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Kewell waves goodbye, but not on his own terms

Zoran Pajic new author
Roar Rookie
30th March, 2014
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Harry Kewell may find himself at the helm of Newcaslte. (AAP Image/David Crosling)
Zoran Pajic new author
Roar Rookie
30th March, 2014
3

It’s done. After almost two decades as a professional footballer, Harold ‘Harry’ Kewell – the Golden Generation’s golden boy – has called it a day.

As is now customary when a sports person announces anything, it warrants a hefty media scrum to flash their bulbs and hang on every word as if it was the gospel truth. And so it was with Kewell.

In that press conference at AAMI Park, Kewell confirmed earlier reports of his retirement. Given that his side, Melbourne Heart, will not be featuring in the A-League finals series this season, his retirement will commence as early as the late evening of Saturday 12 April.

Kewell is hanging up his gold kicks at the ripe old age of 35. His professional career began in 1996 as a 17-year-old, spanned four countries, three continents and over 300 appearances for six clubs.

While there has been some debate about his worthiness of being voted as Australia’s greatest footballer (in 2012), few can argue about the fruits of his career – much of which was played out on the green pastures of Europe.

To play in the English Premier League, the UEFA Champions League, Asian and World Cups; to win domestic and continental titles; to represent your country nearly 60 times and be its youngest debutant, having scored 17 goals, is to have had a remarkable career. For anyone to make a living, as a professional sports person is remarkable, to do it for two decades is exceptional.

At his graceful and speedy best, Kewell the footballer was immense. At his finest, he took the mickey out of many a defender, and scored some terrific goals. We are often told that he should’ve been even bigger if not for the niggling injuries.

Appropriately, there have been countless tributes written about Harry since his announcement. His achievements and tribulations have been well documented. In general, those playing eulogies have been giddy with praise. For the most part, we – the fans, the football community – have been rather generous.

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His playing epitaph will read: “Harry Kewell – Socceroos legend, gifted footballer, the greatest we’ve produced.”

When it comes to Aussie legends, we are an obedient bunch. All is forgiven; all is believable. No questions. For lifting the Socceroos brand to such heights we are all responsible. After all, since 2005 (and especially since Germany 2006), Kewell and company made being a Socceroos and Australian football fan worthwhile.

But is that the only way we should look at sporting greats? Does their legend status prevent us from judging them in any other way? Are we free to be critical of what they have become, rather than looking at what they were?

After all, Kewell and his contemporaries are still ‘kicking goals’ – reaching milestones and fulfilling new endeavours. While they won’t be playing the game per se, they’re still in ‘the game’.

But is Kewell, as with other sporting greats, taking the mickey out of us as he once did opposing players?

According to Kewell, the reasons for retiring are organic and straightforward. By doing it now, this way, he can ‘do it on his own terms’. He can now focus on the simple things in life, ‘the things that people take for granted’ such as being a dad and working on his golf swing.

The injuries that plagued his career are obviously still there; the latest – a rib injury – will keep him sidelined for at least another week. As are the Kewell foibles that typified the love-hate rapport that many football fans in this country have had with him.

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If the crabbiness that was visible in his playing hey-day or the country-versus-club toing and froing was not there in that press conference, the sports star narcissism and sense of one’s own grandeur was ever present. The opulent air Kewell and his ilk carry seems to assume they can tall the audience anything and they will nod in approval, just because it came from them.

In reality, his decision was hardly a revelation, which begs the question why players need to have a press conference to announce every decision that they make – especially after their agents and minders have already spilled the beans in newspaper ‘exclusives’ in day’s prior.

What happened to going out gracefully, with no hoopla or bleating media throngs? Like the Underbelly franchise, they often go on for too long, feeling like they have to narrate every picture – as if to say the audience cannot or will not come to a conclusion other than the one they want to project.

And it is the latter that has almost become a Socceroos Golden Generation trademark – especially by the ‘big names’ such as Kewell, Lucas Neill and Tim Cahill. No better example of this was illustrated by Neill’s expletive-filled rebuttal to being booed by some Socceroos fans during November’s scratch match with Costa Rica.

There is also the atmosphere that everything that they do is somehow charitable or self-sacrificing, and credible. It’s not. The ‘giving back’ catch-cry has run its course; you cannot give with one and take with the other.

In truth, there was little left for Kewell to do. This, in all likelihood, was his last hurrah; the last time he’d make newspaper headlines as a player. On the other hand, it was the last chance to spruce the Kewell ‘brand’ to the world (at least for a while), for the blinding limelight and deafening camera clicks: “Here I am, come and get me.”

While Kewell would like us to believe that he is retiring in order to ‘give the kids a go’, his departure is simply practical. That statement is as virtuous as those made by every player that comes to Australia in order to ‘give back’. Baloney. Leaving the game that has passed him by is the timely thing to do in order to pursue other aspects of ‘the game’ – coaching, the media, the publicity and ‘celebrity’ circus that he seems quite fond of.

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Like Neill, Kewell will be 36 this year and has long been out of Socceroos contention and he had a snowflake’s chance in hell of being in Ange Postecoglou’s thinking for Brazil 2014.

His club career, like Neill’s, had stalled a long time a go and was in steady decline since. While Kewell had been given a lifeline with a stint as captain of the Heart, Neill has essentially become persona non grata in Australia. With a reported ‘measly’ $80,000 one-year deal with Heart, it was obvious that Kewell’s days were also numbered, especially since Manchester City’s purchase of the lagging franchise and their plans to develop young players.

Kewell’s decision to pull the plug came only days after Australia’s Asian Cup 2015 organisers announced Alessandro Del Piero as their international ambassador, in turn ignoring its greatest export and arguably its finest player. Kewell still had his moment in the sun, at least briefly overshadowing the developments of next year’s Asian Cup.

In describing what’s next for him, Kewell wasn’t joking when he talked about improving his golf swing. Nor was he when talking about working with his sponsors, one of whom helped him set up his football ‘academy’ earlier this year – in turn making him the latest of umpteen Australian footballers to open a private academy, school or clinic. (Nothing says ‘looming retirement’ more than a player unveiling his personal academy.)

Kewell had taken from the game as much as he could. Likewise, he had given much to fans of the Socceroos, Leeds, Galatasaray and I dare say some Liverpool fans.

Without the daily routine of training and preparation for games, he now has time to pursue his ‘new adventure’.

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