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31 October 1920 - Germany's Golden Player

On 31 October 1920, Kaiserslautern and West Germany legend Fritz Walter was born.
Gifted with a remarkable combination of ball control, vision, and agility, Walter, who was born in Kaiserslautern, spent his entire career with his hometown club. He made his first-team debut for them at the age of 17, but World War II interrupted his career for several years. Play resumed in 1945 and Walter soon guided the team to their first major silverware, winning league titles in 1951 and 1953. He retired in 1959 with a record of 380 goals in 411 league appearances. In 1985, the club renamed their stadium after him.
His greatest achievement, however, came with the West German national team in 1954, when he captained them to their first World Cup trophy, beating Hungary 3-2 in a final known as "the Miracle of Bern" (Hungary were up 0-2 after only 8 minutes before West Germany rallied for the win).
Despite the wartime hiatus, Walter earned 61 caps between 1940 and 1958, scoring 33 goals. When UEFA, in preparation for their fiftieth anniversary in 2004, asked each member nation to name their one greatest player--the Golden Players--of the previous fifty years, Germany selected Walter.
He passed away in June 2002 at the age of 81.

GUNNERS AND DIEGO

30th October 2012 Arsenal were 4-0 down after just 37 minutes of a Capital One (League Cup) tie at Reading but the Arsenal fans weren't despondent and sang 'We're going to win 5-4'. But they were wrong.......... Arsenal won 7-5.

On 30th October 1960, future Argentinian superstar Diego Maradona, was born in the city of Lanús, Argentina, just south of Buenos Aires.
Raised in poverty on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, Maradona joined Argentinos Juniors as a 10-year old youth player. He signed his first professional contract with them in 1976 and made 167 appearances before transferring to Boca Juniors in 1981.

After an impressive performance for Argentina in the 1982 World Cup, he moved to Barcelona for a then-record fee of £5 million. Although successful during his time in Spain, winning a 1983 treble of the Copa del Rey, Copa de la Liga, and Spanish Super Cup, his relationship with the club was tempestuous and he moved to Napoli in 1984 for a new record fee of £6.9 million.

He became a true international superstar in 1986, when he captained Argentina to the World Cup title, playing every minute of every match for the Albicelestes, scoring 5 goals and making 5 assists. Two of those goals came in the legendary 2-1 win over England--the "Hand of God" and the "Goal of the Century," which cemented his status as one of football's greatest players. He followed his World Cup success by winning silverware with Napoli, including two Serie A titles (1987, 1990) and the UEFA Cup (1989). He left Napoli in 1991 and spent time with Sevilla (1992-93), Newell's Old Boys (1993), and a second stint at Boca Juniors (1995-97) before retiring.

Despite a controversial personal life, including a constant struggle with a cocaine addiction, Maradona was voted FIFA's Co-Player of the Century in 2000, along with Pelé. Maradona currently manages the Argentinian national team, who recently secured their spot in the 2010 World Cup Finals despite a rocky start to qualification.

Personal information
Full name	Diego Armando Maradona Franco
Date of birth	30 October 1960
Place of birth	Lanus, Argentina
Date of death	25 November 2020 (aged 60)
Place of death	Digue Loijan, Argentina
Height	1.65 m (5 ft 5 in)
Position(s)	Attacking midfield, forward
Youth career
1969–1976	Argentinos Juniors
Senior career
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1976–1981	Argentinos Juniors	166	(116)
1981–1982	Boca Juniors	40	(28)
1982–1984	Barcelona	36	(22)
1984–1991	Napoli	188	(81)
1992–1993	Sevilla	26	(5)
1993–1994	Newell's Old Boys	5	(0)
1995–1997	Boca Juniors	30	(7)
Total		491	(259)
International career
1977–1979	Argentina U20	15	(8)
1977–1994	Argentina	91	(34)
Managerial career
1994	Deportivo Mandiyú
1995	Racing Club
2008–2010	Argentina
2011–2012	Al-Wasl
2013–2017	Depotivo Riestra(assistant)
2017–2018	Fujairah
2018–2019	Dorados de Sinaloa
2019–2020	Gimnasia de La Plata

MUTU, FERGIE AND THE PREMIER

On October 29th, 2004, Adrian Mutu was sacked by his club, Chelsea, for testing positive for the drug, cocaine. The "Blues" ditched their £15.8 million Romanian striker, who claimed that he had used the drug in order to improve his sex life! It was suggested that he had lived up to every Transylvania stereotype by sucking on the blood of his WAG. 

Meanwhile at Old Trafford, on the same date in 2005, Fergie's boys became the first team to notch 1,000 goals, since the start of the Premier League in 1992. Fergie might not have been too excited by this event, because, the injury time goal, scored by Ronaldo, proved to be a consolation goal. in injury time, at Middlesbrough, as the home team cruised to a 4-1 victory. 

The inaugural Premier League campaign started on Saturday 15 August, 1992, with 22 clubs. The members of the new Premier League were: Arsenal, Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, Chelsea, Coventry City, Crystal Palace, Everton, Ipswich Town, Leeds United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Middlesbrough, Norwich City, Nottingham Forest, Oldham Athletic, Queens Park Rangers, Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday, Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur, and Wimbledon. 

Over that span, 51 teams have played in the Premier League, two of which Cardiff City and Swansea are located in Wales.

Of these clubs, six have been ever-present in the Premier League: Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur.  Preston North End is the only former top flight First Division Champions never to have played in the Premier League; there are fourteen cliubs, twelve still active, that have played in the old First Division but not in the Premier League. By contrast, Barnsley, Bournemouth, Hull City, Reading, Swindon Town and Wigan Athletic never played in the old First Division, before being promoted to the Premier League in 1997, 2015, 2008, 2006, 1993 and 2005, respectively.

When the Premier League was formed, there was always the intention to reduce the number of clubs to 20 to promote development and excellence at club and international level. This was achieved at the end of the 1994/95 season when four clubs were relegated and just two promoted.

AND TODAY?

SEVEN YEARS AGO

28th October 2017
World Cup wins are rare and you wait 51 years for a title success, then two come along in just 139 days! After England’s Under 20’s World title success in June 2017, England Under 17s won their World title in October 2017! They beat Brazil in the semi-finals, thanks to a Rhian Brewster hat-trick - he also scored three in the quarter-finals and went on to win the tournament Golden Boot award – to set up a final against Spain. WHERE IS HE NOW?

Full name	Rhian Joel Brewster
Date of birth	1 April 2000 (age 24)
Place of birth	Chadwell Heath, England
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Position(s)	Srtiker
Team information
Current team	Sheffield United
Number	7
Youth career
2008–2015	Chelsea
2015–2017	Liverpool
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2017–2020	Liverpool	0	(0)
2020	→ Swansea City (loan)	20	(10)
2020–	Sheffield United	80	(4)
International career‡
2016–2017	England U16	4	(4)
2016–2017	England U17	23	(20)
2017	England U18	1	(0)
2019–2022	England U21

England had been beaten by the Spanish in final of the UEFA Under 17 competition in May and history looked to be repeating itself when Spain took a 2-0 lead in the World final played in Kolkata in India. 

Things changed with goals from Brewster, Gibbs-White, Foden (2) and Guehi seeing England dominate to record a memorable 5-2 win. Squad-how many can you find are playing at the higher levels? 

Curtis Anderson (Manchester City); Steven Sessegnon (Fulham); Joel Latibeaudiere (Manchester City), Marc Guehi (Chelsea), Jonathan Panzo (Chelsea); Tashan Oakley-Boothe (Tottenham Hotspur), George McEachran (Chelsea); Phil Foden (Manchester City), Morgan, Gibbs-White playing subs were Nya Kirby (Crystal Palace), Conor Gallagher (Chelsea) and Angel Gomes (Manchester United. Head coach – Steve Cooper.

The England development teams had a magnificent 2017 – World titles for the Under 17s and Under 20s, while in UEFA Euros the Under 19s won their title, in the UEFAs, the Under 17s were beaten finalists and Under 21s were beaten semi-finalists. Surely the England senior side will be winning World Cups with ease in the future!! SEVEN YEARS ON? Is it worth doing some research to see where these lads are now!

28th October 1980 Chesterfield celebrated one of their greatest ever victories – in the Anglo-Scottish Cup - don't scoff at this..... it was against the mighty Glasgow Rangers in the quarter-finals of the competition. After drawing the first leg at Ibrox the return was played at Saltergate on this day in 1980 and 13,914  Chesterfield fans saw their side beat Rangers 3-0 on their way to winning the competition in its final season.

TWIN STRIKERS?

 27th October 2009

Brothers playing in the same senior team is a bit of a rarity and rarer still if the brothers are identical twins. When Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson took his side to play Peterborough United in a pre-season friendly in August 2008 there was a family connection with Peterborough's manager being Alex's son, Darren Ferguson. There was a family connection in the Manchester United side as well with the match seeing the debuts of Brazilian brothers Rafael and Fábio da Silva - and they were identical twins! The story goes that the only way Sir Alex could tell the difference between the two was that Fabio wore a wedding ring - but of course the brothers would often swap the ring around to fool the boss! 

Trouble came their way though on this day in 2009 when United visited Barnsley in a League Cup 4th Round encounter. Late on both brothers challenged Jamal Campbell-Ryce, with referee Chris Foy booking Fábio for foul play. However television replays showed that it was Rafael who should have been yellow carded and an appeal to the FA followed which saw the correct brother having a yellow card transferred to his disciplinary record from the innocent brother.

Full name	Rafael Pereira da Silva
Date of birth	9 July 1990 (age 34)
Place of birth	Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Height	1.72 m (5 ft 8 in)
Position(s)	Right-back, midfielder
Team information
Current team	Botafogo
Number	2
Youth career
2005–2008	Fluminense
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2008–2015	Manchester United	109	(5)
2015–2020	Lyon	103	(2)
2020–2021	İstanbul Başakşehir	21	(0)
2021–	Botafogo	40	(0)
International career‡
2007	Brazil U17	12	(0)
2012	Brazil U23	7	(1)
2012	Brazil	2	(0)
Medal record
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 14:20, 29 January 2024 (UTC) ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 11 August 2012

Full name	Fabio Pereira da Silva
Date of birth	9 July 1990 (age 34)
Place of birth	Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Height	1.72 m (5 ft 8 in)
Position(s)	Full-back
Team information
Current team	Grêmio
Number	2
Youth career
2005–2008	Fluminense
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2008–2014	Manchester United	22	(1)
2012–2013	→ Queens Park Rangers (loan)	21	(0)
2014–2016	Cardiff City	65	(1)
2016–2018	Middlesbrough	48	(1)
2018–2022	Nantes	85	(0)
2023–	Grêmio	26	(0)
International career
2007	Brazil U17	13	(10)
2011	Brazil	2	(0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 14:19, 29 January 2024 (UTC)

THE FOUNDING FATHER

I AM SURE YOU KNOW THIS BUT IT'S HISTORIC AND WE NEED TO BE REMINDED!!

On a quiet, cold, Autumnal night in Victorian London, at the Freemason's Tavern in Great Queen Street, near Covent Garden, London, the protagonist Ebenezer Cobb Morley was about to change the world of sport. 

This has nothing to do with Great Expectations or Oliver Twist, but it is the beginning of the Football Association. On this day in 1863, eleven clubs and schools, led by Morley, met for the first time to create a standard set of rules (later more known as Laws), for newly formed clubs to follow into the future. Yes there have been considerable changes but this was the birth of the great game.

There had been games of various forms using a ball (of varying shapes) on a space with goals to achieve against an opposition, sometimes of unknown numbers and on unknown spaces.

By the 1820s, students at Public Schools and Universities began to think about rules!

There were forms of "catch and run" games, massive scrums, dribbling games and big boots but eventually at Cambridge University, in 1848, the Rules and ten years later, the Sheffield Rules attempted to "mould" the mass into a civilised, dribbling game. The boys at Charterhouse school in London were well ahead of the masses! The rules said you could not "run with the ball", but catching was still permitted. The game was close to the present day Aussie Rules by this time.

Meanwhile the Blackheath and Rugby codes preferred full on handling and hacking!

Schools, universities and clubs stuck to their own rules, so eventually, JC Thring at Uppingham School  drew a number of rules in 1862, to create what he called "The Simplest Game". It did not catch on but the idea of "unity" appealed and so in October 1863, representatives from Kilburn, Barnes, The War Office, Crusaders , Perceval House, Crystal Palace, Blackheath School, Kensington School, Surbiton and Blackheath met in Central London to agree the new rules, unifying all the varieties to form the Football Association.. needless to say there were rifts and Blackheath withdrew by Christmas pursuing the handling version which would soon become RUGBY! The William Webb Ellis myth of picking up the ball during a "football" game at Rugby School in 1823 is just that. When catching was finally outlawed in 1866, the game of football was "rolling", so to speak and the FA gained momentum.

The Football Association, English football's governing body, was formed in 1863. 'Organised football' or 'football as we know it' dates from that time. Ebenezer Morley, a London solicitor who formed Barnes FC in 1862, could be called the 'father' of The Association.

FRAUEN

England v Germany Match: WOMEN 

A fantastic record crowd of 45,618 attended the England Women vs Germany Women's match at Wembley Stadium on Sunday the 23rd November 2014. Despite an excellent performance, England Women suffered defeat, on their historic debut at Wembley Stadium on Sunday 23rd November 2014. The two-time World Cup and reigning European Champions, Germany, won an enthralling game 3-0 against an enthusiastic England side. 

Despite the defeat, the result was a marked improvement from the 6-2 European Championship Final defeat in 2009 and shows the scale of growth in the women's game in the past number of years. After the game, England manager Mark Sampson said: "I think we learned some very valuable lessons today in terms of the clinical German finishing and speed of the counter attack. "I have to applaud the team, the spirit and character they showed in the second half. You have to remember we have six months before the World Cup." 

The England manager's comments summed the game up perfectly. After going into the interval at 3-0 down after a brace from Celia Sasic and an own goal by Alex Scott, England railed superby and failed to conceed a goal in the second half, demonstrating the spirit, character and teamwork that have propelled them to a record high world ranking of 7th in the world. 

In addition to this excellent achievement, the creation of The Women's Super League and the awarding of professional central contracts to 27 England Women has contributed to this world ranking. The grassroots side of the game is also very promising with 3,756 young players involved in the England talent pathway. 

Despite the result, buoyed on by their side's excellent second half performance, the crowd were in high spirits throughout the match and the party atmosphere continued until the final whistle with numerous mexican waves and good-hearted chanting occurring throughout the stadium.

Former England captain Casey Stoney had this to say after the game: “Coming through qualification with a 100 per cent record was an amazing achievement but there was a danger it could have given us a false sense of security and in the first half perhaps you could sense that. That won't be the case anymore.”

“Germany showed why they are European champions and will be one of the favourites for the World Cup. Now we have to try to match that.”

With six months until the World Cup, England Women will certainly be aiming to build on this solid performance and maintain this positive momentum before their next friendly against World Number One ranked team the United States before the World Cup commences on the 6th June- 5th July in Canada.

RIP GEORGE BALDOCK

 

Former Sheffield United defender George Baldock has died at the age of 31. The England-born Greece international was found dead in the swimming pool of his house in Glyfada, southern Athens. The initial coroner's findings suggest he drowned and police say they have ruled out any criminal activity. His body was found on October 9th at 22:30 local time (20:30 BST) on Wednesday.

Police attempted to resuscitate Baldock at the scene but he could not be revived and medical emergency units confirmed his death, Reuters news agency reported, citing a police official.

Baldock had joined Greek side Panathinaikos in the summer after seven years at the Blades. "We can confirm that George has sadly passed away," a family statement said. "As a family we are in shock at this terrible loss." The club said;

"The family of Panathinaikos mourns his untimely death. We stand with the family and loved ones of George Baldock."

Sheffield United also expressed their shock at the news, saying: "The defender left the club in the summer after seven years at Bramall Lane and was extremely popular with supporters, staff and team-mates who pulled on a red and white shirt alongside him."

Baldock had made four appearances for Panathinaikos and started in their goalless draw with Olympiakos on Sunday. He was capped 12 times by Greece, who he qualified for through his grandmother. Greece play England in the Nations League on Thursday, although Baldock had not been selected for the game.

The Greece national team said in a statement: "With profound sadness and sorrow, the national team and the Greek Football Federation bid farewell to George Baldock."

Baldock started his career at MK Dons in 2009 and played more than 100 times for them. He had loan spells with several clubs including Northampton and Oxford United, before joining Sheffield United in 2017. He made 219 appearances in all competitions for the club, helping them to promotion to the Premier League in 2019 and again in 2023.

Baldock was born in Buckingham but opted to represent Greece in May 2022, when he was called up for the national team for the first time by manager Gus Poyet. He made his debut for the country the following month in a 1-0 win over Northern Ireland at Windsor Park in Belfast.

Baldock's former Sheffield United team-mate Dean Henderson posted a picture of the pair on Instagram with the caption: "Devastated to hear the news today. A friend, great teammate, great player and also a great family man. Sending all my love to all the family. RIP brother."

Paul Heckingbottom, who managed Baldock for 18 months at Sheffield United, wrote on X: "Numbing to hear of George Baldock’s passing, a man with so much still ahead of him in life as a husband, father, brother and son."

"George was a super person and a fantastic professional who was admired and adored by all who worked with him. My prayers are with his loved ones right now."

Former Greece manager Gus Poyet, who gave Baldock his international debut in 2022, said: "My love and condolences are with George's family and friends. I'm devastated. Rest in peace George."

The English Football League said in a statement: "The EFL is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of George Baldock, a player who made a lasting impact with spells across the league at Sheffield United, at Oxford United, Northampton Town and MK Dons."

Baldock came through the youth system at MK Dons - as did his brother Sam - and the club said: "We are deeply devastated and saddened to learn about the shocking news of former academy graduate and MK Dons player, George Baldock."

Northampton Town posted: "We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of former loanee George Baldock at the tragically young age of 31".

Oxford United, where Baldock's brother James is club doctor, said: "Oxford United is deeply saddened to learn of the passing of former player, George Baldock, aged 31."

Tamworth Football Club, where Baldock also had a loan spell, early in his career, described him as "a brilliant character and a brilliant person", adding, "George went on to fulfil his potential and will always be remembered by everyone associated with club".