Football Food For Thought / Tareq Quiroz / 10 October 2008 /

Tareq Quiroz discusses the case studies of Jamie Carragher and Francesco Totti as players who called their time on their international career long before they've called time on their football careers.

The games just come so quick and fast in today's action packed football schedule. Already you can sense which clubs are going to struggle as the season progresses and you have to wonder if quality is being sacrificed for quantity. The recent beating at Chelsea was Aston Villa's seventh game in just 21 days and they looked a tired team. At a time when everything is being questioned the powers that be may do well to start looking at the rather full fixture list.

With such heavy fixture commitments for the top teams we are now experiencing a growing number of players who are willing to retire from International football before they retire from the game completely. I find it very hard to understand why anyone would ever want to make that decision theirs. A football career isn't exactly the longest one so if you look after yourself there is little reason to stop competing at the top level.

If a player feels that age or a recurring injury issue prevent them from playing the extra International games is one thing but Jamie Carragher's retirement was something else altogether. The experienced Liverpool defender not only announced his retirement from International football but went one step further by saying that he never put England as a priority.

He claimed that losing for England didn't hurt in the same way as it did for his club. I find it staggering for a top player to not feel as disappointed about losing a World Cup match as a match for their club. Thankfully for everyone this isn't something Carragher has to worry about anymore as England go in search of three qualification points against Kazakhstan on Saturday. England are hot favourites to do just that at [1.08] in the Match Odds and a Carragher-free defence is [1.31] to keep a clean sheet.

Carragher is by no means alone in seeking early retirement. One of the golden boys of Italian football did just the same last summer at just 30 years of age. Francesco Totti claimed that he no longer felt he could perform for Italy and his club Roma, citing that his recent ankle injury meant that he needed to concentrate more on Roma and forget about his country. The cynics will say that he is no great loss but there is no doubt he is still a top class player. A player they could probably do with on Saturday as they travel to Bulgaria for their World Cup qualifier. Bulgaria is a difficult place to go but the Italians are still favourites in the Match Odds at [2.14].

In recent months much has been written about the possibility of tempting Paul Scholes out of International retirement. For some reason Scholes' retirement passed off with little criticism. Again at the age of 30 I find it unbelievable that a top player would pull the plug on their International career. At the time it was reported that he may have felt it was too much football but when recently quizzed about why he didn't come out of retirement when Steve McClaren asked him, he gave a rather more startling response. He is reported to have claimed it wasn't because it was too much but rather because when he was playing he wasn't enjoying it one little bit.

If that was the case then you have to ask why he didn't say so before and someone else could have played who really wanted to. Fortunately for Scholes, once back to fitness, he has the luxury of concentrating on retaining the Champions League. A title that United are trading at [7.8] to capture.

With all these recent admissions by players you can only think that there has to be something in this in relation to England's poor performances. If these players genuinely do not feel the same when they pull on the England jersey then they should openly admit it and stop wasting the time of the people who do.

It is beyond me as to why these pampered pros cannot compete on the International front with the same desire as they do each week at club level. If I was Fabio I would set Stuart Pearce on to the current squad and let him interrogate each individual. If he can turf out any uncommitted players then maybe, just maybe, England can justify their price of [11.5] for World Cup 2010.

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