Look here, a striker in Djurgården has a vabbat!
I found something as rare as hippos in the pine forest.
Look here, meet a player on the Swedish men’s team.
He has stayed home from training to take care of his sick child.
“In general, don’t run. I’d heard it from the boys. Everyone thinks it’s a trick to avoid training. Nobody on the men’s team is gossiping, definitely not.”
the words Alexander Walstasa Häcken midfield evangelist and father of two, taken from an interview in Sportbladet’s Allsvenskan Bible.
He talks about staying home from work to take care of his child, as he applies for 80 percent of the salary from the Swedish Social Insurance Agency, something that every single parent of young children knows. In addition to elite athletes.
Valsetta’s partner works at night but still has to take care of the mucus and vomit children in the morning. If she can’t stand it, her grandparents are close to her.
Nella: It’s too slow!
Out of context, the 34-year-old’s logic seems old-fashioned – sharpen and dry! But I read the text as a description of what the situation is and not how it should be. Today, there is no place in the football draft to stay at home and watch Incanto with a sleepy child in his arms.
However, BK Häcken is a progressive club with the best teams in both the women’s and men’s team. They have a coach, Robert Villahamn, who describes it as taking care of sick children “not a problem”, because of course the players have to be able to bob.
In three years?
Then Alexander Valstas believed that more football professionals would stay home and shower their foreheads. And by the way, he himself touched the vab, when he came home from a training camp when the younger child was born and his older brother fell ill.
But evolution is very slow, says Nella Fischer of Linköping. As a mother, she sees it as her duty to help around the house, regardless of whether or not exercise gets in the way. The same is true for parents.
Neither outrageous nor strange
– I’ve been questioned about my vab before, but it’s my right as a parent and I mean if the child is sick, the child is ill. Why does all the responsibility fall on the partner’s shoulders? I don’t know how dangerous these glitches are but its really bad. She said in an interview this weekend: Take your vab if you want a vab.
My opinion hardly makes much of an impact on the question, but after discussing it with some footballers and thinking for a few days, I got here:
1. It is neither strange nor disgraceful that so few Allsvenskan players sway.
Officially, this is rarely possible, as footballers do not receive a salary deduction for missed training and therefore are not entitled to temporary parental allowances. But even if we interpret the word in a broader sense, that is, to give up the work of bringing up our offspring, it is difficult to ask.
Elite sports are a type of experience where you can thumb through everything else to achieve the highest possible results. You live as cheaply and out of whack with the rest of society during your active years and it certainly isn’t easy, but that’s exactly how it works.
It doesn’t make sense, for example, that Eric Lindell or Eileen Robinson would give up every other match to also let their friends have some fun on the weekend. They can’t skip the training camps for family time in Kolmården. Exercises may be placed in the same emergency situation.
Every morning you delve into some detail in your game, you grow tactically or physically and try to convince the coach that you deserve to be in the first 11, which determines your long-term future contract. It’s relentless but real. So go there as long as your body and mind can. The screen is locked. Give everything you have.
“No anger but…”
So who is going to take care of ground service during those hours? Shrek, I’m scared. Or relatives or a babysitter or someone from the club.
On the other hand, Allsvenskan parents are usually available from 1 pm every day of the week, so they can pick up and drop off at the preschool. I hope they do. But also asking them to skip training during the active years is a big wish.
2. It would be great if someone still dared.
Even though systems and traditions go against that, even if you can’t ask for it, surely it would be nice for someone to go against the tide? But how do you find such a bold type?
I call and fiddle until the battery runs out soon. Club leaders, loyal servants, retired harpsichordists, and football correspondents. Stefan Andersson, Mats Enquist, Henrik Bergren and Henrik Rydström. There will be some nja and no. Some hm maybe.
I finally got a name for a former striker in Djurgården, so I hope to get in touch with him.
Hi Amadou Zhao, did you miss it?
Yes, when the wife was away from work for a week and I could not find a babysitter. The son was rarely ill, but I had a fever one morning and could not find a babysitter, so I missed training.
What did the team members say?
– It was mostly “Huh, that’s not how you do it!?”. There was no anger, but it was noticed to be strange.
And coaches?
– That’s what it was. I couldn’t walk and had no one else to take care of. He can’t come in with a fever and check on training and the nursery is closed. When I said that, I understood.
Old men are in the vanguard
Are the Swedish soccer elite ready for more vab?
– no. Honestly, I still think the vab is seen as a strange thing. Nobody thinks it’s obvious that you should stay home. Everyone needs constant training, so there is no point in saying no to training. not yet.
In 2016, Jawo missed training, when his career was coming to an end. He had nearly three years left on his contract, but the goal had come to a complete halt and no longer loomed large, not even in a hundred percent presence.
So maybe he had a role in his age and stature. Just as with Fisher, who is no longer training to evolve but to maintain level. Anyway, I didn’t find a 25-year-old who called the coach and said that unfortunately little Otis has snot, but we’ll see each other on Friday.
But be that as it may, older people may lead the way for change. In the long run, clubs may need at least a plan for unexpected fevers and business travel partners.
I never think a professional footballer would give up an entire week of training because the cold is at home. But we should be able to go a few steps further.
In three years?
How about letting you be at home in an emergency, but driving for an extra session in the evening? That you still not lose your place in the next match? And that you can not hear it from men?