Christian Eriksen’s decision to continue, Davy Propper’s decision to retire guided by love and courage

It’s the adjacent location that helps you. Davy Propper and Christian Eriksen made their professional debut the same day, and on Tuesday – 4,370 days later – they made radically different choices when faced with a quasi-existent question: How do I feel about football?

A person in love. The rest are not.

Christian Eriksen hasn’t kicked a ball in the game since that day last June when he fell on the field transparent Denmarkgame of with Finland at Euro 2020 and, in his own words, “died in five minutes” after a cardiac arrest. The quick intervention of doctors saved his life and he was fitted with an implantable defibrillator (ICD). The device allows him to lead a moderately normal life, but it means he will live the rest of his days in the shadow of risk, especially in situations of physical stress and mental – such as professional football.

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And yet, Eriksen wants to return.

“My goal is to play in the World Cup in Qatar,” Eriksen told Danish television. “I want to play. That’s been my mindset so far… I’m sure I can, because I don’t feel any different. Physically, I’m back to good form. Best.”

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If he did, it wouldn’t be at Inter Milan, the club he joined two years ago and helped win Serie A last season. Regulations in Italy do not allow persons equipped with an ICD to play competitive sports; on December 17th, Inter terminates contract. The risks are considered too great. He will have to do it elsewhere.

And then there’s Propper, PSV Eindhoven midfielder. He announced on Tuesday that he will retire at 30 and near the end of the last 18 months of his contract, leaving several million pounds behind. He said he was “gradually losing his love for the game” and no longer “feels comfortable in the world of football.”

“I don’t want to be a part of it anymore,” he said.

The similarities between Propper and Eriksen are profound, and not just because they are the same age and play in the same position.

Both men come from footballing families. Propper’s brothers, Robin and Mike, play for FC Twente in the Dutch top flight and Huissen in fifth. Eriksen’s father, Thomas, is a former football coach, his cousins ​​Andreas and Mathias are also footballers.

Both grew up immersed in the sport; both made it their careers. Both are natural talents, both trained as a footballer in the Netherlands, and both made their professional debut on 17 January 2010. Propper came on for Vitesse Arnhem in lost 1-2 first NEC Nijmegen, while Eriksen started Ajax in a 1-1 draw against NAC Breda. (NEC and NAC… You can’t make it up.)

They faced each other in the Dutch league, and then faced each other in the Premier League – Eriksen moved to Tottenham in 2013, Propper to Brighton in 2017 – and both play for their respective countries, with Eriksen having the 109 caps for Denmark and Propper 19 for Oranje. And here they are, announcing their diametrically opposite picks on the same day.

Propper said his frustration with the game was gradual: “It’s been hard for me to adhere to the discipline needed to perform at my best and my life is dominated by a packed football schedule. .” When the coronavirus pandemic hit, it was the final blow. He tried to rekindle his love affair at PSV, returning there last summer as a free agent, but to no avail.

Meanwhile, Eriksen returned to Milan, where he settled after the Euros and worked to cancel his contract with Inter. He can’t play; no points. He went through the paperwork and bureaucracy and went through more checks. And then, most days, he drove half an hour across the border to Switzerland and the Swiss town of Chiasso to train with the local team, who played in the third division. This month he will be looking for another club. His agent, Martin Schoots, says that returning to the Premier League – where player safety rules will allow him to play – will “absolutely feel like coming home.”

Professional soccer players dedicate their lives to the sport, initially (like the rest of us) for love at a young age – sometimes for money, a sense of responsibility or ability compete. At the highest level, when their careers end, often in their 30s, they are often parents and millionaires. They return to society knowing that they have lived a dream for the past 20, sometimes 25 years. Real life – as most of us know – stagnated in the early teen years. When they replay it, it sometimes feels like they’ve come out of the frozen animation. They entered a world where their peers had grown up. (Perhaps that’s why so many people stick with the game for as long as possible, trying to reinvent themselves as coaches or experts.)

Eriksen and Propper are making very different choices, and both have saved them from any financial hurdles. Eriksen has made tens of millions in his career, and although Propper earns significantly less, he also knows he can live more comfortably the rest of his life without working a day more. is different.

But there are two factors that unite them. One is love. In Eriksen’s case, it was love of the game and trying as hard as possible to get away from it for as long as possible. In Propper’s case, it’s the love for himself and his family, and the self-care needed to realize that every moment you’re doing something you don’t like is a moment you’re not. deny yourself and your loved ones. Most of us don’t have those luxuries, because we need wages. He does.

What remains, of course, is courage. Both are taking a leap into the unknown. Eriksen is literally putting himself in jeopardy, and he knows how quickly and unexpectedly health can be taken away. He also knows that during the moments of extreme stress that accompanies competitive sports — when your heart is pounding, when adrenaline is pumping, when you’re ready to push your limits — he can struggle. confused with knowledge of something. happened at Parken Stadium last summer.

Propper is also giving up material interests, trading the only life he’s known for the past decade for something else, an “investment in family and friends,” hoping it will bring fulfillment. as perfect as football ever brought.

We all seek meaning in our lives, and most of us find it somewhere: in friends, family, religion, personal passions, careers. Except being a professional soccer player defines you more than most careers. It resembles life in the military, clergy or law enforcement, but unlike the others, it is not a life of lifelong pursuit. It ends less than half way before your time on Earth is (theoretically) over, which is why deciding when and how it ends is a personal choice and full of drama.

Love and courage guided both of these men in their decisions, even though their journeys ended in very different places.