Few former Town players can have had a more extraordinary life than Andy Bernal, who has has published a book, Riding Shotgun: The Autobiography of the Original Wizard of Oz, taking in his playing career, his time as an agent and also his spell working as David Beckham’s personal assistant and translator at Real Madrid.

Australian Bernal, 56, joined the Blues in 1987 following a recommendation from a legend of the game and did enough to be offered a three-year deal before red tape scuppered his spell at Portman Road.

“It came about through Brian Clough,” Bernal recalled when asked how he came to end up at Town. “I’d been playing in Spain and I had to leave Spain because of military service, that’s another drama that comes up in my book.

“I’d started making inroads into Spanish football and turned up and asked Brian Clough for a trial at Nottingham Forest, which is a story in the book.

“Cloughie took me on and after a couple of months I was playing in the reserves but he said I was too good for his reserves and that he’d got a mate that’s coaching at Ipswich Town, John Duncan, so on Cloughie’s recommendation I joined Ipswich.

“I played a few reserve games and eventually made my debut against Birmingham City at St Andrew’s as a sub, and then my full debut was against Hull City, we won 2-0 at home.

“If I didn’t get man of the match I went pretty close and I was very honoured that the local paper described it as a Brian Talbot-type performance.

“Talbot was a one of my heroes growing up when Ipswich Town had that wonderful side, Mariner, Brazil, Gates, Thijssen, Muhren etc, so to be considered in that kind of company was a beautiful thing.”

He says he enjoyed his time at Town - he made four starts and seven sub appearances - before the authorities curtailed his time in England.

“I loved Ipswich, I was living with Ray East, who was a cricketer, I think he was assistant manager of Essex at the time,” he added.

“I was looking forward to getting back to the UK and more than just the three-year contract, it was a lifelong dream to play for Ipswich Town and I would have been happy to be there 10, 12 years.

“But I was then deported by British Customs, I didn’t have the correct visa to be playing over there.”

Despite being at Town for not as long as hoped, he has happy memories and still keeps in touch with players and people he met during his time at Portman Road.

“It was a real short time at a wonderful club I looked at from afar as a kid in Australia and lived a lot of their great days. It was cut short and that was very sad,” he said.

“Simon Milton, I mention it in the book, says that he ended up getting a testimonial at Portman Road probably because I left!

“I met some wonderful people, Horry Money [chairman of the London Branch of the Supporters Club] is a great friend of mine, Jason Dozzell, I was chatting to Mich D’Avray the other day, he lives in Perth now doing some agent work. We still keep in touch. Chris Kiwomya, I speak to him a little bit.”

Canberra-born Bernal returned to England later in his career and faced his old club but has mixed memories of those games.

“I went back and played for Reading. I remember two occasions vividly. I went back to Town and scored the winning goal for Reading away and got sent off in another.”

More widely, Bernal, who won 13 full international caps with Australia, is probably best known for having been Beckham’s assistant during the Manchester United and England legend’s spell at Real Madrid.

“I wasn’t sure what I was going to do after football and it ended up that someone got me a meeting with Tony Stevens, who was David Beckham’s agent, he also looked after Michael Owen, Steven Gerrard was on the books, all those boys, David Platt, Gary Lineker, while the US branch represented Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan. We’re talking about the premier sports management company on the planet.

“I got what was supposed to be a five-minute meeting with Tony Stevens. It ended up an hour with Tony and he liked what he heard.

“His first task was to ask if I could get him Tim Cahill. He gave me about three months to get Tom Cahill and I turned up at his office 24 hours later with Tim Cahill.

“Timmy became my first ever client as a football agent and through Tim and the SFX company I began looking after Dwight Yorke on occasions in Australia, Beckham at marketing events.

“I’d played in Spain, my parents are Spanish, and the whole Spanish connection worked well. I spent a couple of years travelling and working throughout Spain and Italy building good connections with the top clubs there.

“I won’t give too much of the book away but a year before Beckham went to Real Madrid, I was already at the Bernabeu Stadium and I recommended three players to them from our company, Beckham, Owen and Jonathan Woodgate, and they signed all three.”

After his stint being chased by the paparazzi alongside Beckham in Spain, Bernal went through some tough times which saw him battle a drug addiction and become a victim of the phone-hacking scandal, but says his life is now on a more even keel.

“After that I had my ups and downs in football, I’ve been really honest and frank in the book,” he said.

“I’m at peace with the world now, I’ve had my successes and my faults and with what I’ve overcome I feel that if I can help young lads, empower them in any way and help them through dark periods of their lives, then it will all have been worth it.”

He is currently working at A-League side Central Coast Mariners: “I’m one of the assistant coaches to [former Sheffield United midfielder] Nick Montgomery, assistant coach/head of athletic development. I deliver all the conditioning and strength programmes to all the players at the club.

“We’re a decent side, we made the finals last year, we’re looking to progress this year and try and win the thing. My wife is working for the Mariners as well, so happy days!”

He says the book has done well with an audio version now available: “I’ve narrated it for those that don’t like to read, it’s on Amazon on Audible and it’s going great. At one stage I was number four or five in the world alongside Jurgen Klopp, Alex Ferguson, Steven Gerrard, so I’m happy with that company!”

Riding Shotgun: The Autobiography of the Original Wizard of Oz can be bought from Amazon here.

Contributed

RonFearonsHair added 16:58 - Jul 21 If I remember rightly the winner for Reading was a cracking strike at the North Stand end.
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ParisBlue added 18:33 - Jul 21 Saw him playing for Sydney Olympic a few times at leichhardt. Must have have been around 1994. The game in Oz has come a long way since those days.
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FifeITFC added 05:50 - Jul 22 I'm surprised he doesn't seem to remember going in goal for Reading against us after Mikhailov their keeper was sent off for a professional foul. Think we won 5-2 that day. Would have been about 95/96.
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mutters added 14:08 - Jul 22 Ray East was my cricket coach at school. An absolute legend, living with him must have been a blast!
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