More than just a job?
Being a professional athlete has always been linked to a lot of money paid for the hard work and engagement. Sport nowadays is becoming a profitable business, where money pays much bigger role than it used to few years ago. Playing for only one team for whole career is obsolete. How badly commercialized soccer is? Does it mean that soccer is no longer about attachment to specific team, but money?
Many soccer players decide to change their teams in order to develop and win competitions and rewards and that is understandable. Everyone wants to be the best and admired. If you are in a really good team, you become recognized and it definitely can help you in your future career. However, players also tend to forget that they do not only work on their own success. They became part of bigger organization, which count on their good performances. They sign a contract, which needs to be obeyed and as a reward they become part of the family.
There are many great soccer players who forever will be connected with certain soccer teams, because they shared not only amazing victories, but also daunting failures.They loved and were loved by their fans no matter what happened. Steven Gerrad when he left Liverpool said: "When I die, don't bring me to the hospital. Bring me to Anfield . I was born there and will die there." This is how you become a legend.
Another amazing player, who forever stayed in AS Rome is Francesco Totti, who spent his entire career for one team. Totti became the symbol of AS Rome, he is an example that money is not everything and that not everything can be bought. When he was giving his speech before he retired, whole stadium was crying. He finished his speech saying “"I’m proud and happy to have given you 28 years of love. I love you."
Becoming a legend in one club is, however, not necessarily only related to spending whole career in one team. Changing soccer clubs is perfectly fine, but it has to be done properly. A lot of soccer players when coming to new environment ensure fans how happy and blessed they are, but when they are offered better paid contract, they forget about promises and leave. There are many soccer players, who very quickly became the worse enemies, even though they were adored and treated as heroes before. The best example is Mario Goetze, who transferred from Borussia Dortmund to Bayern Munich without any kind of explanation and despite his promises that he would stay in BVB till the end of his career, he abandon the team before very important game (Champions League final with Bayern Munich; May. 25, 2013). There is no surprise that fans were so angry that they were burning jerseys with his name.
Soccer is loved and adored all over the world, because it brings people together. Everyone shares the same emotions. It, however, is becoming commercialized and probably it will get even worse. Players like Totti or Gerrad are slowly disappearing and attachment to certain teams is replaced by the amount of money players can earn somewhere else. Even though that most soccer players treat being in a team as a temporary job, there are few soccer players, who believe that there are certain things that cannot be bought and it deserved to be applauded.
Notes
https://twitter.com/gerrard8fanpage/status/340086979280633856?lang=en
https://scroll.in/field/839020/thank-you-rome-full-text-of-francesco-tottis-emotional-farewell-speech
