Huddersfield should be wary of the potent Adam Birchall when they play Dover in the FA Cup tomorrow
Adam Birchall is one of those rare footballers who, when he says he loves playing for his club, actually means it. The 26-year-old, known as the Wayne Rooney of non-league football because of his prolific goalscoring form, loves playing for Dover so much that his eyes shine as he speaks with all the zeal of a religious convert.
Having fallen out of love with the game, after 10 years at Arsenal as a trainee and disappointing spells at Mansfield Town and Barnet, Birchall was at his lowest point when the then Dover manager Andy Hessenthaler approached him.
"That was the lowest time of my life," says Birchall, his eyes filming over with tears. "It was very, very difficult. At the time it was devastating to me. To be honest it's difficult for me to talk about it even now because I loved football so much. Falling out of love with it was like something dying inside of me."
Dover play an FA Cup third-round tie at Huddersfield tomorrow. Birchall has scored 29 goals this season. It is hard to imagine him not wanting to play football. But for two months in the summer of 2009 he sat at home in Maidenhead and contemplated a life outside the game. His problems began at Barnet, shortly after Ian Hendon was confirmed as the successor to Paul Fairclough as manager. Birchall was released.
"It was a terrible time in my life," he says, shaking his head. "I actually went to see a few people about it in the summer, you know, like mental strength people. I don't want to go into it too deeply, I don't want to sound like a crazy person, but I identified it ? that was what I was always taught at Arsenal: to identify it and work on it, and that's what I put into practice. I'm not the same person I was and I feel grateful for the fact that I've come here and everyone's given me a chance and it's been great."
Birchall believes that working part-time in his best friend's steakhouse, Flaming Henry's, in Maidstone, and coaching in youth football helped reignite his passion for the game.
"I can't describe to you how amazing [the transformation] has been. I just walk around smiling all the time. I probably beat myself up too much about not taking the opportunity when I was at Arsenal. I had a bad injury but it wasn't that, my head wasn't right when I began training with the first team. I didn't see it as, 'Right, now I've got to be better than Thierry Henry.' Instead I was just grateful to be there among all those stars."
A cerebral young man, Birchall studied videos of Rooney in action to improve his own game.
"When I was at Barnet a lot of ex-pros told me I needed to work between the lines of the 18-yard box more, instead of running around and dropping off all the time ? pretty much the way Rooney used to play. But I noticed that Rooney had changed his game, so I thought, 'Why don't I try and do the same?' So I practised. I think I have more spatial awareness now. I've watched him, analysed it and now I'm doing it. If it works for him, why can't it work lower down in the league?"
Even before he became associated with Rooney, Birchall made a name for himself after coming up with an idea to improve discipline on the pitch that was later adopted by the Football Association and employed throughout grass-roots football.
"Everyone says it should be called 'Birchall's Law'," says Birchall, grinning, of the rule that only the captain of a team may speak to a referee on the pitch. "It was at Barnet, we went through a period of having bad discipline ? one game we had two players sent off for abusing the ref. I went away, thought about it and come up with the idea. We implemented it at Barnet, then a paper picked it up and it grew from there. I didn't know they did that in rugby, it was just something I thought of and it became an FA thing which is really cool."
Tomorrow the Blue Square South club will face a team three leagues above them. It is a shop window for the talented striker. But Dover's chairman says he is not keen to initiate a move.
"He has told me that he wants to stay," says Jim Parmenter. "And anyway, we are not a selling club, although if they offered us a million then I'd have to think about it."
Birchall is philosophical. "I'm in a win-win situation," he says. "If no one came in for me I could quite happily stay at Dover for the rest of my life and play football. But if the right club approached me, then of course I would love to have another shot at league football."
Adam Birchall
Car BMW 1 series
Lives Maidstone
Relationship Has been with his childhood sweetheart, Leanne, for nearly 11 years. They will marry next year.
Tattoos "Dare to be a winner"; "no one can defeat us unless we first defeat ourselves"; lots of guardian angels and cherubs on his arms. The angels represent his brothers. There is a guardian angel on his shoulder.
Favourite music Trey Songz
Salary Approximately 0.3% of what Wayne Rooney earns
Wayne Rooney
Car Owns a fleet of cars including an Audi RS6, a BMW X5, a Mercedes CLK, a Cadillac Escalade and a Chrysler 300C
Lives �4m mansion in Cheshire
Relationship Married Coleen in 2008 after a six-year relationship, having started seeing each other in their final year of secondary school.
Tattoos Title of Stereophonics album Just Enough Education To Perform on right arm, with his wife's name and a Celtic design; flag of St George on upper right arm, with the words "English and proud"; clasped palms and angel wings featuring name of his son, Kai, on upper back; "Then" on lower back ? matches a friend's tattoo which says "OK". Together they read "OK Then"
Favourite music Stereophonics
Salary Approximately 44,444 times what Adam Birchall earns
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