An Everton legend, Thomas ‘Mad dog’ Gravesen once graced the Bernabeu for Real Madrid. There were high hopes for the midfielder when Celtic signed him, but aside of a goal at Ibrox and a victory over Manchester United, the Dane didn’t really meet expectations for the Hoops.
Gravesen retired at the age of 32 and headed to the States where he has made millions in good investments, whilst he is also one of the best Call of Duty players in the world and plays the video game professionally in Las Vegas!
Nevertheless, Gravesen told the Daily Record that he regrets quitting football and would advise players today to continue playing as long as possible, even if they have to go down the leagues.
Gravesen was loaned back to Everton from Celtic in his final season. He returned to Glasgow but never played for the first team again. The mental midfielder said: “I can’t even remember my last game in football. I was told it was at Everton, but I actually thought I played again when I returned to Celtic.”
“You can see I don’t really care when my last game was,” Gravesen said.
“Leaving football is one of those things I regret most in my life. I just reached a point where I’d had enough.”
Gravesen won trophies and played for huge clubs, but he struggled to deal with his early exit from the game. He continued by urging others not to make the same error.
“My advice to all footballers would be to keep going. If you can’t play in the Premier League anymore, then go to the Championship. Just play as long as you can. You regret it when you quit too soon. You can’t change your mind and go back to football in your mid-30s. It’s gone.
When I left Celtic, I wanted to move away from home as I could because I didn’t want to watch football and it’s easier in the USA. It took me nine years to get over it and return to public life. But now I am so happy within myself.”
Liam Kelly
You can enjoy the hilarious stories of the man in the below Open Goal video, hosted by former Celt, Simon Ferry.
THOMAS GRAVESEN was Gordon Strachan’s marquee signing from Real Madrid. The Great Dane was either brilliant or awful in a Celtic shirt and never really appeared to look like he understood exactly what he was supposed to be doing in the Hoops.
He certainly had some memorable moments and clearly love every second of his time at Celtic but it’s unlikely that he’d make many supporters selection if they were picking a team of the century so far for Celtic.
On his situation at Real Madrid that lead to him making the decision to head for Paradise, Gravesen gave an interesting insight in an interview with Sky Sports, which you can watch below.
“They (Real Madrid) were very clear in what they wanted from players. They brought in (Fabio) Capello as the manager, and they were straight up with me.
“He said, ‘I like you as a person, but as a player I will not be using you here’.
“I could have chosen to sit down and be mad or angry or whatever.
“But I chose to join a fantastic club in Celtic and I don’t regret that at all,” Gravesen told Sky Sports, as reported by Scottish Sun. “I just think it was quick and it was painless in Madrid and that’s what it was. I wasn’t in Glasgow long enough, I loved every minute though.”
Gravesen bumped into an old Everton teammate of his while at Celtic, playing for the rivals across the city. The two, Gravesen and Rangers defender David Weir grabbed a few words when they could amid the mayhem.
“I saw David (Weir) when we were in Scotland, we played together for many years at Everton. On the park, we had a fierce rivalry. But on the outside, I was allowed to say ‘hello’ and ‘how are you?’ because I spent four or five years with David at Everton.”
Here’s the former Celtic Star’s interview with Sky Sports…
Earlier this year we carried these articles about Thomas Gravesen and it’s worthy of a re-run.
Turn the page to read Mad Dog Gravesen – The Last of the Modern Footballing Mavericks…
