At the age of 18, most would say Shane Supple had it made.  Subbed on for Ipswich in the thirty-fifth minute against Leicester, he kept a clean sheet for the rest of the match.  Supple’s future looked bright, but almost as soon as he debuted for the first team, the Dublin native met with Roy Keane to effectively end his young career.

His reasons for leaving the game of football, explained in an exclusive interview with the MailOnline, were so incredible that observers initially pointed to a fall-out with Roy Keane to help explain why such a young talent would want to throw it all away so early in his career.  Supple however is adamant that he left Ipswich and returned to Dublin because of the greed inherent in the modern game, because some of his fellow first teamers “didn’t really care whether we won or lost,” because he wanted to pursue something more noble, like police work.

Supple’s narrative flies in the face of popular understanding of the game in which young players work hard and sacrifice in order to make the first team, to which they give their all for the club and the supporters.  Supple however thinks youth academies have introduced an element of mercenarism into football and led to a situation where players want money and fame before they’ve even kicked a ball: “I remember Joe Royle saying that some of them think they’re stars and they’re not even players.”

Channeling the Modern Lovers’ Jonathan Richman, Supple seems in love with the “old world.” He describes his enjoyment playing for Falkirk (“They packed their own lunches”), and laments that he couldn’t have come to football a generation earlier: “I’m a bit old-fashioned, maybe that was a problem.”  Refreshing, certainly, but Supple knew he was swimming against the tide.  It’s a shame the academy system is squeezing old souls like Supple clear out off the pitch.

Worldwide News

• Kartik Krishnaiyer reports that MLS viewers have spiked 70% on the Spanish language ESPN Deportes. As Krishnaiyer explains, “While ESPN’s English language MLS package is struggling, the Spanish lagnauge package is making major inroads into the viewing audience.”  MLS club marketing directors with troubled franchises take note.
• The Independent’s Sam Wallace explains how UEFA’s “shambolic” case against Eduardo da Silva meant the Arsenal and Croatia striker was let off the hook for diving, a decision that has left a trail of angry op-eds in its wake.  UEFA’s pitiful defense of the match ban is shocking stuff considering how high profile the incident was at the time, and could be precedent-setting.
• Maradona has checked into a weight loss clinic in Italy.
• Soccer365 brings us the five most underpaid players in MLS. “In America, where we’re so accustom to overpaid professional athletes, it’s both endearing and disturbing to recognize these five soccer players who don’t play for expensive shoe contracts or million dollar signing bonuses, but excel on the field nonetheless.”
• Match Fit USA smartly uses the firing of Costa Rica national team manager Rodrigo Kenton as an opportunity to remind us that “Kenton’s dismissal now leaves Bob Bradley (USA), Reinaldo Reina (Honduras), and Carlos de los Cobos (El Salvador) as the only head coaches in the Hexagonal that have led their teams for more than a calendar year.”
• The Premier League is bringing in home grown quotas. Several newspaper writers weigh in on the consequences, and they are significant indeed.

Richard Whittall, author of A More Splendid Life, has subbed on as Sweeper for Tom Dunmore this week.

Shane Supple

Why are we always so shocked when professional footballers quit the game for a similar reason many other people quit their jobs?  Shane Supple was the latest to “shock” the football world with his decision to quit Ipswich Town at the age of 22 to pursue another career, rumoured to be in catering. Supple explained to the club’s official site his reasoning:

It’s obviously a big decision but I feel that playing professional football is not something I want to continue doing as a career. There is no one reason why I have made my decision, there are a number of factors but deep down my heart is not in the game anymore and I’m not going to go into work every day trying to convince myself that it is so it’s the right time for me to walk away.

“I suppose you could say that I have fallen out of love with the game and when then happens I’ve always said to myself that I wouldn’t hang around. All I wanted to do when I was younger was play in the Premier League but as you grow up you realise that there are other things in life and to be honest, the game is not what I thought it was.

His manager Roy Keane said he respected the decision, and that it was not a snap choice: Supple had been considering quitting football for “a year or two” and he had only “persevered for other people.”

Of course, we are shocked by such decisions because we can’t imagine someone turning down being paid to play what we spend an awful lot of our time and money just to watch.

Ty Harden

There was similar bemusement last year in American soccer when Ty Harden quit the LA Galaxy to finish his degree and do volunteer work in Africa. “It was a long and hard decision,” he told Kristian Dyer. “I knew that I wanted to go back to school and get my degree,” Harden continued. “But I also wanted to do more with my life than simply kick a ball.”

Harden has since returned to MLS, but his broader perspective remains in tact. “Soccer had become a burden,” Harden explained after his return. “I needed to get away from it. It just felt like I was missing out on things.”

One has to respect that rather than taking the pay cheque and pretending to care, the likes of Harden and Supple take the honest decision to walk away from the sport.

One wonders if Supple will return to the game like Harden some day, having removed the burden of feeling he was bound to satisfy other people’s dreams as a professional footballer, and might be able to enjoy playing instead after a renewed lease of life outside its insular culture.