Tag: soccer

Benjamin William White – Discuss

Benjamin William White might not be a name recognisable to all of you out there, but he hit the headlines this past week as he has refused to play for the England football team. Now, as someone who loved to play football and loves watching football, I would have given my right arm to have been given the chance to play for England. So why did White turn down the chance when there is a general assumption amongst most football fans that players must love the game as much as we do? I actually have some sympathy for him. Some of you might say, well you would being an Arsenal fan, but it has nothing to do with that. 

He is a player at the peak of his form, helping Arsenal to the top of the league and to the quarter-finals of the Champions League. But it might surprise you to know that he actually doesn’t enjoy watching football. Yes, he’s passionate and very good at what he does, but he sees it as a job and nothing else. He is, by his teammates’ admission, a complex character, and he doesn’t enjoy being away from his family. He always wants to be first choice, which is a good trait, but with England he obviously has greater competition. Added to that is an alleged row with England assistant coach Steve Holland over his attitude. All of that combined led to his decision. Now, he is not alone in being a player that doesn’t actually like watching football. Liverpool player Konstantinos Tsimikas is another example, and looking back in history there are more. Gareth Bale, Carlos Tevez, Gabriel Batistuta and Marc-Andre der Stegen to name just a few who saw football as a job and nothing else. 

Harry Redknapp was scathing in his reaction this week on Talksport. “I think Gareth Southgate said the door’s still open, didn’t he? The door should be slammed right in his mush,” Redknapp told talkSPORT.(charming!) “He doesn’t want to play for his country, he goes to the World Cup then comes home because he’s not getting in the team. I’m sorry, you’ve had your opportunity. You don’t want to play for England? You tell the Bobby Moores of this world who’s got 100-odd caps. The Shiltons, the Beckhams, the Rooneys those people, go and tell the Billy Bonds of this world who didn’t get a cap and should have done, and all those great players that you don’t want to play for your country. I think it’s disgusting, I can’t have it.” 

This is not military service, Harry, you have a choice. Maybe it’s the Spurs, Arsenal rivalry that wound Harry up, as he forgot to mention that he played with the great Jimmy Greaves at West Ham. He said, “He was a genius. He was on another level. His best days were behind him when he joined us at West Ham, but he was still a great player, and we couldn’t wait to be with him on his first day.” The part he failed to mention about Jimmy was that he retired from international football early after telling Sir Alf Ramsey that he had no intention of becoming a bit-part player in the England squad. 

So, in the world of football, White is not on his own. In the World of sport, he is not on his own either. Former world tennis number one Andre Agassi once said I play tennis for a living even though I hate tennis, hate it with a dark and secret passion and always have. 

Ronnie O’Sullivan, probably the greatest snooker player ever to grace the green baize, has had his demons on and off of the table. He once famously refused to play in the World Championships.

Even in the world of Showbiz, he is not on his own. The actor Johnny Depp from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies said “ I don’t have much further need for Hollywood, myself,” It’s a strange, funny time when everybody would love to be able to be themselves, but they can’t. They must fall in line with the person in front of them. If you want to live that life, I wish you the best.”

We live in a different world now and with the advent of social media, we can all voice our own opinions. We all have choices that some will agree with and others won’t, but it is up to us to make our own decisions and if that makes you happy, then in my opinion, that’s fine.

Richie is the MD at Pirates, the island’s number one night out featuring Adventure, Reloaded and Gringos. Subscribe to receive his blogs at http://www.dadtaximallorca.com

Follow him on Twitter @DadTaxi1 & Instagram @dad.taxi or feel free to email him at rprior@globobalear.com 

It’s a Public Vote

I grew up watching Sports Personality of the Year. It was one of the programmes I always looked forward to at the end of the year. Now I’m showing my age here as this was before satellite tv was invented. So you could watch most sporting events on terrestrial tv. My earliest memory of a winner was probably John Curry the ice skater who won in 1976. By the way I was 10 years old for those asking. 

Since the invention of Sky it became harder for the BBC to show highlights of sport that they didn’t televise. This meant the programme wasn’t as good as it used to be and as I’ve got older I’ve tended not to watch it so much.

I have to be honest and look up who won last year’s event and it was England women’s footballer Beth Mead. She was the player of the tournament and top scorer at Euro 2022, where the Lionesses defeated Germany in the final at Wembley to win England’s first major women’s football trophy.

The 27-year-old also became the first women’s footballer to win the award.

This year another England women’s footballer won, their goalkeeper Mary Earps. Leading to a few people criticising why she won if she and England didn’t actually win the World Cup after losing to Spain in the final. 

Before we look at whether she was deserving or not let’s look at the criteria and the panel who drew up the shortlist as it’s something I had to look up.

The criteria of the shortlist should be that they,

• Reflect UK sporting achievements on the national and/or international stage;
• Represent the breadth and depth of UK sports; 
• Take into account the ‘impact’ of the person’s sporting achievement beyond the sport in question.

The industry panel for this year’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year included former Lioness and Euro 2022 winner Ellen White, ex-Olympian Colin Jackson, Paralympian Ellie Simmonds and former Scotland rugby union international Chris Paterson.

Sports journalists David Coverdale (Daily Mail), Rob Maul (The Sun) and Charlotte Harpur (The Athletic) were on the panel alongside Olympian Katherine Grainger, now Chair of UK Sport.

Representing the BBC were director of sport Barbara Slater, head of sport content Philip Bernie and Sports Personality of the Year executive producer Gabby Cook.

The Panel were given an extensive list of the top sportspeople from 2023 Including information on their achievements, provided by the production team of Sports Personality of the Year. The Panel were also able to consider other potential candidates who were not on the list. 

They chose, Stuart Broad (cricket), Frankie Dettori (horse racing), Alfie Hewett (wheelchair tennis), Katarina Johnson-Thompson (athletics) Rory Mcllroy (golf) and Mary Earps (Football)

On the night itself the award goes to the sportsperson whose sporting actions have most captured the UK public’s imagination during 2023. There’s an important word in that last sentence “public”. Let’s not forget it’s a public vote and they decide who wins. It’s a bit like a general election if you feel so passionately about something then use your vote. Two of the people who’ve been so critical of the winner have been Journalist Piers Morgan and former footballer Joey Barton. I wasn’t surprised about Barton as his views on pretty much everything are left field but I was surprised about Piers. Everyone as always is entitled to their opinion as long as you don’t get personal, which Barton in particular did. Interestingly though when asked, neither did vote so that sums it up for me. 

Back to the winner Mary, she also won the World Cup tournament’s Golden Glove, the Best Women’s Goalkeeper at FIFA’s The Best awards and was named England Women’s Player of the Year. She stood up against Nike who wouldn’t release a replica shirt with her name on and when they eventually bowed to pressure she sold out twice in both October and December.

A thoroughly deserving winner in my eyes. 

Take care everybody and can I take this opportunity to wish you all a very Happy New Year. 

Richie is the MD at Pirates, the islands number one night out featuring Adventure, Reloaded and Gringos.

Follow him on Twitter @DadTaxi1 & Instagram @dad.taxi or feel free to email him at rprior@globobalear.com