Nobby & Wayne

Another human-interest story brought to you by Gekko:

I just read that former England and Manchester United midfielder Nobby Stiles has sold some of his 1966 World Cup medals in order to help fund his retirement. Apparently, he had hoped to leave them to his sons but, obviously he needed the cash. The good news is that they were bought at auction by Man United, who paid up almost 200k pounds and will put them on display in the club museum.

I found this kind of touching at first, until I started to put this into perspective. Because only a week ago, I read another story in The Guardian involving another Manchester United and England player and a figure of around 200k pounds. A couple of differences: in that article, the player involved hasn't won a World Cup with England (indeed, he was an instrumental part of possibly the lamest England performance ever in this year's tournament). And the 200k was his new weekly salary.