Philippe Coutinho. A household name. One of the most sought after Brazilians in today's generation. Along with Neymar. Someone who was tipped to lead the canary yellow to the top. But all that is just expectations now. Expectations that never actually came true. As sad as it is, an average player's target financially and game wise has differed a lot, comparing to the ones of the generation that actually brought football to the world. Today's players, most of them just think about money, they take the sport as a mean of earning. And not as a sport. Players before used to say, "hell we were happy just by getting to play." That isn't something seen today.
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Why am I saying all this, is because the rate of optimistic careers getting nipped just because they care about the money is rising alarmingly. Coutinho is a lead example. In search of fame and financial stability he has paid the price in term of his career. This player was once destined to become a Liverpool legend. But a bad decision has seen him join Aston Villa today.
5 years ago, Coutinho had a choice. Barcelona came calling. Okay, Barcelona is a big club, hard to say no. But that doesn't mean Liverpool isn't. Also, one club is a big club that doesn't mean that club will always remain at the top. At that time Coutinho was a fan favorite at Liverpool, and Liverpool was on the up. While at Barcelona he would have to start from the bottom. Also Liverpool's play suited him, while Barcelona's play didn't. He was loved and made felt at home and Liverpool. But rejecting all this, he left for Barcelona, why? Because it's Barcelona. Yes players have dreams. I am not against it. But sometimes you need to think where you are now, and where you will be if you make the choice. Players like Coutinho listen to their hearts rather than their brains. The result? Not fitting into the Barcelona system, constant injury, due to lack of cohesion he was loaned out to Bayern. He played good in the number 10. Everyone thought Coutinho was back. Ready to take the world by storm. But then he returned to Catalonia. And things were essentially the same again. Coutinho just never fit in the Barcelona system at all. A career that might've went on to become a legendary one, dwindled. Now joining Aston Villa in a distant hope of salvaging his career.
Along with the financial part. There is a common stereotype among the players that Barcelona and Real Madrid are always the go to clubs. Yes, they are among the best clubs in the world, but they're not always on top of the world. And it's not always a good idea to just jump on the bandwagon of let's join Barcelona/Real Madrid. In some decades the best are the Italian clubs. In other decades German clubs were ruling. Last two decades have been led by spanish clubs. But now the power is shifting from Spain to England. Both Real Madrid and Barcelona are going through transition periods. So other than the fact that you are fully determined to serve these clubs, you shouldn't join these clubs just to gain fame and stardom. Eden Hazard has suffured a similar fate. Antoine Griezmann too. There are many other examples. We can only hope that the players get out of these stereotypes and serve different clubs across Europe more willingly, and they hold the sport in a greater regard than how they hold it today.