Trivia and Facts-Part 21

1-At the end of 1990/91 season, Internazionale Coach Giovanni Trappatoni wanted to rejoin his former club Juventus after 5 years away managing Inter.

Inter President Ernesto Pellegrini also felt the time was right for a change and did not object, even though Trappatoni was still under contract.

He approached then Benfica Manager, the Swede, Sven –Goran Eriksson as replacement.

Benfica were willing, however, they demanded payment since Eriksson was also under contract.

Therefore, Pellegrini used the same tactic on Juventus. First he demanded Luigi De Agostini as compensation, which Juventus categorically refused.

So he demanded the loan for one season of the recently acquired Dino Baggio, in addition to a joint purchase of another player in the future.

Photo from : Onze-Mondial, January 1992

(Dino Baggio during his one season loan at Inter, 1991/92)

Photo from : Guerin Sportivo, June 17-23, 1987

(Luigi De Agostini upon joining Juventus in summer of 1987 from Verona)

Photo from : Guerin Sportivo, April 26-May 2, 1989

(Giovanni Trappatoni)

2- French defender Lilian Thuram who joined Juventus in 2001, was initially approached by them in 1996, while at AS Monaco.

He was offended when he was given a deadline to join them and told that “the Thuram option” would not exist beyond the deadline.

As a result he refused and joined rivals Parma instead.

He did eventually join Juventus in 2001 for a very large fee.

Photo From: L'Equipe Magazine, July 8, 2000  , Issue 949

(Lilian Thuram, June 28, 2000, European Championships, France 2-Portugal 1)

3- In the early 1990s, Englishman Paul Gascoigne was praised for being a technically gifted player, especially rare for a British player.

Comparisons were frequently made with Maradona, mostly when he joined Serie A’s Lazio in 1992.

Andrea Carnevalle, a former Napoli teammate of Maradona, who was now playing for city rivals AS Roma, complained that he was sick and tired of people comparing Gascoigne to Maradona.

According to Carnevalle, Gazza was not worth Maradona’s boot.

Photo from : Guerin Sportivo, September 24-30, 1986

(Andrea Carnevalle, September 17, 1986, UEFA Cup, Napoli 1-Toulouse 0)

(Paul Gascoigne, 1991 FA Cup Semi Finals, April 14, 1991, Tottenham 3-Arsenal 1)

4- For the ill-fated Champions Cup Final of 1985, Juventus had requested to wear their away strips of yellow instead of the customary black and white stripes.

The reason was because they were superstitious, since for their two previous losing finals in 1973 (vs. Ajax) and 1983 (vs. SV Hamburg), they had worn their usual black and white colors.

For their victories in the UEFA Cup in 1977 (vs., Athletic Bilbao) and Cup Winners Cup in 1984 (vs. Porto), they had worn their away strips of Blue (1977) and yellow (1984).

Incidentally, for that match Liverpool debuted for the first time their new Adidas strip, after so many years with Umbro.

Photo from : Mondial, June 1985

(Platini and John Wark, May 29, 1985, Champions Cup, Juventus 1-Liverpool 0)

5- During the summer of 1988, Controversial Atletico Madrid President Jesus Gil dismissed three players for bizarre reasons.

He fired his Captain Jesus Arteche for smoking too much and spending a lot of time in his shoe selling business.

Quique Ramos was fired for insubordination.

Quique Setien was fired for being single. Jesus Gil said that Setien needed to get married to have a wife to settle him down and organize his life.

Gil eventually took back Arteche, though he was stripped of the captaincy.

Photo from : Don Balon, November 15-21, 1994

(Jesus Gil)