This piece is a follow-up and conclusion to two previous posts:

• Part 1: Players' Hell: Do Players Have The Right To Complain? (Introduction)

• Part 2: Players' Hell: Do Players Have The Right To Complain? "First World Problems"

Alone During Covid

If you have suffered from the effects of the pandemic, you must remember the boredom that hit you after having to stay at home for long periods, the intense fear of infection whenever you went out and the general feeling of gloom and isolation imposed by the faces covered with masks all the time.

At some point, you must have told yourself that you are ready to do anything to end this atmosphere, and normal life must have seemed much more beautiful and without problems at that time, and you must also have forgotten all that when life really returned to normal.

Club Players' Care Officers tell many harrowing stories of players' suffering in those days; Of the consecutive weeks of confinement in quarantine, the parents who died without a chance to say goodbye, and the babies born without their professional parents ever seeing and holding them.

Those difficult days passed differently for expatriate football players, while most of us were struggling with our families to obtain a measure of privacy and freedom while working from home, the rich, successful and famous players were aware of the value of family, friends and companionship, and the fact that the original goal of wealth was to have a better life their company, not to have to choose between this and that.

Tom Yang, a psychological performance analyst for sports clubs, confirms that the best levels of the team come after the international FIFA stops, for a simple and obvious human reason that does not need a psychological performance analyzer to realize it, which is that most players who come from distant countries have the opportunity to visit their families, give them gifts, and retrieve Childhood sensations in a familiar setting, in short; All the free gifts of life that we only feel the value of when we lose them.

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Those simple moments that these players live four times a season with international stops are what make them feel the value of their sacrifices; When they make a noticeable impact on the lives of those they love, and when they see and feel that impact, it reflects on them and charges their resolve to continue.

The Lying Things

Believe it or not; One of the studies published by the Harvard Business School in cooperation with the University of Buffalo, USA, confirms that the preference for professional and material gains over family and friends all the time in a frequent lifestyle leads to unhappiness. Believe it or not; This study makes a lot of sense.

Subjects spoke of the last feeling you can imagine a professionally and financially fulfilled person feeling, whether it be a footballer like Davies or in any other field; dependency and need.

Dependency on what exactly? For their achievements, possessions, and wealth, and the need for more of them, simply because in the absence of intimate connections with family and friends, and those who love you regardless of your financial circumstances and professional success, you surround yourself with strangers who only notice what your present life shows, and only appreciate your achievements and possessions, and this leads you to accumulate more of it in search of more human value in the eyes of others.

The matter does not need much explanation. In fact, any person who has been forced to travel or migrate in search of work, higher income, or a better life for himself or his family will feel the same feeling, and will easily realize that the largest salary has not and will never dispense him with his humanity and feelings towards those he loves, or his feelings. In need of friends and comrades.

Likewise, the players feel a huge responsibility towards their families, especially with the randomness of the game and its injuries that may end the career of any of them at any moment, and with their short lives in the stadiums, any of them is often their family’s only chance to escape poverty forever, and this pushes them to maximize the gains of the years they have They spend it at the top of their game, which is why they sacrifice a lot for this goal.

Of course, many of them get everything they wanted, and the life they asked for is achieved without separating their loved ones, and some of them, like Davis, think a lot before starting the engine of their luxurious car, but all of them despair, frustrated, depressed, and miss their loved ones, and all of them have the right to feel lonely even if they are rich.

Realizing this, and acknowledging their right to complain and the authenticity of their suffering, is not only evidence of maturity and humanity, and not only a way to appreciate what we really have but most importantly it protects our souls from our unrealistic perceptions of life, those that push us to sacrifice everything to reach material saturation, delusional that it will enrich us with everything else.

Of course, the equation is not zero all the time, and the choices are not always that extreme, but logic says that there is a price for everything we achieve and obtain. This is the grey area that we can control and monitor, to make sure that, in our pursuit, we do not trade those we love for what we need, because loneliness by the pool or in the luxury Mercedes cabin is still loneliness after all.

Sources

"The footballer's life is great, but then I'm alone; I'm a loser" - BeSoccer
Bayern Munich player salary list - Capology
How I came to be! Alphonso Davies - DW Kick Off
study | Football players' frequent travels leave their wives and children lonely - Phys
Even top soccer stars have suffered from loneliness and isolation throughout the pandemic year while away from their families – ESPN
“I found myself drowning in loneliness.” How expatriate players suffered during the pandemic – The Athletic
study | Preferring money and career success over friends and family leads to unhappiness - New York Post
study | Money cannot bring love or friendship - University of Buffalo
“I don't need friends.” Why might you feel this way? Very well-minded
How can a higher level of athleticism make you feel isolated, lonely, and vulnerable? BBC