Harte: “I took a drop in salary to go to a club I’d never heard of.”
IAN HARTE’S club career may have followed the sun but at international level he remains out in the cold - and he’s not happy about it.
The former Leeds United player now plays for La Liga surprise package Levante, with whom he will take on the wounded galacticos of Real Madrid in the Bernabeu on Sunday night. Currently seventh in the table, the second club in the city of Valencia have enjoyed their return to the Spanish top-flight, with full-back Harte an ever-present since scoring the club’s first goal in La Liga for 41 years on his debut against Real Sociedad.
However, Harte’s last cap for Ireland came back in April against Poland, and his failure to make Brian Kerr’s recent squads has left him disappointed.
“I must be doing something wrong because I’m not getting in the team,” he said yesterday. “I get on fine with the manager but I don’t know whether I’ve done anything to offend him as I haven’t been picked now for a while. I’m playing in the top flight in Spain so I’d like to think the manager could come over and see me. Hopefully he’s got Sky in his house, but at least I’m sitting in Spain so it could be worse.”
Certainly, substantial consolation comes in the form of a new life and new challenges in Spain.
“I’m really enjoying it,” he says. “Just look at the weather compared to England. I think it was minus six in Leeds the other night. It’s quite a big change but a nice one. I had two years left at Leeds and could have stayed. I had to take a drop in wages to come here. But I’m playing in the Spanish top flight whereas I could have been playing in the first division and so far I’m thoroughly enjoying it. That’s the most important thing. It was the right decision.”
A measure of the correctness of that decision is that the last time Harte played in the Bernabeu, it was with a Leeds United side which beat Real Madrid on aggregate to advance to the semi-finals of the Champions’ League. But that was nearly four years and a whole world away and, now, while Leeds must make do with life in the Coca Cola Championship, it’s Elland Road exile Harte and his team mates who are preparing to face Zidane, Ronaldo, Raul, Roberto Carlos and the rest in Madrid.
Harte attributes much of the side’s success to the inspirational presence of its coach, the former German international Bernd Schuster, saying: “He loves to have everyone playing the ball on the floor. He’s a brilliant manager and I thoroughly respect him.”
As for Harte’s international ambitions, Brian Kerr said before the recent Croatia friendly that he has had the player watched in Spain, and insists that the door remains open for selection.
A good performance on the grand stage of the Bernabeu on Sunday would surely reinforce the full-back’s claims at that level.
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