Manchester footballers were out in force to watch the Oklahoma City Thunder manage a narrow victory against the Philadelphia 76ers on their European preseason tour last week. United players Ferdinand, Darren Fletcher, David DeGea, and Adnan Januzaj could be spotted courtside along with their City counterparts Jack Rodwell and Patrick Viera. Yet another pertinent example of the globalization of sport, it appears that American leagues are looking to bolster their presence in England at the same time that the Barclays Premier League is taking the United States by storm. In case you missed it, the NFL already held one game at Wembley Stadium this year, with another to follow.
With the globalization of sport and the injection of big money into today's soccer clubs, enormous transfer fees and outrages wages are plenty reason for players to uproot and take their talents elsewhere. What the news outlets tend to overlook is that these players must then face very real world challenges when completing these moves (perfect fodder for a reality tv show if I do say so myself). Take for instance the issue of finding a home.
Just this summer the young, Welsh winger Gareth Bale moved from the North London side Tottenham to the Galacticos of Real Madrid for a world record transfer fee somehwere in the vicinity of $132 million. The Madrid faithful welcomed Bale with open arms, but the Welshman had other fish to fry, namely finding a brand new MTV Cribs-style mansion.
Here is where it gets interesting. Ultimately, Bale set his sights on former Real Madrid superstar Mesut Ozil's vacant house as the young German maestro was departing Madrid and on his way to North London to play for Tottenham's bitter rivals, Arsenal.
Ozil, who left Madrid amid uglier rhetoric, would ultimately get the last laugh as he is rumored to be moving into the house pictured below:
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the game is played.
