against you in England. Maybe I'm not the average footballer. I don't play golf,
anything like that. But people get the wrong idea. They don't understand how
serious football is to me. This is my passion. I think and worry about my
career.
"The expression 'Barthez the clown' has been used about me. It started after
that Arsenal game. People came to my house trying to get me to wear things
to look like a clown, so they could take pictures. It was not very nice. It shows
people don't appreciate the difficulties in goalkeeping. But to get angry would
harm only yourself.
"At that time I needed the support of people around me at the club. Manager
Alex Ferguson, goalkeeping coach Tony Coton and the other players helped
me through. No matter how strong you are, you need that kind of support.
"People talk about my eccentricities, but am I really eccentric? I don't think so.
When I dribble the ball out of the penalty area, it's not me showing off. I only
do it when it's for the best of the team.
"When I leave, I want to be remembered at this club as a man and a good
goalkeeper, rather than as an eccentric player who spent all his time running
out of the box and going up for corners.
"I do have some empathy for Jerzy Dudek and the situation he got into. It was
very unfortunate that he made those errors against us but it is better to
concede goals that way rather than not being fit or fast enough. Any
goalkeeper can make a handling error. It is still a mistake but these errors
happen.
"When something like that occurs you know that it will happen again one day.
If a centre-forward misses a great chance it is not a disaster and they will get
lots more coming their way. But if a goalkeeper makes a howler it will be all
over the newspapers and we are not allowed to forget about it.
"I have everything here at my disposal to make me happy. These are great
players and the fans here really know their football. They know we are not
robots or machines who are programmed to win football matches.
"Football is my passion and when you get to 30 you have two priorities," he
said. "You have your life on the pitch and your life outside football which gets
more important."
And at the end of his first British interview he reveals his boyhood hero:
"It is Kevin Keegan. When I was growing up, he was a wonderful player and a
great hero of mine. He was in the English national team and was one of the
game's truly grand players. I have not told him he is my hero. But I have been
able to have a couple of conversations with him since I came here."
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