Big Jan's love of football revived

THIS time last year the sum of Jan Renouf's sporting involvement was two weekly sessions on the Foote's Lane running track alongside many of Guernsey's track-and-field stars. Having fallen out of love with football, he wanted to try something different while staying fit.

He bought some spikes, talked athletics among athletes and GIAAC coaches eyed a new talent in their midst.

Sadly, as strong and fit as this versatile Muratti footballer is, an out-and-out sprinter he was not. His presence at the track was welcomed but unless he was to commit fully, his athletics prowess was not going to lead to club or island representation.

Renouf, not daft, saw it that way, too.

'It was something I had always wanted to do and I wanted to see how I would get on.

'But I quickly realised it would have to be a whole new way of life and I would have to go the whole hog into it - that was something I wasn't prepared to do.'

In the new year, big Jan slipped away from the running scene and returned to his second sport, basketball, and boosted La Fraternelle Rovers' title hopes.

Come the summer and as Guernsey's footballers defended their Island Games crown in front of massive crowds, Renouf was a face in the crowd, a jealous one too. The desire to play football was being stirred.

Now he's back and St Martin's and Guernsey football is better for it.

While not quite the giant of the Guernsey game his father Colin was - surely there will never be a better centre half in Guernsey football - Jan is a star in his own right, physically imposing, talented and now, crucially, revitalised.

He wants to play again and his return to island colours is unlikely to be a brief one.

'I'd like to try and hang around for the Island Games in Shetland,' said Renouf this week.

He had just be been called up into Steve Ogier's first island selection and was itching to get going against the Naval Air Command, not to mention that evening's vital Priaulx League game against North.

'I'm really looking forward to tonight,' said the younger of Renouf's talented footballing sons.

As he went to bed that night, he could reflect on scoring Saints' first goal and inspiring the fightback which preserved the only unbeaten record in the Priaulx.

The catalyst to Renouf's return was Saints' master-stroke appointment of Colin Renouf and Colin Fallaize to run the first team.

'I was already thinking of coming back and when Colin and dad took over, it was too hard to resist.'

Their presence is rubbing off on everyone, said Jan.

'There seems to be a bit of a buzz about the place at the moment.

'Big Fal has brought an energy to the fray.

'The players, and young players especially, have such respect for both of them that they are very attentive - they want to learn.'

And it is obviously working.

'Each game we seem to add something to ourselves as a team,' said the six-times Muratti cap and 2001 Island Games gold medallist.

He is so glad he's back.

'I wasn't enjoying the game at the time and rather than struggle on, I thought I would give it a rest and reevaluate things at the start of the season.'

He refutes any suggestion that his rest period had anything to do with Steve Ogier running the Saints side.

'I enjoyed his training and it was never an issue with him.'

As for Ogier, he's obviously a big Jan fan.

'He's got his hunger back and the rest has done him the world of good.

'He's got presence - he is a big lad, yes, but there are a lot of big lads who can't play football,' said a coach who can choose to play him in a central-midfield role, in the hole or as an out-and-out striker.

Jan, meanwhile, is just sad his brother, Lee, who had worked so hard in an attempt to make his own return to the sport the Renouf family has graced for 40 years and more, is not alongside him in the Saints team.

A dislocated shoulder picked up when he dived into the water on holiday has put him back on the sidelines again.

'That guy seems to have the worst luck in the world,' said a sympathetic brother.