JEAN TIGANA – A THOROUGHLY MODERN MIDFIELDER.

Every great team is composed of different characters. There may be stars but there’s also those with more grounded ambitions who work for the team tirelessly. It’s such individuals who are the reason why the marquee stars are capable of showing their best qualities because they don’t need to sacrifice any part of their game. And for Michel Hidalgo’s French national team in the early 1980s, that selfless individual was Jean Tigana.

The 1960s and ‘70s was a period of decline for the French national side. Performances on the pitch were unimpressive, while the situation off it wasn’t doing the country any favours either. The French Football Federation changed manager after manager in the hope of arresting the decline, however, each of the appointees was duly dispensed with after failing to qualify for major tournaments. Michel Hidalgo stepped up from the assistant role in 1976 and with that appointment, France’s fortunes changed for the better.

Today the French national team consists of many players of African heritage, but back in the early days under Hidalgo, international players who came from the French-governed colonies were not common. The most recognisable name of the time was Marius Trésor who is regarded as one of France’s finest defenders of all time. He came from Guadeloupe, then a French-controlled archipelago in the Caribbean Islands.

Tigana’s influence on French football can be seen in modern box-to-box midfielders like N’Golo Kanté, Blaise Matuidi and Tanguy Ndombele – players who venture forward when necessary and contribute to their side’s attacking play while having a primary purpose of maintaining balance and defensive solidity in the middle of the park. This assurance in midfield allows more creative players to express themselves freely without having to worry about tracking back or marking opposition attackers.

Tigana’s career in football started a little later than many of his peers. The Mali-born Frenchman first made his name at Toulon before moving to Lyon where he made more than a century of appearances. Next came the club that would define his career: Bordeaux. At the south-western club, Tigana enjoyed his best years and his form there inspired similarly fantastic performances for France too.

Tigana’s move to Bordeaux was a reunion with his old coach Aimé Jacquet, the man who had taken him to Lyon from Toulon. Jacquet would later go on to manage the French national team and lead them to glory at the 1998 World Cup on home soil in France, and it was at Bordeaux where he started to make his formidable name as a coach. The style of play he favoured was a perfect fit for Tigana and it was no surprise he flourished.

Jacquet wasn’t the most expansive of managers and was quite methodical about the way he wanted his teams to play. His primary focus was defensive solidity and there can be similarities drawn between his system and that of typical Italian teams of the time. Jacquet worked closely with ambitious club president Claude Bez to bring in several other promising French internationals of the era.

Tigana was a player for every manager. His attitude was top class and his work ethic was of the highest order. Although he was deployed typically as a holding midfielder, Tigana’s tireless work-rate allowed him the option of the occasional burst forward to support his attackers in the final third. His ability to dominate the middle of the park defensively – despite being neither tall nor muscular – made him popular in the early 80s French game and led to an inevitable call-up to the French national team under Hidalgo in 1980.

Speaking in an interview with The Coaches’ Voice, Tigana revealed that he had the opportunity to join Barcelona in 1982 who already boasted other foreign talents such as Bernd Schuster and a certain Argentine superstar by the name of Diego Maradona. Furthermore, Tigana also rejected a move to Tottenham Hotspur while Italian champions Juventus – where his compatriot Michel Platini was starring – also tried to acquire the Frenchman’s signature. Tigana rejected all these offers because of sheer loyalty to Bordeaux’s cause. This seemed to be a pattern at the club with his teammates following his example, simply because the president Claude Bez demanded loyalty from them which they duly delivered. Tigana himself would spend almost a decade with Les Girondins and make more than 250 appearances.

The highlight of Tigana’s career was his vital contribution to French success at the 1984 European Championships. Hidalgo deployed a spectacular midfield quartet consisting of the star man Michel Platini, two other talented midfielders in Luis Fernández and Alain Giresse and Tigana completing the group which came to be known as le Carré Magique (the Magic Square).

Each of the players knew his role perfectly and performed them as instructed by Hidalgo. The Magic Square’s first test came at the 1982 World Cup in Spain. Hidalgo was blessed with talent across the pitch and France reached the semi-finals, only to lose out in highly controversial fashion to West Germany on penalties. It was little consolation to Les Bleus that they had been involved in one of the greatest fixtures in World Cup history.

France’s best moments were still ahead of them and at Euro ‘84 the team realised its considerable potential. The Magic Square was already a well-established and much-feared threat with opponents struggling to figure out a way to play through this near-perfect midfield quartet. Platini was the most advanced of the four, playing in the number 10 role and given creative license to generate the attacking threat. While he also created chances for team-mates, Platini’s major strength was his deadly eye for goal which brought a fantastic tally of 9 goals during the tournament. Giresse’s role was the classy creator; a composed figure on the ball who knew how to get behind a defence. Fernández was the deepest-lying of the four who played the role of playmaker, whilst Tigana did much of the actual defensive work – hounding and pressing opponents in a manner he sought to encourage his own players to do when he later moved into management.

One of Tigana’s and France’s most memorable matches was the semi-final clash against Portugal, a match now regarded as one of the greatest in international football. The Magic Square continually created chances only to be thwarted by the opposing keeper. Finally, a breakthrough as a sweetly struck free-kick from Jean-François Domergue handed France the lead. A dogged Portugal equalised through Rui Jordão, the game went to extra-time and France finally won it 3-2 with a late Platini strike.

Tigana’s performance was instructive: deep into extra-time of this exhausting game his boundless stamina meant he was still popping up in threatening areas of space between Portugal’s midfield and defence. It was his late surge into the box which dragged the Portuguese defence with him, freeing up space for Platini to rifle home the decisive goal. France defeated Spain in the Final in front of an impassioned crowd at the Parc des Princes and this magical team had the silverware it deserved.

Back at Bordeaux it was business as usual. At the time the club was the leading power in the French domestic game and Tigana was a significant reason for that success. In a squad already blessed with plenty of international talent including Gernot Rohr, Gerard Soler and Alain Giresse, Tigana represented the heart of the side which won three Ligue 1 and two Coupe de France titles.

After calling time on his career, Tigana would go on to make a mark in management taking charge of clubs like Lyon, Monaco and Fulham, the latter he revolutionised upon his arrival in English football. Tigana said to The Coaches’ Voice, “When you don’t have the ball, you are not strong. You are obliged to fight to get it back. So we don’t lose the ball. We keep it.” The Frenchman favoured playing out from the back and encouraged his players to carry on with the new style of play, despite initial setbacks.

Youngsters flourished under Tigana and the likes of Louis Saha, Luís Boa Morte and Steed Malbranque improved and grew under his management. The fast and fluid Saha replaced an old-fashioned centre-forward in Geoff Horsfield and reflected the drive towards a different approach. Tigana took over in April 2000 and helped Fulham towards the Division One championship and promotion to the Premier League. Competing at a much higher level, he guided his charges to a mid-table finish and into the UEFA Cup via the Intertoto Cup.

The former Monaco boss subsequently enjoyed a spell at Beşiktaş where he won the Turkish Cup and later returned to his old club Bordeaux in 2010 for a season-long spell there. He called time on his managerial career in 2012 after a series of poor results brought a stint with Shanghai Shenhua in the Chinese Super League to an end.

The Frenchman was a fundamental part of several successful sides at Bordeaux and the thrilling French national team of the era. His talents earned him multiple individual nominations and in 1984 – probably the peak year of his career – he was voted French Player of the Year. Tigana’s legacy in French football remains as fresh as ever and he remains an ideal exemplar of the thoroughly modern box-to-box midfielder.

www.beyondthelastman.com

NINAD BARBADIKAR

 

 

That French midfield four of the early to mid 1989s was some midfield unit.

19 minutes ago, erskblue said:

That French midfield four of the early to mid 1989s was some midfield unit.

Yes. One of the all-time great midfields. 

Christian Vieri. Brilliant striker in the late 90s and early 00s especially at Atletico, Lazio and Inter. Had everything and another great player whos career was ruined by injuries.

On 28/02/2021 at 11:55, Dean said:

On which note (my response to Jezz) many of my entries are probably not exactly forgotten either: 

Stojkovic

Savicecic

Hugo Sanchez

Nedved

Joel Bats ( @erskblue you’ve reminded me of the French team of the 80s - Brazil France qf 86 is one of my fave matches and penalty shootouts ever)

 

 

I was actually thinking about Nedved but he has in important function in Juventus so I've seen him in multiple CL or FIFA events or awards and stuff like that but this is a good list.

Regarding Savicevic though:

 

Fabio Capello chooses his best 11 ever that he has trained, Savicevic is to him in the starting lineup:

PS. Capello is around 71 years old in this video, to me he still looks the same as always... That Mediterranean diet...

Edited March 1, 20215 yr by Gol15

On 28/02/2021 at 14:29, erskblue said:

Three of my all time favourite international teams are Brazil in 1982. France in 1984 and Netherlands in 1988.

 

While my dad was always talking about the man called Socrates... Socrates this and that, I was the most impressed by watching videos of the so called "White Pele":

 

 

 

 

Edited March 1, 20215 yr by Gol15

Cuauhtémoc Blanco, Cuauh - Mexico, active 1992-2016(sort of)

This man invented the so called La Cuauhteminha move:

 

He is also one of the best penalty takers ever, if you could choose a player to score from the spot it would be him over anyone else!

https://barcanumbers.wordpress.com/2018/03/27/the-best-penalty-takers-of-all-time/

 

 

 

Edited March 1, 20215 yr by Gol15

6 hours ago, Gol15 said:

 

While my dad was always talking about the man called Socrates... Socrates this and that, I was the most impressed by watching videos of the so called "White Pele":

 

 

 

 

Two great players and the footage of them and the Brazilian team of 1982 is always a joy to watch.

Apart from Italy scoring the three goals to knock them out of World Cup 1982.

 

ZICO: THE GINGA MASTER WHO BECAME THE SOUL OF BRAZILIAN FOOTBALL

30/04/2019 by STEVEN SCRAGG.     
 

www.these football times.co.uk

 

 

Along the main road between Sarrià and Barcelona you’ll find a generic looking multi-storied apartment block. It is one of a number of similar looking buildings in the area, each one of which could easily pass as something you’d have seen in a 1980s holiday brochure, within the pages for resorts along the Costa Dorada.

The building itself isn’t extraordinary, but the view from the balcony used to be. Today the view is a relatively pleasant one, one which offers a glimpse of a peaceful patch of greenery, a view of an urban park, of somewhere to sit in the shade of the tree-lined avenues and read a book on a warm day. It is instead the view that it used to offer that reverberates most profoundly, however.

Up until its closure in 1997, the view on offer to the residents of the upper floors of those apartments was that of the Estadi de Sarrià, the former home of RCD Espanyol. For a seven-day stretch, a span of time that straddled the end of June and beginning of July 1982, the Estadi de Sarrià was handed over to FIFA for the purposes of hosting three games at the World Cup finals.

Group C, in the second round group stages at Spain 82, essentially turned out to be an accidental group. While Brazil, the projected winners of the first round, were fully expected to be playing games at the Estadi de Sarrià, their opponents weren’t anticipated to be fellow World Cup winners.

Italy’s inability to pick up a win during the first round of group games, coupled with Argentina slipping to a defeat to Belgium in the opening game of the tournament, meant that Brazil found no advantage in topping their own group. The Estadi de Sarrià was the unwitting recipient of a trio of heavyweight footballing nations.

In a footballing city shared with the imposing Camp Nou, the Sarrià would deliver the most remarkable and atmospheric games of the tournament, while in comparison, Poland, Belgium and the Soviet Union would rattle around in the cavernous home of FC Barcelona.

The Estadi de Sarrià created a cauldron effect, which went a long way to dictating how the games played there evolved. Brazil, Italy and Argentina may well have served up an entirely different set of games had they been played out across town at the Camp Nou. Some sporting events are inextricably linked to their surroundings: Ali-Foreman wouldn’t seem right anywhere other than in Kinshasa; Ali-Frazer, part three, wouldn’t seem right anywhere other than in Quezon City; Brazil-Italy-Argentina wouldn’t seem right anywhere other than the Estadi de Sarrià.

For Ali-Foreman-Frazer in 1974/75, the Sarrià at Spain 82 gave you Zico-Rossi-Maradona. It was supposed to be the precursor to the coronation of the new king, and the new king was meant to be Zico.

At 29, Zico was at the peak of his powers, an irresistible force. Diego Maradona, at 21, had his career ahead of him and early lessons to be learnt. Paolo Rossi, at 25, was fresh from a two-year ban for his perceived part in the Totonero scandal, which rocked Italian football in 1980. While Rossi was serving his ban, Zico was winning the Copa Libertadores, the World Club Championship and back-to-back South American Footballer of the Year awards. Spain 82 was to be the crowning glory.

The cream of Europe had courted Flamengo for Zico’s signature, but he was part of the last great generation of Brazilian footballers who didn’t automatically transfer their talents to Serie A or LaLiga as soon as they blipped onto the radar. Sometimes by choice, but also sometimes at the behest of the Brazilian military government, the nation’s finest players remained within the domestic club game, rather than seek the riches of Mediterranean Europe. The ballast of Zico’s prime at club level was played out in the Rio State Championship and the Brazilian Serie A.

Often billed as the “White Pelé”, the predominantly right-footed Zico was blessed with skill in abundance, but he was much more direct and would attack at greater sustained pace than his legendary predecessor in the yellow number 10 shirt.

While the Spain 82 and Mexico 86 vintages of the Brazil national side are widely seen as the last stands of the samba style ethos, as directed by the bold brilliance of Telê Santana, Zico was vaguely at odds with the slow build-up play that was conducted on the pitch by the late, great Sócrates.

As much as he was undoubtedly South American, Zico could easily have passed for a Southern European player in his style of on-ball exuberance. If you need a Premier League equivalent to serve as a style comparison, then you would perhaps be looking towards Gianfranco Zola. Zico was a player infused with a startling natural talent, but he was also the owner of a lack of patience at times; a lack of patience he channelled in the most positive of ways.

The laconic Socrates and the driving will of Zico were the perfect foil for one another. Orbited by the outrageously talented Falcão, Serginho, Cerezo and Éder, it was as if Santana’s Brazil were pre-ordained to be crowned world champions for the fourth time. Destiny was calling out to Brazil in 1982, in the same way destiny called out to Hungary in 1954 and Holland in 1974. As was the case in Switzerland and West Germany, however, in Spain it would be a destiny unrequited.In Spain, Zico was the baton carrier, the custodian of the hopes of a nation. Four years earlier, in Argentina, he had shared the burden, one of a number of pretenders to the throne Pelé had once sat upon. Rivellino was, at 32, leading the side as captain, while Zico battled for elbow room in the side with the likes of Zé Sérgio, Dirceu and the man who many tipped to be the new king of Brazilian football, Reinaldo.

Argentina 78 acted as a marker for what came four years later. Brazil might well have gone all the way to glory there and then under the guidance of the tragic Cláudio Coutinho. Controversy reigned, however. Against Sweden, Zico headed what looked to be a late winner, only for the notorious Clive Thomas to disallow the goal. The Welshman claimed to have blown the whistle for full-time in the seconds between the last-minute corner being taken and the ball finding the back of the Sweden net via Zico’s head.

Worse was to come when, during the second round group stages in their fierce rival’s back garden, split kick-off times for the decisive games had left Argentina knowing exactly what they had to do to pip Brazil for a place in the final. With a four-goal margin of victory required, Argentina ran up what is a still much debated and highly suspect 6-0 scoreline against Peru.

It was a greatly refined and far more focussed side by the time Brazil and Zico reached Spain. No longer hamstrung by the lingering ghosts of Mexico 70, and with a settled first choice line-up, they tore through the Soviet Union, Scotland and New Zealand, scoring ten goals in the process. This was double the amount of goals they’d managed during the first round group stages of their two previous World Cups put together. Zico netted three of them.

Brazil had finally rediscovered themselves in the wake of their unusually physical approach to the defence of their title in 1974, and the comparatively tentative nature of their re-emergence as artisans in 1978. Zico was central to it all. Then came the Estadi de Sarrià. With Argentina defeated by both Italy and Brazil, it left that legendary and pivotal game between the two to decide who would go on to reach the semi-finals. Brazil, with a goal advantage, needed just a draw.

On target yet again against Argentina, Zico’s importance and form was such that the enigmatically brutal Claudio Gentile was deployed to man-mark Brazil’s number 10. Zico simply dropped deeper in a bid to pull Gentile away from his comfort zone and create space for others to exploit.

Sócrates, Júnior and Oscar all joined in with what was at times an all-out assault on the Italian penalty area, the Azzurri springing forward on the counter-attack in response. A pattern of play provoked by Rossi opening the scoring after just five minutes. Zico provided the equaliser, however, twisting and turning Gentile before playing in Sócrates to level the game. Yet Rossi, after a sluggish start to the tournament, clicked into gear in emphatic fashion. He pounced on a defensive error from Cerezo to make it 2-1, before a moment of genius from Falcão put the game at parity once more.

Despite Brazil’s mesmerising attacking football, they contrived to spend just 24 minutes of this game on level terms and never once lead. An unnecessarily conceded corner was eventually the source of Rossi and Italy’s winning goal. Zico left the pitch at full-time with a haunted look on his face. The best team in the tournament were unable to continue towards what was supposed to be their date with destiny, undone by a combination of the lethal finishing of Rossi and their own defensive frailties.

Within a year of that game, Zico was heading for Italy. At the age of 30, Serie A finally captured a man it had coveted for almost a decade. His advancing years meant that the heavyweights of Milan, Turin and Rome shied away from the outlay required to obtain his services. AC Milan and Roma in particular had previously made serious attempts to sign him, but it was the lesser lights of Udinese who met all the demands required to clinch his signature.

Teaming up at the Stadio Friuli with his international team-mate Edinho, the man who would captain Brazil at Mexico 86, and also the legendary Franco Causio, who had been an unused substitute for Italy against Brazil at the Estadi de Sarrià, the supporters of the Friuliani fell for Zico from the very start.

Zico spent two seasons in the Udine, with only Michel Platini scoring more goals during that debut campaign of 1983/84. The switch from Flamengo was seamless, yet the successes Zico enjoyed at Udinese were all personal ones. Collective glory proved beyond even his powers of inspiration.

Regardless of major honours remaining elusive in Italy, Zico thrived in the rarefied air of Serie A. Weekly duels with the finest playmakers in world football kept supporters enraptured. In Zico they had found their answer to the likes of Platini.

Zico’s last Serie A game in front of the Udinese faithful was a fitting one. Napoli were the visitors and Zico’s farewell was to be a face-off with Maradona. It was a game which tilted one way and then the other, with the two enduring rivals pulling the strings of their respective sides. Prompting and probing, striking forth with targeted and damaging intent. A 2-2 draw was eventually played out, accompanied by a simmering row over an alleged handling of the ball by Maradona for Napoli’s late equaliser; a striking portent of controversies to come a year later at the Estadio Azteca.

In the summer of 1985 Zico returned to Flamengo, with one eye on the forthcoming World Cup and one eye on tax evasion charges in Italy. For the first time in his career, he suffered with extensive injury problems. Santana had a big decision to make about Brazil’s talisman. With pressure applied from most angles to select him, and Santana’s own sense of devotion, Zico was in the squad at the expense of other, fully fit options.

In many ways, Santana was lucky that Zico clearly wasn’t capable of starting games at Mexico 86. The concept of the manager having to remove his fading star from the front-line never visited either of them. Zico had to accept he was fit only to play cameo roles.

Having played no part during Brazil’s opening two games, he appeared from the bench against Northern Ireland and then in the last-16 win against Poland. On both occasions, the games were all but won by the time he entered the fray. The quarter-final was a different matter, however.

With the game against France poised at 1-1, Zico was introduced as a replacement for Muller. Within two minutes he had threaded through the pass that provoked the French keeper Joel Bats to bring down Branco for a penalty. Just 17 minutes remained. Both Sócrates and Careca were on the pitch, scorers of a penalty each against Poland in the previous round, yet Zico took the ball.

It was a poor penalty. Low and marginally right of centre, it could hardly have been at a better height for Bats to save. Once again, Zico was watching a strong World Cup position implode. Extra-time came and went, before the inevitable defeat by penalty shoot-out, with the added irony of Zico this time succeeding from 12 yards.

It was a bitter pill to swallow, and Santana’s vision of a modern World Cup being won by virtue of playing the samba style of the dispersing old world methods was gone forever. For both Zico and Santana, it was the end of the line with the Brazilian national side.

Three more injury-hit years at Flamengo followed before Zico retired. It would be a temporary end to his playing career, however. A return to the game in the early-1990s burgeoning outpost of Japan brought an unexpected Indian Summer. The goals flowed until a second and final retirement from playing came at the age of 41 in 1994.

Zico’s standing in the game brought a flood of coaching opportunities the world over, with the peak coming when he undertook one last World Cup adventure in charge of Japan at the 2006 finals in Germany. Preaching a short passing game, Zico’s Japan won plenty of admirers but no games, taking just one point in Germany.

Zico continues to influence captivated audiences to this day. His is a career of high individual talent, coupled with collective successes during his time with Flamengo, but offset by the frustrations of what might have been – perhaps what should have been – in the yellow shirt of Brazil. Along with Lionel Messi, Johan Cruyff and Ferenc Puskás, Zico lives alongside the greatest players to be denied a World Cup winner’s medal.

By Steven Scragg @Scraggy_74

Claudio Gentile ‘man marking’ Zico !      Photo by imago

 

Brazilian Legends on Twitter.

THE GENIUS OF GHEORGHE HAGI

 

 

Born on the 5th of February 1965 in Săcele, a tiny commune in the Constanta region in the south-east of Romania, Gheorghe Hagi, or “the Maradona of the Carpathians” as he would later be nicknamed, is widely recognised as the best footballer in Romanian history. Featuring for his country at three World Cups, playing for both Barcelona and Real Madrid and writing himself into club folklore in the orange-and-red half of Istanbul with Galatasaray, he was one of football’s leading players during the 1990s, though it was his impact on the 1980s that really makes his story worth reading.

Hagi started out with local youth team Farul Constanta where he would spend five years after joining them aged just ten. The player soon caught the eye of the Romanian Football Federation (FRF) who selected him to move to Bucharest where he would play for two years with Luceafărul Bucureşti, a team set up specifically for the elite youth players around the country to develop together. Hagi returned to Constanta, then at the age of 18 he was deemed ready to play at a higher level back in the capital, so joined Sportul Studenţesc.

Hagi scored 58 goals in 108 games during his four years at Sportul, a record good enough to attract the attention of the dominant club of the era, Steaua Bucharest. The story of his move across the capital is one that sums up the football in the country at the time.

Hagi during his early spell at Sportul Studensc

Steaua and their big rivals Dinamo Bucharest were fighting for primacy in the Romanian game. Steaua was run by the Romanian Army, while Dinamo was in tow with the Secret Police. Dinamo had been much the more prominent in Liga I during the ‘60s and ‘70s, but by 1983 that was all changing. Valentin Ceauşescu, son of Romanian dictator Nicolae, took charge of Steaua and the balance of power started to shift strongly in their favour. Steaua would win the next five league titles and add four Cupa României successes. A new world record of 116 games unbeaten would be set.

 

The Ceauşescu influence was welcomed by the Steaua fans and the army generals, but things weren’t so rosy for the rest of the clubs who had to play by a different set of rules. The most contentious issue was Steaua’s right to ‘steal’ players from other clubs around the country under the pretext that the individuals would serve their national service there. Steaua won the European Cup in 1986, beating Barcelona on penalties in Seville, but despite the fine team already in place, Nicolae Ceauşescu wanted Hagi and he signed from Sportul on a contract which would last just one game: the European Super Cup final against Dynamo Kyiv.

Hagi scored the only goal of the game in Monaco, the mini-contract was served and Hagi was due to return to Sportul. Steaua had different ideas: such was the player’s potential that they decided he would stay with them and no recompense was due to his former club because of the supposed amateur nature of the Romanian game. That situation could have been a challenging one for the then 22-year-old to deal with, but Hagi didn’t let it affect him and instead produced the best goalscoring form of his career with Steaua. He made almost 100 appearances for the club and scored 76 goals, winning the Liga I title in all of his three campaigns at the club, a further two Cupa României successes and of course the European Super Cup.

The one trophy of note that did evade him was the European Cup. Hagi did reach the final with Steaua in 1989 but finished on the losing side against Arrigo Sacchi’s AC Milan side. Standing at just five-foot-eight-inches tall and with a very slight frame, Hagi didn’t look like a player who would stand strong against the tough-tackling defenders of his era, but his performances showed that he was more than capable of holding his own.

He was fantastic at using his body to block defenders from getting to the ball, his close control was exemplary and the way he commanded the middle of the park made it extremely tough for opponents to get near him – but easy for him and his teammates to get on the ball in space and cause defences all sorts of bother.

With the performances he was producing for Steaua, it came as no surprise that Hagi began attracting attention from some of Europe’s biggest clubs, with AC Milan and Bayern Munich among his more prominent admirers at the time. No Romanian players were permitted officially to leave the country to play football (though many were defecting unofficially by this stage) meaning he had to remain with the perpetual Romanian champions.

The 1989 Revolution which saw Nicolae Ceauşescu and his wife Elena executed for “crimes against the state,” brought liberalisation and one of the benefits for footballers was the right to move to the west to continue their careers. Hagi would join Real Madrid in Spain, but before that was the small matter of the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy. Hagi’s international debut had come back in 1983 as an 18-year-old against Norway in Oslo, and his first goal for his country followed a year later against Northern Ireland. Romania failed to qualify for Mexico ‘86, but in 1990 the Tricolorii did make it to Italy and Hagi was ready to demonstrate his club form on a worldwide stage.

Unfortunately, the tournament didn’t materialise as Hagi or Romania might have hoped. Suspended for the first game, he was replaced after just 55 minutes against Cameroon in the second before eventually making an impact in game three – his clever backheel playing a part in Gavril Balint’s goal as Romania qualified for the knockout stages. There they met the Republic of Ireland who stunned them with a penalty shoot-out win to end their participation early.

Hagi spent two years at the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, although his time there didn’t go exactly to plan. Constant change with three different managers in charge during his debut season in the Spanish capital inhibited his performances. He did improve in his second season, finding the net 12 times in La Liga, but Madrid lost the league title on the last day and the Romanian admitted his desire to leave the club just halfway into his contract.

His next destination was Brescia in Serie A, a seemingly strange choice but a place with a strong Romanian influence in the shape of manager Mircea Lucescu and teammates Florin Raducioiu and Ioan Sabau. Hagi was the undoubted star and scored 14 goals in 61 appearances across two seasons there. He remained with the club despite relegation to Serie B, but his poor attitude in his second season there didn’t impress the club and he was on his way out, to Barcelona, but only after the World Cup in the USA in the summer of 1994.

Heading into the tournament his mentality was questioned by Lucescu, his coach at Brescia, saying; “Hagi could have been the best player in the world after Maradona, but he is a great player without a work ethic.” That World Cup was a coming of age for Hagi and where he made arguably his greatest impact on the football world. An audacious chip gave Romania the lead against Colombia in a 3-1 win. Scoring again in the defeat to Switzerland, Hagi was the star of the show against the hosts USA as Romania progressed to the next round.

A shock 3-2 win over Argentina came next in one of the best games in World Cup history, with Hagi scoring once and grabbing two assists. Despite Hagi’s huge influence, he couldn’t stop them from exiting in the quarter-finals to Sweden after the loss of a heart-breaking penalty shoot-out. Being named in the FIFA Team of the Tournament was scant compensation.

With the move to Barcelona, Hagi became one of a handful of players to feature for both sides of the Clásico divide, but like his time in Madrid, he struggled in Catalonia with injuries hampering his two seasons there. After departing Spain once more, Hagi ended his career with a five-year spell at Galatasaray where he had one of his most successful spells scoring 59 goals in 132 games.

Known as ‘Comandante’ (The Commander) by the Gala fans, Hagi also spent two spells as manager of the Süper Lig side and cemented his place as one of the most popular figures in the club’s history. At international level he featured in a third World Cup in France 1998 World Cup in France before announcing his retirement after the tournament, only to change his mind and return for Euro 2000. His international career ended in controversy when he was sent off in the quarter-final against Italy for two yellow cards, the first for catching Antonio Conte with his studs and the second for a dive.

Despite his tendency towards violent outburst, as shown by his red card against Italy during Euro 2000 or that famous punch on Tony Adams of Arsenal, Hagi was one of the standout players of his generation with his neat footwork, clever ability to read the game and fantastic technical expertise.

Nowadays Hagi is the owner and manager of Viitorul Constanta in his home country. He formed the club himself in 2009 and they began their journey in Liga III, Romania’s third tier, before rapidly making their way to the top flight and establishing themselves there with Hagi himself taking charge of the team in 2014. He led them to a fourth-place finish in 2015/16 with a first European qualification, earning himself the Romania Coach of the Year Award for his achievements.

The biggest success of both the club and Hagi’s managerial history came the following season when a 1-0 win over CFR Cluj secured the league title ahead of his old club Steaua. This earned Hagi his second Coach of the Year Award and keeping the success in the family was his son, Ianis, who broke into the Viitorul first team that season.

CAMPBELL FINLAYSON

www.beyondthelastman.com

 

 

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12 hours ago, Gol15 said:

 

While my dad was always talking about the man called Socrates... Socrates this and that, I was the most impressed by watching videos of the so called "White Pele":

 

 

 

 

This is great Gol. Was also thinking of a Socrates and Zico

If I had to select a moment that best summed up the inventiveness of Savicevic, that ability to conjure up something that nobody - neither the commentators, nor the viewers nor the opposition - could possibly anticipate, it may have to be this one around the 2.00 mark. 
 

 

5 hours ago, erskblue said:

THE GENIUS OF GHEORGHE HAGI

 

 

Born on the 5th of February 1965 in Săcele, a tiny commune in the Constanta region in the south-east of Romania, Gheorghe Hagi, or “the Maradona of the Carpathians” as he would later be nicknamed, is widely recognised as the best footballer in Romanian history. Featuring for his country at three World Cups, playing for both Barcelona and Real Madrid and writing himself into club folklore in the orange-and-red half of Istanbul with Galatasaray, he was one of football’s leading players during the 1990s, though it was his impact on the 1980s that really makes his story worth reading.

Hagi started out with local youth team Farul Constanta where he would spend five years after joining them aged just ten. The player soon caught the eye of the Romanian Football Federation (FRF) who selected him to move to Bucharest where he would play for two years with Luceafărul Bucureşti, a team set up specifically for the elite youth players around the country to develop together. Hagi returned to Constanta, then at the age of 18 he was deemed ready to play at a higher level back in the capital, so joined Sportul Studenţesc.

Hagi scored 58 goals in 108 games during his four years at Sportul, a record good enough to attract the attention of the dominant club of the era, Steaua Bucharest. The story of his move across the capital is one that sums up the football in the country at the time.

Hagi during his early spell at Sportul Studensc

Steaua and their big rivals Dinamo Bucharest were fighting for primacy in the Romanian game. Steaua was run by the Romanian Army, while Dinamo was in tow with the Secret Police. Dinamo had been much the more prominent in Liga I during the ‘60s and ‘70s, but by 1983 that was all changing. Valentin Ceauşescu, son of Romanian dictator Nicolae, took charge of Steaua and the balance of power started to shift strongly in their favour. Steaua would win the next five league titles and add four Cupa României successes. A new world record of 116 games unbeaten would be set.

 

The Ceauşescu influence was welcomed by the Steaua fans and the army generals, but things weren’t so rosy for the rest of the clubs who had to play by a different set of rules. The most contentious issue was Steaua’s right to ‘steal’ players from other clubs around the country under the pretext that the individuals would serve their national service there. Steaua won the European Cup in 1986, beating Barcelona on penalties in Seville, but despite the fine team already in place, Nicolae Ceauşescu wanted Hagi and he signed from Sportul on a contract which would last just one game: the European Super Cup final against Dynamo Kyiv.

Hagi scored the only goal of the game in Monaco, the mini-contract was served and Hagi was due to return to Sportul. Steaua had different ideas: such was the player’s potential that they decided he would stay with them and no recompense was due to his former club because of the supposed amateur nature of the Romanian game. That situation could have been a challenging one for the then 22-year-old to deal with, but Hagi didn’t let it affect him and instead produced the best goalscoring form of his career with Steaua. He made almost 100 appearances for the club and scored 76 goals, winning the Liga I title in all of his three campaigns at the club, a further two Cupa României successes and of course the European Super Cup.

The one trophy of note that did evade him was the European Cup. Hagi did reach the final with Steaua in 1989 but finished on the losing side against Arrigo Sacchi’s AC Milan side. Standing at just five-foot-eight-inches tall and with a very slight frame, Hagi didn’t look like a player who would stand strong against the tough-tackling defenders of his era, but his performances showed that he was more than capable of holding his own.

He was fantastic at using his body to block defenders from getting to the ball, his close control was exemplary and the way he commanded the middle of the park made it extremely tough for opponents to get near him – but easy for him and his teammates to get on the ball in space and cause defences all sorts of bother.

With the performances he was producing for Steaua, it came as no surprise that Hagi began attracting attention from some of Europe’s biggest clubs, with AC Milan and Bayern Munich among his more prominent admirers at the time. No Romanian players were permitted officially to leave the country to play football (though many were defecting unofficially by this stage) meaning he had to remain with the perpetual Romanian champions.

The 1989 Revolution which saw Nicolae Ceauşescu and his wife Elena executed for “crimes against the state,” brought liberalisation and one of the benefits for footballers was the right to move to the west to continue their careers. Hagi would join Real Madrid in Spain, but before that was the small matter of the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy. Hagi’s international debut had come back in 1983 as an 18-year-old against Norway in Oslo, and his first goal for his country followed a year later against Northern Ireland. Romania failed to qualify for Mexico ‘86, but in 1990 the Tricolorii did make it to Italy and Hagi was ready to demonstrate his club form on a worldwide stage.

Unfortunately, the tournament didn’t materialise as Hagi or Romania might have hoped. Suspended for the first game, he was replaced after just 55 minutes against Cameroon in the second before eventually making an impact in game three – his clever backheel playing a part in Gavril Balint’s goal as Romania qualified for the knockout stages. There they met the Republic of Ireland who stunned them with a penalty shoot-out win to end their participation early.

Hagi spent two years at the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, although his time there didn’t go exactly to plan. Constant change with three different managers in charge during his debut season in the Spanish capital inhibited his performances. He did improve in his second season, finding the net 12 times in La Liga, but Madrid lost the league title on the last day and the Romanian admitted his desire to leave the club just halfway into his contract.

His next destination was Brescia in Serie A, a seemingly strange choice but a place with a strong Romanian influence in the shape of manager Mircea Lucescu and teammates Florin Raducioiu and Ioan Sabau. Hagi was the undoubted star and scored 14 goals in 61 appearances across two seasons there. He remained with the club despite relegation to Serie B, but his poor attitude in his second season there didn’t impress the club and he was on his way out, to Barcelona, but only after the World Cup in the USA in the summer of 1994.

Heading into the tournament his mentality was questioned by Lucescu, his coach at Brescia, saying; “Hagi could have been the best player in the world after Maradona, but he is a great player without a work ethic.” That World Cup was a coming of age for Hagi and where he made arguably his greatest impact on the football world. An audacious chip gave Romania the lead against Colombia in a 3-1 win. Scoring again in the defeat to Switzerland, Hagi was the star of the show against the hosts USA as Romania progressed to the next round.

A shock 3-2 win over Argentina came next in one of the best games in World Cup history, with Hagi scoring once and grabbing two assists. Despite Hagi’s huge influence, he couldn’t stop them from exiting in the quarter-finals to Sweden after the loss of a heart-breaking penalty shoot-out. Being named in the FIFA Team of the Tournament was scant compensation.

With the move to Barcelona, Hagi became one of a handful of players to feature for both sides of the Clásico divide, but like his time in Madrid, he struggled in Catalonia with injuries hampering his two seasons there. After departing Spain once more, Hagi ended his career with a five-year spell at Galatasaray where he had one of his most successful spells scoring 59 goals in 132 games.

Known as ‘Comandante’ (The Commander) by the Gala fans, Hagi also spent two spells as manager of the Süper Lig side and cemented his place as one of the most popular figures in the club’s history. At international level he featured in a third World Cup in France 1998 World Cup in France before announcing his retirement after the tournament, only to change his mind and return for Euro 2000. His international career ended in controversy when he was sent off in the quarter-final against Italy for two yellow cards, the first for catching Antonio Conte with his studs and the second for a dive.

Despite his tendency towards violent outburst, as shown by his red card against Italy during Euro 2000 or that famous punch on Tony Adams of Arsenal, Hagi was one of the standout players of his generation with his neat footwork, clever ability to read the game and fantastic technical expertise.

Nowadays Hagi is the owner and manager of Viitorul Constanta in his home country. He formed the club himself in 2009 and they began their journey in Liga III, Romania’s third tier, before rapidly making their way to the top flight and establishing themselves there with Hagi himself taking charge of the team in 2014. He led them to a fourth-place finish in 2015/16 with a first European qualification, earning himself the Romania Coach of the Year Award for his achievements.

The biggest success of both the club and Hagi’s managerial history came the following season when a 1-0 win over CFR Cluj secured the league title ahead of his old club Steaua. This earned Hagi his second Coach of the Year Award and keeping the success in the family was his son, Ianis, who broke into the Viitorul first team that season.

CAMPBELL FINLAYSON

www.beyondthelastman.com

 

 

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Absolute legend and another  player with that ability to conjure up the unexpected. In the 1994 World Cup, while it was Bulgaria that made history by beating Germany and getting to the semis, Romania was the better and much more exciting team - and let’s not forget it included one of our very own legends. Super Dan! The two best games from that tournament involved Romania - 1. Their dismantling of Colombia, Pele’s pick for the tournament; 2. Romania - Argentina in the second round. Hagi’s dummy at the half way line before setting up the first goal was just sublime. 
 

 

Hey @Dean I found a player that I forgot about that you might like. One of the Brazilians I posted here was Juninho, one of the best free kick takers ever, well during the search for a video about free kicks and stuff I found the current manager of a Serie A team, Bologna - Sinisa Mihajlovic.

1986-2006 from Yugoslavia(Serbia).

One of the best free kick takers of all time. Funny how I already posted a few other specialists from a free kick or penalty...

This guy was tough, he started off as a WB but later on became something like a CB or LB, he has scored a hattrick from free kicks only during the 90's in Serie A, at the time when they had insane keepers.

Here is a video from 3-4 years ago, at the time he's almost 50 years old:

 

Here is a goal he scored against us, obviously from a free kick from a crazy angle back in 1999/00:

 

Hattrick from free kicks:

 

And some other compilation:

 

 

Sven Göran Eriksson has him in his best ever 11:

 

Edited March 3, 20215 yr by Gol15

 

JAN CEULEMANS AND THE ROUTE TO BELGIUM’S GREATEST

24/08/2017 by STEVEN SCRAGG.  www.thesefootballtimes.co.uk  

 

Tall and rangy, socks rolled down, and with a hypnotic control of the ball that seemed at odds with his physicality, Jan Ceulemans was a footballing conundrum that many defences found impossible to work out. Named by Pelé in his list of the 125 greatest living footballers, Ceulemans remains Belgium’s most capped player with 96 appearances, half of those as captain. 

The year was 1980. AC Milan had just been relegated from Serie A due to their part in the Totonero scandal, while Ceulemans had starred for the Belgian national side, who had reached the final of the European Championships at the expense of the hosts, Italy, that summer. Milan were looking for a morale-boosting signing, and they had identified Ceulemans as their number one target. 

Ceulemans, however, tended to take his big career decisions the same way as he approached a goalkeeper. His hips would go in one direction, convincing his opponent of his intentions, but instead, almost like a slaloming skier, he would use his knees to devastating effect, propelling himself in the opposite direction. In the summer of 1980, AC Milan were left sat on the turf, wondering just what had occurred before their very eyes. Ceulemans went to AC Milan, agreed terms in principal, posed for photos with the Rossoneri hierarchy, then promptly went back to Belgium and changed his mind on the transfer.

Ceulemans had been here before. Three years earlier, he was presented with the chance to leave his hometown club, Lierse S.K, for either of the two Belgian powerhouses, Anderlecht or Club Brugge, who were locked in a heated battle for his signature. 

Favouring the feeling he got on his visit to Brugge, he committed himself to the 1977 double winners, ahead of the opportunity to team up at Anderlecht with the electric Rob Rensenbrink. The one condition that Ceulemans attached to the deal was that he would be allowed one last season on-loan with Lierse. Brugge, in their eagerness to beat Anderlecht to the punch, reluctantly agreed. Just what difference Ceulemans would have made to the Brugge 1978 European Cup campaign was forever lost, as they reached the final, where they were defeated at Wembley by Bob Paisley’s Liverpool.

Ceulemans spent a remarkable 13-years in Bruges, winning three league titles and two domestic cups. There was a defined split to the successes he achieved with them, as the club was in the ascendancy during the beginning and end of the 1980s, rises which were separated by a lull in their fortunes, which had included a flirtation with relegation. 

Despite the domestic successes, European glory remained elusive. A run to the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup came in 1988, where 10-man Brugge were defeated by Espanyol in heartbreaking fashion when the Catalan club scored the winning goal in the 119th minute. Ceulemans, effusive during the first leg, was missing for the second leg. It was as close as he got to a major European final. 

Happy within his surroundings, Ceulemans signed a seven-year contract. Interest from Serie A drifted his way once more, as Lazio made tentative enquiries about his availability. At the time, it didn’t matter to him, and only now, in retrospect, does he lament not having taken the opportunities offered to him, to test his undoubted skills on the biggest club stage in Europe. 

It was instead on the international stage with Belgium that he displayed his talents to the world. Beyond Euro 80, he went to three successive World Cups, captaining them during their run to the semi-finals of Mexico 86 and encountering none of the divisive issues that other nations did when squads were assembled that contained multiple and defined club power bases. 

Ceulemans was at ease playing alongside Belgium’s powerful Anderlecht contingent of Enzo Scifo, Erwin Vandenbergh, Rene Vandereycken and Franky Vercauteren. His laid-back personality made that possible, and that it was a Spanish side driven by club factions that Belgium defeated in the quarter-finals is quite telling when assessing the comparative harmony in the Belgian camp. 

At the age of 33, Ceulemans had one last roll of the international dice. At Italia 90, he climbed from the bench in their opening game to energise his nation against South Korea. Keeping his place in the side for each game beyond, Ceulemans hit the post against England in Bologna, when they were beaten, despite being the better team. 

In an era when Belgium are once again on the up, the one thing they lack is a natural heir to Jan Ceulemans, the nation’s most silky, audacious and consistent midfielder in history 

Writer  |  Steven Scragg  

 

Jan CEULEMANS 

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GÜNTER NETZER: THE REBELLIOUS LONER WHO BECAME A HERO

07/08/2015 by CONOR KELLY www.thesefootballtimes.co.uk

   

It was a warm summers day in Düsseldorf on June 23, 1973. The DFB-Pokal final had entered extra time as old adversaries Borussia Mönchengladbach and FC Köln refused to be separated. Gladbach supporters bellowed the name “Netzer, Netzer, Netzer!” and the television commentators seemingly only mentioned him. Gladbach players looked around for their star man to guide them to victory, but Günter Netzer wasn’t there.

Instead, Netzer was sat upright on the substitutes bench, his right hand clasped to his chin pensively. Manager Hennes Weisweiler decided to leave Gladbach’s totem out of the starting line-up for one of the club’s biggest ever matches, a decision which shocked fans and confused pundits. They would discover that only a few days early Netzer informed Weisweiler that he was signing for Real Madrid. Coupled with the death of his mother in the build=up to the final, Weisweiler felt Netzer wasn’t in the right frame of mind to play.

At half-time, with the game level at 1-1, Weisweiler approached Netzer and asked him if he wanted to go on. Netzer refused and responded dejectedly, “they don’t need me”. So Netzer remained on the sidelines, brooding and sullen. On the stroke of full time, as both sides were preparing for extra time, Gladbach’s Christian Kulik collapsed with cramp and could not continue. Netzer strolled over to Weisweiler and muttered “Ich spiel dann jetzt” (I’ll go and play now).

Netzer removed his tracksuit top and went onto the pitch of his own accord as Weisweiler watched on. Three minutes into the extra period, Netzer received the ball for the first time. With his back to play, the German sharply turned to his left and paced forward with the leather attached to his right foot. He passed into the feet of Rainer Bonhof and sprinted towards the edge of the box. Bonhof threaded it back between two Köln defenders into Netzer’s path. Gladbach’s number 12 connected perfectly with his left foot and rifled a shot towards the top corner.

Köln keeper Gerhard Welz was rooted to his spot, statuesque as Netzer’s drive whizzed past him like a comet into the roof of the net. Gladbach were 2-1 in front and would keep that lead intact to secure their second German Cup. He leapt in the air in jubilation and was quickly engulfed by team-mates at the final whistle, as the commentator shouted “Günter Netzer – superstar!” Netzer’s parting gift to his hometown club was Roy of the Rovers like, the dream ending for a footballer who regularly transcribed his own narrative.

Günter Netzer was born and raised in the city of Mönchengladbach, west of the Rhine. Contrary to popular belief, his initial foray into football was with the lesser-known 1. FC Mönchengladbach, whom he played for until the age of 19. Transferring to Borussia Mönchengladbach in 1963, Netzer honed his skills as an effervescent attacking midfielder in a youthful team that achieved promotion to the Bundesliga in 1965.

The late-1960s transitioning towards the early-1970s was an extraordinary time of change and exploration throughout the globe. Television converted from black and white to colour. Music doubled up as an expression of artistic and political endeavour. The bands of the 60s LSD-fuelled era The Beatles and The Rolling Stones stepped aside for the anarchic attitude of The Clash and The Sex Pistols, who captured the imagination of a disaffected youth.

Broad shouldered and handsome, armed with a flowing, blonde mane, Netzer neatly fitted with that caricature. An individualistic rebel, who marched to his own tune, he had a domineering aura. Netzer was single-minded, opinionated and brash – a rock star. He excited and thrilled football viewers with his confidence and phenomenal free-kicks, but there was more to Netzer beneath the veneer of brilliance.

As a footballer, Netzer possessed an extraordinary repertoire of passing. Short, long and medium range made no odds. A YouTube compilation showcases Netzer’s unique ability to manoeuvre, manipulate and shape a pass in whatever direction he so desired. There is footage of him whipping pinpoint crosses onto forwards’ heads on the run, arrowing 50-yard cross-field diagonals and splitting defences like a knife dissecting a watermelon with threaded through-balls from deep into the feet of strikers.

In the early 1970s, Gladbach were embroiled in a tit for tat rivalry with the giants of German football Bayern Munich. Between 1969 and 1977, the two dominated the Bundesliga, with Gladbach claiming five titles to Bayern’s four. Bayern also won three successive European Cups, but domestically they were inseparable. They traded championships and created a duopoly not witnessed again in Germany until Jürgen Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund briefly challenged the Bavarians.

It was depicted as good versus evil, the demonic FC Hollywood against the loveable Foals, a nickname bestowed upon Gladbach due to the youthful profile of their squad. It was Netzer, Vogts and Heynckes versus Beckenbauer, Müller, Hoeness and Breitner. Uncertainty surrounds exactly where the disdain for Bayern initiated. A few accounts detail Bayern’s growing awareness of the technological advances in sport, coupled with the love of winning and money, as reasons for cynicism. Gladbach, by contrast, were perceived as innocent entertainers.

In his stunning historical book of German football Tor, Uli Hesse challenged the myth: “The problem with all this transfigured romanticism is that the naked facts don’t bear it out. The ‘pragmatists’ from Munich actually scored more goals than the ‘reformers’ from the Rhineland. They also conceded more, which means that over these nine seasons, attending a Bayern game was the safer bet if you wanted to see goals.”

Easier to decipher was the disparity in popularity between the two star players of both clubs. Everything came naturally to Franz Beckenbauer, blessed with supreme talent and instinctive genius. As Hesse pointed out, though, his nickname, Der Kaiser, suggested “aloofness” and “conservatism”. Netzer was the total antithesis of Beckenbauer. His first biography was titled Rebel am Ball (Rebel on the Ball), but his middle-class background belies any such tales. Still, his playing style endeared him to the masses.

The clash in personalities extended to the international arena. While there was never any palpable animosity between Netzer and Beckenbauer, there was reluctance on the part of West German coach Helmut Schön to play them together, despite the positional differences. Schön simply preferred Köln’s Wolfgang Overath to the Gladbach player.

Netzer played a vital part in his country’s European Championship win on English soil, but he only finished with a paltry 37 caps. In the 1974 World Cup, Netzer played just 20 minutes, and they came in the most infamous of West German defeats, a 1-0 reversal to their East German counterparts. Still, Netzer has two international medals to show for his troubles.

He wasn’t even named as one of their five substitutes for the 1974 World Cup Final v The Netherlands.

Netters’ move to Real Madrid was a political one, as Los Blancos signed him alongside his old adversary Paul Breitner to counteract Barcelona’s purchase of Johan Cruyff (a trend that still continues in the second decade of the 21st century). He added two Copa Del Rey’s and a La Liga title to his collection during three years in the Spanish capital. Netzer’s time at the Bernabeu wasn’t as ordinary as it would later be suggested, but he would never be able to hold a candle to the legacy of Cruyff in Catalonia.

Netzer has developed into a mythical figure as the years have passed. In his post-football career, he became a well-respected television pundit, still clad with his distinctive long hair and sharply dressed. As a player, he is remembered for his marauding, carefree intent, but that shouldn’t discard Netzer’s desire to win. “There are 11 businessmen on a pitch,” Netzer said, “each looking after his own interests.” That was why Netzer was so special; the perfect blend of individualism, talent, expression and a cold-blooded thirst for victory.

By Conor Kelly. Follow @ConorPacKelly

Germany coach Helmut Shon and Gunter Netzer talk strategy. 

Image credit: Getty Images.

Edited March 6, 20215 yr by erskblue

Günter Netzer of Real Madrid.UEFA Cup match v Ipswich at Portman Road. Sept 1973 .

Photo by Tomikoshi Photography.

 

Günter Netzer playing in 1972/73,his last season for Borussia Mönchengladbach. Before moving to Real Madrid.

Günter Netzer. Real Madrid 5-1 Derby.County. 1975-76 European Cup 2nd Rd 2nd Leg. The Bernabéu 5th Nov 1975.

Photo TOMIKOSHI PHOTOGRAPHY.

Gunter Netzer ‘Der Rebel’. Skills and Goals.

On 03/03/2021 at 14:41, Gol15 said:

Hey @Dean I found a player that I forgot about that you might like. One of the Brazilians I posted here was Juninho, one of the best free kick takers ever, well during the search for a video about free kicks and stuff I found the current manager of a Serie A team, Bologna - Sinisa Mihajlovic.

1986-2006 from Yugoslavia(Serbia).

One of the best free kick takers of all time. Funny how I already posted a few other specialists from a free kick or penalty...

This guy was tough, he started off as a WB but later on became something like a CB or LB, he has scored a hattrick from free kicks only during the 90's in Serie A, at the time when they had insane keepers.

 

This the same prick that in 03-04 when we pumped Lazio 4-0 in their own ground spent the whole game hacking our players before getting sent off for spitting on one of them? (Damian Duff I think it was?) If it is him... total prick. Good free kick on him though.

On 14/02/2021 at 18:39, erskblue said:

 

Remember The Name: Hernan Crespo | As Clinical A Striker As Anyone

Published

July 24, 2014

---

Hernan Crespon has had an illustrious career filled with trophies and personal accolades. Liam Bekker takes a look back at the Argentine striker.

Hernan Crespo’s love affair with football began blossoming in 1993 when he took to the field for the first time for local club River Plate as an exciting 18 year old. The Argentine strikerspent three years at River, winning the Golden Boot award in 1994 and helping them to a famous Copa Libertadores title – a tie in which he scored twice to lead his club to victory – in his final season.

http://outsideoftheboot.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Crespon-Remember-the-Name.png

Crespo’s stellar performances saw him depart from his homeland later that year when a Parma side jam-packed with superstars came calling for his signature. Things couldn’t have started off worse for Crespo as he failed to score a single goal in his first six months at the club but Carlo Ancelotti’s insistence on playing him paid dividends as the classy Argentine ended up scoring twelve goals by the end of the season, in the process helping Parma to second place in the League.

That first season laid the foundation for something special as Valandito transformed himself from being a promising youngster into one of the world’s best strikers in the years that followed. With pace, power and a precise finish like few others, Crespo announced himself to the world as one of the most complete forwards around and in doing so led Parma to UEFA Cup, Coppa Italia and Italian Super Cup titles in his four seasons at the club.

DID YOU KNOW | Hernan Crespo was the first ever player to score in both the Copa Libertadores final and the Champions League final.

His goal scoring prowess placed him firmly in the hearts of the Parma faithful who had become accustomed to seeing the flowing locks and outstretched arms of Crespo streaking towards the corner flag in celebration of yet another goal. In fact, Crespo hit the back of the net on 62 occasions in Serie A for Parma at a rate of more than a goal every second game. His journey at the club had been a fairytale of sorts with the Argentine overcoming his early goal scoring hardships and the wrath of the fans before going on to become the pride and joy of not just the club, but the entire city of Parma. Joy would turn to mourning soon enough though as Crespo departed the club (for the time being at least) in the year 2000 when Lazio broke the bank, and the then world record, by paying an estimated £35 million for the prolific striker.

It was at Lazio that Crespo would hit his best goal scoring form, netting an incredible 39 goals in just 55 league games for the club – a haul which included a Golden Boot winning tally of 26 goals in his first season in Rome. His tenure at the club though, which included another Super Coppa title, ended prematurely as Lazio’s intense financial troubles forced their hand into selling Crespo to Serie A rivals Internazionale in 2002. Crespo continued his fine goal scoring form in Milan, especially in the Champions League where he scored 9 times but his single season at Inter was riddled with injuries – a plight that had begun leaving its mark on the striker at Lazio already and one which would plague him up until his final kick of the ball.

DID YOU KNOW | Hernan Crespo was the first ever player to score goals with five different teams in the Champions League

Despite this though, a money rich Chelsea still regarded Crespo as being one of the deadliest strikers in world football and snapped him up in 2003. His first season in London was solid yet unspectacular with a goal scoring return of 10 league goals in 19 appearances. The arrival of one Jose Mourinho at Stamford Bridge, however, would throw a spanner in the works for Crespo at Chelsea as the ‘Special One’ regarded the Argentine striker as being surplus to his needs and loaned him back to Italy, this time in the colours of AC Milan.

Crespo’s return to the city of Milan saw him re-join coach Carlo Ancelotti and partner Andriy Shevchenko up front in an impressive AC Milan side that boasted the likes of Kaka, Andrea Pirlo and Gennaro Gattuso, amongst others. Having reached double figures in the league and his incredible brace-scoring performance in the famous 2005 Istanbul Champions League final saw Crespo become a fan favourite and proved that he was still at the top of his game, despite Mourinho’s lack of faith in the Argentine.

He would, however, return to the field for Chelsea in the 05-06 season where he added another ten Premier League goals to his name. Crespo scored an impressive 26 goals in all competitions that season but it was a uniquely special one for him as he collected his first ever league title with Chelsea beating Manchester United to the crown.

DID YOU KNOW 

Hernan Crespo never received a single red card in his 19 year long career.

His relationship with Mourinho soured further soon after, and this, coupled with his more-than-apparent longing to return to Italy saw him re-join Inter on loan in August 2006. Crespo’s loan at Inter spell would last two seasons and earned him two Scudetto titles. Inter signed him permanently the next season following the expiration of his contract at Chelsea but at this stage, age and injuries had begun to catch up with Crespo and the subsequent arrival of none other than Jose Mourinho at the club meant that game time became something of a rarity – the Argentine was even excluded from the club’s Champions League campaign. Despite this, Crespo still made a valuable contribution in front of goal and was rewarded with his third Scudetto in three seasons.

Having only signed a one-year deal, Crespo was free to leave Inter the following season and took the opportunity to join fellow Italian side Genoa. He spent less than a year at the club before making a dramatic return to his much loved Parma where he would see out his footballing days. Throughout his career, Crespo had become something of a journeyman but it was at Parma that he had planted his roots and it was at Parma that he would say his final farewell. It was the perfect setting for him to bring an end to a glittering career and it was the perfect ending to his Parmesan fairy-tale.

On top of all his successes at club level, Hernan Crespo made a valuable and lasting contribution to the Argentinian national side. He made his debut for the national team in 1995 but struggled to solidify his spot thereafter as Gabriel Batistuta had made the striker position his own. Batistuta retired after the 2002 World Cup which opened the door for Crespo to make a name for himself, an opportunity he took with both feet as he went on a goal scoring spree for Argentina. He was the top goal scorer in the 2006 World Cup qualifiers and followed this up by sharing the Silver Boot award at the World Cup itself. All in all, Crespo scored 35 goals in just 64 appearances for Argentina and by the time he retired, he was the country’s 3^rd  highest all-time top goal scorer.

When Hernan Crespo arrived in Italy he arrived with the words fare non parlare – don’t talk, do. It is this attitude that will see him go down in history as being one of the finest strikers of his generation. His horizontal runs behind the defence and his clinical finishing made him a nightmare to face and a joy to watch. He left his mark across the globe but his biggest influence came in Italy where he is still regarded as being of the leagues deadliest ever strikers. As mentioned before, he is most missed by those in Parma where in just four seasons he became the clubs all-time top goal scorer. His goal scoring exploits coupled with his dedication and desire to prove himself to the I Gialloblù faithful never went unnoticed and in 2013 Crespo was named as Parma’s greatest ever player. A tribute befitting a true legend of the game.

Put simply what a striker he was!

Anderson Luís De Souza - Deco (Portugal)

O Mágico Deco

Born in Brazil but later on became a Portuguese and played for Portugal. Complete central midfielder, unnoticed by many due to the fact that while he was in Barcelona there were others who were showman while he was quietly doing his job at the top level both when in defensive tasks and in offense.

 

Good story about him:

 

 

 

Edited March 9, 20215 yr by Gol15