Roberto Baggio never played in a European Championship Finals. The first European Championship in 1960 required 50 pounds entrance fees. According to FourFourTwo, none of the Home nations, plus West Germany & Italy could not afford the fee and boycotted the tournament.
The first black player to play for France was Raoul Diagne, a native of French Guyana, who played internationally from 1931 to 1940.
He only kind of played in a Manchester derby. In the season he signed for Manchester City both derbies had already been played and City went on to be relegated. United finished mid table so the two teams were in different divisions during his only other season at City. There were no cup ties between them during this time. He did play in a pre-season game prior to the 87/88 season against United if you wanted to counted that. Brian Kidd, Nicolas Anelka and Paul Walsh have played in all three, with the first two scoring in each of the three derbies mentioned. To try and claim some street-cred back and not sound like a total geek )), I didn't know that off the top of my head but Walsh sprang to mind and whilst checking it out, came across the rest. To my shame, forgot about Kidd, and Anelka was so obvious I didn't think of him.
CHILE is the only SOUTH AMERICAN team to defeat ENGLAND in WEMBELY stadium. it happened APRIL i believe during the run up to the 1998 world cup in FRANCE. I think after that game we recieved our best ranking ever at 6th place because of a string of impressive wins against some good teams. The final score was 2-0 , with MARCELO SALAS scoring both goals,including a spectacular goal in which he recieved a pass from half field just outside the 16 yard box,brining it down with his thigh , then blasting it past the keeper without the ball ever touching the gound. Amazing,simply amazing.
These also took place at Wembley: 12 May 1981 England 0-1 Brazil 22 May 1990 England 1-2 Uruguay 11 June 1995 England 1-3 Brazil
MY BAD...... looks like i was mistaken ........ perhaps i shoulda said ..the last S.A. team to beat England in wembely....lol thankx 4 correcting me....i'd hate to of kept thinking it was true if it wasnt... GREAT THRED BY THE WAY ....KEEP THEM COMING
This is probably well-known. Germany was the last team to beat England at the old Wembley and they are also the foirst team to beat England at the new Wembley.
As of this posting (2008) the last time Germany did not wear their traditional white shirts/black shorts in a World Cup match was back in Italia90, in the semifinal against England when they wore green/white.
This last UEFA Cup round saw an Ecuadorian player score a goal on another Ecuadorian player for the first time... Everton's new signing Segundo Castillo scored (his first UEFA Cup goal) on keeper Rory Espinosa from Standard Liege.
Erik Gerets is the only Belgian player ever to win a European Cup (Champions league) with PSV in 1988.
Salenko finished as the top scorer for WC 1994 Finals with 6 goals. He never scored an international goal before the tournament.... and he never scored an international goal after the tournament. Schillaci, the winner in 1990, also did poorly outside the WC Finals. He scored only 1 other international goal outside the WC Finals in 1990.
The ultimate in useless trivia... I attended that Russia-Cameroon match and got to witness Salenko's five goals! Also in that game, Roger Milla scored to become the oldest goal scorer in World Cup history.
I don't know if it was the fastest goal by a substitute at the time, but it definitely isn't anymore. In 1998, Denmark played Nigeria in the second round. At 2-0 up, Ebbe Sand entered the field and something like 20 seconds later, he made it 3-0. I'm pretty sure that goal is still the fastest goal scored by a sub.
Thai League 2008 just had an amazing finish: Despite LOSING JUST ONE GAME all-season, Chonburi can only finish 2nd behind Prov.Elect, who lost 5 times! This is a pretty rare "feat", the only other instances I know of (where a team lost not more than once all-season, but couldn't win the league) were: 1) Scottish Premier League 1995/96: Celtic 2) Hong Kong First Division 2002/03: Sun Hei was second despite finishing the season UNBEATEN! Any other cases, any one?
NBA legend Hakeem Olajuwon played as a gol keeper throughout his youth before turning to hoops. By his own admission the skills he learned on the pitch gave him the agility and shot blocking prowess that helped make him one of the best centers to ever play in the NBA.
There are actually a fair few instances of unbeaten teams not winning the league. Perugia finished 2nd in Serie A in 1979 unbeaten and Galatasaray did it in the 80s in Turkey. There's a full list of unbeaten teams here and you can see quite a few failed to win the title.
I believed a Mexician club won the league in the early 1990's, but went down the same year because of some rules in the Mexician league.
This is way too cool, thanks!! So missing out on the title with one loss isn't much of a disappointment after all, as compared to teams that didn't win even UNBEATEN!
Slovenia qualified for Euro 2000 even though they let in more goals than they scored. They got 15, their opponents scored 16 in 12 matches.
In the 1930 World Cup, Bolivian player Renato Saenz missed a penalty in the match vs Brazil. Bolivia was then were forced to wait 64 years for their first goal in the World Cup.