European Cup Trivia

[seand]

Hey - every good team needs a poacher, Sean. Lovely!

So, so far, that's ...

Felix - Felix Magath (HSV 1983 and 1980 )
Carlos Alberto - Carlos Alberto (Porto 2004) and Fernando Torres (Chelsea 2012)
Brito
Piazza - Ryan Giggs (Man United 1999, 2008, 20009, 2011)
Everaldo - Gilberto Silva (Arsenal 2006)
Clodoaldo - Santana (Benfica 1961 & 63)
Gerson - Adelino Nunes (unused sub, Benfica 1988)
Jairzinho - Jair da Costa (Inter 1964, 65 & 72)
Rivellino
Tostao
Pele - Abedi Pele (Marseille 1991 & 93) and Thiago (2020)

If we're limiting ourlseves to precisely the 1970 WC final starting line-up it's gonna be tricky. Brito is problematic- H?rcules Brito Ruas...... Juventus was a consort of Hercules, so he's an in-law of European Cup royalty anyway!

And under Brazilian naming conventions Rivellino is a diminutive of Rivera or Rivaldo

[ad hoc]

There are quite a few Britons who have won the European Cup. Could that count?

[Alex Anderson]

Tostao - full name Eduardo Gon?alves de Andrade

Maxwell Scherrer Cabelino Andrade (aka Maxwell). Barcelona 2011

Outstanding, Ursus!

Celebrate that with an arms-outstretched run toward the crowd, yellow shirt billowing in the Mexican heat, interrupted only by your need to drop to your knees, bless yourself and give thanks for the divine inspiration that has surely secured your place in football history ...

Certainly better than my idea - that Jimmy Johnstone might once have exclaimed upon picking up hot buttered bread at breakfast in Estoril, circa May 1967 ...

[Alex Anderson]

There are quite a few Britons who have won the European Cup. Could that count?

You work day and night on a perfectly legitimate quest to find concrete, irrefutable, cast-iron links between players who haven't won the European Cup and players who have and this is the kind of ridiculously tenuous jokes we're rewarded with.

If you're not going to take this seriously ad hoc ...

Now, who knows Brito's milkman's mum's maiden name? Was it Bale by any chance?

[Sporting]

Brito was born in Rio and er...

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

David Trezeguet played for Hercules.

[Alex Anderson]

Nice, Sporting - good cover - but fear no more. I give you Cesar Brito of Benfica. Came on for the last half hour of the 1990 European Cup final in Vienna (When it was 0-0 ... so at least he's had a better influence on our game than that one, lost 1-0 to Milan)

[Alex Anderson]

And under Brazilian naming conventions Rivellino is a diminutive of Rivera or Rivaldo

Giving it some, Sean - like it, mate. Rivaldo was an unused sub for Milan in 20023. That's as close as he came, eh? It would do for me but, while I get where yer going, and I'm certainly no expert on the Portuguese naming customs thing, is Rivellino not just a straightforward Italian name? Can we do that? ("Oh, NOW you get fussy", says you - and quiet rightly).

Also feel ethically confused by linking it to Gianni Rivera. Yes, he absolutely bossed the 1963 and 69 European Cup finals but he actually played in the 1970 World Cup final. Like the ethical Wild West that is the internet, we're still in the early days of sorting out the legalities surrounding Finding Brazil 1970 In European Cup Finalists, but this just feels instinctively, morally wrong.

THERE HAS TO BE ANOTHER WAY, MAN! DAMMIT, THERE HAS TO BE!!

[Alex Anderson]

More bad news ... Maxwell wasn't even in the 2011 final squad. He got a winners medal apparently but Tostao deserves better.

I'm beginning to think this was a forlorn task ...

[3 Colours Red]

Going by first names, Roberto Rivelino is a tap in - Roberto Firmino last year.

[3 Colours Red]

Tostao - full name Eduardo Gon?alves de Andrade

Eduardo Luis, Porto 1987.

[Alex Anderson]

Beautiful finishing, 3 Colors Red. I don't care if there was a tap-in involved - no-one else was there to put it away.

[Alex Anderson]

So here's the concludingSeven Degrees of Rivellino.Great effort, troops:

Felix - Felix Magath (HSV 1983 and 1980 ) [tee rex]

Carlos Alberto - Carlos Alberto "Capita" Torres- Carlos Alberto (Porto 2004) and Fernando Torres (Chelsea 2012) [Walt Flanagans Dog]

Brito - Hercules de Brito Ruas - Cesar Brito (sub for Benfica 1990)

Piazza - Wilson da Silva Piazza - Ryan Giggs, born Ryan Joseph Wilson, (Man United 1999, 2008, 20009, 2011) [Walt Flanagans Dog]

Everaldo - Everaldo Marques da Silva- Gilberto Silva (Arsenal 2006) [seand]

Clodoaldo - Clodoaldo Tavares Santana- Santana (Benfica 1961 & 63) [Sporting]

Gerson - Gerson de Oliveira Nunes - Adelino Nunes (unused sub, Benfica 1988) [3 Colours Red]

Jairzinho - Jair Ventura Filho - Jair da Costa (Inter 1964, 65 & 72) [ursus arctos]

Rivellino - Roberto Rivellino - Roberto Firmino (Liverpool 2018 & 2019) [3 Colours Red]

Tostao - Eduardo Goncalves de Andrade - Eduardo Luis (Porto 1987) [3 Colours Red]

Pele - Edson Arantes do Nascimento - Abedi Pele (Marseille 1991 & 93) and Thiago, as in Thiago Alcantara do Nascimento (Bayern 2020).


Venue: Bernabeu, coz it's the ECCC/UCL final venue with the mostest samest kinda wee tiers and overhanging roofs and big roof and same general shape and stuff as the Azteca.

Strip: Arsenal 2006 - apologies to Borussia Dortmund but this was the only ECCC/UCL final yellow shirt which was meant to be worn with blue shorts ... well, historically anyway if not on the night itself ...look, it's complicated. alright!

Ref: Can you believe the 1970 World Cup final ref, Rudolf "Rudi" Gloeckner, was European but did not ever ref the European Cup final. It's probably coz he was East German (although fewer of the European World Cup final referees than you'd think also refereed the European Cup final). So, as that's worked out quite nicely, I'll go for West Germany's Rudolf Kreitlein,of 1966 European Cup final fame.

This choice isn't just absolute genius and the best thing ever written on a thread anywhere on the whole internet because it's one German Rudolf each for the Warsaw Pact and Nato but, in a further coincidence, both men refereed home nations in unruly major international tournament quarter-finals on British soil. Glockner was in charge of the Wales v Yugsolavia Euro 76 second leg in Cardiff which ended in a bit of a riot, and Kreitlein is the man who sent off Antonio Rattin at Wembley in the summer of 66.

Time to stop now, I feel.

Opponent? Well, it's Helenio Herrera's Inter fu**ing Milan, isn't it.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Rivellino - Roberto Rivellino - Roberto Firmino (Liverpool 2018 & 2019) [3 Colours Red].

While Roberto Firmino is a fine answer, it can be improved upon.

Roberto Rosato played against Brazil in the 1970 WC final, and for Milan in the 1969 EC final, which of course, was played in t'Bernabeu.

[Alex Anderson]

While Roberto Firmino is a fine answer, it can be improved upon.

Roberto Rosato played against Brazil in the 1970 WC final, and for Milan in the 1969 EC final, which of course, was played in t'Bernabeu.

Outstanding. Another Brazilian Roberto with a surname ending in "-ino" or a Roberto who played in the both finals in the both stadiums ... we're starting to build a squad here.

[Alex Anderson]

By the way, If the Covid isn't gone by next year, did anyone count the number of stewards and officials and press at the Stadium of Light on Sunday? Coz, while Worst Attended Final seems like a shoe-in right now ...

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

By the way, If the Covid isn't gone by next year, did anyone count the number of stewards and officials and press at the Stadium of Light on Sunday? Coz, while Worst Attended Final seems like a shoe-in right now ...

Were stewards officials and press ever counted?

[ursus arctos]

They definitely count sponsors' tickets and those for members of the UEFA family, though not press

[jwdd27]

Roberto for Rivellino isn't just a tap in, it's a mile offside, the whistle had long gone. The sound board man on the TV pressed the button for "small ironic cheers".

So here's the thing. Rivellino translates from Italian into English as erm... ravelin. And a ravelin, as anyone who's just looked it up knows is "an outwork of fortifications, with two faces forming a salient angle, constructed beyond the main ditch and in front of the curtain." Basically a triangular wedge in front of your castle or fortress, point outwards so that your aggressors are split into two for you to pick them off with your arrows, boiling oil etc.
So I propose that Rivellino's namesake is one whose name is or most closely translates to something to do with castles, fortresses, walls and the like.

There is a well known footballer whose family name translates as "one who lives in a fortified town", which is the kind of thing I'm aiming at, but sadly Dennis Bergkamp was unused sub on the losing side in 2006 so doesn't qualify.

So basically I've won the ball in midfield, and they've committed too many men forward, I'm about to play the killer through ball, but I need someone to make the run. This could be a great team goal.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

I don't know if this is where you are going with this, but Abedi Pele played in the final for Marseille in 1993.

Over to Martin Jarvis or some such in Dictionary Corner.....

Peel towers (also spelt pele) are small fortified keeps or tower houses, built along the English and Scottish borders in the Scottish Marches and North of England, mainly between the mid-14th century and about 1600. They were free-standing with defence being a prime consideration of their design with "confirmation of status and prestige" also playing a role.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

(and 1991).

[jwdd27]

I don't know if this is where you are going with this, but Abedi Pele played in the final for Marseille in 1993.

Over to Martin Jarvis or some such in Dictionary Corner.....

Peel towers (also spelt pele) are small fortified keeps or tower houses, built along the English and Scottish borders in the Scottish Marches and North of England, mainly between the mid-14th century and about 1600. They were free-standing with defence being a prime consideration of their design with "confirmation of status and prestige" also playing a role.

Fantastic! That's exactly what I'm looking for, but just let me hold on to the ball a bit longer to see if a better pass presents itself (plus isn't Pele already playing, as erm, Pele?)

[Alex Anderson]

Were stewards officials and press ever counted?

I would seriously doubt it.

[ad hoc]

Ok, so jwdd has given us a route along the battlements to find a Rivellino. I found this page, which among other things suggests that the words Bailey and Ward are physical parts of a castle, but as far as I know neither Gary Bailey or Ashley Ward ever won a European Cup. What I suspect we really need is to find translations of all these words in Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, etc, and use that to locate the true holder of the Rivellino slot

[ad hoc]

We could cheat and have Bastion Schweinsteiger