大象传媒

Footballers have never been so well paid. Some earn more in a week these days than the prime minister will do in a year, and most earn well over a million pounds in a single season. Are they, as popular culture would have it, fools waiting to be parted from their money or unspeakable chavs, or is a new savvy breed of footballer emerging from the blizzards of cash circulating in the Premier League?

Footballers used to be in denial about retirement and the day that the cash faucet is turned off, but now, such is the scale of their earnings that they are denied even that indulgence. Finishing a career with capital rather than mere savings concentrates the mind on their afterlife. It seems some famous names are set to remain in the public eye and long after they hang up their boots.