photo from premierleague.com
Former Swiss International, Blackburn Rovers & Liverpool centre back, Stéphane Henchoz, was in town to promote the upcoming EPL Masters Football Singapore Cup 2012 recently. Junpiter Futbol managed to catch up with the huge defender at Chijmes to talk about his football!
JPF: Having played in Switzerland, Germany, England and Scotland, which was the toughest league that you played in?
SH: English Premier League is definitely the toughest league because it’s the most physical one. Even though I played in the physical German League before, it was nothing compared to the English’s. The tackles were hard and the referees would not give the fouls which normally they would give in Europe, this made the game very fast and hard.
JPF: Was there a league that you wished to have played in but never got an opportunity to do so?
SH: Once, I wanted to play in Spain and that’s something which I wished I had experienced. At the end of the day, when you played for Liverpool, you were more than happy and you started to ask yourself why would you want to leave.
JPF: Was it true that you turned down an opportunity to join Manchester United in 1997? And why?
SH: Yes, that’s true. I promised Roy Hodgson to join him at Blackburn Rovers first, I had to keep my promise. And also, back then, I was young, just 23 years old, and I felt that I might have limited playing time as United had established players like Gary Pallister and Steve Bruce playing in the same position as me.
JPF: Do you know anything about Singapore football?
SH: Not that much but I played in the friendly game against Singapore when we (Liverpool) were here for our Asia tour in 2001.
JPF: Are you able to share with us how to become a good defender like you?
SH: As a good defender, you need to read the game well, you need to anticipate and you need to be focused for the entire 90 minutes. As a defender, especially a centre back, you are very much similar to a goalkeeper. You are judged by how many mistakes you commit. If you do not make any mistakes, you have a great game. But if you allow a striker to get past you and score, you have a bad game.
JPF: Whats your target for Liverpool Legend team in this upcoming EPL Masters?
SH: We have a strong team and we have won a couple of times as a team, we are going all out to win it again this time in Singapore!
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