He played professional football. Nobody believes him.
OUR THINKING / OPINION
Danny Schweiger’s dad calls him the failed footballer. That’s because his mate Ashley Ward – who used to be in Danny’s house every other day growing up in Manchester – made it as a professional. Danny didn’t. Or so the story goes.
At 18, Danny went to Zimbabwe. He ended up working in a factory with 2,000 people, got a trial at Darren Tornadoes of the Zimbabwean Super League – the same league as Bruce Grobbelaar and Peter Ndlovu – signed a contract and played every week in front of 30,000 people as the only white man in the province.
None of his mates believe any of it. But he was there.
In episode five of Football for Breakfast, Jim Johnson sits down with Danny in the greasy spoon café to talk about Manchester City, Zimbabwe and what football does to a person when it gets properly under your skin.
Where it started
They start on the Kippax. Danny is old school City – Wednesday nights at Grimsby, dark humour in the Third Division, the Gillingham play-off final where City were two nil down with a minute to go and Danny had already left. He ran back. City won.
He traces the club he fell in love with back to Joe Mercer, Malcolm Allison and the 1968 championship team.
The scrapbook on the table
He brought a scrapbook to the table. Photos, farewell party pictures, his airfare receipts and a newspaper cutting of his debut at the National Stadium in Harare. He hadn’t looked at it in years. The happiest people he had ever met, he says, were people who had nothing.
Everything I’ve achieved I put down to football
In the second half Danny talks about a career built on everything football taught him – how to relate to anyone, how to survive, how to lead. From the factory floor in Harare to playing at Highbury for Paul Merson’s testimonial because he was Rank Xerox’s top salesperson that month.
Everything he’s achieved, he puts down to football. He doesn’t hesitate.
Also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Football for Breakfast is presented by OSS Security. New episode every Tuesday morning.
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NOT TACTICS. NOT TRANSFERS. THE FEELING OF FOOTBALL.
