FOOTBALL

FOOTBALL AS A METAPHOR FOR LIFE.

The ball is the individual’s ego.
Team members are family and friends;
trust in team mates is the foundation of a good relationship and
helps the player win the match of happiness.
The opposition players are obstacles like anger, pride, hatred,
that must be overcome to reach the goalpost.
The goalpost is the universal consciousness to which a person
must ultimately submit the ego, to achieve true bliss.
The coach is the guru who teaches the way and the player
learns from his mistakes on the field.
The referee is the law of karma that reinforces the correct rules
for playing.
The audience is society that reacts to performance on the field
Soccer's global spread began in the late 1800s, when British traders, sailors, and
soldiers carried the sport all over the world. Germans, Italians, and Austrians were
eager converts in Europe, while Argentines, Uruguayans, and Brazilians took
quickly to the sport in South America. FIFA was formed in 1904. By 1930
professional leagues were operating in many countries, and that year FIFA
organized the first World Cup in Uruguay.
Soccer is the world's most popular sport, played by people of all ages in about 200 countries. The first laws of
the modern game were supposedly drafted in 1862 by J. C. Thring of the Uppingham School. At a meeting of
the London Football Association (FA) in 1863, the game was split into rugby football (the parent sport of
American football), which permitted handling and carrying the ball, and association football, or soccer,
which banned the use of the hands.
Men's Champions Women's Champions
Year Winner Score Runner-Up Score Place Held
Year Winner Score Runner-up Score Place held

Uruguay 4 Argentina 2 Montevideo, Uruguay

1991 United States 2 Norway 1 Guangzhou, China
1934 Italy 2 Czechoslovakia 1 Rome, Italy
1995 Norway 1 United States 0 Gavle, Sweden
1938 Italy 4 Hungary 2 Paris, France
1999 United States* 0 China 0 Pasadena, United States
1950 Uruguay 2 Brazil 1 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
* United States won the game 5-4 in a penalty-kick shoot-out.
1954 West Germany 3 Hungary 2 Bern, Switzerland

1958 Brazil 5 Sweden 2 Stockholm, Sweden

1962 Brazil 3 Czechoslovakia 1 Santiago, Chile

1966 England 4 West Germany 2 London, England

World Cup Winners
1970 Brazil 4 Italy 1 Mexico City, Mexico

1974 West Germany 2 Netherlands 1 Munich, Germany

1978 Argentina 3 Netherlands 1 Buenos Aires, Argentina

1982 Italy 3 West Germany 1 Madrid, Spain

1986 Argentina 3 West Germany 2 Mexico City, Mexico

1990 West Germany 1 Argentina 0 Rome, Italy

1994 Brazil 0* Italy 0 Pasadena, California

1998 France 3 Brazil 0 Saint-Denis, France

2002 Brazil 2 Germany 0 Yokohama, Japan

* Brazil won the game 3-2 in a penalty-kick shoot-out.

The World's best Player of the Century

• Edson Arantes do Nascimento Pelé

• Hendrik Johannes Cruijff
• Franz Beckenbauer
• Alfredo Di Stéfano
• Diego Armando Maradona
• Ferenc Puskás
• Michel Platini
• Manoel dos Santos Garrincha
• Eusébio da Silva Ferreira
• Sir Robert Charlton
 Bobby Charlton - Sir Robert Charlton
Born: 11 October, 1937. Ashington, England
He won everything football has to offer.
Championships, Cup winner's medals, a record
number of international caps and goals.
A perfect role model he had grace, speed,
athleticism and a thunderbolt shot that made him
dangerous even 30 yards from goal. He was besides
a gentleman, the ultimate sporting hero with an
unrivalled sense of fair play.
Born into a football family in the Northumberland
mining village of Ashington. His mother Cissie was
It was the late 1960s. England had won a football fanatic who taught Bobby and his elder
the World Cup and Manchester United brother Jack how to play. She once said: "I never
the European Cup. All over the world had a doll. I just wanted to play football with the
there were children who could speak lads. It's in my blood." Even in her seventies, she
only two words of English. One was was still coaching children at the local primary
"Bobby", the other was "Charlton", such school. His grandfather and four of his uncles were
was the esteem in which he was held. professional footballers.
"There has never been a more popular 1966 World Cup winner's medal. He was also
footballer," said Sir Matt. "He was as Footballer of the Year, European Footballer of the
near perfection as man and player as it Year and voted Best Player in the 1966 World Cup.
is possible to be."
 Franz Beckenbauer - Der Kaiser

B: Sep. 11, 1945

West Germany
WORLD CUP APPEARANCES: 3
tournaments ('66, '70, '74)
CLUBS: Bayern Munich, New York
Cosmos
One of the greatest player and leader in
World Cup history, Beckenbauer was the
world's first libero, the attacking
sweeper; a position he invented and was
admired by the soccer world for the way
he brought the ball forward from defence
to create and score goals.
The only man to have captained (in
1974) and coached (in 1990) a World
Cup winning team.

.
Johan Cruijff - dubbed "Pythagoras in boots" for the complexity
and precision of his angled passes
Cruyff was born in Amsterdam 25 Apr in 1947 close to the Ajax
ground. His mother worked as a cleaner at the club and it was she
who persuaded the coaches to admit her son to their youth
development system at the age of 12.

Cruijff lifted Ajax to heights the club had never been at before. His
greatest quality was vision, based on an acute sense of his team-
mates' positions as an attack unfolded.
Six Dutch league championships, four domestic cup titles and then
three straight European Cup triumphs 1971-73 plus a European
Super Cup and World Club Cup title on top of that as well. Johan
Cruijff had taken over the torch from Pele as being the greatest
player in the World.

In the summer of 1974, the Netherlands with Cruijff as the

conductor and captain, impressed everybody in the World Cup in
West Germany. Their "Total-Football" style where every player
moved position all the time and somehow made the Dutch
outnumber their opponents in every area of the field,

European Footballer of the Year (Golden Ball) winner three times

and has since also been a highly successful coach at both Ajax and
Barcelona.
 Gordon Banks
B: 30 December 1937. Sheffield,
England
For 10 years, Gordon Banks
wasn't just England's goalkeeper.
He was indisputably the best in the
world. Perhaps the finest there has
ever been.

"In my early days, a goal against us was shrugged off. Nobody liked
conceding a goal, but once the ball had gone into the net it was accepted as
'one of those things' and everybody in the team would concentrate on trying to
get the goal back.
"But once the maximum wage had been lifted and win bonuses became all-
important, it was suddenly considered a crime to concede a goal."
Perhaps somewhere in those words of Gordon Banks, goalkeeper supreme,
is the difference between football as a sport and football as a hard-nosed
business.
Save of the century: England goalkeeper Gordon Banks
makes a remarkable save from Pele during the 1970
World Cup.
 Save of the century: England goalkeeper Gordon Banks
makes a remarkable save from Pele during the 1970
World Cup.

If ever a goal looked a certainty, this was it. As the

ball screamed towards its destination inside the
post, somehow, miraculously, Gordon Banks got a
hand to it and flicked it up over the bar.
The save of the century? Probably. Pele could only
stand and stare in amazement - along with several
million incredulous TV viewers around the world.
As a young man, he was sent packing by
Romarsh Welfare of the Yorkshire League
after only two games - for letting in
FIFTEEN goals!
"I was noted more for the alacrity with
which I picked balls out of the back of my
net than for any stopping ability."
 Ferenc Puskas – ‘Galloping Major; Little
Canon’
B: 2 April, 1927. Budapest, Hungary .
Kispest Honved, Real Madrid.
A boy wonder, made his debut for his
"Look at that little fat chap. We'll murder father's old team Kispest at the age of 16.
this lot." In the long and inglorious annals At 18 he was an international, appearing for
of great British sporting disasters, few Hungary against Austria in 1945
judgments have been wider of the mark.
Ninety minutes later Hungary had
slaughtered England 6-3.
The "little fat chap" was Ferenc Puskas,
the Hungarian captain. An odd looking
footballer - short, stocky, barrel-chested,
overweight, couldn't head and only used
one foot. Yet his ball skills and inspired
performance completely demolished
England's reputation as a world football
power.
 GOSTHO PAL - THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA -
Gostho Behari Pal b. 20th August, 1896. D. April 8th
1976.
Defender
He started playing for Kumartuli at the age of 11and
joined Mohun Bagan at the age of 16.
By the age of 25 he became an icon famed for his
defensive capabilities as the barefooted man standing
tall in the heart of the Mohun Bagan defence.
In 1924, Indian football team for the first time went to
play on foreign soil. Gostho Pal was selected as the
captain of the Indian side.
KOLKATA
Mohun Bagan awarded him the Mohun Bagan Ratna,
GREAT’S which is given to former greats of that team. In his
memory a statue was erected on a street named after
him ‘Gostha Pal Sarani’ in Kolkata. An archive was
launched in his honour and named the Gostha Pal
Archive, inside the Mohun Bagan club premises.
 Sailendra Nath Manna
Born: September 1, 1924: Defender.
Former Indian captain who fetched the country a host of
international laurels including the first Asian Games
gold in 1951. Led the first-ever Indian football team on
an overseas tour that took part in the 1948 London
Olympics playing barefoot.
Rated as among the 10 best skippers of the world in its
yearbook of 1953 by the England Football Association,
under his leadership India won four successive titles in
the South East Asian quadrangular meet (featuring
"We lost the match 1-2 against France India, Pakistan, Burma and Sri Lanka) between 1952
(1948 Qlympics) but our performance and 1955.
drew huge cheers as we were
challenging the Europeans bare-footed," He became captain of the Mohun Bagan team in 1951
says Manna. "Princess Margaret had and went on to win the Durand Cup five times,
asked me during a reception at including three times consecutively. His team also won
Buckingham Palace, `Aren't you afraid the IFA Shield six times, including four times
of playing barefooted against boots?' We continuously in a row. He captained the Mohun Bagan
could not say that there was no fund for team for six years from 1950 to 1955. "I never took
buying boots. We just grinned and said money playing for Mohun Bagan. I played out of love
playing without them was more for the sport and was happy with the salary I got from
comfortable," says Manna with a hint of my employer, the Geological Survey of India," says
pride. Manna.

Participating barefoot in the 1948
London Olympic he helped conduct
the defeat 1 - 2 to France, 4 – 1 to
Denmark, 4 - 1 to Austria, 4 – 1 to
Germany and 1 - 1 to Switzerland
Mewalal netted 6 goals providing his
outstanding capability in scoring
goals.
SAHOO MEWALAL
B: 1-7-1926 Fort william,Kolkata
Coached by Sergeant Burnet of Fort Williams in the
Morning Star Club in the year 1937 in right out position
and later on switched over to Centre-Forward.In 1938 he
scored his first goal against Grear Sporting Club on
behalf of Nepier Club and that match was locked 1-1.
FIRST BIG MATCH: He played his first big match on
behalf of IFA-X1against India-X1 in the year1944
defeating India-X1 by 3-2,the wining goal was scored by
Sahoo Mewalal.
KOLKATA FOOTBALL LEAGUE CLUBS: Mewalal
played forAryan Club1945, Mohunbagan Club1946
Eastern Railway1947 – 1955; Aryan Club again in 1956
– 57; B.N.R - 1958
A dedicated footballer he was the Top scorer in Kolkata
football league: 1949 (32 Goals); 1951 (18 Goals); 1953
(11 Goals) 1954 (29 Goals); 1958 (6 Goals). He was
appreciated by spectators for his skill and acrobatic
fitness in executing the rarely seen "BACK VOLLY”
Best Centre Fowrard India have ever produced.
Subimal Chuni Goswami
B: January 15, 1938.
Striker
Led the Indian team to gold at the
1962 Asian Games in Jakarta;
Universal favourite of Indian football
with his brilliant flair and skill,
Goswami led team defeated South
Korea 2-1, with goals coming from
P.K. Banerjee and Jarnail Singh.

He was a natural sportsman, having

achieved success in cricket and
tennis. He captained India to the
Asian Games victory in 1962 and a
silver in the Asia Cup in Tel Aviv
and in the Merdeka Cup. He also
captained Bengal in cricket.

Arjuna Award in 1963; Padma Shri

in 1983.