Nobby Solano

[Optimistic Nut]

He's definitely retiring in the summer and has organised a "Retirement Match" in Lima for next summer with Diego Maradona invited to play so far. Shame it wasn't over here.

[Hanshithispantz]

Scored again today. Free kick.

[Ishmael]

What a man

[ponsaelius]

Absolute peach of a free kick.

[Guest Heneage]

The technique man, masterful.

[Pilko]

Brilliant player.

[Guest Haris Vuckic]

I loooooooooove Nobby! 

[TheGuv]

He's bankrupt.

[Wallace]

http://www.express.co.uk/football/view/274823/Little-Master-Nobby-Solano-is-still-so-grand

 

LITTLE MASTER NOBBY SOLANO IS STILL SO GRAND 

 

Nobby Solano is now playing for Hartlepool

Saturday October 1,2011

By Niall Hickman

 

ASIDE from Alan Shearer, there has been no more popular footballer on Tyneside in recent years than Nobby Solano, which is why his brush with bankruptcy triggered shock waves throughout the North-east.

 

In two spells at St James’ Park, Solano became the most revered winger since the Nineties heyday of David Ginola. He was a Peruvian trickster who seemed something of a throwback to when every side had a creative beacon in their ranks.

 

Solano, who is now coaching Newcastle’s Under-11s, ended his playing association with the club in 2007 before spells at West Ham, Larissa in Greece, Leicester and Hull City led him to his current club Hartlepool.

 

It was during his short time in Greece that his marriage ended and the money troubles began, but Solano is hoping the bankruptcy order issued this month will soon be reversed.

 

“It is in the hands of my lawyers and I am hoping something will be done to reverse it because it has obviously been a deeply upsetting and disturbing time for me,” said 36-year-old Solano. “It has been very embarrassing, but hopefully it will all be over and sorted out soon.”

 

I would love to carry on coaching and obviously, if that happened at Newcastle, I would be delighted. 

 

Solano is not playing on for the money – far from it. He left Hull for Hartlepool in order to carry on doing the thing he loves best, lacing up his boots every week – a refreshing opposite to Carlos Tevez’s reluctance to get his knees dirty.

 

“I just love playing week-in, week-out,” said Solano, who won 95 caps for Peru. “The knees are feeling it more and more and I am not too keen on pre-season training so this could be my last season. In fact, it probably will be, but when manager Mick Wadsworth rang me and said I would play every week, I said that was all I wanted.

 

“Hartlepool have been really good for me. The people are fantastic and we have done really well this season, well enough to think that we could get into the play-offs.

 

“That would be a real achievement bearing in mind the size of the club. I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.”

 

They know a player when they see one at St James’ Park and, in his prime, Solano was a mercurial talent who lit up the Premier League.

 

Not every player can boast being nicknamed the “Little Master” by Diego Maradona, but Solano can claim that distinction having played alongside the Argentina genius for a year with Boca Juniors, prior to joining Newcastle in 1998.

 

His long-term goal is to settle in the North-east and he hopes the coaching he has been undertaking with Newcastle’s youngsters will lead to a permanent role.

 

“I would love to carry on coaching and obviously, if that happened at Newcastle, I would be delighted. It is the club closest to my heart,” he said.

 

“However, I know what football is like and if a coaching job came up somewhere else, of course I would have to consider it.”

 

Solano certainly had to overcome plenty of adversity growing up in a Peruvian shanty town with his six brothers and sisters. Solano would take a three-hour round trip bus journey in order to get to football training and throughout his career he looked after his family financially.

 

“I had a fantastic time playing for Peru and fortunately all my club managers, especially Bobby Robson, were very happy for me to go back home and play for my country,” he said. “We had a great side under Sir Bobby, which came so close to winning something. It was a shame we never did.

 

“We were a very entertaining team and we could beat anybody on our day. We finished third, fourth and fifth in the league and maybe we should have won a trophy in that period. I’m delighted with the way they are playing now and Alan Pardew has done an incredible job.”

 

It is Sheffield United at home today in front of a Victoria Ground full house, a return to something like the big time for Solano.

 

“I’m just enjoying it for what it is,” he said. “Hartlepool have been very good to me. Everyone has been good to me.”

 

 

 

[garth]

Just love the guy.

[nobby_solano]

I know he's said he'll probably retire at the end of the season but it would be great to see him sign up for the heed next season for his last one

[cubaricho]

"It is the club closest to my heart,” he said.

 

[summerof69]

I love that after the career he has had playing with the likes of Maradonna he still wants to play and is willing to go to a side like Hartlepool to do so. It shows his huge enthusiasm fo rthe game.

[Greg]

I love that after the career he has had playing with the likes of Maradonna he still wants to play and is willing to go to a side like Hartlepool to do so. It shows his huge enthusiasm fo rthe game.

 

Needs all the money he can get tbh.

[thenige]

There's a bit on him on the Football League show tonight. Nobby sat in his garden! 

[Guest MrSundlofer]

Lee Ryder: I know Tino Asprilla and Nobby Solano have held talks with NUFC in the past over South American youngsters, but not sure if this area is where Newcastle are shopping at the moment.

 

 

Would like Solano back at the club very soon.

[teohgk]

“I would love to carry on coaching and obviously, if that happened at Newcastle, I would be delighted. It is the club closest to my heart,” he said.

 

 

 

  sign him up ffs

[Anderson]

Nobby Solano slams ‘malicious and untrue’ rape accusations

 

CHARLIE WYETT - The Friday Interview

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Published: Today

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AFTER scoring a brilliant free-kick in training at Boca Juniors, he was given the nickname the Little Maestro.

Not a bad title. Particularly when it has been handed to you by Diego Maradona.

 

A trumpet-playing midfielder from the Peruvian capital of Lima, Nolberto Solano eventually left South America to weave his magic at Newcastle.

 

Now in the final year of his career as a player, the 36-year-old is looking to make a final mark in his beloved North-East.

 

Taking unfancied Hartlepool into the Championship could be seen as an even greater feat than impressing Maradona, who is to be invited to attend Solano's Newcastle testimonial on May 30.

Solano enjoyed two spells at St James' Park and you could argue he is technically in a third stint due to his role as assistant boss to the club's Under-11 team.

 

He remains an incredibly popular figure and youngsters still queue to shake hands as he walks down Gosforth High Street.

 

Solano's only problem came in April last year when he was arrested for rape before the allegations were thrown out by police — with the midfielder talking about the "malicious and untrue" accusation for the first time today.

 

He said: "A few players have told me it is better to leave football than let it leave you.

 

"You have to know when to stop. You never lose your quality but you do lose your pace.

 

"I knew this would be my last year and that's what I said to manager Mick Wadsworth when I joined Hartlepool.

 

"I've signed a one-year contract and that will be it.

 

"It would be nice if my career could end by helping a North-East team to promotion.

 

"The more north you go from London, the greater the passion for football.

 

"Up here, for the fans, it's football, drink, football, drink, party.

 

"It would be an amazing achievement if we could get promotion. To be seventh at this stage is encouraging.

 

"I have also started taking my coaching badges and am now looking to do my UEFA B licence. It's good fun coaching the Under-11s.

 

"Maybe people still remember me fondly because the last few years for Newcastle have not been so good, I don't know."

 

The worst period of Solano's playing career came at Hull last season, although he admits it was nothing compared to April 2010 and the allegation of rape made by a 22-year-old woman.

 

Solano, who had already split from his wife before the claims, said: "You have to accept that as a professional footballer, you must deal with some things.

 

"It was difficult because as soon as the allegation was made, I wanted to go on to my rooftop with a microphone and tell everybody this was not true. It was not fair.

 

"People who really know me know that I would not have been involved in something like that.

 

"But the news soon got to Peru and my mum Janet rang me. This was the most difficult conversation I have ever had. But life carries on and the truth came out."

 

Solano looks back with fondness at his career.

 

He said: "To play alongside Maradona with Boca was unbelievable and I'll never forget the day he gave me the nickname.

 

"Lots of people always ask me about featuring on a stamp in Peru but that's not actually true.

 

"I did feature on a phone-call card, though.

 

"I have not played the trumpet at Hartlepool but, if we do well, maybe I will play it at a promotion party."

 

Never heard anything about a testimonial before..

[TBG]

Won't be at St James' sure i read it's back in Peru.

[Optimistic Nut]

Aye it's in Lima.

[Guest bimpy474]

“I would love to carry on coaching and obviously, if that happened at Newcastle, I would be delighted. It is the club closest to my heart,” he said.

 

 

 

  sign him up ffs

 

I read he coaches the under 11's now,  done in a unpaid capacity i think.

[John P]

Janet Solano?

[Wallace]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/oct/07/nolberto-solano-english-boys-lazy

 

Nolberto Solano: 'Music can lift my soul but football is my passion'The adopted Geordie is helping a new generation at Newcastle as his playing days wind down with Hartlepool

 

Louise Taylor guardian.co.uk, Friday 7 October 2011

 

Nolberto Solano regularly spends spare afternoons coaching Newcastle United's Under-11 squad. Sometimes he decides a short walk is in order and takes the boys on a tour of the club's adjacent first-team training facilities.

 

"Children need to dream and they see things which give them a lot of dreams," says the former Newcastle, Aston Villa and Peru right-winger, now enjoying cult status down the road at Hartlepool United. "They stare at the nice cars in the car park and say they want to become professionals too but then I explain it's not as easy as it looks. It helps them realise there's a lot of work ahead and a long way to go."

 

Solano has been on quite a journey since his boyhood as the youngest of seven siblings growing up in an unforgiving Lima shanty town. His evenings were devoted to practising playing his prized possession, a trumpet, but any daylight hours not eaten up by school were spent kicking tin cans and cardboard boxes around the local streets.

 

"It helped my first touch," says the 36-year-old, whose arrival at League One Hartlepool has not only boosted season ticket sales but inspired an unlikely promotion push. "The street is where I got all my skills. The problem for English boys is that they've got so many other things to do they can become lazy about football  practice."

 

Not that Solano entirely subscribes to the view that modern affluence is the enemy of youthful talent. "I'm sure children are getting cleverer – I think using computers is making them brighter," he argues. "If you talk to my Newcastle boys about tactics their understanding is amazing. I couldn't have grasped the same ideas at their age. Managing so much new technology sharpens their football brains."

 

Fame has a habit of insidiously changing players irrevocably but, despite his long-standing label as Peru's David Beckham, Solano is refreshingly devoid of the precious streak so many peers succumb to. Aware a knee operation means I am unable to drive, he readily agrees to meet at my mother's home in Newcastle, turns up precisely on time and proves politeness personified. It all rather chimes with the insight offered by a friend working at a nearby branch of Asda who reports that Solano ranks as a rare member of their football clientele prepared to pack his own bags at the checkout.

 

"I like to live a normal life," he says with a shrug. "My Mum used to say: 'You're good at football and maybe you'll be a success but that doesn't mean your personality has got to change.' Whether you're an architect or an engineer or a footballer or a teacher we're all the same," he says. "Maybe some players nowadays need to be more sensitive in some ways; as Sir Bobby Robson used to tell us at Newcastle, everyone deserves the same respect."

 

Hiding behind minders, electronic gates and blacked-out car windows would, in any case, have interfered with Solano's musical persona. These days he plays the trumpet in a Salsa band called the Geordie Latinos, which performs regular live gigs across the region, yet even at the height of his Premier League celebrity he felt the need to "socialise normally and play Salsa together with my friends in small bars".

 

Word of his off-field gift spread to exalted circles. Sitting in Newcastle's dressing room following a Champions League fixture against Juventus in Turin, Solano was "shocked" when a familiar figure burst through the door and made a beeline for him. "It was Sting," he recalls. "He said 'Hi Nobby' in Spanish and we chatted. It was a great shock that Sting wanted to talk to me but I'd always loved The Police so it was a very nice experience."

 

Suitably inspired, he dallied briefly with the idea of becoming a professional musician. "It's not easy, though, a full-time trumpet player practises six or seven hours a day," acknowledges Solano. "I enjoy doing a few gigs but playing every night would be hard. I love music and, on bad days, it lifts my soul but I have more passion for football."

 

This abiding fixation explains why a creator once described as "my favourite player" and "the Little Master" by his former Boca Juniors team-mate and good friend Diego Maradona can be found converting classy free-kicks for Hartlepool. "The knees are feeling it more and more but football is my life, I'm enjoying League One and Mick Wadsworth is a great manager," says the man whose crosses conjured countless chances for Alan "he owes me many hundreds of goals" Shearer.

 

Now in charge at Victoria Park, Wadsworth first met the Peruvian during his time as Robson's assistant at Newcastle. "I was with Hull last season but I wasn't playing, I got bored and gained weight," reveals Solano. "I'd decided I wanted to manage eventually and I also hoped to be able to live in Newcastle again so I spoke to Mick. He said: 'Join Hartlepool, I'll help you with your coaching badges and you enjoy yourself playing as much football as you want for us.' At the moment things are going well, it's all looking very good. We're in a very tight division but, while getting promoted will be difficult, it's not impossible."

 

Television viewers can assess Hartlepool's potential when the cameras capture their game at Notts County on Sunday. It is the sort of journey Newcastle would automatically make by air but Solano is sanguine about the impending four-hour each way bus trip.

 

"We go everywhere, even Bournemouth, by coach. We sometimes travel for six, seven or eight hours; when you finally get home it's a big moment," he says. "Because I enjoy playing so much it's no big bother and my team-mates are great boys but it's very different from before. At Newcastle we flew everywhere; if the lads went on a coach for even three hours they'd go mad."

 

Whenever Hartlepool commitments permit, Solano heads to St James' Park on match days. "I've been to watch the lads a few times," he says. "It's different from playing there but being back still feels great. I see Fabricio Coloccini and Jonás Gutiérrez [Newcastle's Argentinian duo] socially and I think the team's got a real chance of doing well. It will be tougher when winter comes but Alan Pardew encourages intelligent football – he's doing a good job."

 

Solano might be talking about his home-town club and, in a sense, he is. An occasionally complicated private life may have ensured that things on Tyneside have not always been straightforward but the good times have easily outweighed the bad. So much so that the boy from Lima is now very much an adopted Geordie. "Newcastle's where I want to be," he says. "It's a beautiful, welcoming city; I feel comfortable here."

 

He smiles at a suggestion that he sounds like a St James' manager in waiting. "It's easy to say but very hard to do," Solano says with a laugh. "I learnt a lot about the difficulties playing for Ruud Gullit at Newcastle. He was a fantastic coach but too young to be a manager; he wasn't experienced enough to handle big dressing-room personalities like John Barnes, Robert Lee, Duncan Ferguson and Alan Shearer. So I want to go slowly at first, be a coach then an assistant. After that, we'll see but, for now, I want my Under-11s to enjoy themselves, express themselves, play intelligent football – and dream."

 

[GuyP]

I heart this man

[TBG]

Top bloke.