What made me fall in love with David Ginola? | Eisha Acton

For those of you who don’t know- David Ginola is a former French International football player of absolute world class! During the nineties Ginola’s heroics in the premier league captured the hearts of many! As a young Newcastle fan back in the mid nineties, it was a special time for me to appreciate Ginola’s instrumental role in The Entertainers under Kevin Keegan’s management. He went on to play for Tottenham, Aston Villa and Everton before retiring in 2002. So let’s re-live five of the best David Ginola memories that made him a football hero!

1. 1993/94
   This turned out to be, arguably, David Ginola’s best season of his career. He had completed his first full season at Paris Saint-Germain and at the end of 1993, he won the French Footballer of the Year award. Fun fact: He is the only Frenchman to be player of the year in both France and England, that was in 1993/94 and 98/99 respectively. That season ended up being a bitter-sweet one for Ginola with regards to France’s FIFA World Cup 94 campaign. Gerard Houlier publically blamed Ginola for a defeat against Bulgaria which eliminated France from the World Cup.
2. Ginola at PSG
   Ginola’s fantastic performances for Paris Saint-Germain continued throughout the ‘94/95 season; he even played a part in helping PSG knock out his reigning champions Barcelona in the 1994–95 Champions League quarter-finals. Ginola’s displays in European competitions between 1992 and 1995 against Real Madrid and Barcelona had attracted alot of interest from Spanish giants… luckily for us Magpies, it was Newcastle United who got him to sign on the dotted line and he headed over to The Toon in ‘95.
3. Great deal
   That brings me on to highlight- at just £2.5million pounds, Ginola was an absolute bargain for Newcastle United. Bearing in mind, the summer of 1995 involved heavy spending at the club…

Les Ferdinand arrived on a £6million pound deal, along with a number of other promising additions such as Warren Barton and Shaka Hislop just to name a few. I feel at just £2.5million pounds, Ginola was one of the greatest value deals of the nineties for Newcastle.

4. The Entertainers
It was the start of season and Ginola was an instant hit at Newcastle United. His blend of skill and inventive wing play was really exciting to watch. He hit the ground running- we saw some sensational performances! Newcastle won their first four games of the season and Ginola won the Premier League Player of the Month award for August 1995. Although a second place finish in ‘95/96 was disheartening, it really was Newcastle’s strongest league performance in years. Ginola fit in perectly with the dynamics of the squad and was an integral part of the magic created by The Entertainers.
In 1996 Sir Bobby Robson, who was managing Barcelona at the time, actually made a personal move for Ginola and called him to discuss getting him over to Spain. Newcastle refused to let him go- understandably, I’m pleased he stayed and it was a exciting time to be part of the squad because of the arrival of Alan Shearer that year too…

5. Ginola x King Kev- Match Made In Heaven
Ginola’s flair didn’t gel with every manager’s approach, for example, after Kevin Keegan resigned and Kenny Dalglish took the managerial reigns at NUFC, Ginola’s fate at the club took a turn..

Ginola evidently wasn’t part of Dalglish’s new plans and was sold on to Spurs in July 1997. George Graham appeared to have issues with Ginola later at Spurs and publically labelled him as single-minded player. Despite this, Ginola’s 1998–99 Premier League season was a particularly remarkable one; he won the PFA Players’ Player of the Year and the FWA Footballer of the Year at the age of 32.

Even if Ginola wasn’t a team-player as such, I can appreciate that he enjoyed to thrive under Kevin Keegan in his Newcastle days. Ginola refers to King Kev as an older brother figure in interviews and said “The freedom Kevin gave me … I never had that in my entire career. He didn’t want to enclose me in silly tactics”. Ginola even said himself he didn’t play for that long at Newcastle, but the two years he spent there feel like 10. He speaks so fondly of his time at the toon, the passionate fans, his sense of belonging, his reluctance to leave. I think there were some big ambitions and magical football played in the mid nineties at the club and we Newcastle fans willl always remember David Ginola playing a part in that.

I hope you enjoyed this tribute to the Great Ginola! Thanks so much for reading.