Inter's 2009-10 matchday squad included seven current national captains, The Knowledge finds
Inter's matchday squad for the 2009-10 Champions League final contained seven players who were their countries' full-time captains at kickoff, the highest number The Knowledge's search could find; Chelsea's 2009-10 squad featured six players who had captained their nations but were not all serving as captains at that time.
MH Zahid asked which club team had the most international captains playing together at one time, prompting a look at Chelsea's 2009-10 roster, which included Michael Ballack (Germany), Petr Cech (Czech Republic), Didier Drogba (Côte d’Ivoire), Branislav Ivanovic (Serbia), Mikel John Obi (Nigeria) and John Terry (England). That Chelsea grouping is notable because all six had captained their countries at some point, but Ivanovic was not named Serbia captain until 2012 and Mikel was still seven years from getting his hands on the Nigeria armband, which disqualifies them from the strict criterion of being current international captains at the same time; Chelsea were knocked out of the competition by José Mourinho’s Inter.
Inter’s side that beat Bayern Munich 2-0 in the final included several players who were their national captains at kickoff: Lúcio (Brazil), Cristian Chivu (Romania), Samuel Eto’o (Cameroon) and Goran Pandev (Macedonia). Dejan Stankovic came off the bench to replace Chivu in the second half, and Pandev was substituted by Sulley Muntari, who had captained Ghana in their most recent international fixture, a 2-1 defeat at Bosnia and Herzegovina that March. Among the unused substitutes was Iván Córdoba, who had been given Colombia’s armband for their previous game against Paraguay, while Wesley Sneijder, occasional Netherlands skipper, Javier Zanetti and McDonald Mariga were also in the squad; by the article's count seven players in that matchday squad were their countries' current captains at kickoff and none of those seven captained the club side — that honour went to Zanetti.
Readers suggested other close examples: John Curry pointed to Tottenham in 2020-21, noting five international captains in Hugo Lloris (France), Serge Aurier (Côte d’Ivoire), Son Heung-min (South Korea), Gareth Bale (Wales) and Harry Kane (England). Another reader recalled Liverpool last year having six players who are international captains—Conor Bradley, Andy Robertson, Virgil van Dijk, Wataru Endo, Mo Salah and Dominik Szoboszlai—but the six never appeared together while all were incumbent national skippers.
On the subject of speedy former footballers, the piece recalled Alexei Smertin running the Kazan Marathon in 2020 in 2:48:17, and Richard Askham noting that Joe Skarz ran the Yorkshire Marathon in 2025 in 2:47:33. The column also raised the question of what level of football qualifies someone as a former footballer and relayed Stig Lindmark's tip about Andreas Almgren, who, with no senior competitive appearances, ran and won the New York marathon at the start of this month in 2:06:01; the article notes that the retired cyclist Tom Dumoulin recorded 2:27:12 in the same race and that Almgren's lack of senior appearances means "he probably does not count."
On headed goals, Sinan Eccles pointed to Robin van Persie’s flying header for the Netherlands against Spain at the 2014 World Cup, which finished third in that year’s Puskas Award behind James Rodríguez and Stephanie Roche. Peter Tomlin reported that the only header he found that had won a national goal-of-the-season award was Keith Houchen’s in the 1986-87 FA Cup Final for Coventry v Tottenham, and noted that Alisson’s dramatic 95th-minute headed winner v West Brom was voted Liverpool’s goal of the season for 2020-21. Mark Johnson added that Basile Boli’s 1993 header for Marseille v PSG would likely have won any Ligue 1 goal-of-the-season prize had such an award existed.
Responding to a recent archive item about chairs acting as managers after Lee Power took charge of Swindon Town, Neil Bellis of Chester FC highlighted Terry Smith, who took over four games into the season despite little knowledge of soccer and was a former American Football coach who bought the club. Bellis wrote that Smith presided over relegation from the Football League in 1999-2000, introduced unconventional ideas such as having a team talk as the Lord’s Prayer and appointing a captain in defence, midfield and attack, and attracted ITV attention when Chester played Aston Villa in the League Cup. Smith is quoted as saying, "There's nothing magical about being a coach,' said Smith not long after his arrival. "It's like being the general manager of a business, the coaching principles are the same in any sport." Chester then endured a run of 11 defeats in 12 matches from the end of November; in the aftermath of a 5-1 home defeat by Leyton Orient Smith is recorded as saying in the dressing room, "I want to thank you guys," and, "That's the most pitiful, pitiful effort I've ever damn seen." Smith stepped down as manager and brought in Ian Atkins in January 2000, and later sold the club in October 2001.
Mail us with all of your questions and answers. Other recent reader queries mentioned in the column included one about the highest score in a match where no player scored more than one goal and questions about clubs' league-title totals and the number of managers who won them.
