Full Name: Frederic Dindeleux
Nickname:
Freddie
Position: Sweeper/Defender
Left/Centre
Date of Birth: 16th January
1974
Birth Place: Lille, France
Height: 5ft 11ins
Former Clubs: Olympique Lille
SC
Signed for Killie: 23rd July
1999
Contract Ended: 23rd July 2005
Other Career Highlights:
Freddie Dindeleux
was the longest serving Bosman signing in
Scotland,
Dindeleux talked with an accent that betrays
the length of his stay in Scotland, a skipping Gallic brogue frequently
invaded by something harder, a shard of Ayrshire, where he lived for
six years. He is talking about the
difference between the summer of 1999, when he left Lille under freedom
of contract and signed for Kilmarnock, and the close season ahead, which
could see the end of an auld alliance between the French defender and
his Scottish club.
“When I first came to Scotland there was a lot of money in the game
and a lot of foreign players. The money has gone now and so there are
not a lot of foreigners left.” It is a statement of brilliant
simplicity, something Dindeleux has often provided on the pitch during
those six seasons at Rugby Park.
He arrived in the middle of a wave of overseas signings. Scottish
clubs, buoyed by a generous broadcast rights contract and benevolent
bankers, had money to burn on transfer fees and wages, and managers were
increasingly looking to the continent. Most of the players that rode
that wave are now washed up. Only one, Stefan Klos, has stayed in the
Premierleague longer than Dindeleux but the capture of the Rangers
goalkeeper, for £700,000 from
Borussia Dortmund on Christmas Eve 1998,
has proved exceptional in more ways than one. Dindeleux better
represents the unknown hordes that stormed these shores in the late
1990s. Within a month of the then 25-year-old packing his bags and
bidding adieu to
France, Jan Telesnikov, Frank Van Eijs and Thomas
Solberg were doing likewise in Israel, Holland and Norway, bound for
Dundee United, Dundee and Aberdeen.
“I had been with Lille for such a long time, from the age of six to
when I was 25. The last year, a new manager was in and I was injured for
most of the season. I could have stayed, but I felt I needed to go
somewhere else and prove myself,” recalls Dindeleux. “My agent told me
there was a club in Scotland that was looking for a centre-half and
Kilmarnock were playing in Europe, which was a very big thing for me.
Kilmarnock were in Germany for pre-season and I joined as a trialist for
a week and it went on from there.”
Was there a feeling in Europe at that time that there was money to be
made in Scotland? “Not really. I mean, the terms were good, I was a
decent earner but never on five or six grand a week, nowhere near it.
The money was a factor, as was the offer of a three-year contract, but
it really was the challenge of a new country, a new language and the
chance to play in Europe. Everything was there for me to try to prove
myself.”
Dindeleux was never a traveller; the occasional holiday to Turkey, a
few football tournaments with Lille, for whom he played over 150 games,
and the French army (during his national service he was a part of the
France team,
along
with Roma’s Olivier Dacourt and Vikash Dhorasoo of AC Milan, that won
the armed forces World Cup). He could not speak English when he arrived
and relied heavily on Jerome Vareille, the forward who had signed
a year earlier and has also remained in Scotland with Airdrie United.
Initially, however, Dindeleux struggled to settle. “For the first
three months I was so much up for the task that I was doing okay, but
then I hit a brick wall and things were not very good from September to
the winter break in 1999,” he recalls. “Bobby Williamson [the
Kilmarnock manager] dropped me a few times and took me to one side, he
said that he still thought I was a good player but communication was a
problem, especially for a centre-half. I worked on it very hard during
the winter break that season. After that I was doing very well again. It
was a gamble for me coming here, especially with a wife and child, but
it was a gamble for Kilmarnock to sign a French centre-half. Thankfully,
it went well. I was enjoying myself and the people at Kilmarnock were
happy with my performances week in, week out and they offered me an
extension. It just became my life, my daughter is going to school here
now, she is enjoying it, things are good. Cannae complain.”
The signing of that extension, in the summer of 2001, represents a
crucial divergence in Dindeleux’s career path from that of countless
imports who arrived at the end of the 90s. By the following close
season, the financial climate in Scottish football had changed and
Kilmarnock were not alone in instigating budget cuts that have continued
ever since.
Vareille left Rugby Park along with Mickael Pizzo, Christophe Cocard,
Antonio Calderon, Michael Ngonge and David Mendy. Samuel Boutal, Jesus
Garcia Sanjuan and Jose Quitongo followed midway through the 2002/03
season. Dindeleux remained, partly because of the extension but partly
because of a consistent, all-round defensive game that has seen him play
over 200 times for Kilmarnock. His contract expired at the end of
the 03-04
season and the day before the final game he agreed a new one-year deal,
“The manager has told us we have the games
left to prove that we deserve to be here next season,” he says. “I spoke
to my agent about what could happen, but I will talk to Killie first and
see what they can offer. If that is decent then I will stay, but if not
then I will look at my options. I want to stay in Kilmarnock or in
Scotland, definitely. I am settled here and so is my family.”
'I love the club and the Killie supporters
and I know the financial circumstances have changed because of the
general state of Scottish football.
'A few years ago a lot of money was spent
unwisely on players from abroad who only came here for the fat pay
cheque and didn't do all that they could have done to help their new
clubs on the field.
'I can point to my record and prove I wasn't
one of them because I've played over 200 games and I've put up with a
massive drop in wages to accommodate the manager's budget.
'Killie took a risk when Bobby Williamson
brought me over from French football but I also gambled by uprooting my
wife and daughter.
'Now Charlotte is in primary one - and has a
strong Scottish accent. And I'm still here doing my best for Killie.
'I'm grateful to the club for making me an
offer of any description but I was out of contract soon and able to weigh up
my prospects.
'If Killie decided a year from now they had
no further use for me I could be struggling to find another good move at
the age of 32.
So ultimately in June of 2005 Freddie did not return
for a seventh season, and returned to his native France to find a 2 year
deal hopefully. Killie signed Fraser Wright as cover for Freddie also in
in June of 2005.
