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WILLIAn what I was looking for – they were the only Clockwise from top club to show me a project that would fit with in a restaurant [Babbo in Mayfair], but I left club that really made any effort to sign me. Celebrating at Spurs my ambitions, and they’re one of the biggest just because that’s not my speciality. David – something Arsenal clubs in the world. still has his share with my agent. It’s a nice How true were those Barcelona rumours fans will hope he’ll restaurant, by the way – I always eat there. that never went away? repeat in December; Your agent, Kia Joorabchian, said Arsenal’s There are always rumours, but I didn’t know Willian is “learning presentation to you was “incredible”. What What’s Arteta like as a coach? about any other official offer. Indeed, there a lot” under Arteta; was so impressive about it? He’ll be a top manager, I’ve no doubt about was a lot of talk about Barcelona for the past best buds reunited; From my first chat with Mikel Arteta and Edu, it. The potential is there, as is the ambition. few seasons, but I wouldn’t have gone there he’s hit the ground they always showed huge interest in having In a few years he’ll be considered one of the just because they’re Barça. I wouldn’t go to running wearing red me on board. That was really important, as it best managers in the Premier League – and any club without hearing about their targets showed their respect for me as a professional, the world. Obviously you must win trophies and what they wanted from me. It wouldn’t but also showed their conviction in what they to be considered one of the best, and it will be nice to be there or anywhere else if you are trying to achieve at the club. Arsenal told happen for him sooner rather than later. I’m weren’t going to be a big part of the project me how I’d fit in there and how they saw me impressed with the way he talks and explains and didn’t play much. Arsenal were the only helping them to reach their goals. I could see his tactical thoughts – he’s quick to read the that Arsenal were on the right track, and I’m game and make adjustments when needed. delighted to be here. It’s been fantastic to train under him so far and I’m learning a lot. How does Arsenal life compare to Chelsea? I’m very happy with my first few months at Granit Xhaka said you “know how to win Arsenal. Everyone made me feel comfortable titles”. So, what does it take? How close from day one. I didn’t need time to adapt to are Arsenal to getting there? the city and the league, so it was a different From my perspective, Arsenal are on the right move – definitely a lot easier, as I just had to track, but we need to go step by step. There’s adapt to a new club and its philosophy. The no point saying now that we’re going to win only big difference in my personal life is that the Premier League and Europa League – we I moved house, and I’m now living in north just have to look at our next opponent and London. When it comes to the football, there try to beat them. Simple as that. Arsenal are are many new things at Arsenal after seven a huge club and will always need to fight for years at Chelsea: the playing style, strategy titles – that’s what we want, of course; we’ll against rivals, training drills, group meetings. fight for every point in every competition and I’m trying to adjust as fast as I can, and I’ve I’m confident we’ll be successful in the near been pleased so far. future. To win leagues you can’t afford to lose many points at home, and it’s not enough to How influential was ex-Chelsea team-mate play well only in the big games. A champion David Luiz in convincing you to join? side will always beat the small rivals – those He was phoning me every now and again to teams who aren’t fighting for the title. When check how the negotiations were going, and you face another challenger, sometimes you he obviously gave me some good references win, sometimes you lose. It’s normal. But it’s about Arsenal, but that’s it. He’s a big friend crucial to not drop points when you play the of mine – we’ve known each other since we mid-table and bottom teams. Off the pitch, were eight years old! It’s always great when the club must have a good project, and know you’re alongside friends and I’m happy to be where they want to be and how to get there. his team-mate once again. He’s a top player That’s the case at Arsenal. and a top guy, too. You now have fellow countryman Gabriel You owned a restaurant with him, but can Magalhaes with you. What do you make of either of you cook? If we came round your him as a guy and a player? house, what would you serve? I was surprised by his instant adaptation into I don’t cook at all! I’m so bad in the kitchen. the team. I mean, it’s not easy to move from Are you still coming? [Laughs] We’d work out a different country and adapt to the Premier a way for you to not leave hungry, but don’t League so quickly. Gabriel has been showing expect anything sophisticated. I’m not sure his strength of character. He’s a calm guy and if David cooks well. We were indeed partners we’re all seeing his qualities on the pitch. He’s FourFourTwo December 2020 51

WILLIAn very good at marking, but is also comfortable contract at Chelsea, he said he wanted to see and Arteta differ?] Their football philosophies on the ball. He’s a threat from set-pieces, too, me with a smile on my face. He said I would are very different. Perhaps the only similarity so was a clever signing. play regardless of the contract situation and is that they’re young managers with a bright would still be a key player in his team. It was future ahead of them. The way they look at Why should fans feel optimistic about the kind of him, because some managers decide the game isn’t similar. Mikel is more obsessed club’s chances of success this season? to not use a player who might be moving on about the tactical aspects of football. He has Because there’s a purpose in what the club is soon. We had an honest conversation and he a great understanding of the tactical side and doing. There are competent people in every showed his class once again. I was delighted dedicates a lot of time to it during his training area, and we’re working together to achieve to work with Frank, because he’s yet another sessions. Frank obviously works on his tactics the same goal: winning trophies. I’m not sure young, talented boss. [FFT: How do Lampard as well, but in a different way. if it’ll happen this season or in the next ones, but Arsenal are doing a great job to get there. We want to play Champions League football next year and fight for titles, as that’s what the club is used to. I’m optimistic and believe every Arsenal fan should be. How have you found playing games behind closed doors? Does it make life tougher or easier for you and the team? First and foremost, it makes for a completely different experience. You can ask every player and no one would say it’s a small change. But we all know why it’s happening, so health and safety has to be the number one priority. As professional players, we just have to keep the same level of concentration and intensity as before. But, yes, there are a lot of differences with it. When you play away, for instance, you don’t get the same pressure from the stands. “THERE’S A PURPOSE In WHAT ARSEnAL ARE DOInG nOW – WE’RE On THE RIGHT TRACK” Some away sides will feel more at home, and we’ve seen that happening already. It’s bad news for the small and medium-sized teams who usually capitalise on home advantage in games due to the energy coming from the supporters. Perhaps they rely more on these external factors? It may be easier for the big clubs, who have plenty of options and quality within their squads. Tell us something we don’t know about you. Any secret hobbies? Don’t you know everything by now? [Laughs] I’m no different from what you see out on the pitch. Some players are transformed during matches, but that’s not the case with me. My personality is just like you see every weekend. But OK, maybe people don’t know that I like playing and watching other sports, especially tennis and basketball. Also, learning to play golf is on my wish list. When I go on holiday, I almost don’t play any football at all... What was it like having former team-mate Frank Lampard as your manager at Chelsea last season? The best word to describe my feelings about Frank is gratitude. During the final year of my 52 December 2020 FourFourTwo

WILLIAn How will it feel to come up against Chelsea Left “I have respect Luckily, that wasn’t the case for me. I believe You impressed in two Champions League over Christmas? Have you thought about it? for Chelsea, but now my displays have improved each year, which matches against Chelsea in 2012, scoring I certainly have. Well, it’s part of our lives as they’re our rival and is what you want as a professional footballer. twice at Stamford Bridge. How important professional players. The important thing for I want to beat them” Also, I don’t miss many games due to injury, do you believe they were to your transfer? me is the respect I have for Chelsea. I was so Below Willian shone so that helps with this record. It’s a privilege. Well, I think it played a part, although I don’t happy there – I spent seven years at the club for Shakhtar; before feel it was crucial. Chelsea had already made and we won a lot of trophies together. I left briefly joining Anzhi Looking back a bit further now, how tough an offer for me in the January [2012] transfer many friends there, so they will always have under future Chelsea was it to leave your homeland for Shakhtar window, but Shakhtar didn’t accept it – they my respect. But now I’m with Arsenal, where gaffer Guus Hiddink Donetsk in 2007? weren’t exactly the easiest club to negotiate I’m happy and grateful for the opportunity. Just making the decision to sign for Shakhtar with! [Laughs] But then we played Chelsea in Chelsea are a rival and I’ll do my best to beat was already difficult. My family and I thought the Champions League and I put in a couple them every time we meet. we would leave Corinthians and go to either of good performances, scoring two goals in Spain, Italy or England – countries where the London [in a 3-2 defeat]. It probably helped You’re nearing another record: becoming leagues are more famous. So Shakhtar came to convince them that I was the right player the Brazilian with the most appearances as a big surprise in that sense, but again, we for them. I had to wait a bit longer to finally in Premier League history. How proud are decided to go there because of their project. sign, however, as I joined Anzhi Makhachkala you of that feat? Shakhtar showed me an interesting plan and before moving to the Premier League. Very proud – I’d always dreamed of playing I was convinced it would prove an important in England, so it’s an honour to have had that step forward in my career. When I got there, Why did you join Anzhi? What happened in opportunity for such a long time. It’s not easy though, the beginning was pretty tough. It’s that crazy six-month spell when you made to play in the Premier League, and everyone a completely different culture in comparison just 17 appearances? knows how challenging it is. A lot of players to Brazil, and the cold weather was definitely I’d been trying to get out of Shakhtar for two come and stay for one or two seasons, then one of the hardest parts to overcome. It was years – I thought it was time to experience leave without really adapting to the division. a new thing to play in such low temperatures another league and challenge. But like I said, and in a lot of snow! Thankfully, the club had they weren’t easy to negotiate with, as they signed some other Brazilian players and that didn’t want to lose their best players. I’d had helped me to adapt quicker. After a stressful offers from Chelsea and Benfica, but Shakhtar start, I settled down and was really happy in turned them down. At that point, the group Ukraine. I won several trophies at Shakhtar phase of the Champions League was finished and it was a nice experience that prepared and I’d played well to help Shakhtar qualify me for my challenges in Russia and England. for the last 16. We and Juventus progressed, leaving Chelsea to enter the Europa League. Shakhtar became famous for their Brazilian Then in January, Anzhi appeared and were contingent. What did you all do together in the only club to offer the money that would Donetsk, and did a division of nationalities make Shakhtar let me leave. The other clubs ever cause problems in the dressing room? were trying to negotiate the fee, but Anzhi It was key for us Brazilians to have a social life were happy to pay the release clause. I was together off the pitch. It’s a way of keeping in so keen to leave, you know? I wanted a new touch with our culture and helping each other challenge in my career. Again, it wasn’t the adapt to a new country. We often organised destination I dreamed of – I wanted to join dinners and events involving all our families. an English or Spanish team – but Anzhi were Regarding the various nationalities within the the only option at that moment, so I decided squad, there was never a big issue – respect to go. In the end, things worked out because was always the first rule of the dressing room. I only stayed in Russia for a few months and The group was very friendly and we used our then headed to Chelsea. differences to make us stronger. What was it like to be part of that project? Shakhtar manager Mircea Lucescu played How did you hear it was suddenly all over? a big part in making the team gel. How did It was nice there – I take every experience as he do that, and why was he so good at it? an opportunity to grow and become a better How did he help all of the Brazilians settle? person and player. Anzhi’s project was quite Lucescu liked Brazilian players very much and interesting: Roberto Carlos was there as the I believe he still does. [Laughs] It was helpful assistant manager, along with Samuel Eto’o that we could communicate in ‘portunhol’ – and some other Brazilians – so it was another Lucescu speaks a mixture of Portuguese and exciting period of my career. Eventually, the Spanish, so it made life easier for us. I didn’t president of the club got sick and decided he speak English or Russian – I’d come straight didn’t want to invest in football any more. He over from Brazil, so Portuguese was the only chose to abandon his plans and the players language I could understand. were up for sale. That’s when English football at last came into my life. How good was the Shakhtar team that won the UEFA Cup in 2008-09? MORE On FOURFOURTWO.COM Very. We had a team capable of facing any rival, made of players who could feature at • Willian: ‘Joining Chelsea was... complicated any big European club. But the quality of the – Liverpool and Tottenham were interested’ players wasn’t everything – we were a solid team with a good collective understanding, • Quiz: Can you name the Brazilians with 20 and that was the strength of that Shakhtar or more appearances in the Premier League? side. In attack we were especially dangerous, and could hurt teams with their first mistake. • 10 stars who had a blinder against a team That European title was a huge achievement – then got signed by them (by Tom Seymour) for us as individuals, and for the club overall. FourFourTwo December 2020 53

CARLO AnCELOTTI

CARLO AnCELOTTI THE REDEMPTION OF CARLO ANCELOTTI Things unravelled for the Italian legend after he led Real Madrid to La Decima, but Everton’s seven wins in a row at the start of the new season provided early signs that he hasn’t lost his touch. Can he guide the Toffees back into Europe? Words Alasdair Mackenzie Additional reporting Emanuele Giulianelli Portrait Ki Price / Contour by Getty Images

CARLO After a fast start to the season, though, Right “Did someone Ancelotti’s career – and his final Real media AnCELOTTI he showed signs of his class. Will Goodison say it’s a free bar?!” briefing concluded with a standing ovation. Park be the venue for a redemption story? Below Delivering La ootball management is a job for Decima to Madrid With lots of goodwill and a smarting sense life. The locations might change, CAN’T BAYERN ME LOVE of injustice in the air, it was easy to assume the demands, expectations and something better was on the horizon. Even pressure will ebb and flow, but It’s tempting to view La Decima as the peak the man himself would have figured as much, there are always fresh challenges of Ancelotti’s coaching career, considering its explains former team-mate and Milan player, waiting around the corner. historic significance and pivotal point as the Alessandro Costacurta. moment his difficulties began. Carlo Ancelotti knows that better “Carlo’s biggest quality was to always make than anyone, having won trophies A year on from that triumph, Ancelotti was disappointments acceptable, because he dismissed by Real Madrid. His side had been always saw the glass half full,” the Rossoneri F and suffered sackings in a 25-year knocked out by Juventus in the Champions stalwart of 21 years tells FourFourTwo. “Even career that has taken him to five League semi-finals, finished two points off in particular moments [like his 2001 sacking different countries. Barcelona as La Liga runners-up and lost to by Juve], or further ahead when we didn’t The Italian’s achievements need Atletico in the last 16 of the Copa del Rey. For reach certain targets, he managed to make little introduction. Champions League titles crow-like club president Florentino Perez, all us see the positive aspect of any situation.” made up two of the eight honours that his that glitters is all that matters. star-studded Milan side lifted, while further Sure enough, the offers came in after his success followed him with a league and cup “The demands here at Real Madrid are very unceremonious sacking. He had the chance double at Chelsea. At Paris Saint-Germain he high,” sniffed Perez. “The affection that the to make an instant return when his former collected the customary Ligue 1 title, before players and supporters have for Carlo is the employers at San Siro rang, but he decided later winning a hat-trick of trophies in charge same as the affection I myself have for him.” against it. “It was tough to say no to such of Bayern Munich. a beloved club,” he said. “But I needed rest.” The Italian departed a popular figure with But arguably his most memorable moment fans and players alike – a recurring theme of The Italian took some time off and had an was clinching Real Madrid’s long-awaited operation for spinal stenosis, but it wasn’t Decima in 2014, ending the Spanish giants’ hysterical 12-year wait to be crowned kings of Europe for a 10th time. When the full-time whistle blew on Los Blancos’ 4-1 victory over city rivals Atletico in Lisbon, however, little did Ancelotti know that it would be his last major success story for some time. There have been trophy wins since then, sure – just not in quite the same way. Mainly, there has been mutiny in Munich, nastiness in Naples and a snub from Arsenal... yet none of it matters now. Instead, five and a half years of toil after that historic night led him to Everton, where the task of turning a tanker was daunting and few gave him much hope.

CARLO AnCELOTTI long before his name hogged the headlines “BAYERn WERE DRILLED TO PLAY had changed. Bayern were Bundesliga top again. At the end of 2015, it was announced LIKE A MACHInE UnDER PEP, BUT dogs once again – a fifth consecutive title – that Ancelotti would take charge of another UnDER CARLO THE PLAYERS FELT after finishing 15 points clear of RB Leipzig, European superpower: Bayern Munich. THEY WEREn’T TRAInInG EnOUGH” but they had been eliminated by Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter-finals and Pep Guardiola’s departure from Bavaria was one of the 61-year-old’s great strengths as lost to Dortmund in the German Cup semis. confirmed six months before the end of the a manager, and with good reason. 2015-16 season, and with it the news that he Cracks began to appear from within, as the would be replaced by the Italian for 2016-17. “It’s one of his best qualities – I saw it when players gradually grew frustrated by the less It was just as well Ancelotti had recharged his he was assistant manager [to Arrigo Sacchi] intense style of play, less detailed pre-match batteries: not only was he walking into one of at the 1994 World Cup with Roberto Baggio, preparation and, above all, training sessions the most demanding jobs on the continent, when he hadn’t quite managed to explode,” that were a far cry from the intensity of what but he was Munich-bound to succeed one of recalls Costacurta. “At Milan, he developed they had become accustomed to under Pep. few coaches who could challenge his stellar this ability with Andriy Shevchenko during the record of success. moments of difficulty he had off the pitch. “The problem for Ancelotti at Bayern was The team wouldn’t accept his behaviour, but that two things happened: firstly, the more Journalist Raphael Honigstein was following Ancelotti brought him in front of us all and passive approach created a situation where events closely, and recalls high anticipation said, ‘He’s a champion who’s going through the players stepped back and found it tough around the new Ancelotti era. a hard time, so we must help him’. to create the same kind of aggression, focus and relentlessness that marked them out as “There was a lot of enthusiasm at Bayern “He probably didn’t need to do it with being such a great team in the first place,” when they got Ancelotti, as they thought he Cristiano Ronaldo at Real Madrid, given explains Honigstein. “They lost part of their was the perfect successor of Guardiola,” he that he never had a bad game. But he USP, what made them such a special team. explains to FFT. “Pep had brought the style, did it with Sheva and Kaka – players The other thing was that the players started the tactical sophistication, but of course he who alternated extraordinary displays believing that both the physical preparation didn’t deliver the Champions League during with ones where they were seemed and training regime left a lot to be desired. his three seasons. Ancelotti being this star more distracted.” whisperer, who turns up and makes everyone “I think a lot of players or teams would feel really good – everyone thought he was It came as a shock, then, that have said, ‘You know what, this is Ancelotti – the ideal manager at the time.” the unhappiness of his players he knows what he’s doing and it’s not down ultimately proved to be Ancelotti’s to us to criticise him’. But Bayern had been There was certainly no shortage of stars to downfall in Munich. drilled to play like a machine under Guardiola, aim those whispers at. The Bayern team that and even before under Jupp Heynckes had Ancelotti inherited might have failed in its Things started well, with eight developed a winning mentality – going out objective of winning the Champions League straight wins in all competitions. of their way to win games that weren’t really under Guardiola, but many of the players who Die Roten showed promise, and that necessary to win before big Champions had last achieved that feat in 2013 were still a freedom of expression that led League ties, for example. there, and had reached three semi-finals in pundits to think the side was being a row since then. allowed to work off the template in “The players started moaning to some of a way it never was under Guardiola. the bosses, saying, ‘We’re not doing enough The ability to effectively communicate with here: we’re just jogging in training, we’re just the world’s best players is widely considered By the end of the Italian’s opening relaxing, there’s no structure and we’re not campaign in charge, though, not much learning anything. He’s just relying on us to use all the knowledge we already have, and there’s no input’. “They really looked at the fitness coach in particular, Giovanni Mauri, and thought, ‘This guy simply isn’t up to the job’. Things came to a head when he quite famously smoked during one of Bayern’s endurance sessions in Qatar. They were doing laps and had to run through these big clouds of smoke while they were exercising, thinking, ‘This can’t be right – something is really wrong here’.” A slow start to his second season in charge ultimately led to Ancelotti being sacked by Bayern in September 2017. A 3-0 Champions League defeat against PSG proved the final straw, coming after the manager left key players like Mats Hummels, Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery on the substitutes’ bench, and Jerome Boateng out of the squad altogether. “He didn’t just leave out all of these players – he never communicated to them why they were left out,” reveals Honigstein. “He famously just left the starting line-up on a piece of paper and didn’t say anything to the team. That, combined with a sense that he wasn’t really doing enough in Bavaria, meant that the players began to feel like he was almost holding them back. Inside the club, it eventually reached the point where Ancelotti had universally lost the backing from his superiors.” FourFourTwo December 2020 57

CARLO AnCELOTTI Ancelotti left Germany with another league title to his name, as well as a pair of German Supercups – the fifth country in which he had won silverware. However, his 14-month spell in charge won’t live long in the memory. “I think people are still puzzled about why it went wrong for him at Bayern and how he managed to rub players up the wrong way in the end,” says Honigstein. This time, Ancelotti’s sabbatical from work was a little less voluntary. CARLO IN THE MIDDLE Italy’s humiliating failure to reach the 2018 “GOInG TO EVERTOn WAS HIS GREATEST GAMBLE – IT’S World Cup in Russia under Gian Piero Ventura A BEAUTIFUL CHALLEnGE TO REVAMP THEM, AS THEY’RE led to rumoured interest from the Italian FA, A BIG TEAM On An ECOnOMIC LEVEL THAT CAn IMPROVE” as they sought more experienced hands to guide the Azzurri away from the wreckage. The decision, announced through the press Above “I guess you Former Napoli striker Nicola Amoruso, who Former Manchester City and Inter manager rather than directly to the players, didn’t go don’t rate my dance played under Ancelotti at Juventus, believes Roberto Mancini was eventually appointed to down well with the squad. Ancelotti himself moves much, then” his handling of a tense situation proved the the role in May 2018, but only nine days later, said that while he respected De Laurentiis’ beginning of the end. Ancelotti’s return to the touchline – and his wish, he didn’t agree with it. Midway through native land – was triumphantly announced the week-long camp, Napoli hosted Salzburg “The players thought Ancelotti was part of by ambitious Napoli. in a group game that could have guaranteed the group, but he stayed between them and their progress to the Champions League last the management,” he tells FFT. “That wasn’t Much like with Bayern, the Partenopei had 16. But after a disappointing draw, Hirving very good for anyone. He wasn’t in a happy turned to the seasoned Italian as a big-name Lozano cancelling out an early penalty from situation and the players judged his position coach who could ease the worries of fans and Erling Haaland, all hell broke loose. badly; they thought he was on their side, but players at the end of a successful era. Ancelotti was stuck in the middle between The team decided they’d had enough of the the team and president, trying to mediate.” This time, Ancelotti was stepping into the training retreat and refused to return to their shadow of Chelsea-bound Maurizio Sarri, who accommodation. An altercation between De De Laurentiis reacted by threatening legal had built an extraordinary team during three Laurentiis’ son Edoardo and senior pros was action against his own players, while the seasons at the Stadio San Paolo. Under Sarri, said to have become so heated that it nearly fans were enraged by a team they perceived Napoli played the best football that the city came to blows, and the players went back to to be work-shy: a banner was promptly hung had seen since Diego Maradona inspired the their homes. Ancelotti, stuck in the middle of outside the San Paolo that read, “You have club to two league titles, and came close to an impossible situation, respected the club’s chosen a bad path... Respect those who love matching those feats. In his third and final decision: he and his staff went back into the this shirt and pay you!” season, Sarri’s outfit racked up a remarkable ritiro alone, without the squad. 91 points – but it still wasn’t enough to take Costacurta was stunned by how quickly the the Serie A title off Juventus on 95. situation in Naples fell apart. Ancelotti’s appointment after nine years away from Serie A felt like a natural match; one that could even take Napoli to the next level. After all, despite Sarri’s dazzling football and table-topping bouts with the Bianconeri, he left the club without a trophy to his name. His successor’s task was to turn a talented team into a winning one. Instead, the similarities with his doomed spell at Bayern continued back home. Ancelotti oversaw a campaign of continuity rather than revolution, as Napoli once again finished runners-up in Serie A – this time 11 points behind Juve – and tumbled out of the Champions League in the group stage. Having finished level on points with eventual winners Liverpool, they fell into the Europa League on goals scored. Quarter-final exits in the Coppa Italia and Europa League against Milan and Arsenal respectively meant there was plenty of room for improvement as Ancelotti went into the 2019-20 season. But it wasn’t to be: history repeated itself again, as a second season turned sour for the veteran boss. It wasn’t as sudden this time, but it was no less dramatic. After a 2-1 loss at Roma in November, Napoli owner Aurelio De Laurentiis was angry at the team’s poor form and sent them into a ritiro – a common sanction for underperforming Italian teams, in which they live and work at their training ground for a set amount of time. 58 December 2020 FourFourTwo

CARLO AnCELOTTI “For me, the biggest surprise of his career Top to bottom a flexible 4-4-2 rarely convincing. His team the subsequent five seasons. They also had was his last year with Napoli,” admits the Carlo’s methods lacked balance and players were frequently a reputation for haphazard spending after five-time European Cup winner. “Despite the helped Everton played out of position. several costly, unsuccessful transfer windows. skills as a mediator that he’s always had, he get off to a flyer created a fracture that, for the first time in in 2020-21, with As always, though, he remained popular So he started simple. A team that had won his career, he couldn’t mend.” James providing as a person. His affable manner – including five of its first 18 league games of 2019-20 the ammunition the episode when he helped a fan to fix his before Ancelotti’s arrival beat Burnley 1-0 on Napoli’s next game, a drab 0-0 draw with for Calvert-Lewin bicycle before a pre-season training session his debut, and then lost only six of their next Genoa, was described by Corriere della Sera – ensured that while his work wasn’t always 20 league fixtures. Everton finished 12th, but as “the ugliest game of the last 10 years”. De appreciated, his character was. Ancelotti’s pulling power became evident in Laurentiis went away during the subsequent a summer transfer market that resulted in international break to consider his response. But nice guys sometimes finish last. James Rodriguez, Allan, Abdoulaye Doucoure and Ben Godfrey agreeing deals. Ancelotti’s dismissal came a month later, GWLAD YOU CAME in December 2019. The timing was a surprise One player already at Goodison Park when to some – he had just overseen a 4-0 win at Despite back-to-back spells he would have the Italian rocked up was frontman Dominic home to Genk to seal the club’s progress to rather forgotten, Ancelotti still found himself Calvert-Lewin, whose 10 goals in the Toffees’ the Champions League last 16 – but when a man in demand upon his departure from opening seven games of this season turned the coach departed, his side were languishing Naples. The only problem? His options were heads and earned him an England call-up. seventh in Serie A, 17 points off the summit. now rather narrow. Ancelotti even mentioned the 23-year-old in the same breath as former Milan marksman “Honestly I don’t think he made any big The Italian was soon linked with vacancies Filippo Inzaghi, who Costacurta played with mistakes at Napoli,” says Amoruso. “Coming at Arsenal and Everton, but with the Gunners at San Siro for six years. in straight after Sarri certainly didn’t make it deciding to go with Mikel Arteta instead, he easier for him, because everyone expected was eventually seduced by an offer from the “I’ve followed Calvert-Lewin, yes – people great things, but it takes time. Relationships Toffees that would secure him passage back have spoken very well of him for several years between big characters don’t always work now,” admits the Azzurri legend. “Teaching out, and it didn’t work between Ancelotti to the Premier League. Inzaghi-style movements to another forward and De Laurentiis.” On the plus side, and unlike the teams he is impossible, though. Calvert-Lewin has good movement inside the penalty area, but still Not everyone agreed. Ancelotti was had inherited at both Bayern and Napoli, doesn’t quite have the ability to get free from criticised for failing to impose a tactical Ancelotti would have struggled to perform defenders yet – that was one of Pippo’s best identity in Naples, with his attempts to worse than his predecessors. Everton had skills. Instinct is something you can’t train, transform Sarri’s fluid 4-3-3 system into failed to finish in the top six since 2013-14, but if you look at Calvert-Lewin’s goal against and come 11th, 11th, 7th, 8th and 8th in Liverpool, there were movements he made that he wasn’t doing before Carlo arrived. If he trains that skill, we’re surely talking about the next England forward.” With his own new boys in place supplying Calvert-Lewin with regular ammunition – not least the glorious James, himself with a point to prove – Ancelotti’s charges flew out of the blocks in 2020-21, winning their first seven games in all competitions to mark the club’s best start to a season since 1894. “Going there was his greatest gamble,” says Costacurta. “I think that, as he’s shown this year, Everton can spend money to get closer to the bigger teams. Carlo is also in love with England – he’s loved it since his first day at Chelsea in 2009. In my opinion, it’s a beautiful challenge to revamp Everton, as they’re a big team on an economic level that can improve on the last few years.” If that improvement can result in a return to Europe, Ancelotti’s love for England will be repaid in full – and some – by the blue half of Merseyside. Some may say he’s already there. MORE On FOURFOURTWO.COM • You Ask The Questions: Carlo Ancelotti (by Sam Pilger) • “A pig cannot coach. Go away, Ancelotti”: Abuse, failure and dismay for Carlo at Juve (by Adam Digby) • James: How did the little Colombian with a stutter get here? (by Martin Mazur) • Quiz: Can you name Carlo Ancelotti’s top appearance-makers at clubs he’s managed since 2000? FourFourTwo December 2020 59

QATAR 2022

QATAR 2022 AGAInST Words Mark Lomas THE Pariahs of the Gulf, Qatar are also Asian champions, thanks to a long-term plan T he sandals rained down on Qatar striker Almoez Ali, bringing his to revamp their football fortunes. With impromptu, hip-swinging celebration to an abrupt halt. Ali had two years until their World Cup debut, just scored the most important goal of his career to put Qatar what are their realistic hopes as hosts? 2-0 up against the hosts, the United Arab Emirates, in the 2019 Asian Cup semi-final. Home fans in Dubai didn’t share his glee, WORLD and responded by angrily flinging their footwear in his direction. While Qatar won the tournament a few days later, that semi-final humbling – it ended 4-0 – was, for many Qataris, sweeter than the 3-1 win over Japan in the final, after 20 months of geopolitical tension between Qatar and their Gulf neighbours, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE. In June 2017, diplomatic ties were severed, flights between the countries cancelled, citizens expelled. It was ugly, and remains so. For those familiar with Qatar only as a football financial powerhouse, it might be difficult to imagine the country that has bankrolled Paris Saint-Germain to the tune of billions as an underdog. However, playing at a tournament as a regional pariah, with your supporters unable to attend and the national anthem jeered ahead of every match... well, suffice it to say, the odds were stacked against them. Although that triumph was certainly no fairy tale, it was nonetheless a remarkable achievement for Felix Sanchez Bas and his players, who were unfancied outsiders at best ahead of the Asian Cup. “The semi-final was the most difficult game I’ve faced in my career,” coach Sanchez tells FourFourTwo today. “The political issues made it more sensitive, but during the whole tournament we always tried to keep the players’ focus on their football. They really responded to that, showed professionalism, and ultimately we were able to celebrate the country’s biggest ever sporting achievement.” That is no understatement. While the world champion high-jumper Mutaz Barshim commands massive respect in his homeland, Qatar is football-obsessed, as are all countries in the region. Sanchez’s team were welcomed back as heroes. Now there’s a bigger matter at stake. Can the Maroons sustain that momentum at their home World Cup in 2022? BAD BLOOD AND BROWN ENVELOPES It’s now almost 10 years since Qatar was awarded World Cup hosting rights, to worldwide derision. A Sunday Times exposé from March 2019 reported that the Gulf nation had secretly offered $400 million to FIFA three weeks before the decision, while state-controlled broadcaster Al Jazeera had also pledged an eye-watering initial payment of $100m for a successful vote. The subsequent investigations into FIFA have dogged Qatar for the past decade, not to mention the continued stories that report human rights violations of the workers building its tournament stadia. Qatar 2022 is under the microscope like no other World Cup ever held. But it will be held. Despite continued opposition by many, the Middle East’s first World Cup will take place in the November and December of 2022. For Qatar, it’s also their first appearance, making them the only hosts since 1934 to combine duties with their competition debut. It should be a moment of celebration for a region boasting hundreds of millions of passionate football supporters. Yet the Gulf is still divided. While historic peace accords have recently been signed between Israel, the UAE and Bahrain, the schism with Qatar seems no closer to being repaired. FIFA president Gianni Infantino has repeatedly asserted his hope that the extravaganza can bring stability back to the Gulf, but he probably shouldn’t hold his breath. On the pitch, the 2022 World Cup will represent the ultimate test of a 16-year vision for football in Qatar. The Aspire Academy was created back in 2004 with the aim of dramatically improving the quality of the national team – and tasked with implementing the vision of Sheikh Jassim [bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the current Emir’s brother] was a bloke from Wolverhampton. Michael Browne oversaw the entire football programme at Aspire from 2004 to 2012, leaving his role as academy director at Charlton Athletic to do so. “If you look at Qatar’s national team in the early 2000s, they would change the coach every year and they had a lot of naturalised players,” he tells FFT. “Understandably, they wanted to see root-and-branch FourFourTwo December 2020 61

QATAR 2022 improvement. The team wasn’t performing that well, so the idea was Above In an “Aspire has had a huge impact on the development of players, and ‘we don’t mind losing but we might as well lose with our own players apparent show of course the [Qatar Stars League] clubs and national team have really rather than these overseas ones’.” of modesty, this felt the benefit,” says Sanchez. “Each country has their own scenario. Qatari rendering In Qatar, we are a country with a small number of people. The only The desired changes weren’t instantly forthcoming, largely because of a new arena thing we can do is work hard with the players we have and try to make the pool of local talent was still too raw. Indeed, Qatar’s leading scorer sees the hosts them better. Each player has to be a project for us because we don’t remains the Uruguay-born Sebastian Soria, who became a poster boy down to 10 men have too many people here – we have to make the players we do have for naturalisation when he made such a positive impact playing for reach their potential.” the national side. For a decade from 2007, he was part of a patchwork senior team made up of naturalised South Americans, Africans and It appears to be working. Qatar faced Japan at the 2007 and 2011 players from Middle East neighbours. Asian Cups and had seven naturalised players in their starting line-up each time. When they faced off in the 2019 Asian Cup Final, only four With the instruction of unearthing more Qatari talent, Browne began were naturalised, and two of those had lived in Qatar since childhood. by scouring the globe for high-quality coaches who would be willing to relocate – not always the easiest sell. However, heads were quickly The process has not been without its critics, however, with some turned by the world-class training and medical facilities at the Aspire stories over the years suggesting Qatar just made their naturalisation Academy, while the promise of tax-free living in a sun-kissed Gulf state process more covert by bringing in players from a younger age and wasn’t exactly disagreeable. then resettling them in the Gulf. Browne spent more than a decade fighting accusations that Qatar was mining African talent to play for Browne and his Aspire coaches also identified Qatari starlets for the its national team. academy to recruit, and committed to an all-encompassing football education which featured schooling on site and regular coaching. Due “It’s incredibly frustrating,” he admits. “Particularly after Qatar was to Qatar’s small population – 2.8 million, of whom only 300,000 are awarded the World Cup to host, we were inundated with media from Qataris – it didn’t take Browne & Co. long to build up a picture of every all over the world coming over to ask the exact same question: ‘You’re school-aged player who could be eligible for the national team. This bringing African boys over to play for Qatar?’ It wasn’t true then and included several children of immigrants, like current striker Almoez Ali: it’s not true now.” he joined Aspire aged 10, having relocated with his family from Sudan a few years before that. There is no denying that foreign players have been shipped into the country in order to compete both against and as part of the Aspire 62 December 2020 FourFourTwo

QATAR 2022 It was on one such visit to Qatar in 2007 that Browne first met Felix Sanchez, then a fresh-faced coach at Barcelona’s La Masia. “I always used to watch the coaches from the different teams and see how they conducted themselves – their manner,” reveals Browne. “Felix made a great impression and I invited him to work for us. He was coaching young kids at that stage but he always showed a very good work ethic. He’s passionate about improving the players, and he built a good relationship with them.” THE CONSTANT CARETAKER Sanchez’s rise has been more measured than mighty, the Spaniard having gradually worked through Qatar’s age categories since then. It was in 2014 that he really made his first significant mark, winning the 2014 AFC Under-19 Championship ahead of continental giants such as China and Japan, the latter spearheaded by future Liverpool attacker Takumi Minamino. The following summer’s Under-20 World Cup proved a steep learning curve, with three losses from three group games, but Qatar stuck by Sanchez. In 2017, he stepped up to coach the Olympic team. Shortly after a failed qualification attempt, he was catapulted into the senior position for what many imagined would be a caretaker stint. But with the Maroons having rattled through 29 coaches in 30 years, Sanchez is set to become Qatar’s longest-serving boss in 2021 when his tenure reaches the heady milestone of four years. When his many predecessors have included seasoned international veterans such as Philippe Troussier, Bruno Metsu and Milovan Rajevac – and also, at one point, Dave Mackay – the appointment of Sanchez broke the mould. “Sanchez is a phenomenal man-manager and he has deserved his chance,” enthuses Mitch Freeley, a Qatar-based football journalist. “I’d say there are traits of Jose Mourinho in him. Qatar play good defensive football and harness that siege mentality like all of Mourinho’s great teams, and when they spring forward, they’re decisive on the counter. “Most importantly, he knows his players inside-out and upside-down. He knows how they play; when they’re feeling good and when they’re feeling bad. He has a real bond that is very rare, and what he’s created is almost like a club side. That’s his best talent.” For a number of players, that bond was forged in their teenage years, working with Sanchez at Aspire. Four players who featured for Qatar in the 2019 Asian Cup Final – Tarek Salman, Akram Afif, Almoez Ali and Salem Al-Hajri – had played under Sanchez in 2014’s Under-19 Asian Championship; a further three – Tameem Al-Muhaza, Yousef Hassan and Mohammed Al-Bakri – were unused substitutes in 2019. Sanchez has been given every chance of success thanks to the setup in Qatar. From the consistency in youth development provided by the “THERE’S TALK OF PEP OR ZIDAnE COMInG In, BUT THE COACH DESERVES RESPECT FOR WHAT HE HAS ACCOMPLISHED WITH QATAR” Right The only way Academy, but Browne insists that their purpose was to offer effective is up for Qatar boss competition for Qatari youngsters – not to replace them. Felix Sanchez Bas “I can categorically say that we never brought any players over with a view to naturalising them at an early age,” he asserts. “That never happened. What we did was have players who relocated to Qatar as part of the Aspire Africa Project, which lifted the level on a daily basis for the Qataris. “We’re proud of these stories, not trying to hide them. A number of these lads went on to play for their own national teams at different levels. John Benson is just one player I remember we had: he won the Under-20 World Cup with Ghana [in 2009].” While better-quality footballers were being introduced into the Aspire Academy, the youth teams of various global heavyweights were often welcomed to Qatar for tournaments. Manchester United, Real Madrid, Liverpool, PSG and Boca Juniors have all helped to provide a gauge for Qatari prodigies’ development, at the cost of millions. FourFourTwo December 2020 63

QATAR 2022 Aspire Academy, to hankering for invitations to international events – like the Copa America in 2019 and 2021 – the national team is always Qatar’s number one focus. Even the Qatar Stars League (QSL), founded in 1963, has invested heavily to lure ageing stars such as Xavi, Wesley Sneijder and Santi Cazorla, in order to improve the quality and appeal of domestic football. “The way the system works is unique in world football,” says Freeley, who once worked at the QSL as head of English content. “The league, national team and Aspire are in sync with each other. All of the players are based in Qatar, and while there has been some foreign interest in the likes of Almoez Ali and Akram Afif, I imagine they’ll stay until after 2022 now. Felix Sanchez Bas is a very hands-on, technical coach, and the league is sculpted around getting the most amount of time on the training pitch with the national team players. Winning the Asian Cup justified that process to a lot of senior people in Qatar.” AS ASIAn CHAMPIOnS THEY FACE ADDED PRESSURE TO REACH THE LAST 16 OF A HOME WORLD CUP Even with Sanchez’s success, Qatar – in keeping with many of their Above Almoez More concerning was their quarter-final Gulf Cup exit to Saudi Arabia Gulf neighbours – have a trigger-happy reputation regarding national Ali scooped the last December, when the team looked sluggish and devoid of a Plan B. team managers. It means the Spaniard’s position still seems a little top goalscorer precarious, given that there are two full years to go until their home and best player In 2021, Qatar will ramp up preparations by entering as guests into World Cup. The 2019 Asian Cup triumph gives him significant credit in awards as Qatar the Copa America again, as well as playing at the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the bank, but with a downturn in results since, including a 5-1 friendly won the Asian the Gulf Cup in Iraq, and their outstanding 2023 Asian Cup qualifiers. hiding by Ghana in October, is there a risk he won’t make it to 2022? Cup in 2019 Below Xavi was Then comes the biggest year in their history. As Asian champions, “It wouldn’t be beyond the realms of possibility to see Sanchez lose an early mover they will have the added pressure in two years’ time of advancing to his job and a big name come in,” says Freeley. “The lure of a big name to Qatar, in 2015 the knockout stages of their home World Cup. It’s clear that avoiding is still huge in the Gulf, and there has been talk of a figurehead such as the same fate as South Africa – the only hosts to have crashed out at Pep Guardiola or Zinedine Zidane being drafted in. Honestly, though, the group stage – should be a minimum requirement. I hope it doesn’t happen, because Sanchez deserves respect for what he has accomplished.” “We’re feeling the responsibility but it’s a big honour,” says Sanchez. “We’re motivated and looking forward to seeing how we can face this Former Aspire head Browne agrees that Sanchez has performed well competition – the biggest in football. I’d like Qatar to progress as far beyond expectations in producing a title-winning Qatari team. as possible; it’s difficult to say how far, but the most important thing is to show the world that Qatar is able to compete against any national “People don’t understand the reality of working with a population of team. I believe that, rather than pressure, is the motivation.” Qatar’s size,” he explains. “I was born and raised in Wolverhampton, and if you said we were going to put together a national team from Money will take you only so far, yet Qatari football has come a long just Wolverhampton to compete at the World Cup, people would think way in a short space of time. Patience has been key: faith in long-term you were mad. But that’s what has happened in Qatar. Felix Sanchez solutions and a holistic approach to youth development are central to won the Asian Cup with a squad made up almost entirely of guys from the team’s evolution from Asian also-rans into continental champions. the Aspire Academy. It’s something to be proud of.” With so many millions spent, it could be argued that failure would be Football ground to a halt in Qatar during the coronavirus pandemic, a bigger story than success for Qatar – though for now, their sensible meaning a distinct lack of game time for the national team in 2020 – methods are bearing fruit. Given regional sensitivities currently and the only that humbling annihilation from Ghana up to November, in fact. unshakeable global suspicion towards them, however, they might be It’s a sharp contrast to 2019, when Qatar participated in the Gulf Cup waiting some time for any congratulatory pats on the back. and the Copa America after their Asian Cup victory. They were bottom of their group in Brazil but their results weren’t disgraceful: a 2-2 draw with Paraguay, 1-0 defeat to Colombia and 2-0 reverse to Argentina. MORE On FOURFOURTWO.COM • The death of La Masia: How did Barcelona’s academy lead to a club in crisis? (by Andy Mitten) • The eight biggest rivalries in international football (by Nick Ames) • Quiz: Can you name every country to compete at a FIFA World Cup? 64 December 2020 FourFourTwo

QATAR 2022 CAnADA: a s one of three hosts for football’s big bash, Canada will split the IT’S THEI costs and pressures of organising the 2026 World Cup with the PARTY... USA and Mexico. There is just one small drawback: a coy FIFA are yet to confirm if all three nations will automatically qualify. …but are they actually invited? North America’s forgotten “A host nation not even at their own tournament? That would football siblings are 2026 World Cup hosts alongside Mexico be so bizarre,” former Ipswich, West Ham and Canadian international and the USA, yet there are no guarantees they will be there goalkeeper Craig Forrest tells FourFourTwo. “We’re all hoping FIFA will reach a positive decision as soon as possible.” Words Ed McCambridge Canada’s record of qualifying on merit doesn’t bode well: their only World Cup appearance was in 1986 (played three, lost three, scored none). At least the 2026 edition will be expanded to allow 48 teams, meaning the nation currently ranked 72nd in the world and 7th within CONCACAF – behind El Salvador – will have a better chance of gaining access to their own party, whatever FIFA say. There is, however, extra scrutiny on CONCACAF’s decision-makers, as disgraced ex-chairman Jack Warner was replaced by Canadian Victor Montagliani in 2016. “Montagliani won’t want to seem as if he’s being favourable [about automatic qualification],” says Forrest. “Still, things are better than the days of Warner and corruption – that was diabolical for every team.” There are more pressing concerns, though, with Canada first aiming for a spot at Qatar 2022. Their low FIFA ranking meant they weren’t one of five nations to advance straight to the third ‘octagon’ stage of CONCACAF qualifying, but they were seeded in the first group stage. Should Canada top their group ahead of Suriname, Bermuda, Aruba and the Cayman Islands, and subsequently prevail in a play-off, they’ll compete for three direct qualification berths from an eight-team pool, alongside the USA, Mexico, Costa Rica et al. A fourth nation will secure an intercontinental play-off – and there’s optimism. “There’s a real excitement,” says Forrest. “It would be fantastic to qualify for 2022 by ourselves before we host the next one. Whatever happens after that, nobody could say we weren’t at 2026 on merit.” Canada’s superstar is Alphonso Davies, a Treble winner with Bayern Munich before his 20th birthday. “To have a player you’d pay to watch because he’s so electric – we’ve never had that before,” beams Forrest. “He’s helping to change the perception of Canadian players.” Forrest, who won 56 caps for his country between 1988 and 2002, is impressed by Canada’s riches: not only is there Davies [below] but Jonathan David, also 20, joined Lille for €25m in August. “Attack-wise, we’ve never been so strong,” adds Forrest. “Defence was usually our strongest point in the past, but now we’re able to score goals as well.” However, while Canada have made great strides, they’re still focused on being competitive in the lead-up to 2022 and their own World Cup. “We have almost no record of qualifying for major tournaments,” explains Forrest. “And as much as we’re getting better, so are others. But there’s no reason we shouldn’t be competing with the likes of Costa Rica and Honduras to qualify for international tournaments. Mexico and the USA are always very strong, but that third spot should be what we’re fighting for.”

DOUGLAS ROSS THE DD OOU BUL E GL ILF EAO FS D ouglas Ross is willing to admit when he Scottish Tories leader by day, elite has made a blunder, but this is one he is assistant ref by night: who says all secretly rather pleased with – or at least politicians are alike? The flagging should be, anyway. MP tells FFT how he juggles two of FourFourTwo has asked the leader of the UK’s least popular professions the Scottish Conservative Party to show us a treasured picture that adorns his office wall Words Joe Brewin at Westminster – a memento for visitors to admire. It’s not a cherished family photo; nor does it depict a political triumph. Instead, it’s something unique: a comically oversized canvas of Ross with Lionel Messi at the Camp Nou, before the Flea hit his 100th European goal against Olympiacos in 2017. For, while Ross was elevated to his current position in August and has been representing his home constituency of Moray in various capacities since 2007, by night he takes great pride in another role: as a FIFA and UEFA-accredited specialist assistant referee. And he’s got the massive picture of Messi to prove it. “After that game, [fellow assistant] Frankie Connor looked at me, shaking his head,” says Ross. “He said, ‘You won’t believe the superb 66 December 2020 FourFourTwo

DOUGLAS ROSS “THE ELECTION RESULT WAS ON FRIDAY, THEN I DID A GAME IN SAUDI ARABIA ON SATURDAY”

DOUGLAS ROSS picture there is of you and Messi – you’ve got to get this made as the biggest canvas you can’. When I moved offices in the House of Commons after becoming leader, I thought, ‘It’s finally time to get this decent photo on the wall’. There are two quite big pictures of the Scottish Cup finals I’ve done, which take pride of place above the fireplace, but…” he breaks off, as he flicks through his phone to show us the giant portrait. “It was genuinely a mistake: I didn’t realise how huge it would be,” he laughs. “My team said I couldn’t put it up as it would make me look like a dictator, then my wife said there’s nowhere I could hang it at home. So, I was stuck. But it’s a nice talking point...” Rewind to a few days before his big trip to I accept that, but a large majority of people Above “Have the bee’s knees in this terrible-looking gear,” Barcelona three years ago, and this dual don’t. They think, ‘There’s a guy who started you considered he says, laughing. “I remember I was doing life was landing Ross in a spot of bother. off in Forres with a pretty poor performance, which way to a criss-cross signal that you’d see more often and now he’s walking out to do Champions vote this year?” in rugby as my call for offside, which players Indeed, it would later result in SNP MP John League matches’. Below Weirdly, obviously didn’t understand. McNally gleefully waving a red card across this one isn’t on the chamber at Theresa May in Westminster. “I’m not saying they’re all flag-waving fans, the office wall “There was a supervisor watching me. The but there’s a sense of ‘the boy has done quite final score was 11-0, and he said six of the The Conservative’s opposition sharpened well there’. I think my opponents paint it as goals were clearly offside. I thought I’d done their knives after Ross was unexpectedly this awful thing, but many people don’t want OK, but then I got an email a few days later. caught short on his travels at the same time politicians who are so one-dimensional that I’ve still got the report from Paul Warmington as a non-binding Universal Credit vote. they have no interests outside Westminster at home in one of my filing cabinets: ‘Mr Ross or the Holyrood bubble.” strolled through the match and occasionally “In Westminster, with 650 MPs, there’s this broke into a jog...’ thing called the pairing system,” says Ross. Ah yes, that ‘poor performance’. The Scot’s “If you’re not going to be present at a vote – officiating wasn’t always held in such high “I now assess my games an awful lot and for many reasons – you can pair up with an esteem. As a young student at agricultural it probably goes back to that. My wife goes opposition MP doing the same. I thought that college, and with “absolutely no playing skill crazy because our Sky box is full of matches was a reasonable solution to being absent. whatsoever”, Ross answered a request in the I did years ago. I still go back to watch them newspaper for new referees to join the local sometimes and think, ‘Was I in line with the “It was an opposition debate and we were association of Moray and Banff. After going last defender there?’ Sometimes I’m a little not expecting a vote – in fact, it had been through 10 weeks of training at Elgin High self-critical and study a clip several times to manufactured by them, but that’s by the by. School and getting a couple of juvenile games see if I’m right, but I expect it goes back to The headline was that I’d missed Parliament under his belt, Ross was thrown to the wolves that game where I needed to improve quite to officiate in a Champions League fixture with his first adult matches in the Forres and rapidly if I was going to get anywhere.” when there was a vote on Universal Credit. Nairn Welfare League. A week later, I was in Parliament for another Luckily for Ross, he did – and he was soon debate and did take part. “As young referees, we’d been handed this identifying his true calling as a specialised grey Dinsport kit to wear, and I thought I was assistant. It changed his future in officiating “My wife was messaging me to say that I’d been on the news again, my parents were wondering what was going on and, of course, there I was in a different country, trying to concentrate on a football match. I made the commitment then that I wouldn’t officiate in games when Parliament was sitting. Luckily, there’s still plenty of opportunities for me to do international matches.” Quite. Despite a coronavirus-hit 2020 and his parliamentary commitments, Ross has still managed to run the line in Luxembourg, Ukraine, the Czech Republic and the Faroe Islands this year, also assisting at Wembley when England saw off Wales 3-0 in October. It wasn’t the last time his officiating tripped him up, however. In August, a pre-scheduled appointment at Kilmarnock meant that he missed the two-minute silence for VJ Day in his home constituency of Moray, supplying more ammunition to his outraged political rivals. While an embarrassed Ross rued the oversight and donated his match fee to Help for Heroes, he has dealt with opportunistic jibes from Scotland’s opposing parties ever since he assumed office as an MP in 2017. As he points out, though, his constituents aren’t quite so affronted. “In each election I’ve stood in, the SNP have used refereeing as a stick to beat me with,” he says. “Some people agree with them, and 68 December 2020 FourFourTwo

DOUGLAS ROSS “THE ABUSE IS WORST LOWER results came out Friday, meaning I could fly top and bottom, but if you’re going uphill it’s DOWN. IT CAN GET PERSONAL out on Saturday for the game being played one heck of a run.” AT BUCKIE vs DEVERONVALE” that night. I remember the heat all day was so intense, and the temperature of the game As both the head of the Scottish Tories and forever. Today, he is the only assistant ever Above “Tell us was also very hot – a winner-takes-all Riyadh an assistant referee, Ross is plainly a sucker to be appointed for two Scottish Cup finals. about the time derby. Everything was going on. for punishment. But they go hand-in-hand, you ‘tackled’ says the Moray man, who puts up with more He admits, “I didn’t really have the ability that Germany “Towards the end of the match, [referee] than his fair share of stick. “In both,” he says, [as a referee]. I might have got to second or player again, John Beaton got headbutted with the whistle “you have to make unpopular decisions even third-tier football, but I knew I’d never reach Prime Minister” in his mouth. It broke one of his teeth. When if you know they’re right; you must trust your the dizzy heights of Premiership, Old Firm and the game finally finished, there were people instincts, sometimes making split-second European games. So, my local supervisor put in suits, visibly armed, there to help us get off choices; and you’ve got to have a very thick me forward to be a specialist assistant referee the pitch and back to the dressing room. You skin to accept the criticism that comes your (SAR). I was the first in Scotland to do that. knew you’d been through the wringer after way – regardless of how good or bad those I went on UEFA’s CORE (Centre of Refereeing 90 minutes! That was a special experience.” decisions may be. Excellence) programme that David Elleray set up and did some intensive training there for Mercifully, not all appointments threaten “The abuse is probably worst in the lower 10 days, then went back for another seven. an unexpected trip to the dentist – most leagues. When you get to a big Premiership After that, I was a fully-fledged specialist offer rather more pleasant escapes from match with a huge crowd, you can’t actually assistant – I became international in 2015.” a chamber of argumentative MPs. hear what the supporters are yelling. When you’re at Buckie vs Deveronvale, however, it Having cut his teeth in Europe with a first “I like Italy as a country, so I enjoy games can get personal. I quite often get called out appointment between Copenhagen and Real there,” admits Ross. “In terms of a stadium, for decisions I’ve taken on the local council Madrid in the UEFA Youth League, Ross has the Camp Nou was very special, but I’ve also or as an MSP, and they know you very well! continued to juggle politics with line-running done both Milan clubs at San Siro. I like going At the bigger matches it tends to be during all over the world. Two days after the 2015 to the smaller countries as well: I went to the the warm-up that you can hear it, and there General Election, he travelled to Saudi Arabia Faroe Islands for a Europa League tie but it have been many occasions where I’ve got as for the red-hot tussle between Al-Hilal and was played at their national stadium, which big a boo as the referee.” Al-Nassr – so hot, the game requires unbiased was really good. foreign officials to oversee it. He has assisted seven Old Firm derbies, so “I did Norway vs Germany in a World Cup is Glasgow – an SNP hotbed – the worst? Not that it made much difference. When qualifier, too [in 2016], after Germany had Ross was involved, there were 10 yellow cards won the World Cup. The trophy was pitchside “The recognised figures there are rightfully and three reds, plus an almighty brawl. – we’re running back and forwards up to the the referees – they’re the ones in charge of halfway line, and there’s the World Cup, just the game,” explains Ross. “Recently, though, “It was crazy,” he recalls. “The appointment a few metres away! I was filming a party election broadcast in came in, and our head of referees had clearly the centre of Glasgow and I’d recently been calculated that my chances of being elected “All of these appointments are remarkable, at Celtic Park for back-to-back matches. At were slim – he was right – because he asked, but I genuinely enjoy every game. I could do that stage, people were aware that I was the ‘If you win or don’t win, would you be able to a Highland League match that’s as difficult Scottish Tory leader, and some of them were accept an appointment on these dates?’ He and well-contested as one in the Champions aware that I was an official, too, so we had was always very cryptic about where we were League with cameras and world-class players to move our filming for part of it as we kept going, but I said it was fine. in front of you.” getting interrupted. I’ve laughed quite a few times at some of the things that have been “The election took place on a Thursday. We It’s at this point of our chat that Ross waxes shouted in my direction.” One Championship counted the votes through the night and the lyrical about that Highland League, Scotland’s gaffer aggravated him for almost an entire fifth tier. He referees at that level when called game, then declared, “I vote Tory, you know, upon, revelling in its derbies: Buckie Thistle so you’ve got to talk to me.” vs Deveronvale (where a police presence has been required for rival fishing communities), It’s all part and parcel of the experience for Forres Mechanics vs Nairn County and Wick a 37-year-old who simply loves helping out Academy vs Brora Rangers. “There’s a slope at football matches. The bad performances on the pitch at Wick,” he says with a smile.  sting a lot, admits Ross, but there’s only one “I don’t know what the difference is between thing that would make him consider hanging up his flag permanently: becoming the First Minister of Scotland. “I’d have to give up refereeing for that,” he concedes. “There’s so much that people have to think about in a game – he or she doesn’t need any additional pressures. That wouldn’t mean I’d completely walk away from football and officiating, though. I still believe I’d have a role to play somewhere. “I just thoroughly enjoy it. People struggle to understand it sometimes, but there is such great camaraderie between referees at every level across the world. We’ve all been through it and had good games and bad, and even when I finally stop, I’d still like to be involved in some way. I now try to pass things on to younger referees in Moray and I sometimes watch their first games, like that guy did with me in Ayrshire 17 years ago.” Meanwhile, Ross can continue to admire the canvas of himself and Messi, which hangs above his fireplace in the House of Commons. Can Nicola Sturgeon do that? FourFourTwo December 2020 69

TOnY YEBOAH THE MORE I ATE YE Hm w h ulli f ll w n alf decades on from becoming a cult hero at Leeds, ony Yeboah shares his memories with Two – memor racism and a certain Sunday staple Words Gary Al-Smith 70 December 2020 FourFourTwo

TOnY YEBOAH

TOnY YEBOAH f it had been up to Tony Yeboah and were circling, as word began to spread of this Top Yeboah was It came as a surprise to some, as Yeboah his knowledge of English football, he Ghanaian goal king. However, trial spells at a hit in Germany had suffered racist abuse from Frankfurt fans might never have arrived to grace it Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen and either side of his just a year earlier. “Those racist people never in January 1995. “I never knew Leeds Bochum came and went without much joy. spell in England bothered me, even though I could hear all of before I was told they wanted me – Above He twice it, because I always focused on why I came I’d never heard of them,” he admits “I actually wanted to go to the Ivory Coast scored 20 goals to Europe,” he tells FFT with a shrug. “I was to FourFourTwo, almost 26 years later. as I had an offer from there, too,” he reveals. in a season for in Europe to succeed, and some racist guys “But my godfather encouraged me to look Frankfurt; before weren’t going to stop me. Roger Milla was But, of course, Leeds had heard of towards Europe. No one showed any interest, he, Okocha and one of my heroes because he blazed the trail him. United’s scouting network could though. I struggled in the new environment. Gaudino fell out for African players – and John Barnes. If they hardly have missed the Ghanaian at It was very difficult. Luckily, Saarbrucken were of favour with could do it with focus and discipline, I could Eintracht Frankfurt in 1994, after he fine with giving me time to grow.” coach Heynckes do it, too. And if I could do it, what stops any had picked up a second consecutive African footballer from ignoring the racists in Torjägerkanone – or the Goalscorer Cannon, But even in the 2. Bundesliga, Yeboah found order to show them who’s boss on the field?” the Bundesliga’s very own Golden Boot. it hard to acclimatise in Germany. “Any time Predictably, Bayern Munich were quick to I face challenges, I tell myself to remember At this point, Yeboah’s face lights up and he pounce. The Bavarians had clinched the title where I’ve come from,” he says now. “I had leans forward in his chair. “Do you know the in 1993-94 but they needed reinforcements issues adjusting to the food, language and upfront, with their top scorer Mehmet Scholl weather, but those thoughts kept me going. having finished on a meagre 11 league goals. Failure was not an option.” Yeboah had netted 18 playing for fifth-placed Eintracht Frankfurt. Franz Beckenbauer had Saarbrucken qualified for the Bundesliga’s managed Bayern for their final 14 matches promotion/relegation play-off in Yeboah’s that campaign, and his summer priority was first season, 1988-89. He struck twice in the landing the striker. second leg of his club’s aggregate defeat to “We met in Munich to talk personal terms Eintracht Frankfurt – yet the Ghanaian recalls and my role in their team,” recalls Yeboah. how incoming coach Klaus Schlappner had “I liked it, and the plan was for me to sign to protect him from impatient fans after he after I got back from holiday. But Frankfurt had scored ‘only’ nine goals in the 28 games said no. They didn’t want to sell a top striker up to then. The following campaign was more to improve an already decent Bayern side.” bountiful as Yeboah’s 17 league goals earned Frankfurt were so intent on putting Yeboah another play-off: again he scored, but again off Bayern, they gave him 200,000 Deutsche Saarbrucken lost, this time to Bochum. Marks (around £80,000 back then). “It was a gift; a don’t-go-to-Bayern fee!” he laughs. “Although we lost, I played extremely well,” “Can you believe that? Instead, they asked explains Yeboah. “Straight after the second me to consider Leeds.” game, Frankfurt sent their people to speak to And he did. me and I agreed to play for them.” “FAILURE WAS NOT AN OPTION” Yeboah is seated in a hotel room in Accra, Ghana’s capital. Relaxed and exuding the same confidence he carried throughout his hectic career, the 54-year-old is unhurried as he walks FFT through his life. “I was born in Kumasi, in an area called Krofrom,” he says. “I came from a very poor family and didn’t think I’d go on to become a successful footballer. My family believed in education and really wanted me to finish my schooling. I wanted to just play.” Yeboah’s parents preferred him to become a preacher, and frequently forbade him from playing football, but there was no doubting his popularity in juvenile team Kotoko Babies – not that it paid off at first. “Every year, Kotoko selected three players from the youth side to join their senior team,” he remembers. “I was in great form, but they didn’t pick me.” Annoyed, Yeboah decided not to wait for another chance. He signed for their city rivals Kumasi Cornerstone, and it wasn’t long before Okwahu United, Kotoko’s league adversaries, snapped him up. Yeboah then discovered a knack for scoring against his idols. “Kotoko had Opoku Nti and Anane Kobo: both household names with the national team,” he says, smiling. “I seriously adored them. But any time that I met them, I made sure to leave my mark on the game.” Yeboah hit 35 goals in 35 games during his final season in Ghana. Soon, European teams 72 December 2020 FourFourTwo

TOnY YEBOAH same racist fans gave me a standing ovation “CARLTOn PALMER WAS WILD. HE COULD after the second leg?” he grins. “It was their DRInK AnD DRInK AnD STILL TURn UP AT appreciation which led Frankfurt’s coaches to TRAInInG THE nEXT DAY, READY TO GO” come and get me.” Below How to be Frankfurt had been one of the poster cities because… I don’t know,” he says with a sigh. Eintracht had existed for 91 years as a club popular in Leeds: of West Germany before 1990’s reunification, “Maybe because the other teams had more when they brought in Yeboah, but in almost net in a 3-1 win and Eintracht were always eager to show money and deeper squads.” a century, they had not fielded a black player. over Man United a progressive front. Yeboah, who was signed He saw an opportunity to educate. in 1990, was a regular feature of the club’s There was quality, though. In 1993, Yeboah community engagement, visiting hospitals watched young, snake-hipped team-mate “Every time I stepped on the pitch, I played and schools. Locally, his popularity soared. Jay-Jay Okocha bamboozle Karlsruher keeper for myself, my family, my country, for Africa Murals of his face were plastered on homes Oliver Kahn to score one of German football’s and for black people,” he says. “I wanted to in the city; fans would meet him in town and most famous goals. “Even before we became prove that I was as good as anyone they had roll up their sleeves to show off their tattoos. Eintracht team-mates, I knew him well as he seen. Giving up and going back to Ghana? “I would just stand there, looking at my own was big in Nigeria,” reflects a smiling Yeboah. That was not an option.” He wags his finger. face on someone’s arm or calf,” he reveals, “We hit it off straight away when we met. He chuckling. “Things like that energised me to liked to dribble and create chances. Me, I just For everyone back in Ghana, this was just do more for the fans. I can’t explain it.” liked to score...” a continuation of the Yeboah they knew. Cult magazine show Soccer Made in Germany was Playing in Germany’s top flight at long last, And score he did. In ’93-94, Yeboah bagged aired weekly and responsible for a generation Yeboah grew in confidence and goalscoring another 18 Bundesliga goals and shared the of young African footballers who looked up prowess. After a fairly quiet opening season, league’s top-scoring honour yet again, with to him. As Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp he posted 15 league goals in 1991-92, then Kaiserslautern’s Stefan Kuntz. But July 1994 said in May, “Yeboah was one of the greatest another 20 in 1992-93, putting him joint-top brought a new boss: Jupp Heynckes. strikers to play in Germany, apart from Gerd of the Bundesliga scoring chart alongside Muller. He had a big impact on society.” Leverkusen’s Ulf Kirsten. THE ONLY WAY IS JUPP In Yeboah’s four full seasons at the club, As the well-known German writer Hartmut Eintracht finished 4th, 3rd (two points off the Scherzer tells it, Heynckes “disliked Yeboah summit and with a superior goal difference), at first sight... he just didn’t like the guy”. In 3rd again and 5th. “The team was very good, his new 736-page book, Scherzer dedicates but we always fell short of winning the title a whole chapter to the sudden downturn of that entertaining Frankfurt team, and argues: “You can’t tell me that Yeboah, whose whole career was littered with goals, became lazy overnight, as Jupp alleged.” When FFT broaches the subject, Yeboah frowns. “I’m a very dedicated person – I give everything,” he begins. “When I saw that the manager didn’t like me, I became a different person. I’m very calm and very quiet – that’s why I don’t like interviews much.” In 1994, Yeboah was established with the captain’s armband: the first black player to skipper a Bundesliga team. He’s still fiercely proud of the fact. “All of the players wanted me to have it,” he explains, “but when Jupp came, he wanted a ballot to choose another captain. The players flatly told him that they wouldn’t do one; that they wanted me. From then on, he wasn’t happy with me.” In a 2007 edition of FIFA magazine, Yeboah alleged that the manager had been racist – a claim he repeated in a 2017 BBC interview, and again in May this year with Ghana’s state broadcaster, GTV. “Oh yes, I stand by that,” he insists. He is equally perplexed (“It’s been many years and I still don’t understand”) as to why anyone would have called him and Okocha lazy after the pair had consistently produced the goods in Germany. Heynckes rejected the claims as “absurd and unsubstantiated” in November 2017, but last year, at a Bundesliga legends event in Dortmund, Okocha admitted to FFT: “Heynckes resented the idea that two black guys were poster boys.” In late 1994, the coach punished Yeboah, Okocha and midfielder Maurizio Gaudino for FourFourTwo December 2020 73

TOnY YEBOAH their supposed idleness. This time they’d had “Once again, I had to adapt,” he explains. Above Carlton keeps Yeboah. “English football was kick-and-run, enough, and the trio refused to take part in “It was always raining. Even the first day they himself upright, just but I was physical and Howard always had the next league game against Hamburg. “We showed me to the media, it was wet! But the Below Eyes on the my back. Some of the guys in the team made were suspended, but we had to stand up for Leeds fans – man, those fans were incredible. prize... hundreds of things fun. Carlton Palmer was wild: he could ourselves,” says Yeboah. “I knew it wouldn’t In Germany, Frankfurt supporters chanted Yorkshire puddings drink and drink and still turn up at training be long before I left if he remained in charge my name after they’d been racist to me but the next day, ready to go. Phil Masinga had of the team.” then realised I could score goals. In England, something nice to say every day, and Lucas Leeds fans didn’t wait for me to play a game. Radebe was a leader, a real leader.” Within a month, Yeboah was gone. They were singing songs from the very start.” In January 1995, England’s top flight was Leeds won nine of their last 13 matches, to midway through only its third campaign as Despite making his Whites debut as late in finish fifth. “We didn’t have the chemistry we a rebranded entity. Leeds, the final winners the campaign as January 24, coming off the wanted between midfield and attack,” says of the First Division in 1991-92, had recovered bench against QPR, Yeboah was Leeds’ top Yeboah, “but I think it was the best we could following a miserable defence of their title scorer in 1994-95. He ripped home 12 goals manage, because teams like Liverpool and and were playing some of the most attractive in just 18 Premiership appearances, including Manchester United had some serious quality. football in the country. However, they simply back-to-back braces at Chelsea and Leicester. Fifth was like winning the league.” weren’t scoring goals. “The three goals against Ipswich weren’t too “They had Gary Speed, Rod Wallace, Gary bad either,” he says cheekily, of his hat-trick And the rumour that he loved a particular McAllister and some other good players, but in early April. “My secret was that I wanted local favourite? “Yes, yes, I loved the Yorkshire finishing was an issue,” says Yeboah. Leeds to prove to myself that I could do in England puddings!” he says, laughing. “I had no idea had chased Duncan Ferguson, Ruben Sosa what I’d done in Germany.” what they were, but the more I ate, the more and Tomas Skuhravy without success. Yeboah I seemed to score.” was very much the backup option – albeit an A lively dressing room helped him to settle. extravagant one at £3.5 million. “Wilkinson was simply amazing,” enthuses Nordale Foods even sponsored Yeboah two “When Frankfurt told me Leeds were going puddings per goal, plus one for each of his to pay that much money, I said it was fine, team-mates. Once, a truckload of 250 turned because of the circumstances at the time,” up. “Eventually, we agreed they should stop,” says the former frontman. Thrilled manager he confesses. “I couldn’t eat them any more!” Howard Wilkinson would later describe the deal as “not too expensive”. THE PUNISHER RETURNS Yeboah quickly realised that England was notably different from Germany. Even so, love The following season, Yeboah returned from from the locals immediately overshadowed his summer break in bullish form. He figured any misgivings about the climate. that having spent half of a season in English football, he knew the terrain by now. It was time to take things up a notch.

TOnY YEBOAH “FOR TECHnIQUE AnD COnTROL, THE GOAL AGAInST WIMBLEDOn IS BETTER THAn THE LIVERPOOL OnE...” “I was really in the mood to explode,” he Above Tony goes goal was better than the one at Wimbledon Yeboah enjoys checking out Leeds highlights tells FFT. “When the season started, I was in potty after that goal “because my heart is there”. As for Marcelo serious shape. And because I’d finished as against Wimbledon next, eh?” he says, grinning. FFT hates to be Bielsa, “he’s an interesting guy and I’m sure top scorer for three straight seasons [twice Below Returning to we can make the top 10 [this season] – I’ve for Eintracht Frankfurt and then for Leeds], Germany “to show predictable, but… well, obviously we are. watched a few of our games and he clearly people expected more.” everyone I still had knows what he’s doing”. it” with Hamburg “Yes,” comes the answer to a now-familiar The 1995-96 season sealed Yeboah’s place Yeboah has only one regret from his time in English football lore. The 29-year-old struck question, comparing the goal with his other at Elland Road: “When George Graham came two goals on the opening weekend as Leeds in as Leeds manager, things didn’t work out prevailed 2-1 at West Ham, his match-winner famous exocet, unleashed 33 days later. “The between us. I thought he didn’t like me. He a lesser-heralded left-footed bullet into the was asking how much money I earned, and top corner. “It was inside the penalty box,” Liverpool one means more to me as it was why I was earning so much. The relationship remembers Yeboah. “The ball came over the became bad, and during one game I threw midfield, I ran onto it... and then I just hit it.” against my idols, it was live on television, and my shirt away when he substituted me.” He What more is there to say? has apologised often for the outburst, which it was my first really great goal in England.” was a release of built-up frustration following It set things up nicely for his next match: frequent injuries while the club fell into the a clash with boyhood club Liverpool. Very few players could relegate an equally top flight’s bottom half. “Leeds fans forgave me long ago, and any time I visit they make “John Barnes was a big, big hero for me as astonishing strike to second place. me feel at home,” he says, warmly. I grew up,” he gushes. “Ian Rush – all of those guys. So meeting them was very special, and “To be honest, for technique and control, Yeboah left Leeds just as he came: without I was excited.” Although he had always been warning. In September 1997, he returned to a Reds fan, Yeboah hadn’t been able to afford the goal against Wimbledon is better,” says Germany with Hamburg “to show everyone a Liverpool shirt back in Kumasi. “Things were I still had it”. He plundered 35 goals in 121 different,” he says. “Even if you had money, Yeboah. “But if you then add the ingredients games, including home and away against you probably needed someone else to send Juventus in the Champions League. In 2001, it over from abroad.” of the crowd, the size of the match and all of with more injuries slowing him down, Yeboah joined Qatar’s Al-Ittihad (now Al-Gharafa) In August 1995, he could afford as many the emotion, it’s the Liverpool one.” “to get my final pay cheque”. Liverpool shirts as he wanted – but the striker had a job to do. Five minutes into the second He’s correct, of course. We fire up a laptop Twelve months later, he called time on an half, with the score 0-0, Tony Dorigo wedged eventful career. “It was a World Cup year,” a 25-yard ball towards the head of forward so that Yeboah can watch his stunner against he says. “I remember asking myself why my Rod Wallace on the edge of the penalty area. generation had never qualified for one. But “We’d practised those moves in training, so Wimbledon yet again. Once the ball reaches these days, I don’t think about it too much.” I wasn’t surprised when he headed the ball into my path – but it was a little too fast,” him, it’s chest-controlled, then kneed, swiftly Yeboah generally shuns the media at this says Yeboah. “As the ball landed, I knew stage of his retirement, preferring to manage I just wanted to hit it.” juggled past one Dons defender with the left his business interests (“hotels, and a couple of things here and there”). As we near the In subsequent years, it has been said foot and steadied with the right even while it end of our chat, he yawns. “Are we done?” the shot travelled at 96 miles per hour. moves away from the striker. He takes three Almost. One final question: how would he “Sometimes, when a ball leaves your describe his career in one word? He looks up, foot you know it’s heading straight in,” steps… “then I hit it.” then down. “Very successful,” he responds, continues Yeboah. Yet it didn’t quite go deliberately ignoring the request. But who can straight in, because after it flew past David The drive’s ferocity causes the poor Mitre complain? Yeboah has always lived in his own James, the ball hit the crossbar, cannoned world – and English football fans will forever into the turf and found the roof of the net. ball to crash against the underside of the bar want to be part of it. James recalled recently that he “had done everything possible to stop that ball... it was – twice. “It was a very good goal,” says the MORE On FOURFOURTWO.COM the goal that showed I was human: it beat me and beat me good.” Ghanaian, then guffaws at his facetiousness. • 90 things we miss about ’90s football As we reach this point in the interview, It was, after all, voted BBC Goal of the Season • The 25 best Premier League goals ever Yeboah knows what’s coming. “You’re (by Seb Stafford-Bloor) going to ask me whether the Liverpool ahead of his Liverpool effort. He shrugs. “I’m • You Ask The Questions: Tomas Brolin glad I gave them two good goals to choose (by Chris Flanagan) from e laughing again. He actually scored three times in that win over Wimbledon. The last was “just normal”, he says of his hat-trick goal, an opportunistic shot from the edge of the box. One goal was rarely enough for Yeboah. In 1995 alone, he bagged four braces and three hat-tricks for Leeds, including a UEFA Cup treble away at Monaco, who had Lilian Thuram in defence. These days, Yeboah is a happy man. “I’ve had a terrific life, worked hard, had some luck and made use of chances that came my way,” he says. Chuckling, he nods at his daughter in the corner of the room and adds, “I hang out with her a lot; she says I’m fun to be with!” Golf, he says, “has become an addiction… if I make a successful shot, the feeling is almost the same as when I scored a goal”. While he seldom watches football on TV – and admits he rarely did – FourFourTwo December 2020 75

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THE UnTOLD STORIES For better or worse, they just don’t make them like El Diego any more. FFT celebrates the joy, destruction and downright madness of football’s most entertaining figure – via two Scudetti and an incredible World Cup Words Chris Flanagan, Martin Mazur, Andrew Murray Additional reporting Emanuele Giulianelli, Marcus Alves, Caio Carrieri

60DIEGO MARADOnA

60DIEGO MARADOnA WHEn HE WAS On matchday, Maradona was woken up by CALLED A FATTY his manager. “He came to my room and kept peppering me with this interview,” revealed – THEn GOT the star. “He said, ‘Diego, what this keeper HIS REVEnGE has been saying about you isn’t fair. It shows a complete lack of respect. You need to show Hugo Gatti won’t forget November 9, 1980. what you’re capable of. You’re not a fat boy, It was the day Argentine football saw the are you?’ When I went onto the pitch, I was real character of its shimmering new star completely over the top.” for the very first time. The day when he made Diego Armando Maradona angry. Gatti attempted a handshake at the coin toss, but Maradona ignored him. “I’d already The pint-sized prodigy had carried his tag imagined that if I scored, I’d put the ball of wonderkid since a bright breakthrough in under my shirt to show a big tummy – but 1976, then guided Argentina to their maiden when I netted the first goal, I just thought Under-20 World Cup win three years later. ‘f**k off’. Then came the second goal, and Even still, he remained at Argentinos Juniors, the third before half-time.” a small club with few aspirations. Maradona scored four – two from free-kicks. Until then, Maradona had only amassed “Before one free-kick, Gatti said to me, ‘Look, praise. That week, aged 20, he discovered his what’s been published – I didn’t say it’. Too first enemy: Boca Juniors’ eccentric keeper. late, mate. We were already winning 5-1.” Maradona’s famous vindictive spirit, the fuel to fulfil his greatest deeds, was soon about Boca’s crowd gave Maradona a standing to come to the fore. ovation after his hat-trick strike; a year later he was their player, after rebuffing River Plate. “There was an interview where Gatti was saying that I was a chubby boy, that I was River were the richer club and offered more not what people said I was,” recalled Diego. money, but Maradona rejected them in the “I hadn’t seen it, but our manager Miguel open. “I’m not going to sign for River because Angel Lopez did. While we were at dinner, he Boca have called me,” he declared. Actually, brought the paper and threw it on the table. Boca hadn’t been in contact at all – but they ‘Look, Diego,’ he said. As I was reading, my took the hint and made their move. neck vein started to grow bigger.” Talks were ongoing when Maradona played Among Gatti’s comments was a claim that for Argentinos Juniors against River, and was Maradona had ‘a chubby ass’. “He was super abused by fans. Then Maradona turned up skinny, but I said that if he didn’t take care at River’s home, the Estadio Monumental, to of his fitness, he’d become fat – his bottom watch the final of a global U13s tournament, looked like a nun’s habit,” Gatti later tried to between Inter and Bolivian outfit Academia explain in his futile defence. Tahuichi Aguilera. “What are you doing here, bostero?” two River directors asked, as Maradona sat in the VIP box with his girlfriend. Objecting to this pejorative term for a Boca fan, Maradona got up and started a punch-up. “I wanted to kill them,” he later said, of a scene that got him booted out of the VIP area. “I shouted, ‘I’m never coming back to this club – never!’” Maradona signed for Boca two weeks later. 80 December 2020 FourFourTwo

DIEGO MARADOnA WHEn HE Maradona’s encouraging start came to an SMASHED UP OnE abrupt halt in December 1982, when he was OF BARCELOnA’S diagnosed with hepatitis – commonly linked with recreational drug use. By the time he’d TROPHIES returned the following March, Lattek was out. Maradona was high. It was November 1982, Cesar Luis Menotti, Argentina’s 1978 World and a few weeks earlier he’d tried cocaine Cup-winning manager who replaced Lattek, for the first time. He sat on the bathroom indulged his compatriot’s nocturnal antics. floor of his Barcelona home, eyes darting Menotti shifted training to the afternoons wickedly, and turned off the lights. and evenings, citing the players’ “biorhythms” as responding better to the change. Really, it “Suddenly, Dalma [his mother] knocked on was so Maradona could sleep off his cocaine the door: I was terrified, I was a drug addict,” binges at his palatial new home. he later reflected. “I was 22 and I did it to… I don’t know. I suppose to feel alive.” “Whatever time you went there,” said one member of Diego’s 25-strong, all-Argentine Five months previously, Barça had spent team of minders, “there was always food, a world record £5 million on Diego. He settled always someone in the bedroom; you always quickly, scoring six goals in 13 appearances. had the chance to get laid.” For his first month he stayed with the club’s vice-president, Nicolau Casaus – although On one visit to Maradona Towers, a stunned not everyone was quite so accommodating. Blaugrana director was shocked to see his His disciplinarian coach, Udo Lattek, referred star “naked in bed next to [fiancée] Claudia to his No.10 as “ese chico, Diego” (“that kid, and a Chihuahua, watching porn”. Diego”) and soon grew weary of Maradona’s erratic personality. One matchday, the star Somehow, the diminutive playmaker still was so late for the team coach that Lattek delivered on the pitch, winning the Copa del ordered it to leave without him. Rey and the Copa de la Liga, both against Real Madrid, in June 1983. MARADOnA AIMED KICKS, ELBOWS AnD PUnCHES AT He nearly didn’t play in the former. Invited BILBAO PLAYERS – RIGHT to feature in Paul Breitner’s testimonial in In FROnT OF KInG CARLOS West Germany along with team-mate Bernd Schuster, Maradona was apoplectic when president Josep Lluis Nunez refused to give him his passport. In response, he headed for the Camp Nou trophy room with Casaus. “I’m going to wait five minutes,” he told him. “If I don’t get my passport, I’m going to smash all of these lovely crystal trophies here one by one.” When Nunez didn’t show his face, Barça’s Teresa Herrera pre-season trophy was no more. Maradona eventually got his passport, but was still unable to play in the testimonial when Barcelona found a loophole in Spanish FA rules which prevented him from travelling. In September 1983, Athletic centre-back Andoni Goikoetxea broke Maradona’s ankle with a ferocious bone-crunching tackle fully befitting a man nicknamed ‘the Butcher of Bilbao’. Goikoetxea still has the boot that did it, mounted in a glass case at home. The next June’s Copa del Rey final provided Diego with a chance for revenge, but Athletic rough-housed their way to a 1-0 win, focusing attention on Maradona’s recently mended ankle. At full-time, he went nuclear, aiming a series of kicks, elbows and the odd punch at anyone in red-and-white stripes – all in front of King Juan Carlos, watching on from the stands. Maradona was banned for three months as a result. He was also broke. His trusted agent Jorge Cyterszpiler lost big on several investments, which included a Paraguayan bingo hall, and the pair needed a move. Maradona, by then 23, joined Napoli that summer. The Argentine’s spell in Spain was no disaster – he scored 38 goals in 58 games – but it was in Barcelona where he began the descent from square-jawed pocket power to overweight addict desperate for another fix. “Those who say that cocaine stimulates you don’t know a thing,” Diego later sighed. “It’s useless for life. Useless.” FourFourTwo December 2020 81

60DIEGO MARADOnA WHEn HE ALMOST a draw in the return match to qualify. Only in the s**t, kids who were with me and didn’t MISSED THE WORLD the group winners advanced automatically. do anything. Have you got that, grass?” CUP – THAnKS TO A VEnEZUELAn MADMAn With 10 minutes remaining at home to At a subsequent meeting, Maradona was Peru, Argentina trailed 2-1. “I was physically confronted by another senior player, Jorge Maradona’s best moments came at Mexico ruined, carrying around that damned right Valdano, and responded with accusations 86, but his attempts to reach that World knee,” remembered Maradona. “I dreamed about Passarella’s private life, After another Cup started in the worst way possible. of hammering the ball into the net, but I just huge row, Passarella was struck down by couldn’t do it – I wasn’t up to it.” illness and withdrew from the tournament, Sent off in his last game of the ’82 edition, never to play for Argentina again. for booting Batista in defeat to Brazil, he was His team-mates soon came to his aid. In made Argentina captain a year later aged the closing stages, Ricardo Gareca equalised. Maradona assisted all three goals as they 22, after new boss Carlos Bilardo visited him “Right there, I said to Gareca, ‘This is how the opened the World Cup with a win over South in Barcelona. Maradona had dreamed of it – World Cup is going to end for us: we’ll suffer Korea, but was furious after being fouled 11 for years he had been buying armbands in for it, but we’ll win it’,” Diego later explained. times. He ended up in a war of words with readiness, and already had a collection of FIFA president Joao Havelange, angry over more than 200 in a drawer at home. Preparations for the World Cup were hardly both his lack of protection and the decision promising, though. In April 1986, Argentina to stage games in boiling temperatures for Despite that, Maradona didn’t actually play lost to Norway – a country that had never the benefit of European TV audiences. for the national team for three years. Having been to a major tournament – and Bilardo made clear that the star was central to his faced scrutiny from within the government. The quarter-final against England was also World Cup plans, Bilardo preferred to assess “If Bilardo leaves, I leave,” said Maradona, at noon, but it didn’t stop Maradona. He had Argentina-based players until qualifying took before scoring twice in a 7-2 win over Israel. tried his famous Hand of God goal before: as place during six games in the summer of ’85. a kid when he sparked controversy for junior “Many people had wanted Bilardo to go,” team Los Cebollitas, and then in an Argentine When Maradona & Co. touched down in Maradona’s team-mate Pedro Pasculli tells league match against Velez Sarsfield. On the San Cristobal for their opening qualifier in FFT. “But he had created an extraordinary second occasion, it was disallowed. Venezuela, chaos ensued. “The crowd got group. Without that, we would never have out of control,” he said. “One madman found been able to win the World Cup.” “The ref advised me not to do it again,” he his way through the crowd towards me, and recalled. “I said I couldn’t promise anything.” when he crossed my path, kicked me really But the group then faced another crisis – hard. I limped to the hotel. The son of a bitch an argument between Maradona and Daniel When Maradona joined Napoli, he did it for had buggered the meniscus in my knee.” Passarella, who had been Argentina’s World a third time against Zico’s Udinese. “Zico Cup-winning captain in 1978, but was now came running over to me and said, ‘Diego, Unable to sleep following the shock of the 33 and had been replaced as skipper. When you must tell the referee that you scored incident, Maradona battled on to not only Maradona and several of his team-mates with your hand, or you’re not being honest’,” play through the pain the next day, but score were 15 minutes late for a meeting, it was he later told FFT. “I said, ‘Nice to meet you, two goals in a 3-2 win. After four matches, suggested that the delay might have been Zico – I’m Diego Dishonest Maradona’.” Argentina had four victories, in a four-team because he was too busy taking drugs. group also featuring Colombia and Peru. But After infuriating England with the same the longer qualification went on, the more “OK, I’ll admit I do drugs,” Maradona told trick, he followed it with the greatest goal of Maradona suffered with his knee. him. “But not this time. You’re landing others his career – a solo strike he’d almost pulled off at Wembley six years earlier. During that Their final two fixtures were both against friendly defeat to the Three Lions, Maradona Peru. Argentina lost 1-0 in Lima, and needed – then 19 – had similarly turned and dribbled past several players down the right, before attempting a toe-poke with his left foot just past the far post. After the game, he got a call from his 11-year-old brother. “You moron – you should have thrown the keeper a dummy, he’d already committed himself!” said Hugo. “You little s**t!” responded Maradona. “It’s easy for you to say that – you’re watching on telly.” At the Azteca in ’86, he took his advice. Two more goals against Belgium propelled Argentina to the final against West Germany. Before the biggest game of his life, Maradona showed no signs of nerves. “The night before, Diego and I were in our beds, talking,” says Pasculli, his room-mate in Mexico. “We were recalling so many good memories, our first experiences in football. I struggled to sleep that night, it was really hard for me. But he said a few things and then just fell asleep.” It was Maradona who prodded the ball for Jorge Burruchaga’s winning goal in the final. He would lift the World Cup as captain. “It was extraordinary to be his room-mate and live with him throughout that World Cup,” says Pasculli. “Living a day with Diego was such fun – he was a simple guy and he didn’t make any of us worry about the fact that he was the best player in the world. “He was one of us, but also had so much personality. You’ve got to have character to be a leader – which player in world football could have given you better advice than Maradona? He was our undisputed leader.” 82 December 2020 FourFourTwo

60DIEGO MARADOnA “I SAID, ‘nICE TO MEET YOU, ZICO – I’M DIEGO DISHOnEST MARADOnA’”

60DIEGO MARADOnA WHEn BERLUSCOnI dual Argentine and American citizenship. TRIED TO LURE HIM Ex-US secretary of state Henry Kissinger even TO MILAn WITH got involved, but Maradona refused the idea A LAMBORGHInI of compromising his nationality. It’s difficult to know whether Maradona Two years after the interest from Milan, he and Silvio Berlusconi would have been also agreed to join Bernard Tapie at Marseille a match made in heaven or hell. Either – only for Napoli to renege on their promise way, the Argentine was top of the latter’s to let him leave. Lucky they did: Maradona wanted list at Milan in November 1987. stayed to claim a second Scudetto in 1990. Berlusconi had taken over the Rossoneri “Lifting a trophy with Napoli was worth a year earlier, then watched Maradona win way more than with other big clubs – and his first Scudetto with Napoli. The politician with Diego on our side, it was like we already responded by recruiting Marco van Basten started matches winning,” says Careca. “He and Ruud Gullit... but he wasn’t done. was fantastic, an artist who seemed to have come from a circus. I was amazed by what With Maradona in negotiations over a new he was able to do with just one leg. Although contract in Naples, Berlusconi made his he couldn’t head the ball or use his right foot, move – offering to double the star’s salary, he made impossible things possible. throwing in a plush Milan apartment and any car he wanted. A Lamborghini, a Ferrari “People usually think it was easy playing or Rolls-Royce: Maradona could take his pick. with him, but it was more difficult because his standards were so high – you had to “Berlusconi wanted him at Milan at all constantly push yourself to be at his level. costs, and not only him – he actually came after me as well,” former Napoli stiker Careca “I first met him after the 1986 World Cup tells FFT. “But I had an agreement with Diego at an awards ceremony. He asked me if I had that, in Italy, I’d only play for Napoli.” the dream of playing alongside him – a while later, Napoli came after me. When I arrived In the end, that was Maradona’s decision from Sao Paulo, he knocked on my door and too. “If it comes off, we’ll both have to leave told me, ‘This is your home, this is Brazil too’. Italy,” the Argentine told Berlusconi. “You’ll It still gives me goosebumps. lose business because the Neapolitans will bust your balls... and I won’t be able to live.” “Sometimes we’d go out to dinner at 2am – restaurants were already closed, but it only Napoli got wind of Milan’s interest, though, took him a quick phone call for them to open and swiftly upped their offer. They gave him up for us. That was the only time we could a rare black Ferrari in his new deal to boot. enjoy a proper meal without being bothered. Separately, Maradona was offered $100m “He’d demand that the kit men got the by IMG for his image rights – if he’d agree to same prize money as the players after wins, although it’s no secret that Diego had certain privileges. During pre-season, he wouldn’t take part in the first week, so by the time he finally got back from vacation, we were no longer in the mountains. “He didn’t have to train every day, but if he showed up once a week, we knew we’d win at the weekend by three goals at least. If he trained twice, perhaps by five or six!” 84 December 2020 FourFourTwo

60DIEGO MARADOnA WHEn HE PUnCHED knew he wouldn’t be able to enjoy a peaceful HIS MAnAGER time in Buenos Aires,” says Careca. “It didn’t work out exactly as we had planned, though (AnD FAILED THREE – the neighborhood was so crowded while DRUGS TESTS) he was around that we couldn’t even go out. In April 1990, Maradona was champion of “It was a big surprise when he failed the Italy. Within three years, he’d left not one drugs test because I’d never seen him out of but two clubs in disgrace – the latter after control. We were always together for lunches, decking the manager who’d helped him to games, trips, so I was very shocked. It was World Cup glory. a deep sadness, because he was key for us. Playing without him was so different.” There were just two months remaining of the 1990-91 campaign when the Argentine In the same month as his suspension was helped Napoli beat Bari 1-0, then got chosen confirmed, things went from bad to worse – for a random drugs test. The results came Maradona was arrested in Buenos Aires on back positive for cocaine. suspicion of cocaine possession – and the press were there when his house was raided. Within weeks, Maradona had been banned “I asked the cop in charge, ‘The journalists for 15 months; although he admitted having are outside, aren’t they?’” said Maradona. a drug problem, he insisted that he tested “I said, ‘Well straighten your tie, because himself regularly and was clean that day. you’re going to be on all of the TV channels’. Instead, he believed the punishment was in Unbelievably, he actually did...” revenge for his win over Italy in the 1990 World Cup semi-finals – held in Naples. From When Maradona organised a tribute game there, Argentina lost 1-0 to West Germany. for a former Argentina international who’d recently died, FIFA threatened him with more “After the World Cup, he went to my house sanctions if he played. He did anyway. in Campinas to get some rest, because he After his ban expired, the player refused to return to Napoli, then managed by Claudio Ranieri. Mediation was required from FIFA’s Sepp Blatter before he was finally allowed to join Sevilla – there had also been renewed interest from Marseille, before a season in which they’d controversially conquer Europe. In Seville, Maradona was reunited with his manager from the 1986 World Cup, Carlos Bilardo – but this time it didn’t go well. With Sevilla only seventh by the season’s closing stages, the board suggested sacking Bilardo and making Maradona player-manager – only for Maradona to refuse out of loyalty, and warn his coach about the club’s plans. Days later, and struggling again with the knee injury he’d first sustained in Venezuela in 1983, he was livid when he went through the anguish of three painkilling injections at half-time of a game – only for Bilardo to sub SEVILLA HAD SUGGESTED SACKInG BILARDO AnD InSTALLInG MARADOnA AS PLAYER-MAnAGER

60DIEGO HE CELEBRATED HIS GOAL AGAInST GREECE WILDLY, MARADOnA THEn DISCOVERED HE’D FAILED A DRUGS TEST him 10 minutes later. “You motherf**ker!” Maradona shouted in front of TV cameras, before smashing up the dressing room. A day later, Bilardo came to see him. “You can’t do this to me, I saw it on TV!” he said. “You saw it on TV? I f**king told you to your face, you motherf**ker!” replied Maradona. Bilardo pushed Maradona, who responded by flooring his teary-eyed manager with a punch. Maradona left Sevilla soon after, ending his playing career in Europe. He went back to Argentina with Newell’s Old Boys, but stayed for only five months after the club changed managers. On the day of his departure, in February 1994, Maradona fired an air rifle at journalists outside his house. Then came his second positive drugs test, at the 1994 World Cup. Without a club in the lead-up, Maradona had instead followed an intensive fitness regime with his entourage, determined to ensure that – aged 33 – he could play in what he knew would be his last World Cup. Preparations weren’t aided when Argentina had to to cancel a tour to Japan, though, after he was denied a visa. But the World Cup started well. He scored and celebrated wildly in a 4-0 battering of Greece, then helped Argentina beat Nigeria, only to discover that his post-match drugs test had come back positive for ephedrine. Shocked, he burst into tears when informed. “I busted my balls!” he said. “I worked my arse off like never before – and now this.” It later emerged that Maradona’s personal trainer had bought a vitamin supplement in the US called Ripped Fuel, believing it to be the same as Ripped Fast, the supplement he had been taking in Argentina. Sadly, the US product contained traces of ephedrine. Maradona was banned for another long 15 months. The news devastated not only those in Argentina but also Bangladesh, where several hundred Maradona fans reportedly attempted mass suicide. Unable to play, he spent two months as manager of Argentine side Mandiyu, until the club’s owner entered the dressing room to criticise the players. Maradona hit the roof. “You motherf**king fatso, what the f**k are you coming in here to talk to the players for?” he asked. “Get out now or I’ll smash your face in with my bare hands.” A scuffle ensued, until Maradona was dragged away. A subsequent spell as manager of Racing lasted four months, before the president lost an election. Maradona quit. Eventually, he was allowed to finish a storied playing career at Boca Juniors, after politely declining an offer from Pele to become the player-boss of Santos. Maradona dreamed of a title for Boca in his second spell, but he was denied after missing five penalties in a row during 1996. The next summer, he took the bizarre step of hiring disgraced sprinter Ben Johnson as his new personal trainer. Two months later, Maradona failed a third drugs test. With the Argentine FA refusing to confirm what he’d tested positive for, Maradona’s 37th birthday became an unhappy one, infuriated by false rumours that his father had died. It proved the final straw. There and then, Maradona called an end to his playing days. 86 December 2020 FourFourTwo

60DIEGO MARADOnA WHEn HIS RAnT employ the same expansive tactics he had FORCED A MATCH used at sea level – which, even with Lionel TO BE CAnCELLED Messi and Carlos Tevez in his side, backfired spectacularly. “Every Bolivian goal was like “You lot, take it up the arse,” were Diego a dagger in my heart,” he said. Maradona’s opening words of the press conference in Montevideo. A tone-setting Argentina responded by losing three of the sentence, if ever there was one. next four qualifiers – to Ecuador, Brazil and Paraguay – and slipped to fifth with just two In October 2009, Maradona was in charge matches remaining. Amid media criticism, of Argentina, and his side had just qualified the coach used more than 70 players in his for the World Cup in turbulent fashion. first year in charge, desperately trying to find a line-up that worked. La Albiceleste had sat third in CONMEBOL’s giant qualifying group a year earlier, when Thankfully for him, one of those went on to he was given his first dugout gig since retiring provide the defining act of Argentina’s frantic as a player. Four teams would qualify for the qualifying campaign. Maradona’s strugglers World Cup, with a fifth going into a play-off. rescued victory over Peru in their penultimate game thanks to a 92nd-minute strike from Appointed ahead of rival contender Diego veteran striker Martin Palermo – previously Simeone, with Carlos Bilardo installed as most infamous for missing three penalties technical director, Maradona’s first qualifier against Colombia in 1999, but recalled to the ended in a 4-0 victory over Venezuela. Then squad after a 10-year absence. With the rain they went to Bolivia – and lost 6-1, equalling hammering down, Maradona celebrated with the worst ever defeat in Argentina’s history. a belly flop on the pitch. Bolivia had picked up a measly nine points If they lost against Uruguay in Montevideo, from their opening 11 qualifiers, but had the though, Argentina could still finish sixth and big advantage of playing at altitude; a year fail to qualify for the first time since 1970. earlier, Maradona had helped them overturn Mario Bolatti’s late strike secured a 1-0 win to a FIFA ban on matches in La Paz, playing in pinch fourth spot. a charity match and speaking out in support. “Certain people who have not supported He took his Argentina team there without me, they can suck it and carry on sucking it,” Juan Roman Riquelme, who’d retired from Maradona ranted after securing automatic international football at 30 after a bust-up qualification, earning himself a two-month with the new boss. Maradona naively tried to ban from FIFA. A friendly against the Czech Republic had to be cancelled. “BILARDO IS A THERMOS HEAD – THAT MEAnS HE “I laughed when I saw the video of that IS DUMB, STUPID, UGLY” press conference,” Juan Sebastian Veron tells FFT, having played in that Uruguay decider. “We know how Diego is and his reactions, so there was no need to be surprised about it. He reacted like that because he felt like he wasn’t being treated well, that he was being attacked, and that his ability as a coach was being put in doubt.” At the World Cup, Argentina won all three group games against Nigeria, South Korea and Greece, then defeated Mexico in the last 16. With Messi, Tevez, Angel Di Maria, Maxi Rodriguez and Gonzalo Higuain all in the starting XI, they were an obvious goal threat. But defensively they were left exposed, and Germany punished them in a bitter 4-0 quarter-final demolition. “We were utterly disappointed,” laments Veron. “Our hopes and dreams had grown through the tournament. For my generation, Diego Maradona means everything. He was an outstanding player, but having him as a coach was different, as he was in charge of more than 20 guys. “We all knew that when it comes to Diego, things are quite unique, but we tried to let it go and focus on performing well. To have Maradona and Messi working together at the same World Cup, I don’t think that will ever happen again. It was special to be part of it.” Weeks later, Maradona departed as coach after refusing to change his backroom staff. His relationship with Bilardo had broken down again. “Bilardo is a Thermos head,” Maradona later explained to FFT. “Thermos head means dumb, stupid, ugly.” Definitely not a compliment, then. FourFourTwo December 2020 87

60DIEGO MARADOnA WHEn Maradona also claimed that Gimnasia’s El MARADOnA HAD A SPECIAL COROnAVIRUS Bosque stadium was haunted, because the THROnE OFFERED TO HIM SAVED HIM FROM ball made weird movements during matches AT EACH GIMnASIA GAME, RELEGATIOn there. He forbade players from wearing green BOTH HOME AnD AWAY vests and banned the numbers 13 and 17, A full 24 years on from his last managerial believing them to be unlucky. job in Argentine club football, with Racing back in 1995, Maradona became the boss Argentine TV set up a special channel just of troubled Gimnasia last September. to follow Maradona’s escapades at matches: ‘The Diego-Cam’. “I’m buried here, up to my After his stint in charge of the national balls – I won’t leave for anything,” he stated team, he’d led Al-Wasl and Fujairah in the after some poor results. He did resign once, UAE, then Dorados in Mexico’s second tier. however – for two whole days, following a disagreement with the president over the When Gimnasia appointed him, Diego felt latter’s election campaign, only to reverse rejuvenated. Finally, he was truly wanted his decision following an outcry. by a top-flight club in his own country. His mission, though, looked to be impossible; At press conferences or via his Instagram relegation certain. Yet after seven straight account, his thoughts have been wide and defeats – three of them since he’d taken varied: attacking fellow Boca idol Riquelme, over as boss – Maradona’s Gimnasia secured defending Mike Tyson for not being allowed victory over Godoy Cruz to begin an unlikely to enter Chile, using his holiday time to visit comeback. That day, he danced merrily in Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro in the dressing room and the video went viral – Caracas, and praising Argentina’s economy particularly as he’d previously had walking minister Martin Guzman – a Gimnasia fan – difficulties following knee surgery. after the country’s international debt had been renegotiated. The Maradona Show was just starting. He was offered a throne to sit on as an homage Despite all of that, relegation still seemed when he visited Newell’s Old Boys. After that, imminent. Under top-flight rules, the three a special new regal seat was unveiled at each clubs with the worst average points over the game, home and away. One was auctioned previous three campaigns would drop out of for £3,000; Gimnasia sold replicas for £500. the 24-team Primera Division. Points accrued in the regular season and the end-of-season Maradona also paid players bonuses with Copa de la Superliga would count. his own money. When the regular 2019-20 season ended in “He would bring the cash to the dressing early March, Gimnasia had climbed to 19th, room and show it to us as motivation before but bemoaned the worst average points tally games,” explained Pablo Velazquez. “And if after three difficult campaigns. They had just we lost, he’d still give it to us.” a few matches in the Copa de la Superliga left to save themselves, when the coronavirus pandemic brought football to a halt. The Argentine FA decided to cancel relegation. “I was convinced we’d be saved, but not in this way,” said Diego, in the year of his 60th birthday. “Many say that this is a new Hand of God, but I ask the Hand of God to stop the pandemic, so people can live happily again.” 88 December 2020 FourFourTwo

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FFT GRABS A WORD WITH... ADEBAYO AKINFENWA • PARK JI-SUNG • JOSE ENRIQUE • JEFF WINTER TEAMS Atlantas Barry Town Boston Leyton Orient Rushden & Diamonds Doncaster Torquay Swansea Millwall Northampton Gillingham AFC Wimbledon Wycombe

ADEBAYO AKInFEnWA You’re of Nigerian descent. Has there ever been talk of a call-up to the national side? “KLOPP DIDn’T HIT When I was 20, I sat down with the Nigeria ME UP, BUT CLUBS Under-21s coach and there were talks about FROM BRAZIL, IRAQ, joining a training camp. But luckily for Nigeria MEXICO AnD GREECE – and unfortunately for me – they’ve always DID. IT WAS CRAZY” produced strikers that played at the highest level. I never have, so it was hard to break in. The Beast rebuffed big offers to power Wycombe into the Championship – just You’re a Liverpool fan – what was it like to don’t make him fight Anthony Joshua score against them in a 2015 FA Cup tie? It’s one of the most mind-boggling moments Interview Ed McCambridge of my life. It’s the only time I’ve scored a goal and had no idea what to do. I celebrated in Early in your career, you spent time playing You’ve had 15 spells at 13 different clubs, front of the Liverpool fans and thought, ‘Why in Lithuania. How did that happen? but have stayed at Wycombe since 2016. are our fans swearing at me?’ – I was so lost. I was on trial with Watford when my agent, Why do you feel so at home there? Then I realised they weren’t my team’s fans! who was married to a Lithuanian and knew Timing has been crucial. I arrived at 34, there On the walk out for kick-off, I was like, ‘Wow, about the country, arranged for the president wasn’t much more I was looking to get out there’s Henderson, Gerrard, Coutinho...’ and of Atlantas Klaipeda to come over and watch of football, and I just wanted to enjoy it while I think I gave away about 12 free-kicks in the me play. I was unsuccessful at Watford, but I still could. But then I teamed up with Gareth first 10 minutes. I was so pumped. got invited to Lithuania instead. To be honest, Ainsworth, a manager I believe is a unique I’d never even heard of Lithuania! They were individual. We blend very well. It’s a fantastic When you left AFC Wimbledon in 2016, you in the UEFA Cup and had a strong squad, but place to be, and I’d be shocked if I didn’t end invited bosses to hit you up on WhatsApp. in my first game I was subjected to monkey my career with Wycombe. Did Jurgen Klopp ever slide into your DMs? chants and the crowd sang about “shooting [Laughs] He didn’t hit me up, but it all worked ni**ers”. I was only 18 and on the receiving No big-money Premier League move, then? out in the end! It’s gone down as one of the end of that, a long way from home. I chose [Laughs] Listen, I know what I’m good at and funniest post-game interviews, but it worked. to stay for the season, as I didn’t want to let how to score goals – but defenders in League I had interest from Brazil, Iraq, Mexico, Qatar, the racists win. We reached the cup final and Two are quicker than me, so Premier League Turkey and Greece. It was crazy. I scored the winning goal. ones would be even faster. My game doesn’t change if I go up a level, so I’d back myself You’ve been the strongest man on several You’ve repeatedly been mocked over your to score in the top flight. Will I get a chance editions of FIFA. Is there anyone who could weight during your career... to prove it? Never say never, but it’s unlikely. run you close in an arm wrestle? It’s even the small things, like people saying, I don’t think so, because I know what I do in “He has a good touch for a big man.” My size You’ve reached the peak of your career at the gym. I love working out with powerlifters. plays no part in my touch – why mention it? 38. Why have you found your best form in I’m pushing 196kg – footballers don’t need to But as you get older, you become a lot more your advancing years? do that, but I like it. Do I think there’s another comfortable in your own skin. Dealing with I remember making fun of my dad’s tracksuit player who can lift that much weight? No. I’m sizeism is so much easier when you’ve been bottoms when I was a kid. He said, “Once I’m not even quietly confident about it, I’m loudly playing the game for two decades and scored comfortable, it doesn’t matter what anyone confident. When I fractured a leg at Swansea over 200 goals. thinks.” I’ve learned that for myself as in 2006 and couldn’t train, I started to hit the I’ve got older. I’m comfortable with gym more. We shared a training facility with What’s been the standout moment of your who I am as a person. As soon as the Ospreys rugby team – they were big guys career so far? you find out what you’re good at, and I caught the bug. Nothing comes close to winning promotion focus on it and take it as far as you with Wycombe last season – the impossible can. I’m not the fastest and I don’t Rugby and American football teams have was made possible. My biggest low had been do stepovers – I just focus on the tried to recruit you – were you tempted? missing a penalty in the shootout of the 2006 things that bring out the best in my I’m an NFL ambassador and have taken part League One play-off final with Swansea. We team-mates. I wish I’d understood in some sessions. But I like being the biggest lost to Barnsley, and I never imagined that it what my dad said when I was young – guy on the pitch, and I’m not when I step on would take me nearly 15 years to finally play if I’d had this mindset back then, I’d an American football or rugby pitch. They are in the Championship. have reached this position much earlier. big boys, so I’m sticking to football for now! You’ve said WWE and acting are potential avenues you’d like to go down... I sat down with WWE chiefs a year ago and said I’d decide when I’ve hung up my boots. I’m meeting an LA producer about making a movie, and Netflix have called. I want to embrace new things once football is over. I don’t see myself coaching, so let’s see what Hollywood’s saying. You’ve called out Anthony Joshua on Twitter – you’re friends now, but do you think he could handle you in full Beast Mode at boxing? He’d put me to sleep! Look, I’m just a footballer, he’s a world champion. I’ve seen his training regime and he’d put me to sleep. I don’t want that smoke! [Laughs] FourFourTwo December 2020 91

PARK JI-SUnG Did you always think you were going to be in our opening group match and lost 5-0, so a professional footballer when you were lost a lot of confidence. We then managed to “WHEn MY AGEnT growing up? beat Mexico and Australia, and improved our SAID MAn UnITED When I was a kid, becoming a professional confidence over the next year, as well as our WERE InTERESTED, footballer wasn’t really a popular ambition in quality. Just before the World Cup we played I COULDn’T BELIEVE Korea, but my dream was to one day play for Scotland, England and France [winning 4-1, IT. I KEPT ASKInG the national team and play at a World Cup. drawing 1-1 and losing 3-2 respectively] and HIM, ‘IS IT TRUE?’” When I moved to high school, our city had those friendlies gave us belief that we could a professional football club, so I started as do something at the tournament. After reaching the World Cup a ball boy with them, then began to dream semis, the Korean headed to of turning pro in the Korean league. After topping a group containing Portugal, England – and enjoyed some South Korea then ousted Italy and Spain – great duels with Andrea Pirlo You signed for Japanese side Kyoto Purple how did you manage it? Sanga in 2000, aged 19, while still studying It’s not easy to play teams like that and, to Interview Rahman Osman at university. How did that come about? be honest, we never thought we were going It’s strange because, during that time, I was to win those games. But we had nothing to already in the South Korea Under-23 team – lose, which gave us confidence. We met Italy back then, you could represent your country in the last 16, when we’d already achieved even if you didn’t play for a professional club. our target of going beyond the group stage. I received two offers from teams – Kyoto and I must add that we received so much support another side. Kyoto offered little with regards because we were one of the host countries. to money, but I picked them as even though I can say, yes, it was a miracle to beat Italy the pay was pretty low, the chance for me to 2-1 and Spain on penalties. play was really high. You joined Manchester United from PSV in What was it like to represent South Korea 2005, after a narrow defeat to Milan in the at a home World Cup in 2002, when you got Champions League semi-finals. When did to the semi-finals? you first find out about United’s interest? Playing at the World Cup was quite a different The first time my agent told me, I thought he feeling to the previous year, when we played was joking around! [Laughs] I couldn’t believe in the Confederations Cup. We took on France that Manchester United wanted to sign me, and I couldn’t stop asking him if it was true. TEAMS He kept on saying it and I still didn’t believe Kyoto Purple Sanga him. Then after the final game of the season, PSV my agent phoned and said Sir Alex Ferguson Manchester United was on the line. I took the call and spoke to QPR him – only then did I start to believe that I’d South Korea be going to Manchester. What can you remember about your first day at United? I was whisked straight to the dressing room to meet the players. I particularly remember Ruud van Nistelrooy and Edwin van der Sar, because I’d come from the Dutch league – Van Nistelrooy had played for PSV and Van der Sar for Ajax. They were really kind to me and helped me to settle in quickly. I couldn’t get my head around the fact I’d joined Man United. Stood next to me were Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Roy Keane, Wayne Rooney... it felt like a dream. It actually was a dream for me – these were players I used to watch on television, and now I had to challenge them for a place in the team. Did you ever experience Fergie’s hairdryer treatment, and what was it like? Ferguson was a very strict man, even more so when we weren’t playing well. But I think he might have slowed down a bit just before “TO STOP MILAn, WE HAD TO STOP PIRLO – AnD TO DO THAT, I HAD TO CHASE HIM AROUnD EVERYWHERE”

I arrived. I remember him being really upset TEAMS one day and thought he was overdoing it, but Levante B then Van der Sar leant over and said, “This is Valencia nothing – he used to be a lot worse than he is Celta Vigo (loan) now!” [Laughs] For me, though, the hairdryer Villarreal treatment was a good thing. It made some Newcastle players wake up, and our performances in the Liverpool second half of matches were often improved. Real Zaragoza You scored 27 goals for United over seven JOSE EnRIQUE years at Old Trafford. Which of them were your favourites? “KEnnY DALGLISH PUT ME In GOAL I remember scoring in a 2-1 win at home to AnD ALL THE FAnS CHAnTED, ‘JOSE Liverpool in 2010, and another goal when we EnRIQUE, WE’RE In THE TOP SIX!’” beat Chelsea in the Champions League. There was also a 2-1 win against Wolves [pictured] The popular Spaniard may have been best known as a left-back, where I got both our goals, and the second but he endured a bizarre return to St James’ Park with Liverpool one was the last kick of the game. Not many players score the winner at Old Trafford with Interview Harry De Cosemo the last kick of the game, so those three stick out in my mind instantly. How did your move to Newcastle happen? You had a great relationship with Fabricio In 2007, Newcastle were the only team keen Coloccini and Jonas Gutierrez. How crucial You starred in a team featuring Cristiano to sign me until I boarded a flight to England. were they for you at Newcastle? Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez – Then Manchester City called and I told them We would have asados [Argentine barbecues] just how good were they? Newcastle were a bigger club, who’d already – Coloccini always cooked for us and he was Wow. You know about their immense quality put a deal on the table, so I was going there. very good. On the pitch, Coloccini played next and enthusiasm – they had it all. They were to me as a centre-back and Jonas was on the unbelievable, and it was such an honour to Did you find it difficult adjusting to life at left wing in front of me, so we spoke to each play alongside those guys. For someone like Newcastle after leaving Spain? other. There weren’t many Spanish speakers me to be in the team, I had to find my level, Sam Allardyce liked old school football, so it in the Premier League at that time, so when work really hard, and keep giving them the was hard for me to break into the first team they arrived it was a relief for me. ball so they could go and do their thing. Their because I didn’t know how to play that way. attitude was incredible – you’d watch them When Kevin Keegan took over, it was a good Your second season at Newcastle was a bit score goal after goal, but they were always change for me, but he didn’t want me in the mad and the club were relegated... the last players to leave the training ground. team either. I understood, as I hadn’t started It was good that I couldn’t speak English too They were that determined. particularly well in England, but when Kevin well that season! I have a big personality and left I began to flourish. would have reacted differently if I understood Andrea Pirlo compared you to a guard dog, because you were devoted to stopping him against Milan in the 2009-10 Champions League last 16 and darted around ‘at the speed of an electron’. Did you enjoy trying to thwart him? Well, for me Pirlo was one of the best players of our time. We knew how they attacked, and it was through him. We knew he was the guy who created chances for them, so we needed to stop him. To do that, you had to follow him everywhere, or at least show up and ensure you forced him to pass backwards instead of forwards. It was always more dangerous if he passed forwards. In my head I kept thinking, ‘Where’s Pirlo?’, because Ferguson would say that he wasn’t physically stronger than me, and he wasn’t faster. What he beats me with is his mind, so I had to keep him in my mind. Also, I have to say some of my team-mates constantly reminded me whenever I lost him by yelling “Where’s Pirlo?”, and I’d go looking for Pirlo! [Laughs] You’ve scored at three different World Cup finals – in 2002 against Portugal, in 2006 against France and in 2010 against Greece – how proud are you of that? Come on, man… as a kid, all I ever wanted to do was play at a World Cup, and I ended up playing at three and scoring in each of them. That is stuff made in dreams. Also, perhaps I should remind you that whenever I scored at a World Cup, we never lost. I was like the magic wand! [Laughs] FourFourTwo December 2020 93

more. The dressing room was very good, but On your first return to St James’ Park with JEFF WInTER we couldn’t click on the pitch and the blame Liverpool, you ended up in goal. What are lies with us as players. Changing the manager your memories of that bizarre game? “THE nEWCASTLE so much didn’t really help. When Joe Kinnear It was crazy. I said I’d left Newcastle to sign FAnS WERE AnGRY arrived, people said he hadn’t been a coach for a top-six team, but at the time Newcastle AnD BAnGInG On for a few years. You think, ‘Wow, you want us were sixth and Liverpool were seventh – the THE CAR – I TOLD to stay in the Premier League, and you bring fans soon reminded me! Pepe Reina got sent THE DRIVER, ‘PUT in a guy who hasn’t managed in four years?’ off and Kenny Dalglish told me to go in goal. YOUR FOOT DOWn’” It’s a good memory now, as even though the How did you find Alan Shearer as a boss fans were laughing at me, you could see their The former ref made a swift when he came in at the end of the season? love. The whole stadium sang, “Jose Enrique, getaway after one explosive He was a top bloke. The problem he had was we’re in the top six!” and I kept the shirt and fixture – but at least Anfield he loved Newcastle so much that he wanted gloves. I’ll always remember that moment. spectators appreciated him... to change many things in very little time. He could have done well as a manager for us – Why did Liverpool improve so much under Interview Ian Murtagh when he took charge the team was already Brendan Rodgers? broken and even then, we nearly stayed up. People forget how good Kenny was – we won It’s 16 years since you retired as a Premier the League Cup [below] and got to an FA Cup League referee – have you still been going You decided to stay and help Newcastle go final with him. But then Brendan came from to football matches? back up. Was that a hard decision? Swansea and loved to play the Spanish way. Since my refereeing career finished in 2004, Any player who says they didn’t think about His training sessions were great – they were I’ve followed hometown club Middlesbrough leaving when we were relegated is lying, but different every day, and hard. He’s done well home and away, and also Rangers home and it was our mistake. I’ll always remember the at Leicester and will manage a big club again. away. I watch Hartlepool and Darlington, too, last game at Aston Villa, when the fans were and further down the pyramid I’ll turn up at clapping us at full-time. I thought, ‘Wow, this What was it like being out injured during Stockton Town and Redcar Athletic. During is amazing’. I wanted to stay for those people. Liverpool’s dramatic 2013-14 title battle? a normal season, I’ll go to about 150 games. It was a nightmare. I feel I could have helped Was it a shock to see Alan Pardew replace the team a bit, but Jon Flanagan came in So you’re something of a football fanatic? Chris Hughton not long after promotion? and did well. Not being involved was painful, The first time I ever went to Ayresome Park, Chris believed in me the most and is a good but if we’d won the league I wouldn’t have Boro’s old home, I got hooked. From the age friend. He was loved in the dressing room and cared because I’d still have been part of it. of about eight, I’ve been football daft. I only it felt like the club were repeating what they became a referee by accident – and it really did before relegation, changing the manager How dispiriting was it that injuries limited was an accident. I used to work in a bank – for someone who wasn’t a big name. You just your last three campaigns with the club? fans who knew my background would chant, think, ‘Why change?’ If it was Jose Mourinho, Jurgen Klopp was honest with me from the “The referee’s a banker” – and the secretary you’d understand it, but Chris was doing fine. start – I’ll always respect that. He said, “Jose, of the North Riding County FA was one of my Alan treated me well at Newcastle, though. I’ve heard some amazing things about you, customers. He kept badgering me to go on but I can’t have a player who trains once and a refereeing course. I did it, quite enjoyed it Do you regret your tweets slating the club needs two days off.” The way he plays is very and officiated a couple of Sunday matches, and their transfer policy before you left? intense, and you need to be really fit. He gave but never thought of refereeing as a career. A lot of fans said I was right! But at the time, me the captaincy against Exeter before I left The following year, I had a junior match on it was a mistake. I was mad because the club and I kept the armband. It’s a great memory. a Saturday which clashed with a Boro game. were selling players. It hurt me because I had It was the first home match I was missing in four years there, I loved it, I loved St James’ Why didn’t you ever play for Spain? 15 years, and I remember driving one way Park and I loved all the Geordies. Even though I deserved a chance. I did well at Newcastle and seeing the fans driving the other. I often I was leaving for Liverpool, I was saying, ‘You and Liverpool, but Vicente del Bosque never thought about parking up and going to watch shouldn’t do that to this team’. came to watch me. If you give me a chance Boro, but I kept driving and the rest is history. and I don’t play well, I get it, but I deserved At your two English clubs, you had to learn an opportunity. Del Bosque won the World Why do you follow Rangers? Geordie and Scouse. Could you figure out Cup and Euros, though, so what can you say? I worshipped Jim Baxter as a kid, and my love what people were saying? for Rangers grew from there. During the ’90s, The most difficult accents in England… I still In 2018, you were diagnosed with a brain when commitments allowed, I’d go to some don’t understand either! [Laughs] It could be tumour. How hard was the battle to beat it? of their European matches, and since retiring tough at Newcastle with Andy Carroll [below] I was shocked, so I spoke to Jonas Gutierrez, and it was similar at Liverpool, but I love the who’d had chemotherapy [to beat testicular Geordies and Scousers and I’m lucky to have cancer]. Side-effect wise, mine was all right – played for two of the biggest clubs in England. chemo makes your body struggle in a worse way. Thankfully, I’m still here and I’m happy. How did it feel to hear you were all clear? Great. Everyone was nervous, but my family and partner were brilliant. We moved to Paris for the treatment, and apart from attending the appointments it was lovely – we miss it. Did it give you a new perspective on life? It makes you appreciate life even more. I still have check-ups and nod off on the machine – I don’t expect anything to come back. If it does I’ll think about it then, but not right now. These things happen to many people across the world, and they can make you stronger. 94 December 2020 FourFourTwo

I must have been to every Scottish ground. I really enjoyed that season they had to start again in the fourth tier – Brechin was the first game. In the last few years, I’ve been to 10 European games – those trips are so special. Do you ever shout at the referees? I did it all the time growing up, but when you learn the laws of the game, you become a bit of a bore. People around you are going mad and you’re going, “Well, actually you’re wrong and the referee is right.” I guess it’s a case of once a ref, always a ref. Any good tales from your time in the game? I remember I was the fourth official on the day that Uriah Rennie sent off Alan Shearer against Aston Villa at St James’ Park. Alan’s a god up there and the fans were up in arms. The Toon Army felt Uriah had committed the ultimate crime, and to make matters worse, Newcastle lost. We had to be smuggled out of the dressing room, through the club shop and into a people carrier waiting for us. But hundreds of angry Geordies spotted us, and I screamed at the driver to put his foot down and ignore the traffic lights. He wouldn’t go through a red light, so we had all these fans banging on the windows trying to get Uriah. Fortunately, nothing came of it! Your autobiography is called Who’s The was a great weekend. I’d been to the Grand What about players? B*****d In The Black? You obviously don’t National the previous day to watch my mate I loved Gianfranco Zola – you couldn’t meet take yourself too seriously... Graham Lee win on Amberleigh House, then a nicer bloke. At the time, a lot of foreigners I was keen to call it ‘A Winter’s Tale’, but the refereed Liverpool vs Blackburn, and on the were joining English clubs, so I tried to learn publishers wanted something more dramatic. way home I got a call saying I’d be in charge a few phrases in different languages. I was It’s true, though, I can laugh at myself. When of the FA Cup final. never fluent in Italian but he was someone I first started after-dinner speaking, I’d walk who appreciated the gesture and chatted to into the room wearing dark glasses, carrying That was Manchester United 3-0 Millwall me. Ninety per cent of footballers are decent. a white stick. My sense of humour did get me in 2004 – hardly a classic… Characters who many fans think are wrong plenty of abuse from Liverpool fans, however. Everyone likes to be involved in the big games ’uns – guys like Dennis Wise and Paul Ince – and, domestically, they come no bigger than I tended to get on quite well with. You could The infamous quote about Anfield? the FA Cup final. My last ever match and a TV have a bit of banter with them. When I was doing notes for my book, I wrote audience of a billion or so. Brilliant! The game about my last game at Anfield and how the was a one-sided United win. No controversy, So, who were in Jeff Winter’s bad books? knowledgeable Scousers gave me a round of just one yellow card – hardly the thriller that One was Danny Mills, who later joined Boro! applause when I was in front of the Kop just viewers would want but ideal for me. In any I sent him off for Leeds [at Arsenal] and he’s before full-time. The sentence was followed walk of life, if you have a nightmare you can never forgiven me. We rubbed each other up by two exclamation marks, which didn’t go in make amends a week later, but that was my the wrong way. Steve Staunton was another. the book. It made me seem like a big-headed swansong. If I’d had a stinker, I’d have taken He made it clear he didn’t like me as a person twat, which I’m not. Let’s face it, no one gives that game to my grave and my career would and didn’t rate me as a ref, and when people a toss about the referee. But that story about have been remembered for that one match. have that attitude, it’s never going to change. thinking the fans were applauding me made a few headlines, which I didn’t mind – it may Do you have favourite and least favourite What’s the worst thing you’ve been called have helped shift a few copies! Actually, that personalities from those days? on a football pitch? Some refs get carried away with their own It’s got to be the ‘c’ word, and I’m not talking “FOR MY AFTER-DInnER importance and want to be best mates with about the expletive. Every ref makes mistakes SPEAKInG, I’D WALK In everyone – it’s not about being Mr Popular. but I like to think that 99.99 per cent of them WEARInG DARK GLASSES, But there were individuals I liked enormously, have integrity, so there’s nothing worse than HOLDInG A WHITE STICK” none more than Sir Bobby Robson – he was being labelled a cheat. As David Elleray once an absolute gentleman and one of the finest told Tony Adams, “I might be useless but I’m men I’ve had the privilege of knowing. People no cheat.” North of the border, all those Old ask me about my relationship with Sir Alex Firm conspiracy theories are crazy. If I felt for Ferguson. He’s a clever man and born winner, a minute that referees were cheating for any who would do everything in his power and reason – religion, colour, club allegiance – I’d use every tactic under the sun to win a game. walk away from the game. FourFourTwo December 2020 95



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DARREn BEnT The former goal-getter puts together a fearsome troupe of team-mates from his time representing Ipswich, Charlton, Tottenham, Aston Villa, Fulham and England GK SCOTT CARSON and I knew exactly where he’d put the ball. “He spent 2006-07 with me at Charlton, and He could score wonder goals for fun as well. SCOTT that was the best single-season goalkeeping Look at his archive of goals, it’s outrageous.” CARSON display I’ve ever seen. We were relegated in the end, but probably would have gone down STEVEN GERRARD RB CB CB LB in January were it not for Scott. It’s a crying “An absolute animal. I saw him in training for shame that people only remember that one England and said to myself, ‘My standards in GLEN LEDLEY RIO ASHLEY game for England against Croatia.” training need to be a lot better’. He’d always JOHNSON KING FERDINAND COLE go out there at 100 miles an hour. He wanted GLEN JOHNSON to win everything – a shooting competition, CM CM “I’ve known Glen since we were 14 years old. a five-a-side game, you name it. The way he We won the Victory Shield together and went went about things was a lesson for all of us.” STEVEN LUKA through the England age group teams up to GERRARD MODRIC the under-21s, then into the seniors. He was LUKA MODRIC a scorer of great goals and a top defender.” “He’s the best club player I ever played with. rM LM Although it took him a little while to find his LEDLEY KING feet at Spurs, we knew from training that he DARREN ASHLEY “If he wasn’t so injury-prone, he’d have been was far too good for us. He was on a different AMBROSE YOUNG playing for Barcelona or Real Madrid. Ledley level. Luka would never use his left foot, just never used to train during the week and just the outside of his right.” CF CF played in the games. He only had one knee – the other was completely shattered, bone on ASHLEY YOUNG DIMITAR WAYNE bone. An unbelievable player and ripped, too, “When I joined Villa he was superb. He could BERBATOV ROONEY even though he didn’t go to the gym.” score goals, was a great crosser, could sprint past people, and also drew a free-kick better THE GAFFER RIO FERDINAND than any other winger I ever played with. His “Arguably England’s greatest centre-half of distribution was top drawer, too.” GEORGE BURLEY all time. A very modern defender – he could “Ideally I’d have two, to include Alan Curbishley play, he could pass, he was quick and he was DIMITAR BERBATOV as well. George gave me my debut and believed a brilliant talker. The better the defender, the “I didn’t get to play alongside him that much in me at Ipswich. Alan was the same at Charlton more they talk, and Rio did it throughout the at Spurs or Fulham, but he was a Rolls Royce when he brought me into the Premier League.” game. He was a leader.” footballer. His touch – and everything about the way he played – was so smooth. Dimitar THE SUBS ASHLEY COLE [below] did look lethargic sometimes, but he “Easily the best left-back I ever played with. 0 1 DANNY 02 03FRANK JOHN Ashley set me up for my first England goal as always had two or three yards of space MURPHY LAMPARD TERRY well, so he needs a special mention for that! whenever he got the ball.” He could do everything: creating chances, bombing down the line, and he was WAYNE ROONEY almost unbeatable one-on-one. “An England great. He could score Probably the perfect full-back.” goals and create goals, and it’s a testament to his ability that DARREN AMBROSE he’s still playing at a high level “He was my favourite but doing it in a completely team-mate during my different role. At his absolute youth and first-team days best, he was unstoppable.” at Ipswich. Every time Darren Richard Edwards received the ball, he found me. He helped me massively and Watch EFL on Quest at 9pm made my job a lot easier, every Saturday throughout because he knew exactly the season, and at 10.30pm on where I was going to be Wednesdays for midweek games. Stream live and catch up on dplay YOUR nEXT FOURFOURTWO IS On SALE DECEmBEr 11



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