THE LANGUAGE OF FOOTBALL
On the first day of pre-season in 1999, if you had suggested to trialist Frédéric Dindeleux that his relationship with Kilmarnock was destined to see him embraced as a cult hero en route to full-blown Hall of Fame membership, it is unlikely that he would have believed you. In fairness though, he would have struggled to understand you in the first place. The inevitable back four communication difficulties which would result from recruiting a centre back who spoke no English must certainly have been in the ‘cons’ column for manager Bobby Williamson, on the lookout for the man he wanted to don the hobnail boots of departing captain Ray Montgomerie.
“It wasn’t easy because I couldn’t talk. When I came to the training camp in Germany, we were two centre halves, me and a big German guy, who could speak English actually. So I was not very confident. In the first game I was on the bench. The German guy played the first 45 minutes, and I played the second 45. I gave my best and I think I did a good job that day. The next day he was away so it was a good thing for me.
“Maybe I had something different compared to a Scottish defender. Maybe my way to read the game or use the ball. Bobby always said to me that I wasn’t the quickest, but my reading of the game made up for that. So he was clever to see that I was a good player, from his point of view.”
For Freddie, with a fiancée and young child to consider, the decision to move from his hometown in northern France was a significant one. But the family was ready for an adventure.
“My last year in football with Lille was pretty difficult. I was a young boy, but I had been captain a few times. But in the last year I only played 10 games as I was injured a lot. When my manager and I talked about coming to Scotland, obviously Sylvie and I, we were up for it; for the football, to play in Europe and the SPL but also to discover a new country and culture. We were happy, my wife and my daughter also. And my son was born in Scotland, so it was good things. It was a great decision.”
For all the plaudits and adulation that would come in due course, there must have been moments when the defender wondered if he had made the right choice in committing to Killie for an initial two years.
“In the first three months, I played some good games for Kilmarnock but then not so good. Before the winter break, I was not in the team. I had been struggling a little bit at the start. I had to improve. I had to adapt to the Scottish game, to play it quickly and also to be stronger in the air. I think I did that, but it took me a bit of time.
“Even when I was struggling, I had the feeling that Bobby, Jim Clark and Gerry McCabe were behind me, and they were confident I could do the job.
“After six months, I was ok to speak the way I wanted to speak on the pitch with my teammates. We went to Spain in the winter break. The first game I wasn’t in the team. I played the second game against a Dutch team and that day I got the feeling I could do the job. I could speak. That was it. The first game after the winter break, it was Celtic at home. And that was the beginning of a good job for me at Kilmarnock.”
Despite his mastery of the language of football, full assimilation into daily life in Scotland would take more time. And we have that period of transition to thank for Freddie’s iconic look.
“To be fair, I never had long hair before. I had long hair because I couldn’t speak English so I couldn’t go to the hairdresser! Once, I had a haircut in Kilmarnock and Ian Durrant said to me, ‘you’ve lost your strength, like Samson’. And he got it right. I was rubbish for one month after that – it’s true!”
For Frédéric Dindeleux, there was a friendly face in the dressing room who made all the difference: fellow Frenchman, Jérôme Vareille.
“He was on his own. Which means, for him, he had to socialise with the other players. Jérôme was very popular in the dressing room so that was a big help. I am very grateful, and if it wasn’t for him, maybe my story with Kilmarnock wouldn’t have been the same. When I first came, he was very, very important for me and my family. He’s a great guy. He was speaking brilliantly, and for me, he was a Scottish guy!”
Luckily for Killie fans, Freddie learned how to do his talking on the park. And off it as well, with “thank you for this award” a common refrain during his six years in Ayrshire. Then, after more than 200 games, the wanderlust called again, with success in Belgium to come.
Words by Gordon Gillen
This article first appeared in Issue 2 of the Kilmarnock Football Club official magazine of September 2021.