Footballing Legends
Welcome to our Footballing Legends page, a place where each month we'll celebrate the life and times of footballers both from far and wide, and from bygone eras.
Footballing legends abound across the globe with lads from various backgrounds over a time spanning over 100 years marching into a world of footballing prowess. A footballing arena that allowed to them flourish and make waves that would last for decades.
Footballing Legends
Footballing legends come in various guises, there will be always the legends such as listed below. The likes of George Best, Bobby Charlton, and his brother Jack, are etched into the footballing stones of history.
Legends of footballing Achievements
But who is the greatest penalty stopper of all time?
Who holds the record for scoring the most goals in the history of football?
And who is the best football manager of all time? The answer to this question is a whole new blog post (coming soon).
The above two we’ll attempt to answer here, though there will always be some debate.
In terms of the best penalty stopper, this would have to be awarded to a stopper at a high level, who performed when it mattered. This is a tough one but a relatively unknown keeper in the 1979-80 English football season stopped eight out of ten penalties. The accolade goes to Paul Cooper of Ipswich Town. Even though he never achieved an international call up, that’s some good going and so Paul is one of the many legendary title holders, who’s relatively unknown.
Another notable achievement occurred in the 1986 European Cup final, when Romanian keeper Helmutch Duckadam saved all four penalties. Duckadam, who played for Steaua Bucharest wasn’t even Romania’s first choice keeper. In fact, he was way down the pecking order as a fourth-choice keeper for the international team.
The overall record goal scorer in the history of football is one of the debate, there are two main winners but due to unofficial data the exact number of goals scored is difficult to ascertain exactly.
Officially FIFA states that Pele holds this record, but some footballing historians touch upon a relatively unknown Austrian striker going by the name Josef Bican. Bican, played in the Austrian league in the 1930s for Wunderteam. He was the league’s leading goal scorer for 12 seasons, his official record is reported differently between the IFFHS and RSSSF, the latter accrediting him with 805+ goals whilst IFFHS state he collated 649 goals. Further research into Bican’s appearances and goals scored in other matches, such as friendlies and other unofficial matches gave him a total tally of 1,468 goals, which 187 more than Pele.
With the total matches both Pele and Bican played, it is difficult to recognise every goal due to the governing body not recognising all goals due to the official nature of some of the matches each player was a part.
A Forgotten Footballing Legend
To add even more confusion to answering the original question, there is a third contender. A name that’s not on the lips of every football fan, Artur Friedenreich who played in Brazil from the early 1910s through to the 1920s.
Many estimate that Friedenreich scored a total of 1,329 goals, and graced the pitch like a gentleman, adding a defining style of fantasy which went on to shape Brazilian football for many decades. He was described as more stylish and elegant than Stefano and a better all-rounder than Pele.
Below are a just a handful of some of the footballing legends who have graced the football pitch over the last 100+ years. We will add more as time allows, we hope you enjoy our insights and please do get in touch to add, or correct, any of our content.