MADRID — Javi Poves finally achieved what most soccer players dream of: getting to taste the riches of the professional game.
For the 24-year-old Spaniard, that taste was sour enough to make him walk away from the table.
Poves was a promising defender with Sporting Gijon and made his debut with the Spanish club’s topflight team toward the end of last season. But instead of eyeing the future with promise, Poves’ already disillusioned attitude toward soccer grew even stronger as he got a firsthand look at the life of a top-level athlete. So he made a decision that turned heads across Spain: He strode into the offices of Sporting Gijon in July and quit.
“It’s all about money and players are just playing to distract people from what’s happening in the real world,” Poves told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “These things started driving me crazy and gradually I came to this decision.”
Poves’ pronouncement stunned many in Spain, where soccer helps unite a country that is staggering through an economic crisis with unemployment at more than 20 percent. The national team is the World Cup and European champion, and Spain’s league advertises itself as the world’s best thanks to clubs such as like Barcelona and Real Madrid.
“It surprised me to see him retire so soon because he had all the qualities to keep playing,” teammate David Barral, who shared a room with Poves on the road, was quoted as saying in La Nueva Espana newspaper. “He has his own ideas and I have mine. But I support him because he’s my friend. He’s got a great heart.”
