Laurie Cunningham

Laurie Cunningham

Laurence Paul "Laurie" Cunningham (8 March 1956 – 15 July 1989) was an England international footballer. When he joined Real Madrid, he became the first English player in the club's history. He was also the first black player to represent England at any level (under 21), and the first to represent the full England side in a competitive match. Life Born in Archway, London, Cunningham started in schoolboy football and was turned down by Arsenal before joining Leyton Orient in 1974.[1] He joined West Bromwich Albion in 1977, where, under manager Johnny Giles, he teamed up with another black player, Cyrille Regis, and the following year (under Ron Atkinson) with Brendon Batson. This was the first time an English team simultaneously fielded three black players, and Atkinson collectively referred to Cunningham, Batson and Regis as 'The Three Degrees' after the legendary U.S. soul singing trio.[1] West Bromwich Albion became one of the most attractive and exciting English sides in the late 1970s and Cunningham soon attracted attention. He became the first black player to wear an England shirt at any level[2] in England under-21s' friendly against Scotland at Bramall Lane on 27 April 1977, scoring on his debut. He subsequently earned a full England cap, making his debut against Wales in a Home International on 23 May 1979. Although Viv Anderson had made his England debut in a friendly six months previously and thus was the first black player to play for the senior England team, Cunningham was the first black player to play in a competitive England match. In June 1979, Cunningham gained his 2nd and 3rd caps, against Sweden and Austria respectively. In the summer of 1979 he made a historic move as the first British player to transfer to Real Madrid, for £950,000.[1] According to legend, Real Madrid had first really become aware of Cunningham after his brilliant performance against Valencia in the UEFA Cup in 1979. Knowing this, Cunningham made his way to the Bernabeu in the off season, and asked if they would like to sign him, thus getting the ball rolling with the negotiations at Ron Atkinson's house. Playing for Real Madrid in the 1979/80 season, Cunningham started off well, scoring twice on his league debut against Valencia (and setting up the other goal in the 3–1 win), and also scoring against Barcelona at the Bernabeu. In one of his most memorable performances, he inspired a 2–0 victory for Real in the reverse fixture at Camp Nou, terrorising the Barcelona back line and even earning a standing ovation from the home fans. As well as his impressive league form, he was scoring important goals and performing well in Europe, as Real Madrid powered their way to the European Cup semi finals, where despite Cunningham's impressive goal in Hamburger SV, they lost 5–3 on aggregate to Kevin Keegan's side. Unfortunately, though he played against the Republic of Ireland in England's last Euro 1980 qualifier in February 1980, his performances often went unnoticed back in England, and he was regularly overlooked by Ron Greenwood – even in a March 1980 prestige friendly against his adopted country, Spain, he was only brought on as a substitute against the hosts in a 2–0 England win – but Cunningham had to shoulder some of the responsibility, as he failed to secure an International Release clause in his lucrative contract, and Real prevented him from joining the England squad on a number of occasions. At the end of a successful first season with Real Madrid, winning the double and becoming Real's 3rd highest scorer that season, Cunningham was surprisingly omitted from Greenwood's Euro 1980 squad. He seemed to be a pawn in a power struggle between England and Real Madrid, with Greenwood later explaining that he was unable to call up Cunningham due to the late scheduling of the Spanish Cup Final – although Tony Woodcock (then of 1. FC Köln) was also only up for release at the same time due to his own domestic cup final, yet he joined the Euro 1980 squad. Shrugging off this disappointment and back at Real Madrid, Cunningham began the 1980/1 season well, and was again called up for England (after bitter negotiations with Real Madrid) for the 1982 World Cup Qualifier against Norway, only to be an unused sub as England won 4–0. In the next qualifier against Romania, he came off the bench but was unable to help England avoid a 2–1 defeat. This was to be his last England cap. Back with Real Madrid, his early season form was good again scoring goals in the early rounds of the European Cup, but then he succumbed to injury, and required an operation on a broken toe. This toe saga was to sour his relations with Real, as he was heavily fined and ostracised for celebrating the success of the operation at a disco. His recovery was set back due to aggravating the injury at yet another disco, and also again due to a tough training ground challenge. Cunningham developed a playboy reputation, and was heavily criticised in the Spanish press, together with his long-time girlfriend Nicky Brown. Many speculated at this stage in his career, Cunningham was more interested in his hobbies of architecture, fashion, disco dancing and fast cars than he was in playing football for Real Madrid. Cunningham recovered just in time for the 1981 European Cup Final against Liverpool in Paris, and though he was clearly not match fit, played the whole match (with some exciting bursts of play), as Real Madrid lost 1–0. During pre season training for the 1981/2 season, Cunningham's injury jinx continued, as a thigh injury kept him out of the majority of the season (only 3 goalless appearances in the league), his only real noteworthy contribution was in the UEFA Cup quarter final tie against Kaiserslautern. In the first leg, Cunningham showed that he wasn't quite over the hill with a goal and great performance in Real Madrid's 3–1 win. In the 2nd leg, however, he was sent off shortly before half time for retaliation, as Kaiserslatern won 5–0 to inflict Real Madrid's worst ever result in European competition. Prior to this tie, a finally fit Cunningham had been summoned up for England duty again, but this would be the last time he made an England squad. Cunningham won a 2nd Spanish Cup medal as he played in the final when Real Madrid beat Gijón 2–1, but it was a depressing campaign for him. For the next season, with Real Madrid signing Johnny Metgod to join Uli Stielike as the 2 permitted foreigners, Cunningham spent most of the 1982/3 season on the sidelines, until joining Manchester United on loan in April 1983, reuniting with Ron Atkinson. The loan move wasn't a great success (5 appearances, 1 goal), and Cunningham returned to Real Madrid, where he was promptly loaned out to Sporting Gijón for the 1983/4 season. In Gijón (under his old real Madrid manager Vujadin Boškov), he got to play in the most number of league games since his West Brom days, but was clearly no longer the same player, his pace having deteriorated, as his injuries took their toll. On completion of his loan, Real Madrid decided to write him off and he went to Olympique Marseille in France on a free transfer. Cunningham was only to remain in France for one (semi impressive) season in 1984/5, before heading back to England to join Leicester City. Like his last sojourn in England, again this was an unimpressive stay, effectively playing only half a season due to yet more injury. At the end of this 1985/6 season, Cunningham went back to Spain to play in the 2nd tier for Rayo Vallecano, enjoying his best season since his hey day, managing 37 games in this 1986/7 season. Buoyed by this, he managed to secure a financially rewarding move to Charleroi in Belgium for the 1987/8 campaign, but was yet again struck down by injury, and in the new year was back in England on a short term deal with Wimbledon, where he managed to help the Dons beat Liverpool in the 1988 FA Cup Final, finally avenging his defeat against Liverpool in the European Cup Final 7 years earlier. After sharing in that glory, Cunningham again headed back to Spain and Rayo Vallecano for the 1988/9 season, enjoying an Indian summer and the season was topped off by scoring the goal that secured their promotion to the Primera Liga.[1] Laurie Cunningham was killed in a car crash in Madrid on the morning of 15 July 1989. He was 33. He left behind his Spanish wife and their one child, a son. In 2004 he was named as one of West Bromwich Albion's 16 greatest players, in a poll organised as part of the club's 125th anniversary celebrations. Honours Real Madrid La Liga winner – 1980 Copa del Rey winner – 1980 and 1981 Wimbledon FA Cup winner – 1988

Matt Le Tissier 'Le God'

Matt Le Tissier Le God https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1nhUqJ7lm_Pjd4M9_CgvJTXenJtt_Oz3xquCQau4pueYsQ8iqCXb-0Z0aNwyO7avRDeEgp3M-rdzwmFSp25AeoVZMS-7wSSa6T5tGGqYqbqV-FgrehwgqSdOd9-LCHxQvtgvnYera6Tny/s400/letissier.JPG

Matt Le Tissier always did do things a bit differently. Why look for a pass when you can just smash it into the top corner from 35 yards out? The scorer of 102 Premier League goals for this season's newly promoted Southampton, and a player who won only eight England caps – the last of which was picked up against England's opponents tonight, Italy – now wants to break with coaching convention. He is sick of hearing that English lads are not as good as their counterparts on the continent. He is disenchanted by the way top professionals are patronised by boring coaching courses and sceptical about how smaller pitches and fewer players will really change anything if the attitudes of those training youngsters stay the same. Next week he launches his own "Natural Coaching" school in Southampton with trials for young players to take part in a season-long football education. "There are talented boys out there. They can go on for ever about how the lads on the continent are more talented than ours but if you coach them properly there is natural ability in this country. I just don't think it is harnessed properly," Le Tissier says. "They are trying to change things with smaller pitches and fewer players and hopefully it will make a difference but it's all very well to say 'right we are going to play on smaller pitches and with fewer players but I'm still going to pick the biggest boys so I can win the game', then nothing will change. Take out the winning and stick in the enjoyment and you will end up with far better players at the age of 15." Twenty or so lucky boys will be picked from each age bracket and train once a week throughout the season alongside Le Tissier. The Natural Coaching players will not make up teams or enter a league. Instead, they will be encouraged to express themselves, experiment and enjoy the sessions while continuing to play for their school or youth teams. Le Tissier says if the project goes on to produce a superstar then great; if it just means everyone improves and a couple of players from the group end up having enjoyable non-league careers, which they might not otherwise have had, then that's fine too. Not that he doesn't have his eye on higher things. Le Tissier says: "Kids have to be encouraged to learn how to play all over the pitch so that they improve their understanding of football. If you do that in youth football then later on you can play a formation that looks like a 4-6-0 on paper but dominates a game. If someone had said in England 20 years ago that you could win a tournament the way Spain did without a No 9 they would have been called crazy but their players are comfortable in lots of different positions, making it possible." Le Tissier believes the current set-up not only fails to properly harness talented players but also deters a certain type of former pro becoming a coach – flair players don't usually end up as managers. "Whenever I say this it sounds really arrogant and I don't mean it to but it is just that when you have had years of somebody who is not as good as you with the ball telling you what to do you lose the will to go and do what that guy is doing. And the biggest obstacles are the coaching badges. You have to go through so much rubbish to get qualified. "It's boring. I did level two and got halfway through it but I was so bored that I had to give it up. And there are four levels before you reach Uefa level A. It was so basic – like teaching someone to pass the ball 10 yards. I just thought: 'What am I doing here?' To be honest, I felt it was a bit patronising. After 17 years of playing professional football to then have to go through that and for them to say to me, 'OK but you've got to do this before you can qualify to coach anybody else.'" So should the FA fast-track top players? "Their idea of fast-tracking is that you miss level one," he says. "I swear to you if what I did was level two I dread to think what level one is like." And there is another problem with the current set-up: "If all coaches are taught the same things then they are going to end up coaching the same way. For me, the great coaches are the ones that do things a little bit differently. That's why with Roy [Hodgson] England will do all right, we'll get through qualifying but because we never do anything different we'll keep getting knocked out in the quarter-finals." Would the overlooked Harry Redknapp have had that something different? "I think so," Le Tissier says. "He's not afraid to play someone a little bit different to win a football match or differ the shape to alter the course of a game. I don't think we have got that with Roy." Long before he first pulled on the No 7 shirt for Southampton, Le Tissier won a best player award at a Southampton soccer school as an 11-year-old – the prize was having his picture taken with Kevin Keegan and then manager Lawrie McMenemy. Le Tissier went on to light up the Premier League that kicked off 20 years ago today and he still believes that it is the most exciting league in world football, although it could do its part to rejuvenate the national team by working harder to develop home-grown talent. "We have a brilliant product," he says. "It might not be the most technically gifted league in the world but it's the most exciting. What we have lost is a lot of English players. In the first year of the Premier League, there were about 12 foreign lads that played and when you look back at, say, the Euro '96 squad and the amount of forwards that Terry Venables had to pick from – Alan Shearer, Ian Wright, Les Ferdinand, Robbie Fowler, Stan Collymore, Teddy Sheringham, Peter Beardsley, with Gazza as well – of the strikers who went to the Euros [this year], Wayne Rooney would perhaps have been part of the squad then but none of the others would have got a sniff. "A lot of the foreign players have come in and done brilliant things – I've loved watching the Bergkamps, the Henrys and Zolas – but I think we have got too obsessed with relying on the foreign players instead of working on developing our own young players." While working on the Natural Coaching project, Le Tissier will not miss out on Southampton's return to the top flight. The club's current owner's reticence towards recognising the club's past means that Le Tissier is not exactly welcomed back to St Mary's on matchdays. But he says: "I've bought a season ticket, so they will have a job keeping me away!" He will be in Guernsey on Sunday and so will miss their return to top-flight action against champions Manchester City for whom Sergio Aguero won the title in the last seconds of last season supporting Le Tissier's theory that no league is as thrilling as the Premier League. "Kun" also reminds him of one of the big changes the League brought with it – names, and now even nicknames, on shirts. "It wasn't until the second season that we had our names on the back of our shirts. That was making a big statement about how they wanted things to be – an indication that it was going to be more showbiz from then on in." Would the man Southampton fans nicknamed Le God have followed Kun's lead and put one of his various monikers above his No 7? "I think I would probably have avoided Le God," he says. Tonight, England play Italy and the man Southampton fans worshipped will be reminded of his biggest regret in football. "That header I had against Italy at Wembley in '97; I'd just like for that to go the other side of the post. We lost 1-0. That might have made a difference to my England career." It was the last of his eight caps. Playing his part in coaching the next generation, he could still make a difference to the future of the national game.

Larbi Ben Barek

Larbi Benbarek or Larbi Ben Barek (also known as the Black Pearl) (16 June 1914 – 16 September 1992) (Casablanca, Morocco) was a Moroccan football player. He was the first player to bear the nickname of Black Pearl. Career The first African star and the first to bear the nickname of "Black Pearl", Ben Barek blazed a trail to the European, and particularly French and Spanish, leagues. He arrived at Marseille, France at the age of 20, and became an instant favourite with the fans for his skills and technical abilities. Pele took the name of the "Black Pearl" after he made a famous statement about Larbi: "If I am the King of Soccer, then Larbi Ben Barek is the God of it". He is largely remembered as the first successful black footballer in Europe. His career was interrupted by the onset of World War II but he was soon back to his best with Stade Français FC and then in Spain, with Atlético Madrid, where he truly blossomed and where his international fame spread. His nickname with the fans in Spain was "The Foot of God". With the help of Benbarek, Atlético won La Liga in 1950 and 1951. He returned to Marseille in 1953. In 1955, he joined USM Bel-Abbès, where he ended his playing career. One of the finest players ever to represent France, his adopted country, he made 19 appearances for the French national team between 1938 and 1954. But his comeback in 1954 against Germany in Hanover was curtailed by an injury after half an hour and proved to be the end of his career. Later life He was the first coach of the Morocco national football team. Larbi Ben Barek died in his home town on 16 September 1992. Also, 6 years after his death, he was awarded the FIFA Order of Merit Award, which is the award of the highest honor in FIFA. 1938–1954France 19 games, 3 goals.