Didi Man with a big place in Liverpool folklore
SPORTS BOOK OF THE WEEK The Didi Man: My Love Affair with Liverpool Published by: Headline (Hardcover) WHAT’S IT ABOUT? If Luis Suarez had only asked, a little advice from Dietmar Hamann could have spared the Uruguayan a lot of trouble. The German international midfielder spent seven years on Merseyside, during which, quite apart from playing a major role in Liverpool’s epic triumph in the 2005 Champions League final in Istanbul, he demonstrated everything that is correct about how a foreign player in England should conduct himself. Intelligent and eloquent, even in a language not his own, Hamann won universal respect in the Premier League and particular affection among the Liverpool fans not least because of the evolution of his accent. Just as the Dane, Jan Molby, seemed gradually to turn into a pukka Koppite, so Hamann appeared to learn his English from Jamie Carragher. By the time he left, in 2006, he was calling himself the world's "only German Scouser".