Manchester United legend Francis Burns surprised the Perth Glory squad this morning by giving an unannounced motivational speech to the team.
Manchester United legend Francis Burns surprised the Perth Glory squad this morning by giving an unannounced motivational speech to the team as the countdown to the start of the Hyundai A-League continued.
Burns joined Manchester United in 1965 and went on to make 121 league appearances. He played in six of the matches in Manchester United’s run to the 1968 European Cup final before losing his place in the final to Shay Brennan.
He immigrated out to Perth in 1987 and continued to play local football. One of the matches he played was against a young up-and-coming striker playing for Kwinana United named Alistair Edwards.
“Francis has been living in Perth for a number of years now and has always taken an interest in the local football scene,” Perth Glory Head Coach Alistair Edwards said.
“I bumped into him the other week at the state league finals and thought it would be a great idea for him to come down and talk to the team.”
“He’s such a motivational guy. He’s played alongside players such as Bobby Charlton and George Best, so I thought the team would be really interested in what he had to say.”
Forward Ndumba Makeche was selected by the Glory squad to go up on stage following Burns’ speech to present the Scotsman with a signed 2013/14 Glory guernsey.
Makeche said the talk was very inspirational and a real eye opener.
“It was a real privilege to hear Francis talk about his experiences playing at the highest level,” he said.
“He talked about the disappointment of losing his spot in the lead up to the 1968 European Cup Final but he just ‘kept on going’, which eventually led to him getting his position back in the team the following season.”
Burns’ other message focused around being disciplined on and off the field.
“Train the way you play and make sure nobody trains harder than you,” Makeche reiterated.
