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King in exile reflects on his reign of glory and lost battle of Seville Henrik
Larsson tells Martin Greig of the pain and the pleasure of life at Parkhead
(February 2006)
HENRIK LARSSON rolls up the sleeve of his white top. "I still get goosebumps here when I talk about that game, " he reflects, rubbing his honey-skinned forearm.
The psychological wounds of a baking night in Seville two-and-a-half years ago have still not healed for the greatest Celtic striker of modern times. The Parkhead club's 3-2 defeat to Porto in the 2003 UEFA Cup final contains no silver linings and stirs up no sentiment in Henrik Larsson. For this most clinical of footballers, it will always remain a tilt at immortality criminally undermined by profligacy.
Sitting in the players' lounge at Barcelona's Camp Nou stadium earlier this week, the 34-year-old was still consumed by a sense of failure. "It still hurts me when I talk about it. You shouldn't lose when you score two goals in the final. You just shouldn't lose, " he says, his words trailing off, gaze fixed on the middle distance.
It is a cruel irony that, for many observers, Seville remains Larsson's finest moment. Two imperious headers, bulleted past Vitor Baia with trademark velocity, should have been enough to win any football match. Indeed, it was arguably only in the context of a European final that the true majesty of Celtic's King of Kings could be fully appreciated.
Yet, if it is a measure of the affection in which he holds Celtic that his memories of Seville are so tortured, neither is he slow to reflect on the moments of beauty which illuminated the rest of his time. Even with a Spanish league medal added to his collection, and the company of Ronaldinho, Samuel Eto'o et al, it is the subject of Celtic which still fires his imagination.
Larsson takes in Old Firm games at his house on the coast outside Barcelona,
usually with team-mate Giovanni van Bronckhorst, and is in no doubt as to the significance of the Glasgow derby. When asked if el gran clasico, Barca-Real, compares favourably to the Old Firm, he stifles a laugh, as if the inquiry is nothing short of preposterous.
"No, Celtic and Rangers is the biggest there is, " he replies immediately. "And [Barca-Real] is not a real derby either because it's two different cities. It's a huge game, but the intensity of the Old Firm derby is more than here. It's the noise."Anyone who has sat in a full Camp Nou and mistakenly thought they had stumbled into a theatre can appreciate the difference.
That is not to say that a lugubrious Catalan audience have not embraced Celtic's legendary No7. Tourists to the Camp Nou can have their pictures taken with four cardboard cutouts – Ronaldinho, Carlos Puyol, Samuel Eto'o and Larsson – such is the esteem in which he is held. Only Eto'o and Ronaldinho shift more replica shirts and our interview is interrupted twice by well-wishers.
On the training ground, he is never far from the action, one moment flicking the ball over Ronaldinho to gales of laughter, the next whizzing shots past the ears of a bemused Victor Valdes, who is trying to warm up. In less than two years, he has become a cult figure. "I'm a different player from what they're used to seeing, " he says. "I always put the team's performance first. Even if I'm not having a good game I'm always doing my work. That's my philosophy. You're allowed to have bad games, but you can't stop running just because of that."
Before his arrival at Celtic, grasping types such as Pierre Van Hooijdonk and Paolo di Canio came and went in a flurry of over-zealous badge-kissing and "leetle problems". Larsson was their antithesis. An understated Scandinavian with professionalism exuding from every pore, though not bereft of charisma, he stayed for seven years and immersed himself in Scottish life and the club's traditions.
"On my first day at Celtic, Clarky [John Clark, the Celtic kit-man and Lisbon Lio
n] took me out into the hallway and pointed at one of the pictures of when they won the European Cup. He said: 'That's me wee man', " laughs Larsson, mimicking Clark's Glaswegian accent. "I was there for such a long time that you get to know the history, what it means to people.
"The best way to learn is by hearing people's stories. You see videos from when they won the European Cup, you see Jinky [Jimmy Johnstone] play a little bit. Celtic, and Barcelona, means more than just football, in good ways and bad.
Everyone understands how big and important the clubs are, not only for players, but for the supporters. But I always said I would stay out of religion because I don't think it has anything to do with football, the same here and the politics with Catalunya. For me, it is football, that is why I was there and that is why I am here."
Larsson's Celtic debut will be remembered as one of the most embarrassing in Scottish football history. After coming on as a 59thminute substitute at Easter Road on August 3, 1997, his pass found Hibs' Chic Charnley who scored. "That was the day I made Chic Charnley a big man in Scotland, " he later recalled, tongue in cheek.
However, it proved to be the precursor to one of the most cathartic seasons in the club's history, when they prevented Rangers from winning a record-breaking 10 league titles in a row. Larsson's grace and voracious goalscoring had long since converted any unbelievers by the final day of the season, when he scored the first in a 2-0 victory over St Johnstone to clinch the league. With the treble-winning campaign of 2000-01, it remains his highlight.
"With every year that went by I understood it more and more, " he says. "It's a big city divided into two camps. Celtic were first to win nine in a row. Rangers were second, but no-one really remembers the second ones that did it. So it would have been devastating for the fans and the club if Rangers had won 10."
A leg-break against Lyon in October 1999 led to a seven-month spell on the sidelines, but, as was his way, he returned even stronger. It was a comeback which coincided with the arrival of Martin O'Neill as manager. Even now, Larsson's body language changes when his former manager's name is mentioned, his back straightening, his eyes lighting up.
"He's a special man, " he says of O'Neill. "I've never seen anybody with the passion for the game that he had, and Celtic had always been his club.
"Some games you don't need motivation but for big games you sometimes need it just to keep your head or to do certain things, and he was always spot on when it came to that. There was the famous team-talk at Boavista, but he had started already when we played Liverpool. There were some good quotes. I'm going to nick them off him some day.
"He's one of the best I ever had, together with the staff that he brought with him, Wally and Robbo [Steve Walford and John Robertson]. With those two on his side, it was the perfect match.
"You had the utmost respect for them as well, but you could talk to them in a different way. They made sure we had plenty of laughs in the dressing room and when we trained. O'Neill's a clever man and he understands that he needs people like that around him."
The Northern Irishman was also responsible for forging the best strike partnership in Scottish football since the Ally McCoist-Mark Hateley tag-team at Rangers in the early 1990s, when he bought Chris Sutton to play with Larsson. The saturnine Englishman and inscrutable Swede quickly developed a mutual respect. "Our families socialised outside football and we understand each other, " explains Larsson.
"We know what the pressure is on you when you have to play and there is no better way of getting to know the other person than when you play together. On the pitch we always knew where the other would run. He could play in a number of positions and there was maybe a bit of a dilemma because he was so good filling all of them, that he maybe didn't come to play up front as much as he would have liked."
LARSSON ON . . .
PETROV'S NEW DEAL The family is settled, he plays in front of 50-odd thousand every other week, he has it good. Like me, he's developed into the player that he is there so, if he's happy, there's not any reason for him to move. He made the right decision.
NEIL LENNON'S WIT [Calling Chris Sutton a cross between David Brent and Simon Cowell] is the first good thing Lenny's said. When people don't know [Sutton] they think he's awkward, but when you get know him you see his smile and his jokes.
SHAUN MALONEY There's more to come. He's a tricky player, quick, he can score goals from set-plays or open play. I'm pleased to see he is developing in the right direction as it's not easy. It's one thing getting to the top but it's another to stay there.
JOHN KENNEDY We met in Colorado when I had my op. He has had no luck whatsoever. It was one of the most horrendous injuries I think I've ever heard of. It's a great testament to the character of the boy because it's not easy, but he seems to take it in his stride. I know that he's in good hands at Celtic.
SCOTLAND I miss how the weather changes. It could be sun, rain, snow, hail in one day. A lot of people have made up their mind about Scotland – 'it rains'. It doesn't rain any more than the south of Sweden. You have nice days and it's a beautiful country. In my last year we went up north with the Suttons and it was beautiful. It will always be my second home.
THE WORLD CUP England are the favourites to win our group and the other teams, Paraguay and Trinidad and Tobago, are not bad. There's going to be a few upsets. Sweden have a few very skilful players but not six or seven. To achieve something we have to stay well-organised and try to frustrate other teams.
BARCELONA It's a huge club. You're playing with Eto'o, Ronaldinho, Messi and Deco. When I'm looking back on my career, some of those players will still be playing. Some of them have won everything you can win already. They're only 23, 24 years old and they can still become better.
RONALDINHO I know this much, when you play with him make sure you run because you're going to receive the ball when you least expect it. He's got skills and is strong, but what I like most about him is that he has both feet on the ground. That is not very easy when you are in his position. You should see him in the dressing room before a game when he plays around with the ball. Impressive.
MESSI I don't see any other teenager in the world who is better than him. He has all the chances to do very well. Thankfully, Argentina are not in our group.
SPAIN I really enjoy it because, come February or March, the sun is out and you only need a T-shirt when you go to training. Barcelona is a fantastic city with everything that you could want.
FAMILY LIFE If Jordan could choose, he would like to move back to Scotland. He's half-Scottish and has his first seven years in Scotland. That's where he's got his friends. He plays football at Barcelona in the eight-year-olds team. He's not too bad.
© 2006, Newsquest Media Group
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