Offside SoundOff: Which Player Would You Like to Spend a Day with, and What Would You Do?

By: Laurie | August 2nd, 2009

Our SoundOff question for the day:

Which player (or former player) would you like to spend a day with, and what would you spend your time doing?

This one was actually Chris’s idea, and his answer surprised me. I expected a current or former Roma player, probably Daniele de Rossi or Frencesco Totti. Wrong. He picked Eric Cantona.

Direct Skype quote:

He’s at least creative, so that’s something.
Anyway, I gather he and I would get along splendidly as long as I could keep my hatred for all things ManU tucked tidily into my jacket pocket.

I thought this was a good question, but I had a hard time coming up with anybody. My list was generally divided into a) players who would intimidate the hell outta me in real life, leaving me stupid and tongue-tied and b) players who would probably bore me to tears, leaving me disillusioned.

But in the end, I came up with two.

1) David James of Portsmouth. Based almost entirely on his column for The Observer, he comes across as intelligent and funny and well-informed. The most thought-provoking for me: Will a gay footballer ever come out of the comfort zone? (Although I’m not sure meeting him would be a good idea. If I were to discover he uses a ghost-writer and speaks in monosyllables, I would be so disappointed I’d be tempted to kill him with my own hands.)

2) Santino Quaranta of DC United. I don’t think there’s any player playing today that I respect more than Santino. He had everything handed to him as a Generation Adidas player, and before Freddie Adu he was the youngest professional ever in MLS. He threw it all away with addictions, then battled back, committed himself to his play and his wife and two kids, and at 24 received another callup to the USMNT. I think I’d just like to see what makes him tick and tell him what a role model he is for younger players.

Honorable mention: Franck Ribery, because he’s funny as hell.

How about you? Who would you like to spend a day with, and what would you spend it doing?