The Captain Conundrum: Football, Sports, and the Weight of Responsibility
It’s a title held in such high regard that it can feel semi-monarchical. For some, being a football captain is an honour that gives them prominence and stature, but they should also be prepared to take responsibility for defeats or for the behaviour of their team-mates.
In English football, captaincy is a big deal, particularly with the national team. It would be unheard of for the team to be two weeks away from a World Cup and the identity of the captain still be unknown. At the time, no formal announcement had been made, but there was an expectation that veteran 38-year-old centre-back Tim Ream would wear the armband instead of the side’s most high-profile player Christian Pulisic (despite his Captain America nickname). That has now been confirmed.
“Anyone can wear the captain’s armband and take on that responsibility,” U.S. men’s national team midfielder Weston McKennie said on Tuesday. McKennie was talking about the ongoing topic of who will captain the team at this summer’s World Cup, and it reflects how the captaincy, like in other U.S. sports, isn’t as important or relevant as in European football.
At the end of the day, it’s still a whole team who has to go out there, and we are all family, like brothers,” McKennie added. “We love each other like family, it doesn’t matter who you put on armband on, everyone’s going to go out there and fight just the same.”
In English football, captains tend to keep the role for a few years, often bookended by major tournaments. David Beckham called it the “greatest honour” of his career to captain his country, while Wayne Rooney said the accolade was “beyond my wildest dreams“.
While in reality the England captain has few roles and responsibilities above what would be expected as a senior player in the squad, you’ll hear bombastic chat in the media of the captain “leading the country” into a major championship, while mature, young English players making their way in the game may be marked out as a “future England captain”.
It’s a title held in such high regard that it can feel semi-monarchical. Being a football captain is an honour that gives that player prominence and stature, but they should also be prepared to take responsibility for defeats or for the behaviour of their team-mates.
Former England head coach Steve McClaren once listed the attributes he thought an international captain needed as leadership, authority, courage, ability, tactical awareness and a total refusal to accept second-best. He made those comments when naming Chelsea defender John Terry as his skipper and added: “I’m convinced he will prove to be one of the best captains England has ever had.”
Hmm. Up there with McClaren’s prediction that England were looking good against Iceland at Euro 2016.
Terry was sacked as England captain not once, but twice, and neither had anything to do with his football ability. In 2010, following allegations of an affair with England and Chelsea team-mate Wayne Bridge’s ex-girlfriend Vanessa Perroncel, manager Fabio Capello stood Terry down. The shame and scandal was too much to bear for the figurehead of the national team (Perroncel and Terry both denied the affair had taken place).
Then, in 2012, with Terry reinstated, the FA stripped him of the captaincy without Capello’s approval after allegations of racist abuse against Anton Ferdinand (again, denied by Terry). Capello resigned in protest.
Yep, it’s a big deal.
In Italy, captains tend to be picked on seniority more than anything else. Between 2002 and 2022, they had just three; Fabio Cannavaro, who took the armband aged 29, was succeeded by Gianluigi Buffon at 32, and then Giorgio Chiellini at 34.
England had seven captains in the same time period. But the role can become a bit of a soap opera (Beckham cried when he gave it up and later said it took him six weeks to get over the press conference).
Alan Shearer was made captain aged 25, instead of the team’s senior defender (and Arsenal captain) Tony Adams, who was 29 at the time.
“Like all great players, he commands instant respect, just as Maradona, Platini and Cruyff did,” manager Glenn Hoddle said when appointing Shearer. “He is the first player an opponent talks about.”
Shearer was picked not just for being a great player, but also for the manner in which he led by example. That’s one genre of captain. Another would be the tough-tackling, up-and-at-them rabble rouser to inspire the team into a football skirmish, which is less relevant in this era of hair-pulling being deemed violent conduct, but in the 1990s and 2000s, it was often the way.
It can carry a lot of emotional heft. Being a football captain is an honour that gives that player prominence and stature, but they should also be prepared to take responsibility for defeats or for the behaviour of their team-mates.
“You need to be thick-skinned to be captain,” Steven Gerrard, who captained Liverpool and England, once said. “Before you accept the responsibility of being captain for Liverpool Football Club, you’ve got to tell yourself that there will be good days and bad days.
“On good days, you’ll feel on top of the world. On bad days you’ll feel sad and lonely. If you can’t handle the low days, when the s*** hits the fan and everyone’s out to get you, don’t take the job.
“Every single day, even when I wasn’t playing badly, I felt that pressure. But I loved it, even on bad days. When we’d had a bad game or if I’d played badly, I used to tell myself, ‘I’m the captain. I need to put this right’.”
Captains can also be the best person at organising and strategising on the field. Granit Xhaka is “absolutely” Sunderland’s on-pitch manager, Regis Le Bris (Sunderland’s actual manager) said recently. “Because he can feel the momentum of the game and he can react in real time.”
Someone like former England international Conor Coady would epitomise the modern football captain in that, at least when he was at Wolverhampton Wanderers, his role involved lots of shouting, organising and positive reinforcements. Empty stadiums during the pandemic gave a unique opportunity to analyse his role.
Sometimes players just have to be captain because their standing in the team is too great for them not to be. Imagine having to boss Cristiano Ronaldo around in the Portugal team? Or trying to fine Lionel Messi for being a minute late to training?
The fines system is a traditional part of club captaincy, certainly in England, with captains expected to oversee punishments for lateness and other infractions, as well as organise social events, speak to the media, do the pre-match coin toss, have more leeway to speak to referees during matches and generally set standards around the club.
An example of bad captaincy, then, would be missing your club’s most important league match for years in order to head back home to Argentina for the weekend. Tottenham Hotspur skipper Cristian Romero saw sense eventually.
They will also be an intermediary between the dressing room and the manager. A famous past example, which is back in the zeitgeist owing to a new Netflix documentary, would be Patrice Evra being the constant conduit between a striking squad and manager Raymond Domenech at the 2010 World Cup. Evra spoke up on the team’s behalf and was the face of the revolt, which arose when team-mate Nicolas Anelka was sent home from the tournament for allegedly criticising the manager. It cost Evra the captaincy.
“I was proud to wear the captain’s armband, I took my role very seriously, I took it to heart,” Evra, who never captained France again, said on The Bus: A French Football Mutiny.
Captaincy can also be the making of a player. Bruno Fernandes was clearly outstandingly talented before he took the Manchester United armband in 2023, but there is no doubt he has matured in the past three years, cutting down on his histrionics and play-acting. The responsibility suits him.
“As the captain, I feel that more than anyone, and it is not a responsibility that I take for granted,” he said in 2024 of United’s struggles.
Captaincy can go even further in other team sports. Rugby is similar to football in that a captain leads the team, figuratively and emotionally, but they have the added responsibility of being the only person who can speak to referees during matches.
Cricket captains are probably the most important in all prominent team sports, because they make dozens or hundreds of real-time, on-field decisions during matches, such as who should bowl and how their fielders should be positioned, as well as whether to appeal against umpire decisions. Ice hockey, volleyball and water polo are other sports where captains feature prominently.
And of course, in all of the above sports, if the team wins, the captain gets to lift the trophy. Surely that alone makes it worth it.
Written by: Swing Smilemore | The Citizen Edition
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