Not So Private Life

This weekend, shamed soccer star John Terry graced the front pages of the majority of newspapers. Vanessa Perroncell, the lingerie model that he was alleged to have had an affair with also appeared in the papers but did not, however, sell her story because of the €458,000 sum paid to her by Terry to keep her silence. It seems strange that this affair should make front page news of almost every paper when affairs go on everyday, everywhere both noticed and unnoticed. But, this is what comes with the territory of being a public figure.

http://www.herald.ie/entertainment/around-town/terry-tried-to-buy-vanessas-silence-in-8364458k-deal-2051486.html

Is this, however, the way it should be? Are these 'celebrities' not entitled to a private life away from the cameras and press? Why is it that we should know the in's and out's of their lives?

On Friday, John Terry lost his England captaincy after his very public fall from favour. He remains as Chelsea captain. Moving away from my above questions but not unrelated, I now pose the question, should the goings on in Terry's life really have impacted on his footballing career? I understand that hundreds of young boys and girls uphold Terry as their idol, one day they want to be just as successful as him whilst mothers around the country deem him to be a homewrecker. Not exactly leadership material, I hear you say.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2010/0206/1224263886072.html

Leaders captain teams. Traits of a leader include a person of good character, a person who does everything they are supposed to do, someone who can command trust and someone of honourable character. Okay, so he hasn't exactly ticked all the boxes, alright then he ticked none of the boxes. But, before the country knew anything about his promiscuity, the boxes would have been all ticked.

John Terry worked hard to excell at football to be where he is today, nobody can argue that. So why then, should a slip-up in his private life prove detrimental for his footballing career? Are we judging his skill on or off the field? Should a player not be judged on his merit as a footballer rather than his scandalous private life? In my opinion, if you become a celebrity, automatically your right to privacy is infringed. However, I believe that a football player such as John Terry should be judged solely upon his ability to play football and captain a team rather than to introduce outside factors, like his private life, into the equation.

If today's game was anything to go by, Terry had no problem on the field, captaining Chelsea to victory over Liverpool, 2-0. Didier Drogba revealed after the game that the team had rallied around Terry in support.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/2843086/Didier-Drogba-We-had-to-stick-together.html

I have a feeling that Terry will be reinstated as England captain sometime in the future, much like Peter Robinson stepping down for a few weeks, just waiting for the dust to settle and another scandal to come along.

DA