Gers hero remembered
Helicopter Sunday pilot’s flight of fantasy
BARRY FERGUSON always knew this day would come.
But the longer it took the more he realised what an incredibly special person the world was about to lose.
When Fernando Ricksen died yesterday after a six-year battle with Motor Neurone Disease, Ferguson was quick to lead the tributes to his former Rangers team-mate.
And while the Record Sport columnist was fulsome in his praise for everything Ricksen achieved during his years at Ibrox, he admits to being left in awe at the bravery the Dutchman displayed during his long and debilitating fight against the illness that eventually claimed his life at the age of just 43.
Ferguson said: “Fernando was a very special guy but you don’t need me to tell you that and you don’t need to look at the medals he won either.
“All you have to do is look at the way he battled against that horrible disease over these last six years and consider how hard it must have been for him to keep on fighting that fight.
“When he was diagnosed the doctors gave him just 18 months to live. And yet he kept at it for four and half more years than anyone could have expected. That’s the biggest compliment anyone can give the guy.
“And it mirrors the determination, the grit and desire he always had on the football pitch.
“In all the time I knew him he never once shirked a tackle or gave anything less than 100 per cent. That was just the mark of the man.”
Then again, Ferguson realised very early on during their time together that Ricksen was a born fighter.
Had he been anything less, says Ferguson, then his Rangers career would have been over before it had even properly begun. The former Scotland captain said: “What people tend to forget is that when he first came to the club he was a young man and it took him time to adjust.
“If truth be told it was a bit of a struggle for him in the early days.
“But that first Old Firm game at Celtic Park was probably the making of him as a Rangers player, as stupid as that might sound.
“I’ve known plenty of players who couldn’t handle the pressure of playing at a club like Rangers and in a city like Glasgow.
“A lot of them would have disappeared completely had they gone through what Fernando experienced in that game.
“But he refused to let that happen. He had the fight inside him to prove he could become a good Rangers player and he managed to do that.
“That he went on to wear the armband and to lift trophies for the
club puts him in a special bracket. There are not many people who have been lucky enough to do that down the years.
“But the fact that Fernando managed to do it after such a difficult start to his time at the club tells its own story. The guy had the heart of a lion.”
He also just happened to possess a natural ability to get under Ferguson’s skin like few others.
There have always been notorious livewires in football dressing rooms up and down the country – and then there was Fernando Ricksen.
Ferguson can laugh about it now. In fact he has come to cherish those memories.
He added: “I’m sure he wouldn’t mind me saying that he was an absolute pest around the training ground. If there was something happening then Fernando was always right there in the thick of it. That was just his personality, he was always so full of beans.
“I’ve never been much of a morning person so I’d like to come in, get changed and enjoy a bit of peace and quiet. But that wasn’t possible when he was around.
“He was always up to no good, running about the place causing chaos. There were times when he did my head in.
“But I look back on it now and I still smile because you couldn’t ever dislike Fernando. That was just the person he was and that’s the Fernando I’ll always remember.
“Seeing the pictures of him over these last few years has been difficult for anyone who knew the way he was.
“To see a guy who was always so full of energy and fun being reduced to such a state by that horrible illness.
“That’s why there’s not enough credit you can give him for fighting against it for so long. The guy was an inspiration.
“Listen, Fernando would admit himself he wasn’t the most talented Dutchman to sign for Rangers. He wasn’t blessed with the ability of guys like Michael Mols and Ronald de Boer.
“But when others might have folded or doubted their own ability, Fernando had the character to dig in and to work hard to improve himself as a player. You have to respect a guy like that.
“Like many of the Dutch boys he bought into the whole ethos of the club. He knew what it meant to pull on the jersey and he knew that nothing less than 100 per cent would be accepted.
“That’s the way he lived his life. And that’s the way he fought his illness.
“It takes a lot of balls to fight something so awful for as long as Fernando did. And that’s why today is such a sad day for everyone he knew him.”