Post by Scott on Jun 4, 2006 14:34:03 GMT
From The Guardian:
The Owen Hargreaves conundrum: it certainly deserves its own title. Rarely has an England international been so criticised by the media.
The Sun has gone so far as to liken the mild-mannered midfielder to a 'mass murderer', Mark Lawrenson would rather take Phil Neville for England, and the Daily Mail is perpetuating the recent conspiracy theory that Hargreaves has some kind of dirt on Sven - hence his 30 caps for England.
Following Hargreaves' performance against Hungary last Tuesday, the Match of the Day team - Alan Hansen, Ian Wright and Lee Dixon - all slated him.
It was so relentless that Gary Lineker had to intervene, asking the panel to focus on something more positive. The following morning David Pleat labelled him 'clearly not up to the job'. Why does everyone have it in for Hargreaves?
The Canada-born midfielder has always maintained that playing in the Bundesliga has not afforded English fans the opportunity to watch him play. And with Bayern out in the first knockout round of the Champions League this season, and Hargreaves injured through the winter months in any case, he was very much the invisible man.
English fans rarely see him play his Bayern role, a defensive midfielder who likes to burst forward and break up the play. For England B against Belarus, Hargreaves was stuck at right-back for 90 minutes. Of the 30 caps he has won for England, 23 have come as a substitute, and Sven-Goran Eriksson's tactical substitutions have rarely been applauded.
According to a source close to Eriksson's squad, Hargreaves is not 'one of the lads' in the England set-up. He is, because he does not play in the Premiership, 'a little bit distant'. A visit to Bayern Munich illustrates the cultural gap between Hargreaves and his England team-mates.
While top English clubs hide away their stars to train in remote suburban locations, to reach Sabener Strasse - Bayern's training ground - you just hop on the U-Bahn. A restaurant, built for the fans, overlooks the training pitches so Bayern fanatics can sip weissbier and munch on schnitzel as they watch their heroes train.
Unlike the usual array of flashy cars to be found in Premiership club car parks, at Bayern everyone drives the same car, a black BMW estate with 'DM' ('short for German Champions') on every number plate. 'It's a bit of a grandad car,' Hargreaves concedes.
The cars do not stand out and nor do Hargreaves' clothes, a nondescript navy jumper and jeans. None of this fits with the image of 'star' footballers back in England. When he arrives at a tiny Italian delicatessen on the other side of town, Hargreaves is greeted as an old friend. The men working in the kitchen rush out to shake his hand and he speaks Italian with them. 'Being right on the border with Italy, there are so many great places to eat in Munich. It's the one thing I'd really miss if I ever left.'
We get down to the business of deconstructing what it is like to be born to British parents, spend your formative years in Canada, arrive in Germany on your own aged 16 and then win your way into the England senior squad as a 'foreign' player, aged 20.
How does the England set-up differ to playing for a German club? 'I think in terms of the atmosphere within the England team it is a much more relaxed place to be. When I first joined the squad I remember thinking I wouldn't be able to talk to David Seaman or Martin Keown because they were so much older than me.
In Germany, age means distance. There is a strong sense of hierarchy. Even now at Bayern I am still considered one of the young players. That means it is still my job to carry the balls out to training; an older player would never be expected to do this. We often play young against old in training, and that's when we get our revenge.'
Hargreaves first came to prominence as an unknown, floppy-haired 20-yearold making his mark on Bayern's 2001 Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid, and then again in the final when Bayern won on penalties against Valencia. He was excitedly talked about as one of the greatest young prospects in Europe.
In the English press there was a flurry of excitement, but it soon gave way to suspicious remarks about a Canadian accent and being fluent in German. Hargreaves insists the England team always made him feel welcome.
But the press? Surely that is a different matter altogether? 'I'm not really known in England, so I never suffer the problem of being stalked by paparazzi like some of the other England players. I never spend too much time there, I'm just in hotel rooms and planes.'
Hargreaves has a low media profile and he likes it that way. 'It's nice to be anonymous. Take someone like Rio [Ferdinand]. He doesn't blend in, he has such a unique style. Or David Beckham and the way he has to handle his profile. I'm glad that I can blend in, I don't want to stick out too much. It's nice to be able to go shopping and not be stopped.'
But it may be a question of 'out of sight, out of mind'. He insists that the Germans are worse when it comes to slaughtering their players' performances. 'You find a lot of Germans are very negative, whereas in England there's more a positive atmosphere around football. The England fans always applaud their team, but at Bayern if we're not winning 1-0 or 2-0 by half time we get booed off.
'The commentators in Germany really jump on people - in England if somebody makes a mistake they don't over-analyse it. In Germany people are quickly frustrated with the national team.' Any more criticism like last week's on the BBC, though, and he might have to change his mind.
The accent is another thing. The usual description of a 'Canadian'twang' is misleading. Hargreaves is no Greg Rusedski or Lennox Lewis; mostly he just sounds a bit northern. 'My father came from Bolton and my mother from Wales, so I guess I have picked up some of the ways they pronounce things,' he says.
His language is sprinkled with a mix of cockneyisms, 'mingin' and 'ennit' two prime examples. 'I think I actually picked those up from Joe Cole,' he says. 'I'm in contact with a number of the players, like Darius Vassell,' he says. 'We text each other quite a bit. And I get on very well with Rio, he's a real joker. I'm much more quiet than the others, though. I tend to sit in the corner and just watch what's going on.'
Hargreaves, struggling with his satellite navigation, drives back through Munich in his BMW to the main train station. It is where Hargreaves collects his English newspapers every Sunday before going to the Victorian Tea House for a breakfast of bacon and eggs.
His Munich ritual may be as English as ever, but whether he will ever truly be accepted as an England player, this summer's tournament will tell.
The Owen Hargreaves conundrum: it certainly deserves its own title. Rarely has an England international been so criticised by the media.
The Sun has gone so far as to liken the mild-mannered midfielder to a 'mass murderer', Mark Lawrenson would rather take Phil Neville for England, and the Daily Mail is perpetuating the recent conspiracy theory that Hargreaves has some kind of dirt on Sven - hence his 30 caps for England.
Following Hargreaves' performance against Hungary last Tuesday, the Match of the Day team - Alan Hansen, Ian Wright and Lee Dixon - all slated him.
It was so relentless that Gary Lineker had to intervene, asking the panel to focus on something more positive. The following morning David Pleat labelled him 'clearly not up to the job'. Why does everyone have it in for Hargreaves?
The Canada-born midfielder has always maintained that playing in the Bundesliga has not afforded English fans the opportunity to watch him play. And with Bayern out in the first knockout round of the Champions League this season, and Hargreaves injured through the winter months in any case, he was very much the invisible man.
English fans rarely see him play his Bayern role, a defensive midfielder who likes to burst forward and break up the play. For England B against Belarus, Hargreaves was stuck at right-back for 90 minutes. Of the 30 caps he has won for England, 23 have come as a substitute, and Sven-Goran Eriksson's tactical substitutions have rarely been applauded.
According to a source close to Eriksson's squad, Hargreaves is not 'one of the lads' in the England set-up. He is, because he does not play in the Premiership, 'a little bit distant'. A visit to Bayern Munich illustrates the cultural gap between Hargreaves and his England team-mates.
While top English clubs hide away their stars to train in remote suburban locations, to reach Sabener Strasse - Bayern's training ground - you just hop on the U-Bahn. A restaurant, built for the fans, overlooks the training pitches so Bayern fanatics can sip weissbier and munch on schnitzel as they watch their heroes train.
Unlike the usual array of flashy cars to be found in Premiership club car parks, at Bayern everyone drives the same car, a black BMW estate with 'DM' ('short for German Champions') on every number plate. 'It's a bit of a grandad car,' Hargreaves concedes.
The cars do not stand out and nor do Hargreaves' clothes, a nondescript navy jumper and jeans. None of this fits with the image of 'star' footballers back in England. When he arrives at a tiny Italian delicatessen on the other side of town, Hargreaves is greeted as an old friend. The men working in the kitchen rush out to shake his hand and he speaks Italian with them. 'Being right on the border with Italy, there are so many great places to eat in Munich. It's the one thing I'd really miss if I ever left.'
We get down to the business of deconstructing what it is like to be born to British parents, spend your formative years in Canada, arrive in Germany on your own aged 16 and then win your way into the England senior squad as a 'foreign' player, aged 20.
How does the England set-up differ to playing for a German club? 'I think in terms of the atmosphere within the England team it is a much more relaxed place to be. When I first joined the squad I remember thinking I wouldn't be able to talk to David Seaman or Martin Keown because they were so much older than me.
In Germany, age means distance. There is a strong sense of hierarchy. Even now at Bayern I am still considered one of the young players. That means it is still my job to carry the balls out to training; an older player would never be expected to do this. We often play young against old in training, and that's when we get our revenge.'
Hargreaves first came to prominence as an unknown, floppy-haired 20-yearold making his mark on Bayern's 2001 Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid, and then again in the final when Bayern won on penalties against Valencia. He was excitedly talked about as one of the greatest young prospects in Europe.
In the English press there was a flurry of excitement, but it soon gave way to suspicious remarks about a Canadian accent and being fluent in German. Hargreaves insists the England team always made him feel welcome.
But the press? Surely that is a different matter altogether? 'I'm not really known in England, so I never suffer the problem of being stalked by paparazzi like some of the other England players. I never spend too much time there, I'm just in hotel rooms and planes.'
Hargreaves has a low media profile and he likes it that way. 'It's nice to be anonymous. Take someone like Rio [Ferdinand]. He doesn't blend in, he has such a unique style. Or David Beckham and the way he has to handle his profile. I'm glad that I can blend in, I don't want to stick out too much. It's nice to be able to go shopping and not be stopped.'
But it may be a question of 'out of sight, out of mind'. He insists that the Germans are worse when it comes to slaughtering their players' performances. 'You find a lot of Germans are very negative, whereas in England there's more a positive atmosphere around football. The England fans always applaud their team, but at Bayern if we're not winning 1-0 or 2-0 by half time we get booed off.
'The commentators in Germany really jump on people - in England if somebody makes a mistake they don't over-analyse it. In Germany people are quickly frustrated with the national team.' Any more criticism like last week's on the BBC, though, and he might have to change his mind.
The accent is another thing. The usual description of a 'Canadian'twang' is misleading. Hargreaves is no Greg Rusedski or Lennox Lewis; mostly he just sounds a bit northern. 'My father came from Bolton and my mother from Wales, so I guess I have picked up some of the ways they pronounce things,' he says.
His language is sprinkled with a mix of cockneyisms, 'mingin' and 'ennit' two prime examples. 'I think I actually picked those up from Joe Cole,' he says. 'I'm in contact with a number of the players, like Darius Vassell,' he says. 'We text each other quite a bit. And I get on very well with Rio, he's a real joker. I'm much more quiet than the others, though. I tend to sit in the corner and just watch what's going on.'
Hargreaves, struggling with his satellite navigation, drives back through Munich in his BMW to the main train station. It is where Hargreaves collects his English newspapers every Sunday before going to the Victorian Tea House for a breakfast of bacon and eggs.
His Munich ritual may be as English as ever, but whether he will ever truly be accepted as an England player, this summer's tournament will tell.
