Football: McCall's heart leads him home

Phil Shaw meets a midfielder making an emotive return to his first club, a bond sealed by far more than football

AS ONE who played for Bradford City on the day of the fire which left 56 supporters dead and his own father badly burned, Stuart McCall is painfully aware that football is not a matter of life and death. Yet he approaches each game as if it is, which is why clubs were queuing up to relieve Rangers of the Scotland midfielder this summer.

That Bradford, mid-table in the First Division last season, beat off more opulent opposition owed much to McCall's affection for the club he first joined 17 years ago. If what he terms an "emotional attachment" makes him an oddity in these days of restless players and rapacious agents, the feeling among the fans is mutual.

Around 500 of them packed into McCall's Suite - he is perhaps the only current player to have a hospitality facility named in his honour - to welcome him back to Valley Parade. When Bradford's club shop invited him in to sign copies of his autobiography*, a session scheduled for a couple of hours before lunch ended in late afternoon with writer's cramp.

"The reception has been overwhelming, embarrassing and humbling," admits McCall. "The funny thing is that although I've been away 10 years, I recognised virtually every face. It was the same in our first pre-season friendly at Farsley Celtic."

The sensation of coming full circle was especially strong at Farsley, the outfit with whom McCall soldiered on after all his Leeds City Boys colleagues were snapped up by League clubs. When he got his break with Bradford, the crowd roared with laughter because he was so small and he wore big, billowing shorts.

Sartorial considerations were forgotten once the size of his heart became apparent. Bradford stormed to the old Third Division title in 1985, only for their coronation to turn into one of sport's blackest days when flames engulfed the main stand.

McCall recalls how he drove around West Yorkshire's hospitals - in his kit - until he found his father, Andy, a former Leeds player. The bond with Bradford grew so intense that he passed up opportunities to better himself until 1988.

In the meantime he was selected for the Under-21 squads of England and Scotland (his father's birthplace) on the same day. Having opted for England under pressure from the club, he realised his "mistake" and pretended not to hear instructions ordering him on as a last-minute substitute in Turkey so as to be free to switch allegiance.

At Rangers, who rescued him from an unfulfilling sojourn at Everton, he became the "holding" player whose discipline freed Paul Gascoigne and others. "I used to get fined by Walter [Smith, the manager] if I got in our opponents' 18-yard box," he jokes.

McCall had a year left on his Ibrox deal, but it was time to move on. "Everything was breaking up. It was the end of an era with pals like Ally McCoist, Ian Durrant, Andy Goram and the gaffer gone or going.

"The new manager, Dick Advocaat, wanted to bring in fresh faces. At 34 I didn't want to be kicking my heels in the reserves. The shame was the way it ended, without a trophy for the first time in my seven years.

"But the last night we were together we were able to look back on a fantastic era. With the Bosman ruling, I doubt you'll see the bulk of a side stay together like that again."

McCall cites the European Cup double over Leeds, his boyhood heroes, as the highlight of his time in Glasgow. "People forget we'd have reached the final if we'd won at Marseilles instead of drawing. With a mostly Scottish side we went 10 games unbeaten. But we didn't build on it."

Now Bradford have, he says, tugged his heart strings, although it was unfinished business rather than mere sentiment that swayed him. "We were desperately close to going up before I left. It's been said this place isn't big enough to sustain Premiership football, but gates were 3,000 when I first came here and 16,000 last season.

"There's also more money around now, though I don't think we'll be competing in the transfer market with the Sunderlands, Wolves and Birminghams. But neither did Charlton last season, or Barnsley the year before."

For the manager, Paul Jewell, his qualities transcended any qualms about recruiting someone who has made no secret of his ambition to manage Bradford. McCall has a three-year contract and is keen to give full value.

"I may have lost a bit in the leg department but hopefully I can make up for that with the experience I've gained and my reading of the game. And I'm as enthusiastic as ever."

Is there a danger, after Ibrox's baying bluenoses and the Old Firm rivalry, that he might struggle to psyche himself up for fixtures such as Saturday's opener against Stockport? "I see it as a new challenge. The stadiums have changed drastically since I last played there. Anyway, apart from Celtic and to an extent Hearts and Aberdeen, Scottish crowds weren't big."

The only Scot to appear in the 1990 World Cup finals plus the following two European Championships, McCall would love to add to his 40 caps but is not holding his breath. He claims he and McCoist were left out of France 98 because Craig Brown feared they might be tempted to "party", a suggestion he finds "hurtful".

One of his most treasured memories concerns the otherwise unhappy day at Wembley two years ago against England. Much of the pre-match hype centred on which of three Scots would end up swapping shirts with Gascoigne. McCall, whose daughter Carly is devoted to the Geordie jester, was one of them.

"At half-time I was going down the tunnel when I heard these studs coming up behind me. Gazza whipped off his top and gave it to me - he didn't want mine! - which was typical of the man." Gascoigne was to return south and win promotion; McCall plans to follow in his footsteps.

*The Real McCall (Mainstream Publishing, pounds 9.99).