In the past, I have published similar blogs, where I pick 32 footballers (past and present) and create two teams, with a max of five subs, and imagine what would happen if the match actually took place. I have written about current stars versus the retirees and also a match of some of my favourite ever players facing against each other – see:
https://mylifeinwordsandphotos.home.blog/2019/09/07/a-battle-of-22-players/
Naturally, I knew that at some point I would have wanted to write another of these blogs. The inspiration for this one appeared from the fact that I will be 22 this October. That is when I formed the plan of hypothetically recruiting only players born in the tenth month. This is when the research comes in.
I found a website which had a long list of footballers, past and present, who were born in October. I scrolled through the list, making notes as I clicked through the many pages available to me. The first three names were Maradona, Ibrahimovic and Pele – talk about world class. To be absolutely sure that each player was born in October, I typed the date-of-births into Google. They were all correct.
1960 – 1981 – 1940 – 1985 – 1997 – 1998 – 1997 – 2002 – 1991 – 1988
The first 10 players which I picked to be in the running for a starting position. I can tell you that six of these 10 players made it into the final selection.
Before I move on to the players, I would like to introduce the four managers.
Arsène Wenger, Sam Allardyce, Claudio Ranieri and Fernando Santos.
The reason for choosing two extra managers is so that each manager can manage one half of the match. Wenger and Allardyce will pair up, leaving Ranieri and Santos together.
Arsène Wenger: 22nd October 1949
Claudio Ranieri: 20th October 1951
Fernando Santos: 10th October 1954
Sam Allardyce: 19th October 1954
For those of you unaware of who the photos are, look at the list right above.
Now we turn to the main event of this blog: the teams. This is where it gets fun.
What do you think?
I picked Kurt Zouma and Dayot Upamecano out because we were all born on the same day: 27th October. While Upamecano was born in 1998, like myself, Zouma was born 4 years before.
No blog written about two made up teams is complete without five players to warm the two respective team benches.
Team 1 bench (first one you see)
- GK: Alisson Becker – 2nd October 1992
- DEF: Ledley King – 12th October 1980
- MID: Garrincha – 28th October 1933 (Died 20th January 1983)
- MID: Paul Ince – 21st October 1967
- ATT: Wayne Rooney – 24th October 1985
Team 2
- GK: Dida – 7th October 1973
- DEF: Ștefan Radu – 22nd October 1986
- MID: Mesut Özil – 15th October 1988
- MID: Francisco Gento – 21st October 1933
- ATT: Zlatan Ibrahimović – 3rd October 1981
As you have now seen some of dates players were born on, I will tell you the rest.
Team 1
- GK: Lev Yashin – 22nd October 1929 (Died 20th March 1990)
- DEF: Caner Erkin – 4th October 1988
- DEF: Nemanja Vidić – 21st October 1981
- DEF: Dayot Upamecano – 27th October 1998
- DEF: Trent Alexander-Arnold – 7th October 1998
- MID: Didier Deschamps – 15th October 1968
- MID: İlkay Gündoğan – 24th October 1990
- MID: Bobby Charlton – 11th October 1937
- ATT: Robert Pires – 29th October 1973
- ATT: Pelé – 23rd October 1940
- ATT: Raymond Kopa – 13th October 1931 (Died 3rd March 2017)
Won trophies for their countries
Team 2
- GK: Edwin van der Sar – 29th October 1970
- DEF: Theo Hernández – 6th October 1997
- DEF: Kurt Zouma – 27 October 1994
- DEF: Tony Adams – 10th October 1966
- DEF: Míchel Salgado – 22nd October 1975
- MID: Dunga – 31st October 1963
- MID: Matt Le Tissier – 14th October 1968
- MID: Diego Maradona – 30th October 1960
- ATT: Amancio Amaro – 17th October 1939
- ATT: Marco van Basten – 31st October 1964
- ATT: George Weah – 1st October 1966
A Spaniard, a Brazilian and a Dutchman walk into a bar…
The Facts
- Countries involved: England (7), France (6), Brazil (5), Spain (3), Germany (2), Netherlands (2), Argentina (1), Liberia (1), Romania (1), Russia/Soviet Union (1), Serbia (1), Sweden (1) and Turkey (1)
- Youngest and oldest: Dayot Upamecano (21-years-old) and Francisco Gento (86-years-old
Transitioned into managers:
Didier Deschamps (Monaco, Juventus, Marseille, France)
Bobby Charlton (Preston North End and Wigan Athletic (caretaker manager))
Tony Adams (Wycombe Wanderers, Portsmouth, Gabala and Grenada)
Míchel Salgado (Galicia)
Dunga (Brazil, Brazil U-23, Internacional, Brazil)
Maradona (Textil Mandiyú, Racing Club, Argentina, Al-Wasl F.C., Deportivo Riestra (assistant), Fujaihra, Dorados de Sinaloa, Gimnasia de La Plata)
Amancio Amaro (Real Madrid (youth), Castilla, Real Madrid)
Marco van Basten (Jong Ajax (assistant), Netherlands, Ajax, Heerenveen, AZ, AZ (assistant), Netherlands (assistant)
Men in Red
This has been great fun, for me, and I congratulate anyone who read every single word. To those who didn’t, that’s fine, there was a lot to read.
Anyway, football is a huge passion of mine, as you probably know by now. There is a creative energy that surrounds football writing. The sport, which a vast amount of people love, is full of surprises. The writing, which accompanies the football also has a river of surprise running through it. Articles are still important, even in the age of live streaming and video analysis. The facts are there to be written about. Words, whether heard or read, get people talking.
These two teams were difficult to assemble. I wanted to make it as fair as possible, even though I don’t know everything about every single player in this list. There are many of these players who started their careers and retired from the game before I was born. As a football fan, I don’t only think about the players of the present, I am equally intrigued about the careers of players from 10, 20, 30, even 40 years ago. A player doesn’t just retire and the supporters forget about them, no, they remember what made that player special to their club, including the ‘moments to forget’.
Footballers are loved but they’re also hated. It might be the obscene amount of money they earn, or their choice to sign for a rival team, and even ending up in the news for drink driving. Despite the jealousy that fans may experience while seeing a 17-year-old kicking a ball around a field and earning 60k, footballers are still respected.
That’s it from me today.
Thank you for those who persevered with this blog.
See you at the next one.
RGE
Many wonders 