Liverpool FC Forum

[Lionheart]

http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/public/article/show.asp?articleid=9617&menuItemID=

Tuesday 20 September 2005

Former long-serving Socceroo Robbie Slater plus pioneering Australian midfielder Craig Johnston of English giants Liverpool, head a list of 11 inductees into the Australian Football Hall of Fame announced in Sydney this morning...

AWARD OF DISTINCTION
CRAIG JOHNSTON

Born June 26, 1960 in Johannesburg before parents returned to Australia from overseas commitments. Travelled from Newcastle as a teenager to trial in England, eventually winning a contract with firstly Middlesbrough and then Liverpool where he finally secured and cemented a place in the first team. With Liverpool, he won five English League championships and the FA Cup as well as scoring in the 1986 Cup final. Was the first Australian to play in and win a European Cup Final.  He also won eight further titles and became a role model for Australian youth. Made guest appearances in the NSL and was later appointed Youth Ambassador by the Australian Soccer Federation. Has remained involved in the sport after retirement and has been an active promoter and supporter of Australian football.

[Lionheart]

Does anyone know where is he and what he is doing now?? Have heard nothing for some time and he wasn't at this presentation as far as I am aware.

[NiftyNeil]

Surely it can't be hard to get into the Australian Football Hall Of Fame. I am gobsmacked that our Craig wasn't the founder member - surely no other Aussie has won more honours.

[Paul C]

About f**kin time, the lad is a legend on and off the pitch, Skippy was one of my childhood heros   

Good article from insidesport.com:

All I Know:  Craig Johnston


Before Harry Kewell, Craig Johnston was the most acclaimed Australian soccer export. At 15 he joined Middlesbrough and a few seasons later was transferred to Liverpool where he won five league championships, two European Cups and an FA Cup-winners medal. In 1988, aged 27, he quit to turn his hand to TV production, creating the Predator boot for adidas and inventing a data-based soccer skills development system called SupaSkills, which has been embraced by FIFA. In his business life, he has lived in Sydney, Dublin and Boston. Aged 43, he’s now based in London, where he caught up with Inside Sport.

NOW AND THEN
The game is much harder now because physical speed and the quickness of thought are incredible. It must be 30 per cent faster than my day. But today’s players are protected from the Norman Hunters and other predatory, hard-man defenders of a generation ago. Can you imagine if you had those guys around now and they were allowed to do what they got away with back then? The way players are prepared to win reflects the desperation of companies – we’re talking about PLCs [publicly listed companies] now, not just football clubs. On top of the pressure to win, you have the pressure to not go bankrupt.

THE EARLY EXIT
Retiring early was the worst thing I ever did because I believe I could have been a brilliant footballer. I was a late learner and didn’t figure out how the whole Liverpool system worked until I was 26. Until then, I’d always done it by instinct and raw energy. I still had my own training regime in addition to club training and, even at that age, I was becoming more skilful. I’d had the best teachers in the world – Kenny Dalglish, Graeme Souness, Allan Hansen. Yet, in another way, that decision to retire early was the best thing I’ve ever done because it’s allowed me to have a couple of careers. TV production, footwear manufacturing, business life – I had the energy to try other things. Now I appreciate football even more because I understand the power it has within people’s lives.

THE SOCCEROOS
Nobody can speak highly enough about the current generation of Socceroos and the credibility they have delivered for Australian football. They beat Scotland at Hampden Park, England at West Ham, and went so close to the trifecta against Ireland at Lansdowne Road. For the Ireland game, I crammed my hair up under a baseball cap and crept into the Walkabout Club on The Embankment to watch the game. I was just so proud of them because they looked so much like a real team, like a slick Premier League outfit, not a fledgling international side flung together once a year. I’ve lived in Dublin and have a soft spot for the Irish, but when they came back [in the game] I thought it was undeserved. We shouldn’t have lost. Seven or so years ago I had a dream of an all-Australian team playing in the Premier League. It didn’t happen but, in a way, watching this side was like it had happened. Stan Lazaridis on the left, such an unsung hero – I’ve never seen him have a bad game for club or country. And the same for the rest of the squad. As a young manager, Frank Farina deserves credit.

HOME AWAY
If Australia had had a UK base for their matches in my day I would definitely have played for the Socceroos. Not a shadow of doubt. I’ve been lobbying for 15 years for the concept of a base in the UK. With the right professionalism there’s no reason Australia can’t be as famous in soccer as we are in cricket and rugby.

LIVERPOOL AND TWO AUSSIES
Witnessing Harry Kewell’s arrival at Liverpool this season has stirred the memories of my introduction to the club. In my humble opinion, Liverpool was a better team back in the ’80s than now. But that doesn’t mean they won’t be great again. At this stage of his career, Harry’s a much more complete player than I was when I arrived at Anfield. He’s more talented and skilful. What pleases me is that, at the time of his transfer, Harry needed Liverpool and Liverpool needed Harry. They’re both world-class products and they can both see better days coming.

SCOUSE IN THE HOUSE
What does it mean to be part of Liverpool FC? It’s a sense of honour, belonging and great emotion. It’s about life and death, particularly because of Heysel and Hillsborough and Bill Shankly. It’s about Scousers. Moving to Liverpool and discovering them was like finding a lost tribe in the middle of Africa. They are unique. They live for football, music and the crack – wonderful people. When they call your name on the field, you know you’ve made it. I knew I’d been accepted when The Kop sang “Skippy The Bush Kangaroo”! They are known as the most educated fans in Britain because their club has won so much. For all you young blokes who think it started and finished with Man U, compare the number of trophies Liverpool has won – they’re still way in front.

YOUTH LEGACY
I’ve been asked to go up to Liverpool and work on football projects for the Youth Justice Board to help create a community grassroots-to-glory program. The government here has recognised the power of football with kids in tough inner-city areas. They approached the Premier League who approached me to form junior leagues based on SupaSkills. We can then collect the data to prove that if kids are involved in sport there is less crime, better health, more social inclusion, less anti-social behaviour and better self-esteem.

NEXT TIME
Besides retiring prematurely, my greatest regret is not playing for the Socceroos. I didn’t see eye-to-eye with the administrators of the day. Also, I wished I’d played in Italy. When Juventus bought Ian Rush from Liverpool, they wanted me as well. In one way, I regret not going because I would have valued the cultural experience.

LASTING REWARD
Calling myself a professional footballer always made me proud. I had a proud moment every time I pulled on a Middlesbrough or Liverpool shirt. I’d be on the team bus on the way to Norwich or Sunderland and with me would be Rushy, Hansen, Dalglish or, in later years, John Barnes. Bob Paisley might be in front of me and I’d think: “Is this really me, the boy from Speers Point?” A couple of years ago my mum phoned to say: “Ray Martin interviewed Harry Kewell and he said he’d been inspired by you.” Anything that makes Mum proud makes me proud too.

THE JOURNEY
There is an old north-east of England saying: “In football, you get nowt for nowt.” You get nothing for nothing. With the rewards so high and the way players are now treated as demigods, everybody wants to be a footballer – or in a boy band. These days, it is so brutally competitive that you get even less than nowt for nowt. If you are not as talented as other kids, it’s a dreadful place to be. You have to be smarter, tougher or more ruthless to compete.

To those Aussie kids heading overseas chasing the football dream, I’d say this. It can be a great adventure that will take you beyond your playing careers. During the day, work as hard as you can on mastering the game; pull it apart and live it to the max. At night work on your education, study and embrace other cultures and languages. If you don’t make it in the Premier League, set off on an adventure, play in a lower division in Italy or Spain. The choices are there. You may not have won a bunch of medals but you’ve used football as the key to a wonderful life. And life is meant to be an adventure.

[REDTILLDEAD]

Er... is harry kewell included in the "Aussie hall of (Lame) fame"?..or did skippy beat him to it?  

[laza]

Does anyone know where is he and what he is doing now?? Have heard nothing for some time and he wasn't at this presentation as far as I am aware.

I posted this article up late last year Lionheart
If its to be believed , then sadly it looks like Craig has fallen on hard times

COMMENT | By Ken Sutcliffe
National Nine News sports presenter




Former Liverpool soccer star Craig Johnston lived his life like a whirlwind. In fact, when Craig worked with me during the late 80's early 90's on the Wide World of Sports he was like a rogue Scud missile. But I liked him, and his boundless enthusiasm.

Brought up in Lake Macquarie, NSW, Craig came from a working class background that fuelled his determination to make it in English football. As a 15-year-old, he was signed by Middlesbrough. He performed all the lackey chores, but all the while he was thinking big. He had his eye on Liverpool, and the glamour club had their eye on him. Eventually, they paid out a then-record £570,000 transfer fee for Craig to turn out in the famous red stripe.

He looked good, played great, made lots of money and even scored the winning goal against Everton in the 1986 FA Cup final at Wembley. But today, Craig Johnston is broke, bankrupt and his childhood marriage is in tatters. His once athletic body is bloated, while a photograph at the weekend in a Sunday newspaper with him sitting on a walkway at Gatwick Airport made Craig look like a bum looking for a handout. Sad, so sad.

His estimated £15 million fortune is gone, lost in a litany of bad business deals. Even the much acclaimed Adidas predator soccer boot, which Craig invented and designed, is no longer his. I remember saying to Craig while testing the protoype at the Parklea soccer academy in Sydney with some young players: “Never let this go, even when it makes you a fortune, never let it go," I said to him. Now, the patent has been put up as collateral to pay legal fees.

This may sound like a line out of The Castle but Craig was an ideas man. There was always something going on, his mind darted around like an overactive blowfly. He also had a bit of lair him, but was never offensive.




He once stopped me at the John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle. I hardly new Craig at the time, but his first child was about to be born and I was there for Channel 9 news. The brief interview over, Craig reached into his pocket and pulled out a fist-full of rolled up cash and asked me to mind it for him while he went to see his wife.

I think Craig enjoyed the shock value it drew on my face.

When Craig retired from playing soccer 1988, he came home to Australia a hero, and rightly so. He’s worked hard for his success, and had no doubts he had a creative future in business and media ahead of him.

When Wide World of Sports hired the hero we didn't know what hit us, Craig went at a hundred miles an hour and he couldn’t do just one thing at a time, it had to be several.

In the end, Craig move on, returned to England devised a succesful TV show called The Main Event, invented a security system and wrote a song called the Anfield Rap, which went on to number three on the UK charts.

But all the time Craig sailed closed to the edge, and now at 44-years of age he's slipped over it. I hope he climbs again, listens a bit more and eases up on the accelerator.

© National Nine News 2004

[Paul C]

[drummerphil]

Shame ...he was a reat player fondly remembered

[NiftyNeil]

How do you blow £15million?
I'd love the opportunity to give it a go.

[Lionheart]

Laza...so sad to hear of Craig's failures. The lost fortune is one thing but the breakdown of his marriage to Jenny must be a gut renching personal tragedy for him. I remember those two from school and they were inseperable. You can only imagine what he must be going through. Like the old proverb says; "Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it"...and where does it lead to from there.