Tim Tebow and Jeremy Lin: One was a highly touted player out of high school, the other an unknown from Palo Alto. One was a first round draft pick, the other undrafted. One received a multimillion dollar deal, the other a partially guaranteed contract. Their paths to stardom couldn't have been more dissimilar, yet they have merited comparison because of their affinity for and undying devotion to Jesus Christ.
What lends additional credibility to this comparison is that each player has conducted himself in the manner of a model athlete — a refreshing throwback to the days of team-before-individual. Neither one would ever concede that he has singlehandedly led his team to victory, but that's just modesty at work, and it speaks volumes about a character trait sorely lacking in contemporary athletics.
Meanwhile, a few thousand miles away in London, a 23-year-old Chelsea winger named Juan Mata whizzes up and down along the sideline, orchestrating attacks with lethal precision and a dancer's nimbleness.
The young Spaniard has all but justified his £23.5 million summer transfer fee, having registered five goals and eight assists in 23 games. Far and away the most inventive Blues player, he has settled quite nicely into the groove of a team whose upper management and star players have been under fire since the season began.
Mata was also recently voted the best winger in the Premier League in a poll of over 22,000 fans conducted by Givemefootball.com. He edged out superstars Gareth Bale, last year's Players' Player of the Year, and Antonio Valencia, who has had his best season to date in a Manchester United uniform.
Perhaps it is because soccer, for whatever reason, generates megalomania in smaller doses than does American basketball or football, but Juan Mata's exemplary deportment as well as his numerous and remarkable accomplishments off the pitch have flown under the radar — and I'd argue that his surpass those of Tebow or Lin.
Language transition, an oft overlooked aspect of international soccer, was hardly an obstacle for Mata, who is "already fluent in English, and has made a seamless transition to life in the hustle and bustle of the capital," according to Paul Bailey of givemefootball.com.
Not only was adjustment a breeze for Mata, but he also managed to do it while simultaneously studying for two degrees — sports science and marketing — at Madrid's Complutense University. In his spare time, he doesn't like to go clubbing or philandering around London; instead, he prefers to backpack through the Spanish countryside and around the Greek islands, and, more frequently, explore his new host city.
Mata's sheer love of the game is yet another distinguishing factor in an era of exorbitant contracts and grossly inflated individualistic thinking. He has expressed his desire to play in both the Euros and the Olympics, a grueling succession of matches that would exhaust even the fittest players.
If only we could watch contests played by teams full of Matas, Tebows or Lins — though I myself am not a fan of invoking God or Scripture so prominently. In reality, however, and much to the detriment of major sports everywhere, team loyalty has been tossed to the wayside, superseded by senseless holdouts and clamoring for trades.
These guys have got it right. They've recognized, as all their counterparts should, that high status in the sports world should not suddenly allow athletes to forgo humility and forget why they picked up a ball in the first place: for the love of the game.
