86: Trezeguet, Egypt, FIFA World Cup Russia 2018, Panini Official Licensed Sticker Album

In the seemingly endless debate on the greatest footballer of all time you rarely hear the names Edson Arantes do Nascimento or Arthur Antunes Coimbra mentioned. However, if you were to refer to them as Pele or Zico you might have less trouble recognising their names. In fact a whole host of Brazilian stars over the years have taken on a shortened form of their name or a childhood nickname on their path to global stardom. Ronaldo de Assis Moreira went by the name Ronaldinho from the age of eight owing to his small stature and the fact some bloke called Ronaldo was already quite well known. Givanildo Vieira de Sousa got the nickname Hulk due to his stocky build and his resemblance to 1970s actor and embodiment of the green Marvel superhero Lou Ferrigno. This is particularly impressive seeing as he looks nothing like him.

 

As we can see from today’s sticker this phenomenon is not unique to Brazil and, ahead of the 2018 World Cup in Russia, the world beyond those familiar with the Turkish Super Lig were introduced to the Egyptian striker Mahmoud Ahmed Ibrahim Hassan going by the name of Trezeguet. When Emlyn, Rich and I came across his name in our Panini albums we were instantly intrigued. Surely this man wasn’t actually named after the former French striker David Trezeguet? If he were that would make us really old. And surely there were other players from that glorious French side who followed up their World Cup success on home soil in 1998 with victory in Euro 2000 you could name your kids after? Maybe this young man’s parents really loved golden goals or had an immense dislike for Cristophe Duggary. What was clear was this couldn’t be a nickname as, having acquired his sticker, it was clear he looked nothing like his namesake.



As it transpired Trezeguet was more Hulk than Ronaldinho, both on and off the pitch, and his sobriquet came from a former youth coach who saw likenesses between young Mahmoud and the French striker in both their playing style and appearance. Whilst I feel unqualified to criticise this coach for his ability to develop young footballing talent he clearly wasn’t anywhere near as adept at identifying similarities in people’s faces. Additionally, in terms of physical stature, the Frenchman is a good four inches taller than his Egyptian namesake. Therefore it must come down to their identical approaches to the beautiful game.

 

It’s unfair to make a direct comparison to the two men as David has long since retired and today’s subject is only 25 but I’ll see what I can do. By the age of 25 David Trezeguet had racked up 109 goals in 203 club appearances for Monaco and Juventus and 20 goals in 40 international caps to go with his World Cup and European Championship winning medals not to mention the ‘golden goal’ that secured the latter trophy for his nation. His Egyptian counterpart has managed 46 goals in 223 club appearances for Al Ahly, Kasimpasa and Aston Villa to go with 6 goals in his 41 international caps and a runner’s up medal from the 2017 African Cup of Nations. The statistics seem to favour the retired Frenchman.

 

But who cares about statistics? After an inauspicious start in the Premier League, including a red card against Crystal Palace, Trezeguet earned the plaudits of Ian Wright following his first goal for Villa against eventual champions Liverpool. His injury-time winner against Leicester City sent Villa to their first League Cup final in ten years. Perhaps most significantly, after the Covid-19 enforced break in the 2019/20 season, the Egyptian netted important winning goals against Palace and Arsenal to save the Villans from relegation and secure them another season in the top flight.

 

In Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare asked ‘What’s in a name?’ If Trezeguet’s anything to go by it seems that dramatic goals are never far away regardless of what you look like.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

N/A: Chris Kamara, Sheffield United, Chris Kamara’s Street Soccer, Midas Games

Image
In November 1972 the arcade game Pong made its debut and the gaming industry was born. While not the first attempt to make some computer pixels do not very much for the amusement of the masses it was by far the most commercially successful and, by the end of the decade, the first ever football game was unleashed on the world in the form of NASL Soccer. Judging by the YouTube footage it seemed to involve lots of brightly coloured stick men over hitting through balls and running in the opposite direction to oncoming forwards which may well be what the likes of Trevor Francis , Johan Cruyff and Gerd Muller were getting up to over in the US at the time. Throughout the 1980s the games became more realistic and a host of star players and managers put their names on products of variable quality. Peter Shilton’s Handball Maradona (not that he is anyway bitter about being out jumped by a midget) gave youngsters the opportunity to fulfil their goalkeeping fantasies in a range of scenarios with r
Read more

269: Trifon Ivanov, Bulgaria, USA ’94 World Cup, UK and Eire Edition

Image
The 1994 FIFA World Cup in the USA was my introduction to football and, nearly thirty years later, probably the international tournament I remember most fondly despite the fact that I realistically don’t remember too much about it. I can attest to having witnessed Ray Houghton’s wonder goal/flukey lob in the Republic of Ireland’s shock victory over Italy as it was the centrepiece of a First Holy Communion celebration my family was attending. The joy and shock experienced by the predominantly Irish and Italian guests crowded around what seemed like the world’s biggest telly spilled over into the garden for all of us kids present and led to an inevitable kickabout. A few weeks later the quarter finals coincided with a primary school barbecue which, again, saw lots of people crowded around a telly watching Italy take on Spain . I remember very little about the game as my primary focus was the kickabout in the school playground and trying to digest ropey veggie burgers but one parent said
Read more

138: Gennaro Gattuso, Italy, Topps Match Attax Trading Card Game, England Collector Binder

Image
We are finally responding to a request from the excellent Anglo Italian Pod for a post on a member of Italy’s victorious 2006 World Cup squad. Mat Jolin-Beech may have already covered Francesco Totti and missed out on the opportunity to cover Alessandro Del Piero or Marco Materazzi but there were a host of exceptional footballers he could have chosen from their inspirational captain Fabio Cannavaro to the impossibly handsome Mauro Camoranesi. This blog being what it is though Mat has decided to focus on a loveable shithouse and his time in Scotland. We hope this does the trick lads. This is the first that may end up being a series of pieces from me with the theme “I forgot they played there” and the opening salvo in this possible theme is Gennaro Gattuso. The midfield hardman is synonymous with AC Milan where, in no particular order, he claimed two Champions League titles, the Coppa Italia, two Serie A winner’s medals, two Italian Super Cups, two UEFA Super Cups, and a FIFA Club
Read more