David Alaba rescued a family of six from a burning house last weekend. He was able to get the parents and children to safety before calling the local fire department to salvage as much as they could of the building. Shortly after, he left the scene as to avoid the media trucks, who arrived to report the incident. It was a fearless and heroic feat.
David Alaba is amazing at everything
Describing him as just the world’s best left back does him a huge disservice.
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It also didn’t happen, but it could have. Because Alaba can do anything.
Alaba's Nigerian father is allegedly a Prince. He's also a rapper who DJs on the side. Just as Alaba claims to be a left back, but spends his time doing absolutely everything that can be done on the pitch barring saving shots. And with Manuel Neuer forgetting how to be a goalkeeper recently, it may be time to try Alaba in that position.
Here’s a player whose heatmaps resemble volcanic activity. One of the world’s best players at the fetal age of 22. Pep Guardiola’s ace.
Philipp Lahm’s injury was devastating. So were the ones to Javi Martinez, Thiago and Franck Ribery. But it was always David Alaba whom the tinkerer held his breath for. Speaking on the Austrian’s return from injury, Guardiola was fervent in his praise:
"With him we are a better team, he can play anywhere," Guardiola said. "He is outstanding. On a scale of 1-to-10, he has always been an eight or a nine, sometimes 10. He is one of the most important players for Bayern Munich."
There's not one team in world football that David Alaba wouldn't improve. Not only as a left back, a position where he is one of, if not the best, but in other areas as well. Alaba, with his skillset and dynamism, can walk into most top-tier teams as a box-to-box midfielder. He's also been deployed in a more attacking role before, a role where he was successful. He's also disciplined enough to play center back if need be. He could probably make a living as a winger like a reverse Bastian Schweinsteiger.
It’s stunning to see so much skill, poise and intelligence on the pitch from such a young player. At an age where most players are still riding with their training wheels, Alaba is popping wheelies and doing BMX tricks nonchalantly. He could pass as the finished product when others are still carving through disfigured marble for an outline of their future selves.
He’s even started taking free kicks and scoring from them with regularity. One of them was even nominated for the Bundesliga goal of the month in February:
His achievements with Bayern are ludicrous, even if they’re expected. He’s won the Bundesliga three times since 2009. The DFB-Pokal, the same amount in the same time frame. The DFL-Supercup in 2010 and 2012. The Champions League in the 2012-2013 season. The UEFA-Supercup in 2013, along with the Club World Cup trophy. As an individual, he’s been the left back in the UEFA Team of the Year for two years running.
His return to Bayern brought a sense of calm to the defense. The style of play of the team still allows for moments of heart attacks, it comes with the territory when your manager is damn near a hedonist for intense pressure and a ridiculously high line. But now, Alaba is there to clean up when all hope looks lost. That is not to degrade any of his fellow defenders, they are all class in their own right, but Alaba is a machine.
Alaba is seemingly always at full speed, yet controlled and cerebral in trapping attackers to the byline before dispossessing them. Bombarding forward to the point of always being a winger, thus allowing Ribery to move into the middle, yet somehow always being in position when Bayern defends. Helping to outnumber the opposition in midfield, yet just as comfortable as he is in three-man defense.
He’s the ultimate Joker. But rather than the usual situation of a player being capable at a lot, while being a master of none, Alaba seems to easily adapt and master every position and situation thrust upon him. He’s a Guardiola’s sex dream.
It’s fitting that his middle name Olatokunbo roughly translates to “wealth from a foreign land”. Alaba is an embarrassment of riches in one player. At an age where he’s still in his selfie and awkward dancing stage, he’s become a critical part of the world’s best team. And he’s still improving a terrifying rate. Worshiped in Austria, loved by Nigerians and adored by his German club fans, Alaba already has the world on his side. The world is his oyster and he has the potential to devour it.
He’s also pretty good at dancing too:
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