It is often said that religious practices do not influence the careers of sports personalities, but there are some instances where players have chosen religion as their top priority. Sacrificing major tournaments on the occasion of religious practices is a very tough decision for any athlete.
There are players who have been loyal to the religion and followed the religious path strictly. Players have previously shown their loyalty towards their religion, as in the case when Samir Nasri displayed his “Eid Mubarak” shirt after scoring against Southampton during Premier League match 4 years. In another incident, Mesut Ozil, keeping aside his professional career made a pilgrimage to Makkah.
Let us have a look at 5 sport personalities who made sacrifices in their careers for religious practices:
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1) Amir Khan
Amir Khan is a British Professional boxer, who was born to Punjabi Rajput family in Bolton, Greater Manchester. Before turning into a pro, he won a silver medal in Men’s lightweight boxing category at the 2004 Olympic Games, in Athens.
He is Britain’s youngest boxing medalist at the age of 17. He was ranked world’s second best welterweight boxer by The Ring Magazine, back in May 2016.
The boxer had to skip a big-money match against Floyd Mayweather back in 2014, as he was fasting for the holy month of Ramadan since he is a Muslim.
The promoters admitted that he would not be able to do a proper training in July and be fit for the match which was scheduled to be played in September.
2) Sandy Koufax (Baseball)
Former American Major Baseball player Sandy Koufax was mired in controversy when he refused to play the opening game of the World Series because it fell on Yom Kippur, the “holiest day” in Judaism.
LA Dodgers played without their Jewish pitcher and lost the opening match to Minnesota Twins. Koufax played the other three games which helped them win the series 4-3.
Sandy Koufax represented the LA Dodgers for 12 years and his career peaked during a run of six consecutive years from 1961 to 1966.
After that, arthritis in his left elbow ended his career at a tender age of 30. In 1972, at the age of 36, he became the youngest player ever to be selected for the Baseball Hall of Fame.
3) Jonathan Edwards
Former British triple jumper Jonathan Edwards refused to compete on Sundays as a Christian and eventually pulled-out of the 1991 World Athletics Championship. Edwards, however, changed completely in 1993 as he stopped following the “Sabbath” strictly.
His decision came at the perfect time, as the qualifying round for World Championships that year took place on a Sunday. In 2007, he admitted that he had completely lost faith in it.
Edwards is a former Olympic, World, Commonwealth and European Champion. He held the world record in that event since 1995. After he retired from the sport, he worked as a sports commentator and as a presenter for BBC television.
4) William Hopoate
William Hopoate is an Australian professional rugby league footballer who represents Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs in the National Rugby League. He gave up two years of his career when he was 20 to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Letter-day Saints.
He has now currently made an understanding with his team Canterbury Bulldogs that he is not going to play or train on Sunday.
His playing positions are the centre, fullback and wing. Hopoate is the son of John Hopoate, who is a former professional Rugby player and a boxer.
On 5th June 2011, Hopoate was called up to play the State of Origin for New South Wales. He thus became the second youngest player to play for New South Wales and helped New South Wales level the three-game series 1-1.
5) Sulley Muntari
Ghanaian midfielder Sulley Muntari was surprisingly substituted after 30 minutes when he was playing for Inter Milan against Bari in 2009. Inter manager Jose Mourinho later revealed that Muntari was fasting owing to the Muslim month of Ramadan and was not fit enough to play.
"Muntari had some problems related to Ramadan; perhaps with this heat it's not good for him to be doing this fasting. Ramadan has not arrived at the ideal moment for a player to play a football match" said the Portuguese coach.
He was instrumental in Inter Milan’s Champions League triumph, back in 2010 and consecutive Serie A titles in 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons.
Muntari has earned 84 caps with the Ghana National Team, which includes participation in two Africa Cup of Nations and three World Cups. He is currently playing for the Saudi Arabian club Ittihad FC.
