my hearing first Bacchius, then Tandasis and Marcianus; that I wrote dialogues in my youth, and took a liking to the philosopher’s pallet and skins, and to the other things which, by the Grecian discipline, belong to that profession. 7. To Rusticus I owe my first apprehensions that my nature needed reform and cure; and that I did not fall into the ambition of the common Sophists, either by composing speculative writings or by declaiming harangues of exhortation in public; further, that I never strove to be admired by ostentation of great patience in an ascetic life, or by display of activity and application; that I gave over the study of rhetoric, poetry, and the graces of language; and that I did not pace my house in my senatorial robes, or practise any similar affectation. I observed also the simplicity of style in his letters, particularly in that which he wrote to my mother from Sinuessa. I learned from him to be easily appeased, and to be readily reconciled with those who had displeased me or given cause of offence, so soon as they inclined to make their peace; to read with care; not to rest satisfied with a slight and superficial knowledge; nor quickly to assent to great talkers. I have him to thank that I met with the discourses of Epictetus, which he furnished me from his own library. 8. From Apollonius I learned true liberty, and tenacity of purpose; to regard nothing else, even in the smallest degree, but reason always; and always to remain unaltered in the agonies of pain, in the losses of children, or in long diseases. He afforded me a living example of how the same man can, upon occasion, be most yielding and most inflexible. He was patient in exposition; and, as might well be seen, esteemed his fine skill and ability in teaching others the principles of philosophy as the least of his endowments. It was from him that I learned how to receive from friends what are thought favours without seeming humbled by the giver or insensible to the gift. 9. Sextus was my pattern of a benign temper, and his family the model of a household governed by true paternal affection, and a steadfast purpose of living according to nature. Here I could learn to be grave without affectation, to observe sagaciously the several dispositions and inclinations of my friends, to tolerate the ignorant and those who follow current opinions without examination. His conversation showed how a man may accommodate himself to all men and to all companies; for though companionship with him was sweeter and more pleasing than any sort of flattery, yet he was at the same time highly respected and reverenced. No man was ever more happy than he in comprehending, finding out, and arranging in exact order the great maxims necessary for the conduct of life. His example taught me to suppress even the least appearance of anger or any other passion; but still, with all this perfect tranquillity, to possess the tenderest and most affectionate heart; to be apt to approve others yet without noise; to have much learning and little ostentation. 10. I learned from Alexander the Grammarian to avoid censuring others, to refrain from flouting them for a barbarism, solecism, or any false pronunciation. Rather was I dexterously to pronounce the words rightly in my answer, confining approval or objection to the matter itself, and avoiding discussion of the expression, or to use some other form of courteous suggestion. 11. Fronto made me sensible how much of envy, deceit and hypocrisy surrounds princes; and that generally those whom we account nobly born have somehow less natural affection. 12. I learned from Alexander the Platonist not often nor without great necessity to say, or write to any man in a letter, that I am not at leisure; nor thus, under pretext of urgent affairs, to make a practice of excusing myself from the duties which, according to our various ties, we owe to those with whom we live. 13. Of Catulus I learned not to condemn any friend’s expostulation even though it were unjust, but to try to recall him to his former disposition; to stint no praise in speaking of my masters, as is recounted of Domitius and Athenodorus; and to love my children with true affection. 14. Of Severus, my brother, I learned to love my kinsmen, to love truth, to love justice. Through him I came to know Thrasea, Helvidius, Cato, Dion, and Brutus. He gave me my first conception of a Commonwealth founded upon equitable laws and administered with equality of right; and of a Monarchy whose chief concern is the freedom of its subjects. Of him I learned likewise a constant and harmonious devotion to Philosophy; to be ready to do good, to be generous with all my heart. He taught me to be of good hope and trustful of the affection of my friends. I observed in him candour in declaring what he condemned in the conduct of others; and so frank and open was his behaviour, that his friends might easily see without the trouble of conjecture what he liked or disliked.