The Little Magician: Juninho’s Boro Days with Jan Åge Fjørtoft
It Was What It Was : The Football History Podcast
The Overlap
4.9 • 667 Ratings
🗓️ 12 August 2025
⏱️ 61 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome to It Was What It Was, the football history podcast. Hosts Jonathan Wilson and Rob Draper are joined by guest Jan Åge Fjørtoft to explore the groundbreaking transfer of Brazilian footabller Juninho to Middlesbrough in 1995. The discussion explores the players’ previous career highlights, the unique challenges they faced adjusting to English football, and the cultural impact of Juninho's arrival on the Premier League. Special focus is given to the transformational role this transfer played in attracting world-class talent to mid-level English clubs.
Jan gives insightful stories and personal anecdotes surrounding how Juninho became a beloved figure at Middlesbrough and his lasting legacy in English football history.
00:00 Introduction and Today's Topic
01:12 Early Career and Move to Rapid Vienna
02:32 Transition to English Football
04:49 Joining Middlesbrough and Early Impressions
13:26 The Impact of Janio's Signing
16:51 Cultural Adjustments and Training Challenges
19:07 Middlesbrough's Transformation and Community Connection
30:28 Cultural Insights from Middlesbrough
31:02 Tactical Evolution in English Football
31:45 Adapting to English Football's Physicality
36:23 Weather and Training Challenges
40:25 The Impact of Foreign Signings
50:10 Middlesbrough's Tumultuous Season
59:09 Legacy of Jan Nino and the Premier League
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to It Was What It Was, the Football History Podcast. |
| 0:09.0 | I'm Jonathan Wilson and I'm here as ever with Rob Draper. |
| 0:12.1 | And today we're going to be talking about Janineo moving to Middlesbrough in 1995, |
| 0:17.9 | a transfer that seemed mind-blowing at a time. |
| 0:24.2 | What was this world star doing at this, with the best world in the world, provincial northeastern club? But it was a transfer, I think, |
| 0:28.2 | that set in motion a lot of future transfers, the idea of the Premier League or the |
| 0:33.0 | premiership as it was then, as a destination for the world's most glamorous players. |
| 0:41.0 | To discuss that move and what it meant for Middlesbrough and English football as a whole, |
| 0:46.6 | we're joined by his former Middlesbrough teammate, the great former Swindon and Chevley United striker, great former Barnsey striker, the great Norway striker, Jan Oger Fjofd. |
| 0:53.0 | Jan, thank you for joining us. |
| 0:54.6 | It's a pleasure to be on and compliment on your pronouncement of my name. |
| 0:59.6 | That is a bit difficult. |
| 1:00.8 | Yeah, it's not that we practice it for hours beforehand, but yeah, thank you. |
| 1:05.5 | Well, there's many things you can say about Jonathan, but he is quite good and nerdy or Nordic |
| 1:09.9 | pronunciations, so fair play to him. Jan, your career, obviously you start in Norway. I think Littlstrom's your first big club. You get the move to Rapid Vienna, then Swind in town. And obviously, then on to Middlesbron, that's the part of the story we're going to be focused on, obviously. But just talk us through those early days. How do you get to move to Rapid Vienna? That's quite a big move in a innovative move in Norwegian football at the time. Yeah, at the time in 1989, we didn't have many professionals in Norway. There was a guy called Runebratsed, one of the best centre halves and our captain in the 90s. He went to Rapid Vienna. And at the time, the record |
| 1:45.6 | signing out to Norwalk was 70,000 pounds. And at the time when I went to Rapid Vienna, I played |
| 1:52.1 | a good game against Austria for my national team. I scored against them. And Rapid Vienna |
| 1:57.6 | looked for a striker. And they bought me for 300,000 pounds at that time. |
| 2:01.5 | That was an enormous amount. |
| 2:03.3 | And I had a pleasure to be coached by Hans Crankle, one of the best goal getters of his generation. |
| 2:11.0 | And I had a pleasure to live in lovely Vienna, which is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. |
| 2:16.8 | No winter football at a time is clearly on the rise, starting to look like you could |
... |
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