WHAT an irony it was to watch the adverts at half time of Sunday’s historic Euro 2004 final. There they were, the darlings of the global marketers of football, Beckham, Zidane, Del Piero, Raul, performing their wizardry for commercials that used their image as artists of the game to sell their brands.
But the galacticos had all gone home to face the bitterness of disappointed fans. And on the pitch, raising the famous trophy were the unfancied Greeks, the journeyman players who warm up the benches at mid-table clubs in Europe. Not one of them had featured in the half-time ads, not one of them shone out as a mega star, but as a team, their performances had earned the respect of fans and pundits across the continent.
Greece did not play the ‘beautiful game’, indeed their asphyxiating defence attracted criticism for choking the spectacle that might have been offered by flowing, attacking teams like the Czechs or Portuguese.
But for genuine football fans they have been a breath of fresh air. Why? Because in the era of Real Madrid or Roman Abramovich’s Chelsea, the question has increasingly been raised among sports fans of whether money can buy success, to the detriment of genuine sporting achievement. The Greeks and their remarkable German coach Otto Rehhagel (who incidentally earns 40 times less than England manager Sven Goran Eriksson) have delivered a resounding rebuff to that growing concern.
For all their outrageous talent, their dazzling ball control and inch-perfect passes, the mega stars of France, England, Italy and Spain failed to deliver, while the championship was won by a team that epitomised hard work, iron discipline and solidarity, a team that did not dive, a team where players backed each other up, a team that gives hope to smaller teams across club and international football, sending out the message that perhaps investment in nurturing local talent, investment in players that really work together and for each other, is money better spent that the latest big name glamour signing.
Some fear that Greece’s triumph will herald a new era of catenaccio, of defensive football and tight 1-0 results. That need not be so. Greece played to their defensive advantage, but they did not play out for the nil-nil draw and penalties, they scored in every game, latching on brilliantly to the mistakes of their opponents, ruthless in putting away the few opportunities that came their way.
Greece have humbled teams and players whose arrogance needed humbling. The response from the superpowers of the game should be to learn the lesson of Rehhagel and his men, to accept that God-given talent is sometimes not enough, that it needs to be allied to the kind of discipline that earned the Greeks the Championship. If they can rise to that challenge, the result will be a formidable feast for football fans across the world.
