This Company Wants To Put An End To Embarrassing Car Crashes By Soccer Players

Professional athletes seem to have a bad reputation for getting into expensive car accidents. That's because even though they get paid incredibly high salaries they never actually learn how to drive the expensive cars they like to purchase. Just look back at the history of soccer players getting into accidents. Cristiano Ronaldo was only 23 years old when he wrecked his Ferrari 599 in a tunnel, and he later got into another accident in a Pagani Huayra. Luckily, a new company wants to help solve this issue.

Talking to Autocar, Bradley Busch, a psychologist and director of InnerDrive, a sports psychology company that works with elite athletes, said that young players between the ages of 20 and 23 are particularly susceptible to getting into accidents. He explains that "once a week, a Premier League footballer experiences a huge adrenalin rush playing in front of a packed stadium and they may become addicted to experiencing the same rush, for example when driving." Spencer Hidge, is the co-founder of Premier Sports Network, which helps players away from the pitch. He decided that he should create a program that teaches players how to control these cars so that the accidents stop.

The answer is a driving program where players are taken to the Millbrook proving ground in Bedfordshire and taught by Ivan Thompsett, founder of Total Car Control. Thompsett says that "It's an attitude of mind and it's about taking skills footballers use on the pitch, control, awareness, planning, observation, balance and applying them to driving." Hopefully, many players will take advantage of this program and we won't have to cringe every time an expensive exotic meets its demise.