Gheorghe Hagi, Goal Scoring Goalies & Our Casillas Bet

In this episode we chat about the career of The Maradona of The Carpathians, Romania's greatest son, Gheorghe Hagi.

We also cover all things goalkeepers. As well as talking about the most interesting and legendary keepers thorough history we tell the story of our 20 year old Iker Casillas bet!

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The Hand of God is a Stirling Sports production. For more nostalgic football content follow us on:

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Music written by Matt & Gilbert Spencer-Smith

Transcript

 That's the thing with goalkeepers. They, um,  it can be a bit extrovert, flamboyant and a bit, a bit crazy. And, uh, yeah, he, he just seemed to sort of tick all the boxes.  And we had a little wager  because, uh, a certain Iker Casillas had started playing for Real Madrid.  What he started doing was stealing players from other clubs around Romania on the pretext, well it was on the pretext that they had to serve their national service with Stara Bucurest because they were run by the army.

Oh, that's clever. He got 129 career goals. I don't know how many of them were free kicks, but the majority were free kicks and penalties. So,  uh, incredible stats really. And he got 21  in a season. And I think we all love semen. 

Welcome to episode 2 of The Hand of Pod.  Unfortunately, Matt and Rich can't be with us today, but I'm joined by, um,  Sweden's answer to Leighton Baines, Mr. Torben K. Hello. How are you doing? Lucky Sweden. Good.  How are you doing? Yeah, not too bad, not too bad. Not a good weekend to be an Everton fan, but a good weekend to be a United fan. 

Yeah. Did you watch the game? Um, I, I didn't manage to watch all of it. Uh, because we were going to various children's birthday parties. As you know. That sounds familiar. Yeah. Sorry, a little bit of it. Yes. Um, so since our, our first episode, we've managed to nail down, uh, some more format points that we're going to be doing going forward.

And today we'll be starting going through the top 100 footballers of all time.  With, uh, starting at number 100 today, and that's from a list,  uh, done last year by 442 magazine. Uh, but before that, um, I wanted to start by talking about goalkeepers. And each week we'll go through, um, a different position, but, uh, today we're gonna,  gonna talk about goalkeepers. 

And, uh,  there's, um,  one goalkeeper I thought we'd, we'd start with who I've, I've always had a soft spot for, and it's a reason that, uh, involves both of us.  When we, when we were, I think about 18 years old,  we had a little wager  because, uh, we A certain Iker Casillas had started playing for Real Madrid, and I think he just won his, um,  first cap for Spain.

And I was talking to him about you, uh, talking to you about him. And, uh, how good he was. And he got his first cap for Spain at like 18 years old. And I said he, he could go on and get 125 cats for Spain. I said he's Real Madrid's number one, he's all, he's been, he's Spain's number one now, he'll get 125 and you said,  I'll bet you a thousand pounds he doesn't. 

Yeah, a second ago you said  a small wager, it was the biggest wager that anyone has probably ever had,  especially at that age. Yeah, exactly. But, I mean at that age it was like, well, if he does get a thousand, I think we considered it a small wager at that age. We did. Because we thought if he does get 125 caps, we'll be about 35 and a thousand pound would be nothing to us by then.

Yeah.  How wrong we were. How wrong we were. And, um, and yeah, into our mid thirties and, uh, and he came, I mean, quite early on in our thirties. I think he reached the 125 marks on caps for Spain and, uh, which I was very happy to constantly keep you up to date on how many caps he's got. Um, and during that time we'd adjusted the bet a bit, hadn't we?

Because, um,  It wasn't looking, it was just looking, wasn't looking favourable for me. I think that's probably my, yeah,  my encouragement of adjusting a bit. And I kind of thought, I can't really take a thousand pound in cash off you. It seems a bit harsh. So we agreed that, um, we would have to spend the thousand pounds on a night out. 

They involved both of us. So basically we just spent, whoever lost, we spent a thousand pounds on a night out. And, like, on both of us.  And, uh, so when he got the 125 caps, shortly after we, um, we found out we were going to Las Vegas on a stag do. And, uh, and I think you suggested it. You said, I'll, I'm gonna come good on that bet.

And, uh, and spent a thousand, I think a thousand dollars it was on a, on a, fantastic night out in Vegas that we had. Yeah, um, worth every penny. Yeah, we can't go into any further details about that night, but it's all, it's all, uh, all above board. I think it involved a bit, a bit of gambling at the table. So actually, not only did I, did I, did I, Change the bet to being a sort of sharing the the so I'm only sort of down technically 500 but I converted it into dollars as well.

So I saved an extra 10 or 15 percent. So yes. Yeah, probably owe you a little bit. Well, I think we I think we won a few quid as well like you because  With the money we've spent on the night out. We put a few few quid down on the um The roulette table end up end up getting a bit of money  A bit of money back, so, um, so yeah, but I think it was well worth the What a knife.

20 year bet. 20 year bet.  Yeah.  Good old Iker Casillas. 

Casillas, and ended up being one of the greatest goalkeepers  of all time.  He's definitely up there. Won, uh, won five La Ligas with Madrid, three Champions Leagues, uh, won the World Cup in 2010 with Spain and two Euros in 2008 and 2012. And I think that's part of the, that's part of the problem for, for that bet.

At the time, Spain were okay, but they weren't that good. And then, you know, by, by doing so well in all of those tournaments,  He had loads of extra games to play. So it kind of, uh, by them becoming better, meant that that bet was more, uh, more likely to come in. Yeah, that's good. It's a good point. You think three, three tournaments in a row, he's played every game possible. 

And, uh, yeah, but he's actually got the most clean sheets in Champions League history as well. It's probably one of the biggest  claims to his, to his name. Um, but yeah, I'd always kind of followed his career quite closely. Had a bit of a soft spot for him and he was, uh, he was a great player. Great keeper, great shot stopper. 

Um, but in, in researching keepers, I was kind of going back through some of the most kind of interesting keepers. And there's, there's loads of big personalities. And, um,  there was, I actually put a thing out on my Instagram saying any who's people's favorite keepers of all time. And there was a couple of interesting ones I got back and a guy I'd. 

I hadn't really heard of, I kind of semi recognised his name, but, um, Uh, Ruggiero Senni.  I don't know if you've heard of him. Never heard of him. Well, I probably have, but I can't recall it off the top of my head. Yeah, so he's, he's the highest scoring, scoring goalkeeper of all time.  Yes.  Goalkeepers that score goals.

Yeah, played pretty much his entire career at Sao Paulo.  Um, and was, was kind of Brazil's second goalkeeper for quite, quite a while. Uh, in the early 2000s, got a few caps, but he scored 129 career goals.  Wow, that's ridiculous. How does that work? It's all, um, free kicks. Wow. But that's um, but even,  I was just going to say even, even the likes of,  I don't know, Beckham or  Roberto Carlos, they probably haven't got that many goals from free kicks have they?

I mean that's,  that's an obscene amount. And penalties as well. I mean that's risky.  You know from a free kick, well both really Although from a penalty if it's saved or comes off the bar, you've got to really sprint back if you're a goalkeeper taking it Yeah, exactly. Exactly  But yeah, I wouldn't wouldn't I don't know how many free kicks beckham scored but I wouldn't be surprised if it's a similar amount  Do you think?

Off the top of my head i'd expect it to be  Below 50 below 30 even you know, probably I don't know. Well, I thought his premier league record was about 50 40 or 50. Right. Okay, so  I can remember some. I'm live googling.  Nice. Yeah, you do that. Do you want me to do some padding? 65, 65.  Ah, there you go. I was way off.

Yeah, so well, no, you were closer than me because I was thinking he scored as many as Rogerio Senni. Who got 129 career goals. I don't know how many of them were free kicks, but the majority were free kicks and penalties. So  Incredible stats really, and he got 21  in a season.  That's outrageous. I mean that sounds, sounds like, uh, a good YouTube rabbit hole, wormhole, whatever you want to call it.

I did, I did go down a bit. And watch all of those. Yeah, I did go down a bit of a YouTube rabbit hole looking into this guy. Because he, I mean that season he scored 21 in a season. There was one YouTube I saw and it was listing the strikers, the like, world class strikers that he scored more goals than that season.

And there were some big names 

Schillevere in, uh, I can't remember who he played for. Was it Columbia, no Not Colum Paraguay? Paraguay. Paraguay. Okay. Yes. He was South American and he used to take free kicks as well, didn't he? Yeah. Yeah.  And that flamboyant, you goalkeepers. They, um  It can be a bit extrovert, flamboyant and a bit, a bit crazy.

And, uh, yeah, he, he just seemed to sort of tick all the boxes. Plus he would go up, take good free kicks and he must've got quite a few in his time. Yeah. He was quite legendary for it. Look to his stats. He got 67 career goals. He's actually second on the list to Rogerio Sene. Uh, Sene's a mile ahead. Uh, he had eight, eight international goals though for Paraguay.

And he, uh, he once scored a hat trick.  No way. Yes. No way.  Wow. But he was one of my favorite.  Yeah, yeah. He was one of my favorite keepers. Should have heard growing up. And he was actually, as well as taking the free kicks, he was one of the best keepers in the world in his day.  Yeah. And it was, it was keepers like him, George Campos for Mexico.

I don't know if you remember him. He designed his own kits.  He was really, he was really short. I think he was about five foot ten or something. Uh, and he, he, he was kind of, he used to come miles out of the box. Uh, and he sometimes played up front as well. George Campos, and he actually, he had, uh, uh, 35 career goals, George Campos, uh, him and then, uh, Rene Guita,  Columbia.

Yes, scorpion kick. Did the scorpion kick, uh, famously at Wembley against England. In a friendly and it was over, uh, Jamie Carragher's head. He did it  all the better. And he, he was a goal scoring keeper as well.  43 career goals. Yeah. Took penalties, basically took a lot of penalties. That's just outrageous. So that's probably more than some attacking midfielders in their career.

Yes. Incredible.  But all these keepers.  I used to really be excited about seeing them like at World Cups.  Because they kind of had such big personalities and none of them played in England. So,  before YouTube and Sky and things like that were in the early 90s, the only time we'd get to see them was in England.

At a World Cup  and especially I think USA 94 was was big for me because we weren't there. All these things were much bigger for me to see like George Campos and I'd be more excited about them because I didn't have England to be excited about So it's like looking forward to seeing what kit George Campos has got And how if they if he was going to get to go up front at all during the game  And uh, but but they all what they all had in common is they're actually um Ahead of their time, keepers, you all thought they were crazy.

Like, Higuita's nickname was the madman. And, uh, but they used to come miles out of their goal, which is basically what keepers do now. Didn't Higuita They're like sweeper keepers. Yeah, that is so true. And they, you know, that's, that's, um, yeah, that Pep Guardiola is quite  big on that one of the first, you know, get them to, you know, look for goalkeepers that could play with their feet.

Actually, I say that, there's lots of other others before him, but,  um, but that's, you know, it's a big part of, part of what they do, that sweeper keeper, um, didn't he, Higuita, didn't he,  he had, there's two, two other things that I remember with him. Didn't he have a huge hairdo as well? Yeah, massive  long  curly hair. 

Yeah. Yeah, really long curls like  Soul glow. I think he probably was used Didn't he wasn't he messing around he came far too far out of his goal during one of the World Cups and yeah Leave it away Yeah, Talia, Talia 90 did that. Yeah, he was, he was at, it was his fault for one of the, I think it was maybe, maybe against Cameroon or something.

He did that, but, um, but yeah, and he was, that's the thing. They were just known, everyone thought they were just crazy, but then they're actually ahead of their time doing what they were doing. Because a lot of keepers then have taken it on, but just, just got better at it basically, rather than just being mental. 

Uh, but yeah, and I think going, going back in history, there was,  you know, keepers like, uh, Gordon Banks, everyone remembers the save against Pele in, in, in the world cup in 1970, uh, Set Mayer for Germany was really big,  big name in, in goalkeeping back then, won, won the world cup and, um, Dino Zoff for Italy.

Uh, he once came second in the Ballon d'Or, um, but I think Lev, Lev Yashin is probably the most famous, uh, like vintage goalkeeper having, having, he's the only goalkeeper to ever have won the Ballon d'Or. The Russian. and spent his entire career at Dynamo Moscow. But, uh, and I was reading up on him, apparently he was very ahead of his time.

Used to, used to close, come out and close down strikers, which, um, which keepers didn't really do at the time. They all stayed on their line and just  waited for the ball. And he used to run out.  Between, uh, 1950 to 1970, he kept 270  clean sheets and saved over 150 penalties.  Which is pretty impressive. 150 penalties?

Yeah. Saved 150 penalties in 20 years. Yeah, and uh, That's just incredible that you won the Ballon d'Or as well. Yeah, I won the Ballon d'Or. Yeah that good, you know, especially probably more so Back then when I don't know maybe  Was as much football televised and so, you know, it'd be quite easy for you know You'd see the stats you'd read in the paper who scored who did this we wouldn't necessarily see You know all the great saves or close downs or you know catches or whatever a keeper would make you'd see Whoever had scored so many goals and so it must have been a real big deal  But he was, um,  he won the Euros in 1960 with, uh, USSR.

So, uh,  that was kind of his, his biggest, uh, biggest achievement, uh, as a, with a, with a team, basically. But, um, yeah, going on from there, the, I mean, the keepers, I.  Remember from, from the nineties, really, I mean, for United, we had Smeichel and Van der Sar in the Fergie era. And it felt like those were the only times, like in between them, were the dark days for Fergie. 

So the, the success with Fergie, it came when, when he signed Smeichel along with like Cantona and that, but Smeichel came in and like, made a big difference, and then when Smycle left, it wasn't until we managed to find Van der Sar  between the sticks that, um, that he was able to, to kind of get the success and that momentum built up back again.

But, um, Smycle was kind of known for the big, the big star, star jump, isn't he, closing down?  Yes.  Yeah, he was a, he was, yeah, you, if you're one on one with him as a striker, you wouldn't really fancy your chances, would you?  Big imposing and just yeah, yeah, he was he was a solid  solid shot stopper Fabian Bartels Fergie era as well, wasn't he? 

Yeah, yeah, he did pretty he did pretty well for us. Yeah, he was he was one of the better ones  But he was another one that he would run out miles And he was, he was tiny, wasn't he?  The other kind of  like best known keeper, I think as being one of the best keepers from, from that, that area was Oliver Kahn for Germany. 

And he had a very long, successful career  in Germany, but, um, the kind of German keeper that took over  from him was, uh, Manuel Neuer.  He kind of took, um, the sweeper keeper to the next level, like, it was like, we've talked about this sweeper, sweeper keeper in these other keepers, but Manuel, Manuel Neuer kind of made it. 

And then people, I think people, most of the modern keepers copied Manuel Neuer and what he's, he's doing. But he,  he, he's obviously won the world cup 2014 with Germany. One, he's won two champions league with Bayern, 11 Bundesliga. Most clean sheets in the Bundesliga, currently on 224  and he's had the most clean sheets in a single season with 21 clean sheets.

It's pretty incredible. That's phenomenal. I mean, it must be half their games or more.  Um, I mean, obviously Bayern Munich, you know, there's a, there's a bigger difference between them and Yeah, most of the rest of the uh,  most of the division compared to the premier league where it's probably a bit more competitive But but still that's outrageous 200 The total that he's got how many games do you can remember?

How many cathy how many uh, appearances No, I can't remember But six seven hundred. I mean, it's probably like one in one in two one in three something like that. Yeah, it's probably yeah Something like that. Maybe one in three  Yeah, pretty pretty incredible but um You  I don't know where you stand on who you consider the best goalkeeper of all time. 

That's a big, big question. I don't know. I mean, you know, we talked about some big names. I mean,  I mean,  growing up as an England fan, you know, England's number one has always been, um, you know, a big talk, talked about position. And over the years we've had some Very long standing keepers over the years that we've been watching england.

Anyway, obviously peter shilton um The you know, he got he had the cap record for a very long time, didn't he? Yeah and  you know was solid and  um You know other other england's not very good at taking penalties. So No No, he just seemed a bit, you know looking back. He just sort of seemed a bit sort of I don't know bigger or slower I don't know.

Yeah They're a lot more sort of lean nowadays, aren't they? I think we all loved Seaman,  growing up. Yeah, exactly. That was going to be another one. Um, yeah, good memories of watching him with England. Although, sadly, you know, a couple of bad memories as well. Yeah. The Ronaldinho lob. Yeah. And others.  Yeah. Um, but for, for me, best keeper of all time, difficult, very difficult for me.

Uh, it has to be, uh. Bufon.  Yes. We haven't, we haven't talked about him yet, but, um,  having, I mean, I probably was already on the side of Bufon, um, I'd say him, Casillas, Neuer, and, and, and, and throwing Lev Nashin, Lev Nashin, Lev Yashin, um,  but I obviously never saw him. Saw Yash in play, but from, from what I've read up on him, he's, he's got to be up there.

Um, but I'd say though, they're the kind of clear standouts and, uh, but going, going through Buffon's career, he made his debut 17  years old. in 1995 for Palma, uh, and he got thrown in, I think the, the, the keeper got injured and he got thrown in against, uh, Milan, who are the current champions  and had, uh,  uh,  Baggio and George Weah, who was the current Ballon d'Or winner up front  and they drew a deep end.

Yeah. And they drew nil, nil. So he kept a clean sheet first ever game. But that Parma team, he was straight in. So I looked at the line up in that game.  He had Zola, Stoichkov, Esprit, Cannavaro, Dino Baggio, Fernando Couto, Sensini. It was an incredible team. Wow. What a line up. What a line up. He's won Serie A Goalkeeper of the Year nine times. 

He's the only goalkeeper ever to win Serie A Player of the Year.  He's the most, uh, internationally capped goalkeeper of all time with  176 caps for Italy.  Yeah. That's going to be hard to beat, isn't it? Yeah. He's the most capped Italian player of all time,  and he's got the most appearances as captain for Italy.

Uh, he's the only ever goalkeeper to win the UEFA club footballer of the year.  And, uh, he was runner up for the Ballon d'Or in 2006, which, uh,  But I was reading about, uh, I looked at their year and it was a year that Cannavaro won,  uh, I don't know if you remember. So that's the year they won the World Cup?

Yeah, they won the World Cup. And, uh, it was also the year that Juventus got done and relegated.  Uh, and Buffon stayed with Juventus and it was halfway through the season they got sent down. Buffon stayed and Cannavaro went to Madrid.  And a lot of people think if, if Buffon had left  and gone to another club and finished out the season the other time, he would have actually won that Ballon d'Or.

And he was only, Cannavaro was the only one because he Didn't go down to Siri B with, uh, Tremendous. Yeah. I didn't you tell me that but that you know that that loyalty just just Speaks volumes doesn't it? But he just played it. I mean, he you know, he's he's a good looking chap But he's also he just played with a class short sleeves as well.

He always had. Yeah  Yeah, he looked the part  He just lives apart. Apart. And the fact he, he just finished his career last year having gone down, gone to, uh, Palmer, when they've just gone down to try and get them back up again. He went back to Palmer, didn't he? That gone back, back to Palmer playing at, playing at such in his forties  and, uh,  yeah.

So, and, but he won. He, he's won 10 sir.  with Juventus and he won Serie B with Juventus as well. He's got six Coppa Italias. He won the UEFA Cup with Parma.  Uh, he never won the Champions League with Juventus. Runner up three times.  Uh, one, uh. Really? Yeah, yeah. So that's where Neuer would probably have, Yeah, Neuer's two Champions Leagues, yeah.

Yeah.  Casillas, three. Um, but he won, uh, won Ligue 1 with Paris Saint Germain,  uh, came runner up in the Euros with Italy in 2012, uh, and obviously won the World Cup, like we said, in 2006. And in that World Cup, he got five clean sheets.  That's out of probably, what, eight or nine games? Seven, seven. Only played seven games.

Is that it? And he let in two, he let in two goals.  That's a pretty good stat. Insane, insane. What, what at all. You can't really argue with it when you lay it down like that. You can't really argue with all that. Yeah. You see where, where Italy strength lied in that, uh, that World Cup  . Yeah. But yeah. Yeah. For me, when I, when I kind of read all that, his career, his stats and, and knowing what a player he was, like, he's, he's gotta be the greatest goalkeeper of all time for me. 

I understand. Yeah.  Yeah. He's gotta be up there. Um, one that we haven't mentioned though. It'd be remiss of me not to chuck in a Swedish goalkeeper. Yeah. Um,  . So,  so can you name any Swedish goalkeepers? Is there any that come to mind?  Um,  oh, who's, I think mid nineties. Yeah. Who was the one in the bald guy? I forgot his name.

That's it. In the 94 when you had the Thomas Elli, the Square Elli. That's it. Yes. That's it.  And he got actually sweden got to the um, uh came third in the world cup that year. Yeah Yeah, well, I will actually I will actually mention that when we start talking about the next section. It's uh, it comes up  Good  uh,  good link good link because because the player we're talking about.

Um,  george haji  Um, he uh, he played  In that World Cup for Romania and, uh, and they got knocked out by Sweden  on penalties with, uh, with Thomas Ravelli, the, the hero.  Yeah. There you go.  Perfect link. Perfect link. Oh, I slightly wrote this. 

I think people will be able to tell that we haven't. 

I mean, I'll say his name, Gheorghe Hadji. Um, I think we all Have you pronounced it correctly? Yeah, I think growing up we all called him Georgie. Georgie Hadji. Uh, he, um,  He's an absolute 90s legend, but he's, um, he's number 100 on the, uh, top 100 list.  And, uh, he's the greatest ever Romanian footballer, nicknamed the Maradona of the Calpadians or Comandante, the commander, by the Galatasaray fans, but the Romanians simply called him Reghele, the king. 

He's, uh, he was a playmaker known for his dribbling technique, vision. Passing and finishing,  absolute genius of a free kick, free kick taker.  I was watching some YouTube highlights of Haji and he scored some belters, um, from, from miles out as well. Not just free kick, just so many goals from, from really far away and some famous ones as well.

He, uh, he got 125 caps for Romania, played in three World Cups.  Uh, three Euros. He's, uh, Romania's joint leading goal scorer, uh, with 35 goals alongside, uh, Adrian Mutu. Um,  basically he started, uh, at a club called Farel Constanta  and, uh,  in, in Romania. And there's, it was at a time in Romania where there's a lot of the leagues were, were amateur, but then this was kind of a youth team he was playing for.

Uh, I played for another couple of clubs in Romania. Romania, but it wasn't until, um, it was 22 that he signed for, uh, a top team in Starbrook arrest.  Um, he was, he was playing in the top division.  Uh, but at the time, book arrest were run by the Romanian army. And, uh, it was a, it was a dictatorship, uh, like communism in in Romania.

And, um,  the, so Dynamo Bucharest were the strongest team in Romania for, for many years in the 60s and 70s, and they were, they were run by the secret police.  Star Bucharest,  run by the, run by the army. And in 1983,  the son of the Romanian dictator, took over Staya Brukerest  and, uh, what  he started doing was stealing players from other clubs around Romania on the pretext.

Like kidnapping. Well, it was on the pretext that they had to serve their national service  with Staya Brukerest because they were run by the army. That's clever. So he's not, he's not paying them any money. He's just going to the clubs and saying, you have to come to us now because you need to do your national service.

So all the clubs would just lose their best players to Staya. And um, and they had no chance. So Steaua Bucharest won the next five league titles after he took over.  And went and set a world record with 116 games unbeaten. 

They won, they won the 1986 European cup final being Barcelona in the final on penalties.  And then, uh, the following, uh, the following season, uh, they signed Haji, well, they, they took Haji for a one game trial from his, uh, his club and, uh, He was supposed to go back to his club because they just, they just took him for a game and the game he played in was the Super Cup final after they won the European Cup against Dynamo Kiev. 

Uh, where Hadji scored the winning goal in a 1 0 victory, scored a free kick and Bucharest just said to his club, yeah, we're keeping him, he's not going back. 

They don't pay him, but they're just like, no, he's ours now. So he ended up, yeah, he ended up with, um, with Stereo Vigorest, reached the European cup final again in 1989, losing to one of the classic, uh, Milan sides.  Um,  and he was like, you couldn't actually leave Romania at that time.  They wouldn't, like, the dictatorship wouldn't let Romanian players leave.

So he didn't have the option of, of going anywhere. And, and no, it was kind of, I think it was quite common across Eastern Europe and, and Russia. That's why, like we talked about Lev, Lev Yashin playing his entire career at Dynamo Moscow. I'd imagine he didn't have the option of going to a, a different European club.

So all these Eastern European players would,  would rarely go and play.  At other outside of their countries they play there  and um,  the uh, there was a revolution in romania in 1989 and um,  uh After that players were then allowed to go and play abroad after the revolution in 1989 And haji was probably like top of the list for a lot of european clubs uh, and he ended up  signing for um  for real madrid, but um Not until he played at the world cup  It's at Italy in, uh, 1990 where, um, Romania got to the quarterfinals.

Yeah, they were, they were good through, um, through the 90s. Yeah, they were, they were. And, um, but he actually, like, he was nicknamed the Maradona of the Carpathians.  And you can see why when you looked at him and he was, he was quite short, I think five foot eight. Uh, really good at using, really strong, good at using his body.

Incredible with the ball control and dribbling and  like there was all you could see the the comparisons there with Maradona Um, and he actually played against Maradona in in italia 90 in the group stage and then he drew drew 1 1  Um, so they they went through the quarters, but they lost on penalties to uh, twilight  Finally, yeah Yeah, um, who would that have been ray halton or was that a bit later on or he's jackie charlton, wasn't it in charge?

Yeah. And um, yeah,  , but yeah, so he was, but he was only at Madrid for two years.  And he kind of, he had, he showed glimpses of magic, but in Madrid, we're going through a bit of a transition period, went through a few managers and he was in and out the team and, uh, ended up requesting a transfer and, uh, went to Brescia  in Syria.

Um, and sounds like a strange club, but Brescia had a, um, Romanian manager  and, uh, Florin Radachiu, Radachiu, played for them.  I don't know if that name rings a bell. One, another Romanian great.  It does ring a bell. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah,  it does ring a bell.  Yeah, there's a few, uh, yeah, a few players wasn't there. But, um,  yeah, mid  through the mid through the early to mid nineties.

Yes. Um,  he was a star for pressure. Um, but they got relegated. Uh, the season he joined and he, and he stayed with them. Like we were talking about Buffon and the type of band he was. He stayed with Brescia and got them back into Serie A the following season. Uh, but then, um, Barcelona came calling for him  and, uh, and he went there and, uh, he went to Barcelona in, uh, 1994, but not before he played in, uh, in another World Cup. 

USA 94 and that was kind of his coming of age tournament. It's obviously  he was, he was quite worldly known before that, uh, for what he's done, but that was kind of his tournament. And I watched the highlights from his highlights from 94. And it was,  it really was like, His tournament if if  if sweden hadn't have beaten the penalties Romania had gone through to the semis.

I think he would have been talked about so much more than he was um, but I think because there were so many upsets in that in that, uh world cup Bulgaria did pretty well as well and and obviously sweden that that he was kind of overshadowed a little bit  but um, He scored, uh against columbia Uh in the group stage  With a, a kind of audacious chip  and, uh, in a three one win.

And, uh, I, I looked at this, it was, it was a weird goal. It was kind of miles out on the left wing.  Um, and it looked kind of like a cross, but it went float. It was like floated right over the keeper and dropped in the kind of far right hand corner, um, to incredible goal. Oh, lovely. Yeah.  I don't think it was. 

If it was, it was awful. It was miles away from anyone. But it was, it just, the way, the way he kind of struck it, it was like,  it wasn't like he was trying to hit it hard.  So it was, it was more kind of lobby. Yeah. Floated it over. Almost floated it over him. And, um,  he scored against, uh, Switzerland in the match they lost in the group stages.

And then against, uh, they, they played in the final game of the, of the groups against USA, um, the home team. And, uh, he was kind of man of match, man of the match in that, in that one, where they won one nil and progressed to face Argentina again  in the round of 16.  And, uh, When you look at their team, so, uh, you, you kind of recognize, like, when I look at Romania now, I can don't really recognize, like, know a lot of their players, but there were so many of that team that were kind of household names by the time they retired, at least.

Petrescu, uh, Prodan, Pepescu, Dimitrescu, Relachoiu, who we've mentioned already. And, uh, Romania with that team beat Argentina 3 2 with Hadji scoring the winner,  and it was, uh, wow. It was a decent Argentinian team as well. Like Batistuta,  Ortega,  Simeone, some great, great names in there. Um, and that, and that game was known as one of the best games, uh, in World Cup history, uh, Romania, Argentina game is such a good game.

And the, um, The quarterfinal against Sweden was, was pretty good as well. Um, you probably remember that. Were you, I mean, were you kind of a Sweden, big Sweden fan during that World Cup without England there?  Well, so yeah, well, certainly, certainly I was in that World Cup. Didn't, didn't have much choice. I mean, I always, you know, always followed them.

I've obviously, uh,  being half Swedish, I, you know, I've, I've, I've always looked at England's fixture list and, and results before I looked to Sweden's, but I, uh, yeah, and I absolutely do follow them. And, um, Yeah, and over the years, you know, being that they've punched above their weight, I think, uh, when it comes to getting into tournaments and,  you know, competing.

So, yeah, and that World Cup. Yeah, absolutely. And they had a few big names as well there. So, um,  yeah, they were quite excellent. Brolin, Darlin, Brolin. Yeah. England and, uh, Sweden have had their matchups over the years and um, yeah, loyalty has been a bit torn. England have generally, uh, got results more than, more than they've, uh, lost.

Yeah. But yeah, that, now you're talking about, what's that? 92 9 4 World Cup? Would it be, yeah. Nine four World Cup nine. No, the, the, the Brolin. Oh, Berlin. Yeah. That was, that was Euro 92, wasn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.  Classic, but the year, this game was two, two quarter final and, uh, Sweden won on penalties. But  the keeper, like you say, Elli did some, he saved against, uh, Dan Psco had you scored in the shoot up.

But yeah, Dan Psco missed. I think Sweden scored all their pens and uh, and that was it. But then he went to, had you went to Barcelona after that. But unfortunately. Yeah, he did have some really amazing performances at Barcelona.  He was kind of famous for there, but he struggled with injury quite a lot.  And, uh, and was only there for two seasons and then, uh, went to Galatasaray. 

And, uh, he was 31 when he went to Galatasaray and he actually, Finished his career there,  but he became an absolute Galatasaray legend.  Um, massive, massive player for them. And I think they still like Galatasaray fans will still see him as the one, like their, their greatest ever perhaps. And, uh, won the UEFA cup with them in 2000. 

And, uh, you might remember, uh, you might remember the game that beat Arsenal in the final.  Oh, okay.  Um,  off the top of my head, I can't remember that. Well, for all the famous Arsenal teams, um, and, um, Seaman, Seaman was in goal for that. Where, uh, Seaman,  didn't That isn't the one where he got lobbed by the ex, uh No, that was the I think that was a Cup Winners Cup.

They did that. That wasn't the UEFA Cup. But, um, they lost it on penalties.  Arsenal did. Galatasaray won on penalties. Hadji actually got sent off in extra time for punching Tony Adams.  LAUGHS Wow. He was quite a feisty player. How tall was he?  And at 5'8 taking on Tony Adams, that's, that's a brave little guy. 

Wow. He was, he was feisty, but, um, but yeah, in the end, it was, um,  cause they, the two Soukas were playing for either team. Davos Souka was playing, came on for Arsenal, and Hakan Souka was playing for Galatasaray.  And, uh, yes.  The hacker good players as well weren't, yeah. Hacker Suka scored in Penalty Shootout and Davo Suka missed and, uh, and are still lost. 

Yeah.  , that's an uncomfortable Christmas, isn't it? 

He, he became this kind of galata legends and, um,  I think we were talking about last week, you don't see as many like, legendary players at smaller clubs  and, uh.  Uh, apart from what kind of when they're in the, the twilight of their careers a lot of the time. So, um, the fact you'd be playing Galatasaray in Europe and you, Georgie Haji was, was playing for them and he was at one of the best players in the world was, was exciting.

It's just amazing how, you know, You know, the, uh, yeah, it's impossible to quantify but  by the sounds of it yeah,  the time that um, Stavri Karest and then uh, you know Romania and then also Galatasaray, you know, the, uh,  He was a fundamental part of the success of, of smaller teams doing, doing very well at tournaments and, and, you know, at club level, um, and how, you know, one player can inspire a team to, to perform perhaps above, you know, what they're standing historically would, would sort of show.

So  that's been a lot of players like that, I suppose, over the years. I met Maradona at Napoli as well. He stayed there a long time, loyal servant. A single player can, can lift, um.  of a team, you know, a lesser, lesser, uh,  historically, uh, you know, uh, a lesser team such as, you know, Stavry Crest or Romania in tournaments they did with him playing Galatasaray and uh, how they can, I guess, sort of build a team around, you know, one or two excellent players to really raise the performance of the club to  outperform their, their, you know, what they've done historically.

Yeah.  Well, well, post, post football, I mean, actually before.  The, um, that competition. You might remember something else from that competition in gala was the semi-final before they faced Arsenal In the final was, uh, they played leads when, uh, the two leads fans got stabbed,  uh, and died in, uh, in gala, in gala, in Istanbul,  uh, which I think there was. 

I'm sure there was something about it recently. It was like the anniversary of it  Recently it um,  I don't know It must have been 20 20 year anniversary or something that I remember a lot of a lot of talk about it The two two lease fans that died and they were still um still talked about a lot at least but yeah, I think that's  Still quite a daunting place to go istanbul galatasaray. 

Yeah. Well, yeah, there's been um  Yeah, Liverpool had issues there, didn't they, during the um, Liverpool fans did during the,  uh, the Champions League final. Yeah, it's just been, um, yeah, like I say, a daunting place to go, a dangerous place. And it was only, yeah, it was only the other night that, uh,  two Brighton fans got stabbed.

Away to Roma. Have you heard of that?  I didn't actually they didn't they didn't die and uh, there was I saw a video actually of one of the guys that got stabbed He made the game  and all the bright all the Brighton fans when he turned up all the Brighton fans started singing his name  So he might be, he might be sat there going, Oh, it was worth it.

Yeah.  Oh  God. Yeah, that's pretty dark.  That just shouldn't happen. It shouldn't happen. But yeah, post, post football, uh, he actually formed his own club in Romania. Uh, Haji did called, uh, Vitoral Constanta,  which, uh, if you, uh,  remember all the way back his youth team he played for was, uh, Farol Constanta. So, uh, literally where, where it all began and, uh, he brought them up through the leagues and managed them to, uh, the top league, top division league title in 2017. 

And it's, it's, yeah, it's all based around a big, um,  youth system.  Huge use system for Romania and bought through, uh, his son,  Ianis Hadji, who, uh, who they then sold to Rangers. Who, uh, now a big, big player for Rangers, uh, Yanis Hadji.  But yeah, incredible, really, because I mean, he's, he's obviously just such a Romanian legend and, uh, went back to, back to his roots,  incredible, incredible career. 

Yeah. And then, you know, doing it all over again as a manager,  giving back, but starting from the bottom and, uh, going all the way up, there can't be too many. Too many people that have created the team and done that. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.  Um,  Yeah, it was uh, it was nice when I kind of thought i'm going to start on the on the top 100 I and saw that it was uh hadji at number 100 I was I was quite happy about that because it was someone that I really Remember a lot about and and thought would be quite interesting to look into and he was so I was quite happy with that  Yeah, it's quite, all the, all the information in that history, that's quite, you know, it's quite an interesting, incredible backstory really, isn't it?

You, you know, you've seen a player, you've seen him score the goals, you've heard the name, but, uh, you know, so much more to the story. And interestingly, looking back at what you were saying about the, you know, those two, the two years at Real Madrid, The two years at Barcelona, um, both it seems kind of not as successful as the rest of the years everywhere else.

So, um, had he not had those injuries, you know, could he have been higher than the top one, you know, higher than 100 in the list? Had he had a, that time at Barcelona or Real Madrid, you know, whether he'd had the form and the luck that he, that he did elsewhere. Yeah, yeah, I reckon, yeah. It's like, uh, like Stoichkov is probably rated higher than him. 

And, uh, a lot of that will be because of his time at Real Madrid.  Yeah. And, and how, and the impact. But player to player, was he a better player? Yeah.  You could argue it. Yeah, I'd, I'd, I'd rate them quite closely. 

Been a pleasure. And uh, we'll be back Uh next time with the number 99 on the top 100s list and uh, we'll be talking about left backs  Nice. Well, that's uh, yeah A position close to my heart. Yes, exactly  Are we allowed to know who is number 99 in the list?  Um, yes, it was I think it's uh, it doesn't have to be a splurge.

Um, I think it was uh without big without Looking up again. Um, it was mario kempes argentinian, uh forward  Um, but I will uh, let me just double check that Uh, i'll be honest. I don't know. Uh, is that yeah When did he play? Uh 70s 

So a little bit of a different era to discuss won the World Cup with, um, with, um, Argentina in 1978.  Nice. Well, I don't know too much about him, so Played for Valencia, so  He was, he was Because Maradona didn't play in that World Cup, he was basically the star of, uh, of that World Cup.  Right.  When did Maradona start playing for, even as early as He, he, he Well, no, he started playing in the seventies and he was, I think he was a teenager and he'd been capped for Argentina before that World Cup. 

And he always calls it, he always called it the World Cup that, that he was robbed of the 1978 World Cup. Cause he thought he should be in the squad. So, uh,  So yeah, it's quite, yeah, quite interesting that he, he didn't, because if you, if you think about it, he was  robbed of the, so 78 he could have had that World Cup,  86 he obviously won, and then 1990 he also felt he was robbed of that World Cup because, um,  uh,  he, they were in the final.

Was that a new band? No, no, no. In the final Italian 90 against, um, against Germany and they just like hacked him down and all the Italians were against him. He got booed during national anthem got booed and all this. And he's like very much like he got kind of, um, got that world cup taken away from him so he could easily in another dimension had three world cups. 

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