Showing Disrespect Never Helps!!

Photo Credit (Ben Nelms/CP)

Fans at the best of times can be downright ruthless when it comes to making negative comments when it comes to showing disrespectful and hurtful remarks directed at professional players of any  sport.

We hear this mainly at hockey, football and soccer games and the sad part of this is it happens during minor sports games.

As a society we fail to remember that everyone has a family that hears some of the comments, which I can attest to are downright disgusting in nature.

Anyone and everyone can have an off game and if anything we as a society should understand this, but we don’t or rather won’t, which is sad.

Now we are hearing that some, but not all Whitecaps supporters are down on 32 year-old Fredy Montero (5-foot-9, 160 pound) as the 2019 season for the Vancouver Whitecaps’ 2019 season was in the process of wrapping up.

Players are a part of a team and unless you are playing tennis or horseshoes it’s a team sport which means that one individual can’t be held solely responsible for a loss.

Comments directed at Monero such as “he’s washed up” or “he’s past his prime” are comments that play on anyone’s mind and he’s no different.

Let’s not forget that in 2017 he was on loan from Tianjin TEDA and helped the ‘Caps win their first-ever MLS Cup Playoffs. 

He spent just over a year with the Portuguese Primeira Liga giants Sporting CP and returned to Vancouve in 2019 where he was the recipient of the WFC Domenic Mobilio Golden Boot award in both years.

But his exit interview last season let him turn down the volume on his detractors, tune out the hate and focus on the future.

In 2019 he signed a two-year deal with the team and when reflecting on remarks directed at him he mentioned “It is especially hard for our family, reading all this stuff on social media and when those comments come out, it’s like a big impact for the family.”

He continued “Thank God I had a chance to talk to the organization before we went into the off-season, and I assured my family that we were going to stay here.

After spending some 13 months with Sporting CP in Portugal, it was expected he would return to the Freddy of 2017 that everyone was in love with when he scored 14 goals. 

Different years bring new dimensions for everyone and players are no different and 2019 saw him net only eight goals, half bring penalty kicks. 

Having a price tag of US$968,000 for many seemed far too much to pay for a player that was simply not performing on the pitch. 

It’s interesting to remember that Vancouver managed 37 goals and only 22 assists this past season and in the hopes of having them (eventually) returning to BC Place later this year he could be a rejuvenated Freddy that we can once again embrace.