Ex-Man City and Aston Villa striker Darius Vassell: I wrote my blog out of loneliness
By Will Unwin
When Darius Vassell decided it was time to leave the Premier League behind and move to Turkey, he couldn’t predict what he was in for.
After departing Manchester City, Vassell turned up at Ankara airport where he was greeted by thousands of Ankaragücü fans despite the fact he hadn’t even signed a deal with the club.
This had a strong impact on the former Aston Villa striker, as he quickly agreed to join the Turkish outfit for what was a controversial spell of highs and lows.
“I was out of contract at Man City and I felt, Premier League wise, there weren’t any clubs I definitely wanted to play for so I felt like a new challenge,” Vassell told ITV news.
“I’d always wanted to learn a new language and I’d always considered playing abroad and this deal came in just at the right time for me to think ‘this is the one, we’ll go for it’.
“It was a big surprise for us - me and my agent . We weren’t expecting that, we knew there would be some welcome but that was beyond anything we could have expected.
“We had to deal with that at short notice, but it was all nice, it was all positive about me signing for them. I was only supposed to be going to have a look at that stage, but it was all nice and it definitely affected my final decision.“
The fans were the one constant positive of the experience in Turkey as the club struggled with financial issues, meaning Vassell and his team-mates went without pay. Vassell was even evicted from his hotel after Ankaragücü failed to pay the bill.
Passionate supporters made the experience worthwhile on the pitch, as away from it there was consistent disarray.
“I got the feeling that football is all their fans really have to cheer about, you get the feeling that it means a lot to them and they’ll go out of their way to support the team to get a victory.”
Despite the issues with finances and the Turkish media writing articles aiming to unsettle the former England international, Vassell wanted to create an open dialogue with the locals in an attempt to get across what was going on in the striker’s life, as they continued to show support for their foreign star
In England, Vassell’s blog gained cult status with many eagerly awaiting the next publication as it painted an honest and melancholic picture of the striker's life abroad.
The blog engaged with fans and discusses the day-to-day events of Vassell’s life including stories about car accidents and the club sacrificing a goat at the training ground.
“I felt like I was alone a little bit out there, I felt that I didn’t know the club but the one constant out there was the fans and that they were supporting me. Even without knowing the language they were finding ways – turning up at games, making me banners, sending me flowers and really trying to welcome me to the club, even though they knew themselves the club weren’t able to pay me at that time.
“What I decided to do in response was to try to keep a two-way communication going between me and the fans so there was always aware of what was really going on with me in Ankara, rather than the misrepresentation were sometimes that were printed in the local media. I didn’t know – I couldn’t read the papers as I wasn’t fluent in the language at that time.
“There were things being put out there about me, that were deliberately designed to unsettle me but I wasn’t aware of it all, so my connection with the fans limited the effect that could have had on me."
The club’s issues and the loneliness made it tricky to adjust to during his time in Turkey, as Vassell netted four times for his employers in his one season with Ankaragücü.
“I would say that it is hard to adapt, as it was for me in my situation; the club had no funding or finance element and they were struggling to play their own staff, nevermind the players and there was a lot of misunderstandings over the way the club should be run.
“A lot of the time the players were turning up, paying for themselves to travel places and making time with a minimal structure around it.”
Despite the issues Vassell faced on a daily basis, the former Leicester man took as many positives out of the experience as he could possible could, as he soon realised just how big of an impact the year in Turkey had on the Birmingham-born footballer.
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