There is always something fascinating about seeing people a few notches below their usual standards, like watching Barcelona in the Europa League or Joe Biden’s cameo in the TV comedy Parks and Recreation. The Queen opened a motorway service station near Bolton in 1970, and it was essential viewing. And so, the chance to watch Roberto Carlos, one of the best left-backs football has had, play Sunday League in Shrewsbury was too good to miss.
Unlike the Queen, Carlos is not wearing gloves, although he would have been forgiven if he were. Conditions in Shrewsbury are exactly as you would expect in early March, the sun negated by a freezing wind that blows across a terrible pitch, which one onlooker describes as “one of the best in Shropshire”. Roberto Carlos belongs at the Bernabéu, or at the very least in glossy adverts and electro-drenched YouTube compilations, not at the Hanwood Village Hall Recreation Centre.
