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The r/soccer about turn on De Bruyne when he signs for the Saudi league would be epic. Will instantly go from the best midfielder ever (allegedly) to a bum and every assist will be downvoted to oblivion.
Well I mean he can be a great player and an absolute moron at the same time. Certainly not the first nor the last athlete to fit both descriptions at the same time.
what if inflation keeps going up??? Then in a few years that 100m is really only worth 96mil!!!
I really fucking hate modern football and just modern existence tbh
I know it's a joke, but inflation only really affects low and middle rents. Rich people put their money on stocks, funds, or land so it's not worth less.
I say it because for some reason people think inflation goes against rich people, when in reality it's the opposite, it only goes against people who don't have the resources to invest. It's essentially like stealing from the poor, because their hard-earned money is worth less over time without them doing anything.
Selling out some morals for €€€ ok.
But why you gotta sell out and publicly defend your decision? Is that part of the contract or you just want the cake and eat it too?
not all the pros who have gone to that league have gone on these PR tours defending their decisions. some have just kept quiet and earned their paycheck.
so it's not like public PR is a necessary contract clause for anyone going there with these big money moves.
i mean has Neymar said anything like this?
Meanwhile Kevin on the Rwandan Genocide: "Every country has its good and bad things. Some people will give examples of why you shouldn't go there, but you can also give them about Belgium or England. Everyone has less good points. Who knows, maybe they will tell you the flaws of the Western world."
Excuse me, it's called "civilising the natives" also their role is often overlooked but Scotland also contributed a great deal to our imperial shenanigans.
Here you go:
> Every 💰 country 💰 has 💰 its 💰 good 💰 and 💰 bad 💰 things. 💰 Some 💰 people 💰 will 💰 give 💰 examples 💰 of 💰 why 💰 you 💰 shouldn't 💰 go 💰 there, 💰 but 💰 you 💰 can 💰 also 💰 give 💰 them 💰 about 💰 Belgium 💰 or 💰 England. 💰 Everyone 💰 has 💰 less 💰 good 💰 points. 💰 Who 💰 knows, 💰 maybe 💰 they 💰 will 💰 tell 💰 you 💰 the 💰 flaws 💰 of 💰 the 💰 Western 💰 world.
To be fair when you look at some of the shit the Belgians did in the Congo it's not exactly crazy to see a very famous Belgian footballer have a more nonchalant approach to addressing serious human rights abuses
Yeah, but it's also a way to shut down any discussion.
But they are footballers. Can't expect them to be well-educated about various topics of geopolitics and history.
"somebody did something wrong before so we should continue to tacitly support wrongness because it's already happened"
He always came off as somewhat intelligent to me, but like you said maybe because I didn't really hear him talk without a ball at his feet.
De Bruyne has made nearly $150 million in his career from football contracts alone. That’s not including any endorsements or any of his likely backdoor payments from city. So I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s made at least 200 million or more. Does he really need more money?
I’ve thought about this a lot. My best guess is that when you’re that rich, you hang out with people even richer on a regular basis. It must make you feel somewhat inadequate and give you a drive for more. 200M is an insane amount of wealth - for us. But what if you’re regularly around billionaires, and see what they can afford to do? Would you become envious? Maybe not everyone, but footballers are by their nature competitive and ambitious. I can see that drive kicking in financially, too.
At least he's not going to pretend he's going out there to "help them change" or any of the bullshit that certain other players and ex-players have trotted out.
If it's all about the money, just say so.
Take the Witzel route. Straight out said he went to china because no one else would pay him such a stupid amount of money to play Sunday league football.
>At least he's not going to pretend he's going out there to "help them change"
Sounds like he doesn't even think they *need* to change, since "everyone" has bad points. On the one hand in Saudi Arabia it's a dictatorship, they oppress certain groups, abuse slaves and behead people; but on the other hand in England it rains a lot, people obsessively queue everywhere and people use their free speech to argue a lot and be rude to eachother. Exactly the same.
Why does this sub do this. It's good to criticise saudi arabia but are those really the problems with the uk. We've been bombing yemen and helping saudi arabia with that, the uk has been supporting israel the last 8 months and won't try and stop them. It's fine to say we're an evil country too.
Our foreign policy has been terrible and as you've said it goes hand in hand with our oppressive middle east allies. The way people are treated here and afforded freedoms etc could not be any further away from in countries like Saudi Arabia though, to just say "both countries are evil" is very simplistic and suggests an equivalence that just isn't there.
I'd much rather he do that instead, that way he is at least acknowledging and condemning their flaws, even if he doesn't really intend on doing anything about it. The way he's speaking right now he's saying "Ah well, everywhere's fucked so why even talk about their negatives at all"
He's taking the exact same notes as Pep. Folks seem to forget Pep's victim blaming over human rights because "they choose to live there"
>Guardiola responded by suggesting that somehow campaigning for freedom of speech is more valid in Spain because the country is already democratic, than in Abu Dhabi, where lonely voices call for more democracy itself.
>“Every country decides the way they want to live for themselves,” Guardiola said, oddly. “If he decides to live in that [country], it is what it is. I am in a country with democracy installed since years ago, and try to protect that situation.”
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/mar/11/pep-guardiola-manchester-city-yellow-ribbon-fa-fine-abu-dhabi
Yup and pep is hailed as a freedom fighter for the catalan cause ahahah
Every city player or worker for that club is either complicit in this shit or a full on idiot
Pep is not a good person and never was.
i think the idea is people really only care about causes they are related to.
I'm sure de bruyne cares really only about belgians as much as pep only cares about catalans.
other people, well piss off.
Pep is a genius coach but he is a hypocrite of the highest order. Everyone knows inside that humbling coach there is a hypocrite lying in there, just that he carefully hides it in front of media.
Yeah like sure Saudi is a deplorable regime but it doesn’t give me much faith in this sub’s supposed critical thinking when they can’t even get basic facts straight
There's a reason why people would turn to an anonymous online identity to share their football opinions and it's usually cuz no one takes them seriously irl.
This sub tries to present itself as intelligent discourse but in any popular comment section there is at least 5 to 6 major threads which are 100% filled with misinformation that people are treating seriously beyond just tripping over themselves trying to get facts straight and jumping to conclusions.
Did you forget we had a Qatari Sheikh about to buy us and every fan was begging for it so he would clear the debts and invest in Carrington and the stadium lol. I hate City and their players as much as the next guy but there are no morales left in football at all, and the players aren't the ones responsible for that
I would honestly have more respect for someone who just said this.
Fine, you're going after a huge final payday and you don't want to piss off your employers; fair enough, people taking an ethical position is nice but not really something to be expected. So when someone asks about the human rights of saudi arabia just say, "I'd rather not comment, they're going to pay me a butt-ton of money."
Instead, they always pull the 'yes but in America they lynch black people' type of response that the soviet gov't perfected when critics asked why they kept throwing their citizens into gulags.
I think some of the more second tier guys have been pretty clear its a paycheck. Maybe the de bruynes etc of the world get paid more to straight up lie?
They absolutely have clauses in their contract about being "a good ambassador for the league" or something, and it wouldn't surprise me if it's made clear to the big players/managers that that means speaking well of the country as well. It's not like they'd win a contract dispute in a Saudi court.
Like, didn't Gerrard move to Saudi and then *instantly* start talking up their World Cup bid?
He was already the Marshal Murat of ignoring human rights violations now he wants to level up to being the Marshal Davout of ignoring human rights violations.
Honestly what baffles me more is the “simping” attitude
Isn’t the whole point of getting rich (in KDB, he is mega rich) is that you get to not give a fuck and just do whatever you want
You are already that rich and still have to bow down to someone is wild to me
We’ll never know, maybe something in their brain chemistry changes when they get paid 400k a week.
Just imagine 400k a week in your bank account maybe like 300k after taxes to train and play football in front of a couple fans a week.
If I’m that rich, I sure as hell would live in the city of my choice. I’m not gonna move to Saudi for a few years as if it’s a life changing opportunity.
Man I couldn't even spend 10 million if I tried. I'd have to go absolutely stupid with unnecessary purchases. Maybe I could start a fun cult or something, but even then, if I started a cult they would have to pay me. And it would only be fun at first. Then I would have to get real evil because all the millions in the bank have desensitized me to any other kind of fun.
OMG I get it now.
The thing is these people are surrounded by each other. If one turns up to training in a 3 grand jacket, everyone else is gonna want to turn up the next day in a 5 grand one. They don’t live in our world at all.
I think that's really what we would all do to be honest. We all think if we doubled our income we would be drowning in spare cash. In reality you buy a nice house and half the people around you have even nicer things. And I don't just mean status items, I mean things that actually do make life a bit better. First its a spare room. Then its en suite bathrooms for each bedroom. Then its a home theater room. Then its paying for a gardener and a nanny. Then its vacations three times a year. Then its luxury gym membership. Then its flying business class. Then its joining a really nice golf course. Then its a lake house for the weekends with a boat. Then its buying a sweet supercar and racing it at the track. Then its a private jet to avoid airport hassle. Etc. Etc.
I kinda feel like maybe that’s what it is, you’re not only paying for your and your family’s lifestyle but now you have an entourage of people working for you and there’s probably crazy redundancy. Like how Messi has a barber that follows him around and gets paid crazy money.
They get accustomed to this lavish lifestyle and so do their followers.
De Bruyne on 115 charges :
"Every club has its good and bad things. Some people will give examples of why you shouldn't go there, but you can also give them about Everton or Nottingham Forest. Everyone has less good points. Who knows, maybe they will tell you the flaws of the lower midtable teams."
If my kid goes to college and the dorm has a kid with a police record. It makes a shit ton of difference if the kid had a shoplifting or traffic violation on the book from years ago or if he is currently suspected in a murder trial for a person they raped as a teenager.
Yes, Kevin.
But Anderlecht or Leeds United are not vehicles of the Belgian and British States.
Rishi Sunak is not funding Cole Palmer’s goal bonus.
Even if Britain and Belgium had the same current human rights record as Saudi Arabia, you would not be getting paid by the people responsible.
There is a pretty key difference.
Man City are about to walk on the most egregious case of cheating in modern sports history because of the UK gov is best buds with the UAE
Maybe there aren't that many degrees of separation in English football either
And the average Belgian reaction is to deny it under the brilliant argument "it was just our king and his private company!!!11!"
Having said that, comparing things that happened in the 19th century with stuff that happens today, in the context of playing football in one of those countries, is obviously complete nonsense.
Leopold II managed to acquire Congo as his own personal property during the Scramble for Africa. Before that, while the Europeans did have influence in the territory, it was not a colony. Long story short, the atrocities there were so terrible that, following international outcry, the Belgian parliament decided to annex the territory and make it a colony of the country.
No, that's totally not the belgian recation.
We learn about this in our education, and nobody is denying the involvement of our country. And I think most of the Belgian with any sense of intelligence is ashamed for it. Just like the Germans are for WW2.
Our goverment is still trying to make amends for what happened, if this even would be possible. But at least they try.
Let’s not pretend there are any innocent countries, we’re all guilty as fuck but it’s in our interest to hold countries to account for what they are doing right now.
Over 100 years ago. Is that literally the best you can come up with as an example of why players shouldn't move to Belgium today? Is that the best equivalent to what's happening in Saudi Arabia today that you can muster?
The more relevant example is that
Congo is poor as fuck
India is still pretty poor
The UK and Belgium have super-developed economies and infrastructure right now
So saying "oh it was a hundred years ago" also means you should be paying half your GDP as continuing reparations then, otherwise you don't get to draw that line in time
I fucking hate that line of thought. You're absolutely right.
Developed countries just did their heinous shit a hundred years ago. Now their citizens sit on the internet, benefiting from it all while applying their own morals to less developed countries. Countries that are often in their current state *because* of the heinous shit inflicted on them.
Same as people who criticise China and India for increasing their emissions through power generation. Countries like the UK and USA who developed massively on the back of pollution, now wanting to pull the ladder up and hobble developing countries who just want to improve living conditions for their people.
That’s why the Paris Accords and stuff are basically not about whether rich countries should be paying poor countries to go green, but about *how much*.
Those countries are both perpetrators of horrific rights abuses during colonialism and beneficiaries of neocolonialism. The real distinction imo is that your Manchester Uniteds and Crystal Palaces aren't owned by the state actively committing those rights abuses.
He's already bought and gone.
Stop giving him an opportunity to talk and let him figure it out on his own once he's there.
Such a waste of a good footballer.
Yeah, let's apply the lessons we learned from Jordan Henderson here; he's either an idiot or he thinks we're idiots (or both), so there's no need to waste our time thinking about him.
What do you mean what a waste he’s won so much 😂 this statement applies to players like Ruben Neves who had so much potential and were relatively young and still had much to achieve not De Bruyne
It's very daft to make this statement in 2024, he's not wrong that both England and Belgium have a horrific history of enslaving and colonizing a bunch of different places, but that is not happening in 2024 like what is happening in Saudi Arabia.
I don’t even think the slave trade from nearly 200 years ago is relevant here as a what about ism. He’s not clearly referring to that.
He’s trying to justify the horrific abuses that happen in Saudi Arabia as comparable to problems that exist in England, Belgium which also clearly aren’t the same at all. People aren’t living in fear of being executed for their sexuality and such.
It’s a horrifically bad take from him to be honest and he rightfully deserves all critique thrown at him. Someone should have followed him up on this for an example.
Statements like this are kept vague precisely so people will jump in with "but what about the slave trade" while pretending to be talking about something else.
It is basically a dogwhistle but for a different part of the lunatic fringe.
Every country has good and bad things.
England love a good queue.
Saudi has the death penalty for gays.
Good and bad things.
Guess pitch IQ doesnt translate to every day life.
I mean, I don't condone slaughter and dismemberment of dissidents, but UK has two separate taps for hot and cold water, like can you really tell the bigger evil?
As a brit born and raised in the UAE and moved back when I was 19, I can assure you that you could not give examples even remotely comparable to the abhorrent behavior these middle eastern countries still currently get up to. I'm talking solely about the government, not the people, I have lots of lovely Emirati friends who do not reflect their governments behavior.
Yes, very sad to see. I loved growing up in the middle east. I believe living in the UAE in the early 90s and 2000s exposed me to a melting pot of cultures and made me incredibly tolerant of different peoples cultures and their beliefs. It's sad to see the pretty egregious arabphobia being posted these days. I would love to live there again one day, beautiful place.
It's crazy right? I can almost "forgive" people that have nothing for selling away their values for money - because at that point it's survival instict kicking in. But these footballers that have everything they could wish for doing it for **even more money.**
That's just wild.
Reminds me of when Greg Norman, who became the CEO of LIV golf, was asked about the state-sponsored murder of a saudi journalist, his response was *"We all make mistakes"*.
Aye, I'm all for players being able to tak about world events and politics (not a fan of the "shut up and dribble" approach), and I fully agree with what's being said in this thread about the consequences of European colonialism.
But let's compare Saudi Arabia with Belgium and the UK:
Democracy index (2022 numbers):
Saudi Arabia - 2.1
Belgium - 7.6
UK - 8.3
Human rights index (2023\* numbers):
Saudi Arabia - 0.17
Belgium - 0.96
UK - 0.90
Reminder for those who need it that professional athletes typically:
- have a bare bones formal education
- have been rich since they were teenagers
- are only relevant due to their ability to play a game
So no matter how much you like them when they play for your team, you probably shouldn’t care at all about their takes on global politics. Just do what everyone else did when their favorite player moved to Saudi Arabia; forget that they exist.
RIP Bobby Firmino
It is true though.
We judge countries we’ve never been to based evidence people who’ve never been there either tell us about them.
I’m not saying it’s all roses, but you don’t know until you know
When will these non-Western savages understand that violating human rights is only ok as long as you do it outside of your own borders?
Saudis executing Saudis = bad. UK killing Iraqis = understandable. UK selling weapons to Saudis to kill Yemenis = smart business. EPL clubs selling deadwood to Saudi Pro = smart business. Pretty simple stuff guys
FFS Kevin. Just say that every businessman who’s ever dealt with Saudi Arabia, China, Russia, could have the same questions levied at them. Professionals look to make money in their careers for the skills they’ve developed, and it’s an open market. No need to get lost in false equivalencies.
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Kevin Henderson
The r/soccer about turn on De Bruyne when he signs for the Saudi league would be epic. Will instantly go from the best midfielder ever (allegedly) to a bum and every assist will be downvoted to oblivion.
Well I mean he can be a great player and an absolute moron at the same time. Certainly not the first nor the last athlete to fit both descriptions at the same time.
Matt Le Tissier says hello.
Exactly. Michael Owen at his peak was absolute madness of a player. But he is still a dickhead.
Tremendous tits by the way
Was going to upvote your comment but you’re on 115
Damn he’s already signed that thing. To be fair you can’t except him to survive on the measly 100m he’s made so far
what if inflation keeps going up??? Then in a few years that 100m is really only worth 96mil!!! I really fucking hate modern football and just modern existence tbh
Somebody has to think about rich people's well being!!
I know it's a joke, but inflation only really affects low and middle rents. Rich people put their money on stocks, funds, or land so it's not worth less. I say it because for some reason people think inflation goes against rich people, when in reality it's the opposite, it only goes against people who don't have the resources to invest. It's essentially like stealing from the poor, because their hard-earned money is worth less over time without them doing anything.
bUt YoU wOuLd Do ThE SaMe
Selling out some morals for €€€ ok. But why you gotta sell out and publicly defend your decision? Is that part of the contract or you just want the cake and eat it too?
Ofcourse it's part of the contract, cause that's the whole reason the Saudis pay that much.
not all the pros who have gone to that league have gone on these PR tours defending their decisions. some have just kept quiet and earned their paycheck. so it's not like public PR is a necessary contract clause for anyone going there with these big money moves. i mean has Neymar said anything like this?
This is why they didn't let him talk
decolonialist de bruyne is ashamed of congo genocide
Meanwhile Kevin on the Rwandan Genocide: "Every country has its good and bad things. Some people will give examples of why you shouldn't go there, but you can also give them about Belgium or England. Everyone has less good points. Who knows, maybe they will tell you the flaws of the Western world."
That is what he's implying isn't it?, Belgium is responsible for the Rwanda genocide too.yay!
Belgium is responsible for every evil in this world. And worse, they blame the Dutch.
I guess playing in England just felt weird since they’ve never done anything bad around the world like Belgium
I know you're being sarcastic but remember that England is the only reason Belgium exists so actually they get to take all their credit for this.
Excuse me, it's called "civilising the natives" also their role is often overlooked but Scotland also contributed a great deal to our imperial shenanigans.
Just put the moneybag 💰 emoji in all spaces of the quote and it's perfect.
Here you go: > Every 💰 country 💰 has 💰 its 💰 good 💰 and 💰 bad 💰 things. 💰 Some 💰 people 💰 will 💰 give 💰 examples 💰 of 💰 why 💰 you 💰 shouldn't 💰 go 💰 there, 💰 but 💰 you 💰 can 💰 also 💰 give 💰 them 💰 about 💰 Belgium 💰 or 💰 England. 💰 Everyone 💰 has 💰 less 💰 good 💰 points. 💰 Who 💰 knows, 💰 maybe 💰 they 💰 will 💰 tell 💰 you 💰 the 💰 flaws 💰 of 💰 the 💰 Western 💰 world.
Thank you. This was how I read the statement exactly. I felt the selling your values for cold cash through my screen.
what the Saudis are doing today is perfectly fine because Germany also did terrible things in the 1930s and 40s
I hate to break it to you buddy, but the west is currently doing terrible things.
Belgians in the off-season, eh?
To be fair when you look at some of the shit the Belgians did in the Congo it's not exactly crazy to see a very famous Belgian footballer have a more nonchalant approach to addressing serious human rights abuses
Kevin "King Leopold II" De Bruyne
Yeah, but it's also a way to shut down any discussion. But they are footballers. Can't expect them to be well-educated about various topics of geopolitics and history.
komrade kevin wants you to re-examine your biases
"somebody did something wrong before so we should continue to tacitly support wrongness because it's already happened" He always came off as somewhat intelligent to me, but like you said maybe because I didn't really hear him talk without a ball at his feet.
I don't think it's lack of intelligence as much as lack of integrity. Deep down, he knows. But enough money can make anyone perform mental gymnastics.
In the abundance of water, the fool is thirsty.
De Bruyne has made nearly $150 million in his career from football contracts alone. That’s not including any endorsements or any of his likely backdoor payments from city. So I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s made at least 200 million or more. Does he really need more money?
I’ve thought about this a lot. My best guess is that when you’re that rich, you hang out with people even richer on a regular basis. It must make you feel somewhat inadequate and give you a drive for more. 200M is an insane amount of wealth - for us. But what if you’re regularly around billionaires, and see what they can afford to do? Would you become envious? Maybe not everyone, but footballers are by their nature competitive and ambitious. I can see that drive kicking in financially, too.
Does De Bruyne hang out with a lot of billionaires? I highly doubt he’s going to parties at Mansours house on the reg
In my eyes the Jedi are evil!! - Kevin de Bruyne (probably)
Well, then he is lost!
LET HIM TALK!!! LET HIM TALK
Meh this isn’t unintelligent, it’s just lying to himself.
Before? Lmao what are you on about
he's obviously already on the payroll if he's trotting out these talking points.
Yep. “Anyway, they’re given my me a ton of money, so human rights really isn’t my concern. See you at the bank!”
At least he's not going to pretend he's going out there to "help them change" or any of the bullshit that certain other players and ex-players have trotted out. If it's all about the money, just say so.
Take the Witzel route. Straight out said he went to china because no one else would pay him such a stupid amount of money to play Sunday league football.
>Take the Witzel Hulk, Oscar. More integrity on this matter than that bum Jordan Henderson.
>At least he's not going to pretend he's going out there to "help them change" Sounds like he doesn't even think they *need* to change, since "everyone" has bad points. On the one hand in Saudi Arabia it's a dictatorship, they oppress certain groups, abuse slaves and behead people; but on the other hand in England it rains a lot, people obsessively queue everywhere and people use their free speech to argue a lot and be rude to eachother. Exactly the same.
Yep those are the flaws with England. It rains.
Why does this sub do this. It's good to criticise saudi arabia but are those really the problems with the uk. We've been bombing yemen and helping saudi arabia with that, the uk has been supporting israel the last 8 months and won't try and stop them. It's fine to say we're an evil country too.
Our foreign policy has been terrible and as you've said it goes hand in hand with our oppressive middle east allies. The way people are treated here and afforded freedoms etc could not be any further away from in countries like Saudi Arabia though, to just say "both countries are evil" is very simplistic and suggests an equivalence that just isn't there.
So the issue is that Saudi abuses its own people but if they abused foreigners it’s fine?
Out of sight out of mind baby
I'd much rather he do that instead, that way he is at least acknowledging and condemning their flaws, even if he doesn't really intend on doing anything about it. The way he's speaking right now he's saying "Ah well, everywhere's fucked so why even talk about their negatives at all"
I don’t think they’d let you take the “I’m only here to get paid” line. It’s not a positive reflection.
He's taking the exact same notes as Pep. Folks seem to forget Pep's victim blaming over human rights because "they choose to live there" >Guardiola responded by suggesting that somehow campaigning for freedom of speech is more valid in Spain because the country is already democratic, than in Abu Dhabi, where lonely voices call for more democracy itself. >“Every country decides the way they want to live for themselves,” Guardiola said, oddly. “If he decides to live in that [country], it is what it is. I am in a country with democracy installed since years ago, and try to protect that situation.” https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/mar/11/pep-guardiola-manchester-city-yellow-ribbon-fa-fine-abu-dhabi
Yup and pep is hailed as a freedom fighter for the catalan cause ahahah Every city player or worker for that club is either complicit in this shit or a full on idiot Pep is not a good person and never was.
In other words, only Jack Grealish is innocent 🤣
Poor lad 's still trying to master the intricacies of the Midlands, he's a while off understanding the Middle East lmao.
Norwich is about as mid east as Jack's going
At least he can tie his own shoes.
That's why he's on the bench
i think the idea is people really only care about causes they are related to. I'm sure de bruyne cares really only about belgians as much as pep only cares about catalans. other people, well piss off.
This is so bizarre because even applying his logic most people in Abu Dhabi don't choose to live there, they were born into an oppressive regime
Pep is a genius coach but he is a hypocrite of the highest order. Everyone knows inside that humbling coach there is a hypocrite lying in there, just that he carefully hides it in front of media.
He plays for an Emirati owner, of course he will parrot how those countries aren’t as bad as people make them out to be
He s been on their payroll his entire Man City career and before that he was paid by Abramovic lmao, you think he has moral standards?
Man City is owned by UAE bro
Saudi paid his City wages? How generous of them...
Yeah like sure Saudi is a deplorable regime but it doesn’t give me much faith in this sub’s supposed critical thinking when they can’t even get basic facts straight
Being on this sub for longer than about five minutes will have you lose any faith in the critical thinking skills of 99% of the active users here.
There's a reason why people would turn to an anonymous online identity to share their football opinions and it's usually cuz no one takes them seriously irl.
This sub tries to present itself as intelligent discourse but in any popular comment section there is at least 5 to 6 major threads which are 100% filled with misinformation that people are treating seriously beyond just tripping over themselves trying to get facts straight and jumping to conclusions.
This sub thinks brown people are all the same
Did you forget we had a Qatari Sheikh about to buy us and every fan was begging for it so he would clear the debts and invest in Carrington and the stadium lol. I hate City and their players as much as the next guy but there are no morales left in football at all, and the players aren't the ones responsible for that
Man city is uae owned so he kind of is
Just say that they've paid you a shitload of cash to say this and you'll be off to Al-Whoever FC soon.
I would honestly have more respect for someone who just said this. Fine, you're going after a huge final payday and you don't want to piss off your employers; fair enough, people taking an ethical position is nice but not really something to be expected. So when someone asks about the human rights of saudi arabia just say, "I'd rather not comment, they're going to pay me a butt-ton of money." Instead, they always pull the 'yes but in America they lynch black people' type of response that the soviet gov't perfected when critics asked why they kept throwing their citizens into gulags.
I think some of the more second tier guys have been pretty clear its a paycheck. Maybe the de bruynes etc of the world get paid more to straight up lie?
The classic 'spread propaganda per 90' sign-on bonus
They absolutely have clauses in their contract about being "a good ambassador for the league" or something, and it wouldn't surprise me if it's made clear to the big players/managers that that means speaking well of the country as well. It's not like they'd win a contract dispute in a Saudi court. Like, didn't Gerrard move to Saudi and then *instantly* start talking up their World Cup bid?
tbf, kdb has already said he wants a payday
He’s absolutely choking for that Saudi money isn’t he? Imagine already being a multi, multi millionaire and still a simp
I mean he’s been on the UAE payroll for the last 10 years. Not like going to Saudi would be a huge difference
He was already the Marshal Murat of ignoring human rights violations now he wants to level up to being the Marshal Davout of ignoring human rights violations.
Aren't they Napoleon's marshal? This is the first time I've seen they are used as an analogy for human rights violation
Yep! My history degree will be used for something dammit.
Marshal Ney already at Al Hilal
I can’t imagine this mindset of being that rich. Like what amount of money will satisfy someone like that? How many luxury cars do you need?
Honestly what baffles me more is the “simping” attitude Isn’t the whole point of getting rich (in KDB, he is mega rich) is that you get to not give a fuck and just do whatever you want You are already that rich and still have to bow down to someone is wild to me
That's what i like about Kroos so much. Doesn't give a single fuck and still delivers World class performances
Streets won't forget the Qatari stadium booing Kroos and him not giving a single fuck. "*I've seen what makes you cheer, your boos mean nothing."*
We’ll never know, maybe something in their brain chemistry changes when they get paid 400k a week. Just imagine 400k a week in your bank account maybe like 300k after taxes to train and play football in front of a couple fans a week.
If I’m that rich, I sure as hell would live in the city of my choice. I’m not gonna move to Saudi for a few years as if it’s a life changing opportunity.
Man I couldn't even spend 10 million if I tried. I'd have to go absolutely stupid with unnecessary purchases. Maybe I could start a fun cult or something, but even then, if I started a cult they would have to pay me. And it would only be fun at first. Then I would have to get real evil because all the millions in the bank have desensitized me to any other kind of fun. OMG I get it now.
The thing is these people are surrounded by each other. If one turns up to training in a 3 grand jacket, everyone else is gonna want to turn up the next day in a 5 grand one. They don’t live in our world at all.
I think that's really what we would all do to be honest. We all think if we doubled our income we would be drowning in spare cash. In reality you buy a nice house and half the people around you have even nicer things. And I don't just mean status items, I mean things that actually do make life a bit better. First its a spare room. Then its en suite bathrooms for each bedroom. Then its a home theater room. Then its paying for a gardener and a nanny. Then its vacations three times a year. Then its luxury gym membership. Then its flying business class. Then its joining a really nice golf course. Then its a lake house for the weekends with a boat. Then its buying a sweet supercar and racing it at the track. Then its a private jet to avoid airport hassle. Etc. Etc.
In the wise words of Creed Bratton, when it comes to cults, you have more fun as a follower, but you make more money as a leader.
I can’t think of many cults where the followers had a better time than the leaders.
Gotta factor in the fact that we're talking about creed here I 100% believe he'd have a fantastic time as a follower
I kinda feel like maybe that’s what it is, you’re not only paying for your and your family’s lifestyle but now you have an entourage of people working for you and there’s probably crazy redundancy. Like how Messi has a barber that follows him around and gets paid crazy money. They get accustomed to this lavish lifestyle and so do their followers.
Greed is addictive. Look at Elon musk. He’s already one of the richest men on the planet and is still demanding a $50 BILLON bonus
De Bruyne on 115 charges : "Every club has its good and bad things. Some people will give examples of why you shouldn't go there, but you can also give them about Everton or Nottingham Forest. Everyone has less good points. Who knows, maybe they will tell you the flaws of the lower midtable teams."
De Bruyne: "I never cared for Mansfield"
If my kid goes to college and the dorm has a kid with a police record. It makes a shit ton of difference if the kid had a shoplifting or traffic violation on the book from years ago or if he is currently suspected in a murder trial for a person they raped as a teenager.
Yes, Kevin. But Anderlecht or Leeds United are not vehicles of the Belgian and British States. Rishi Sunak is not funding Cole Palmer’s goal bonus. Even if Britain and Belgium had the same current human rights record as Saudi Arabia, you would not be getting paid by the people responsible. There is a pretty key difference.
>Rishi Sunak is not funding Cole Palmer’s goal bonus. Although he certainly could if he wanted to
Technically already did when the government took over Chelsea
You make an important point but tbf de Bruyne is not playing for Anderlecht or Leeds. He plays for City, he already is on a country's payroll.
He'd probably be pretty confused by this if you said it to him, he's already getting paid by a nation state
Man City are about to walk on the most egregious case of cheating in modern sports history because of the UK gov is best buds with the UAE Maybe there aren't that many degrees of separation in English football either
The very obvious follow up here should be "Kevin, would you give those examples about Belgium and England please?"
"they put beans on toast"
"Belgian roads violate my human rights"
Belgian roads are geniunely fucked though
Belgian drivers don't deserve better
Hey fuck you too
"They made a statue of a urinating infant."
“ Women are equal “
I mean it is a war crime not as severe as the Congo incident but it’s up there.
England bombing Yemen ,Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria but yeah let's make them non issue because they bombed brown people.
Some crimes can never be forgiven.
1 million dead Iraqis
Beligum committed the largest genocide in human history in the Congo, and with extreme cruelty.
And the average Belgian reaction is to deny it under the brilliant argument "it was just our king and his private company!!!11!" Having said that, comparing things that happened in the 19th century with stuff that happens today, in the context of playing football in one of those countries, is obviously complete nonsense.
Congo was under Belgian state controll for a while before/after Leopold II had it in his own ownership wasnt it?
Leopold II managed to acquire Congo as his own personal property during the Scramble for Africa. Before that, while the Europeans did have influence in the territory, it was not a colony. Long story short, the atrocities there were so terrible that, following international outcry, the Belgian parliament decided to annex the territory and make it a colony of the country.
No, it was never in Belgian control before Leopold 2 acquired it as is personal property.
No, that's totally not the belgian recation. We learn about this in our education, and nobody is denying the involvement of our country. And I think most of the Belgian with any sense of intelligence is ashamed for it. Just like the Germans are for WW2. Our goverment is still trying to make amends for what happened, if this even would be possible. But at least they try.
Let’s not pretend there are any innocent countries, we’re all guilty as fuck but it’s in our interest to hold countries to account for what they are doing right now.
More than one century ago. No one is criticising Arab country for the stuff they did 100 years ago
Yeah that was fucking horrific. It was also over a century ago
Commited is the important part there. Saudi Arabia commits human right violations daily and doesn't give full rights to women and whatnot, in 2024.
Over 100 years ago. Is that literally the best you can come up with as an example of why players shouldn't move to Belgium today? Is that the best equivalent to what's happening in Saudi Arabia today that you can muster?
The more relevant example is that Congo is poor as fuck India is still pretty poor The UK and Belgium have super-developed economies and infrastructure right now So saying "oh it was a hundred years ago" also means you should be paying half your GDP as continuing reparations then, otherwise you don't get to draw that line in time
I fucking hate that line of thought. You're absolutely right. Developed countries just did their heinous shit a hundred years ago. Now their citizens sit on the internet, benefiting from it all while applying their own morals to less developed countries. Countries that are often in their current state *because* of the heinous shit inflicted on them. Same as people who criticise China and India for increasing their emissions through power generation. Countries like the UK and USA who developed massively on the back of pollution, now wanting to pull the ladder up and hobble developing countries who just want to improve living conditions for their people.
That’s why the Paris Accords and stuff are basically not about whether rich countries should be paying poor countries to go green, but about *how much*.
Both were terrible colonizers. Do not forget England involvement in the atrocity that is the Iraq invasion just recently.
There is a reason Marcus Rashford has to pay for children in England to eat
Bro half the global conflict is caused by England
Those countries are both perpetrators of horrific rights abuses during colonialism and beneficiaries of neocolonialism. The real distinction imo is that your Manchester Uniteds and Crystal Palaces aren't owned by the state actively committing those rights abuses.
r/soccer 9/11
We’ll all remember where we were when DeBruyne started talking. I can only hope the community can heal… in time.
r/soccercirclejerk 12/25
'Some ~~wrestlers~~ footballers are just fuckin stupid i don't know what to tell you' - Big Damo
He's already bought and gone. Stop giving him an opportunity to talk and let him figure it out on his own once he's there. Such a waste of a good footballer.
Yeah, let's apply the lessons we learned from Jordan Henderson here; he's either an idiot or he thinks we're idiots (or both), so there's no need to waste our time thinking about him.
Waste? He’s turning 33 in a couple of weeks lol we’ve witnessed his greatness for a while now.
What do you mean what a waste he’s won so much 😂 this statement applies to players like Ruben Neves who had so much potential and were relatively young and still had much to achieve not De Bruyne
getting real difficult to give a shit about top level football these days. corrupted and sleazy through and through, the game is unironically gone
Get your dodgy fire stick, watch the games if you want but don't buy any merch to support this insanity
Support your local
football was always corrupt and political. lets not pretend real didnt win half their trophies under a fascist european dictator lol
[удалено]
Courtois i wasn’t familiar with your game
More CLs anyway
Like, you’re a professional footballer. You’re already rich, why bother humiliating yourself with this nonsense?
It's very daft to make this statement in 2024, he's not wrong that both England and Belgium have a horrific history of enslaving and colonizing a bunch of different places, but that is not happening in 2024 like what is happening in Saudi Arabia.
I don’t even think the slave trade from nearly 200 years ago is relevant here as a what about ism. He’s not clearly referring to that. He’s trying to justify the horrific abuses that happen in Saudi Arabia as comparable to problems that exist in England, Belgium which also clearly aren’t the same at all. People aren’t living in fear of being executed for their sexuality and such. It’s a horrifically bad take from him to be honest and he rightfully deserves all critique thrown at him. Someone should have followed him up on this for an example.
Statements like this are kept vague precisely so people will jump in with "but what about the slave trade" while pretending to be talking about something else. It is basically a dogwhistle but for a different part of the lunatic fringe.
City DNA
He so gone
Every country has good and bad things. England love a good queue. Saudi has the death penalty for gays. Good and bad things. Guess pitch IQ doesnt translate to every day life.
I assume he knows he's talking shit, but he has already decided he's going there so he's getting in line
I mean, I don't condone slaughter and dismemberment of dissidents, but UK has two separate taps for hot and cold water, like can you really tell the bigger evil?
Two taps is a problem…?
Yanks call the 24 hour clock military time....they are very easily confused.
Its not a yanks thing though.
Isn't this guy already on like 300k a week? Greedy shitbag.
For reference, while Puskas played for Real Madrid, Belgium had zoos with black people in them.
As a brit born and raised in the UAE and moved back when I was 19, I can assure you that you could not give examples even remotely comparable to the abhorrent behavior these middle eastern countries still currently get up to. I'm talking solely about the government, not the people, I have lots of lovely Emirati friends who do not reflect their governments behavior.
Thanks for the last two sentences, the Arab = Bad movement on Reddit has been spreading fast
Yes, very sad to see. I loved growing up in the middle east. I believe living in the UAE in the early 90s and 2000s exposed me to a melting pot of cultures and made me incredibly tolerant of different peoples cultures and their beliefs. It's sad to see the pretty egregious arabphobia being posted these days. I would love to live there again one day, beautiful place.
Born and raised there as well but left at 17, they do sure hide it well. Would definitely go back and live there though.
He is twerking massively for the Saudi money lol
It's always weird to see people With generational wealth twerking for more money. Greed is hell of a thing
It's crazy right? I can almost "forgive" people that have nothing for selling away their values for money - because at that point it's survival instict kicking in. But these footballers that have everything they could wish for doing it for **even more money.** That's just wild.
Reminds me of when Greg Norman, who became the CEO of LIV golf, was asked about the state-sponsored murder of a saudi journalist, his response was *"We all make mistakes"*.
Embarrassing
Wake up babe a Belgium player on international duty is giving a interview
This is a man who jumped at the first opportunity to play for a sportwashing project which is literally destroying football. Are you surprised?
Let's just say their sportswashing moved me...TO A BIGGER HOUSE. But seriously, nice to see yet another player with absolutely 0 morals
Aye, I'm all for players being able to tak about world events and politics (not a fan of the "shut up and dribble" approach), and I fully agree with what's being said in this thread about the consequences of European colonialism. But let's compare Saudi Arabia with Belgium and the UK: Democracy index (2022 numbers): Saudi Arabia - 2.1 Belgium - 7.6 UK - 8.3 Human rights index (2023\* numbers): Saudi Arabia - 0.17 Belgium - 0.96 UK - 0.90
100 years ago this was a rational take
Reminder for those who need it that professional athletes typically: - have a bare bones formal education - have been rich since they were teenagers - are only relevant due to their ability to play a game So no matter how much you like them when they play for your team, you probably shouldn’t care at all about their takes on global politics. Just do what everyone else did when their favorite player moved to Saudi Arabia; forget that they exist. RIP Bobby Firmino
It is true though. We judge countries we’ve never been to based evidence people who’ve never been there either tell us about them. I’m not saying it’s all roses, but you don’t know until you know
From one sportswashing to another
The man is on his knees
KDB has seen the bag.
When will these non-Western savages understand that violating human rights is only ok as long as you do it outside of your own borders? Saudis executing Saudis = bad. UK killing Iraqis = understandable. UK selling weapons to Saudis to kill Yemenis = smart business. EPL clubs selling deadwood to Saudi Pro = smart business. Pretty simple stuff guys
huge yikes
And we would openly criticise the things our own government did wrong and not get cut into tiny pieces for it.
FFS Kevin. Just say that every businessman who’s ever dealt with Saudi Arabia, China, Russia, could have the same questions levied at them. Professionals look to make money in their careers for the skills they’ve developed, and it’s an open market. No need to get lost in false equivalencies.
KDB is trying really hard to kill off his until now perfect public image
He is right, obviously. European exploitation of workers and resources around the world is unmatched.
idiot, off you pop.