Dutch too much

PERHAPS something has been lost in translation. There, on the Zenit St Petersburg official website, is the quote from Fernando Ricksen explaining why he thinks a movie based on football would fail.

"Life of the football players is not too interesting," says the former Rangers player. "We have to play, we have to live a life for our football. Sometimes it's very boring."

At other times it definitely isn't. Imagine a film with trophies and honours, offset by failure and dishonour. A flawed central character besieged by insecurities and anger, who battles personal demons and lives a life enlivened by glamour girls, running feuds and drunken misadventure. A tale peppered with relationship problems, on and off-field bust-ups, criminal convictions, and a journey along the road to redemption and self-discovery. Add to that various locations and differing cultural backdrops and it should be enough to have cinema-goers yearning for opening night.

Ricksen's life could be summed up in many words but boring would never be one of them. Complex, troubled, colourful and, at times, misunderstood, the Dutchman has been an existence punctuated by more moments of regret than he would like.

"I was always judged on things off the field and that wasn't fair. Of course, I realise I had caused that, but it's a pity that is the part the people remember," said Ricksen after his six-year spell in Scotland finally came to an end following an altercation with an air stewardess on Rangers' pre-season flight to South Africa.

It is said people never get a second chance to make a first impression. Ricksen was given countless chances but with each one blown he merely contrived to strengthen the initial assessment. Within months of joining Rangers he was in front of the SFA's disciplinary panel. The match officials had missed his waist-high lunge on Aberdeen's Darren Young but he was kind enough to clear up any uncertainty, confessing all on his website, saying his opponent had needed "straightening out".

It was the first in a litany of poor decisions. From pushing his then chairman, John McLelland, into a hotel swimming pool, ruining his Cartier watch, to altercations with a neighbour after setting off fireworks in the early hours of the morning, crashing his car into a lamppost while more than double the legal drink drive limit, bursting down hotel room doors when inconvenienced by a lost key and dalliances with glamour model Jordan and night-time trampolining sessions with a lap dancer, which eventually led to his wife Graciela leaving him.

With Zenit preparing to meet Rangers in the UEFA Cup final, he has made it clear there will be no sentimental reunion with Scottish journalists. "They write with one goal only – to sell a paper – and you can't do anything about it. In that sense, I feel much more comfortable in Russia. Here people only discuss your football qualities, not your private life."

But the pattern of Ricksen's life had been set long before he arrived in Scotland. The media merely reported what could not be ignored.
"In all my time in professional football he was the most anti-social person I have ever met," said his former Alkmaar team-mate Jose Fortes Rodriguez. "During training there were so many incidents with him – things you wouldn't believe. He's missing something in his head. He was unpredictable and uncontrollable and everyone was glad when he was moved on."

And he wasn't the only one happy to condemn. "An imbecile and a headcase", was how another former Alkmaar associate, Barry van Galen, described him.

But Ricksen is right in saying there was more to him than the self-destructive shenanigans; they just seemed to cast a shadow over everything else. As those close to him observed, Ricksen always damaged himself more than others. While at Rangers he earned hero status for his part on the pitch. Although he contributed to the domestic treble in 2002/03, his best season came two years later. An ever-present, playing in all 51 of the club's games that season, he scored nine goals. He was also handed the captaincy after Stefan Klos was sidelined through injury and helped guide the side to triumphs in the Premierleague and League Cup. The cherry on top was being voted both Rangers' Player of the Year and joint Scottish Players' Player of the Year.

That year he was a transformed man. The famed temper was tethered, the drinking had stopped and he was a more focused individual. His intelligence and sensitivity were afforded the chance to surface. The softness and self-deprecation he showed at that time were at odds with the stereotype he had created. A guy whose own childhood had reportedly lacked a positive father figure, there was a sentimentality and pride as he ploughed his energy into the role of protective patriarch to his stepson Wim. Indeed, it was the fear of losing the youngster and Graciela which hit him hardest when, having fallen off the wagon, he was sent home in shame following that South Africa flight. "It started to dawn on me that I had ruined everything that was important to me – my relationship with my wife, my relationship with my stepson and, yes, my career."

He checked into the Sporting Chance Clinic. It was reported he was there to deal with his drinking problems but in actual fact it was his anger and behavioural issues he worked on. The alcohol was merely a way of masking the underlying issues and silencing bigger demons.

Deemed a success by those at the clinic, there was still no way back at Rangers under Paul Le Guen and it was once again his football father, Dick Advocaat, who rescued him. Together at Alkmaar and Rangers, the Dutch coach lured him to St Petersburg, a place which, perhaps fittingly, also defied the myths and proved less harsh and more likeable in reality.

"I thought what can I expect here, very cold and dour, gruff folk?" he said afterwards. "But I was pleasantly surprised."

On his first day he opened up and told his new team-mates about his drink problem. They still welcomed him. But when the red mist descended again Ricksen chose to throw his punches at the wrong guy. Vladislav Radimov is 'Mr Zenit'. The local lad who is being touted for an ambassadorial role within the club when he stops playing, he was also captain. He and Ricksen got involved in an on-field fight that saw both protagonists sent off.

But, as always, Ricksen has Advocaat in his corner and still played his part in Zenit's first Russian league title win in 2007 and their progress to this week's UEFA Cup final. There they meet a club where they were once considered heroes.

Whether the emotional scene stealer will start in Manchester depends on the fitness of first-choice right-back Alexander Anyukov. But no one likes a predictable script. That would be boring... and that's so not Ricksen.