The world in one team
“Has any team had players from each of the six permanently inhabited continents (Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, South America and Oceania) at one time?” tweeted Kenn Rushworth last week.
You’re in luck, Kenn – there are plenty, all over the world, but let’s start in south-east London, where disco dancing’s Alan Pardew constructed a continental feast last season. Taking the presence of several Europeans as a given, we’ll hand over to Ben Jameson.
“Last season’s Crystal Palace had Adrian Mariappa (Jamaica), Julian Speroni (Argentina), five Africans, Lee Chung-yong (South Korea) and Mile Jedinak (Australia),” he writes. “Speroni, Mariappa, Lee and Jedinak all played (alongside Pape Souaré, Emmanuel Adebayor and several Europeans) in their last Premier League match against Southampton. This is, of course, if you don’t count Australia as part of Asia. Which it isn’t, except for the fact it plays in AFC tournaments.” Much good it did Palace, mind you: they were handily beaten by Southampton, going down 4-1.
Jonas offers two more Premier League examples, each featuring a non-playing squad member. First up, it’s Manchester City’s 2002-03 vintage, which featured Ali Benarbia (Algeria), Paulo Wanchope (Costa Rica), Sun Jihai (China), Danny Tiatto (Australia) and Argentina’s Vicente Matias Vuoso, who famously never played a game for Kevin Keegan’s team. Fresher in the collective consciousness are last season’s champions, Leicester City, who regularly fielded Riyad Mahrez (Algeria), Wes Morgan (a Jamaican international), Argentina’s Leo Ulloa and Japan’s Shinji Okazaki, and also had Australia’s Mark Schwarzer on their books.
Moving from the East Midlands to East Lancashire, Adam Wilson recalls Mark Hughes’s work at Blackburn. “I would like to nominate the Blackburn Rovers squad of 2007-08,” Adam says. “On their books were Benni McCarthy and Aaron Mokoena of South Africa, Christopher Samba of the Republic of Congo, Paraguay’s Roque Santa Cruz, Brad Friedel of the USA, Jason Roberts of Grenada and New Zealand’s Ryan Nelsen.”
As for an Asian player to complete the set, it’s a little trickier. “Zurab Khizanishvili is from Georgia, a UEFA member but in what is traditionally considered Asia, while Turkey’s Tugay is from Trabzon, which is in Asiatic Turkey”. Then there’s Brett Emerton of Australia, a member of the AFC but not part of the Asian continent.
Decide if they count amongst yourselves; the rest of us are heading off to Belgium. “Last season’s Belgian champions Club Brugge had players from every continent in their squad, says Stijn. “They had Mali’s Abdoulay Diaby, Costa Rica’s Oscar Duarte, Brazil’s Claudemir, Israel’s Lior Refaelov and Australia’s Bernie Ibini-Isei.
From Bruges to Bavaria, where Douglas Wright and Clayton Freeman both nominate FC Ingoldstadt, who have Marvin Matip (Cameroon), Mathew Leckie (Australia), Alfredo Morales (USA), Darío Lezcano (Paraguay) on their books, plus two men from Asian countries that play within UEFA: Almog Cohen (Israel) and Konstantin Engel (Kazakhstan).
Over to the MLS, where Benjamin Stormo and Dan Ryazansky both nominate the 2013 New York Red Bulls, featuring many US players, plenty of Europeans including Thierry Henry, a handful of South Americans including Brazil’s Juninho (the Lyon one, not the Middlesbrough one), as well as DR Congo-born Peguy Luyindula, Australia’s Tim Cahill, and Kosuke Kimura of Japan.
All fit the bill, but we’re still searching for a sextet of players from each of the continental confederations – and it turns out there are two recent examples from the Premier League, although sadly, both sides finished at the bottom.
First, Russell Yong nominates the 2008-09 West Brom side, which featured Youssouf Mulumbu (DR Congo), Juan Carlos Menseguez (Argentina), Kim Do-heon (South Korea), Chris Wood (New Zealand) and Sheldon Martis – then of Netherlands-Antilles, now of Curacao.
Then there’s Ben Wright, who suggests QPR’s 2012-13 squad, which included players from each confederation. In October 2012, Harry Redknapp named Júlio César (Brazil), Adel Taarabt (Morocco), Park Ji-Sung (South Korea), Junior Hoilett (Canada), Ryan Nelsen (New Zealand) and (among others) England’s Bobby Zamora in his team for the 1-1 draw with Everton – the clearest example we’ve found of a starting eleven with a player from each continent, and each confederation.
League Cup woe
“Plymouth Argyle have progressed from the first round of the League Cup three times since 1992. Do any other clubs have a more miserable record in the competition?” demands James Dart.
Well, not quite James – although Paul Fulcher makes a compelling case for AFC Wimbledon perhaps having the worst record, percentage-wise, since rejoining the top four tiers.
“In their AFC incarnation, Wimbledon have spent six years in the Football League and never progressed beyond the first round,” begins Paul.
“Indeed in their first Football League season, 2011-12, they didn’t even get as far as the first round, being knocked out in a preliminary round, necessitated by the complication of Birmingham getting both relegated to the Championship and qualifying for Europe. That is one of only two such preliminary rounds ever played, the other was in 2002-03. The original Wimbledon, before the Milton Keynes fiasco, had actually reached two semi-finals and two quarter-finals in their last nine years of existence.”
Here’s another side with a mixed record in what’s now known as the EFL Cup: “In 2006-07, Wycombe miraculously managed to get to the League Cup semi-finals despite residing in League Two, defeating Fulham and Charlton (both in the Premier League at the time) along the way before succumbing 5-1 on aggregate to Chelsea,” says Andrew Styles.
“They have followed this up by progressing from the first round only once in the past ten seasons, including becoming one of Plymouth’s rare first round victims in 2007-08.” The Chairboys continued their barren run this season, losing 1-0 to Bristol City.
Knowledge archive
“I seem to remember a story in the Spanish press when Mohamed Sissoko was at Valencia which said that he told his manager on international week that he had been called up, when this was totally untrue,” writes Bill MacLachlan in August 2006.”Apparently he even had the cheek to say he scored a goal in the match. Is this true and are there any other funny stories of players skiving when they should be at matches?”
Oh it’s true, Bill. Well, sort of. After a World Cup qualifier against Senegal last September, the Mali international told Valencia he’d be staying at home to play in a friendly against Kenya. Upon his return, he revealed that he’d played 48 minutes in a 1-0 win (he wasn’t cheeky enough to claim the goal for himself, as that would be a bit too implausible), a declaration that turned out to be a big fib - he’d actually been in Paris visiting his father, who was ill in hospital. When Claudio Ranieri, then manager of Valencia, discovered the deceit he saw the funny side and told Sissoko that the club would have happily given him the time off anyway.
More recently, former France international Youri Djorkaeff found himself with some explaining to do for bunking off when he told club officials at New York Red Bulls that he had to return to France to attend to a serious family matter. The domestic crisis in question? Enthusiastically celebrating France’s World Cup quarter-final win over Brazil in Frankfurt, Germany, where he was caught by TV cameras.
Earlier this month, Stoke striker Sammy Bangoura ended an unexplained 37-day absence and returned to the club having missed pre-season training. Rumoured to have been at home in his native Guinea, Bangoura’s absence infuriated the Potters so much that they stopped paying his wages while he was away. The 24-year-old striker - twice previously late returning to the club from Guinea - eventually reported for duty the day before Stoke’s season opener at Southend, claiming that an immigration wrangle involving his five-month-old daughter had caused the delay.
...and a bonus Knowledge archive update!
“It’s odd timing that you returned to the most goals scored on a debut a couple of weeks ago,” begins Colin Carter.
“While bored at work, I was reading up on Vincent Janssen, and stumbled across the story of Johan Voskamp. His first game for Sparta Rotterdam in 2010 was against Almere City (who Janssen joined in 2013) in the Dutch second division. Sparta won 12-1 and Voskamp scored eight goals – which has to be up there with the best debuts ever.”
Can you help?
“Since Wycombe Wanderers sold local boy Matt Ingram to QPR last season, we have had a, shall we say, ‘fluid’ goalkeeping situation. So much so that in our last five league games (carried over from the 15-16 season), we have played five different keepers. The roll of honour is as follows: Benjamin Siegrist (on loan from Aston Villa) played against Accrington; Ryan Allsop (on loan from Bournemouth) played on the last day against Oxford; new signing Scott Brown played in our first game of this season at Crawley but sustained a groin injury; Cameron Dawson (emergency loan from Sheffield Wednesday) played against Grimsby, but Wycombe and Wednesday couldn’t agree on an extension, so Jamal Blackman joined on loan from Chelsea in time for the next game, against Accrington. Can any other clubs match this rate of turnover for goalkeepers?” – Bill Sheppard.
“After seeing Italian side Sassuolo win 3-0 against Red Star Belgrade on their European debut, I thought I would check their Wikipedia entry. I noticed that one of their previous managers, Alberto Malesani, had failed to win a single game in any of his last three management posts (the other two being Genoa and Palermo). Is this a record?” – Robin Tucker.
“What is the most number of goals scored by a single player in consecutive games without another player in the same team getting on the scoresheet during said period?” – Liam Ward.
“Newcastle played Bristol City, managed by Lee Johnson, on Saturday, and play Cheltenham tonight, who are managed by his dad, Gary. Are there any other examples of famous father-son managers playing against the same opposition consecutively?” – Paul Harte.
“Yannick Bolasie has played against West Brom in his first two matches of the season – for Crystal Palace on the opening day, and for Everton last Saturday. Surely this is a first?” – Rafi Addlestone.
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