Which football club has been managed by the most World Cup winners?

“Serie B side Frosinone were managed last season by Alessandro Nesta,” writes Bogdan Kotarlic. “Their manager this season is Fabio Grosso, another member of Italy’s 2006 World Cup-winning team. Which club has been managed by most World Cup winners?”

With Brazil having won the big one five times, let’s start in South America. “Santos were managed by nine World Cup winners,” writes Marcelo Schleder. “Seven of them as players and two as managers. Aymoré Moreira, who was in charge when Brazil became world champions in 1962, kickstarted this trend in 1952, a full decade before the pinnacle of his career in Chile.

“Three players who were both in the 1958 and 1962 squads took charge of Santos: Mauro, Pepe and Castilho. Another two only took part in the latter competition: Mengálvio and Coutinho. Emerson Leão and Clodoaldo became world champions in 1970, while Carlos Alberto Parreira was the manager when Brazil lifted the World Cup in 1994. From those nine, only Pepe and Leão found success at Santos. The former was at the helm when Santos won the Paulista Championship in 1973 while the latter took the club to the Conmebol Cup (1998) and Brazilian league (2002) titles.”

Chris Charlton writes: “Juventus must be in with a shout. By my reckoning 10 Juventus managers won the World Cup as players.” It’s actually 11, as Erich Plöchl has added Virginio Rosetta to your list:

Virginio Rosetta (Italy 1934, Juventus 1935-39)
Umberto Caligaris (Italy 1934, Juventus 1939-40)
Giovanni Ferrari (Italy 1934 and 1938, Juventus 1941-42)
Luis Monti (Italy 1934, Juventus 1942)
Felice Borel (Italy 1934, Juventus 1942-46)
Luigi Bertolini (Italy 1934, Juventus 1951)
Aldo Olivieri (Italy 1938, Juventus 1953-55)
Eraldo Monzeglio (Italy 1934 and 1938, Juventus 1964)
Dino Zoff (Italy 1982, Juventus 1988-90)
Didier Deschamps (France 1998, Juventus 2006-07)
Andrea Pirlo (Italy 2006, Juventus 2020-21)

Then, there’s a World Cup-winning manager, Marcello Lippi (Italy, 2006) who held the reins at Juventus in two spells (1994-99, 2001-04), but he did so before winning the World Cup so whether he counts as a 12th is debatable.

Real Madrid can perhaps lay claim to a slightly different record – the club managed by most World Cup winners from different countries. Héctor Scarone (Uruguay 1930), Jorge Valdano (Argentina 1986), Jupp Heynckes (West Germany 1974) and Zinedine Zidane (France 1998) have all held the Bernabéu hot seat.

Solo goals with long spells in possession (part three)

On we go and Chris Weaver details “Graham French’s unrivalled solo goal against Mansfield way back in 1968 … it lasted a rough minimum of 18 seconds, and probably 20 seconds or more due torrential rain and a boggy pitch, which slowed things down.” If true, that would indeed rival Quillan Roberts’s 19.51 seconds.

“There were 19,315 lucky people at Kenilworth Road on 18 September 1968 to watch Luton Town v Mansfield Town. Unfortunately, the goal was never filmed though someone did record an ‘as live radio commentary’ though it is possibly too short and omits several important details.

“French, a mercurial genius (think Paul Gascoigne or Robin Friday) was waiting just outside the area, where he immediately started on a jinking run across the boggy surface. He beat two Mansfield players within 15 yards and set off towards the centre circle, where two defenders were waiting. He dribbled around the first, and attempted to repeat the feat when challenged by the other, only to be nearly pulled off his feet by an attempted rugby tackle.

“French had, however, seen him coming, and played the ball past him before contact. As French pushed the ball some yards further he found that the first defender had looped around so that he could make another challenge. By this time, it was apparent French was having no more of this nonsense, and completely fooled his opponent with a dummy, causing him to slip and fall. French approached the penalty area and, as the goalie came charging out he was too clever, slipping the ball past him and smacking it into the empty net. The whole sequence of events was breathtaking, astonishing.” For further reading on French’s interesting life and pseudonym, read this Knowledge from 2009.

Are Liverpool and Chelsea’s results record-breaking?

“Liverpool and Chelsea recorded the same scoreline in their first five Premier League matches of the season (3-0, 2-0, 1-1, 3-0, 3-0). Is this a record?” wonders George Jones.

“I think the answer is yes,” answers Chris Roe, who has done the hard yards on this one. “The best I could find in any season in English football was a sequence of four. The longest sequence in the same division in the same season of the English league until now was Bristol Rovers and Wolves (tier two, 1990). Taking out the same division criteria, there are other instances of four, but no longer: Barnet (tier four, 2007) and Doncaster Rovers (tier three, 2007). Darlington (tier four, 1995), Oxford United (tier four, 1995), Norwich City (tier three, 1920), West Brom (tier one, 1920), Bournemouth (tier three, 1986), Preston (tier four, 1986), Halifax (tier three, 1946) and Millwall (tier two, 1946).

“I only have a small snapshot of European league data but we can find a sequence of five to match Liverpool and Chelsea from two different leagues in the same season. Mechelen (Belgium tier one, 2016) and Virtus Entella (Italy tier two, 2016).”

Knowledge archive

“Has a physio ever pulled up injured while sprinting on to the pitch to treat an injured player?” asked Scott Sumner in October 2016.

Looking beyond the instance of Gary Lewin dislocating his ankle and being carried off on a stretcher after a rare moment of England celebration at the 2014 World Cup, there were a couple of other unfortunate physios. “Back when Southampton’s fortunes were not so good, I was at a game at Home Park, in about 2006-07, between Plymouth and Saints,” recalled Philip Wood. “A Saints player had pulled up with an injured hamstring and required treatment … cue the Southampton physio, who was getting on a bit. He enthusiastically came sprinting across to the far side of the pitch to where the injured player was lying and about 10 metres before he got to him started hobbling himself. He had managed to also pull his hamstring – much to the derision and merriment of the Plymouth fans. Cue a scene of the injured leading the injured.”

And Andrea Raffaelli mailed in to state that “in September 2012, the team doctor for my home-town club Ternana tore his achilles tendon while sprinting on to treat two players, who had collided head-to-head. Talk about good deeds gone wrong. Here’s a source (in Italian) that mentions the incident.”

Can you help?

“As a Derby fan this has been a somewhat miserable week (although that’s a sentence that applies to most weeks, to be fair),” begins Mark Ward. “With the announcement of our 12-point deduction for going into administration, I was wondering whether any clubs had weathered a similar punishment without suffering relegation? And if so, with the threat of an additional nine-point deduction still hanging over Pride Park, what’s the biggest points deduction a club has been given and still survived?”

“West Ham fans have been singing ‘Bubbles’ since the 1920s. Has any other English club such a long standing anthem?” asks Chris Grant.

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