October 11 – George Weah Runs For President

BACK in the old days, when a player hung up his boots he’d buy a local pub and spend his days sat on a bar stool telling the punters all about his past glories. Nowadays they earn more in a year than most of us will in a lifetime, so once a player’s time is up, the world’s his oyster. Whereas most choose to spend their days on the golf course and pile on the pounds, you get the occasional ex-pro who has loftier ambitions. None have exemplified this more than former World Player of the Year George Weah, who today in 2005 ran for president in his native Liberia.

Weah started his career with the Liberian side Young Survivors, an apt name for a team that came from the gritty streets of Monrovia, one of Liberia’s poorest areas. This was a place where his family would struggle to get a good meal and the gangs and warlords ruled over all. Weah would never forget his background, and throughout his career he continually raised money and awareness against racism and poverty.

It was none other than Arsene Wegner that bought Weah to Europe when he signed him for Monaco in 1988. From here he would dazzle the whole continent as he starred for PSG, AC Milan, Chelsea and Manchester City among others, landing countless awards, including the World Player of the Year prize in 1995. It was the Arsenal boss that he claimed had the most significance on his career though, as he claimed “Arsene Wenger made me not just the player I am today but the man I am.” Heady praise indeed.

Running for office, Weah was facing Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf who was bidding to become Africa’s first woman president. Weah faced criticism from opponents who believed that he lacked the education and experience to take on the job of leading a nation that had two years earlier emerged from a 14-year civil war after the resignation of former president Charles Taylor. Despite having the support of the youth and most of the nations ex-combatants, Weah eventually lost in a run-off vote a month later.

After claiming that he had been robbed of victory by vote-rigging, Weah accepted the result and vowed to return for the 2012 election, promising to spend the next few years in the classroom to finish off the education he abandoned for football. So no appearing as a pundit on Match of the Day for Africa’s greatest ever player then.

Come back tomorrow for a tale of an even more infamous offical than Graham Poll, but in the mean time here’s one of Weah’s finest moments and some wise words from the man himself.

“There are a few players who don’t understand the significance of sport. They just play for the money. Most of them don’t understand that sport brings peace, unification and reconciliation. It makes you understand different cultures, how people think. Sport brings people together.”

October 10 – Sergeant Wilko Takes Charge

SO you’re two months into the season and your club’s languishing in the relegation zone having made a dismal start. The manager’s got to go, so who do you bring in? How about the last Englishman to land the title, who’s also the only man to manage the England side twice and the one that the FA had installed as their technical director? This was the logic that Sunderland Chairman Bob Murray showed today in 2002, when he gave Howard Wilkinson the reigns of his club. How could it fail? Er…

When Murray had decided that no-one was going to cheer up if Peter Reid stayed in charge of the Black Cats, he decided experience was the way to go. Wilkinson was most famous for guiding Leeds United to the last-ever old First Division title in 1992, with the help of the likes of Eric Cantona, Gary Speed, Lee Chapman and Gary McAllister. He had more recently filled in as caretaker England manager after the departures of Glenn Hoddle and Kevin Keegan, but his job outline at the Stadium of Light was a whole different kettle of fish. With no money to spend and a demoralised squad his mission was to save Sunderland from the dreaded drop.

It’s fair to say that the fan’s reaction was mixed at best, as they did not want to see the direct style that Wilko had bought to Leeds and Sheffield Wednesday, another of his former clubs. As it turned out they didn’t really see any style at all, as two wins in twenty league games was all Wilko could muster before he too was given the boot.

Wilko’s brief spell in charge was mostly remembered for a series of bizarre quotes from the manager (“It’s like pushing custard up a hill with your finger”) and a match that is a staple for pub quizzes everywhere where the Mackem’s went down 3-1 to Charlton thanks to three own goals. Offering tactical analysis that would put Mark Lawrenson to shame he revealed that “Our problem was that we scored three own goals in the first half.” He’s right you know.

By the end of the season Sunderland, with Mick McCarthy now at the helm, were relegated with a then record low of 19 points. Wilko’s next gig was a two month spell at Chinese club Shanghai Shenhua, as no other chairman in the Premier League was up for following Bob Murray’s lead. In some sort of karmic redemption for the club’s fans, Youtube has airbrushed all footage of Wilkinson’s era at the Stadium of Light from history, but come on over tomorrow to see what happened when one of the greatest players the world has ever seen got political aspirations.

October 9 – Here’s To Wor Jackie

THERE’S a few sacred shirts in football. The Barcelona number 14 shirt is one, made famous by Johan Cruyff and laid unclaimed after his departure until a certain Thierry Henry va-va-voomed his way to Catalonia in the summer. The Brazilian number 10 and Manchester United number 7 shirts are other examples where the fans will expect something special from anyone who steps up to the mantle. Up in the North East the Newcastle number 9 is their holy grail, and today we’re looking at one of the finest goalscorers that the Geordies have ever seen, as today in 1988 saw Jackie Milburn pass away.

Wor Jackie’s story is boys-own stuff. In 1943 he replied to an advert for trialists in the North Mail Newspaper. Arriving at St. James with his mate’s boots and a pie for lunch he soon impressed, scoring six times in a trial game and getting snapped up by Stan Seymour, the club’s gaffer at the time. Back in those days it wasn’t a case of a couple of hours training followed by an afternoon in the bookies and a spin in your sports car with a bird on each arm. Oh no, Jackie spent his days down t’pit, as the wartime effort meant that English football was restricted to the Wartime League.

Once the war was over and league football returned Jackie went about becoming a Toon Army legend, as Newcastle went on to win the FA Cup three times in the 1950s. His 14-year spell at St. James’ saw him find the net 200 times, a record that stood until a certain Alan Shearer took over the hallowed number 9 shirt.

Milburn went to that great football pitch in the sky when he died of lung cancer in 1988, aged 64. Perhaps Newcastle’s bonus scheme of giving their top players cigarettes in the 1940s wasn’t the best idea. His funeral saw 30,000 pay their respects and the club built a pair of statues for the great man and named their new stand after him. Check out some retro footage below, and in a tip of the hat to the Toon Army’s greatest rivals we’ll be checking into the Stadium of Light tomorrow, so head on over.

October 8 – Derby on their Todd

JOURNEYMAN is a word most often associated with players, but there are a fair few coaches and managers who have done the rounds when it comes to clubs.

As a player Colin Todd spent the bulk of his career with Sunderland and Derby County, but since hanging up his boots he has been employed by quite a number of clubs up and down the country.

It was on this day in 2001 that he stepped into the hot seat at Derby, promoted from assistant to manager after the departure of Jim Smith.

This was Todd’s third spell at Derby as both player and coach and he took the reigns with the Rams struggling at the wrong end of the Premier League.

Smith had been in charge since 1995 and had taken the club up to the top flight and kept them there for five years before the decline began.

As always seems to be the case with clubs who are desperate to retain their Premier League status and the money that comes with it, the Derby big cheeses started to panic when the club avoided relegation by one place in 2001.

Smith resigned with the 2001/2002 season only a few months old, elevating Todd to the top job.

By now the club were in that downward spiral that seems to grip clubs in danger of relegation and Todd was fighting a losing battle. He lasted only three months before a humiliating home defeat to third division Bristol Rovers panicked the board into sacking him.

John Gregory was brought in but still couldn’t stop the decline and the club went down.

As for Todd, he pitched up next in 2003 as Bryan Robson’s assistant at Bradford. After relegation to the second division, Robson left the club, and Todd was again promoted to manager.

After four years as Valley Parade in which he steadied the ship, again the results started to dry up and he was sacked in February 2007.

Unlike the Royal Mail, here at OTFD we can be relied on to deliver every day, so pop back tomorrow to read about a Newcastle United legend who isn’t Alan Shearer.

October 7 – KK Resigns (Again)

THE England job is famously known as the hardest job in the country by football managers. With your every decision scrutinised by the media and every fan in the country, the pressure to win England’s first trophy since 1966 is immense.

Probably not the best job for someone who wears his emotions not only on this sleeve but all over his jumper, and who resigned from managing Newcastle United because he couldn’t stand the pressure.

Still, in 1999 we were not exactly spoilt for choice. Hoddle had just been ousted following some ill-advised comments that came back to haunt him in this life rather than the next, and the FA were adamant that cheeky chappie Terry Venebles was not in the frame.

The someone thought of Keegan. There he was minding his own business, getting Fulham promoted to what was then the First Division.

Obviously KK couldn’t turn down his country and his ill-fated reign began well enough with a 3-1 win over Poland.

The only highlight in an otherwise disastrous Euro 2000 was beating the Germans for the first time in over 30 years. Needless to say, they would have the last laugh when it came to Keegan’s England career though.

KK is famed for his love of attacking football, and all his teams have been moulded in this style. At international level however, he was getting found out regularly by other national bosses who used something called ‘tactics’ to beat his England lion hearts. Keegan thought these were little orange mints and didn’t pay them much heed, preferring to rely on a game of cards, a few beers and an inspiring team talk to get his results.

By the autumn of 2000 the nation was starting to turn on poor old Keegs. A lovely fella with more passion for the game in his little finger than Sven can muster in his whole body, but sadly, that was proving to be not enough.

On this day in 2000 he had his chance to ingratiate himself to the nation as those pesky old Germans were coming to town for a world cup qualifier, which happened to be the last game at Wembley.

Keegan went against all his instincts and picked defender Gareth Southgate in his midfield. It did not pay off and a Ditmar Hamman goal was enough for a Germany win.

Ever one for the dramatic departure (he left Newcastle in a helicopter), KK cracked, and resigned immediately after the match in the toilets at Wembley.

A honest as he was emotional, KK admitted that he just didn’t have what it took to lead England and could see no point in going on.

His departure led to the FA employing a foreign boss for the first time, and Keegan next rocked up at Manchester City where he proved he still had the magic at club level, getting them promoted back into the Premiership by scoring an incredible 124 goals in all competitions.

One of the most likeable men in football, we would like to salute KK for being the last person we can think of who resigned without being pushed, for the simple reason that he thought he was not up to the job. Perhaps the current England manager could do with taking a leaf out of Keegan’s book….

Here is KK enjoying a slightly homoerotic moment with Henry Cooper. Nice.

6 October – Redemption Day For Beckham

“Life is just a series of peaks and troughs. And you don’t know whether you’re in a trough until you’re climbing out, or on a peak until you’re coming down. And that’s it you know, you never know what’s round the corner. But it’s all good. ‘If you want the rainbow, you’ve gotta put up with the rain.’ Do you know which “philosopher” said that? Dolly Parton. And people say she’s just a big pair of tits.” D. Brent, 2003.

While today’s nugget of football history is not about working for a paper merchant in Slough, David Brent’s words are a perfect way to describe how England captain David Beckham was feeling today in 2001, when his injury time free kick hit the back of the Greek net, propelling the Three Lions into the World Cup finals and ridding him of his personal demons from the 1998 World Cup.

English football seems to have the monopoly on last-gasp qualifiying heroics. Think of Terry Butcher in 1989 against Sweden, with more blood on his white shirt than most of us appear to have in our whole bodies, or Paul Ince repeating the trick in Rome eight years later. Whilst Becks didn’t bleed for his country, he did just about everything else that day.

The match at Old Trafford was turning into a textbook frustrating England performance. England had toiled against a well organised Greek side and were 2-1 down late in the game when a free kick was awarded after Teddy Sheringham was felled outside Nikopolidis’ area. News was filtering through that group rivals Germany had failed to beat Finland, so a draw was all that was needed to start booking those flights for the Far East.

Beckham had already missed five free kicks that day, so Sheringham fancied a shot at glory. ‘I’ve got a feeling about this one Teddy’ was his captain’s response and the rest is history. In one of those truly ‘remember where you were’ moments, millions of England fans were jumping up and down, hugging strangers and telling anyone who’d listen that Becks was the best thing since sliced bread.

This completed a remarkable turnaround in Mr Posh Spice’s fortunes. Three years earlier he was public enemy number one after his dismissal against Argentina in the 1998 World Cup and was booed at every away ground in the country. His performance against Greece however, was saluted as one of the finest ever seen in an England shirt, as he covered every blade of grass and dragged his England side to the 2002 World Cup.

See the 93rd minute strike in all it’s glory below and come back for more England action tomorrow as we look at someone who should’ve taken a few lessons from Goldenballs when it came to keeping your cool in a tight spot.

October 5 – Miner to Messiah

FOR the best suits they say go to Saville Row, to get the best wine, go to France, and if it’s a top-drawer football manager you’re after, history tells us you’d probably be best to head to Scotland.

They do rather a good line in stern red-faced disciplinarian bosses who have a habit of creating successful dynasties at clubs both north and south of the border.

It was on this day in 1922 that one of the best Scottish gaffers ever was born in Burnbank, South Lanarkshire in typically humble beginnings.

Burnbank had two main sources of employment: a carpet industry and mining. Jock Stein had spells working in both, while playing at centre-half on weekends. Can’t really see Christiano Ronaldo or Ashley Cole spending the week down the local pit to earn a crust can you?

Even Jock tired of this hard work and in order to go professional as a player he had to move to Welsh side Llanelli Town in 1950. Homesick, Stein soon moved back to Scotland when he was signed up by Celtic, the club where he would make his name.

After five years playing for the Hoops Stein’s career was ended by injury and he took the manager’s job at Dunfermline.

In 1965, nearly ten years after he had left as a player, he was appointed Celtic boss with a brief to end eight years of underachievement for the Parkhead club, and this he did in style.

In 13 years with the club he won 11 Scottish league titles, ten Scottish Cups, five Scottish League Cups, and most famously, the European Cup.

In beating Internazionale 2-1 in the final Stein became the first man to lead a British team to European glory, and all with a team born within 30 miles of Glasgow.

In 1978 Stein made way for a new manager at Celtic and, after a brief spell at Leeds United, took over the reigns of the Scotland national team.

He took the team to the 1982 World Cup finals where they went out on goal difference to the Soviet Union.

The job would eventually be the death of Stein as, with Scotland needing a draw in a game with Wales to ensure qualification for the 86 finals, Stein suffered a heart attack and died. Scotland qualified and Stein’s assistant Alex Ferguson took the team to the tournament, where they went out at the group stage.

Stein was said to be way ahead of his time in his methods and knowledge of the game, and was more Wenger than Mourinho in footballing style. As he said after winning the European Cup in 1967: “We did it by playing football. Pure, beautiful, inventive football.”

Here’s Jock being interviewed at the European Cup final in Lisbon prior to kick off, and come back tomorrow to reminisce about one of those last minute goals that make you spill your pint all over the bloke in front of you in the pub.

October 4 – The Little Mozart is Born

FOOTBALL fans are not renowned for their classical music knowledge, you won’t often find a group of fans debating the merits of Wagner over Beethoven over their half-time pie on match day.

Wander down to the Emirates on a Saturday afternoon however, and you might well hear some of the home fans extolling the virtues of the Little Mozart.

It is probably likely they would be talking about Gunners midfield-maestro Tomas Rosicky rather than the composer though.

It was on this day back in 1980 that little Tomas was breathing in his first breaths and screaming his head off after just emerging into the world.

Young Rosicky was spotted at the tender age of seven and was snapped up by his hometown club Sparta Prague, who only took him because they wanted his older brother Jiří and their parents insisted the brothers came as a pair.

After learning his trade at the Prague outfit Rosicky earned a £12m move to Borussia Dortmund to become the Bundesliga’s most expensive player and help the club win the league the season after he joined.

Meanwhile Tomas had firmly established himself in the Czech Republic national side, playing at Euro 2000 and 2004, as well as the 2006 World Cup.

Following that tournament, with Dortmund struggling financially, Arsene Wenger stepped in to help out by taking Rosicky off their hands for a (reported) knock-down price of £6.8m.

Just to make the grin on Rosicky’s face that little bit wider, he was also made captain of his national side following Pavel Nedved’s international retirement.

So happy birthday Tomas, we are sure you will enjoy your big day. We would say we hope you get everything you wanted for your birthday but – playing for the team top of the league, league titles at both previous clubs, and captain of his country – we’re struggling to think of what more you could ask for.

Here is a look at a typical Rosicky strike at the World Cup against the USA. Peach is the word you’re searching for.

October 3 – Grattis pa fodelsedagen Zlatan!

HIS name means ‘golden’, he’s got mean tae kwon do skills and he’s scored some of the finest goals of the last few years. And today it’s his birthday, so we’d like to wish Zlatan Ibrahimovic many happy returns as he blows out 26 candles on his birthday cake.

One of the few Swede’s who’s deadlier in the box than Sven, Ibrahimovic started his career at Malmo and quickly came to the attention of some Europe’s top managers. Arsene Wenger was one who spotted his talent early doors and had a bid for the striker rejected before his eventual move to Ajax for a Swedish record €7.8 million. Here his career really took off as he got a chance to show his skills on a bigger stage as Ajax reached the latter stages of the Champions League.

Question marks over his temperament when he injured his Ajax team-mate Rafael van der Vaart in a friendly international in August 2004 lead to a speedy transfer to Italian giants Juventus for €19 million. He would only stay here for two seasons, as the Moggi scandal rocked the Turin club and he darted over to Inter Milan where he was part of the side that waltzed to the title last season.

Famed for his powerful build Zlatan can match his physical strength with a technical proficiency and is one of the world’s best dribblers around. So, in other words, he’s got a good touch for a big man. Fans back home in Sweden released a song about Ibrahimovic for the 2006 World Cup, randomly called ‘Who’s Da Man’ and featuring a seven-year old on vocals. Zlatan’s media domination in his homeland is nearing completion as there is also a film based on his life knocking around called Vägen tillbaka – BlÃ¥dÃ¥rar 2. Sadly, we’re not going to review this for you, as our Swedish isn’t up to scratch at On This Football Day.

So here’s what Ibrahimovic is all about – spectacular goals. Take a minute to enjoy this highlight reel and come again tomorrow for a look at a player that didn’t slip through Wenger’s Arsenal-sized net.

October 2 – Brazil Lose the World Cup

HERE is a name for you to remember: Carlos Vela. We reckon Carlos might soon become as familiar to football fans in England as Jeff Stelling and overpriced tickets.

Carlos hails from Mexico and is such a hot-tomalley that Arsene Wenger shelled out £2.5m to buy the young forward when he was a tender 16-year-old, and Wenger knows a thing or two about young players as Newcastle United found out to their cost in their recent Carling Cup tie.

Vela first came to prominence in 2005 as he led his country’s Under 17 side to victory in the U17 World Cup in Peru, and it was on this day that the Mexican’s beat favourites Brazil in the final 3-0 with Vela grabbing the first.

The icing on the cake for Vela was picking up the golden boot award for the tournament with five goals.

The U17 tournament had many of the traditionally ‘smaller’ football nations in attendance including Qatar, Gambia and host nation Peru with only Italy, the Netherlands and Brazil representing the big guns from the senior game.

Vela was picked up by Arsenal soon after the tournament but those pesky work permit rules mean he will not be able to actually play for the Gunners until 2008 at the earliest. Instead, he has been loaned out to Celta Vigo, Salamanca and now Osasuna, all in Spain.

Arsene Wenger is clearly relishing the prospect of having Vela in contention at the Emirates. He said: “I like his intelligence and his pace. He scores goals but he can also create them. He’s a special talent and I believe 100 per cent that he will make it at the highest level.”

However, talent scouts beware: the youngster that won the Best Player award at the same tournament is Anderson, the young Brazilian who is currently making a career of being brought off at half-time by Sir Alex Ferguson after a £17m move in the summer.

Here is a handy montage of Vela’s scoring exploits for his various loan clubs and his national side, and head back on over this way tomorrow to read about a striker whose name means ‘golden’ and is trained in tae kwon do.