Veteran footballer LUKE DIMECH shocked the sporting community by announcing his premature retirement from the national team. Speaking out for the first time, he talks about his foreign upbringing, flamboyant hairstyles, and his problems with the Malta coach
Was it really his dyed-red hair or was it something else? Beyond the speculation of what could have led national coach John Buttigieg to develop an ‘issue’ with veteran Malta defender Luke Dimech – to the extent of asking him to leave the training grounds in order to re-colour or shave off his mohawk hairstyle, and having him not return to the squad – there seems to be a regrettable case of misjudgement of character.
Looking deeper into the matter that has led Luke Dimech to throw in the towel and declare his “unavailability” for the national squad, it becomes more than apparent that it certainly wasn’t an issue of discipline, but rather a clash of personalities.
With 66 caps to his name, not to mention the captain’s sash too, this experienced defender has possibly fallen victim to his own reality of a foreign upbringing.
Luke Dimech doesn’t have an islander’s mentality; so when he is outspoken, he reflects this ability to think ‘outside the box’ and this made him stand out among his teammates.
Luke was eight years old when his father Frank, a senior manager for an international clothing manufacturer, was relocated to the UK.
Together with his mother Mary and his two brothers, Luke grew up living in different big cities, where he went to different schools and constantly mixed with different people.
“My circle of friends was always very limited, because we moved house so often according to my father’s business exigencies, and so while I developed a passion for football I was always training or playing the game, and this made me think the way I think today,” he says.
In a nutshell, Luke Dimech grew up with a totally different dressing-room mentality, where players speak their minds, share opinions and express disagreements… it’s all part of the game.
It came as no surprise to me when Luke confided that his team-mates – be they at club or national team level – would come up to him, express their disagreement with the coach’s ideas, then keep quiet and invite him to speak on their behalf.
“They come to me to speak up for them because they know I am outspoken and that I have the balls to express disagreement.
“I don’t do it as a challenge or in a form of arrogance, but simply because I believe that this is a sport where yes, there is and should be respect, but there is nothing cast in stone, and like everything on earth there is space for the expression of opinion…”
Luke Dimech has served three national squad coaches, and all were foreign – Josep Ilic, Horst Heese and Dusan Fitzel. John Buttigieg assumed the post in June last year.
“I have absolutely no issue with John Buttigieg, but I cannot understand why he chose to judge me...”
Luke is a colourful character: he has changed his hair colour many times and parades a walking art exhibition along both arms, his chest, back and thighs.
At first glance, he may appear intimidating, however once you get to know him, Luke is a completely different person from the public’s perception of him.
So it is clear that Luke has been completely misinterpreted, especially when one listens to him talk about the incident involving coach Buttigieg last June.
“When he told me to change my hair colour and to correct my mohawk, I actually went to Mario – my hairstylist – and asked him to do something about it. But while I was in the chair staring into the mirror, it dawned on me on to question whether I actually had to do it.
“I reasoned with myself: what did this have to do with football? I phoned my dad in the UK and told him about the matter, and he asked me if I was OK about it. I replied that I wasn’t comfortable with the instruction given to me by my coach. Dad replied that if it was what I believed, then I should follow what I thought, and that’s what I did.
“A week later I went for another training session with my hair in a lighter shade of red, and coach Buttigieg just asked me to leave, so I did…”
Since then, neither Buttigieg nor anybody from the MFA has called him, although attempts to mediate between the two were made by senior Valletta FC officials, without any tangible results.
When Malta confronted Georgia, Luke Dimech was not on coach Buttigieg’s list and has since been omitted from the national squad.
Last week (seven months after the incident), Dimech shocked the sports community when he announced that he will no longer avail himself of the first 11, and that he told the Football Association as much. “I have handled myself with integrity and have, up until today, refrained from making any comments when asked by the press to do so. This was done to leave the option for a call-up open and not to sour relations with the national coach,” Dimech told MFA President Joe Mifsud in a strongly-worded letter that reflected his disappointment at the situation.
“I always played with pride for my country. I was always committed. I have worked under numerous foreign coaches over the last 10 years and at no stage did I ever suffer any friction or disciplinary action,” he said.
Luke decided to call it a day with the national team with a very heavy heart, and this is clearly understood by the way he recalls the good days he played in Ta’ Qali and away.
He may not have had a thorough educational background, given the fact that he left school at 16 to pursue his passion for football, but his eloquence is alien to the sporting world. He speaks well of all his teammates and insists that, beyond the perception of many Maltese about their performance on the field, especially when the national team registers disappointing results, they are undervalued.
“We all play with honour, but the difference is that Malta does not have the resources to nurture the professionalism required. It’s tough for us, but we go on and do it, believing that we can make it,” he says.
He talks to me about his satisfaction at having won every single possible title in the Premiership during the past 10 years, playing for Sliema, Birkirkara, Marsaxlokk and Valletta, not to mention a string of successes in the lower division clubs in Britain and Scotland.
Dimech is visibly satisfied at his personal successes, and rightly boasts of a track-record that is written in the sports annuals.
Although a heartthrob in his own right, Dimech declares his unconditional love for his partner Haley, a British model, and speaks about his next goals in life. At 33 years old, he knows that footballers have a shelf life.
“I think of what I will be doing after football every day. I don’t say it is a torment, but it is obviously something that I have to plan. All my life I have known football to be my profession, and the time will come for me to call it a day… I want to settle down, and think of marriage, have children and form a family,” he says.
I ask him what he intends to do upon retirement. “Ah well, I am not discarding the idea of going back to school, to improve my education and move on from there, get a job and maintain the family I aim to build.”
What would he pass on to any future children he may have? “They can pick any famous footballer shirts they like, I have collected loads of them…” he jokes.
I’m curious to know the footballer stories on the pitch, when a man like Dimech meets world-class players.
“I am usually focused during the game and try not to feel inferior to whoever I mark on the field.
“Thierry Henry of France I have found to be a very humble man on the pitch, while I recently remember Sweden’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic coming up to me after the game offering me his shirt.
“I told him to hang onto it and give it to me after the home game in Malta, but then Buttigieg dropped me from the team and I never got it…”
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