Intelligent Footballers - Is It Possible?
It is a well publicised and widely held belief that footballers are as thick as two short planks. The stereotype of an uneducated ruffian with little schooling and the total inability to string a comprehensible sentence together is confirmed each time you see the likes of Wayne Rooney interviewed!
That is very unfair because many of us would come over as less than the Brain of Britain if we had a microphone shoved under our noses after we had just run ten thousand metres in a European cup tie and some idiot asked us, “how do you feel?” In fact, if I’d just run ten thousand metres they would have to remove my oxygen mask to hear my reply!
There are of course many examples of footballers being thick. David Beckham is the most quoted and his statements like, “we are going to have Brooklyn christened, but we don’t know into which religion yet,” and Rio Ferdinand saying that as England captain he would “take up the mantelpiece,” all go to confirm what most people think.
There are some examples of a few famous English footballers who possess a great deal of intelligence. Former Manchester United winger and current Reading boss, Steve Coppell, famously didn’t join United full-time until after he had completed his degree at university. At my own club, Watford, we had a player called Steve Palmer who also had a degree. The fact that the other players referred to him as ‘the professor’, however, shows just how rare an intelligent footballer is.
On Saturday mornings in England on the TV show ‘Soccer AM’ there is a segment called, ‘Team-mates’ where a player is asked several questions about his colleagues. The questions are like, “who is the quickest at the club?”, “best dressed?”, “best dancer?”, “most stupid”, “joker?” etc, etc.
The players always rattle off the answers very quickly until they come to one particular question. “Who is the most intelligent?” There is always a long pause whilst the player tries to think of someone who possibly possesses more than one brain cell. Eventually, they say something like, “It’s probably so and so. He knows some long words,” or something equally banal.
Graeme Le Saux, the former England left back, was unceremoniously ridiculed by other footballers because he read the Guardian newspaper, a broadsheet, rather than one of the tabloids. It is just not the done thing to be a clever footballer in England.
It is against this background that I salute League Two Notts County midfielder Neil MacKenzie. He is flying in the face of tradition and risking ridicule for the rest of his life by publicly displaying that he is intelligent. He is going someway towards dispelling the myth that all footballers are stupid.
The thirty-two year-old MacKenzie has made football history as the first player to appear on an English Channel 4 afternoon quiz show called Countdown.
Countdown is a legendary programme that has been going for many years. It is watched by almost exclusively the elderly and students. It is a simple game involving two players playing against each other in a test of numeracy and literacy. The players take it in turns to choose nine unknown letters by asking for vowels or consonants and then compete against each other to see who can formulate the longest word with those letters in thirty seconds. There are five or six rounds of that together with two rounds of mathematical tests. The player with the most points at the end is the champion and remains so until he or she is beaten.
Footballer MacKenzie is proving to be a great success on the show, winning five episodes in a row and shooting to the top of the leaderboard. At the time of writing he is still the current Countdown champion and showing no signs of giving up his title without a fight.
MacKenzie was encouraged to enter by his mother, who is a regular viewer of the show. Of course, I guess footballers are another group of people who can watch afternoon television along with the elderly and the students. I would think though that most players would be watching MTV or the Sports channels, rather than Countdown.
So is Mackenzie striking a blow for footballers everywhere? Is he actually more typical of today’s footballer than the stereotypical thicko?
Let us know your experiences here at Soccerlens. Have you heard of stories about particularly clever players? Or do you have information that might confirm that Neil MacKenzie is a rarity amongst his peers?
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Discussion - 21 Responses
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Lilian Thuram
Yes, very valid point you make. Players in other sports say golf and lawn tennis look very polished and accomplished.
Footballers, erm, the most polished footballer. Gerrard ? At least, he comes across as a gentleman.
so lilian thuram wears glasses… so does danny mills, it means nothing. as for being ‘polished’ and ‘acomplished’, tools of a ‘good’ education that can easily mask some stupidity or other, steven fry’s character in blackadder for a whimsical example. its very rare that you get somebody that is a ‘complete’ person. for example, chess is a game that is widely regarded as having extremly intelligent people however how many of them could open up a defence physically like rooney or zidane. okay most footballers particularly in a country like england where we value hard work and tencity over technique and skill, many of them will probably not even be very bright on a football field. rooney on the other hand is a genius. it is often said that there are many forms of genius and i would say that when a man submits himself entirely to the perfection of a certain genius in any field it is laudable not laughable, especially when the size of financial award available in football is at stake. in short golf and tennis are middle class games where you would expect them to be educated in a certain way, that does not make them intelligent, that makes them ‘polished.’ football is a working mans game in this country and always will be, that does not make poor people stupid, just lacking in equal opportunity.
Slaven Bilic is a trained lawyer. There are some good examples of intelligent managers such as Mourinho who was a translator. I think its worth pointing out that there are many bilingual footballers on the continent, this would point to signs of some intelligence. Ferguson said during his sky interview that both Roy Keane and Ronaldo were “clever boys” who read lots of good books. Make of this what you will.
I don’t think degrees are the key. Dennis Bergkamp was on track to go to university but he started to play for AJAX regularly when he was 17 and he simply had to make a choice. This doesn’t make him less intelligent, just less educated.
soccer writer - wtf? gerrard? read his book and then decide
Intelligent is a broad term. If we’re talking about stable and sensible vs rash and idiotic, then wayne rooney has been, for someone who was a millionaire before he turned 20, quite sensible off the pitch (the worst incident that you guys will remember happened a LONG time ago). He’s settled and married. He doesn’t get press for pissing in cups at parties (Terry) or hitting team mates on the training ground (Barton). He was sensible enough to patch up with his mate Ronaldo despite getting shockingly bad advice on the subject from a fellow Scouser (Gerrard).
A model sportsman off the pitch?
So which intelligence are you talking about Graham? Books, Common Sense or Football?
Gerrard is very proffesional, his book is his attitude that he bottles.
good points ahmed, said infinately more succinctly what i tried to say…
David James, for me, is one of the most intelligent and professional footballers around. He’s aware of the world beyond football and just how football can help this world. Had the pleasure of speaking to him once. He’s a hell of a lot more intelligent than many politicians I’ve interviewed. Make of that what you will.
Intelligent footballers?
Hmm, Kaka, Messi, Zidane? they can able to read the game seconds ahead of other players, pass to blind spots and know where their team mates are moving to, is that Intelligent?
I regularly read Jamo’s column in the Guardian, intelligent man indeed.
I think this story somewhat proves Graham’s point:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/jul/08/crystalpalace.championship?gusrc=rss&feed=football
Perhaps we should have another column, should footballers be allowed near computers :p
Senderos is well-known for his intellect and he’s quint-lingual
as SAF once said - there are 15-yr olds at United’s youth academy who are quint-lingual. Doesn’t mean a bloody thing.
Graham what you are forgeting is that people are not born with inteligence. They gain most of it through education, which requires time and these people spend most of their time playing football, cause that’s what they love and want to do. All this said I believe that it’s unfair to blaim them, for not being more inteligent. The same way I can blaim a scientist for being a weakling in many sports, which most of them are.
I quite agree with many of the comments. The players that we talk about are often not far from being geniuses on the football pitch. They have the reactions, vision and athletic ability that mere mortals can only dream about.
I am talking only about the ability to string a sentence together. There aren’t too many that can do that.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d swap my ‘o’ levels for David Beckham’s football ability tomorrow if I could!
some intelligent football persons:
Lilian Thuram - wherever he goes, he gets involved in political party situations, and takes a stand
Clarence Seedorf - softspoken but is a real gentleman, classy and has organizations outside of football that he is chairman or spokesperson
Zinedine Zidane - had to learn it the rough way
Slaven Bilic - trained lawyer, musician
Ottmar Hitzfeld - mathematics professor
Jose Mourinho - translator
Jurgen Klinsmann- PR guy, and hires lots of “fitness” experts
Alessandro Del Piero
Thierry Henry - he knows the soccer business of endorsement
Thomas Hitzlsperger - has a degree in monetary accounting I think
Steven Gerrard - at least he’s a gent
Frank Lampard - has a degree
just some examples
municheart - good call on Klinsmann and Bilic. Maybe Becks as well, since he’s made millions off his own arse?
inzaghi has a degree in accounting…
and seedorf always comes across as well-versed during interviews…
Didn’t Rooney just get a new tattoo that reads “just enough education to perform?” So fitting.
Kasey Keller is very well-spoken and also wears glasses when he’s not on the pitch.