Too late at the World Cup

Alfredo di Stefano. George Best. Ryan Giggs. George Weah. Great players that never played at the World Cup. But there are others who were just as unlucky. They did reach the World Cup, but not in time. They were veterans already, hoping for a final miracle. It didn’t happen. Here are six former world class players that made it to the World Cup a little too late.

Majed Abdullah (Saudi Arabia)

116 caps, 71 goals

Born: November 1, 1959

World Cup: 1994 (35 years old)

Minutes played: 2 matches, 90 minutes (45 minutes each)

Voted the best Saudi Arabian footballer of all time, Majed Abdullah was one the best soccer players in Asia during the eighties. He was especially successful with the national team of Saudi Arabia, winning the Asian Cup in 1984 and 1988. In the final against China in 1984 Abdullah scored the second goal in their 2-0 victory. Four years later he scored the winning goal in the semifinal against Iran (1-0). The final against South Korea ended 0-0, but Saudi Arabia won after penalties, Abdullah scoring the third. He was also voted Asian’s Player of the Year in 1984, 1985 and 1986.

Looking at the World Cup, Saudi Arabia didn’t qualify in 1982, 1986 or 1990. Abdullah played seventeen of these qualifying matches, scoring five goals. During the 1994 campaign Abdullah played three matches: against Malaysia (3-0, 2 goals), Kuwait (2-0, 1 goal) and Japan (0-0). Especially at the end of his career he suffered from a lot of injuries. At the World Cup finals in the United States in 1994 he captained his team against the Netherlands, played reasonably well in the first half after which he was substituted. Abdullah didn’t play against Morocco and his 45 minutes against Belgium were mediocre. He wasn’t picked for the next round, when Saudi Arabia was beaten by Sweden 1-3 and was knocked out of the tournament.

Denis Law (Scotland)

55 caps, 30 goals

Born: February 24, 1940

World Cup: 1974 (age 34 years)

Minutes played: 1 match, 90 minutes.

Denis Law couldn't beat Zaire's goalkeeper Kazadi Mwamba

Denis Law of course is one the greatest footballers of the sixties. As a young boy he moved from Aberdeen to England, to nearby Huddersfield Town. He was capped for Scotland the first time in 1958, and after stints at Manchester City and Italian club AC Torino, he was transferred to Manchester United in 1962. He was European Footballer of the Year in 1964, league champion in 1965 and 1967, but missed the European Cupfinal in 1968 through injury. With the national team, Law failed to qualify in 1962, 1966 and 1970. For the 1974 World Cup, Law played only the two matches against toughest rival Czechoslovakia. But finally Scotland topped their group and had great expectations of the World Cup in West Germany. Law played in the first match against Zaire (2-0 victory), but was dropped for the next matches against Brazil and Yugoslavia. In 2006, Law took a trip down memory lane for The Scotsman:  “I didn't think my exclusion was merited as I felt I'd played well enough against the Africans to keep my place, or at least to play a part in the Brazil game. But I accepted it, and I have some good memories from that time. Law's 55 caps was a Scottish record, his 30 international goals still is. Kenny Dalglish got his 56^th cap in 1978 and equaled but never surpassed Law’s 30 goals in 1984.

Carlos Pavón (Honduras)

101 caps, 57 goals

Born: October 9, 1973

World Cup: 2010 (36 years old)

Minutes played: 1 match, 60 minutes

Carlos Pavón was eight years old when Honduras made it to the World Cup for the first time. Players like Gilberto Yearwood, Anthoney Costly and Roberto Figueroa put Honduras on the map. Ten years later, Pavón started a career that would outshine all of them. He played for years in Honduras, but also in Mexico (seven seasons), Spain (one season), Italy (two seasons) Colombia (one season) and the United States (one season). With the national team, Pavon failed to qualify for the World Cup in 1998, 2002 and 2006, playing 28 matches and scoring 18 goals. During the 2002 campaign the lethal striker managed to score ten goals, but was kept out of the tournament by Costa Rica, Mexico and the USA. For the 2010 tournament Pavón made a final attempt. He played nine matches, scoring seven goals. In the meanwhile he was already the top goal scorer of his country with 57 goals.

The final tournament in South Africa proved to be a big disappointment for veteran Pavón. While he was hoping to top his career with a great performance at the world stage, Pavón was substituted in the 60^th minute of the first game against Chile. He didn’t get another chance and Honduras failed to make an impression scoring no goals in three matches.

Kevin Keegan (England)

63 caps, 21 goals

Born: February 14, 1951

World Cup: 1982 (age 31 years)

Minutes played: 1 match, 26 minutes as a substitute

The failure of England not qualifying for the 1974 and 1978 World Cup was certainly the biggest disappointment for Kevin Keegan in his career. Especially 1978 would have been great, as he was crowned European Footballer of the Year in 1978 and 1979 for his performances at Liverpool FC and Hamburger SV. After 1980, he was still a good player. He proved it at Southampton in the 1981-82 season, which he ended as top goal scorer with 26 league goals and winning the Player of the Year Award. So Keegan could become a World Cup hero after all, as England managed to beat Hungary in the qualification group for Spain 1982.

But he didn’t, as he suffered from a chronic back injury just prior to the World Cup. He even consulted a German doctor he knew from his time in Hamburg. Still, it was not enough to get him injury free at the start of the World Cup.  So England played the first round without him. Keegan did eventually play in England’s second match of the second round against Spain, coming on as a substitute for Tony Woodcock. He had one hard to miss chance, but headed the ball wide. It was Keegan’s 63th cap, and his very last.

Theophilus ‘Doctor’ Khumalo (South Africa)

50 caps, 9 goals

Born: June 26, 1967

World Cup: 1998 (30 years)

Minutes played: 1 match, 23 minutes as a substitute.

Midfielder Theophilus ‘Doctor’ Khumalo made a name for himself at South African club Kaizer Chiefs. He was vital in their league winning campaigns in 1989, 1991 and 1992. Those were his best playing years, just before South Africa was allowed to rejoin the FIFA family in 1992. Khumalo of course was picked for the very first official international game, against Cameroon. South Africa won 1-0 and Khumalo scored the only goal, a penalty. In 1996 Khumalo was an important part of the team that surprisingly won the Africa Cup, playing in five of six matches, only missing the match against Egypt when South Africa was already qualified for the quarter finals. By 1998, when South Africa got to the World Cup for the very first time, thirty year old Khumalo was past his best. So the 'doctor' of course was in the squad, but only played 23 minutes as a substitute in the last match. Without making any kind of fuzz, which is a bit sad for such a player.

Allan Simonsen (Denmark)

55 caps, 20 goals

Born: December 15, 1952

World Cup: 1986 (34 years old)

Minutes played: 1 match, 20 minutes as a substitute

Denmark was a small soccer country since the early fifties. So it wasn’t a big surprise they mostly failed at qualifying for the World Cup. But during the seventies their chances slowly improved. At Borussia Mönchengladbach Henning Jensen and Allan Simonsen were making headlines, a few years later Sören Lerby and Frank Arnesen did the same at Ajax. Simonsen had tremendous pace which suited the play of Mönchengladbach very well. He was at his peak in 1977, when he won the European Footballer Award. In 1982, while at Barcelona, he became the first player ever to score in the final of all three European Cups (Champions Cup, Cup Winners Cup and UEFA Cup).

In 1986, Simonsen was already a few seasons back home with his first club, Vejle BK, but was still playing for the national team.  He only played 45 minutes during the qualification rounds for Mexico, but was picked for the 22 squad anyway. The tournament itself went very well for first timers Denmark. They won their first two matches and were already through to the last sixteen before the match against West Germany. Coach Sepp Piontek gave 34-year old Simonsen 20 minutes as a substitute against the country that made him a star in the first place. 

Legendary farewell matches

After ending their career great soccer players usually are offered a farewell match. From their club, their former club or from the national team they used to play for. Only once in a while those matches actually become legendary, more often it gets emotional or even funny. Or it goes terribly wrong. A trip down memory lane.

Since the sixties, it has become a tradition that a famous soccer player, surrounded by his soccer friends, says goodbye to his sporting life by playing a farewell match. One of the first was Sir Stanley Matthews. On April 28, 1965, he played a match with ‘Great Britain’ (with Johnny Haynes and Jimmy Greaves in their ranks) against ‘The rest of Europe’. This team had Lev Jashin in goal, and Alfredo di Stefano, Josef Masopust and Ferenc Puskas on the pitch. ‘Europe’ won 6-4.

Playing a world XI or continent XI

That match was something of a blueprint for matches to follow: everybody is having a laugh, and there are many goals to celebrate on both sides. On this occasion, Matthews failed to score a goal himself. Normally, the player involved scores one or two goals. As did Uwe Seeler in 1972, playing with his club Hamburger SV against ‘Europe’. Seeler made two goals, but lost 3-7.

The following players all got similar farewell matches in which a European, South American or world selection of soccer friends showed up to play: Lev Jashin (Soviet Union), Mario Coluna (Portugal), Garrincha and Zico (Brazil), Willy Schultz and Paul Breitner (West-Germany), Paul van Himst (Belgium), Teofilo Cubillas (Peru), Michel Platini and Eric Cantona (France), Franco Baresi (Italy) and Gheorghe Hagi (Rumania).

Pelé and Maradona

On other occasions, players are likely to organize a match between two clubs they’d play for. So, on October 1, 1977, nearly 37 year old Pelé, celebrates his career with a match between Santos and New York Cosmos, playing 45 minutes for each team. New Cosmos won 2-1, Pelé scored one of the goals for the New Yorkers.

Diego Maradona was even 41 years old, when he played his farewell match, at his beloved Bombonera stadium in Buenos Aires, home of Boca Juniors. He played with the national team of Argentina against a selection of soccer friends. Friends like René Higuita and Carlos Valderrama, Enzo Francescoli, Hristo Stoichkov, Hugo Gatti and Juan Sebastian Veron. It got very emotional, nearly everybody was crying and kissing each other. Maradona converts two penalties, but loses 5-3 to his friends.

Foul play

Kevin Keegan wasn’t so lucky. In 1984 he played with his club Newcastle United against his old club Liverpool. Keegan, still in very good shape at 33, scored a penalty in a match that ended 2-2. Liverpool’s Mark Lawrenson nearly spoiled all the fun with a ferocious tackle on Keegan, which could have ended his playing days an hour earlier. When Dennis Irwin was awarded a testimonial match against Manchester City in 2000 for ten years at Manchester United, City’s George Weah injured him badly in the 37^th minute of the match. Irwin had to be substituted, and missed out on the first five weeks of the upcoming season. And when Julian Dick got his testimonial between his club West Ham United and Atletico Bilbao in the same year, it ended in a fight between 17 of the 22 players, with especially Paulo di Canio, Nigel Winterburn and Joseba Etxeberria behaving badly.

It can even go wrong before a match. In 2008 Jaap Stam wanted his farewell game (Ajax against an All Star team) to be played in his hometown Zwolle. Ninety hooligans from Amsterdam terrorized the city centre of Zwolle before the match. After that, the match itself was interrupted by a heavy cloudburst. So it really wasn't a happy day for Stam.

Johan Cruijff and Bayern Munich

Perhaps the worst farewell match of all came down upon Johan Cruijff in November 1978. As the obvious choice Barcelona wasn’t able to participate in the match, Ajax decided to ask Bayern Munich instead. For a moment of total stupidity forgetting the old rivalry between the two clubs. Cruijff and Ajax humiliated Bayern Munich twice in the early seventies in the European Cup. And the World Cup final in 1974 didn’t help relations between the Dutch and the Germans either. It all went wrong when the Germans thought they were mistreated before the game. No Ajax delegation was present at the Schiphol airport, the hotel looked cheap and during the warm-up not even one Ajax-player came up to the Germans to say hello. And when the verbal abuse roared from the stands, Bayern Munich had enough. Goalie Sepp Maier did put on a silly hat just before the kick-off, but after the whistle had blown they were dead serious. At half-time Bayern had a 2-0 lead, and they scored another six goals in the second half to end the match 8-0. The goals were scored by Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (3), Paul Breitner (3) and Gerd Müller (2). Cruijff played a decent game himself, but most of his teammates - Ajax wasn't a strong team at the time - were a downright disaster. Twenty five years later Bayern Munich apologized for winning 8-0. And of course Cruijff played soccer for another six years or so, so it really wasn’t his farewell match after all.

Raising money for charity

Claus Lundekvam (Sothampton)

As even common players since the eighties got to earn loads of money during their career, they more and more lean towards using their farewell match to raise money for the less privileged. Niall Quinn supported children’s hospitals in Ireland and India, Ulf Kirsten donated his money to youth soccer in the Dresden region. Alan Shearer collected no less than two million for his farewell, and picked fourteen foundations to send money to. In his second attempt (the money from his first testimonial was all spent on drinking), Tony Adams donated five hundred thousand pound to The Sporting Clinic, an organization that helps athletes to recover from drinking, drugs and gambling.
Norwegian Claus Lundekvam had his farewell match Southampton against Celtic planned just days after a Bon Jovi gig. Rock fans totally ruined the pitch, and as Celtic was unable to reschedule, Lundekvam himself paid for a new pitch. No less than twenty thousand supporters visited the match, making up for his investment.

Two hundred school kids

Joseba Etxeberria, already mentioned earlier, had a new idea. In May 2010 he invited two hundred school kids to face his Atletic Bilbao. The idea was that hundred would play the first half, substituted by the other hundred for the second half. But as Bilbao was leading the match at halftime, it was decided that all two hundred would play the next 45 minutes. Still, Bilbao managed to win 5-3.

To end on a friendly note, Samuel Kuffour from Ghana had his farewell match planned on December 23, 2011. He invited, among others, George Weah, Lothar Matthäus, Daniel Amokachi, Andy Cole and Jay-Jay Okocha to this game, which took place in Kumasi. The game even got two former presidents from Ghana burying the hatchet. JJ Rawlings and John Agyekum Kuffour had been on each other’s throath for a while, but ended their fight on that day. The match ended 6-5 and of course Sammy Kuffour was allowed to score from the penalty spot.