Our system detected that your browser is blocking advertisements on our site. Please help support Fans Focus by disabling any kind of ad blocker while browsing this site. Thank you.
Jump to content

Salgado: My debt to Margate

Guest

By Guest
in Margate Forum

 Share

Recommended Posts

Guest

Guest

Posted
Posted

Why Spain's anglophile cannot wait for tomorrow night

 

Sid Lowe in Madrid

Tuesday November 16, 2004

The Guardian

 

The first football kit he was ever given was a Luton Town shirt, he beams proudly as he reveals that his sister-in-law is from York and he honed his skills on Margate beach.

 

Tomorrow night he will run out at the Santiago Bernabéu, relishing the prospect of a stadium full of Englishmen. And yet he will be wearing red and yellow, not the white of England. The Real Madrid and Spain right-back Michel Salgado certainly is an unusual footballer: the most anglicised of Spaniards, fluent in English, an avid viewer of the Premiership and a genuine friend to David Beckham.

 

Spain versus England will, he says, "be a really special game". The grin on his face and the enthusiasm, intelligence and knowledge with which he talks about England and English football underlining just how much he is looking forward to it. This is a man who talks fondly and unprompted of Peter Beardsley and speaks as highly of Gary Neville and Paul Scholes as he does of Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney.

 

He says it is a tragedy that Scholes has retired forEngland; that you need only look at Neville's CV to realise his worth; and that Rooney has it all - "so strong that he'd be just as good helping you move house as playing football." Gerrard is "a fantastic team player, and that's more of a compliment than calling him a galáctico. He'd be welcome in any team, and that includes Real."

 

Coming from anyone else, such remarks would seem like platitudes. Not from Salgado. There is real interest, genuine warmth. He recommends restaurants in London, a city he visits regularly; he sends his daughter, who clambers over him as he talks, to an English school; and he praises Spain's more rustic, "English" players. Albion may be perfidious but it holds a very special place in the heart of the 29-year-old, born in Spain's rainy north western corner. "I learned English at school and I used to study with my sister-in-law, who's from York," he explains. "On top of that, I went to Margate for a month when I was 14. I remember the beach really clearly - all the way along it were slot machines, the whole way. I couldn't believe it. It was fantastic fun: we studied until one, then spent all day wasting our money and playing football on the beach in the rain.

 

 

"Me and another Spanish lad stayed with an English family with two kids - Kevin, one was called. The parents took me to the pub to meet their friends and play darts. The dad was a beast of a man: one of those typically English blokes. He worked in a factory that made shop signs. He always wore this really tight T-shirt with the slogan 'Kiss my [****!!****]' on it.

 

"It was a different world. They had a party and I've never seen people drink so much beer in my life. We were only allowed shandy but to see them down those half-litre cans was incredible.

 

"The only problem was the food. I couldn't take the peanut butter sandwiches. I spent all day in Burger King, because I was starving. Cheeseburger, cheeseburger, cheeseburger - and I don't even like burgers. I couldn't work out the Sunday lunches: a huge meal at 12 and nothing else, except the typical tea in the evening. We had to hide fruit and chocolate in our bedside tables at night."

 

What of the English game?. "I find English football really attractive," he says. "And everything that goes with it: the culture, the respect with which the players are treated, the atmosphere. If I ever left Real I'd only go to play in England. I talk to Fernando Hierro and el pelos, the hair [iván Campo], and they really enjoy it.

 

"The atmosphere is spectacular. The Spanish team lacks the spirit you have. At Euro 2004 there were tickets left for Spain games, in stadiums that are 20 minutes' drive away. Against France there were 50,000 to 60,000 English fans. It's incredible, wonderful."

 

It was natural that Salgado welcomed Real's English contingent of Beckham, Michael Owen and Jonathan Woodgate with open arms, translating team talks and taking them for a pint in The Irish Rover.

 

Salgado says of Woodgate: "He's a great lad. Of the three he speaks the best Spanish; he tries to fit in more and really wants to settle into Spanish life. Michael always has his dictionary and his papers with him on the plane. But David finds it really hard, despite eating out with us a lot.

 

"It will be odd to play against Michael and David. But once we get out on the pitch no one's my mate." It is no empty threat. Steve McManaman once described Salgado as the hardest man in the world, "a psychopath even in training". That enthusiasm for English football runs deep.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest

Guest

Posted
Posted

'If i ever leave Real i'd only want to play in England.'

 

It is so obvious that the essence of the whole article is that it is a put up job via his agent,and that the player is sending out messages to CK to come and sign him for Margate.

 

'margate is my Madrid'

 

 

is there any computer geek who can get this whole thread posted onto Real madrids fans forum?)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
hartgeman Newbie

hartgeman

Posted
Posted

this is great press for margate you couldnt buy this type of pess if you wanted to. all we need now is for people to read this and want to come to margate for there holiday (if any hotels left)

and mybe invester to do margate up and turn it back into a great resort. (one idea would be to rebuild a peir put some think on it that would attract people to the area.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
hartgeman Newbie

hartgeman

Posted
Posted

sorry for the spelling as i am doing three things at once. And my idea's for the area would not only create jobs but draw people to the area but this is a long term plan and will take at lest 5 years to complete from the start of the prodject. which i hope to start in the next couple of years.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
hartgeman Newbie

hartgeman

Posted
Posted

I hope so as there determined to reck the town. did you know that godden got permission to re do the frontage at the sea front months ago back in june. But as you know godden hes no buiding it yet as he want a casino.

here a link to the prof(i think it is as not on my computer and i can t access the links):

 

http://www.ukplanning.com/ukp/showCaseFi...FTH%2F04%2F0478

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...