I just went on to have a quick look on t’internet before wrapping things up and going away for the afternoon and night when I noticed that Teddy Sheringham had announced that he will retire at the end of the season…
A career spanning almost 25 years, which has seen him star for club – all of them – and country, setting various records and winning numerous medals, most famously the champions league as part of a treble with United in 1999 when he scored the late equaliser before Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s even latter winner.
He also famously scored an equaliser for England against Greece in 2001 with his first touch after coming on as a sub, which looked like it would take us to the 2002 world cup finals, only for Greece to score again before ‘that’ David Beckham free kick.
But his most famous moment for England must have been during Euro 96 when he played a major hand in helping us to one of our most famous victories of all time, a 4-1 thrashing of Holland – what a fantastic game that was, what a night it was full stop…
By the time we signed him in 2003 he was already well past the ‘veteran’ stage, but he had only the summer before played at the world cup finals with England. What a season he had with us, his goals and all-round play had a major bearing on us staying in the top flight that season – in fact it was he that scored our first ever premiership goal in our 2-1 win over Villa, netting just before half time.
It was a major shame that he could not have stayed for longer than he did, but he proved he could still hack it as he carried on playing, and playing as well as ever for many years after. I have not seen, or heard much of him at all this season to be honest, I do know he got sent off for Colchester in a game against Palace though I believe?
I can remember when we signed him, he was another of those players that ‘I could not believe we had signed’, and still some 4 and a half or so years on still cannot believe that he did, but we are still – well I am anyway – getting this same feeling with most signings!
So, come May he will call time on his glittering career. Colchester are currently in serious relegation danger in the Championship, but I do hope for his sake as well as theirs that he can help them avoid the drop, as it would be a real shame to see his career end on such a sour note with him being relegated.
Whatever he does in the future, I wish him the best of luck. It does seem as though he will be moving into coaching or management, so I would not put it past him to one day make a return to Fratton Park – or hopefully whatever a new stadium is called – in the future…
PLAY UP POMPEY!
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