If he hadn't been so talented at the so-called beautiful so-called game, then he probably wouldn't have had the cash and adulation thrown at him at an age when he obviously couldn't handle it. He probably wouldn't have then got the kicking in the popular press that he did, or suffered the breakdown that he did. He might also have been left to get on with rebuilding his life.
Football is not beautiful or a game. It is a sickening spectacle of obscene wealth, on- and off-pitch violence, cheating, blackguardry and over-indulgence. It is poisoning our public life.