Are modern football players loyal to their clubs?

Money, money and more money. That’s what all the modern generation players care for. Loyalty for them is a thing of the past. Players like Paolo Maldini, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, Francesco Totti are fantastic players and have been loyal to their clubs during their career. They chose to be loyal to the club that made them great players. Unfortunately, it is not the same for modern day players.

What is the reason behind this? ... cash, rich sponsorship deals as big clubs are willing to pay everything to buy players. Perhaps loyalty seems to have gone far off. For the past 3-4 years, clubs like Real Madrid, Chelsea backed by their multi-billionaire owners, have got the players they want by offering huge sum of money.

Let us take the current example of Cristiano Ronaldo, who is so desperate to move to Real Madrid. He has completely forgotten about the club-Manchester United, that made him a star; the fans who stood by his side even after the famous World Cup 2006, a winking incident when the whole country wanted him. He was booed all over England (infact still is) except at Old Trafford where fans supported him. It’s the huge amount of cash Madrid has offered that has made him betray all these things.

Ronaldo, of course is not the first player to have done this and certainly not the last one also. Everyone remembers Ashley Cole’s departure from Arsenal and now Mathieu Flamini, Emmanuel Adebayor, Aleksandr Hleb are following the same path. Is it true to say that money is the passion for players rather than Football? Look at Sergio Ramos, while he was busy playing in European Championship, his agent was in England and claimed that Manchester United was interested in signing him but Sergio himself recently said he wanted to complete his career in Madrid. Agents today can be blamed by and large for player’s lack of loyalty.

But is it such a bad thing? Maybe players prefer to be loyal to their career rather than to their club. So, maybe it isn’t always fair to demand loyalty from players. Clubs are also not always loyal to their players who have served their best to the club. Consider Ronaldinho, he won everything for Barcelona during his prime time, the FIFA world player of the year and European player of the year but it is extremely sad to know that he is not wanted at Barcelona now.

So, why do fans demand loyalty from players? Maybe, Loyalty should also be a two-way street. The only loyalty left today is perhaps of the fans to their club. Unfortunately, for the players, their heart lies with the money.

Written by: Digvijay Singh