ext_22591 ([identity profile] angualupin.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] lyssie 2006-12-19 11:27 pm (UTC)

The Germans, as a whole, tend to be calmer and a little less crazy than English players. (Not that the young ones aren't occasionally fabulously idiotic [Schweinsteiger], or that there aren't horrible fracas involving goalies and the national team, where reputations get dragged through the mud and then kicked in the groin [Lehmann and Kahn].) But Britain has a peculiar relationship to its football -- take the US's obsession with American football, baseball, and basketball, and put all of that into one sport, and then concentrate it down into a country the size of New England, and add the British obsessive personality, and you get footie players who have the same kind of reaction to fame as rap stars. Realize that the entire country of 60 million obsessive-compulsive Brits has nothing to talk about except whether Chelsea is going to beat out Man Utd for the title, and you have some idea of the spotlight under which EPL stars live.

The other leagues -- well, possibly not Spain or Italy, but the rest, at least -- are quieter, possibly because their countries have other things to think about. So their footie players tend to be quieter, as well -- the crazy ones go to the EPL, if they can. This tends to be reflected in their personal lives, of course. German wives and girlfriends tend to be quieter (not always -- Kahn's had a few exciting tabloid stories, but he's a bastard) just like the league. British wives and girlfriends, in general, are just as crazy as their footie players, so. "Footballers Wives" (or isn't it "Wive$"?) is maybe a little soapy, "Dream Team" is really soapy, but yes, the wives are insane. It's easy to grasp if you think of the Beckhams as just an extra-concentrated dose of your normal EPL family. Beckham would never have been able to become Beckham in any league other than the EPL. There wouldn't have been enough media attention for him to manipulate.

Anders, by himself, reminds me a lot more of some of the German or Scandinavian players. But if you want to bring Kara into it, yeah, an EPL player is probably better. And Terry's probably the best fit, because while Anders is, I think, smarter than Terry, Terry is a good athlete and a good leader, and has a slightly-embarrassing wife. And while he's not the most famous footie player out there -- not Becks, or Ronaldhino -- I don't think Anders was the most famous pyramid player, I think he was just well-known. And he was captain of a well-known team, right? *remembers S2* Terry is captain of Chelsea, who aren't the most famous (Man Utd), but are very close. I think that is similar to how I see Anders and the... gods, the Caprica Buccaneers, wasn't it? Didn't the Buccaneers just barely win a final against their arch-rivals, or something? That Kara used as a test to see if they were Cylons? Then that's definitely Chelsea and Man Utd.

I've talked a bit. Sorry about that, but (being British), I tend to ramble when it comes to football.

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