Hearts
Tall moved to Hearts in August 2005 in controversial circumstances, with tabloids speculating that he was signed by club owner Vladimir Romanov, against the wishes of then head coach George Burley. Commenting on the signings of Tall and Brazilian Samuel Camazzola, Burley himself would only admit that the situation was "not ideal". Tall then appeared to become the victim of internal club politics as, despite his reported £8,000 per week salary, he spent the first 7 months of his Hearts career either sitting on the bench or in the stand.
An injury to José Gonçalves and the omission from the team of Andy Webster, due to a contract dispute with the club, eventually allowed Tall to make his competitive debut, as a substitute, in the 2–0 victory over Kilmarnock on 15 April. After this, he formed a solid defensive partnership with club captain Steven Pressley during the final weeks of the 2005–06 season and ended it on a positive note, when he collected his first senior medal as Hearts defeated Gretna in the Scottish Cup final.
On 26 July, Tall scored his first competitive goal for Hearts, in the club's first game in Europe's elite club competition, the UEFA Champions League. His strike against Bosnian club NK Široki Brijeg helped his side to a 3–0 aggregate victory.
On 15 May 2008, it was announced that Tall had left Hearts.
Read more about this topic: Ibrahim Tall
Famous quotes containing the word hearts:
“In mid-life the man wants to see how irresistible he still is to younger women. How they turn their hearts to stone and more or less commit a murder of their marriage I just don’t know, but they do.”
—Patricia Neal (b. 1926)
“There is something in the breast of almost every man, which at bottom takes offense at the attentions of any other man offered to a woman, the hope of whose nuptial love he himself may have discarded. Fain would a man selfishly appropriate all the hearts which have ever in any way confessed themselves his.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“But those rare souls whose spirit gets magically into the hearts of men, leave behind them something more real and warmly personal than bodily presence, an ineffable and eternal thing. It is everlasting life touching us as something more than a vague, recondite concept. The sound of a great name dies like an echo; the splendor of fame fades into nothing; but the grace of a fine spirit pervades the places through which it has passed, like the haunting loveliness of mignonette.”
—James Thurber (1894–1961)