'CAMP NOU' - WELCOME TO TEDDY TOWERS

Last updated : 07 February 2006 By Ed

In Observer's Sports Monthly mag:

Last month, as Sheringham emerged from a month sidelined with injury, I drove out to see him at his new house. Named Camp Nou, after the scene of his greatest triumph - Manchester United's 1999 European Cup victory - it sits at the end of an exclusive lane that runs from the very edge of suburban London into the Essex countryside. It seems a fitting location. Still just within bounds of the postal district in which he grew up, it maintains an umbilical link to his roots while at the same time confirming just how far he's come.

The first thing you notice is that, despite the camp name, it's not a Footballers' Wives house. He may have had a cameo role in the show, but not for him some mock-Tudor travesty or gauche gothic pile. Compared to the palatial properties of a number of his former team-mates, Camp Nou is even quite modest. It's modern without being modernist, roomy without having that many rooms. It is emphatically a footballer's bachelor house. There's a hot-tub in the garden. Inside it's all minimalist white walls, sliding glass doors and embedded flat-screen TVs. There's an artwork in the dining room depicting Al Pacino in Scarface, but what would really inform Loyd Grossman that this house belongs to a single footballer is the trophy room. It features a red-baize pool table and a chic champagne-stacked bar over which hangs the famous photograph of Pele and Bobby Moore embracing at the 1970 World Cup, signed by the world's greatest player.

Pride of place, however, goes to the trophy cabinet. There used to be a well-known chant, popularised by Arsenal fans, that ran 'Oh Teddy, Teddy, you went to Man United and you won fuck all'. The trophy cabinet could be seen as an eloquent riposte to that song. It boasts everything from a World Club Champions' mini cup to Hammer of the Year 2005. There are FA Cup, Premiership and Champions League winners' commemorations, as well as the 2000-01 PFA and Football Writers' Player of the Year awards. Sheringham has won the lot.

'I remember Alex Ferguson saying to me when I first signed, "You won't believe what it's like to play for Man United". And I was like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah". But he was right, you're not used to anything like it.'

I said that it must have been an uninviting atmosphere, what with following a living legend and not getting on with Keane and Cole.

'No,' he says, surprised at the thought. 'It was a fantastic atmosphere up there. Probably the most welcoming club I've played at.'

In his first season, both he and United faded away in the final third and ended up without a trophy. 'Oh Teddy, Teddy...' In the next, Ferguson bought Dwight Yorke and Sheringham dropped to third or sometimes fourth in the pecking order of strikers. He pays tribute to the care that Ferguson showed to him during those times.

I say that a caring Fergie hardly fits with the hairdryer image. 'I experienced both sides of him,' he says. 'I don't think I ever got the hairdryer but I was on the receiving end of his wrath. But he's a warm man and a fantastic manager.'

Without a medal to his name for so long, Sheringham found himself with three during the space of a couple of weeks at the end of the 1998-99 season. After United had won the Premiership by a single point from Arsenal on the last day of the season, he came on as sub in the FA Cup final against Newcastle and scored. He then repeated the feat in the European Cup final during that unforgettable night at the Camp Nou in Barcelona. With normal time running out and United trailing 1-0 to Bayern Munich, Sheringham scored the equaliser and set up Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's winner in the very last seconds of injury time. Did he feel as if he'd proved his doubters wrong?

'No,' he counters, 'I don't see it like that. I was a bit part of a team that was fantastic that season. Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole were brilliant up front. I don't feel I deserved a medal, but then Roy Keane says he didn't feel like he won a medal because he wasn't playing in the final. And he did more than any other player to get us there.'

Despite their differences, Sheringham is unstinting in his praise of Keane. He names him first among the best players with whom he's played. 'Not the most technically gifted but just awesome week in week out.' He cites Tony Adams, too, for his 'determination, will and understanding of the game'; Alan Shearer for his 'single-mindedness as a goalscorer and a winner'; and Jurgen Klinsmann for his 'fantastic enthusiasm and concentration'