Heartland

Cosy cohabitation

George Best once described the footballer's lot as 'living in a goldfish bowl'. What the boozy one might have added is that this 'goldfish bowl' tends to be a mock-Tudor monstrosity in a convenient spot of countryside, with the rest of the squad all within a 10-minute drive.

Premiership stars have always craved each other's company in their day-to-day existence, perhaps because nobody else can supply a quick enough fix of 'dressing-room banter' (chilli powder in jock-straps, heat-spray attacks, etc).

Now this quest for kinship has been taken a step further in Romania, where uber-agent Giovanni Becali is building a private road for his most prized clients – that's nine members of the national team.

First to snap up one of the properties in - I kid you not – Footballer Avenue, was AC Milan wing-back Cosmin Contra (pictured, right). "It's such a brilliant idea," he gushed. "From the first moment I heard about it, I agreed to it.

"We spend a lot of time together with the national team, so it will be great to be here with all our families. Us footballers have so much in common."

The houses are mock-Victorian (naturally) with five bedrooms, five bathrooms, a gym and servants' quarters. They are bedecked with marble flown in from Italy and lie in Pipera, the trendy new district of Bucharest.

Becali said: "I always loved the idea that my players were very close to each other after the game was over. Their lives will go on after their careers. It's our idea only, nobody suggested anything to us," he added, testifying to the fact that Romanian TV still awaits the first series of Footballers' Wives.

Contra will soon be joined on Footballer Avenue by Ajax captain Cristian Chivu. "I never believed there would be a street for players," he said.

"To stay together with my friends from the national team is a wonderful idea and I hope all the houses will soon be bought by my team-mates. It's so nice to see the Romania team together on the pitch and in private."

But cracks in the plan, if not the plaster, are already starting to show. Parma forward Adrian Mutu (pictured, left) has only agreed to snap up one of the £400,000 pads (the average monthly wage in Romania is 100 quid) if his request for a bigger garden is approved.

That, of course, would mean everybody else wanting a bigger garden, probably with a bigger bird-table than next-door's, a more spacious shed and shiny five-a-side goals. With nets.