European Cup Trivia

[EIM]

2018 - Modric, Varane

[EIM]

2010 - Wesley Sneijder, Arjan Robben, Van Bommel

[Simon G]

Did Sami Khedira (Germany and Real) and Angel Di Maria (Argentina and Real) play in the World Cup Final?

I don't think Atleti had any German or Argentine players.

[seand]

Now we're motoring with all the recent finals tidied up.......

2010 Sneijder (Inter, Holland; W, L)
2010 Van Bommel, Robben (Bayern, Holland; L, L)
2014 DiMaria (Real, Argentina; W, L)
2014 Khedira (Real, Germany; W, W)
2018 Varane (Real, France; W, W) (Benzema, Theo Hernandez not in France squad for various reasons!)
2018 Modric (Real, Croatia; W, L) Kovacic unused sub in CL final
2018 Lovren (Liverpool, Croatia; L, L)

[jwdd27]

Karl-Heinz Rumenigge needs adding to 1982 (L, L) - amazing that (West) Germany would dare to play a WC final with only two Bayern players.

[wittoner]

Unless I've missed it no one seems to have filled in Gerd Muller & Franz Beckenbauer for 1974 yet.

[seand]

Karl-Heinz Rumenigge needs adding to 1982 (L, L) - amazing that (West) Germany would dare to play a WC final with only two Bayern players.

Three Bayern players actually, kudos for anyone who dredges the third one up without googling..... only 3 Bayern players in the West Germany squad. That squad was very mixed, 4 from Hamburg, 3 for Cologne, Bayern, Stuttgart, 2 BMG and one each from Kaiserslautern, Dortmund, Braunschweif, Real Madrid and Werder.
We're approaching completion, there's another few in the 'Friends of Breitner' club.....

[seand]

Unless I've missed it no one seems to have filled in Gerd Muller & Franz Beckenbauer for 1974 yet.

Yes, we're nearly there.....
1974 Breitner, Beckenbauer, Muller +1 +1 +1 (Bayern, West Germany; W, W)

[ursus arctos]

Wolfgang Dremmler is the other guy from 82.

Maier, Schwarzenbeck and Uki Hoeness are the others from 74

[seand]

well done ursus and all above, I think we've got there. I reckon there's 30 players who've actually played in the the EC/CL and WC final in the same year, including Roberto Carlos and Paul Breitner who did it twice each

1958 Liedholm (Milan, Sweden; L, L)
1974 [6] Maier, Breitner, Schwarzenbeck, Beckenbauer, Muller, Hoeness (Bayern, West Germany; W, W) Kapellmann was in the WC74 squad but not in the 16-man match day squad for the final
1982 [3] Breitner, Dremmler, Rummenigge (Bayern, West Germany; L, L) The only 3 Bayern players in the Germany squad
1994 Romario (Barcelona, Brazil; L, W)
1994 [3] Maldini, Donadoni, Massaro (Milan, Italy; W, L) Baresi and Costacurta suspended for the CL final, Costacurta also suspended for the WC final, Tassotti and Albertini played EC final but not WC final
1998 [2] Deschamps, Zidane (Juventus, France; W, W)
1998 Karembeu (Real, France; L, W)
1998 Roberto Carlos (Real, Brazil; L, L)
2002 Lucio (Bayer, Brazil; L, W)
2002 Roberto Carlos (Real, Brazil; W, W)
2002 [3] Ramelow, Neuville, Schneider (Bayer, Germany; L, L) Ballack suspended for WC final, Butt unused sub in WC final
2006 Henry (Arsenal, France; L, L) (Giuly, Pires, Clichy, Flamini not in France squad)
2010 Sneijder (Inter, Holland; W, L)
2010 [2] Van Bommel, Robben (Bayern, Holland; L, L)
2014 DiMaria (Real, Argentina; W, L)
2014 Khedira (Real, Germany; W, W)
2018 Varane (Real, France; W, W) (Benzema, Theo Hernandez not in France squad)
2018 Modric (Real, Croatia; W, L) Kovacic unused sub in CL final
2018 Lovren (Liverpool, Croatia; L, L)

[EIM]

I didn't think Di Maria and Khedira played in the WC final?

[ursus arctos]

Correct

[seand]

I didn't think Di Maria and Khedira played in the WC final?

Oops, it seems not..... make that 28 players. Maybe. Possibly.

[Gangster Octopus]

Alex wouldn't've made that mistake...

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Which country has produced the most players who've played in a CL final but never in a WC final?

As two separate lots of Dutch (70s and 2010) got to a WC final, and various recent generations of Italians and Germans and French and even Brazilians playing in Europe have, I reckon it's either Spain - all their Madridistas and Barca guys from the 50s to the 90s - or, possibly, England (everyone from Man United in 1968 until now?). Thinking about it Scotland will have a few too.

[seand]

I'd have thought England, but Portugal have to be in contention too. Porto and Benfica played 9 finals between them, English teams have been finalists 22 finals, Spain 29.

[seand]

Alex wouldn't've made that mistake...

Harsh, but brutally fair.

But thread Daddy doesn't live here any more, so we have to try and muddle through for the sake of the kids.

[Gangster Octopus]

I miss him.

[Satchmo Distel]

Which country has produced the most players who've played in a CL final but never in a WC final?

As two separate lots of Dutch (70s and 2010) got to a WC final, and various recent generations of Italians and Germans and French and even Brazilians playing in Europe have, I reckon it's either Spain - all their Madridistas and Barca guys from the 50s to the 90s - or, possibly, England (everyone from Man United in 1968 until now?). Thinking about it Scotland will have a few too.

Argentina, from Di Stefano onwards, might be a shout. Big gaps before 1978 and after 1990. I think they'll have more than Brazil simply because of their connections to Italian and Spanish clubs.

[ursus arctos]

But is Di Stefano Argentine? He played more international for Spain and was also capped by Colombia.

Especially in the early years of the European Cup, this is going to complicate matters.

Spain has 29 finalists, Italy 28, England 20 and everyone else fewer than that.

My bet would be on Spain given their long record of underachieving before 2008.

[Satchmo Distel]

It's subjective but on reflection, European citizenship should probably take precedence where someone was a dual national and we are discussing a European competition. Di Stefano was Argentinian up to 1956 but Spanish thereafter, so his European Cups (except maybe the first) were won as a Spaniard.

The exception is where someone continued to identify with his country of birth, such as Jair at Inter (who returned to Brazil with Santos in 1972); but it seems to be the case up to the late 60s or early 70s* that it was simply easier for South Americans to assimilate into the nationality of the adopted Italian, Spanish or Portuguese club.

*I'd be interested in trying to pinpoint exactly when this changed and it was assumed that South Americans retained their original nationalities. Maybe when it became viable to maintain your international career by traveling to South America for qualifiers and Cups, or when the South American FAs put their foot down and insisted they keep ownership of their foreign-based international players?

[ursus arctos]

Which corresponded with a (temporary in Italy's case) crackdown on no questions asked naturalisations.

Ardiles and Villa arrived after the 78 World Cup, and France had long had a tradition of Argentine "bombers" (Piazza, Onnis, Bianchi, etc), but the big change comes with Serie A opening the borders after 1982.

[tee rex]

Along with Di Stefano, Puskas played for Spain in 1962, and so he had as many World Cup appearances for that country as he did for Hungary (3 each).

Not European Cup trivia, admittedly, but a Fun Fact available to anyone who wants to work it into a quiz question.

[Satchmo Distel]

Hungarians are another category because they were in political exile. Going back was not an option.

[seand]

Okay, so we’ve done the World Cup, which begs the question…. Which players have played in the European Cup/Champions League final and the European Championships final in the same year? I reckon it’s 25. Well, 25ish, give or take a few.