To The Script : Hall of Fame worthy? – by Kristan Kraak – The Editor
“Oh, he’s running Chambers again. Brilliant from Sadio Mané…BRILLIANT FROM SADIO MANÉ !”
“Henderson forward… and this is Daniel Sturridge… and support from Sadio Mané”.
Liverpool FC posted “Mane’s first 50 Premier League goals for the Reds”. This was merely 2 weeks ago. 2 weeks ago when people were still joking and making memes about cheap flights, deliberately ignoring what’s happening around us – blind to the lurking danger. Oblivious. Life’s a walk in the park, right? And we paid so little attention to the snake slithering in the lush, green grass of that “park”.
But Kristan, what does soccer have to do with any of this? Initially, this article would have been about the UEFA Euro 2020. Just a disclaimer, if I may, I’m not trying to create yet another scandal surrounding the virus. Food for thought, if you will. With everything going on, with the shortage of medical supplies for treatment and prevention of COVID-19, I, for one, turned my attention to soccer. To be specific, the players – players with a net worth of millions of euros.
“Real Madrid obsessed with £100m Kylian Mbappe transfer and hope striker does not extend deal beyond 2022 “ – The Sun, 3 March 2020.
Thousands have died. Thousands who could have been saved. Thousands of human beings with families and dreams who died alone. 7 March 2020, just 4 days after this article was published, Iran confirmed almost 6000 coronavirus infections and 145 deaths. At this point, the question on my mind – I won’t say on everyone’s minds, because I know I’ll get attacked for this, but again, food for thought – who are the real idols here? The real heroes?
Is it the nurse with her torn ears and bruised cheeks from wearing masks all day, working more than her usual 80 hours per week or Salah with his £200 000 per week, being Liverpool’s highest paid player? Is it the health official screening people in airports, risking his own life or Khloe Kardashian praying for humanity while her sister, Kylie, gives an update on her beauty empire amid the coronavirus outbreak, hinting that her production teams were still at work “taking precautionary methods to ensure everyone stayed coronavirus free”? Is it the men in the Blue Ribbon truck stopping outside the spaza, hastily carrying the crates of bread over to my friend, so umakhulu has fresh bread when she comes back from SASSA?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not hating on soccer players and influencers, in fact, like I said, I couldn’t wait to cover what has been happening in the soccer world so far.
Let’s get back to Sadio Mané for instance: Mane played a key role in helping the Reds maintain their 100% record with a win over Leicester City in 2018, yet this man, being one of the most prolific goal scorers in world of football, owns no luxury items. A few months ago, social media bombarded him for having a cracked iPhone screen.
The Senegalese player replied “Why would I want 10 Ferraris, 20 diamond watches, or two planes? What will these objects do for me and for the world? .. I do not need to display luxury cars, luxury homes, trips and even planes. I prefer that my people receive a little of what life has given me”.
Stay home, sanitize, remember your dog can’t infect you, stop reading posts about Drake’s son being too white to be black and rather take a minute to think about who our worldly idols really should be. My prayer is that on the 1st of May, instead of being inspired by Sally Potter’s 1992 period film Orlando, eyeing E! for the Met Gala, we’ll be inspired by the retail workers, nurses, doctors and security personnel who risked their lives to keep us alive – even if they weren’t wearing Vuitton.