So I’m taking about football (aka soccer, futbol) players at modern top tier clubs. Do they really care that there is a local team who are the subject a simmering (and, usually, reciprocated) virulent hatred by their fans? Other than the derby day itself (when the two rival teams play each other) which is presumably a big deal for everyone involved. Do the players, who are high paid professionals and aren’t typically from the area in question or big fans of the team prior to playing for them, actually care about that local rivalry?
Case in point. Today’s Spurs-City match. A lot of people are saying Spurs are not going to be trying very hard, as their final league position likely won’t be altered by this match (they have a chance of a top four finish, but only a faint one) knocking points off City will give their local north London rivals Arsenal a shot at the title. But do the spurs players really care about that? They are all professionals who would surely like nothing better than to beat City, and keep their hopes however faint of top four finish alive, whatever that means for their hated rivals?
I would imagine that 1) once you play for a team, you get mentally/emotionally invested in that team and the local fanbase and 2) even if not, you have strong incentive to perform well as a player. Even if you don’t care about Tottenham or Arsenal, you want to score more goals for your own sake - it gives you better contracts, more publicity, more attention, more fans, more $$$, etc.
Ah but that’s the thing, in this case these two inclinations are mutually exclusive as a Spurs fan you want City to win the title not Arsenal, as a player you want to play well against City, the best team in the league right now
Right, so I’m guessing that the Spurs players are going to play hard because their personal benefit trumps their fanbase’s desires. In other words, no Spurs player, that has a direct shot on goal against Man City, is going to try to deliberately miss (or something like that) just to deny Arsenal FC a championship. They want personal glory.
I read a great piece a while ago about the almost total difference in perspective between fans and players.
Fans live and die for the club. Players get paid to play. Fans will always despise the hated rivals. Players could sign for them next year. For fans, there can be no greater honour than playing for the club, they would pay to do it if they could. For players it’s just the day job, part of life’s grind.
This is why you see fans jeering and booing players who switch to the rivals, and why it never stops players switching to the rivals. Totally different ideas about what a football club is.
There is no way professional players would ever try to lose so as to screw over another team, they simply don’t care that way.
I don’t think anyone is saying they will deliberately throw the match, but on the other hand are they going to chase every ball and commit to every tackle they way they would if Arsenal weren’t the likely beneficiary? I’d say probably yes, they are professional footballers first and Spurs fans second (if at all)
Though that was not always the case, not too many years ago it was assumed players would not move from a club to their local rivals (IIRC Sol Cambell was the first to break that rule for the Spurs-Arsenal rivalry, and received a ton of abuse a lot of it racist ). Of course in previous generations it was assumed a lot of the players were local kids who had grown up supporting the team.
Though thats in British football. I don’t know if the rule about not moving to a local rivals still holds for other big local derbies such as in Turkey or Argentina?
Yeah, this is very much a symptom of the professionalisation of football. Back in teh day when players wages were set at “a bit better than the factory” then the team would be all local boys and they would be so closely linked to the community that it wouldn’t be worth turning out for the other team. But when you don’t drink in the local pub, and will retire to several homes near exclusive golf clubs in various parts of the world rather, these concerns are not your concerns.
). Of course in previous generations it was assumed a lot of the players were local kids who had grown up supporting the team.