The Ultimate Musicians XI

1. Julio Iglesias (Real Madrid)

As a young man, Iglesias was one of the most promising young football players in Spain, earning a spot as goalkeeper Real Madrid’s youth team. But in September 1963, he lost control of his car and suffered an accident which left paralysed from the waist down. While he was recuperating a nurse gave him a guitar.






2. David Essex (Leyton Orient)

David Essex could have been one of the first Romany footballers. Twenty years before the arrival of Freddy Eastwood in professional football, Essex was playing for West Ham’s Youth team. “Frank Lampard senior  always maintains that I could’ve been a professional, but I’m not so sure,” he says.  “I played at left back and I think being naturally left-footed helped me. Leyton Orient, who were in the old English second division at the time, wanted to sign me as an apprentice”. The Orient manager said to me one day “I’m Gonna make you a starrriaiaiaiaarrrr.”  A left-back he may have been, but as you can see, Pavarotti’s grabbed the number 3 shirt, and I’m not going to argue with him.






3. Pavarotti (Modena Juniors)

The Telegraph obituary calls him a “gifted goalkeeper and winger.” After excelling in goal for Modena youth, he was given a trial by the senior side, who apparently stuck him out on the wing. He joined the legion of bar-room triallists who never made it “because they played me out of position.” He was a devoted fan of Juventus, hence the famous saying; “it’s not over until the old lady sings”.



4. Robbie Williams (Bayern Munich)

We’ve all seen Robbie Williams in those celeb games, and he’s not half bad, let’s be fair. When he played in Munich recently, the story is that he was offered a trial with Bayern. Of course they were taking the piss, but that’s good enough to get him in my team.









5. Des O’Connor (Northampton)
Good old Des. Out of all these wannabes, Des is the man who actually did it. Des O Connor actually played for Northampton Town.









6. Nicky Byrne (Leeds United)
The Dublin-born Westlife singer played in goal for Leeds United’s 1997 FA Youth Cup winning team. After his two year contract expired, he played in trail games for Scarborough and Cambridge United before returning to join Dublin club Shelbourne. He represented the Republic of Ireland at U15, U16 and U18 levels. There is no way that I can drop Julio Iglesias though – so Byrne gets a game in midfield for me.









7. Rod Stewart (Brentford)

Rod was once a young football hopeful, spending a period on trial with London side, Brentford. But he didn’t like the fact he had to clean the first team players’ boots. And that’s why he left. Not because he wasn’t good enough.


















8. Mark Owen (Manchester United)

The Take That star’s first ambition as a youngster was to be a footballer. Showing no interest in music at school, he went on to have trials with Huddersfield Town, Rochdale and even the mighty Manchester United before a groin injury ended his hopes of making the grade.

Hmm, he’s 5 foot five. That makes me very suspicious about any “trial”. Maybe when he was eight or something.









9. Olly Murs (Witham Town)

“Semi professional” with Witham Town’s Reserves apparently (probably means free beer and a sandwich). In a local newspaper, his old football coach is surprised by his success. “It’s funny because he never used to sing football songs on the way to matches in the school mini-bus and he didn’t have the most unique goal celebrations,” Mr Ferguson said. Likewise, Pavarotti’s old trainer was amazed that Luciano didn’t sing an operatic area while taking a goalkick. Nor was there a white hankerchief to wave as he took the crowd’s adulation at the end of a match.






10. Johnny Marr

“I was with the Man City juniors and was offered an apprenticeship with Nottingham Forest, but I realised my true passion was music.”
Not good enough in other words.















11. Mark “Sparky” Roberts (CPD Inter Ifor)
Marc Roberts of Catatonia gets picked purely because he played for my team in Cardiff, CPD Inter Ifor. In those days of “Cool Cymru”, we had quite a few members of the various South Walian bands turn out for us. Marc was a regular, and Cerys Matthews came on as sub on one memorable occasion. Our biggest fan was Welsh Artist of the Year 2010, Elfyn Lewis. The best player was Welsh DJ Dafydd Du, who was seriously quite good.