Books: Mad Dog Gravesen: The Last of the Modern Footballing Mavericks (2019)

The best bits from a book on football’s ‘last maverick’ Thomas Gravesen – the Everton and Real Madrid midfielder turned reclusive millionaire

The midfielder was renowned for his tough tackling but is now better-known for his off-field exploits

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/european/thomas-gravesen-last-maverick-real-madrid-a8780966.html

Footballer Thomas Gravesen has been described “as a grenade with the pin pulled out.”

The bald-headed Dane’s eccentric ways and outlandish antics were legendary within the game .

He shocked team-mates, coaches and managers on his journey from boyhood heroes Vejle Boldklub to German giants Hamburg SV, English heavyweights Everton, the world’s most glamorous club Real Madrid and Scottish powerhouses Celtic.

But at the age of 32, he suddenly retired and disappeared only to resurface several years later living in a luxurious gated community in Las Vegas, with Andre Agassi and Nicolas Cage as neighbours.

Rumours swirl that the midfielder made himself a £100 million fortune in the US, there’s also reports he lost $54 million in a high stakes game of poker.

Very little is actually known about the man dubbed Mad Dog, with some in Denmark even labelling him a unicorn due to the mystery that surrounds him.

He was a world famous footballer, but so much is unclear apart from his engaging and totally unique personality which saw him become a cult hero everywhere he went.

But a new book pulls back the curtain and lets fans find out about the life and times of one of the most colourful players ever to exist. Below are an insight into some of the tales found in Mad Dog Gravesen: The Last of the Modern Footballing Mavericks.

Mad Dog Gravesen: The Last of the Modern Footballing Mavericks by Chris Sweeney is on sale now from Pitch Publishing
A dip in the bubble pool

There was a bizarre incident while at Hamburg in which Thomas and partner-in-crime Allan Jepsen decided to have a laugh one afternoon.
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A new book on Gravesen is released this month

They covered the entire wellness area at the team’s training base in foam, soap and shampoo, so it became their own personal giant, infinity-style swimming pool made of bubbles.

The pair got naked and began sliding through the whole building all the way to the swimming pool, where they launched in by doing cannonballs. A member of staff was alerted and came in to catch the young Danes having the time of their lives. Their only punishment was to clean the place up before the manager saw it.
Chopper Gravesen

It was only thanks to HSV team-mate Bernd Hollerbach that Thomas and his love of motorbikes was rumbled too.

Defender Hollerbach had a reputation for driving very fast in his Porsche, ignoring any speed limits where they were in place as Germany’s Autobahn allows drivers to go as fast as they like in some parts

A club insider revealed how one day Hollerbach arrived at HSV’s training ground looking crestfallen but also with an expression of shock on his face. The source said, ‘He’d been speeding as usual, overtaking everyone, when out of nowhere a biker flew past him doing 160mph. The rider was clinging on for dear life dressed in a t-shirt, shorts and flip-flops but his identity was hidden under a helmet. The tale goes that with a shake of the head, Hollerbach sighed, ‘The bloke must have had a screw loose ’. It was only when he got inside to change for training that he spotted Thomas standing there in a t-shirt, shorts and flip-flops. It was him who’d been riding the bike! He was casually getting ready, thinking nothing of it, and went out for the day’s session leaving Hollerbach dumbfounded.

The club then discovered that Thomas wasn’t just using the motorbike for high-speed dashes to training. He was actually going home to Vejle most days of the week. One way, the journey is 175 miles and usually takes around three hours, but speed freak Thomas was doing it in well under two. He’d leave training, go home, and then come back for the next session. It underlined just how much energy Thomas had and with no one there to rein him in, he was spending his days driving like a maniac back to the small, sleepy town where he felt most at ease.
The other half

Archie Knox who was the assistant manager when Thomas joined Everton said, ‘He just got into scrapes left, right and centre. He always had plenty to say, he’d challenge everything even in training, but Thomas always insisted that he was in the right. There was never a chance of him backing down. He was that determined, to him he was always in the right. But he had more good about him than he had bad, there’s no doubt about that.’

As well as always acting up and having a laugh in training, Archie was fascinated by how Thomas interacted with his childhood sweetheart Gitte Pedersen. She’d also left Hamburg and joined Everton’s ladies’ team. After he’d done his work for the day, Thomas and Gitte would do extra training and play against each other. Archie could barely believe his eyes at what one of the strongest and most powerful players in the English Premier League, known for its high degree of physicality, was up to. Archie was shocked as he saw Thomas flying into tackles and using his body as if he was in the middle of a full-blooded match Instead, it was with his own childhood sweetheart in an indoor hall. Archie recalled, ‘She played for the ladies’ team and they used to go in the gym and play one v ones But he’d batter the ball at her as if he was playing against a man It was in the big indoor gym at Bellefield [Everton’s training ground] They’d play for ages in there, the two of them going at it ’.
Some summer

Then at Celtic he had the entire club scratching their heads about what his plans were for the summer break.

Normal service is for players to be pictured on golden beaches in far-flung places, cruising about in exotic sports cars or on Sunseeker yachts. After all, they’re wealthy young men with free time on their hands, but not Thomas.

Celtic team-mate Mark Wilson explained: ‘When he came to the club, I was 23 or so, we were all into Call of Duty at that point, so when Thomas came in he said he played it as well. We didn’t know how good he was and he said his mate was the top player in the world. We looked him up and he was. Then, at the end of that season, when we asked him, “What are you doing in the summer?”, Thomas said “Just back home, lad” and he said he’d go back to his parents’ house, go in the basement and play computer games constantly. I’m thinking, “Jesus Christ, this guy has got millions, he could go anywhere in the world and at that time he had his porn star girlfriend and he goes home to sit in a basement ”. It was so far from what a footballer of his stature was about.’

Mad Dog Gravesen – The Last of the Modern Footballing Mavericks

By Editor 17 February, 2019 No Comments

Mad Dog Gravesen – The Last of the Modern Footballing Mavericks

MAD DOG GRAVESEN – The Last of the Modern Footballing Mavericks by Chris Sweeney has just been published by Pitch Publishing. The Celtic Star spoke to the author about one of the maddest players ever to have pulled on the Hoops and why he decided to write a book about the Great Dane. Below is our exclusive interview with the author of Mad Dog Gravesen – The Last of the Modern Football Mavericks and next we’ll publish a Celtic specific extract from this entertaining new book, so stay tuned to The Celtic Star for that!

Hi Chris, MAD DOG GRAVESEN – The Last of the Modern Footballing Mavericks is your new book that’s just been published by Pitch Publishing. Congratulations on that! Can you tell us something about the book, what the reader can expect and why you decided to write a book about the Great Dane?

I decided to write about Thomas as I was fascinated with him, more as a person than a footballer. I felt he was well-known for his career on the field, but a lot about his off-field persona wasn’t so well known. It struck me that we no longer have these larger than life characters in top level sport, particularly football.

You don’t get that intangible quality anymore, a lot of the players now come through the academies and are so sanitised, a guy like Thomas would never have made made it through that sort of environment. I hope people get a book that lets them find out about the man behind the player and also reminds the fans how refreshing and inspiring it can be when you encounter a true maverick, which without a doubt Thomas is.

This is your second book, but the first one that’s football related. What was your first book about and how did you go from there to writing about the former Celtic star Tommy Gravesen?

My first book was about the BMX star John Buultjens who’s from Glasgow, he went from being thrown in a fire by his abusive father, to then being locked up for attacking him with a kitchen knife, to being adopted and discovering BMX which allowed him to live a completely different life. His journey has since been turned into a movie with Steven Speilberg even giving it his support. I went from there to Thomas quite easily. I’m attracted to people who are cut from a different cloth and live without compromises.

You’ve interviewed some big stars over the years, including the likes of P Diddy, Amy Winehouse, Mike Fleetwwod and Jon Bon Jovi. Any interesting stories you can share about interviewing these stars?

That was really my day job and how I got started in the media, I actually still do some of that now. In terms of stories, if anyone remembers P Diddy coming to Glasgow to perform for MTV, I was the one who talked him into wearing the kilt that night. But when we were talking as I was explaining why he should do it, I gave him the line “you’ve got the legs for it” which I think due to different cultures and in his macho world, I don’t think he was used to a guy telling him that. So we had a few awkward moments before he realised where I was coming from.

I’ve thrown clumps of mud at Sex Pistols’ fans with Calvin Harris who were giving him stick and started throwing mud at him first, so we returned the compliment. Most of the big names are pretty decent people, I really like Mark Ronson who always enjoys a chat, Noel Gallagher loves if you bring up football as he’s sick of being asked the same things, so last time we had a chat about why Manchester City seem to give so many players to Celtic. Another guy who loves his football is Maxi Jazz from Faithless, he was telling me about how he has to go all proper to games now as he’s a director at Crystal Palace.

What did you learn about Tommy Gravesen’s time at Celtic – it’s fair to say that he seemed to split opinions among the support at the time?

The main thing I learned was ironically what spurred me on to write the book, there is a lot of unknown and mystery there. The Celtic fans I spoke to are bemused about what happened, and lots of them recall how he scored twice against Rangers. Here was a guy coming from Real Madrid, clearly with tons of ability and he ends up only playing for one season and ultimately retires aged 32 after going on a youth team trip to Ireland. That was the last anyone heard of him for several years until he resurfaced in Las Vegas. I hope the book opens up some of those mysteries and provides some answers.

Clearly after his football career, things seemed to get even crazier for Tommy Gravesen. What can you tell us about his life after he hung up his boots?

He moved to Vegas but now lives back in Denmark. There are lots of rumours about how much money he has earned and how he earned it. With Thomas it is hard to nail anything down, he’s a recluse of sorts and in Denmark has even been nicknamed The Unicorn due to his mythical status.

What’s the story about Gravesen and Mike Tyson and is it true that he once brought dynamite to training?

Yep, dynamite was brought into training in Hamburg. He referred to it as his “special fireworks” – the tale is in the book, but a crater was left on the training field that day. Mike Tyson was enchanted by Thomas after going to see an international game in Copenhagen, he loved his aggressive and free-wheeling style. So much so, Tyson asked for his shirt and wore it for the rest of his time in Denmark, as he was there for a fight which set up his big clash with Lennox Lewis.

We understand that you spoke to someone in each of his club and international dressing rooms, from Vejle, Hamburg, Everton, Real Madrid and Celtic, plus Denmark at World Cup/Euros. There must have been some common themes coming across in these conversations about Tommy?

The book goes through all of his life and career, and everybody remembers him vividly. He was a guy who made a serious impression, no matter where he went. One thing that gets overlooked with all the outlandish antics and bizarre incidents is that he was a top player with bags of skill. All the football people were keen to stress how good he was and probably better than most fans appreciated. But they all said they would not be surprised to learn of anything he’d done, nothing is impossible when it comes to Thomas.

Tell us about him apparently making a £100million fortune in Las Vegas – is this true and what is the story about him losing another fortune in high stakes poker game?

There is a tale of him losing $54 million in a single game of one-on-one poker. Plus there’s the news of him winning the £100 million fortune. Thomas has never said any of it is true or not, but my book looks at the reasons behind it. Although one thing I do say in the book, Gordon Strachan claiming Thomas makes a fortune as the second best Call of Duty players in the world is rubbish.

Is there still a place for mavericks like Gravesen in football and if not, do you think that the game is poorer for it?

I don’t think there is. Even if you take a club like Celtic in a relatively small commercial market like Scotland, the stadium is plastered with corporate signs or adverts. The game is now a business and that has turned the players into assets, so image and perception are important.

The academies churn out these strong, fit and talented athletes but hardly any display a real distinctive character and if they do have it, they chose to suppress it. I’m not having a pop at Celtic as all the clubs are in the same situation, but is there anyone in the squad that fans would love to know more about or find really interesting as a person?

I think Thomas is one of the few players in recent history that fall into that bracket and probably the last we’ll see for a long time reach the levels of being somewhere like Real Madrid.

Do you keep in touch with Celtic games from your home in Zurich and if so what do you think of the current Celtic side as opposed to the team that Tommy Gravesen was apart of?

I’m not a massive Celtic fan any longer. My father is a diehard and really is far more passionate than me. I did get a season ticket one year for Christmas though and when I was a boy I’d get the players autographs, the best memory of that time is how genuine and warm Tommy Burns was. Him giving his time and seemingly caring about me standing there to meet him, how he conducted himself around me had a far bigger impact than me watching Pierre van Hooijdonk score in the ’95 Scottish Cup Final to end the long trophy drought or going to some of the big European games during the run to Seville.

Where can Celtic supporters get a copy of Mad Dog Gravesen?

They can get in book shops, it should be in the main ones like Waterstones. But it’s also on Amazon if they prefer that and they can ORDER HERE or click on the book cover below…