Ferran Sibila

I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing, though. Obviously in football you're going to get a real cross section of society as far as academic abilities go, but I think if you're at least reasonably intelligent, it's going to massively help you to deal with the non-football side of things, whether that's sensible use of your money and in the case of non Premier League players preparing for life after retirement, training properly and eating the right foods, or having the judgement not to be seen acting like a tw@t off the pitch. It was always incredibly noticeable to me how many foreign footballers playing in England were clearly very highly educated, just by the way they spoke English, often better than their British team mates! Ruud Gullit, Clarence Seedorf, Vincent Kompany, Romelo Lukaku, Thierry Henry could all easily pass as university lecturers in the way that they articulate their thoughts. In complete contrast, my dad knew Julian Joachim's youth coach, who had also worked with Hesky. When Joachim first arrived on the scene with that goal against us, he said to my dad that he was the most naturally gifted footballer he'd ever seen, but he was worried that he'd never go quite as far as he should in the game, as he didn't have two brain cells to rub together. He predicted Hesky would go much further on much less natural talent, because he felt that as a bright young lad he was much better equipped to channel his abilities, and generally deal with the pressures of being a top level footballer. Turns out he was absolutely right.

 

Don't want to turn this into a thick footballers thread, but have you ever listened to Wilfred Zaha being interviewed? I don't know why they bother he is so dense that light doesn't escape his gravitational pull.

 

I love Harry Kane when on song but I hate his interviews.