An interview with Luke Rodgers

I call him up and we decide to meet up at the restaurant Fenix ??in Södermalm in Stockholm. It turns out that he had borrowed an apartment of Hammarby just above Slussen, a popular part of Stockholm. Luke was offered to order what he wants at Fenix ??, but is content with a bottle of mineral water.

Luke Rodgers was born in 1981 and grew up in England's second city Birmingham. He was a supporter of Birmingham City as a child and also had the chance to join their youth academy. He was pleased that they won The League Cup a few years ago, but the success was followed unfortunately by relegation to The Championship.

When it was time to leave the youth academy, he took the chance to sign for Shrewsbury at the age of seventeen. He played 1999-2005 for Shrewsbury and scored 65 goals in 176 matches and was very popular with the fans. He scored 4 hat tricks while with Shrewsbury.

" - It was also at Shrewsbury that I played my most memorable match. It was a playoff -final of The Conference in the 2003-04 season that we played at The Britannia Stadium, where we managed to win on penalties and went on to League Two , " he continues.

In the summer of 2005 Luke decided it was time to move on and he ended up in the neighboring club Crewe Alexandra under the legendary Dario Gradi . He found it hard to get a regular place in the starting eleven, but scored 9 goals in 38 games during two seasons with The Railwaymen . He also played with Tom Pope at Crewe and he is happy that Tom Pope did well last season.

How come that you signed for Port Vale in January 2007 ?

"- I felt I wanted to move to another club. Port Vale's former manager Martin Foyle had rung up Crewe to hear if the club had any players for sale. It suited me perfectly to sign for Port Vale. I have in all my years at Shrewsbury and Crewe always lived in Birmingham . "

"- I had a very good time at Port Vale. A well-run club with dedicated fans and I want now to take this opportunity to greet all the supporters  It was fun to be the 2007-08 season top scorer with 12 goals. My best memory from my time in Burslem was when I scored against my former club Crewe Alexandra. "  He also very clearly remember the rivalry between Port Vale and Stoke fans as rivalry between the clubs in Stockholm  is being mentioned.

Some fans say that you could have become a cult figure like Tony Naylor if you had stayed at Vale Park ?

" - Oh, it was nice said. Well , I know who Tony Naylor is, but I do not think I could have become as good as Tony . I felt it was time to leave the club when I did it. My relationship with the manager Dean Glover was not the best as you know  when I did not like to be on the bench . Maybe I was a little hot blooded when I was younger and said things I should not have said that, but you get older and one settles down. "

How was it to work with the managers during your time at Vale Park. We can perhaps assume that Dean Glover was the manager that you liked the least. How was Martin Foyle and Lee Sinnott as managers ?

" - Yes, they were very different , but I had no problem working with any of them. Martin Foyle was more of a players' manager when he was more part of the squad as a friend . Lee Sinnott was more strict and formal in his leadership. We players didn’t  mind if he had remained in the manager job when he was sacked in the autumn of 2008 . "
Many Port Vale fans will remember that you often ended up offside ?

" Yes, but it's kind of my style . Just look at the statistics how often I have been offside. I like to lie alongside the last defender and then it becomes easy to get in an offside position . "

The thing is that I actually watched Luke Rodgers play once. It was at the match Port Vale Macclesfield 1-4 that I saw him play. It was Lee Sinnott last game as Port Vale manager as he was fired two days later and was replaced by Dean Glover .

Luke spent a lot of time on the bench when Dean Glover was the manager and he was not very happy there. After an quarrel with Dean Glover, he left the club in January 2009 to sign for Yeovil for the rest of the season.

Many Port Vale fans will remember that you often ended up offside ?

" - Yes, but it's kind of my style . I like to lie alongside the last defender and then it becomes easy to get offside . "

In the summer of 2009, he signed for Notts County with new Arab owners who promised that they  would go on to make the club a big club and had therefore acquired the former England manager  Sven-Goran Eriksson and HASSE Backe as Director of Football and manager. The club's effort came to end as there wasn’t all the money there that the owners had promised.  He followed Hasse Backe to New York Red Bulls in MSL.

It was really an experience for Luke to play in the U.S.. 

" - Everything is so different organized and you had the opportunity to play with old stars. Players that I've never been close to playing against in England. You learn a lot by going abroad . "

His stay in the United States came to an abrupt end when his VISA was not renewed in early 2012. The club's fans did what they could to convince the U.S. immigration authorities that he would get a new visa and created the website www.americansforlukerodgers.com , but unfortunately to no avail. Luke was forced to leave the United States in March 2012.

"- I think it would go much better for the English national football team if more players took the opportunity to play abroad and was trying to play in different leagues and so on. Unfortunately, most players want to stay in England where the biggest money are, " he reflects.

He then ended up with Lillestrom in Norway, but the contract was canceled after a few months when the club was not happy with his performance. Last season he played for Portsmouth and Shrewsbury. Portsmouth he believes as a great potential to become a big club again when it has received the club's finances back on it’s feet .
Luke tells us that when he signed for his first club Shrewsbury again even though he knew that you should never go back to one old club and believe that you can repeat the old success again .

" - You should never go back to your old club again, but I really wanted to play for Shrewsbury again," he says. Unfortunately, there was not  a successful second spell at the club. He left the club in March after he failed to take a regular place in the starting line-up .

Who is the best manager you've ever had ?

" - It was a simple answer . Hasse Backe whom I had both at Notts County and New York Red Bulls . It is also he who conveyed that I am now in Sweden . He could really get the players to perform at their best during training and matches . England's former coach Sven-Göran Eriksson was Director of Football while at Notts County. He was easy to deal with and often came down and talked to us players.  

The best player that you have been in the same team with ?

" Simply, it was Thierry Henry during the time of the New York Red Bulls. And David Beckham is the best player I played against .
Best player that you have played with in England ?

" - My good friend Ryan Lowe, who now plays at Tranmere Rovers. "

Luke think that it is great to get the chance to come to Sweden and play for Hammarby and Bajens devoted fans. Club dedicated supporters was something he had heard about before he came here . He was making his debut in the opening game at the new Tele2 Arena on July 20 between Hammarby and Örgryte infront of 30.000 people.  A fantastic atmosphere and experience it was,

Out of courtesy, he says he likes the club Hammarby and Hammarby is a well-run club. It is perhaps fortunate that he can’t speak Swedish so he can read Swedish newspapers. On the day of the interview, the foootball journalist Mattias Lühr writes in Expressen that the Hammarby board should resign after the fiasco season.
Time passes and it’s about time top finish the interview. His girlfriend is left behind in England and she is calling. I thank him for taking the time for this interview and wish him good luck on tomorrow's game against Assyriska .

Maybe, I will tell you a little about my Swedish Club Hammarby IF. Hammarby is one of the most popular clubs in Sweden despite playing in the second tier, The Championship, for the last 4 years. Hammarby has one of the highest attendances figures in Sweden despite playing in the The Championship for a couple of seasons now.  I think they are ranked as number 3 when it comes to attendances in Sweden. Hammarby is owned to 51 % by it’s members and the remaining 49 % is owned Anschutz Entertaiment Group (AEG) who owns several arenas in USA and Europa and they also own Los Angeles Galaxy (MLS), Los Angeles Clippers (NBA) and Los Angeles Kings (NHL).

Hammarby was founded in 1897 and was founded by workers in southern Stockholm and has always been characterized by being the underdog to the other two clubs, AIK and Djurgården, in Stockholm. Hammarby have only been Swedish champion once in 2001. In the middle of the season, the manager  Soren Cratz was told he would not get a new contract after the season when he got the team to play “a boring football". This got the players to work harder and thus ended with the team became Swedish champions for the first time that year !

Footnote 1: The day after the interview, Assyriska - Hammarby takes place in Södertälje. Luke come in on the pitch as a substitute with ten minutes left to play. While he was standing and waiting to get into the game, Assyrsiak reduces  to 1-2  and Thomas Dennerby moves down Kennedy Bakirciouglu to midfield and Luke will play alone on top. A thankless task to come in when Assyriska is pushing for the equalizer . He was very " Fast and Furious " when he enters the plan he had the fastest speed races I've seen on a football pitch for a long time.

Footnote 2: A few days ago, Hammarbys chairman resigned after he realized that the supporters had no confidence in him since Hammarby probably will miss out to promotion to The Premier League in Sweden this season, too.  The chairman is elected at an annual meeting very year.