Event Football

FOOTBALL

FOOTBALL AS A METAPHOR FOR LIFE. The ball is the individual’s ego. Team members are family and friends; trust in team mates is the foundation of a good relationship and helps the player win the match of happiness. The opposition players are obstacles like anger, pride, hatred, that must be overcome to reach the goalpost. The goalpost is the universal consciousness to which a person must ultimately submit the ego, to achieve true bliss. The coach is the guru who teaches the way and the player learns from his mistakes on the field. The referee is the law of karma that reinforces the correct rules for playing. The audience is society that reacts to performance on the field

Soccer's global spread began in the late 1800s, when British traders, sailors, and soldiers carried the sport all over the world. Germans, Italians, and Austrians were eager converts in Europe, while Argentines, Uruguayans, and Brazilians took quickly to the sport in South America. FIFA was formed in 1904. By 1930 professional leagues were operating in many countries, and that year FIFA organized the first World Cup in Uruguay.

Soccer is the world's most popular sport, played by people of all ages in about 200 countries. The first laws of the modern game were supposedly drafted in 1862 by J. C. Thring of the Uppingham School. At a meeting of the London Football Association (FA) in 1863, the game was split into rugby football (the parent sport of American football), which permitted handling and carrying the ball, and association football, or soccer, which banned the use of the hands.

Women's Champions

Men's Champions Year

Winner

Score

Runner-up

Score

Place held

Uruguay

4

Argentina

2

Montevideo, Uruguay

1934

Italy

2

Czechoslovakia

1

Rome, Italy

1938

Italy

4

Hungary

2

Paris, France

1950

Uruguay

2

Brazil

1

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

1954

West Germany

3

Hungary

2

Bern, Switzerland

1958

Brazil

5

Sweden

2

Stockholm, Sweden

1962

Brazil

3

Czechoslovakia

1

Santiago, Chile

1966

England

4

West Germany

2

London, England

1970

Brazil

4

Italy

1

Mexico City, Mexico

1974

West Germany

2

Netherlands

1

Munich, Germany

1978

Argentina

3

Netherlands

1

Buenos Aires, Argentina

1982

Italy

3

West Germany

1

Madrid, Spain

1986

Argentina

3

West Germany

2

Mexico City, Mexico

1990

West Germany

1

Argentina

0

Rome, Italy

1994

Brazil

0*

Italy

0

Pasadena, California

1998

France

3

Brazil

0

Saint-Denis, France

2002

Brazil

2

Germany

0

Yokohama, Japan

* Brazil won the game 3-2 in a penalty-kick shoot-out.

Year

Winner

Score

Runner-Up

Score

Place Held

1991

United States

2

Norway

1

Guangzhou, China

1995

Norway

1

United States

0

Gavle, Sweden

1999

United States*

0

China

0

Pasadena, United States

* United States won the game 5-4 in a penalty-kick shoot-out.

World Cup Winners

The World's best Player of the Century •

Edson Arantes do Nascimento Pelé

•

Hendrik Johannes Cruijff

•

Franz Beckenbauer

•

Alfredo Di Stéfano

•

Diego Armando Maradona

•

Ferenc Puskás

•

Michel Platini

•

Manoel dos Santos Garrincha

•

Eusébio da Silva Ferreira

•

Sir Robert Charlton

Bobby Charlton - Sir Robert Charlton Born: 11 October, 1937. Ashington, England He won everything football has to offer. Championships, Cup winner's medals, a record number of international caps and goals. A perfect role model he had grace, speed, athleticism and a thunderbolt shot that made him dangerous even 30 yards from goal. He was besides a gentleman, the ultimate sporting hero with an unrivalled sense of fair play. Born into a football family in the Northumberland mining village of Ashington. His mother Cissie was It was the late 1960s. England had won a football fanatic who taught Bobby and his elder the World Cup and Manchester United brother Jack how to play. She once said: "I never the European Cup. All over the world had a doll. I just wanted to play football with the there were children who could speak lads. It's in my blood." Even in her seventies, she only two words of English. One was was still coaching children at the local primary "Bobby", the other was "Charlton", such school. His grandfather and four of his uncles were was the esteem in which he was held. professional footballers. "There has never been a more popular 1966 World Cup winner's medal. He was also footballer," said Sir Matt. "He was as Footballer of the Year, European Footballer of the near perfection as man and player as it Year and voted Best Player in the 1966 World Cup. is possible to be."

Franz Beckenbauer - Der Kaiser B: Sep. 11, 1945 West Germany WORLD CUP APPEARANCES: 3 tournaments ('66, '70, '74) CLUBS: Bayern Munich, New York Cosmos One of the greatest player and leader in World Cup history, Beckenbauer was the world's first libero, the attacking sweeper; a position he invented and was admired by the soccer world for the way he brought the ball forward from defence to create and score goals. The only man to have captained (in 1974) and coached (in 1990) a World Cup winning team. .

Johan Cruijff - dubbed "Pythagoras in boots" for the complexity and precision of his angled passes Cruyff was born in Amsterdam 25 Apr in 1947 close to the Ajax ground. His mother worked as a cleaner at the club and it was she who persuaded the coaches to admit her son to their youth development system at the age of 12. Cruijff lifted Ajax to heights the club had never been at before. His greatest quality was vision, based on an acute sense of his teammates' positions as an attack unfolded. Six Dutch league championships, four domestic cup titles and then three straight European Cup triumphs 1971-73 plus a European Super Cup and World Club Cup title on top of that as well. Johan Cruijff had taken over the torch from Pele as being the greatest player in the World. In the summer of 1974, the Netherlands with Cruijff as the conductor and captain, impressed everybody in the World Cup in West Germany. Their "Total-Football" style where every player moved position all the time and somehow made the Dutch outnumber their opponents in every area of the field, European Footballer of the Year (Golden Ball) winner three times and has since also been a highly successful coach at both Ajax and Barcelona.

Gordon Banks B: 30 December 1937. Sheffield, England For 10 years, Gordon Banks wasn't just England's goalkeeper. He was indisputably the best in the world. Perhaps the finest there has ever been.

"In my early days, a goal against us was shrugged off. Nobody liked conceding a goal, but once the ball had gone into the net it was accepted as 'one of those things' and everybody in the team would concentrate on trying to get the goal back. "But once the maximum wage had been lifted and win bonuses became allimportant, it was suddenly considered a crime to concede a goal." Perhaps somewhere in those words of Gordon Banks, goalkeeper supreme, is the difference between football as a sport and football as a hard-nosed business.

Save of the century: England goalkeeper Gordon Banks makes a remarkable save from Pele during the 1970 World Cup.

Save of the century: England goalkeeper Gordon Banks makes a remarkable save from Pele during the 1970 World Cup. If ever a goal looked a certainty, this was it. As the ball screamed towards its destination inside the post, somehow, miraculously, Gordon Banks got a hand to it and flicked it up over the bar. The save of the century? Probably. Pele could only stand and stare in amazement - along with several million incredulous TV viewers around the world.

As a young man, he was sent packing by Romarsh Welfare of the Yorkshire League after only two games - for letting in FIFTEEN goals! "I was noted more for the alacrity with which I picked balls out of the back of my net than for any stopping ability."

Ferenc Puskas – ‘Galloping Major; Little Canon’ B: 2 April, 1927. Budapest, Hungary . Kispest Honved, Real Madrid. "Look at that little fat chap. We'll murder this lot." In the long and inglorious annals of great British sporting disasters, few judgments have been wider of the mark. Ninety minutes later Hungary had slaughtered England 6-3. The "little fat chap" was Ferenc Puskas, the Hungarian captain. An odd looking footballer - short, stocky, barrel-chested, overweight, couldn't head and only used one foot. Yet his ball skills and inspired performance completely demolished England's reputation as a world football power.

A boy wonder, made his debut for his father's old team Kispest at the age of 16. At 18 he was an international, appearing for Hungary against Austria in 1945

GOSTHO PAL - THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA Gostho Behari Pal b. 20th August, 1896. D. April 8th 1976. Defender He started playing for Kumartuli at the age of 11and joined Mohun Bagan at the age of 16. By the age of 25 he became an icon famed for his defensive capabilities as the barefooted man standing tall in the heart of the Mohun Bagan defence.

KOLKATA GREAT’S

In 1924, Indian football team for the first time went to play on foreign soil. Gostho Pal was selected as the captain of the Indian side. Mohun Bagan awarded him the Mohun Bagan Ratna, which is given to former greats of that team. In his memory a statue was erected on a street named after him ‘Gostha Pal Sarani’ in Kolkata. An archive was launched in his honour and named the Gostha Pal Archive, inside the Mohun Bagan club premises.

Sailendra Nath Manna Born: September 1, 1924: Defender. Former Indian captain who fetched the country a host of international laurels including the first Asian Games gold in 1951. Led the first-ever Indian football team on an overseas tour that took part in the 1948 London Olympics playing barefoot. Rated as among the 10 best skippers of the world in its yearbook of 1953 by the England Football Association, under his leadership India won four successive titles in the South East Asian quadrangular meet (featuring India, Pakistan, Burma and Sri Lanka) between 1952 and 1955.

"We lost the match 1-2 against France (1948 Qlympics) but our performance drew huge cheers as we were challenging the Europeans bare-footed," He became captain of the Mohun Bagan team in 1951 and went on to win the Durand Cup five times, says Manna. "Princess Margaret had including three times consecutively. His team also won asked me during a reception at Buckingham Palace, `Aren't you afraid the IFA Shield six times, including four times of playing barefooted against boots?' We continuously in a row. He captained the Mohun Bagan could not say that there was no fund for team for six years from 1950 to 1955. "I never took buying boots. We just grinned and said money playing for Mohun Bagan. I played out of love for the sport and was happy with the salary I got from playing without them was more comfortable," says Manna with a hint of my employer, the Geological Survey of India," says Manna. pride.

SAHOO MEWALAL B: 1-7-1926 Fort william,Kolkata

Participating barefoot in the 1948 London Olympic he helped conduct the defeat 1 - 2 to France, 4 – 1 to Denmark, 4 - 1 to Austria, 4 – 1 to Germany and 1 - 1 to Switzerland Mewalal netted 6 goals providing his outstanding capability in scoring goals.

Coached by Sergeant Burnet of Fort Williams in the Morning Star Club in the year 1937 in right out position and later on switched over to Centre-Forward.In 1938 he scored his first goal against Grear Sporting Club on behalf of Nepier Club and that match was locked 1-1. FIRST BIG MATCH: He played his first big match on behalf of IFA-X1against India-X1 in the year1944 defeating India-X1 by 3-2,the wining goal was scored by Sahoo Mewalal. KOLKATA FOOTBALL LEAGUE CLUBS: Mewalal played forAryan Club1945, Mohunbagan Club1946 Eastern Railway1947 – 1955; Aryan Club again in 1956 – 57; B.N.R - 1958 A dedicated footballer he was the Top scorer in Kolkata football league: 1949 (32 Goals); 1951 (18 Goals); 1953 (11 Goals) 1954 (29 Goals); 1958 (6 Goals). He was appreciated by spectators for his skill and acrobatic fitness in executing the rarely seen "BACK VOLLY” Best Centre Fowrard India have ever produced.

Subimal Chuni Goswami B: January 15, 1938. Striker Led the Indian team to gold at the 1962 Asian Games in Jakarta; Universal favourite of Indian football with his brilliant flair and skill, Goswami led team defeated South Korea 2-1, with goals coming from P.K. Banerjee and Jarnail Singh. He was a natural sportsman, having achieved success in cricket and tennis. He captained India to the Asian Games victory in 1962 and a silver in the Asia Cup in Tel Aviv and in the Merdeka Cup. He also captained Bengal in cricket. Arjuna Award in 1963; Padma Shri in 1983.