Philippe Albert wrote his name into Tyneside folklore with that delightful chip over Peter Schmeichel to round off a never-to-be-forgotten 5-0 Newcastle United victory over Man United.
Even 23 years later that game - and that goal - are still talked about by Newcastle fans like it was yesterday.
Albert had already won the hearts of United fans due his tendency - despite being a defender - to throw caution to the wind and attack as a key part of The Entertainers side built by Kevin Keegan .
Now 52, Albert is back living in Charleroi and has opened up on his time at Newcastle in an interview with The Guardian.
On the players who made up The Entertainers
Les [Ferdinand] was the best header of the ball I’ve seen. Better than Alan Shearer. He would jump and just stay in the air, floating.
Tino [Asprilla] was also a great player. When he wanted to play, he could win a game by himself. But when he didn’t want to play, it was like playing with 10 men. That’s difficult in the Premier League. He was a funny guy: he might not wake up for training, be 40 minutes late and then two days later would score a hat-trick against Barcelona in the Champions League. He was different.
On working with Kevin Keegan
Keegan was a big part of why every player came to Newcastle. When you speak to him, you just want one thing: to join the club. You don’t need to talk about money; he was just so charismatic. As a kid, I would watch him on television playing for Liverpool or Hamburg and a few years later I was playing under him.
Keegan was a world star. Even if I had played just six months under him, that would have been the best time of my life. When I met him, I knew straight away.
On the team spirit on away games
When we travelled back to Newcastle from London, we often had five or six hours to kill on the coach. On the way Steve Watson used to bring videos and Viz comics. Even if we didn’t understand everything, Kevin and the whole team were always laughing.
On the way back, before we got on the motorway, Kevin used to stop the coach at a petrol station, go and buy some drinks out of his own pocket and bring them back for the team: red wine, white wine, lager, water, soft drinks. Then, when we passed a certain place on the M1, he would buy us all fish and chips.
On fans watching the team train at Maiden Castle
We used to have three or four thousand fans watching first-team training.
The people were tremendous. Kevin was always the last one in to take a shower. If he had to sign 800 autographs, he would do it. No names but I remember two players wanted to leave straight after training.
I remember Keegan grabbed them by the neck and told them: ‘You go back. Sign for those people – they are paying your wages.’ That’s Kevin.
On his favourite bar in Newcastle
Once a month, normally on a Monday night, we would go out for a meal, even the reserves. Afterwards some players would go home, some would go out, mingle with the fans maybe. Personally, I always liked Martha's Bar.
On settling down at Newcastle
Day-in, day-out I would regularly just go out in the streets, shopping with my wife.
I would talk to people – that’s just how I was raised. People liked that, I think.
I think this is why I settled very well in Newcastle . I came from the same kind of world. My dad worked for 36 years in a metal factory, from 14 until 50 years of age.
We had everything we wanted to be happy but not a lot of money. We didn’t go on holidays, because it was impossible financially, but I had no problem with this. It was a normal life.
On losing in the Charity Shield - and getting their own back against Manchester United
We were outplayed (at Wembley), hammered.
We had come back from Thailand and Japan in pre-season and honestly we were very tired. Some of their players like Roy Keane were professional and said nothing but some of the younger ones, they were taking the mickey, ridiculing us.
In the dressing room afterwards Keegan said nothing. But when they came to St James’ Park later that year, Kevin just gave out the team sheet and said: ‘Remember Wembley’. That was enough: we went out there and won 5-0.
On that chip . . .
It was a good goal.
After the match Keegan went around the dressing room shaking hands with everybody. He was delighted. We were given the next day off.
