Eyeing future as centre-back
SHIFT CALL Strength and experience make Riise decide position in Dynamos
NEW DELHI: At 6-feet-2-inches, rippling muscles and arms covered in tattoos, John Arne Riise cuts an intimidating figure. With his steely gaze and a left foot that can turn a football into a cannonball, no one would want this defender coming in for a tackle. But as he speaks, there is an air of calm about him.
“The first week I came they (Indian players) were very shy. They didn’t speak and I was very ‘arrrggg’ and they were scared,” he said, while making a growling face with his hands shaped like claws. “Now they are confident.”
The Norwegian’s near 20-year career has seen him play in some of the most beautiful cities in Europe with the weather to match. But although the “heat and humidity was difficult in the beginning for someone from Norway” Riise ignored it for one reason — Roberto Carlos.
“I knew before I signed that he was coming and he was my big idol from when I was a young boy,” said Riise, 35.
Like Carlos, Riise made a career playing left-back but for Delhi Dynamos he has been a central defender. Carlos has made rare appearances but only in the midfield because as he said in Kolkata “now from the left-back’s position, the field looks very big.”
“I have experience and I am physically strong so I felt that in this kind of league... also I thought that in the future I would play centre-back. And for Roberto, he is a holding midfielder, he is good with the pass, he reads the game well... Against NorthEast United was the first time we started together so it was a big moment.”
Underneath the hard exterior is an emotional man and emotion played a big role in Riise leaving Roma in 2011 for Fulham. He wanted to play alongside younger brother Helge.
“I had one year left in Roma. But it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play with my brother in the same team. We are very close, he is my best friend, apart from my wife. He is a very good football player but mentally, I am stronger so I try to help him. I could not say no.”
The other time Riise talked about his family was when the conversation moved to his children. “Now my kids live with my ex (first wife of three. He is divorced twice)… But when I retire, all my focus will be on my kids so I can give back the time we lost,” he said. On one arm, the name of his first child is tattooed, on the other, the remaining two.
Riise has won just two league titles in his career — 15 years apart — but on Friday against Mumbai City FC, he will hope his Delhi team can top the table. It could be a small step towards the third.
(Rafa) Benitez made a couple of changes and then he said that ‘You can hear the fans singing. Go out there and don’t lose the second half….’ And then Gerrard started getting fired up, started pushing and then I got fired up and then we thought ‘let’s go out there and we may not win, but let’s not lose by any more…’ JOHN ARNE RIISE, On winning the Champions League from being 0-3 down against AC Milan in 2005