Micah Richards stirs in his seat. “Sometimes, people meet me and they say: ‘Bloody hell, I didn’t realise you were a good lad.’ I wonder: “What do they expect me to be?”
Conversation has turned to the cultural influence of Raheem Sterling, the Manchester City forward who so skilfully challenges the public portrayal of young black sportsmen. Sterling’s analysis is smart. He calls out the steady drip of giddy headlines that invite presumptions about black players. The snide allusions to salaries, the references to bling, the scrutiny of the sports cars.
Advertisement
“A stereotype,” Richards agrees. “I definitely felt that. This stigma developed, that I was some kind of bling king. It is very hard to change that. When I was younger, I did like a night out. But I wasn’t a playboy. No manager has ever accused me of being disruptive or alleged that I don’t work hard.
“I don’t want to be one of those guys saying, ‘Oh, I’m black, so I am getting picked on’ but there is truth, there is fact. Life is harder because people always have a perception of you. I do know people who are blingy, flashy, arrogant — but they are people of all backgrounds.
“I’m so happy with what Raheem is doing, turning negativity into positives. It’s so powerful when a player is doing well and happy to speak out. A lot of them, in the good times, they just ride with it. They know what’s going on but do not want to ruffle feathers.”
The evidence of this conversation is that Richards is more than a good lad. We meet in the Hilton Hotel in Manchester for an interview organised by Tackle4Manchester, the charity benefiting from Vincent Kompany’s testimonial last week. All proceeds will support rough sleepers and homeless people in Manchester.
“It is an amazing thing,” says Richards. “He (Kompany) is the most intelligent man I have met and he is literally changing lives in Manchester.”
This is just the starting point, however. Over the course of a riveting hour, Richards explores the heartache of the knee injury that has curtailed his career. He speaks with brutal honesty about his three years without kicking a ball at Aston Villa, by the end reduced to a dressing room “mascot” to lift morale.
As his form and confidence ebbed away, he admits to feeling “worthless” as the club’s own supporters booed their team. Yet Richards offers light along with the shade. He is affable company, revealing about his trade. There are laughs aplenty. The scraps with Mario Balotelli. Life as Roberto Mancini’s “love child”.
Advertisement
But first, he has points to make. He speaks sensitively about the wearying impact of stereotypes. He then does a rare thing for a footballer. Unprompted, he turns the conversation to homophobia.
Richards continues: “It took me so long to shake off a stigma. It was only when City did social media videos that people saw my personality. It made me stronger as a person but we should not have to deal with it.
“There’s stuff people do not see with footballers. We are like robots. It is like we cannot show emotions, like it makes us weak. You have got to put on a brave face every day at work and people are making assumptions. Even now, in 2019, people just go online and are racist. People are voicing opinions to help but are they doing enough?
“Look at gay people — they feel they cannot come out in football because of how they might be treated. I cannot imagine what that person is going through, having to live a lie every day because they worry society may not accept them. It is horrible. I want to say, ‘It is OK (to be gay).’ Why should you have to feel that weight?
“How can we be in this age and even having this conversation? Imagine what it is doing to them, pretending to be someone else. I know people who are gay, coming out in their thirties. The problem is narrow-minded people do not understand unless we talk. It needs more people to engage, to say (it is OK). It goes back to racism, anyone different. I just think: ‘Good on you. Do not hold back. Do not worry about those people.'”
For Richards, appreciation of his achievements can be found when he returns to his roots. He grew up in Chapeltown, a “rough, tough” area of Leeds, in a house where he and two brothers shared a bedroom.
“As I’m smiley and jokey, people ask if I’m from a posh area,” Richards laughs. “I’m only smiling because I was given an amazing opportunity. People say I had it easy. I think the statistic is that 0.04 percent of players make it from academies to first team. You need so much sacrifice. I can go back there now and be respected. Certain people in football cannot return to their areas.”
Advertisement
Why is that?
“I don’t necessarily like the things footballers do,” he says. “All these kissing the badge, just doing it for the clout.
“Do I like most footballers? Not really. Joe Hart, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Joleon Lescott, Gabby Agbonlahor and a group of the guys at Villa — good people. But you get caught in this bubble. It’s, ‘Who has the best car? Who has the best house? Who has the best watch? Who has the best girlfriend?'”
Do those conversations really happen?
“I will not shirk this,” says Richards. “They happen every day. I see players skinting themselves every month to live up to this reputation. Then divorce rates are high at age 35 when we finish football. You cannot live the same life because the money is not the same. I work for the BBC now. I do it because I genuinely love football.
“A lot of the older pros — I won’t name names — they need the money and are bitter about the money in modern football. In my position, Trent Alexander-Arnold is a £100 million footballer now. I am happy for a Kyle Walker, who has kicked on under the best manager in the world. I would give my other knee to play for Pep’s City. A fit Micah Richards would be up there but I am not bitter towards these boys about their money and success.”
Yet, Richards does not pretend he was unaffected by the temptations of stardom as a teenager.
“I was driving an Aston Martin at 19. Now I drive an electric car! Maybe it is the Yorkshireman in me,” he jokes. “I loved cars but I wasn’t offensive to anyone. I was earning good money, playing for England. It was a present to myself to say I’d done well. It was hard, too, because you have so many hangers-on in your life. How do you know who is real?”
What did your dad think of the sports car? Richards smiles affectionately.
“Dad is a boring old Yorkshireman who does a lot of charity work. He thought it was unnecessary. But I was not crippling myself to afford it and when you’re young and dad tells you one thing, you’re rebellious,” says Richards.
Advertisement
“I’m proud of myself. I’ve always looked after my family. I have invested in a charity in Ethiopia for ten years. Some players become greedy, thinking it’s only about them. You can be blind to real life. I went to Lagos recently and it was horrible to see kids living like that. I suppose that’s why dad thought the car was unnecessary. Remember where you come from. Be humble. I actually had two cars, the Aston and an Audi A3. I drove the Aston with my football friends, where it was normal. When I went home to Chapeltown, I would go in the Audi to be more respectful.”
Richards is ready to unload.
In July, he retired from professional football at the age of 31. Once tipped by Sir Bobby Robson to be England’s “best defender since Bobby Moore”, he became the youngest defender to play for England (aged 18 years and 143 days in November 2006). Yet Richards did not play a competitive football match beyond his 28th year and won only 13 international caps.
The knee problems started in his teenage years. He underwent two major operations before he turned 19 and by his mid-twenties, his body was increasingly worn.
At his best, Richards was a fast, skilful, marauding full back, arguably more suited to football in 2019 than earlier in the decade, when England managers focused on perceived defensive shortcomings. He won an FA Cup and Premier League under Mancini.
Yet the strains and niggles increased. He was further undermined by the consistency of Pablo Zabaleta. The injuries that hampered his period at City then ravaged his entire career at Aston Villa.
“I would never say I was depressed,” he begins, “but I was low. You’re a footballer and you’re not playing football. It is difficult to explain that to someone without sounding spoilt. People just think ‘You’ve got a nice life’ but I so wanted to play football.
Advertisement
“When I was at City, deep down, I knew I was not getting back in. City offered me a five-year deal to stay (in 2014) but I felt I was being offered it to fill an English quota at the time. I knew I had so many injuries by then. Zabaleta was playing so well and he got one injury a season. It would be a 10-day hamstring.
“I remember once, I got injured and it was a grade two muscle tear, two or three weeks out. Zabaleta got a hamstring injury. I thought, ‘I can get back before him, here’ but he beat me to it and that was it.”
After a season at Fiorentina, Richards joined Aston Villa in 2015. Parachuted into a poor team, Richards experienced Premier League relegation in his first season.
“I knew my knee was getting worse at Villa,” he says. “The first season was dreadful and we went down. But speak to the Villa fans — take away the last three years — they were saying at the start that I should be playing for England. But the form dipped. When we were relegated, I had a chance to get out. Sunderland, West Ham and Orlando City wanted me but Villa wouldn’t sell me, saying I was too vital in the dressing room.”
Richards resents the idea he was happy to sit around on a big contract at Villa. In reality, he explains, the physical demands of the Championship were beyond a player who had pushed his body to the brink.
“By the end, it was all, ‘Micah is money-grabbing at Villa’. I was touted as money-hungry and overweight. When somebody is not doing well, they talk about how much you are on. I was not overweight. Was I in the best physical condition? No, because I could not play games, but I was in peak condition for training, 100 percent.
“I have now had four operations on my knee. I just knew it was going to come to an end. When I was younger, I always thought, ‘I can do anything’ but I felt myself turning slower, picking up hamstring injuries. It went from bad to worse.
Advertisement
“If you see me when I first burst onto the scene, you see how quickly I could turn for a big lad and how fast I was up and down the pitch. Then I started picking and choosing my time to go forwards because I was scared of my hamstring going or my knee not dealing with it. That started at City. I got away with it alongside top players but at Villa, getting tonked every week, you can’t.
“I remember playing Liverpool at home, losing 6-0 (in 2016). I just felt embarrassed. I thought, ‘This is not me. I am better than this, surely?’ But the team we had then, how I was playing, I was nowhere near good enough to be wearing the shirt. That is me being real. That was the lowest I have been.”
As Villa slumped, the mood in the Midlands turned toxic. He recalls how players’ names would be booed by supporters as they were read out at Villa Park before matches.
“We just weren’t good enough,” says Richards. “It was not that we weren’t trying. When you are out there and your own fans are booing you, that is tough. In some ways, it was easier when I was not playing because I could not be blamed for anything except not being available.
“A mate asked me if I was all right and I said ‘Of course I’m all right’. But I am not, am I? I am not playing, I feel worthless, the fans are saying horrible things about you. I was trying to do everything I could to get on the pitch.“
As the absence extended, Richards strived for purpose. He says he found himself trying to help coach Kevin McDonald around the training ground, just to feel as though he was contributing.
He adds: “The other problem I had was that managers did not come out and protect me at Villa. They could see what I was going through. Steve Bruce, a good guy, called me and said, ‘You don’t need to come in today or you don’t need to travel for this one’ but then he would have me in the day before the game to gee the lads up because I had good banter.”
Advertisement
Almost like a mascot?
“That’s what I became in the end,” Richards answers. “I was a mascot. I did it for Steve, who is such a good guy. I thought ‘If I can not help on the pitch, then let’s do it in other ways.’
“I don’t blame the Villa fans much. They didn’t have much information and I didn’t come out and talk about it because I did not want to be seen as going against a manager or the club.”
He sensed the end was nigh during his final pre-season under Bruce: ” I had got through training OK, then I had a game and pulled my hamstring after 10 minutes. That’s when Steve lost all faith in me and I thought, ‘I don’t blame you. How can you rely on someone who will pop their hamstring after 10 minutes?”
Losing hope in the summer of 2018, Richards held talks with the club’s medical staff. Discussions went so far as Richards asking the doctor for a “yes or no” answer as to whether he could play again.
Richards explains: “He said it was a grey area. If the doctor had said ‘You cannot play anymore’, I would have accepted it.”
Instead, Richards persevered again. “When Dean Smith took over last season, I trained. He said to me: ‘You’re protecting your knee, you aren’t moving correctly.’ I had given it my all and that was it.’
He pauses. “People say, ‘Oh, you should have 50 England caps and three more Premier Leagues’ – yeah, I should have but I didn’t. I accept my destiny.“
Last week, Richards was reunited with an old friend in Balotelli at the Etihad Stadium for Kompany’s testimonial. Nostalgia takes Richards back to stormy but epic times under Mancini. While many of City’s stars fell out of love with the Italian, Richards speaks glowingly.
“Mancini was unbelievable,” he says. “He wanted the best. Some players want an arm around them but he didn’t care. He cared about results and pushed people. Some didn’t know how to deal with that. I really enjoyed someone saying: ‘You’re good but let’s improve you’.
Advertisement
“A lot thought they were ready-made stars and could not be improved. Every player can improve! It got difficult between the manager and players but he won the Premier League and FA Cup, and he will always be the manager who broke the duck and won the title.”
Mancini teased his full back, calling him “Swarovski”, the inference being that Richards was made of glass. Richards smiles: “He kept saying to me, ‘If you keep getting injured, I am going to buy another full back’. I was arrogantly joking with him, saying, ‘OK, go and buy someone. Spend £50 million but they won’t be able to do what I can do’. Then Zabaleta came into the team! Oh dear!
“But I liked Roberto. Me and Balotelli were both like his love child.”
What is it like sharing a dressing room with Mario?
Richards says: “Unbelievable. He is a nightmare. But he has a great heart, great character and is a great footballer. Is it worth the time and effort? Some thought it was and some didn’t. I’m gutted he didn’t get to show his true self. This guy was scoring for Inter Milan at 18. He has had a tough life, adopted; people don’t know what he has come through. I’m not making excuses for him but everyone has their own story.”
For a time, they were close friends.
“I socialised with Mario but I had to stop because he was getting scrutinised for everything,” Richards says. “Mario, I love you, but I don’t want to be seen coming out of clubs at 3am. I had done that at 18. I don’t want girls crawling out of the back of my car. At the end of the day, the press had a love for him and I could not be around that. Deep down, he is a family man but in Manchester, he only had his brother and a couple of mates come over now and then.
“I blame the hangers-on. People see a superstar footballer and want to take advantage. Nobody was really looking out for him. When he came, he was 20. Earning all that money in a foreign city by yourself; you know there’s going to be fireworks. Literally, fireworks. Crazy. I remember hearing about it (the evening Balotelli let fireworks off inside his own house) and thinking, ‘Surely it’s not true’. Then, I saw pictures of his house and thought: ‘Oh my gosh it’s actually true.’
Advertisement
The morning after blowing out his bathroom windows, Balotelli scored twice in City’s 6-1 victory over Manchester United.
“Only he and the kitman knew about the ‘Why always me?’ vest. The scrutiny is hard for modern players. Some of the stuff we got away with in my younger years… when I did my initiation song at City, I was not allowed to do it until I had downed five beers. This was the culture and I was 17. They got away with murder. Now I feel for the modern players. You have to live like monks.”
Balotelli and Richards had one ferocious training ground scrap.
“Yes, but we made up within the same hour in the changing room. I am chilled but if I feel disrespected or someone is going over the line, I will lose my temper. It is the Chapeltown coming out in me! It was a five-a-side game. He was not tracking his man and his man kept scoring. He’s swearing at us in Italian. He kept swearing and I saw red.
“With Mario and Mancini, it was love-hate. He was like his son. Mario is always looking to wind someone up and Mancini did well to get good games out of him. He was stubborn in who he wanted to sign. We knew Mario had ability along with the baggage. And, never forget, he got the assist for THAT goal. It’s them moments. He didn’t do as well as everyone expected but that little moment won us the league.”
For Richards, that goal, that day — Sergio Aguero’s last-gasp winner over QPR that handed City the title on the final day of the 2011-12 season — was a bittersweet experience. Having started the big games, he lost his place to Zabaleta in the final weeks of the season.
“I was happy for the fans and players,” Richards says. “I was the first one to come through the academy and win the Premier League with Manchester City, something I will hold until the day I die. But I was also devastated. I was first-choice throughout the season and started big games. Then, I got injured and the manager was superstitious and didn’t want to change the team. But to not play in City’s most famous game — it still burns today.
Advertisement
“I genuinely thought I would play against QPR. The season before, Mancini played me in the FA Cup final. In my head, I thought I’d be in. Mancini did the team talk two hours before. You’re looking for your name, looking, looking, and it is not there. You have to be a team player but football is about individuals, too. It is player ratings, how well is he doing? But I knew I’d played an important role and there was no better bloke than Zabaleta to play ahead of me.”
The charming, full-tooth smile returns.
“Hey, I made over 200 appearances for Manchester City,” Richards says. “I played abroad, I played for Villa, I know how hard that is to do. If people want to be negative, let them do that. I was England’s youngest defender, I scored for my country, I won the FA Cup, I won the Premier League.
“No one can say anything to me. I am confident enough now to say that.”
(Top photo: Victoria Haydn)
