Ferdinand and Tilson are not the only footballers who enjoy playing table tennis.
The Wales and West Ham centre-forward Craig Bellamy is another big fan of the sport.
Indeed, during Wales’ preparations for the recent Euro 2008 qualifiers against Slovakia and Cyprus, a table had to be set up for the squad outside the physio’s room at their Vale of Glamorgan base.
Bellamy took on all-comers and declared that he was best player in the Welsh squad.
Reporting on the matches, however, for the Daily Mirror was Martin Rogers. An Australian junior international from 1995 until 1997, Rogers still plays regularly enough to be ranked around the 100 mark in the England senior men’s ranking list.
He challenged Bellamy to a game, the Welshman promptly agreed and the two of them recently played a match.
“It was great fun and Craig is a very good player,” said Rogers. “As you would expect he is extremely competitive and his footwork, speed and reactions are all superb.
“I thought that I might win fairly comfortably but we had a really good match. He was very competitive but also sporting he was the first to say if you hit a good shot.”
The use of club-standard bats obviously favoured Bellamy in what was a best-of-five 21-up match. “He steamed away at the start,” said Rogers. “I think he was 18-12 up in the first game. His strength was his backhand. He’d obviously had no coaching but he had the footwork to use it for most shots and could hit winners from most positions.
“His backhand was the standard of a top-30 player in England. If he had proper coaching and practiced, he could become a very good player.”
Rogers, though, gradually exploited Bellamy’s weaknesses to win the first game 21-19. Bellamy bounced back to take the second 21-19 before Rogers ran away with the third and fourth sets 21-18, 21-14.
Other footballers who are quite handy are the Newcastle and England striker Michael Owen, the former Arsenal defender Martin Keown, Watford’s Jordan Stewart, the ex-Rangers, Fulham and Southampton midfielder Fabrice Fernandes as well as the Coventry City manager Micky Adams.
Table tennis is apparently also hugely popular among the Charlton Athletic squad. Mark Kinsella was reputedly the top Charlton player although he was challenged by Karim Bagheri who played for Iran at football but also table tennis as a junior. So what makes footballers play table-tennis? “Above all it is good fun – they enjoy it,” says Tilson, “although there is also a team-bonding element to it. Like all sportsmen, footballers are competitive as well. They have coordination and are decent at most sports.
“We have a table up at the Southend training ground and the lads play against each other after training every day, singles and doubles. I sometimes join in – although I tend to give them a few points start. I’m sure it’s the same at a lot of other clubs as well.”
Until Ferdinand proves otherwise, Tilson should rightfully be recognised as the table tennis king among the football-playing fraternity – unless, of course, we were to include agents. For the man who represents Sol Campbell is none other than the former England senior international Skylet Andrew! It’s a small world.
