Seb Rozental - Rangers supporters were incredible after injury KO

[ian1964 10,596]

Walter Smith was a father figure to me and Rangers supporters were incredible after injury KO - Seb Rozental

 

THE Chile striker has opened his heart on how much the Light Blues fanbase helped after suffering a horrid knee injury.

 

SEB ROZENTAL sat alone in a Glasgow hotel room – 7000 miles from his Santiago home.

 

There was no internet in 1996. No Whatsapp or Facetime. And a botched operation by a US surgeon had left his Rangers career hanging by a thread.

 

As the club’s latest £4million striker, the Chilean should have been at his lowest ebb. But try telling Rozental he must have endured dark days at Ibrox. He’s having none of it.

 

Instead he rates the Rangers experience as the best time of his life. In fact, as a

20-year-old kid in a foreign country, it shaped him.

 

A damaged knee and almost two-and-a-half years out couldn’t possibly have improved him as a player. But boy, did he grow as a person.

 

In January it will be 20 years since Rozental arrived in Scotland from South America and was hailed as a marquee signing at Ibrox.

 

To this day the former Universidad Catolica forward remembers Walter Smith as a father figure. Last week, Rozental was back in Govan for the first time since he left in 2000. And all the memories came flooding back.

 

He rates his goal against St Johnstone – on his first start – as one of four key moments of his career. Unfortunately for him, it was also the beginning of an agonising four-year period when injury ensured that Rangers fans only saw his scoring prowess in fleeting glimpses.

 

Now 39, the Chilean works for an agency who look after their country’s top players including Arsenal star Alexis Sanchez.

 

He helps players settle abroad when they earn a big move to Europe, a pertinent point when he recalls his own transfer to Rangers back in 1996.

 

Speaking exclusively to MailSport, Rozental said: “It was a different era in terms of technology and everything else. I came on my own to the opposite side of the world to a huge club.

 

“I look at 20-year-olds now who go to play in a different country. They have Facetime, Whatsapp, Twitter, live TV from their own country.

 

“I was in a hotel for six months with three TV channels in my room. I had no computer, no internet, no email, nothing.

 

“But apart from that, it was the best experience I had in my life outside of Chile. After Rangers, my career wasn’t too good. But I got the chance to live in many different countries.

 

“I can say though that in none of those places did I receive the love and support I experienced at Rangers.

 

“All of the players helped me while I was there. The coaching staff, Walter Smith and Archie Knox, were incredible with me. Walter was like a father to me and I will always appreciate that.

 

“The fans were unbelievable with me. I always tell people in Chile about the experience I had in Glasgow. I tell them, I can name 1000 players who were more important than me, and played more games than me, in Rangers’ history.

 

“But the fans treat me like I was

so important to them, it’s incredible. For every minute I played they supported me.

 

“Even now when I come back, they are so supportive. I don’t know why. It’s difficult to understand because I didn’t do anything for the club.

 

“I would like to think it’s because of the way I behaved whenever I represented Rangers but I don’t know.

 

“The only thing I know is I love that place. Everyone thinks I’ve bad memories because I missed two-and-a-half years and had four operations. But I loved it. I loved the fans, the city, even the weather.

 

“It was a great experience for me and it made me grow as a person.”

 

Rozental became Rangers’ first South American player when he arrived from Universidad Catolica. In the same way as when Oleg Kuznetsov was brought from Russia six years previously, it was a major signing for the Ibrox club.

 

His debut was a brief appearance off the bench at Fir Park against Motherwell but every Rangers fan will remember that first start against Saints in the Scottish Cup. The composed finish to score from a Paul Gascoigne pass. The celebration afterwards.

 

But then his failure to reappear in the second half – unaware he wouldn’t be injury-free again for 30 months.

 

Rozental said: “It was mixed emotions against St Johnstone because I actually got injured in the first minute. But I carried on, knowing my knee wasn’t right. I didn’t want to come off.

 

“The excitement, the adrenalin and everything else kept me going for a half. Scoring my first goal at Ibrox in front of those fans, it was amazing.

 

“In my career I have a lot of memories but there are four incredible moments I will never forget. Playing for Chile was one. My goodbye game for Universidad Catolica before I signed for Rangers was another. And the U17 World Cup in 1993 for Chile is the third.

 

“But the other one is that goal against St Johnstone. It was one of the best moments in my life.

 

“I’d have felt embarrassed to leave the pitch after one minute. The supporters had been waiting on my arrival and the club paid a lot of money for me.

 

“I was looking at my family in the stand. My four grandparents were there, my mother, father and brother.

 

“Plus, 50,000 Rangers fans. So it wasn’t that I felt pressure. It would have been more about the embarrassment of going off so early. I wasn’t too down after the game. It was a simple, small injury. I was certain I’d be back in between a month and two months’ time.

 

“But the operation in the US was very bad. It killed my Rangers career. It took me two-and-a-half years to come back fully recovered.

 

“It was a small injury that didn’t even require an operation. I should have been back playing within eight weeks.

 

“The operation didn’t go well, sometimes it happens. I think 90 per cent of surgeons wouldn’t have carried out that operation on the injury I had. But I don’t regret it. Sometimes that’s the way life goes, I don’t have any bad feelings towards the surgeon.

 

“It’s just sad because I had a lot of expectation on myself going to Rangers, as did the club towards me. But I can’t have any regrets.”

 

The one decision Rozental does rue to this day is leaving Glasgow in 2000. He had finally re-established himself under Dick Advocaat and hit five goals in 14 games in a league and cup double season.

 

With ambitions to get back playing for Chile, he opted to return home but never felt the same adulation he had received in Glasgow at any other stop-off in his career.

 

That’s why coming back last week was special for Rozental. Thanks to Scottish agent John Viola and his company Viola FC, he was reunited with ex-team-mates Charlie Miller and Derek McInnes.

 

And shortly before going back to South America, Rozental said: “I remember playing in the Scottish Cup semi-final against Ayr at Hampden when we won 7-0 and I scored twice.

 

“That was one of my last games for Rangers and I realise now I made the wrong decision to return to South America.

 

“I had two-and-a-half years left on my contract but wanted to be closer to the national team.

 

“I chose to go back but it wasn’t my best decision. I should have stayed with Advocaat. But listen, it’s hard to regret any decision.

 

“Life takes you places, to where I am now and I’m really happy. I work for a big agency in Chile called 22.

 

“I’m so glad I came back to Scotland for a few days. It was a strange feeling, being at Ibrox last Saturday. The atmosphere against Hamilton was amazing, to see how the fans support the team was incredible.

 

“The only time I’ve been back since I left Rangers was in 2014 for 36 hours. I just happened to be close by in Newcastle, so I had a quick visit.

 

“But this was my first time back at Ibrox since I left the club in 2000. In January, it will be 20 years since I signed so it was a fantastic feeling on Saturday. The memories I have from Rangers are the best of my career.”

 

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/walter-smith-father-figure-rangers-8630111

[Gribz 745]

He was going to be top notch had he not got injured. Remember him being Chile's second striker to Zamaramo. I was sitting in Broomloan front when he caught his studs in the grass, you could tell straight away it was a bad one, so unlucky.

[craig 5,199]

No internet in 1996 ? What world was the author of this piece living in ???

[the gunslinger 3,366]

I've been flapping since 94 at least on the Internet.

[JFK-1 1,691]

To be fair the internet in 1996 was in it's infancy. Dial up, typical 14kb/s modems and nothing like the options we see today plus pc ownership which at the time was the only way to get online far less internet access was rare.

 

It's 1996, and you're bored. What do you do? If you're one of the lucky people with an AOL account, you probably do the same thing you'd do in 2009: Go online. Crank up your modem, wait 20 seconds as you log in, and there you are—"Welcome." You check your mail, then spend a few minutes chatting with your AOL buddies about which of you has the funniest screen name (you win, pimpodayear94).

 

Then you load up Internet Explorer, AOL's default Web browser. Now what? There's no YouTube, Digg, Huffington Post, or Gawker. There's no Google, Twitter, Facebook, or Wikipedia. A few newspapers and magazines have begun to put their articles online—you can visit the New York Times or Time—and there are a handful of new Web-only publications, including Feed, HotWired, Salon, Suck, Urban Desires, Word, and, launched in June, Slate.

 

But these sites aren't very big, and they don't hold your interest for long. People still refer to the new medium by its full name—the World Wide Web—and although you sometimes find interesting stuff here, you're constantly struck by how little there is to do. You rarely linger on the Web; your computer takes about 30 seconds to load each page, and, hey, you're paying for the Internet by the hour. Plus, you're tying up the phone line. Ten minutes after you log in, you shut down your modem. You've got other things to do—after all, a new episode of Seinfeld is on.

 

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2009/02/jurassic_web.html

[craig 5,199]

Doesn't matter, it was a factually incorrect statement.

[the gunslinger 3,366]

I think the spirit of what was said was sound enough.

[Gribz 745]

Its almost true, I admit I hadn't heard of the internet in 1996 and it was all about land lines for communication then. Those were the days....Comparing it to the robotic world of today is a world of difference - probably a discussion in its own right.

[craig 5,199]

Its almost true, I admit I hadn't heard of the internet in 1996 and it was all about land lines for communication then. Those were the days....Comparing it to the robotic world of today is a world of difference - probably a discussion in its own right.

 

You were a baby in 1996 though

[pete 2,499]

You were a baby in 1996 though

 

I didn't have a computer to about 2001. Please say I was a Baby.