Bruce “The Jungleman” – A Clown or Genius Between the Posts?

By Kamangeni Phiri

Retired goal-keeper, Bruce Grobbelaar, almost lost a once-in-a-lifetime chance to join giant English side, Liverpool FC, because of his legendary love for clowning.

It was in 1980 when Bruce was turning out for English Divison 4 side, Crewe Alexandra FC, on loan from Vancouver Whitecaps FC of Canada.

In one of his last matches for Crewe, Bruce heard that then Liverpool coach, Bob Paisley (now late), would be in the stands to watch him before possibly signing him for the Merseyside team.

Grobbelaar did not alter his warm-up routine – he ran out into the field with an umbrella, walked on his hands before finally jumping on the crossbar.

Journalist and writer, Donald McRae, writing for The Guardian, asked Bruce 38 years later in 2018 why he did not at least compromise and leave the umbrella out of his theatrics.

“It was raining. I asked the tea lady Mavis, if I could borrow her umbrella.”

But Paisley, the Liverpool legendary coach, was not amused. He left the ground in disbelief before the game even started, leaving a devastated Grobbelaar behind.

Luckily for him, Liverpool scouts who watched the game were impressed by the madcap keeper and later persuaded Paisley into buying Bruce. He joined Liverpool in March, 1981 as the team’s reserve goalkeeper. However, in mid-1981, regular goalkeeper, Ray ClemencejoinedTottenham Hotspur on a permanent transfer leaving Grobbelaar as the Reds’ first choice keeper.

Interestingly, Liverpool signed Bruce for a fee of £250,000, which by today’s standards is far less than the weekly salary of the club’s top player, Mo Salah today who gets £400 000.

Bruce, whose other nickname is The Jungleman, was as talented a goal-keeper as he was aclown. If he wasn’t a great goal-keeper, then obviously Liverpool would have discarded him. Some fans of local bitter rivals, Everton FC, nicknamed Bruce “The Clown Prince” as a way of distracting him.

He, together with the legendary Ndlovu brothers, Adam (late) and Peter, was part of the Dream team, the Zimbabwe Senior soccer team that was coached by the late German, Reinhard Fabisch. Bruce earned 32 caps playing for Zimbabwe and the team was just a victory short of qualifying for the 1994 World Cup.

Bruce David Grobbelaar was born in Durban, South Africa, on 6 October, 1957. His parents moved to Rhodesia when he was two months old after his father got a job with the National Railways. Bruce is the second born and only son in a family of three. Bruce and his two sisters grew up in Rhodesia.  He credits his mother for taking care of the three children after their parents’ divorce in 1968.

The Jungleman always wanted to be a goalkeeper from his childhood days. His first connection with football was at the age of seven when he was doing standard one at David Livingstone School in Harare. When he moved to secondary school Bruce could only play rugby and cricket since the school did not offer soccer. He had to join a variety of clubs for him to continue playing his beloved soccer and baseball.

In his teenage years, Grobbelaar was a sports all-rounder. He was a talented cricketer and baseball player. The Jungleman was offered a baseball scholarship in the United States but declined since his primary ambition was to play professional soccer.

Bruce then moved to Bulawayo where he enrolled as a student at Hamilton High School. He became serious with his soccer career and joined a top local side, Highlanders FC. He was later to signfor Durban City FC in South Africa. He also had a stint at Highlands Park FC, another South African side but left claiming to have been sidelined owing to his colour in a predominantly black team.

Immediately after leaving Highlands Park, he was conscripted into National Service and spent eleven months in active service in the Rhodesia Regiment during the war of liberation.

Soon after, he joined the Vancouver Whitecaps, a Canadian professional soccer team, in 1979. He gained Liverpool’s attention during a loan spell at Crewe Alexandra during the 1979–80 season. Bruce went on to make 628 appearances in Liverpool colours over a period of 13 years, including 440 in league games. He won the League championship with the club six times, as well as three FA Cups, three League Cups and the 1983–84 European Cup.In his early Liverpool years Grobbelaar also managed to add a League Cup winners medal that he won at Wembley on 13 March. The Reds beat Spurs 3–1, who had Bruce’s predecessor, Ray Clemence, in goal.

Some of Bruce’s highlights in his illustrious career include the 1984 European Cup final between Liverpool and Roma of Italy. The match ended 1–1 after extra time, and the teams went to a penalty shootout.

Bruce’s eccentrics and flamboyant style came to the fore when Roma’s Bruno Conti prepared to take his kick. Grobbelaar walked towards the goal smiling confidently at the cameras lined-up behind him. He then proceeded to bite the net, as if eating spaghetti, a favourite meal in Italy. Conti was unsettled and sent his spot kick over the bar.

His second trick surprised many, including members of his own team but later turned out to be the stuff that legends are made of. Roma’s Francesco Graziani was about to take his kick when Bruce started wobbling his legs in mock terror while winking and shaking his head at the same time. Graziani missed and Liverpool went on to win the shootout 4–2.The trick became known as Bruce’s “Wobbly or Spaghetti legs”.

But his early days as Liverpool’s number one were far from being funny. The Reds struggled to win and Grobbelaar took a lot of the blame.

By the end of the calendar year Liverpool were in mid-table in the league and it looked to be out of the league race as they were 13 points behind the then leaders, Ipswich Town.

The Reds coach, Bob Paisley, was naturally concerned and he one day pulled Bruce into the bath area in the dressing room and asked him how he thought his first six months had gone.

Bruce responded: “It could have been better”.And the coach said: “Yes, you’re right. If you don’t stop all these antics you’ll find yourself playing for Crewe again.” And he walked out.

It dawned on Bruce that he had to stop or at least reduce his theatrics.

And the New Year brought a new momentum. Bob Paisley began to get the best out of his players. Liverpool won 43 points out of a possible 50 and in the process overhauled the points gap that Ipswich Town had opened on them.

Bruce managed to shrug off any competition for his jersey up to the twilight of his career in the early 1990s. He was to lose his place to a younger David James who joined the Reds in 1992.

Grobbelaar’s Liverpool career ended in the manner it started – with a loss. He got injured in the last minute of what was to be his final game for Liverpool and his team lost 2-0 to Leeds in February 1994.

Grobbelaar left Liverpool for Southampton in 1994 where he faced some match-fixing allegations. He was, however, later cleared by the courts and successfully sued The Sun, the tabloid that published the allegations and was awarded one British pound in damages.

The courts took its joke further when it ordered Bruce to pay The Sun’s £500,000 legal. He was unable to pay and was subsequently declared bankrupt.

In 1996, Bruce became a nomadic player as he joined a number of teams that included Plymouth, Oxford United and SheffieldWednesday, within a period of two years, before retiring.

Bruce, 64, was married to Debbie Grobbelaar from 1983 up to 2008. They have two daughters, Olivia and Tahli. He has taken up coaching jobs, in South Africa, Canada, Norway and Zimbabwe.

In his autobiography, Life in a Jungle, Bruce cites the Hillsborough disaster that saw 97 soccer fans crushed or suffocated to death as his darkest moment in soccer. The incident happened in 1989 when Liverpool was playing against Nottingham Forest in an FA Cup semi-final.

The other low in his life washis war experiences where he fought on the side of Rhodesia. He witnessed a colleague collecting ears of freedom fighters he killed and placing them in jars.

All the smiles and the theatrics that he displayed in big matches, was a façade to hide his traumatic experiences in the Rhodesian war, the book reveals.

Grobbelaar believes football, “saved his sanity”.