Marius Zaliukas: What the Hearts legend was like as a team-mate, his love of Hearts songs and Scottish words

Hearts favourite Ryan McGowan revealed Marius Zaliukas had a real love for Hearts songs. Picture: SNS

The Lithuanian’s passing came as a huge shock to supporters on Saturday when it emerged during the 2-1 Scottish Cup semi-final win over Hibs.

It left former players and fans alike stunned and distraught.

McGowan, who got to know Zaliukas over a number of years at the club, paid tribute to the 2012 Scottish Cup-winning captain, explaining the personality which helped him succeed and why he was such a good leader.

During a period at the club when Lithuanian players were treated with a modicum of suspicion due to the ownership of Vladimir Romanov, Zaliukas somewhat bucked the trend by integrating.

Fascination with Scottish words

McGowan told Hearts podcast Scarves Around the Funnel: “Even within the changing room, Marius was probably the first one to break that barrier in terms of the Lithuanians who used to sit in the corner and keep to themselves.

"He spoke to the younger boys first as he probably thought he could get away with what he could say and we’d teach him and we were a bit in awe of him because he was a senior player and had played with Lithuania, played at Hampden and everything that went along with that.”

Zaliukas embraced the responsibility and pressure of being Hearts captain. Picture: SNS

He added: “They kept to themselves so you were very wary of what they were saying because English wasn’t their first choice. It was more Miko [Saulius Mikoliunas] and Zal who could speak English the best out of the group.

“They were both the daftest out of the group and the ones we could get along with. Miko and Zal used to love saying the Scottish words.

"Zal would be like ‘I heard this word last night what does it mean’. It used to end up being a guessing game. He was one you could get a rapport with straight away.”

Zal and a sing-song

In the past couple of days a clip many Hearts fans had forgotten about or had never seen surfaced on social media of Zaliukas singing the Hearts song during a defeat to Celtic at Tynecastle.

McGowan revealed that along with Scottish words the defender loved the different songs sung by fans and singing them.

"He used to love singing the Hearts songs," he said. “He really enjoyed that teasing of the other players, always shouting ‘Rudi, Rudi, Rudi’.

"He did that since day one so that became his thing, he would sing. Any fans who had made songs up he would try and sing all the time.

“[The video] brought back memories of us slagging him after the games, ‘check you out being the poster boy singing all the songs’, and he just loved it.

"He used to enjoy that side of football and didn’t take himself too seriously so he was more than up for being around the boys and being the butt of the jokes.”

Captain, leader, legend

For a time, Zaliukas was the butt of many fans’ frustrations as well. But it didn’t inhibit the player, instead it seemed to strengthen his character, leading him to become a dressing room leader and ultimately the captain.

And the captain on that day in May 2012 when he emotionally lifted the Scottish Cup following the 5-1 win over Hibs.

“From a footballing perspective he got a bit of a rough time,” McGowan said.

"I was watching the Hearts montage they put on Twitter and it was a cup game against Livingston, he had given away the ball and Marc McNulty scored. He went up the other end and scored.

"He could have been ‘get it up you’ because the fans had given him a hard time. But he was very much ‘yeah, I made a mistake’, he put his hands up and was apologetic of him making a mistake whereas a lot of players don’t do that. He was like ‘I’ve made a few mistakes but that doesn’t shirk my responsibility of being one of the older players and taking that responsibility’.

"For a younger player coming through I used to really admire him for doing that because as a young player going out at Tynecastle and fans are on your back it can be quite difficult. He was one who was very much ‘they will probably come for me before they come to a homegrown Scottish player and I’m big enough to handle that’.

"He set that example of ‘we are going to make mistakes but it is how we react to it’. I think that’s why he became such a good captain and was so well respected amongst the playing group.

“The first couple of years he got hammered and he must have been thinking ‘what’s the point here, I’m a good player’. We used to say his daddy Romanov was the owner and that’s why he was playing. He used to laugh and say ‘daddy will get you sacked’.

"He had to overcome all of that. He would have thought of all of those hard moments he had at the start of his Hearts career. The sacrifices he has made, all the times he had maybe got booed or slagged off or that he wouldn’t make it.

"To being the captain of arguably one of the greatest results in the club’s history and being able to go up there as captain and lift the trophy, no wonder he had tears in his eyes.”

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