The Did you know thread. Uselss, but fascinating trivia, facts and stories

[Cassano]

When Ronaldo arrived at Inter, he wore #10 for the first season, however the next season he wanted his number 9, worn by Chilean striker Ivan Zamorano. Zamorano gave it up to the Brazilian star, but Zamorano took the number 18. The interesting thing is that he made Inter put a plus sign in between the 1 and 8 (1+8) on all his jerseys, to show he was still #9.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/1999/99nov01/3106a.gif

[Cassano]

When Francesco Totti was still playing with the Roma youth side, Roma president Franco Sensi confronted coach Carlo Mazzone and said "I want to give you a gift for next season, I'm thinking of buying Jari Litmanen, you like him?" Mazzone replied, "We don't need Litmanen, we have a superstar named Francesco Totti playing for our Primavera (U-20s) side."

The following season, Totti became a Roma first team regular.

[Cassano]

Marco Materazzi's father, Giuseppe Materazzi, is a manager. When he was a kid he constantly told Marco to become a Basketball player instead of a footballer because of his height.

[Optimus Prime]

Puskas Trivia:

--Puskás tried to play in Italy but was not able to find a top-flight club willing to sign him, as Italian managers were concerned about his age and weight. (after escaping Hungary during the '56 uprising).

--Puskas was a childhood friend of Istvan Eszterhas (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Istvan_Eszterhas&action=edit), father of legendary Hollywood (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood) screenwriter Joe Eszterhas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Eszterhas).

--Best said (http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=260183) of Puskas (as coach) "the players he was coaching did not respect him until he put the ball down outside the area and intentionally hit the cross bar ten times in a row.”

[Cris 09]

Alberto Spencer holds the unique distinction of being the only goalscorer, capped by two different countries simultaneously: Ecuador, and Uruguay. He 'switched' shirts no less than four times.

[Cris 09]

The all-time leading goalscorer for the Copa Libertadores would never play in a World Cup.

Alberto Spencer of Ecuador.

[Cassano]

When Fiorentina were ready to sell stars Francesco Toldo and Manuel Rui Costa, they had worked out a deal with Parma and both players were set to go to the Gialloblu. However both players rejected the transfer, and moved to Inter and Milan respectively.

[Cassano]

Famous Italian manager Giovanni Trapattoni's sister is a nun and he always has Holy Water and Rosary beads with him on the sidelines.

[Excape Goat]

Matthias Sindelar is of Czech descent. His real name was Matěj Šindelář.

[nutbar]

The first international match to be played indoors was in 1976 in Seattle. The US defeated Canada 2-0 in a WC qualifer.

It is commonly believed that Pak Do-Ik, who scored North Korea's goal vs Italy in 1966 was a dentist. In fact, he was a corporal in the North Korean army, who was promoted to sergeant after the tournament. He later became a gymnastics instuctor.

Ernest Wilimowski, who scored four goals for Poland vs Brazil in the 1938 World Cup, and three goals vs Hungary in a match in Warsaw just four days before Poland was invaded, played during the war for Germany. He scored 13 goals in 8 games for the Germans in friendlies. He referred to himself as neither German nor Polish, but as a Silesian.

[Excape Goat]

Until the age of 16, Mladen Bartolovic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Hejduk Split never played football. He was a basketball player and during the Bosinian War, there were no basketball club active. So he went to try his luck with soccer.

[guado]

Until the age of 16, Mladen Bartolovic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Hejduk Split never played football. He was a basketball player and during the Bosinian War, there were no basketball club active. So he went to try his luck with soccer.

sebastian abreu played basketball before focusing on soccer.

antonio de nigris was trying his luck at tennis and had played basketball before benito floro took him to monterrey.

at the moment he is one of the top (if not top) scorers in turkey.

much more low profiile, but carlos briones was a keepr in mexico who was interested in playing gridiron football for the the autonomous university of guadalajara (u.a. de g. , or tecos.)

he has dabbled in soccer, but his passion was gridiron.

he ended up becoming a pro keeper there and at tigres.

The first international match to be played indoors was in 1976 in Seattle. The US defeated Canada 2-0 in a WC qualifer.

It is commonly believed that Pak Do-Ik, who scored North Korea's goal vs Italy in 1966 was a dentist. In fact, he was a corporal in the North Korean army, who was promoted to sergeant after the tournament. He later became a gymnastics instuctor.

Ernest Wilimowski, who scored four goals for Poland vs Brazil in the 1938 World Cup, and three goals vs Hungary in a match in Warsaw just four days before Poland was invaded, played during the war for Germany. He scored 13 goals in 8 games for the Germans in friendlies. He referred to himself as neither German nor Polish, but as a Silesian.


podolski and klose are both from silesia.

i wonder if this relates to them.

[Excape Goat]

Romario was known for his partying lifestyles. However, according to Bobby Robson who was his coach at PSV, Romario does not drink and smoke. He only dances and drinks soft drinks at the night clubs. He partied the whole night, but also slept until late. So Romario actually had enough rest before every match.


And since we mentioned gridiron, I am going to go into some NFL players and their soccer roots. Most Americans should know this.

Sebastian Janikowski, the placekicker for the LA Raiders, used to be on the Polish under-17 team. He switched to gridiron after moving to the US as a HS student. More later............

[guado]

there's also the gramatica brothers.

[Excape Goat]

The brother of NHL great Dominik Hašek is Martin Hašek who was capped 14 times by the the Czech Republic.

Steve Nash's brother, Martin, also was capped by Canada.

Julio Iglesias the singer was a goalkeeper for Real Madrid before suffering a career ending injury.

[Excape Goat]

there's also the gramatica brothers.



Morten Andersen(capped by Denmark youth national team)

Matt & Chris Bahr both played in the NASL.

[nutbar]

Last year, Ulrich van Gobbel, a defender on Holland's 1994 world cup squad, received a four month prison sentence for buying cars on credit and selling them on without paying the car company. The police have not been able to locate van Gobbel; he is believed to be in Suriname.

[FWS93]

Boca Juniors used to wear black and white vertical striped shirts but so did another team in BA. so they played a match to see who would retain the colors. Boca lost and it was decided that they would use the colors of the 1st ship to enter the port in boca. it was a swedish ship and that is how they came to wear their classic azul Y oro shirts!

Zinedine Zidane's eldest son is named after Uruguayan legend Enzo Francescoli who is Zidane idolized when Francesoli was playing for Marseille

[fernb8]

Kevin Phillips now of West Bromich Albion but formerly of Aston Villa, Southampton, Sunderland and Watford was first noticed in a non League game playing for Baldock Town by scouts from Watford. He began his youth career as a defender, spefically a right back, with Southampton but was released and played non League for Baldock Town while working a second job (as most non Leaguers do) in a factory.

He continued to play RB until one of Baldock Towns fowards suffered an injury during the pregame warm up and the manager asked the team who wanted to play up front. Phillips volunteered and several goals later was signed by Glenn Roeder, the then manager at Watford.

[guado]

The brother of NHL great Dominik Hašek is Martin Hašek who was capped 14 times by the the Czech Republic.

Steve Nash's brother, Martin, also was capped by Canada.

Julio Iglesias the singer was a goalkeeper for Real Madrid before suffering a career ending injury.

steve nash was voted best basketball and soccer player while in high school in canada.

and i don't think julio has any regrets after his career ending injury, because at least he can walk now.

oh, and the part about being the top-selling recording artist in spanish is good as well.