393: Steve Hodge, England, Panini Italia ’90 World Cup

Richard Allinson takes on a request post for Martyn Lee who found himself acquainted with today’s subject on a number of occasions when he started his first sticker collection back in 1990. Thankfully for Martyn this man’s commitment to his tournament tan and later career performances for Watford and Queen’s Park Rangers more than made up for the piles of doubles. We hope this does the trick. Over to Rich.

Loosely, this blog is based on football stickers and the characters behind them. I don’t actually remember ever having collected a sticker for today’s subject, however, what I do vaguely recollect is having an Italia ‘90 commemorative silver coin of him from the local ESSO garage. Buy some Four Star petrol, get a free diminutive midfielder. Bit of a bargain really, and not too dissimilar to some lower league club’s transfer policies. Normally at this point I would segue into another misty-eyed look at the best World Cup ever, but I think I have done that subject to death now and Steve Hodge got injured in the build up so he didn’t actually play. With this in mind, let’s have a look at his career instead. 

Research for this piece immediately led me to Hodge’s book “The Man With Maradona’s Shirt.” I haven’t read it yet, but it is on order and will get added to the ever-growing pile of 80s footballer autobiographies that are slowly taking over my dining room (I will finish the post on Mel Sterland one day…) and the title intrigued me. As it suggests, Hodge once swapped shirts with Maradona. It wasn’t just any shirt either, it is the shirt from when El Cocaineo punched the ball into England’s goal in the 1986 World Cup quarter final. Of course the world will always remember how a cheating tubby midget beat an international goalkeeper to the punch of the ball, but what is often forgotten (thankfully for Steve Hodge) is that it was his miss hit back pass that led to the peak shithouse moment. 

That said, the other goal Maradona scored that day exemplifies what a talent the Argentinian was, especially when he wasn’t cheating/on the gak. Indeed it is a picture of Maradona beating Hodge on his mazy run to goal that adorns the cover of Steve’s book. Not surprisingly, Hodge’s ownership of the shirt has led him to receive a number of very lucrative financial offers for this particular piece of football history, with an American memorabilia expert valuing it at $2m. But in fairness to him, Hodge has rejected the advances and instead the shirt is now housed at the excellent National Football Museum in Manchester. On the offers, Hodge explained to BBC Radio Nottingham “I have had it for 34 years and have never once tried to sell it, I like having it. It has incredible sentimental value.” Of course this one match doesn’t define Hodge’s international career, and in total he won 24 caps for England and was selected in the squad for two World Cups, although he was left out of the Euro 88 and 92 squads both of which were roaring successes for England.

At club level, to me Hodge was always synonymous with Nottingham Forest to such an extent that I didn’t realise he had actually played for anyone else. Indeed, it was with his hometown club that he experienced the most sustained success, playing 206 games and scoring 50 goals across two separate spells. Whilst with Forest he won two League Cup titles and finished runner up in the 1991 Gascoigne Knee Twatter FA Cup final, but perhaps most importantly he was a part of the Nottingham Forest side that won the 1989 Full Members Cup AKA the Simod Cup. So yeah Maradona, you can stick your 1986 World Cup up your arse. 

Outside of his time in Nottingham, Hodge also played 53 games for Aston Villa; 45 games for Tottenham Hotspur; 54 games for Leeds United; and 10 games on loan at Derby County before entering into the ‘end of career get a game anywhere zone’. Inevitably for an ageing player winding down their career he went on to play for Queen’s Park Rangers (15 games) and Watford (2 games), whilst also having a brief spell in Hong Kong, and appearing once for Leyton Orient. I kind of glossed over it, but perhaps his most notable achievement (Simod Cup aside) was winning the 1991/92 First Division title with Leeds. During the title winning campaign he played 23 times, scoring seven goals. How I don’t remember this is beyond me. Especially as I grew up in West Yorkshire, was surrounded by Leeds United fans at school, and as I mentioned above, I have read Mel Sterland’s book that details Leeds winning the league. What can I say is I was as gormless then as I am now. 

So there you have it, Steve Hodge. League title winner, Simod Cup winner, owns Maradona’s shirt and was immortalised in a plastic silver coin by a petrol station.