@BarryQuinn2011 Exactly the same in league cricket in the north west. Players with a sense of entitlement to be paid is ridiculous. They wouldn't have been fit to be on the same pitch 20 years ago as those of that era
Investing in juniors & facilities is the sane way to ensure the future
@BarryQuinn2011 Madness isn't it. Players getting paid in the Swansea league and West Wales prem. As someone said, completely unsustainable and money that could be out to far better use.
Welsh amateur football is getting more & more cringey by the week 🤮
Clubs who barely get 100 people through the gate and yet paying bang average players £200/300 aweek. Mind blowing.
Invest the money into your own facilities & stop pretending you care about the community
@Real1_balogun@melanineyedoc Ibrahimovic played about 15 seasons in the champions league with zero trophy. Ryan Bertrand played just one match and won the UCL trophy.
Wayne Rooney scored only one World Cup goal in eleven games. He didn't score that one goal until his 10th World Cup game. Ahmed Musa has four World Cup goals. That's football for you.
Elderson Echiejile has an AFCON goal. Kanu Nwankwo went to six AFCONs and didn't score a single goal. Echiejile played as a left-back. Kanu played as an attacker. That's football for you.
Ronaldo Nazario scored 14 UCL goals in 40 games. Serhou Guirassy scored 13 UCL goals in one season for Borussia Dortmund. That's football for you.
Not comparing. They're just strange realisations.
🇪🇸🗣️ David Villa, on the value of his runners up medal in the Champions League:
“I have the silver medal from Atleti's final on the same shelf as the gold one I won with Barça. And my son Luca was asking me why I had it there…
And I say: ‘Do you know how hard it is to reach a Champions League final and lose it?’. I would have loved to win it, of course, and we would have gone much further into Atlético de Madrid's history as the first ones to win it, and all that you want.
But let's analyse it: Do you know how hard it is to reach a Champions League final in that season? It wasn't Atlético de Madrid's current squad.
It was a very short squad, where we had a lot of young guys, where we had to go to the Camp Nou and leave it all out physically a week before, when Madrid was resting at home already preparing for the Champions League final…
It can't be a thorn in my side. Would we have liked to win it? Of course…, but you have to give value to what was achieved.” 🧠🥈
If you speak and listen to footballers a lot, you would realize that the glamour of football you see on television and social media is the reality of less than 2% of footballers on earth. For everyone else, the game looks completely different.
Take a typical player in the Championship, League One or League Two. A wage of around £2,500 a week sounds like a dream until you understand what happens to it. I will explain a bit of it to you.
That is roughly £120,000 a year before UK tax takes almost half. The peak earning window is very short, often between five and seven years or less. By the time you take out agent fees, rent, cars and the cost of simply looking the part, the realistic career savings sit around £200,000 at best.
For an entire career. And these guys are the second /third level of pro footballers.
In all of this, the deeper problem actually comes after. Most footballers leave the game with few transferable skills, having sacrificed education for training since childhood.
When the career ends, often suddenly due to injuries or lack of contracts, they are unprepared. Many drift back to school or into coaching roles paying a fraction of what they once earned.
Only the disciplined, the financially literate or the genuinely lucky build something lasting.
It’s a tough world in football. It sells a dream to millions but it delivers it to very few of them.
My name is Ajoje. I am a FIFA Licensed Agent and International Sports Lawyer. I write on the Law and Business of Football, a lot. Repost and Follow if you want to read more posts like this.
Maja Chwalinska did not win Roland Garros, but she won the hearts of everyone over the last 3 weeks.
A journey that started from qualifying.
From world #114 to a new career high ranking of world #21.
The first qualifier in history to reach the Roland Garros final.
To think that in 2021, she stopped playing tennis for months due to a battle with depression and self doubt… Back then, it would’ve been nearly impossible for her to imagine herself in a Grand Slam final.
Her father worked as an electrician in the coal mines and her mother is a receptionist.
They worked tirelessly to support her dreams from the time she was little, and they uplifted her when she had to stop playing tennis to protect her mental health.
Her run in Paris reminded the world that if you work hard at your passion every day, if you have people who love you, and if you never give up on yourself, the ranking next to your name holds no meaning…
You can still make your own fairytale.
Congratulations on everything, Maja. 🥹
🇵🇱❤️
Undoubtedly my moment of 2025-26 was accidentally leaving my adapter in the plug socket at Leuven (a) in December only for us to draw them again in February, be assigned the same desk and find my adapter still in the socket totally untouched.
Rice has taken 16 free kicks since he scored against Real Madrid and not scored.
He took 12 before that game and never scored.
His had 23 assists in 8 years in the Premier League.
The overhype for this player who runs around a lot and gesticulates for the cameras is staggering.
When Basels Taulant Xhaka was sent off for receiving two yellow cards, the referee suddenly changed his mind and jogged over to the monitor to consult var, then he called Xhaka back out from the tunnel... to give him a straight red instead! 🤣🇨🇭
واضح إن تشيلسي قرر ينتقم من مانشستر سيتي علي التفاوض مع ماريسكا بطريقته الخاصة 🔥
لو بتسأل ليه مانشستر سيتي لحد دلوقتي لم يُعلن عن التعاقد مع ماريسكا رغم إن كل شيء يبدو منتهي...
فالسبب اسمه تشيلسي
القصة أغرب مما الناس متخيلة.
ماريسكا لم تتم إقالته من تشيلسي.
هو اللي قدم استقالته بنفسه.
لكن إدارة تشيلسي رفضت ببساطة إنهاء الملف بسهولة.
والسبب؟
إن عندهم قناعة إن المدرب كان على تواصل مع مانشستر سيتي قبل ما يقرر الرحيل.
وده خلاهم يشكوا إن السيتي لعب دورًا مباشرًا في قرار الاستقالة.
ومن هنا بدأت الأزمة.
ماريسكا اتفق مع مانشستر سيتي.
والسيتي اتفق مع ماريسكا.
لكن المشكلة إن العقد ما زال قائمًا مع تشيلسي.
والبلوز رافضين فسخ العقد مجانًا.
بل ومتمسكين بالحصول على تعويض لا يقل عن 15 مليون جنيه إسترليني.
يعني باختصار...
المدرب خلص الاتفاق.
والنادي الجديد مستنيه.
لكن النادي القديم قافل الباب بالمفتاح ومستني الفاتورة تتدفع أولًا 😭💰
بصراحة؟
لو صحت التفاصيل دي فإدارة تشيلسي مش بتعطل الصفقة فقط...
دي بتقول للسيتي:
"عايزين المدرب؟ ادفعوا ثمنه الأول." 😶🔥
Maja Chwalinska has changed her life at this year’s Roland Garros.
Her total career earnings before Roland Garros:
$864,030.
What she’s earned at this tournament:
$1,624,000.
Because the players don’t get the money til after the tournament, she was worried she wouldn’t be able to cover her costs for a hotel as she went further and further in the draw.
Polish company OSHEE had to step in and pay for the rest of her hotel fees.
It’s nothing short of heartwarming to see this happening to such a humble person who has overcome her share of struggles.
She overcame a battle with depression and stopped playing tennis entirely for a period to take care of her mental health.
She wasn’t sure if she’d ever come back to this sport.
Absolutely unreal story. 🥹
🇵🇱❤️