I knew life would be different here when I saw team-mate dressed as Batman climbing a wall at a funfair
JULIAN SPERONI, born and raised in Buenos Aires, can recall the moment he understood life was different in south London to South America.
Dressed as Elvis at the Crystal Palace fancy dress Christmas party, he was forced to do a double-take when a team-mate in full Batman costume scaled a climbing wall at a kids’ funfair.
‘I knew then I’d have to adapt to a new culture,’ he says, smiling at the memory. ‘Particularly when they made me go “uh-huh-huh” at the restaurant because I was Elvis.’
Along with Lucas and Swansea City’s Angel Rangel, who have been at their Premier League clubs for a decade, 37-year-old Speroni has altered the perceptions of foreign players being here today, gone tomorrow.
He has been with Palace for 13 years, has made more appearances than any other goalkeeper in the club’s history and Speroni’s bar at Selhurst Park is named in his honour.
He arrived via a brief spell at Dundee when Iain Dowie was manager, excited at the prospect of working with one of the country’s top goalkeeping coaches, Mike Kelly, who later joined Roy Hodgson at Fulham and Liverpool.
After a difficult first season as Palace were relegated, Speroni survived administration in the Championship to help his club return to the top flight after a play-off final win at Wembley.
He was in goal when Didier Drogba scored the first of his 164 goals for Chelsea back in 2004.
‘I don’t remember too much about my debut at Norwich (1-1) apart from my jersey being three sizes too big,’ he says. ‘My second match at Selhurst was against Chelsea. A cross came from the right and Drogba jumped between two defenders so their heads were in line with his hips.
‘He was miles in the sky and Boom! He smashes this header in the bottom corner. I was nowhere near. It showed me how tough the Premier League is.’ Growing up in Argentina’s capital, the big-city aspect of London was never a problem even if others failed to understand the geography.
‘Fabricio Coloccini was a friend. He’s a good cook and he’d keep calling, “Come on over”. I had to explain I was nowhere near Newcastle.’
He added: ‘Football is football, universal. I struggle to believe it’s that different here from other places, even with language. People ask about communication. You don’t have time on the pitch to give a full speech because it’s in the back of the net. It has to be simple and that’s it.
‘Players may struggle to adapt more in terms of life than the football itself. Football is easy.’ The most memorable of his 390 Palace games was against Sheffield Wednesday on the final day of 2009/10 when defeat would have seen them relegated. ‘The whole week was tense and nervous. We scored first, they equalised, it was 2-1 to us, then 2-2. The last few minutes were terrible, we knew what was at stake for people who worked for the club,’ he said. ‘I made a save at 1-1 from Luke Varney that was key. Sheffield went down and I won’t forget their faces, they were in pieces.’
Speroni was a star of the Championship play-off semi-final win against Brighton in 2013, and then the final with Watford at Wembley. They are in their fourth season in the Premier League and favoured to stay up again under Sam Allardyce.
Speroni has played under 10 different managers. ‘The one I enjoyed most was Neil Warnock. Not necessarily because the football was great, but the way he managed people and was around the place,’ he says. ‘It was the time I felt happiest. He made you feel good and if you played well, he made sure everyone knew. It worked for me.
‘Tony Pulis was probably the most intimidating, not scary but you had to do what he said.’
Speroni married his childhood sweetheart Marina and they have two children, Thiago (8) and Isabella (2). His contract is up at the end of the season but he would like to carry on playing regardless. ‘I am not thinking of retiring any time soon,’ he says. ‘I am blessed with fitness and know I will miss it when I stop. I still have a lot to give as a player.’
Speroni can see himself staying in England, like his compatriot Ossie Ardiles.
‘I’d have said at the start I would want to go back to Argentina, I love my country, never expected to be here such a long time but we love it. My son goes to school, he is a proper little British man. It would be tough for us to go back. Ninety per cent the chances are we will stay in this country.’