Special Feature: Football’s best off-the-field U-turn “moments” – Part 1
What makes football so appealing and attractive is its ability to retain its unpredictable nature. Football as a sport has thrived due to this characteristic and in doing so, it has overshadowed every other sport there is on planet earth.
There is a reason why more than 3 billion out of 6 billion people on planet earth watch football and follow it closely; it is because the sport is just that good. No two ways about it. Over the past one and a half decade, football has also developed a commercial
side to it. It has become a celebrity star of its own. Not only the main players but the footballers as a whole have benefitted due to this. But, where there are benefits, there are potential losses as well.
Loyalty is a much talked about subject in football, fans value this virtue above all. As commercialization has crept into football, the dynamics have evolved a bit to include a much broader spectrum of news. Mainly, this is due to the fact that fans actually
want to know more about the people they are following. This curiosity sometimes goes over bounds and also engulfs players and their personal lives.
For better or worse, footballers these days have to deal with it. Gone are the days when the crowd just used to focus on what was going on “on the field”. Modern football is arguably more than “what happens on the pitch”, it is a combination of contract,
negotiations, transfer moves, player performances and potential scandals.
This elaboration on football’s most prominent U-turns contains several moments in which players turned on their word under certain circumstances and conditions. No one can fault their freedom to make choices but remember loyalty? Fans tend to take that virtue
quite seriously.
It is not every day that a Tottenham player, even an ex-Tottenham player, transfers to Arsenal. Footballers in England are well aware of the fact that either you play for Tottenham or you play for Arsenal. There is no third option if these two clubs are
vying for your signature. Nothing of the sort made any sense to Campbell apparently.
Sol Campbell, one of the best English centre backs over the past decade started his career at Tottenham Hotspur. Tottenham, who are arch rivals of their north London neighbours Arsenal, gave Sol his debut in the English Premier League. At White Hart Lane,
Campbell refined his game as a defender and then moved onto greener pastures. For fans at Tottenham, the term “greener pastures” would’ve made sense if the English defender had moved to Real Madrid or for that matter even Manchester United.
But Sol, a man of his own beliefs, opted for Arsenal. Tottenham were quite livid with their “former” star centre back, not only had he turned his back on the club; he had done the unthinkable. Sol Campbell had signed for Arsenal. No doubt, when Arsenal came
to the White Hart Lane to play the North London derby in the English Premier League season of 2001, it came as no surprise that Spur fans resorted to calling him “Judas”. Not only that, after winning several trophies and medals from 2001 till 2006 at Arsenal,
Sol spent some time at Portsmouth and then jumped ship when he realized that the club was headed for disaster. Following the extermination of his contract at Portsmouth F.C, Campbell was contacted by Nott’s County.
Nott’s County chief executive, Peter Trembling apparently told Sol that the club was headed for great heights; the exact words were reported to be, “there is a long term project under way at Nott’s County”. Sol trusted Trembling and signed for Nott’s County;
however after just playing a single game in the third division of league football in England’s league “two”, Sol called it quits. Campbell’s reasons for doing so were as he explained, “I bought into a dream and I wanted to make that dream a reality, but it
took me less than a month to realise that it was all heading to a different conclusion."
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