'Best stag-do I've ever been on' -Inside the incredible Aston Villa tour that made a World Cup winner wince
| Published date | 31 July 2021 |
| Publication title | Birmingham Mail: Web Edition Articles (England) |
Summoned to the pressroom at Bodymoor Heath for an important announcement, the assembled journalists, me included, couldn't stifle our juvenile giggles as news of Aston Villa's summer tour was revealed.
Of course, the dignitary delivering the news meant to say 'Peace Cup', but by then the tone was set and over the course of that summer his unfortunate mispronunciation was probably more accurate than the competition's actual name.
Villa's silver-lined 2009 pre-season adventure was unlike any other.
On the back of a standard sixth-placed finish the previous season, Martin O'Neill's men and boys were invited as the only Premier League representatives in a 12-club tournament also featuring Real Madrid, Juventus and Porto.
In fact all four of those European powerhouses, including household names like Cristiano Ronaldo, Alessandro Del Piero, Hulk and... erm... Shane Lowry, made it through to the semi-final of the competition in mainland Spain.
Villa went on to lift the Peace Cup and pocket the lucrative prize money -it was their last actual 'trophy' unless we include the 2019 play-off triumph and that ridiculous oversized thing John Terry and James Chester lifted in Germany a few years back -but that doesn't even begin to tell the story.
The tournament got off to a chaotic start for Villa. A typo in the official programme for the first match saw O'Neill referred to as Martin O'Leary, while newly-departed Gareth Barry was listed among the current Villa player profiles and director Paul Faulkner almost missed the opener after a mix-up over his accreditation left him temporarily stranded outside the La Rosaleda Stadium in Malaga. Oh, and there was a case of mistaken identity when the announcer somehow confused Ashley Young and Steve Sidwell.
Split into four groups of three, Villa were matched with Spanish hosts Malaga and Mexican club Atlante. Three of their four ties during the tournament were played at La Rosaleda.
It became a home from home for Villa, but was actually the home of La Liga opponents Malaga who beat them 1-0 in the first game to leave O'Neill's team on the brink of an early, inauspicious exit. No sooner had the travelling claret and blue faithful slapped on their sunscreen and started supping on San Miguel they feared they would have to pack away their Acorns Nike replica tops and flips flops and head back to Brum.
"The Peace Cup was an odd pre season tournament," recalls Faulkner, who was Randy Lerner's right hand man at Villa from 2006 to 2014, becoming CEO during that time. "We got involved in it and there were quite good appearance fees. I think we lost the first game and we somehow ended up getting through to the final. We'd all booked to go home. You're suddenly having to extend your stay and get another hotel."
Gabby Agbonlahor and James Milner had been left home to recover from England Under-21 exertions, while new signing Stewart Downing and full-backs Wilfred Bouma and Luke Young were also back at Bodymoor, rehabilitating from injuries, meaning call ups for a host of academy teenagers.
Emile Heskey added insult to injury when he was carried off with concussion six minutes into the tournament, but that did allow an opportunity for a lad by the name of Marc Albrighton to shine as Villa's youngsters had fun in the sun too much, if you'd seen the state of Barry Bannan's sun-burned nose by the end of the trip!.
Juventus comfortably won Group A, beating Sevilla 2-1 in Seville and defeating South Korean club Seongnam 3-0 in Jerez, while Porto emerged from Group D by seeing off Lyon 2-0 in Huelva and playing out a 0-0 draw with Besiktas in Seville.
Over at the Bernabeu, Real Madrid topped Group B, drawing 1-1 with Al-Ittihad of Saudi Arabia and beating Ecuadorian opponents LDU Quito 4-2 with new signing Cristiano Ronaldo opening the scoring.
However, the chatter among the Villa supporters who made the trip -featuring such fan legends as Steve Gough, Dave Hodges, Bob Gough, Pam and Bridge and Mick Parker -was not about CR7's first Madrid goal, it was about the promising performance of a 19-year-old winger from Tamworth. Oh and whether they needed to look for cheap flights home with their Group C prospects hanging by a thread after the surprise Malaga setback.
They needn't have worried as Albrighton and Villa decided to give Peace a chance.
By the time the tournament ticked around, Ronaldo was fresh from winning his first Ballon d'Or at Manchester United in 2008 and was well on his way to his clean sweep of silverware. But the Portuguese superstar's creaking mantelpiece can't boast the...
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