Even greats like Zico get bitter

[Joga Bonito]

Zico is back in his native Brazil and telling the local media that he is disillusioned with football.
He is at pains to point out that this has nothing to do with the fact that he was suddenly sacked as coach of Greek club Olympiacos.
In truth, in this he is not wholly convincing. Most of his diatribes seem to find their way to his fervent wish that the terms of his contract with his ex-club be rigorously observed.
But merely because there is a subjective context to Zico’s bitterness, that is no reason to invalidate his arguments.

He has spent much of the last few years with big clubs on the periphery of the major European leagues

Zico

- Fenerbahce in Turkey, CSKA Moscow in Russia and now Olympiacos.
On his list of complaints is the racism that some of his players suffered in Russia.
However, what appears to have affected him most is the negative side of the fervour generated by the game in Greece.
He moaned of having to wander round with bodyguards, of being stuck in the dressing room with his players for hours after a match because of a public order problem outside.
And he was disgusted to see so much hate on the faces of the fans - in his words, they seemed to derive more pleasure from a defeat of their rivals than from a victory for their own team.
It’s hard to disagree. Racism, intolerance, hatred, football can highlight or even create all of these things.
Some time ago, I used this space to argue that the big local derbies can be one of the most over-rated things in the game. They usually generate more heat than light, and they always generate hatred.
Truth is that the human being is not always a pleasant animal, especially in crowds.
Football, as the English football writer Rogan Taylor once commented, is like strong beer - not everyone can take it.
Emboldened by being part of a crowd, the emotionally unbalanced can set the tone for the collective.
There have been many times when I’ve felt the mood in a football stadium and thought to myself, ’that explains how fascism came to power.’
And because football has this extraordinary capacity to move emotions by the mountain-load, there is money in it. Money for the players, money for the agents, money for hangers-on.
Now, it’s only right and proper that the top players are well paid. They put on the spectacle.
Given the prevailing economic system, it’s hard to argue from a moral point of view that top players are overpaid.
This line of thinking is rarely employed to attack the earnings of property tycoons, or even tennis or golf players. The ‘footballers are overpaid’ argument often seems rooted in snobbery, its advocate unhappy that so much is going to sons of the working class.
An alternative justification for this argument - ‘footballers are overpaid because the game is paying them more than it can afford’ - perhaps has more merits.
The point is, though, that even if a crash happens and wages are forced downwards, there will be money in football for as long as millions of people all around the world love it so much.
This means that, up close, professional football can be a depressingly cynical place.
‘What’s in it for me?’ ‘If he’s getting that much I want more.’
A value system based on conspicuous consumption, and a cold-eyed greed that seems to mock the simple passion of the honest supporter.
I remember having lunch with a few journalists from all over the place during a Copa America a few years ago.
“Sometimes, I hate football,” said one from Saudi Arabia with a sudden severity.
There were several nods around the table. If I remember rightly, I replied, “There are times when we all feel that way.”
Though I do know some football journalists who never do, I’m not sure whether to envy or pity them.
I was thinking about that lunch this week when I was listening to Zico get it out of his system. He’s right. There are lots of reasons to be disillusioned with football.
Am I making a wise choice by devoting so much time to this activity?
Perhaps it’s easier for me to come up with a positive response than it is for Zico.
For a start, I haven’t just been sacked out of the blue by a leading Greek club.
Secondly, I’m not an ex-player, condemned perhaps to a permanent bitterness at the passing of time, born with a gift that was past its sell-by date at the age of 35. That must be hard to live with.
I was frustrated to be born with none of Zico’s talent - the son of a fair standard amateur player who expected me to fulfil his dreams, I was frustrated to not even have any of my dad’s talent.
But memories of playing always bring a smile to my face. Hours playing in the park as a kid, coats on the ground for goals.
More organised football, trying to set up our own club, massive defeats and occasional victories, goals I scored I can still recall, five-a-side games, even to winning player of the year as the goalkeeper for our Saturday morning side when I first moved to Brazil.
Lots of laughs and friendship, always friendship.
And when I think of what the game means to me nowadays, quite apart from any professional connection, what I concentrate on most is the possibility of friendship.
As Zico witnessed at close range, football can foster hatreds that divide us. But it also has an unrivalled power to bring people together.
It will never make the headlines, because it takes place one at a time, without the mass spectacle so beloved of the news media - but the number of international friendships forged through football must be so high as to be impossible to calculate.
People who meet on a train, or in a bar, or outside a stadium, these days people chatting on the internet - people from vastly different cultures, can cement a bond based on their mutual interest in the global game.
Football, as I’ve often written, is a universal language that we speak with different accents.
If some use it to scream while others use it to sing, well, that’s the nature of our species.
But for all the faults of the game and the things it can engender, the world would be a poorer place without it.




Excellent article...one of the best I've read in a long time...just thought I should share it.

[Da Badz]

Thanks for posting.