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Primera División Ronaldo is ‘taking the p**s’! Why Cristiano is not the best player of all time Ben Hayward Last updated 1 year ago 20:11 12/21/17 FacebookTwitterRedditcopy Comments(292) Goal Primera División Cristiano Ronaldo Real Madrid v Barcelona Real Madrid Barcelona Opinion The Portuguese picked up his fifth Ballon d’Or award recently and claimed he is the finest footballer to have lived. But it’s simply not the case… Self-belief is important for any top-level sports star. It is fair to say that Cristiano Ronaldo has plenty of it and after claiming a fifth Ballon d’Or in early December, the Real Madrid forward declared himself to be the best player of all time.“I’m the best player in history, in the good moments and the bad ones,” he told  France Football, the magazine that organises the award. “I respect everyone’s preferences, but I’ve never seen anyone better than me. I have always thought that.”No footballer can do the things I can. There’s no player more complete than me. I play well with both feet, I’m quick, powerful, good with the head, I score goals, I make assists. There are guys who prefer Neymar or [Lionel] Messi. But I tell you: there’s no-one more complete than me.” Editors’ Picks Lyon treble & England heartbreak: The full story behind Lucy Bronze’s dramatic 2019 Liverpool v Man City is now the league’s biggest rivalry and the bitterness is growing Megan Rapinoe: Born & brilliant in the U.S.A. A Liverpool legend in the making: Behind Virgil van Dijk’s remarkable rise to world’s best player It is that attitude that has pushed the Portuguese to greater heights. Certainly, his admirable ambition has changed his life and that of his entire family, while it has helped Real Madrid to three Champions League crowns over the past four seasons.But he is not the best player in history. In fact, he is probably not even the finest footballer to have played for Real Madrid.When Goal spoke to fans outside the Santiago Bernabeu recently, not many picked Ronaldo as the best to have turned out for their club, though all of them did admit that he is among the finest to have pulled on the famous white shirt.Cristiano has more goals than Alfredo Di Stefano, considered by many to be Madrid’s greatest, but the Argentine great led Los Blancos to five European Cups in the late 1950s and early 1960s and remains the more revered player.”It would be unfair of us if we forgot players like Di Stefano, who is one of the greats not only at Real Madrid, but in football,” former Madrid goalkeeper Paco Buyo told Goal recently when asked if Ronaldo was the best ever at the club.”I think Cristiano is a true Real Madrid legend for everything he has achieved, but I think it is difficult to say he is the best player to have passed through the club.”And former Boca Juniors, River Plate and Argentina goalkeeper Hugo Gatti, who played against Di Stefano, told Goal: “He was the best. For me, after Pele, who was the best in the world, the best in history, Alfredo comes next. So, the comparison with Cristiano is difficult…”Another Argentine, Diego Maradona, is often mentioned among the game’s greatest players and when told in an interview that Cristiano considered himself to be the best ever, the 57-year-old replied: “Tell him to stop taking the p*ss!”When subsequently asked where he would be in the list if Ronaldo was the best, he said: “Exactly! That’s why I tell him to stop taking the p*ss!” And pressed on the greatest he had seen, the World Cup winner added: “From the little that I saw, Alfredo Di Stefano, [Johan] Cruyff and [Lionel] Messi. Cristiano could be up there too.”In terms of goals, he is. The Portuguese has hit 422 in 415 appearances for Real Madrid, with over 545 strikes in his club career and a record 79 (in 147 matches) for his national side.Football has seen many great goalscorers throughout the years; Jimmy Greaves, Telmo Zarra, Just Fontaine and Gerd Muller among them. However, those names are seldom mentioned among the best players in history.Manchester City right-back Danilo played with Ronaldo for two seasons at Real Madrid, but said in an interview with Goal : “I always tell my friends there are three players I’ve seen do otherworldly things in training: Neymar, Isco and Marcelo.”And asked about Ronaldo, he replied: “Oh… Cristiano is a player that wants to score goals, he’s a numbers, results guy; it’s a little bit different.”Ronaldo’s record of 79 goals for Portugal makes him his nation’s top scorer. However, many Portuguese still believe Eusebio (who passed away in 2014) to be the country’s greatest player.The Benfica icon, who netted 733 goals in 745 matches in a spectacular career, hit 41 in 64 games for Portugal. Ronaldo, meanwhile, took 106 matches to surpass that figure as he reached 43 strikes with a hat-trick against Northern Ireland in 2013.“I am saddened because we can’t make that comparison,” Eusebio said on Portuguese television when he was surpassed by Cristiano in 2013. “It’s a mistake because I played (around) 60 matches to score that amount (41 goals).“Now, after all these years, someone else scores (that many goals) but obviously that happens because today it is easier to play some of these teams. I never got to play against Liechtenstein or Azerbaijan.”Ronaldo, of course, has since helped Portugal to victory at Euro 2016, although even that win came after he limped off in the final against France. In any case, while he was named the best Portuguese player of all time by the nation’s football federation (FPF) in 2015, he cannot be considered the finest footballer of his generation.Because that honour belongs to Messi. Although both men are now tied on five Ballons d’Or apiece, the only variable by which the two can really be compared is in their goals. In that respect, it is fairly even. But in every other facet of the game, be it passing, dribbling, vision or creating chances, the Argentine is far superior.“The Ballon d’Or thing is a little tiresome because it has been moved to a different playing field,” Dani Alves told Goal back in 2014 . “It has moved to the field of opinions and off the field of play. But if we look at the field of play, I think Leo, for as long as he is around, will push the rest into second place.“Moving away from that, perhaps he has less chance. The winner is often the one who has had the best campaign, or the best publicity campaign.”Ronaldo has more than that. The Portuguese was decisive last season as Real Madrid retained the Champions League, scoring 10 goals from the quarter-finals onwards as Los Blancos beat Bayern Munich, Atletico and Juventus to win their 12th European Cup.However, Alves was right in that Messi is better. Since Ronaldo’s arrival at Real in 2009, the Argentine has a superior scoring record and he hit an unprecedented 91 goals for club and country in 2012.Even playing often in a deeper role, the 30-year-old has outscored the Portuguese so far in La Liga in 2017-18 (although Cristiano is ahead in Europe) and he contributes much more to his side’s overall play. Ronaldo, meanwhile, is something of a goal hanger these days, a player who shoots on sight.This season, the 32-year-old averages more than six shots per game in La Liga, with as many as 12 in the 1-0 loss to Betis. He shoots much more than Messi at Barca, for example, which helps him to score as many as he does.And although he has also racked up a fair number of assists, that is partly due to his proximity to the goal. Rarely does he beat several players and find a team-mate or produce the kind of defence-splitting passes that Messi does.Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane was asked recently if he believed Ronaldo was the best in history and said: “Yes. There are lots of players who have been very successful in this club, but no one has achieved what he has, and what he’s still going to achieve.”However, any Real boss knows he will need to praise the Portuguese to stay in his good books. During his time at the Santiago Bernabeu, Jose Mourinho often hailed his compatriot, but changed his tune last year when he said: “For me the top three players in history are Messi, Pele and Maradona.”Messi is often mentioned in the same breath as those two South American legends, while Ronaldo has fought to compete with the brilliant Barcelona forward in this era. And the fact he has levelled the Argentine on five Ballons d’Or is testament to his extraordinary drive and dedication to be the best he can.Cristiano will definitely go down as one of the game’s greats and deservedly so. But he is not the best player in the world right now – however many Ballons d’Ors he wins – and he is certainly not the finest footballer in history. read more

Share on LinkedIn Weekend tournaments hosted throughout Colombia at different Farc camps have helped get former guerrilla fighters involved in sport and tap into a burning enthusiasm for football. These events are also serving to identify potential players.“There are 16 teams playing in this tournament and so the idea is to start looking at talented players with a view to selecting one or two for regional trials,” Yepes says. “The very best from every region will go on to form the team.”Hundreds of miles south-west in the war-plagued Cauca region, it’s a similar story. Every weekend over the last several months, male, female and kids’ teams have been competing in Farc-organised tournaments. Perhaps most importantly after five decades of war these sporting events are also helping to heal wounds and bring communities together.“The Farc have several teams competing here at La Elvira but we also have sides from local Afro-Colombian communities, indigenous teams and mixed sides made up of the Farc and civilians,” says a former combatant Julian Caballero, who was once on the books of the top-flight Colombian team Deportivo Cali. “Some of the players on my team travel eight hours every weekend to be here.” As part of the government’s commitment to helping the reintegration process, representatives from Colombia’s sports body, Coldeportes, are running sports and physical education programmes in the camps. “We have 61 people working across the whole country,” says the project coordinator, Gisela Gómez. “Our objective is to get people involved in as many types of recreation as possible, but clearly it’s football they love the most.”Tucked in wild countryside deep in former Farc territory, La Elvira camp in Cauca has become the focal point in efforts to get a Farc team off the ground.The camp’s commander, who uses the alias Walter Mendoza, is a wizened fighter with 37 years’ service in the Farc. He was once a prized target for the government but this year he was named the Farc’s head of sport. He immediately put football at the top of his list of priorities.“Believe me, there is a lot of talent in the Farc, not just for football but also in the arts, volleyball, other sports, music and culture,” he says. “Clearly, though, football is what gets everyone excited and so that’s why we are exploring the idea of putting together a professional team to compete in the second division.”Like many Farc members, Mendoza supports Atlético Nacional, the Copa Libertadores champions and arguably Colombia’s most popular team. He lists the former Nacional striker Faustino Asprilla as “a long-time personal friend” and claims Tino, alongside other former Colombian stars, is helping collaborate with the project.Furthermore, Walter reveals a youth coach who spent more than 10 years working at a leading Colombian side in the morning and as an undercover Farc militia member in his spare time, has been a key contact in knocking on doors and building allies. Twitter Play continues as a tropical storm batters down at the Mesetas camp. Photograph: Carl Worswick That was until the doors of peace swung open last year. Following a plebiscite on the peace deal in October that was narrowly rejected by the Colombian people, the Nobel peace prize winner Juan Manuel Santos and the Farc chief, alias Timochenko, submitted a revised deal that was approved by congress a month later. The guns fell silent after 53 years. Suddenly people became interested in Mora’s initiative.“Colombians are mad about football; it’s an important motor to unite people,” he says. “That’s the beautiful thing about it and we believe it can be an important tool in Colombia’s reconciliation.”In April, Mora travelled to La Elvira to meet Mendoza and thrash out a deal. “That was tough, having to go out there into the sticks and be forthright with a top Farc commander that this had to be a joint project involving anyone who has been touched by this war, as a way of uniting Colombians.”Mora slept on the Farc camp’s library floor under a painting of Che Guevara and the guerrilla group’s founder, Manuel Marulanda. Tempers flared and debate continued deep into the night but a loose outline was drawn up to form three teams: a men’s XI for the Colombian second division, a women’s team for the fledgling Colombian women’s league and an under-20s side. The aim, initially at least, was to have all three teams competing by 2018.Mora’s project quickly ran into trouble. Besides the logistical nightmare of selecting a team from the best players from the Farc and more than 8,000,000 registered war victims located in some of the most inhospitable corners of Colombia, resistance from powerful sectors of society began to derail ambitions; most strikingly from the country’s main football body, the División Mayor del Fútbol Profesional Colombiano. Topics Pinterest Farc But neither can claim to be the brainchild behind the idea. That credit falls to Felix Mora. Smartly dressed and with the learned mannerisms of a man well versed in politics, Mora knows how to get things done. A human rights lawyer and avid fan of Bogotá’s biggest football team, Millonarios, five years ago he began exploring a way of bridging both passions.“Let me be clear, this is not a Farc team,” Mora says, his finger flicking the side of his pint glass. “This team, La Paz FC, will include ex-Farc fighters and anyone considered a victim of the conflict. They will be on the same team fighting for a common goal.”La Paz Fútbol Club began as an idea that brewed and gestated for several years. Mora made calls and scribbled letters but rarely did he receive an answer. Share on Facebook Pinterest Facebook Pinterest Farc members shuffle for cover from a storm that beats down during a semi-final held at the Mesetas camp. Photograph: Carl Worswick A six-hour drive south of the Colombian capital, Bogotá, across scorched plains and through twisting passes stretched along high Andean peaks, a dozen men kick a battered football across a strip of land clogged with mud and stones.On the sidelines a man slumped in a wheelchair clatters his prosthetic leg against the frame. A woman standing beside him howls at the referee. She is clutching a rabbit. A rifle peeps from the bundle of white fur.As the rain begins to lash down, the mad kick-and-rush played at breakneck speed continues unabated. It’s an ugly spectacle and yet, for the 200-strong crowd in this war-weary corner of Colombia, the aesthetics are not a primary concern. Most are here to witness the first stuttering steps in a remarkable and historic transformation: that of the world’s first professional football team made up of former guerrilla fighters.A year ago everybody was still at war but last November a peace deal was signed with the government and the western hemisphere’s longest-running conflict was brought to an end. For the left-wing Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia guerrilla group, or Farc, the Marxist struggle has since taken a new direction and football is playing a leading role.“Football has always been very popular within the Farc and so we decided to start our own professional team,” Jeison Yepes says. “Everybody’s excited, we’re all talking about it.”Yepes is the president of the Farc’s sports committee at the Mesetas camp, one of 26 temporary installations set up under the watch of the United Nations to facilitate the reintegration back into civilian life of more than 7,000 Farc members. Share on Twitter Football Farc have put football at the top of the list of their sporting priorities Photograph: Carl Worswick Twitter A kids’ team warms up ahead of their game in the group stage of a Farc-organised tournament held in La Elvira. Photograph: Carl Worswick Facebook Dimayor remains polluted with autocratic club presidents who, like certain sectors of wider society, remain deeply hostile to the Farc. In order to change Dimayor rules and allow extra teams, this tightly knit old boys’ club will need to take a majority vote and the chances of 19 or more presidents voting in favour look slim.“I completely reject the idea,” says the former player and ultra right-wing Boyacá Chicó FC owner, Eduardo Pimentel. “Colombian football should not be getting down on its knees in front of the Farc.”Dimayor has officially taken a more conciliatory stance, arguing discussion must first open with the government in order to analyse the scope of the post-conflict agenda in helping incorporate guerrillas back into civilian life. Privately, though, the controversial proposal has failed to win support.“This is something that has never happened before,” said a former Dimayor representative. “Honestly, I think it would be very difficult.”Over the past few weeks Mora has busily sought to engage the press and spark debate about the project. Giving interviews to Colombia’s main newspapers and appearing on radio, Mora has ensured La Paz FC is very much in the public eye.So much so that even the former Colombian president Álvaro Uribe stormed into the debate with a typically heated response. “It would be an embarrassment,” the hard-right politician said. “After all Colombia’s efforts to rid drug trafficking from football, the Farc are now going to have their own team. It’s nonsense.” Colombian football should not be getting down on its knees in front of the FarcBoyacá Chicó FC owner, Eduardo Pimentel Twitter Uribe’s comment that La Paz FC are a uniquely Farc team has become a common theme. While undermining Mora’s attempts to build a team including all actors of the conflict, this focus has also antagonised the Farc, who feel Mora is speaking on their behalf without authorisation. A rupture was imminent.Following weeks of silence, just a few days ago the Farc appointed Edgar Cortes, a former director at the nine-times Colombian champions Santa Fe, as the group’s spokesperson for sport. He wasted no time in dissolving what had always been a fizzling partnership.“We have decided to rule out the possibility of working with this team La Paz FC. It’s a project that didn’t take into account what we wanted,” Cortes says. “We will instead be focusing on developing our own football project.”Provisionally labelled Fútbol Paz Farc, the former guerrilla organisation’s new plan is to set up coaching schools in rural areas long abandoned by the state. While the goal of competing professionally in the Colombian league remains, Cortes argues the Farc must first show they can perform at regional level.“Our main priority is to work with the most vulnerable people in Colombia in zones that were heavily affected by the conflict. The Farc will be the axis of this project but it will be a pluralistic initiative open to everyone in the country.”Cortes, a burly figure with snow-white hair, has tapped into his contacts and secured precious support from football authorities. During a recent meeting held with Dimayor’s president, Jorge Perdomo, the football body agreed to help the Farc in areas of coaching and logistics.“Our focus will now be on developing young players and the under-20s,” Mendoza says. “But this support also gives us a real chance of one day having a professional team.” Football is what gets everyone excited and so that’s why we are exploring the idea of putting together a professional teamWalter Mendoza Colombia Share on Pinterest Farc eyes Colombia’s 2018 elections as it seeks new political dawn Football can be an important tool in Colombia’s reconciliationFelix Mora Facebook Pinterest Pinterest Twitter Share on Messenger Share on WhatsApp Having adopted a more sensible time frame, Cortes’s strategy will be to focus on the Farc’s traditional strongholds in the countryside, while hoping for a gradual softening of attitudes to the former-state enemy within football’s hierarchy.For Mora and La Paz FC, he maintains that the door remains open to the Farc but admits their withdrawal has been a blow. Nevertheless, he will press ahead.“This is a long and complicated process,” he says. “But our idea is supported by the government and this is recognised in the country’s peace agreement. That’s important.”Whether two post-conflict teams can survive and be welcomed in a still deeply polarised country remains to be seen. But with another fledgling idea also registered with Dimayor aimed at bringing professional football to Tumaco, one of the worst-hit areas of the country during the conflict, there is clearly an appetite to use football to unite battle-scarred communities.Football alone will not provide all the answers to building a brighter Colombia but in setting an example of how former enemies may put their differences aside and move on with their lives, it could help reconciliation.Not so long ago the Farc were one of the most powerful and feared rebel groups in the world. Now, former fighters like to muse that the only shots fired in the future will be the ones on goal. Colombia has 36 professional teams split into two divisions, with each club affiliated to Dimayor. In order to enter the Colombian league, La Paz FC have two options: to buy out one of the existing teams or to persuade Dimayor to expand the league by modifying its statutes.If the first option is problematic because of the huge sums of money needed to obtain a team’s licence (estimated to be at least £5m), not to mention finding a club interested in selling, the second idea is even more riddled with knots.Throughout the 1980s and 90s Colombian football was ruled by drug barons such as Pablo Escobar, who saw clubs as a fertile vehicle to pamper egos and wash dirty money. Referees were murdered, titles were bought and players lived in fear.Undoubtedly, the modern Colombian game bears little resemblance to the dark days of narco football. Under heavy pressure from the government, much has changed and football has cleaned up its act. These days, most clubs are registered as plcs with shareholders subject to stringent background checks, making the game much more transparent. Facebook features Share via Email Twitter Facebook Read more Farc members play football at the camp in Llanos del Yari. Photograph: Luis Acosta/AFP/Getty Images Reuse this content read more

France Pogba a natural leader for France – Matuidi Jamie Smith 00:27 6/19/18 FacebookTwitterRedditcopy Comments(0) Getty Images France World Cup France v Australia Australia Paul Pogba The midfielder has had to face his fair share of critics, but his team-mate believes he is key to France’s World Cup hopes Paul Pogba is a “natural leader” for France despite the criticism received by the midfielder, says team-mate Blaise Matuidi.Pogba claimed he is the “most criticised player in the world” after France started their World Cup campaign with a fortunate 2-1 defeat of Australia.The Manchester United midfielder was involved in both goals, playing the pass that led to Antoine Griezmann’s penalty, and seeing his shot deflect in off Aziz Behich for the winner. Article continues below Editors’ Picks Out of his depth! Emery on borrowed time after another abysmal Arsenal display Diving, tactical fouls & the emerging war of words between Guardiola & Klopp Sorry, Cristiano! Pjanic is Juventus’ most important player right now Arsenal would be selling their soul with Mourinho move Despite his impact Pogba still faced criticism in the wake of an under-par Group C showing from Les Bleus, leading Matuidi to defend his colleague.”For me, Paul is a natural leader,” Matuidi told a news conference on Monday. “He is a leader of the game and also a leader outside.”When he expresses himself, I can tell you that he is being listened to.”He is a great player, he has shown it, we want to put Paul in the best position, we are behind him, and you [the media] expect him to score four goals in one game.”He’s a midfielder and he’s already able to go beyond his role, Paul is one of the big guys.”Work in the shadow let people make noise…  @equipedefrance #fiersdetrebleus #allezlesbleus #heretocreate #worldcup2018 pic.twitter.com/fmLsGCimdC— Paul Pogba (@paulpogba) June 18, 2018Pogba appeared to fire a barb at his critics with a social media post on Monday.”Work in the shadow let people make noise,” Pogba wrote on Twitter.And Benjamin Pavard, whose performance against Australia could put his France place at risk for the rest of the World Cup with right-back Djibril Sidibe building his fitness, backed Matuidi in offering support to Pogba.”He is a very great player,” Pavard said. “He is a true leader. He is very important for the group.”Paul always has nice words, he has a lot of experience at the highest level.” read more

D’Oliveira and Virgo both immigrated to Toronto in the ’70s (D’Oliveira from Guyana and Virgo from Jamaica), and they met in 1991 at the CFC’s inaugural Summer Lab. With support and resources from the CFC, they began working together on the award-winning short film “Save My Lost Nigga Soul” (1993) and then on Rude, which debuted at Cannes and helped put their newly-created production company on the map.The context of those early years of collaboration was a period in history (from the ’80s to the early ’90s) that Virgo describes as “a black film renaissance.” Hollywood was making movie stars out of black comedians like Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy, the Sankofa Film and Video Collective was spearheading a black film movement across the pond in the U.K. and in 1986 Spike Lee opened the doors for black filmmakers with his feature film debut She’s Gotta Have it. It was an exciting time of possibility, and Virgo and D’Oliveira leveraged that moment to make bold artistic statements and craft a space for themselves in the Canadian film and television industry.These days Virgo serves as executive producer of the OWN series Greenleaf in addition to directing episodes of the show, and Conquering Lion is working on an adaptation of Laurence Hill’s latest novel The Illegal with the CBC.I spoke with Virgo and D’Oliveira last week by telephone and our interview quickly evolved into a rich conversation that covered an astounding array of topics. The two men gave hilarious anecdotes about their first meeting, told me about what it feels like to become pioneers and reflected on why they still hesitate with connecting to a Canadian identity.What were your first impressions of each other and why did you begin collaborating?Clement Virgo: I’m trying to recall the first time I saw Damon. I remember the hair.Damon D’Oliveira: (laughs)CV: It was very late ’80s, early ’90s kind of long, almost wannabe new wave, very feathered and long. But soon after that, I saw someone that was very focused and dedicated and ambitious. I recognized the same kind of ambitions I had. We became fast friends.DO: And I think I proved to him there was a brain under that head of hair. My impression of Clement was he was a fashion plate (laughs). Amanda Parris writes a weekly column for CBC Arts and is the host of Exhibitionists on CBC Television and Marvin’s Room on CBC Radio. In her spare time, she writes plays, watches too many movies and defends Beyonce against all haters. In her past lives she wrote arts based curriculum, attended numerous acting auditions, and dreamed of being interviewed by Oprah. Rude, the first ever feature film written and directed by a black Canadian, was released in 1995. A boldly experimental and stylistic movie, it explores the stories of three individuals who search for redemption over an Easter weekend, while a mysterious radio host sets the tone by waxing poetic on her philosophies of life.I watched Rude in university, and quickly realized that it was the first time I had ever seen a Canadian film that centred on the lives and experiences of black people. Not only that, those experiences informed its cinematic aesthetic. In class we read some of the numerous essays and articles that had been written in response to Rude, and that’s what first sparked my curiosity about the creative minds behind this landmark film: director/writer/producer Clement Virgo and producer Damon D’Oliveira. Twitter The Rude team at Cannes in 1995. (Courtesy of CFC)CV: Well, no. At the time you have to remember it was the beginning of a black film renaissance which kind of started a few years earlier with Spike Lee, and soon after that there were these films that came out of England by these black British filmmakers. It felt like we were kind of a wave of black diasporic films that were being made. We felt like we were part of a movement and we just happened to be one of the first in Canada. But I never saw it as we were making history. I looked at it as participating in a kind of movement.Damon, I know your background is in acting. Did you know that you would also decide to get into producing? How did that happen?DO: Acting can be a bit boring where you’re sitting around waiting for a phone to ring. For me it was always important to make my own work. And of course at that time, there were shit roles for people that looked like me. Nobody was writing culturally specific work at that time. So that’s always been my agenda with the stuff that I choose — to represent characters, stories, ideas that are true to my experience as a migrant to this country in the ’70s.I was watching an old interview with you, Clement, where you were talking about being at Cannes for the first time and you were going through the program and you saw your name and the name of the film and it said “From Canada.” And you stared at it for a long time and said, “Oh. I guess I’m Canadian.” (everyone laughs) Why was this a realization and did it change things for you?CV: The immigrant experience never leaves you. It’s very formative. It affects who you think you are nationally — even now. Every time I cross the border I think, “Are they gonna let me in?” It’s always in the back of my mind that I’m not gonna be let back into the country. It’s kind of irrational in some ways. But maybe not. It’s that sense of belonging. This idea around national identity is always something that I’ve struggled with.DO: The moment for me was when we took The Book of Negroes to Parliament Hill to show all the representatives in the House our work. For me that was like, “Wow. I guess I am Canadian now.” There was something almost metaphysical about that day. LEAVE A REPLY Cancel replyLog in to leave a comment About the Author Director Clement Virgo on the set of The Book of Negroes. Why have you both stayed in Canada? I know there’s work that you do in the U.S., but why do you both always return?CV: In terms of film and television, we can’t really think of Canada as a single market or the industry as a single place. We live in an integrated and global world. I live in Canada and I love living in Canada — I love living in Toronto. I feel at home there. But in terms of my career, I see my career as rooted around the world.. Actors Aunjanue Ellis (left) and Cuba Gooding Jr. appear in a scene from The Book of Negroes. (Joe Alblas/Conquering Lion Pictures/Out of Africa Pictures/CBC)For that to still be a question for two individuals who have helped to build this film industry in important and imperative ways is very fascinating.DO: Yeah, it’s weird. When you leave a country around 12, your memories are still there. I still have dreams of Guyana. But I suppose my identity as a Canadian is growing stronger as we make more work. CV: Yeah, I went to fashion school — I wanted to be a designer and I worked in fashion for about four years. Tom Ford has the exact career that I wanted. I’m thinking maybe as an older filmmaker now I should go back and experiment a little bit with fashion design. I feel like I’m going back to the things that I used to love.DO: I think in your filmmaking there’s a similar journey. Our short film “Save My Lost Nigga Soul” and Rude were really stylistic films that were made with a lot of emphasis on the style and the look of it. And then Clement started getting a little more puritan and sort of stripping away.CV: Yeah, my natural inclination is to be a bit theatrical but somewhere along the line I got it into my head that it shouldn’t be so self-conscious. I remember when we did our first film Rude there was a person that saw that film and dismissed it outright as being pure style. And a month later we were invited to Cannes.DO: Well actually what happened is — we invited a lot of Canadian distributors, a room of white faces, and the entire room dismissed the film on first viewing. And it was the same film that went in front of a Cannes jury and got in. So I feel like with our work we’re always pushing doors open.When you were making Rude, did you realize that what you were doing was pioneering? Advertisement Advertisement On Wednesday, both men and their company Conquering Lion Pictures were awarded in L.A. by the Canadian Film Centre (CFC) with the CFC Award for Creative Excellence. The honour celebrates their body of work in film and television, which includes the critically acclaimed mini-series The Book of Negroes(2015), as well as the films Poor Boy’s Game (2007) and Lie with Me (2005).. Facebook Login/Register With: Advertisement Amanda Parris read more