Fringe benefits: Craig Bellamy prepared for life as Manchester City outcast
The three teenagers from Sierra Leone who have moved into Craig Bellamy’s house this week were thrilled at getting the chance to develop their football skills in the UK.
And to make sure they get every possible opportunity to better themselves, Bellamy is fully prepared to spend a year kicking his heels on the City sidelines.
The Welsh striker says he has pumped hundreds of thousands of pounds of his own money into the Craig Bellamy Foundation since setting it up in 2008.
He has made it plain that he wants to continue doing that, and it is the chief reason that he will not leave the Blues unless they pay up the final year of his £90,000-a-week contract in full.
Through the charity, Bellamy has set out to transform the lives of youngsters in Sierra Leone, a west African nation ravaged by poverty in the aftermath of an 11-year civil war.
Those commitments have already seen him set up the country’s first football academy and a network of junior leagues supported by Unicef, which run alongside education programmes and community projects.
This week, Bellamy took in a trio of youngsters from Sierra Leone who are getting a chance to develop their skills over here.
Mustapha Bundu, a 14-year-old centre-forward, midfielder Santigie Koroma, 15, and central defender Sulaiman Samura, 14, have just taken part in their first training session with Cardiff City’s Under-15 side.
They are staying at Bellamy’s family home, just outside Cardiff, while they spend six weeks training with the Bluebirds.
The trio are among a group of young footballers given five-year scholarships by Bellamy’s residential academy in Tombo, an hour-and-a-half from Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown. They are the first to get the chance to develop their skills abroad.
Progress
Bellamy had a chance to catch up with their early progress in midweek as he returned from his Manchester base to Cardiff for Wales’ friendly against Australia.
Unless the striker gets a transfer sorted out quickly, Wednesday’s 2-1 defeat against the Socceroos will be his last senior outing until early next month, when Wales host Montenegro in a Euro 2012 qualifier.
Bellamy, who spent last season on loan in the Championship at Cardiff, knows he has no future in Manchester. Roberto Mancini made that obvious by leaving him out of the pre-season tour of North America.
When Mancini was asked last week if Bellamy was in his thoughts for the Community Shield, the answer was a short, sharp: “No.”
The 32-year-old also knows that, wherever he ends up next, he has no chance of matching the salary he earns at the Etihad Stadium. Sunderland can’t afford that kind of money, and Cardiff certainly can’t.
Bellamy, for his part, stated recently that walking away from his Blues contract early and taking a wage cut was not an option, because of his commitments to Sierra Leone.
“There’s no chance of me taking a reduction in money – that is impossible,” he said. “I have to take care of 13 children every day there.
“My wages are more important to them than they are for me. If City pay me the final year of my wages, then I can go where I want. In that case, my first option would be Cardiff.”
Cast out to the fringes at City, Bellamy’s attitude has been to knuckle down in training and get on with the job.
It was disorientating to see one of the Premier League’s biggest names mucking in with a group of youngsters during the Elite Development Squad’s first pre-season friendly at Altrincham last month.
Perhaps he was disorientated too, at first, but he didn’t show it, playing a part in the build-up to Joan Angel Roman’s equaliser as City won 2-1.
Since then, he has taken his talents to Stalybridge Celtic’s Bower Fold and Hyde’s Ewen Fields, scoring for the Blues’ EDS side against both.
By all accounts, he has been positive in training, even giving an inspiration speech to the club’s youngsters.
Those within the game who know Bellamy well are full of admiration for the sacrifice he is prepared to make for his charity.
But they all believe he should find himself another Premier League club as quickly as possible.
“I expect his situation will be resolved one way or another because he has too much to offer,” said Wales boss Gary Speed. “He is too good a player to not be playing in the Premier League.”
Lucas Neill, Bellamy’s former Blackburn and West Ham team-mate, is of the same view.
“He certainly has the qualities to justify being at Manchester City, but I’m sure if he leaves he will do very well for some other side,” said Neill, who was in the Australia side that beat Wales.
Sound words they may be from both men, but Bellamy has made a career – and a life – out of doing things his own way. He is not a man given to backing down.
And if he loses a year out of his own career to give a chance to those less fortunate, it is a price he appears willing to pay.
Manchester Evening News, UK
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