Your first footballing hero

[LeeB]

5 minutes ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

Andy Cole for Newcastle, my class at school was actually stopped when he was sold so we could find out if it was true on the radio  

Ha mine too. Our deputy head was a season ticket holder and sat a few rows behind me. A tv got set up so we could watch it on the news.

 

Weirdly the tv was set up again a couple of weeks later when there were rumours we were about to sign Matt Le Tissier.

[Happinesstan]

1 minute ago, Abacus said:

 

Yeah, I nearly said Peacock as well. Really clever player, always seemed to pop up at the right time with a goal.

 

Most of that promotion team are seared into my consciousness, in fact. We went on something like a 10 or 11 game winning streak at the start of it, and I've never been so disappointed as when that streak came to an end. I think it was Grimsby that beat us.

 

The teenage me then went on my first massive football sulk afterwards, which must have lasted about a week. In fact no, I'm still not over it.

Ten out of Ten, followed by the mackems, as the vhs collection tells it.

[LeeB]

The Grimsby 0-1 game was my first game of that season. I can remember their goal into the leazes end clearly.

[Dancing Brave]

[SiLvOR]

Alan Shearer. He's the reason a 6 year old me from South London supported Newcastle United

 

Think my Dad assumed it would be a phase. Here I am, some 26 years later.

[WarrenBartonCentrePartin]

Between Cole and Lee. Distinctly remember being told Cole had been sold. Family friend/childminder picked me up from school.

 

"Who's your favourite player?"

"Andy Cole!"

"Well, they've sold him today..."

 

Cold-hearted fucker I cried all evening.

[Kid Icarus]

8 minutes ago, WarrenBartonCentrePartin said:

Between Cole and Lee. Distinctly remember being told Cole had been sold. Family friend/childminder picked me up from school.

 

"Who's your favourite player?"

"Andy Cole!"

"Well, they've sold him today..."

 

Cold-hearted fucker I cried all evening.

Weird because I distinctly remember being told in year 5 reception in the morning that he'd been sold and me and my mate putting all of our energy into not crying.

[LionOfGosforth]

At NUFC it would have to be KK. The 83/84 season was the first season I went to most of the home games plus a few away. Watching KK was fantastic, he was still a superstar really and the way he came in and helped nurture the already brilliant talents of Waddle and Beardsley was incredible to watch. Some of the games I saw that year are just seared into my brain and KK was the catalyst for it all. Then 1992 happened and he took on almost God-like status for me.

 

First non-NUFC hero would have to be someone from the 82 Brazil WC team. First WC I can remember. Probably Zico or Socrates. Watching them at the time was like watching aliens, they did things you just didn't see in a normal British first division game. Think Maradona played that WC but didn't make an impression on me at the time, think Italy kicked the fuck out of him, or he was injured or something. 86 changed all that though.

 

[Kid Icarus]

For me it has to be Peter Beardsley.

 

I loved Micky Quinn and Gavin Peacock but not at the level of Beardsley, who did things that seemed impossible.

 

Ginola took over as my hero more or less from the exact moment I watched him get the ball at Sheff Wed away.

[Tsunami]

Supermac. He was like something from a comic strip.
 

Devasted when he left, hate now seeing him in The Dog & Parrot after a game making a few Bob. Loads of punters with no idea what a player he was. I’ll be giving that pub a swerve next season after the game. 

[WarrenBartonCentrePartin]

As an aside, about 20 years ago me grandad had a clear out and found one of me dad's old school satchels in the loft, which me dad had written "Wyn Davies is GOD" on. Apparently it was falling to bits so he chucked it, but kind of wish it'd been kept.

[Mattoon]

I'm afraid I'm a bit of a plastic, growing up I watched a lot of US sports, my first sporting hero was Walter Payton of the Chicago Bears (the guy in my pic). I didn't come to enjoy football until I was 18 during the summer of Euro '96 and I was hooked! I was absolutely mesmerised by one Alan Shearer, I was a Shearer fan before I was an NUFC fan.

[LV]

Ginola and Shearer

[rickyprickles]

Fat Ronaldo. 

[Hanshithispantz]

Boring as fuck pick but Shearer.

[Jackie Broon]

Kevin Keegan, I was only 6 when he played for us, and didn’t really get into football until my teens but I loved Kevin Keegan. I think partly because I’d gone to Mrs Keegan’s nursery in Jesmond and though she was his mum 

[Nucasol]

1 hour ago, HTT II said:

Andy Cole come to NUFC in ‘93 for a then club record of £1.75m from Bristol City. I was kind of late into liking/following footy and certainly NUFC. Before KK arrived my dads and uncles all previous season ticket holders and life long fans had boycotted the club due to how it was being run, they fell out of love and while they still followed games via radio, teletext and the vidi printer on the BBC they didn’t go to matches no longer and as a result a lot of us kids in Newcastle at that time, black and white was not passed onto us.

 

Then SJH took over and in come KK, all of a sudden dads and uncles and elders fell back in love with NUFC and kids everywhere my age back in ‘92’ were suddenly almost brainwashed into all things bright and beautiful NUFC related. So I took it up. I knew nowt of KK really or the history of NUFC other than what my dad and uncles would say.

 

In ‘93 we stormed the then 2nd Division and while I had some faves like Kelly and Peacock because they scored goals, it wasn’t until we signed Andy Cole when I discovered my first true footballing hero, my idol. The following season he scored 41 goals in all comps in our debut season in the PL and I was in awe, every kid at school or in the playground or playing on some patch of land with a shitty ball wanted to be him. 
 

Looking back now, Newcastle and the world of football here in the U.K. had issues with racism, a black person was very rare to me in Newcastle, but I as a kid didn’t see a black footballer, I just saw Andy Cole, our number 9, my idol, I loved the man and at that time I probably wanted him to score more than NUFC to win.

 

My hero today is KK, but that day he sold Cole, I hated him, I wanted him gone, how could he do that, I cried and we were at school that day. Our teacher would always have the radio on and there was some breaking news, he hushed us all and we all listened. He told us afterwards to put down our books and basically to forget the rest of the lesson. He seemed more gutted than us.

 

Again going back, Andy Cole wasn’t our first black player, but our first black legend, superstar, hero, icon, but no one considered his skin colour and I genuinely believe his time here bridged many racial gaps and helped with any racism at that time and massively since, with his replacement Sir Les another black player becoming our number 9.

 

Anyway, I give you Andy Cole, my hero…

 

68 goals on 84 games in all comps:

 

 

He gets the ball and scores a goal…

Who was your first hero?

 

 

 

Similar era to yourself but mine was Gavin Peacock. Thought he was the bollocks. Shame about the God bothering stuff now.

[Dandy Man]

Van Basten

[HaydnNUFC]

Me dad brainwashed me with NUFC stuff as soon as I was born and since I did see him play live just before he retired and he scored the winner at my first ever game I'd have to say Shearer. I remember loving Ronaldinho as a kid though.

[Jaqen]

Shearer. Brother loved Ferdinand and went as him on fancy dress day at school, which wasn't great looking back on it. 

[Wolfcastle]

Cool and interesting thread.

With us, had favourite players as we all do and loved Peacock, Kelly, and Albert but probably only classed Keegan as a hero and that was as a manager.

Generally it was Stoykovic and/or Mancini, partial towards style, fine if eratic, over substance.

Waching the Champions League QF and SF in 95 I liked the look of this bloke with an array of skilled ways (not stepovers) to beat a man or get a shotaway, going near post instead of crossing to the commentators disliking only sweetened the deal. Would be great if he played for us, like I fantasised, knowing it was a fantasy about Stojkovic and Mancini and others.

Two month later we signed him.

David Ginola.

 

 

Edited June 11, 2022 by Wolfcastle

[Yorkie]

3 minutes ago, HaydnNUFC said:

Me dad brainwashed me with NUFC stuff as soon as I was born and since I did see him play live just before he retired and he scored the winner at my first ever game I'd have to say Shearer. I remember loving Ronaldinho as a kid though.

 

As someone coming into it a bit later than most on here, who was your first after Shearer?

[Yorkie]

56 minutes ago, LionOfGosforth said:

At NUFC it would have to be KK. The 83/84 season was the first season I went to most of the home games plus a few away. Watching KK was fantastic, he was still a superstar really and the way he came in and helped nurture the already brilliant talents of Waddle and Beardsley was incredible to watch. Some of the games I saw that year are just seared into my brain and KK was the catalyst for it all. Then 1992 happened and he took on almost God-like status for me.

 

First non-NUFC hero would have to be someone from the 82 Brazil WC team. First WC I can remember. Probably Zico or Socrates. Watching them at the time was like watching aliens, they did things you just didn't see in a normal British first division game. Think Maradona played that WC but didn't make an impression on me at the time, think Italy kicked the fuck out of him, or he was injured or something. 86 changed all that though.

 

 

What was it actually like when he first arrived? Did it come completely out the blue and blew everyone away, or was there a bit of the modern transfer saga about it? 

[Mags Serbia]

Dragan Mance

 

[Sifu]

Andy Cole for me too. When he got sold, my parents decided to get me a random red top (not a footy kit or owt like that) which had #9 on it - I only ever wore it once as it didn't feel right wearing it!