English soccer is still reeling from the death of former Ipswich Town and Aston Villa forward Dalian Atkinson this past Monday.
Atkinson was shot with a Taser by police in Telford, Shropshire, after officers received a call about a disturbance near his father’s house. After being tasered, Atkinson went into cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. He was 48 years old. Britain’s Independent Police Complaints Commission is investigating the circumstances that led to his death.
For a portion of his playing career Atkinson featured at Ipswich Town, where he was a teammate of former Canadian goalkeeper and current Sportsnet commentator Craig Forrest.
Sportsnet.ca spoke with Forrest about Atkinson’s death and his memories of their time together at Ipswich Town.
What was your reaction upon learning that your former teammate Dalian Atkinson died after being tasered by police?
It’s tragic. Who knows what exactly occurred there with the police, but from talking to some of my ex-teammates recently about it, Dalian was having problems. He was feeling really down, he was having some health issues, he was having some problems with his kidneys, and he was very depressed about it. Financially, he was having a hard time of it, too.
Were you surprised to learn he fell on such hard times?
No, I wasn’t. Overall, it’s an unfortunate story that I’ve heard too often about an ex-player having a hard time adapting and transitioning back into “normal life” after their careers are over. Guys have had smoke blown up their asses since they were kids in the youth teams, with everybody telling them they’re special; they go on to have good careers playing against the best, and then their careers end and they have a hard time with it. I see it all the time.
Divorce rates are high among former players, and players have financial problems because they didn’t have proper guidance on how to manage their money. Some think it’s going to last forever, and it simply doesn’t. A lot of them have trouble finding work after football, and once they’ve had that umbilical cord cut from the game—where they’ve earned a good living, and had everything done for them, and been pampered and been completely looked after—they find it difficult to suddenly fend for themselves. I think Dalian struggled with that.
You essentially grew up with Dalian at Ipswich Town, didn’t you? You were both the same age, you played together in the youth team and then you were teammates on the senior team.
Yeah, we started at the youth team at the same time. We had a very good youth team back then that was very successful. We had four or five players from that class that went on to join the senior team, and Dalian and I were among them. We played a bit alongside each other, and then in 1989 he went to Sheffield Wednesday, and then he moved to Real Sociedad, Aston Villa and Fenerbahce, and we lost touch a bit with one another.
What kind of a player was he on the pitch?
He was a very powerful guy, very strong. Very quick. Confident on the ball. A powerful shot. He wasn’t a finesse player, by any means.
He had an edge to him, as well. There was a switch that he’d flip every so often and his aggression would get the better of him. But most of the time he turned that aggression into a positive on the field.
What kind of teammate was he?
Good. We were young, and we both battled our way through the youth side to earn our shots on the senior team. We had run-ins with each other in the youth team, as I was the foreign player amongst him and the other players, the majority of them English. You have to understand this was back in the ’80s when non-British players in England were a rarity—not like today where foreign players are the majority. It was a different mindset back then, so we had some issues there because of our different backgrounds, but after a couple of run-ins Dalian and I became very good friends as we were finding our feet as young men and young professionals.
Can you share any funny anecdotes or stories about you and Dalian from your time together at Ipswich?
[laughs] Yeah, there’s one the stands out. Guys were always calling me “Yank” even though I’m Canadian, and eventually I said something about it. Dalian and I ended up having a wrestle-about in the parking lot at the training centre, and we ended up on top of the manager’s car. [laughs] I don’t know how the hell we got up on there, but we did. He was a strong bugger, let me tell you. He was a character and a lot of fun to be around, and like I said, we became very good friends.
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