Philippe Coutinho came out with this rather incredible tweet about how his father taught him respect, loyalty and integrity. Big stuff coming from a person who whined to move to Barcelona and even reportedly feigned injury to not play for Liverpool.
The Brazilian did get his wish though, as we sold him to Barcelona in the winter window last season but as expected, the 26-year-old was absolutely roasted on social media.
Integrity, loyalty and respect are the great values and qualities my father taught me. What did yours teach you? This Father’s Day, show him how grateful you are for his lessons with #BOSSunited pic.twitter.com/ddX28we0Z3
— Philipe Coutinho (@Phil_Coutinho) June 11, 2018
It’s all about the money and the fame
A recent report claimed that Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are two of the biggest earners in the sporting world and have multi-million dollar deals that go hand in hand with their huge salaries paid by the club.
Ronaldo and Messi seem to endorse almost everything possible, from innerwear to cars to energy drinks, its the whole gamut.
Gone are the days when a footballer would only speak about football and now, they have to be able to “sell”. Real Madrid, at one time, would only bring in players when they were certain jerseys would sell. Cristiano Ronaldo was one example while in the past, the club had David Beckham, Ronaldo, Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane and a number of others.
Hell, footballers have to look great too. Just compare what Ronaldo, the Portugal one, looked during his days at Manchester United and what he looks like now. He even has time to take his shirt off whenever he can.
The same goes for our superstar Bobby Firmino. Lots of work done on him and that smile, that sweet, sweet smile.
A footballer is supposed to create excitement off the pitch too. Beckham was really hyped up when he moved to Los Angeles but he barely did anything worth noting there.
The same goes for Steven Gerrard and how can we forget hype machine extraordinaire, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who took up this rather over-the-top ad when he moved from United to LA.
Los Angeles, welcome to Zlatan. #zLAtan #LAGalaxy pic.twitter.com/nFAY4X9zbR
— Zlatan Ibrahimović (@Ibra_official) March 23, 2018
Footballers will do anything for a brand but should they?
While I do agree that footballers have a very short career span and most of them will never reach the heights of Messi and Ronaldo, surely the top players can be a little more discreet with their branding choices and not sell themselves out all the time.
We all know that Messi would never drive a Tata unless his life depended on it. Similarly, I find it hard to believe that Ronaldo would be thinking about using suitcases that aren’t made of gold and why would he be even flying in the baggage compartment?
Surely, they can pick the battles they choose and avoid circumstances that Coutinho had to deal with. Of course, there is no point in always targetting a player but they are superstars on the field so they do have a bit of a responsibility off it.
They earn millions a year and have a great life (at least it looks great), so picking the right brands can make a huge difference to the perception that the players end up portraying to the fans.
This isn’t the first time and it won’t be the last time we see such advert tweets posted by players and fans will continue harassing them as long as we have the internet on our side.
However, being a little understanding of what can be done and cannot be done can go a long way in making you a respected James Milner rather than a Lavar Ball.
And yes, I did enjoy this clipping a lot. Egg as many people as you can, that’s my branding message, I love eggs, scrambled the most and of course when they are stuck in the hair of a player that ran away before the end of an important season. EGG HIM MORE!
