Francesco Totti – One Club Wonder

The idea of one club wonders is a unique one in the current game with transfer records being broken left right and centre. Its not often that world class players stay at the club they broke onto the scene with all the way to their retirement. However every now again a few gems present themselves into this category, not tempted buy record transfer or astronomical wages, these players played for their beloved clubs and cities and the fans repaid that loyalty.

‘Play for the name on the front of the shirt and they will remember the name on the back.’ A classic Tony Adams quote that rings true for all these one club heros.

I am going to look at doing some short articles on one club wonders, I have numerous legends I want to talk about in these articles so they will hopefully be short and sweet giving people something to read in these uncertain times.

So, starting with the ‘L’Ottavo Ri fi Roma’ The 8th King of Rome – Francesco Totti.

A wonderfully creative attacking player for both Roma and the Italian national side, he is regarded as one of the greatest Italian players to grace the famous blue shirt, one of the greatest in a delightfully talented generation of players and Roma’s greatest ever player.

As the article suggests Totti spent his entire professional career with Roma, in that time he won a Serie A Title, two Coppa Italia’s and two Supercoppa Italiana Titles. His individual accomplishments speak for themselves – He is the second highest goal-scorer in Serie A history with 250 goals in an impressive 618 games. As you would imagine having spent 17 years at the club he is the clubs highest scoring player and most capped player.

He also hold a very prestigious record as the youngest club captain in Serie A history at age 22. The list below shows just what an incredible career he had;
• 11 Oscar del Calcio awards from the IFA
• 5 Serie A Italian Footballer of the year Awards
• 2 Serie A goal of the season awards
• Serie A young footballer of the year award
• 2007 European Golden Shoe and 2010 Golden Foot
• Players Career Award and UEFA Presidents Award

He gained 58 caps with the national team scoring 9 goals. In that time he won 2006 Fifa World Cup in not only a magnificently talented Italian team but a competition that sported an unbelievable array of talent!

Totti had transfer request from some of the biggest clubs in Europe that he inevitably rejected, including a move to Real Madrid in 2004 which could well have seen him lift the champions league title but he rejected the move quoting ‘I choose to stay and wear just one shirt rather than all those titles’.

After retirement from football Totti stayed at the club to become club director, however the situation turned sour for the Roma legend when in 2019 he announced his resignation from the role after disputes with the owners and chairman. He went on to say that a return in the future is a possibility but only under new ownership. That signal the end of a 30 year association with the club.

That concludes my first article in the One club wonder section. I will look to do a number of these over the coming days with the hope to promote the beautiful relationship players have with the boyhood clubs.

Please share this far and wide with anyone who loves football. I love talking about football and the more people that see theses post the more people I can have discussions with. Ill leave you with a delicately put quote by the great man himself.

‘ I cheated on all my girlfriends with each other but I never cheated on Roma and I never will’

Over recent years Liverpool have provided us with countless moments of entertainment. Some regrettably at their expense when we think of Gerrards slip against Chelsea or Crystal Palaces comeback against them in that same season. However, they have also provided us with some of the great footballing comebacks in football history. A few of these games are going to have similar ring and that’s Steven Gerrard inspiring a comeback.

That being said lets get started in that very stadium…

Liverpool vs Olympiacos 3-1 2004

This comeback seemed to tell the story for the rest of the Champions League campaign for Liverpool. Going into the game Liverpool needed to win by two clear goals to advance into the knockout stages, this was always going to be tough ask and when Rivaldo scored after 27 minutes it made the uphill task even harder.

Florent Simama Pongolle put Liverpool level before the break which left 45 minutes at Anfield to find 2 goals progress. Neil Mellor gave Liverpool the lead with nine minutes left to play, setting the scene for Liverpools home town hero to determine the night. With just 4 minutes before full time Steven Gerrard steps up with a beautifully struck volley with the inside of his boot to send Liverpool through to the knockout stages which would eventually set the scene for another entry on my list but we will get to that later.

Liverpool vs Borussia Dortmund 2016

This was Jurgen Klopp’s first season for Liverpool and he found himself 4-2 on aggregate to his former side. This was an remarkably strong Dortmund side with he likes of Rues, Aubamyang and Mkhitaryan playing and convincingly the better side over the two legs with 25 minutes to play.

They really couldn’t have done anymore by this point Dortmund but this was a European night at Anfield. With only an Origi goal for the home side they needed something special. A beautifully hit low drive by Philippe Coutinho was the catalyst Liverpool needed. Then follow a Sakho header drew the sides level and Liverpool in a position for an unbelievable victory.

An injury time Lovern header caused the Anfield faithful to erupt. A 4-3 victory grab from the jaws of defeat.
Dortmund manager at the time Thomas Tuchal famously said after the game ‘ if I could explain it then something logical would have happened. You cant explain that.’

Liverpool vs Barcelona 2019

After a 3-0 beating at the Nou Camp from a Messi inspired Barcelona, who scored that wonderful free-kick, Liverpool were going to need something special to have any hope of reaching the final. Liverpool only really had slim chance because of Dembeles miss later in the first leg which would have sealed the tie.

Divock Origi started the unlikely comeback 7 minutes into the game when he tapped home after a lovely run from Henderson. This didn’t change the tie too much, its was only when Liverpools Dutch midfield maestro scored twice in 122 seconds to make it 3-3 on aggregate and give Liverpool a genuine chance of progressing.

Barcelona were uncharacteristically rattled and look lost in the Anfield atmosphere before the now famous commentary ‘Corner taken quickly’. Some genius thinking by Trent Alexander Arnold caught Barcelona napping and Origi fired home to give Liverpool the victory and progression to the final that they inevitably won.
This was the first time since 1986 that a team had turned around a 3 goal first leg deficit to win a semi-final. This was Liverpool side missing both Salah and Firmino.

Liverpool vs AC Milan 2005

It would be a comprehensive list of comebacks if it didn’t include the famous ‘Miracle of Istanbul’.

Liverpool came back from a 3-0 first half losing position to take AC Milan to penalties and secure a 5th Champions League Final Victory. This was an AC Milan side sporting some of the greatest players of a generation and a Liverpool side that had road their luck to be in the final in the first place.

After a first half blitzkrieg from Milan which include a first minute goal by Milan captain Maldini making him the oldest goal scorer in the competition. After a flurry of chances at both end, some sublime goalkeeping, defending and few offsides, Kaka played a lovely ball to Shevchenko who played it to Crespo to make it two. Then a beautiful through ball by Kaka through to Crespo to make it 3-0 by half time. At this point Kaka was purring and running the game partly due to Liverpools formation but ultimately because he was one of the best players around at the time.

It all changed in the second half though, Liverpool changed to a 3-5-2, with Gerrard as an attacking midfielder and Alonso and Hamann holding. This help stall Kaka and give him a lot less space to operate in. Then on 54 minutes in began, Liverpool’s favourite son scored a wonderfully met header from an Riise cross. Two minutes later Dida fumbled a Smicer long range effort to bring the game to 3-2. Three minutes later Gerrard burst into the box and was fouled by Gattuso giving Liverpool a penalty to bring it level. Up stepped Alonso who had the spot kick saved by Dida but Alonso followed up smashing the rebound into the roof of the net.

The comeback was complete. 6 mad minutes in the final changed the game.

The game was really dominated by Milan after this and through extra time. Traore cleared one of the line and an astonishing double save by Dudek in extra time kept Liverpool in contention and the rest as they say is history. Milan missed their first 2 penalties and Liverpool scored theirs, with Tomasson scoring, Riise missing and then Kaka and Smicer scoring it left Shevchenko needing to score to stay in the tie.

It only seems fair after his miracle extra time save that Dudek would be the one to win Liverpool the cup, after some Bruce Grobbelaar inspired ‘spaghetti legs’ he saved Shevchenko’s penalty and the celebrations began.
After Gerrards campaign that season in the Champions League he was almost destined to lift that trophy.

I hope you have enjoyed my view of these comebacks and would love your opinion on them. Please get in contact with subjects or discussion points id love everyone else opinion. Please share and pass this around id love more people to read my posts.

‘How can I think of leaving Liverpool after a night like this’ Steven Gerrard after the final.

The Greatest Substitute Appearances

Evening all, with the current global pandemic affecting as all around the globe, the lockdown situation we all find ourselves in is unprecedented and has left us with a lot of time at home that we wouldn’t usually have. We find ourselves doing odd jobs around the house, binge watching Netflix and constantly refreshing social media.

I am trying to use this time to do some writing, mainly for a little bit of a release but also it gives people something to read and hopefully lightens people’s day for a short time. This short blog is going to be on some of the greatest substitute appearances we have seen in football. I am inevitably going to miss some and id love for people to comment or contact me with the ones I have missed or wasn’t even aware about. Onto our first…

Mario Gotze 2014 World Cup

Picture the scene World Cup final in Rio and you are sat on the bench, 88th minute and your dream of playing in a world cup final is edging ever closer to ending. Then you get the nod! This is what Mario Gotze experienced, Low substitute Klose at this point and told Gotze ‘Show the world you are better than Messi and can decide a World Cup final’. This is exactly what he did, in the 113th minute of added time Gotze scored the only goal of the game, controlling an Andre Schurlle cross on his chest and volleying into the back of the net earning Germany the win and the World Cuo. Gotze was named Man of the Match and was the youngest player to score in a world cup final since fellow countryman Wolfgan Weber in 1966.

Sheringham and Solskjaer 1999

Champions League Final
Bayern Munich took an early lead on the 6 minute mark of the final and kept that lead for close to the entirety of the match. This most go down as one of the greatest comebacks in a final purely because of the tiny amount of time left in the game. Bayern were so close to winning the game officials had already put their colour ribbons on the trophy but to no avail. Two substitutes mid-way through the second half for Manchester United proved to be the difference in the game. 1-0 down in the 91st minute of the game David Beckham floats a corner into the box, a couple of failed clearances and a Giggs snapshot the ball falls to Sheringham in the box to sweep home an equaliser. 1-1! Less than 30 seconds after the kick off United manage to force another corner. Another Beckham corner floats in, a glancing header by Sheringham and Solskjaer is the fastest to react at the back post, poking the ball into the roof of the net. An unbelievable ending to what was an unbelievable treble winning season by THAT Manchester United team.

Robert Earnshaw vs Charlton 2005

This appearance makes in onto the blog for a few reasons, firstly any substitute hat trick is extremely impressive, secondly it kick started West Broms survival in an extremely tight relegation battle and thirdly it became one of the greatest pub quiz questions ever.
With the scores level at 1-1 and Charlton down to 10 men in the 64th minute Earnshaw was introduced. He hit the ground running and scored a hat trick in 20 minutes earning West Brom the win and eventually survival in the Premier League by a solitary point.
In scoring that hat trick Earnshaw became the first player to score a hattrick in the top for divisions of English football, the FA Cup, the League Cup and international level. And was born one of the greatest football trivia questions to date.

It wouldn’t be fair to talk about substitute appearances without mentioning the legend that is Peter Crouch. Coming on against Brighton Crouch made his 143rd substitute appearance overtaking Defoe. Crouch has scored 23 goals from the bench some being extremely critical to the outcome of the game. This blog came about after listen to That Peter Crouch podcast, the substitute episode and I wanted to do some research on some of the best sub appearances. I know Crouch wasn’t to pleased with the record but I think he should embrace it! Shows that people think he will change the game!

Please contact me with any other wonderful sub appearances, from any level of football, I want to here everything from Sunday League to Premier League. If you enjoyed this please share this to friends, family and anyone who loves football.