Trivia and Facts-Part 16

1-Holland’s Dirk Nanninga pulled out of an International call-up for a match vs. West Germany on December 20, 1978 (won 3-1 by W. Germany), because of pressure of Christmas work in his wife’s flower shop.

Photo from : France Football, May 23, 1978, Numero 1676

(Dirk nanninga before a Friendly match with Holland vs. Paris St. Germain)

2- West Germany played a European Championship qualifier in Stutgart vs. Bulgaria on November 19, 1975 that they won 1-0.

Real Madrid pair of Gunther Netzer and Paul Breitner were omitted from this match.

They jointly declared that they would never play for West Germany again due to their omission from this match.

West German Manager Helmut Schoen claimed he had received a letter from Real Madrid informing him that Breitner was injured, as a result he decided not to call up either one.

Eventually Breitner was made a comeback six years later in 1981 for Schoen’s successor Juup Derwall.

(Real Madrid squad photo from 1974/75, Standing from left to right: Camacho, Benito, Miguel Angel, Del Bosque, Rubinan, Breitner, Seating, from left to right, Aguilar, Santillana, Roberto Martinez, Netzer, Velazquez)

3- When Ronaldo arrived at Internazionale FC Milano in the summer of 1997, his personalized jersey number was not the customary number 9, it was number 10.

The number 9 jersey belonged to Chilean striker Ivan Zamorano from the previous season.

The following season with new kit sponsors Nike (also Ronaldo’s) on board, the number 9 jersey was made available to Ronaldo.

However, Zamorano had the idea of having the number 18 jersey and intead adding a small ‘+’ sign between the 1 and 8, so that 1+8=9.

Photo from:Onze-Mondial, January 2000

(Ivan Zamorano and Alessandro Nesta, June 11, 1998, World Cup, Italy 2-Chile 2)

Photo from : Calcio 2000, February 2001

(Ronaldo with the 1997 Ballon d’Or trophy as an Inter player)

4- During the 1986/87 season, Internazionale FC Milano’s Argentinean defender, Daniel Passarella, struck a ball boy during a league match.

Inter were losing the match and Passarella felt the boy was deliberately wasting time in giving him the ball for a throw-in.

He later apologized to the boy and his father.

Photo from: Onze, November 1982

(Daniel Passarella, June 29, 1982, World Cup, Italy 2-Argentina 1)

5- During the Mundialito tournament in Uruguay (January 1981), one night West German players : Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Manfred Kaltz, Hansi Muller and Hans-Peter Briegel left the team hotel to go out on the town and broke curfew.

They were discovered and reprimanded by Manager Juup Derwall the following day.

It was also alleged by Hotel sources that in between the two matches, the German players went through 1200 bottles of beer.

Photo from: Onze, Hors Serie 12

(West German squad, January 1, 1981, Mundialito, Argentina 2-West Germany 1)