Warren Bradley is the only person to have played for the England Professional and Amateur teams in the same season. He was one of three players who Man Utd brought in from non league Bishop Auckland following the Munich disaster, and the only one to make an impact as a player. Of the others, Bob Hardisty would later join Matt Busby's coaching staff. Hardisty also represented Great Britain at three Olympic Games.
Post war players who played for both Celtic and Rangers, definitive as far as I can make out: Alfie Conn Mo Johnston Steven Pressley Kenny Miller Mark Brown Conn was the first in 1977 since the war to make the crossover, via Spurs.
I just googled "players who had played for more than two London clubs" and these names just showed up. Or else I would have heard of Neil Sullivan. I also tried to do something about the 6 Rio clubs and 9 Sao Paulo clubs. It is actually difficult.
I discovered Beardsley also played for Man City. So he had played for both sides of three major rivalries. However, he was playing for Man City in the lower division. He only played for Man Utd once. So he never wore the Man Utd shirt against both Liverpool and Man City. I doubted that he ever wore the Man City shirt against Man Utd. Ronaldo, on the other hand, had played for all four clubs against their rivals. He also scored for each of them against his old or future club.
With today being Oscar Ruggeri's 52nd birthday I received this tidbit: Ruggeri is the only Argentine player to have won both the World Cup and Copa America.
This story was very well-known. On September, 1983, Goikoetxea of Athletic Bilbao committed a brutal foul on Maradona(see below) that broke Maradona's ankle. He earned his nickname "the Butcher of Bilbao". It was rumored that Goikoetxea kept the boot that injuried Maradona in a glass case and put it in the center of his living room. A year earlier, he also seriously injured the kneel of another Barcelona star Bernard Schuster. It was said Schuster was never the same again after the injury. When Maradona met Goikoetxea again after he returned from injury, it was the 1984 Copa Del Rey Final. Athletic Bilboa beat Barcelona 1-0. This was what happened after the game. King Juan Carlos and members of the Spanish Royal family looked on as the team fought on the pitch.
Here's something that's not so well known... Incorrect. The injury occurred very early in the season at Camp Nou and Maradona was out of action for three and a half months. So by the time the two clubs met in the return Liga match Diego had very much recovered from the injury. This was on 29 January 1984 at San Mames and both players played the full 90 minutes. Maradona noted after the match that the goals "mean nothing special" and that Goikoetxea continuously taunted him throughout the match by threatening to injure him again, adding, "I thought he was a better player and a better person than that." Seven bookings total were distributed including one to Goikoetxea for a foul on Maradona.
In the last group match of the 1994 Shell Carribbean Cup, Barbados needed to beat Grenada by 2 goals to reach the final stages. If not, Grenada would go through. However, the organizer decided in case of extra-time, the golden goal would count as two goals. As it happened, Barbados took a 2-nil lead, but Grenada scored to make 2-1 with seven minutes to go. Barbados would be eliminated with this scoreline. So Barbados must score a goal to make it 3-1 or allow Grenada to tie and force extra time. So this happened.... Barbados scored an own goal at the end of the game and then, a golden goal in extra time to win the game 3-2(actually, 4-2 since the golden goal counted as 2 goals). This was the last group match of the 1998 Tiger Cup between Thailand and Indonesia. Both sides had qualified to the semi-final and the winner of this game would become the group winner(actually, Indonesia would be group winner if the game ended in a draw). However, the group winner must play the host Vietnam in the semi-final. And both sides did not want to play them in the semi-final so they wanted to finish second in their group. The game was still 2-2 after the 90th minute. However, during injury time, Indonesia scored an own goal. If you looked at the last goal in the video, it did not look liked an own goal.... because the Thai "forwards" were actually defending the Indonesian goal while the Indonesian defenders were attacking and scored an own goal. Thailand won the game 3-2 and finished as the group winner.
Swansea sacked Michael Laudrup today. He became the 5th of the last 6 managers who were sacked a year after leading the team to League Cup victory. Sir Alex who won the title in 2009 and 2010 was the only one who did get sack, Jose Mourinho(2007), Juande Ramos(2008), Alex McLeish(2011) and Kenny Dalglish(2012) all departed before the following season's final.
Thomas Boric was a goalkeeper in the NASL. He was better known as Paul Diamond, a professional wrestler in 1990's. He also fought under the name Kato, a member of the Oriental Express tag team in the WWF. He wore a mask to hide the fact he was not Asian. Ben Howard Baker was capped by Englnad twice in the 1920's. He played for Everton, Chelsea and Liverpool. He also went to the 1920 Olympics as a high jumper. he finished 6th. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes novels, was a founder member of Portsmouth FC and also the team's first ever goalkeeper. Italian goalkeeper Angelo Peruzzi was a ballboy at the 1984 European Cup Final between Liverpool and AS Roma. On August 28 1993, Ian Rush scored his 200th League goal of his Liverpool career against Leeds United goalkeeper John Lukic. He scored his first goal for the Reds 12 years earlier in a game against Arsenal. The Gunners' keeper that day was a certain John Lukic. Former West Ham United and England centre half Alvin Martin scored a hattrick against three different keepers during a game against Newcastle United in April, 1986. He netted his first passed Martin Thomas, who was subsequently injured and replaced by defender Chris Hedworth, who Martin also beat. Hedworth was finally replaced by ex-England striker Peter Beardsley, allowing Martin to complete his hattrick in an 8-1 rout.
Nacional from Uruguay, played 3 matches the same day in three different countries, remaining unbeaten. May 17, 1925. The main players were in their famous european touring. A couple of days before, the goalscorer Petrone was injured and they call to Uruguay for additional players. http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anexo:Gira_europea_del_Club_Nacional_de_Football_de_1925 Some players went to Brussels, beating Entente Bruxelois 2-1. 1st team: Vicente Clavijo - Ramón Buceta, Pedro Arispe - Diego Carreras, Alfredo Zibechi, Concepción Martínez - Orestes Díaz, Héctor Scarone, Héctor Castro, Norberto Casanello y Ángel Romano. Another footballers played the same day in Paris, beating 3-0 to Club Francais/"Union Deportiva Suiza" XI. 2nd team: Andrés Mazali - Carlos Scarone, Alfredo Foglino - Alberto Barloco, Ricardo Miramontes, Alfredo Ghierra - Carlos Suffiotti, Héctor Zubizarreta, René Borjas, Pedro Cea y Rodolfo Marán When Europe was at night, the same day in Montevideo, a third team played the Uruguayan Cup with a tie 1-1 against Bella Vista. 3rd team: Maturell - Recoba, Camarotta - Brocini, Signorelli, Sciutto - Somma, Sosa, Amato, Finamore y Elizalde http://www.decano.com/historia/107/tres-partidos-simultaneos
Plymouth Argyle, between 1921/22 and 1926/27 finished second in the Third Division League, six seasons in a row. At at time, only one team gained promotion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Plymouth_Argyle_F.C.
Wales was actually eliminated in the WCQers for the 1958 WC Finals. Israel should be going to Sweden, instead of Wales. In the original WC qualifying round, Wales came second behind Czechoslavia in group 4 of the European zone. Only the group winners qualified for Sweden. Meanwhile, Israel had a successful campaign in the Africa/Asia WCQers. First round Israel was set to play against Turkey, but Turkey, a Muslim country, refused to play Israel and withdrew. Israel advanced to the next round. Second round Israel was set to play against Sudan, Egypt and Indonesia, but the Muslim countries refused to play Israel and withdrew. Israel advanced to the next round. Final round Israel was set to play against Sudan, but Sudan, a Muslim country, refused to play Israel and withdrew. Israel technically qualified for Sweden 1958. But FIFA ruled that no team would qualify without playing at least one match (except for the defending champions and the hosts), and Israel had yet to play any. So a special play-off was created between Israel and the runner-up of one of the UEFA Groups, where the teams played against each other on a home-and-away basis, with the winner qualifying. After Belgium rejected the invitation, Wales played and beat Israel in the special playoff. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification
In 1960, The Austrian FA decided not to take part in the qualification for the 1962 World Cup staged in Chile, as the expenses were deemed too high to be covered. In hindsight, the Austrian FA and players probably regretted that decision because in 1960 and 1961 the Austrian national team played a string of highly successful games against top-notch opponents which led the Austrian media to praise that team as "the second Wunderteam" (30 years after the first). These were some of the results they registered: Scotland 4-1 (Vienna, May 1960) Soviet Union 3-1 (Vienna, September 1960) Spain 3-0 (Vienna, October 1960) Italy 2-1 (Naples, December 1960) England 3-1 (Vienna, May 1961) Hungary 2-1 (Budapest, June 1961) Soviet Union 1-0 (Moscow, September 1961) Hungary 2-1 (Vienna, October 1961)
I might have posted this earlier. Every WC Finals have some rival matchup that involved ethnicity. I am talking about between colonies and former colonists, and/or ethnic background, etc. I did not check every WC Finals, but I always thought the WC Finals in 2006 had more of that. Except for Group C, there was a rivalry. Group A: Germany vs Poland Germany has the highest numbers of Polish population in Europe(outside of Poland, obviously). Germans are the largest Polish minority groups in Poland. Germany started at least two Poland-born players. Ecuador-Costa Rica There were many Hispanic countries in the WC Finals. The chance of Mexico or Costa Rica grouping with a Spanish speaking South American countries was very high. Nevertheless, this would look interesting with so many ethnic matchups. Group B England vs T&T The European colonist vs its colony. Australia, the USA, Saudi Arabia, Ghana and Nigeria were parts of the British empire too, but T&T was using a number of UK-born players. England Vs Sweden Erickson vs Sweden. There were thirteen coaches who were coaching not their own NY but their countries were at the WC Finals. Group C Nothing much here. Ivory Coast and Holland are probably the only two NT in the world that wear orange. Holland and Serbia both have blue-white-red tricolor flags. Group D Portugal vs Angola The European colonist vs its colony. Angola had at least one player born in Portugal. Iran vs Mexico both have red-white-green tricolor flag Group E Italy vs USA The number of Italian-Americans is actually very low in the US, but Hollywood led us to believe that there are many Italians in the USA and everyone in Italy has a cousin living in NYC. Group F Australia vs Croatia Australia had a few Australian-Croats and Croatia had a few Australian-born players. Japan vs Brazil Zico vs Brazil Brazil has the largest group of Japanese living outside of Japan. Group G France vs Togo. Another colonist vs colony. Thetre must be a French-born player on the Togo team. France vs Switzerland Excepting the African countries. Switzerland is the only French-speaking countries in the WC Finals(outside of France). Group H Tunisia vs Saudi Arabia The only two Arab countries at the WC Finals. Tunisia could have drawn with Iran, but Iran isn't Arabic. Spain vs Tunisia In a way, it is colony vs colonist. Tunisia is the only Berber country at the WC finals. Spain was under the Moors for 700 years.
I remember that and thought it was weird. What's up with Austrialia and Croatia, where is their connection?
I am not going to claim to be an expert on Croatia and Australia. There supposed to be a huge Croatian diaspora in Australia. Socccer over there used to be ethnic-based. The Croatians were big time soccer fans over there. When i followed soccer in the 1990's, I saw the winner of the Australian league was Melbourne Croatia.
Galatasaray are about to play Chelsea in the round of 16 of the European champions League.... however, their -6 goal difference in the group stages is a record low goal difference for a team to make it out of the group stages in the champions league..
The step over move was believed to be invented by a Dutch player born in Indonesia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_Adam