by edge275 » Tue Dec 22, 2009 9:44 pm
Some quotes of that Times article:
Because most of us who love football have come to terms, at some time or other, with the fact that we lack the God-given skills to fulfil our sporting dreams, we harbour a natural resentment towards people such as Cassano, men who had the gift but never fully exploited it. And Cassano certainly had — and in many ways still has — the ability to be one of the best players in the world. He has a rare cocktail of physical strength, pace, flair and technique, which is why Fabio Capello’s Roma paid £18 million for him when he was just shy of his 19th birthday, making him the most expensive teenage signing in the world at the time.
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That’s not what managers want to hear, which may explain why Cassano is now playing for Sampdoria, a mid-table team. But he doesn’t mind. Unlike 99.9 per cent of footballers, he isn’t preoccupied with “winning trophies”. “Winning is nice, but it doesn’t make you happy,” he writes.
“The problem is that we live in a culture obsessed with success. We fool ourselves into thinking we have to do our best and make sacrifices to succeed. But why? Trophies come and go. Once you’ve retired, it will all be gone, they’ll just be numbers in an almanac. And, except for [Diego] Maradona and Pelé and maybe a couple others, nobody will remember you or what you’ve won.”
“What is truly important is being happy now. I know I haven’t given 100 per cent physically or mentally to this game. At best, I gave 50 per cent. Maybe a tiny bit more in the good years. But so what? Thanks to my talent, I live like a king, I play football and I have a great time. If I had wanted to give 100 per cent, I would have stayed at Real Madrid, sacrificed lots of things, done my very best and I probably would have succeeded. Instead, I’m here at Sampdoria and I love it.”
Words that would bring most people’s blood to boiling point.
"Like all bullies, they've just found out that there is a much bigger guy in town, someone who is richer and more powerful than their worst nightmare. And this smiling Arabic assassin is intent on stealing all the treasures they've nicked off everyone else, and pulverising them into commercial and footballing oblivion as he does so."
