Multilingual football

Sat Feb 16 15:10:54 UTC 2008

Barnsley's foreign legion

It is not just Liverpool who will be packed with overseas talent at
Anfield today. The Yorkshire club contains players from all over the
world as well, as Jon Andrew reports

DAVID ASHDOWN

Barnsle's international brigade get their hands on the FA Cup, ahead
of the Championship sid'es fifth round match against Premier League
Liverpool at Anfield this afternoon

"When you are talking football, using tactics boards and videos, it is
one language and everyone understands," says Simon Davey, the Barnsley
manager. For all other eventualities, there is Dennis Souza, the
Brazilian centre-half whose auxiliary role at Oakwell is that of
translator in the most cosmopolitan dressing room below the Premier
League. "I speak French and a little Spanish," says the modest Souza.
You can add Portuguese and Italian to the list of tongues the
multilingual 28-year-old has been required to summon since arriving in
South Yorkshire last August and joining a Tykes squad stuffed with 15
different nationalities. The rapid flow of foreign players into the
Premier League over the years is well known. But the days when
England's top division had a monopoly on the foreign market are
disappearing just as quickly. However many imports step off Rafael
Benitez's carousel in today's FA Cup fifth round tie at Anfield, each
will probably find a fellow foreigner facing the other way in Barnsley
colours.

If, for instance, Fernando Torres wins his fitness race to lead the
Liverpool attack, he will find the imposing Sao Paolo-born Souza in
his way. If Lucas Leiva is chosen to work the gaps in midfield, he
will discover the diminutive Spaniard Diego Leon snapping at his
heels, aided by another Brazilian, the former Everton player Anderson
de Silva. Fabio Aurelio's attributes at left-back will likely be
tested by the Jamaican winger, Jamal Campbell-Ryce, at some stage. And
if Barnsley's on-loan Welsh striker (with Italian roots) Daniel
Nardiello fails to puncture Benitez's back four, Davey will simply
summon a Hungarian (Istvan Ferenczi) or a Nigerian (Kayode Odejayi)
from the bench.

Then there is the Dutchman (Marciano van Homoet), the Dane (Kim
Christensen) and the Portuguese (Tininho), all competing for a place
in Davey's squad today. Meanwhile, the injured German goalkeeper and
Oakwell cult hero Heinz Müller – famous for saving penalties
blindfolded on YouTube – will watch his team-mates with envy. "A lot
of clubs in the Championship have got foreign players," protests
Davey, who implemented a new European scouting network at Barnsley
after being appointed manager in November, 2006, and will select at
least half-a-dozen of his imports today. "We are just getting noticed
because this club hasn't been down that road much before." Previous
Oakwell dips into the foreign market have been nothing if not
memorable – the Macedonian striker Georgi Hristov's denunciation of
Barnsley women as "ugly" in 1998 sparked provincial outrage – but the
current influx seems to sit rather more comfortably with supporters,
6,000 of whom will be at Anfield today.

Leon, a former Real Madrid junior who Davey snapped up from
Grasshoppers Zurich last August, is a picture of confusion when asked
if he knows what Havant & Waterlooville almost did to Liverpool in the
fourth round. Perhaps his knowledge of Conference South football isn't
quite up to scratch, or maybe it's because tales of unsettling
Benitez's stars are nothing new to him.

"I played against Liverpool one time before, in pre-season with
Grasshoppers two years ago," the Spaniard recalls, in halting English.
"The big stars were playing – Gerrard, Crouch, Carragher – but we
played very well and we won 2-0. So maybe soon I can say I have won
twice against Liverpool.

"I hope that Torres is playing, and that I can get his shirt, because
my brother is a big fan of him. But of course, I hope we win and maybe
he will ask for my shirt."

Leon has settled so snugly into Yorkshire life that he is unlikely to
lash out, Hristov-style. The married 24-year-old confesses to having
some issues with the local accent, but is confident enough to cope
with Davey's English-only dressing room language policy. For the more
testing moments, he simply perches next to Souza.

"Diego's English is not so bad," insists the big Brazilian, whose
accent is pure Sao Paulo until he refers to "the gaffer", "Kidda" and
"Kel" (respectively: Davey, his number two Ryan Kidd and first-team
coach Kelham O'Hanlon). "Sometimes I have to help one or two of the
players out. But everyone has to speak English in the changing room,
in training and on the pitch.

"The theory of the gaffer is you have to understand 100 per cent what
he wants for the team. If you use a language other than English, it
can be complicated."

Souza arrived at Oakwell from Charleroi last summer and has been such
a success at centre-half this season that club captain Paul Reid has
been deposed from the team and deemed surplus to requirements by
Davey. "Before, I never heard anything about Barnsley or this
division," Souza confesses. "But I played in Belgium for seven years
before, so I knew all about the snow and the cold.

"I feel fine with my adaptation to England, no problem. Barnsley make
it easy for the players coming from outside. The people at the club,
they help me a lot. Sometimes I am shopping and have some problems
with understanding, and I have to call somebody in the office to help
me. But it is a good place and I am happy."

One of Davey's earliest delves into the overseas scene came on
transfer deadline day in January last year, when he introduced the
little-known Hungarian pair Ferenczi and Peter Rajczi to a surprised
Barnsley public. Rajczi's success was limited, but Ferenczi's goals,
which helped the Tykes avoid relegation to League One, convinced the
manager of the value of his new foreign policy.

"We have to look everywhere for our players," says Davey, the former
Carlisle and Preston midfielder. "We have tried to get the best we can
within our budget, to try and get a few that aren't on the normal
radar, and to assemble an attractive football team that has good,
athletic players.

"Sometimes you find that English players price themselves out of the
market with their wage demands. This country is the place to play,
everyone wants to be here ... it hasn't been hard to convince the
foreign players to come to Barnsley.

"The staff at the club help them with their apartments, with paying
the bills and getting their kids into school. A lot of them live in
Sheffield, which is a cosmopolitan city with Portuguese and Brazilian
restaurants, so it is a home from home for many of them.

"Getting them up to the tempo of English football is the challenge,
but most of them have played in Europe already, even the Brazilians,
so it doesn't take too long. Another advantage is that some of the
clubs in our division have a lot of history, but a lot of my players
haven't got a clue who used to play for Ipswich or Plymouth or
Southampton. They don't get daunted by past reputations. Having said
that, they do know exactly how important the FA Cup is."

Today's tie is a considerable challenge for a mid-table Championship
team whose most recent results – a 2-1 win over West Bromwich last
Saturday and a 3-0 slump at Plymouth three days later – sum up
oscillating fortunes this season. Another mighty task for Davey and
his foreign legion is guessing the starting eleven that Benitez will
select. Souza has known English football for little more than six
months, but recognises the futility in attempting to read the Spanish
manager's mind.

"I can't choose the players I have to face," he says, nonplussed by
mention of leaping against Crouch for a high ball or marking the
£20.5m Torres. "All we know is we have to be double stronger than
Liverpool. The FA Cup is the most difficult competition in the world,
but nothing is impossible. It's going to be one game I don't forget in
my career."

The Tykes of all nations

* Brazil: Anderson de Silva (25, midfielder); Dennis Souza, (28, centre-back)

* Denmark: Kim Christensen (27, striker)

* Germany: Heinz Muller (29, goalkeeper)

* Hungary: Istvan Ferenczi (30, striker)

* Jamaica: Jamal Campbell-Ryce (24, winger)

* Netherlands: Marciano van Homoet (23, full-back)

* Nigeria: Kayode Odejayi (25, striker)

* Peru: Miguel Mostto (31, striker – on loan at Coronel Bolognesi)

* Spain: Diego Leon (24, midfielder).

* Trinidad & Tobago: Tony Warner (33, goalkeeper – on loan from Fulham)

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/football-league/barnsleys-foreign-legion-783097.html

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