Robinho takes the bus

It has just been reported, with a degree of schadenfreude, that Manchester City's Brazilian star Robson de Souza ("Robinho") has been spotted on a bus. A bus! The �140,000-odd-a-week footballer paid �6 for himself and his girlfriend to travel from central Manchester to the Trafford Centre and back again; passengers apparently stared open-mouthed.

Perhaps he had been banking in Iceland, suggested one national newspaper; apparently bankruptcy is the only excuse a millionaire footballer (Man City acquired Robinho for �32.5m) could decently proffer. It seems some of us haven't strayed far from that poisonously superior assessment, usually attributed to Margaret Thatcher, that, "A man who, beyond the age of 26, finds himself on a bus, can count himself as a failure."

In this (fast-receding) age of the over-paid and over-accessorised you might be forgiven for thinking that Robinho is probably the richest man ever spotted taking this workhorse of public transport. But far richer men than he have found the humble bus good enough. Ingvar Kamprad, for instance, founder of Ikea, whose worth has been estimated at �17bn. (Though he too encounters disbelief - German security guards once refused him entry to a ceremony at which he was expected to collect a prize for entrepreneur of the year - because he had arrived by bus.) Then there is Lord Swraj Paul, at �1.5bn the 47th richest man in Britain and a friend of Gordon Brown, who does not even own a car, preferring his Freedom pass instead; or the Irish-American billionaire and philanthropist Charles "Chuck" Feeney, whose ascetic instincts mean that he does not own a car. Want a celebrity, instead of a retiring tycoon? Chrissie Hynde travels by bus. "If I get noticed," the singer has said, with refreshing sensibleness, "people usually can't believe it's me (what would I be doing on a bus, right?) so they think it must be a lookalike."

As a proud taker of buses - they are cheap, reasonably efficient, good for sightseeing and for the environment and frequently quite entertaining - I salute Robinho. I suspect he will not be making a habit of it, but I hope he proves me wrong.