5 Footballing Myths Everybody Believes

Myths and legends are concepts that rely on the power of suggestion, the human will to believe in the most audacious things and word of mouth continuing to perpetuate the growing exaggeration of a once-truth. This applies from everything, from history to popular culture and, yes, football. Great stories, whether inspirational or loathsome, have a habit of missing out salient pieces of fact as they spread. Embellishment quickly becomes laziness on the part of the storyteller.

And there is nothing more annoying that a piece of trivia or a perhaps vital piece of evidence being presented in an argument that, while widely believed, is also wildly inaccurate. In an attempt to address this ignorance aspiring to mythos, here are five such famed legends that exist in the zeitgeist of football fans that badly need correction.

1 The Arsenal Player who Survived the Munich Plane Crash

This particular story is a strange one, its origins obscure and dating back to the earlier nineties. So the account goes, technically one of the survivors of the infamous Munich air disaster which killed twenty three passengers, including eight of the legendary Busby Babes, would become a Leeds and Arsenal player. So it went, a pregnant woman was on board, survived the crash and gave birth to her son, John. John Lukic, that is, the goalkeeper who would go on to enjoy a 23 year career, during which the only teams he played for were Manchester United’s rivals.

If this sounds too incredible to be true, then it is. Lukic was born on 11^th December 1960, two years and ten months after the crash, meaning either that the story was poorly conceived shaggy dog storytelling or that Lukic’s mother endured the longest pregnancy in human history. So why would anyone suggest that this was true?

It’s because there was a pregnant passenger on board, and her name was Vera Lukic. Upon discovering this piece of information, a rather overeager and quick mouthed amateur detective apparently deduced a connection and shared it with the world. Said fact finder apparently was a little too keen, however, and failed to notice other signs they were mistaken other than the impossibility of the idea presented by the dates.

For starters, while John Lukic is indeed of Slavic descent, hence the surname, Vera Lukic was a Yugoslavian citizen, not British (Munich airport was a stop-off in a Belgrade-Manchester flight). Secondly, while she would indeed give birth to a son, she named him Zoran.

Pubquiz factotum based on quickdraw logic means an urban myth that is utterly laughable when scrutinized.

2 Wayne Rooney’s Wondergoal Debut

It’s still considered one of the Premier League’s most iconic moments. Goodison Park, 19^th October 2002; a match between Everton and league champions Arsenal. The score is locked at a tense 1-1 and the game is headed into stoppage time. A young substitute has replaced Tomasz Radzinski, and with time ticking away, receives a lobbed ball forward from Thomas Gravesen. Controlling it immaculately, he navigates away from the Gunners defense and lines up a shot. One swing of his right foot later, the ball has crashed in off the underside of the crossbar and beaten David Seaman all ends up.

In the process, he wins the game for Everton, ending Arsenal’s run of 30 games unbeaten, becomes the Premier League’s youngest goalscorer at 16 years and 360 days old, and is instantly the name on the mouth of every football fan in the country. The teenager’s name was Wayne Rooney.

Whether you love or loathe him, Rooney made one hell of a splash and was the centre of hype in the English media only matched by David Beckham. Even today, people cite his meteoric rise to stardom as a kid, and marvel at the unknown who crashed home the most amazing of debut goals to become a nationwide star. It’s pure legend…hence, inaccurate in its retelling.

It’s not as convenient to recount, but despite what some claim the Arsenal game was not Rooney’s debut, nor was his winning strike even his first goal. In fact, Rooney was not a complete nobody before that defining moment; he had already broken Everton’s record for youngest player by surprisingly starting for the Toffees on the opening day of that season against Tottenham. His appearance against the Gunners was his ninth in the league and tenth overall. Furthermore, he had netted twice in the League Cup against Wrexham two weeks previously, and had even come off the bench at Old Trafford before the Arsenal game.

While by no means a sensation, he was well known at Goodison Park as the hottest new prospect on the block, while neutrals were aware that Everton were regularly fielding a rookie youngster of unknown potential. The winner against Arsenal merely proved that his manager David Moyes had been justified in placing faith with the Croxteth born striker.

Part of the reason why there is some confusion on this issue comes from the fact that within the media the phrase ‘debut goal’ has changed definition. Confusingly and bizarrely, it is now used to mean a player’s first goal for the club, while before it exclusively referred to a player scoring on their debut. When people redefine terms for no reason, it’s no wonder there is confusion left over. 

3 Savio Nsreko, West Ham’s £9 Million Man

At some point in the mid-noughties, it became a trend for football clubs to withhold transfer fees from public knowledge, starting the spread of the ‘undisclosed fee’ phenomenon. This tool of secrecy, hardly immoral in of itself, wasn’t knew but had previously been reserved for special occasions, namely nominal and tribunal decided fees involving out of contract youth players. A staple of the Bosman ruling is that if a player is under the age of 23 and has been at a club for at least five years, any attempts to agree a contract with another club will cost a compensation package. However, now ‘undisclosed fee’ is more common than an actual solid fee.

Usually it is utilized in relation to complicated transfers that include bonuses, appearance fees and various strange clauses. The flipside is that the media are always in need of a set number to print, since half of the interest in transfers is the amount of money put on the table. Sometimes, this results in speculative guesses, garbled attempts to summarise layered agreements, and flat out exaggeration.

One of the best examples of this is the transfer of the enigmatically named Savio Nsereko, a Ugandan born former German international youth player, from Brescia to West Ham in January 2009. Only 19 at the time and rated as one of the brightest prospects in European football, he was bought with the future in mind and hence the deal that took to Upton Park was stuffed full of add-on fees and appearance marks. If all of these clauses were to be fulfilled, the amount of money changing hands would end up at around £9 million. Considering the fact that this could take years to come about, it is actually a very shrewd deal, especially considering Savio’s inability to adapt to the Premier League or the gloomy English lifestyle. He was offloaded to Fiorentina at the start of the next season.

Despite the fact that West Ham only ended up spending about £2 million on him, and got Manuel Da Costa for free as part of the deal to sell him, the media and therefore the public generalized the nature of his complicated transfer and thus announced he had cost £9 million, making him a hugely expensive flop. The fact is that this simply never happened, and in fact the Hammers only lost out on about a quarter of that fee. Despite being a superbly executed deal that spared great financial loss in the event that apparent future superstar Savio wouldn’t perform, his name is still considered synonymous with West Ham misspending and their habit of importing expensive flops. Bizarrely and ironically, it is sometimes used as a criticism of then manager Gianfranco Zola. At least chairmen looking to hire or not so stupid, you’d hope.

4 The Identity of Harry Redknapp’s Inaccurate Reserve Striker

The Youtube video of Harry Redknapp being struck in the backby a wayward striker’s effort on goal during an interview is now almost as famous as the QPR boss himself. In brilliantly unscripted fashion, Redknapp is talking to a reporter about team affairs when he is hit and, in wonderfully honest fashion, turns and in crude terms berates the offender, concluding with the immortal critique “no wonder he’s in the fucking reserves”.

The obvious question would be ‘Who’s in the fucking reserves?’ Who’s the stooge who tried to break the net but cracked his boss at the corner flag? Since it’s not clear from the video, and hasn’t been officially confirmed since, the subject has resulted in some hilariously spurious online discussions, most of which fall well short of the mark. In fact, a recent consensus shows that most people believe the offender was Darren Bent, during a spell when he couldn’t get a game under Redknapp at Tottenham. Under suggestions include David Bentley and Robbie Keane.

This would be reasonable, except for the fact that Redknapp is clearly not yet Tottenham boss in the video. The fact that the most viewed version of the clip was uploaded on to Youtube on 2^nd October 2008, twenty four days BEFORE Redknapp took over at White Hart Lane, is sufficient to prove this. Secondly, one can glean some useful information from actually listening to what Redknapp’s saying.

Before being hit, he talks about injuries to ‘Festa’ and ‘Harry De Zeeuw’. These would be former defenders Gianluca Festa and Arjan De Zeeuw. Also mentioned is a crucial game against Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux. So when was Harry ever in possession of Italian Festa and Dutchman De Zeeuw? As Portsmouth manager as it happens, and since Festa’s spell lasted a single season it means the video was recorded during the 2002/03 season, Redknapp’s first at Pompey. That match at Molineux was on 6^th November 2002, and finished 1-1. Crucial because both were title challengers (both would be promoted from the First Division at the end of that season).

So who in Portsmouth’s squad was responsible? Redknapp’s attitude would suggest that the wayward shooting was ridiculous, which in turn points the finger at a striker. There are a few to choose from, but one stands out; a forward who was first choice despite a poor goal return until Redknapp’s arrival ended his first team prospects and ruined his reputation as a star striker for the future. Step forward Mark Burchill.

The only thing that resulted in anyone suggesting the Bents and Bentleys of this world is lazy speculation.

5 Roy Keane ended Alfie Haaland’s Career

Many things have been and will be said about Roy Keane, with a half and half ratio between positive and negative. He would be the first to admit that he did some incredibly nasty things during his career, but defining a passionate warrior of a player by them seeing red while wearing it on his sleeve is misguided. Despite an infuriating retrospective criticism of his abilities (the claim that he was actually just a thug and a crap player is contradicted by OPTA stats, which identified him as being the Premier League’s best midfielder in the late nineties and early noughties), there is still a modest level of respect for the Mad Irishman, however. There is also a degree of ignorant assumption.

While his most famous moment should really be his inspirational performance against Juventus in the Champions League Semi Final second leg of 1999, it is probably his brutal assault on Norwegian ex-pro Alf Inge Haaland in a Manchester derby two years later. During the match at Old Trafford, Keane launched himself into a knee high lunge on Haaland and was promptly sent off. This incident had back story, something Keane admitted to in his controversial autobiography (an ‘anecdote’ that earned him a hefty fine), and was actually an attempt at revenge.

In 1997, while Haaland was at Leeds, Keane had damaged his cruciate ligaments while trying to foul the midfielder. Haaland unwisely taunted Keane while he was on the ground, under the impression that he was faking. Four years later, the tackle that is a YouTube staple. So the story goes, it ended Haaland’s career and is the cynical, psychotic and ugly legacy of Keane’s medal strewn career.

The thing is, in terms of long term implication there is nothing to differentiate the Haaland tackle from his other nasty lunges on the likes of Neil Pointon, or his stamps on Gareth Southgate and Vitor Baia, or even his brawls with Patrick Vieira and Alan Shearer. That’s because, although Haaland’s footballing career did end prematurely through injury, it was unrelated to Roy Keane.

Haaland retired because of a recurring injury in his left knee. A quick double check of the Keane tackle will reveal that his roaring rampage of retribution was directed at Haaland’s standing right knee. Show me a doctor who will tell you that trauma to one leg cripples the other and I’ll show you a malpractice case waiting to happen. Furthermore, Haaland played the rest of the game after Keane was sent off, then two internationals for Norway, and then Man City’s next league fixture against West Ham. It wasn’t until 2001 pre-season that he began to suffer setbacks in his OTHER knee.

Yes, Keane did some terrible things in his career. But, as this video testifies, ending careers wasn’t one of them. A pity that newspapers as well as fans were taken in by this myth.