Chelsea target Radja Nainggolan may not be getting many requests to appear in public service announcements after Belgium manager Marc Wilmots confirmed that the mohawked midfielder smokes five or six cigarettes each day.
Wilmots warned of the consequences if anyone tried to interfere with Nainggolan’s habit. “I reckon he would trash his room if we forbade him to smoke,” the Evening Standard quoted the manager.
Wilmot has an unusually casual attitude towards a behavior that would land most athletes in hot water and bad publicity, particularly in the healthy-image conscious American sports industry. Wilmots concerns himself with the results. “I’m fine with it so long as he performs out there on the pitch,” he said.
Antonio Conte would likely be less permissive than Wilmots when it comes to his players’ health and fitness habits. Conte is famously particularly about his players’ nutrition. At an Italy national training camp, he directed that a meal in the players’ dining room be separated by food groups, with each type of food on a different table.
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Conte’s confrontational nature would surely test Wilmots’ prediction of what would befall anyone who told Radja Nainggolan to stop smoking. Conte once bawled out Juventus and Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, calling the assembled Juventus team “half-wits” and “a disappointment.” This came before the final game of the season and weeks after clinching the Serie A title, simply because Buffon and a club executive were discussing player bonuses.
This is the second time that a player’s tobacco use has hit the headlines in June. Jamie Vardy was unapologetic after the Daily Mail published pictures of him carrying a can of chewing tobacco and a Red Bull while wearing England’s training kit in Chantilly, France.
Vardy’s breakfast of (Premier League) champions is part of his rigorous workout regimen. The Leicester City striker cheekily said “I don’t go in for weights or anything like that…The last time I lifted a weight was probably that can of Red Bull the other day.”
Nainggolan and Vardy may be among the last of the true bad boys of football, or any sport for that matter. At age 29 with a Premier League championship and consecutive goal-scoring record under his belt, Vardy has little reason to shed his blue-collar, pub league roots from barely a few years ago. Having recently turned down a major offer from Arsenal to stay with Leicester City, the incentives do not push Vardy to change.
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Radja Nainggolan likewise has every reason to stay on his current course. Nainggolan’s value goes up with every transfer rumor, and AS Roma is increasingly likely to retain his services at great financial cost.
Smoke ’em if you got ’em.