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Footballer’s Wives

Aulelia

WAG (Wife and Girlfriends) has officially entered the English language. All those manicured and makeup-slathered girls who cheer on their footballing boyfriends have made such an impact that they even scored their own reality TV show, book deals, and not to mention the generous allowances their significant others give them. Should we even care about girls like this and is it fair to look down on them?

I think many footballer’s wives are a sign of how modern Britain and even general Western society “rewards” women for being trophies and looking pretty. It is made to look like a glossy life being dubbed an “icon” and how you got there was solely by riding on the back of someone else. But what exactly will happen if the man dumps you? Will people still care if you are David Beckham’s ex ? Most likely not. Victoria Beckham is not as thick as she seems and I definitely do not think she will ever leave DB despite his extra-marital affairs as she knows that she is only famous to the extent she is now through her association of him. It just seems like a segment of women are backtracking by again allowing themselves to be defined through what their boyfriends do.

It may be that a young girl just fell in love with someone that HAPPENED to be a footballer or an athelete. Yet with footballers in the English Preliership league earning an average of £676,000annually ($1,347,413), is the allure of this lifestyle an incentive for some girls who just want to be with footballers?

I would like to know if it is the same over the pond in the US because in Europe and especially Britain, the ardent love for football means that certain women want to live in that world as they know that the money will always flow. Definitely not all women in Britain no doubt but I am seeing this alarming trend whenever I go back to Britain of girls dressing up to “find” men who are footballers in the sole aim of being their steady bird.

28 thoughts on Footballer’s Wives

  1. Should create a thread about Danica Patrick smacking that other driver around after the Big Race. Hehe…

  2. Football (aka soccer, for those folks who didn’t know that) isn’t nearly as huge here as in England. But yes, we have similar phenomena around professional athletes.

  3. Well, I don’t think it’s fair to class Posh as being just another WAG, she is a celebrity in her own right, both as an ex-spice girl and a fashion icon.

    I’m in Canada, but I’ve lived in Britain, and our legendary love of hockey doesn’t even being to approach the British obsession with football. I can’t say I really see anything in the news or entertainment news about hockey players’ wives and girlfriends.

    One of the really disgusting things I noticed when I lived there was the media’s prurient obsession with the lives of the WAG, and how every incident of so-and-so’s wife drinking or girlfriend clubbing was plastered all over the tabloids. While British celebrity culture is something I can’t pretend to understand having only lived there a year, it seems like these women are molded into what they become by media pressure/constant observation that seems to come from being female and having done even the slightest thing of note there.

  4. There really isn’t (as far as I know) a culture in America galmorizing the wives and girlfriends of pro athletes; generally, they’re only notable when they are themselves celebrities (I’m forgetting exactly here; didn’t Derek Jeter date Mariah Carey and Pedro Martinez Mia Hamm? Valeri Bure married Candance Cameron – DJ Tanner – but due to the nature of hockey in America, I think she’s significantly more famous than he is) or particularly media-savvy (Anna Benson).

    For most of America’s biggest sports celebrities, their wives are anonymous and interchangeable (doesn’t sound a lot better) until something dramatic happens – who’s married to Peyton Manning, Jaromir Jagr, Shaq, or Barry Bonds? I have no clue.

    What’s the cause? A British love of tabloids? Maybe.

    I have a hunch – without too much evidence – that there’s a tinge of racism in the American edition. Most major pro athletes are black, as are their wives. And the United States media isn’t exactly known for crawling over itself to portray black women as glamorous.

  5. she knows that she is only famous to the extent she is now through her association of him

    If being famous is your goal, I guess that’s one way to get it. She could always leave him, use her degree or get one if she doesn’t already have one, and live like the rest of us schlubs.

    is the allure of this lifestyle an incentive for some girls who just want to be with footballers?

    Maybe. But just because the guy is rich and famous doesn’t mean the girl doesn’t love him and genuinely want to be with him. (I mean, eventually.) Likewise, just because the girl is hot and young doesn’t mean the guy doesn’t have genuine affection for her.

    There really isn’t (as far as I know) a culture in America glamorizing the wives and girlfriends of pro athletes;

    I agree with this, but there is definitely pressure on the wives to be nothing more than wives and to support their husbands even through infidelity and rape accusations rather than calling them out on their behavior and kicking them to the curb. The gloss may be different, but the underlying message is the same: famous athletes deserve a certain type of wife, and if you are the wife, you will play the role or have nothing.

  6. Mikey S, I think that’s a good point about race being a factor. I’m not much of a follower of the tabloid stories about off-the-field romance and whatnot, but I don’t recall there being any WAG stories running for any length of time about non-white sportsmen’s WAGs. Off the top of my head, there’s Rooney and Beckham in soccer, Kevin Pietersen and several of the whiteys in the England cricket squad – I don’t know that there’s any coverage of, for example, Ashley Cole’s current beau or that of any other sporting POC in English sport.

    I think the whole phenomenon started in earnest when Victoria and David first hooked up – Victoria was famous already as “Posh Spice” from the Spice Girls (*shudder*) so the idea of her hooking up with the famous footballer David Beckham was as juicy as it got for the tabloid celebrity-followers. Since then, of course, a famous young man going out and pulling his first (steady) girlfriend has become big news in itself (as people seem expected to follow their celebrities going through the same rites of passage as they did), for example, Wayne Rooney’s WAG, and the issues now surrounding princes William and Harry. It is almost as though celebrities have taken the place of the heroes of old legends.

  7. Mia Hamm, publicity-shy herself, is married to Nomar Garciaparra. They just started a family.

  8. I don’t know that there’s any coverage of, for example, Ashley Cole’s current beau or that of any other sporting POC in English sport.

    Well, there was masses of coverage of Ashley Cole’s relationship with Cheryl Tweedy from the pop-group Girls Aloud, but then – like Victoria Beckham – she is also famous in her own right.

  9. The British gutter press like to publish stories about sports and about attractive women, in lieu of actual news stories. The wives of footballers provide the ideal conjunction of sports, celebrity and ogling material.
    It probably all started with Victoria Beckham, as she was famous before she got married to a footballer. The press presumably reasoned that if stories about the Beckhams sold, they could probably get lots of material out of other wives and girlfriends of footballers as well.

  10. My aunt used to be married to a Ukrainian footballer. They weren’t getting paid as much as now, because this was when the USSR was still around – but they definitely lived better than the rest.

    He adored her, and, even after she left him, he continued to be a family friend and bring me packaged sweets from abroad.

    I’ve a soft spot for footballers, what can I say?

    The British tabloid culture is just out of control, though. And the combination of pretty girl + superstar athlete is purrrfect if you want to sell papers.

    I notice there’s a lot of dirt heaped on these women too. Which is understandable, beacause stories have to be on the seamy side to captivate people.

  11. The British gutter press like to publish stories about sports and about attractive women, in lieu of actual news stories

    But that’s completely true about the American press, also. We just don’t seem to follow pro athletes’ wives to the same degree. I don’t know enough about English football to say, but is it possible also that American sports celebrities just aren’t big enough to pull it off? Never mind that NFL players wear helmets, meaning people only really recognize the faces of a few who do commercials (Peyton Manning).

    And Snowdrop – it’s that the “WAGS” are POC more than the athletes that probably trips it off most of the time. Although – a prominent black athlete with a white wife might also scare the networks away from coverage on some racist level.

  12. I don’t know, SnowdropExplodes – Cheryl Cole is probably one of the highest profile WAGs in the UK at the moment, but she is famous in her own right as a singer (in Girls Aloud, pop fans!)
    It feels like a class thing – footballers have typically been idolised for their embodiment of the ‘working class boy made good’ fairy tale (and the subsequent ‘success goes to his head’ storyline, hence the British media’s glee at infidelities, addictions or other falls from grace). The WAG fascination seems to fit a similar mould – the ‘ordinary’ girl ‘making it’ as a celebrity (and perhaps that’s where the emulation thing comes from – these really are normal people and if you wear the right clothes and go to the right bars, you could be like them!). Of course, while their men enjoy being praised for their hard work and skills, the WAG’s success is measured in relation to the man she’s with – a typically misogynist fairy tale ending..

  13. There really isn’t (as far as I know) a culture in America galmorizing the wives and girlfriends of pro athletes; generally, they’re only notable when they are themselves celebrities

    I have a hunch – without too much evidence – that there’s a tinge of racism in the American edition.

    And not just racism. Remember when Mike Tyson married Robin Givens? I remember reading several opinion articles in “news” magazines accusing her of first, being a gold-digger (despite already having her own career) and then of lying about his abuse. A beautiful, young, successful black woman couldn’t get by on her own? I have to wonder how those people feel in hindsight. Like assholes, hopefully.

    I agree, though, that sports wives in North America do not have the same mythology around them — and are expected to just shut up and be supportive. Which isn’t much better, but at least they have more privacy.

  14. English, not British, English. The WAG thing really doesn’t happen in Scotland, Wales or N.I.

  16. What about that quarterback for that patriots–wasn’t his love life all over the papers recently? And when that actress dated that basketball player a few years back (carmen something and dennis rodman, I think), same. heh. I don’t follow sports or celeb news much as you can probably tell.

  18. Tom Brady – he was famously dating a pair of supermodels. But again, they were famous before, and they’ll be famous after.

  19. What about that quarterback for that patriots–wasn’t his love life all over the papers recently?

    Yes, but that was an irresistible scandal: his ex-girlfriend got pregnant and decided to keep the baby. That would have blown up no matter what he was famous for — in fact, Eddie Murphy has a similar situation with Scary Spice (sorry, I’m not up on the Spice Girls’ real names).

    And when that actress dated that basketball player a few years back (carmen something and dennis rodman, I think), same. heh. I don’t follow sports or celeb news much as you can probably tell.

    There are celebrity couples that involve athletes: Dennis Rodman and Carmen Electra, Jason Sehorn and Angie Harmon, Derek Jeter and Halle Berry. But that’s generally because the woman involved is already at least somewhat famous, and is often MORE famous than the man. You never hear about an athlete’s WAG who isn’t an actress or a musician or whatever in her own right.

  20. You never hear about an athlete’s WAG who isn’t an actress or a musician or whatever in her own right.

    True. Other than Kris Benson, who wanted so much to be famous, and wound up just being embarrassing. She gained a lot of infamy for her right-wing opinions.

    This week, A-Rod (married) got mocked by fans wearing Betty masks because he has been spotted with a blonde in five different cities while on the road.

  21. You don’t get the obsession over athlete’s love lives here in the US the way you do in Britain. Unless the athlete is sleeping around on his wife, beating up his wife, or getting beat up by his wife, most athlete’s wives are not really considered “fair game” by the tabloid press.

    I suspect that it’s because we have so many more famous people here in the US that the tabloids don’t need to manufacture any more than we already have. Britain has its royal family, but there are so few of them and they aren’t always the “beautiful people” who sell newspapers. Plus while the royals do have their share of scandals around them, they can’t be counted on to do something outrageous every week.

    Britain also has its share of actors, but British actors seem to be able to handle their tabloids far better than American actors seem capable of. So while there ALWAYS seems to be a good-looking American star who is in trouble for one thing or another at a given time whose story can be used to sell papers, I suspect that in Britain they have to go looking for good-looking women in trouble to sell tabloids. And if footballers have attractive wives who can be used to sell papers, and if these footballers and their wives have outrageous personalities (as folks who are highly competative tend to), the papers can definitely use that to sell themselves. And once you let that genie out of the bottle it becomes self-sustaining — ALL footballer couples become fair game for all of the tabloids once they’ve reported on one of them.

  22. “It may be that a young girl just fell in love with someone that HAPPENED to be a footballer or an athelete. Yet with footballers in the English Preliership league earning an average of £676,000annually ($1,347,413), is the allure of this lifestyle an incentive for some girls who just want to be with footballers?”

    To be honest, I’m a little offended by the question. It sort of insinuates the old all-women-really-want-is-money stereotype. But it does have some validity. A lot of girls unfortunately are still brought up to believe that “marrying well” (read, marrying a rich guy) and receiving accolades for their appearance are their best ultimate goals in life. These attitudes can be ingrained so deeply that desiring a guy who can deliver on them can seem like real love, because it’s what she’s always wanted since she was a little girl. I’m sure practically all – if not truly all – of these women feel they truly love their husbands, even if in some cases the basis for that love is based on some fairy tale indoctrination that isn’t honestly and critically examined by either party.

  24. Jules, true. Although aren’t these newspapers syndicated and well-read outside of England? Just wondering..

    Yes, they are, and we (I’m speaking for Scotland here) have our own crappy newspapers too which are also full of English WAGs. I’m not saying we don’t read about them, just that we don’t do that with our own.

    Sorry. 🙂 I get grumpy about exclusively English things being refered to as British.

  25. i agree with the commenter who noted that footballers are popular because of the whole “working class guy done good” belief. rugby is seen as the sport for the posh and football is the one for everyone else. the WAG phenomenon is definitely all about class but i think class in England is so complex that the WAGS fit right in the middle of it. i know many girls who want to get with footballers because of the exclusivity that it bring them. it is saddening but true for certain types of girls in England. i did not mean any offence with the question but it is just how i feel when i see how english society is.

  26. To be honest, I’m a little offended by the question. It sort of insinuates the old all-women-really-want-is-money stereotype. But it does have some validity. A lot of girls unfortunately are still brought up to believe that “marrying well” (read, marrying a rich guy) and receiving accolades for their appearance are their best ultimate goals in life.

    Whilst, yes, that would be an offensive insinuation, sadly, as you point out it is a valid point. Last year on British Big Brother we had a contestant, Nikki, who said that what she wanted to ‘be’ was a footballer’s wife, as if it is some sort of career aspiration. Whilst there have been relationships where the two have been going out before the footballer became famous (Wayne Rooney and Coleen, Theo Walcott and his girlfriend-name?) it does seem in some senses by an almost predatory thing by some women to seek out footballers. For example in bars and clubs in London, Manchester, Liverpool and there are also boutiques designed to be frequented by WAGS (Cricket in Liverpool) and thus also appeal to those trying to attract a footballer.

    During the last year’s world cup, the coverage surrounding the WAGS was frankly, very depressing. At least with Coleen and Theo Walcott’s girlfriend (to name only two i can think of) do things for themselves since their relationship became famous; ie Coleen modelling and having a column, Theo Walcott’s gf going to school/university. The other side seems to think they have to become rich (not necessarily famous) at any cost. I’m not doubting they love their husbands, but there is a certain amount of cynicism one must have.

    On a side note to htotheb’s comment, I agree in some cases it is how some women are brought up. See Coleen being cheated on by Wayne Rooney with a middle aged prostitute and being slapped by him in a club. Both times (apparently, this IS being reported by a tabloid so validity?) she was told by her own mother to go back to him. At least she is making money in her own right now in case she does decide to leave him!

  27. being cheated on by Wayne Rooney with a middle aged prostitute

    What does the prostitute being middle aged have to do with it? Wouldn’t “prostitute” have been enough? But maybe it is telling in the context of young trophy wives.

    On the other hand, I don’t know anything about these people (except of course about the ubiquitous Beckhams), but there was a paragraph in The Guardian that made my eyes pop out in horror:

    “Jenny Eclair opined in the Daily Mail, ‘that she’s got one of those classic working-class bodies – it doesn’t matter how gym-toned the girl might be, there is still something about her that looks like she was designed to bring in the washing.'”

    This Eclair woman should have her head examined and be firmly stopped from writing for a long, long while.

  28. What does the prostitute being middle aged have to do with it? Wouldn’t “prostitute” have been enough? But maybe it is telling in the context of young trophy wives.

    Sorry, you’re right, that should really have been in quotation marks, its how it was reported in the tabloids. I suppose to make it sound seedier and worse because she could have been old enough to be his mum versus just out of school Coleen.

    Also I can’t be sure but the bit from Jenny Eclair sounds like it might have meant to be sarcastic; in all the things I’ve read by her and seen on television I never got the anti-feminist vibe from her, I think its her sarcastic sense of humour. Maybe sarcastic is the wrong word….I should be more articulate, I’m supposed to be some sort of English student!!

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