Last month, the CISL Blog focused on Phrasal Verbs. For extra practice using phrasal verbs, we asked our Advanced Level students to write an essay answering the question “Who do you look up to, and why?”. We received many wonderful essays about the people who inspire our students, but the winner was Tatsuki Ibuki’s essay on soccer player Dragan Stojkovic. In addition to the phrasal verb “look up to”, Tatsuki also used the phrasal verbs “catch up”, “go on”, “take over”, “make up”, “get ahead”, and “let alone”. WOW! Congratulations to Tatsuki, and thank you for writing an essay that is such a great example of correctly using phrasal verbs!
Dragan Stojkovic
By Tatsuki Ibuki, Level 8
Dragan Stojkovic who is a Serbian soccer player is still the best fantasista of all. He is one of soccer players I look up to. His performance was very elegant and creative, so nobody can play like him. His performance was very beautiful, creative and fascinating to us; therefore, he is called “fantasista.” There are only some fantasistas in soccer such as Roberto Baggio and Ronaldinho (Ronaldo de Assís Moreira). However, Stojkovic is not only a fantasisa but also a good head coach of a team in Japan league. Needless to say, he is a hero of his country as well as Japan.
Firstly, Stojkovic’s performance was very fantastic. He played so elegantly that I used to go to the stadium to watch his every game. He is considered as one of the best players in the history of Yugoslavian and Serbian soccer. When he played in Japan, his performance caught up a lot of soccer fans even though most of them were not supporting his team. Even though, he had many opportunities to play big teams, he chose to go on in Japan with the reason that he likes Japan.
Secondly, Stojkovic was the youngest captain in Red Star which is one of the most prestigious teams in Serbia. He is one of the five players to win the title Star of the Red Star. He was also a captain of the Yugoslavia national team and played in the World Cup 1990. His incredible and elegant performance attracted soccer fans in the world. As a result, he led best 8 as a captain. Thus, he is a hero of his country.
Finally and most importantly, he is a great head coach. He took over the position of Nagoya Grampus in Japanese soccer league four years ago. The team, Nagoya Grampus, was not powerful team before he became the head coach. The team had never taken first place in the league since established. However, he made up a great team and his team got the first place in three years. He is still the head coach of the team and his team is getting ahead now.
For these reasons, Stojkovic is both a fantasista and a great head coach. He is the only fantasista who can manage team very well so far. Neither Roberto Baggio nor Ronaldinho can become a good head coach, let alone make a great team like Stojkovic.