It’s Not A Funny Old Game, It’s A Funny Old World

More than any other, this week has thrown up some strange and upsetting stories from the world of football.

Firstly there was the tragedy of German goalkeeper Robert Enke committing suicide under the strain of depression, then there has been Liverpool’s confusing struggle for a victory even against lowly opposition and once again the Old Firm duo of Rangers and Celtic being refused entry into a proposed British Premier League.

While these stories have all contained elements of interest, tragedy and intrigue, there have been two other stories that have occupied my mind to a greater extent this week. They are Carlo Cudicini’s motorcycle accident, which has left him with two broken wrists and an injured pelvis and Aston Villa defender Like Young’s decision to retire from international football.

On the face of it both of these stories seem to be relatively straight forward. In fact they are almost mundane. Road accidents are a common occurrence and players on the periphery of international stardom regularly hang up their international boots in favour of their club ones.

Both stories though have hidden depths.

To begin with, Carlo Cudicini. Whilst travelling to a training session yesterday morning, the Italian goalkeeper crashed his £11,000 BMW R1200 GS motorcycle into a Ford Fiesta and broke both his wrists and injured his pelvis. Naturally there was an instant outpouring of support and best wishes from White Hart Lane, from those concerned about the keeper’s health firstly and the future of his career in football secondly.

As the dust settled though and it emerged that the Cudicini’s condition was not life threatening, albeit career threatening, the inquest into the result of his actions began to gain momentum.

As with most professional footballers, Cudicini signed a contract on his arrival at Spurs that contained a certain number of insurance clauses to prevent him injuring himself outside of work. These included a ban on any extreme sports, playing football competitively for anyone other than his employer and most importantly and relevant to this case, is that he is reportedly not allowed to ride a motorcycle, once again for fear of injuring himself.

The loud mouth in charge at Spurs, Harry Redknapp, was obviously relieved that his reserve keeper hadn’t sustained any life threatening injuries, but also expressed an element of surprise in his mode of transport.

“I didn’t know he had a motorbike” he told the London Evening Standard “clubs certainly don’t encourage players to have them”.

Like many I was pleased to hear that Cudicini escaped from his accident without any life threatening injuries, as so easily could have happened, but his decision to take his motorbike to work has surprisingly left his career in the balance.

Currently on a lucrative £40k a week salary, it has been muted that Spurs will take the hard line and terminate his contract on the grounds of a breach of contract.

This may be unnecessary though, considering that the extent of his injuries may mean he is unable to play professionally again, but with Spurs reportedly keen to bring in veteran stopper David James in the January transfer window, the removal of £40k from the wage bill would be very handy (no pun intended) indeed.

Only time and the carefully worded offers to the keeper from high-ranking Spurs officials will determine whether or not Cudicini is pushed or walks away from White Hart Lane.

The second story that caught my eye this week was Luke Young’s decision to retire from international football.

As an Aston Villa fan I’m a big supporter of the full-backs no-nonsense and combative style, so his inclusion as an understudy to Glen Johnson at right-back in the England squad to face Brazil this weekend, would have been a welcome sight.

His decision then to retire from international football came as quite a surprise to me. Having gained only seven caps for his country, I would have thought that he’d have been keen to add to that tally and try and establish himself as a regular on the international stage.

Villa boss Martin O’Neill also expressed surprise at his decision “My own personal view is that you should try to keep going for as long as you can” he told the Standard “both at club level and international.”

“However, at the end of the day it’s up to the individual.”

In this case, the individual in question may have taken into account incidents that took place off the field of play when making his decision, as unfortunately Young has had a difficult and distressing return to football this season.

Frustratingly sidelined by an injury, he has also had to contend with the death of his younger brother whilst holidaying in Crete, something which caused him great stress and anguish and undoubtedly and understandably delayed his return to action this season for Villa.

Whether the untimely and tragic death of his brother had any influence on his decision to retire from international football only Young will know, but from a football perspective it does seem odd that an ambitious and talented footballer looking to test himself again the big boys of football should choose to retire at 30.

However, Robert Enke’s death this week has forced home the fragility of our existence and that even multi-million £ football stars can be vulnerable to the cruelty of life, just the same as me or you.

Beyond the glamour and sheen of the Premier League, beyond the multi-million £ pay packets and beyond the “I’m just looking forward to the next game John” speeches spouted in line with the company policy that give footballers a robotic and inhumane quality, the accidents and tragedies of the past few weeks and past few months in Young’s case, show an upsetting, touching and at times confusing side to life that even effects the rich and famous.

Posted By Dan Mobbs - Friday November 13, 2009.
Tags: Carlo Cudicini, Robert Enke