Forty and still calling the shots

Jon Brodkin talks to Teddy Sheringham who turns 40 tomorrow and is still raring to play at the top

It may be impossible from Teddy Sheringham's performances or features to guess he turns 40 tomorrow, but as the striker chatted yesterday about everything from Alex Ferguson to a possible future on the poker circuit, one topic gave the game away.

Just as this month brings him a landmark birthday, there will be special celebrations for his son. Charlie Sheringham is 18 in just over a fortnight and it came as a sharp reminder of his father's veteran status when the prospect of them facing one other was brought up.

"I'm hoping that I will play against him at some stage," Sheringham said, and it is more than an idle dream. Sheringham Jr is on trial at Crystal Palace, and the disappointment of being released by Ipswich hardly guarantees a dead-end. Not when his father was loaned by Millwall as a youngster to Brentford, Aldershot and Sweden's Djurgaarden and only returned because no one wanted to buy him for about £5,000.

The idea then that Sheringham would play in the top flight, never mind do so beyond his 40th birthday, would have seemed laughable. Yet Sheringham has become a central figure in the Premiership era, almost exclusively for his huge talent but also reaching a wider audience after being pictured in night spots with Euro 96 and France 98 looming.

An appearance for West Ham against Charlton tomorrow would make him only the second outfield to appear in the Premiership at 40. The idea of passing the baton to his son appeals and he takes such interest that he watched at Arsenal's training ground when Charlie, also a striker, played there with Ipswich this year.

"He's very similar," Sheringham said of their styles, "but he's a young lad and he's trying to find his game at the moment and understand the ways of football."

Alan Pardew speaks glowingly of Sheringham's influence on a more wizened West Ham squad. With 51 England caps, three Premiership titles and a Treble among his achievements, Sheringham is not short of experience.

When he made his Millwall debut in January 1984, Anton Ferdinand and the current West Ham captain Nigel Reo-Coker were not born and Dean Ashton was two months old.

Yet there is no sign of the end. Sheringham has a contract for next season, hopes that will offer another European campaign via league or FA Cup, and does not feel 40.

"I don't know what 40 is meant to feel like," he said, "but I still feel like I want to play football and enjoy that, so long may that continue." He described the landmark as "no big deal" and is only occasionally struck by his age in the dressing room. "A little bit, I suppose, with the music," he said. "The black boys come in and put all the heavy music on, but you move with the times."

With the expensive cars he has owned and a house called Camp Nou after the stadium where he won the European Cup, Sheringham has enjoyed the trappings of reaching the top of his profession. He was famously pictured in the "dentist's chair" having alcohol poured down his throat in 1996 and two years later was photographed in a bar with a cigarette and a blonde, but has never allowed off-field distractions to disrupt his career.

Dedication is implicit in a player going strong at his age and Sheringham said "there's no better feeling than feeling fit". So strong has been his determination to improve that a decade ago he worked on his left foot by standing in front of a mirror and studying what he did when kicking with his right. Even now he is frustrated at being on the bench. "I couldn't play every game, every week and I know that," he says, "but you want to play a little bit more than seven minutes."

A key to Sheringham's longevity is said to be that he never relied on pace. Speed of thought has been his forte and experience has brought him greater appreciation of how to apply his skills. He prefers, though, to dwell on other factors, including kindly genes. He says his father Paul, at 66, plays tennis and squash five times a week.

"My dad is a tall, slim man and I have been lucky to follow in his footsteps like that," he said, "plus, I have been able to stay clear of injuries over the years and that's a big part of it."

He did not rule out dropping down the divisions to continue playing and has noticed significant changes since he began. "The game's definitely much faster than it was with the [ restrictions on] pass-backs, and time-wasting doesn't really happen like it used to. The good thing is obviously the money. The money has changed probably a hundred-fold."

He picks as highlights the "great 11 days" during which Manchester United clinched the Treble and England's win over Holland at Euro 96. In search of something similar to football's adrenaline rush, he may go on a poker-playing tour when he finally retires. "I play a lot of poker at the moment, but we'll see," he said.

Of more immediate interest will be watching England, and Wayne Rooney in particular, at the World Cup . "He's a little boy kicking a ball around in the playground," Sheringham said, "showing enthusiasm and energy and some of the skills he has are fantastic." The same, at 40, might be said of Sheringham himself.

Guardian Service