Premier League cult hero Paulo Wanchope has revealed that, for his debut against Manchester United in 1997, the Derby County team bus arrived at Old Trafford to the sound of salsa.
Signed from Costa Rican side Herediano for £600k, Wanchope then went on to score an outrageous goal at Old Trafford on his debut, beating four players as Derby ran out 3-2 winners against the side on course for another Premier League title.
County fans later voted it the greatest goal in the club's history - and Wanchope clearly has some fond memories of the day in general, too.
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"On the way to Old Trafford, I was nervous," Wanchope exclusively tells FourFourTwo. "Jim Smith said, 'Paulo, what music do you like listening to?' And I told him that I loved salsa. So he put that on inside the bus, the whole way there! The other players found it quite strange, but it was so kind of Jim and helped to relax me.
The goal was special. I collected the ball and just wanted to attack – when the ball hit the back of the net, I was so relieved. I became good friends with their goalkeeper, Peter Schmeichel, later on in my career at Manchester City, and often liked to wind him up about that moment. He’s an awesome guy."
Wanchope and Smith got on extremely well, too, helping the Costa Rican settle in England.
We had a great relationship. It was good for me to have him as a manager in my early days in England: he was tough but he cared about me as a person," Wanchope explains. "He always wanted to know what I did outside of football.
"He was competitive and didn’t take any nonsense from anyone. I was a bit lazy in training and didn’t take things seriously when I first arrived – maybe that was my laid-back Costa Rican attitude – but he made sure that I became a real professional."
With Smith's influence, Wanchope went on to score 23 goals in 72 Premier League games for Derby, before earning the Rams a healthy £2.9m profit when he was sold to West Ham United in 1999.
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