you can talk here about the greatest players of 19th or 20th century

let me start with Artur Friedenreich


The top scorer in the history of football, the first black superstar of the beautiful game, Brasil’s first sporting hero. It seems an almost perfect description of the great Pelé, but it is not. It is instead a description of the late, great striker Artur Friedenreich.

Born in Sao Paulo on July 18th 1892 to a German immigrant and a former black slave, Friedenreich would go on to be one of the greatest strikers in the history of the game. He was fast, skilful, good in the air, and a great goal scorer. He started his career in 1910, aged 18, he played fir many Paulista clubs including Paulistano (1910 – 1929) and Sao Paulo (1929 – 1931) including the Carioca club Flamengo (1931 – 1934). He won he Liga Paulista on 7 separate occasions and was top scorer 9 times.

Whilst being Brasil’s first sporting hero, he was also a victim of racism. He was one of the first, and at the time one of the only, black footballers to play in Brasil. Such was his victimization, that he had to use white powder to ‘dye’ his black hair before every match to avoid racist chanting. The process was a long one and Friendenreich was almost always the last player to take to the pitch.

He did not however, suffer racism when he played in Europe, in fact, he was loved and revered. When Brasil toured Europe in 1925, their first such tour, he showed the Europeans a revolutionary style of football. It was on this tour that he acquired the nickname ‘O Rei de Futbal’ or ‘The King of Football’. Another nickname he was given was ‘The tiger’ for his powerful, yet agile style of play.

For Brasil he played 22 times, scoring 10 goals, making his debut in 1914. He won the 1919 and 1922 editions of the Copa America, scoring 10 goals over the two tournaments. Controversy surrounded him in 1930 though, in the first ever World Cup, held in Uruguay, when he was not picked. Officially he was said to be injured, but there were many controversy surrounding his exclusion from the squad. One was racism, he was not picked because he was black some said, while others said it was because he wasn’t Carioca. Friedenreich was Paulista, and there was only 1 non-Carioca in the Brasil World Cup squad.

Throughout his 26 year career, Friedenreich scored an amazing 1239 goals in 1329 games, more than fellow Brasilian Pelé. His favoured stadium was said to be the Morumbi, Sao Paulo’s stadium. He gave joy to thousands and received deserved praised from most, but from some he received nothing but hell as he was racially abused. His successor, Leonidas da Silva, would sadly suffer a similar fate.

source: http://www.soccerpulse.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=83989


none of my friends had ever heard of him when i was talking about him, they actually said that i made it up. And they are football fans.

Nice peice ... Good research and bad luck for the dude I guess .... I never heard of him before and I can see where disbeleif might come from !!! But still 1239 goals in 1329 games ... its great

I nominate Ferenc Puskás. THe galloping major of real madrid.

I nominate Patrick................Kluivert.

My favourite player.

Impressive story STEPHAN. I am a football-freak too, but I have to admit, that I hadn't heard of him till now either..

Puskas is really a great legend...

what was the name of the striker of real wen they won the cl 5 times????

alfredo di stafano of course...

i heard about artur 2 months ago when i wathed some football documentary film at Discover Chanell or National Geographic can't remember

well there are/was lots of great footballers but i choose to start with him because not only he is the best goal scorer in history of a game he was also the FIRST BLACK Brasilian footballer and what bothered me most was the way they ( other player and refs) treated him. Players were very harsh you could say brutal against him and refs. didn't whistle fouls (i don't know if refs already had whistles back than)

di stefano transfer story

The problems started when the transfer was agreed by FIFA, but not by the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF). Di Stefano arrived in Barcelona on the 13th May 1953 fully prepared to sign a deal, but was approached by Santiago Bernabeu himself, who took full advantage of the situation caused by the RFEF and demonstrated his own skills of persuasion to convince the player to break the verbal agreement reached with Barcelona and join Real Madrid, while at the same time reaching agreements with both south American clubs.

Convinced that the government would intervene to ensure that the player signed for Real, Barcelona, realising that all was lost, made a desperate attempt to get the player to join Italian side, Torino, which was doomed to fail. The RFEF waited until the 15th September to rule on the issue, deciding that Di Stefano could stay in Spain for four years, playing two seasons for Real Madrid and two seasons for Barcelona on a rotational basis. The ruling led to the resignation of Barça president, Enric Martí, in protest at the decision, and barely a month later the club issued a statement renouncing all their claims on the player in favour of Real Madrid.

Many still believe that this resolution changed the history of Spanish football as Real Madrid went on to dominate both Spanish and European football for more than a decade, with Di Stefano picking up eight Liga, five European Cup, and one Spanish Cup winners' medals. During his time at the club, Di Stefano was top scorer in the domestic championship on five occasions, and scored 49 European Cup goals in 58 appearances. In total he played 510 games for Real Madrid (W 354, D 66, L 90) and scored 418 goals. His last game for the club was on the 27th May 1964 at Vienna's Prater stadium in the final of the 9th European Cup, which Inter Milan won 2-1.

i've one thing to say: buy the DVD history of football,i bought it for only 10 euros in a toystore called bart smit unfortuinly i havn't got the whole dvd box(7 dvd's) but just an part (3 dvd's) in 1 of the 3 i've the had the full history of brazilian (top)football.also for friedenreich and the WC 50 ofcourse, i think i heard that he scored 1329 goals in his career

and denis law and bobby charlton!!!

Voetbal
di 17 okt 2006, 20:07
Dochter Pele overleden aan kanker
SAO PAULO - Sandra Regina Arantes do Nascimento, de buitenechtelijke dochter van de Braziliaanse voetballegende Pele, is dinsdag op 42-jarige leeftijd overleden aan kanker. Dat maakte het ziekenhuis waarin de vrouw lag, bekend.
Sandra Regina vocht jarenlang voor erkenning van het vaderschap van Pele. Ze won de juridische strijd in 1996. Pele gaf toe dat hij een affaire had met de moeder van Sandra Regina in de periode dat hij voor Santos voetbalde.

Pele liet via een woordvoerder weten dat hij niet naar de begrafenis komt, maar wel een krans stuurt. Sandra Regina was raadslid van de havenplaats Santos. Pele heeft vijf kinderen uit twee huwelijken.


Sad news

The daughter of Pele, Sandra Regina Arantes do Nascimento died because of cancer at the age of 42 in a hospital near Sao Paolo. the daughter had 10 years ago vs an case vs her father because she said that Pele her father was but he atmidded that he had an affair with her Mom when he played for Santos.
Pele doesn't come to the funaral, but he will send flowers. WHAT A SHAME OF THE GREAT AND NICE PELE

I already hated Pele and this just gives me another reason to hate him more

I really don't want to sound like Black Panther, but isn't this more a General Football topic? So here I go: Mooooderator! This is posted on the wrong board!

EDIT (after GX moved it):

Voetbal
wo 18 okt 2006, 09:33
Braziliaan Elber beëindigt loopbaan
RIO DE JANEIRO - De Braziliaanse voetballer Giovane Elber beëindigt aan het einde van dit jaar zijn loopbaan. Hij heeft dit dinsdag in diverse media in zijn land laten weten. De 34-jarige aanvaller heeft te veel last van een chronische blessure aan de rechterenkel. „Het moment om te stoppen is gekomen voor mij.”
Elber wil tot eind december nog wel zijn contract bij zijn huidige club Cruzeiro de Belo Horizonte uitdienen. Hij kwam in Europa uit voor het Duitse Bayern München en het Franse Lyon. Met Bayern behaalde hij zijn grootste successen met vier landstitels en de eindzege in de Champions League.


Giovane Elber (Ex Bayern And Lyon) will retired in December because he has too much suffer in his rightankle (chronical).

Another good Striker retired

Ferenc Puskas died

RIP..._0_

Wasn't he forced to sell one of his prizes ( Golden boot or something like that ) to support his medication because it was very expensive .... whenever I hear about a good player forgotten I think to myself oh god why isn't it Pele or Platini

Because they aren't forgotten

Sad news, but he already was dying for a long time. After having Alzheimer for such a long time, I don't think it's that bad to die.

OK maybe not forgotten forgotten but he doesn't get as much attention as Pele gets or Platini for example

That's because Puskas was a forgotten legend.

he is not forgotten, but my legend will always be Marc Overmars