Does it matter to soccer players who don’t like soccer?

It was a big day in the championship.

Arsenal had just beaten Leeds United 4-1, a few hours after Manchester City had narrowly narrowed the lead and beaten Liverpool by the same scoreline.

Mikel Arteta had let his players watch how City were doing, so BBC Five Live’s Nick Godwin naturally asked Ben White, one of Arsenal’s goalscorers on the day and a key player in their Championship run, if he had watched the game.

“I don’t watch football, so I just focused on the game today,” White said.

White didn’t make a big reveal. He said many times before that, aside from playing and training, he doesn’t really have much interest in football. Take his interview with Sky Sports from last year.

I never watched football when I was younger. Not even now. I loved the game, always played it, never watched it. So I don’t know too much about the older generations, but I know (Patrick) Vieira was a very good player. But I don’t know the details.

In an interview with Leandro Trossardi in February, White was asked what his favorite day was. Trossard’s mean, amused and disbelieving expression told viewers all they needed to know as White responded to the drills, almost certainly with tongue in cheek.

It’s a common assumption among football fans that players must love the game as much as we do, but White is far from the only player who isn’t exactly obsessed.

Most obviously there is Benoit Assou-Ekotto. The then Tottenham Hotspur left-back caused quite a stir back in 2010 in an interview he gave to the Guardian, where he said he considered football just a job and money was one of his main motivations.

“Yes, it’s a good, good job, and I’m not saying I hate football, but it’s not my passion,” he said. I arrive at the practice field at 10:30 in the morning and start being a professional. I finish at one o’clock and don’t play football after that. When I’m at work, I do my job 100 percent. But after that I’m like a tourist in London. I have my Oyster card and use the Tube. I eat.

Benoit Assou-Ekotto enjoying his time at Spurs in 2011 (Photo: Mike Hewitt via Getty Images)

Assou-Ekotto clarified the comment when he spoke The Athletic in 2022, but he admitted that his knowledge of the wider game was, shall we say, a little more limited than one might expect. When he came to Tottenham, I didn’t know who he was, Assou-Ekotto said of his former teammate Rafael van der Vaart. Is he from Madrid? He said hello to all the team members and I said hi. I said to one of the players: Who is he?.

Then there’s his one-time rival for Spurs’ left-wing berth, Gareth Bale. The Wales, golf, Madrid thing is old hat now, but it wasn’t when asked if he was watching Paris Saint-Germain ahead of their upcoming Champions League quarter-final in 2018, he told ESPN: I don’t really watch much. soccer I’d rather watch golf to be honest.

He could share a TV with Carlos Tevez, who said in 2018: If Barcelona vs Real Madrid is on and there’s a golf tournament on another channel, I’ll watch golf. I’ve never been a fanatic about watching games. I like to play, keep the ball at my feet.

Barcelona’s Marc-Andre ter Stegen has been one of the best goalkeepers for some time, but has often said he has no idea the names of his opponents. Even Gabriel Batistuta, himself a great goalscorer, seemed to prefer polo in Argentina to soccer, once describing it as just my profession.

David Batty is often referred to as a football skeptic, which seems to be largely based on the fact that he almost never gives interviews, was never seen at his old club Leeds despite living nearby, and was the only player not to feature in Blackburn Rovers’ Championship run. a reunion of winners a few years ago.

He also responded to missing a penalty in the 1998 World Cup: As soon as we got to the dressing rooms after the penalty shootout, I was looking forward to getting home and seeing my kids, so football didn’t matter. Is it ambivalence at play or a healthy recognition of priorities?

David Batty and Gareth Southgate on England duty in 1999. One became England manager, the other was not interested (Photo: Steve Mitchell/EMPICS via Getty Images)

The Athletic asked a number of current and former players and managers if they had ever played alongside someone who wasn’t football-obsessed. Gael Givet, the former Blackburn and France defender, was cited as someone who never took part in any kind of football discussion, often asking who his team would play next. Curtis Woodhouse was another name that came up, which isn’t a huge surprise as he bounced back and forth between football and boxing towards the end of his career.

Interestingly, Paul Scholes and Scott Parker were mentioned, accurately or not, among those who didn’t watch or talk about the game much during their playing careers, which is a little surprising as the former is now a regular TV pundit and the latter a manager. .

Finally, a former colleague of Marko Arnautovic listed him among the group who really didn’t care about sports, but added the caveat that it wasn’t always clear whether the Austrian’s ostracism was because he hated football or because he was just a balloon. .

On the other hand, many of those contacted could not come up with an example of their own, and were indeed skeptical that anyone could reach a decent level without a deep love for the game. The theory among many is that getting to the top requires such will and commitment that you have to have a passion for what you do.

But does it matter? Does it matter if a footballer is not a student of the game? Most of the names we mentioned in this piece were top level footballers, international players with numerous goals, titles and major tournaments to their name. We know a lot of players are obsessed with football, but we certainly also know it’s their job, and some treat it like most of us treat our jobs.

Bobby Zamora is another player who said in an interview in 2012 that he would rather do other things with his time away from the game. He took quite a bit of heat for his outspokenness, especially from Tony Cascarino, who wrote in a newspaper column that Zamora should hang up his boots unless his heart is in it.

Bobby Zamora shows his passion after scoring for West Ham against Blackburn in 2007 (Photo: Ross Kinnaird via Getty Images)

I just said that I don’t watch football 24/7 like everyone else, Zamora explains The Athletic now. It just keeps going. Everywhere you go, someone wants to talk to you about football. It’s just non-stop. I would say that if you’re a painter and decorator, you’re not going to sit down and look at dressing rooms when you get home from work. It’s not that I didn’t like football, it’s that I wouldn’t watch, say, Burnley vs Reading.

It is reasonable. Everyone has to keep some distance between themselves and their work. Soccer players also need work-life balance. If you spend your working hours with your head in the game and have to talk about it when someone puts a microphone in your face, and if you pop into Tesco someone is teasing you about football, you can understand if the player isn’t confused. from watching it.

That’s certainly how White seems to think about it. Football is so intense, he told Sky Sports. You come in every day and give 100 percent. I just want to go home without thinking about it and then come in the morning fresh and ready to give 100 percent again. I observe myself for analytical reasons. I might look at England, but I’m always busy doing something. I wouldn’t just sit down and watch the game.

White is known to be one of Arsenal’s most diligent players when it comes to watching clips of his game, absorbing the relevant stats and so on, and he’s doing his job well on the pitch this season, to say the least. And all while playing in an unfamiliar position.

I completely understand where Ben is coming from, says Zamora. I would just look at the centre-halves I played against at the weekend, what their strengths and weaknesses are, that’s what I need to know. Who are you up against and how can you come out on top?

Could it even be an advantage if someone doesn’t really watch football, even if it doesn’t directly concern them? White still loves playing football and showing his emotions on the field, but with a more chilled-out approach to his preparation, he may be able to make more informed decisions.

That’s even more so today with social media, says Zamora. There isn’t a moment when some aspect of football doesn’t come up. It’s just a case of separating yourself.

It’s often easy for us to forget that we’re just watching people do their jobs. Some gamers are just as obsessed and consumed with it as we are, but maybe we shouldn’t be surprised when someone isn’t.

(Best images: David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images, Ben Radford/Allsport; Design: Eamonn Dalton)