Foreign views, foreign standards, foreign players. Ruud Gullit has brought all three to English football, and everyone loves him for it
SOCCER: Brian Alexander
THE pundits got it wrong before the European Championship. When asked who would emerge as the stars of the tournament, they trotted out names like Suker, Kluivert, Zidane and Boban.
But the lasting impression — for those wathcing the TV coverage in England at least — was made not by a player, but by one of those pundits themselves. Ruud Gullit was the star of Euro 96.
The man who is trying to bring the swagger back to Chelsea with the signings of Gianluca Vialli, Franck Lebouef and Roberto Di Matteo, is the most impressive sportsman I have met.
He has humour and humility, he seems honest and he has an insatiable hunger to see football played properly. He shows those qualities one-to-one and also one-to-10 million when sitting alongside commentators Des Lynam and Alan Hansen.
”I’ve really enjoyed doing the TV,” he says. ”I’m also very pleased with the response. People have stopped me and said they like what I say and they think I mostly make sense, so that makes me feel good. I take it seriously and I try to make my point clearly.” Gullit generates the ”feel good” factor in most people he meets, the same positive vibes you get from Klinsmann or Lineker.
Gullit has a presence and you get the impression that the man who was European Footballer of the Year and who graced the world’s great stages is contented.
He loves living in London’s West End. He is married to Christine with whom he has a son and daughter, and two children from a previous relationship, but his private life is out of bounds to the media.
”I think England and Holland are nearly the same; similar weather, similar kinds of people, but London has something special.
”I feel at ease walking around London. I like shopping and just walking and looking. The Dutch and the English mentality is quite the same too. I don’t feel threatened in London. I can go shopping without being mobbed all the time, which is very different to how things were when I was playing for AC Milan. That was crazy.
”I always find plenty to do. I like playing golf and I enjoy the company of the Chelsea players. I hope that now I’m manager that relationship won’t change. It shouldn’t do.”
Gullit’s keen on golf. During Euro 96, he played some of Britain’s finest courses, including Birkdale and The Belfry, against Hansen (a very competitive single-handicapper), Lynam and the rest of the BBC crew. His golf swing is like his approach to football training, relaxed with an even tempo, letting the club do all the work.
”My handicap is 16. I’m the only black man who can beat them. They want to be beaten by me,” and he promptly collapses into hysterical laughter which lasts at least 30 seconds.
Gullit, whose father is from Surinam, has been applauded by Chelsea chairman Ken Bates ”for doing more to help race relations at Chelsea than dozens of other people put together”.
Italy shaped Gullit as a player and as a man; he embraced Versace, healthy living and the pleasures of cafe society with a close circle of friends. Gullit likes chatting, and he can do it in six languages.
Born in Amsterdam 34 years ago, he grew up not supporting any particular team but was just a fan of the game itself. ”Played simply and properly there is no better visual experience,” he says.
Gullit began his career with Haarlem in 1979 and made his international debut two years later at 19. He enjoyed success with Feyenoord and PSV Eindhoven before moving to Milan in 1987 for a then-record fee of 6-million.
Gullit was a revelation in the English Premiership, all the more so since he had been written off as a mercenary with dodgy knees. Still, nothing can match his first year with Milan, when he was voted both European and World Footballer of the Year, won the Italian title, and then the European Championship with Holland.
More titles with Milan and then Sampdoria were to follow in spite of an injury to his right knee. But Gullit being Gullit, he was in need of a new challenge. When Glenn Hoddle, a player he had admired from afar, made the phone call, the move to Chelsea didn’t strike the Dutchman as being quite as daft as most pundits felt at the time.
”If Glenn was Dutch or Italian he would have played international football 100 times at least,” Gullit says. ”I cannot understand why England didn’t trust him more. They were almost suspicious of his talent, which is a shame. I was excited about coming to Chelsea. I could see there were things that were wrong, but I knew I could work with Glenn and make things better. It worked quite well.’
Hoddle now has the unenviable task of following Terry Venables as England coach, although there is a growing belief that Venables will be offered the role of technical director at the Football Association.
Gullit has no such complications at Chelsea. With Euro 96 out of the way, he has a few weeks to plan the season, a job he describes as ”a fast game of chess, trying to out-think the opposition.
”The important thing is to respect your opponents, whatever type of football they play. Wimbledon have a style and it has proved successful, and it is dangerous to underestimate the way they do things.
”If you do, you can be caught out. It would be boring if everybody played the same way. But for me it’s best to play a passing game and to be in control of the ball. You enjoy it more that way.
”Soon after I came to Chelsea I was asked if there were any players in the Premiership who were good enough to play in Italy. I named three, but I could have named 12 or 20. The press claimed that I had said that there were only three English players good enough to play in Serie A. It just goes to prove that someone in my position has to be careful what they say.
”I learnt that in Italy, too. A journalist asked me: ‘If the coach asks you to be captain of the team, would you say yes?’ I answered that of course I would say yes. The next day there were stories that I wanted to replace Franco Baresi. It was crazy.” Gullit has great hopes for the English game. ”Everybody, including the media, are doing a lot of work to give English football a lift. I want to be part of that. But you cannot compare it with Italy. The style is so different still: a patient, passing game and for many clubs in Serie A, it is not important how you win, as long as you do win.
”Here in England, the crowd go crazy when the ball is kicked back to the goalkeeper. In Italy they also do that, the crowd goes mad, but the players and the coaches don’t care,” and Gullit bursts into another face-contorting laugh. ”They don’t care, they don’t care. The result is the important thing.”
He has just extended his contract at Stamford Bridge until June 1998. By then, Chelsea may be champions and the team that Gullit built may be the envy of Europe.
If not, then you can bet that English football will still have benefited from Gullit’s presence, and the Dutchman will certainly have reduced his golf handicap to single figures.