Exams Done... World Cup 2014!

So yeah, after a brutal couple of months, exams are finally over! I guess now it's all about getting on with that uni application. But that can wait for at least a few weeks. Time to relax and enjoy this World Cup! Although viewing has been somewhat hindered over the past couple of weeks, it has not escaped me that this competition has already proved itself to be both exciting and surprising. Despite talks of unfinished stadia and social unrest in the lead up, I think that it's safe to say that the football itself has taken centre stage and has not failed to impress. The stand-out shock headline so far has undoubtably been the unceremonious removal of the defending champions Spain at the very first hurdle. The notion that the "era of Spanish dominance" has come to an end has been lingering in the air since both Spanish club giants suffered significant defeats in the semi-finals of the Champions League at the hands of German clubs and has only been further-catalysed by these two poor performances. Perhaps less of a shock has been the elimination of England, also after just two matches. Although the general consensus amongst the British media in the run-up to their opening game against Italy in Manaus was that the country didn't expect all that much, a nation of football-loving fans hoped and prayed that their squad of inexperienced rookies (plus Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney) could produce the goods in a far-from-straghtforward Group D. Ultimately a few individual mistakes in the first game and a clinical performance from one of the best players in the world in Luis Suárez saw England lose their opening two matches and spell the end of their World Cup dream for at least another four years. However, I genuinely believe that the country should not lose too much heart in the squad or manager Roy Hodgson after this campaign for a number of reasons I will mention later on in the post. There is something about this tournament, from the surprises to the ingenious "vanishing line marker" which suggests that this World Cup is just getting started and will only get better.

So who's going to win it? Minus Spain, all the main contenders are still going strong. Brazil, although unable to get on the scoresheet against Mexico thanks to an inspired performance from the opposition goalkeeper, showed that they can create good opportunities with astutely-worked combination play, and as long as Scolari either gets a lacklustre Fred to start playing or replaces him with Hulk, they should have no problem going far in the competition. Although after only just one showing, Argentina looked good in their opening game against debutants Boznia and Herzegovina at the Maracana. I only managed to catch the first half of the game, but from what I saw of the highly-rated South American outfit they seemed to move the ball around the fastest out of the 32 teams in Brazil. Furthermore, it was great to see Lionel Messi score his first World Cup goal since his debut in 2006 and even better to see the quality of it. Hopefully this will be the World Cup performance the four-time winner of the Ballon d'Or's already gleaming career deserves. In my opinion, if this Argentina side are to go on and win the competition, they must accept that their defence is no longer what it was, with the old guard of Zanetti, Sorín, Ayala and Samuel having retired, and take the Liverpool approach of "we will score more goals than you" which their abundance of quality attacking players allows. Perhaps most emphatic of all was Germany's 4-0 win against Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal, who admittedly had Pepe sent off early on for a confrontation with Thomas Müller which had his name written all over it. Spain's preemptive exit leaves Germany as Europe's leading representatives in Brazil and many see them as the outright favourites to go all the way and win it. Although Müller will take the plaudits for his hat-trick on Monday, it's important to highlight the importance and quality of performance of Toni Kroos, whose services are seemingly being sought after during every transfer window and who is also keeping the highly-rated Bastian Schweinsteiger out of the starting eleven. He'll certainly be one to watch as the tournament progresses. It may be worth adding the Netherlands to the end of this list as they've also been excellent going forward thus far.

Miroslav Klose's 15th World Cup goal saw him join Ronaldo as the all-time joint-top scorer at the World Cup

Group A should see Brazil qualify comfortably with their last game being against Cameroon who have already been eliminated. The interesting battle is for second place as Croatia take on a Mexico side in Recife who are coming off the back of a surprise draw against Brazil. That said, although a draw is sufficient to see Mexico through, Croatia have been better than their three points suggest and I'd back them to qualify for the last 16 in second place - it will definitely be a tight game! The stand-out player for me has been Ivan Rakitic. It went fairly unnoticed due to the eventual shoreline that he and Luka Modric dominated the centre of midfield against Brazil and the pair were at it once again in their comfortable 4-0 win over Cameroon.

The Netherlands and Chile have already progressed from a tough Group B mathematically but it will be unlikely that either side takes their foot off the pedal as first/second place will be decided in their head-to-head in São Paulo. The whole Dutch team has impressed with left-back Daley Blind, Arjen Robben and Robin van Persie taking most of the headlines. But it cannot be stressed enough (although he cannot be considered unestablished) how important Alexis Sanchez is to Chile and how crazy it is that Barcelona are trying to offload him. With the perfect combination of strength, pace, technical ability and an eye for goal, he has proved himself to be the key to any success Chile go on to have in the knock-out stages of this tournament. It has been frustrating to see Martino consistently leave him (and Pedro) out of the Barcelona side this season due to his reluctance to drop star-signing Neymar. It would be great to see Sanchez play in the Premier League - hopefully, as rumours imply, at Anfield.

Robin van Persie celebrates his headed equaliser against Spain with manager Louis van Gaal

Group C is interesting in that all four of the teams can still go through (Colombia have already qualified). Ivory Coast and Japan have shown glimpses of attacking flair, whilst Greece displayed courage after seeing their captain Katsouranis sent off after 35 minutes in their match against Japan to see out a decent 0-0 draw. With three points on the board, Ivory Coast are favourites to go through with Colombia, but anything short of a win against Greece could see Japan take advantage whilst playing a Colombia side who may not inclined to fight tooth and nail for a win. James Rodríguez has caught the eye with two goals in two games from the midfielder. His successful season at Monaco in 2013/14 saw him named in the Ligue 1 XI and he finished the season with the most assists. Although he is probably not going anywhere due to the luxuries of playing for Monaco it will be great to see him play in the Champions League next year, as well as during the rest of this competition.

Like the first group, Group D is poised with one side already through, one side already out and the two remaining teams playing each other head-to-head for the second qualifying place. Costa Rica have surprised many by winning their first two matches captained by a player who was apparently not good enough to make a relegated Fulham team. They have undoubtably impressed as a team though with Joel Campbell a potential prospect for Arsenal next year. Personally, I have absolutely no idea who'll come out on top between Italy and Uruguay. Italy arguably have that extra bit of quality and security at the back, but a team with Luis Suárez is capable of beating them. Chances are, it'll be a cagey affair with neither team wanting to take any risks. As for England, it's a shame that their most promising youngster in Brazil was Andros Townsend as a pundit for ITV! I'm joking. This team of enthusiastic youngsters is one of the most exciting the country has seen for many years, with new-found talents Ross Barkley, Adam Lallana, Raheem Sterling, Daniel Sturridge and Luke Shaw all showing signs of promise. But this overhaul of youngsters is obviously too much too soon. I am a great fan of Fabiola Capello, but a certain degree of blame must lie with him as he failed to integrate youth into the squad going to South Africa which left Hodgson with, on the one hand, inexperienced, uncapped players in their low twenties and teens and, on the other hand, of ageing veterans. It's therefore imperative that the country stays patient with the manager and waits for the squad to mature. I have no doubt that they will be a much-improved outfit come Russia 2018. The future does indeed look bright.

The Grignard Reaction

Definition:

"The Grignard reaction is an organometallic chemical reaction in which alkyl- or aryl- magnesium halides (Grignard reagents) add to a carbonyl group in an aldehyde or ketone. This reaction is an important tool for the formation of carbon-carbon bonds. The reaction of an organic halide with magnesium is not a Grignard reaction, but provides a Grignard reagent."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grignard_reaction

Who discovered it?

During the early 1900s, a French chemist by the name of François Auguste Victor Grignard was conducting research into this reaction and its reagents at the University of Nancy in France. He went on to become the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1912.

What is organometallic chemistry?

Organometallic chemistry is, as the name suggests, the study of compounds containing carbon-metal bonds with largely covalent character. Naturally this incorporates a combination of aspects from both inorganic and organic chemistry.

Forming Grignard reagents

The simple answer is through the reaction between an alkyl/aryl halide with magnesium (solid) which takes place in an etherial solvent to produce ligands. A ligand is a functional group that binds to a central metal atom to form a coordination complex - typically through the donation of the ligand's electron pairs. In this case, the halide ion is the ligand. The reaction initially begins as a single electron transfer (or one-electron reduction) until the Grignard formation reaction, where a second electron transfer occurs, turning free radicals into carbanions.

R−X + Mg → R−X^•− + Mg^•+

R−X^•− → R^• + X⁻

R^• + Mg^•+ → RMg⁺

RMg⁺ + X^- → RMgX

Grignard reagents do not react readily with alkyl halides through an S_N2 mechanism due to a problem in the initiation stage. However, they do readily undergo transmetalation reactions: RMgX + ArX → ArR + MgX₂ 

Most Grignard reagents (e.g. methylmagnesium bromide/chloride, phenylmagnesium bromide etc.) are commercially available as tetrahydrofuran (THF) or diethyl ether solutions. 

Grignard reaction mechanism

Grignard reaction mechanism

The Grignard reagent behaves as a nucleophile, attracted to the electrophilic carbon atom that exists between the polar bond of a carbonyl group. The addition of the Grignard reagent to the carbonyl usually happens through an intermediate of a six-membered ring state.

Industrial application

In the process described above, the Grignard reagents formed are used in the production of organometallic compounds and primary materials/intermediates for agrochemicals and pharmaceuticals.

Organometallic compounds:

1. Organotin compounds - Grignard reagents and tin tetrachloride. Its two main uses are: to stabilise vinyl chloride resins and to catalyse the hardening of urethane/silicon resin.
2. Organosilicon compounds - Grignard reagents and appropriate raw silicon compounds produces different types of symmetric/asymmetric di-, tri- and tetra- organosilicon compounds. They are used as intermediates in pharmaceutical synthesis and as protective groups in organic synthesis.
3. Organophosphorus compounds - an example being the phosphine compound (Grignard reagents + halide phosphates) which are used for vitamin synthesis, the additives for various synthetic resins and other industrial applications.

Combatting Parkinson's

The synthesis of biperiden (an antiparkinsonian agent) involves the nucleophilic addition of acetylnorbornene with a suitable Grignard reagent - plus water to form the final product.

Potential New Medicines: A Brief Introduction

With the recent advances in technology, it's only reasonable to presume that an increase in the number of cures and medicines must come in tandem. Therefore, medical researchers are always on the lookout for new sources of drugs and medicines. In this search, two considerations must be taken into account: the usage of accessible, commonplace (hence cheap) plants and the need to maintain biodiversity. Here are two examples:

The 20 naturally-occurring "essential" amino acids

For the first time, as recently as 2011, scientists have developed a means of introducing man-made/unnatural amino acids (i.e. not from the 20 naturally occurring amino acids) to proteins in multiple locations using bacteria they had created. This finding is particularly useful for engineering bacteria that produce new types of synthetic chemicals, through protein synthesis. Crucially, it introduces the possibility of making medicines/drugs that last longer in the blood stream.

Catharanthus pusillus (Tiny Periwinkle)

Recently, the discovery of natural drugs has concentrated on tropical "rainforest" plants due to their great diversity. Around 120 prescription drugs sold worldwide today come from rainforest plants directly. Furthermore, it was claimed that two-thirds of all medicines which were found to have cancer-preventing properties came from the rainforest by the U.S. National Cancer Institute. An example is the now-extinct periwinkle plant from Madagascar, which increased the chances of survival of kids with leukaemia from 20% to 80%.

The last steps of medicine production are: clinical trials and bringing them to market, which together take several years, if not decades. A majority of this time is taken up by testing. In fact, each drug on the shelf costs £60 billion to produce, taking all research and preceding failed drugs into account.

Immunity Without Exposure

When a new bacterium or virus invades the body, the immune system mounts a "counter"-attack by sending in white blood cells called T-cells that are tailored to the molecular structure of that invader. Defeating the infection can take several weeks. However, once victorious, some T-cells stick around, turning into memory cells that remember the invader, reducing the time taken to kill it the next time it turns up.

Conventional thinking has it that memory cells for a particular microbe only form in response to an infection. "The dogma is that you need to be exposed," says Mark Davis of Stanford University in California, but now he and his colleagues have shown that this is not always the case. The team took 26 samples from the Stanford Blood Center. All 26 people had been screened for diseases and had never been infected with HIV, herpes simplex virus or cytomegalovirus. Despite this, Davis' team found that all the samples contained T-cells tailored to these viruses, and an average of 50 per cent of these cells were memory cells.

The idea that T-cells don't need to be exposed to the pathogen "is paradigm shifting," says Philip Ashton-Rickardt of Imperial College London, who was not involved in the study. "Not only do they have capacity to remember, they seem to have seen a virus when they haven't."

Electron microscope image of the H1N1 influenza virus,
which are 80-120 nanometres in diameter.

So how are these false memories created? To a T-cell, each virus is "just a collection of peptides", says Davis. And so different microbes could have structures that are similar enough to confuse the T-cells. To test this idea, the researchers vaccinated two people with an H1N1 strain of influenza and found that this also stimulated the T-cells to react to two bacteria with a similar peptide structure. Exposing the samples from the blood bank to peptide sequences from certain gut and soil bacteria and a species of ocean algae resulted in an immune response to HIV.  The finding could explain why vaccinating children against measles seems to improve mortality rates from other diseases. It also raises the possibility of creating a database of cross-reactive microbes to find new vaccination strategies. "We need to start exploring case by case," says Davis.

"You could find innocuous pathogens that are good at vaccinating against nasty ones," says Ashton-Rickardt. The idea of cross-reactivity is as old as immunology, he says. But he is excited about the potential for finding unexpected correlations. "Who could have predicted that HIV was related to an ocean algae?" he says. "No one's going to make that up!"

Secondhand ICDs to be Legalised?

Over the years, the development of biology and medicine has often been hindered by the towering obstacle that is "ethics". The latest debate surrounding this topic has been over the use of second hand implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), which is a small battery-powered electrical impulse generator that is implanted in patients who are at risk of sudden cardiac arrest due to ventricular fibrillation. The device is designed to pick up any signs of cardiac arrhythmia and correct it by initiating a jolt of electricity. It has been reported in Mumbai, India that 81 adults have been given second hand ICDs, removed from adults in the United States. Collaborating doctors arranged their own transport for the devices, which were taken from the US to the Holy Family Hospital in Mumbai, where they were cleaned, sterilised and given to informed patients who were not in a position where they could afford a new one.

Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators can cost up to $87,000

Behzad Pavri, from the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, and his colleagues reported few complications (only one fractured lead, and one dislodged lead) and no infections, in a case series in Annals of Internal Medicine. The report tracked 75 of the 81 patients for more than two years. Devices were deployed appropriately in half of the patients, giving shocks or antitachycardia pacing when required. Nine patients died during the follow-up, an average of 771 days after receiving the second hand device. The American team procured many cardioverter defibrillators from funeral directors. Other devices were donated by patients having a replacement.

In actual fact, the reuse of ICDs in America has been prohibited by the US Food and Drug Administration and federal laws prohibit funeral directors from collecting up. Therefore, the doctors taking part in this exercise are on uncertain ground legally but are calling for changes to liberalise the "charitable use" of second hand ICDs. However, two experts in global health warn that that might be premature. Giving potentially substandard drugs or devices to the world's poor is highly controversial and has rightly been discredited in the past. Clear ethical guidance is urgently needed to shape well-intentioned efforts to reduce health inequalities and get life-saving treatments to those who need them most. It is paramount that in the first instance they ensure their efforts are completely and utterly 100% safe.

Pavri is confident that donating used ICDs to patients in India is ethical. "The most unethical stance would be to withhold appropriate therapy in a patient who would benefit from therapy simply because of financial considerations. A reused device is better than no device, given the risk of sudden death." I, for one, completely agree with him.

Treating Healthy Cells to Prevent Cancer

On 4-7 November, at the 8th annual National Cancer Research Institute conference in Liverpool, two new strategies were put forward to prevent cancer cells from recruiting healthy cells to help them both grow and spread. The first would prevent the proliferation of surviving tumour cells through the dampening of the immune system post-cancer treatment. The other would stop breast cancer from reaching organs such as the lungs blocking an "accomplice" vital to any such spread.

The former strategy would essentially be implemented on women who have undergone breast cancer treatment previously in order to prevent cancer relapses by reducing the levels of regulatory T-cells (lymphocytes) which suppress the immune system. These cells are known to be more common in women with particularly large and aggressive breast cancers. This additional course would take place after the original treatment and would ideally be fairly cheap, using the relatively non-toxic anti-cancer drug: cyclophosphamide. A study of 35 women indicated that the drug may potentially be effective in preventing the spread of such harmful cells.

Regulatory T-cells (1)

"If you use cyclophosphamide at low doses, you can reduce [numbers of these cells] substantially without affecting other cancer defences,"claims Oleg Eremin of the Queen's Medical Centre at the University of Nottingham. He originally got the idea to use cyclophosphamide by monitoring the levels of regulatory T-cells in women with breast cancer before, during and after treatment. Each of the women had large breast tumours and some had six times the normal level of T-cells. This suggested that the cancer cells somehow ramp up the number of their "accomplices".

Regulatory T-cells (2)

Having shrunk the tumours through chemotherapy, which consisted the implementation of cyclophosphamide and two other drugs, then surgically removing any remaining tumours, Eremin and his team discovered that although the level of regulatory T-cells fell significantly, it was still above normal. Furthermore, they observed that once the chemotherapy had finished, these figures began to creep up again. His hypothesis is that it is the more resistant cancer cells that linger in the body and stimulate the production of the T-cells. Over the next six months or so, it is Eremin's wish to monitor the progress of these same women to see if their regulatory T-cell counts continue to rise. If this proves to be true, it is probably then worth attempting to keep these cells in check and prevent relapses with a second course of cyclophosphamide.

Meanwhile, a team at the Institute of Cancer Research in London, led by Clare Isacke, have made headway in the battle to prevent breast cancer cells from spreading into the lungs, liver and other tissues. The process begins with these cells binding into the surface of blood vessels in the lungs. Isacke has discovered that they can only do this if they are attached to a protein "accomplice" in the blood. It is this binding that can potentially be blocked by drugs.

Isacke also discovered that cancer cells were least invasive if they lacked the surface sugars required for grasping the protein. Blocking the protein, which she will name when she publishes her results in full, might be enough to reduce cancer's spread, and Isacke is confident that drugs can be found that are able to do this. "We'd like to find ways to disrupt this collusion without harming normal interactions between healthy cells," she says.

Ballon d'Or 2012 Shortlist (ENG/ES)

The following 23 players have been shortlisted for the FIFA Ballon d'Or 2012 (in alphabetical order): 

Sergio Agüero (Argentina), Xabi Alonso (Spain), Mario Balotelli (Italy), Karim Benzema (France), Gianluigi Buffon (Italy), Sergio Busquets (Spain), Iker Casillas (Spain), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Didier Drogba (Côte d’Ivoire), Radamel Falcao (Colombia), Zlatan Ibrahimović (Sweden), Andrés Iniesta (Spain), Lionel Messi (Argentina), Manuel Neuer (Germany), Neymar (Brazil), Mesut Özil (Germany), Gerard Piqué (Spain), Andrea Pirlo (Italy), Sergio Ramos (Spain), Wayne Rooney (England), Yaya Touré (Côte d’Ivoire), Robin van Persie (Netherlands) and Xavi (Spain)

Radamel Falcao: Best striker in the world?

It's difficult to have too many objections with the shortlist published by FIFA for the Ballon d'Or this year. Once again, the football fan is left in no doubt that the two Spanish giants Barça and Real are lightyears ahead of any other club team in Europe, their strength displayed through their eleven (out of the twenty-three allocated places) nominations. That said, this doesn't necessarily say all that much about the quality/strength-in-depth of La Liga itself as only one player (Radamel Falcao) was selected from the other eighteen teams in the Spanish top division. Six players were nominated from the Barclays Premier League, representing the "newly-established" top four of Manchester United, City, Chelsea and Arsenal. Despite their fairly sub-standard UEFA Champions League debut appearance, Manchester City's impressive league campaign was enough to get three players (Agüero, Balotelli and Yaya Touré) onto the 2012 shortlist. Something makes me think that the unresolved debate of "La Liga or Premier League?" will remain unanswerable for at least another year. One query I'd have with the names put forward this year would be the lack of German-based players. Although both the Bundesliga and Italian Serie A have taken serious hits in recent times as they've leaned in the direction of becoming intermediate leagues for young, developing players, it was surprising not to see names such as Götze or Lewandowski make the cut, especially taking into account the latter's thirty-odd goal tally last term. One would be entitled to question the exclusion of such players when a player as mercurial as Mario Balotelli has been included. There is no doubt in anyone's mind that he is an unbelievably talented individual, with potential on and off the ball. The performances he put in for Italy at Euro 2012 (most notably against Germany in the semi-finals) were nothing short of brilliant. However, a mixture of temperamental issues, inconsistency and mishaps off the field would lead one to question his nomination.

Messi won the Ballon d'Or in 2009, 2010 & 2011

In terms of the actual winner, I honestly cannot see anyone whose name is not Lionel Messi getting their hands on the Ballon d'Or this year, or any time soon for that matter. In 2011, he established himself as the best player of his generation. In 2012, in my eyes, he surpassed his national hero, Diego Maradona, and successfully engraved his name into footballing stardom. All that's stopping him from becoming the best of all time is that one elusive outstanding international performance at a major competition (namely the World Cup). To achieve this, both he and his compatriots will have to be on song at Brazil 2014. I strongly believe that this will be the case and that they'll go far, using the proximity of the competition to their advantage. Even if FIFA tried to spin it round on him, claiming that a player who competed at this summer's Euro 2012 has achieved more over the course of this year, one can not forget that as we were watching some fairly drab, non-eventful group stage matches, Messi was out scoring a more than memorable hat-trick to down Brazil 4-3 in the States. So the excitement this year really surrounds the second and third places. Looking down the list of twenty-three, it's very difficult to pick names and put some higher than others because each and every one has excelled for both club and country this calendar year. That said, after some thought and consideration, this is what I've decided my top three would be:

1) Lionel Messi (FC Barcelona and Argentina)

As mentioned above, there is no doubt in my mind that Lionel Messi was the best footballer on the planet in 2012, and probably has been for the past five or so years. Despite playing in a trequartista role at the Camp Nou just behind either David Villa or Alexis Sánchez, over the course of the 2011/12 campaign he managed to break Pelé's record of 77 goals in a season by netting 82 in 69 appearances. In Liga BBVA he also ended up with the second most assists (16), only one behind Real Madrid's Mesut Özil. Although the 2012 calendar year proved fruitless in terms of silverware for Messi and Barcelona, his contributions were invaluable for both club and country; so much so that he was awarded the Argentina national team captaincy by head coach Alejandro Sabella, who went on to claim that Messi had even improved since then. As long as everything goes to plan, I think it's safe to assume that Leo will be receiving his fourth Ballon d'Or on 7th January.
Como mencionado antes, no hay duda que Lionel Messi era el mejor futbolista en el mundo durante 2012, y probablemente de 2007. A pesar de que jugando como "trequartista" al Camp Nou un poco detrás de David Villa o Alexis Sánchez, a través de la 2011/12 temporada podía batir el récord de Pelé de 77 goles en una temporada al marcar 82 goles en 69 partidos. En Liga BBVA, solamente Mesut Özil de Real Madrid hizo más asistencias de Messi. Aunque el año calendario de 2012 era en cierto modo infructífero desde el punto de vista títulos para Messi y Barcelona, sus contribuciones en la selección argentina y Barça también eran inestimables; hasta tal punto que era designado capitán de Argentina del entrenador Alejandro Sabella. Sin lugar a dudas, creo que Leo recibirá su cuarto Balón de Oro el siete de enero.

2) Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid C.F. and Portugal)
For the past five years, Ronaldo has lived in Lionel Messi's shadow. However, 2012 was the year when CR7 managed to claw his way back into contention. Like Messi, despite not playing up front, Ronaldo managed to net the most goals out of any of his teammates, netting 60 times in 55 appearances for Real Madrid in all competitions. To put this statistic into perspective, the next top scorer for Real Madrid was the highly-impressive Frenchman Karim Benzema with 32 goals. The 2011/12 season proved to be an eventful one for the Portuguese winger, from his preseason hat-trick against Guadalajara to receiving the "Trofeo Alfredo Di Stefano" for the best La Liga player at the end of the season, helping Real Madrid to their first league title in four years. On the international scene, Ronaldo was formidable for Portugal at Euro 2012, finishing as joint top goalscorer with three goals and helping them reach the semi-finals only to get beaten by Spain on penalties. To top off a great year, Ronaldo received his 100th cap on 16th October 2012 against Northern Ireland at the age of 27. His progress over the course of 2012 was ironically highlighted at the Camp Nou in early October when he matched Lionel Messi blow-for-blow during the third El Clásico of the season, netting two goals in answer to his counterpart's two to make the full-time score 2-2. No wonder he's recently stated that he'd vote for himself if he could this year!
En los últimos cinco años, Ronaldo ha sido segundo a Lionel Messi. Sin embargo, 2012 era el año cuando "CR7" podía volver a contención. Como Messi, a pesar de no jugar como delantero, Ronaldo podía marcar 60 veces en 55 partidos en representación de Real Madrid en todas competiciones. Poner esta estadística en perspectiva, el próximo goleador superior era el delantero francés muy valorado Karim Benzema. La 2011/12 temporada resultó ser una temporada muy ajetreada por el ala portugués, empezando con un hat trick contra Guadalajara y terminando con su aceptación del "Trofeo Alfredo Di Stefano" por el mejor jugador en La Liga a la conclusión de la temporada, ayudando Real Madrid a ganar el título desde de cuarto años. Además, Ronaldo era formidable a la Eurocopa 2012, marcando tres goles, y ayudando Portugal a llegar a la semifinal cuando perdió a España en penaltis. El dieciséis de octubre 2012, Ronaldo recibió su corona centésima en un partido contra Irlanda del Norte a la edad de veintisiete. Destacó su progreso al Camp Nou, irónicamente, en lo mismo mes concordando Lionel Messi con todos movimientos, marcando dos goles contra los dos de Messi. El partido terminó 2-2. Messi había encontrado la horma de su zapato.

3) Radamel Falcao (Atlético Madrid and Colombia)
This guy is the best centre forward in the world at the moment. End of. Having scored 36 goals in his debut season at Atlético Madrid in all competitions, he has even been recognised by some as the best signing in 21st Century Spanish football. His prolific goalscoring record has also been acknowledged by many managers, with the likes of Pep Guardiola and Fabio Capello singing his praises. It's fair to say that after the Brazilian Ronaldo surpassed his peak, the footballing world has perhaps not been gifted with a natural goalscorer of his quality. That said, Falcao seems to be edging closer and closer to becoming his successor. His ability to put the ball the in the back of the net from any position, under any circumstances has only been matched at times by Robin van Persie during the course of 2012. However, although there is no doubt the latter has improved his right foot shooting in recent times, Falcao's finishing with both feet has indeed been unparalleled. This, simply put, is the reason why he would fit into any team on the planet regardless of their style of play. I'd be surprised if he wasn't on the move in January.
Este tío es el mejor delantero en el mundo en este momento. Sin argumento. Al marcar 36 goles durante su primera temporada a Atlético, algunas personas también dijeron que él es el mejor fichaje del fútbol español durante el siglo veintiuno. Algunos entrenadores, como Pep Guardiola y Fabio Capello han reconocido su forma prolífica. Es justo para decir que antes de la época del Ronaldo brasileño, el mundo de fútbol ha faltado un delantero de su cualidad. Sin embargo parece que Falcao pueda ser su sucesor. Su capacidad para marcar goles bajo alguna circunstancia se enfrentará solamente con Robin van Persie a veces durante 2012, pero sus tiros con los dos pies son sin rival. Por esta razón, se integraría muy bien en todos los equipos del mundo. Sería muy sorprendido si Falcao no viajaba en enero.