Stock market and player performance : How related are they?

March 20th, 2006 | by: Shahed | Comments(3)

It seems the recent collapse in the Saudi stock market affected everyone in Saudi Arabia (including the players). A Saudi national player lost almost SR 6 million ( $1 = SR3.75, you can do the maths) worth of investment in stocks (wow that’s what i was hoping to save so I don’t have to work the rest of my life).

Sport writers think that the stocks have effected the performance of alot of “investor-players”. I know for fact that stocks are used as a compensation plan for big coorporation to motivate their employees. If they perform well, their stock value goes up.

In the case of players, can they be demoralized by the big losses?

A friend of the player who lost SR 6 million, said to Al-Jazeera that he wasn’t affected by the loss as he is confident that the market will recover.

Some people think that if the stock performs bad, “investor-players”, are more likely to get a “red card” or “yellow card”. If the stock market shines, then the games are free of cards.

Abdul Latin Al Ghanam, a national player, said the collapse in the market has been the hot topic of conversation between players in the national team and in hilal.

Paqueta himself thinks the stock market affected the Saudi’s mentallity before the game against Iraq. He said ” most of the players were injured, not in their body but in their investment, which will affect the performance”