For Honor and Glory

Bob asks “Is the World Cup Better Today than in the Past?” There are many angles to this.

If we are talking about the level of competition, there is no comparison. The games are far more competitive today than they were … say 20 years ago.

If we are talking about skills, I will tell you that today’s athletes are generally more superior physically and technically than those of the past. That makes the matches more fun to watch.

If we are talking about global representation, and being one big happy family, well … I have my own thoughts on that!

But, if we are talking about motivation, honor, and the glory that is supposed to be associated with putting ones’ national colors on, today’s athletes could not carry the jockstraps of those of the past! Today’s star players, with very few exceptions, are spoiled, self-centered, and self-promoting. Watching spoiled rotten 20 year-old millionaires on TV is not my idea of fun!

In the 70s, my teen years, it was an honor to be capped, and the stars did it for so little monitory reward in return. One would think that the money the stars of today get from their associations and their advertising contracts would make it even better for them, but instead we get to see more and more temper tantrums like that of Egypt’s Mido in the African Nations Cup.

Give me today’s highly skilled athletes with the attitude of stars of the past, men like Bobby Moore, Franz Beckenbauer, Michel Platini, Dino Zoff, Grzegorz Lato, Branko Oblak, Ruud Krol, Carlos Caszely, Osvaldo Ardiles, Ronnie Hellstrom, Eusebio, and the entire 1970 Brazil team, and then we can talk about true quality. Get my drift?!