Pavel Srnicek memorial in Newcastle
A Newcastle United legend has been remembered in the city today.
Thousands paid their respects at the memorial service for Pavel Srnicek after he sadly died in December.
Pavel signed for Newcastle in 1991 embracing the North East culture and forever followed by chants of ‘Pavel is a Geordie’.
Tributes have poured in from former teammates since the news of his untimely death, when he was unable to recover from a heart attack.
Ex-NUFC player and one of Pav’s best friends, Steve Harper said:
“It’s just a bit about the relationship we had, a few things that happened along the way. Hopefully I’ll be able to get through it, it’ll be very tough, it’s very personal and I’m sure there’ll be a great turn out there to give a great man a big send off.”
“He very much acted as a mentor for me… The time and effort he put into helping me as a youngster, he used to take me to one side and help me. I couldn’t do what he used to do but I certainly had a good go at trying. It’s something I’ll never forget, it was a great honour to meet him and work with him.”
It was just in early December that Pavel was in Newcastle to promote his new book ‘Pavel is a Geordie’.
His agent, Steve Wraith, said:
“It’s almost as if that book is now an epitaph, it’s almost you know ‘thanks for everything, I’m off now, and this was my life’. That’s hard really.”
“We had other keepers in that period of time but he stands out, probably because of his back story and where he came from. You know, he came from a little town in the middle of Czech which essentially he had no right to take the world stage by storm, but he did and the rest is history.”
Listen to our special "Pavel Will Always Be A Geordie" below: