Left-Footed Players - Name Them

Discussion in 'The Beautiful Game' started by Gregoriak, Nov 27, 2006.

  1. sidefootsitter

    sidefootsitter Member+

    Oct 14, 2004
    Of the recent/current ones - (ex-Liverpool, Roma, Fulham) John Arne Riise and a long time MLS (inverted) winger Justin Mapp.

    And, from the West German's 70's - Erwin Kremers (he of the Kremers twins), Bernd Patzke, Felix Magath and of the later era Heiko Herrlich, Christian Ziege and Marco Bode.

    And two English leftbacks of the 80's and 90's - Kenny Sansom and Graeme Le Saux.

    And from the international 70's - Dutch left back Hugo Hovenkamp (Euro'80, 31 caps) and a Soviet 1972 Player of the Year Evgeny Lovchev (currently a Sov Sport pundit and a genuinely dense one at that).
     
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  2. Gregoriak

    Gregoriak BigSoccer Supporter

    Feb 27, 2002
    Munich
    Dzajic was mentioned at least once already about a year ago.
     
  3. sidefootsitter

    sidefootsitter Member+

    Oct 14, 2004
    #328 sidefootsitter, Oct 13, 2014
    Last edited: Oct 13, 2014
    Yes, I know! And it took eight years to do so!

    And here's Didier Six (vs. Brazil, 1977, about 1.25 in)

     
  4. Gregoriak

    Gregoriak BigSoccer Supporter

    Feb 27, 2002
    Munich
    Seven years.
     
  5. Gregoriak

    Gregoriak BigSoccer Supporter

    Feb 27, 2002
    Munich
    I am not entirely sure about Erwin Kremers - I recently watched the 1972 Euro semi final Belgium v Germany and he used his right foot whenever he had the choice between his left and his right foot.
     
  6. sidefootsitter

    sidefootsitter Member+

    Oct 14, 2004
    I just some some Schalke highlights but, off that 1972 final vs. USSR, he stays on the left and serves crosses ... then again, you may be right.


     
  7. sidefootsitter

    sidefootsitter Member+

    Oct 14, 2004
    And here's Bruno Bellone (in a controversial 1986 QF moment vs. Brazil)

     
  8. sidefootsitter

    sidefootsitter Member+

    Oct 14, 2004
    My first candidate for this post Pier Luigi Casiraghi looks bi-footed.

    But an early-mid-80's Soviet/Armenian star Khoren Oganesian is surely a lefty.

     
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  9. sidefootsitter

    sidefootsitter Member+

    Oct 14, 2004
    And surfing the waves of my memory. Here's Uzbeki ..., no, make it a Greek Maradona, Vasilis Hatzipanagis.

    His is a fascinating story - born in the USSR (or, to be more precise, in Tashkent, Uzbekistan SR) to political refugees from Greece. Began his soccer career with Pakhtakor, made it to the Soviet team trying to qualify for the 1976 Olympics ... then, after that, he was somehow allowed by the Soviet authorities to emigrate to Greece, where he began playing for the country of his parents. However, FIFA ruled that he is not eligible for Greece, having already played for the USSR. So, he had to be content with a career with Iraklis FC, club his parents followed way back when.


    That didn't stop him from being named the greatest Greek player of all time. Looking at the highlights, one doesn't wonder why.



    PS. On a sad note, most of his former Pakhtakor teammates perished - of the 178 people killed in total - in the infamous mid-air collision of two Tu-134's over Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine on August, 11, 1979.
     
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  10. sidefootsitter

    sidefootsitter Member+

    Oct 14, 2004
    And then there's Fred (for whom, I could help but feel sorry for at the semifinals)

     
  11. sidefootsitter

    sidefootsitter Member+

    Oct 14, 2004
  12. sidefootsitter

    sidefootsitter Member+

    Oct 14, 2004
    And to throw out a bunch of current names - Hulk, Bernardo, Luis Filipe, Antoine Griezmann, Daniel Sturridge, Danny Welbeck, Luke Shaw, Cristian "Cebolla" Rodriguez, Diego Godin, Christian Ansaldi, Marcos Rojo, Tyler Blackett, Adnan Januzaj, Chris Smalling, Daley Blind, Fabian Delph, Ally Cissokho, Charles Insomnia .. eh, N'Zogbia, Ben Mee, Ryan Bertrand, Dušan Tadić, Jake Livermore, Andros Townsend, Mousa Dembele, Matt Jarvis, Stewart Downing, Aaron Creswell, Jose Enrique, Dejan Lovren, Alberto Moreno, Marc Muniesa, Brek Shea, Damian Duff, Paul Koncheski, Dmitriy Kombarov, Vladimir Granat, Yuri Zhyrkov, Dmitriy Torpinsky, Alexander Büttner, Domenico Criscito, Zoran Tosic .... and probably a few I missed (Nicolas Lombaerts, IIRC, is a lefty too)
     
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  13. Gregoriak

    Gregoriak BigSoccer Supporter

    Feb 27, 2002
    Munich
    Alan Rough - Scottish international goalkeeper of the 70s and 80s playing for Partick Thistle, Hibs and Celtic among other clubs.
     
  14. Gregoriak

    Gregoriak BigSoccer Supporter

    Feb 27, 2002
    Munich
    After watching Brazil v Scotland (4-1) 1982 I have noticed that Junior and John Robertson are both ... right-footed! I always had them down as left-footed due to the respective positions they played.
     
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  15. PDG1978

    PDG1978 Member+

    Mar 8, 2009
    Club:
    Nottingham Forest FC

    (Added a few more clips compared to what I put on the multi-player video - part 8)
     
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  16. Gregoriak

    Gregoriak BigSoccer Supporter

    Feb 27, 2002
    Munich
    Yes John Robertson, the plight of Kevin Keegan's Hamburg! I still remember quite vividly when I was a teen reading one of my 1980s German football books on the history of the European Cup how the author described Robertson as a "a slow player with a belly who Kaltz obviously didn't take too serious when he was strolling around the Hamburg penalty box but suddenly he exploded and scored the decisive goal." As a left winger he was of course also competent with his left foot .... in the '82 Brazil game I saw him taking a freekick from the left side with his right foot - clear sign that he is a natural right-footed player.
     
  17. PDG1978

    PDG1978 Member+

    Mar 8, 2009
    Club:
    Nottingham Forest FC
    Yeah, Clough told the press that Kaltz would have to worry about Robertson (when asked how he would cope with Kaltz's attacking qualities). Having said that, as we discussed before, Hamburg were well on top for much of that game and that was a rare moment in that game...but the decisive one. He was indeed an unusual type of winger though (originally played as a CM btw, pre-Clough).

    He scores with a right-footed free-kick vs New Zealand too in 1982 of course.
     
  18. sidefootsitter

    sidefootsitter Member+

    Oct 14, 2004
    From "Soccer made in Germany" years - Michael Frontzeck and Hansi Pflügler.

    And I've always thought Robbo was a lefty ... but he is really two-footed.
     
  19. Chris7

    Chris7 New Member

    Nov 5, 2014
    Club:
    Real Madrid
    Ferenc Puskas, possibly had the best left footed shot in history.
     
  20. Gregoriak

    Gregoriak BigSoccer Supporter

    Feb 27, 2002
    Munich
    Mickey Thomas (1970s and 80s international Welsh winger playing for several English clubs including Manchester United, Everton and Chelsea)
     
  21. Gregoriak

    Gregoriak BigSoccer Supporter

    Feb 27, 2002
    Munich
    Leighton James - difficult to assess. The Welsh international left winger of the 1970s and 80s who played for Burnley, Derby and a number of other British clubs frequently used both feet for set-pieces. Free-kicks he took with his right foot, corners from the right side with his left and corners from the left side with his right foot. Very competent crosses from the left wing. So he's either genuinely two-footed or very competent with his weaker foot.
     
  22. PuckVanHeel

    PuckVanHeel BigSoccer Yellow Card

    Oct 4, 2011
    Club:
    Feyenoord
    In which game/games was that?
     
  23. Gregoriak

    Gregoriak BigSoccer Supporter

    Feb 27, 2002
    Munich
    Wales v Austria, 1975 Euro qualifier. I have watched 70 minutes of that game so far.
     
  24. Gregoriak

    Gregoriak BigSoccer Supporter

    Feb 27, 2002
    Munich
    Heinrich Strasser - Austrian international left back and midfielder of the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s playing for Wacker, Admira and First Vienna among other clubs.
     
  25. Gregoriak

    Gregoriak BigSoccer Supporter

    Feb 27, 2002
    Munich
    Lennart Skoglund - Swedish international outside left of the 1950s and 1960s playing for Hammarby, AIK, Inter, Sampdoria and Palermo.

    Mel Hopkins - Welsh international left back of the 1950s and 1960s playing for Tottenham, Brighton & Hove and Canterbury.
     

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