Top 5: Anti-footballers
Wednesday, 14 January 2009
Footballers, eh? Over-paid, under-interested petulant prima-donnas with too much money and not enough respect for society and humanity. Thank god there are a few who drag up the moral average.
- George Weah: football genius, humanitarian and politican
- Ulises De La Cruz: footballer, money sender-homer and head of Fundecruz
- Kanu: gangly fella, UNICEF ambassador and Kanu Heart Foundation top dog
- Didier Drogba: diver, goal machine and Ivorian peacemaker
- Clarence Seedorf: Milan legend, footballing old head and creator of Champions for Children
Many heartfelt thanks to Jon, Eddie, Chris and Jonathan for some great tip-offs.
If you want to tell me who else fits this category, I'd be delighted to hear from you.
(Photo: Einsteinio)
5 comments:
I think you're being a tad unfair to football in general - yes the top of the game is awash with money and greed but that doesn't tar the sport as a whole. Being a nice guy does not make you anti-football.
"Anti-footballer" would to me be footballers who simply kill the game, ones that make the game unwatchable. This doesn't mean mere defensive football, or players that are simply bad, but those that actually ruin it as a spectacle. For example, I'd put Rory Delap and his long throws into that category go an play basketball you long-armed freak, this is meant to be a game you play with your feet. But others might disagree...
Yeah, I'm pretty disheartened with the game at the moment. I tend to think the good guys are pretty rare.
I did a call with Ray Parlour a few months ago and he was nice as pie. These days, even middle-of-the-road lower league players have the capacity to be total tossers off the pitch.
Obviously there are hundreds of exceptions, but I went for 'anti-footballer' simply as the opposite of the public's stereotypical football player.
Rory Delap's a can of worms. I'd love to see a wider debate on that, I'm really not sure where I stand on it.
Um hello? Gordon Ramsay?
Re the Rory Delap debate, I thought that Jamie Redknapp made a really interesting comment (no really) when he said that he played with Rory at Southampton and had no idea he could take a throw-in like that. So what happened, did Rory spot an opportunity and train to arm himself with such a weapon? Did Tony Pullis identify the 'bullet throw' as something that would unsettle other teams and ask for a volunteer to learn the 'art'?
Interesting question. Of course it's always possible that Jamie's a bit stupid and just didn't know ;-)
I reckon it's got Pulis' prints on it. His football is slightly cynical and not the prettiest, but he's a clever bastard.
His kid was a handy player, we did a couple of tournaments together. Don't recall any long throws though. Wonder where he is these days.
Post a Comment