Spanish soccer pro quits sports in criticism of capitalism

[Syt]

http://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/blog/dirty-tackle/post/Sporting-Gijon-player-quits-football-refuses-hi?urn=sow-wp4024

As Samuel Eto'o finishes up a transfer to Anzhi that will reportedly pay him more than €400,000 a week, 24-year-old Sporting Gijon defender Javi Poves has coincidentally announced that he's taking a moral stand and quitting the game.

From the Telegraph:

"The more you know about football the more you realise it is all about money, that it is rotten and this takes away your enthusiasm," Poves told Spanish daily ABC's website (www.abc.es) on Wednesday.

    "What point is there is earning 800 or 1000 euros if you know that you are obtaining it through the suffering of many people."

    Daily El Pais reported that Poves refused to allow the club to pay him via a bank transfer, he said so the banks could not speculate with his money, and that he returned the keys to a car that had been provided to players by sponsors.

That's certainly a noble gesture. And one that has been praised as people in Spain protest high unemployment, debt and corruption. But if you're wondering why you've never heard of Poves, it's because he actually played for Sporting Gijon's B team in the Spanish third division. So when he says he wants to go back to school and to "offer his help socially," the fact that he was having a hard time cracking the first team might have made his decision a little easier. Regardless, Javi doesn't want you to start putting his face on T-shirts for this. He also warns of an ominous future...

"I don't want Javi Poves to become an icon, I am just one more and I fight against inequality," he added.

    "I want everyone to be equal and that we all unite and stop arguing over trivial matters and try to move forward. As it stands the world is preparing to destroy itself."

Interesting choice to refer to himself in the third person while attempting to downplay his actions, but Javi Poves thinks that the real icons of football should do more to help others.

"There are certain personalities at a world level, Pele, Ronaldinho, (Lionel) Messi who are ambassadors for UNICEF and who on the face of it are very good, but they could do much more" he added.

    "These people have such influence they should involve themselves in a much more direct way."

Well, if Leo Messi decides to follow Poves' lead and quit football in order to involve himself in a more direct way, football fans might make sure that it's Poves doing the suffering.

[Syt]

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/sports/2011/08/11/fed-up-spanish-player-quits-football/

MADRID (AP) –  Javi Poves finally achieved what most football players dream of, getting to taste the riches of the professional game.

For the 24-year-old Spaniard, that taste was sour enough to make him immediately walk away from the table.

Poves was a promising defender with Sporting Gijon and made his debut with the Spanish club's topflight team toward the end of last season. But instead of eyeing the future with promise, Poves' already disillusioned attitude toward the game only grew stronger as he got a firsthand look at being a top-level athlete.

So he made a decision that has turned heads all over Spain: he strode into the offices of Sporting in July and quit.

''It's all about money and players are just playing to distract people from what's happening in the real world,'' Poves told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. ''These things started driving me crazy and gradually I came to this decision.''

Poves' pronouncement stunned many in Spain, where football helps unite a country that is staggering through an economic crisis with unemployment at more than 20 percent. The national team is the World Cup and European champion and Spain's league advertises itself as the world's best thanks to clubs like Barcelona and Real Madrid.

''It surprised me to see him retire so soon because he had all the qualities to keep playing,'' teammate David Barral, who shared a room with Poves on the road, was quoted as saying in La Nueva Espana newspaper. ''He has his own ideas and I have mine. But I support him because he's my friend, he's got a great heart.''

El Pais newspaper labeled him ''The Angry Footballer,'' while other media outlets called him anti-football because of his rejection of the game.

For Poves, however, it was simply a matter of putting his own values above money.

''My motivation in training fell off and the club wasn't happy for me to continue on like that. So I quit because of my ideas which, agreed, aren't so common (in football),'' Poves said.

He is now living at his parents home in Madrid, where he is mapping out his new future.

Poves made it clear that his decision wasn't meant to be a political statement, and that he doesn't want to be associated with the larger protest movements that have attracted angry young Spaniards - labeled as the ''indignados'' - who are frustrated by the lack of future prospects due to the dragging economic crisis.

''I'm just one person more. But because I'm a football player this decision causes more repercussions,'' Poves said. ''It's not normal but I have to accept it.''

In a week when Real Madrid drew headlines for signing a 7-year-old prospect, Poves said part of the reason he quit was because of the values young players are being taught by the clubs themselves.

''Players are seen as egoists who fight day-in, day-out just to make more money,'' Poves said. ''But that's not the players' fault. They've been programmed, educated to believe that and nothing else. They instill these values from a young age.''

Poves said Sporting teammates and officials - including coach Manolo Preciado - had been fair with him despite his outspoken views.

While the majority of his teammates didn't agree with his perspective, Poves' decision has still filtered into the changing room chatter going into the new season.

''Inside the locker room it's been pretty much a revolution this year,'' Poves said.

He said he now plans to travel to the Middle East, most likely Iran, and read more books. He said he is currently sifting through the Torah.

''Society is telling us not to believe in anything. So everyone thinks the only God alive is themselves,'' he said. ''I don't know if there is a God or not, but we can garner many important things from religion.

''(But) it's true, I'm going through a confusing time right now.''

[Slargos]

I can certainly sympathise with his thoughts. No matter how you want to spin it, the economy IS a zero-sum game, and for one person to make the kind of lol-wages the pro footballers make, thousands of others have to make up for it.

[Ed Anger]

About as stupid as Quinn Pitcock blowing a promising NFL career on a video game addiction.

[The Larch]

The article missed the part where he clamoured for bankers to be slaughtered. 

I'm serious, he did say that.

[Slargos]

The article missed the part where he clamoured for bankers to be slaughtered. 

I'm serious, he did say that.

Considering how the banks keep fucking our economies and forcing expensive bailouts time after time, I'm left wondering if it wouldn't be fit and proper. "If you fail, you also lose your fucking head." That way at least they'd be earning their salaries.

Nationalize the banks. 

[Syt]

The article missed the part where he clamoured for bankers to be slaughtered. 

I'm serious, he did say that.

Considering how the banks keep fucking our economies and forcing expensive bailouts time after time, I'm left wondering if it wouldn't be fit and proper. "If you fail, you also lose your fucking head." That way at least they'd be earning their salaries.

Lends a whole new meaning to "cutting the payroll" and "slashing salaries".

[Valmy]

How cute.

People used to complain about that in American sports all the time.  Now we are all beaten into submission.

[Iormlund]

The article missed the part where he clamoured for bankers to be slaughtered. 

I'm serious, he did say that.

Considering how the banks keep fucking our economies and forcing expensive bailouts time after time, I'm left wondering if it wouldn't be fit and proper. "If you fail, you also lose your fucking head." That way at least they'd be earning their salaries.

Nationalize the banks. 

Real banks are doing quite well. Our problem on that front are some of the regional savings institutions, run by politicians.

[Berkut]

I can certainly sympathise with his thoughts. No matter how you want to spin it, the economy IS a zero-sum game, and for one person to make the kind of lol-wages the pro footballers make, thousands of others have to make up for it.

Uhhh, yeah....the problem is that the economy is not a zero-sum game, no matter how you want to spin it.

You need some basic econ 101. Start with the concept of specialization.

[Martinus]

He wears a mullet. 

[Slargos]

I can certainly sympathise with his thoughts. No matter how you want to spin it, the economy IS a zero-sum game, and for one person to make the kind of lol-wages the pro footballers make, thousands of others have to make up for it.

Uhhh, yeah....the problem is that the economy is not a zero-sum game, no matter how you want to spin it.

You need some basic econ 101. Start with the concept of specialization.

The potential for production of goods and services is finite and relative to the number of potential productive workers modified by their production efficiency.

No matter how much currency you print the price for the exchange for goods and services remains relative to the total amount of currency (and of course individual item supply and demand) in circulation compared to the goods and services available.

Thus, if one individual commands a larger than average share of the available currency, another must by simple definition command less than average.

Sure, the sum can be increased by improving efficiency or the number of workers, but this doesn't change the basic dynamic.

Now, I have no doubt that I could be missing some crucial component here that makes the economy NOT a zero-sum game, but I honestly don't see what that would be.

[alfred russel]

Slargos views on race : Slargos views on economics

United by wrongness.

[Berkut]

The economy has a lot more to it than currency. Really, focusing on currency as some kind of placeholder for economic activity is a little...well, wrong.

You don't even need to have currency at all to engage in economic activity...

The potential for production of goods and services is finite

To the extent that this makes any sense, it is demonstrably wrong. The potential for production of goods and services is not at all finite in any meaningful sense.

[Slargos]

The economy has a lot more to it than currency. Really, focusing on currency as some kind of placeholder for economic activity is a little...well, wrong.

You don't even need to have currency at all to engage in economic activity...

The potential for production of goods and services is finite

To the extent that this makes any sense, it is demonstrably wrong. The potential for production of goods and services is not at all finite in any meaningful sense.

Can you add hours to the day?

This footballer can trade in one of his work hours for roughly 600 hours of those of his averagely earning peers. That is the gist of the issue.