If one went by the tabloid press in Britain, one would imagine that life as a football star is the worst hell there could be.
You go to a nightclub to unwind after a tough football match, and the paparazzi won't leave you alone to drown the sorrow of not having played as well as you know you could have done, or your mates could have done. Run out of luck for one second, and they will plaster your drunken face all over the pages of the tabloids the next morning.
You prang your Ferrari in the sleepy, wee hours of the morning. Someone gets a picture of it.
A colleague pinches your girl friend a few months after you've dumped her. And they make it look as if you were not only still with her, but that you were married to her and have been cuckolded. They create a hullabaloo which makes your erstwhile friend lose his captaincy of England. All eyes are on you the next time your team plays his. And you play along by refusing to shake hands with him.
You don't ever pause to ask: Are there divorces in this country? Do married people -- whatever their stations in life -- have affairs? Are the editors of the tabloids above taking out a secretary who used to go out with the chief sub but would murder him now if she got a chance?
What bunkum. The tabloids and their readers and those high-minded people who sneer at them but nevertheless monitor their moralising crap with a fine toothscomb, just force the football stars to live in an unreal world -- on the field, off the field and in an imaginary places called "our national life". It's amazing that half of the football stars are not bonkers.
The television interviewers too know damned well that these players are not going to be able to say anything worth noting about the match they've just won or lost. And yet, they will have them come on, faces and hair freshly done up as if they've never tousled their hair in disgust at a referee's decision, to mouth inanities and falsehoods meant to enhance the reputation of "The Game".
Occasionally, though, one of them emerges, not totally scathed by it all. In an interview given by Rio Ferdinand in the London Guardian, the new England captain manages to present himself as such a person -- despite what must have been a relentless effort to lead him down The Cliche Path. He even had something sensible to say about "Wags" (Wives and Girlfriends to the uninitiated.) Here is the full interview:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/mar/03/rio-ferdinand-new-england-captain
To Ferdinand, I can only say one word: Respect.
Keep it up, man. You'll make a great captain if you remain a real human.
the world is an idealistic world, we try as much as possible to live a life of moral uprighteness pleasing to ourselves. but the world we live in expect more from us, you will be right if you are not caught but wrong when you are caught. others have managed to live a life with the paparazi, while others have fallen to their cameras's and pen. thats what storedom brings, fame and accountability, it doesnt matter wether the society is bedeviled with the canker, thats why you are a star, to stand out!!!!
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