Eggman
Well-known member
This did amuse me!
Bemused outsider details life inside Barnsley ranks
By Henry Winter (Filed: 19/08/2003)
Life for foreign footballers in the Premiership is not all Chelsea town-houses, Footballer of the Year awards, lucrative commercials and the admiration of colleagues and supporters.
For some it can be a world of abusive team-mates, of shock at English professionals' antics and real disgust at the stereotyping of foreigners within certain English dressing-rooms.
For Lars Leese, the thoughtful German who kept goal for Barnsley during their brief, rather hapless adventure in the Premiership, his acquaintance with English football was particularly startling.
Leese was aghast at what he calls the "envy" and near hostility of the English players towards the foreigners brought in by Danny Wilson, the then Oakwell manager, in 1997.
The jealousy partly stemmed from financial disparity. Many of those who had worked so hard to carry Barnsley to promotion were taking home in a month
(£2,000) what Leese made in a week - and the German was the worst paid of the newcomers.
Leese was irate, wondering why the English did not just go and complain to the chairman, not take their frustration out on an innocent new boy by cold-shouldering him.
Leese's experiences in England, good and bad, affected him so much that he has produced a remarkable chronicle of his spell on these shores. Written by Leese's friend, the distinguished German journalist Ronnie Reng, "The Keeper of Dreams; One Man's Controversial Story of Life in the English Premiership", provides an extraordinary snap-shot of English behaviour in a professional football dressing-room and in a Yorkshire town. It is only one club, one town but fascinating none the less.
The culture shock was enormous for Leese. Used to sensible dieting, he was surprised to find one well-known player stuffing his face with fast-food before matches. He had expected the excessive drinking. At a pre-season training camp in Exeter, Wilson encouraged the players to stage a bonding session in a local beer garden. The English immediately gathered at one end of the table with the foreigners left to congregate at the other.
Pints were swiftly swilled but, Leese noticed with some bemusement, only the foreigners appeared to need to visit the toilet. "How do they do that?" Leese mused over the impressive size of English bladders. Then he glanced under the table and found some of the English players relieving themselves without getting up. Another Oakwell speciality was a dressing-room farting competition.
The culture shock travelled both ways. Barnsley's players were horrified when Leese lit up a cigarette one night, bringing him round condemnation from team-mates clutching their sixth pints of the evening. He was forced to smoke furtively in his hotel room with a shower cap over the smoke alarm.
In a country where German teams are often greeted with the Dambusters' theme, Leese was always going to receive some abuse. But he was stunned to get it from his own team-mates. When he was being filmed by a German television crew, one of the players serenaded them with war-time songs. "Do they [English players] always have to act as if they are in a kindergarten?" he wondered.
At Barnsley's Christmas party, one striker dressed up as Adolf Hitler - with a goalkeeper as Eva Braun - and greeted Leese with a crisp 'Heil Hitler'. Leese tried to explain that this was an arrestable offence back in Germany, only to be ignored.
Leese also observed the mercurial nature of English football fans, like those Liverpool followers who congratulated Leese after a superlative display at Anfield shortly before others ambushed the Barnsley coach, smashing the windscreen. Leese was so incensed he tried to get out and chase them until Wilson calmed him down. At his next game, dozens of Leeds United fans gave him Nazi salutes and 'Sieg Heil'. Welcome to England.
The real heroes of Leese's book are the Barnsley public whose hospitality around town and patience during matches moved the German to tears by the end.
He was stunned by their friendliness and curiosity; one night when he took his wife to a disco and stepped on to the dancefloor, everyone stopped dancing just to watch them.
"It was as if Frank Sinatra had shown up at the club," pondered Leese.
* 'The Keeper of Dreams' by Ronald Reng (£10, Yellow Jersey Press)
Bemused outsider details life inside Barnsley ranks
By Henry Winter (Filed: 19/08/2003)
Life for foreign footballers in the Premiership is not all Chelsea town-houses, Footballer of the Year awards, lucrative commercials and the admiration of colleagues and supporters.
For some it can be a world of abusive team-mates, of shock at English professionals' antics and real disgust at the stereotyping of foreigners within certain English dressing-rooms.
For Lars Leese, the thoughtful German who kept goal for Barnsley during their brief, rather hapless adventure in the Premiership, his acquaintance with English football was particularly startling.
Leese was aghast at what he calls the "envy" and near hostility of the English players towards the foreigners brought in by Danny Wilson, the then Oakwell manager, in 1997.
The jealousy partly stemmed from financial disparity. Many of those who had worked so hard to carry Barnsley to promotion were taking home in a month
(£2,000) what Leese made in a week - and the German was the worst paid of the newcomers.
Leese was irate, wondering why the English did not just go and complain to the chairman, not take their frustration out on an innocent new boy by cold-shouldering him.
Leese's experiences in England, good and bad, affected him so much that he has produced a remarkable chronicle of his spell on these shores. Written by Leese's friend, the distinguished German journalist Ronnie Reng, "The Keeper of Dreams; One Man's Controversial Story of Life in the English Premiership", provides an extraordinary snap-shot of English behaviour in a professional football dressing-room and in a Yorkshire town. It is only one club, one town but fascinating none the less.
The culture shock was enormous for Leese. Used to sensible dieting, he was surprised to find one well-known player stuffing his face with fast-food before matches. He had expected the excessive drinking. At a pre-season training camp in Exeter, Wilson encouraged the players to stage a bonding session in a local beer garden. The English immediately gathered at one end of the table with the foreigners left to congregate at the other.
Pints were swiftly swilled but, Leese noticed with some bemusement, only the foreigners appeared to need to visit the toilet. "How do they do that?" Leese mused over the impressive size of English bladders. Then he glanced under the table and found some of the English players relieving themselves without getting up. Another Oakwell speciality was a dressing-room farting competition.
The culture shock travelled both ways. Barnsley's players were horrified when Leese lit up a cigarette one night, bringing him round condemnation from team-mates clutching their sixth pints of the evening. He was forced to smoke furtively in his hotel room with a shower cap over the smoke alarm.
In a country where German teams are often greeted with the Dambusters' theme, Leese was always going to receive some abuse. But he was stunned to get it from his own team-mates. When he was being filmed by a German television crew, one of the players serenaded them with war-time songs. "Do they [English players] always have to act as if they are in a kindergarten?" he wondered.
At Barnsley's Christmas party, one striker dressed up as Adolf Hitler - with a goalkeeper as Eva Braun - and greeted Leese with a crisp 'Heil Hitler'. Leese tried to explain that this was an arrestable offence back in Germany, only to be ignored.
Leese also observed the mercurial nature of English football fans, like those Liverpool followers who congratulated Leese after a superlative display at Anfield shortly before others ambushed the Barnsley coach, smashing the windscreen. Leese was so incensed he tried to get out and chase them until Wilson calmed him down. At his next game, dozens of Leeds United fans gave him Nazi salutes and 'Sieg Heil'. Welcome to England.
The real heroes of Leese's book are the Barnsley public whose hospitality around town and patience during matches moved the German to tears by the end.
He was stunned by their friendliness and curiosity; one night when he took his wife to a disco and stepped on to the dancefloor, everyone stopped dancing just to watch them.
"It was as if Frank Sinatra had shown up at the club," pondered Leese.
* 'The Keeper of Dreams' by Ronald Reng (£10, Yellow Jersey Press)