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**Ray de Galles** · 06-01-2009, 12:29

Pick the most left-wing XI in history

Zanetti?

Lucarelli (or is he a faker)?

**Guest** · 06-01-2009, 12:32

Pick the most left-wing XI in history

Tony Galvin and Fernando Redondo. I think Galvin even contributed to Living Marxism magasine.

**Guest** · 06-01-2009, 12:37

Pick the most left-wing XI in history

Lucarelli is so left-wing that he went off to play for a club bankrolled by Ukraine's dodgiest oligarch.

Isn't Redondo the son of a multi-millionaire?

**Tubby Isaacs** · 06-01-2009, 12:44

Pick the most left-wing XI in history

This would take some doing for cricket.

Dominic Rochteau, I think.

**E10 Rifle** · 06-01-2009, 12:46

Pick the most left-wing XI in history

This would take some doing for cricket.

Tubbs, start the thread! Now!

Jack Russell's a Labour voter anyhow.

**Duncan Gardner** · 06-01-2009, 12:48

Pick the most left-wing XI in history

Tubby Isaacs wrote:

This would take some doing for cricket.

Dominic Rochteau, I think

Andy Goram's record of left-wing activism is detailed in the matching thread.

His old boss, big Davy Ervine used to remind me of ex-Aussie quick Merv Hughes.

PS the Cricketers' Association was once described as the only trade union more right wing than its members' employers.

**Guest** · 06-01-2009, 12:50

Pick the most left-wing XI in history

One for the cricketers thread:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Hyndman

**The Purple Cow** · 06-01-2009, 13:02

Pick the most left-wing XI in history

Another for the cricketers thread...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Cartwright

**

Footballers in Holland, you've got Johan Cruijff, Co Adriaansen, and Ruud van Nistelrooij.

Then you had the Anderiessen brothers, one of whom, (Wim, I think) was so left-wing the Dutch secret service tapped his telephone.

In Belgium you've got Marc Wilmots and of course Wesley Sonck, who intends to make his career in left-wing politics when he hangs up his boots.

As manager I would suggest Joseph Stalin. Didn't know much about football but he was a world-class disciplinarian.

**AMMS** · 06-01-2009, 13:10

Pick the most left-wing XI in history

Surely Alex Ferguson for manager and Gordon Smith can run your FA, his father was a Labour councillor in Ayrshire.

**Guest** · 06-01-2009, 13:13

Pick the most left-wing XI in history

Cruyff was nicknamed The Money Wolf in the Netherlands. That doesn't sound very socialist.

**Guest** · 06-01-2009, 13:24

Pick the most left-wing XI in history

Donald Potts wrote:

Tony Galvin and Fernando Redondo. I think Galvin even contributed to Living Marxism magasine.

Galvin was one of the last proper socks rolled down left sided players. Plus I recall he has a degree in Russian and he's a teacher.

**Jupp04** · 06-01-2009, 13:28

Pick the most left-wing XI in history

Breitner has never been left-wing. In the early seventies he wanted be seen as a rebel by the German public. Therefore he published some photos with an angry looking himself and a Mao bible or similar bullshit.
Indeed he has always been an egomanic arsehole who crucialy needs publicity. He actually works for the right-wing tabloid "Bild". I would rather expect him as voter of the conservative Bavarian CSU.

**ursus arctos** · 06-01-2009, 13:35

Pick the most left-wing XI in history

Javier Zanetti's friendly relations with Subcommandante Marcos and the Zapatistas are probably enough to qualify him on their own. Among other Inter players, Cambiasso works closely with Zanetti's foundation supporting poor children in Argentina, and Cordoba has also been associated with progressive causes about the situation in Colombia. FWIW, Moratti's leftish leanings (his wife was a minister in Prodi's government)likely qualify Inter as the "most left wing" club in the G14 (though Barca would like to think that they deserve a mention in that respect).

Speaking of Barca, Pep Guardiola is quite close to Zapatero, and has even campaigned with him.

**Tubby Isaacs** · 06-01-2009, 13:36

Pick the most left-wing XI in history

Cricket hijack.

Mike Brearley
Jack Russell

I like the look of Hyndman. Unless he was older than he looks in that photo, he kept the "Victorian sage" beard going longer than most.

**Anton Gramscescu** · 06-01-2009, 13:39

Pick the most left-wing XI in history

Lilian Thuram is quite outspoken on the issue of race relations, among other things. Robert Pires was also, I believe, the source of the movement that suggested that les bleus would refuse to show up for WC2002 if Le Pen won the election that year. Mind you, Chirac won and the French didn't show up anyways, so...

**Guest** · 06-01-2009, 13:40

Pick the most left-wing XI in history

Damiano Tommasi

**Jupp04** · 06-01-2009, 13:42

Pick the most left-wing XI in history

Most "famous" lefty in Germany (at least with a little local fame) has been Ewald Lienen who was candidate for an obscure "Peace List" in Northrhine Westphalia. St.Pauli goalie Volker Ippig should match that categoy, too.
If the SPD is to defined as left, former German internationals Toppm�ller and Allg�wer have to be added.

**Kurt Bafokeng** · 06-01-2009, 14:06

Pick the most left-wing XI in history

I thought Alain Sutter was a leftie as well, what with the banner protesting the French nuclear testing back in the 1990s, but looking at his current website, he doesn't seem political at all anymore.

**Lucy Waterman** · 06-01-2009, 14:07

Pick the most left-wing XI in history

Graeme Le Saux reads the Guardian, I heard. Dunno whether he's a Simon Jenkins or Seumas Milne man though.

**Kurt Bafokeng** · 06-01-2009, 14:15

Pick the most left-wing XI in history

S�crates Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira

aka

Dr Socrates

**Felicity, I guess so** · 06-01-2009, 14:43

Pick the most left-wing XI in history

I think Galvin even contributed to Living Marxism magasine

Unfortunately that rather reduces his 'left' credentials by a large notch, since it was a mag that systematically took right-wing positions on all the big questions...

**Lucy Waterman** · 06-01-2009, 15:09

Pick the most left-wing XI in history

Was that not Marxism Today? Or is the same true of both.

I once worked on an ad campaign for bog roll with a guy who in his spare time covered the Premiership for Socialist Worker. I told him quite genuinely that it sounded like a fun job, and he assured me gravely it was a very serious matter.

Edit - sorry, it was actually the Morning Star.

**E10 Rifle** · 06-01-2009, 15:13

Pick the most left-wing XI in history

Socialist Worker doesn't cover football does it? Indeed, I thought they once had quite an anti-football line, though I've come across lots of football-loving Swoppies over the years (including on here). The Morning Star still does two pages of sport a day mind (albeit with a deadline so early to render its newsworthiness somewhat flimsy).

Living Marxism weren't the same as Marxism Today - both were run by middle-class careerists but the latter had a certain, albeit inconsistent, intellectual rigour. The former was just a shit-stirring glossy career vehicle for a thoroughly objectionable cadre of professionally contrarian cunts.

**Rory Bunk** · 07-01-2009, 05:50

Pick the most left-wing XI in history

Cricket Again:
--------------
Steve Waugh is often touted as a possible Labor (yeah I know) candidate.
Ian Chappell was very outspoken against the Howard Government's infamous treatment of asylum seekers.

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