Emmanuel Sanon, World Cup hero from Haiti

His goal at the World Cup of 1974 against Italy was legendary. Emmanuel Sanon, from the small island of Haiti, made Italian defenders look like fools. Sanon played soccer with his heart; he had no sense of strategy– “that’s playing soccer like a robot”. The Haitian Athlete of the Century always took much pleasure in the game, until his untimely death in 2008.

Playing soccer on the island

Emmanuel ‘Manno’ Sanon (born June 25, 1951 in Port au Prince) lost both his parents at a young age. Being a foster child he was brought up by the congregation Salesians of Don Bosco, dedicated to youth care. The Dutch pastor Sjaak Diebels had founded a soccer club for these children, named Don Bosco. Sanon joined this team, and it soon became clear he was the biggest talent of them all. His uncanny ability to score goals, made Don Bosco a serious contender for the national title of Haiti. In 1971 Don Bosco indeed did win the national league.

Qualifying for Germany 1974

At the time, Sanon was already playing for his country. Haiti did come close to qualifying for the World Cup 1970 in Mexico, without Sanon. But enhanced with his Sanon’s scoring abilities, Haiti’s chances for the next World Cup in Germany in 1974 dramatically increased, only being rivaled by Mexico and Trinidad.

First Haiti beat Puerto Rico 7-0 and 5-0, with Sanon scoring three times in both matches. After that, Haiti played in the  final round against Mexico, Trinidad, Guatemala, Honduras  and the Dutch Antilles. Dictator Baby Doc Duvalier paid a large sum of money to ensure home-advantage for the Haitian soccer team. They started well, winning 3-0 against the Dutch Antilles, with Sanon scoring twice. After that, Trinidad was beaten 2-1 (one goal by Sanon), just as Honduras (1-0). That gave them six points, two ahead of Mexico and four ahead of Trinidad. On December 13, 1973, Sanon scored both goals against Guatamala (2-1). One day later Trinidad defeated Mexico 4-0, which made Haiti out of reach for both Mexico and Trinidad. 

Preparations in the Netherlands

So the big adventure could begin for Sanon and his teammates. The Haitian soccer association decided to prepare for the World Cup in the Netherlands. In the last Month before the tournament Haiti first won against Dutch top level club Go Ahead Eagles 1-0 (the goal coming from Sanon, obviously), but the team lost against AZ’67 1-3 and against the Dutch National Military Team 1-4. Sanon made one goal against a regional selection which Haiti won 3-1, but the faith must have vanished completely after Haiti lost 4-0 against a selection of amateur players from the small Dutch town of Leiden.

Famous goal against Italy

So now everyone was expecting Haiti to lose big time during this World Cup. Their first opponent was Italy, silver medalist of the previous tournament.  Before the match on June 15 in Munich Italian goalkeeper Dino Zoff has set a new record, staying undefeated in more than twelve international matches in a row (1096 minutes). Haiti manages to finish the first half without any damage, 0-0. Then, in the first minute after the break, Sanon runs after a long ball, beats Fabio Capello on speed, gets past Zoff and puts the ball in the net. Zoffs record ends after 1142 minutes. Shortly after the goal Gianni Rivera puts Italy level, and eventually the big favorite wins 3-1.

Four days later Poland gives Haiti no chance at all, winning 7-0.  Now the team can’t reach the next round anymore, and only the match against Argentina remains ending  4-1 in favor of the South-Americans, but not before Sanon scores his second goal; a fierce shot from outside the box.

Contract in Europe

So, Haiti didn’t perform as bad as everyone feared, and they gained a lot of sympathy. Of course, for most players the level was too high. Goalie Henri Francillon arrogantly considered himself the best of the tournament. He got signed by German second division club München 1860, but failed to perform to expectation, and quite disillusioned returned home one year later. Big star Sanon did much better. On June 25 (his 24^th birthday) he was given a contract by Belgium club Beerschot.

Emmanuel Sanon, standing third from the left, next to
Henri Francillon (in the blue shirt).

Problems at Beerschot

So now Sanon lived in Antwerp, in a small apartment close to the Olympic Stadium. He and his wife lived a rather boring life, feeling a bit lost in their new surroundings. On top of that, Sanons career at Beerschot failed to live up to his expectations. Belgium defenders were rough on him, and tactically he didn’t understand what the team needed from him. Besides, he thought most of the players in Belgium lacked the elegance and talent to be any good, with the exception of his teammate Juan Lozano, Beerschot’s playmaker.

Fortunately, coach Rik Coppens, a big soccer star of his own time, considered Sanon very talented. So he tried getting him used to the roughness of the game in Europe. Coppens made Sanon into a defender, forcing him to make tackles himself and clash with forwards. It worked wonders. After that, Sanon returned to the upfront position and began to score and provide goals.

Meanwhile, he also tried to get Haiti into the World Cup in Argentina, in 1978. In the second round Haiti defeated Cuba 1-1, 1-1 and finally 2-0, with Sanon scoring all of the goals. During the final round Haiti was no match for Mexico.

Sanon wins Belgian Cup

Despite his troubled start, Sanon scored a total of 43 league goals and was instrumental in the Cup final of 1979. Against Club Brugge, Sanon rushed past all his opponents and gave teammate Johan Coninckx an opportunity he couldn’t miss. It was the only goal of the match, crowning Beerschot Belgian Cup winner.  One year later his time in Belgium came to an end. Big club RSC Anderlecht was looking for someone to replace Rob Rensenbrink and had their eye on Sanon.  Negotiations started, but along the way something went wrong. Sanon blamed Beerschot and decided to leave.

Happy in San Diego

The Haitian striker took the plane to Miami –close to Haiti - where he played in the second division with Miami Americans. Within a month Sanon changed clubs, and together with his coach Ron Newman tried his luck at San Diego Sockers. That worked well, Sanon scored 10 goals that season and the situation even improved, when San Diego contracted a young Mexican, Hugo Sanchez. Together they were lethal. After a satisfying second year Sanon got a serious knee injury and had to quit professional soccer at the age of 31.

Life after soccer

Emmanuel Sanon started a new life as coach, mainly involving himself with youth soccer. For a short period, 1999 until 2000, he was coach of the national team of Haiti, but failed to get to the World Cup in Japan and South Korea. Nonetheless, he did get awarded the title of “Haitian’s Athlete of the Century” in 1999.

Working as a coach for the Ajax Orlando youth team in Florida, Sanon was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He died on February 21, 2008, at the age of 56. Back in Haiti the beloved Sanon was given a national burial ceremony at the Sylvio Cator Stadium, with his teammates from the 1974 Haitian national team, carrying his coffin onto the field.

Refik Resmja (Partizani Tirana), 1951

Albanian striker Refik Resmja still holds a formidable record for top level soccer. During the 1951 league season he scored an amazing 59 goals for his club, Partizani Tirana. While playing only 23 matches that season, his 2.57 goal average is better than anyone else scoring over 50 league-goals in one season.

Teenage star

In 1951 19-year old Refik Resmja (born August 13, 1931) was playing for Partizani Tirana, the Albanian army team. In the previous year he was already top scorer of the league. But this season his scoring spree was sensational. Below you can see his performance match by match:

28-01-1951 Puna Durrës – Partizani	0-6	1 goal
31-01-1951 Partizani – Puna Berat	14-0	7 goals
18-02-1951 Puna Gjirokastër – Partizani	0-8	6 goals
25-02-1951 Partizani – Puna Fier	11-0	7 goals
04-03-1951 Partizani – Spartaku Qyteti Stalin	9-0	7 goals
12-03-1951 Puna Kavajë – Partizani	0-6	4 goals
21-03-1951 Partizani – Puna Elbasan	2-0	1 goal
25-03-1951 Puna Shkodër – Partizani	0-2	1 goal
04-04-1951 Partizani – Puna Vlorë	2-0	2 goals
15-04-1951 Partizani – Puna Durrës	6-0	3 goals
18-04-1951 Puna Berat – Partizani	1-3	2 goals
06-05-1951 Partizani – Puna Tiranë	6-0	3 goals
13-05-1951 Spartak Shkodër – Partizani	0-6	4 goals
20-05-1951 Partizani – Puna Gjirokastër	7-0	1 goal
27-05-1951 Puna Fier – Partizani	0-6	4 goals
03-06-1951 Spartaku Qyteti Stalin – Partizani	0-11	5 goals
10-06-1951 Partizani – Puna Kavajë	2-1	1 goal

Resmja didn’t score in six league matches, and didn’t play on three occasions. That leaves him with 59 goals in only 23 matches, an average of 2.57 goals per match. Much better than Scottish American Archie Stark, who bagged in a world record of 67 league goals in one season for Bethlehem Steel in 1924-25. His average is 1.52, as he played 44 league-matches. Lionel Messi’s 50 goals in 37 matches in 2011-12 only gives him an average of 1.35.

Eight times top scorer

Resmja never again came close to his own record, mostly scoring 15 to 25 goals a season in het following decade. He did win the top scorer title eight times, won the national cup four times and was champion of Albania seven times (1954, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1961, 1963, 1964).

That should have been nine times, but for mysterious reasons in 1950 the Albanian FA decided that while both Partizani and big rival Dinamo (the police club) earned 29 points during the season, goal difference had to decide the champion. Partizani (77-10) was clearly better than Dinamos (60-6), but the FA thought otherwise. They came up with a strange mathematical calculation:

77 : 10 = 7.7 for Partizan, 60 : 6 = 10.0 for Dinamo, so Dinamo were declared champion.

The same ‘mistake’ was made in 1952, when again Dinamo had a worse goalrecord (74-9) compared with Partizani (96-15), but were pronounced champion using the same reasoning.

Only five caps

Resmja was an prolific goalscorer during his entire career, amassing a total of 180 league-goals. Probably even a bit more, as not everything is well documented. Despite this achievement, he isn’t considered the best striker ever of this tiny country in the Balkan Peninsula. That would be his Partizani teammate Panajot Pano (1939-2010), who in 2004 was chosen by the Albanian FA as their Golden Player.

Internationally Resmja wasn’t very successful. The national team in those days only played friendly games, giving him a total of just five caps with one goal (in a 2-0 win against Poland).

Spartakiada 1958 and 1963

With his club Partizani Resmja did surprisingly win silver medals at the Spartakiada 1958 and 1963.

In 1958 this tournament was held in Leipzig and had only army clubs from communist countries as participants. Partizani first won against The Cong Hanoi (Vietnam) 5-1 (Resmja scoring two goals), then beat CCA Bucarest (Rumania) 1-0. In the quarterfinal Resmja scored the winner in a 1-0 victory over Czech Dukla Prague, and Vorwärts Berlin from East-Germany were beaten 2-1. So Partizani was in the final, but lost against Bulgarian side CDNA Sofia (0-1).

Five years later, Partizani copied that success in Hanoi, Vietnam, winning against CDNA Sofia (2-1), Honved Budapest (4-0!), Vorwärts Berlin (3-1), and again Honved (this time 1-0)  in the semifinal. In the final CSKA Moscow beat them 2-0, after extra time.

Resmja played until the final, but didn’t score. In his place, the new idol Panajot Pano made four goals. Seven months later Resmja ended his soccer career, 33 years old.

Refik Resmja died September 6, 1997.

1. FC Kaiserslautern (Germany), 1947-48

After the Second World War, soccer in Germany at the highest level was divided into five regional leagues, called Oberliga. One of the smallest being Oberliga South-West (Südwest), which was even divided into two groups, North and South. From this region in the occupied French zone emerged one the best German clubteams of all time, 1. FC Kaiserslautern.

The brightest star of that team was of course Fritz Walter (31-10-1920), who already played 24 matches (19 goals) for the German national team from 1940 until 1942. After three years (1944-45 until 1946-47) without a German champion, 1947-48 would restart the tradition.

The 1947-48 season in Oberliga South-West (Group North) was extraordinary. 1. FC Kaiserslautern won 23 of his 26 matches, only drawing twice (0-0 against Saarbrucken and 0-0 against Phönix Ludwigshafen) and just losing the one match, 2-0, against Vfl Neustadt.

Attacking force

Ottmar Walter

Defensively 1. FC Kaiserslautern only conceded 18 goals, with Werner Kohlmeyer, Werner Liebrich and his brother Ernst as main assets. However, in attack the team was even more superior. 1. FC Kaiserslautern scored an astonishing 151 goals in 26 matches, an average of nearly six goals every match. Günther Grewenig scored 16 goals, Werner Bassler 28 and Fritz Walter 31. But it was Fritz’s brother Ottmar (6-3-1924) who stood out in this year. Especially in the big wins he couldn’t stop scoring. Five against FSV Mainz 05 (13-2), SpVgg Andernach (11-2) and SG Gonsenheim (13-0), seven against SV Völklingen (13-1) and even eight in the second match against SpVgg Andernach (13-0). In all the other league matches he managed another 21 goals, making it 51 for the season.

This is how the 1947-48 season ended:

                                                                

		G	W	D	L	Points	Goals
1	1. FC Kaiserslautern	26	23	2	1	48	151-18
2	1. FC Saarbrücken	26	20	3	3	43	73-22
3	TuS Neuendorf	26	19	2	5	40	74-36
4	Borussia Neunkirchen	26	18	2	6	38	109-36
5	Wormatia Worms	26	14	4	8	32	80-51
6	FK Pirmasens	26	12	3	11	27	56-54
7	VfL Neustadt	26	12	2	12	26	46-67
8	FSV Mainz 05	26	8	9	9	25	36-49
9	SV Saar 05 Saarbrücken	26	10	5	11	25	42-64
10	Phönix Ludwigshafen	26	8	5	13	21	32-57
11	SG Völklingen	26	3	4	19	10	31-89
12	SG Gonsenheim	26	4	2	20	10	33-99
13	FSV Trier-Kürenz	26	3	4	19	10	24-95
14	SpVgg Andernach	26	4	1	21	9	31-81

1. FC Nürnberg proved too strong

The first step towards the national championship had been taken. After that the team first defeated Fortuna Rastatt, winner of the South Group of Oberliga South-West. Away Kaiserlautern won 3-0, at home it ended 6-1.

So now the real challenge began, trying to get into the German final. In the quarterfinal of the tournament they beat 1860 München 5-1 (goals from Bassler (2), Christmann (2) and Ottmar Walter) in Worms. After that they travelled to Wuppertal for the semi-final against TuS Neuendorf. Another easy win later, 5-1, with goals coming from Ottmar Walter (2), Bassler, Grewenig and Fritz Walter. 1. FC Kaiserslautern had reached the final.

The final was on August 8, 1948, in the Müngerdorfer Stadium in Cologne. It was the first final for Kaiserslautern, opponent 1. FC Nürnberg was much more experienced. They had been German champions six times. With their star player Max Morlock they proved to be too strong. After a 2-0 lead, Kaiserslautern only managed to get one back, through an own goal by Nürnberg-defender Hans Ubelein.

Heroes of 1954

Statue in front of 1. FC Kaiserslauterns 'Fritz-Walter-Stadium',
portraying the five players that became world champion in 1954

So Kaiserslautern didn’t succeed in their first attempt, but the club had a string of success in the forthcoming years. They won the Oberliga eight times in the next nine seasons, winning 206 of their 260 matches and scoring an amazing total of 1,095 goals. Two times (1951 and 1953) they were crowned German champion. But the biggest moment of the club was embedded in the national team triumph in Bern, 1954, when Germany won the World Cup against the Mighty Magyars. Five of the gold medal winners (captain Fritz Walter, Ottmar Walter, Werner Kohlmeyer, Werner Liebrich and Horst Eckel) all played for 1. FC Kaiserslautern. Only young Horst Eckel didn’t compete in the season that started everything, 1947-48.