Soccer Nostalgia: dean saunders

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Sunday, September 18, 2016

The Best Players to never appear in a World Cup, Part Six

1- Dean Saunders

Like his contemporaries, Mark Hughes and Ian Rush, Welsh striker Dean Saunders represented his Nation (80s-90s) at a time when they were unable or unlucky to qualify for the Finals of any Tournament.

Photo From: France Football, Issue 2366 , August 13, 1991

(Dean Saunders at Liverpool, 1991/92)

2- Gioavne Elber

1990s Brazilian forward Giovane Elber’s only made sporadic appearances for Brazil despite going to Europe at a young age and especially impressing in the Bundesliga with Stuttgart and Bayern Munich. His best opportunity would have been the 1998 World Cup, but with Ronaldo and others ahead of him, he was overlooked.

Photo From: Onze-Mondial, Issue 122, March 1999

(Giovane Elber at Bayern Munich)

3- Humberto Coelho

Long serving Benfica (late 60s-early 80s, two years with Paris St. Germain in between) defender Humberto Coelho like many of his Portuguese contemporaries missed as much as Four World Cups as Portugal were unable to qualify for any of them

Photo From: Onze, Issue 89, May 1983

(Humberto Coelho at Benfica)

4- Jocelyn Angloma

French Defender Jocelyn Angloma’s best chance to appear in a World Cup would have been the 1994 World Cup. Unfortunately for him, the French were eliminated by Bulgaria in their Final Qualifier on November 17, 1993 (France 1-Bulgaria 2).

Photo From: Onze-Mondial, Issue 144, January 2001

(Jocelyn Angloma at Valencia)

5- Duncan Edwards

21 year old Duncan Edwards would surely have appeared in the 1958 World Cup and perhaps many more had he not perished with many of his Manchester United Teammates at Munich on February 21, 1958.

Photo From: England, Player By Player, Author: Graham Betts

(Duncan Edwards)

Saturday, May 14, 2016

Trivia and Facts-Part 43

1-For the 1958 World Cup, the Brazilian National Team had a psychologist as part of its staff.

As part of his analysis, Dr. Joao Carvalhaes had asked each player to draw a human figure. Based upon the results of this test, he would recommend which players should be selected and which position would be more suitable (for example, for poor drawings, the given player should be confined to the wings).

Pele and Garrincha’s drawings were so poor and rudimentary that he recommended that they should not play at all.

Thankfully, Brazil’s Management ignored his recommendation.

Photo From: L’Annee du Football, 1983

(Pele and Garrincha)

2- Well-known English Businessman Robert Maxwell had resigned as Chairman of Oxford United in 1987. He was to become Chairman of Derby County.

His son Kevin Maxwell took over as Oxford United Chairman.

Early in the 1988/89 a very controversial transfer occurred. Kevin Maxwelll sold Oxford’s Welsh International Dean Saunders to his father’s club Derby County. The controversy surrounded the conflict of interest (even though the teams were in different divisions), as well as the cost associated with this in mind. Oxford United Manager Mark Lawrenson resigned after a dispute with his Chairman over this move.

Photo From: Shoot, November 19, 1988

(Dean Saunders at Derby County)

3- When French midfielder Ibrahima Ba joined AC Milan in the summer of 1997, AC Milan started manufacturing his personalized jersey with the name Ba in the back. However, Ba requested that the name at the back to be ‘Ibou’ (his nickname).

As a result thouands of already manufactured jerseys had to destroyed.

Photo From: World Soccer, October 1997

(Ibrahima Ba at AC Milan, 1997/98)

4-On June 8, 1947, France and Switzerland played a friendly in Lausanne (2-1 France win).

In the 53^rd minute, Swiss Manager Karl Rappan replaced the injured Rudolf Gyger by Rene Maillard.

A substitution, even in a friendly, was against FIFA rules of the time.

English referee George Reader stopped the match and asked France Manager Gaston Barreau if he would accept it.

As a sign of Sportsmanship, Barreau accepted despite the objections of his captain Oscar Heisserer.

Photo From: L’Equipe, L’Equipe de France de Football, la Belle Histoire

(Erwin Ballabio kicking the ball out of net after Jean Baratte had scored France’s second goal, Juen 8, 1947, Switzerland 1-France 2)

5-The day after the 1994 World Cup Final, Brazil goalkeeper Claudio Taffarel took a taxi from the Anaheim Marriott on route to Brazil’s team hotel in Fullerton, California.

When he reached his destination, he realized that the had left behind in the taxi, $60,000 in cash, passports and even his World Cup winners medal.

The taxi driver, Juan Santo Blanco, returned the missing items to Taffarel, who in turn rewarded him $1,000 cash, souvenir tie clips and a Brazil team sweatshirt.