Leading from the back

Everybody in Spain knows there is something a little bit special about Real Madrid defender Fernando Hierro.

He has been at the heart of the successful Spanish side's defence for over a decade, but beyond his outstanding ability are his constant reminders that football is a team game.

That's why being the top scorer in the history of the Spanish national team is no big deal. "27 strikes for Spain is an unusually high number of goals for a defender but it's merely a detail," he said after bundling in the goal against Bosnia that put him in the record books.

It's tempting to dismiss his statement as a cliché - to see it as just another player claiming that personal glory doesn't matter. But for Hierro that is the way it is. Records – that come and go, are there to be broken – are just details. What's important is team success.

This is the attitude that ensures the tall defender's standing in the game rises beyond his 6' 2' frame. Since joining Real from Valladolid in 1989, he has been held in the highest esteem at the Bernabeu. He is a player in total control of his circumstances who commands the unerring respect of his colleagues.

Just ask England midfielder Steve McManaman. The former Liverpool player was bowled over by the inspiring aura Hierro exudes around the club. He told the English press that Hierro was the player the whole club looks up to. "The players here take their cue from Fernando," he said.

McManaman isn't the only one. Real might have forgotten Bosnian midfielder Elvir Balic after his year-long loan with Fenerbahce, but there are aspects of the club Balic will never forget.

"Fernando is the leader of the pack," he said. "At Real, first there is him and then there is everybody else. He was the first person to say hello to me in the dressing-room. He was always on my side when the crowd whistled me."

Balic went on to say that as he struggled to fit into the team in the few matches he played before suffering a knee injury, Hierro purposely sought him out with the long ball.

The captain's role is to bring people into the fold and put the collective before the individual. "In football you don't win anything with a single player," he said in 1999, his tenth year with the Spanish team. "Football is a collective sport. Eleven players play wanting to win. I enjoy playing alongside my colleagues and when the team wins I feel like a king."

He towed the same line after Saturday's 4-1 win over Bosnia. "I'm not just interested in the personal, I'm interested in the team."

There is no magic formula to Hierro's leadership qualities. He has been instilled with a sense of responsibility since he was young. "I don't get scared on the pitch because when I was small I picked up a sense of responsibility that has never left me.

"I wasn't that big, I had the same build as the others boys. But I took the corners because the others couldn't get the ball to the back post and soon I began to take more responsibility. I found it came easily and that's what I've been doing my whole life. I haven't got a problem with it."

Hierro went on to become first-choice penalty taker for Spain and Real. "It's the same with penalties," he said. "I'll always take the risk. If I'm unlucky enough to miss then I won't say that I'm not going to take another one. I don't hide myself."

He is obviously proud to captain his country, and is keen to spread his patriotism around. Spain don't just play their national football in one stadium. They take it all over the country – an idea that Hierro supports.

"It's great to play in somewhere out on its own like Extremadura," he said. "They are our people there and we should get close to them and share the patriotism that unites us when we play for the national side."

What is bizarre is that Hierro claims he doesn't understand what it is to be a leader. "I don't understand the concept," he said. "It's a word I don't like. I think it's an idea people use to show the authority or control of a certain footballer."

And that's really the thing about Hierro. Leadership - taking the team forwards - is something that just has to be done. He doesn't stop to mull it over, ponder what it means. He just does it.