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Personal
Fullname: Thomas Gravesen
aka: Tommy Gravesen
Height: 5.10
Weight: 13.06
Born: 11 March 1976
Birthplace: Viejle, Denmark
Signed: 30 August 2006 (undisclosed from Real Madrid, £2.2m estimate)
Left: 18 August 2008 (released from contract)
Position: Midfielder (Central), Attacking midfielder
Debut: Aberdeen 0-1 Celtic, League, 9 Sep 2006
Squad No.: 16
Internationals: Denmark
International Caps: 66 caps
International Goals: 5 goals
Summary
Signed a 3 year contract from Real Madrid for an undisclosed fee [BBC]
He has 56 caps for Denmark, scoring 5 international goals
On 30 August, having fallen out with the manager, the fans, the press etc, Gravesen was thrown a lifeline by old club Everton and been loaned to them for the season 2007-08 [BBC], however things didn’t work out there either and the loan was not renewed much to the consternations of the Celtic management.
On 18th August 2008, Celtic did a deal with Gravesen, and Gravesen was moved on. [BBC]
Biog
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“He thought differently to everyone else.”
Aiden McGeady on Thomas Gravesen (2019) |
Thomas Gravesen was bought from Real Madrid as the biggest buy of the season for Gordon Strachan to help wet the appetite for the fans. Alongside other buys like Jarosik, the big Dane was expected to fit in well and provide the steel and determination to take Celtic’s First Team further than they had before in the current era. As much as Celtic did go further than before in the Champions League in 2006/07 and won the SPL at a canter, the truth is that Gravesen did not prove to be a pivotal player at all.
Single minded, head strong and possibly over arrogant, his performances generally left little to be said. He was never awful, and he has a place in the hearts of some Celtic fans having scored twice against Rangers (in 2 separate games), but he was never a consistent performer. The problem was that he was impossible to coach as the manager later admitted, but he was always a professional in his training. He just did his own thing.
Too many times he seemed to just play his own game play running about like a headless chicken, and damaging the structure of the team’s formation. Best example of this came in the last Celtic v Rangers game of season 2006/07 in which Celtic were embarrassingly outplayed in, and Gravesen was just running aimlessly everywhere.
He had his moments, with the as said goals against Rangers, but possibly his best was when in one game he just drove a lackadaisical Celtic side to victory against St Mirren by scoring a hat-trick. Great performance there but never enough. He ended up either left out or simply benched for a number of games, and when he came on, but as in the away game v AC Milan in the Champions League he did give the side a lift.
One game in which expected for him to do well was the game v Copenhagen away. Slated by the Danish press for chucking the national team, he had a chance to prove the doubters wrong, but he was as rank as every other player in the Celtic team that day as Celtic lost 3-1, even being 3-0 down at one point.
The manager reached the end of his tether after a summer warm-up match in which the team got humped, and WGS publicly slated Gravesen which signalled the end for the big guy. A frightening looking character with a steely look, but really that was all there was to him sadly for much of his time at the club. Then again was it the manager’s fault not being able to accommodate the big guy?
On a bigger picture, Celtic were still doing well at this time, winning the league title and doing well in Europe. So as a regular player in that time, Gravesen should be given some respect for his efforts in that time.
If there is one thing that he will be remembered for is a classic picture taken by Number7 of the KerrydaleStreet forum which can be found in his pictures page below.
He was released from his contract in Aug 2008 after Everton decided to neither buy him permanently or roll on the loan period – Celtic had to settle up a reputed £1million to terminate his contract and he subsequently retired from football in January 2009 after failing to find a new permanent contract with a club.
We wished him all the best, but all in all in terms of wages spent on him and his final settlement from the club compared to his overall contribution, his signing was deemed to be an unsuccessful one.
One thing of note is that in a number of retrospectives by various players (at Celtic & from outside) and coaching staff from that era, there were a number of stories on Gravesen, reflecting on what a mad character he was but also of his humour. He once even brought dynamite with him to training whilst at Hamburg.
One who definitely stood out from the crowd.
Post-Celtic
Through his career, he was blasted by his home Danish press for throwing his life away. He had been in a relationship with an adult star called Kira Eggers and comment pieces in the country suggested repeatedly that he was washed up and on a slippery slope to ruin.
He announced his second ‘retirement’ at the age of 37 from football.
In an interview, he gave some interesting feedback on his time at Celtic:
– He has always been a Celtic fan (even before joining) went up to see us play Rangers when Løvenkrands were there, but cheered for Celtic,
– He had a pretty big go at his former Celtic manager Gordon Strachan for being too negative towards the approach of the game
– After his hat-trick against St Mirren, Strachan’s only comment was “remember the defensive part of the job, we have to work on that“,
– He said Strachan was scared of losing matches,
– The approach from Strachan was to sit back and wait, then move further back and wait for the opposition to make mistakes, not for Celtic to attack and to produce goals, which didn’t make any sense to Gravesen since Celtic were by far the best team in Scotland and played against part timers in some matches,
– Gravesen confronted Strachan about the negative approach to the game, and Strachan replied that the team should fear losing more than anything,
– The Celtic v Rangers games were the most intense he had played in (more than the Merseyside derby and El Classico).
So had he actually thrown his life away? Actually no. According to Danish newspaper BT, Gravesen had invested his career earnings in a number of financial businesses and struck the jackpot. He was reported to be worth in 2013 at over €100m (around £82.61m).
How was he now reported to be aiming to spend this retirement? Well he moved to Las Vegas with his latest lady – a stunning Czech-born American model Kamila Persse – where he was reported to be planning to spend the rest of his days living the life of luxury and indulging in his passion for gambling & video games.
We wished him all the best in the world, and it looks like he got it. He even seemed to become more popular years later after his playing career ended as people read back on his escapades in football, and he became a cult favourite for some football social media presenters & listeners. Congratulations to him.
Playing Career
| APPEARANCES | LEAGUE | SCOTTISH CUP | LEAGUE CUP | EUROPE | TOTAL |
| 2006/07 | 18 (4) | 0 (4) | 1 (0) | 4 (2) | 23 (10) |
| Goals: | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
Honours with Celtic
Scottish League
| KDS Honours |
||
| MOTM Winners 2006-07 | ||
| 09-Sep-06 | Aberdeen 0 v 1 Celtic | SPL |
| 12-Nov-06 | St Mirren 1 v 3 Celtic | SPL |
| 23-Dec-06 | Celtic 1 v 0 Falkirk | SPL |
| 03-Mar-07 | Celtic 2 v 1 Dunfermline | SPL |
Quotes
“I won’t work with him any more than I’ll work with any of my players,” said Strachan on the Hoops £2.2m signing, “It’s quite simple – Marcello Lippi always said if you tell a player four times where to be and what to do and they don’t get it, then forget it. He got the same time as everyone else last year and it’ll be the same again.”
WGS (2007)
“We tried our best to get a system which suited Thomas and it hasn’t worked. It was the system to blame, not the player or the club.”
WGS (Jul 2008)
“He thought differently to everyone else.”
Aiden McGeady on Gravesen (2019)
Gravesen once threw fireworks at the former Manchester United striker and his former boss David Moyes revealed all: “It was the old gym, it’s about 60 yards long. Thomas and Wayne, they were shooting fireworks at each other.” he said via The Mail. They had big rockets full of gunpowder, they were holding one end and shooting them at each other’. Tommy was mental in a good way. He was a great player and we loved him He wouldn’t listen but it wasn’t in a bad way. I think it was a wee bit where he didn’t want to hear you and just did his own thing. He was crazy in his training. He was a good lad but mental.”
Ex-Celtic player and Gravesen’s ex-Everton manager Davie Moyes (2019)
“He would always be chatting. He would always be saying ‘mate, hey mate’.
“I walked out into the tunnel for his first Old Firm game, it wasn’t my first one. You know what the tunnel is like, players are scared to look at each other, the television camera’s are there.
“I wasn’t captain at the time so I walked out and Tommy’s standing on the opposite side. I’m trying not to look at him and he says ‘hey mate, how you doing mate?’. I couldn’t look at him.
“At half-time he walked back in speaking to Barry Ferguson. I remember coming in to the changing room and Barry came in and said, ‘what about your mate?’.
“I said, ‘what do you mean?’ and he said Gravesen had said to him, ‘hey mate do you know any nice restaurants in Glasgow?’”
David Weir (ex-Rangers player on his experiences with Thomas Gravesen, 2018)
“Only £100million? Where’s the rest?”
Thomas Gravesen on being questioned about whether he was worth €100m (2020)
“When I left Celtic, I wanted to move away from home as I could because I didn’t want to watch football and it’s easier in the USA. It took me nine years to get over it and return to public life. But now I am so happy within myself.”
Thomas Gravensen (2020)
“Jesus Christ, this guy has got millions, he could go anywhere in the world and at that time he had his porn star girlfriend and he goes home to sit in a basement [playing computer games]”.
Ex-Celtc Mark Wilson
Pictures
Books
Articles
Thomas The grave breaks the silence: I found my way in life
Https://www.tipsbladet.dk/nyhed/vm/thomas-gravesen-bryder-tavsheden-jeg-har-fundet-min-vej-i-livet
After 12 years of silence, Thomas dug up a great interview. Tipsbladet.dk has met the former Real Madrid player for a long talk-among other things, about more than a decade of silence.
He was probably the biggest football star in Denmark ten years ago. The bald man with the gavtyve smile and the hoarse voice was a known face throughout the world. You will be when you have played for Real Madrid, including Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo and David Beckham.
But suddenly Thomas dug out.
In 2006 he stopped on the Danish national team, in 2009 he set up his career, and it is 12 years since the now 42-year-old Ekslandsholdsspiller has given a great interview. The otherwise outward-looking jutes became a mystery, and in many ways he has been ever since.
Now, however, Thomas the grave takes the leaf from his mouth-barely 10 years after he ceased his career. Tipsbladet.dk has met the former national team player in Vejle, where he lives and in many ways lives quite a normal life.
Thomas the grave, why have you been so quiet for more than 10 years?
-I do not know why. I think maybe just, I needed a break after my career, and then I went to the US and lived. There were some things that had to be cleaned out and thought through. You get a lot of impressions when you travel around the world and I think I should just be allowed to think through myself, without the whole of Denmark accompanied – or the whole world for that matter. I have received this and I have received great support from my family and friends. There has been no mystery, I just think I needed a break from it all, says Thomas the grave to tipsbladet.dk.
You say, there has been no mystery, but I think a great many just perceive it as mystical. Can you understand them?
We all have an opinion. I believe that few people can get into another human being and how they do things and deal with the problems. At some point in our lives we all experience something we need to analyse and think through. “Is this what I want?”, “Is this the way I want to go?” I did not think so much about what others thought. I thought that this was what I needed, and that decision was, I know, from the grave.
He looks like himself, the former Real Madrid player. He still has no hair on his head, and staying in Hamburg, Liverpool, Madrid and Glasgow have not rocked a centimeter at the Jutland accent. He speaks like most others in Vejle, and he feels at home in the town of the fjord, where he among other things has a close relationship with the brother man Peter Grave, who is also a former professional football player. Peter is now working as a waiter in the hotel where this interview takes place.
The peace has been in the life of Thomas graves, but the time after career stopped in 2009 was not easy.
-I would say to the players who are active now-play as long as you can. Stay on! Keep your body as fit as possible. There is nothing in the world better than playing football and being part of a community. It will never come again, and so there will be a huge gap after football. If you cannot fill it out, it will be some tough years. It is 10 years since I stopped and I miss football every single day. I miss the match day, but especially everyday life. A World Cup year like this one reinforces it only, says Thomas Graven.
Were you not filled with football at all?
-I do not think I can be sated with football. I see everything I can get away with. I just needed to slow up and look at the world. Be a little on the sidelines and look inside. Think about what I wanted with my life, he says.
Several times the interview is interrupted by people who are just going and greeting the former national team player. It is clear that several of them are well-known individuals for the grave, who says that he is still being recognized around the world. But in Vejle he can be in peace.
That said, the celebrity factor has never bothered the retired football star.
-I take it as it comes. It has never been a problem for me. When you become a football star, you become a familiar face in the world, because football means so much for so many people. It is part of being a football star and one must learn to live with that people have an attitude towards you. It will almost be strange otherwise when you are on the Danish national team, for example. I also have an opinion on many things, and that is why I have tried to tackle it in the way I think is right. I have no problem with being recognized, and I will always just be the thing I am. I will always just be Thomas, says the national team’s former number seven.
And now Thomas has chosen to open his mouth to the public again. Many thought that one had heard the last of the former Danish national team player.
Why did you thank No to being interviewed for so many years?
-I have not felt the time was right. I did not feel I had gotten a decent distance and was beaten through with my thoughts. That is why I have no reason to say ‘ no ‘, and people have respected this. I have been very pleased about this, says the grave.
Why so now? Have you figured out the things you should be doing?
-Yes, I think so. I have grown older and I have found my way in life for many years to come. I have found out that football has to be part of my life still. I do not know if it will be quite as public as when I played myself, but I will certainly be part of it. For It has a huge place in my life.
Why has it taken so long to find out?
-When you start playing soccer as a six to seven year old and finish as 33 year old, the world is so great that you want to see it. I love to travel and I like to see the world, and I’ve done that. That is why it has probably taken a little longer than someone had decided for me, but in my own world it has been perfect. I’ve seen what I wanted to see. That was the time I needed, he says.
Thomas grave has lived in Las Vegas in the period after his active career, and he has been able to take on a lot of liberties. Like all other foreign football players, the grave has lived a privileged life, and staying in clubs such as Everton, Real Madrid and Celtic have, among other things, caused money to never be a shortage for the footballer.
-You are extremely privileged when you are allowed to become a abroad professional footballer. But there is also a great deal of responsibility, because one is a role model for young people and one that many see up to. This must be taken seriously. I would like to be a good ambassador for football, but I will not be the one who does not say what I mean. I have always done so, and it does, among other things, that I can stand by myself. It might not always be a good thought, what I said, but I am an impulsive man, and I speak from the heart, says the sorcerer.
National Team stop
The greatest mystery with Thomas Graven as the protagonist must be indisputably the national team in 2006-at that time,”Digs” just 30 years old. Thomas the grave announced his stop on 15. September 2006. A few months prior to that, he was quoted by Ritzau as saying that there was nothing bigger in his world than playing on the Danish national team. Not even Real Madrid could match the red jersey with the DBU logo.
Thomas The grave has never explained why he suddenly stopped the Danish national team after 66 matches in red and white.
Why did you do that?
-I have always said that playing on the Danish national team is the biggest. It cannot be said in any other way. It was the biggest for me – to represent my own country. It was much bigger than Real Madrid. It is also a fantastic club, but to be able to play with her compatriots and get the experience that you come home to represent the country where you were born…. there is no feeling greater than that in football. That is what I want to say about it, says the grave.
So you won’t say why you stopped so suddenly?
“I had my reasons,” says Thomas the grave with a smile.
Thus, Thomas the grave probably takes the final explanation with him in the tomb, but Gavflaben has now broken more than a decade of silence. And there are probably a great many who have missed him.
On Tuesday you can read the second part of the great interview with Thomas Graven-here he tells about his impressive career, so peaking with a stay in Mighty Real Madrid.
Thomas Gravesen bryder tavsheden: Jeg har fundet min vej i livet https://www.tipsbladet.dk/nyhed/vm/thomas-gravesen-bryder-tavsheden-jeg-har-fundet-min-vej-i-livet
Efter 12 års tavshed stiller Thomas Gravesen nu op til et stort interview. Tipsbladet.dk har mødt den tidligere Real Madrid-spiller til en lang snak – blandt andet om mere end et årtis tavshed.
Thomas Gravesen var Danmarks vel nok største fodboldstjerne for ti år siden. Den skaldede mand med gavtyvesmilet og den hæse stemme var et kendt ansigt i hele verden. Det bliver man, når man blandt andet har spillet for Real Madrid sammen med Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo og David Beckham.
Men pludselig meldte Thomas Gravesen sig ud.
I 2006 stoppede han på det danske landshold, i 2009 indstillede han karrieren, og det er 12 år siden, den nu 42-årige ekslandsholdsspiller har givet et stort interview. Den ellers udadvendte jyde blev et mysterium, og det har han på mange måder været lige siden.
Nu tager Thomas Gravesen imidlertid bladet fra munden – knap 10 år efter at han indstillede karrieren. Tipsbladet.dk har mødt den tidligere landsholdsspiller i Vejle, hvor han bor og på mange måder lever et ganske almindeligt liv.
Thomas Gravesen, hvorfor har du været så stille i mere end 10 år?
– Det ved jeg sgu ikke hvorfor. Jeg tror måske bare, jeg havde brug for en pause efter min karriere, og så tog jeg til USA og boede. Der var nogle ting, der skulle renses ud og tænkes igennem. Man får mange indtryk, når man rejser rundt i verden, og jeg tror, jeg lige skulle have lov til at tænke dem igennem selv, uden hele Danmark fulgte med – eller hele verden for den sags skyld. Det har jeg fået, og jeg har fået stor opbakning af min familie og venner. Der har ikke været noget mystik, jeg tror bare, jeg trængte til en pause fra det hele, siger Thomas Gravesen til tipsbladet.dk.
Du siger, der ikke har været noget mystik, men jeg tror, rigtig mange netop opfatter det som mystisk. Kan du forstå dem?
– Vi har jo alle sammen en mening. Jeg tror, det er de færreste, der kan sætte sig ind i et andet menneske, og hvordan han/hun gør tingene og klarer problemerne. På et tidspunkt i vores liv oplever vi alle noget, vi har brug for at analysere og tænke igennem. ”Er det det her, jeg vil?”, ”er det den her vej, jeg vil gå?”. Jeg tænkte ikke så meget over, hvad andre mente. Jeg tænkte, at det var det, jeg havde brug for, og den beslutning stod jeg ved, lyder det fra Gravesen.
Han ligner sig selv, den tidligere Real Madrid-spiller. Han har stadig intet hår på hovedet, og ophold i Hamborg, Liverpool, Madrid og Glasgow har ikke rokket en centimeter ved den jyske accent. Han taler som de fleste andre i Vejle, og han føler sig hjemme i byen ved fjorden, hvor han blandt andet har et tæt forhold til brormand Peter Gravesen, der også er tidligere professionel fodboldspiller. Peter arbejder nu som tjener på det hotel, hvor dette interview finder sted.
Roen har indfundet sig i Thomas Gravesens liv, men tiden efter karrierestoppet i 2009 var ikke let.
– Jeg vil sige til de spillere, der er aktive nu – spil så længe, I kan. Bliv ved! Hold jeres krop så fit som muligt. Der er ikke noget i verden, der er bedre end at spille fodbold og være en del af et fællesskab. Det kommer aldrig igen, og derfor kommer der et kæmpe hul efter fodbolden. Hvis man ikke kan fylde det ud, bliver det nogle hårde år. Det er 10 år siden, jeg stoppede, og jeg savner fodbold hver eneste dag. Jeg savner kampdagen, men især hverdagen. Et VM-år som det her forstærker det kun, siger Thomas Gravesen.
Var du slet ikke mæt af fodbold?
– Jeg tror ikke, jeg kan blive mæt af fodbold. Jeg ser alt det, jeg kan slippe af sted med. Jeg havde bare brug for at bremse op og kigge på verden. Være lidt med på sidelinjen og kigge ind. Tænke over, hvad jeg ville med mit liv, siger han.
Flere gange bliver interviewet afbrudt af folk, der lige skal hen og hilse på den tidligere landsholdsspiller. Det er tydeligt, at flere af dem er velkendte personer for Gravesen, der fortæller, at han stadig bliver genkendt rundt om i verden. Men i Vejle kan han være i fred.
Når det er sagt, har kendisfaktoren aldrig generet den pensionerede fodboldstjerne.
– Det tager jeg, som det kommer. Det har aldrig været et problem for mig. Når man bliver fodboldstjerne, bliver man et kendt ansigt i verden, fordi fodbold betyder så meget for så mange mennesker. Det er en del af at være fodboldstjerne, og man må lære at leve med, at folk har en holdning til dig. Det vil næsten være mærkeligt andet, når man eksempelvis er på det danske landshold. Jeg har også en mening om mange ting, og derfor har jeg forsøgt at tackle det på den måde, jeg synes er rigtig. Jeg har intet problem med at blive genkendt, og jeg vil altid bare være den, jeg er. Jeg vil altid bare være Thomas, siger landsholdets forhenværende nummer syv.
Og nu har Thomas Gravesen altså valgt at åbne munden over for offentligheden igen. Mange troede nok, at man havde hørt det sidste til den tidligere danske landsholdsspiller.
Hvorfor har du takket nej til at blive interviewet i så mange år?
– Jeg har ikke følt, tidspunktet var det rigtige. Jeg følte ikke, jeg havde fået en ordentlig distance og var slået igennem med mine tanker. Derfor har jeg takket pænt nej, og det har folk respekteret. Det har jeg været utrolig glad for, siger Gravesen.
Hvorfor så nu? Har du fundet ud af de ting, du skulle?
– Ja, det synes jeg. Jeg er blevet ældre, og jeg har fundet min vej i livet de næste mange år. Jeg har fundet ud af, at fodbolden skal være en del af mit liv stadigvæk. Om det bliver helt så offentligt, som da jeg selv spillede, ved jeg ikke, men jeg vil i hvert fald være en del af det. For det har en kæmpe plads i mit liv.
Hvorfor har det taget så lang tid at finde ud af?
– Når man starter med at spille fodbold som seks-syv-årig og slutter som 33-årig, er verden så stor, at man gerne vil se den. Jeg elsker at rejse, og jeg kan godt lide at se verden, og det har jeg gjort. Derfor har det nok taget lidt længere tid, end nogen havde besluttet for mig, men i min egen verden har det været perfekt. Jeg har set det, jeg gerne ville se. Det var den tid, jeg skulle bruge, siger han.
Thomas Gravesen har blandt andet boet i Las Vegas i tiden efter sin aktive karriere, og han har kunnet tage sig en masse friheder. Som alle andre udlandsprofessionelle fodboldspillere har Gravesen levet en privilegeret tilværelse, og ophold i klubber som Everton, Real Madrid og Celtic har blandt andet medført, at penge aldrig bliver en mangelvare for fodboldpensionisten.
– Man er utrolig privilegeret, når man får lov til at blive udlandsprofessionel fodboldspiller. Men der følger også et stort ansvar med, for man er en rollemodel for unge mennesker, og én, som mange ser op til. Det skal man tage seriøst. Jeg vil gerne være en god ambassadør for fodbolden, men jeg vil ikke være ham, der ikke siger, hvad jeg mener. Det har jeg altid gjort, og det gør blandt andet, at jeg kan stå ved mig selv. Det var måske ikke altid lige velovervejet, hvad jeg sagde, men jeg er en impulsiv mand, og jeg taler fra hjertet, siger vejlenseren.
Landsholdsstoppet
Den største mystik med Thomas Gravesen som hovedperson må indiskutabelt være landsholdsstoppet i 2006 – dengang var “Graver” bare 30 år gammel. Thomas Gravesen meddelte sit stop den 15. september 2006. Få måneder forinden var han af Ritzau blevet citeret for, at der ikke fandtes noget større i hans verden end at spille på det danske landshold. End ikke Real Madrid kunne måle sig med den røde trøje med DBU-logoet.
Thomas Gravesen har aldrig forklaret, hvorfor han så pludselig stoppede på det danske landshold efter 66 kampe i rødt og hvidt.
Hvorfor gjorde du det?
– Jeg har altid sagt, at det at spille på det danske landshold er det største. Det kan ikke siges på andre måder. Det var det største for mig – at repræsentere mit eget land. Det var meget større end Real Madrid. Det er også en fantastisk klub, men at kunne spille med sine landsmænd og få den oplevelse, at man kommer hjem for at repræsentere det land, hvor man er født…. der findes ingen følelse, der er større end det i fodbold. Det er det, jeg vil sige om det, siger Gravesen.
Så du vil ikke sige, hvorfor du stoppede så pludseligt?
– Jeg havde mine grunde, slutter Thomas Gravesen med et smil.
Dermed tager Thomas Gravesen formentlig den endelige forklaring med sig i graven, men gavflaben har nu brudt mere end et årtis tavshed. Og der er formentlig rigtig mange, der har savnet ham.
Tirsdag kan du læse anden del af det store interview med Thomas Gravesen – her fortæller han om sin imponerende karriere, der altså toppede med et ophold i mægtige Real Madrid.
Thomas Gravesen slams former Celtic manager Gordon Strachan and claims ex-boss was scared of losing
The Dane was disappointed with how Strachan approached games and insists he should have been more attacking.
Thomas Gravesen has hit out at Gordon Strachan and admits they pair were divided by the former Celtic boss’ preferred style of play.Gravesen joined the Hoops in 2006 but played just 22 games before returning to Everton for a short loan spell and then calling time on his career in 2008.Now the Dane has lifted the lid on his thoughts about Strachan’s approach to football and reveals why they were never going to click and has opened up his time in Glasgow.The former Real Madrid star insists Celtic should never have more expansive football because they were so much better than everyone else.
In a wide-ranging and brutally honest interview with tipsbladet.dk, Gravesen said: “I’ve always been a Celtic fan. I was in Scotland and see Old Firm when Peter Lovenkrands played for Glasgow Rangers.“I would like to try to play in that atmosphere and I can only say that I have not regretted that. It was a huge club and an incredible team.“Unfortunately, I ran into an opposition to myself in the form of a coach called Gordon Strachan. His time was unfortunately while I was there. It did not work between him and me.
“He clearly had the best team and yet we did not have to go out and play the field. Gordon was a defensively-minded coach of a world famous club. This corresponds to FC Copenhagen going out to be defensive against Hobro.
“There is no criticism of Hobro, but the budget that FCK has is far bigger. I could not understand why he did as he did at Celtic because we were so much better than the other teams.“In the few matches we were allowed to, we were much better. It was always, ‘back’, ‘little further back’. I could not understand it and therefore Gordon Strachan and I were ripped apart.“I remember that I scored a hat-trick against St. Mirren – the only one in my career – and his only comment was ‘remember the defence, we just have to control that’.“He was nervous about losing, afraid of losing a match as the boss of the mighty Celtic.”Gravesen scored twice against Rangers but never thrived during his time in Glasgow. The outspoken midfielder now lives in Las Vegas after several successful investments.
Former Celtic star Paul Hartley recalls crazy prank Thomas Gravesen pulled on Steven Pressley
Gravesen’s stunt after a Champions League qualifier in Moscow did not impress his colleague.https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/former-celtic-star-paul-hartley-13984128ByRecord Sport Online 13:59, 11 FEB 2019Former Celtic star Thomas Gravesen was well-known as a practical joker and prankster during his time with the Hoops.Just about every one of his team-mates was on the receiving end at some point, and Paul Hartley has recalled the time that one of the Danes stunts did not end well for Steven Pressley.Speaking to the Open Goal , Hartley revealed a dressing room incident involving the pair following a 1-1 draw in a Champions League qualifier at Spartak Moscow.The former Real Madrid flop was known for his pranks and host of former Parkhead stars have shared details about his wild stay in Glasgow in the past.Hartley, who netted the Hoops’ goal in the game, said: “It was a recovery session and he got big Elvis in a headlock.”Elvis was just walking in with the shorts on for a recovery session in the pool. The next minute Tam gets Elvis with the head and – dunk!”Elvis couldn’t get out.. he’s the strongest man in the world!”Big Elvis is drowning and we’re all like, ‘What’s going on here?'”(Gravesen said) ‘It’ll be all right lads, it’s alright.'”Elvis was going to kill him.”
The best bits from a book on football’s ‘last maverick’ Thomas Gravesen – the Everton and Real Madrid midfielder turned reclusive millionaire
The midfielder was renowned for his tough tackling but is now better-known for his off-field exploits
https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/european/thomas-gravesen-last-maverick-real-madrid-a8780966.html
Footballer Thomas Gravesen has been described “as a grenade with the pin pulled out.”
The bald-headed Dane’s eccentric ways and outlandish antics were legendary within the game .
He shocked team-mates, coaches and managers on his journey from boyhood heroes Vejle Boldklub to German giants Hamburg SV, English heavyweights Everton, the world’s most glamorous club Real Madrid and Scottish powerhouses Celtic.
But at the age of 32, he suddenly retired and disappeared only to resurface several years later living in a luxurious gated community in Las Vegas, with Andre Agassi and Nicolas Cage as neighbours.
Rumours swirl that the midfielder made himself a £100 million fortune in the US, there’s also reports he lost $54 million in a high stakes game of poker.
Very little is actually known about the man dubbed Mad Dog, with some in Denmark even labelling him a unicorn due to the mystery that surrounds him.
He was a world famous footballer, but so much is unclear apart from his engaging and totally unique personality which saw him become a cult hero everywhere he went.
But a new book pulls back the curtain and lets fans find out about the life and times of one of the most colourful players ever to exist. Below are an insight into some of the tales found in Mad Dog Gravesen: The Last of the Modern Footballing Mavericks.
Mad Dog Gravesen: The Last of the Modern Footballing Mavericks by Chris Sweeney is on sale now from Pitch Publishing
A dip in the bubble pool
There was a bizarre incident while at Hamburg in which Thomas and partner-in-crime Allan Jepsen decided to have a laugh one afternoon.
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A new book on Gravesen is released this month
They covered the entire wellness area at the team’s training base in foam, soap and shampoo, so it became their own personal giant, infinity-style swimming pool made of bubbles.
The pair got naked and began sliding through the whole building all the way to the swimming pool, where they launched in by doing cannonballs. A member of staff was alerted and came in to catch the young Danes having the time of their lives. Their only punishment was to clean the place up before the manager saw it.
Chopper Gravesen
It was only thanks to HSV team-mate Bernd Hollerbach that Thomas and his love of motorbikes was rumbled too.
Defender Hollerbach had a reputation for driving very fast in his Porsche, ignoring any speed limits where they were in place as Germany’s Autobahn allows drivers to go as fast as they like in some parts
A club insider revealed how one day Hollerbach arrived at HSV’s training ground looking crestfallen but also with an expression of shock on his face. The source said, ‘He’d been speeding as usual, overtaking everyone, when out of nowhere a biker flew past him doing 160mph. The rider was clinging on for dear life dressed in a t-shirt, shorts and flip-flops but his identity was hidden under a helmet. The tale goes that with a shake of the head, Hollerbach sighed, ‘The bloke must have had a screw loose ’. It was only when he got inside to change for training that he spotted Thomas standing there in a t-shirt, shorts and flip-flops. It was him who’d been riding the bike! He was casually getting ready, thinking nothing of it, and went out for the day’s session leaving Hollerbach dumbfounded.
The club then discovered that Thomas wasn’t just using the motorbike for high-speed dashes to training. He was actually going home to Vejle most days of the week. One way, the journey is 175 miles and usually takes around three hours, but speed freak Thomas was doing it in well under two. He’d leave training, go home, and then come back for the next session. It underlined just how much energy Thomas had and with no one there to rein him in, he was spending his days driving like a maniac back to the small, sleepy town where he felt most at ease.
The other half
Archie Knox who was the assistant manager when Thomas joined Everton said, ‘He just got into scrapes left, right and centre. He always had plenty to say, he’d challenge everything even in training, but Thomas always insisted that he was in the right. There was never a chance of him backing down. He was that determined, to him he was always in the right. But he had more good about him than he had bad, there’s no doubt about that.’
As well as always acting up and having a laugh in training, Archie was fascinated by how Thomas interacted
with his childhood sweetheart Gitte Pedersen. She’d also left Hamburg and joined Everton’s ladies’ team. After he’d done his work for the day, Thomas and Gitte would do extra training and play against each other. Archie could barely believe his eyes at what one of the strongest and most powerful players in the English Premier League, known for its high degree of physicality, was up to. Archie was shocked as he saw Thomas flying into tackles and using his body as if he was in the middle of a full-blooded match Instead, it was with his own childhood sweetheart in an indoor hall. Archie recalled, ‘She played for the ladies’ team and they used to go in the gym and play one v ones But he’d batter the ball at her as if he was playing against a man It was in the big indoor gym at Bellefield [Everton’s training ground] They’d play for ages in there, the two of them going at it ’.
Some summer
Then at Celtic he had the entire club scratching their heads about what his plans were for the summer break.
Normal service is for players to be pictured on golden beaches in far-flung places, cruising about in exotic sports cars or on Sunseeker yachts. After all, they’re wealthy young men with free time on their hands, but not Thomas.
Celtic team-mate Mark Wilson explained: ‘When he came to the club, I was 23 or so, we were all into Call of Duty at that point, so when Thomas came in he said he played it as well. We didn’t know how good he was and he said his mate was the top player in the world. We looked him up and he was. Then, at the end of that season, when we asked him, “What are you doing in the summer?”, Thomas said “Just back home, lad” and he said he’d go back to his parents’ house, go in the basement and play computer games constantly. I’m thinking, “Jesus Christ, this guy has got millions, he could go anywhere in the world and at that time he had his porn star girlfriend and he goes home to sit in a basement ”. It was so far from what a footballer of his stature was about.’
Mad Dog Gravesen – ‘He thought differently to everyone else,’ Aiden McGeady
By Editor 17 February, 2019
Mad Dog Gravesen – ‘He thought differently to everyone else,’ Aiden McGeady
Earlier today we published an interview with Chris Sweeney, author of the new book on Thomas
Gravesen which is titled ‘MAD DOG GRAVESEN – The Last of the Modern Footballing Mavericks,’ and you can read this HERE.
Chris has also given The Celtic Star a short extract from his brilliant new book to share with you today, as as promised, here goes…
Extract from ‘MAD DOG GRAVESEN – The Last of the Modern Footballing Maverick,’ by Chris Sweeney
Thomas didn’t feel the need to wait in traffic Celtic’s stadium is located in the East End of Glasgow, not far from the city centre and in a fairly busy residential area.
After games, it is usually gridlocked as the 60,000 fans try to disperse in a variety of ways using the same roads. While his fellow players would wait patiently in the jams reflecting on their performance, Thomas would drive his Honda car, provided to him free by the club, on the wrong side of the road. He’d accelerate hard all the way into oncoming traffic with his index finger held aloft out of the window. The gesture was supposed to be some kind of explanation to anyone wondering what was going on, but the finger seemed to confuse people more than explain anything.
Thomas had also tried to convince Aiden McGeady to join him in buying a shared car. By this point, despite being a multi-millionaire, Thomas had reined in any spending and was going through a period of conserving cash, for no apparent reason.
Anyway, both of them lived in the exclusive Thortonhall village, south of Glasgow. It’s an area popular among footballers and well-off individuals. Thomas hit on the grand plan that he and McGeady should both contribute 50/50 towards the cost of a big Audi A8 4 2 diesel.
The logical move for most people would have been for the two team-mates to share the driving, use their own cars and take it in turns to pick the other up. But for Thomas, the best idea was to buy a separate car together specifically for driving to training. He’d picked out the exact model; it wasn’t a case of any car, it was that car. It illustrated again that his way of approaching situations was very precise, intense and focused. McGeady added: ‘He thought differently to everyone else’.
Mad Dog Gravesen – The Last of the Modern Footballing Mavericks
By Editor 17 February, 2019 No Comments
Mad Dog Gravesen – The Last of the Modern Footballing Mavericks
MAD DOG GRAVESEN – The Last of the Modern Footballing Mavericks by Chris Sweeney has just been published by Pitch Publishing. The Celtic Star spoke to the author about one of the maddest players ever to have pulled on the Hoops and why he decided to write a book about the Great Dane. Below is our exclusive interview with the author of Mad Dog Gravesen – The Last of the Modern Football Mavericks and next we’ll publish a Celtic specific extract from this entertaining new book, so stay tuned to The Celtic Star for that!
Hi Chris, MAD DOG GRAVESEN – The Last of the Modern Footballing Mavericks is your new book that’s just been published by Pitch Publishing. Congratulations on that! Can you tell us something about the book, what the reader can expect and why you decided to write a book about the Great Dane?
I decided to write about Thomas as I was fascinated with him, more as a person than a footballer. I felt he was well-known for his career on the field, but a lot about his off-field persona wasn’t so well known. It struck me that we no longer have these larger than life characters in top level sport, particularly football.
You don’t get that intangible quality anymore, a lot of the players now come through the academies and are so sanitised, a guy like Thomas would never have made made it through that sort of environment. I hope people get a book that lets them find out about the man behind the player and also reminds the fans how refreshing and inspiring it can be when you encounter a true maverick, which without a doubt Thomas is.
This is your second book, but the first one that’s football related. What was your first book about and how did you go from there to writing about the former Celtic star Tommy Gravesen?
My first book was about the BMX star John Buultjens who’s from Glasgow, he went from being thrown in a fire by his abusive father, to then being locked up for attacking him with a kitchen knife, to being adopted and discovering BMX which allowed him to live a completely different life. His journey has since been turned into a movie with Steven Speilberg even giving it his support. I went from there to Thomas quite easily. I’m attracted to people who are cut from a different cloth and live without compromises.
You’ve interviewed some big stars over the years, including the likes of P Diddy, Amy Winehouse, Mike Fleetwwod and Jon Bon Jovi. Any interesting stories you can share about interviewing these stars?
That was really my day job and how I got started in the media, I actually still do some of that now. In terms of stories, if anyone remembers P Diddy coming to Glasgow to perform for MTV, I was the one who talked him into wearing the kilt that night. But when we were talking as I was explaining why he should do it, I gave him the line “you’ve got the legs for it” which I think due to different cultures and in his macho world, I don’t think he was used to a guy telling him that. So we had a few awkward moments before he realised where I was coming from.
I’ve thrown clumps of mud at Sex Pistols’ fans with Calvin Harris who were giving him stick and started throwing mud at him first, so we returned the compliment. Most of the big names are pretty decent people, I really like Mark Ronson who always enjoys a chat, Noel Gallagher loves if you bring up football as he’s sick of being asked the same things, so last time we had a chat about why Manchester City seem to give so many players to Celtic. Another guy who loves his football is Maxi Jazz from Faithless, he was telling me about how he has to go all proper to games now as he’s a director at Crystal Palace.
What did you learn about Tommy Gravesen’s time at Celtic – it’s fair to say that he seemed to split opinions among the support at the time?
The main thing I learned was ironically what spurred me on to write the book, there is a lot of unknown and mystery there. The Celtic fans I spoke to are bemused about what happened, and lots of them recall how he scored twice against Rangers. Here was a guy coming from Real Madrid, clearly with tons of ability and he ends up only playing for one season and ultimately retires aged 32 after going on a youth team trip to Ireland. That was the last anyone heard of him for several years until he resurfaced in Las Vegas. I hope the book opens up some of those mysteries and provides some answers.
Clearly after his football career, things seemed to get even crazier for Tommy Gravesen. What can you tell us about his life after he hung up his boots?
He moved to Vegas but now lives back in Denmark. There are lots of rumours about how much money he has earned and how he earned it. With Thomas it is hard to nail anything down, he’s a recluse of sorts and in Denmark has even been nicknamed The Unicorn due to his mythical status.
What’s the story about Gravesen and Mike Tyson and is it true that he once brought dynamite to training?
Yep, dynamite was brought into training in Hamburg. He referred to it as his “special fireworks” – the tale is in the book, but a crater was left on the training field that day. Mike Tyson was enchanted by Thomas after going to see an international game in Copenhagen, he loved his aggressive and free-wheeling style. So much so, Tyson asked for his shirt and wore it for the rest of his time in Denmark, as he was there for a fight which set up his big clash with Lennox Lewis.
We understand that you spoke to someone in each of his club and international dressing rooms, from Vejle, Hamburg, Everton, Real Madrid and Celtic, plus Denmark at World Cup/Euros. There must have been some common themes coming across in these conversations about Tommy?
The book goes through all of his life and career, and everybody remembers him vividly. He was a guy who made a serious impression, no matter where he went. One thing that gets overlooked with all the outlandish antics and bizarre incidents is that he was a top player with bags of skill. All the football people were keen to stress how good he was and probably better than most fans appreciated. But they all said they would not be surprised to learn of anything he’d done, nothing is impossible when it comes to Thomas.
Tell us about him apparently making a £100million fortune in Las Vegas – is this true and what is the story about him losing another fortune in high stakes poker game?
There is a tale of him losing $54 million in a single game of one-on-one poker. Plus there’s the news of him winning the £100 million fortune. Thomas has never said any of it is true or not, but my book looks at the reasons behind it. Although one thing I do say in the book, Gordon Strachan claiming Thomas makes a fortune as the second best Call of Duty players in the world is rubbish.
Is there still a place for mavericks like Gravesen in football and if not, do you think that the game is poorer for it?
I don’t think there is. Even if you take a club like Celtic in a relatively small commercial market like Scotland, the stadium is plastered with corporate signs or adverts. The game is now a business and that has turned the players into assets, so image and perception are important.
The academies churn out these strong, fit and talented athletes but hardly any display a real distinctive character and if they do have it, they chose to suppress it. I’m not having a pop at Celtic as all the clubs are in the same situation, but is there anyone in the squad that fans would love to know more about or find really interesting as a person?
I think Thomas is one of the few players in recent history that fall into that bracket and probably the last we’ll see for a long time reach the levels of being somewhere like Real Madrid.
Do you keep in touch with Celtic games from your home in Zurich and if so what do you think of the current Celtic side as opposed to the team that Tommy Gravesen was apart of?
I’m not a massive Celtic fan any longer. My father is a diehard and really is far more passionate than me. I did get a season ticket one year for Christmas though and when I was a boy I’d get the players autographs, the best memory of that time is how genuine and warm Tommy Burns was. Him giving his time and seemingly caring about me standing there to meet him, how he conducted himself around me had a far bigger impact than me watching Pierre van Hooijdonk score in the ’95 Scottish Cup Final to end the long trophy drought or going to some of the big European games during the run to Seville.
Maverick Thomas Gravesen starred for Real Madrid – so why didn’t Celtic move work?
CHRIS SWEENEY
Published: 06:00 Sunday 24 March 2019https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/teams/celtic/maverick-thomas-gravesen-starred-for-real-madrid-so-why-didn-t-celtic-move-work-1-4894701
Thomas Gravesen may never really have fitted in at Celtic but he rubbed shoulders with the Real Madrid Galacticos and played football for fun. In an article first published in Nutmeg, author Chris Sweeney traces the career of a footballing maverick.
Mad Dog. The Unicorn. A grenade with the pin pulled out. A loose cannon. Lunatic. Screwball. Just some of the words used to describe maverick midfielder Thomas Gravesen, whose colourful career came to a shuddering halt here in Scotland, when he signed for Celtic in the summer of 2006.
Arguably, he was the most glamorous ever signing to arrive on our shores. He parachuted in direct from Real Madrid who were at the peak of the Galacticos era with the likes of Zidane, Figo, Beckham, Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos all strutting their stuff at the Bernabéu alongside him.He also became the highest paid Scottish-based player at the time with a £7 million, three-year deal. On paper, it looked like money well spent. This was a guy who had been Everton’s best player during a five-year spell at Goodison before earning a move to Spain where he’d been a first-choice pick.
Celtic were gearing up for a serious tilt at the Champions League and needed someone to provide that spark, the bit of quality to tip the balance of a game, someone to do the unexpected and unlock defences.These were all qualities Gravesen had in spades – any pro who has played with him will eulogise his ability on the ball. One at Everton, Tony Hibbert, even went as far as to proclaim that Gravesen had more in the locker from a natural skill point of view than Wayne Rooney. So what the hell happened?
Simply, it was a cocktail of things that meant it was never going to be anything other than a disaster.Hailing from tiny Daugård in the south-east of Denmark’s Jutland peninsula, Gravesen was taken on by the club he’d always supported, Vejle Boldklub, and it only took him two seasons to build a reputation around Europe as one of the continent’s rising stars.
A powerful, silky, marauding midfielder with a delicate touch, he was part of a side that was full of home-grown talent.At the end of those 24 months, he knocked back Napoli and went to HSV Hamburg, who played in the 62,000 Volksparkstadion capacity – more people than lived in his home town.Gravesen said: “I wanted to play in the Bundesliga. Here I have the best perspective to become a full international. What do I want in Naples? I can go on holiday there.”
That comment was the first indication that Hamburg weren’t getting a normal, run-of-the-mill footballer. They probably didn’t know that Vejle had been forced to tell Gravesen to quit a part-time job he’d taken in a car parts centre to pass his time when not training. Or that he and his young pals in Vejle’s first team would bring a ball into the showers after games, the rules being that they couldn’t use their hands and so had to do keepy-uppy against the buttons to turn the water on. Friend and fellow midfielder Jesper Mikkelsen explained: “Thomas had a winning mentality and madness that led him beyond us.”
He went straight into HSV’s first team and impressed at this level, considering he’d less than 60 appearances under his belt as a professional. In three years there, he really began to show that he was a maverick in every sense of the word – he was out of step with what football was becoming in the late 1990s, with the huge amount of TV money pouring in.One was thrashing his motorbike most days, as he’d be making a 175-mile commute each way to sneak home to Denmark after training. A senior team-mate even revealed how he saw Gravesen fly by him at 160mph on Germany’s Autobahn clinging on dressed in shorts, t-shirt and flip-flops.
The tales went on and on: bringing dynamite into training, flooding the team’s wellness centre with bubble bath and even putting “Gravesen HSV” on his city-centre apartment buzzer so fans could drop by for a chat. But still he impressed on the field and achieved his goal of becoming a full international.Walter Smith and Archie Knox were amongst those who liked what they saw and brought him to Everton. However, they struggled with something all his managers encountered; Gravesen had an issue with tactical instructions – he was drawn to the ball like a magnet. But the wily veteran pair solved the issue by giving him a free role to wreak havoc and he repaid them in spades.
He did the same for Everton’s next boss, David Moyes, and with Gravesen as the main man, they were riding high in the Premier League’s top four.Nevertheless, he hadn’t curbed his maverick ways of bringing massive fireworks into training to fire at people or one of his favourite pastimes, wrestling anyone he spotted to the ground for a play fight.There was also the odd choice for a top international footballer of driving around in a battered Nissan Micra, because he didn’t want to have a nice car in the poor, rainy winter weather of Liverpool. Still his abilities on the pitch saw Real Madrid shock most observers by signing Gravesen and proclaiming him as the missing piece in their star-studded jigsaw.Lots of commentators and pundits lined up to predict he’d be a disaster.
Everton captain David Weir said: “I got the impression he wasn’t sure and seemed reticent to go. You’re stepping into the world stage there. But he was so talented, though, we knew he could handle the football side of things.”
Handle it he did. Despite lots of accusations of him being one of the worst ever Real signings, Gravesen was picked in virtually all of the big games when fit including Champions League ties and the El Clásico derbies against Barcelona. But all that momentum was killed by disciplinarian Fabio Capello, who couldn’t deal with Gravesen’s maverick ways, and the final straw was when he had a violent set-to with Robinho during training.Celtic saw an opportunity and got him for a bargain £2m.
Why they did it remains a mystery. Gordon Strachan is a manager who has never liked players who don’t toe the party line – hence his repeated fallings-out with spiky winger Aiden McGeady. So why add another one? There doesn’t appear to be any clear answer. It wasn’t a surprise that Gravesen didn’t fit into a rigid tactical formation. He never had. It wasn’t a surprise Gravesen got up to eyebrow-raising antics. He always had.Celtic full-back at the time Mark Wilson explained how it wasn’t a persona that Thomas put on, saying: “I always thought maybe he’d come into the dressing room and it would be a bit of an act or the things I’d heard weren’t true, but it was far from it.”
In a microcosm is the tale of Strachan barking out his team talk expecting total commitment and work ethic, while Tommy peered out of a newspaper with holes cut out for his eyes.
Even the squad couldn’t work him out as Wilson added: “At the end of that season, when we asked him ‘What are you doing in the summer?’ Thomas said ‘Just back home, lad’ and he said he’d go back to his parents’ house, go in the basement and play computer games constantly.“I’m thinking ‘Jesus Christ, this guy has got millions, he could go anywhere in the world’ and at that time he had his porn star girlfriend, and he goes home to sit in a basement. It was so far from what a footballer of his stature was about.”
The result was that Gravesen only played 29 times for Celtic and even spent the 2007 Scottish Cup final sitting in the stand in a club suit, while then unknown 20-year-old Icelander Teddy Bjarnason took his spot on the bench at Hampden.Gravesen retired at 32, ripping up the final year of his contract at Parkhead. And that was it, he disappeared off the face of the earth only to resurface several years later living in the same gated community as Nicolas Cage and Andre Agassi in Las Vegas.
Since then he’s been splashed across the tabloids thanks to a reported £100m fortune that he made after football, not that he was short of cash when he hung up his boots. But the real story is: did he make that money? There’s all sorts of rumours and theories about it. There’s even an account of him losing $54m (£41m) in a single game of high stakes poker in a Sin City casino.Very little is known as he rarely speaks, and never about his personal life. And that in a nutshell is the beauty of Thomas Gravesen. In today’s day and age, the vast majority of footballers are one dimensional characters; the academies that they come through don’t promote individualism or allow anyone to be an outsider.
Gravesen would never had made it through the ranks at a big club.He played football because he loved it. Danish football reporter Johan Lyngholm-Bjerge recalled: “He wasn’t the boring footballer who spoke in clichés like ‘It’s only about the next game’ and that sort of stuff. When he was playing, it was with a big smile, making jokes, and he was a fantastic footballer to watch with great technique, always with full power in the tackles. That’s what the fans loved.”
And it’s true, everywhere he’s been, he became a cult hero. Thomas Gravesen is proof that football is more than a sport, it’s a passion, it’s part of culture.
Maybe he didn’t follow all the rules. But he was bloody good at it and enjoyed it. And for anyone who says he wasted his talent – how many players do you know who’ve been to World Cups, European Championships, been signed by Real Madrid and then praised by superstar team-mates before bowing out aged 32 simply because they aren’t enjoying it any more?
It’s just a shame that it ended in Scotland, more specifically the East End of Glasgow. If he’d been treated differently and allowed to be himself, we’d all have been better off.