You’d imagine that you’d need to be a keen follower of the game in order to be a top class professional footballer.
Not true, it seems.
We were surprised to find out last week that Gabriel Batistuta, one of the greatest strikers in the history of the game and Argentina’s leading all-time goalscorer (ahead of Maradona and Messi), had very little interest in the game itself.
He’s not alone. For every Jamie Carragher, who you’d imagine still has posters of Kenny Dalglish and Ian Rush up on his bedroom wall, there’s Benoit Assou-Ekotto, who couldn’t tell you from one week to the next who Tottenham’s next opponents would be.
Gabriel Batistuta
A deity in Florence and the leading scorer for Argentina, the 46-year-old Batigol was always far more interested in matters away from the football pitch than following the beautiful game.
Batistuta’s autobiography was co-written by Alessandro Rialti, who said in a 1999 interview: “The important thing about Batistuta is that he is not like other players. He is a very good professional who doesn’t really like football.
“Once he leaves the stadium, he doesn’t want football encroaching upon the rest of his life. He is a very sensitive and intelligent man. When we were doing the book, he came to my office and for five full days he spoke about his family and his life in Argentina.
“But when it came to the football and his career, he switched off. ‘The records are there,’ he said, ‘you can look them up’.”
Christian Vieri
A contemporary of Batistuta’s and another Serie A legend, Vieri carved out a career that took in spells with Inter Milan, Lazio, Fiorentina, AC Milan, Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Sampdoria, Monaco and many more.
In fact, Vieri – who had spent much of his childhood in Australia – was far more taken with cricket than football, and claimed to have been only an average player at the latter in his younger days.
“To be honest I wasn’t very good at football. I loved cricket and when I started making some big scores for my boys team, I dreamed of becoming the next Allan Border,” he once said.
Benoit Assou-Ekotto
A player who openly admitted that he played football for the money and not out of any great passion for the sport, he was loved by the fans for his refreshing honesty.
This interview with Guardian in 2010 explains it all:
“If I come to England, where I knew nobody and I didn’t speak English … why did I come here? For a job. A career is only 10, 15 years. It’s only a job. Yes, it’s a good, good job and I don’t say that I hate football but it’s not my passion.
“I arrive in the morning at the training ground at 10.30 and I start to be professional. I finish at one o’clock and I don’t play football afterwards. When I am at work, I do my job 100%. But after, I am like a tourist in London. I have my Oyster card and I take the tube. I eat.
“I don’t understand why everybody lies. The president of my former club Lens, Gervais Martel, said I left because I got more money in England, that I didn’t care about the shirt. I said: ‘Is there one player in the world who signs for a club and says, Oh, I love your shirt?’ Your shirt is red. I love it. He doesn’t care. The first thing that you speak about is the money.
“Martel said I go to England for the money but why do players come to his club? Because they look nice? All people, everyone, when they go to a job, it’s for the money. So I don’t understand why, when I said I play for the money, people were shocked. Oh, he’s a mercenary. Every player is like that.”
How can you not respect candour like that?
Bobby Zamora
Now back at Brighton and Hove Albion, the 34-year-old former QPR, Fulham and West Ham striker has no idea what he’ll do once he retires – but he’ll be happy as long as he doesn’t have to watch any football.
“I’m not sure what I want to do after I finish playing but if it means watching football then I don’t want to get involved,” he said back in 2012.
“I’m not a massive football fan, really.
“Quite a lot more players than (those that admit it) are the same. I don’t watch games on an evening or anything like that. A lot of people find it strange.”
Stephen Ireland
How else do you explain his lack of action for a Stoke City side that contains a midfield of Charlie Adam and Glenn Whelan?
That Stephen Ireland remains a Premier League footballer is a bit of a joke, given the fact that it’s almost 10 years since he wrote on his Bebo page, “Football Is SHIT Why Did I get Stuck Doin It.”
‘Doin it’ is such a loose term, Stephen, when you’re stapled to the substitute’s bench alongside the likes of Steve Sidwell and Peter Odemwingie.
He is now, somehow, 29-years-old and surely can’t be too far away from giving up the game and making his money through appearances on Celebrity Big Love Jungle.
David Bentley
“Where did it all go wrong?”
Actually, in Bentley’s case, the opposite is true. He is now a successful businessman, with clubs and restaurants both in England and in Spain, and doesn’t regret leaving football for one moment.
Bentley’s career began at Arsenal, before taking in spells at Norwich, Blackburn (where he excelled) and Tottenham, where he realised the professional game was not for him. He’s still only 31.
“To be honest, I was even having a few doubts about football when I was at Blackburn,” he told the Mirror.
“It was weird. Kim was like: ‘You’ve got to buck your ideas up’. A lot of people were saying that and I remember walking my dog, thinking: ‘This ain’t for me’.
“I remember being a bit disappointed in myself. I was thinking: ‘You should love it, what’s the matter with you? You’re only saying this because you’re a little bit unhappy at the minute’.
“But in the end I just got tired of all the bull**** that goes with it, people wanting you to sell yourself as something you’re not.”
David Batty
The former Leeds, Blackburn, Newcastle and England midfielder is believed to have only got into football as his dad was an absolute fanatic.
For someone who was so committed on the pitch, his lack of interest in the game was known to his team-mates – the late Gary Speed wrote about Batty’s indifference in his autobiography – and his comments since retiring back this up.
“I’ve not been to watch any match since I finished playing. I can never understand anybody paying to watch it, never mind going all the way across the world to see it. You want to be entertained,” he said.
Batty retired in 2004 and has had little to do with the game since.
