Nigeria Content Online

You may have heard
recently that the private life of Manchester United and England striker
Wayne Rooney has been subject to allegations in several British tabloid
newspapers.

Once again, a rich
and famous sports star has apparently not been able to resist the
temptations associated with his status and his bank account. Am I the
only one who is not surprised? To be honest it didn’t shock me at all.

Without forgiving
the situation, if indeed it proves to be true, it throws light once
again on the lives of the privileged elite of the sporting world and
the morality of their conduct. It also raises the question of whether
there is enough support for these individuals from those who create
their stardom.

Tiger Woods’
transgressions were notorious but if anything, the culture within the
elite of Europe’s footballing class for promiscuity and philandering,
is more ingrained and widespread.

It would be fair to
say that exceptional circumstances contribute to this. In the
modern-day game, where soccer is an entertainment that captivates the
world, the players can attain unimaginable wealth and fame at a very
young age.

Often, in Europe’s
top clubs, there will be at least ten millionaires under the age of 25
within the squad. All whose faces are well known, are highly attractive
to the opposite sex and have money and time to burn. Some are single,
many are married.

Everywhere they go,
they hear how great they are and how they can do no wrong. They have
agents who help them buy houses, cars, help them pay their bills and
who book flights and holidays. What is the only thing that most of them
have to worry about? Running and kicking a ball.

The lifestyle is
alluring and glamorous and there are also many women who seek to
capitalise on this. A career can be built on being the girlfriend of a
famous footballer, and many are ruthless in their pursuit of such
riches as there is money to be made from kiss-and-tell stories.
Therefore, every time they go out, they have girls all over them.

Every time they are on the road, they have girls all over them.

What is worse, such
fame, means many footballers have few people around them they can
trust. In their mind, family and childhood friends are the only ones
who loved them before they were famous.

That leads to one
of the biggest mistakes, marrying their first girlfriend, the girl who
cared about them before they were rich. Believe it or not, players’
agents and coaches actually encourage them to do this, to settle the
player, create an image of maturity and to build the role-model persona
that is so valuable in the commercial world.

And herein the
problem lies, because with the attention and opportunities for sex
available to these guys, many cheat and then end up getting caught. Few
have the maturity to walk away from provocative situations and few tell
such groupies that flirting and sleeping together is off limits because
they have a wife at home.

It seems strange
that so much preparation is given to the players’ performance on the
pitch – with a support network helping hone every area from nutrition
to fitness – while the management of their lives as celebrities away
from the pitch falls on the shoulders of these young men alone.

In my eyes,
everyone needs to start taking more responsibility, starting with the
clubs who pay their athletes hundreds of thousands of dollars every
week. In our jobs we have training courses, right? Well why don’t teams
start enrolling players in media training and why don’t they organise
classes with sports psychologists? It might go a long way to exposing
these players to some of the temptations they will face in the future.

Agents need to grow
up too. Instead of encouraging their clients to get married to their
first girlfriend at the age of 25 or earlier, why don’t they manage
their life a little more intelligently?

At least, if the
players stay single longer, then they can act more irresponsibility and
associate with as many escorts or strippers as they like without being
judged by society.

Success is a Pandora’s box, a life-changing experience, and for many footballers it needs to be managed better.