Footballers who ARE nice people.

[Ye Olde Hamiltonian]

On 28/03/2021 at 21:18, The Saintee said:

Let's hear about some heart warming stories. 

Did Kris Boyd save your granny from being mugged? 

Did Hans Gilhaus lend you bus fare?

 

Met Brian Easton at the Tesco petrol station beside McD park a few days before the Scottish Cup final. Lovely guy who definitely liked a chat. Think he was very excited about the final! 

Then I met Steven MacLean in St Andrews after the Scottish Cup final. Another genuine guy who was happy having a blether about Saints.

Brian Easton is a gem of a guy.Had a few pints with him when he played for you guys in The Southside with his pals and  my brother.

Always has time for a chat as does Jose Quitongo and Big Mark McLaughlin.

[stevieKTID]

Met Alan Power at the last Killie game i was able to attend ( 3-0 win against Hearts in November 2019) he was an absolute gent. 

I resisted the urge to tell him he should be constantly humming the tune to Snap's hit record The Power. 

[Northboy]

13 hours ago, deadasdillinger said:

On 29/03/2021 at 22:09, alternative maryhill said:

 I'm another in the John Hartson: good guy camp. I worked at Waterstone's in Braehead when he was at Celtic. He came in looking for the Tony Cascarino autobiography and I helped him find it.

John Hartson can read?!

I'm more surprised that anyone wanted to buy the Tony Cascarino autobiography.

[thisGRAEME]

On 29/03/2021 at 23:03, Francesc Fabregas said:

I've met a number of football players and managers in various capacities and all of them have been positive and engaging people (I can't think of one I've met who I've disliked, to be honest) but the one who stands head and shoulders above everyone else is Alloa Athletic captain Andy Graham. He's the most charismatic person I've ever met, an absolute titan, and I can see why everyone talks so highly of him. Thoroughly kind and helpful too.

Is absolutely spot on. Happily spent a good hour chatting to me thoroughly jaked  (me not him)  at the PFA dinner a couple of years ago about Alloa and everything Scottish football. A true gent.

[one m in Motherwell]

Sat at a table with Joe Chalmers and Lionel Ainsworth at a Motherwell sponsor's evening a few years ago - Joe in particularly was a thoroughly lovely man, if a tad on the vacant side.  Lionel was also on excellent form and certainly wasn't shy about letting us know his feelings about McGhee...

Of the other guys we met that night, McManus was sound, Scott McDonald was (unsurprisingly) a total w**k, but full marks go to Connor Ripley for rocking up dressed as Flasheart from Blackadder.

[GNU_Linux]

19 hours ago, Abby Normal said:

Morten Wieghorst, ex Celtic and Denmark, had it as well. It’s probably hard to detect in Scottish folk seeing as the first symptoms are usually staggering about and slurring your words!

Wieghorst seems like a sound guy as during a Denmark vs Iran game an Iranian player mistook a whistle from the crowd as being that of the ref signalling for half time thus picked the ball up in his own box resulting in a penalty. After consultation with Danish coach Morten Olsen Wieghorst missed the penalty on purpose.

[ATLIS]

On 29/03/2021 at 20:18, Andy_K_97 said:

Second this. Was at the HoF dinner at Hampden where he was inducted and he was a gentleman, more than happy to reel off old stories about Broomhill and Ibrox. 

Another one I remembered today was Lee Miller. In my old job at the Hampden museum I'd have to take kids parties round the place and one day there was a West Lothian kids' team having a trop there for their prizegiving. Miller was playing for Livi at the time - it wasn't long before he went to manage Falkirk - and he was brilliant. Chatted to everyone, loads of time for the kids and their folks too. When you get guys like that it restores your faith in humanity ever so slightly.

Holt's first game in charge was a win against St Mirren away. We ended up parked next to Lee who was injured at the time. We'd saw him at the end of the game, said hi and mentioned it was a good win. He said the same and ducked down into his car, had expected that he'd be away but he was instead putting stuff into his car and came over for a 30 minute chat about the game, Kenny Miller's departure and Livi in general. Absolute gentleman, can't speak highly enough of him.

[ConcernedReferee]

Hit a ball within about 20 yards of Maurice Malpas at the 3rd hole of Alyth golf club, he'd have every right to turn round and laugh at me since I was tee-ing off from the 4th green but he just smiled at a young laddy having a rough day and stepped back to let me hit my 2nd shot. 

To be honest I wouldn't have known it was him but I was playing with an Arab mad mate of mine. 

[Andy_K_97]

It's been mentioned on the other thread and the AVFTT thread, but Craig Brown. I've had the pleasure of his company through work on a couple of occasions and each time I met him I've enjoyed his company and his stories a lot. The story about his grandson's favourite player being the only one who thanked him for returning the ball while he was a ball boy is true, and Craig said he insisted that all his players thanked ball boys/girls at every stadium for returning the ball afterwards. Makes sense as it's just common courtesy. In any case Craig was great with everyone, had fantastic stories and I'd gladly spend time with him again. If he ever released a podcast of all his good stories from the past I'd devour it. 

[Caledonian1]

About 15 years or so I played in the same fives team as Jim Bett (played for around 8 years with us before moving back to Iceland)  You could not imagine a more unassuming footballer. Rarely talked about football but loved to play it (and to be fair to a very high standard even then)  When I started to play for another team in a new six-a-side indoor league - which happened to be the same night but a little later - I asked if he fancied playing for us and to my delight he agreed - I couldn't believe that I had effectively signed Jim Bett.  He was a great bloke and a there was a period when a group of us would meet for a pint once a month on a Thursday night.  Again, rarely did the conversation ever drift into football talk and he never once boasted about his career.  Incidentally, David Robertson also played for us for a year in the vetrans six-a-side....he absolutely never came across as the manager blighted by tourettes that we have seen in the Real Kashmir documentaries and was quite quiet - when warming me up I recall being astonished how hard he could kick a ball.....often winded I tried to carry on as if it was nothing unusual.

I played a medal with Richard Foster at my golf course (he was a member for a couple of years before moving to Rangers)  He was a thoroughly decent bloke and happy to chat about anything. I will never forget him saying he had found his level (the Dons) and that his main attribute was his fitness.  This was a Tuesday medal - 2 weeks later I was still playing golf but he was playing for Rangers in the Champions League against Manchester United.

Also in the John Hartson is great company camp.  Met him in the clubhouse after a round of golf a few years ago and he was really engaging - came over and sat with us for 30 mins or so to talk about golf

[bluearmyfaction]

On 31/03/2021 at 09:11, Northboy said:

I'm more surprised that anyone wanted to buy the Tony Cascarino autobiography.

Most footballer autobiographies are destined for the library in the ninth circle of Hell.  Cascarino's, albeit against that very low standard, is a pretty good one.  Helped by his career not being a high profile one.

[Guest TheJTS98]

Maybe not a shocking shout, but Tommy Burns was a genuinely lovely man.

I played youth football at a level that meant I came in touch with him quite a few times, but he had known my cousin years previously (a far better player who got to a much higher level than me and had worked directly with Burns).

I was at a birthday party years after I'd dropped out the fitba and got a tap on my shoulder from Tommy who went on to immediately ask after my cousin, my mum, my dad, my brother who had been sick when I was a kid, and another family member of mine who had also been sick. This was years after he'd had any contact with any of us and I was astonished that he remembered me never mind my entire family. Remarkable.

Just a right good guy.

ETA: Related to this, through a similar network I had met John Hartson once, and found myself in the Pot Still in Glasgow one night with a bird having a quiet drink. Hartson recognised me, came over, and made out to the young lady I was with that I was a lot more important than I am and he was was really fun and good company. Another nice guy. I told him that night I almost felt guilty for calling him a c**t for elbowing Andy Webster in the face, and he took that well too.

Edited April 4, 2021 by TheJTS98

[realmadrid]

On 29/03/2021 at 19:13, The Real Saints said:However, the ultimate stand-out was Alan Mannus. I waited for him in the reception foyer at the usual time (just as the players were supposed to be finishing up with their day's training). Soon he emerged, walked straight up to me, shook my hand and engaged me in conversation about general life for a while. I asked him if he was ready for a few questions, to which he said 'yes' and asked the receptionist lady if it was OK for us to get access into the stadium and sit in the seats usually reserved for the chairman and his pals. He was incredibly warm and polite, running me through the details of his entire career before happily signing my dad's copy of 'Our Day in May' (a book about the 2014 Scottish Cup win)  and adding a personal message for good measure. We must have spent about 45 minutes overall before calling it a day. Just as we were parting ways, he told me that nobody at the club had informed him about this interview and he should probably get home for dinner or his wife would be angry. He literally had no idea who I was when he first saw me in the foyer. I could have just been a random fan wanting to ask questions for no reason whatsoever, yet he engaged me in conversation, was perfectly happy to answer questions about his career and also went out of his way to make it a memorable experience for me. I think that says a lot about the man.

 

Allan Mannus is certainly a candidate for this thread

A friend got various gifts for players after the 2014 Scottish cup win. Most said thank and spoke to him but Alan Mannus made a point of saying "Thanks but I will get you something in return"

At the start of the next season my friend totally forgot but around October met Allan who said "I have something for you but can you wait until Christmas" to which my friend said yes of course.

The club then made contact at the last game before Christmas to say there was an item at reception for him from Alan Mannus and could he collect it after the game which he did and then put the gift under his tree.

Come Christmas morning the first gift he opened was the gift from Alan who had given him his match worn cup final shirt , personally signed to him . Needless to say he was blown away with the gift and could not believe it. The shirt (Complete with some marks from the Celtic Park pitch) is framed and takes pride of place in his house.

Alan told him "I have my medal and thats all I need, I know you will appreciate this"

I am on the media team at Saints and Alan was always so easy to work with , I took him and Rory Fallon to an ice hockey game and they were sound to be with. Alan was not a big one for nights out but once you got to know him he was superb. One of the other members of the media team used to sponsor his shirt each season and again at the last player sponsors night Alan recognised this and had gifts for his shirt sponsor as well as a letter of thanks. 

Most players are sound 

[HibsFan]

Not my story but I remember reading it on Hibs.net and it seems like a wholesome thing to share about a footballer who was nice.

Even some Hibs fans might've slightly forgotten Niklas Gunnarsson by now, but for others who either have rightly forgotten or never knew to begin with, he joined the club in January 2016 on loan from Vålerenga in Norway. Made fifteen appearances, scored a couple of goals - including one against Rangers in the dress rehearsal for the Scottish Cup final - but all in all, a largely unmemorable spell.

He was, however, on the pitch at the full time whistle when we won the Scottish Cup on the 21st May 2016, having come off the bench for Paul Hanlon with seven minutes left in the game.

As the photo below shows, he (far left of the photo) and Liam Fontaine were the suavest looking at the parade by some distance.

Spoiler

Anyway, he returns to his parent club and we don't hear from him again. A shame I felt, as he was dependable cover for David Gray; who was slowly racking up the injuries.

A year or so passes and a Hibs fan is doing the rounds getting their 2016 shirt signed by all of the members of the cup winning squad (I think for a charity raffle but can't remember). With most of the team staying on for the season after, or at least staying in Britain, this is quite an easy task. With the exception of Gunnarsson.

The fan wrote to Gunnarsson's new club and explained the situation. Gunnarsson not only arranged a courier off his own back to get the shirt signed and returned to the fan, he called the fan up personally to tell him and spent ages speaking about that day and his brief-but-happy memories of his time at Hibs.

There was no obligation of Gunnarsson to do any of the above, especially as he was really just a loanee passing through as a massive piece of history was inadvertently created around him, but it was lovely to see him go that extra mile. Sounds like a gid c**t by all accounts.

[flood]

Kyle Lafferty took his hat-trick ball from yesterday, had it signed by all Killie players..... he then handed it to Stenhousemuir player, who is undergoing some treatment. Hopefully will be auctioned soon to help raise funds for him

[CambieBud]

I worked in Leith a number of years ago and a Hibs fan was retiring. We contacted Hibs to see if they would give us some freebies to give to the woman who was retiring. John Hughes was captain at the time but injured. He came to the office with loads of merchandise for our colleague and couldn’t have been nicer. Stayed for photos etc and couldn’t have done any more. Had some great stories too. Fair play and a great lad

[philpy]

Grant murray. Bumped into him in musselburgh tesco a couple of days before raith beat sevco in the cup. Wished him and the team good luck, and carried on, but he decided he was up for a good chat about the rovers. Saw him a few times since (lives in the same village), and will always stop and say hello. A genuinely bloody nice bloke, just a pity managing raith didn't work out in the end. A wee mention to Laurie ellis as well, helped him at work a couple of times , wouldn't stop talking about football . Had to deal with paul kane once (ex team mate of my boss). Bit of an arrogant kent.

 

[Grangemouth Bairn]

On 30/03/2021 at 19:01, Jinky67 said:

Fortunate enough to meet a few Henrik Larsson was an absolute gent, met him in the Italian Centre Xmas 99 when he was recovering from a broken leg and noticed my brother was wearing a Celtic umbro jacket and was happy to chat with us, legend.

young Kieran Tierney also is a class act, I worked with his sister and occasionally used to pick her up and drop her off from work, KT was still in the youth team and it wouldn't be unusual to see him on the street in his Celtic gear scudding a ball off the lockups. Met him a few years after in the RCH when my wee boy was having an op and he was just a different class, i genuinely hope this kid reaches the very very top.

I also used to live on the same street as Jose Quitongo in Wishaw, the man is a local living legend. Such a nice guy he was always out running 

i trained Jordan White for Sky in what must have been Summer 14, seemed a decent lad also however left after a few weeks as he was offered a full time contract somewhere, Livi rings a bell

Your brother wore this to go shopping to the Italian Centre ?

Could you get any more Glaswegian .

[Derry Alli]

1 hour ago, philpy said:

A genuinely bloody nice bloke, 

[LogieLivi]

David Fernandez.
That is all.