LONDON - When it comes to the global financial crisis, there are far fewer than six degrees of separation.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper staged a photo opportunity on Wednesday morning with Owen Hargreaves, the Calgary-born soccer star who plays for Manchester United in the English Premier League.
Harper is in London for the G20 economic summit.
On the surface, there appeared to be no thematic link between Hargreaves, a defensive midfielder who has played only three games with United this season because of knee surgeries, and the prime minister's economic mission.
However Hargreaves' employer, one of the richest soccer clubs in the world, has as its major sponsor the embattled American insurance giant AIG.
AIG, already under fire for using its massive government bailout package to pay bonuses to executives, has more recently been criticized for its US$100-million sponsorship deal with Manchester United.
"Paying excessive bonuses to executives with taxpayer funds was unacceptable," Ann Kirkpatrick, a Democratic congresswoman from Arizona, said last week.
"It is equally unacceptable for U.S. taxpayer money to go to support an English soccer club."
Harper's photo op with Hargreaves was one of two brief media availabilities arranged Wednesday for Canadian reporters travelling with the prime minister, neither involving the prime minister responding to Canadian economic questions.
"We'll have lot of time to discuss that before this is over," Harper told an inquiring reporter at the Hargreaves event.
Hargreaves, who left home as a teenager to pursue his soccer career in Europe, opted to play for England over Canada. The 28-year-old has won 42 caps for England and was a key player for the country at the 2006 World Cup.
He was eligible to play for England through family bloodlines.
