The former star of the Canadian national team, Paul James, lives in difficult conditions in the English capital, London, and has become homeless despite his successes in his professional career, which witnessed his brilliance in the 1986 World Cup.
And the British newspaper “Daily Mail” published a report on its website, through which it recounted the tragic story of the player who participated in all of Canada’s matches in the World Cup in Mexico.
Paul James started all the matches of the Canadian national team in the 1986 World Cup group stage, and lost with his country on penalties to Brazil in the quarter-finals of the 1984 Olympics. .
And the “Daily Mail” stated that the Canadian player, who was born in Wales, has been unemployed for 13 years and without a home for six years, moved to Britain from Canada before the Corona virus epidemic, and Paul James believes that he faced discrimination in his country because of his cocaine use.
A few months ago, he found shelter in a hostel, he was in a room infested with mice, he was sleeping on scraps of cardboard on the streets of London, and before that he was on the streets of Toronto.
He is currently on the streets of Embankment in the English capital as a beggar, and about that he said: I collect money to be independent, to restore a semblance of normal life, so that I can wear my clothes and shoes, not used clothes.
The British newspaper asked why the former Cardiff-born footballer, participant in the World Cup and Olympic Games, who has a successful career as a coach, analyst and columnist, who holds a bachelor’s degree from Wilfrid Laurier University and a master’s in football business administration from the University of Liverpool, asked. End up on the streets of London?
James pointed out that he smoked cocaine for the first time in 1998, and after that he suffered from a problem of drug abuse, and he had not been able to communicate with anyone for a long time, and he had not seen his family for 4 years, his mother died last June, but he discovered that only two months ago.
It is noteworthy that James retired from international football due to his involvement in a bribery scandal during a tournament that was held in Singapore, just months after the World Cup.