291: Nayim, Tottenham Hotspur, Merlin Shooting Stars 1991/92

Today we are taking on another request post from Rob, the man behind the excellent ShootingStars account on Twitter, and making further use of his excellent card collection for good measure. Make sure you’re giving him a follow for a daily dose of football nostalgia from the last season before Sky invented the beautiful game. Rob was honest in his reasoning behind this particular suggestion referencing “the Seaman chip” but also asked to find out a bit more about today’s subject’s career before his move to North London. Apologies in advance that there’s a lot more about the former than the latter mate.

When the wonderful people at the Department for Education decided to restructure the GCSE curriculum in 2015 for no apparent reason it signalled the end for GCSE History coursework or “Controlled Assessment” as it had come to be known. One of the main reasons for this was that many respected educational establishments were a bit sketchy in their approach to this rather ambiguously titled piece of assessed work with the official guidelines regarding the level of outside influence on students’ submissions being taken with considerably more than a pinch of salt. Having navigated this moral maze with an attitude akin to Maximillien Robespierre in my early teaching career I was quite glad to see the back of it. Little did I know that it would just be shunted into the A Level course instead meaning that I am now entering my ninth consecutive year of reading lengthy essays about the role of Martin Luther King in the Civil Rights Movement.

Despite the beliefs of several sixth form students in recent years it is undeniable that Martin Luther King played an instrumental role in the improvement of Civil Rights for African Americans. His tireless campaigning, exceptional oratory skills and influence on three consecutive US Presidents undoubtedly helped to advance significant legislation during the 1960s and his assassination in 1968 led to riots in over a hundred US cities over the course of nearly six weeks. In 1964 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize following the passage of the Civil Rights Act which ended nearly a century of legal segregation in the American South. Since 1986 the Monday nearest to his birthday has been observed as a federal holiday and has been celebrated in song by none other than Stevie Wonder. Additionally over a thousand roads have been named after him in 41 of the 50 United States as well as nations around the world from Argentina to Germany and Denmark to Madagascar. This may seem like a trivial addition to such a luminary’s list of achievements but having a road named after you is no mean feat. Just ask former Spanish midfielder Mohamed Ali Amar, better known as Nayim. In 2006 the village of Trasmoz in the Aragon region of Spain named a street ‘Gol de Nayim’ in honour of arguably his most famous achievement.

With no disrespect to the thirty odd goals he managed for four different clubs there is little doubt which one was being referred to when this street was unveiled. In the last minute of extra time during the final of the 1995 Cup Winners’ Cup Nayim spotted England and Arsenal goalkeeper David Seaman off his line and lobbed him from a staggering 45 yards to secure the greatest of all European trophies for Real Zaragoza. He claimed nearly twenty years later that he had been looking for an opportunity for such a spectacular effort during the game due to the Gunners’ high defensive line but perhaps he just thought it might be funny to outdo Lee Dixon for memorable finishes against this particular shot stopper. Either way clearly a youthful Ronaldinho was making notes.

As well as making him a popular man in Zaragoza his exploits that night brought a smile to fans of his former employers in North London. After coming through the prestigious Barcelona academy Nayim moved to Tottenham Hotspur in 1988, initially on loan, reuniting him with manager Terry Venables who had given him his first taste of first team football at Camp Nou. He became the first Spanish footballer to play in England since 1947, when Basque refugee Emilio Aldecoa last turned out for Coventry City, but quickly became a target for the British press who took umbrage with his perceived diving tendencies. Nevertheless goals against Southampton and West Ham United hinted at his more palatable skills and he made 23 appearances in the 1989/90 campaign scoring an impressive three goals in four League Cup games. The next season he won his first piece of silverware when Paul Gascoigne injured himself hacking down Gary Charles and he came off the bench to help Spurs to FA Cup glory despite Mark Crossley’s best efforts. 

Nayim went on to win the October goal of the month award in the inaugural Premier League season thanks to a volleyed effort against Liverpool and a hat-trick against Manchester City in the League Cup attracted the attention of Spain manager Javier Clemente although this never manifested in a full international cap for the midfielder. After five years in North London, and after becoming the Premier League’s first Muslim player, Nayim moved to Real Zaragoza in July 1993 and helped the side to the Copa del Rey in his first season. He spent two further campaigns there following his Cup Winners’ Cup exploits before moving to CD Logrones in the Segunda Division. He called time on his playing career in 2000 and moved into coaching with his hometown club Atletico Cueta before moving upstairs as sporting director in 2016.

Nayim has some way to match Martin Luther King in terms of streets named after him. The great Civil Rights activist may not have won the Cup Winners’ Cup but his impact on world history probably just about makes up for that. Still, for a single moment in your career to be immortalised in such a way suggests it was a pretty good goal and Nayim has done better than some of his more celebrated fellow footballers. Despite captaining England to World Cup glory in 1966 Bobby Moore Way is merely a slip road on the A406 while Brian Clough Way is a section of the A52 between Derby and Nottingham that doesn’t come particularly close to either Pride Park or The City Ground. It’s fair to assume that ‘Gol de Nayim’ is considerably more picturesque than the aforementioned dual carriageways but it might take a bit more than that to get David Seaman heading there anytime soon.