Are soccer players slaves?

[Cynical Ninja]

You scared me for a second, Opie. The title of your thread made me think of a certain conspiracy theorist whacko we both love to hate.

I wish I knew more about soccer. My son only played till he was about 12, but he loved it. Do the parents of child athletes act as nutso over there as some do here?

Not trying to hijack, I just don't know enough about how your sports system works to discuss this. Frankly, I don't know enough about the sports system over here to discuss much other than baseball.

"Soccer moms" is more an American thing I think, in the UK it is generally the fathers that can be pushy and aggressive in support of their childrens sporting prowess. I think the fact that a kid canmake a LOT more money being a soccer player compared to 15 - 20 years ago may be a reason why people like "soccer moms" are more common.

There are quite a few Americans playing professional soccer both in the UK and in Europe, the majority are goalkeepers. Sepp Blatter is a scandanavian who hates English football and English football teams, last seasons champion league(european cup) finalwas between two English clubs for the first time in a long time and he was furious about it!

The situation with Ronaldo is common, star players are often "tapped up" i.e taken for secret talks by rival clubs to try and persuade them to leave their current team in the pursuitof more money, more glory etc.