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| Joe Baker |
Born in
Liverpool to Scottish parents on 17 July 1940, Baker’s life on the move began
almost from birth. The son of a sailor,
he moved from Merseyside to the Scottish border town of Wishaw, Lanarkshire
when he was six weeks old.
He remained
in Scotland for the remainder of his childhood - and many would claim his
international affinity would have been more closely suited to the tartan of
Scotland than England.
He spoke
with a broad Scottish accent, but Baker’s club career could actually have begun
in England. He spent a month on trial at Chelsea but was not offered a
permanent contract.
After that
Baker returned to Scotland and in 1957 joined Edinburgh side Hibernian, where
he remained for four years.
It was
during that first period that Baker decided to move on from Hibs and experience
football in another league – but it would not be in England.
Instead,
the diminutive forward opted for a move to Italy and Serie A, where he joined
fellow Brit, and some may say ‘fellow Scot’, Denis Law at Torino.
In 1961, Baker
was transferred to Torino for £75,000, after the Hibs board refused to give him
a £5 wage increase from his existing wage of £12 a week. Despite scoring a winning goal in a Turin
derby match against Juventus, his time at the Italian club was short and almost
ended in tragedy. Baker was involved in a serious car crash, which meant that
he needed life-saving surgery and spent over a month on a drip feed.
It was a generally unhappy spell as Baker did
not like the press intrusion, which meant that he and teammate Denis Law spent
most of their time in their Turin apartment.
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| Law, Peronace and Baker |
There were
off-the-field incidents with paparazzi – including one infamous incident where
he knocked one unfortunate member of the press into a Venetian canal. His
tumultuous time in Turin came to an end in 1962
It was a
prolific career for the striker, who upon leaving for Torino in 1961 had
notched up an impressive tally of 102 in 117 league games, and 159 goals in all
competitions – and famously once scoring all four goals in a 4-3 Scottish Cup
victory over city rivals Hearts.
In later
years he represented Nottingham Forest, Sunderland, Hibernian again and Raith
Rovers – as well as two brief stints in charge of Albion Rovers.
Baker
passed away in 2003 at the age of 63.
Below is an
article, written by Baker, for Charles Buchan’s Football Monthly, in December 1961. In it, he talks
about his experience in Italy and the reasons he went there.
My Life in
Italy by Joe Baker
“JOHN CHARLES, apparently, is thinking of
making this his last season in Italian football. Well, big John has had a good
run there, and perhaps he has had enough. Jimmy Greaves? Somehow things don’t
seem to have worked out for him. I had hoped he would settle in as Denis Law
and I have done. Our combined verdict on this still-new-to-us life in Italy is
… it’s terrific!
Perhaps we have been lucky. But even when I saw
the advantage of moving to Italy—mostly financial, of course—I never dreamed it
would be anything like it is. Where in Scotland—or England—would a team get
home from an away game at 2am…to find a packed railway platform with thousands,
yes, thousands, of fans waiting to greet them? It happened to us.
I’ve never seen anything quite like it. Or
where would you find, for an ordinary club practice match, more than 7,000 fans
yelling their heads off at a goal in such a game? That’s Italy … and Italian
Soccer fans!
Italian football? Well, I’m living and learning
and, having had one sobering taste of discipline, I can say I’m really
beginning to understand the differences between the way we played it at home
and how I have to now.
What one has to get used to, particularly as a
centre-forward is much closer marking than at home. I call the wing-half, left
or right, who has to mark me, the “gluepot”.
The system in Italy is for the centre-half to
lie behind the entire defence, on patrol for trouble. Thus I have a wing-half
covering me.
Italian football is rather more defensive than
ours. This is especially true of visiting teams for the idea is to try to hold
a point. That is a generalisation, teams do vary in style to some extent. I
don’t mind the closer marking now, particularly as alongside me there is Law.
If I can lure my “shadow” for a “walk” it
creates a space which Denis can move into with the result he alone can bring.
I suppose the recent scenes in the match
between Roma and Birmingham have had people at home throwing up their hands and
exclaiming: “Those foreigners, the way they play football!”
I wasn’t at that game. That same night I was
playing for Torino against Manchester City at Maine Road where, l am proud to
say, the Baker brothers, Gerry for City and I, got four goals between us, with
a crowd of relatives looking on.
Let me say this about the differences in the
game back home and in Italy. It took me some time to get over the checking and
obstruction. But you do NOT hope to get the crash-bang tackling which we so
readily accept back home.
And you do NOT get the injuries, at least
nothing like the serious ones, as you do in British football. A player breaking
a leg in Italy is unheard of, yet it is almost a weekly happening at home. So,
rules or no rules, there is something to be said for the way the Continental
game is played.
I was niggled when I first met the obstruction
tactics. I got to such a pitch that, against Lanerossi, I wasn’t able to
control myself. To my regret I took a swing at an opponent and was sent off for
the automatic two-game suspension. May I add that I was more than normally
provoked.
Until that day I had never had a referee even
question my game, wherever I had played. It was a bitter lesson, but I learned
from it.
Training in Italy is very different from that
at home, and nothing like as hard. We have the heat to contend with, of course,
and it would be foolish to train as I used to do. But discipline is far more strict.
We train mostly in the late afternoon. We can
go to the ground in the morning for showers, but the main session begins later.
It comes easy to me. No lapping. When you run it is part of an exercise. And
there is far more ball-work, which makes training interesting all the time.
For three nights before a match we have to be
in bed by ten-thirty. This is a strict rule which we—Denis, Hugo and l—have no
trouble in keeping. I must here introduce Hugo. But for him I might not be out
here. We are cousins, have been pals for years.
When Torino came for me I realised that the
toughest part of the move would be that of being on my own, knowing nothing of
the language. So Torino took Hugo, too. It is written into my contract that he
stays with me—Denis Law hadn’t signed then.
Now Hugo has a job in a local insurance. We
three share a flat but soon we hope to move into a handsome villa, overlooking
the city. Another club training rule which is different from any at home is
that we must, repeat MUST, sleep for two hours before a game. At first I
scorned this. I wasn’t used to it and had difficulty in dropping off.
Now I know it is an excellent idea, and they
have to knock extra loud to waken me. I feel better for it and more ready to go
when the time comes. Before a big game we may be collected together in a hotel
for days to ensure that we get maximum rest.
There are no language difficulties at our
pre-match talks because Gigi Peronace is usually around to translate for Denis
and I. But even without him I don’t think we would be hampered. Soccer tactics
scan to have a universal language.
A word about fans. The Italian types, for all
their fanaticism, are not the fierce partisans that the Scots are. And they are
funny in their way.
For instance, those practice games at which
they will turn up in force … it shook me to hear practice goals getting an
ovation, particularly when some of these games are defence v attack, with seven
players on the attacking side!
Possibly because we are fair-haired, Denis Law
and I are easily spotted when we are out in town. And we are still something of
a novelty. But it is fatal for us to stop if we are taking a stroll.
Before we know where we are a great crowd
surges round, some for autographs, but mostly they just stand and stare! It can
be very embarrassing, too, to be having a meal and to look round to see dozens
of fans pressed against the restaurant window. But it is all very friendly.
My greatest night so far is the one when we
beat Juventus, our greatest rivals. I managed to sneak past John Charles to get
the winner. You should have seen what happened afterwards!
For hours that evening the traffic was at a
dead stop. Thousands of Torino fans filed behind a boy tolling a most mournful
bell as he led a series of black coffins with the word “Juventus” on one and
the names of Charles and other Juventus players on the them!
That gives you an idea of the fantastically
fervid atmosphere for soccer in Italy. To me, a new boy and a foreigner, it is
a big challenge. But it is simply great and I haven’t had a moment of regret
about my move.”
