In September 2016, the Premier League summer transfer window closed with clubs having spent a record £1 billion on new players.
Doubtless, in luxury car dealerships closest to the major clubs, the potted palms were dusted off as dealers anticipated a surge of young, cash-rich footballers keen to own the sport’s traditional badge of honour: a supercar. Especially for those players elevated from the lower leagues, such a car is likely to be a lot more powerful than anything they have driven before. This heady cocktail of wealth and inexperience doesn’t always have a happy ending.
Eleven years ago, Cristiano Ronaldo, then 23 and playing for Manchester United, lost control of his Ferrari 599 GTB in a tunnel near Manchester. The car was wrecked but Ronaldo escaped injury. And in 2016 Diafra Sakho, the 26-year-old West Ham United striker, drove his Lamborghini Huracán through a garden wall.
In the intervening years, there have been a string of accidents involving young footballers at the wheel of high-performance cars. Bradley Busch, a psychologist and director of InnerDrive, a sports psychology company that works with elite athletes, says young people such as rising footballers are particularly susceptible to accidents. He says: “People between the ages of 20 and 23 are more likely to take risks, something that is magnified in the presence of their peers. Add to this the fact that once a week, a Premier League footballer experiences a huge adrenalin rush playing in front of a packed stadium and they may become addicted to experiencing the same rush, for example when driving.”
Concerned by the frequency of footballers’ car crashes, Spencer Hidge, co-founder of Premier Sports Network, which supports footballers away from the pitch, decided to act. “Dealers sell footballers these powerful cars but few care whether they can drive them,” he says.
Hidge believed driver training was the answer. The Premier League agreed and, with its blessing, Hidge and HR Owen, a luxury dealer group that numbers football stars among its customers, created the first specialist driving course for footballers.
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The firm teaching footballers
Take a lesson from Autocar
If footballers read Autocar, they'll have a fair idea of how to drive a supercar. Step one, turn any driving aids off. Step 2, give it full beans and get those tyres smokin'. Step 3, sideaways is best for maximum fun.
Seriously, I don't know if its possible to teach restraint, it's something that usually comes with experience and a few near misses. I know from experience that as a youngster, it's far too tempting too put your foot down and explore those limits.
Maybe the answer is to provide a few track days, so that supercar owners can gain that experience in relative safety and without endangering other road users.
The question is : "how to
It's only a question of intellectual control. These cars can nowadays be driven by monkeys.