Photo: Collected
Craig Harrison begins another Champions League adventure with Welsh club New Saints on Tuesday, a competition he once aspired to play in till a horrific injury ended his career aged just 25.
A double compound fracture of the leg while playing in a reserve game for Crystal Palace brought a nightmare end after he had achieved his "boyhood dream" of becoming a professional footballer. Harrison was plunged him into the depths of despair.
Such was his depression he spent two Christmases by himself, eating baked beans on toast, but thanks to his family he came out of it and turned his life around.
Now 46, the humble Harrison has become the Welsh league champions' most decorated manager over two spells -- 17 trophies in all including winning the league title last season without losing a match. "What does not kill you makes you stronger," Harrison tells AFP, looking back to the dark days.
On Tuesday, instead of watching the Euro 2024 semi-final between France and Spain he will be pitchside at New Saints' home ground in Oswestry, Shropshire, as they host Montenegrin side Decic in the Champions League qualifying round first leg.
It will be his 20th Champions League game, edging him closer to breaking the record for the number of matches an English manager has taken charge of in European club football's premier competition.
That belongs to the late Bobby Robson, who was in the dugout for 26. Harrison though is no stranger to breaking records held by icons of the sport. In 2017, when the New Saints won 27 successive matches, they broke the mark held by the great Ajax side, including Johan Cruyff, for victories by a top-flight side.
"Yeah it is fun, bit tongue in cheek," chuckles Harrison, a former Middlesbrough teammate of Paul Gascoigne.
"Myself and the football club are not in the same league as that fantastic Ajax team or Cruyff and it is nice for me and the club to be spoken about in the same sentence.
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