Dodging riots and missiles to write warmly of Turkey
Güncelleme Tarihi:
by Kirsten Stevens
OluÅŸturulma Tarihi: Nisan 11, 2009 00:00
ISTANBUL - American goalkeeper Brad Friedel remembers his 16 months in Istanbul for the culture, the people, the çayÉ and a revolution of sorts. He calls Turkey’s fans the most passionate he has seen. ’The country is not there to adapt to you,’ says the former Galatasaray player who was pelted with coins and missiles. ’You are there to adapt to the country’
On my own and surrounded by the heaving energy of Galatasaray football stadium in 2002, I was on the sacred ground in the former home of one of my heroes: American goalkeeper Brad Friedel. A goalkeeper since the age of five, through college and beyond, I struggle to explain the bliss of witnessing the beautiful game where it reigns supreme, that is, in most countries outside my native U.S. And in Turkey especially.
Friedel gives Americans reason to stand proud in stadiums around the globe. He was America’s national team keeper with 82 caps and the first American to thrive professionally on pitches abroad, playing for the some of the biggest names in the English Premier League. It didn’t come easy; he traveled nearly one million miles in a five-year battle to win a work permit to play there. Thirty-nine next month, he is still a shot-stopping wizard for Aston Villa. Goalkeepers get better with age.
New book
Brad Friedel is also author of a book that came out this month, "Thinking Outside the Box: My Journey in Search of the Beautiful Game", a collaboration with writer and social entrepreneur Malcolm McClean. Revealing a genuine spirit of giving and the truth behind the glamour of the Premier League, the man with a mind for saving penalties has crafted a book that, by all accounts, makes for a heck of a good read. And he devotes a good portion of it to his time between Turkish posts.
In 1995 Friedel signed a $1.1 million transfer to top Turkish team Galatasaray. The team was managed by one-time Liverpool captain and Friedel's future Blackburn manager Graeme Souness.
Calling it "probably the best experience of my life," he says the time in Turkey was memorable for a number of reasons: the culture, the people, the chaiÉ and a revolution of sorts. Moments after Galatasaray defeated arch-rivals Fenerbahçe in the 1996 Turkish Cup, Manager Souness grabbed an enormous team flag from a fan, ran to the center circle and impaled the heart of the Fenerbahçe pitch with the flag.
The iconic image of the victor planting the flag drew comparisons with Turkish hero Ulubatli Hasan, who was killed as he planted the Ottoman flag at the end of the Siege of Constantinople. This earned Souness the nickname 'Ulubatlı Souness'.
"He became a hero there foreverÉ," Friedel says of Souness. "They are still selling T-shirts celebrating the moment." Â
"The kick-off wasn’t until 8pm and the stadium was three-quarters full by noon!" After the game things were being thrown at the players for hours, he recalls. "Rocks and bottles of beer came through the windows of the coach and it sounds really strange but I really enjoyed it," Friedel says.
"I signed a two-year contract with Galatasaray and after the first year Fatih Terim came in as manager and offered me a two-year contract extension but I knew that World Cup qualifying was starting and it wasn’t on international dates so I would have missed up to 16 games of the season," he says. Also there was interest from Liverpool at the time.
A rare professional athlete, he later took a 60 percent pay cut to stay loyal to Souness by joining the Blackburn Rovers. He has earned $35 a day playing for the U.S. against the likes of Brazil and Argentina. In his book, Friedel shares the vision he came up along the way for his football academy.
In its fourth year, Premier Soccer Academies in the U.S. and Mexico recruits kids free of charge from around the world and the U.S. for their talent rather than their ability to pay. "The system is broken in the U.S," he says referring to the pay-to-play structure in American soccer. Friedel guaranteed the $10.5 million himself to set up the academy as a non-profit that won’t earn him a dime.
Lasting impressions
Friedel has returned to Turkey on several occasions to play football and to introduce his wife and kids to the good friends he made here. "It was just a great time of my life, both for football but also with the friends and life in general. I just thought the cultural differences between the Muslim world and the Western world are not as far apart as people think they are," he told Birmingham’s Sunday Mercury earlier this year.
Football fans in Istanbul are the most fantastically passionate he has seen, Friedel says. "Few stadiums in the world have as fantastic an atmosphere as the stadiums in Turkey. It doesn’t seem hostile to me; a lot of the words and signs try to intimidate you but deep down Turkish people are very friendly." He said most stadiums in Turkey have a track to protect goalkeepers from "missiles". "At those stadiums that didn't, I just got hit with things." But he says playing for the U.S. to qualify for the World Cup through Central America was far worse than in Turkey.
"It was lovely living out there," he adds. "You could get a place right on the Bosphorus and the food is fantastic." While waiting for my copy of his book, I’m looking for that T-shirt to go with my red, gold and gray goalkeeper jersey, the one I bought after visiting the stadium where Friedel once played.
Friedel gives Americans reason to stand proud in stadiums around the globe. He was America’s national team keeper with 82 caps and the first American to thrive professionally on pitches abroad, playing for the some of the biggest names in the English Premier League. It didn’t come easy; he traveled nearly one million miles in a five-year battle to win a work permit to play there. Thirty-nine next month, he is still a shot-stopping wizard for Aston Villa. Goalkeepers get better with age.
New book
Brad Friedel is also author of a book that came out this month, "Thinking Outside the Box: My Journey in Search of the Beautiful Game", a collaboration with writer and social entrepreneur Malcolm McClean. Revealing a genuine spirit of giving and the truth behind the glamour of the Premier League, the man with a mind for saving penalties has crafted a book that, by all accounts, makes for a heck of a good read. And he devotes a good portion of it to his time between Turkish posts.
In 1995 Friedel signed a $1.1 million transfer to top Turkish team Galatasaray. The team was managed by one-time Liverpool captain and Friedel's future Blackburn manager Graeme Souness.
Calling it "probably the best experience of my life," he says the time in Turkey was memorable for a number of reasons: the culture, the people, the chaiÉ and a revolution of sorts. Moments after Galatasaray defeated arch-rivals Fenerbahçe in the 1996 Turkish Cup, Manager Souness grabbed an enormous team flag from a fan, ran to the center circle and impaled the heart of the Fenerbahçe pitch with the flag.
The iconic image of the victor planting the flag drew comparisons with Turkish hero Ulubatli Hasan, who was killed as he planted the Ottoman flag at the end of the Siege of Constantinople. This earned Souness the nickname 'Ulubatlı Souness'.
"He became a hero there foreverÉ," Friedel says of Souness. "They are still selling T-shirts celebrating the moment." Â
"The kick-off wasn’t until 8pm and the stadium was three-quarters full by noon!" After the game things were being thrown at the players for hours, he recalls. "Rocks and bottles of beer came through the windows of the coach and it sounds really strange but I really enjoyed it," Friedel says.
"I signed a two-year contract with Galatasaray and after the first year Fatih Terim came in as manager and offered me a two-year contract extension but I knew that World Cup qualifying was starting and it wasn’t on international dates so I would have missed up to 16 games of the season," he says. Also there was interest from Liverpool at the time.
A rare professional athlete, he later took a 60 percent pay cut to stay loyal to Souness by joining the Blackburn Rovers. He has earned $35 a day playing for the U.S. against the likes of Brazil and Argentina. In his book, Friedel shares the vision he came up along the way for his football academy.
In its fourth year, Premier Soccer Academies in the U.S. and Mexico recruits kids free of charge from around the world and the U.S. for their talent rather than their ability to pay. "The system is broken in the U.S," he says referring to the pay-to-play structure in American soccer. Friedel guaranteed the $10.5 million himself to set up the academy as a non-profit that won’t earn him a dime.
Lasting impressions
Friedel has returned to Turkey on several occasions to play football and to introduce his wife and kids to the good friends he made here. "It was just a great time of my life, both for football but also with the friends and life in general. I just thought the cultural differences between the Muslim world and the Western world are not as far apart as people think they are," he told Birmingham’s Sunday Mercury earlier this year.
Football fans in Istanbul are the most fantastically passionate he has seen, Friedel says. "Few stadiums in the world have as fantastic an atmosphere as the stadiums in Turkey. It doesn’t seem hostile to me; a lot of the words and signs try to intimidate you but deep down Turkish people are very friendly." He said most stadiums in Turkey have a track to protect goalkeepers from "missiles". "At those stadiums that didn't, I just got hit with things." But he says playing for the U.S. to qualify for the World Cup through Central America was far worse than in Turkey.
"It was lovely living out there," he adds. "You could get a place right on the Bosphorus and the food is fantastic." While waiting for my copy of his book, I’m looking for that T-shirt to go with my red, gold and gray goalkeeper jersey, the one I bought after visiting the stadium where Friedel once played.