The Real Deal
Henrik
Larsson lay prostrate on the emerald turf of Celtic Park as a hush descended around
the packed Stadium. The Swedish striker was never one for lying down without
good reason and most of the supporters knew his injury was serious. Gus Bahoken
of Livingston had broken Larsson’s jaw in two places after a clumsy and rather
brutal attempt at heading the ball. Accidental or not, Celtic fans knew Larsson’s
absence in those early months of 2003 was a major blow. Celtic were locked in a
tense battle for the league title and would face Stuttgart in the UEFA cup that
month. The fans knew how important Larsson
was to the team and some recalled how their season had fallen apart after he
had broken his leg in Lyon in 1999. Blood was mopped from his face and he was
helped from the field to loud but rather worried applause. He was taken
straight to hospital and the fracture confirmed.
Ron Moore, long time sports reporter with the
Daily Mirror decided to try and get a scoop and headed north to interview
Larsson. The trouble was he didn’t ask in advance and Larsson is a private man
who guards his family’s privacy jealously. Moore had the cheek to let himself
into Larsson’s front yard and wait for him to return and the Swede was not
amused. The interview consisted of the following exchange…
Moore: ‘How
are you Henrik?’
Larsson: (Heavily bandaged) ‘Fuck off.’
Moore: ‘How
long will you be wearing the bandage?’
Larsson: ‘Fuck
off.’
Moore: ‘When
will you be able to play again?
Larsson: ‘Fuck
off.’
Henrik Larsson was without doubt one of the
best strikers ever to grace the Scottish game and his prowess in front of goal
is legendary but for all his deft touches, intelligent movement and clinical
finishes he was as tough as they come too. Professional football can be brutal
at times and Larsson took his fair share of ruthless treatment on the field. He
talked in the years after his retirement about the dark side of the game and
said…
‘It can get
pretty ugly sometimes. I know I’ll get hurt, tackled from behind sometimes but
I know that from the outset. Sometimes to cover a defender you grab hold of
their shorts and if you happen to grab their package too well you just pull
harder.’
Larsson once stated that Craig Moore of
Rangers was one of his toughest opponents but praised him by saying that much
as the Australian dished out some fairly brutal treatment, he takes it back
without complaining.
Of course spending seven years of his career
at Celtic brought out the usual arrogant and condescending comments from
commentators south of the border that his 242 goals in green and white were
more down to the relative weakness of the Scottish League than Larsson’s
abilities. Fans of all clubs in Scotland have endured the ‘My Nan’ brigade for
as long as football has been played. Celtic’s record against English opposition in
European fixtures has been good over the years as Leeds United, Liverpool,
Blackburn Rovers and Manchester United will tell you but there was no doubting
our pleasure when Henrik demonstrated at the World Cup, European Championships
and Champions League level that he was the real deal. As a striker he scored
goals against sides like Juventus, Liverpool, Porto and Valencia but It irked
him that the ignorant would deride his achievements in Scotland and he once
stated….
“They would say, ‘Yeah he can do it in Scotland, but can he do it in the
big leagues?’ It was a bit annoying because if it was that easy, why didn’t
everybody score so many goals?”
The man who holds the goal
scoring record in European matches while at a UK club demonstrated at Barcelona
and Manchester United that he would have been a star in any league.
We Scots have a tendency to
talk down our own game but as many who ventured north of Hadrian’s Wall to play
in Scotland have found, it is not the stroll in the park they expected. In
recent times we have seen a host of prodigies from the English Academy system
loaned out to gain experience in Scotland. Few of them have made any impact at
all and even experienced professionals like Joey Barton found the need to
scrape the bottom of the barrel for excuses after being an abject failure in
the much maligned SPFL.
Those of us who enjoyed
Henrik Larsson’s seven years at Celtic Park knew what we were watching. He had
started his footballing career in his native Sweden before moving to Feyenoord
in Holland where even he would admit things weren’t perfect. It was as if he had
found his spiritual home at Celtic and the warmth he basked in from the
supporters seemed to help him blossom into a top player. He famously said after Celtic had beaten
Blackburn Rovers in the UEFA Cup at Ewood Park, ‘Yeh, we were shit in Glasgow but they should learn a lesson, you never
talk until the game is over.’ Blackburn’s ‘Men against boys’ jibe after the first game in Glasgow (Which they
lost) was dripping in all the old arrogance we expect from English opposition
and it was an utter delight to ram their words down their throats in their own
stadium.
Henrik Larsson sits third in
the all-time goal scoring charts for Celtic behind the legendary Jimmy McGrory
and Bobby Lennox. His career at Celtic saw him win eight major honours, a
golden boot as Europe’s top scorer and helped the club to a European final.
Beyond the statistics though we have a thousand memories of the deft clips over
the goalkeeper, the flashing dreadlocks as he headed for goal, the tongue out
in celebration and sheer grit and determination he added to his undoubted
skills.
I’ve been fortunate to watch
some excellent footballers wearing the green and white over the years but few
have been as good as Henrik Larsson. It was an added bonus that he seemed to
get what Celtic was all about too and developed a real affection for the club.
He said once…
“This is the club for me. This is where I made myself as a player, this
is where everybody got to know me and this is the club that I will be eternally
grateful to for giving me that opportunity when maybe other clubs didn’t
believe in me. This is where I got back into the Swedish national team and went
on to play in European Championships and World Cups for Sweden. I couldn’t have
done that without Celtic.”
It is testimony to the impact he made at
Celtic that 14 years after his last competitive game for the club he is still
recalled with such affection. We don’t forget our heroes at Celtic and Henrik
Larsson was certainly one of them.
Thank you Henrik. Hail Hail
Hail Hail the King of Kings.
ReplyDeleteWhat a player and what a team
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