The comparisons with David Beckham were clearly once declan rice bent in two long -distance free kicks to demolish the champions of Europe.
Arsenal's £ 105 million men had kept his dead ball-downy pretty quiet during the first 405 games of his professional career.
But in his 406th, in a quarterfinals of the Champions League against Real Madrid, an extraordinary one-two came to surpass even old Goldenballs.
Rice should emulate Beckham in more than one way. He should be England, start with.
The idea that there are 'no leaders' and 'no talkers' in modern football is always exaggerated. And such a sentiment certainly ignores rice.
Thomas Tuchel was so convinced that England was not in charge that he remembers the 34-year-old Jordan Henderson controversially when he mentioned his first team last month as three Lions boss.
But why go back to Henderson if you have rice?
It has often been difficult to determine Rice's best position.
He appeared as a teenage center in West Ham, was generally used by England as a midfield-anchor, but is more a box-to-box, Bryan Robson 'Captain Marvel' type in Arsenal.
And never more than on Tuesday evening, because the 15-way were European champions.
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But what has never been in any doubt is that rice is a leader of men.
At West Ham he learned that concept from Mark Noble, one of the best captains of the Premier League and men with one club.
On 26, Rice has the power of personality, team ethics and the ability to set the good example – the most important characteristics of a large captain.
He is one of the most sympathetic men in the game, a hugely popular figure for club and country.
The former Irishman has certainly been looking for conditions with the Blarney stone.
He speaks in the media with frankness and humor, while in the dressing room he is both a Setter of standards and a shoulder to cry on.
Oh, and what a better way to show leadership than by winning a fight with three of his teammates to take a free kick from the best part of 30 meters of bending around the real wall, twice in the room of 12 minutes?
Rice is a more obvious Captain than Beckham, who creates 59 times England, or the current long -lasting Harry Kane.
Henderson, when his shape earned him a place in the team, was the true captain of England-as we learned during the era behind closed doors when his Hectoring of teammates was all too clear.
Kane is a leader of the example, but no mob on the field or in the dressing room.
However, rice fits the bill.
When Gareth Southgate gave him the captain for the night to mark his 50th English cap against Belgium last year, Rice spoke with such a passion and Alcrity that it seemed just a matter of time before he succeeded Kane as the permanent skipper.
He lifted the first major trophy of West Ham in more than four decades in the 2023 Conference League final against Fiorentina – his last game for that 'half price' to the Emirates.
And at Arsenal, rice is also the most obvious man to wear the bracelet.
Martin Odegaard, who has been the skipper of Mikel Arteta for three seasons, is a calm man who is struggling with shape and could benefit from a lightning of the load.
Even during that historical victory over his former club Real, Odegaard had difficulty having a lot of a personal impact.
The Norwegian has lost its rhythm, his instinctive ability to choose the right pass, since an injury in the early season.
Rice and Odegaard are the same age, but the Londoner is the man who so often encourages arsenal, with words and actions.
Odegaard and Saka both gave rice during a long -term conflab for the first of those two extraordinary free kicks.
Here was a guy who had never scored a direct free kick in his 405 previous matches and succeeded in convincing his teammates that he could ping one of 30 meters against Real Madrid.
And if that is not leadership, I don't know what it is.
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