Four at a time!
It was a lot of fun last year, under the heavy Ukrainian sun, watching Andriy Shevchenko play with a golf ball as once he did with a football. The winner of the third European Footballers Golf Classic, the regional stage counting towards the cycle, and having retired early on top of that, drew on a talent we didn’t know he had to crush the competition, ever more intensified by the renewed–and friendly–presence of Michel Platini and Ronald de Boer, by the sensational arrival of Teddy Sheringham, and by the overflowing enthusiasm of Christian Karembeu, bringing with him all the many former great footballers who could be found, a few days later, watching the final of Euro 2012 from the stands of the Kiev Olympic Stadium, that lesson in the game of football bestowed on Europe by the Spanish. There was also a certain pride in FIFPro hearts in having brought this event to the baptismal font in 2010 and, more than anything else, in having given it time to get settled in and grow, just as we follow the first steps of a child that is to become a man, accompanying him at every stage in his burgeoning life, difficult though they may be on occasion. There was a certain ambition, the one that had been dwelling within us from the first putts, in the long-term commitment we took on recently with djocà, reflecting our determination, at the start of this fourth tournament, to drive forward into the future and leave our mark on the sands of time. There is a certain thrill in imagining our excitement on the first Day of Legends, in Monaco in early September: a sumptuous, majestic, princely setting for a rendezvous that has become unmissable because–as we might say of a television programme–it has found its audience: yesterday’s footballers, who are still as popular today. There is a certain enthusiasm, well publicized by our partners, that urges us on to continue racing up the steps four at a time, and offering the starriest cast every year.Philippe Piat FIFPro Europ President
