Let’s talk about athletes, although we could talk about any other profession, from politicians to actors, musicians, magnates, painters and even sculptors. We can write about them and even criticize them, making value judgments that, perhaps, not everyone shares. It is true that when you reflect, value and judge what others do, no matter how public they are, you are not always right.
In the last few days, in the last few hours, I have noticed, not on social networks where, fortunately, well, by personal decision, I have never been interested in entering (“you don’t know what you’re missing”), “a professional like you doesn’t can do without them”, “life is in the networks”….everyone tells me, including one of my children, the other, no), certain criticisms and comments about three great athletes (I’m sure I left a lot of casuistries similar, but I focus on these three) that make me think that, often, we are not fair with our criticisms or expressions. I don’t know, maybe I’m the wrong one, of course.
Rahm’s check
For example, a close friend writes to me, Juanjothat lives in Sydney and he is, as I told you, one of the best TV cameras on the professional tennis circuit. He tells me, indignant, well, annoyed, that Txema Olazábal would never have signed for the Saudi golf circuit, that is, for the LIV Golfthe call Golf Super League (that Super League really works!).
“Look, Emilio, when, in 1994, Txema won his first ‘green jacket’ in it Augusta Masters, the following week he received a blank slip, blank!, on which he could put any number he could think of, with any zeros behind it, to play 18 holes with an Arab sheikh, and Olazábal rejected it instantly, ‘ because I’m not for sale,’ he said. Maybe for that and many other things, Olazábal was awarded the Princess of Asturias of Sports award.
Another professional colleague calls me, not such a friend but one of the greats (in my opinion) and tells me that what the Barça and his German goalkeeper Marc-André Ter Stegen They have done “at an informative level, Emilio, regarding your operation it seems a real shame to me, because so much secrecy and secrecy, in my opinion, unnecessary, makes no sense.” Ter Stegen has just had surgery, apparently, in the Sports Clinic Bordeaux Marignaclumbar problems, Dr. Amélie Léglise.
The week is completed with a casual chat with one of the specialists who knows the most about motorcycles on the world stage, Italian, yes, who shows his perplexity because Marc Márquez has rejected tens of millions of euros, which he had insured by his contract with Sling and many other personal sponsors, to embrace a Ducati ‘satelite’. “Almost free. Well, not free, but almost, almost. What madness!”.
Never, neither you nor me, nor (almost) anyone, will they put a check of 550 million euros in front of us. It’s clear what we would do, right?
The first thing I tell everyone is what my father told me on many occasions when he showed my perplexity, when I was very young, at certain people’s attitudes. “Look, Emilio, it is very easy to give your opinion, criticize, point out, when you never do! You have found yourself in the situation of deciding this or that. “I would like to know what you would decide if you found yourself in that situation.”
It is you who decides
And I also told it to my interlocutors. I have to admit that the three talks were tremendously gratifying, enjoyable, and constructive. I told Juanjo that neither he nor I have ever been given a check of 550 million euros like the one he has given to Jon Rahm. “Not 550 million, not 400, not 300, not 200, not 100, not 25,000 euros, Juanjo.” It is your life, that of yours, sorry, that of the next 35 generations. Can we really criticize a decision like that? I will say more: if it is because it is Arab money, then let’s criticize the entire world, let’s not just mistreat the great Basque of Barrika.
I think what Olazábal did is good, very good, I told Juanjo, and also what Rahm did, what the hell! And I will add or remember that, last June, the PGA Tourhe European Tour and the billionaire LIV Golf They reached an agreement to unify golf, although not all PGA professional golfers liked the pact. Another fact: the check they offer Rahm is 10 times what the Basque has earned during his seven years as a professional.
Regarding the secrecy that has surrounded the operation of the great Ter Stegen, by the way, a wonderful person and an upright professional, I thought: Should we tell our neighbors about our operations? We are talking about a private issue, whether or not it is an athlete and/or public figure. Why should Ter Stegen tell who operates on him, where he is operated on and what he is operated on? Barça knows it, its medical team knows it and that is more than enough, I say, I don’t know. I could broadcast the operation live on YouTube, yes, of course. It would be his right, but he hasn’t done it. And period.
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And regarding the decision of what is known in Italy as ‘il canibbale’, Marc Márquez Alentá, just to say that, I guess, I don’t know, those criticisms should be the other way around, right?: hey, you risk losing everything (not just the money) by putting yourself to the test. First, above all, let’s say that ‘total free’, nothing at all, as it should be. It is true that the risk assumed MM93 is great, as great as the confidence that the eight-time world champion has in succeeding in the challenge he takes on by testing himself to know, once and for all, after four years of pain, operations and rehabilitation if he is still, or no, the 2019 champion.
Ah! and he forgot me, dad closed his reflection by reminding me of something his father told him: “To whoever judges my path, I lend my shoes”.