Three World Cups, two Copa America titles, now for Olympic gold: Silvio Velo, the ‘blind Lionel Messi’


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Silvio Velo has been blind since birth, but you wouldn’t know it watching him thread a football through an opponent’s legs, pick it up on the other side and fire it home for a goal.

Velo, who has been called the “blind Lionel Messi,” is the captain of Argentina’s visually impaired football team, the Murcielagos (Bats), who are hoping to win gold at the Rio de Janeiro Paralympics in August.

Velo, 45, has led the team to virtually every other conquest in the sport: three World Cups, two Copa Americas, the silver medal at the 2004 Paralympics — the first to feature visually impaired football — and bronze in 2008.

Known for his speed, keen sense of the pitch and incredible knack for scoring wonder goals, Velo has often been compared to his compatriot Messi, the Barcelona superstar and five-time World Player of the Year.

The best players in visually impaired football — a five-a-side game played with an audible ball that has small bells inside — tend to be those who have been blind all their lives, like Velo.

“When I heard a ball for the first time, it was like music,” he said.

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He grew up playing football with his sighted friends in the port city of San Pedro.

He remembers being treated like just another kid in the neighbourhood, even riding a bike and playing hide and seek, “although I never found anybody,” he said with a laugh.

He found out about a special version of football for the blind only when he was 10 years old. By then, he had already learnt to hold his own against opponents who could see.

“I used to hear my friends juggling the ball off their knees, their shoulders, from one foot to the other,” he said.

“I thought, ‘How do I do that if I can’t see the ball? If I lift it off the ground, I’ll lose it.’”

His solution was to put the ball inside a bag so he could hear it. Soon he was juggling with the best of them.

Velo’s talent and speed surprised his physical trainer, a childhood friend named Mariano Arnal.

“I used to train him by running with my hand tied to his, but he was so fast I ended up using a bicycle. And even then, I couldn’t keep up, so I ended up using a motorcycle,” Arnal said.

There is a magical quality to visually impaired football, the players criss-crossing the field without colliding like planets in orbit.

Although it looks much like regular football, the sounds of the game are inverted: the crowd must remain completely silent while there is a cacophony on the field.

Coaches yell instructions from the sidelines and behind the goal while players shout out their movements to each other.

They wear blindfolds to level the playing field between those with various degrees of visual impairment. Only the goalkeepers can see.

A father of five who recently became a grandfather, Velo is the go-to scorer for Argentina.

He plays professionally for the visually impaired team of Buenos Aires club Boca Juniors, his childhood club and the country’s most popular team.

They recently poached him from crosstown rivals River Plate, where he was the star player for a decade.

Just one exploit eludes him in the home stretch of a storied career: winning gold in Brazil.

“We want that medal,” he said. “It’s the one we’re missing. We’re extremely fired up.”

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Some of Darwish's last words

"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008

His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.

Labour dispute

The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.


- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law 

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The specs

Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylturbo

Transmission: seven-speed DSG automatic

Power: 242bhp

Torque: 370Nm

Price: Dh136,814

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THE SPECS – Honda CR-V Touring AWD

Engine: 2.4-litre 4-cylinder

Power: 184hp at 6,400rpm

Torque: 244Nm at 3,900rpm

Transmission: Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT)

0-100kmh in 9.4 seconds

Top speed: 202kmh

Fuel consumption: 6.8L/100km

Price: From Dh122,900

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Quick facts on cancer
  • Cancer is the second-leading cause of death worldwide, after cardiovascular diseases 
  •  About one in five men and one in six women will develop cancer in their lifetime 
  • By 2040, global cancer cases are on track to reach 30 million 
  • 70 per cent of cancer deaths occur in low and middle-income countries 
  • This rate is expected to increase to 75 per cent by 2030 
  • At least one third of common cancers are preventable 
  • Genetic mutations play a role in 5 per cent to 10 per cent of cancers 
  • Up to 3.7 million lives could be saved annually by implementing the right health
    strategies 
  • The total annual economic cost of cancer is $1.16 trillion

   

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SPECS
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%202-litre%20direct%20injection%20turbo%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%207-speed%20automatic%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%20261hp%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%20400Nm%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%20From%20Dh134%2C999%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The years Ramadan fell in May

1987

1954

1921

1888

Key recommendations
  • Fewer criminals put behind bars and more to serve sentences in the community, with short sentences scrapped and many inmates released earlier.
  • Greater use of curfews and exclusion zones to deliver tougher supervision than ever on criminals.
  • Explore wider powers for judges to punish offenders by blocking them from attending football matches, banning them from driving or travelling abroad through an expansion of ‘ancillary orders’.
  • More Intensive Supervision Courts to tackle the root causes of crime such as alcohol and drug abuse – forcing repeat offenders to take part in tough treatment programmes or face prison.
FFP EXPLAINED

What is Financial Fair Play?
Introduced in 2011 by Uefa, European football’s governing body, it demands that clubs live within their means. Chiefly, spend within their income and not make substantial losses.

What the rules dictate? 
The second phase of its implementation limits losses to €30 million (Dh136m) over three seasons. Extra expenditure is permitted for investment in sustainable areas (youth academies, stadium development, etc). Money provided by owners is not viewed as income. Revenue from “related parties” to those owners is assessed by Uefa's “financial control body” to be sure it is a fair value, or in line with market prices.

What are the penalties? 
There are a number of punishments, including fines, a loss of prize money or having to reduce squad size for European competition – as happened to PSG in 2014. There is even the threat of a competition ban, which could in theory lead to PSG’s suspension from the Uefa Champions League.