Mark Burke discusses his unique career path that took him from Holland to Romania via Japan.
Mark Burke had enjoyed a promising career in England with Aston Villa, Middlesbrough and Wolves. But the adventure only really began after leaving Port Vale to join Fortuna Sittard in Holland as a 26-year-old in 1995. It kicked off a journey that took him to Japan, Romania and Sweden. Adam Bate caught up with him to discuss his extraordinary experiences.
You had quite a world tour. How did it all begin for you?
I always wanted to play abroad. When I was about 12 my sports teacher told me it would suit me. I was interested in foreign football even in the days when you couldn't see it on television. I think the idea of being paid for living abroad just fascinated me! It finally happened after I left Port Vale in 1995. I got this phone call from Terry Lees, who was a friend of Pim Verbeek, the Fortuna Sittard coach. Terry had seen my name on the list of free agents and told Pim that I was well worth a look. I was keen and so I was told to expect a call at 9am the next day. Sure enough I got a call at 9am on the dot - that's the Dutch - and a day later I was out there.
And it went well straight away didn't it?
My first game was against De Graafschap and I scored the winner in the last ten minutes to make it 1-0. My second game was against Ajax and I remember standing in the tunnel looking at their team. There was De Boer, Reiziger, Kluivert, Davids, Overmars and the rest. I couldn't believe it. This was what I'd always wanted to do and I'd been playing for Port Vale a few months earlier!
Did you settle quickly off the field?
I think going to Middlesbrough as a teenager had helped me. If I had stayed at Villa, my hometown club, until I was 26 years old then it would have been difficult to ever go abroad. Luckily for me - what with scoring on my debut and everything - it worked, but usually when you go to a new country it's hard to do it straight away. There's a new language, a new culture and a new style of football. It's just the little things.
On the field, for instance, what's good in one country is not good in another. I'll give you an example. That second game against Ajax. Preparing for the match in training, one of the players made a run and I went with him. The coach said: "Stop! Don't run with him." I was shocked. He realised that if I followed that run then Danny Blind or Frank De Boer would just step into the space.
In England it's a totally different thinking. If you don't follow that run people will wonder what you're playing at. The Dutch are thinkers. They think more about the game than we do. We have this idea of the Dutch being very liberal but that's not really true - it's an extremely regimented and organised culture and the football is the same. It's organised to the smallest detail.
I had a lot of ideas about football before I went there but it was in Holland that I learnt how to organise them. In that first year I found out so much. Pim Verbeek really took me under his wing. We used to drive all over Holland just watching games to introduce me to the different styles and how teams played. It was a real football education.
Do you think it suited you as a player?
To be honest, it probably suited my game more out there. In England, things were more rigid. If I was playing on the wing they'd just be telling me to stay out there. My instinct told me that if I did that then the full-back would always know where I was so I used to drift in. It
