If selected, Michael Owen will play against Liverpool for the first time as a Manchester United player this Sunday (25/10/09). Owen will receive a less than friendly welcome from the majority of the Anfield crowd, and his previous exploits in a Liverpool shirt will be quickly forgotten. The home fans will not be watching the man who almost single-handedly won the 2001 FA Cup final – they will be looking at the enemy.
Owen is the latest in a long line of high profile players who have played for both sides of a major footballing rivalry. Given the hostility that players in this position encounter, is it really worth joining ‘the other side’?
Wim Jansen played in two World Cup finals for Holland, and following a 15 year career with Feyenoord, moved to the USA for a spell with the Washington Capitals. He quickly returned to his homeland, but instead of going back to Rotterdam, he signed for Ajax. Feyenoord fans welcomed Jansen back by pelting him with snowballs on his Ajax debut.
The man who persuaded Jansen to move to Amsterdam, Johann Cruyff, would later move in the opposite direction. After spending most of his career at Ajax, Cruyff helped Feyenoord to a League and cup double in 1984.
These indiscretions did little to harm the reputation of either in the long-term. Jansen has returned to De Kuip in coaching and advisory roles, while Cruyff coached Ajax to victory in the 1987 European Cup Winners Cup.
Niko Kranjcar’s move from Portsmouth to Spurs before the transfer deadline was relatively straightforward, unlike his move in 2005 from Dinamo Zagreb to Hadjuk Split. Made captain at just 17, and with his father Zlatko a club legend, Kranjcar was the golden boy of Dinamo. However, after a fallout with the club hierarchy, he sensationally made the move to their biggest rivals.
After the transfer was confirmed, Dinamo fans gathered to light candles and mourn “the death of his honour.” Kranjcar also had to contend with a group of his former team-mates celebrating a championship win by singing a song which refers to his weight.
While he is now enjoying a successful career in England, Kranjcar has admitted that he will never be accepted by a section of fans in his homeland, a claim borne out by the mixed reception he received recently when appearing as a sub for Croatia against Belarus.
One of the strangest sights in English football at the start of the 2004/05 season, was seeing Alan Smith in a Manchester United jersey. Born in Yorkshire, and a Leeds fan who went on to play for the club, Old Trafford was the last place he would be expected to move to – relegation, and Leeds’ financial situation, changed all that.
Due to their huge debts, there have been suggestions that had Smith not agreed to the move, Leeds could have gone into administration. However, any claims that Smith had no option carry little weight in the modern game, where players invariably call the shots. As a Leeds supporter, Smith would have been aware of the fans reaction to losing McQueen, Jordan, Cantona and Ferdinand to their greatest rivals over the years. Given Smith’s background, his move was possibly an even greater kick in the teeth to Leeds fans.
Smith’s Old Trafford career started brightly, but never really recovered from a broken leg and dislocated ankle he suffered at Liverpool in early 2006. Although touted as a possible midfield replacement for Roy Keane, it was never a realistic prospect and he moved on Newcastle in 2007.
At a pre-season friendly between Newcastle and Leeds, the Elland Road fans’ booing of Smith showed that they have neither forgiven, nor forgotten.
All of these players have played for two clubs who, although bitter rivals, are from different cities. When starring for both halves of a cross-town rivalry, the attention, and the abuse, can be even more intense.
In May 1989, former Celtic striker Mo Johnston agreed to return to his boyhood heroes, following a spell in France with Nantes. Johnston visited Celtic Park when the deal was announced and he was even pictured holding up a Celtic shirt. Johnston also famously announced that “Celtic are the only club I’ve ever wanted to play for.”
One thing Johnston didn’t do on this visit was sign a contract. By July, the deal had almost fallen through, and then Johnston did the unthinkable – he signed for Rangers. The reaction to this move, which made Johnston Rangers’ most high profile Catholic signing, was a mixture of amazement and anger. Celtic fans felt betrayed, and quickly labelled Johnston as “Judas”. While some Rangers fans enjoyed putting one over their great rivals, there were others who burned scarves and season tickets outside Ibrox, so disgusted were they at Johnston’s arrival.
During his stay at Rangers, Johnston won two championships, but life off the field was complicated. Due to fears for his safety, Johnston had to live in Edinburgh, and employed security staff. It didn’t stop a petrol-bomb attack on his home, and his father was assaulted in Glasgow. It was never going to be a long-term move and in 1991, he moved to Everton.
Johnston returned to Scotland for spells with Hearts and Falkirk, and Celtic fans continued to make their feelings towards him known. Johnston now coaches Toronto FC in the MLS, and given the level of bitterness that still exists over events twenty years ago, he is unlikely to move back to Scotland.
Players who move to their former clubs biggest rivals expect, and in a lot of cases deserve, stick from the fans who previously worshipped them. Nevertheless, no footballer deserves the abuse, some of which was either racist or homophobic, that Sol Campbell received after his defection from Tottenham to Arsenal in 2001. The vilification of Campbell continued even after he left Arsenal for Portsmouth.
At the time of the move, Campbell did not exactly cover himself in glory. In an interview with the Spurs club magazine, Campbell stated that he would never sign for Arsenal. However, he did just that. After starting his career at Spurs, and playing there for eight years, Campbell allowed his contract to run down, and moved across North London as a ‘Bosman’ signing.
From a purely footballing perspective, Campbell’s move looks to have been the right one. As well as being a member of Arsene Wenger’s ‘Unbeatables’ side of 2003/04, Campbell also played, and scored, in a Champions League final. However, do Campbell’s winners really medals compensate for the hatred he has encountered in recent years?
Most of these players went on to win trophies with their new clubs, but, for the likes of Kranjcar and Johnston, the controversial nature of their transfers overshadowed anything achieved on the field of play. Fans who once idolised them, viewed them as traitors.
The group of players highlighted are not a select few. Over the years, numerous players have starred on both sides of a major rivalry, and will continue to do so. During the summer, the highly rated Bafetimbi Gomis moved directly from St Etienne to Lyon.
In Owen’s case, the move to Manchester United was too good an opportunity to turn down. If it allows him to squeeze his way into Fabio Capello’s World Cup squad, as well as silencing some of his critics along the way, Owen could find that, for him, crossing the divide was very worthwhile.
Written by William Heaney
The biggest one for me is the Figo transfer. Not a Catalan, not even a Spaniard but was the captain of Barcelona before he left for Madrid. The pig’s head of course was what everyone identifies from the Barca faithful whilst he was taking a corner.
For me it’s the direct moves that do the damage such as Campbell from Spurs to Arsenal. That move was on a free as well so Tottenham didn’t get any money at all – obviously in a bid to raise his wages.
I think some of the hate is lost if a player goes other clubs in between stepping across the divide as lots of things can happen at the clubs in the meantime such as a new manager, even a new kind of culture. Since Owen left Liverpool they’ve actually seen more success in the Champions League and probably associate Steven Gerrard with all of this. In saying that Owen will be boo’ed at the weekend but I don’t think the hate will be over-the-top, afterall Liverpool had chance (obviously not the fans choice, maybe not even Benitez’s) to sign him in the summer.
Yeah the biggest might have been Figo’s departure from Barça, I remember his first game back in Camp Nou, booing and throwing oranges at him at the entire match. Here we also call “Judas”, the international nickname for traitors. Some fans, Santos and Corinthians for example, can´t stand to see a transfer to the other club, and they show their dislike by throwing coins at the players. but I agree with Steven, when the move is directly it hurts a lot, however when it has a ‘third’ party involved still hurts but a lot less.
The players have a different perspective from the fans. They are professionals and they have to think about how they can better their short careers. Sol Campbell is a good example. Spurs were going nowhere, and he had the chance to move to a side winning trophies that was right on his doorstep. He didn’t have to move up north or to a foreign country and adapt. It was a huge thing for the fans, but I’m sure it didn’t take him longer than a second to make the decision to go there.
Do all those medals compensate for all the hatred he has received? I would say yes, without a doubt. If he went somewhere other than Arsenal and didn’t achieve anything do you think he’d be thinking “oh well, at least I didn’t upset those racist and homophobic idiots”?
It acts as a form of validation though doesn’t it? To illustrate, as a Newcastle fan I wouldn’t be upset if Geremi (No disrespect to him, good player) moved to Sunderland in January. If Barcelona fans wanted to really upset Figo, they would have been better off just not caring, and not doing anything, would have sent a far harsher message to him.
In that case he was well within his rights to move, looked like he was on his way out anyway, Barca hadn’t offered him a new contract. Perhaps his destination didn’t sit well with their fans but you can hardly blame the guy, biggest team in the world comes calling when he is seemingly being forced out. To be honest, there are players I find difficult to like, but that is more to do with personality rather than club allegiances – it is just a game after all.
In terms of the standard of player involved, and the attention it created, I think Figo’s move was probably the biggest of it’s type. For the purposes of the article, I focused on local players, ie those who understand the history and rivalry of the clubs involved, as I think they hurt the fans the most.
Geoff, you make a very good point regarding the different perspectives of players and fans, for me that’s part of the problem. For all sorts of reasons, the relationship between the two groups is becoming more distant, and the ordinary fan finds it increasingly difficult to relate to the players they turn up to support every week. When a player leaves a club where they are considered a hero, and moves to their biggest rivals, it’s little wonder.
With regards to Campbell, I doubt he would have been thinking about racist or homophobic fans had he moved to another club, as the level of hatred would not have been the same. As I said in the article, it was the right move in terms of his career. However, no matter how mentally strong he is,there must have been occasions when he wondered whether it was worth it, particularly when the stick was every bit as bad after leaving Arsenal.
I disagree that the move to Arsenal would have been an easy decision for Campbell. He had publicly stated that he would not move to Arsenal, but ultimately did. Either he performed a major u-turn, or he knew along where he was headed and was stringing the Spurs fans along. Either way, Campbell didn’t emerge from that deal with a lot of credit.
William, fair point. Do you think some players like to in some way to be at the centre of all that drama? An example could be Wayne Rooney. Sometimes it looks like he enjoys being the pantomime villain when he goes back to Goodison and he plays along with it all – celebrating goals in front of Everton fans and kissing his Man U badge etc.
I agree also with Steve A in that it’s only a game. When you stop and think about it, it’s quite irrational for fans to get quite so worked up about it all!
Good point Geoff, one I hadn’t really considered when writing the article.
Rooney is an excellent example. He seems to thrive on the hostile atmosphere at the likes of Goodison and Anfield. Of the players mentioned in the article, Mo Johnston was certainly one who enjoyed the spotlight.
I agree that people within the game get too worked up, about all sorts of issues. Having said that, I have no problem with fans feeling upset or angry if they feel let down by a player who moves on, that’s their right. It’s how these feelings are expressed that often causes problems.