00:00The year is 2001. England are 4-1 up in Munich and Emil Heskey is bearing down on goal.
00:24Calmly, coolly, as if beyond all doubt, he rolls in the fifth.
00:37For a moment, he's part of English football history. But, fast forward a few years and
00:42the story is very different. By the late 2000s, Heskey isn't remembered for that goal in Germany,
00:48nor the treble he won with Liverpool. He's remembered for the mishaps, the jokes, for
00:53coming off the bench when the game's already gone. For the Heskey time.
00:57If you were at school back then, you knew it. The kid who blazed one over the bar at lunchtime
01:01got called Heskey for all eternity. In pubs, Heskey was shorthand for stick the big man
01:07up top and we'll see what happens. His name wasn't just that of a player anymore, it was
01:12a punchline. Heskey is definitely the best player to rely on. Heskey has the skills to
01:19pay the bills. Clumsy, slow, couldn't score. That's the myth. But here's the thing. Behind
01:25the memes and the banter, Emil Heskey was trusted by every manager he ever played for. He made
01:31Michael Owen look electric. Steven Gerrard called him a dream to have up top. So, how did
01:36this happen over the course of just a few years and where does it leave his legacy in the game?
01:41I'm Matt from 442 and this is Respect the Net.
01:43And Heskey's coming in the other side of Elias! And it's a goal! Here's Heskey, the flag stays
01:50down. Here comes Heskey! That'll do it! Gerrard with the cross. It's towards Heskey!
01:55Heskey was a Leicester lad through and through. Born and bred. Living close enough to Filbert Street
02:05to hear the roar on a match day. A stadium that would ring out with his name by the end
02:09of his teens. The local boy representing the local club. By 17, he'd made his first
02:14team debut. By 19, he was a Premier League starter.
02:18Under Martin O'Neill, Leicester weren't exactly anyone's idea of, um, glamorous. They weren't
02:23Wenger's European flavour of Arsenal or Fergie's unstoppable United dynasty. But with Heskey
02:29leading the line, Muzzy Izzet pulling the strings and Matty Elliott snapping at heels, they were
02:34self-organised, hard to stop. Six-foot-two and built to bully, Heskey's pace and strength
02:40terrified defenders. But he wasn't just big. He was selfless, clever, the perfect foil for
02:45a smaller strike partner. Tony Cotty was one of the first beneficiaries of having Heskey
02:50as a partner and definitely wasn't the last. In the 1997 League Cup Final, we saw the best
02:56of him. Hassling defenders, running channels, setting the tone. Victory was Leicester's first
03:01major trophy in decades. Three years later, they won it again. And by then, Heskey was
03:07their talisman. Martin O'Neill called him irreplaceable. In fact, his reputation had grown
03:11so much, he forced his way into England reckoning and attracted the attention of Liverpool, who
03:16saw it fit to splash out £11 million on him, a record fee for the club at the time.
03:22£11 million was a ridiculous amount. It was only a few million less than AC Milan had signed
03:27Andrey Shevchenko for only nine months earlier. There was no sign of a banter striker at this
03:34point. He was a hero, a hometown lad turned double cup winner who'd already written himself
03:39to club folklore and at 22 had earned the big money move.
03:46Do everyone else a favour? I'm dancing, I'm dancing, I'm dancing.
03:53It's gonna be Barnes.
03:55Curl's winning this!
03:59Still John Barnes, Collymore, closing in!
04:02Now, Liverpool in 2000 were in a bit of a transition period.
04:21For a team so successful in the 80s, the decade that followed was rather unspectacular.
04:25And at the turn of the century, Gerard Houllier was in the midst of building a new spine.
04:29Kipia, Hamann, Gerard, Owen. Now, added to this mix, came Emel Heskey.
04:35Such was the price of the move that there was always going to be critics, regardless of what he did.
04:39But with one or two already questioning his goal-scoring record, having only hit six the season beforehand,
04:45there were some big questions that needed answering. And answer them, he did.
04:50With 22 goals scored across all competitions during his first full season, the 2000-2001 campaign saw his best return in a Liverpool shirt.
04:58An unprecedented treble, as he won the FA Cup, the League Cup and the UEFA Cup.
05:04And arguably, even more impressively, he helped strike partner Michael Owen to win the Ballon d'Or,
05:09all whilst finishing the season with only two goals less than him.
05:13At the time, an interview with Steven Gerard summed Heskey up perfectly.
05:17He said a lot of Michael Owen's goals came from Emel's hard work and I think they complement each other well.
05:22Maybe Emel is the sort of player only appreciated by his teammates. If you play with him week in, week out,
05:28you see firsthand all the effort and hard work that he does for the team.
05:32With Owen himself even calling Heskey his favourite partner, it's fair to say that he was doing all the right things,
05:38even as the goals dried up in the following years, averaging just seven Premier League goals per season for the next three years at Anfield.
05:46For Liverpool, Heskey was part of one of the most memorable seasons in modern history.
05:51He wasn't on the back pages every week, but without him, there might not have been any back pages to write about anyways.
05:57At that moment in Heskey's career, it's easy to see why he was not only contributing to Liverpool's success,
06:03another League Cup followed in 2003, but also why he was picking up the majority of his England caps.
06:14Much has been made of England's golden generation of the 2000s, their failure to win anything,
06:19their lack of team cohesion and all the rumours of club alliances being too strong to see passed on international duty.
06:25But for Heskey, everything he bought at club level seemed to translate perfectly over to the international stage.
06:32Was he trusted by the manager to balance the attack out and do more than just contribute goals to the team?
06:37Of course he was.
06:39Did he bring a rather underwhelming amount of goals to the side because of this?
06:43Yes, his final England total stands at seven goals and 62 appearances.
06:47But did he continue to provide his teammates with better opportunities and foster some excellent relationships with both his Liverpool and international teammates?
06:57Absolutely.
06:58Picked again, again and again by four different England managers, there was obviously value to having him in the squad.
07:05And not for lack of other options, by the way.
07:07England were littered with attacking stars at the time and that actually negatively impacted public opinion.
07:13Because with so much goalscoring talent available, a very low scoring inefficient striker in terms of the numbers, the fact that he was still being picked for the national side.
07:21Well, for fans, it was frustrating and arguably kicked off the beginning of all of this disrespect.
07:27This then brings us on to the latter half of his career, where poor form and social media combined to basically bring us the very worst of football fandom.
07:36Online mockery and a reputation that was tough to shake.
07:39This, though, wasn't just from the usual faceless anonymous subjects as is common with today's abuse online.
07:46This was everywhere.
07:47On your TV screens, big YouTubers created their following off of Hesky Banter.
07:52His clips were replayed for a cheap laugh. There were rap songs even written about him.
07:57Forums with never ending jokes.
07:58And to top it all off, unfortunately, from his point of view, there was so much material to work with on a regular basis.
08:05I mean, you've got the fact he was involved in the challenge that led to England captain Rio Ferdinand missing the 2010 World Cup.
08:11Then the step overs versus Algeria at that World Cup.
08:14And the miss hit against Manchester United.
08:16Then the miss at Villa Park from four yards out.
08:19We need a goal. We bring Emil Hesky on and take Jermaine Defoe off.
08:22The thing is, when players get abused, there often seems to be some sort of redeeming moment.
08:27A match, a tournament later down the line, where they salvage their reputation, silence the haters and put themselves into a more positive light.
08:35This moment just never really came for Hesky.
08:38Ultimately, in my opinion, he was the last of a dying breed at the time.
08:42An unselfish striker who critically needed to be the supporting act.
08:46One half of a dynamic duo at the exact time when a different style of football was evolving.
08:51European football and especially Premier League football became inundated with so many different tactical styles of football, many of which didn't really suit him.
08:59For example, the archetype of a 2010 striker slash forward was a small, diminutive, skillful, speedy goal scorer.
09:06Think Messi, Villa, Torres, Tevez.
09:09Basically the complete opposite of what Hesky was bringing to the table.
09:13The game moved on, certainly from an outside perspective with coverage, the media and all sorts.
09:19But inside, the respect for an honest, hard-working throwback striker remained.
09:24The counterpoint is clear.
09:26The memes may say one thing, but the professionals say another.
09:29Emil Hesky was never going to be Thierry Henry.
09:32He wasn't built to be Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi.
09:35But as for his legacy in the game, ask Leicester fans.
09:38Ask Liverpool fans who saw him lift three trophies in one season.
09:41They'll tell you the truth about a kid from Leicester whose career most footballers would have loved to have.
09:47Over 500 Premier League appearances, 110 Premier League goals, 62 games representing his country and eight trophies.
09:55Forget the punchlines, forget the FIFA jokes.
09:58Emil Hesky, respect the name.
10:00Hesky's in the middle.
10:01Hesky!
10:02Takes it into the danger area again.
10:04Hesky's there!
10:05In towards Hesky!
10:06Hesky!
10:07Hesky!
10:08Five!
10:09Five!
10:10Five!
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