As Cristiano Ronaldo's enslaved plight at Manchester United illustrates, these are desperate times for multi-millionaire footballers the world over. Not since pit workers endured 23-hour shifts, slept on hard wood floors and returned to the mines an hour later, has an industry asked so much of its workforce.
With this in mind, we've decided to highlight the plight of five of the game's most high-profile "victims" - five men for whom playing the game they love for a living, earning vast sums of money and enduring the prolific attentions of glamourous women has become a living hell.
Let their struggle be your inspiration...
1) We begin with Carlos Tevez, who earns £90,000-a-week playing upfront for Manchester United before thousands of adoring fans, but would gladly sacrifice all for a two-week package deal to Benidorm.
"I am playing 70 or 80 percent of what I can give," he said in January. "I finish games very tired. In the last 25 minutes I die, I fall. It's difficult topic, because my body is asking me to rest a bit. I've not had a holiday for two years. I want to have a quiet day with my family, without thinking about anything."
2) The Brazilian showboat and marketing gold that is Ronaldinho couldn't agree more. Despite taking home just shy of £7million a year from Barcelona, he had this to say last February.
"It can be really hard for the players when you have so many matches throughout the year and it is important that training and travel is organised well so that we don't suffer. We are lucky that at Barça everything is so professional, with massages and good facilities. This helps, but we need to rest too I don't feel like I need a holiday right now. But there are times, like at the end of the season, when I do."
3) Up next is Marcel Desailly, who appeared to be yearning for afternoons down the bingo, weekend trips to Eastbourne and summers on an allotment, when he said this during his time at Chelsea in 2003.
"Too much weariness will make me stop...it is a daily battle. I am beginning to tire of everything. Training does not please me every day. There are mornings when I don't want to go. It is a daily battle against this feeling. Sometimes I ask myself what I am still looking for in football with all the things I have won."
4) Poor Alexander Hleb. Judging by recent comments, the Belarus international - who earns £35,000-a-week - has been forced to queue at Waitrose, and remains completely unaware of habitable areas outside central London. Some claim a Sunday trip to Ikea tipped him over the edge.
"I'm unhappy with life in England. Everyone races around all day and I can't get used to it. I'm tired and I'm uncomfortable...Life in London has left me mentally tired."
5) Finally, how about this for perspective from England midfielder Joe Cole in September 2006. By the sounds of it, Jose Mourinho was running a thinly veiled sweat shop. Seriously, what kind of boss makes their employees work past lunchtime?
"I've been pulling my hair out trying to ensure I get fully fit again and staying at the training ground until 5pm every day."
Source from - Will Tidey / Eurosport
No comments:
Post a Comment