Friends reunited

The expansion of the World Cup means it’s ever more likely you’ll be reminded of a player you might rather forget

One of the little pleasures of the World Cup is crossing paths with people you never thought you’d see again. I had, for instance, assumed Aaron Tshibola was gone from my life when he walked off waving to the crowd after the win over Exeter that secured Hartlepool’s League status on the penultimate day of the 2014-15 season. It was the last home game of the midfielder’s loan spell at Victoria Park. Yet when the DR Congo substitutes invaded the pitch in celebration of their nation’s 1-1 draw with Portugal, there was the grinning face of Tshibola. To witness the ex-Pools player’s joy was even more heart-warming than watching Cristiano Ronaldo acting like a middle-aged dad who’s demanded a place on his son’s stag weekend and can’t understand why the younger lads keep trying to sneak off without him. Well, just about.

These days the English game is globalised at pretty much every level. Over 11 per cent of players at the World Cup have played in the EFL, never mind the Premier League – 20 of them in League Two, like Tshibola. As a result the sort of unexpected reunion I had with the Congolese are increasingly commonplace. Admittedly, not all such opportunities to get reacquainted are happy ones. I imagine Bournemouth supporters have been altogether less elated to watch Norway’s Orjan Nyland acrobatically tipping long-range shots over the bar. The keeper made three appearances for the Cherries, the first of which was a League Cup match against Norwich in 2021. He conceded six times leaving watchers with the view that, as last lines of defence go, the Norwegian was right up there with “a big boy did it and ran away”.

The sort of unexpected reunion I had with the Congolese are increasingly commonplace – admittedly, not all such opportunities to get reacquainted are happy ones

A similar sinking feeling likely overcame Pompey fans back in 2006 – a tournament when what the commentators like to think of as “a British angle” started to go beyond John Motson informing us that “and amazingly his great-uncle once owned an ice cream parlour in Cleethorpes though at the moment his chances of progressing are – heheh – wafer thin”. The first-choice Japanese keeper was Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi. In 2001 Portsmouth had broken their transfer record to sign the netminder from Yokohama. Director of football Harry Redknapp described the goalie as being “a David Beckham figure” in his native land. He proved himself something of a diplomat, too, settling into life on the south coast and praising everything from the public transport system to the postal service. On the pitch Kawaguchi turned out to be considerably less reliable than the Royal Mail (though, on the other hand). He conceded his first goal in less than a minute. Teams knocked 23 more past him in his next 11 games. Eventually manager Graham Rix could stand no more and replaced him with 42-year-old Dave Beasant. Despite all that, Kawaguchi would continue to be a favourite of Japan managers and made the squad for the 2010 World Cup too. Similar random remeetings have occurred at every World Cup since. These would include, in 2010, midfielder Leo Bertos, a New Zealander of Romanian, Greek and Maori ancestry who in the preceding decade had turned out at the somewhat less exotic locales of Barnsley, Rochdale, Scarborough, York, Barrow, Chester and Worksop (the All Whites’ No 11 described his spell at Sandy Lane as “a real rollercoaster”). In 2014 Birmingham fans were reunited with the unfortunately named Carlo Costly, a lumbering Honduran forward who made eight appearances on loan at St Andrew’s in 2009. In 2018 and 2022, meanwhile, there were doubtless fans in Dundee with their heads in their hands rocking back and forth at the sight of Eiji Kawashima between the sticks for Japan. The goalkeeper’s signing by Dundee United in 2015 was described by the Tannadice hierarchy first as a coup and later as a calamity. He lasted just 19 games. To be fair, Kawashima didn’t much enjoy the experience either: “One thing that surprised me was the amount of fighting in the box.”

Given the way footballers now travel the globe, such moments of alarming recognition must go on all over the planet during a World Cup. It would certainly be nice to think that, while England were blundering about against Ghana, there were people sitting at home in Rennes, pointing at the TV open-mouthed and mumbling “Good God, it’s that bloke” when Djed Spence appeared on the screen.