January 14 2002

Teerathep Winothai

Rob Newbold from www.redsalamander.com recently spoke to Palace youth star Teerathep Winothai about life at Selhurst Park.

Sixteen-year-old Teerathep "Leesaw" Winothai, who turns 17 this February, is at the end of his two-week Christmas break from London and looks exhausted after several days of interviews on Thai television. The young footballer has embarked on an odyssey that's taken him from Bangkok Christian College to South London and a place in English First Division Crystal Palace's under-19 team.

His mum tells us he's got a headache but he's still smiling and well he might. He's got pop-star good looks and is obviously highly gifted, the striker having scored nine goals in 16 starts for Palace this season with Manchester United, the world's richest football club, reportedly keen on signing the Thai ace. "I felt excited when I first heard the reports," says the life-long United fan, with the faint hint of a South London accent. "But I don't want to go now, I want to play for the Palace first team."

I meet Teerathep, or Lee to his friends, at his modest family home on the outskirts of Bangkok as his proud mum and dad look on. There's a football in the corner of the room, pictures on the wall of number one son in Palace kit, his dad's wearing a Manchester United T-shirt, while Teerathep's got the Thai national team's football shorts on. It's clear the family live and breathe the beautiful game as his mum thumbs through numerous photo albums of her son and regales my colleague with tales of his success on the field of dreams.

Teerathep seems like a shy teenager until we get onto the subject of his ability, then Thailand's Young Sportsman of the Year (runner-up) takes on a confident, almost nonchalant swagger. "I don't think about it, I just want to play football and make my dreams come true," he says when I ask him about the pressure of commentators claiming he's going to be Thailand's best ever player.

What's it like playing in front of a big crowd? "I never get nervous. I want everyone to know me, everyone to look to me," says Teerathep, who's getting a reputation for his silky skills and eye for goal, likening himself to Arsenal's dazzling French striker Thierry Henry. Though he wants to be "like David Beckham", he seems to desire the fame and adulation and tells me, with a mischievous twinkle in his young eyes, he receives tons of fan mail "all from girls" and that the pupils at his school in Essex think "I'm amazing".

He certainly appears to have the temperament for the big occasion when in 2001 he made his name on the international stage scoring the winning goal for Thailand in the Southeast Asian Games football semi-final against Indonesia. "I was very, very happy when I scored that goal," he says smiling.

His goals for Palace, where he was signed to after winning a scholarship to London-based Brentwood Schools, have taken him to the verge of the first team squad and a lucrative full-time contract. "Derek Broadley [Palace under-19 coach] told me that they'll give me a full-time contract this year," he says. "The Palace coaches told me to stay when they heard the [Manchester] United rumour and said once I got into the first team, then I could go."

He's certainly aiming for the very top and when I ask about his ambitions it seems, like his hero David Beckham, Teerathep wants the adoration, the pop-star girlfriend, the expensive car and the playboy lifestyle. "I see big crowds, I want to play before them. I want to play for a big club and make a lot of money," says the future star.

Rob Newbold

Article reproduced with kind permission from Red Salmander