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Full Free Episode - The Interview: Gary Whelan (Ep. 128)
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome to the Italian football podcast with John Solano, Carlo Garganese and Nima Tuvali.
00:00:24
Speaker
Hello, everybody, and welcome to another interview episode of the Italian Football Podcast.
Meet the Guest: Gary Whelan
00:00:29
Speaker
I'm Carlo Garganese. I hope you're all doing great. We are really excited about today's guest. He is the drummer and co-founder of one of the greatest indie rock and indie dance bands, the Happy Mondays, who achieved landmark success in the 1980s and 1990s as part of the cult-Madchester music scene.
00:00:51
Speaker
He's also a massive fan of football, particularly Italian football. So delighted to welcome on Gary Whelan. Gary, thank you so much for joining us. How are you doing, guys? Oh yeah, that's great. I'm in Canada and it's been scorching hot all week and today it's raining. Very monkeying.
00:01:12
Speaker
make you feel right at home then. Hi Gary, this is Nieman, thank you so much again for joining us.
From Football to Music: Gary's Journey
00:01:19
Speaker
So to start off with, could you tell us about whether your first love was music or football? Because as I understand it, you were a very good footballer when you were younger and you actually played for England schoolboys, is that true? Yes and no. Football was my first love always and
00:01:41
Speaker
Yeah, when I was, I think I had a really bad accident when I was 11. So I was out of action with my arm for it. I really lost my arm. That's sort of another story. And when I was like 12, I was doing these football camps and these are kind of unofficial England school boys trip to Geneva in
00:01:56
Speaker
in it for like a mini European Cup, World Cup of teams. And I've represented England in the squad, but, and it was a bit of a fast. I never got, I got in the squad and I've got played, but it was like, Bobby Robson was, was kind of supporting it and Ipswich town with a big team at times. This would have been round about nine, eight or something. And, uh, Oh, late seventies. Can't remember the year. Yeah. And, uh, out of the squad of 18 players, 14 of them were from Ipswich now.
00:02:26
Speaker
You know, that area, Norfolk, I'm not having that. There was two, there was three of us, something like me, a lad from the Northeast, a lad from Merseyside, and the rest of them were from down South. And it was very weird. It was all very, very strange, but yeah, it was a great trip, first trip abroad. And so that was an experience, but I didn't get much playing time. What position were you? Well, it's funny because I always, I was always the right winger, but I always liked pace.
00:02:54
Speaker
you know, Beckon prove you don't need trouble. And then when I went within the first training session, remember the first training session was in France. No, it wasn't. The first training session was in Southampton before we left. And for some reason, it was a Crystal Palace training camp in Southampton. I don't know why. And the member of the coach pulling me over and said, you're never a right winger, you're a wide right midfielder, you know. I wasn't a tackler. I thought, you know, I wanted to be Johan Cruyff when I was a kid. He was like kind of a hero.
00:03:23
Speaker
And he said, that's your position. And I was like, oh, great. But then I never got picked on something most of the games.
Following Manchester United: Adventures and Misadventures
00:03:30
Speaker
Well, you were, you mentioned Beckham and you are, you know, you're a lifelong Man United fan and you follow them all over Europe and you must have some amazing stories of following them around Europe. I read one where you were thrown out of Old Trafford and another one of you being stranded in Holland on the way to the European Cup Final. Is that true?
00:03:49
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I thought I didn't follow around Europe as much as when I was younger, we kind of went. I didn't do it a lot as much. I, you know, I was kind of an old fan. I didn't go around Europe as much as it was. The others went for nefarious reasons, usually. You know, I was never like that. I'm a lot of friends who went. I never thought I was too shy. I was never, that's kind of never my thing, but I used to go grafting, as you'd call it. It was never my thing. But yeah, the, uh, I was at Old Trafford when I was about, I can't, I must have been
00:04:17
Speaker
12 and I'm still in my arm. Took a few years to heal. I was in the crowd and I was playing everything. I swore and I got caught up with it. I went effing something and the students were like, oh, come on, I'm sweating. It's a football game. Late 70s. And then I got kicked out. I was only about 10 minutes to go to the game. And as I was walking around, my arm was, you know, I started crying. I was a bit of an
00:04:40
Speaker
and a bit of emotional time. I was crying, I was like, being kicked out of here. And there was a group of men behind me, this old guy, and the old guy, and this Scottish actor, what's wrong, son? And they just took him up to him and said, I got kicked out, I said, I swore, and he said, you shouldn't be swearing at your age. I said, I know, I know, but I just got caught up in the moment. They said, come with me, and they whacked, and there was like six of them, and they marched me round to this. I was in the normal traffic, but the opposite end to the strepphone, so they marched me round towards me in the strepphone.
00:05:08
Speaker
And the guy went up to the guy in the turnstile and stuck in the gates to let people out 50 minutes before the end of the game. And he said, let this kid in. And he let me in. And as I was in the guy, I went, thank you, sir, you know, whatever. And as we went in the turnstile, I go, you're very lucky. You're like, oh, I win. That was Matt Busby who just got it. And I was like, what? And I didn't, I didn't, I just didn't register. Wow. I just didn't think it'd be Matt Busby. And I was like, and then I'm getting shivers now. Yeah, me too. I'm not even a United fan and I'm getting goosebumps.
00:05:36
Speaker
It would be bizarre. I just didn't, you know, I just didn't expect it to be him. Looked at him, you know, and then the other time we united in the court final against Bas Loner in Firenord. Cup winner's cup. I remember what year that was. Ninety-one. Ninety-one, yeah. I'm rubbish for every day. And we'd finished a tour in America and I had a ticket. I flew back by Germany and the plane got delayed and I missed it.
00:06:05
Speaker
I arrived in Amsterdam, just as he was kicking off. So I just got a taxi into Amsterdam, sent it to a bar we used to go to with my ticket and watch the game with a few of the United fans. It's only ticket, but I wouldn't have brought it to them too late. But everyone was going back to Amsterdam to celebrate anyway, so that was it. That was the main thing.
A Love Affair with Serie A and AC Milan
00:06:23
Speaker
So let's talk about Serie A because you're a huge fan of Italian football dating back, I believe, to the 1980s, although you can correct me. Can you tell us why and where your love for Calcio was born? Well, when I grew up, there were quite a few Italian families in Salford. There were two families behind us.
00:06:49
Speaker
And the local ice cream van, Franco ice cream. I used to sell his cigarettes as well. Franco was kind of a friend of the family. It's always Franco. He's called Franco. He's not like a Colombo, but with Maradona's hair. And I think he was. In fact, he definitely knew Poland. And when Italy won the World Cup in 82, I was just leaving school. I remember having a drink.
00:07:17
Speaker
meeting them and them celebrating. They kept themselves in the sales of families, they were quite quiet about celebrating and meeting them. And I love that Italian team, that Italian team was just fantastic. But I kind of started it and then it was, and I love Platina, who went to UVA, you know, Frenchman of Italian descent, you know, and I just, I love that. And then it was about 87, I used to go playing football with me, brother-in-law was always on me, five a side on a Saturday, like you're doing a gym in Manchester.
00:07:47
Speaker
And I didn't have a kit and he convinced me to go play. And I went and he just got back from, I think he'd been to Switzerland again, but come from Italy and he bought two kits. And he had a UVA kit. So he had a Biancana, he had a Biancana. So he had a black of my UVA kit and a red and black Milan kit. And this was a kind of, I think Sake, I think they just started being good Milan, I can't remember.
00:08:14
Speaker
And he said, which kit do you want? And straight away I looked at the UVA kit and went, I like that. And also, if I put the red and black one on, people, like man's city's away kit, they might think people might think I'm a city fan, so I'll put it to the event, this one. And he went, no, I'm going to wear that. You have this one. So he gave me that and that kind of, and he said, just keep it. And that was kind of it. And then I started, and then Milan became this great team.
00:08:38
Speaker
And I kind of, so Milan have always been me or Milan have always been me team, but I kind of didn't want it to be because he was so popular and good. I didn't want him to go, oh, of course you're Milan fan. You know, it's not like going to England or something. So I wanted to pick a less known team. And I tried, and I tried.
00:08:58
Speaker
But New England always just always just always was. You picked the right time to pick them because I mean, that Milan team of the of the of the late 1980s, which I guess that was their peak at the same time, I guess, as the your band, the Happy Mondays peak, I guess, the late 80s, early 90s. I mean, that must have been a great time for you. Yeah, it was. I mean, that's the thing. But the problem with that is when it wasn't for me, it was a bad time to be a Milan fan because people would just go, you know, you're a bandwagon jumper. So, yeah.
00:09:28
Speaker
I prefer nowadays a lot of years to say, oh yeah, I know because it's like, no, you don't get that. Uh, but yeah, but the problem with that is when you're touring all the time, like I was a regular old traffic home game, I was never didn't go to many away games, home games. And for me, dad, from being a little bit, I used to take me, uh, every week and then you go, you know, I was touring at all. So then you lose touch and don't forget in the eighties and nineties, there was no sky TV. There was no internet. So you lost, you know, you start the radio and you know, you know,
00:09:56
Speaker
You lost. I stopped watching football as much. I kind of lost touch of it because I was away all the time. Did you ever
Dream Matches: Derbies Gary Wants to Attend
00:10:03
Speaker
get to go? Did you ever go to a game, an Italian game, during that time? You know what? I've been to a few stages. I've been to a game. My number one ambition in football, I can never say this pronounce it right. I can never say it is Adabe Madanina. I can't say it. I can't say it because I say it. Madanina, yeah. Madanina, I can't say it.
00:10:27
Speaker
Yeah, I'll say I really, really, really, really want to go. This free games, I want to go to that derby, I want to go to a Glasgow derby, and I want to go to a brilliant memories derby. They're the free, the free, the free butts. We'll have to try and make that happen because we know some people. We know some people at Milan, so we'll have to, once everything hopefully opens up, we'll have to try and help you. I'm dying to go. I really, really, really want to go. That's really ambition. I really want to go.
00:10:55
Speaker
Milane are finally back in the Champions League after seven years and that is where they should always be. They have such a great history in the competition. What do you make of the current Milane team and also what do you make of the news of Donna Ruma leaving?
00:11:10
Speaker
Well, don't worry, we're leaving. I think they should have just sent his brother instead. I know he's eight years older, but we're talking the same, don't we? So that's, I liked him. I'd like to meet, I would like to, I've liked him for a while. I would have liked to meet United. I really would have done, but not to be the guy they bought from Lill. I don't know anything about him. I don't know. So I don't know what, you know, as for the current momentum, I think they're okay. I don't think they'll do.
00:11:36
Speaker
Not great in Europe. I think they're OK. They're a bit like United. I mean, season started really slow this year.
00:11:44
Speaker
And then when they got, I think the five nil defeat to Atalanta. Yeah. Was that in December? That was December of last of the season before. Yeah. That's when things really picked up. Yeah. And they picked up after that, you know, before that, you know, they picked up, but, you know, I think we lost to winter four times this year or something. I mean, you know, for last year, this year, you know, it's complicated seasons out because the two seasons, you know, is a whole new thing. But I think, you know, so I don't think they,
00:12:15
Speaker
I don't know. They seem a bit man united. I mean, there's lots of interesting comparisons with Man United about devils. Also, they're the first team respectively in their country to win the European Cup.
00:12:27
Speaker
really first Italian team to win it united with the first English team. I think they won it in 63. That's right yeah at Wembley yeah at Wembley. At Wembley as well where you're not in 68 at Wembley. Yeah and I think you know uh I think Beckham said you know when when he went to Milan it was like oh you know I think there's lots of comparisons with Italian football you can you can equate teams like Palmer always been like Leeds I think United have always seemed to be like AC Milan.
00:12:54
Speaker
Man City a bit like Torino. United a bit like UVA as well, it's a bit, you know, you know, lots of support in the home city but lots of support around the country. And I met, we had a friend in Manchester who was a big Torino family, he said, oh, people in tune don't support UVA. And every man I've met from tune has been a UVA family, you know, it's like, United fans don't come from Manchester, biggest nonsense ever, you know. I grew up in West Manchester and I knew more of the pool fans than the City fans.
1990 World Cup Memories: A Personal Connection
00:13:20
Speaker
That was true. And your wife has a big connection to Italy as well and Italian footballs. Now we're speaking off there. And if I'm not, you can, again, you can correct me. She was part of the opening game of Italian 90, which was between Argentina and Cameroon. Can you tell us a bit about that? Yeah, she moved to Naples when she was quite young. When she was, I think, about 17. I think her and a friend went all day, met two guys in Naples and then just moved there.
00:13:49
Speaker
And because you're doing kind of, it's a modeling to pay for college and stuff. So she did one, and so she went and she lived there for a few years. And then she came back to England, met a guy who was, he was Italian, but educated in England for Milan. So then she moved to Milan and he was a big Milan fan. So she took a lot, she was a light football a few years ago. But she's the manager for Burnage, but her family are big United fans.
00:14:15
Speaker
And then she was there modeling at the time in 1990. And because she's mixed race half Ghanaian, I'm modeling yesterday to lead out the Cameroon team, you know, with the flag of the opening ceremony. So she did the opening ceremony, you know, for Cameroon. And then watch the game, you know, so, yeah. So another weird coincidence. Yeah. Yeah. That's another great thing is that probably half Ghanaian and a dad was from Ghana. We used to go there all the time, they had a house in Ghana.
00:14:44
Speaker
And the house next door was owned by a guy from across the border. And he was called Francis Desai and his brother played for me as well. I know. Oh, wow. So that was that was Marcel Desai's brother. Yeah. Yeah. That's incredible. Wow. Amazing. Yeah. It's a great story. Yeah. Great story. And just finally, on Italian football, you also have a have a soft spot for Napoli dating back again to the 80s, Maradona's Hay Day. Is that right?
00:15:13
Speaker
Yeah, like I said, I didn't want to be a Milan fan, because I thought I'd be, I want to be a less obvious team, you know. So I liked, I had this, I've got a soft spot, I've really got a soft spot for Sam Doria, just love the kicks. And then I had a soft spot for, and then also Napoli. I love to go to games at St. Paul, you know, I think Milan's my first love and then Napoli's second one. When they, when they, you know, I kind of like Napoli the way,
00:15:40
Speaker
A bit like growing up in Manchester, all over the pool and north of England, you kind of feel this kind of a dislike from the rest of the country. Naples kind of has that, doesn't it? The younger dog. So there's been room for him as well. But yeah, the thing about Serie A is having football. It's just like the book, The Miracle of Castel de Sangro, you read that book. Oh, yes. Yeah, legendary book. Yeah. Drama, you know, not on the bit of drama surrounding everything. It's just
00:16:06
Speaker
He's just phenomenal. I just thought that's what's interesting. And I think, you know, I love the history of Milan family by Guy from Nottingham. You know, the kit, the UVA's kit, you know, comes from, you know, from North Cali. There's lots of, you know, just lots of interesting connections. I think even Natalie was sort of an Englishman, I think. Yeah, he was, I think. Yeah, he was. He was a docker, I'm pretty sure.
00:16:30
Speaker
Yeah. For sure. Let's talk a little bit about music and let's start off with your other band, The Magic Village, who are releasing a soundtrack that our good friend, a good friend of our show and yours, John Ludden, he's doing a book on Tony Wilson. And for those of our listeners who don't know who Tony Wilson is, he's a prolific record label owner who owned the record label that Happy Mondays, your first band was on.
00:16:54
Speaker
Could you tell us a little bit about that?
Magic Village and Tony Wilson: Gary's New Musical Endeavor
00:16:56
Speaker
And also, could you tell us a little bit about what happened when Tony met, was it Madonna? Yeah, it was, I think it was in 1983. It was before, I was probably still at school, I was still at school, so I wasn't there then, but in fact, she did an early evening show, just as she was about to become huge, just before she was going to become huge. She did a TV special at the Asienda at Sony Wilson.
00:17:20
Speaker
met and she kind of met a match with Tony. He was a big United fan as well, Tony Wilson, which was good because a lot of other people, the fact records were city fans because it was based in the south of the city. And then John's written, John Rice was a great football coach, a huge Napoli fan. And he's written this play where it's completely a fiction, you know, about what might have happened, you know.
00:17:50
Speaker
and their discussion and shows around Manchester and she talks about, you know, Manhattan and he talks about Manchester and history of it and etc. and the people and it's, it's a brilliant, it's a brilliant story. So I do, I've done some music for his stuff, his podcast before, so we're doing an album, Magic Village, it's just a new band with me and two other guys, Manchester, Johnny and Waynew.
00:18:12
Speaker
I played with for years in different bands and we're just in a soundtrack for it. Yeah, so that's good. So I think music nowadays on its own. It's not enough people need. So we kind of have to mix the arts. We're mixing writing and plays and music. People just don't want music anymore. People, it's not enough room.
00:18:28
Speaker
Sad. Yeah, sad. Sad as someone who who like you as a music crew, you know, I love music and your band, especially the Happy Mondays, was a huge influence on me when I was growing up. And I mean, you're a massive football fan. Are any of the other bandmates in Happy Mondays, are they also football fans? No. And Bez is a United fan and Bez kind of
00:18:54
Speaker
as phases are out of going, but I think he's that busy dude with all the stuff. Mark, the guitarist, he's a big, but he's a city fan. He's a big city fan. But he's originally from a different side of the city from what he moved to. He's kind of diagonally, Manchester's kind of split diagonal. He's kind of got more from West Manchester, where the Dachshund, where Old Trafford is, is United, and South and East is mainly city. But my wife's from South East, Burnidge, but she's a family United fans. In fact, there's not a city fan in our
00:19:23
Speaker
extended family, not one. I mean, speaking, I mean, to continue with the music football, I mean, you guys were part of that whole Manchester band revolution that pretty much took over the world. I mean, from the Smiths to the Stone Roses to Oasis, to a certain extent, although they were later, New Order, who grew out of Joy Division. I mean, which one? I mean, we know that the Gallagher brothers are huge city fans, but
00:19:50
Speaker
If we could talk about your contemporaries, music-wise, which out of those guys would be, or those bands, are better football players compared to you? Are you the best out of all of them? Have you guys ever played together?
Playing Football with Musicians: A Unique Experience
00:20:06
Speaker
I played for a factory sing-a-month on Cockham Common. Jez to sing-a-from-ACR, so ratio is good football. I'm not sure about any of those. I don't think that many musicians do play football.
00:20:20
Speaker
a few. No, I've not. No, no, I can think of that in Manchester who play football. I'm sure no. So you're the best basically. Yeah, you're the best. I think. No, I can't remember. I remember I played at Chelsea soccer 60s a few times. I played for Sky Sports Soccer AM for a while. I met some
00:20:46
Speaker
Some players and teams are quite decent, but I can't remember any great footballs. To build on that, I mean, you have played in a few football stadiums. Which one's your favorite? Yeah, do you know what? We played the leads we played at. That was a Monday's gig. I played music at the Maracan in Rio. I played at Benfica's ground stadium.
00:21:14
Speaker
And then I probably favoured playing in the play stage in those areas, because I remember we played there, I remember thinking, this is when the ticket take came down, the 78 World Cup. I remember it's a kid watching at the World Cup. It seemed like another planet. And then next minute I'm playing there, you know. And I went to Boca Junior's ground, but I'll never...
00:21:37
Speaker
I've never been to a game there and I kind of like Booker. I've got a soft spot for Booker. I'm going to quickly digress and I'll get bored and go for it. Let's find out why teams play in colors and kits. Do you know the story why Booker played in blue and yellow? Yeah, it's because of Swedish ship. I mean, they said they were going to name it after the flag of the first ship that came into the docks and it happened to be a Swedish ship.
00:22:03
Speaker
Yeah, you're the first person who knew that. I didn't know that. I didn't know. I knew that. I know they're the team of the working class and River Plate are the team of the aristocracy. And that's why Manchester United was the working class team. They were playing red because it was formed by the unions. Yeah. And named by an Italian. Rossett, you know that. Paul Rossett. Oh, well. Is it Paul? Yeah, I think it was called. John will tell you, but it's called the guy who's a monk union Italian and he was called.
00:22:32
Speaker
I also think it's Paul Ross because he's the same name, but he's Rossy, he's definitely Rossy. Ross saw as red in Italian, so that would make sense. Yeah, but he's name was Rossy, but it was because Salford Rugby Club were called the Red Devils and they were built on the docks, built on the railway union. So United played in red because of the union. And the city were kind of the management team.
Football Anthems: Favorites and Classics
00:22:53
Speaker
What about when it comes to football songs and football anthems? Do you have a top list? Do you have one favorite? Do you have several favorites and would you rank them?
00:23:02
Speaker
They were quite tacky, aren't they? I like the Latin. I think they got a great Italian. An Napoli one? No, the Italian one. Oh, the Italian one. OK, yeah. Thank you, Stans. So no, actually, the new order one was fantastic. 1990 was just a special couple of days. You know, they all put in the Pavarotti BB seeds falling down and making all like it was art. And it was just like a ballet. It was fantastic.
00:23:30
Speaker
It really was, it really was. Okay, we have a few questions from some of our listeners and Patreons. So to start off with, Ivan Barone asks, what is your favourite Happy Mondays song and why? It's a song called Angel on the Yes Please album, because I think it sums up the band. When we write songs, we all jam together and then we do the music, show them the lyrics.
00:23:58
Speaker
coming together and that song was like, it's got a great groove, great bassline, great guitar, right? His vocals are great on it, Sean's lyrics and vocals are great on it and it's a bit of a nuts song but I think it just sums up the band perfect like a gold angel. Okay, mine's probably Kinky Afro I would say. Yeah, that was originally called Groovy Afro, we changed it in the studio because of the
00:24:22
Speaker
family released a song called Groovy Trade. Yeah I love Kinky F3. I used to love the video. I used to love the Blanco dance in the front. I always wondered who that was. I mean my wife's not seen that video. Oh really? She'd come back to England, left Milan, moved back to England and the first job was to go dance in some band and she didn't tell me. I didn't tell her. We didn't know.
00:24:44
Speaker
Oh, I mean, I think for me, it's got to be the first one I ever heard. I mean, the one that impacted me the most and that's got to be Step On. I mean, that was the first song I heard. And that just that just sucked me right in. Yeah, that's the one that people kind of remember. Yeah, I mean, but after that, I think Rope For Luck is one of the favorite one. Yeah, I hate that song because when we wrote that one, we'd been in the Asienda all night about five o'clock in the morning, me being a keyboard player and Paul Ryder, the bass player.
00:25:13
Speaker
And we were doing Frankie Olds Hollywood two types. We went up that hillcake bush and if you put the two together, you get an awful lot. But then we had a huge hangover.
00:25:23
Speaker
So every time if we play that song, it makes me, I just get this Pablo's dog thing and feel, you know. Yeah, for those listening, Hacienda was a legendary nightclub in Manchester. We never had a release in Italy. The record didn't have a distribution in Italy, so we never saw a single record here. And I don't think Italians would kind of like the Mondays because they like beautiful voices and they like, you know, beauty. I don't think we were, you know,
00:25:50
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Dance is quite popular in... Oh, massive. That guy's always been popular. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Well, Sal Bono asks, he says, money is generally the root of what causes a band to fall apart. Is money now doing the same for football? Yeah, I don't think it's money that's caused us to fall apart. I think it was a number of things. You spend a lot of time together and you just irritate each other. There's a lot of
00:26:18
Speaker
Musicians are thingskinned and there's a lot of egos, I don't mean as in ego, as in who wants to be recognised. I mean, I think egos, as in when you're writing stuff for the people don't like what you do, you don't know, it gets a bit
00:26:32
Speaker
money kind of plays a little power but we kind of split everything equally so because we all wrote the song so we didn't really come into it. Has it ruined football? Yes or no? Yeah of course it has, it's ruined everything, the worries are ruined at all, it ruins everything but you know it's one of them things like you know we need it like you know like the police and we don't know what we need and I think yeah I mean you know
00:26:57
Speaker
I've done to Man United, it's ruined us all the last few years. I'm just going to say that, yeah. I'm assuming you're against the Glazers then. I don't know if they've got away with it. I don't know if they've got away with it. He put money into the game and the Premier League has become the leading league. Yes, it has. It does ruin it, but there's always a
00:27:26
Speaker
You know, nothing's black and white, nothing's binary, so there's some good things coming from it, but like anything, it's just got too greedy. Yeah, I'll totally second that. Simon says, Simon says, have you ever been, have you ever been over to Italy and done the Derby? You kind of answered that already, but is there one player who sums up Italian football for you, either from Milan or another club? Franco Bereso.
00:27:51
Speaker
Nice. Did he start in 1977-78? Yeah, I think he made his debut in 78, I believe, if I'm not mistaken. Or it might be 77, actually, you might be right. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I think Franco over Asia, you know, without a doubt. Yeah. You know, it's weird because, you know, everyone likes strikers, including me. I usually go for midfield players, creative midfield players.
00:28:20
Speaker
I think Beckham was underrated if I was a great player. I think Perlon was slightly overrated, he's still decent, but a good player. And I think Plattini was just probably, you know, just phenomenal. Genius. He was incredible. Okay, and just to follow up on that, if you had to pick your greatest ever five-a-side team from players who played in Serie A, who would
Dream Five-a-Side Team: Serie A Legends
00:28:43
Speaker
you pick? Who would be your five?
00:28:47
Speaker
Ooh, Diego Maradona, Diego Maradona, Diego Maradona, probably. No, Breezy Maradona, Maldenia, Hollet, Ridecard, and
00:29:06
Speaker
What was the Dutchman called? Dan Bastin. He got six there, no goalkeeper. They wouldn't need a goalkeeper that soon. I'll tell you what then, I'm going to throw Deano Zoff. What was Enge? Yes. One of Nimmer's favourites. Nimmer loves Enge. Love it. What was Enge just because of his haircut? He had the best haircut.
00:29:30
Speaker
I don't know. He's got to be bald now, aren't he? Because he's always great. Yeah, he is. Yeah, he is. Yeah, he is. He's bald now. He's bald now. Yeah. He's got to be. Because he was so great. He made me cry. He was the first footballer to make me cry because he cost Italy the World Cup in 1990. Oh, get off. He's the only reason Italy got to that semi final. Stop it. He got Italy to that semi final. He made one mistake in that final, in that semi final, in that entire tournament. The Inter fans get very, very, very sensitive when people...
00:29:59
Speaker
God be propaganda. I always find this truly really fascinating. Why did people support, like I support my United girls born literally as a crowfly, it's less than a mile away from old traffic. My junior school, I could see the old throttle traffic for the school, you know, my family, you know, and then I picked, I don't think you pick your team, your team picks you up. Milan picked me because there's loads of coincidences why Milan and the team,
00:30:23
Speaker
you know, and sometimes it picked you, why are you very my inter? Well for me it was Badgio, Roberto Badgio was my hero, he was my childhood hero when I was a kid and he joined Juventus in, it was 1990 was when I really started watching football and Badgio was like the young star of that World Cup, one of the young stars of that World Cup and
00:30:43
Speaker
and I just loved the way he played and you know I played football, I mean I was pretty good football as well, I wasn't too far away from going professional, he was always the player I modelled my game on so I loved him, had his boots and yeah and he was the event's player so that was the main reason for me. Have you seen the music or was it called sacred ponytail or something? Yeah it's just come out, I haven't watched it yet but it's supposed to be really good. Is it? Oh god god god. It's supposed to be yeah.
00:31:09
Speaker
for me for me was because I mean I grew up I'm a refugee from Iran and we grew up in Sweden and my aunt was married to a German man who's no longer with us and they back in the 80s they had you know you had these satellite dishes and they had that and I used to I was there on a weekend was 88 89 April 89 and it was when inter the when inter won the school retro defeating Napoli one nil thanks to a goal by lot are materials and law that was my idol
00:31:37
Speaker
and I remember Walter Zenga and Lothar were the ones that, like you said, they picked me. I mean, it was looking at Walter Zenga after they won the league that game, it was just, I was done for. I remember the finger-likes about Walter Zenga, I remember when, I'm not an England fan, I'm a Scotland fan, another long story as well, but I remember when England got knocked out of the semi-final on penalties against Germany and when they missed a penalty,
00:32:06
Speaker
When all the German players ran over to celebrate, Walter didn't. He walked over to every England player and shut their hand and hugged him. I thought that was pure class.
00:32:15
Speaker
And now if you watch the last penalty, you see the journey all run and he doesn't, he walks away from him. So, because to every England player picks him up, everyone I thought that was, as captain, I thought that was really class. Yeah. He was fantastic. And just to finish off, we always play a quick game with
Rapid Fire: Football and Music Preferences
00:32:32
Speaker
our guests. So we, it's a rapid fire game. It's really simple. I just run through, give you two or three options for each question. And you just, you know, you don't have to give an explanation. If you don't want to, you just pick one. Okay.
00:32:42
Speaker
So the first one everyone on earth has been asked this Christiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi Ronaldo I Don't think I should I don't need to ask this but I'm gonna anyway Diego Maradona or Pele Joy Division or new order Yeah in order okay Liam or Noel
00:33:24
Speaker
And finally, the most important question and the most divisive question we ask our guests, pineapple on pizza, food heaven or food hell?
00:33:37
Speaker
Hell, and it was invented in Canada, but I'm a pesky vegan. I've been a vegan for eight years, but it's had 30 years, so how I could go off in a tangent again, last time I was in Italy, actually, I was in Sicily and I got a thin potato, garlic, thin potato and rosemary pizza.
00:33:57
Speaker
It's the best. So I like that. But yeah, not pineapple. No, no. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for that. And thank you for coming on the show. This was a huge honor for us. And before we let you go, is there anything you don't want to promote with your albums or a show or something coming on then? No, I'm not sure what's happening. Just got there at the Magic Village too on Twitter. And that's about it. Got a new song out and that's about it. Nothing really. It's all about the football for me.
00:34:26
Speaker
Thank you very much, and to all our listeners, we'll be back next week. Until then, take care of yourself, thank you for listening, and ciao ciao. All right, thank you both.