Article from Scotland On Sunday 10th February 2002.
IF MARKS out of 10 were being handed out for performance, Julian Speroni would probably fare rather well. This in spite of the young Argentine goalkeeper finally accumulating a run of first-team outings during a difficult period when a disparaged Dundee seem to do little but attract bad press, off-field problems migrating onto the park this week when the team crashed from the Scottish Cup at the hands of first division Partick Thistle.
Speroni has lately usurped Jamie Langfield and is consolidating his position with some outstanding displays. Meanwhile, Dundee’s league position could do with improving and as the casual observer waits to see if the Bonetti brothers can muster a run of results, Speroni will persist in shining between the sticks.
"When you play a good game and you lose, you feel very dejected," said the 22-year-old, who in his first eight appearances, despite excelling in many of them with all manner of stylish saves, ended up on the winning side only twice. You are not a happy person because you put effort into the game and you lost it for whatever reason. But whatever I think about the way the team plays, the priority is the results. What I do individually is relative. I am one of 11.
"Some of the criticism is unfair. You’ve got to be there every day in training to realise what it means. If you’re right in the middle of it, you know only one thing: that the players are the first ones to want to win games."
It transpired during Speroni’s only previous interview since arriving at Dens that he had had a considerably rougher time of it at his last club, Atletico Platense, back in his native Buenos Aires, with lurid tales of crazed fans in the dressing-room wielding guns and knives while imploring the players that they must win the match. Speroni confirms that, despite the improbable nature of this, it is pretty much true. His only amendment to the story is that the instability at the Nacional B club did not send him scarpering in fear of his life, as was suggested at the time.
"What actually happened was true, it was how it was related that was exaggerated. I did not have a personal problem with those fans. I thought if I had an opportunity to move I would as this had nothing to do with football. I would have stayed with the club no problem. The problem was not with me."
He grew up following Diego Maradona’s true love, Boca Juniors. "When you start playing you tend to lose some of the fanaticism you had as a kid. You might still like the team, but you’re not losing your head for them, especially if they play against you."
Platense are a provincial club in the Argentine capital and so Speroni signed for them as a keeper and tried out in the reserves. He briefly made a switch across the city to giants River Plate, but returned to Platense. During his formative playing years he reckons he had a handful of first-team games. "It’s down to the Argentine mentality. It is difficult for young goalkeepers to get the opportunity. Back home, they think a goalkeeper should be experienced, of a certain age, and so it is unlikely they will give a chance to a young one. This mentality will slowly change. Some clubs are giving young keepers a chance, but it will take time."
It was when Ivano Bonetti took the time out to make one of his flying trips in Speroni’s direction that the young goalkeeper’s predicament altered. The Dundee manager had received a tip from a coach in Italy that Speroni was worth a peek. After cutting out a number of middle men hankering after a share of the deal, Bonetti finally got his man, though Speroni’s eventual move to Dundee was, for a while, hampered by red tape.
Following a period of uncertainty with Speroni unsure whether it was going to be his destiny to play in Scotland, the Italian authorities granted him the passport he was entitled to on account of his father.
"I was a bit worried, but calm too, as I knew sooner or later it would come," said Speroni. "I knew I would have to work extremely hard, too, as I would get my opportunity. I had to be ready so that when I did get the chance I didn’t disappoint anyone."
He has hardly done that. Since his debut against Falkirk he has shown spells of brilliance, most notably in the cup replay at Brockville, when he saved a penalty and was vital to Dundee winning that tie; in a frenetic Dundee derby, primarily remembered for non-football reasons and at Ibrox, where, despite Dundee going down 2-1, Speroni served up a goalkeeping masterclass, matching, save for save, an inspired Stefan Klos.
That match was relayed to TV sets back in Argentina due to the Claudio Caniggia factor, but Speroni’s family had another focus. He took calls afterwards hearing how well he had done, an Argentine sports journalist phoning too, covering him with similar praise. It was a memorable day all round as Speroni had a brief chat with Caniggia, his boyhood icon.
The healthy Argentine contingent at Dundee have helped to smooth Speroni's transition from South America to life on Tayside. He confirms his new country is mucho frio. That we know, except you sense Speroni feels the cold more.
As for his colleague, whom Speroni is keeping out in the cold as a consequence of his consistently high displays, he has nothing but praise. He has been on the sidelines often enough himself to appreciate entirely what that feels like.
"Everyone loves having a chance every week - twice a week at the moment - and when you are playing well it is even more of a joy. It only happens that I have a chance to play and not so much that I took Jamie’s place. Jamie is a great goalkeeper and I actually believe that one day he will be the Scotland No1. As far as I am concerned, I only have the chance to play and I wish him a bright future."
Anyone who has witnessed Speroni in action might agree he has a rosy future, too. He says he is learning as much as possible from the likes of Langfield in training and knows he is still on a learning curve; that for a goalkeeper, real maturity can come much later in a playing career.
When asked what he perceives as his particular strengths, he offers that he is comfortable with the ball at his feet. He seems fairly settled in his new environs and reveals that he is re-negotiating his contract to take him beyond this summer and his initial one-year deal at Dundee.
"It was difficult to leave my family behind, especially as I am young, but when you start a privileged career, as we have as footballers, you have to contemplate that sooner or later you might be forced to move. What you have to do is to not pass up the opportunity. You have to take it up wholeheartedly."
That he is doing. Dundee may be attracting the slings and arrows at the moment, but Speroni is catching the shots and crosses. He may have been manager Bonetti’s only signing over last summer, but this confident Argentine is proving to be a very accomplished one.