152: Abel Xavier, Everton, Merlin’s F.A. Premier League 2001 Official Sticker Collection

You might have noticed from some of our earlier posts that all of us here at A Sticker’s Worth 500 Words have a soft spot for a player with exceptional hair. Clearly some of you have as, no doubt influenced by our ramblings about the likes of Jason Lee, Domagoj Vida and Simon Rodger, our good friend Chris sent us a message the other day urging us to check out a timeline of today’s subject’s hairstyles. I would strongly recommend you do the same by clicking here.

Even the font of all knowledge, Wikipedia, acknowledges the importance of Abel Xavier’s appearance describing him as one of the key figures of Euro 2000 “not only due to playing some of his best football but also due to a distinctly bleached-blonde hairstyle with a matching beard”. Xavier was undoubtedly pivotal in Portugal’s progress to the tournament’s semi-finals as part of a defence that recovered from conceding twice in the first twenty minutes against England (courtesy of Paul Scholes and Steve McManaman) to keep clean sheets in impressive wins over Romania, Germany and Turkey.

Portugal led after nineteen minutes of their semi-final clash with France but a Thierry Henry equaliser took the game to the lottery of golden goal extra-time. As an aside this was a far better version of the additional period for knockout games. Either have golden goal (e.g. playground rules) or go straight to penalties. Anyway, Xavier came close to becoming a national hero when his header was kept out by Fabien Barthez. Minutes later Xavier pulled off a save of his own to give away a penalty which was put away by Zinedine Zidane putting France into a final they would ultimately win with another golden goal from David Trezeguet. Xavier’s passionate protests against the penalty landed him with a nine-month ban from international football.

During this time Xavier was plying his trade at Everton where he racked up 49 appearances across three seasons. Midway through the 2001/02 season he crossed the Merseyside divide and joined Liverpool to act as defensive cover as the Reds finished runners-up in the Premier League. Xavier made a strong start at Anfield, contributing goals on his league debut against Ipswich Town and away at Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League, but, after four games of the 2002/03 season, fell out with manager Gerard Houllier and found himself frozen out. A loan spell at Galatasaray failed to materialise into a permanent move and Xavier subsequently had brief spells with Hannover 96 and Roma where he played a grand total of nine first-team games.

In August 2005 Abel Xavier made his return to the Premier League with Middlesbrough but, after only six appearances, failed a drugs test and was served with an eighteen-month ban becoming the first player in the league to be banned for using performance-enhancing steroids. Xavier claimed the substance had entered his body through an anti-viral medicine he had imported from the US and had his ban reduced to one year. Boro stuck by their man, keeping him on the books throughout his ban, and extended his contract for the 2006/07 season where he went on to make 20 appearances and register his only goal for the club against Bolton Wanderers.

Never one to stick around too long, Xavier moved to LA Galaxy in 2007 where he made 26 appearances across two seasons before he was released in 2008. He took to the internet to criticise both his manager, Ruud Gullit, and the MLS itself. Unsurprisingly, offers of further employment weren’t forthcoming and Xavier retired from professional football in 2009. Within four years he was trying his hand at management in the Portuguese leagues with Olhanense, Farense and Desportivo das Aves before he was appointed as the manager of the Mozambique national team. Xavier, like the great Eusebio before him, was born in the former Portuguese colony and narrowly missed out on qualification for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations. Despite being assured of a contract extension he was removed from his position following Mozambique’s failure to progress beyond the group stage of the 2019 edition of the COSAFA Cup.

 

Abel Xavier grew up in poverty in the suburbs of Lisbon and went on to represent major clubs in Portugal, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Turkey, Germany and the USA as well as earning 20 caps for his adopted country and managing the nation of his birth. If you add in the successful returns to football following controversial bans, a religious conversion and the challenge of facing bankruptcy in recent years it’s fair to say that he has led a fascinating life and one that can’t be reduced to having an interesting haircut. I suppose it’s a good job he gave us such a wide range of them.