A life in the limelight – but an afterlife in the shadows is always just one serious injury away.
So who can blame the current crop of young stars who are being bought and sold for enormous sums for reaching out to grab fortune and fame at the earliest opportunity?
Phil Jones, 19, is the latest to be lined up. A £20 million move from Blackburn Rovers to Manchester United should be finalised, after a hiccup, this week.
Yet he has been a first-team player for little more than a year.
He made his debut against Chelsea in March 2010 and has started just seven Premier League games for Rovers. Now he is set to be one of the most expensive teenage players in the country.
He follows Jordan Henderson, 20, another £20m buy, who made the switch from Sunderland to Liverpool last week.
Henderson broke into the Sunderland side in 2009-10 with only a handful of appearances and a loan spell at Coventry behind him. So after barely two full seasons as a Sunderland first-teamer, he is in the £20m club too.
Perhaps even more remarkably, Andy Carroll moved from Newcastle to Liverpool in January for £35m after less than half a season as a Premier League regular.
Connor Wickham, Ipswich’s precocious 18-year-old forward, is just about old enough to vote, but could soon be signing £10m transfer forms. Sunderland have apparently made an offer for him. Liverpool are hovering.
Whatever happened to the old-fashioned notion of bright, young players serving their time – let’s call it an apprenticeship – before being valued so highly?
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