In yesterday’s article, I talked about how cricket has evolved from a gentlemanly game to a flamboyant one over the years. Football hasn’t remained immune to this trend, and in due fashion produced extraordinary characters like Bill Shankly, George Best, David Beckham. Cristiano Ronaldo, all united by their incredible presence both in the media and on the screen, although when it came to living life king size, George Best could very well be called the man that made it fashionable, if not acceptable, with his many girlfriends and expensive cars, the penultimate playboy.
If anything, the flamboyance has only increased over the years and a good deal of it, as has been now noticed is the surplus inflow of the oil rich Arab countries who offer top players sizable deals in terms of income and publicity, with Neymar being the latest catch of this trend, Ronaldo being another notable example that also succumbed to this trend earlier in the year. Both players love the limelight, have gotten into considerable amounts of scrapes over the years, are one hundred percent individualistic in their pursuit to reaching the top and then remaining there, which most cannot do.
It comes off as welcome relief to the player who has been recuperating for the past 6 months now and has been replaced by the prodigy Mbappe in the training camps. It signals inevitably that his once talked about PSG reign has now come to a gradual, inevitable end and the thirst for newer pastures is the order of the day. The contract is 160 million pounds for a period of two years, exceptionally high but well deserving for a player of his stature.
The Arabian land is now exercising a messianic hold over this world and that has been solidified with Qatar hosting the World Cup, a media frenzy. We can expect transfers like these to witness a surge, as most players are often looking for ways to increase their well deserved comforts.