A friend's rant today about football players changing clubs for money reminded of comedian Jerry Seinfeld's theory on supporting a team. Players' loyalties are constantly questioned now, and the China factor has added a new dimension. But so too is there a worry that clubs are ready to cash in on their star players when they can. The balance between winning and running a successful, money making business is shifting to the latter. And, it can be argued, if clubs didn't make money there would be no club to support anyway.
The problem of transferring between teams is now also becoming a problem at the International level. I believe the sometimes despised globalisation phenomenon is going to lead to the end of national teams made up of players born in that country. It'll be increasing hard to know where a player is really from. Diego Costa was born Brazilian but became a Spanish citizen and now plays for Spain. He grew up as a Brazilian footballer but Spain now reaps the benefits. Wilfrid Zaha, of Crystal Palace, grew up in England, was given his football opportunities in England, played for England twice in friendlies, but has now decided to play for Ivory Coast, his country of birth. And there are all the Albanian and Swiss players who could play for either team, or even for Kosovo now.
Will players just go to whatever country will take them? Malta found a "Maltese" player in England. Luke Gambin has a Maltese grandfather, but no other connection with Malta. He is now a regular in the team. There are more and more stories like this nowadays.
So Jerry Seinfeld's joke may be truer than it seemed. We may be watching a World Cup in the future made of players who are wearing our country's clothes but are not part of our country. We will be "rooting for the clothes" because we won't know who the players really are.
"Loyalty to any one sports team is pretty hard to justify. Because the players are always changing, the team can move to another city, you’re actually rooting for the clothes when you get right down to it. You know what I mean, you are standing and cheering and yelling for your clothes to beat the clothes from another city. Fans will be so in love with a player but if he goes to another team, they boo him. This is the same human being in a different shirt, they *hate* him now. Boo! Different shirt!! Boo." (Jerry Seinfeld)
No comments:
Post a Comment