In times of major adversity, the true character of people will show itself. That is what I was always taught as a young lad, and over the weekend, the footballing world as a whole, proved that no matter your skin colour, or your shirt colour, we are one in greif.
Fabrice Muamba walked into White Hart Lane with an FA Cup semi-final dream and never walked off. He was carried off the field with no heartbeat and miraculously came back from the dead after two hours. He is currently critically ill after his cardiac arrest and the world of football is holding its collective breath in hopes that he will survive. Anything that happens after that will be a bonus.
Much has been said about football on the whole over the last decade. Inflated wage bills, growing egos, and the never ending stream of infidelity in the English game has put this countries game into disrepute. But the true class of every man and woman who works within the Premier League, whether that be on the field or off it, shone through over the weekend as we came together as a whole to pray, and will Muamba on to recover. The minutes applause at Molenieu, at Anfield and St James Park was just one of the ways in which the league as a whole decided to show its appreciation to a man who may not have had the notoriety of a Wayne Rooney or John Terry, but was an intergral part of the Bolton setup, and in his day was a quality England under 21 international.
Andre Pirlo dedicated Juventus' Serie A win to Muamba, and across Europe in Spain, Real Madrid as a team showed their class runs way beyond what they can do on the field by sporting 'Get Well' t-shirts for Muamba and their ill adversary from the Nu Camp Eric Abidal, who requires a liver transplant after a long battle with illness. These show's of class from all over Europe prove one thing. Football is not in the gutter like so many journalists and the like would have you believe. Football, for all intensive purposes is irrelivant when it comes to the life of a human being. The Tottenham fans proved that when Muamba collapsed on Saturday. They stood, in shocked disbelief at what was happening in front of them, but both sets of fans came together and chanted his name and applauded him as he was rushed off the field.
There are no true villains in the world of football. People come together to share the passion of what their team represents. Harry Redknapp hit the nail on the head in todays papers when he said that everything takes a back seat in a situation like this. The only thing that truly matters here is that the 23 year old man fighting for his life in Bethnel Green makes a full recovery. Unfortunately, it takes situations like this to truly show the world that the footballing world is just one great big family, and while we may fight, and at times hurt one another, we mourn and greive together.
Get well soon Fabrice, I for one will be praying for you.
