Evald Milkson was capped by Estonia during the 1930's. He served as the Deputy Chief of Estonian Sicherheitspolizei under Nazi Germany. He was wanted for his war crimes. He escaped to Sweden after the war and ended up in Iceland. he had two footballer sons, who were capped by Iceland. Jóhannes Eðvaldsson played with Cetlic FC, and Atli Eðvaldsson played with Borussia Dortmund.
Here ist something I cannot explain. I just watched a 19 minutes highlights version of Ecuador vs England 0-2 (24 May 1970). What baffles me is that the English outfield players wore shirt numbers from 20 to 29 (Gordon Banks wore number 3). It would have made sense if they had worn their World Cup squad numbers from 1 to 22 but 20 to 29 does not make any sense at all. Does anyone know why England wore these odd shirt numbers in that game?
I think it is because the final selection was made after the two friendlies against Ecuador and Colombia. The staff worked with a so called A choice and B choice in their minds. England travelled with 28 men to the American continent, and six men would be dropped (incl. 2 goalkeepers). http://resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=ddd:011015738:mpeg21:a0238 http://resolver.kb.nl/resolve?urn=ddd:011197952:mpeg21:a0440 To let Banks play with #3 doesn't show an established preference, sort of. Against Colombia they played with high squad numbers too. Another possibility is that the B-selection (with Bonetti in goal), which played earlier on the day against the university team of Ecuador, had already used up the lower squad numbers.
I'm pretty sure that is right. The squad numbers aren't referred to (that I can remember) but there is quite a bit about the selection process in Jeff Dawson's excellent book "Back Home" about England at the 1970 World Cup.
Three generations related to Forlan won the the Copa America with Uruguay. Diego Forlan at 2011. His father Pablo Forlan and his maternal grandfather Juan Carlos Corazzo at 1967 as player and coach respectively.
Also interesting that FIFA allowed the use of squad numbers higher than 20 in 1970 (for a friendly at least). I was watching the 1st leg of Linz - Barcelona 1974-75 (I had already compiled the 2nd leg for the Dailymotion channel I use) and it's mentioned that UEFA only accepted starting numbers between 1 and 11, for that particular match at least. And they also checked whether one of the teams didn't use #7 for a centre back for instance. For the 1976 european championships UEFA also prescribed to the Netherlands and Czechoslovakia the numbers, rather than that the national association could chose it themselves (for ex. #8 for the goalkeeper).
Injuries during tournaments can be a serious problem for squads. Usually it isn't allowed to call-in a replacement player after the tournament has started (or 24 hours before the first match), even if teams struggle to field a match-fit squad. Managing the fitness and energy consumption of a squad during a tournament is a challenge in itself. However, three rare exceptions at the World Cup and European Championships exist where teams got their way. Partially as a response to the injury-feigning of goalkeeper Rojas during the 1990WC qualifiers, FIFA placed in their guidelines to referees (March 1990) the feigning of injuries as attention point (after the tournament FIFA concluded it wasn't successful). They left the rare exception open that teams could replace injured players mid-tournament, but it needed clearance of the FIFA. Argentina and England both asked on 14/06/1990 to replaced their injured goalkeeper. Purportedly David Seaman broke his thumb in training between the first and second match. Goalkeeper Pumpido broke a few pieces of his body in the 2nd match against USSR. On 15/06/1990 they got permission to replace their goalkeeper and added Comizzo and Beasant. Even though both England and Argentina had three goalkeepers in their squad, FIFA would later make three goalkeepers mandatory because of this. The other exception took place in 1996. Before the final Germany had to face a few light and serious injuries and the suspension of Moller and Reuter. Their federation chairman Egidius Braun was well-positioned for lobbying a sudden amendment of the rules. He was vice-president of the UEFA, treasurer (CFO) of the UEFA, member of the UEFA executive committee, chairman of the organizing committee of the European Championships and member of the so called "UEFA Emergency Committee" - while their opponent was not. As a result, UEFA gave both teams the sudden possibility to call-in two new players until an hour before the match. In their statement UEFA did not just mention the injuries as reasoning, but also explicitly the suspensions; the suspensions justified two new call-ups. Czech Republic did, or could, not use this possibility. Their opponent called in Jens Todt.
I might have posted about this story. I always found this interesting. I still recalled seeing the news report on CNN. In 1999, Middlesbrough released one of their reserve player, Ronnie O'Brien. A month later, Juventus signed him to a 5 year deal. http://www.theguardian.com/football/1999/mar/13/newsstory.sport17
In a nutshell: http://www.thefalsenine.co.uk/2014/11/14/obscure-footballer-week-7-ronnie-obrien/ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...st-surprising-transfers-to-foreign-sides.html
Perth Glory officially began play in 1996, the oldest team in the A-League. Unofficially, they began life two years earlier as the Perth Kangaroos... in the Singapore league. The Kangaroos only lasted one season; most of the team reappeared as founding members of the Glory. There was another Australian team in Singapore in 1994 as well, the Darwin Cubs- the biggest moment on the soccer stage the city of Darwin has ever had. Perth and Darwin blasted the Singaporean clubs out of the sky, though it was partially due to Singapore sending its top players to play in the Malaysia Cup which, ha ha, what a silly idea that was. I get into it more here, telling it more from Darwin's POV than Perth's. For Perth's (more robust) perspective, go here.
The Singaporean league has a number of foreign teams throughout the years. However, I found two more interesting than others. Sporting Afrique FC and Etoile FC were actually a club found in Singapore. So they were not really "foreign". The other foreign clubs were reserve teams from China, Korea, Japan, etc. Sporting Afrique consisted of players entirely from Africa while Etoile FC played mainly with Europeans. One of the African players ended up "living" in Singapore's airport. I do not remember his story. He caught up in a situation similar to the Tom Hank's character in the movie "Terminal".
Roy Lassiter scored on his national team debut for the United States in 1995. His name made the news. However, it turned out to be bad luck for him. Detective W.E. Jordan of North Carolina saw his name on the newspaper and recognized that Roy Lassiter was wanted for for a break-in three years earlier. He was arrested soon after the game. http://www.socceramerica.com/article/15273/lassiters-goal-leads-to-arrest.html
The discussion in the "can Neymar surpass Pelé" thread about the 2000 player of the century internet vote (and what went wrong) reminded me of the following; It is indeed right that Pelé is the only player to have received the FIFA Order of Merit (in 1984), the 2000 FIFA Player of the Century, the 2004 FIFA Centennial Award and the FIFA presidential award (in 2007). All for basically the same thing. Franz Beckenbauer, as only other person, received all those things too (1984, 2004, 2012) but of course not the Player of the Century thing. In their statutes the Order of Merit is however their highest honorary award. Given to ex-players, managers, officials, politicians, and also befriended journalists and opinion shapers. http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/fifafacts/r&a-awards/01/20/85/43/170490-factsheet-fifaorderofmerit(1984-2010)_neutral.pdf [most recent list] By country, all recipients (excl. companies and organisations): Germany - 12 (none from former East Germany) Brazil - 9 Russia - 7 (incl. 3 for USSR) England - 6 Mexico - 5 Spain - 5 USA - 5 Argentina - 4 France - 4 Switzerland - 4 Uruguay - 4 Japan - 3 South Africa - 3 China - 2 Egypt - 2 Fiji - 2 Italy - 2 Jamaica - 2 Malaysia - 2 Mali - 2 Norway - 2 Yugoslavia & Serbia - 2 Australia - 1 Austria - 1 Belgium - 1 Cameroon - 1 Canada - 1 Chile - 1 Costa Rica - 1 Ecuador - 1 Ethiopia - 1 Georgia - 1 Ghana - 1 Guatemala - 1 Hong Kong - 1 Hungary - 1 India - 1 Indonesia - 1 Israel - 1 Kuwait - 1 Morocco - 1 Netherlands - 1 New Caledonia - 1 New Zealand - 1 Nigeria - 1 Peru - 1 Portugal - 1 Ukraine - 1 Saudi Arabia - 1 Scotland - 1 Slovenia - 1 Sudan - 1 Syria - 1 Thailand - 1 Togo - 1
Some Man Utd stories I never heard before, but probably Man Utd fans all knew about them. Sir Matt Busby played his entire professional career for United's two greatest modern day rivals, Liverpool and Manchester City. He won a FA Cup with Man city. Man Utd was once known as Newton Heath. At one point, the club was going bankrupt. So the club captain Harry Stafford sent his dog to recollect donations for the survivbal of the club. The dog got lost. it was found by John Henry Davis and his daughter. When they returned to the dog to Harry Stafford, Staffprd convinced Davis to invest in the club and the club was saved. Carlos Sartori on record was known as the first non-British and Irish to play for Man utd. However, he grew up in England. He came from the Manchester Utd academy. Nikola Jovanovic was the first foreign"signing" to play for Man Utd. Jim Brown who was born in Scotland was the first player tp be capped by a non-British and non-Irish team. He played for the United States. He joined United after the 1930 WC Finals. George Hunter, Jimmy Nicholl and Charlie Mitten, all-British subjects but born overseas, were the first foreign-born players to play for Manchester United.
I googled "Fun facts Manchester United". I found out about the dog story. For the foreign players, I googled "first foreign players Manchester United". I saw a whole list of players who could be considered the first "foreigner". I read their bios and made my own conclusion. Jim Brown was spotted by Manchester United while playing for the United States. He actually should be the first foreign signing by them, but as mentioned, he was born in Scotland. His name was not mentioned in a lot of list I came upon.
On August 18, 1962, Liverpool FC made a return to the First Division after 8 seasons in the 2nd Division. They lost to Blackpool at home, but the season marked the beginning of the golden eras of Liverpool FC. They won the league title the season after that. They would win two league titles and a singe FA Cul throughout the 1960's. We should be familiar with their record in the 1970's and 1980's. For the next 30 years, they were regularly at the top of the league tables and latter stages of the FA Cup. On the same evening, elsewhere in Liverpool, the Beatles performed for the very first time as John, Paul, George and Ringo. Ringo had featured with the Beatles as their guest drummer before, but on this very night, Peter Best was sacked a few days ago and Ringo performed as an official member of the group for the first time. Liverpool probably is best-known for two things, its football team and the Beatles.
As a big time fan of the Beatles (I've been on the Paul McCartney message board a bit longer than I've been on Big Soccer ) I have to be a stickler (or "ass", if you prefer) on this specific topic: The Beatles didn't perform in Liverpool that night. They performed in Port Sunlight, which is across the River Mersey opposite Liverpool. "Elsewhere in Merseyside..."
Georgre Best on Paul Gazza: "He wears a number 10 jersey. I thought it was his position, but it turns out to be his IQ."
If we talk about music/sports. Some of these things below I never realized. Diego Maradona was born in 1960, for the majority of people the most talented footballer of all-time. Ayrton Senna was born in 1960 too, for many the most talented driver ever. With the exception of the Olympics and (maybe) some American sports, Formula One draws after football the most television money and audience. Bono was born in 1960, the frontman and songwriter of the most succesful post-babyboom band (e.g. quintessential babyboomers like Beatles and Rolling Stones). Other cultural 'icons' of 1960 are Jean Michel Basquiat, Micheal Stipe (R.E.M.), Gary Lineker, Jeremy Clarkson and Jean-Claude van Damme. Pele (1940) is in the company of John Lennon (most succesful band ever), Bruce Lee, Ringo Starr, Al Pacino, Patrick Stewart (Star Trek), Richard Pryor (most famous comedian of his generation?), Frank Zappa, Jack Nicklaus (greatest golfer ever?), Percy Sledge, J.M Coetzee. Cruijff (1947) is joined by the peerless Arnold Schwarzenegger, David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Elton John, Stephen King (million selling writer), Tom Clancy (ditto), OJ Simpson, Carlos Santana, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Gareth Edwards (greatest rugby player ever?), James Hunt (charismatic F1 driver), Brian May (famous guitarist of Queen), Emmylou Harris, Marc Bolan, Ron Wood (guitarist Rolling Stones). Others are free to add names, whose status I don't realize. Esp. Maradona + Bono + Senna seems a very strong trio to me for reasons said above.
Leicester's sex scandal in Thailand brought back memory of England's tour of Hong kong in 1996. Ironically, I was passing through London when the game was played. The English press was brutal about the game. England only managed a 1-0 victory against Hong Kong "Golden" selection. However, the team they played that night was not the Hong Kong League All-Star team as the press thought they were. They actually played against a local mid-table team named Golden. Mike Duxbury who was capped 10 times by England was one of their players. Lee Bullen, later, returned to England and became a club legend at Sheffield Wednesday. http://www.englandfootballonline.com/Seas1990-00/1995-96/M0721UoKK1996.html The tour was also remembered for the infamous dentist chair incident at a local bar. I knew that bar, a so and so wild place. http://online.thatsmags.com/post/englands-infamous-pre-euro-96-dentist-chair-incident-in-hong-kong which led to Gazza's famous goal and its celebration.