1 of 5

Write now Article Tools

This is an interesting concept, but it should be made clear that it only applies to the professional footballers at the top of their game. Many premier league stars in England earn the type of salaries that it is hard to imagine. However, if you look at the players from leagues one and two, the wages are considerably more modest.

The salaries paid are directly linked to the market value of that individual player. If a club decide that a player is worth one hundred thousand pounds per week, then that is indeed what he is worth.

It is very difficult to put a value on entertainment. The top footballers entice seventy thousand people to pay upwards of thirty pounds each to sit in cramped seats in all weathers to watch a game lasting ninety minutes, during which the ball will only be in play for something like half of that time. They will entice millions of people worldwide to sit in front of their televisions for two hours of their life. The ability to bring this much pleasure to so many people should not be underestimated.

Many people believe that the life of a professional footballer is an easy one. For a very few of them this may be the case, but in a vast majority of cases they have sacrificed a great deal to get where they are, and they push their bodies to the limits to achieve the fitness levels required. They are always one bad injury away from the end of their careers, and they often have nowhere to go when retiring at thirty-five years old.

Most footballers have received little education and receive huge sums of money at a very young age. I know I wouldn't have been able to cope with this when I was eighteen or nineteen, yet most footballers behave pretty well most of the time, and become decent role models for the kids who love the game.

I think professional footballers too often get a bad press which is on the whole undeserved.

Learn more about this author, Graham Fisher.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

Add your voice

Know something about Are professional footballers overrated??
We want to hear your view. Write now!