514: Javier Margas, West Ham United, Merlin’s Premier League 99 Official Sticker Collection

This week it’s a request post for César who some of you may know as the mastermind behind Walthamstow’s premier Thursday five-a-side kickabouts. If I didn’t just have that to be grateful for I would have been more than happy to write up today’s subject’s “escape from West Ham” but this is a big thank you for the time César helped carry me off a soggy five-a-side pitch in Tottenham after my ankle had reminded me why jumping to head the ball is a bad idea. Hope this does the trick mate!

During Harry Redknapp’s seven year spell as manager of West Ham United the infamous wheeler dealer/”f***ing football manager” signed a total of 76 players with an average outlay of £1.6m per player. His first, local boy Adrian Whitbread, made a grand total of fourteen appearances across two seasons before departing for a lengthy spell at Portsmouth. Along the way there were unquestionable successes such as John Hartson and Paul Kitson who kept the Hammers in the Premier League in the 1996/97 campaign, the enigmatic Paolo Di Canio who remains a club legend for his 51 goals and 2001’s ‘Hammer of the Year’ Stuart Pearce. There were also some genuine mistakes like Marco Boogers and Paulo Futre who promised much and delivered little beyond sending Gary Neville to the land of wind and ghosts and getting John Moncur a nice golf holiday respectively. There was also a raft of players I had forgotten even played for West Ham like Gary Charles (eight games), Rob Jones (half a game before a career ending injury) and Hugo Porfirio who apparently played quite a big part in the aforementioned 1996/97 season having also represented Portugal at Euro 96.

Redknapp’s penchant for attention grabbing foreign transfers guaranteed that every edition of the Merlin sticker album would feature at least one name and face that got you excited. The 1997 edition gave us Futre and the similarly bemulleted Florin Răducioiu (eleven games) while a year later Eyal Berkovic smiled benignly from the page clearly unaware of the threat of John Hartson’s swinging boot. Following France 98 the newest addition to the Hammers’ defence was Chilean centre back Javier Margas who, in part down to the fact that Neil ‘Razor’ Ruddock wasn’t part of Glenn Hoddle’s tournament plans, gained himself the starring role as the club’s ‘1998 FIFA World Cup Star’. He had featured in all four of Chile’s games at the tournament and had also played for the FIFA World XI in a 5-2 victory over a Europe XI in 1997 most famous for the fact that Ronaldo and Gabriel Batistuta played up front together. One match, two legends.

Margas arrived in East London with an impressive CV including six Chilean Primera Division titles and a Copa Libertadores as well as a reputation for dyeing his hair in his team’s colours. His debut came in a 0-0 draw with Coventry City in September 1998 but he made just three appearances as the Hammers finished fifth in the Premier League and qualified for the Intertoto Cup. The following season he managed a more respectable 23 games across all competitions and netted his first West Ham goal in a 5-0 rout of Coventry as his side finished ninth. The Hammers had successfully blooded the likes of Joe Cole, Frank Lampard Jr and Rio Ferdinand but the sale of the latter to Leeds United for a then record £18m sent the club into something of a downward spiral. Margas made four appearances in the early stages of the 2000/01 campaign but, as his family struggled to settle in England, he started longing for home.

News reached Harry Redknapp that Margas’ wife had already left the country and, when the man himself missed training, his manager went to investigate. Having tracked him down to The Swallow Hotel Redknapp gained access to his room only to find “he'd left half his gear there, the window was open, he was on the first floor, he obviously took what he needed, jumped out the window and legged it”. Several weeks passed before Margas was located back in Chile having called time on not just his West Ham career but also his time as a professional footballer. With his contract ended Margas was able to pursue his interests at home and served as a youth coach at Colo-Colo before turning his hand to the hospitality industry. He purchased two Boeing 737s and converted them into boutique hotels while his motels have been fitted with ominous sounding “erotic chairs” for those looking to bring as many shades to their love lives as Margas brought to his hair. To top this all off the long time admirer of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet shelled out around £12,000 for his armoured car at auction.

Harry Redknapp’s reputation for intriguing international transfers (not including those to his dog’s offshore account) carried on throughout his career and Javier Margas was by no means the most questionable. Without injuries he may well have become yet another Hammers’ cult hero and his career proved he could cut it at the highest level. Quite why it didn’t work out in East London may remain one of those unsolved footballing mysteries, however, anyone who has endured rush hour traffic on Green Street can probably appreciate the desire to escape West Ham.