OSSIE AND VILLA

I am listening to the various transfers' news to British Clubs, from foreign countries. There have been plenty and here are some "specials".

10th July 1978 Back on this day in 1978, the footballing talking point was centred on Tottenham Hotspur. In those days a 'foreign' player in the English game was Welsh, Scottish or Irish, so when Spurs - who had just won promotion from the Second Division - signed two players from the Argentine squad that had just won the World Cup, it became front-page news. Ossie Ardiles was part of the winning Argentine team while Ricky Villa had played in a couple of matches as a sub prior to the final. Both players became firm favourites at White Hart Lane and after they arrived the trickle of foreign players into the English game slowly became a flood and things would never be the same again. 

Early Foreign Players in English Football: Walter Bowman: The first foreign player in the Football League, playing for Accrington in 1892. Max Seeburg: A German player who appeared for Tottenham in 1908-09. Hussein Hegazi: An Egyptian forward who played for Fulham in 1911-12. Nils Middelboe: A Danish international who played for Chelsea in 1913. Emilio Aldecoa: The first Spaniard to play in the English league, arriving in 1937 as a refugee. In 1930 Arsenal try to sign an Austrian goalkeeper, Rudy Hiden, but his work permit application is declined because he was foreign. Gerry Keizer: The first Dutchman to play in the League, joined Arsenal in 1930. The FA and PFA adopted an anti-foreigner stance. Arsenal ignore them and signed Keizer, the League’s first Dutchman. SO, the FA introduced a two-year residency rule to thwart further foreign professional imports. This effective ban on foreign professionals remained in place until 1978. In 1978, The European Community in Brussels decided on 23 February that football associations cannot deny access to players on the basis of their nationality. At its summer AGM, the Football League lifted its 47-year effective ban on foreigners. A “new wave” of imports, including Ossie Ardiles, Ricky Villa, Ivan Golac and Kazimierz Deyna, starts to arrive. In 1988-89 Arsenal won the League title without using a single foreign player. They were the last club to do so!