John Terry and globalisation

What is it that got the media so excited about 'JT' last week? Obviously, there's the appeal of Chelsea's iron man inconsolable, in floods of tears. Just as obvious, there's the drama of one of England's best-known players missing a penalty. After all, no one gave two hoots about sulky Anelka. And Terry embodies Chelsea: for many supporters he is Chelsea.

But what does this mean? Of the fourteen players who started or came on as subs in Moscow, four are English, and three of these were bought from other clubs in recent years. Only Terry came up through the Chelsea youth team. When fans say, John Terry is Chelsea, this is what they mean.

The reality of big-time football is that the top teams are owned by foreign millionaires or corporations; they have foreign managers; and most of their players, let alone star names, are foreign. Increasingly coaches look beyond local council estates and comprehensive schools to Africa, Argentina and southern Europe for their stars. Terry, Jamie Carragher, Stevie Gerrard, Gary Neville and Paul Scholes are the last of a species. That's why Everton fans mourned the loss of Wayne Rooney. Of course, he was a great player in the making. Anyone could see that. But he was also a local boy. He was one of us, in a way Yakubu or Arteta could never be.

Football has gone global. And fans are torn. They know that's the way of the world. They know that brings more money, more stars, more great football. But there's also a sense of loss: the break between the fans and their players. Footballers used to be one of us and when they retired they bought shops and pubs and local businesses. That has changed just as that whole world has gone.

In yesterday's Sunday Times, Alex Ferguson was talking about the future of Manchester United. he was talking about one of his favourite films, You've Got Mail in which a huge corporation, owned by Tom Hanks, buys up a small local bookstore, owned by Meg Ryan. That's the future of Manchester United, he said. He wants United to be the huge, unstoppable new force. So do his fans. But they also want local players. Hence the tremendous feeling for the last local players. They are local in the new global game, reminders of a game that's gone and a world that's gone.