The change in the mentality of footballers has been nothing short of dramatic. Whilst it used to be about passion for the game, nowadays football seems to be all about fancy cars, big houses, designer clothes etc. So where did football change? Only 10 years ago people played football because they loved it! Whereas now it seems to be about the wages. Some footballer’s get paid over £100,000 a week, 5 x as much as the ANNUAL minimum wage. Personally I think this is a disgrace and cannot be justified. The only realistic way of managing this is by introducing a wage cap, something I just don’t see happening in the near future.
When talking about modern day football, there are plenty of players that live in a world of fame and fortune, take Cristiano Ronaldo for e.g, a fantastic talent, but in my opinion not passionate enough about the game. Yes the passions there, but he fails to show it as he is too busy getting caught up with his wages or his new sponsorship deal etc. This is an example of a typical modern day footballer.
Now let’s talk about passionate players, Bobby Charlton. This is a guy who was blessed with a natural talent for the game. He grew up in a football mad family and bled football. His passion for football was and is so great, that on any given day he would have happily played football for free!
Now this is the difference between modern and olden day football. I think some of the modern day footballers need to take a leaf out of Bobby Charlton’s book and start to re discover the passion they have for the game!
Ashley Young is a perfect example for high wages. In the last few days he has signed for Manchester United and is set to earn an astonishing £130,000 a week. Now £130,000 for a player of Young’s calibre is just ridiculous and only serves to perpetuate an already bad situation.. Just imagine what you could spend £130,000 on: a new car? A flash watch? Designer clothes? And that’s only a week’s wage!
Also, as football wages have increased, it has become harder for clubs and players to mutually agree on wages. This leads to a lot of players leaving clubs and going to richer clubs like Manchester City and Chelsea who can afford to pay the wages they want!
When Manchester City was bought by new owners, they spent over £100 million on players. As if things couldn’t get anymore bizarre, they let the players they signed pick their own wages as well as giving them a expensive watch worth thousands of pounds. Imagine that, being in control of your own wages and getting a free watch worth more than some people’s cars. This is a perfect example of how insane football has become due to the fact people are willing to put their hands in their pocket and spend huge amount of cash on transfer fees and wages!
The perturbing thing is that there seems to be no end in sight. Is there anything that can be done?
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