|
david ginola - fact file
1997 - 2000
winger
|
Born on 25th January 1967 in Gassin,
France.
Height : - .m (6' 1")
Weight : - - kgs (11st
10lbs)
Flamboyant and stylish
winger, who gave Spurs fans a taste of the old days of
classic dashing, dribbling wing-play and carved a career
outside of the game with his dashing good looks.
David Ginola worked his way
up from his local side in Nice to play for Paris St.
Germain before he was brought to England by Kevin
Keegan, where he became part of the adventurous
Newcastle United side that challenged at the top of the
table. When Keegan left the club after failing to
deliver, Ginola was surprisingly snapped up by Spurs
manager Gerry Francis, who was not renowned for his
attacking sides. The Frenchman was always "the
fantasy" in the side and his skills were often not
matched by those on the receiving end of his service and
there were times when his exasperation showed.
Looking
like a million dollars and worth five times that much,
Ginola was an enigma. Often frustrating, when he failed to
provide a killer pass, he could be sublime in his finishing
and crossing. His dribbling was a delight to watch and
if he could have melded that into the team's play, it could have meant
very
good news all round. Ginola put in lots of work, despite fears
that he was not interested in tacking back, but needed to
put aside the Gallic shrugs if something went wrong and
get back to close down space.
Ginola's supply line fed
fellow ex-Newcastle United star Les Ferdinand and he
showed a more pragmatic side to his game in the year
when Christian Gross came in and his efforts helped
Spurs stay up, while others profited from his chasing
back and good service from wide positions.
He scored a whole host of
classic goals for Spurs ... the slaloming run against
Barnsley at Oakwell; the crashing volley against Leeds
United at home in the FA Cup and any number of fine
finishes from someone who was not a noted goal-scorer.
A great entertainer, but was
accused of not staying on his feet, although for many
defenders, it was the only way to stop him, although he enhanced his reputation
while playing in England. He had a
mercurial 1998-1999 season, exemplified by his PFA and
Football Writers "Player of the Year" awards. Despite having a quiet game at Wembley, his presence is
enough to tie up at least a couple of opponents and make
them forget their own game-plan to concentrate on him.
David was one of the first rumoured departures after George Graham
came to Tottenham, but he played and showed a new level of
commitment to the team. Graham tried to channel his
talent into producing an end result and he scored and
set up goals following that time. He attracted more than his fair
share of attention from the media because of his
spectacular "falls", but having signing an
extension to his contract, it was hoped he will be the
creative heart of Spurs for a number of years to come.
The
1998-99 season was a
hard act to live up to and David was a shadow of his 1998-99
self. He still had the highest number of assists and scored
a couple of goals, but his regular substitutions caused uproar
amongst the Spurs crowd. He is the mercurial entertainer, but
his effectiveness and sometimes overindulgence lead to him being
discarded by the Tottenham management.
His only medal in England
came in the League Cup Final of 1999, when his
determined performance, despite being man-marked for the
whole game, saw him help ten-man Spurs to a 1-0 victory
over Leicester City.
In 2000, he left
under GG's reign to join Aston Villa, before being shipped out to
Everton and then Ginola faded out of the football spotlight to adopt a
career in acting and film, before moving into wine
production in 2008 (when he turned up on BBC 1's "One
Show" with some of the Tottenham Hotspur Ladies FC first
team as wine tasters).
Ginola had had won a
number of honours PSG and his skilful performances won
him a place in the French side, but it turned sour for
him, when Gerard Houllier was in charge of the national
side. During a 1994 World Cup qualifier against
Bulgaria, David came on as a late substitute and tried
to hit a cross to Eric Cantona on the far side of the
box, when his side were winning and there were just a
minute left. The pass was intercepted and the home
side broke away to score and knock France out of the
competition and Houllier blamed Ginola "a criminal" for
being responsible for the goal that cost the team a
place in the finals in the USA. Despite Ginola's
fine form following that match, he was never selected
for Les Bleus again.
Moved back to France with
his family, but in late 2009 returned to England to live
in West London. David had an interest in a
coaching TV channel called "Footschool" and has a
vineyard back in France that produces award winning
wine.
NICKNAME : Gin
MIDDLE NAMES : Desire Marc
Career Record
| Club |
Signed |
Fee |
Debut |
Apps |
Goals |
|
OGC Nice (France) |
?? |
?? |
?? |
?? |
?? |
|
Toulon (France) |
?? |
?? |
?? |
?? |
?? |
|
Matra Racing (France) |
?? |
?? |
?? |
?? |
?? |
|
Brest Amorique (France) |
?? |
?? |
?? |
?? |
?? |
|
Paris St. Germain (France) |
?? |
?? |
?? |
?? |
?? |
|
Newcastle United |
?? |
?? |
?? |
?? |
?? |
| TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR |
August
1997 |
£2,500,000 |
10th
August 1997 v Manchester United (League) (home) lost 0-2 |
148 (3 as a sub |
24 |
|
Aston Villa |
July 2000 |
£3,000,000 |
?? |
19 |
?? |
|
Everton |
9th February 2002 |
Free |
?? |
5 |
0 |
Spurs career
League
- 100 games; 13 goals
FA Cup
- 11 games; 5 goals
League Cup
- 13 games; 4 goals
UEFA Cup
- 2 games (1 as a sub); 0 goals
League
- 22 games (2 as a sub); 2 goals
Honours
France international
17 full caps; 3 goals
Under-21 caps; goals
French Championship 1993-94 (Paris St. Germain)
French Cup in 1992-93, 1993-94, 1994-95 (Paris St. Germain)
French League Cup 1994-95 (Paris St. Germain)
League Cup winners medal 1998-1999
Football Writers Player of the Year and PFA Player of the Year 1998-1999
Milestones
- appearance |
|
What they said about David Ginola |
Johann Cruyff ... (Dutch
master)
"On his day he is as good
as anybody. He is a tremendous talent and it is easy
to see why people in England have taken him to their
hearts."
|
Gerard Houllier ... 22.08.2000 (the
Bulgaria v France World Cup qualifier)
"He has distorted totally
what was said and the reasons why it was said. He
knows the truth, but to protect himself he pretends I was
attacking his cross during the game. I actually said
he committed a crime against the team spirit, but in France
the actual word 'crime' simply means a serious mistake. I
never used the word 'murder' or 'murderer' or 'assassin' in
connection with what happened in a football match."
|
Duncan McKenzie (former Everton
star) ... 09.02.2002 (on Ginola signing for Everton) (The
Independent on Sunday)
"I nearly crashed my car
when I heard the news. That's
fantastic, that will bring the
whole place a real boost. Walter
smith's a shrewd man. He's given
Ginola three months to prove
what sort of a footballer and
what sort of an athlete he is.
Ginola will be dying to prove
people wrong. But it's not
the conventional way out of
trouble, is it? "
|
Aston Villa John Gregory ... on
his view that Ginola was a bit over-weight
"He's carrying a bit of
timber."
|
|
|
30 July 2006 - Guardian
newspaper interview
Click
here to read. |
|
What David Ginola said about ... |
... leaving Aston Villa ... 10.02.2002 (The
Independent on Sunday)
"I felt humiliated at
Villa," he said. "I think they destroyed my name, they
destroyed the image I tried to build in England. It was only
a couple of people, but sometimes that is enough when you've
got the power. At least I can walk away knowing I conducted
myself in the right way.
I
was there every day at training,
I never turned up late, I always
smiled in the dressing room and
I always did the job I was asked
to do. I wanted to respond to
criticism in the right way, not
in the newspapers. I didn't want
to play their game and I always
wanted to set an example to the
young lads. Most of them came to
me with tears in their eyes
because they didn't understand
what was going on."
|
... the comments by Gerard
Houllier after the France v Bulgaria World Cup qualifier ...
19.07.1998 (Sunday Mirror)
"A journalist friend phoned
me at home and told me to switch on the television to watch
what Houllier was saying," Ginola revealed. "I saw him
claim: 'David Ginola is a criminal. I repeat, he is a
criminal.' I over-hit my pass to a team-mate. Did this
warrant the manager branding me a criminal ?"
"I am not a
criminal. I have never stolen anything,
I have never killed anyone. Everybody
makes mistakes and people should be
honourable enough to forgive them.
Houllier's words caused national
hysteria. It was like the sky had
fallen in on my head. I had absolutely
no idea he would say anything so
vindictive. It shocked me. But
what really tore me apart was seeing my
immediate family - my wife, my parents,
my grandparents - hurting for me. That's
the hardest thing to take.
"That's what
really killed me. It's impossible to
deal with it when the people you love
phone you up in tears, saying: 'What has
this moron said about you ?'"
Ginola
claims he was whistled and jeered in his
next club match, but responded by
scoring with a header after five
minutes.
"I cried on the pitch, not crying like a
baby, but crying as a way of letting out
all my frustration," Ginola admits. "I
had so much pent up inside me and I just
wanted to scream it all away. 'Here I am
! I've done it ! I've scored - I can
still play football.'
"If
Houllier was there in front of me, I
think I would have wanted to smash him
to bits. I could have killed him
from hate, not for what he did to me,
but because he made the people I love
cry."
|
... how the game should be
played ... .. ()
"Football is a game you
play with the ball, not the legs."
|
... on his best moment in
English football ... .11.2009 (Sunday Times)
"Winning the Football
Players' Player of the Year award in 1999 when I was at
Tottenham."
|
|
|
|
|
|
2010 in the Sunday Times |
The best moment of your career
...Winning the
Football Players' Player of the Year award in 1999. It
was a special achievement after a 10 year career. When you
reach 32 or 33 years old, people are looking at you as if
you are a luxury and an old player, so it was really nice to
receive voted for by the players. It was also the
season that Manchester United won the Trebble, so it was
flattering.
When my son went to school,
one of his teachers told him that he was a Spurs supporter
and a big fan of mine and that every time I got the ball I
provided value for money. That was a very good
compliment.
|
What was your worst moment ...
When France failed to qualify
for the World Cup in the United States in 1994. We
were eliminated by Bulgaria and I took the whole thing on my
shoulders. Gerard Houllier, the France manager, went
on TV to say that we were not going to America because of
me. From the age of eight, I was taught that football
was about the team, about 11 players winning or 11 players
losing and not about one player. All of a sudden I
realise this wasn't true any more.
After that World Cup
qualifier in November 1993, I played for my club Paris St.
Germain and at away games I was booed and whistled at
wherever I played. I kept working on my game and had a
great season, even though I had been made the scapegoat for
not reaching the World Cup finals. At the end of the
season, the journalists voted me Player of the Year in
France.
|
W ho was the best defender you faced ...
Lee Dixon of Arsenal. I
played against him for Newcastle. He was tough, on my
back all the time, tackling me and doing everything to try
and annoy me. He was pulling my shirt and I tried to
get him off me and my elbow hit his cheek, he fell over and
the referee gave me a red card. I couldn't believe it.
I was banned for two or three games. He was a tough,
sharp player with a strong presence.
|
Who was the best manager you
played under ...
I had many managers who
worked and acted in different ways : Kevin Keegan, Gerry
Francis, David Pleat, Christian Gross, George Graham.
Each has given me something. I would take a bit of
them all and you would have the perfect manager.
|
W hat is the worst thing about
being a footballer ...
Some people who are not in
football believe you cannot hold a conversation regarding
other aspects of life, that you cannot talk or think.
|
Who was the best manager you
played under ...
I had many managers who
worked and acted in different ways : Kevin Keegan, Gerry
Francis, David Pleat, Christian Gross, George Graham.
Each has given me something. I would take a bit of
them all and you would have the perfect manager.
|
What was your most embarrassing
off-field moment ...
I posed naked for the great
photographer Mario Testino, for a French magazine. I
did not realise that the magazine would appear all over the
country with me naked on the front page and it took a while
for things to settle down. When I arrived in England,
Testino held an exhibition of all his photos and I was there
between pictures of the Princess of Wales and Madonna, three
metres by two, naked and in the middle of the art gallery
surrounded by very famous people. That was a little
embarrassing, because I was the only one naked.
|
What was your worst hair day ...
People talked so much about
my hair when I was doing the L'Oreal shampoo adverts.
Then I went back to France to act in a short movie about the
French Foreign Legion and I had to shave my head. At
the age of 36, it was the first time in my life that I had
my head shaved. When I did my 12 months national
service in the French Army, I went to the army hairdresser
and he said, "Oh my god David, I can't touch your hair."
So he cut a little, then a little more, but he couldn't cut
any after that. So even in the Army, I had long hair.
|
|
|
|
|
Appearances
| Season |
League |
FA Cup |
League Cup |
UEFA Cup |
| - |
- |
- |
- |
- |
| - |
- |
- |
- |
- |
For other articles on David Ginola
By - -
Back
to homepage
|
