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

In the old days before the invention of the group stage (thus knock-out from the beginning) Ray Clemence was by far the one with the most appearances in European competitions, including Fairs Cup and UEFA Cup. Note that 'finals' doesn't mean they actually played in there, just that their team reached it while part of roster.

Ray Clemence 107 games (6 finals, 2 semi finals)
Francisco Gento 95 games (9 finals, 1 semi final)
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge 95 games (3 finals, 4 semi finals)
José Antonio Camacho 90 games (4 finals, 5 semi finals)
Klaus Augenthaler 89 games (2 finals, 6 semi finals)
Ian Callaghan 89 games (5 finals, 2 semi finals)
Johan Cruijff 89 games (4 finals, 4 semi finals)
'Santillana' 87 games (4 finals, 5 semi finals)
Gaetano Scirea 86 games (4 finals, 3 semi finals)
Dino Zoff 86 games (3 finals, 3 semi finals)

 

East German football magazine "Fussballwoche" used to publish a ranking of the best East German players in similar style to the "Rangliste" of "Kicker" in West Germany.

They dubbed it "Bestenliste" ("List of the Best") and this is their ranking from January 1971:

Goalkeepers:
Croy
Kallenbach
Zulkowski

Right backs:
Kurbjuweit
Frässdorf
Sackritz

Left backs:
Ganzera
Bransch
Hergesell

Right central defenders:
Urbanczyk
Rock
Dörner

Left central defenders:
Sammer
Strempel
Hamann

Right midfielders:
Irmscher
R.Ducke
Pankau

Central midfielders:
Stein
Nöldner
Hemp

Left midfielders:
Kreische
Seguin
Geisler

Outside rights:
Löwe
Heidler
Streich

Outside lefts:
Vogel
Hahn
Richter

Center forwards:
P.Ducke
Frenzel
Sparwasser

 

January 1974:

Goalkeepers:
Croy
Blochwitz
Friese

Libero:
Bransch
Hamann
Dörner

Left backs:
Fritsche
Kurbjuweit
Wätzlich

Right backs:
Sikora
Withulz
Kische

Central defenders:
Weise
Gräbner
Sammer

Left midfielders:
Franzel
Kreische
Ganzera

Central midfielders:
Lauck
Seguin
Schade

Right midfielders:
Stein
Häfner
Pommerenke

Outside lefts:
Vogel
Hoffmann
Kotte

Center forwards:
P.Ducke
Sparwasse
Matoul

Outside rights:
Löwe
Heidler
Schulenberg

 

Guy Roux, the famous eternal coach of Association Jeunesse Auxerroise, went at the stadium for the first time ever in his life the 5 June 1938. It was at La Meinau, Strasbourg for the lengendary World Cup match Poland v Brazil (5-6).
Well, he was in the womb of his mother, pregnant with him who was attending the match amongst the 13.452 other spectators this day. By the way, she rarely attended to the football games as Guy Roux underlined it, it was very exceptional for her.

Guy Roux in a interview for KTO TV (a catholic channel). Maybe it was in his book too.

 

Right now I am researching a bit of Belgian football in the 1960s and I came across a league game from 1963-64 of which I wanted to share the goalscorers as it was either a badly fixed game or arguably one of the strangest games ever played:

Beeringen FC 5-0 ARA La Gantoise (AA Gent)
(26th April 1964)
Scorers:
1-0 De Naeyer (53., own goal)
2-0 Mahieu (58., own goal)
3-0 Segers (60., own goal)
4-0 De Naeyer (70., own goal)
5-0 Embrechts (78., not an own goal!)

 

Oleg Salenko is well known, but I wasn't aware how terrible his overall international carrer actually was.

Biggest 'One game wonder'?

 

Serie A - 16a Giornata
FC Internazionale 5-0 Calcio Catania
29 January 1961
1-0 Morbello 13'
2-0 Giavara (autoreti) 30'
3-0 Giavara (autoreti) 42'
4-0 Grani (autoreti) 69'
5-0 Corti (autoreti) 81'




And then, of course, there's that imfamous game with 149 own goals.

 

Wasn't there also a Belgian player who scored three own goals in one game?

 

Stan van den Buijs of Germinal Ekeren scored three own goals against Anderlecht during the 1994-95 season. Anderlecht won the match 3-2.

 

When the Bundesliga started its first season in 1963-64, an interesting pattern evolved regarding the team that would finished in 10th place in the following seasons. That team either won the league the next season or it got relegated!

1963-64 10th Werder Bremen -> champion next season
1964-65 10th Borussia Neunkirchen -> relegated next season
1965-66 10th Eintracht Braunschweig -> champion next season
1966-67 10th 1. FC Nürnberg -> champion next season
1967-68 10th Hannover 96 -> 11th next season (breaking the run)
1968-69 10th TSV 1860 München -> relegated next season

Afterwards this mysterious pattern stopped ....

 

Giuseppe Bergomi
1982: Made his international debut in April '82 in a friendly against East Germany and made three appearances in Italy's victorious World Cup run in Spain.
1986: With Italy automatically qualified as defending champions, he appeared in three of Italy's four World Cup matches in Mexico (missed the South Korea match through suspension).
1990: With Italy automatically qualified as hosts, he captained the Azzurri in all seven of their World Cup matches including the 3rd place match.
June 1991: After receiving a 90th minute red card against Norway in a Euro '92 qualifier, Bergomi was not selected to play for Italy for seven years.
1998: Displaying great form for Inter, he was surprisingly called up for the World Cup in France. After failing to appear in the first two matches, he was subbed on against Austria replacing an injured Alessandro Nesta and also playing in Italy's two knockout round matches.
Final tally:
16 appearances in four World Cups.
Yet he never made a single appearance in a World Cup qualifying match.

In similar vein, Mario Kempes made 18 appearances in three World Cups (6 in 1974, 7 in 1978, 5 in 1982) yet appeared in only one World Cup qualifier: 23 September 1973 away to Bolivia. (Argentina automatically qualified for the '78 finals as hosts and the '82 finals as holders.)

 

This is why I love this thread.

 

Julius Ukrainczyk was in the 1950s and 1960s a very influential broker of (friendly) matches and tournaments. Some would liken him to Mendes of the current age, although he was not a player agent.

"Whether it was for the scouting of players, a forecast for a World Cup or the creation of compelling exhibition games, Uki was the right person. He was the "Mino Raiola 'of his time, although he was not a players agent - but a match arranger."
http://staantribune.nl/julius-ukrainczyk-bastaardvader-van-de-europa-cup/

Today he is best known for his important role in the formation of the European Cup, next to Gabriel Hanot. On the long term this dwindled his influence because later the clubs did not need him any more.

At the height of his powers his most loyal customers consisted of (at least - according to his records) Chelsea, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, AC Milan, Red Star Belgrade and Anderlecht.

Some of those happen to form - perhaps by mere accidence - the top of European football some 60-70 years later.

* Chelsea declined to participate in the inaugural edition of the European Cup (the FA refused them permission)

 

Aston Villa played Nottingham Forest earlier today, and the commentator claimed it was the first time that two former European Cup winners had met in a league match outside of a top division.
I haven't looked to validate this, but intuition would lead me to believe it is correct.

 

Viv Anderson wrote 21 september 1979 a column for Shoot! with as title: "Forest have Hitler on their side"

"Now did you know Forest have Hitler in their forward line? It's true... That is what we call striker Gary Birtles because he looks like the war-time German leader. He doesn't like the tag, so some of the lads have decided on another nickname... Charlie Chaplin, after the silent film star of the 1920s. Gary is the trendy one of the team. He likes to wear all the latest gear. He's also a pop record fan and owns a tremendous collection. Our Hitler has certainly made a sensational impact on the game, but he might find it tougher this season."

 

Pelé stopped a civil war, didn't he? 3:15

 

Football is everywhere equally popular, isn't it?




And the official UEFA data:

 

Maybe not fully true, but at least half true.

Cruyff, Romário and Stoichkov – who's the boss? pic.twitter.com/SNyrwmHvmJ

— Mohamed Moallim (@iammoallim) February 8, 2017

(half true = parts of this are correct; matches with other accounts - e.g. doing well in training, demonstrating things by example)

 

Libertadores 1991. In those years the first phase would group the champion and runner up teams of two countries to make a group of four. In that year three of the four teams would enter the knockout rounds. In the early 90's the Libertadores was at it's wildest and most even in quality across the different countries. So while there was some surprise that the Bolivian clubs of Bolivar and Oriente Petrolero were able to keep even with the Argentines it wasn't completely unexpected. As fate would have it the last game was between Oriente and Boca with the fate of River depending on the game. Only an Oriente loss at the Bombonera would send River through. As could be expected, the game was a shambles with both teams making few attempts to score. What was more incredible were the Boca fans singing loudly for a tie that would eliminate their hated rivals. Legend has it that there were a very few shots toward goal by the players and they were all met by loud censure from the fans. At the end of the game both teams were sent off with a huge round of applause. I remember watching this game on tv and it was one of the most surreal events in my life. Both teams were camped in their own half. They would make some passes between themselves and then take a shot very wide of goal.