Colin Kazim Richards interview: He came into training the next day with a baby crocodile!

Cult football icon Colin Kazim Richards had a colourful career. In an exclusive interview with Bet Ideas, the London-born Turkey international shares stories from a career that saw him play for iconic clubs all over the world, including spells at Galatasaray and Fenerbace, Celtic and adventures in Mexico and Brazil with Cortiba, Corinthians and Pachuca. 

In a varied interview, ‘Kazim Kazim’ shares the craziest story of his professional career, ‘he walked into the dressing room with a baby crocodile,’ his hopes for former club Sheffield United returning to the Premier League and where Paul Pogba should go next. 

Turkey

Question: How has Jose Mourinho’s presence at Fenerbahce helped Turkish football?

Colin Kazim Richards: Has Jose Mourinho been good for Turkish football? I think it depends on how you’re looking at it. He’s definitely put more eyes on Turkish football It’s Jose Mourinho. Over the last 15 – 20 years, he’s been one of the best managers in the game. He’s been one of the most influential and outspoken managers, and I think that he’s one of the older managers that really embraced social media – Mourinho’s personality is perfect for social media.

He’s definitely brought a lot of attention to Turkish football – at times for the right reasons, and at others for the wrong reasons – but in my opinion, any extra eyes on Turkish football is a good thing. The Turkish league and football culture in Turkey is unique. The passion is unique, and there are some top players playing in Turkey, and it’s a tough league to play in. Football in Turkey is unlike anywhere else in the world.

I think what Jose has struggled to deal with, and maybe he didn’t understand this before he went to Fener, is that in Turkey, no one is ever bigger than the president of a club. No coach is ever bigger than the president, not even Jose Mourinho. I think he’s found that tough at times. He’s not the only ego in the building at Fener.

Q: What were your experiences with Jose?

Colin Kazim Richards: I say this on record,  Jose is one of the best coaches in the history of the game; I played against him many times, met him many times. He knows my name personally and every time I’ve met him, he’s been absolutely impeccable with me. He always had time for me and would offer his advice. I’ve only got good words to say about Jose Mourinho.

Q: What does the future hold for Mourinho? Do you think he will stay in Turkey or could he seek another opportunity? He’s recently been linked with Leeds and Rangers jobs.

Colin Kazim Richards: The only person that could ever answer that is Jose. Jose is the master of his own destiny, so he would have to say whether or not he will stay in Turkey next season. He’s not influenced by anything apart from what he feels and how he feels. 

Depending on how he feels personally, how this season’s gone. We all know about his complaints, the run-ins he’s had with Galatasaray’s manager, some of the things that he’s said about the referees and politics in the Turkish game, but I think he will be so determined to win something in the country that he will stay. 

Trophies and success are the only things that motivate Jose. I can’t see him leaving Turkey until he lifts a trophy with Fenerbace. Just look at his record. Apart from at Tottenham, he’s won titles at every single club he’s managed at. He won’t deem this period or his experience in Turkey to be successful until he wins something. 

I think he has the same desire as someone like Cristiano Ronaldo. There’s a lot of talk abut him leaving Saudi, but I can’t see Ronaldo leaving that country until he wings something big with his club. 

I think Mourinho will be motivated by winning the Turkish title. He’s a serial winner. He’ll want to win that league and I think that will be one of the greatest achievements in his career if he can pull it off. Galatasaray have won the title in Turkey for the last three years running. Mournho will want to leave with a title under his arm, and he’ll want to be the man responsible for winn int Fenerbace its 20th title and adding an extra star to the shirt. 

Q: Talk to us about Victor Osimhen. There is a lot of Premier League interest in him. Reportedly Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal are all looking at him. Do you think he has the ability to continue his goal-scoring form in the Premier League and which club do you think he would suit the best? 

Colin Kazim Richards: Everyone talks about Victor Osimhen’s goals, but do you know what his biggest quality is? He absorbs and takes responsibility – he gives everyone on the team extra confidence. He’s the main man, and he thrives on that status. Listen, That is priceless in football, especially at 26. 

He’s got another seven years at the peak level. I’m not listening to people that say when a player is the wrong side of 30, they loose the juice. That’s nonsense if you’re dedicated. Osimhen will still be a top, top player when he’s 33 with the attitude and desire that he has. 

Chelsea, Manchester United, they’ve been linked, and let’s say he joined one of them and he didn’t get his 25 goals, he’d still be a huge success because of everything else that he brings his team: leadership qualities, desire, experience, character. He assumes responsibility. He’s a win-at-all-costs player, doesn’t need to be the man putting it away if his club wins. 

I love that type of striker. That’s my type of striker because that’s kind of the way that I used to play. I was never a top goal scorer. I was never going to get you 20 goals in the season. But I’ll make a team, score more goals and the guy that’s playing next to me will score more goals, which always happened wherever I played. 

He’s got such an aura about him, like Ibrahimovic had, that when he’s on the pitch, the opponent are already running scared. He gives his team so much confidence, it’s like starting with a goal up. 

Osimhen would be a major star in the Premier League, there is no doubt about it. Whoever gets him will be very lucky to have him. 

Q: There were reports about Osimhen’s attitude scaring off other clubs. From what you’ve seen of him, are these reports wide off the mark?

Colin Kazim Richards: You know what? Any question marks about Osimhen’s attitude are complete nonsense. I can see why people would say that, they see the character, the personality, the blonde hair – they see a confident man. 

I know for a fact that Osimhen is a great character and, speaking from my own experience, people are very quick to judge you. People used to have doubts about me because of the way that I played, but this is what playing at the top level is all about. 

When you cross the line, it’s win-at-all-costs, and some people may not like you for it, but that’s how you’ve got to play. If I was timid with the CBs I was going up against, they would eat you all day.

When you’re a professional footballer, you’ve worked tirelessly to get to that level. The guys with that little bit extra, that comes from your mentality. That is the difference between a top players and world-class player, and Osimhen is in the latter bracket. 

Osimhen says what he feels in interviews, he’s aggressive on the grass and he doesn’t care about anything but his team. That’s his job. 

I’ve always said, I’ve never been bothered if the other team likes me or not. You shouldn’t want to like me as a player.  If you like me, then I’m not doing my job.

There’s a lot of strikers now that people are talking about; Gyokeres at Sporting, Isak at Newcastle, yes they score goals, but Osimhen has something else too.

Q: Is there an English club you think he would suit? 

Colin Kazim Richards: In football, what we’d like to is look at numbers and stats of players. Strikers are judged on their goals, but if Osimhen joined a club, his value is worth so much more than 15, or 20, or 25 goals a season. 

He brings so much to any team. Manchester United have been linked, but they’re a club in turmoil and have been for a long time. If he went there, there would be so many challenges and so many things for him to acclimatise to. There are doubts about the managers future, will they cut the food from the canteen again! They’re a very unstable club at the moment and players like stability.

So there’s a lot for him to think about. If he moved to Arsenal or Liverpool, a club where everything is calm and the foundations are good, then I think he would hit the ground running. 

I think people will make up their minds on him in this country pretty quickly. If he only scored three goals in his first three months, the knives would be out, because he will cost big money, but sometimes it can take time for a player to adapt. What gives me confidence that Osimhen would be a success in the Premier League is his attitude and personality, plus if you look at his record, he’s done it wherever he’s been. 

He’s a big time player. Shows up in big games, but also shows up in the little games. He’s super consistent. He’d be a success in the Premier League, but he has to pick the best club for him to showcase his ability. 

Q: Do Galatasaray have the most intimidating atmosphere in football? If not, who does?

Colin Kazim Richards: I think that Galatasaray’s reputation comes from the old stadium. That’s where that all comes from.

Ali Sami Yen, that was a daunting place, you know, you can’t compare it to the new stadium. The new stadium is modern and beautiful, but Ali Sami was an inferno!

The Gala fans are absolute fanatics. The most intimidating arena, it’s up there, but I also think that has more to do with the overall experience of a visiting player or fan. That’s the entire experience of the journey from the airport to the stadium with everything thrown in between. As soon as you land in Istanbul, it starts. When you went to train on the pitch, there’s fans, they’re throwing stuff. They’re smashing the bus. 

I can remember playing there for Gala, it was a game against Ajax or Liverpool, and we broke the record for the loudest decibel in a football stadium. That’s in the Guinness Book of World Records. I was also the last player to ever score there. Thats a nice record to have – last goal in the Ali Sami Yen Stadium.

But, when you start going to places like Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, it’s a different kettle of fish. Completely different. It’s a whole different thing. 

Paul Pogba

Q: Apparently Pogba won’t be short of offer this summer. There’s talk of clubs in Brazil trying to get him, Turkish sides like Fenerbace are credited with an interest and of course a return to the Premier League. You’ve experienced what it’s like to play in all of those countries – where do you think the best possible environment would be for Pogba to fall back in love with the game and for the game and the fans to love him back would be?

Colin Kazim Richards: Paul needs to find his love for the game, and he needs the game to love him back. That is crucial for wherever he goes next. Without doubt.

For me, Brazil was amazing. Amazing for all facets of the game, from fans to the competitiveness, to the amount of games. I played 80 something games in one year. Then when you play in the continental competitions, the counties that you get to play in and the stadiums, it was unreal. I loved it. 

The thing about Brazilian fans is they’re so passionate. You need to perform now, like this minute when you play out there. 

A lot of Brazilian clubs would love to bring him over because it’s Paul Pogba, but let’s be serious. And this is not a slight on Pogba, because I think he is very underrated. Everybody’s got an opinion about him. He had his ban. If we’re talking about Pogba at his best, we’re talking about a 6 foot 3 player that moves his feet like the best wingers. With vision is like Xavi or Iniesta, but with the dribbling ability of the best attackers. It’s not normal, that level of ability.

But he’s not going to be the Paul Pogba that we all know. Not yet, not after the period he’s had out. He needs to go somewhere where he doesn’t have that pressure to be the main man from the first minute, because it’s going to take time to get going again. 

He needs to go somewhere that’s going to allow him to become the Paul Pogba that we saw dominate Serie A with Juventus and win World Cups with France. I’m scared that if he went to Brazil, for the amount of money a Brazilian club would have to pay him, the fans expectations might be too high. 

What I would be saying to him if I was part of his team is: Go somewhere where you are going to find yourself. We’ve seen players try and rediscover themselves in different environments before and it hasn’t worked. Dele Ali. He tried to find himself at Beşiktaş. Wrong place, wrong place. 

I like that he’s taken his time (to decide what to do next). He didn’t just come back and sign for a team straight away. Just took his time. He is probably thinking about getting fit again and join a club in the summer preseason. If he does that, he can then acclimatise for six to eight weeks, integrate into the team and I’ll be better for him; easier. I just hope that he does that because,, if he can get that chance, the stuff that he can do with a football is crazy.

Arsenal

Q: You played with Robbie Carlos, the most iconic left back to play the game. Do you see anything in Myles Lews Skelly’s game that reminds you of your Brazilian teammate? 

Colin Kazim Richards: I don’t really like to compare players. I don’t think it’s fair on either, but what I can say about MLS that reminds me of Roberto Carlos is that both of them have that competitive edge. You can tell that Lewis-Skelly is a winner with character. I’m kind of tired of this narrative of ‘oh, he’s 17 or he’s 18.’ Listen, if you’re playing first team football, you’re in the first team squad. When you cross those white lines, you are a first team player. You’re not a 17, 18 year old. ‘m talking about the way you play, the way you carry yourself, you may be the youngest man on the grass, but you’ve got the same responsibility and have to set the same standards as the oldest man, and that’s what he does every time he plays. 

If I’m a player, he’s the type of teammate I want. If I’m a coach, he is the type of player that I want. He is the type of character that I want. 

On MLS Haaland incident

Colin Kazim Richards: Everybody talks about that Haaland situation, I thought he handled that with so much grace. Because if Haaland had told me at that age, who are you? It might have been a bit different.Who are you? I don’t know your name. Turn around. What is that? What does that mean? Very disrespectful, isn’t it?

He might have thought to himself, you know what? I know what I’m gonna do. You’re gonna see. I’m gonna catch you next time. I’m going to score and do your celebration. 

If he reacted negatively to Haaland at the time, ran up in his face or exchanged a few bad words, he would have got destroyed the same way people tried to destroy him for doing his celebration in the return game. He handled it brilliantly, while also playing his own mind games later in the season. That kind of thing impresses me. 

Brighton

Q: Brighton always seem to sell one player for huge sums each season. Who do you think could be the next big money exit? 

Colin Kazim Richards: Well, I don’t want to say that he will be the next player to leave the club, but in terms of his development and potential, I really like Yankubu Minteh. They got him out of Newcastle in the summer after a brilliant season with Feyenoord. I’ve been impressed by his performances this season, his consistency for a 20 year-old tells me he’s got huge potential. 

If I had to sign someone from Brighton this summer, he’s a player that I would be looking at. I like him a lot. When I watch them play, he always affects the game, which is obviously  what you want to do as a player. You want to affect the game.

On Joao Pedro

Colin Kazim Richards: Do you know who I like a lot? I know Brighton didn’t develop him – they paid a lot of money to sign him from Watford, who did a great job with his development after he arrived from Brazil, and that is Joao Pedro.

I know there are a lot of reports about clubs looking at him. I was reading about an incident on the training ground that may hasten an exit for him from the club, but for me, this is a guy that has the ability to be playing for a team that is competing for the title. 

Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal have been linked with him. I think he’s an outstanding prospect. 

I’ve watched him a few times live, once this season at Arsenal. He stood out for me. He’s the type of player that I think would fit into Arsenal really well and I think he would give them something different to what they already have. 

He’s good. He’s top shelf.

Sheffield United

Q: If Sheffield United go up, how can they buck the trend and stay up?

Colin Kazim Richards: Firstly, if Sheffield United were to go up, I think they would have learned from their previous experiences, and that includes Chris Wilder. I would be very confident that United could buck the trend of coming straight back down with Wilder in the dugout. 

Chris Wilder had that experience of going up and coming down – he would have learned from his mistakes.

You have to realise when you go up from the Championship, you’re not a top team anymore in the same sense that you were  from the division that you just left behind. You’re going in at the bottom of the Premier League against some of the best football clubs in the world. 

That’s the reality of the challenge that welcomes Sheffield United. Let’s get one thing straight, Sheffield United are a massive club. I love the club dearly, but let’s also be realistic. We know that if we get up there, they’ll be some tough days ahead. Anything that sees the club avoid the drop would be a sensational season, but it’s also tough to go from beating most teams each week in the Championship to losing most weeks in the Premier League. It’s a journey that the fans, players and management – on and off the pitch – will have to go on together. 

If we do go up, the objective is retaining your Premier League status in the first year. Then you see if you can build on that. Brentford would be a good example to follow. 

Q: What should they do if they get promoted? 

Colin Kazim Richards: I think a lot of people can get blinded by what you should and shouldn’t do if you’re a newly promoted team in the Premier League. 

Everyone talks about the increase in revenue, and a lot of people expect a club to go out and buy an entire new team of players, but that rarely works. If you look at Ipswich, OK, it wasn’t a new team, but they spent big money in the summer on a number of players and came up short. 

I think the best way to do it is have the core, the nucleus of the team that got you there and sprinkle in quality additions. The chemistry is already on the pitch between the players. So don’t make too many changes, learn lessons from clubs like Luton who have plummeted down into League One two years after playing in the Premier League. 

Sheffield United are a massive, massive club and were massive for my career. They gave me the opportunity early. They put me on the ladder, and now I want to se them back on the ladder heading up to the promised land.

Q: With Sunderland’s terrible end to season, are Sheffield United favourites?

Colin Kazim Richards: I don’t think form has anything to do with a game like this. This is a one-off, like a derby. A classic – the richest game int the world. These games are always cagey because of what is on the line. This is a playoff final. 

I was scared about Sheffield United in the semis, just because I know that they would have been devastated to miss out on automatic qualification. They’re performances in those games were very business-like. Those two games tell me they’re not sad or emotional; they’re not thinking about what might have been. They blew Bristol City away and look like ateam with the bit between their teeth. 

Now they’re in the final. Imagine if you were first, second, or third all year, and you got bumped out at the semi. That is hard to take, right? It’s kind of like, you’ve been on a date, whether you’re a man or a woman, been on a few dates, in your mind everything is ticking along nicely, it’s all rosy, then all of a sudden she sends you a message. It’s not for me. 

Excuse me? Oh, my God. All that hard work, all that potential, gone in a second. How do you react to that? You can either feel sorry for yourself or you can say, you know what? I’m gonna go back out tomorrow. I’m gonna dust myself off, I’m gonna get a nice haircut. I’m gonna button up my suit, and I’m gonna go again. 

That’s what Sheffield United have done. They’ve buttoned up their suit. They’ve got into the final. Now. Now it’s one game. They say it is the richest game in football. I think that they will do it. I think they will win that game.

Q: On old Celtic teammate Patrick Roberts who will be playing for Sunderland 

Colin Kazim Richards: I’m not so close to Patrick as in, we chat on the phone all the time, but if we see each other, then we will definitely be happy and we will enjoy each other’s company. 

Patrick is someone I could relate to when he moved to Celtic. We had both moved to new cities to join big clubs, meaning I was able to help guide him and give him advice to help him adjust.  Patrick had all the ingredients; he just needed some extra guidance.

He was very young at the time, up there on loan from Manchester City. He just needed a bit of guidance, so what I was able to help him with was that adaptation. It was the first time he had left home  and he was very young, whereas I had s few massive clubs under my belt by then. 

He was brilliant for Celtic. Then I played with him again at Derby. So if you look at Celtic Patrick and Darby Patrick, they were two different players in the sense that he had matured a lot and understood his capabilities; how to affect the game. And in that Derby team, when he joined, he started off a bit slow, but then scored on a decisive day again. This is what I mean. Football’s crazy. On the last day against Sheffield Wednesday, he scored an absolute banger that helped us stay in the Championship on that day. 

If you look at Sunderland, he’s a different player again because now he’s the guy, he’s the main man. What I mean by that is it’s not just about Patrick’s ability, it’s about his character and his maturity.

Three different clubs, three different Patricks. You can see he’s flourishing. He loves it up there. You can see it. 

Listen, Sunderland is a massive club, and he thrives off that.

Celtic

Q: Are Celtic big enough to compete in the Premier League if they moved down?

Colin Kazim Richards: I never understood that question because that’s like asking if MK Dons got in the Premier League, and this is MK Dons, a club not even in the same stratosphere of Celtic. It’s like asking if they would be able to compete. 

Of course any team could compete because you’re getting funded, right? You’re getting all that money and then, with Celtic’s fan base and their history and everything, they’re going to have no problems adapting to the Premier League.

If Celtic came into the Premier League next season with their current squad,  are they going to be able to compete? Maybe not, but that’s not going to be the squad that they have for the opening game. They would go out and spend money, and they would be a seriously appealing club to a lot of players, because it’s an iconic club. 

They would be able to compete, no problem at all. They would hold their own. Give Celtic a Premier League budget and then ask the question. I think it’s one of the most stupid debates of all time, a hypothetical debate. 

It’s a really silly question that everybody keeps asking, but the answer is obvious. Celtic could compete with anyone with Premier League money. 

Q: You played with Kieran Tierney at Celtic, he will be making a return to the club in the summer. Is that a good move for your old colleague and how much will he be embraced by his old club? 

Colin Kazim Richards: I think that regardless of whatever happened in KT’s career, if he went on to become the best LB in the world, he would have always returned to Celtic one day. He would have always gone back home. 

Obviously, he’s been heartbreakingly unlucky with his injuries. He could have been a massive player for Arsenal – they spoke about him as a future captain, everyone loves him there – but sometimes you don’t have the luck in your career. Celtic is Kieran and Kieran is Celtic. He loves Celtic.

He might be thinking to himself, you know what, while I’m still young – and I don’t want to go back when I’m 34, 35, 36 –  I can go back and still massively impact the club I love for the next five or six years. I can go there and be one of Celtic’s best players. I can play in the Champions League with my boyhood club. I can win more titles. 

The one thing I can say about him is, even if he would have had an absolute blinder at Arsenal, even if he wasn’t plagued by injury, he’d always go back home.I wouldn’t surprise me if he’s been calling his mate Scott Brown and asking him if he would want to go back! KT and Browny were like butter on bread.You know when it’s minus 50 outside and he’s in a T shirt, he gets it from Brownie. I love KT. I hope it all goes well for him because he deserves it.

Q: You won a SPFL title with Celtic. Is that one your best memories – or is that spell at the club one of your fondest memories from your career? 

Colin Kazim Richards: For me, my time there was a bit strange. I think Celtic was going through a transitional period in 2016.

Still, to come away with the title, obviously, that’s always brilliant, but it was also expected because Rangers had been booted out of the league. Now, looking back at it, in hindsight, it’s ‘I’ve won the Scottish League with Celtic,’ and when you talk about iconic football clubs and iconic jerseys, Celtic’s is right up there on a global level. 

I’ve been able to wear the hoops, the green and white. Amazing. I just think at that time, for many different reasons, it wasn’t as enjoyable as it should have been.I would like to say, the fans are top up there. There was other stuff that was going on within the club, so it didn’t really make it that enjoyable for me. 

Not having Rangers in the league, we were expected to win the league. That’s not being disrespectful to the other teams that we were competing against, it’s just a fact. At the same time, to be able to score the goals – me and Patrick Roberts scored the goals in a decisive game that guaranteed us the league. It’s amazing to be in the Hoops history books. 

Brazil/Mexico

Q: What is your wildest story from your playing days in Brazil/Mexico?

Colin Kazim Richards: There are honestly so many to tell you! I’ve got brilliant memories of both countries. 

When I was playing at Pachuca (2020), they had a player there called Victor Guzman. He’s still playing now. 

Victor was a top guy. He got into a little bit of banter with some of the Argentine players in the team, who all stuck together with the other Spanish speaking players from South America. There was a big group of them and they were all very patriotic, which was fun because they all loved to have a laugh but were very proud of their cultures.

One day, they’re all hanging out, drinking their Mate teas and Victor was on the wrong end of the joke. He was getting ganged up on, so he said, ‘Don’t worry guys, just wait until tomorrow. I’ll get you tomorrow.’

He came into training the next day with a baby crocodile! It was like that scene from the film Any Given Sunday. Suddenly, it’s all kicking off in there! It was complete madness. 

This was a baby crocodile, but it was still big, 4 or 5 foot easy. That was the kind of thing that would happen regularly out there. It was a crazy place.

There’s so many stories, but crazy. Believe it. Even in Turkey. When I was in Turkey, I went to buy a dog and a guy tried to sell me a lion! Come, come, come to the back. Kazim, Kazim, come to the back. I’ve gone to the back and he’s got lion cubs. I’m like, oh my God, what’s going on?