Jay K

‘JURGEN Klinsmann was always something of an odd fish. Not for him the mock Tudor mansion in the Hadley Wood stockbroker belt, rather the behind the shops pied-a-terre in Hampstead.

The man who put the dive in football

When he played for Spurs, locals often saw Jurgen pootling up the road in an ordinary VW Beetle, the car with the common touch.

The cutting edge of Osvaldo Ardiles’ infamous flying V formation, in which Klinsmann played like the Red Baron in boots, he spearheaded the improbable and often kamikaze attack.

And then he left London. He left for good, going to live in the Americas. No, not Paraguay, but somewhere in California amid the rich and famous.

And then nothing. Jurgen slipped from view. Until now. The new face at the Orange City Blue Stars, a college team, looks just like Jurgen.

He’s got the same angular nose, the same high-stepping run, albeit reduced by age, and almost the same thatch of straw-like hair.

Hell, he even dives like Jurgen Klinsmann.

The only thing is this Jurgen’s called Jay Goppingen. Only it isn’t Herr Goppingen, it’s Jurgen pretending to be so.

”I do it for fun and it keeps me young,” says Klinsmann of his alter ego.

Pretending to be someone else sure is fun. Many is the time I have jinked from foot to foot in the manner of a George Best in his pomp, and finally when at the bar ordered a pint of creme de menthe and a liver sandwich.

But why Jay Goppingen? By way of an education into the Klinsmann mind, Goppingen is a town in Germany.

It possesses a castle built, partly with stones from the ruined castle of Hohenstaufen, by Duke Christopher of Wurttemberg in the 16th century and now used as public offices.

Jay is a bird and the 10th letter of the alphabet, although the German aussprache (pronunciation) is yot and nothing like jay at all.

If you are the real Jay Goppingen perhaps you’d like to tell us about the root of your name. Or just call yourself

Jurgen Klinsmann…

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Posted: 1st, August 2003 | In: Back pages Comment | TrackBack | Permalink