Will Hondermarck: Northampton Town midfielder on his love of philosophy
- Published
Will Hondermarck joined Northampton Town from Barnsley in January 2023
A cursory check online will inform you that Aristotle and Plato both offered opinions about the value of sport.
Footballers with things to say about philosophy, though, are harder to find.
One of them is Northampton Town midfielder Will Hondermarck, who contemplates the complexities of existence to help him switch off from the pressures of professional sport.
"I do have passions outside of football that I like to follow," he told BBC Radio Northampton's Cobblers Show.
"I am massively into philosophy and a lot of subjects surrounding that, like psychology.
"I enjoy reading a lot about it and would like to develop my knowledge of it to the point where I take it further into a possible next career."
The 23-year-old was born in France, grew up in the Republic of Ireland, and is eligible to play international football for Congo.
He began his club career at Norwich City and had a spell at Barnsley before joining Northampton in January 2023.
But throughout it all, the lure of entering the world of academia has been there for Hondermarck.
"It's definitely something I've thought of before and been close to doing," he said.
"When I first started as a professional footballer it was bang on Covid time, and a lot of the options I had were going to be online, which can be quite tough.
"It wasn't what I wanted to do, I wanted to do maybe part-time studies but with interactions, being in a classroom, and having a social side to it.
"When you're playing Tuesdays and Saturdays your mind can get wrapped up in football, but I do hope to find a balance where I can make my passion a bit more concrete and turn it possibly into a degree or a job in the future."
Maybe there is something in the air in Northampton which encourages professional sportsmen to focus on loftier matters.
Australian rugby player Angus Scott-Young is currently playing for Premiership leaders Northampton Saints and studying in Cambridge.
Angus Scott-Young has made 15 appearances for Northampton Saints this season
"I'm doing philosophy, which is quite cool," the back rower told BBC Radio Northampton in November.
"I just did an assignment on Aristotle and Epicurus - it was about happiness, their two different takes on what it is to live a happy life.
"Aristotle's was about achievement and human moral excellence, and Epicurus was more about controlling what you can control and focusing more on the psychological state of happiness."
Happiness for Scott-Young in 2024 will surely involve Saints ending a five-year wait for a major trophy.
For Hondermarck and his Cobblers team-mates, there is the more down-to-earth goal of being absolutely certain of securing their League One status after last season's promotion - although they are only nine points outside the play-off places with 12 games to go.
Hondermarck has made 25 appearances this season and scored his first goal in last week's 2-2 draw at Oxford United.
And he is delighted to be making a positive contribution after injury problems earlier in the campaign.
Sitting on the sidelines is frustrating for any player and a philosophical nature can help.
"If you're a competitive player and you're not able to compete, it can be a difficult thing to adjust to mentally.
"When you're competing every day at training and every weekend in a game and then it's down to absolutely nothing, naturally you need people around you who can make you forget about it and turn it into a positive," he added.
No doubt Plato would agree.
As he put it: "The ideal citizen is the scholar athlete, the man of thought and the man of action."