Football and its Inescapable Chasm

Football – soccer, to those following the American version– players are highly distinct from the rest of the sporting fraternity. They play as a part of a team – be it a national squad or a club – but somehow are well-known and specifically picked, for their singularity and individuality than their ability to play as a mere component of their team unit. 

  

It’s no wonder then the criteria of wants and requirements of in national teams and clubs are widely disparate, leaving the players at times, at a huge disadvantage despite their otherwise well-documented talents on the playing ground. 

 

It’s no secret that every footballer comes with a use-by date. The methodologies applied to oust the player change, but the concept is a constant impervious to time and players’ reputations. Footballers representing their national teams are often quietly cast aside and replaced with younger blood as age catches upon on them. It’s however at the club level that one gets to see the core mercenary nature of the sport. 

Prevalent as there are many footballers who have the distinctness of playing of one club throughout their professional career, there are just as many who keep moving from one club to another; as if being tugged by the lure of ostensibly extravagant fees. And there are those few, elite ones, who want to be at their club of choice and are yet forced to look for other options to extend their career because their club doesn’t want them anymore. 

This last aspect is thus quite confusing when put into context with the fact that when players stick around with a club, refuting all offers of better pay and wages from other distinguished clubs, why is the club unable offer them something back in return? Not any kind of pitiful offering, but a genuine opportunity for the players to try and get as dignified an exit as possible. 

It’s also this facet of club football which makes loyalty a mockery. The club’s an institution, standing tall against the ravages of defeat and despair. However, it’s the players who push the clubs to the heights they attain. And players – irrespective of the whys and hows of each one may have come about to play in a club – aren’t without underlying loyalties. If only, the clubs would extend the favour back...