Spurs’ Cult Heroes – Your Memories of Jurgen Klinsmann…

Probably the one mentioned by most fans will be the 6-2 demolition of Wimbledon with Jurgen scoring 4. More than just a game it represented our whole season in 90 minutes with victory guaranteeing our Pemiership status.
Selhurst park resembled White Hart Lane for the day with 3 of the 4 stands filled up with Spurs fans. 1-0 spurs, 1-1, 2-1 spurs, 2-2. Typical spurs fashion, getting the lead then giving it up, then Klinsmann came alive in the second half, scoring a second half hat-trick to go with his strike in the first half.
Moussa Saib wrapping the win up late on.

During the summer of 2004 I was living and working in a small village about an hours drive from Munich.

As a bricklayer escaping the recession and subsequent slump in the building trade back in the U.K I was enjoying earning some decent money and discovering that the Germans we really not as bad as they were made out to be.

It was the year of World Cup in the U.S.A and I recall watching the Dutch beating the Germans in a bar that was also hosting a wedding reception. All the lads were crowded around the T.V watching the match meanwhile the ladies were left to dance on their own next door.

When the Dutch scored my mate and I reacted how any England fan would seeing Germany concede a goal and we jumped up and began celebrating. To their credit the Germans didn’t react and they took it all with good humour.

Anyway it was a few days later while listening to the radio that I first heard the words Klinsmann and Spurs mentioned in the same sentence however with my limited knowledge of German I couldn’t be sure what the story was, but I of course was desperate for more news as I had to find out if he had signed for us.

I got on the phone to my Dad but he had no knowledge of the story. Anyway as we all know it was true. He had signed for us and I then began the weekly ritual of visiting the nearest town to buy an English newspaper and follow our progress.

Klinsmann began that season with a ban scoring on his debut and his celebration is now legendary. Spurs continued to get good results to the point where I remember telling my mate that if we beat Man Utd I was going home because I was convinced this was our year!

If I recall correctly we conceded a late penalty and my bubble was well and truly burst. However I came back to the U.K anyway a couple of months later and traveled to Norwich without a ticket in the hope that I would see my new hero for the first time.

As it turned out the closest I got to the game was clinging to an advertising hoarding outside. From my vantage point I could only make out about a third of the pitch.

Nevertheless throughout the remainder of the season I was lucky enough to see Klinsmann play on many occasions and for me he will always be a Spurs legend. I will never forget the excitement of hearing he was on his way to White Hart Lane and as far I am concerned his performances on the pitch stand comparison with any Spurs player both past and present.

I was at his first game away to Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough.

Whilst everyone remembers that he scored and then dived in mock celebration in response to suggestions he was somewhat theatrcial in his play, people forget that he was actually strecthered off in that game after scoring the fourth goal following a clash of heads with Des Walker.

My memory though is of after the game. It took ages to get away from the ground, out of Sheffield and back on to the M1. So long in fact that by the time we got to Doncaster we had finally caught up the Spurs team coach.

We pulled along side the coach and sitting there was Jurgen at a table going backwards – clearly suffering from concussion. Sitting opposite him was Ronnie Rosenthal. Klinsmann didn’t look at all well and we tried jesticulating to Ronnie to see if Jurgen was OK. Cue frantic pointing at our own heads, Klinsmann’s head and pretending to pass out and then give thumbs up – all at 70+ mph.

For some reason, whilst noticing us, (we were hanging out the window at this point), Rosenthal didn’t quite understand what we were trying to get across and gave a somewhat stereotypical Yiddish shrug.

One of our crew in the car said “if Ronnie can’t understand us – he is never going to be on the same wavelength as Klinsmann”.

And that summed it up. There was a world class footballer playing for our beloved Spurs alongside the likes of Rosenthal, Kerslake and Calderwood. We not only wondered when he was going to wake up following his clash of heads but wondered whether we were going to wake up and find out it was all a dream.

Apart from the wonderful goals that he scored, I have two memories that stand out.
First one is his Spurs debut at Watford in a pre-season friendly. Before the game, my impression of him was this overated superstar, who dives all over the place, and has come to Spurs for his final pay day. I left the game with a totally different view of the man. He gave 100%, and covered every blade of grass in that game, and showed absolute class in every thing he did. He went on to play every game in the same way. and this was a man who had won everything in the game already.
Secondly, I was working nights in 1994, and travelled to work on the tube, passing through Arsenal on the way. One night, Arsenal were at home, and the tube was full of Arse fans. Three were sitting opposite me, and their whole conversation was about Klinsman, how good he was, and why couldn’t Arsenal sign a superstar like him. I sat their smugly smiling to myself, thinking yes, we’ve got one up on the scum at last.
If only Jurgen had stayed another season and seen out his contract, he would have gone down in history along with Danny Blanchflower, Jimmy Greaves and Dave Mackay. The man was absolute class

Pity he did not stay long enough, wonder what would have happen if he stayed after his first season in 1994-95.

The bicycle kick against Everton, on his home debut.

We thought we were in the wrong ground! 😀

Can anyone tell me if Jurgen ever scored against Liverpool FC?