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“Sweden’s Yasin Ayari has a Tunisian father and chose not to celebrate his first goal against Tunisia (he couldn’t resist celebrating when he scored later, though). Declan Rice did something similar after scoring against the Republic of Ireland in 2024, but what is the earliest example of a player not celebrating a goal at international level because of a connection to the opposition?” asks Michael Pilcher.
“I remember Breel Embolo, the Swiss international born in Cameroon, not celebrating after scoring against Cameroon at the 2022 World Cup,” replies Filippo Varanini.
During a European Championship qualifying match in 2010, Mesut Özil showed restraint in his celebrations when he scored for Germany against Turkey in a 3-0 win – the former Real Madrid playmaker was born in Gelsenkirchen to Turkish immigrants. But the earliest example we can find of this particular gesture is with a teammate of Özil’s, Lukas Podolski, who scored two goals against Poland, the country of his birth, at Euro 2008.
“This was a difficult and emotional game for me,” he told FourFourTwo magazine in 2022. “Both the German and Polish press focused on me before it, building the pressure, and there were so many Polish fans in the ground. I didn’t celebrate, but I’m a professional and had to do what was expected of me. I support Poland on every other occasion. I was emotional before and after the game, but for 90 minutes I came to do my job for Germany.”
“Two questions on Cape Verde manager Dick Advocaat,” begins Luke Carruthers. “1) He has coached eight different men’s international teams – can anybody beat that? 2) He has managed the Netherlands men’s and women’s teams at senior level. How rare is this?”
The first part has been covered in a previous Knowledge many moons ago, but the answer is categorically Rudi Gutendorf. Incredibly, the German’s management career lasted 53 years and took in 17 national manager jobs in charge of Chile, Bolivia, Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, Antigua, Botswana, Australia, New Caledonia, Nepal, Tonga, Tanzania, Ghana, Nepal again (but we won’t count that), Fiji, Zimbabwe, Mauritius and Rwanda. Oh, and he also took charge of the Iranian and Chinese Olympic teams in 1988 and 1992, respectively. When asked once why he had managed in so many different countries, the German replied: “One cannot conserve excitement.” Reader Christoph Arlick has a caveat, though. “Quite a few international sides he was in charge of did not actually play an official game during his time there,” he notes. “He was on the sidelines for Bermuda, Chile, Botswana, Australia, Nepal, Ghana, Mauritius, Zimbabwe and Rwanda across 77 games, beating Advocaat by (at least) one country.”
Dan Almond flags two other managers who can match or better Advocaat’s eight international jobs: Bora Milutinovic (eight: Mexico, Costa Rica, USA, Nigeria, China, Honduras, Jamaica, Iraq) and Claude Le Roy (nine: Cameroon, Senegal, Malaysia, DR Congo, Ghana, Oman, Syria, Congo, Togo), while Tom Reed puts forward Danny McLennan (10: Philippines, Mauritius, Rhodesia [now Zimbabwe], Iran, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Malawi, Fiji, Libya). “Tom Saintfiet has racked up 12 international teams (Namibia, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Yemen, Malawi, Togo, Bangladesh, Trinidad and Tobago, Malta, the Gambia, the Philippines, Mali) across four different federations,” emails Daz Pearce. “He needs to manage countries in South America and Oceania to complete the set.”
We are fairly sure the only answer to Luke’s second question is John Herdman, the Englishman who managed both Canada’s women’s and men’s national teams between 2011-23. After the women’s team lost all three of their group games at the 2011 World Cup, many of their players were contemplating retirement. “We were completely broken,” recalled retired defender Emily Zurrer, who was also part of that 2015 squad. “Some of us were thinking about hanging up our boots and here’s this guy talking about being on a podium and seeing our flag rise … and very quickly he instilled that belief in us.” The following year, Canada were on that podium earning a bronze Olympic medal at London 2012, a feat they repeated four years later in Rio. He assumed a divided men’s team in 2018 but helped Canada men to their first World Cup in nearly four decades in 2022. You can read more about Herdman, and his penchant for Sun Tzu quotes, here.
Sweet 16
“New Zealand’s Chris Wood and Tommy Smith are playing at their second World Cup, 16 years after their first,” writes Alexander Scott. “Has any player had a longer wait between World Cup appearances?”
Knowledge legend Dirk Maas swoops in here to answer this one. “No, Chris Wood has equalled Faryd Mondragón’s feat, who played for Colombia at the 1998 and 2014 World Cup. Before Mondragón, the longest wait was 12 years. Alfred Bickel (Switzerland, World Cup 1938 and 1950), Erik Nilsson (Sweden, World Cup 1938 and 1950), José Martínez Sánchez ‘Pirri’ (Spain, World Cup 1966 and 1978), Wilfried Van Moer (Belgium, World Cup 1970 and 1982), Michael Laudrup (Denmark, World Cup 1986 and 1998), Hernán Medford (Costa Rica, World Cup 1990 and 2002), Niall Quinn (Republic of Ireland, World Cup 1990 and 2002), Santiago Cañizares (Spain, World Cup 1994 and 2006), Lee Dong-gook (South Korea, World Cup 1998 and 2010), Daniel Van Buyten (Belgium, World Cup 2002 and 2014) and Aleksandr Kerzhakov (Russia, World Cup 2002 and 2014) shared the record of the longest wait. Randall Azofeifa (Costa Rica, World Cup 2006 and 2018), Edin Dzeko and Sead Kolasinac (Bosnia and Herzegovina, World Cup 2014 and 2026), Nabil Bentaleb, Aïssa Mandi and Riyad Mahrez (Algeria, World Cup 2014 and 2026) and Lucas Digne (France, World Cup 2014 and 2026) also had to wait 12 years.”
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Do you know of any other examples? Send your suggestions to [email protected].
Knowledge archive
“It’s often said that, when England lost on penalties to West Germany at Italia 90, Bobby Robson should have brought big Dave Beasant on for the penalties. Surely England had used all their subs by then hadn’t they?” asked George Jones in 2018.
The Knowledge has often heard this theory that penalty-save specialist Beasant could have been brought on for Shilton before the spot-kicks. Even Chris Waddle, who missed England’s final kick, is said to have muttered it. But on further investigation, it’s a myth. The Guardian’s very own Rob Smyth, who knows a thing or two about Italia 90, happily busts it. “England hadn’t used all their substitutes, they’d only brought on Trevor Steven for Terry Butcher (you were allowed two subs then), but it’s a myth because in those days you had to name five subs to choose from for each match. England’s other subs were Chris Woods, Tony Dorigo, Steve McMahon and Steve Bull.”
Can you help?
“With Canada and Curaçao joining countries with point(s) at the World Cup, which countries have been, and are as bad as a UK Eurovision entry, still on null points?” wonders Roger Kirkby.
“How many countries’ leagues, recognised by Fifa, have never had a player at the World Cup?” asks Rob Davies. “I ask, as Thailand have finally got a player to the World Cup in the shape of Rebin Sulaka of Iraq, who plays for Port FC in the Thai Premier League.”
“Canada recorded their first ever men’s World Cup win with a 6-0 thumping of Qatar,” writes Chris Carter. “Has a team ever recorded their first win at a World Cup (or other major tournament) with a bigger margin of victory?”
“The Netherlands started their game against Japan without any players who currently play in the Eredivisie. Japan included two Feyenoord players in their starting XI,” notes Tony Marsden. “Has a country ever had more players from the opposition country league(s) than the opposition?”
“The heroics of Cape Verde has relit a fundamental question about national teams colours,” emails Lars Bøgegaard. “It is baffling that a country with ‘green’ in its name has a predominantly blue flag with two white stripes, a red stripe and yellow stars, but it explains the blue colours of the national team (our Greenlandic cousins also went with a flag without any green at all). The Netherlands play in orange because of the royal house’s colour but why do Australia playing in yellow and green, and why are Japan’s football colours blue and white? I think Germany’s white and black dates back to the old flag, but most countries play in colours reflecting their flag. So why the exceptions?”
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We’ll have another World Cup Knowledge special next week. Send your World Cup questions and answers to [email protected].
