England coach Fabio Capello is not concerned about Wayne Rooney’s famous on-field temper, last aired against the United States in May at Wembley. Since Rooney married over the summer, he’s apparently going to be a much more settled man. Neither does Capello care if the Manchester United striker enjoys the odd cigarette.
“I don’t think it [his temper] will be a problem,” Capello told reporters Monday. “Rooney is just married, he will be better now. They find a balance when they are married.” And his smoking habit? “Capello was curiously indifferent,” writes Martin Samuel, “a stance that brought out sweat beads on the foreheads of his FA employers, fearful of their manager unwittingly being cast as the spokesman for a generation of English butt-heads.”
Samuel writes that smoking among soccer players is not seen as such a great taboo outside of the U.K. Great tobacco-toting players of the past include Dutch genius Johan Cruyff, and Socrates of Brazil. Croatian coach Slaven Bilic has said he found it funny during his playing days for West Ham and Everton when English players would react in horror to his smoking. “Then they would drink so much that they could not stand up,” he said. “Where I came from, no player would do that, but I know quite a few that liked a cigarette.”