Year: 2016

Copa de Oro de Campeones Mundiales (World Champions’ Gold Cup) – or Mundialito (Little World Cup) – was not exactly official tournament.

It was organized to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first World cup, played in 1930. Hence, it was staged at the same place the first world championship was played – in Montevideo, Uruguay, at the very stadium, built 50 years ago for the great occasion – Centenario. It was to be contested between all world champions so far – they were conveniently 6: Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, West Germany, Italy, and England. A championship of the champions – sounded great. England, however, declined participation and had to be replaced by Holland. Why Holland? If it was just because of her two silver medals, then Czechoslovakia also had a claim. But it was late substitute and Holland was believed more deserving, because they were most recent silver medalists and one of the best world teams in the 1970s. However, the idea was a bit spoiled… it was to be a grand clash of world champions, not runners-up. Blame it on England. The other problem was the very staging of the tournament – it had to be 1980, so to make the numbers right, but 1980 was full and the tournament only rudimentary belongs to it: it started on December 30, 1980 and finished on January 10, 1981. Not only the larger part of Mundialito was played in 1981, but the winner was decided well into 1981. But there was no other way… the Europeans really commanded the schedule: in their summer of 1980 the European championship was played, after that domestic championship and the continental club tournaments. The calendar was full and no club was willing to release players to some international tournament. The focus of attention was elsewhere for the public too. So, the winter mid-season break was the only time left – but England had no such break and find it inconvenient to participate. How seriously the Europeans took Copa de Oro was another matter – after the grueling fall season the players were hardly at their best, preferring rest. Various new players were included in the teams, yet, the teams played largely with their regulars, so it was not just experimental teams. And South Americans had many unknown abroad players, so it looked like more of shaping new teams than fielding those who hardly ever played only to go through some unimportant tournament. The hosts perhaps took the most serious approach.

But spoiled is spoiled: of course, the opening ceremony welcomes all world champions in their language, but English is not the official language of Holland. Well, Holland was not world champion… the ironies may pile up, but the Uruguayans came to watch great football, not to read. The 6 teams were divided into 2 round-robin groups, the winners to meet at the final, deciding the best among the champions. Each team had a roster of 18 players – that is, the number usually used at Olympic games, but it was short tournament, so there was no real need for squads of World cup size. Group A was composed of Holland, Italy, and Uruguay, and Group B of Brazil, Argentina, and West Germany. Group B was seemingly stronger.

1981

Optimism returned, at least for a part of the year. Suddenly it was like 1971 again, a fresh air in the stuffy football world, seeing decline at the end of the 1970s. Technically, the positive signs belonged to 1980, but really affected the mood for 1981. The European championship ended with bright new West Germany and exciting Belgium, then, at the end of 1980 started Mundialito, bringing more interesting stuff, particularly the new Brazil.

Mundialito was billed as 1980 tournament, but really it was played in 1981. This unofficial tournament fueled more hopes, for West Germany – the strongest and most exciting European team at the moment – was blown away easily by brand seemingly stronger then 2 years ago Argentina with Maradona and brand new Brazil lead by Socrates. The reigning world champions themselves were unable to reach the final and on top of everything Brazil lost to Uruguay at the end. All this easily translated into a whole bunch of teams playing great football and outdoing each other. The players were largely young, freshly discovered talents – none of the great old names played any role anymore. The 1980s were suddenly promising, contrary to ominous predictions, based on the end of the 70s. Football was alive again – or so it seemed.

But there was another big news – perhaps bigger than Mundialito – and it happened in the summer of 1980. Italy opened its market for foreign players. It was expected and anticipated, but finally happened – it changed the European football map instantly. And in the same time the East European countries started to export players Romania, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria joined Poland and Hungary. Since USSR already had an exported player, the last resisting were DDR and Albania.

Quiet exit of big star, but also a quiet beginning of new star: Dunga debuted in 1980 for Inernacional (Porto Alegre). Everybody knows him today – nobody knew him then, so his early photos may not even ring a bell for most football aficionados:

Nothing like the familiar picture of the captain of 1994 World champions

Dunga was 17-years old talent in 1980, but he did not start with a bang – nothing like Maradona, who was famous even before making his professional debut. On the contrary – Dunga was not heard of before 1983, the first year the spirited and gritty defensive midfielder became a regular for Internacional, wearing number 5.

There was nothing in his humble beginning suggesting that Carlos Caetano Bledom Verri will be one of the only two men (the other is Spanish star Xavi) to play in World Cup, Olympic games, Confederations Cup, and continental championships. But he debuted in that year and slowly climbed to the very top of world football.

Retirement. Colin Bell played his last season and quit the game at 34.

During his last year, he played just 5 games for NASL team San Jose Earthquakes. Even today his retirement is lamented as premature, but effectively Colin Bell was out of big football since 1975 – his career was cut short by heavy knee injury, from which he never recovered and by 1980 even easy NASL football was way too much. By this time Bell was rarely mentioned and his retirement went unnoticed.

Bad luck for arguably the greatest player Manchester City ever had. Colin Bell, born in 1946, started with Bury in 1963 and stayed with the small club until 1966, appearing in 82 games and scoring 25 goals. Manchester City signed him them and quickly he became a big star – and club legend. Between 1966 and 1979 he played 394 matches for City and scored 117 goals.

In England, Bell is considered the best box-to-box player of his day – a midfielder, roaming the whole field, which in British football was called ‘central halfback’. That is, bell was considered more defensive midfielder than constructive or attacking one, and that was why his scoring ability was thought amazing. His skills were not missed by the English national team coaches – Bell played regularly for England between 1968 and 1975 – 48 matches in which he scored 9 goals.

A key player of the national team, he played at the 1970 World Cup: here Franz Beckenbauer tries to catch him in Mexico. Unfortunately, he played at the time when England missed the big changes in football, especially after 1972, but whether Bell was the man to keep England afloat or not is academic – everything stopped in 1975, when he was injured. After that, he never came close to his earlier form and may be even stayed active too stubbornly too long: he slipped out of sight and his last effort to come back by going to USA did not work – he was unable to play and finally had to give up. A sad end of wonderful player, but Colin Bell is remembered fondly by those lucky to see him play before 1975.

 

Golden Shoe – it all depended on numbers. No wonder weaker championships usually propelled strikers to the award, but there was a sense of coming 1980s in it too – a very young guy was the highest scorer in Europe: only 21 years old, clearly a player to blossom in the new decade. He was also impressed at the European championship finals with team Belgium. Walter Schachner (Austria Vienna, Austria) was 3rd with 34 goals. The Hungarian winger Laszlo Fazekas (Ujpesti Dosza) was 2nd with 36 goals.

Erwin Vandenbergh netted 39 for his Lierse and got the Golden Shoe.

It was not just accidental season for the youngster – Vandenbergh was often heard of during the 1980s, one more new star.

In Europe Karl-Heinz Rummenigge was voted player of the year. Bayern was winning again, West Germany was winning, Rummenigge was at top form – perhaps his finest. He was 25.

It was almost total victory – practically all voting journalists placed him first. And considering the competition, it was hardly a hand out, as the award appeared to be given in the few previous years – very distant 2nd was Bernd Schuster (1. FC Koln – Barcelona) and 3rd – Michel Platini (St. Etienne). No more old stars – this were the new ones, the key figures of the 1980s. The next generation was coming finally strong. Rummenigge got 122 points, Schuster – 34, Platini – 33.

South American player of the year was voted Diego Maradona – like in the year before. Perhaps now there was no doubt – Diego was already around for awhile and truly established star – not just a promising talent credited more for the future than for the present. Waldemar Victorino (Nacional,Uruguay) was 3rd and his case was clear – great year for him, but largely because of Nacional’s international victories. Zico (Flamengo) was 2nd – he was ranked high for consistent strong playing, not that much for any outstanding international game or two. Maradona was like Zico – Argentinos Juniors became familiar name outside Argentina not because they were great team, but because of Maradona – and largely thanks to him they became a strong factor in Argentine football, however, unable to win a title.

 

African Player of the year was voted Jean Manga-Onguene. Second was Segun Odegbami (Shooting Stars, Nigeria) and third -one more Cameroonian, Theophile Abega (Canon). Tradition was continued – except Salif Keita in 1970, no European based player appeared among the top 3 of Africa. Domestic players and even more – only Abega of the top 3 this year eventually played in Europe. The top spent their entire careers at home. Technically, playing amateur football. As ever, international results mattered most – Manga-Onguene and Abega won the African Champions Cup, Odegbami became champion of Africa with Nigeria and played at the Olympic games in Moscow too. There will be always the question were journalists more impressed by one or two important matches than from a whole regular season? Odegbami at least was Nigerian legend, but Abega? Considering that his teammate Thomas N’Kono was out of the top 3 for the first time in three years. Anyhow, those were voted the best and in the case of the winner it was well-deserved first place.

Jean Manga-Onguene was born in 1946, debuted in 1966, and played his whole career for Canon (Yaounde). Eventually, he became one of the best know African players, which was particularly important recognition since he never played in Europe. Prolific striker and key figure for both his club and the national team of Cameroon for 15 years – a true star. A star on continental scale. And it was not a case of just a recognizable player – Manga-Onguene was already 5 times champion of Cameroon, 6 times cup winner, had 3 African Champions Cups and 1 Cup Winners Cup. He was more than instrumental for the success of Canon in the 1970s. Was 1980 – when he was 34 – his best year is questionable, but he was still a winner and a key player. If anything, he deserved to be voted number 1 in Africa more than some other guys crowned earlier. The only thing missing in his impressive career was a World Cup – unfortunately, Cameroon qualified only in 1982 and Manga-Onguene was no longer playing then. But even this success happened – to a point – because of him: he was still a national team player in 1980: the heroes of 1982 grew up along him and inspired by him.

The Cup Winners Cup had a bit more incidences than the Champions Cup – two clubs withdrew without playing at all: Ader Club (Niger) and Dingareh (Gambia). Strangely, the club benefiting from Ader Club’s withdrawal did the same in the next round – Esperance (Tunisia) left the tournament without playing a single match. No luck for the Cameroonian represent: Dynamo (Douala) qualified directly to the second round, thanks to a bye, but there they faced Eleven Wise of Ghana. More or less, Ghana was one of the consistently strong African nations and Eleven Wise prevailed over the Cameroonians 2-1 and 1-1. Meantime, the Zairian representative, TP Mazembe, was going as well as their compatriots in the Champions Cup – the first loss and first difficulties they had in the ¼ finals. Shooting Stars of Ibadan, Nigeria, was traditionally strong opponent and perhaps even more so in the year of rising Nigerian football. TP Mazembe still won the penalty shoot-out, though. They had easy – on paper – opponent at the semi-finals: Kadiogo (Upper Volta, today – Burkina Faso). It should have been a walk in the park, but it was not – Mazembe won only 1-0 at home and extracted a 2-2 tie away. The other semi-final was tough: Africa Sports (Cote d’Ivoire) vs MA Hussain-Dey (Algeria), two of the better African clubs. Africa Sports won 1-0 at home and survived Algerian assault in the second leg, tying the match 2-2. Africa Sports and TP Mazembe contested the Cup Winners Cup. The winner was really decided in the first leg in Algeria – Mazembe won 3-1, making the second match a mere formality. They won it too, only the result was minimal – 1-0. TP Mazembe won their first Cup Winners Cup!

Africa Sports of Abidjan are one of the two strongest Cote d’Ivoirean clubs, but internationally they did not win anything for a long time. 1980 was perhaps their first real attempt to conquer Africa, but they failed. Reaching the final was great, though.

TP Mazembe won their first Cup Winners Cup, but it was just one trophy to them – back in 1960s they won the Champions Cup twice: 1966 and 1967. Back then they were named Englebert – named after their sponsor, a tire brand. The original name of the club was Saint Georges – since the club was founded by Benedictine monks. After the Ravens (as the club is nicknamed) won 3 consecutive titles, in the 1966 Tout Puissant (Almighty) was added to the official name. By 1980 the name was TP Mazembe – today more history is recognized, so the current name includes Englebert too. As for the team hailing from Lubumbashi… hard to tell.

TP Mazembe 1980 – is there a goalkeeper at all?

Or may be these are our boys? Nice and rare kit – the picture very likely is not from the final against Africa Sports, but it is worthy showing just for the design. The Ravens excelled not only by playing – their kits are great.

Africa was almost unnoticed in 1980, but football was played, of course. At a glance, international football was less disorganized and chaotic than before. Only 2 clubs withdrew from the African Champions Cup – Limbe Leaf Wanderers (Malawi) and Comercial Bank (Uganda). All other participants played and the tournament was played without visible scandals. Cameroon was represented by 2 teams – Union (Douala) as African Cup holders and Canon (Yaounde) as champion of the country. Both reached the semi-finals, proving once again the superiority of Cameroonian club football. The other two semi-finalists represented old power and emerging new one: AS Bilima (Zaire) and Bendel Insurance (Nigeria). AS Bilima eliminated Union (Douala) – 0-1 and 5-1 at home, but Bendel Insurance was unsuccessful against Canon – they managed a 0-0 tie in Yaounde, but were destroyed 2-4 in front of their home crowd. So, the final was between Canon and AS Bilima. On November 30 Canon struggled, hosting the first leg of the final – 2-2 at their stadium Militaire Garoua, Yaounde. Like in the semi-final, Canon was stronger visitor than host – on December 14 AS Bilima had no chance at 20th May Stadium in Kinshasa. Canon destroyed them 3-0! And won their 3rd African Champions Cup!

AS Bilima is a bit of a mystery – the club is old by African standards, but finding information about them is very difficult. They were found as AS Dragons and most of the time used the original name. But a few years in the second half of the 1970s the club was known as AS Bilima. Bilima left practically no information, not even a crest of its own. However, this was excellent season for them – they lost only 2 matches in the tournament: one in the semi-final and one in the final. Unfortunately, the second loss was crucial one – the Cup went elsewhere.

Arguably, Canon was the strongest African club at the time – their rival was Hafnia (Conakry), but it looked like the Guineans were fading away already. Canon, however, was getting only better.

As for the team, the world knew only one player of the African champions – Jean Manga-Oungene. He was already 34 years old – too old to attract the interest of any European club, but he perhaps had the respected career on the African continent: this was his 4th international cup won with Canon. It was another player of this team to become a household name around the world – but in 1982. Canon was doing really well since 1970: 5 Cameroonian titles, 5 Cameroonian Cups, 3 times African club champions, one African Cup Winners Cup – and three continental cups in succession: Champions Cup in 1978, Cup Winners Cup in 1979, and again Champions Cup in 1980. Excellent record.