BEING DROPPED ALWAYS MAKES ME STRONGER
Simon Mignolet is focused on his battle to be Liverpool’s No 1 ... but family heartache is never far from his mind
Simon mignolet is here to talk about the bigger picture, actually. the plight of his uncle, erwin Coppejans, who is contending with an illness so brutal and unsparing that he is more diminished by it each time they see each other.
And if that means discussing how Jurgen Klopp told him he would be dropped in the full glare of a televised liverpool v Arsenal match, then so be it.
‘it was at the training ground the day before,’ mignolet says of the moment that the manager called him in to say that loris Karius would be selected, two weeks ago. And though the 29-year- old makes light of this, something Klopp did not say in that brief exchange in the office must have left a part of him wondering what lay ahead this time.
there was no indication for mignolet that he would be back in the side to face manchester City this lunchtime, which the manager has since said will ‘100 per cent’ be the case. ‘no, it was not mentioned at that moment in time,’ the Belgian says. ‘We were speaking about Arsenal and after that we don’t think about what’s coming next.’
When mignolet last dropped out of the picture, last season, it took him two months to make it back.
neither was there any discussion of the notion presently doing the rounds that mignolet will be liverpool’s Premier league goalkeeper this season, while 24-year- old Karius will play in the Champions league, for which Arsenal was perhaps a preparation. mignolet certainly does not see the scope of the season that way. ‘no, no, i don’t think that’s my understanding,’ he replies. A major contribution to both campaigns is his aim. ‘like any professional football player, you want to play every game. But those decisions are made for you and that’s up to the guy in charge of that and that’s the boss.’
the surroundings for our meeting — ‘mr gow’s science room’ at the St Francis de Sales Catholic junior school, which radiates warmth in liverpool’s Walton district — seem a very long way from that afternoon down at Anfield before the international break.
But uncertainty is nothing new. We last met nearly three years ago, a few months after Brendan Rodgers had taken him aside at melwood and told him that Brad Jones — who had played 10 league games in four years — would be starting at old trafford the following day. His managers certainly pick their moments.
He expresses no fear of a repeat of last season’s extended absence. ‘this wasn’t a punishment for bad performances or anything like that. i don’t really see last week in the same manner as what happened before.’
But the past does seem to inform the present for him. ‘ it makes you stronger,’ he observes. ‘i’ve been five years at liverpool and in all these stages throughout my career one thing that always comes back is that i managed to fight back and be stronger than before. And in a certain way that’s something i’m proud of. that’s making a negative a positive and that’s not always something that’s easy.
‘i’ll never let my head down. What’s behind you is behind you and there’s only one way. go forward. try to change the things you can do.’
His readiness to discuss all this — after meeting schoolchildren as part of his club’s Red neighbours programme which helps communities near Anfield — is unusual in these buttoned-up days of football platitudes. ‘in Belgium they say, “from a fly becomes an elephant,”’ he muses. ‘Something gets thrown in the air and from being a small thing it becomes a big thing.’
He’s always had an unusually broad perspective, though, and witnessing the eight-year struggle of his uncle, erwin, as he contends with motor neurone disease certainly contributes to that. there are a million small sorrows attached to the diminution of this life-affirming individual — the husband of mignolet’s mother’s sister Heidi — who as a successful amateur player encouraged the goalkeeper in his own career. ‘Yes, he supported me from whenever, right from the start.’
the fact that they see each other only intermittently accentuates the sadness. ‘i don’t really go back very often,’ mignolet reflects. ‘i’m maybe not there for two, three months. So the changes in him, the way he is going backwards, strike you more. if you see him every day, the illness is affecting him step by step.
‘it started with his hands. then went to his legs, then there was difficulty with reading, eating, sleeping; normal things which are probably the most difficult to deal with.’ mignolet’s cousins — his uncle’s daughters — have had tests which have mercifully established that they are not among the 10 per cent for whom this disease is hereditary.
‘there is medication to slow the process down but in the end it’s incurable,’ he says. ‘the other thing which is hard about this disease is that you don’t go backwards in your mind. Alzheimer’s is a terrible disease too but those who have it are not really aware of it. my uncle has the same brain, the same idea that he did when he was really healthy, eight or nine years ago. He knows what is happening. that’s tough to deal with mentally.’
their mutual affection is graphically apparent. erwin regularly shares the tweets through which mignolet charts his professional life in england, where he and his Belgian wife, Jasmien Claes, have settled at Warrington. mignolet has thrown himself into support for the motor neurone Disease Association and supports a specialist Belgian charity, AlS liga, with the charity ball he organised in the summer helping. the Belgian national team are also helping. ‘You do what you can, he says. ‘my aunty has a job as a teacher to juggle, too. the family are struggling.’
His bond with his Flemish home city of Sint-truiden is unmistakable. it’s where he’s opened the ‘ twentytwo’ coffee shop ( his liverpool squad number) with a level of involvement including selecting the be ans for the home-brewed coffee.
A life beyond football creates perspective. But while his university degree in political sciences is part of the hinterland — the British electoral system was one of his chosen subjects — he will be playing into his 40s if fitness allows. ‘goalkeepers can do that,’ he says.
He believes experience has made him as good a player as he has ever been, with the importance Klopp ascribes to the goalkeeper’s role in the outfield game forming a part of his development.
‘it’s the whole team that has to work as a machine,’ he says, citing his distribution which set in chain a process leading to emre Can’s goal against Hoffenheim in the Champions league qualifier.
one of the messages his uncle erwin retweeted perhaps encapsulates best what has made him a survivor and a hugely engaging one, at that. ‘Successful people believe in things,’ it stated. ‘even when no one else does.’