187: Geremi, Chelsea, Merlin’s F.A. Premier League 04 Official Sticker Collection, Autograph Edition

Today Mat Jolin-Beech takes a look at one of football’s more unassuming talents who nonetheless ended his career with an Olympic gold medal, league titles in three different countries and back-to-back African Cup of Nations’ winners’ medals. The man also knew how to take a great free kick and was even nominated for the Ballon d’Or in 2000. No wonder he was held in such high regard by his managers. Over to Mat.

Here at A Sticker’s Worth 500 Words, we give another shot at glory and time in the spotlight to those players who often failed to hit the trophy laden heights. Lionel Messi, Sergio Ramos, Neymar, and all of Paris Saint Germain’s new summer signings have trophy cabinets that we all, including Tottenham Hotspur, would lust after. But, they do not all currently have the same honour that the likes of Ade Akinbiyi, Oleg Luzhny, and Mark Noble, among some very esteemed sports stars, of being the subject of soccer’s best* sticker related blog. (*subject to opinion, but if your opinion differs to ours, then you’re obviously wrong).

While thinking about who to base this post on, I went down the road of thinking who is the worst player to win the Premier League but before I got as far as doing a Google search, where all great research in the 21st Century begins, I’d entered a YouTube wormhole and was watching clips of the worst back passes in Premier League history. In one of these clips, but not the guilty party in cringeworthy back passes, was Geremi: the unassuming Cameroonian who does not deserve the dishonour of being associated with worst Premier League winning elevens.

While not ever a superstar of either his club or international teams, he was still highly respected and a very good technical footballer. The one and only Jose Mourinho loved the player even if he played him at right-back rather than in his preferred midfield role. So much so that the Special Roman One said: “In my team I love to have Geremi on the bench because he's a low-profile player who is ready to help, ready to fight for the team, ready to do the job I want him to do. If I need him to play right-back, he can play right-back. If I need him to play right-winger, he can play right-winger. If I need him to pick up a man and mark him out of the game, he does it.” That has to be one of the biggest compliments dealt out with a giant backhand I’ve ever heard. But he was loved by fans, players and managers alike. His time at Real Madrid saw him claim a Champions League winners medal and adoration from then manager Vicente del Bosque who said that, alongside Steve McManaman, he was one of the two most important players in his squad. The reason, they “kept the whole team united”.

Every club needs at least one player like this. Someone who is quiet, unassuming, a tireless worker, and binds the team together. Not everyone can be a superstar, grabbing the headlines and having their name plastered over the back of adoring fans’ shirts but these types of players are appreciated when they have gone. When that stability, calming influence, and game managing ability disappear, then the club begins to fall apart.

On a side note, the kit that Cameroon wore in the run up to the 2002 World Cup was a stunner. Although it was ruined by FIFA who stated that countries had to play in a sleeved shirt, and not a vest. It was still a good-looking kit and one of Puma’s best efforts. Unlike their 2021/22 third kit range.