1937-1938: This is by far the busiest season yet, with a ton of competition for both the 23 and the top spots. The international season is absolutely topsy-turvy, with just about every team experiencing a "what just happened?" result. So basically a normal football season. The only team that seems to avoid this is Italy, so I guess that explains why they won the World Cup. They start off slow, but improve steadily on their way to the final. Piola is now clearly the top man, Meazza now past his peak, but alongside Ferrari still good enough to make it to the list. Colaussi scores some important goals, but just misses out on a nomination. Biavati is actually the MotM in the final, but is generally seen as being the least of the front five. Olivieri, Rava and Andreolo are key players. The halfback-line is generally seen as the weak point, with Locatelli a "discussed man", but they seem to eventually beat the critics. No team reflects the topsy-turvy international season better than Czechoslovakia. They start off by getting chewed to pieces by Hungary, but follow that up with an excellent performance against England. They're described as the best continental team to ever play in Britain (that's including the Wunderteam). Revitalized by this result, the Czechs go on to... get absolutely hammered by Scotland in one of their worst performances ever. Bad results continue into the following year, but they improve by the time the WC comes along. After that a certain Pepi Bican comes along to transform the team into a powerhouse. They're saying if Bican had been there a few months earlier they would have won the World Cup. To be continued... The Czech defense and half-line both failed in turn, and there's a lot of tinkering going on. Planicka has great highlights, especially against England, but in general doesn't impress quite as much as in previous seasons. The team leaking goals works against him a bit. Kostalek hasn't seemed nomination-worthy so far. The attack is generally the team's strong point, even before Bican gets there. Nejedly has a pretty good season. Riha is good early on, but doesn't impress as much by 1938. Hungary have a mostly great season, even if the WC seems to be balanced to set up their appearance in the final. Sarosi and Zsengeller are obvious choices. Turay is second only to Sarosi in several matches, but has a few stinkers, too. Lazar has a good season, except for the final where he's a failure. Toldi, Biro and Szabo are all good. Switzerland I've already touched on, and they're really improving this season. Minelli, Vernati, Bickel and A. Abegglen were all considered, but there was room for only one. Bickel takes it for being the best in the WC. Of the rest of Europe, Norway have a good side. Kvammen is described as playing "the game of his life" against Italy, but Norway's MotM is Brustad, who will be rewarded with a spot in the Europe team in the fall. Wilimowski is an obvious choice for Poland. England are still seen as the top side, and they have a great season. The touring team is described as the best to ever play on the continent after the Germany game. But then comes Switzerland... Matthews has his breakthrough year internationally, and is the MotM in most games. Goulden is the other top player. Bastin and Drake are good when they're around. Drake is weird, because he now seems to be something of a centre-forward benchmark on the continent, the player others are compared to. A bit paradoxically, because he wasn't nearly as highly-rated when he had his best domestic season. I might insert him retroactively to 34-35 after all, though. Scotland continue their last season's reputation of being one of the absolute best teams around, but lacking somewhat in star player category. The big exception is Walker, who is showing "unprecedented virtuosity". Dawson and Brown were close to inclusion. In South America Argentina earn a clean sweep against Uruguay. From the Brazilian sources I could dig up, Sastre and Moreno are described as the two virtuosos of the team. There are some eyebrows raised when Sastre is moved to the forward line, but he's described as one of the best and most complete Argentinians ever. De La Mata is described as having gone through a bad patch, but is now back to his best (all of this is in late 1938, BTW). I was a bit surprised when I first read Brazil were considered second only to Italy in terms of WC-favorites, but it supports the view they were already highly respected in the 30s. Da Guia has a nickname as "the wonder of the world" and Leonidas is "one of the best players ever seen". Andreolo, Miguel (Uruguay/Italy) Bastin, Cliff (England) Bican, Pepi (Austria/Czechoslovakia) Bickel, Alfred (Switzerland) Brustad, Arne (Norway) Da Guia, Domingos (Brazil) Drake, Ted (England) Erico, Arsenio (Paraguay) Ferrari, Giovanni (Italy) Goulden, Len (England) Leonidas (Brazil) Matthews, Stanley (England) Meazza, Giuseppe (Italy) Moreno, Jose Manuel (Argentina) Nejedly, Oldrich (Czechoslovakia) Olivieri, Aldo (Italy) Piola, Silvio (Italy) Rava, Pietro (Italy) Sarosi, György (Hungary) Sastre, Antonio (Argentina) Walker, Tommy (Scotland) Wilimowski, Ernst (Poland) Zsengeller, Gyula (Hungary) TotS: Olivieri Da Guia Rava Sastre Andreolo Turay Matthews Piola Erico Leonidas Sarosi Olivieri just edges in over Planicka due to the Czech problems described above. Minelli, Biro and Sesta offered competition for the defensive spots. In the half-line Sastre is the obvious candidate while he's still available. The third spot was a Hungarian battle, with Turay edging in over Lazar. Forward-line is interesting, with suddenly a lot of CFs appearing to make a claim. The heavy competition is shown by the fact Bican misses out, and has to settle for a place on the bench with Walker and Zsengeller. Top 3: Sarosi Leonidas Matthews Very hard decision, but I think Sarosi wins it because of the Mitropa final and Czech game being a part of this season. He basically has to win it some year. Erico is another player who suffers from the seasonal cut-off. In another year his 60 goals might have earned him the top spot (think Dean in '28). I might be tempted to move Sarosi's and Erico's achievements to last season to clean up the heavy cluster. Basically that would mean Piola misses out on the trophy last season, but Leonidas gets it this year. The big transfer rumors of 1937: -Apparently Dudas had been so impressive against England last year the English had tried to buy him for the impressive amount of £8,000. Meanwhile, Arsenal had wanted to buy Kvammen "at any cost".
I'm looking forward to that era in particular, too. It will be an interesting challenge. I'll try to treat each season as normally as possible. The good thing is football was still being played in most areas. With less international matches being played, I expect the results will be less reliable. I have plans to try to find reports of high profile club matches in regions where no internationals are being played. I won't give South America a significant advantage, like I haven't given Britain, even if they might deserve it. The trick is trying to find the sort of hidden or forgotten representative matches, like regional friendlies, city matches or military games. Like for example I've realized Germany still had matches between regions well into the war. That means technically the Austrian NT still exists, it just has a significantly reduced profile. There are other challenges ahead, too. I'm starting to run into source issues. You'd think as we get closer to modern times the amount of sources would increase, but it's been the opposite. I ran out of Danish sources already around 1930 (coinciding quite nicely with their decline, actually), and Austria looks set to run out by 1950. So far I'm still good, but with a lot of countries I'm down to just one source, so that's something to keep in mind. Sometimes reports will vary significantly between different papers. Hopefully I'll be able to crawl over the finish line, which at the moment would be 1960.
1938-1939: After another World Cup comes another season of change. Many regulars have come/are coming to the end of their NT-careers, and new stars must emerge to fill the gap. This season is of particular interest because it's the last full one before the war, so it's interesting to see how things might have developed without this little interruption. The season starts off with a big event as there's another Supranational representative match, this time England vs. Europe. The continent takes a big hit in prestige as the European team turns out to be a complete shambles. Not only are they crushed by England, but before that they labor into an unconvincing win against Netherlands B. The press tear this team apart, with some calling them a weakened Italy, and others saying a good club side like Juve or Sparta Prague would have done better. Only the all-Italian defence emerges with their reputation intact. The German wing-halves are particularly disappointing, being assigned to mark wingers like some old-timey team. This time there was only one change from the intended eleven, Zsengeller replacing Sarosi. The appearance of Hungarian players was unsure due to some military matters. Unused subs were Raftl, Biro, Lazar and Colaussi. Hahnemann played as a sub in the warm-up. This result probably helps England keep their top dog spot in Europe, despite they do have the occasional slip-up. The king of the team is definitely Matthews, who's MotM in most games. It's said he requires two opponents to mark him and a third on stand-by. A new generation emerges, as Lawton, Hall, Mercer and especially Cullis impress. Cullis is described as "one of the outstanding figures of the present generation". He plays a more attacking and constructive game than the typical English centre-half, but the continent views him very much as a stopper. If Cullis is an attacking centre-half, they say, then a player like Alf Young must be playing behind the goalkeeper. England's great rivals Scotland have a good season in terms of results, but seem to have even less standout individuals than the last few seasons. Delaney is good, and Shankly emerges as a worthy candidate. Walker is more disappointing than before, but has that great player aura where even if he's not playing well, he'll suddenly burst into life and decide a game. He also has a great domestic season, so he just makes it in. Continental Europe's decline seems to coincide quite nicely with the re-emergence of South America. I can definitely see Brazil's exploits last year as being a sort of watershed in terms of my fictional committee's perception. That said, this year's Copa America comes off as strictly third rate, as Brazil and Argentina are more interested in facing off against each other instead. Of the three Brazilian papers I'm following, two don't even seem to mention it. The third mentions Uruguay as the clear favorite. Peru are said to not have a great team, with several untried players coming in. They do mention Peru having some major stars, with Valdivieso, Honores and Lolo Fernandez getting a mention. Brazilian papers are also proudly proclaiming how their team has overtaken Uruguay as the most respected opponents in the eyes of the Argentinian public. If the second best team on the continent was so that good in the last World Cup, the top dog must be impressive indeed. Argentina's forward-line of Peucelle, Sastre, Masantonio, Moreno and Garcia are described as perfect. Masantonio seems a notch below the others, though, with one source only mentioning the others as the big four, and some articles wondering who's going to take the CF-position. Brazil's two stars from last year continue to shine, with Da Guia the best player in the first Argentina match and Leonidas leading Brazil to victory in the second. Getting back to Europe, Italy are still clearly the best team on the continent, even if they're in decline. Ferrari is gone, Meazza winding down, and Piola is now being hit and miss. His club numbers don't look good, either, though he has a good spring for the NT. Biavati, last year's weak point, is now the best player in the striking line. Andreolo isn't as impressive as he was last year, but did enough to get in. The best defence in Europe I already touched on. Of the former(?) central European powers, Hungary is experiencing a heavy hangover after the WC and fail to win a single game this season. Only Biro seems to be consistently good. Zsengeller is fairly terrible, but makes it in based on his club achievements. György Sarosi is in and out of the team and doesn't seem to be doing that much. His brother Bela emerges as a viable candidate for inclusion, but disappears from the team halfway through the season. Against Poland Hungary experiment (badly) with dropping G. Sarosi to the centre-half spot and Turay into the backline. That would be a 3-3-4 formation, then? While Hungary declined, the Czechs seemed ready to fill the gap with a new renaissance when political matters intervened. I was ready to hail their next coming, but it turns out there was a regional match against Austria, where they inexplicably went down 7-1. They play two official matches in the window I have set, starting off as Czechoslovakia and finishing off as Bohemia and Moravia. Bican disappears with the old name, but Kopecky is their other major star. Austrian players, meanwhile, have mostly disappeared into a sea of German tinkering, with only Hahnemann bouncing up every now and then to try to stake a claim. Germany have their typical season where they bully the minnows. Schön emerges as their new top talent, and Janes makes a proper claim for a spot for the first time. The wing-halves repair their reputation as much as they can, but don't seem like worthy candidates after what the English did to the poor fellows. Binder still hasn't impressed, and he's starting to run out of time. Next season. Of the rest of Europe, Switzerland continue their good form with much the same stars, though Bickel disappoints this time. Vernati seemed like the consistently best player, even if they're saying he's not as good as he was last season. France have a new top guy in Ben Barek. He's great for two games, but flops badly in the third. He'll have to wait until after the war for his turn. Nils Eriksen is a beast for Norway, but since its Scandinavia only, he doesn't quite make the list. Brustad and Kvammen impress at times, but the team in general isn't that great. Yugoslavia have a wonder goalie in Glaser, though disappears as Yugoslavia start to tinker with all-Croats or all-Serbs teams due to some kind of dispute. Bodola is good for Romania. Poland have their big player in Wilimowski. His highlight includes a crushing of Hungary, in a game the press are already describing as probably their last international before war breaks out. Andreolo, Miguel (Uruguay/Italy) Biavati, Amedeo (Italy) Cullis, Stan (England) Da Guia, Domingos (Brazil) Erico, Arsenio (Paraguay) Foni, Alfredo (Italy) Garcia, Enrique (Argentina) Glaser, Franjo (Yugoslavia) Hall, Willie (England) Kopecky, Vlastimil (Czechoslovakia) Lawton, Tommy (England) Leonidas (Brazil) Matthews, Stanley (England) Mercer, Joe (England) Moreno, Jose Manuel (Argentina) Olivieri, Aldo (Italy) Rava, Pietro (Italy) Sastre, Antonio (Argentina) Schön, Helmut (Germany) Vernati, Sirio (Switzerland) Walker, Tommy (Scotland) Wilimowski, Ernst (Poland) Zsengeller, Gyula (Hungary) TotS: Olivieri Da Guia Rava Andreolo Cullis Mercer Matthews Sastre Erico Leonidas Moreno Olivieri has now made the goalie spot his own. DDG prevented the defence from being an all-Italian affair. England dominate the half-line and South America the striker line. I already mentioned last time how Sastre and Moreno are the two top players for their team, and Sastre definitely comes off as the standout player on the continent. Leonidas would complete the big three. Erico is highly-rated, but remains a bit of an enigma due to lack of NT-representation. With many of Europe's big shooting stars in decline, it makes sense to go for the Americans this season. An all-Europe forward-line would be something like Matthews, Wilimowski, Lawton, Zsengeller and Schön. Top 3: 1. Matthews 2. Sastre 3. Moreno A big battle between the bosses of two continents, but I think Matthews has the greater amount of highlights, and England would still be seen as the team to beat. Third spot was wide open between the other three Americans.
Nice read! Just disagree. seeing Brazil as the #2 in SA, maybe, more intl. exposure due to WCs games, but the head-to-head with Uruguay from mid 30s to early 40s and the depth of star players in that era, looks to me, that they have similar forces. btw, in my eyes, Uruguay sent a better team in CA 1939 than CA 1937. Only having a better GK in 1937, DFs same quality, and better MFs and FWs in the 1939 edition.
Nice read! Just disagree. seeing Brazil as the #2 in SA, maybe, more intl. exposure due to WCs games, but the head-to-head with Uruguay from mid 30s to early 40s and the depth of star players in that era, looks to me, that they have similar forces. btw, in my eyes, Uruguay sent a better team in CA 1939 than CA 1937. Only having a better GK in 1937, DFs same quality, and better MFs and FWs in the 1939 edition.
1939-1940: War-time football is here, and this is where things get interesting. Football will be split into several isolated islands, internationals will be brought down to a minimum, and it's my job to try to figure out which efforts would have been worthy of honors. The challenge isn't just to find out who were the best performers at league level, but trying to find high profile representative matches that I didn't even know existed. For example, here's an army XI match that basically has the line-ups of a full international. Who knows what stuff is hidden there that would have shaped the impressions of the European public? It's not all gloom, though. My Brazilian sources have improved, and I've been able to get some of them translated. For example, here's a pretty interesting preview of one of the Brazil-Argentina games, particularly valuable because it lists a bunch of "crack" Argentinians who aren't part of the NT at the moment. Here's also a review of one of the games with player ratings, and Another list of Argentinian cracks from 1942. As far as internationals go, I'm actually pretty surprised at the high amount of internationals in 39-40. In a lot of places we're still in the phony war phase, so the scene isn't that different from the early 20s. The number of possible nominations is also down to 20s level, but I'm pretty satisfied with my crew here. Continental Europe has a new standard-bearer, and it's of course Germany. My impression from this era is that they now make the final jump into the big leagues. It's not just the usual case of them having a long schedule of mowing down the minnows, either, but the performances themselves. For example, Pozzo notes how the German side playing against Italy was their most impressive team ever. Most of their players could make it to the list, but there's one who towers above all the rest: Bimbo Binder has finally started delivering. He's impressive in most of Germany's games, and I'm not kidding when I say every glance at the Viennese sports papers will start with Binder's name there in big letters. Many of the other attacking stars like Conen and Schön are lost in the shuffle, Szepan drops by to say goodbye, but Lehner is around and consistently good. Hahnemann is the other major attacking talent. Of the wing-halves, Kupfer was more impressive than Kitzinger, but both were close to making it. The Italy vs. Germany game comes off as pretty much the tournament final of this season, even if Italy have a pretty wretched season. I hadn't even noticed it, but they had been undefeated for four years now. Now they're playing catch-up in the loss department as they're experiencing another rebuilding phase. Meazza and Ferrari are gone, and the defence isn't as impressive as it's been the last few seasons. Olivieri was still good, but not quite on the level of the past few seasons. Piola and Biavati are included for organizing the win against Germany, even if neither have fantastic numbers at domestic level. Piola has a carbon copy of last season, where he was quiet during the fall but wakes up in time for key spring games. Two half-good seasons seems worth one appearance of the list, no? I'm not sure I even realized this, but Bohemia and Moravia are still around as an international force this season, before the Nazis put a stop to that party. They put last season's Vienna debacle behind them and continue to impress, in attack if not in defence. I agree with Tom's assessment of Bican. While his domestic numbers may be inflated due to the situation being what it is, this season he's still massively impressive and proving his quality at all levels. Ludl is another impressive player, and Riha is described as being "in a class of his own" on the wing. Kopecky was decent, but behind the other three. Hungary is another team with impressive results, marshaled by the Sarosi brothers. Interestingly, Bela is now the more impressive one, as György seems to be winding down somewhat (for good?). After flashing his potential last season, Bela is now out in full force, being compared to past centre-half greats like Karoly, Hlavay and Orth. Biro is the third key player. They're somewhat lacking in the attacking department, though. After the Romania game the press are looking longingly at ethnic Magyar Bodola. What they could do with a player like that in their ranks. Now there's a thought... Switzerland come down from their peak after Rappan has left, giving a hint as to who was the real star of this outfit. Early on they impress, though, with Minelli and Bickel as the key players. Britain is a challenge all of it's own to me due to player availability. Many of the major stars are involved with the armed forces, and play for their clubs if the COs feel like it. Cullis, for example, barely plays at club level in a couple of seasons, as far as I can tell. When he is playing for the army teams or the NT he's pretty much an obvious case for inclusion for my TotS. I feel iffy about a player who barely plays at club level, though, so I decided to play it safe and drop him. Mercer has more appearances, so he's in. In the attack, Matthews is still the major star but seems more subdued than he was the last few seasons, so I decided to give him a rest, too. Lawton is scoring goals at league level but seems to miss out on a lot of the bigger games, so he's out. Goulden is playing some of his best football, though, leading West Ham to win the War Cup and being described as "one of the truly inspiring players in modern football". Hall was another player close to making it in. As mentioned above, I'm pretty satisfied with the info I've managed to dig up from the Brazilian papers. The coverage on non-Brazilian matches is pretty scarce, but luckily Brazil are involved in a lot this year. Half the time this means getting hammered by the Argentinians, who have top talent across the board. Sastre is still the major star early on, but misses a couple matches due to indiscipline, I think. Baldonedo is the other big success, but he's too much of a one-season wonder for me to include here. Enrique Garcia is quiet at first, but takes the reigns in some of the latter matches. Peucelle is also one of the stars. He seems to have been dropped for River in 1940, though, and is never a starter again. Since I'm not sure how soon after the Brazil games the decline started, I played it safe and didn't include him. Leonidas and Da Guia are still the standard-bearers for Brazil. DDG misses the Argentina games due to injury, I think, so he's taking a break from the list this season. Leonidas is disappointing in the first Uruguay game, but against Argentina it's mostly described as him flying the flag completely on his own. The other attacking players are described as being pretty useless, and it's implied Argentina could field several teams of halfbacks that are superior to what Brazil have. This is funny, considering two years later Brazil will be acknowledged as having the best halves in the Copa. Things change quickly. Back to the subject of Uruguay. The Brazilians, at least, seem to consider them to be strictly third rate. It's said the team went into the first Uruguay game over-confident and got humiliated for it. Uruguay's major star is Severino Varela. He seems to have been pretty quiet against Argentina, though, so he's not included, but got close. A completely separate category for me are the goal machines. I've long expressed the view that in the old days international games were considered as the gold standard for player reputation, but the big-number goalscorers are at times an exception to this rule. For example, looking at the actual BdO-votes, players like Geels and Georgescu in the 70s got pretty great spots on the lists based primarily on massive domestic numbers. The trick is trying to find out what players would have deserved this rep. Separating the likes of Geels and Georgescu from the let's say Kevin Phillips. During this era several players will emerge that will test my abilities. Erico we've already talked about. He has a clear continent-wide reputation as the top striker in America. Even the Brazilians can't stop talking about him, so I feel more confident than ever about including him in the TotS for his 40+ goal seasons. After he's injured and the numbers decline it'll be more iffy. Next comes Langara, another player with a big rep even in Brazil. He's described as being second only to Erico, and clearly ahead of Masantonio, for example. Even in his Europe days he came off as a big star, even if his NT-performances didn't always earn him friends, so I felt safe about including him. Talk of Europe brings us to goal-machine #3, which is Fernando Peyroteo. His problem is the precious few number of games Portugal plays internationally. He's generally the most impressive player for Portugal, but I'm not quite sure if that's enough, especially considering the amount of matches. However, he is described as a Piola-lite, and even in far-off Brazil he has a big rep as being one of the best strikers in Europe (though I'm not sure how objective they are). I'm not sure if Peyroteo will be a regular for nomination, but at least for this season he's in. The last goal machine is Atilio Garcia. I can barely find any mention of him in Brazilian papers. Considering the low standing Uruguay in general seems to have at this point in time, I'm considering him a regional great and not a continent-wide one. As it stands, I won't be including him unless something turns up. Biavati, Amedeo (Italy) Bican, Pepi (Austria/Bohemia&Moravia) Bickel, Alfred (Switzerland) Binder, Franz (Austria/Germany) Biro, Sandor (Hungary) Erico, Arsenio (Paraguay) Garcia, Enrique (Argentina) Glaser, Franjo (Croatia/Yugoslavia) Goulden, Len (England) Hahnemann, Willi (Austria/Germany) Kupfer, Andreas (Germany) Langara, Isidro (Spain) Lehner, Ernst (Germany) Leonidas (Brazil) Ludl, Josef (Bohemia&Moravia) Mercer, Joe (England) Minelli, Severino (Switzerland) Peyroteo, Fernando (Portugal) Piola, Silvio (Italy) Riha, Jan (Bohemia&Moravia) Sarosi, Bela (Hungary) Sarosi, György (Hungary) Sastre, Antonio (Argentina) TotS: Glaser Minelli Biro Kupfer B. Sarosi Mercer Sastre Bican Erico Binder Leonidas The decline of the Italians opens the door for new challengers. Glaser has been knocking on the door for a while now, and finally gets his chance. Hiden reminds us of his existence by returning to the international scene as a Frenchman. I have no idea if his French exploits would have been enough to earn him a spot at some point. Kupfer earns a spot due to the problems I had with Cullis. But what you're really interested in hearing is the attackers and who won top honors this year, right? This was the tightest battle I've had yet, with two clear European standouts in Bican and Binder, and two from America in Leonidas and Sastre. I went back and forth several times, and they could come out in any order, really. My first thought was to reward an Argentinian for their impressive season. However, their results seem to be more due to having an overall better team, and not as much due to a single individual. Whereas Brazil comes off very much as a one-man show. Another decider was a couple of high profile club clashes between Flamengo and Independiente this season. The matches were billed very much as Leonidas against Erico. Sastre was something like an afterthought. The duel went very much in Leonidas' favor, at least according to the Brazilians. Since he also seems to enjoy the highest mainstream reputation of the four in modern times, I decided to give him the top spot. Unlike the other main contenders, Sastre also seemed to be more impressive the past few seasons, so I decided to give the podium spots to the players who probably peaked this season. So the final order is: Top 3: 1. Leonidas 2. Bican 3. Binder
Nice review of the last season. I have found interesting two things: - An argentinian Commitee from AFA, making a preselection of 44 players, for the final revision of the NT trainer. - The ratings of BRA-ARG 1940 match. It looks very high, just like Placar ratings in the 1970s for Bola de Prata awards.
Stop the press! I made an important breakthrough in my research. I was looking through some Czech papers in order to get a feel for their players, and ran into a Bohemia vs. Moravia match. They started playing them after internationals were banned in the country, and they were considered the highlight of the season. As it said in the first report, the Bohemian team is basically the NT. The opponents aren't world-beaters, but they're clearly ahead of, say, the Slovakia that was running around at the time. This is great. Now we have not only a de facto Austrian NT during the war, but also a Bohemian one. April 21, 1940 - Bohemia 3: 1 Moravia ; Prague Bohemia: Horák (SK Pardubice), Urban (SK Plzeň), Stumpf (AC Sparta), Bouška (SK Slavla), Smejkal (SK Pardubice), Kydval (Bohemians), Riha, Ludi (both AC Sparta), Bican, Kopecky (both SK Slavia), Gibic (SK Plzen). Moravia: Pařák (Zlín), Vanek (Židenice), Lugr (SK Prostějov), Moravec (Baťa Zlín), Růžička, Harnach (both SK Židenice), Zeisberger (SK Slezská Ostrava), Šimek (SK Olomouc ASO), Melka (SK Prostějov), Bradáč (SK Rolný Prostějov), Buchta (SK Židenice). Goals: Ludl 2, Kopecky; Melka September 22, 1940 - Moravia 5: 6 Bohemia ; Brno Cechy: Jansta — Smejkal, Stumpf — Průcha, Bina, Souček— Holman, Ludl, Bican, Kopecký, Preis. Moravia: Pařák -— Vaněk,. Prošek — Harnach, Kalivoda, Kulich —- Kula, Simek, Melka, Palát, Buchta. Goals: Kopecky 3, Ludl, Holman, Bican; Buchta 2, Kula, Simek, Melka 4. 5. 1941 - Bohemia 5: 5 Moravia ; Prague Bohemia: Leština (SK Kladno) - Urban (SK Plzeň), Zástěra - Smejkal (both SK Pardubice), Bina (Viktoria Plzeň), Kolský - Riha, Ludi (all Sparta), Bican (Slavia), Kareš ( Bohemians), Holman (SK Kladno). Moravia: Pařák (SK Baťa) - Vaněk (SK Židenice), Omachlík (SK Prostějov) - Hendrych, Kalivoda, Dycka (all three SK Olimouc ASO) - Kula (SK Prostějov), Šimek (SK Olomouc ASO), Melka (SK Prostějov), Zoubek (SK Olomouc ASO), Rulc (SK Židenice) Goals: Bican 2, Riha, Ludl 2; Kula, Simek, Melka 2, Zoubek 14. 9. 1941 - Moravia 2: 4 Bohemia ; Olomouc Cechy: Leštlna — Kostalek, Zástěra — Průcha Smejkal, Kolský — Riha Perk, Blcan, Kopecký, Slaviček. Morava: Doležal — Krupka Omachlik — Hendrych, Кalivoda, Kulich — Novohradský. Simek, Melka Pščolka, Rulc. G: Bican 3, Kolský; Melka, Šimek. 17. 5. 1942 - Bohemia 1: 0 Moravia ; Prague Bohemia: Horák (SK Pardubice), Urban (SK Plzeň), Zástěra (SK Pardubice), Vycpálek, Průcha (both SK Slavia), Kolský (AC Sparta), Holman (SK Slavia), Ludl (AC Sparta), Bican, Kopecký, Bradáč (all SK Slavia) Moravia: Pařák, Kocourek (both Baťa Zlín), Vojtíšek, Hendrych (both SK Olomouc), Bartonec (Baťa Zlín), Juříček, Kula, Melka (all SK Prostějov) Nepala, Rulc (both Židenice). G: Ludl 4 October 1942 - Moravia 1: 3 Bohemia ; Brno Bohemia: Horák, Urban, Zástěra, Kukal, Kolský, Vycpálek, Fenel, Ludl, Bican, Bradáč, Holman. Moravia: Dědič, Kocourek, Vojtíšek, Hendrych, Bartonce, Wintr, Kula, Zoubek, Stloukal, Simunek. Rulc. G: ? 23. 5. 1943 - Moravia 1: 9 Bohemia ; Brno Horák - Senecký, Zástěra - Průcha, Smejkal, Kolský - Řiha, Perk, Vycpálek, Pajkrt, Bradáč. Ostrčilík - Vanek, Vojtíšek - Hendrych, Bartonec, Winter - Humpál, Konečný, Melka, Hönig, Šlapák. G: Pajkrt 4, Perk 3, Vycpálek 2; Konečný 17. 10. 1943 - Bohemia 5: 1 Moravia ; Prague Bohemia: Horák - Tichý, Zástěra - Průcha, Smejkal, Kolský - Kvapil, Ludl, Bican, Kopecký, Zmatlík. Moravia: Jordák. - Kocourek, Vojtisek - Hendrych, Tichy, Riedl - Kula, Humpal, Sobotka, Bartonec, Šlapák G: Bican 3, Ludl, Zmatlík; Humpal 14 May 1944 - Moravia 1: 3 Bohemia ; Ostrava Bohemia: Horák — Košťálek, Zástěra — Průcha, Smejkal, Kolský — Řiha, Perk, Bican, Kopecký, Zmatlík. Moravia: Kopecký — Vaněk, Novák — Zapletal, Kýr, Hanke — Kula, Šimek, Nepala, Pščolka, Michlovský. G: Bican, Zmatlík 2; Nepala Look at this traditional close-passing Czech football. Whoomp! I wonder if there were matches like this in the other areas where there wasn't international football, like Belgium and Netherlands? @PuckVanHeel @feyenoordsoccerfan Ever read about anything?
They were split between London and the forced labor camps in Germany. There's a lot to share about this.
This is in a nutshell (there's a lot more to say, also about what we don't know, not to forget certain controversies and sensitivities): Football continued during the war and was (oddly?) more popular than ever. Membership increased vastly, just as the attendances. Before the war there was already a politicized interland with Germany in 1937 (2-2) - with all the players turning their back to the Horst Wessel lied - and then in 1938 the return match at home was banned by the Rotterdam mayor PJ Oud because of Kristallnacht (N.B. Oud one of the co-founders of both the social-democratic and the liberal party). This is one of only two occasions that a government authority banned a national team game (the other was a Low Countries derby in 1929, revolving around a document that later turned out to be forged by Austrians/Germans (?) and the content of the document didn't happen indeed). Or three cancelled games if you count the recent cancelled interlands. It was different to the more indifferent and neutral atmosphere when Prussian emperor Wilhelm settled here after WW-I. Interregional football continued as well but imho this was a sham. The occupiers disbanded the regional locus (think of the regional teams Lenstra played for) and disbanded the pillarized (link) organizational football structures (both countries had this structure, see link). You can't speak of autonomous regions or organizations any more. The country was after all governed by propagandist idiots: "Did the Danes still have anything to say during the occupation? Yes. And that is the crucial difference from other countries. In countries such as the Netherlands and Norway, where most of the Jews died [and with a public record - check this link, PvH], a direct Nazi government was installed. The leaders had been replaced by Nazi sympathizers, and the SS worked with terror. Denmark, on the other hand, had already decided not to take up arms during the invasion. That is why the government was allowed to stay in place and the king also stayed in the country. There were no Nazis on the administration, nor on the police. ------------ Bo Lidegaard (1958) is the editor-in-chief of the daily newspaper Politiken. He is a historian and has been a diplomat for many years. He held a high position during the climate summit in Copenhagen, among other things. His book Countrymen: The 'Miracle of Denmark' - How the Jewish People Were Saved in 1943 by the Courageous Action of the People is published this month in several languages. http://www.frankmulder.info/2013-10-04/het-deense-wonder-in-de-oorlog" If you look at the six teams competing in the final round of the 1938-39 championship, then at least eleven starting players didn't survive the war. Thirty-eight 1930s Olympians didn't survive the war. "Sometimes there is speculation in the Netherlands that this or that sports club would have been 'wrong' during the war. The truth is that just about all clubs got forced to collaborate with the Germans. For example, all associations expelled their Jewish members in the fall of 1941. There were moments when cooperation stopped. For example, after PEC Zwolle had rejected two 'NSB girls' as members, the club was dissolved on the initiative of the SD and club secretary Wim Peters was interned in camp Vught. At Unitas in Delft it was decided in 1941 not to appoint a member of the NSB as a board member. Eventually, the club was dissolved by the authorities, sports historian Jurryt van de Vooren reports. But the following year, an entirely new board took office, and Unitas was accepted and admitted to the Second Division again. The victim of this conflict was the prominent member Huub Sterkenburg, who died in a concentration camp." From a historical and sociological point of view it is a horrific and interesting episode (e.g. the practitioners increased from 560000 to 730000 between 1942 and 1945; in eight of the eleven provinces it became perhaps the most popular sport), but it doesn't say anything - in my opinion - about whatever level or competitiveness there was. One interesting thing is reading about the occupiers signalling the level of the players were much higher than their information had given them. Among the 600000 Dutchmen moved to Germany for the Arbeitseinsatz there were also footballers but it's I think unclear how many were footballers (or whether they were part of the general program). There were nationally 8000 NVB (the KNVB without K) members in 1940, and over 2000 didn't survive (a rate obviously higher than the general population). The official Dutch national team did not play in the war. A 'representative' team did play in Germany with football players who were forced to work there. These games were played with occasional teams. Good footballers only just had to be camped in the near area to be lined up, so they were usually teams with little cohesion. Since Volkers has extensively investigated 'the concealed Orange', these events will not be discussed further here. Only the results of this team are listed [243] : Netherlands-Flanders (4/11/1943): 2-4 Netherlands-Flanders (14-6-1943): 4-5 Netherlands-Flanders (7/25/1943): 6-3 Netherlands-Serbia (8/29/1943): 3-1 Netherlands-Wallonia (9/18/1943): 13-0 Netherlands-Serbia (9/19/1943): 3-0 Netherlands-Czech Republic (9/19/1943): 2-0 Netherlands-France (31-10-1943): 3-2 Netherlands-Serbia (? -5-1944): 4-3 Netherlands-Serbia (11-6-1944): 7-1 Netherlands-France (7/9/1944): 3-3 Netherlands-Czech Republic (8/6/1944): 3-4 Netherlands-Flanders (9/17/1944): 4-1 Netherlands-Czech Republic (11/12/1944): 1-5 Netherlands-France (12/3/1944): 2-1 http://www.ethesis.net/feyenoord/feyenoord.htm (this is from a doctoral thesis) The book discussing this can be found here, with a brief description: "Despite or thanks to the Germans, the fact is that football was unprecedentedly popular during the occupation. It was all the more unfortunate that the Dutch national team did not play in those years. For six years, between April 21, 1940 and March 18, 1946, the official Orange was not released. Nevertheless, a good Dutch team did exist during the war years. It played its international matches with great interest in the years '43 and '44 in the stadiums of Berlin. The team was composed of football players who had ended up in Germany through the Abeitseinsatz. It managed to gain striking fame in a short time: throughout Germany, but also in the Netherlands, people were kept informed of the performances of this Orange, which was not allowed to play in the Orange. Why was it never heard from again after the war? Kees Volkers went in search of the former players with the intention to bring the hushed Orange back to life and to save the maligned heroes from oblivion. The unexpected revelation of an equally curious and unknown passage from Dutch football history." https://www.kenniscentrumsportenbewegen.nl/kennisbank/publicaties/?het-verzwegen-oranje&kb_id=14789 Another part of the footballers (mostly soldiers) was in London. In February and October 1941 an unofficial Low Countries derby was played, in the original shirt, both times on Wembley. "We were introduced to Professor Gerbrandy before kick-off. I also remember that we had special shirts, the real Dutch national team shirts. In the Netherlands it was not allowed to play with numbers, because the KNVB thought that footballers were not numbers. In England this was very common. Thus we became the very first Dutch national team to play with numbers. We also played more international matches during the war. I remember matches against Norway and Czechoslovakia. Prince Bernhard was also present several times. But those games were played in smaller stadiums, including Crystal Pallace, Brentford and Wolverhampton Wanderers. That was nice too, but of course not comparable to Wembley. Well, playing at Wembley, which footballer doesn't dream of it? " https://www.trouw.nl/nieuws/speelde-nederland-tegen-belgie-in-het-wembley-stadion~bef984d9/ For this I can recommend the 2020 book 'Door Wilskracht Zegevieren: Sport in de Tweede Wereldoorlog' by Jurryt van de Vooren. Also that Feyenoord doctoral thesis is by him. The atlas from 2017 (where he was one of many co-authors) is excellent as well. Avoid that book by Simon Kuper (dixit your sentence on "ignorance"), which has been rightly panned by domestic and international historians. N.B. if you want a source for something of the above, let me know.
The veteran team of Ajax played during the first days of the occupation against the military team in De Meer stadium. The veterans won 14-1. The occupiers didn't like it.
To close it off: This isn't a typo, to be clear. Maybe this in itself says already enough about the sustainability of the sportive level (very interesting though to read the findings of the occupiers; but why it took three years to start playing in the camps I don't know). Here the take by the historian/journalist Matty Verkamman (concerning the 'prologue' to wartime football). "Cleves, October 16, 1910, Germany-Netherlands 1-2. Several hundred Dutch people visit this away match of Oranje. The German press complains about “the noisy behavior of these guests”. In the Dutch 'Revue der Sporten' - the weekly for which the later NSB propaganda masterpiece Max Blokzijl writes - it is emphasized that the gala party after the international match was one big party: it was all about Bruderschaft. Nol van Berckel makes his debut in the Dutch national team. This left winger of Quick Nijmegen will on 12 December 1945 as president of the Special Court of Appeal condemns NSB leader Anton Mussert to death. Leipzig, November 15, 1912, Germany-Netherlands 2-3. The first fight is a fact. The German public is furious with the Hungarian referee Herczog; he would have helped the Dutch to victory. Dozens of supporters attack the referee. The Dutch reserve goalkeeper Barend van Hemert of DFC personally knocks down some Germans. In addition to being a goalkeeper, Van Hemert is a creditable amateur boxer. Van Hemert's vigorous performance has garnered praise in both the German and the Dutch press. Düsseldorf, January 31, 1937, Germany-Netherlands 2-2. The Dutch players do not like to play in the Rhein stadium decorated with many Nazi symbols. They refuse contact with the opponents after the match. Before the start, the players of Ferry Triebel were told by the technical committee that two national anthems will be played for Germany. First the Horst Wessel song of the Nazis: Die Fahne hoch, die Reihen fest geschlossen SA marschiert mit ruhig festen Schritt Comrades who Rot Front und Reaction erschossen # marschieren im Geist in unseren Reihen mit Die Strasse frei den braunen Battaillonen # die Strasse frei dem Sturmabteilungsmannion es schaun aus Hakenoffnung Schaun aus Hakenkreuz Tag für Freiheit und für Brot bricht an # Although three weeks earlier this song was also played in honor of the German guests at the wedding of Queen Juliana and prince Bernhard, the football players are now advised not to stand to attention while playing the Horst Wessel song. That is only necessary with the real national anthem, the 'Deutschland über alles'. The players follow Triebel's advice. When the Horst Wessel song is started, some of them stand wide-legged, the little Frank Wels of Unitas even stands with arms folded. Rotterdam, December 11, 1938, Netherlands-Germany. Even the horrors of the Kristallnacht in the night of 9 to 10 November 1938, did not prevent KNVB chairman Karel Lotsy from doing everything in his power to continue this international match. The sports journalist Kick Geudeker of the socialist daily newspaper 'Het Volk' had five years earlier during a meeting of the Amsterdam Sports Press, via a rejected motion, called for an official KNVB protest against the exclusion of Jews from German sports life, but also in 1938 is Lotsy still deaf to the voice of someone like Geudeker. Because he expects disturbances of the peace in his city, mayor PJ Oud of Rotterdam bans the match. An enraged Lotsy responds as follows: "The mayor is putting the KNVB in serious trouble at FIFA." https://www.trouw.nl/nieuws/het-was-alom-bruderschaft~b6bdd6dd/ NSB was the polder version of the NSDAP - at their peak they got 7.94% of the votes (for the Provincial States, who in turn select the Senate). The fascist Mussert, as wrong as he was and deserved the death sentence if you ask me (not executed since 1952, it's banned by the constitution since 1983 for war criminals), was however distinctly less antisemitic, although not entirely freed from it. "In its early years, the NSB boasted that its membership included several hundred Jews, until the German party directed a more anti-Semitic course." (English source) One of his 'brilliant' plans: "As a solution to the Jewish refugee crisis, which was created by the anti-Semitic policy of Adolf Hitler, Mussert proposed in 1938 to transform the three Guian colonies (British and French Guiana, and at least Suriname) into a "Jewish National Home" where the Jews could find a home." It's sometimes/often thought and deduced that PJ Oud didn't only ban the game because of potential riots... Lotsy was nearly voted out of office by his own board, and his 7000-8000 members (with a disproportionate amount of Jews and Protestants compared to general population) started to revolt.
Nice info! I'd like to hear more about the interregional matches (the "sham" ones). I think they'd be the more likely ones to help in finding out the best players in the country? Do you have a view of the best Dutch players from this era? For countries that played no NT-games during the war, the safest bets are the ones who were good before and after the interruption (like with the Spanish I listed from the late 30s.) For the Dutch that would be Cor Wilders, Lenstra, Dräger and De Harder (with Paauwe and Smit probably past it and Wilkes not ready yet?) De Harder is the strangest, because he comes off very impressive in the late 30s, but doesn't play any internationals at all in the 40s (playing in 2nd tier, it seems like).
Not sure whether there is a complete record but can have a look. There are simply some information gaps. Three of those players in the camps also played for the real Oranje before or after the war (before April 1940 or after May 1946): Bomvliet, Stroker and Appel. The last one was probably the best. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bram_Appel https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/top-50-foreigners-in-ligue-1-division-1.1975384/ (rated #27 by France Football in 2012 among foreigners) Of the London based players, as far as I can see, there were no NED players (for BEL I dunno, no complete listing). Most likely the distribution ends up much higher in peacetime, in normal circumstances. I don't have a real view here. Probably it was Lenstra, also because there is a continuum with what he showed before and after the war (I have to say, after reading the biography and the data, I'm impressed with that). He only sporadically played for representative and unofficial teams though, per his appearance record (two times for a federation team in name only). Wilkes is hurt by his age (born 13 october 1923) because organized football stopped halfway 1944. He also lived in a ruined city and had to help in the shop of his family, he couldn't train optimally I think (by his own comments). That said, almost immediately after the war (1945, 1946 and 1947) he showed clearly good form in international matches and for European all-star teams. He was already good (though I'm just not certain about the media in an unfree country), his technical ability was obvious, but it's unlikely that he was in his peak or could cultivate that. Among other things, with him in the Xerxes team they improved from a 9th to a 3rd position in their district (from 12 points to 22 points, which is an indication). "But with thirteen goals in fifteen matches for Orange, Lagendaal still has one of the highest averages ever in the Dutch national team. He was a hero at the Orange in the early 1930s, but would play an even greater hero role a decade later, but not on the football field. In daily life, the Rotterdammer was a staff chief for the police, and during the Second World War he managed to prevent many football stars, including Faas Wilkes, from being transported to Germany. He managed to do this by quickly appointing them as auxiliary agents." https://www.onsoranje.nl/nieuws/ex-internationals/16610/lagendaal-redde-leven-van-wilkes "Lagendaal was seen as a war hero. Faas Wilkes was of the opinion that he owed his life to his club mate. Lagendaal was the staff chief of the Rotterdam police. He managed to turn the Xerxes entire team into an auxiliary police force on paper. Wilkes and his team got an ausweis. 'The Germans did not touch us because of that.' Wilkes was thus protected from his ungovernable way of life. 'In retrospect I think: without Lagendaal I might not have been there anymore.' Lagendaal spent his last days with the elitist VOC. He was a convinced amateur and did not like the atmosphere of professional football." https://www.onsoranje.nl/nieuws/ex-internationals/16610/lagendaal-redde-leven-van-wilkes Had he been transported, there is every reason to guess he would never been capped in one way or another, even if he had survived. In the end I'd say that most probably it was Lenstra. There are just too many uncertainties, above the normal ones. I'll take a pause now but if I find an overview I come back.
2001 Modifications on the previous top 23: > IN: David Beckham (England & Manchester United [ENG]) < OUT: Sami Hyypiä (Finland & Liverpool [ENG]) Top 23 AYALA, Roberto (Argentina & Valencia [SPA]) BAGGIO, Roberto (Italy & Brescia [ITA]) BECKHAM, David (England & Manchester United [ENG]) CAFU (Brazil & AS Roma [ITA]) CRESPO, Hernán (Argentina & Lazio [ITA]) EFFENBERG, Stefan (Germany & Bayern Munich [GER]) FIGO, Luís (Portugal & Real Madrid [SPA]) KAHN, Oliver (Germany & Bayern Munich [GER]) KEANE, Roy (Ireland & Manchester United [ENG]) LARSSON, Henrik (Sweden & Celtic [SCO]) MENDIETA, Gaizka (Spain & Valencia [SPA]) NEDVED, Pavel (Czech Republic & Lazio [ITA]) NESTA, Alessandro (Italy & Lazio [ITA]) OWEN, Michael (England & Liverpool [ENG]) RAÚL (Spain & Real Madrid [SPA]) RIQUELME, Juan Román (Argentina & Boca Juniors [ARG]) RIVALDO (Brazil & Barcelona [SPA]) ROBERTO CARLOS (Brazil & Real Madrid [SPA]) RUI COSTA (Portugal & Fiorentina [ITA]) SHEVCHENKO, Andriy (Ukraine & AC Milan [ITA]) TOTTI, Francesco (Italy & AS Roma [ITA]) VIEIRA, Patrick (France & Arsenal [ENG]) ZIDANE, Zinedine (France & Juventus [ITA]) Podium 1° FIGO, Luís (Portugal & Real Madrid [SPA]) 2° RAÚL (Spain & Real Madrid [SPA]) 3° ZIDANE, Zinedine (France & Juventus [ITA]) Contenders 4° TOTTI, Francesco (Italy & AS Roma [ITA]) 5° OWEN, Michael (England & Liverpool [ENG]) Honorable Mentions ACUÑA, Roberto (Paraguay & Real Zaragoza [SPA]) AIMAR, Pablo (Argentina & Valencia [SPA]) ANDERSON, Sonny (Brazil & Olympique Lyonnais [FRA]) ANDERSSON, Patrik (Sweden & Bayern Munich [GER]) ANGLOMA, Jocelyn (France & Valencia [SPA]) BARAJA, Rubén (Spain & Valencia [SPA]) BARBAREZ, Sergej (Bosnia & Herzegovina & Hamburg [GER]) BARTHEZ, Fabien (France & Manchester United [ENG]) BATISTUTA, Gabriel (Argentina & AS Roma [ITA]) BORGETTI, Jared (Mexico & Santos Laguna [MEX]) BOWYER, Lee (England & Leeds United [ENG]) BUFFON, Gianluigi (Italy & Parma [ITA]) CANDELA, Vincent (France & AS Roma [ITA]) CAÑIZARES, Santiago (Spain & Valencia [SPA]) CARRIERE, Éric (France & Nantes [FRA]) CHIESA, Enrico (Italy & Fiorentina [ITA]) CONTRA, Cosmin (Romania & Deportivo Alavés [SPA]) CÓRDOBA, Óscar (Colombia & Boca Juniors [ARG]) DAVIDS, Edgar (Netherlands & Juventus [ITA]) DI VAIO, Marco (Italy & Parma [ITA]) DJALMINHA (Brazil & Deportivo La Coruña [SPA]) DONATO (Spain & Deportivo La Coruña [SPA]) ÉLBER, Giovane (Brazil & Bayern Munich [GER]) FERDINAND, Rio (England & Leeds United [ENG]) FIORE, Stefano (Italy & Udinese [ITA]) GERRARD, Steven (England & Liverpool [ENG]) GIGGS, Ryan (Wales & Manchester United [ENG]) GUTI (Spain & Real Madrid [SPA]) HASSELBAINK, Jimmy Floyd (Netherlands & Chelsea [ENG]) HELGUERA, Iván (Spain & Real Madrid [SPA]) HENRY, Thierry (France & Arsenal [ENG]) HESKEY, Emile (England & Liverpool [ENG]) HIERRO, Fernando (Spain & Real Madrid [SPA]) HYYPIÄ, Sami (Finland & Liverpool [ENG]) IBAGAZA, Ariel (Argentina & Mallorca [SPA]) JARDEL, Mário (Brazil & Galatasaray [TUR]) JAVI MORENO (Spain & Deportivo Alavés [SPA]) KEZMAN, Mateja (Serbia & Montenegro & PSV Eindhoven [NED]) KILY GONZÁLEZ, Cristian (Argentina & Valencia [SPA]) KLUIVERT, Patrick (Netherlands & Barcelona [SPA]) KUFFOUR, Samuel (Ghana & Bayern Munich [GER]) LIZARAZU, Bixente (France & Bayern Munich [GER]) LUIS ENRIQUE (Spain & Barcelona [SPA]) MAKÉLÉLÉ, Claude (France & Real Madrid [SPA]) MANUEL PABLO (Spain & Deportivo La Coruña [SPA]) McALLISTER, Gary (Scotland & Liverpool [ENG]) MONTELLA, Vincenzo (Italy & AS Roma [ITA]) MONTERO, Paolo (Uruguay & Juventus [ITA]) MOSTOVOI, Aleksandr (Russia & Celta de Vigo [SPA]) ORTEGA, Ariel (Argentina & River Plate [ARG]) OVERMARS, Marc (Netherlands & Barcelona [SPA]) PIRES, Robert (France & Arsenal [ENG]) PIZARRO, Claudio (Peru & Werder Bremen [GER]) POYET, Gustavo (Uruguay & Chelsea [ENG]) RECOBA, Álvaro (Uruguay & Inter Milan [ITA]) ROBERT, Laurent (France & Paris Saint-Germain [FRA]) ROMÁRIO (Brazil & Vasco da Gama [BRA]) ROMEO, Bernardo (Argentina & San Lorenzo [ARG]) SAMUEL, Walter (Argentina & AS Roma [ITA]) SÁNCHEZ, Erwin (Bolivia & Boavista [POR]) SAND, Ebbe (Denmark & Schalke 04 [GER]) SAVIOLA, Javier (Argentina & River Plate [ARG]) SCHOLES, Paul (England & Manchester United [ENG]) SCHOLL, Mehmet (Germany & Bayern Munich [GER]) SERGINHO (Brazil & AC Milan [ITA]) SHERINGHAM, Teddy (England & Manchester United [ENG]) SMITH, Alan (England & Leeds United [ENG]) SORÍN, Juan Pablo (Argentina & Cruzeiro [BRA]) STEWART, Marcus (England & Ipswich Town [ENG]) TOMMASI, Damiano (Italy & AS Roma [ITA]) TRISTÁN, Diego (Spain & Deportivo La Coruña [SPA]) TUDOR, Igor (Croatia & Juventus [ITA]) VAN BOMMEL, Mark (Netherlands & PSV Eindhoven [NED]) VERÓN, Juan Sebastián (Argentina & Lazio [ITA]) VIDUKA, Mark (Australia & Leeds United [ENG]) VIERI, Christian (Italy & Inter Milan [ITA]) YEPES, Mario (Colombia & River Plate [ARG]) All Tops 23 Honorable Mentions (1920-1984) Honorable Mentions (1985- )
1940-1941: Things are starting to get tricky now, as my source issues become reality. South America is increasing its profile, but Brazil has decided to not take part in it. That means there are precious few match reports in the Brazilian papers, and the ones that are there are of the "Argentina wins bye" variety. Still, there were some I managed to dig up, and every SA player I listed here was mentioned at least at some point as having played well. I'm relying more on all-around rep than actual match reports, though. Brazilian players themselves are absent. Based on their performances from last season, I don't think any player outside the Leonidas/Da Guia duo would make it in without international matches (Leonidas I guess is behind bars already). Source problems are also haunting me in Britain. The Times haven't been reporting on football in as great a detail during the war, so it's hard to tell if anyone was shining in particular at league level. The Wales games get barely any coverage, and they use a pretty experimental 11, so I'm thinking they weren't very high profile. The Scotland games at least get decent coverage. Since we are down to regional football, though, I don't think I need to consider anyone outside the already established stars. Of those, the attacking players seem to be confined to military duties. Matthews and Lawton don't have many league appearances, and Matthews is pretty well-held at international level, too, so they'll have to wait for next year. Mercer is there, though, and Cullis has a good number of appearances. The halfbacks are also credited with running over Scotland and being the key to victory in one of the games, so I'm good with including them. On the continent the story is pretty much called the adventures of Greater Germany and friends. I'm not sure if I've quite realized before how stacked this German team was, especially in the attacking department. They start off with Hahnemann and Conen being the big attacking stars, but the latter especially seems to become a victim of rotation. Schön starts off quietly, but is a key man in several matches. Fritz Walter is ever-present, and makes a graduation from promising apprentice to being the main architect in the big game of the season, an impressive 7-0 demolition of Hungary. Lehner is also there, but doesn't have one of his best seasons. But wait, that's not all. In 1942 the Germans discover they can just add Wilimowski to the crew for some extra firepower. And that's not even mentioning Binder, who's his usual disappointing self in his last cap for Germany, but is included here based on what Tom wrote about his club exploits. I'm not sure how appropriate it is to include so many players from one team, but I think all of these players have earned their rep and spot here. It's not just a case of having a tour of ransacking over the minnows, either, as the Hungary result shows. The moral on how to build a successful team out of a struggling one? Just conquer everybody and sign up their players. I'm starting to detect some Nazi propaganda seeping into the match reports. After Germany goes down to Switzerland, the German papers are reporting the loss was due to the defensive trio of Ballabio-Minelli-Lehman being absolutely impenetrable that day. But the Swiss are saying nah, they weren't that special, really, and they've been better before. Likewise, the Germans are saying the Hungarians were playing really well, honest, they just got mowed down by a very special German performance. Meanwhile, the Hungarians are saying their team played like a bunch of schoolboys trying out some soccer for the first time... Speaking of Hungary, as you could probably tell, they have probably their worst season yet. The Sarosis aren't bringing it anymore. György is well past it now, and Bela isn't as good as last year, either, though he still shines in some games. Biro gets run inside out by Italy's Biavati. The only consistently good player is Polgar, now playing as a third back, a system that's blamed for the team's failure. They are particularly disappointing in attack. What did we learn about what to do when the team isn't playing well? That's it, bring in the recruits! Bodola is here now, and has some good performances, but ends up as disappointing as everyone against Germany. Zsengeller is back, too, but doesn't help. Well, I guess it doesn't work every time. Italy play only one game this season, but even that can give a good clue on where they're currently standing, and that's very much in the rebuilding phase. They still haven't found proper replacements for Meazza and Ferrari, and all the halfbacks are a bunch of defensive lawnmowers. Piola is still a danger, but domestically his team have a pretty terrible season. The top players seem to be the two wingers, and I already mentioned Biavati's heroics against Hungary. Foni is great in defence, and in times like these that's enough for inclusion. Spain makes a welcome return to the international scene, and they're one of the more interesting teams in this era, if also trickier. What is the bigger handicap? Being in the throes of a costly war, or still recovering from one? Spain seem to be still very much in the process of picking their stuff from the floor. They play two games against Portugal, and though one of them is a clear victory, the reports aren't impressed by the team that much. In fact, they're lamenting the absence of true international-class stars like Zamora, Quincoces and Samitier. So I don't feel bad about not including anyone. Of their opponents, Peyroteo is heavily marked and isn't at his best. Pinga actually performs better, but Peyroteo still seems to be the bigger star. I guess it is a testament to his skill for him to earn so much attention from the opposition. It would seem excessive to include two players from such a low-tier squad, so I decided to opt for Peyroteo. That brings us back to the shooting stars. Bican is still included, even though I agree with Tom about his assessment of the Bohemian holiday league. They've now been closed off by the Nazis, and this brings us to an interesting dilemma. If we want to go to a meta-discussion about voting, would my imaginary panel have even had access to Bohemian match reports? The Czech situation is interesting. They went into war-time with an impressive team, but we know pretty much that after the war they're done as major force. How was it during the war? The situation being what it is, I don't think I'll be including any Czech players. Bican is an exception because of his clearly higher profile, and I think the numbers alone would earn him a spot no matter what the league quality. Langara is also included on the list, being the Argentinian top scorer. Biavati, Amedeo (Italy) Bican, Pepi (Austria/Czechoslovakia) Binder, Franz (Austria/Germany) Conen, Edmund (Germany) Cullis, Stan (England) Foni, Alfredo (Italy) Garcia, Enrique (Argentina) Glaser, Franjo (Croatia/Yugoslavia) Hahnemann, Willi (Austria/Germany) Kupfer, Andreas (Germany) Langara, Isidro (Spain) Livingstone, Sergio (Chile) Mercer, Joe (England) Minelli, Severino (Switzerland) Moreno, Jose Manuel (Argentina) Pedernera, Alfredo (Argentina) Peyroteo, Fernando (Portugal) Porta, Roberto (Uruguay) Salomon, Jose (Argentina) Sastre, Antonio (Argentina) Schön, Helmut (Germany) Walter, Fritz (Germany) Wilimowski, Ernst (Poland/Germany) All in all, I'm pretty happy with the crew I managed to assemble. Can barely tell there are things going on. TotS: Livingstone Foni Salomon Kupfer Cullis Mercer Hahnemann Moreno Langara Sastre Walter Glaser is still the most impressive keeper in the old world (if we can trust those German reports), but all-in-all things are still pretty quiet on the goalie front. This opens the door for Copa America hero Livingstone. No obvious choice for left-back, so I went with what I had. England's dominant half-line is joined by Germany's best half Kupfer. Wonder what the readers of the time would have thought about my truce-11? Forward-line basically consists of players from two leagues, and even the back-ups would be guys like Wilimowski and Pedernera. And this brings us to the problem of the top 3: 1. Moreno 2. Sastre 3. Langara The performances in Europe didn't really strike me as being podium worthy (Hahnemann would have pipped Walter for #1). The two Argentinians seemed to have the highest profile in general, so they seem the safest options. If we want to go back to meta-discussion, I think going American would also conveniently save the voters from picking sides from Europe. Lack of Argentine sources makes things very difficult to assess, but I'm pretty confident in my #1. At this point Moreno is mentioned in the papers more often than Sastre. Sastre is an ever-present, but that's about it. By the end of 42 it looks like he's being pipped by others, too. Moreno and Pedernera are the big two, with Salomon and Garcia also pointed out as obvious first choice picks. Sastre is described as not being bad, but also not particularly outstanding, either. That makes me think I don't need to consider him for a spot from his days in Brazil. He'll now join Orth as one of the greatest players never to actually win my BdO. High scoring has traditionally been rewarded in BdO-votes, and my list isn't any different. I don't know how feasible it is to make a Golden Boot award for 40-41, considering all the regional leagues, different seasonal systems and number of games, but Langara's record in Argentina comes off as the most impressive. Interestingly, Brazilian papers report on a debate about Langara's merits, with critics saying he's just a flat-track bully who disappears in the big matches. Just in case you thought such discussions were a recent phenomenon. He wasn't that big of a deal back in his Spanish days, but times and expectations change. Guess Spain now have their international-class superstar, after all. He just happens to play an ocean away. Notes: Here's an interesting match that happened in Argentina. It's between Argentinians and foreigners playing in Argentina. Notable for having Erico and Langara playing in the same team. Too bad it doesn't seem to list the Argentinian line-up.
In the honorable mentions I added Nolberto Solano twice, in 1997 (considering his campaign in the Copa Libertadores with Sporting Cristal, and his first semester with Boca Juniors, what earned him to be voted 2nd in the South American Player of the Year award by El País) and 2000 (reconsidering after @wm442433's comment taking into account his record for assists in England). Claudio Pizarro would be the 2nd since 1995.
One telling brief article about playing football in these circumstances, and that players also stopped playing: Amsterdam on February 23, 1941: raids and a home game of Ajax The annual commemoration of the February strike of 1941 will take place in Amsterdam on 25 February. For two days, life came to a standstill in the capital in protest against the raids in the Jodenbuurt. During those manhunts Ajax won 9-1 against Xerxes. The February strike of 1941 was a turning point for the occupied Netherlands. It was the first time that there was a large-scale uprising against the German occupiers. For well-known football player Gerben Wagenaar of the Volewijckers it was even the signal to stop playing his sport completely and to play an active role in the resistance. Ajax won 9-1 In 1999 Evert de Vos wrote his graduation thesis for the University of Leiden on Jewish football clubs in Amsterdam from 1908 to 1948. In it he described, among other things, how Jewish football had ended quickly after a number of discriminatory measures by the occupiers. Life preservation was the first necessity, with most of their contacts at the football club offering no escape. As someone said to de Vos "You have all gone your separate ways. All in the same misery. ” At the time, most Dutchmen barely knew what was going on outside their own group, which was particularly hard in the case of Jewish life. For example, on February 23, 1941, during the raids that preceded the February strike, Ajax was able to play a home game a few kilometers away from the closed and locked Jewish neighborhood. Not because the Ajax players were not interested in what happened, but mainly because hardly anyone understood the impact of this. Ignorant of the situation a few kilometers away, the team from Amsterdam won 9-1 against Xerxes. "A result that showed much more the weakness of the opposing team than the strength of Ajax," said Het Volk a day later in the match report. From that moment on, the Jewish clubs went under because the members had to go into hiding or were deported to concentration camps. A large number of them did not survive. These people are commemorated, among other things, with a monument at the Amsterdam fusion club WV / HEDW, which arose after the war from two old Jewish clubs. Because after the survivors returned, Jewish football revived as far as it could. With conviction and opposition, because really shocking is a passage by De Vos, in which he quotes an internal warning at the KNVB for rising anti-Semitism in the fields. It was 1947 then, two years after the Holocaust ... https://sportgeschiedenis.nl/sporte...-1941-razzias-en-een-thuiswedstrijd-van-ajax/ The 1941 February Strike is considered to be the first public protest against the Nazis in occupied Europe,[2] and the only mass protest against the deportation of Jews to be organized by non-Jews.[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_strike https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Februaristaking The Americans knew...
1941-1942: As far as war-seasons go, this one is a pretty busy one. All the major teams are involved at some point, and there's a decent pool of names to choose from. The problems appear when I'm supposed to put them in any kind of order! The small amount of matches means there aren't a lot consistently standout performances this year. One match one player will shine, and then the next time it's someone else's turn. It's a pretty even field. Of added interest is the fact that this is a World Cup year, so it'll be interesting to see how things would have ended up... If there wasn't a war... but team strength and form were the same... play along. Thanks to @Vegan10 for digging up the El Grafico Copa America review. With the tournament well-documented in Brazil, too, I had the best picture of the SA-scene yet. Unfortunately, that just blurred matters further, because there seemed to be opinions across the board on which players and teams did well. Take Uruguay, for example. One writer would say they weren't a good team, and didn't impress at all, but then the next one will show up and say they had excellent players across the board. Since there's a chance Uruguay has previously been unfairly neglected due to my lack of sources, I decided to give them pretty good representation this time. Luis Ernesto Castro was highly ranked at one point, being mentioned as one of America's greatest wingers ever (and better than Orsi). Another played mentioned as one of the greatest wingers was a Brazilian called Arnaldo, who played for San Lorenzo, I believe. Argentina have their usual crop of stars. Pedernera seems to have now replaced Sastre as one of their big two. Enrigue Garcia comes off as a bit past it, but did enough to make it in. Da Guia is an easy pick from Brazil. The Battle for Britain is over, which seems to be reflected in the football fields, too, as the team seems to be pretty much at full strength now. The Wales games are still given precious little coverage, but there are two games against Scotland that seem to have been more exciting than usual. Lawton was in great form, scoring five goals in two matches, and Matthews is generally the big star of the team, but not quite as effective as other seasons. He was #1 with Blackpool in one of the domestic leagues, though. Cullis impressed as usual, but doesn't seem to have a lot of games domestically, so I'm giving him another break. Mercer didn't stand out in particular this time. Scotland have a number of possibilities for inclusion. They introduced a new pair of wingers for the second match, and Waddell and Liddell were instrumental in scoring the win. So were the retroactively very interesting pair of wing-halves Shankly and Busby. Dawson has also been great in goal in the war internationals. Onward to the continent, where Germany are losing their form right in time for a World Cup season again (my how things have changed). Remember all those great forwards from last year? Well they're just about all gone now. Lehner and Hahnemann got drafted for the Wehrmacht. I think Binder, too, since he disappears from the club scene? Wilimowski and Conen lost form and have been dropped, though both reappear every now and then. Schön is dropped or drafted, too. That leaves Walter as the one big star. He's not just one by default, though, but seems to be consistently very impressive. Decker emerges as the second top player now. Top spot for the continent might go to Italy, even if it's difficult to say with just two games played. A goal ratio of 8-0 in two games isn't bad, though. There are some touching stories involved this time. When last we left them, Italy were still in a rebuilding phase, and the rebuilding is still incomplete in the Croatia match. Mazzola and Loik are the new insides, and they don't particularly dazzle. Question marks remain. They're retained for the next game, though, a dazzling destruction of Spain. After the game Mazzola is in tears, having finally proved his worth at international level. Piola misses the first game due to injury, and is replaced with Gabetto. There's a lot of discussion on which one should be retained for the vital Spain match, and one writer suggest Piola is picked because Gabetto is incompatible with Mazzola and Loik, speaking "a completely different language". Don't try this at club level, guys. Piola is re-injured early on in the Spain match, but manages to play an excellent game nonetheless. The defence and wingers are also a strong point of the team. Pozzo said Rava played the best game of his career against Croatia. Spain continue in the same vein as last year. The Germans join in on saying the new team doesn't have a Zamora, Samitier or Quincoces. Mundo isn't a big success internationally. He's injured against Italy and never plays for Spain again. Epi has made enough of a name for the Italians to single him out as the star, so he's a possibility in the future. Hungary are still in the doldrums, but have made some progress. This time they only lose to Germany 3-5, and tie against a Croatia who "showed nothing". Bodola and Zsengeller at least showed a little bit of something this time. Switzerland are definitely down from their peak now, and are pretty much... Switzerland now. Ballabio, Minelli and Bickel are showing some good things, though. France are back, but are as weak as ever. Darui is impressive enough for Hanot to dedicate half his report to the goalkeeper. Of the rest, Scandinavia is showing some signs of improvement, with good results against Germany. Garvis Carlsson is the new star, the best Swedish player since Rydell. Biavati, Amedeo (Italy) Bican, Pepi (Austria/Czechoslovakia) Bickel, Alfred (Switzerland) Bodola, Gyula (Romania/Hungary) Castro, Luis Ernesto (Uruguay) Ciocca, Anibal (Uruguay) Da Guia, Domingos (Brazil) Darui, Julien (France) Decker, Karl (Austria/Germany) Garcia, Enrique (Argentina) Lawton, Tommy (England) Liddell, Billy (Scotland) Matthews, Stanley (England) Mazzola, Valentino (Italy) Moreno, Jose Manuel (Argentina) Pedernera, Adolfo (Argentina) Perucca, Angel (Argentina) Piola, Silvio (Italy) Rava, Pietro (Italy) Shankly, Bill (Scotland) Varela, Obdulio (Uruguay) Varela, Severino (Uruguay) Walter, Fritz (Germany) I might be being a bit retroactive by including players like Mazzola, Liddell and Darui, but it's hard to tell with the small amount of matches. Of the major goalscorers, Peyroteo is pretty anonymous internationally and doesn't have quite the numbers of the past few years, so he's taking a break. Bican I imagine will be there throughout the war years. TotS: Darui Da Guia Rava Shankly O. Varela Perucca Matthews Walter Lawton Moreno Pedernera The goalkeeper spot was wide open this time. Glaser disappeared from his team, and Livingstone doesn't seem to have been quite as heroic in the Copa this time. Ballabio and Dawson were possibilities. So was a wild card in Teodor Reimann, who's been by far the best player in almost every game for Slovakia. I decided to go for Darui, though, who's probably the biggest name in modern circles. Matthews takes the fifth attacking spot over Bican due to winger-advantage. The other four were my main contenders for the podium spots. Top 3: 1. Moreno 2. Lawton 3. Pedernera As I said above, the field was wide open, so I tried to look for the all-around reputation, both at the time and in modern times. Argentina seems like a safe bet to go to for the crown, and the other top spots I split in a nice and fair zipper method. Notes: Interesting view from the Times on wartime football: "In the last quarter of an hour or so the game fell away in pace and skill - the players have neither the practice nor the attentions that are part of normal League football." It's an opposite view of the one Jack Rollin had in his book. On the continent, at least, there's been no mention of neutral countries having any kind of fitness advantage. Germany definitely have one against their ally nations, though.
@Ariaga II , how do you trace the line between, "players from high-level competition season" versus "players from a exhibition-series season" type? In the sense, players from the second type could not be considered equal to the first ones.
You are welcome. I still have to summarize the final reflections of Argentina’s manager, Guillermo Stabile. Stay tuned for that.