For Aberdeen’s new boys, European nights under the Pittodrie lights are a chance “to become legends overnight”. Just ask Josh Walker.
In February 2008, Walker wrote his name into Dons history just days after signing when he fired Jimmy Calderwood’s Reds 1-0 up against Bayern Munich in a Uefa Cup round of 32 first leg clash – a thrilling Granite City tussle which ended in a 2-2 draw.
The 18-year-old only joined Calderwood’s squad in a late January loan deal from Middlesbrough, after the Reds had already routed FC Copenhagen 4-0 to get out of their Uefa Cup group and set up the knockout tie with Bayern.
And he had only made three prior appearances for Aberdeen when he produced his moment of goalscoring magic against the German superstars.
Barry Robson’s Aberdeen are preparing to play a home European group stage game – the club’s first in 16 years – when HJK Helsinki visit in the Europa Conference League on Thursday night.
According to Walker, his strike has “followed” him “everywhere” in the years since.
So he knows the home Conference League group clashes against HJK, PAOK and Eintracht Frankfurt in the months ahead are a chance for the 13 summer additions in Robson’s rebuilt Reds squad to quickly claim their own place in Pittodrie folklore.
Walker said: “For the new players certainly, when you walk into Aberdeen you probably don’t realise or appreciate how big the club is until you walk into it.
“The European nights was something I’d never experienced before really – it was unbelievable.
“I think with the new players coming in, it’s an opportunity for them where they’ve been in the door five minutes and you can almost become a legend overnight.
“It’s an opportunity which doesn’t come around that often, and it’s a brilliant one for them to look forward to, and one they should relish. They shouldn’t have any fear – they should just go out and enjoy it.”
Bayern goal has ‘followed’ Walker ‘everywhere’
Walker had a transient career following his return from Aberdeen to parent club Boro.
Though the England under-20 international would go on to play for the Riverside outfit in the Premier League, a battle with knee problem patellar tendonitis, which meant five operations between the ages of 20 and 25, derailed his career at Boro and subsequent clubs.
Walker eventually managed a productive spell back in Scotland at part-time level, captaining Edinburgh City (though his knee struggles continued), before hanging up his boots last year following a stint with Dunbar United.
Everywhere he has been, Walker says there have been “non-stop” reminders of his goal against Bayern for the Dons.
Now 34 and running his own football coaching business, Walker said: “I live in Edinburgh now. When I started my coaching company – it’s called Foot Forward Coaching – as soon as people ask who runs it, and someone says ‘it’s Josh Walker’, they’ll say ‘that’s the lad who scored for Aberdeen against Bayern Munich’. It’s followed me everywhere.
“The amount of press things you get yearly – it’s just a constant reminder of what happened and how good it was.”
‘It’s something I’m extremely proud of’
Mentions of the goal have been such a constant in his day-to-day life over the past 15-or-so years, Walker can still describe the passage of play in detail, saying: “Because it gets spoken about so much, it’s almost been impossible for me to forget.
“I remember the free-kick Seve (Scott Severin) took at the halfway point, then I think it was Zander (Diamond) or Lee Miller who won a header, and it just came to Sone (Aluko) on the edge of the box, and I remember screaming for it.
“The lay-off was perfect and I knew before I hit it that it was going in with just the way it was all set and fell.
“Honestly, it was one of the most unbelievable moments of my life, because, as I say, it’s not just something which stuck with me in football, but followed me once I had to leave professional football through injury and stuff.
“It’s something I’m extremely proud of.”
‘To still be speaking about it shows you what that night means to people of Aberdeen’
After an equaliser from Miroslav Klose, and then another Dons goal through Aluko, Hamit Altintop’s 55th-minute leveller earned visitors Bayern – who also had the likes of Phillip Lahm, Martin Demichelis, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Luca Toni and Toni Kroos in their squad at Pittodrie – a 2-2 draw to take back to Germany.
Aberdeen would lose 5-1 in the second leg at the Allianz Arena in front of 66,000 fans on Walker’s 19th birthday – an occasion the former Reds midfielder says he was too young to “really appreciate”.
Walker says memories of the night Calderwood’s Aberdeen tangled with Bayern at Pittodrie are as important to him as they are to the Red Army.
“It’s difficult to be disappointed we drew with Bayern Munich, but we had the game of our lives, from goalkeeper, striker to all the subs,” Walker said.
“Everyone who played a part that night played to their full potential and obviously Bayern Munich had a bit of an off-night.
“When we gave away the penalty, Jamie (Langfield) saved the first effort, and it’s just rebounded straight back to Altintop. That little rub of the green wasn’t quite there.
“We weren’t even trying to hang on at the end either. We were still pressing forward trying to score a third goal, and I remember it being end-to-end for a large part of that second half.
“But it was a brilliant experience, and to come away with a draw and to be disappointed shows how well we actually played on the night.
“To still be speaking about it shows you what that night means to people of Aberdeen – Memories that will last me and all the Aberdeen fans a lifetime.”
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