this is a funny true story. in the early 70ies the great ajax played the great feyenoord in the dutch competition both where at that time european toplevel teams fulled with atg players. on midfield feyenoord player willem van hanegem met ajax player johan neeskens. both where very talented extremely gifted players but both could also be very hard and go to war on opponents. on this ocassion van hanegem gave neeskens such a hard elbow in the face that he broke neeskens jaw. next day when reporters came to him to tell him that neeskens was in the hospital with a broken jaw having surgery van hanegem said oh i am sorry i will go there and bring a gift. van hanegem knew perfectly well that neeskens could not eat hard food etc with this broken jaw. you know what he brought to the hospital to make up with neeskens ?? a bag full of peanuts and other hard nuts.
another true story. in the 1970ies dutch leftback hugo hovenkamp always made a bet with dutch rightback wim suurbier whenever playing in the national team. the first of them who kicked or hit their opponent so hard that the teamdoctor had to appear won the money. hovenkamp was a very good defender with a mean streak to him. when one time holland had to play belgium the day before the match the belgium player roger van gool said :"i do not care much for the dutch team they are worthless i don't even know who my direct opponent is gonna be tommorow". the game was 5 minutes on the way and hovenkamp made a very extremley hard sliding on van gools achilles tendon when van gool was crying in pain on the field hovenkamp bent over him and said my name is hovenkamp, mr. hovenkamp for you
In 1978, Viv Anderson became the first black to play for England, but he was not the first Black to get called up by England. Jack Leslie was called up in 1920's, but England withdrew the callup after they learned that he was Black. Leslie told the journalist, Brian Woolnough: "They must have forgot I was a coloured boy".
Real Madrid won the 1980 Copa del Rey. In the Final, they beat Castilla FC, Real Madrid's reserve team. I do not think it ever happaned before. Castilla reached the Final by beating Real Sociedad and Sporting Gijon, who finished 2nd and 3rd that season in La Liga.
I do not know the rule for Copa Del Rey. Perhaps, Real Madrid would receive the qualification for Cup Winners' Cup even if Castilla won. However, for the league, the reserve team is not allowed to play in the same level as the first team and the reserve team is not allowed to grain promotion to the top division in the league. If the reserve team won the 2nd division, they would remain in the 2nd level and another team would take over the spot. And if the first team drops to the same level as the reserve team, the reserve team would have to drop down one more level down. I also think that if the first team gets demoted to the 2nd division and the second team happens to gain promotion, the first team would remain in the first division the following season. But I am not sure about this.
Sunderland in the 1976-77 season had a bitter goalless run of 10 games then in the next 4 games they scored 17 goals. Here's that run: 0-1 vs. Derby County (27.11.76, away) 0-2 vs. Birmingham City (11.12.76, away) 0-1 vs. Norwich City (18.11.76, home) 0-2 vs. Newcastle United (27.12.76, away) 0-1 vs. Leeds United (29.12.76, home) 0-2 vs. Liverpool FC (01.01.77, away) 0-1 vs. Coventry City (03.01.77, home) 0-2 vs. Leicester City (15.01.77, away) 0-0 vs Stoke City (22.01.77, home) 0-0 vs. Arsenal FC (05.02.77, away) 1-0 vs. Bristol City (11.02.77, home) 4-0 vs. Middlesbrough FC (19.02.77, home) 6-1 vs. West Bromwich Albion (22.02.77, home) 6-0 vs. West Ham United (05.03.77, home) Those games in February/March were however only a small burst of unexpected goalscoring prowess, Sunderland still got relegated at the end of the season.
It was well-known that Messi went on a trial with River Plate when he was 12. During the trial, he played a scrimmage against an older team. His partner on the forward line that day was Gonzalo Higuain.
Zambia have conceded a penalty kick in each of their last four ACN matches, but none of the kicks have resulted in a goal. The kick takers are Gyan, Drogba, Said and Mikel, so some of the finest talents in Africa, but none of them have been able to beat Kennedy Mweene.
very interesting ... So either Kennedy shall be a new Yashin, or those "finest" strikers are new BAGGIO? LOL
After having eye trouble during the game (1969), Tostão almost don't plays the World Cup 1970, had to be operated in the USA. He made a great World Cup and returned to Brazil. In 1972, he was hired to by Vasco, a contract made millionaire, in one of the largest transactions in Brazilian football at the time. At the end of 1972 had to undergo another eye surgery, after waking this surgery his eye was covered gauze... some days after these were remove with great care, yet Tostão asked the doctor: "Doctor, remove the last gauze, still missing the last gauze...'' lacked not remove anything, his views were compromised and their football too. In another operation, the problem was corrected, but Tostão was no longer able to play football. At 26, he ended his career. Bitter and sad, he spent years without speaking to reporters, became a doctor and rejected being called by a nickname that became known (Tostão). He lived a simple life. Many years later, in the 1990s, was convinced by friends and became one of the best commentator and chronicler of football in Brazil.
I've posted this on other MBs before: When Jack Charlton was making his senior debut for Leeds Utd. v. Doncaster in Apr. of '53; he asked United's manager Raich Carter if he had any last minute tactical instructions to impart to Charlton. Carter paused for a moment and then replied, 'See how fast their centre-forward can limp.' The story is also told here: http://www.footballsite.co.uk/Statistics/Articles/DidYouKnow11.htm
Cobi Jones went to the 1992 Barcelona Games. He was the only Olympian who shared the same name "Cobi" with the Olympic mascot.
Vsevolod Bobrov was one of the greatest ice hockey in Soviet Union's history. He was also capped by the Soviet Union football team three times. He led the Soviet football league in scoring twice. He represented the USSR for soccer in 1952 Olympics....four years later, he won the gold medal for hockey in 1956. He was better known as theSoviet coach Aleksandar Shalamanov was capped 43 timesby Bulgaria and won Bulgarian Player of the Year twice. He went to the 1960 Olympics as an Alpine Skier and then, as a volleyball player 4 years later in 1964. After that, he played in the 1966 and 1970 World Cup.
According to Steve McManaman, Figo signed for Real Madrid because he thought Florentino Pérez would never get elected the president of Real Madrid. During the election campaign, Perez revealed that Figo had signed a pre-contract with him stating that Figo would transfer to Real Madrid only if Perez got elected. It was something very unbelieveable at the time and Figo also denied it. Lorenzo Sanz, the president of Real Madrid at the time, just led Real Madrid to two European Cup titles in 1998 and 2000. Figo assumed that Sanz would be reelected easily. Thus, if he signed with Perez, the signing bonus would be easy money. After the election, Figo could just simply deny the deal and no one would ever know. So he signed the pre-contract while denying it up until a few days before he was introduced as a Real Madrid player.
Most soccer players grew up poor. A lot of Brazilian players grew up in the favela. Cruyff's mother was a cleaner at Ajax. We heard many stories where players could not afford transportation fees and missed a trial here and there. There were, of course, great players from middle class background or sons of ex-players or famous coaches who did not come from poorer background. Gianluca Vialli, however, came from a very rich family. He grew up in the 60-room Castello di Belgioioso in Cremona.
[Maybe I should've PMed this: I just looked around and realised that we (BS.com) don't seem to have a player nickname thread worthy of the name. Have you noticed this yourself, "Ex"?]
["SAF" badly wanted to buy Paul Gascoigne from the Toon at the end of Gascoigne's tenure w/the club. But Ferguson and Man. United were "pipped" at the last minute by Spurs for reasons that "Fergie" outlines in this interview: Once again, I hope that you will find this information helpful...]
[Some fans didn't/still don't rate Cascarino as a player; but he would've been a handy striker/centre-forward squad option for England to be able to call on for at least a good handful of seasons IMHO. Especially before the emergence of Alan Shearer as a "card-carrying" No.9 (English/British definition) at international level...]
I read up on this. Apparently he wasn't adopted. His mother told him in 96 that SHE was adopted. So while it's true that he wasn't connected to him by blood, he wasn't the one adopted.
I wondered if the nationality law in Brazil would allow him to become a Brazilian citizen. Imagine Eusebio playing for Brazil in 1970.