In his first few weeks at FC St. Pauli, there was no question of setting him up. Jackson Irvine was as far from his top form as the Millerntor was from his native Australia. In the meantime, the charismatic midfielder has become an indispensable part of the Kiezkicker starting line-up. Irvine is not only a sporty fit for St. Pauli like the much-cited fist on the eye. A guy the fans love.
It almost sounds like a story from bygone brown-and-white times when Irvine talks about how he travels to the home games of his new club. “I take the train,” he says. Fear of contact? No way! The fact that fans keep chatting to him on the last steps to the stadium doesn’t bother him, on the contrary. He likes the contact with the followers. “All people are relaxed. That’s what I love about St. Pauli. ”After playing, he often walks back to his apartment, which is between the Schanzenviertel and Eimsbüttel.
Irvine loves contact with St. Pauli fans: “Everyone is relaxed”
Irvine tells it like it’s the most normal thing in the world. By the way, he takes the bus to training on Kollaustraße. “I love German public transport!” He says with a laugh. It’s so much better than the one in England or Scotland, where he played for Hibernian Edinburgh until the summer. He currently doesn’t have a car.
Its carbon footprint is likely to be unmatched in the team. As an Australian international, the flights to international matches are mostly world trips. Irvine is also getting off to a flying start at St. Pauli. In the 4-2 win in Heidenheim, the 28-year-old made his best game so far in the brown-white jersey, preparing two goals.
After injury, Jackson Irvine takes off at St. Pauli
No question about it: Steam maker Irvine is a real reinforcement. It hadn’t looked like that at the beginning. He arrived in Hamburg in poor physical condition and immediately sustained an injury. “It was the worst possible start.” He struggled slowly, seized his chance after the failure of Finn Ole Becker and played himself stuck. He feels “stronger and stronger”, but: “There is more!”
A goal, that’s what he wants. In the victory in Karlsruhe (3: 1) it almost worked, should have worked. “I still have nightmares about the header!” He says with a laugh. In any case, he’ll go nuts if he hits, he’s sure of that. “Then I’ll definitely do something crazy.”
Friend Jermilla had to get used to Irvine’s mustache
It is also good for weird actions away from the lawn. In the first corona lockdown in spring 2020, he pierced his ears himself. “It was pure boredom, man!” He says with a grin. Then he had a mustache, to the chagrin of friend Jemilla, a professional firefighter. “She didn’t like the mustache at all, but she’s got used to it. Now it’s my trademark, before it was my hair. “
Irvine is an unconventional guy who enjoys life and has a lot of interests. During the Reeperbahn Festival he went to a few club concerts in the Molotow, plays guitar himself and has a weakness for tattoos. He stabbed some of them himself.
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Still, he’s not a bon vivant. Irvine is a professional, ambitious. “I love music and art, but my greatest passion is and remains football,” he emphasizes. St. Pauli is a damn good overall package for him. The sporting concept, the values of the club, its district. “I am very happy here. I can well imagine playing for St. Pauli for the foreseeable future, ”says Irvine. Not only the HVV would be happy about that.
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