SB16: Tammy Abraham, AS Roma, Topps UEFA Champions League Match Attax Extra 2021/22

Today Mat Jolin-Beech takes a look at one of life’s great levellers through the medium of a young striker who has lit up Serie A this season. Much as we might crave the adulation that comes with banging in goals in Europe’s top leagues we probably enjoy the anonymity that spares us the glare of the tabloid press every time we slightly misjudge our reverse parking. Over to Mat.

Professional football can seem disconnected to those of us living in the “real world”. The nine to five working week, worries about the rising cost of living, and, for the new parents out there, dealing with the far too frequent poonamis. Professional footballers do not have to worry about these issues. Training for a few hours a day, having meals cooked for you, sleep pods with the perfect environment to rest and recover, 24/7 access to gyms and physios – it is a life of luxury and fitness dreams. Even the new parents from the footballing world have WAGs (if that is still a thing post 2006) and the expensive au pairs and nannies they’ve got to take care of their offspring.

Motoring is probably one of the most notable ways in which those professional footballers earning hundreds of thousands of pounds per week can laud it over us mere mortals. Bentleys, Ferraris, Porsches, Lamborghinis, Rolls Royces, and probably the odd Bugatti grace the car parks of the training grounds. You will get the odd players rocking up in cars we plebs drive, like David Beckham modelling a Ford Escort in his early Manchester United days, but the majority look down on us from their lofty driving seats.

However, cars can provide a leveller for us all. Especially when crashes are involved. Tammy Abraham, formerly of Chelsea and now of Jose Mourinho’s AS Roma and the fringes of the England set up, has recently had a prang. The details of which were all over the tabloids – a quick Google search brought up stories form The Sun, Daily Mail and Daily Mirror. He “smashed into another car”, but both drivers were unhurt. I’m sure the physios and medical staff at Roma gave him a full check up and ensured he is not in any pain or discomfort.

Back to the divide, us normal folk are not so lucky. After a prang I had the other month, not my fault but the insurance companies are still dealing with it at the time of writing, I suffered with a sore back. I’ll add this, it is not fun and a literal pain. A month after the accident, I’ve finally been referred to a physio for a total of six sessions. I’m hoping it will speed up my recovery and chance to get back to full health.

I did consider that reigniting my childhood dream of becoming a professional footballer could speed up my physio referral and recovery. However, now the NHS has finally referred me, all credit to NHS staff by the way, they do a great job, it can just be a bureaucratic nightmare at times of ticking boxes and dealing with red tape, I think the likes of Newport County are going to have to cope without my services.

As an aside, although he’s the main topic of this post, Abraham has taken the brave step for English footballers by moving abroad. It is something that is becoming more common, but it is still a rarity. Personally, I think more Brits should do that, and it would help improve their games, as well as the chance of the home nations at big tournaments. Just look how good the likes of Gareth Bale and Owen Hargreaves have been by plying their trade elsewhere. But more on that another time.