Legends of the beautiful game
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
 ..... ..... .....
 ..... .....
|
Pele
his shirt sells for £10,000. one of the youngest players ever to win and play in the world cup.
1281 goals in 1363 matches - all-time world record
Top Brazilian goalscorer of all-time
clubs
1956-1974 Santos
1975-1977 New York Cosmos
International Honors
1958 FIFA World Cup in Sweden: winner
1959 Copa America: finalist
1959 Top goalscorer in Copa America (9 goals)
1962 FIFA World Cup in Chile: winner
1966 FIFA World Cup in England: first round
1970 FIFA World Cup in Mexico: winner
92 caps, 97 goals
Kenny Dalgleish
Dalglish was born in Glasgow in March of 1951, and as a young boy was a football fan, rooting for the Rangers. At the age of sixteen, he joined the Rangers' rival team, Celtic. As a striker for the team, he scored more than 150 goals while Celtic went on a winning streak that lasted eight seasons.
In 1977, Dalglish joined the Liverpool football team. In 1985, he became Liverpool's first ever player-manager when he took over for manager Joe Fagan. Fagan resigned following a riot at Heysel stadium in Brussels, while Liverpool played against the Italian Juventus team. 39 people were killed in the riot.
Dalglish's career as a player ended in 1987. He focused on managing the Liverpool team, and over the next four years, he won Manager of the Year three times. Tragedy struck again for the Liverpool team and fans in 1989, when overcrowding in the Hillsborough Stadium resulted in the death of 96 spectators at a game between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. Dalglish attended as many of the funerals of victims of the Hillsborough tragedy as he could, and he and his wife worked to do what they could to console the victims' families.
Following the Hillsborough tragedy, the pressures of satisfying the fans of Liverpool mounted, and Dalglish reluctantly resigned in 1991. He went on to manage the Blackburn Rovers, and helped lead the team to a championship. However, Dalglish only stayed with the Rovers two years. As he took a break from football management, Dalglish watched his son, Paul, follow in his footsteps. Paul also played for Glasgow Celtic and went on to Liverpool and then Newcastle.
Before managing Newcastle United, Dalglish did a turn as European Scout for Glasgow Rangers, the team he rooted for as a boy. At Newcastle, the challenges for Dalglish were to overcome a reputation for cracking under pressure, and to become the first ever manager to lead three separate teams to league championships. Although Newcastle came close to the championship, they didn't make it during Dalglish's tenure, and his split with the team is looking somewhat acrimonious.
Meanwhile, Dalglish was appointed Director of Football Operations at Celtic in June of '99, bringing his career back to hometown Glasgow.
Lev Yashin
Lev Yashin- the black spider- is arguably the greatest goalkeeper the world has ever seen. He made an unprecedented contribution to the game, setting the modern standards for goalkeeping. Being a great athlete in addition to all his courage, he was among the first goalkeepers to command the entire penalty area and did it with unmatched confidence and reliability. He was equally impressive on the goal line with stunning reflexes and plasticity, which made him nearly flawless. Most notably, he confronted the common attitude of catching the ball, inventing various ways of simply kicking it away from the penalty area when required. Yashin was the first choice goalkeeper for the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1967. In that spell he won 78 caps and played in three World Cups 1958, 1962 and finally 1966, where the Soviet Union reached the semifinal much thanks to Yashin’s contribution. In 1956 he was a member of the Soviet Union’s team who won the Olympics in Melbourne, and four years later he won the European championships. He still remains the only goalkeeper to have won the “European Player of the Year” prize. He retired in 1971 having kept 270 clean sheets, and he is also rumored to have saved over 150 penalties in his long career.
Peter Schmeichel
| PROFILE | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Appearances: 1 (1998), 5 matches Quarter-finals (1998) Winner (1992) Winner (1999) Winner (1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1999) Winner (1994, 1996, 1999) Winner (1992) Winner (1987, 1988, 1990, 1991) Winner (1989) Winner (2000) Biography Few critics would argue that Danish legend Peter Schmeichel was during his prime the best goalkeeper in the world. Schmeichel made his name at Manchester United where he was a pillar at Old Trafford during a trophy-laden 8-year spell, but he first came to international prominence at the 1992 European Championships when Denmark stunned the footballing world with an unlikely victory after stepping in for the expelled Yugoslavs. Following his spell at United the highlight of which was the 1999 Treble winning season that included the Champions League, Schmeichel also added a Portuguese championship medal to his cabinet tending goal for Sporting Lisbon. Standing 1.94m tall and weighing around 99kg, Schmeichel's huge physical presence appeared to block all routes to his goal but he was surprisingly agile and his fierce will to win puts him alongside some of the great goalkeepers of all time including Lev Yashine, Gordon Banks and Dino Zoff. Denmark's most capped player, Schmeichel was heavily influential in Manchester United's re-emergence as a major force in English and European football during the 1990s. He was spotted by United manager Sir Alex Ferguson and snapped up from Danish club Brondby in 1991 for a fee of just 650,000 pounds (about one million US dollars) in what must go down as one of the transfer bargains of the decade. Eight years and 398 appearances later Schmeichel left United with a suitcase bulging with silverware. Ferguson tried to persuade him to stay, but the giant Dane was determined that he wanted to finish with the club at the top. After helping Denmark clinch qualification for Euro 2000, the veteran 'keeper was helpless as his country were sadly outclassed by their group rivals France, Holland and the Czech Republic during the first round of the tournament. Lacking in defensive support, Schmeichel was forced to pick the ball out of his constantly under siege goal, a whopping eight times in three matches, while his teammates failed to offer him even one goal in attack. He quit the national scene in 2001 with a record 129 caps but continued to play at the highest level moving to Aston Villa the same year and then joining Kevin Keegan's Manchester City in 2002 ironically the bitter rivals of cross-town neighbors United | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The former Manchester United captain joined City on a free transfer in July 2002. A vocal, dominant presence with a vast amount of top-level experience, he performed admirably for Aston Villa last season. The Great Dane enjoyed massive success across the city, with his medal haul including five FA Premier League titles, two FA Cup winners medals and a Champions League crown. He carries nicknmaes such as "The Great Dane" and "Mr Cleansheet"
Gary Liniker
Gary Lineker is one of football's gentlemen. In his entire professional career, he didn't receive a single yellow card. A silent man off the field, on it he was deadly. In the 1986 World Cup England started slowly and a Lineker hat trick got them through in the last group match against Poland to the knockout stage. Paraguay couldn't cope with Lineker either and Lineker scored two goals in England's 3-0 win. In the quarter final, Argentina and Maradona proved too strong. "The hand of God" and an individual brilliance by the little man sent Argentina through, but Lineker scored England's consolation goal that saw him as top scorer in that tournament. In 1990 England reached the semifinal, Lineker hitting the net four times on their way there, making him only the 8th player in World Cup history to score 10 goals or more. All in all for England he scored 48 goals (one goal behind Bobby Charlton's record) in 80 matches.
Eusebio
| Portugal, Forward World Cup Record: 1966 (3rd) | ||
Eusebio was Africa’s first great player. But although he was born and raised in Mozambique, it was in the red shirt of Portugal, the east African nation’s colonial master, and for Lisbon’s Benfica that the deadly striker made his name. Nicknamed the “Black Panther” for his pace and athleticism, Eusebio had a cannonball shot and seemed capable of scoring from impossible angles. By the 1966 finals in England he had already won the European Cup with Benfica and was Europe’ reigning Footballer of the year. In England Portugal was the attacking team of the tournament with Eusebio grabbing all the glory. He scored twice as reigning champion Brazil was dismissed 3-1 but Eusebio’s greatest performance came against North Korea in the quarterfinals. The surprise of the competition, North Korea raced into a three-goal lead inside 22 minutes. But Eusebio scored the next four and Portugal advanced with an incredible 5-3 win. Eusebio’s final two goals came from the penalty spot. The first came too late to threaten host England at Wembley while the second helped Portugal beat the Soviet Union 2-1 to claim third place. Eusebio’s tears after Portugal’s 2-1 defeat by England captured British hearts and within days his waxwork was on display at London’s Madam Tussaud’s |
Sponsors
Johann Cruyff
Dutch "total football" -- Rinus Michels' tactical revolution in which highly adaptable players were granted complete freedom of movement around the pitch -- revolved around Cruyff.
Arguably the most naturally gifted player Europe has ever produced, Cruyff flourished within a system that encouraged improvisation and fluidity.
Dropping deep to instigate attacks, he would drift wide to receive the ball later in the move and then reappear in the penalty area to apply the finishing touches to another Dutch masterpiece.
In West Germany, "total football" would reach another level. Cruyff scored twice in a 4-0 demolition of Argentina. Against defending champion Brazil he scored the goal of his career, a looping volley from Johann Neeskens' cross to earn a 2-0 win and a place in the final against the host.
In the first minute Cruyff's snaking run into the box resulted in a Dutch penalty, converted by Neeskens. But the tone of the game changed as Cruyff and his teammates fell victim to over-confidence, falling into a lazy, directionless passing game and never regaining their early momentum. Refusing to panic and inspired by Beckenbauer, the determined and talented West Germans fought back to win 2-1.
As temperamental as he was talented, Cruyff was constantly at odds with teammates, coaches and clubs and a series of disagreements with the Dutch football association meant Cruyff sat out the 1978 finals in Argentina and ended his international career with just 48 caps.
As the Netherlands reached another World Cup final, only to lose again to the host, many followers of Dutch soccer still dream what a Cruyff-led side might have achieved.
A brilliant if tempestuous star, Johann Cruyff's goals helped Holland into the 1974 World Cup final, although the man who played a great part in "total-football" eventually finished with a loser's medal. In eight years, he won many domestic honors, a hat-trick of European Cup medals and was European Footballer Of The Year three times. In 1973, Cruyff joined his old Ajax boss Rinus Michels, for £922.000, and helped Barcelona win the Spanish league and cup. In 1981 he signed for Spanish second division club, Levante, but returned to Ajax in 1982, winning another league title with them and another with Feyenoord, whom he joined in 1984. As manager he took Ajax to a 1987 European Cup winner's Cup final triumph, and in 1988 he rejoined Barcelona and led them to four Spanish league titles and a European Cup triumph as well with his "dream team". His 48 games for Holland (33 goals) would have been more, but for disputes with the Dutch FA and also his refusal to play in the 1978 World Cup.
Stanley Matthews
.
On 6th February 1965 Stanley Matthews became the only man over 50 years old to make an appearance in the first division, when he played his last game for Stoke City against Fulham. Matthews- nicknamed "the Wizard of Dribble"- were a magnificent winger and one of English football's finest ever players. He made 54 international appearances in a career cut short by the war, but he never had the opportunity to participate in a World Cup due to England's refusing to take part. He is perhaps most famous for his appearance in the 1953 FA Cup Final, in which he inspired Blackpool to a 4-3 victory over Bolton Wanderers after being 3-1 down. Despite a hat trick by his teammate Stan Mortensen, the match has gone down in history as the "Matthews Final". When England beat Scotland 7-2 at Wembley in 1955, the 40-year-old Matthews made five goals. When Matthews first asked for a transfer in 1938, there was a public outcry in Stoke. Over 3,000 fans attended a protest meeting and another 1,000 paraded outside the ground with placards. He stayed.
Stuart Pearce
Stuart Pearce was born in Shepherds Bush, London. He started his football career as an amateur with Wealdstone United, earning his living during the week as an Electrician.
It was while playing for Wealdstone that Bobby Gould spotted him. Gould signed him for Coventry City in October 1983.
Pearce was to play 51 games for the Sky Blues before he joined Forest in a double deal involving Ian Butterworth in the Summer of 1985. Clough's target was Butterworth, but somehow fate stepped in and he got Pearce as well. Serendipity at its finest.
Pearce made his debut for Forest at Luton Town in the opening game of the 1985-86 season. He soon made himself a favourite with the crowd through his displays of wholehearted determination and hard tackling. It was this tackling and determination that was to earn him his now famous nickname 'Psycho'.
In 1987 he won the first of 76 England Caps, he also became Captain of Forest.
One of his best seasons for Forest came in 1988-89, when he led them to the Littlewoods Cup and the the Simod Cup.
He is always remembered for his failure in the 1990 World Cup, when, during the semi-final penalty shootout against West Germany he was to miss. He finally laid the ghost of Italia 90 to rest during Euro 96 when he was to take part in two penalty shootouts, scoring in both.
It was immediately after his success in Euro 96 that Pearce announced his retirement from international football.
Pearce took over as caretaker player manager at Forest in December 1996 with Frank Clarks departure. Things started very well indeed for the new manager, seeing him get Forest clear of the relegation zone and winning the manager of the month award for January 1997.
He then became the first manager to represent his country when Glen Hoddle persuaded him to come out of international retirement and play in England's World Cup qualifiers in 1996-97.
The club was taken over in February 1997 by the Bridgford Consortium. With the new owners came Dave Bassett, bought in to remove the more mundane administrative tasks from Pearce. It didn't work out well, and with various reports claiming the players didn't know who was in charge, things took a turn for the worst and Forest were relegated.
With relegation, and now 35 years old, Pearce decided it was time to leave the club. He wanted a final crack at a World Cup. With France 98 just around the corner he resigned from the managers job at Forest and took a free transfer to Newcastle United. His hope was to play his way into Glen Hoddle's plans for France 98, it didn't work out for him.
In his 12 year career at Forest Stuart Pearce was to play 522 first team games, scoring 88 goals. many of these goals coming from penalties and his trade mark free kicks.
Finally, for those who read this far, Ian Butterworth was to only play 33 games for Forest and left the club in 1986. Strange how things turn out innit?