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Bdaily meets David Ginola

David Ginola started his football career in France before moving to England in 1995 where he played for Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur, Aston Villa and Everton. In 1999, he was named PFA Players’ Player of the Year and FWA Footballer of the Year. He now focuses his time on charity work, the wine business and travelling the world as an ambassador for the FA in a bid to bring the 2018 Football World Cup to England.

Last week he visited Team Valley in Gateshead to launch a new football-themed USB stick for Kingston Technology.

BD: How did you get involved with Kingston Technology?

DG: Alreet bdaily! Well we have a similar involvement. Kingston and I are very close to a charity called Vision Charity. So I’ve been involved doing things for them. Then the opportunity came across to do this, launching a football edition of a memory stick.

BD: When was the last time you visited the region?

DG: Last time I came here was a long time ago. I came to visit Kevin Keegan when he was still in charge at Newcastle United. I went to ta farm festival where I presented the wine and went there for a few hours, came back, went to the training ground and met Terry Mac. It was a good time but I think Newcastle has changed a lot.

BD: I used to watch the open training sessions in Durham when you played for Newcastle United, do you remember those days?

DG: Keegan couldn’t not let the people watch because it was a public place. It was a cricket ground. People could come from anywhere, from the river, it was an open space, you could come and play tennis!

BD: What’s it like to be back in the North East?

DG: It’s great to be back. It’s my first club in England so it’s the first thing I discovered when I arrived in this country.

BD: Was it a bit of a culture shock when you arrived?

DG: Well you are not expecting to find the same kind of culture, especially as in France we have our culture, in Paris we have another one and obviously when it comes to the North East, you would expect to find something different. But you are not thinking about the shock of culture. It’s not the right word, it’s differences and I like differences. The football was improving a lot when Keegan came.

BD: How’s your wine business doing? DG: The wine is improving. We have a medal this year too. We got a silver medal two years ago and one this year as well, but it’s still very difficult to get a route into the British market because the competition is very tough. Maybe we should take some bottles to St James’ Park! The only thing people will never, never think about leaving is food, the quality of what’s on the table. We probably think about less holidays, using one car out of the three we have, but the food on the table will always be, especially for families, the most important thing. A bottle of wine retail price will be £4 or £5, it doesn’t cost a lot to have a nice bottle of wine on the table. In England people would rather have a beer, but things are changing because normally white wine is for women, beer is for men, so we try to change that because it’s always nice to have a nice bottle of wine during dinner, especially in summer time because our wine is more concentrated on hot temperature. It’s not a winter wine, Rose is more for chilling outside with BBQs and stuff.

BD: What are your predictions for the World Cup?

DG: Spain are the top ranking with FIFA and the players in the squad have been through under 18s, 19s and played together for ten years at least, they were brought up together so they know each other very well. This is why they are so good. Fabregas, Villa, Torres, Silva – they all know each other, so they would be an obvious choice. England could also be a surprise and Ivory Coast could be a surprise. Capello has had an impact already, the way he has changed the game. Sometimes you have to be more clever, England are sometimes a bit too honest.

BD: What about France? DG: There’s too much talking and not enough for football for me. They only beat Costa Rica 2-1 in a friendly and Costa Rica were in the lead at one point. France scored very late in the game and they say it was a great performance. The improvement is not big enough for the level of the competition now.

BD: Does Newcastle deserve to be one of the host cities is England host the 2018 World Cup? DG: Newcastle will be one of the main cities in 2018 for sure. They want to host the Quarter Final and maybe more. We need to wait and see but it’s good to see St James Park being one of the stadiums used.

BD: What are your memories of your time with Newcastle United?

DG: The Liverpool v Newcastle 4-3 game was brilliant for Liverpool but not for us. Winning at Liverpool would have given us the most important confidence of all, if you beat Liverpool at Liverpool we would have won the league, but to concede three goals in 20 minutes was unbelievable. I went mad in the dressing room with Peacock and Albert. We conceded some silly goals. Peter Beardsley was brilliant, he was a brilliant lad and brilliant in training. They were great times and we came very close.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .