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PSV are in England for a five-day training camp. At the end of each day PSV.nl presents a diary, covering some special news. The No 3 entry is again from Newcastle and focuses on Pelé and club hero Alan Shearer. ’Howay the lads’We have seen a colour picture of Pelé, Edson Arantes do Nascimento, in the Newcastle United training ground. It is not just an ordinary picture: it is large and is put up in the corridor that leads to the dressing rooms. Moreover the picture has been personally signed by Pelé, who added a sentence in Geordie-dialect. (Geordie is a nickname for a person born within the boundaries of the city of Newcastle upon Tyne, but in recent times Geordie has also been used to refer to a supporter of Newcastle United football club). It says: Howay the lads. ‘Howay’ is an encouragement for a sports team and the slogan is also the first line of a very famous song chanted and sung by Newcastle United fans:HOWAY THE LADS, HOWAY THE LADSWell we play in white & Black,And we're deadly in attack,We're the most United team in all the landYou can hear the Geordie roar,Everytime the Magpies score,We're the most United team in all the land Alan ShearerTalking about true-blue Geordies: Alan Shearer, born in Newcastle in 1970, is the highest goalscorer in the history of Newcastle United, a prolific centre forward with 206 goals and is also the highest goalscorer in the history of the FA Premier League, with 260 league goals in eighteen seasons. The striker had spells at Southampton and Blackburn Rovers, before he made a move to Newcastle United in 1996, the club in his birthplace. Ten years later, in February 2006, Shearer scored his 201st goal for Newcastle, breaking the record set by club icon Jackie Milburn, after whom a stand is named at St. James’ Park. Shearer was to make his final appearance two months later in the 4-1 derby win at Sunderland on 17 April 2006, when he converted a penalty, before suffering the injury that brought his final season to a premature end. Sunderland, situated near Newcastle, were relegated, having beaten their own record for fewest points in a Premiership season. By the way, there is no love lost between the Sunderland fans and the Newcastle United faithfuls.Shearer is an immensely popular hero in Newcastle, where football is a religion, and a beautiful, trendy bar at Newcastle United’s St James Park ground, opened on 12th February, is appropriately named after him: Shearer’s.
