February 19 – ShearERRR!!
NOT many players have turned down Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United, fewer still have turned them down twice.
Alan Shearer has done it, reportedly when he left Southampton for Blackburn in 1992 and then again in 1996 when he became Kevin Keegan’s showpiece signing at Newcastle, although rumours persist that Uncle Jack Walker was dead set on not letting him go to Old Trafford when he left Blackburn.
Shearer was highly regarded enough for Fergie to go after him twice and to have broken the transfer fee record twice and he certainly knew how to make an impact on the pitch, if not off it (his dull speaking voice and even duller words hardly make him a contender for the after dinner speaking circuit).
He became the youngest player to score a top flight hat-trick on his full debut with Southampton in 1988 (against George Graham’s Arsenal no less) and he was suddenly the hottest young property in football.
He was playing regularly for the England Under 21 team and soon notched up enough strikes to be the record goalscorer with 13 (a record he now shares with Franny Jeffers).
A full England call up was only a matter of time and it came on this day in 1992 when Graham Taylor selected him to start a friendly match at Wembley against a France team containing Eric Cantona, Didier Deshamps and Laurent Blanc.
He started up front alongside Nigel Clough and immediately justified his spot, scoring in the 44th minute to put England one up.
At half time Gary Lineker was brought on for David Hirst and added another as England wrapped up a 2-0 win to inflict the first defeat on France for 20 games.
Shearer was right at home in the England shirt and would go on to represent his country 63 times over the next eight years until he retired from the international game to prolong his club career after Euro 2000. In that time he wheeled away from goal with his right arm aloft 30 times after netting for England and captained the side 34 times.
He also scored the goal the only goal of the match against Germany in Euro 2000 – the first time England had beaten Germany since the 1966 World Cup final.
Often criticised for being dull and boring (even by us about eight paragraphs ago) Shearer did show he had a sense of humour when he joined in a game the England squad were playing at the 1998 World Cup, which we’ll leave to YouTube to explain here.
We’ll leave you with the last goal Big Al ever scored. We will be back tomorrow but in the meantime you can see what Shearer’s one-time would-be employer was up to on this day here.
No related posts.
Loading ...
