ASPRILLA 20 years after THAT night he dazzled Barca
There were many beautiful women in Newcastle. I told them: ‘There’s a party at my house and Ginola is there.’ They’d turn up and say: ‘Where is Ginola?’ ‘Ah, don’t worry,’ I’d say. ‘He’ll be back shortly.’
FAUSTINO Asprilla is not very good at keeping the time. His life away from the pitch is a reflection of his existence on it — casual chaos.
But there is one date Asprilla will never forget... September 17, 1997.
It was 20 years ago this week that the Colombian scored a hat-trick in Newcastle United’s 3-2 victory over Barcelona in the Champions League — one of the most memorable nights in the history of both the club and the competition.
But here is a sub-plot which isn’t so well known — Asprilla was very nearly dropped by manager Kenny Dalglish for the game. Why? Time-keeping, of course.
‘I missed a team meeting,’ he explains to Sportsmail ahead of the anniversary. Rumour has it he was with two women, a suggestion he has never denied.
‘The manager was not happy at all. He fined me. But I was never good with things like this — the only time I ever turned up for training early was when the clocks went back and I didn’t realise.
‘So that game against Barcelona I didn’t expect to play. When he named me in the team, I was surprised. But it was one of the biggest games in the club’s history — the first in the Champions League. Alan Shearer was injured and Les Ferdinand had been sold, so they needed me. I was made for nights like this.’
Re-WATCH the match — the video Viva Asprilla! captures every minute — and, after Tino leaves Miguel Angel Nadal and Michael Reiziger in his wake early in the game, you hear ITV commentator Brian Moore declare: ‘Asprilla might well be in the mood tonight.’ He wasn’t wrong.
On 22 minutes he latched on to a through ball from Jon Dahl Tomasson, nicked it by goalkeeper Ruud Hesp and crashed to the turf in front of the Gallowgate end. ‘A dive? No, I beat him to the ball, I was too quick,’ says Asprilla.
‘I remember Pierluigi Collina (the referee) made me move the ball before I took the penalty, but I was never going to miss.’
It was 2-0 before half-time and 3-0 by the 49th minute.
‘The second and third were very similar,’ Asprilla starts. ‘ Both times Keith Gillespie beat Sergi, one of the best full-backs in the world.
‘But he was too fast, at top speed he was unstoppable. Two crosses, two goals, both headers.
‘Barcelona got two goals late on but nothing was going to spoil it… Tino 3 Barcelona 2! It was amazing, one of the best nights of my career. My father was there and the fans were saying to him, “Thank you, thank you. You have brought us a present from God to Newcastle”.’
So how did this flamboyant South American from the salsadancing capital of Tulua come to be on Tyneside? If it wasn’t for future england manager Fabio Capello, Asprilla might well have stayed in Italy.
‘Parma only sold me because Capello was arriving as manager and I was on the list of players he didn’t want,’ recalls Asprilla, who signed for Kevin Keegan’s entertainers for £7.5million in February 1996. ‘ Only Capello dumped Parma for Real Madrid and never came. But the deal was done with Newcastle and I signed in the snow.
‘I thought Newcastle was by the sea and I’d be sailing yachts. I didn’t know the water was dangerous — and there were no yachts.’
Today, the 47-year- old doesn’t sail luxury boats, he rides horses, fires guns and hosts parties on his Tulua ranch, from which he also farms sugar cane.
The parties are not something new, a post- career indulgence, they were happening 20 years ago in the leafy and upmarket suburb of Woolsington, where French pin-up and team-mate David Ginola was a neighbour. ‘There were many beautiful women in Newcastle,’ begins Asprilla.
‘Sometimes I tricked them by saying, “There is a party back at my house and Ginola is there”. They’d come back and be like, “Where is Ginola?”. “Ah don’t worry,” I’d say, “He’ll be back shortly”.
‘But we used to go out as a team all of the time and had an amazing spirit between us.
‘Kevin Keegan wasn’t too happy about the parties though. I don’t know why, we were having a good time!’
Asprilla was sold back to Parma two years after joining Newcastle.
When he returned the keys of the house which had belonged to the club, they found bullet holes in the walls. But of all the shots he fired during his time on Tyneside, the three which hit their target on n September 17, 1997 have left the e biggest mark.
‘Since that day I’ve never had to o buy a drink in Newcastle,’ he says. ‘There is a giant image of my cartwheel celebration from that night inside St James’ Park.
‘If you look closely, you can see e where I signed it when I came e back many years ago.
‘everywhere I go the people e want to talk about Barcelona, andd why not?’
Indeed, for that night, Asprilla’s s timing was perfect.