This was World Cup week, when club football takes a break and international football takes over. But scattered around Europe, while their compatriots are sweating and fretting over the latest bout of qualifying matches for Germany 2006, a worryingly large number of elite footballers will spend the time with their feet up and their minds at rest.
After the European Championship finals, a number of global superstars quit their national teams prematurely.
It is not as though they can no longer cut it on the big stage: you can still catch former France captain Zinedine Zidane caressing the ball for Real Madrid. Pavel Nedved, one-time playmaker for the Czech Republic, is bewildering defences for Juventus. And erstwhile England puller of strings Paul Scholes remains a key instigator for Manchester United.
These are players who are fit and gifted enough to perform at the arguably higher level of the Champions League, but they feel finished with the international game. It just does not do it for them any more.
The honour of representing your country is being eroded by the realities of modern football — particularly for players approaching the end of their career. They have served their time, had a crack at a few tournaments.
They believe that they can bow out gracefully, without feeling that they are letting anyone down. It still takes some getting used to, though, this idea that a player can choose not to do something that was always supposed to be every boy’s dream.
One Premiership regular with a host of caps explained that it was all too much aggravation.
‘I want my summer with the family,†he said. ‘I enjoy not having to travel several times during the season for qualification games. I feel fresher playing for my club and in the long term it means I might be able to earn a good contract for a year or two more than if I carried on with the national team.â€
Fifa ought to be concerned that internationals are becoming a question of choice. A seasoned professional now asks himself: do I need this?
It is a bitter experience for players who were part of the all-conquering France team of 1998 to 2000 to cope with being losers. It is no coincidence that the older generation, who doubt their effectiveness come their mid-30s at the 2006 World Cup, called it a day this year.
Long gone, alas, is the spirit of Roger Milla, who danced his merry way through the 1990 World Cup finals at the ripe old age of 40. That is 11 years older than Scholes when he decided to make himself unavailable to England.
Maybe it is Greece’s fault. Maybe players such as Zidane, Nedved and Luis Figo — whose bewilderment at the success of Otto Rehhagel’s team at the expense of more technically gifted opponents in Portugal was all too tangible — felt that their way was not working any more. These three examples of the recently retired have the added pressure of being their country’s designated flag-bearer. The mental and physical stress did for them.
‘My state of health is not good enough to withstand the tremendous physical load,†said Nedved when he stepped down from the Czech Republic team at 32. All in all, he felt too washed-up to manage the full complement of Serie A, Champions League and international matches, and who can blame him?
Here we are, in October, with the season in its relative infancy and we are into the third international break. For players who have endured a long off-season tournament at the end of a draining club campaign, qualifying rounds for the next tournament come so thick and fast that they are justified in feeling concerned about burnout.
If something has to give way to remedy the damage of overplaying, it is not difficult to spot the odd one out between league, European competition and the international game. It is the one not linked to the salary.
While Fifa’s busy calendar is partly responsible for this trend, it is also necessary to point the finger at the bloated wages. If longevity of career can be harmed by too much football, and if retiring from international competition prolongs a club career by, say, two years at £60 000 a week, it is no wonder so many players are turning their back on the country’s national team.
In some cases, such a decision is understandable. Take the example of Dejan Stafanovic (formerly of Serbia and Montenegro and still of Ports-mouth) or Shaun Bartlett (formerly of South Africa and still of Charlton).
They have no compunction about maximising their earnings while they can, to guarantee a comfortable future for their families. They are not on the same wage scale as the superstars and another season or so in milking the Premiership cow makes a huge difference.
But in the end, whether it is Serbia or France, South Africa or Holland, it is a sad reflection on international football that more players just say no. The best used to retire because of injury or because they fell out with the manager. If they continue to make themselves unavailable, international competition will become devalued.
Claude Makelele, who will be 33 by the time the World Cup in Germany comes around, nobly explained that his motives for quitting were to give the youngsters their chance.
Thankfully, the Rooney factor remains sacrosanct. Young players will always be desperate for every cap and fired by tremendous motivation to prove their worth on a new level. But will the sheer joy and the boundless energy last for ever? —