Nicknamed ‘The Prince’, Philippe Albert will always be remembered for his time at Newcastle United, especially his great goal against Manchester United, lobbing Peter Schmeichel, back in 1996.
Turning 50 on August 10th, the defender, known for his rather adventurous style, opened up to Sport/Foot in his home country of Belgium as the magazine present his career in 50 anecdotes.
Believing people will still be talking about “that” goal ‘in 50 years time’, the 49-year-old revealed all Kevin Keegan, Newcastle’s manager at the time, told them before the game was ‘Guys, just remember Wembley’ to motivate them before that 5-0 win, referring to their 4-0 Charity Shield loss to Sir Alex Ferguson’s team earlier on in the year.
A part of The Entertainers, the former defender explained one of the reasons for their success was the team chemistry, helped by their manager’s insistence for them to go out once a month and blow off some steam.
He said: “We went to the restaurant and then just went out clubbing all night. They weren’t drinking marathons, but we let ourselves go quite a lot.”
Wearing the number 27 during his time at St James’ Park, Albert made it clear the idea came from Keegan himself, who told him “You’re 27 today, so you’ll be 27”, even though the player wanted to continue his career wearing number 4 or 5.
As for his Newcastle United teammates, he went through a few, describing Alan Shearer as a ‘monster who never gave up’, Faustino Asprilla as a ‘phenomenon’ and a ‘nutcase’, and David Ginola as ‘pure class’.
Regarding Pavel Srnicek, who died in 2015 at the age of 47, Albert went out of his way to praise his ‘incredible hard work’ that made up for the fact he ‘wasn’t one of the best goalkeepers in the league’ like Peter Schmeichel and David Seaman.
Eventually, Ruud Gullit took over from Keegan, and that’s where his time at Newcastle all went downhill.
He said: “I was expecting to learn a lot from him, especially after his time with Milan, but it was a big letdown. He quickly made me understand that players over the age of 30 didn’t have a role to play in the English league. When he doesn’t need someone anymore, he just chucks him.”
Turning down offers from Juventus and Benfica (he hung up on Sven-Goran Eriksson) during his time at KV Mechelen, Albert always prioritised the sport aspect of the game rather than the money, even if he wasn’t exactly poor at Newcastle.
He said: “I was earning a good living at Mechelen and Anderlecht, but at Newcastle, it was something else. I was earning £10k/week, plus a bonus before and after the season ended.
“When I signed, the pound stood at 45 francs, and a month later it was at 62 or 63 francs. That was a great deal seeing as I was getting paid in pounds!”
Eventually going on a short loan to Fulham to team up with Kevin Keegan once more, the former Newcastle defender ended his career at Charleroi in 2000 after a clash with Christian Negouai.
Picking up a knee injury from the impact, Albert was told by a surgeon to ‘either stop playing or never performing at the same level again’.
The Newcastle United fan favourite chose the former ‘because playing at an inferior level didn’t interest me’.
