Nobby Solano

[Dr.Spaceman]

Legend.

[Guest firetotheworks]

I saw him the other day driving a aqua blue Mini...it just didn't look right.

[Guest ObiChrisKenobi]

I saw him the other day driving a aqua blue Mini...it just didn't look right.

 

I don't know, I can imagine him being the Peruvian Mr. Bean.

[TheGuv]

Got that image in me head now!

 

You now have to photoshop that for me

[nobby_solano]

Nobby has just been on BBC and said that he's gone to Hartlepool because it's time to settle down and it's close to Newcastle.

 

[Guest Loven11]

NOBBY SOLANO says “patience” is the key for Newcastle United boss Alan Pardew in his pursuit for budding Toon stars this summer.

 

The diminutive Peruvian was a relative unknown to many United fans when Kenny Dalglish signed him from Boca Juniors in 1998 but went on to be one of the most popular players in the club’s history.

 

Solano – back in the region after signing with Hartlepool this week – was also at United in the summer of 2001/02 when Laurent Robert, Craig Bellamy, Sylvain Distin and Robbie Elliott signed for the club and helped push them from mid-table to a top-four outfit.

 

Solano told the Chronicle: “Everyone saw how tough relegation was for Newcastle.

 

“However, they have now escaped from the Championship and look to have settled down under the new manager who has done well.

 

“Next season will be more difficult than this season, but I hope the team does much better.

 

“it will be about him Pardew bringing in good new players.

 

“The key is patience, as usual.

 

“It is difficult, at the moment, to attract top, top players. “Realistically, top players always want to play in the Champions League and big tournaments.

 

“Any player coming to the club will have to do the best he can, as next season will be very tough for Newcastle and every other team.

 

“Every team will improve next year, but hopefully Newcastle will do well.

 

“The main thing is to try and finish in the top eight.

 

“That would be good.”

 

United have slumped since the days of the Champions League.

 

However, Solano, a reminder of the halcyon days of taking on Inter Milan and Barcelona, added: “I think the fans appreciate the nice times I had at the club, especially under Sir Bobby Robson.

 

“It was 10 years ago and we had a great time. I am very pleased so many people appreciate what we did.”

 

Solano was a guest at Players Inc’s black and white reunion and had a message for those fancying themselves as future United aces.

 

He said: “I say to any player who has a chance to come to Newcastle that, if they do well and work hard, this city will always make you welcome.

 

“It is difficult when you come from abroad, especially South America, because the Premier League is tough, but Gutierrez, Enrique and Coloccini have done very well.”

 

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/newcastle-united/nufc-news/2011/05/21/nobby-solano-nufc-will-need-to-play-a-game-of-patience-72703-28736829/

 

[Frazzle]

I'm still trying to get my head round the idea of "the late Sir Bobby Robson" (sic) signed Solano, when:

 

(a) it was Dalglish that did it

(b) Sir Bobby wasn't yet late

© nor was he actually Sir at the time of the signing of Solano.

 

It's just f***ing woeful.

 

Otherwise, it's great.

 

Other than the actual factual error regarding the signing, there's nothing wrong with writing 'the late Sir Bobby Robson.'

 

Writing something like 'the late Sir Bobby Robson managed Ipswich' makes perfect sense despite the fact that he wasn't knighted before managing Ipswich and he wasn't 'late' at that time.

[Guest Loven11]

PROFESSIONAL footballers are often spawned from the working class masses of our major cities.

 

Precisely the background I came from where there was plenty of love but very few luxuries.

 

However, for real poverty and hardship we must look beyond our shores to some of the foreign players who have lit up our mind’s eye with their joy and appreciation of doing what comes naturally.

 

When I interviewed Cheick Tiote in some depth recently, such grim realities came pouring forth. Mam and dad both dead before middle age came to them, he is financially looking after his brothers and sisters back home in the volatile, unsafe environment of Ivory Coast.

 

And this week I experienced another story of sacrifice when I met Nobby Solano for my Chronicle Face To Face series.

 

Nolberto Albino Solano Todco first saw the light of God’s earth in Callao, Peru, 36 years ago, the last of seven siblings born into an unforgiving country of 25 million folk somehow scraping an existence to keep family together. His dream was to play football, his escape into a life of sunlight and promise. Nobby would use a tin can as his ball and a cardboard box as his goal. Kicking the can into the box became his imaginary world where he graced the great stadia. No replica strips for him.

 

He regularly took the rickety school bus on a 40-minute journey to his junior football club.

 

“I dreamed of football but life was harsh for everyone,” recalled Solano without a trace of self-pity. Instead he sees himself as a lucky man to be able to bend a ball like Beckham.

 

“My dad was in the navy but he came home and took a job as a taxi driver to feed us all. His life was food, bed, sleep, food, bed, sleep. That was the height of his ambition.

 

“However, I wanted more, I wanted to buy football boots and gear, so I was working for a living from the age of 13. Not many boys do that in England.”

 

Just 36 years old and still playing football “because I just cannot give it up”, Nobby’s brothers and sisters are aged 53, 52, 50, 48, 45 and 42.

 

Three brothers live in England because Nobby was able to bring them here, but their wives and family remain back home in Peru.

 

The money the brothers earn on the other side of the globe is sent back to feed mouths.

 

“Yes, my brothers first came over when I played in Newcastle but now they live in London,” Nobby told me. “It is better for them than at home.”

 

Mam and dad visited Newcastle every Christmas for a three-month holiday when Nobby was a preening Magpie.

 

“I couldn’t go to them because of my football,” explained Solano, “but anyway it was much more exciting for mam and dad to see England than me see Peru.

 

“Dad became a real Newcastle fan and still is.”

 

In an era when players’ greed and arrogance have stained soccer’s soul, Solano refreshingly says: “I never take football for granted. I value everything it has given me so much.

 

“I can remember the hard days only too well. They make me appreciate what I have now. I thank God every day.”

 

While many more privileged can still possess driving ambition and humility, it would appear that those initially deprived never forget and therefore retain a grateful attitude to fame.

 

None of the Solano family have a footballing background, Nobby told me, though his second brother Alex was supposedly a better player than Nolberto.

 

However, while one was rigidly dedicated, the other was not.

 

“Alex had pace and skill, he had everything, but though he fleetingly made pro he enjoyed partying and the salsa far too much.”

 

Solano is both angry and sad that his native land houses abject poverty and crippling corruption in high places which spawn little hope for its subjects but an indifferent acceptance.

 

“I couldn’t go back to Peru to run a football club because the organisation, the structure, is so haphazard,” he said. “It is like our country.”

 

Once when younger, Nobby, a deep thinker, revealed that he rued the fact that England had not colonised Peru rather than Spain.

 

“I look at the Commonwealth countries – places like Australia – and see how successful they have become. We learnt nothing but our language from the Spanish.

 

“We have every natural resource we need to live well, but our people need to learn from the past to enjoy a good future.”

 

To Toon Army fans Solano is an icon. To him football, England, and particularly Newcastle have been his passport to paradise.

 

Read More http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/newcastle-united/nufc-columnists/john-gibson/2011/05/28/gibbo-solano-grateful-for-great-escape-72703-28780451/#ixzz1NprZFMLj

 

[High Five o]

Nobby 

[SteveMc]

Great lad.  Glad he's moving back into the area.

[NG32]

My fav player 

[NEEJ]

Was at his band's gig last night at Riverside. Surreal.

[colinmk]

Came down for the west brom game last weekend en route to barca, went into Shearers Bar for a wee bit afterwards and heard some class south american band playing up the back. Went down to check it out and who is there on trumpet but Nobby Solano! Was great craic, he's pretty damn good on the trumpet too.

[Guest]

He's made himself available for the Copa America.

[Anderson]

Fucking love Nobby, he's like the anti-Owen. He probably feels like he's going cold turkey during pre-season.

[Revolution Number 9]

f***ing love Nobby, he's like the anti-Owen. He probably feels like he's going cold turkey during pre-season.

so true.

[Disco]

Peru are so shit there is an outside chance he could get in too.

[Guest Geordiesned]

Nobby on Soccer AM this morning.

[Magpie]

And Swanny, gonna be a proper toon love fest!

[Guest ObiChrisKenobi]

That goal against Everton, outside of the root foot. 

[Guest Geordiesned]

Didn't realise he was living in the Toon again.

[Steggy]

First thing he does is thank them for inviting him on

[Guest ObiChrisKenobi]

Sound person is going to go radge on him in a moment, keeps brushing the mic on his t-shirt with his jacket.

[GM]

First thing he does is thank them for inviting him on

 

Loved that too.

 

Such as class act. Damn I miss those days.

[Steggy]

He's talking about when he phoned up bobby Robson and played the trumpet to him over the phone. Bobby wasn't happy apparently haha