Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
MAXIE SWAIN t Magical Me Raheem l shado the Clif
AFTER one unforgettable evening in East London when he faced down Leo Messi and the Argentine armada, there’s not much that can faze Jamie Harney.
Cliftonville’s summer recruit admits he’s endured a tough baptism in the Irish League following his apprenticeship across the water with West Ham and Colchester, but reckons he’s slowly but surely acclimatising to the Premiership.
And should he ever need to draw on his experiences as he looks to establish himself at Solitude, he could always cast his mind back to the night he came up against a posse of proverbial footballing gunslingers when West Ham agreed to a behindclosed-doors practice match against Argentina
For a youngster from Omagh half-expecting to turn up and play a bunch of rookies in a nondescript friendly, it was the football equivalent of facing the firing squad as some of the most feared forwards in world football came swarming at him like angry hornets; first Messi, then Sergio Aguero, Angel Di Maria, Carlos Tevez and Gonzalo Higuain.
For a defender in the modern game, there is maybe no greater honour – nor more daunting challenge
– than being tasked with shackling the greatest player ever to lace up boots.
And Harney takes great relish in recounting how one of his first touches was to dispossess the little magician, before adding comically how Messi quickly stamped his authority on the teenage upstart with his wizardry, nutmegging him over and over and over again.
The swaggering South Americans ran out comfortable 3-0 victors that night – certainly no disgrace for the young Hammers – but if nothing else, the game handed Harney a claim to fame that rivals anything in local football.
“It was the day before I went on loan to Colchester (right), it was a training day and we were told a couple of days before that Argentina were coming down,” explained the 21-year-old centre back.
“They wanted a game, like a training game, because they were playing Croatia at Upton Park in a friendly, so we were thinking it would be the under-21s because we weren’t really told much about it.
“But then we walked into the changing room and the manager said to us,
‘Have you seen who is there?’
“But we still thought they wouldn’t play.
Then we stepped out onto the pitch and they had a front three of Aguero down the middle, Messi in from the left and Di Maria in from the right.
“And the first thing I thought was, ‘F**k me, what am I going to do here?’
“But it was unbelievable. I remember Aguero in the first five minutes holding his hammy, and I was thinking happy days, but then Tevez came over and Higuain. “And I remember in the first minute, Messi came at me and I took the ball off him, and I sort of looked around me and looked at my manager, everyone was in disbelief, but then I got a bit cocky and the same situation cropped up a few minutes later and he put it through my legs about three times.”
While Messi and co provided one of the most surreal experiences of his young career, Harney identified Man City superstar Raheem Sterling (circled) as the one player who to this day gives him the most nightmares.
He came up against the £49million man in a reserve game and admits he simply couldn’t live with his trickery and searing pace.
“He was playing for Liverpool reserves and it was my first game for the reserves and I came on for 40 minutes at right back,” explained the Reds ace.
“I wouldn’t be the most agile of centre halfs but the manager put me at right back against Sterling and he tortured me.”
A product of Maiden City Academy, Harney moved over to West Ham, aged 16, and spent the next four years living the life of a professional footballer.
But with echoes of so many young players who went before, he admits it was a huge test of his character and resilience, never mind ability.
Like any footballer trying to find their way in the cut-throat world of professional football, he faced the slings and arrows of the industry, where directors regard players coldly and clinically as nothing more than assets or liabilities on a balance sheet, and treat them accordingly.
And while he insists he loved the experience, he admits there were plenty of hard times too as he recalled a brutal end to his time with West Ham.
“The highlights for me I would say was when I got my professional contract for West Ham, and playing a few pre-season games for the first team,” said Harney.
“Obviously making my debut for Colchester is up there too. I loved my time over in England, and made some great friends too, but a lot of people don’t realise how ruthless it can be.
“At West Ham,