Sad reality of ‘stars’ who always need the spotlight
As Oxford City’s Finn Tapp signs for ‘Love Island’, Jim White looks at growing appeal of celebrity TV for sportspeople
The Saracens squad may find lucrative new direction once salary cap is finally applied in May
Earlier this season, I went to see Oxford City play Weymouth. Standing with my elbows on the barrier running around the pitch, pint in hand (served by the club chairman in the bar at half-time) was to appreciate there is little more agreeable in the sporting calendar than to take in 90 minutes of non-league football.
Never mind that the goalless draw unfolding in the autumnal chill brought new expression to the term turgid, this was what the game should be: unflustered, unhurried, relaxing. But glamorous it was not, which for a sad old nostalgist like me was half the attraction.
Not everyone, however, was as enthused by the attendant lack of fashionable swagger. Playing in the home defence that evening was the former MK Dons academy right-back, Finn Tapp. I cannot say I noticed anything about him beyond his memorable name. But then he did keep his shirt on for the entire 90 minutes.
We will be seeing a lot more of Tapp over the next few weeks after he traded Court Farm Place for the Love Island villa. After passing a medical following a clash of heads during City’s defeat by Dartford 10 days ago, he headed to South Africa to take part in ITV’S popular pec-fest. Reports suggest he left without telling the club. Not that they could do much about it; television was offering Tapp something Oxford City never could: attention.
As January transfers go, this was radical indeed. From tearing around in the National League South to lying around picking up a sizeable fee for doing little more than looking buff: Tapp had been properly tapped up. And if his ambition is to insert his name into the centre of the national conversation, the 20-year-old would not have spent long agonising over the move. As an Oxford City player, his picture is unlikely to be seen on the front page of a tabloid, accompanied by a female co-contestant apparently decked out entirely in dental floss.
As he spends the next fortnight schmoozing the opposite sex, Tapp will join the growing brain drain of sports stars recruited into reality television. From here, the only way is up. The lead set by Matt Dawson winning Celebrity Masterchef, Phil Tufnell becoming king of the jungle and Mark Ramprakash sashaying to victory in Strictly Come Dancing has been followed with increasing vigour. Rugby star James Haskell grumbled his way through the most recent edition of I’m A Celebrity, while Levi Davis, Thom Evans and Ben Foden were rather less successful on last year’s Celebrity
X Factor. This is all good news for the current Saracens squad, as openings will be there for a lucrative new direction once their employers finally apply the salary cap this May.
But as shameless reputational trading goes, Teddy Sheringham set the bar at a new low on Saturday. The former England centre-forward became the latest celebrity to be revealed on ITV’S bizarre new show The Masked Singer. Dressed – for reasons best known to the producers – as a tree, Sheringham removed his mask to the bemusement of Ken Jeong, the American actor charged with trying to guess the identity of the vocalists. Jeong’s expression suggested he had not the first clue – even when told Sheringham’s name – who he was.
Jeong should be warned: the way things are going, if he signs up for the next series of the show he would be wise to do his homework on recent Oxford City line-ups.