Matthew Le Tissier

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Matthew Paul "Matt" Le Tissier (born 14 October 1968) is a retired footballer who played for Southampton and England.

He is rated by many Southampton fans as the club's greatest player ever.^{[citation needed]} An attacking midfielder, Le Tissier is the second-highest ever scorer for Southampton behind Mick Channon. He was the first midfielder to score 110 goals in the Premier League. Despite his excellent form at club level, Le Tissier was capped just eight times at senior level for the England team, failing to score.

Football career

Guernsey

Le Tissier was born in Guernsey and played youth football on the island with Vale Recreation. He was an attacking midfielder playing just behind the strikers.

Southampton

On leaving school in 1985, he had a trial at Oxford United, but signed for Southampton instead.

Le Tissier played his first professional game on 2 September 1986 and went on to play 443 league games for Southampton, 52 League Cup games, 33 FA Cup games and 12 other official games, making a total of 540. He scored 209 goals for his club including 47 out of 48 penalties (the one save came from Mark Crossley). His top scoring season was 1993–94, when he scored 30 goals, made more remarkable due to his struggling side. The following season he won the coveted Match Of The Day Goal of the Season award for his drifting 40-yard lob against Blackburn Rovers, scoring against his long term friend, and former Southampton keeper, Tim Flowers.

Already well established in Southampton folk-lore, he scored the last goal in the final competitive match played at The Dell on 19 May 2001 against Arsenal. After being out most of the season due to injury, he was brought on as a substitute near the end of the match to the delight of the fans and scored a spectacular left-footed volley on the turn from outside the penalty box to earn The Saints a 3–2 win; this turned out to be Arsenal's last away defeat for over a year.

He played several games for Southampton during 2001-02, their first season at the St Mary's Stadium, and they finished 11th in the Premier League. Le Tissier then announced his retirement from playing. His testimonial match against an England XI in May 2002 ended in an extraordinary 9–9 draw, with Le Tissier playing 45 minutes for each side, while his son came on as a substitute in the second half, scoring four times.

He made a cameo appearance for Southampton in Claus Lundekvam's testimonial against Celtic FC on 18 July 2008.^[1]

England

As a Channel Islander, he was eligible for any of the Home Nations teams; at one point he was rumoured to have been linked with Scotland, although this was denied both by the Scottish Football Association and by Le Tissier himself.

He played eight times for England from 1994 to 1997 without scoring. He was widely overlooked by then England manager Terry Venables, who received regular criticism for not picking Le Tissier. Le Tissier himself has claimed that if he had been French or Italian, he would have won many more international caps.^{[citation needed]} After England suffered defeat at home to Italy in a crucial World Cup qualifying match Le Tissier was heavily berated by several tabloid newspapers for missing a headed chance to score with the match balanced at 0-0. It was to prove his last game as a full international.

His crowning international moment was his hat-trick for the England B team in a game against Russia in which he also hit the crossbar twice, prior to the 1998 World Cup Finals. Despite his sterling performance, in a bitter-sweet end to his international career manager Glenn Hoddle failed to select Le Tissier for the full World Cup squad, or even the preliminary 30 man squad.

Career in retrospect

Le Tissier could use both of his feet equally to pass or shoot, which when combined with his loyalty made him a Southampton fans' favourite. His renown spread worldwide as a regular scorer of spectacular goals, often seemingly created "from nothing", and often when Southampton were in trouble of relegation. For this ability he became known simply as "Le God" among Southampton supporters. In one famous incident, the television commentator responded to one of his most skillful efforts with the single word "Unbelievable!", which later became the title for a successful "video autobiography" of the player. Critics condemned Le Tissier as a 'luxury player' whose talent was hampered by not covering enough of the pitch, in an era when "work rate" was much respected. In retrospect, it is probably more accurate to see Le Tissier as relying on his natural skills to compensate for his "lazy" style of play, and to what was undoubtedly a persistent weight problem. His commitment to a financially less-well-off club like Southampton was unusual in the money-driven world of football. In his autobiography he told of rejecting moves to AC Milan and Chelsea, (the latter having been managed at the time by Glenn Hoddle, who later rejected him as an England player), and tore up a contract he signed with Tottenham Hotspur in 1991.^{[citation needed]}

Post-retirement

Le Tissier has been honoured by receiving the freedom of the city of Southampton, and has also had one of the luxurious hospitality suites at the St Mary's Stadium named after him. An apartment block built on the old site of The Dell is also named after him.

On 7 February 2007, Le Tissier had a plane in the Flybe fleet named after him on his home island of Guernsey.^[2]

Matt now is a pundit for Sky Sports' Gillette Soccer Saturday, where he is a pundit alongide Charlie Nicholas, Phil Thompson, and Paul Merson. On the final game of the 2007-08 season, he was given the opportunity to do the live studio analysis of Southampton vs. Sheffield United and, when Southampton won, thus preserving their Championship status, Le Tissier was noted for going into jubilant celebrations.

On 29 June 2009, Le Tissier made his debut as the guest in Dictionary Corner on the long-running Channel 4 game show Countdown, hosted by Soccer Saturday presenter Jeff Stelling. On one of the programmes, he beat both contestants and the show's arithmetician Rachel Riley in solving one of the numbers games.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life

Le Tissier married childhood sweetheart Cathy and had two children, but the couple divorced in 1997 and Cathy and her children moved back to Guernsey. Le Tissier's divorce was due to an affair with 19-year-old barmaid Angela Nabulsi, the daughter of a Jordanian businessman,^[3] though they subsequently split and he began an affair with Australian-born, British-based actress Emily Symons. The pair broke up in August 2000, some time after Symons moved to Britain to be with him. Le Tissier then reconciled with Angela Nabulsi and the pair subsequently became engaged and set a wedding date of 19 May 2008.^[4]

All three of Le Tissier's brothers – Mark, Kevin and Karl – also played football, but never professionally.^[5] Mark is currently chairman of the Guernsey Football Association.^[6]

References

External links

• Jeremy Wilson (2006). Southampton’s Cult Heroes. Know The Score Books. ISBN 1-905449-01-1. 
• Matthew Le Tissier England profile at Englandstats
• Matt Le Tissier career stats at Soccerbase
• Matthew Le Tissier CD Biography - The MLT CD
• Photo of the Matthew Le Tissier artwork on a FlyBe aircraft