RedStarUnited
Full Member
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2008
- Messages
- 8,310
This says more about players then the game as a whole.
It's one thing when players in the twilight of their careers may have their heads turned by a mega bucks deal playing in the desert but Ruben Neves' move was the first time my ears pricked up and I though WTF is he thinking?
Is the game facing an existential crisis? Are footballers sportsmen who yearn to compete, to test themselves against better teams and ultimately to win trophies or is it simply about earning as much money as possible?
We have seen it before with Chinese transfers and then that fell flat on it's face.
The Saudis and Gulf States are scrambling around trying to diversify from oil, a finite resource, and ambitions of creating their own domestic elite competition is fanciful. Older players aside, are we to believe that footballers would rather sacrifice the chance of winning the Champions League and simply bank coin instead?
If so, then it is GAME OVER
I could be wrong but I doubt kids in Brazil or Cameroon (random countries dont kill me) dream of winning the CL, they dream of escaping poverty.