Glenn Hoddle had scary 'head rush' when Spurs scored winner against Ajax but says it was 'wonderful reason to get one'

With one hand held tightly against his chest and the other extended in a joyous high-five, Glenn Hoddle’s voice was reduced to a high-pitched squeal as he was overwhelmed by the delirium of Tottenham Hotspur’s victory over Ajax earlier this month.

“You whacked me!” Hoddle gasped at Rio Ferdinand, his fellow pundit in the BT Sport studio in Amsterdam, as they both sprung to their feet in celebration of Lucas Moura’s stoppage-time winner. Amid the frantic excitement, it took a full 20 seconds of hysteria for Ferdinand to remember that Hoddle had only recently survived a cardiac arrest and undergone a quadruple bypass. “Are you OK?!” Ferdinand bellowed. “Are you OK?!”

Watching the footage, recorded off-air while the match was being shown live, it seems as if Hoddle had forgotten about his health, too. In that moment, this 61-year-old who has seen more than most in football was as enchanted by the game as any wide-eyed child.

“I have supported Spurs since I was eight years old,” he says. “With what has happened to me, to see them go to the Champions League final, it hit me that it was something I would not have been around to see. I just jumped. The earpiece popped out. Rio half-punched me. I did have a head rush, which was a bit scary, but it was a wonderful reason to get one. Then we had to hang on [to the lead] for only a minute. That was lucky for my heart.”

It can be a cold and cynical game, football. Grubby on and off the field. But even the frostiest of souls would have been warmed by Hoddle’s exuberance that night, by his ongoing love for the purest aspects of the game that has defined his life. “This is what football does to you,” he says. “I have managed Spurs, played for them, supported them. You can imagine how I felt. You can’t plan for things like that. It was such a surprise. Marvellous. A fantastic night.”

Hoddle, it is safe to say, is recovering well from the cardiac arrest he suffered in October. In his own words, he is “lucky” to be alive and to be preparing for Tottenham’s Champions League final against Liverpool next weekend. The former England manager is the first to admit that the drama of late goals and stirring comebacks are not the best treatment for his heart, but some emotions simply cannot be controlled.

“The doctors said not to get over-excited. My most exciting thing at the moment is if I hit a green with the golf ball. But if Tottenham win in the final, with a late winning goal, I will do the same. It’s in your blood.”

It feels appropriate that Hoddle, such an important figure in Tottenham’s history, has recovered in time for the final. He was part of the side that won the club’s last European trophy, the Uefa Cup in 1984, and has fond memories of watching their 1972 victory in the same tournament.

Hoddle says he has been “lifted” by the outpouring of affection from the footballing world since his heart attack. “It was surreal. It made a big difference to get that positive feeling from people. I fed off that. It was hard to take sometimes, emotionally, but it was lovely.

“I said to someone that when you pack your boots up, you become a better player. When you pass away you become even better — and I had the chance to hear it! It helped my family too. They were gobsmacked. It lifted me.”

BT are giving you more ways to watch the UEFA Europa League Final and the UEFA Champions League Final than ever before. Watch on TV, YouTube or via the BT Sport App