SHIRTY DEN
Gemmill hopes his young Scots have better memories of Brazil clash than his snub by Denilson
SCOT GEMMILL was given the slip by Brazil’s superstars at France 98 and he didn’t even play.
The Scotland Under-20s boss was an unused sub for the World Cup opener in the Stade de France.
And he revealed how samba star Denilson got shirty with him after Gemmill made a beeline for the winger to swap tops.
Denilson, the world’s most expensive player at the time after Real Betis paid £21million for him, came off the bench in Paris just before Tom Boyd’s own goal edged it for Brazil.
And after completing the warm down after the game, Gemmill raced to the Brazil dressing room in the hope of landing one of the famous yellow shirts.
But his bid ended in disappointment after Denilson shrugged him off and Gemmill hopes to get one back on Brazil today.
The 46-year-old will lead his young side out in their second game of the Toulon Tournament hoping to bounce back from the 3-2 midweek defeat to the Czech Republic.
Recalling his World Cup experience, Gemmill said: “Alex Miller took the unused substitutes on to the pitch in Paris after the game for a training session.
“The Brazil subs were training as well. They finished just before us and I wanted to swap a shirt so I ran up the tunnel.
“One player was about to go in the dressing room and it was Denilson, who had just joined Real Betis.
“I said ‘Excuse me, excuse me, can we change shirts?’ And he just turned round and saw this skinny little white kid and said ‘Not possible.’ That was that.”
Despite suffering that disappointment, Gemmill admitted the occasion was an experience to savour and wants his players to do the same in France.
He said: “I was really lucky. I had a decent playing career and some special moments – the World Cup opener against Brazil was one of them.
“I was obviously gutted not to be involved but the occasion was great.”
Brazil took to the field just minutes after Gemmill’s kids lost to the Czechs and they struggled to a 1-0 win over Indonesia.
Now Gemmill hopes his side can cause the South Americans problems. He said: “People would have predicted Brazil scoring goals against Indonesia.
“But you could see Indonesia were really well prepared and kept them to one goal so it shows how difficult it is to win at this level.
“But in the end Brazil got the start they wanted.
“Our players are really looking forward to this game. I’m not concerned about them being overawed.
“They’re at the stage where they see past that and it’s about us getting our overall performance right.”