This
morning I walked down to the Gran hotel Princesa Sofia café to try to wake up
and work on a business plan for a new project I am fantasizing about with my
boyfriend and would be very much excited to bring to life one day. I guess this
is what happens when one is on vacation longer then couple of days. Your mind
clears from daily work stress, you finally get some much needed sleep and your
mind starts to function with its full creative capacity.
While
sipping on my coffee and trying to focus on what I am about to write, I started people
watching since I could feel a dose of nervousness and anticipation in the air.
Then, I remembered that my boyfriend told me about and got tickets for today’s big
euro football game: Barcelona vs. Real Madrid. He also told me that Madrid team
is staying in our hotel. I guess this is what all of this fuss is about.
On the
table next to me there is a husband, wife and a young boy with photo signature
cards of Real Madrid players. There are also a couple of older guys around me, sitting
alone, dressed in sports clothes with that “I know everything about sports”
attitude, glasses on top of their noses, a notepad and a pan in their hands – I think these might be old
school sports journalists.
There are
also a whole lot of a Muslim ladies who are waiting for their husbands to check
them in the hotel dressed in gorgeous designer pieces from latest collections
like Chanel, McQueen and Balmain which only a true fashionista can recognize
as they are barely peeking under their long hijabs. Their husbands are wearing RL
polo shirts with collars up and aviator glasses which they never take off.
Hotel staff
is running around nervously and they are extra helpful and smiley today (if
that can be possible since they are annoyingly super nice anyways everyday –
from mine, Croatian skeptical person POV ). At the same time, in front of the hotel there
are more and more people waiting in anticipation, mostly kids dressed in their
football idols jerseys, couple of creepy looking fans and players entourage
making a “grand” entrance one by one (friends of players who act like
superstars and are very demanding, abusing hotel staff and living on the
expense of their football player friends).
Tatler magazine August, 2011.
While
observing all that I couldn’t help but wonder why do people idolize and spend
so much time and effort trying to get close and in touch for a moment with a
celebrity person be it athlete, singer, actor? They are just regular people
under all of this glitz anyways. Not all of them are nice and kind, not all of
them are happy.
I understand that one would enjoy watch them
play if they play well, but why do they have a need to come close to them,
touch them, take photos, get their signatures or get to know them personally?
Are these usually very young athletes really ready and able to be a true role models
for kids? Is this culture of idolizing the character, profession and lifestyle
of famous person healthy for upcoming generations? I don't really think so.
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