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Argentina World Cup 1958
Julinho was one of the greatest right wing ever lived, but people tended to forget about him. Perhaps, he played for Brazil in the WC in 1954. He was Brazil's best player at the tournament. Sandwiched between the ill-fated 1950 WC Finals and the WC-winning Finals in 1958, the WC Finals in 1954 was not a big topic in Brazil. Brazil's participation at the 1954 World Cup Finals was probably remembered for the game they lost to Hungary. Three players were sent off during the game and players continued to fight in the locker rooms afterward. The game infamously became known as the Battle of Berne, a game that Brazilian fans wanted to forget.
Julinho started his career with Clube Atlético Juventus, but he never made it there. He moved to Portuguesa half a season later. He made his debut against Flamengo at the Maracana, on February 18, 1950. Because of the tragic World Cup Finals in 1950, Brazil rebuilt their national team. They did not play a international match for nearly two years. On November, 1951, against Corinthians he scored 4 goals. His performance earned him place on the new national team. He made his national debut 6 months later when Brazil returned to the international scene and beat Mexico 2-0. Julinho made his Brazil's debut.
After he made his name at the World Cup Finals, he moved to Fiorentina in 1955. In his first season, Fiorentina won the scudetti, and then, reched the European Cup Final the following season. He woud become one of Fiorentina's greatest players in history.
In 1950's, most South American national teams did not select their foreign-based players. However, Brazil asked Julinho to return to the national team for the WC Finals in 1958. They even suggested that he would meet them in Europe after they arrived for the WC Finals. However, Julinho did not want to take a spot of a regular player who fought the World Cup Qualifiers and the buildup. He turned it down. If he had taken the spot, Brazil would have dropped Garrincha, who was the backup right wing leading up to the WC Finals. Instead, Brazil met Fiorentina for a pre-tournament friendly match. It was an emotionl match as Julinho faced his national team. He wept during the game.
In 1958, he returned to Brazil and was recalled back to the national team for a match vs England in May, 1959. England, in 1959, still commanded respect in Brazil. Every Brazilian fans expected the new national hero Garrincha to start the game. However, Garrincha was unfit and Julinho start the game. When the starting lineup was announced at the Maracana, the fans turned against Julinho. the jeers got louder and louder as the game approached. Julinho would weep for the second time in a national team match. But as soon as the match started, Julinho showed the fans what he was capable of. He danced through the English defenders. The jeers became cheers. At the end of the match, he would score one goal and assist another as Brazil beat England 2-0. He had won over the fans again.
Surnamese-Dutch
North Holland, South Holand.
The rest of Netherlands excluding North and South Holland
Netherlands All-Time Team After Johan Cruyff
Dutch Players' surnames starting with "Van"
Netherlands 2002
Patrick Kluivert and Ruud van Nistelrooy were born on the same day. Their careers were very different. Kluivert earned his cap as a 18 years old. He became the Golden Boy of Dutch football when he scored the winning goal for Ajax at the 1995 Champions' League Final at the age of 18. He moved to Milan two years later and then, Barcelona in 1998. However, his career started to fade away quickly. He left Barcelona in 2004. Meanwhile, Ruud van Nistelrooy was a late bloomer. He started his career at the lower division and worked his way up. In the modern world, it is getting rare for anyone who was not discovered at a younger age. He never played for any Dutch youth national team. He joined PSV in 1998 Katy the age of 22, which was not too old. But by then, Kluivert was among the top striker in the world. He started to become well-known in Europe, but a dream move to Manchester United was delayed for a year due to his knee problems. Van Nistelrooy did not play in a big tournament until Euro 2004. Coincidentally, it was the same summer that Kluivert left Barcelona for Newcastle United. One player's career went up and the other went downward.
Brazil's World Cup team in 1998 was loaded with superstars. Roberto Carlos, Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Bebeto, Dungo and Cafu were multi-millionaires. Ze Carlos, however, was different. He was a career journeyman. A year before the WC Finals, he was playing for Matonense in the lower division and his salary was not enough to make ends meet. So he sold melons in the street. Then, Sao Paulo signed him in 1997. Somehow, his performance caught the attention of Mario Zagello. After a series of injuries within Brazil's player pool, Zagello called him up for the WC Finals. He had never played for Brazil at any level. Playing against Denmark at the quarterfinal of the World Cup in 1998, Cafu picked up a yellow card that would suspend him for the next match. Suddenly, Ze Carlos, Brazil's backup rightback, found himself on the starting lineup vs Netherlands in the semi-final. So the man selling melons a year earlier started for Brazil.
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Brazil
Sao Paulo State, Rio de Janeiro
North/Northeastern Brazil, South/Southeastern Brazil
Brazilian-born players capped by other national teams
Afro-Brazlian Players
Brazil All-Time Team After Pele
Brazil All-Team Under Mari Zagallo
Brazil All-Time Team before 1958
Santos, Flamengo, Sao Paulo, Corithians, Botafogo
Vasco Da Gama, Palmeiras, Internacional
Fluminense, Gremio, Cruzeiro, Atlético Mineiro, Bahia.
Ethiopia's first game at the 1994 WCQers was an away match against Morocco. they traveled to Morocco via Rome, where their best five players deflected. The squad ended up with 8 players to play the match. So they used the backup keeper, the assistant coach and a friend to play. By half time, two more players dropped out. Three more players dropped out early in the second half. The match was stopped with 6 Ethiopian players left on the field.
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Africa All-Time Team
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Real Madrid, Barcelona,
Real Madrid All-Time Team Under Florentina Perez
Real Madrid All-Time Team Under Miguel Munoz
Real Madrid Argentine Best XI
Real Madrid Castilla Greatest All-Time
Real Madrid All-Time Team for Foreign Players
Real Madrid All-Time Team for Spanish players
Barcelona Dutch Best XI
Barcelona All-Time Team for Spanish Players
Barcelona All-Time Team for Foreign Players
Luis Figo's transfer from Barcelona to Real Madrid in 2000 is perhaps the most controversial transfer of all-time. According to Steve McManaman, Figo signed for Real Madrid because he thought Florentino Pérez would never get elected the president of Real Madrid.
In 2000, Real Madrid was holding an election to elect its president. Lorenzo Sanz, the president of Real Madrid at the time, just led Real Madrid to two European Cup titles in 1998 and 2000. The two titles were Real Madrid's first European Cup since 1966. Florentino Pérez was not a big contender on the election. He was relatively unknown, but he had something up his sleeve. He discovered a release clause in Luis Figo's contract with Barcelona. So he offered Figo a pre-contract. The deal would only go through if Perez got elected. According to Steve McManaman, Figo assumed that Sanz would be reelected easily. Thus, if he signed with Perez, the signing bonus would be easy money. Besides, Figo was negotiating with Barcelona at that moment. He could use the rumor to get a better deal. After the election, Figo could just simply deny the deal and no one would ever know. So he signed the pre-contract while denying it up until a few days before he was introduced as a Real Madrid player. But when Perez leaked information of the deal, suddenly, the tide switched and Perez was elected the President of Real Madrid. The rest is history.
Peter Beardsley was known for moving from Liverpool to its cross town rival, Everton in 1991. He is also one of only four players who had played for both Liverpool and Manchester United. He also played for Manchester City. So he had played for both clubs of three major rivalries in England. However, he only played for Man Utd once and was playing for Man City in the lower division. So he never wore the Manchester United shirt against both Liverpool and Man City. I doubted that he ever wore the Man City shirt against Manchester United.
Beardsley held several record fort the Mersey derby. He held the transfer record for a player from Liverpool to Everton. Along with David Johnson, he was one of two players ever scored for both sides of the Mersey derbies.
Note: Brazil's Ronaldo played for Inter Milan, AC Milan, Barcelona and Real Madrid. He played for each of them against the rivals.
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Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal,
Chelsea, Tottenham, Manchester City, Everton,
Aston Villa, Newcastle United, Nottingham Forest,
Leeds United, Leicester City
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Australia, Saudi Arabia, Iran,
China, Japan, South Korea.
Hong Kong
East Asia, West Asia(without Iran and Saudi Arabia),
Central Asia, South East Asia(ASEAN).
Chinese Diaspora
All-Time Team under Bobby Robson(Club only)
Before Park Ji-Sung, Hidetoshi Nakata and Lee Young-Pyo played in England, there was Cheung Chi Doy (張子岱)of Hong Kong. He joined Blackpool in 1960. He was not the first player of Asian origin to play in England. The honour went to Frank Soo, a Chinese-English mixed who went on to be capped by England. Nevertheless, Cheung was a pioneer in the world of Asian football.
Before the 1970's, Hong Kong was a power in Asian football. players from there formed two national teams. The Hong Kong "A" team played as the Republic of China. They had done well at Asian Cup, etc. Meanwhile, the younger players played for Hong Kong. They also finished not far behind from the other countries in Asian Cup. Cheung Chi Doy came from this interesting system of two national team.
Cheung made his professional debut as a 14 years old in Hong Kong. in 1960, a Hong Kong-based British journalist from Hing Kong Standard discovered him and recommend him to Blackpool. Over there, he joined Jimmy Armfield and Stanley Matthews. However, his playing time was limited. On January 14th, 1961, he made his debut against Wolverhampton Wanderers. The game, however, was stopped due to bad weather. Later in the month, he made his full debut against Bolton Wanderers. On November 25th, 1961, he played his second game in a 1-3 loss to Sheffield Wednesday., scoring the only goal for his club. Thus, he became the first Chinese to score in the top tier of the English league. However, due to homesickness, he returned to Hong Kong in 1962.
In 1968, Bobby Robson got his first job as a manager with Vancouver Royals. He remembered the talented Cheung Chi Doy. He signed Cheung Chi Doy and his brother. They became one of Robson's first ever signings as a manager. Cheung was the highest-paid player on the team. However, Robson's position was not secured. Vancouver Royals was merged with another club. Ferenc Puskas became the manager while Robson was sent home. Not being one of Puskas' players, he was not used regularly. He later joined St Louis Stars.
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| With Vancouver Royals |
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