Young Greek superstar Sotiris Ninis did not have long to celebrate his amazing, match winning goal against Israel last Friday for the Greek National Team, before he was hacked down in a cynical tackle rendering him out for 6 months with cruciate ligament damage.

The news soured the result for the national team as the coach and all stakeholders of Greek football were left contemplating a side without its x-factor player. Greece dropped two points against Latvia several days later, validating what many feared: that Greece and Ninis’ club side Panathinaikos, will suffer without the talents of this extremely gifted, creative midfielder.

Ninis now has 6 months of rehabilitation to try and get back on the ground. He will go through many tough moments, both physically and psychologically, in an attempt to get back to the same level as before the knee injury. It is vital he regains his ability to twist and turn and recapture the explosive pace which makes him such an elite young player, so much so, that he has turned the heads of clubs like Manchester United recently.

There is never a guarantee, even with modern medicine that this will be the case. Many of us through print media and football websites digest the tattslotto numbers of transfers and salaries bandied around, and look with envy at these professional footballers playing the game they love with all the trappings of success that money and fame can give you.

Many do not stop and realise that in this life everything you achieve comes at a price. The pressure and sacrifice required to become a professional footballer is immense and careers are a mere ten years in length- if they are lucky- where a footballer has a window to maximise their earnings. Professions such as law, medicine and accounting have 40 years of earning capacity and they do not have to worry about their most valuable asset, their brain, being damaged whilst at work by a crude tackle.

Football is a beautiful game, but it is also a ruthless business and for every successful career there are thousands struggling to make a living playing the game they love. Unlike in other areas of life where momentum, status and reputation can be traded upon, in football, what you did yesterday means very little going forward. If your performance drops for any significant period of time, your worth and value is reassessed very, quickly.There is nowhere to hide once you cross that white line. I for one do not begrudge the elite players earning the money they make. They are special elite talents and it is because of them we lose hours of sleep staying up at ungodly hours to watch them play on television.

Many say, “they only kick a ball around, how can they be earning millions?” This argument drives another philosophical debate, but if you believe in market driven forces, where if there is a market and it is prepared to pay then, these characters are worth every cent. One must ask, what did the best businessmen in the world make last year? I guarantee it would be more than what the best footballer made. Businessmen and investors understand the concept of ‘high risk offers high return.’

This must be understood when a young man is preparing to forge a career as a professional footballer, forsaking an education, He is, in fact, rolling the dice in a big way. Ask yourself how long it has been since we in Australia have had a top class, homegrown footballer break into the big leagues in Europe? You have to go back to the late 90s, when Harry Kewell and Mark Viduka broke into Leeds United in England.

It has been a long time, thousands of footballers have tried over the last ten years from Australia, but no one has succeeded at that level. Several have made respectable European careers, but no one has gone to anywhere remotely close to the top level. It is that hard to achieve. For many parents out there who are driving ‘little Johnny’ to be the next Ronaldo, have a measured understanding of the realities and the downside to football as well as the dizzying heights of the upside.

Spare a thought for Sotiris Ninis over the next 6 months battling to get his wrecked knee back into working order and understand every time Christian Ronaldo takes a defender on with his dazzling step-overs, he is risking a mistimed tackle, or a frustrated defender’s crude challenge, that could send him to the same operating theatre as Sotiris Ninis. Forgotten players like Norman Whiteside who at the world at his feet at 17, the youngest player ever to play in the World Cup, was retired at 26 years of age is a sharp reminder of how it can all go wrong very quickly for injured players. He had thirteen operations on one knee before he was told to retire or risk never walking again.

God bless the great players and the joy they bring to us. PS I would like to send a special get well to the famous Socrates of Brazil, former captain of the great 1982 and 1986 Brazilian national sides, who is in intensive care at the moment with internal bleeding. The football family wish the great former midfield wizard a speedy recovery.