Julián Speroni

Julian Speroni was born in Buenos Aires in 1979. He started out his career at hometown club Club Atlético Platense, located in the Florida neighbourhood of the Argentine capital. Buenos Aires is one of the great footballing cities with many of the teams located in or just outwith its city limits being household names worldwide. The home ground of Platense is only a 15 min drive from the more celebrated Estadio Monumental in Belgrano, but Platense, themselves, are a club with a proud history playing at the top level of Argentine League football. By the time Julian joined Dundee he had made a couple of appearances for the club and had been capped for the Argentina U-20 side, while they were the reigning South American and World champions.

Julian, despite his limited appearances in Argentina attracted the attention of Dundee manager, Ivano Bonetti. The young goalkeeper had a big decision to make- does he stay in Argentina before moving over, or does he make the change now? While it is common for talented South American players to make the long trip over to Europe, they usually do so with a number of years’ experience under their belt. Thankfully for Dundee, Julian decided to join the Dark Blues and, after a prolonged transfer held up by red tape, the young ‘keeper made his debut for the club.

That debut came on the 6^th Jan 2002 against Falkirk in the Scottish Cup. For most of the game the talented Dundee side played some creative football and dominated play but they weren’t rewarded with the goals they merited. Dundee often paid the price of not killing games off and did so again when a late Falkirk equaliser took the match to a replay. Dundee won that replay on a chilly night at Brockville but immediately went out in the next round to Partick Thistle. Dundee then slumped to a 9^th place finish in the league. One positive to an otherwise disappointing season was the immediate impact that the new goalkeeper made at the club. Julian made such an impression that there were press reports of Inter Milan scouts traveling to watch him during Dundee’s 1-0 win at St Johnstone towards the end of the season.

Dundee fans were delighted when Julian opted to stay at Dens by signing a three-year deal. The 2002-03 season was much better on the field with Dundee memorably reaching the Scottish Cup final while finishing in the top half of the league. Julian was instrumental in the club getting to the final with a wondrous save in the fourth round against Aberdeen. A deflected shot forced Julian to show impossibly agile, reflexive attributes to contort his body mid-air to keep the clean sheet, and Dundee’s cup progress, intact.

The cup run, albeit culminating in defeat in the final, meant European qualification in 2003-04. Fans were allowed a European adventure to Albania and Italy. Julian and his Dundee team mates became the first Scottish club to win a European tie in Albania and, in the next round, run Serie A Perugia very close before being knocked out in freezing cold Umbrian conditions. The disaster of administration brought the fans callously back down to earth. Julian managed to escape the initial cull of talent made by the administrators and was vital in Dundee finishing the season in a respectable league position. Julian’s performances had inevitably attracted interest and Crystal Palace fought off a number of clubs to land his signature. Despite an initial period of adjustment at the South London club Julian fought his way into the starting XI and soon cemented his place in the club’s folklore.

Although away from the Dark Blues for a decade his Dundee career came full circle when he was inducted into the club’s Hall of Fame – in the same category as compatriot Claudio Caniggia no less – and when Dundee provided the opposition for his testimonial at Selhurst Park. The home fans’ initial disappointment at not tying up a household name for from the continent soon dissipated. Thousands of noisy Dundee fans packed out the away sections eager to celebrate one of the finest No. 1’s to have graced Dens Park in the modern era. The Dundee masses provided a vociferous, colourful backdrop and relived the days when words such as ‘Inter Milan’ and ‘Dundee FC’ were used in the same sentence.