Solano continues to make sweet music at Newcastle

Four christmases ago, Newcastle United's players held a lottery. They put the names of Ruud Gullit's squad into a hat and drew out one each with the requirement that they had to buy an appropriate present for that person.

Given the nature of footballers, some were witlessly cruel. Alessandro Pistone received a sheep's heart, on the basis he lacked one of his own. Dietmar Hamann unwrapped a copy of Mein Kampf while Duncan Ferguson was obliged to buy something for Nolberto Solano. The Scottish striker scoured the streets of Newcastle to discover that not even in the malls of the Metro Centre would anyone sell him a llama.

He could have bought a Paddington Bear, another creature from Peru, although it is doubtful whether even Paddington has inspired more affection on Tyneside than the little winger, who since his arrival in the summer of 1998, has been the mainstay of Newcastle's midfield and a scorer of exquisite goals.

Like many footballers who join the Premiership from South America, such as Juan Pablo Angel and Diego Forlan, Solano took time to settle. Such was the anticipation surrounding his transfer from Boca Juniors, where he had earned Diego Maradona's admiration, that 9,000 turned up to see him make his debut in a reserve game but the fact that Kenny Dalglish was sacked two matches into the season, not to mention the barriers thrown up by language and a different footballing culture, meant a stuttering start.

"It's true that we don't begin well; here in English football the game is very open, very fast, it has you running on to long balls, fighting for possession. It's totally different. South Americans play in a very similar style to Italy and Spain; you start your play with the keeper, keeper to defender, defender to midfielder.

"In England, they want to see quick football; that's why it's so popular around the world. I found my first season with Newcastle very hard. It was tougher, more fighting for the ball, more power, more challenges. Bang! Welcome to England. This is more true of the north-east than anywhere else because the crowd really loves passionate football; they expect you to go for every ball."

The Newcastle of Sir Bobby Robson is a very different side to the fractious dressing-room which disintegrated under Gullit. "He's a very, very strict manager," Solano remarked of English football's favourite grandfather. "He talks about discipline all the time and keeps telling me that I have to defend and tackle back more. 'Push in more' Mr Robson always says to me. 'You are on a good salary, you have to go in hard'."

The team Robson has fashioned is very young, very talented and rather fragile, and many outside Tyneside would not mind seeing them lift a piece of silverware, if for no other reason than Newcastle make football worth watching. True, their back-four needs toughening but when their centre-half, Andy O'Brien, asked a taxi-driver how long he had been worrying about Newcastle's defence, the answer came back: "About 35 years".

These frailties have been relentlessly exposed in the Champions' League, but when the club's European campaign of 2002-3 is recalled it will be for a night in Rotterdam. Newcastle, having lost their first three games, needed not only to beat Feyenoord in the De Kuip to qualify for the second phase, but hope that in Ukraine, Juventus won their first away game in Europe for more than four years to overcome Dynamo Kiev.

That is precisely what happened but not before, in a microcosm of Newcastle's season, they had thrown away a two-goal lead before rescuing everything with a last-minute intervention from Craig Bellamy. In Solano's home city of Lima, they pray to the patron saint; El Senor De Los Milagros, The Lord of the Miracles, and this in footballing terms was something of a miracle.

Losing their opening two games of the second group stage to Internazionale and Barcelona means Newcastle need another to make the quarter-finals but Solano remains optimistic for the future. "If we make it into the Champions' League next season, we will have the experience we lacked this time.

"You have to have experience of the Champions' League to really play it well. I'd say we have to be more like Spanish or Italian teams; build up carefully and make fewer mistakes. But for a first try we have done OK and we are still close enough in the Premier League to think about qualifying for it again. We have such a young squad. A couple of years more and the team will be experienced and very hard to beat."

This time last year, Newcastle were very hard to beat, so much so that after a 4-3 victory at Leeds in January Kieron Dyer and others thought they might actually win the championship. That they did not was partly down to Bellamy's injury and the fact that sides quickly discovered that Solano and Dyer were often the key to Newcastle.

"These days, I hear opposition players say: 'Be careful with Kieron and Nobby, stop the right side and you can stop Newcastle'. This season they have pushed me tighter, given me less space and it is the same with Kieron. Last year they were not quite sure how we would link up; now they know."

Like David Batty, Solano says he rarely watches matches he not involved in. Isolation and loneliness are a frequent trap for foreigners, especially in a clique-ridden game like football; all the more so when they come from Peru. Music gives him a release.

"I spend some nights playing the trumpet. Sometimes I play drums and congas. You have a lot of time to yourself in England; you only train for two hours a day and you have to do things on your own, so I taught myself to play the trumpet. I'm quite happy being at home with my wife and my son.

"I like Newcastle, it's not Paris or London but it has its own rhythm. It's cold but so is Germany and the people are warm. That's why I have stayed here such a long time. What I really want to do is win a trophy for Newcastle and its fans."

Perhaps more than anything, he would like to play in a World Cup finals. Like many players from faraway 'minor nations' – Dwight Yorke at Manchester United is an obvious example – Solano was put under pressure by his club not to play for his country. A compromise was reached whereby he played only competitive internationals, although these still involve a 14-hour flight via Amsterdam.

"It is so hard to say no to my national team. I am 28 years old and I dream to see Peru again in a World Cup. Pizarro, who plays for Bayern Munich, is also in our national squad but us apart there are not too many very good players so we have to make the effort to travel. It's not my fault I was born in South America and if you love your country, you have to go."