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In his first press conference after being appointed manager of Newcastle United, way back in 1998 Ruud Gullit stated that he wanted his side ‘to play sexy football’. Not unnaturally, a few eyebrows were raised and many were those who queried his ambitions. What did the flamboyant Dutch ace really mean? Many writers referred to Gullit as a wearer of dreadlocks and a lover of women but he had never been recognised as someone with revolutionary ideas or tactics, when managing Chelsea. Ken Bates, the then chairman of the London club never saw any hidden talents and sacked him despite the fact that he had yet another year as per contract, though he had just become the first non British manager to lead his side to an FA Cup victory at Wembley.
There is no doubt that Gullit was a brilliant player in his time and he knew what football is all about. He earned his first international cap at nineteen and went on to play 66 times for Holland, won six championships, three with PSV, and three with Milan, two European Cups (Champions League) and led Holland to its first major honour when the Dutch won the European Championship. He was voted ‘World and European Footballer of the Year’, in the same season, and became the world’s most expensive footballer when he joined A C Milan from PSV Eindhoven for a transfer fee of £6.5 million.
Years before, as a reggae performer, he was on the same stage as Frank Sinatra and Paul Simon.
Bates claimed that ‘he acted as a playboy’, during his time at Chelsea. “Gullit, a part-time playboy manager, who carried out his business contracts at the expense of his training.” He promoted fashion and was involved in the fast-food business.
Gullit admits that he ‘was not an ideal father’. He has six children from three different partners, while Lisa Jensen a pizza waitress in Newcastle, who was reportedly knocking around with Paul Gascoine at the time, remembers him as a guy who does not indulge in foreplay, but is well endowed!
The ‘sexy football’ tag was fascinating though the Toons never saw anything extraordinary and after 366 days with Newcastle during which period he spent £33m, he resigned after only two games of the new season. Newcastle United’s Chairman Freddy Shepherd summed it up by saying “Gullit was a mistake”.
So was the declaration of his ambition to introduce ‘sexy football’. Typical of all newly appointed managers, flashing a club-coloured scarf while talking thrash!
Football groupies
What is sexy football? Football is an art and there is nothing sexy about the way it is played though those who play it may certainly indulge in a number of sexy encounters outside the playing and training areas. Like human mortals footballers always deny the stories which usually emerge from some flashy wannabe seeking fame and fortune. The tabloids are full of regular kiss-and-tell stories involving footballers.
There are footballers, all over the planet who regularly visit red districts or who invite prostitutes to call at their hotel. Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney hit the limelight during the summer because of his sessions with a number of whores. And Rooney is not the only one.
Others have it laid on by the many hundreds of groupies that hang around. Because they are famous, footballers are regarded as objects of national adoration, especially for teenaged girls looking for adventure, picking someone for the night is easier than lifting a glass of beer! Besides these naïve teenagers feel cool and important that they are sharing a bed with a footballer even if it is for a five-minute drunken fumble. A university student recently spoke publicly of her three years of sleeping with famous footballers and her experiences of having had four current England players, ten Premiership stars and even two Real Madrid players. She was only eighteen then and the scandals involving footballers drug abuse, rape allegations, and split roasting’ were nothing new! She hated the moment when a player’s friends appeared in the hotel doorway, as she knew that she was going to be shared. Is this sexy football? Was the gang-rape of a seventeen-year old at Grosvenor Hotel in central London a year ago a useful rehearsal for the real game?
Everybody does it
In this materialistic world where values seem to have gone overboard, it is not surprising to learn of similar scandals with the main actors being top politicians, public figures, those who love to flash their titles and degrees, pop singers and other celebrities. A few are found out, millions aren’t. The public can never get enough when shady happenings are retold. Those who are found out usually deny that anything actually happened. ‘Sex,lies and mobile phones’ would make an eye-catching title!
The oft-repeated phrase “I never had sexual relations with that woman!” is so archaic.
England manager Sven Goran Ericsson’s flings with Ulrika Jonsson and Faria Alam, Rebecca Loos’ allegations that she became an alternative ‘wife’ to David Beckham after his move to Madrid, Bill Clinton’s intimate relationship with Monica Lewinsky apart from the stories involving the former US President, referred to as ‘Bonking Bill’ by a serious London paper, with the beautiful marketing executive Marilyn Jo Jenkins, Paula Jones, Linda Tripp, Gennifer Flowers and others, surely never featured in Gullit’s scheme when he wanted to introduce ‘sexy football’ in the North East of England.
‘Sexy Football’ like ‘sexy sport’ is a laugh. Fortunately it’s for the very limited few.
After all there are so many sport people who are perfect role models. Andrej Shevchenko for a start… the list is endless!
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