“N’Golo Kanté is probably going to win successive league titles with different teams, has anyone managed to do so with three or more clubs?” asks Tony Thornton (and a lot of others).
In any game of oneupmanship, Zlatan Ibrahimovic is usually king. Asad Butt points out that, as part of his all-conquering career, Zlatan won consecutive titles at Internazionale (2009), Barcelona with his old mate Pep (2010) and Milan (2011).
In any game of oneupmanship, Eric Cantona is usually king, too. Before settling at Old Trafford he wandered from club to club and won the title with Marseille (1991), Leeds (1992) and Manchester United (1993). Thanks to Tom Funnell for that one.
There’s more. Dirk Maas highlights the case of Alexei Mikhailichenko, who was champion with Dynamo Kyiv in 1990, played a bit part in the great Sampdoria fairytale of 1990-91 and then won the Scottish title with Rangers the following season. Dirk also reminded us that Kingsley Coman won three in a row from 2014-16 with PSG, Juventus and Bayern Munich.
All very impressive, but Admir Pajic knows a man who won three titles with three different clubs in the space of 18 months. “Ivica Olic has managed to win three league titles with three different teams in two different countries. Olic was the best player of NK Zagreb in 2001-02 when they won their first (and only) league title to this date. Then, after a lot of controversies, he ended up at NK Dinamo Zagreb where he forged a formidable partnership with the Aston Villa legend Bosko Balaban. Tired of conquering Croatia, Olic signed for CSKA Moscow and won the league with the Russian club in the same calendar year.”
Can anyone top that? If so, email knowledge@theguardian.com or tweet @TheKnowledge_GU
Shunning sponsors
“Has a player ever refused a transfer or refused to play for a team because of a team’s sponsor?” asks JF Mamjjasond.
Yes, some footballers really do have a conscious. Newcastle’s Papiss Cissé refused to wear Newcastle’s Wonga-sponsored kit for a while in 2013 because it clashed with his Muslim beliefs. He changed his mind in the end, which may or may not have had anything to do with his being photographed in a casino.
At Sevilla, Frédéric Kanouté did something similar: he originally refused to wear shorts with an 888.com logo, as gambling was against his Islamic beliefs, but relented eventually.
There is also the famous case of Johan Cruyff at the 1974 World Cup. The Dutch FA had a deal with Adidas to supply their kit, and your Johnny Reps and Rob Rensenbrinks of this world were only too happy to wear the stripy orange shirts during the 1974 World Cup in Germany. Cruyff, of course, had other ideas. He had an exclusive personal deal with Adidas’s rivals Puma, who supplied him with their classic Puma King boots. Because of this, he was unwilling to sport the three trademark stripes of Adidas and insisted on a two-striped version instead. As you would expect, he got exactly what he wanted.
Home/away points differential
“With Burnley’s current great form at home and woeful away record, I was wondering what was the biggest difference in points gained at home to away based on three points for a win?” wonders Sean Cole. “I make Burnley’s this season 2.07 to 0.1 so a difference of 1.97.”
Sam Holden highlights the case of Coventry in the 1999-2000 Premier League season. “They took 37 points (12 wins, one draw) from their 19 home games and drew seven of their away games, averaging 1.95 points per home game and 0.37 per away game, a difference of 1.58 points. Although lower than Burnley’s current differential, Burnley’s remaining six away games are at teams in the bottom seven.”
Gordon Strachan, Coventry manager of the time, is a common link with another bunch of homers: the Leeds United team of 1992-93, who famously defended their league title by finishing 17th. They won none of their 21 away matches but were formidable at home, with only one defeat. Overall they took 44 points at home (average 2.10) and seven away (0.33) for a home/away difference of 1.77.
All this is really just a preamble to one of the greatest league tables ever committed to print. The Nigerian League of 2013 is utterly astonishing, with no team winning more than three away games. Gombe United, who finished seventh, won 18 of their 19 home games – and lost all 19 away matches. Their home/away difference was 2.89. Good luck beating that.
Knowledge archive
“Me and my friend have been having a heated debate over who was the best outfield emergency goalkeeper,” asked Brian Deegan back in the day. “I am standing firm on Peter Beardsley; other names in the hat include Lucas Radebe and Stéphane Henchoz. Sort this out!”
Lucas Radebe, who went in goal for Leeds at Old Trafford in April 1996, famously threatened to derail Manchester United’s title challenge in the game that sparked the Alex Ferguson rant that in turn fuelled Kevin Keegan’s “I would love it” outburst. Radebe went in goal in the 16th minute and kept the door shut until the 72nd minute, when Roy Keane scored a crucial goal.
Stéphane Henchoz is certainly worthy of mention. As any Arsenal or Manchester United fan will remember, he made a couple of great saves in the Millennium Stadium during the FA Cup final and Community Shield in 2001. Sadly, he was still playing centre-half at the time.
Nat Lofthouse and Bobby Moore both saved penalties for Bolton and West Ham respectively (though Moore was unfortunate enough to have the rebound blasted straight past him), and there are honourable mentions for Beardsley, Mal Donaghy, David Speedie and Vinnie Jones. But the daddy of stand-in goalkeepers has to be Niall Quinn.
On 20 April 1991, the Manchester City keeper Tony Coton hauled down Derby’s Dean Saunders in the box and was sent off. From the resulting penalty, taken by Saunders, Quinn dived full-length to his left to save. Eight years later, having just put Sunderland 1-0 up at Bradford, Quinn had to go in goal for the final 14 minutes when Thomas Sorensen was stretchered off – and he kept a clean sheet.
Can you help?
“It occurs to me that Leicester now lie 39 points behind Chelsea (and with a much inferior goal difference) with only 39 points left to play for,” points out Oliver Raven. “I wondered if this is the earliest effectively confirmed failure to defend a league title, either in terms of how much time is left in the season, ie more than three months, or according to the proportion of matches yet to be played – which would mean 34% of games still to come in this case?”
“In a recent game of Football Manager (I’m noticing a trend with recent submissions to the Knowledge …), I ended up in charge of Chester in the Vanarama North,” begins Tom Dempster. “One season started with 15 consecutive games (league and cup) without a draw (10 wins, five defeats). This got me thinking about similar streaks in real life. What is the longest streak of games a team has gone without a draw? And on a related note, what is the lowest percentage of drawn games by a team in a single season?”
“During the DFB-Pokal match against Hertha Berlin, Borussia Dortmund played with four different team captains,” notes Julian Unkel. “Official captain Marcel Schmelzer started, but had to be substituted at half-time, with vice-captain Marco Reus taking over. With the game going into extra-time, Reus had to be substituted due to injury as well, passing the armband to Sokratis Papastathopoulos, who was then sent off in the final moments of extra time. Thus, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang became the fourth team captain of the night and led the team into the penalty shootout. Which they won. Is this the most captains a team has ever fielded during a competitive match?”
“When Manchester City were the first English champions to be relegated in 1938 they were the highest scorers with 80 goals,” explains David Forster. “West Brom also went down that year with an incredible 77 goals. Has it ever happened elsewhere that relegated teams have gone down scoring so many goals?”
“I remember a picture of a Turkish goalkeeper years ago that caught my attention for some peculiar reason,” writes Max Cheung. “He was sporting an Uhlsport jersey, a pair of Reusch gloves, a pair of Umbro shorts, as well as Adidas socks and Puma boots. For years I have been unable to find it on the internet until just moments ago, when I stumbled across the name of that goalkeeper (Engin İpekoğlu) and found this, which proved that my memories were indeed correct (unluckily the picture didn’t show his socks and boots, but we can assume that he was indeed wearing some Adidas products as his teammates next to him were). A total of five different brand names were used by him. Can anyone top that?”
“There must be some reason players keep returning to Motherwell,” writes Alan Paterson. “In the fairly recent past Brian McClair, John Sutton, Henrik Ojamaa and the late Phil O’Donnell all returned to play at Fir Park after time playing for other clubs on a permanent basis. Last week Stephen Pearson returned to Motherwell to begin his third spell with the club. As of January 2016, though, Motherwell had six players in their squad (Stephen Pearson, Scott McDonald, Steven Hammell, Keith Lasley, James McFadden and David Clarkson) all in, at least, their second spell with the club. Has any club ever had more returning players in their squad at the same time? Particularly, with none of the spells at or away from the club being on loan.”
- Send your questions and answers to knowledge@theguardian.com or tweet@TheKnowledge_GU.
