“Roberto Mancini has the opportunity to win the AFC Asian Cup with Saudi Arabia, having won Euro 2020,” notes Teng Kiat. “Has any coach won two or more different continental championships (including the corresponding women’s tournaments)?”
Roberto Mancini’s quest for cross-continent glory begins when Saudi Arabia face Oman next Tuesday. If they go the distance Mancini will be the first coach to win the European Championship and Asian Cup, though he wouldn’t be the first to win two continental championships.
“Carlos Alberto Parreira has already done what Mancini’s trying to do, and with the same country no less (Saudi Arabia, not Italy),” writes Ravi Hiranand. “Parreira won the Asian Cup with Kuwait in 1980 and Saudi Arabia in 1988 before winning the Copa América with Brazil in 2004. (He also rather famously won the World Cup in 1994, but nobody asked.)”
He also won the Cosafa Cup with South Africa in 2007. That tournament is purely for teams from Southern Africa so it probably counts as regional rather than continental, but it allows us to post this pretty tweet.
@TheKnowledge_GU
— Dan Almond OBE (@ferrararabbi) January 3, 2024
Carlos Alberto Parreira 🇧🇷
⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️
Asian Cup 1980 🇰🇼 and 1988 🇸🇦
Copa America 2004 🇧🇷
COSAFA Cup 2007 🇿🇦 pic.twitter.com/uw7IydpxSG
Opeyemi Ajala and Dirk Maas were among those who pointed out that Roger Lemerre became the first member of this niche club on 14 February 2004, five months before Parreira, when Tunisia beat Morocco 2-1 in the Afcon final. Lemerre was also the coach of France when they swaggered (and occasionally stumbled) to glory at Euro 2000.
There has been at least one case in women’s football, made possible by Australia’s decision to join the Asian Football Confederation in 2006.
In women's football, Tom Sermanni won the OFC Women's Nations Cup with Australia in 1994 and New Zealand in 2018, and won the AFC Women's Asian Cup with Australia in 2010 (after they switched confederations).
— Ben (@BenJaneson) January 5, 2024
And it has happened in club football too.
@TheKnowledge_GU Two former Guangzhou bosses have AFC Champions League wins and continental wins elsewhere: Marcello Lippi (Juventus ‘96, Guangzhou ‘13) and Scolari (Gremio ‘95, Guangzhou ‘15).
— The Cheapskate 🥔 🃏 🗑️ 🐼 (@CheapskateShow) January 3, 2024
As with Carlos Alberto Parreira and the Cosafa Cup, the validity of the next answer depends on your definition of continental championship. “Winfried Schäfer won the Africa Cup of Nations with Cameroon in 2002,” writes adds Florian Camphausen. “He also won the Caribbean Cup with Jamaica in 2014. This is the championship for nations in the Caribbean Football Union, a subgroup of Concacaf. At club level, he won the Uefa Intertoto Cup with Karlsruher SC in 1996. It’s not the most prestigious competition. Still, he won continental cups on three different continents and was runner-up in a fourth.”
Marc Harrison has taken an even deeper dive into this question. “Ange Postecoglou has tasted international success on two continents, although his first titles came at youth level. He coached the young Socceroos to six OFC championships, three at U17 and three at U20, before leading the men’s senior team to Asian Cup glory on home soil in 2015. Several managers have an Arabian Gulf Cup, a regional tournament dating back to 1970, alongside a continental trophy. Mário Zagallo (1976, Copa América), Claude Le Roy (2009, Afcon 1988), Djamel Belmadi (2014, plus Afcon 2019).”
Finally, as Marc points out, Mancini isn’t the only manager looking for his second continental championship. “South Korea’s Jürgen Klinsmann will be looking to add Asian Cup success to his 2013 Concacaf Gold Cup triumph [with the USA], while Bahrain’s Juan Antonio Pizzi will be looking to repeat Chile’s 2016 Copa América win.”
Quickest revenge/returning hero hat-trick
“Chris Wood scored a hat-trick at St James’ Park just under a year after being sold by Newcastle to Nottingham Forest. What’s the shortest period of time in which a former a player has returned to their former club and scored a hat-trick?” wonders Masai Graham.
When Chris Wood scored an outstanding hat-trick against his old club on Boxing Day, he was a model of restraint after each goal. A couple of years ago, another Chris adopted a less dignified approach.
“Chris Maguire left Sunderland on 30 June 2021 when his contract expired,” writes Phil Boyle. “On 11 January 2022 he scored a hat-trick for Lincoln at the Stadium of Light, celebrating the third in the face of then-Sunderland manager Lee Johnson, who was later sent off.”
Maguire scored more goals in one match against Sunderland than he did in his other 38 games for Lincoln. He has since moved on, though at least the Lincoln manager doesn’t have to worry about revenge: Maguire is now at Eastleigh in the National League.
Josh King probably wasn’t quite as intent on revenge when he returned to Goodison Park in October 2021, but he did bite the hand that once fed him even more quickly than Maguire.
“King left Everton following an unsuccessful loan spell at the end of the 2020-21 season,” writes Dan Kelly. “He returned to Goodison four-and-a-half months later with Watford and scored a hat-trick in a 5-2 victory. I’d be surprised if there were any quicker than that. As an Everton fan, it was painfully poetic.”
Starting several players down
“In Indonesian Liga 3, Sukur FC started their match against Josal FC with only seven players because the college students that compose the team are having exams on the day of the match,” Taufiq A Utomo tells us. “Have there been other cases where teams start with less than 11 players?”
In Indonesian Liga 3, Sukur FC started their match against Josal FC with only 7 players because the college students that compose the team are having exams on the day of the match. Have there been other cases where teams start with less than 11 players? https://t.co/Fb6oT4I4MK
— Taufiq A. Utomo (@taufiqutomo) December 20, 2023
Jeremy Simmonds was the first out of the blocks on this one. “I’m sure it must’ve happened at a higher level,” he writes, “but the question immediately brought to mind the tale of Cornish Mining League whipping boys Madron FC.
“Back in 2010, the plucky side conceded 227 goals in their first 10 games, capped off by a staggering 55-0 defeat to Illogan Reserves – heaven knows what their first XI might’ve done – in which they could only muster seven players to start the game.
“Despite further defeats of 27-1 and 26-0 that season, just a year later Madron actually started losing by ‘respectable’ scores and even won a game. There’s a spirited little doc about the team here. It’d be interesting to learn whether they’re still going.”
Alas, they’re not, but they certainly left an impression.
We no longer exist since 2019.
— Madron FC (@MadronFC) August 7, 2021
We made history, in our own way.
Thank you to everyone who followed us and got to know us after our 0-55 defeat.
It has been a good journey
🖤 pic.twitter.com/rJZjyoBaD8
Azrie Mir has another example, though we hesitate to call it more high profile given Madron’s unlikely fame.
Belenenses SAD were forced to start with 9 players in a league match against Benfica also back in 2021 and also because of covid. They conceded 7 goals in the first half.
— AzrieMir (@azrie_mir) January 8, 2024
They come out with only 7 players for the second half, and right after the the second half started, the GK who plays as a midfielder falls and claimed he's injured, leading to the referee ending the match.
— AzrieMir (@azrie_mir) January 8, 2024
Knowledge archive
“According to this excellent website there was an FA Cup third-and-fourth-place playoff staged in 1970-71 between Everton and Stoke,” wrote Tom Moore in May 2009. “I never knew these games existed. Were they played every season and when were they introduced/scrapped?”
They were played every season from 1970, Tom, but only for five years after proving unpopular with players and fans. The FA even experimented with holding the game in August – shortly before the beginning of the following season – in 1972 and 1973, but this failed to win over the doubters, and the last such playoff was played between Burnley and Leicester City on 9 May 1974, with the Clarets winning 1-0.
The playoff did produce one significant first, however. Birmingham’s victory on penalties after a 0-0 draw against Stoke on 5 August 1972 was the first time any FA Cup tie had been decided on spot-kicks.
Can you help?
“My team, Southampton, are due to play Leeds on the last day of the current Championship regular season. Both are currently in the playoffs, so it’s possible they could play one another in three consecutive games (one in the league, two in the playoff semi-finals). Are there longer strings of consecutive fixtures between the same sides beyond three games?” wonders Rupert Sheard.
What's the closest any player has got to playing for an alphabet of clubs?
— Hello Gillian (@mippy) January 3, 2024
“In the FA Cup third round, a club from every London area still in the draw played at home: AFC Wimbledon, Arsenal, Brentford, Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Fulham, Millwall, Queens Park Rangers, Tottenham and West Ham United. (Gillingham, Luton and Watford are also drawn at home.) Has there ever been a draw where more London-area clubs had home advantage?” asks Terry Monks.
@TheKnowledge_GU watching SF Damaiense easier in the women's top flight in Portugal, I realised I could make out Benfica's home ground in the distance.
— James (@jamesv_t) January 7, 2024
Are there any other top flight grounds from which you can see another top flight ground? pic.twitter.com/3GE13E217c
“Sheffield Wednesday’s Cameron Dawson saved two penalties in the first seven minutes of their 4-0 win against Cardiff in the FA Cup third round on Saturday. There were three minutes between the two saves. Excluding retakes and shootouts, is that a record?” asks Terry Henfleet.
@TheKnowledge_GU in successive games, two players completed ‘perfect’ hat tricks for @Morton_FC (Tuesday 2/1/24 and Saturday 6/1/24)
— Peter Fleming (@pedrodelawasp) January 8, 2024
This must surely be quite a rare occurrence, raising the question of whether this has happened before, where, when and whom.
“Although his contract at Leeds was for just four matches, Sam Allardyce’s short service may have been the most costly ever having earned just a single point with one draw and three losses at a cost of £500,000. Is half a million pounds per point the worst ROI for any managerial hire?” muses Phil Freeman.
@TheKnowledge_GU I read today that Aston Villa had won their first FA Cup match since 2016. What is the worst such run by a top flight team?
— Jim Davey (@baggyjim) January 6, 2024
“Has the result of a match ever resulted in the managers of both clubs involved being sacked afterwards? If so, which was the most recent?” poses Anthony Ramm.
“What is the highest xG chance that wasn’t scored, and what’s the lowest that did lead to a goal?” asks Nick Jones.
Mail us your questions or tweet @TheKnowledge_GU
