16 October: Falcão, the eighth king of Rome
Paulo Roberto Falcão
«the eighth king of Rome»
- Sport Club Internacional 1972-1980 · 22 goals
- A.S. Roma 1980-1985 · 22 goals
- São Paulo Futebol Clube 1985-1986
Internacional and Roma
He was the midfielder of the Internacional side that won three Brazilian titles, one of them, in 1979, without losing a single game. In 1980 he was signed by Roma, one of the first big transfers after Italian football reopened to foreign players.
With him, Roma won their first scudetto in forty-one years in 1983, and the next year reached the European Cup final in their own stadium. They lost it on penalties to Grobbelaar's Liverpool, the goalkeeper born on 6 October. Falcão did not take a penalty, and that followed him in Rome for years.
Sarrià, 5 July 1982
The Brazil of the 1982 World Cup in Spain, with Zico, Sócrates, Éder, Júnior and Falcão, is probably the best-loved national team of those that won nothing. In the second round, at the Sarrià stadium in Barcelona, a draw against Italy was enough for them.
With Italy 2-1 up, Falcão took the ball on the edge of the box, feinted and drilled it in with his left: 2-2. His celebration, running towards the bench with his arms wide and the veins in his neck about to burst, is one of the images of that World Cup. But six minutes later Paolo Rossi completed his hat-trick and Brazil went home. So much has been written about that game that in Brazil they call it the Sarrià tragedy.
🔴⚪ Sporting Gijón players born this day
They played for Sporting Gijón and were born on this same day. There is only their data here: we would rather name them than leave them out, and rather give the bare facts than invent a story.
Jesús Barrio 🔴⚪
- Real Sporting de Gijón
Another 54 internationally known footballers were born on this day. We do not list them for the sake of it: only those with a story to tell make it here.
📅 The almanac: pick any date
Every day of the year has its story. Highlighted days are already out: click to see who was born or what happened on that date. The faded ones go live on their day, at midnight (Spain time). 30 published.
Football almanac · Elopi23
January
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February
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March
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April
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May
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June
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July
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August
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September14 ★
- 11 September: Ruud Gullit
- 1111 September: Franz Beckenbauer
- 1818 September: Ronaldo
- 2020 September: Henrik Larsson
- 2121 September: Sándor Kocsis
- 2222 September: Thiago Silva
- 2323 September: Quini
- 2424 September: Marco Tardelli
- 2525 September: Karl-Heinz Rummenigge
- 2626 September: Michael Ballack
- 2727 September: Francesco Totti
- 2828 September: Javi Poves
- 2929 September: Andriy Shevchenko
- 3030 September: Frank Rijkaard
October16 ★
- 11 October: George Weah
- 22 October: Alisson Becker · Roberto Firmino
- 33 October: Zlatan Ibrahimović
- 44 October: Jorge Valdano
- 55 October: Kopa, Rial, Di Stéfano, Puskás and Gento
- 66 October: Bruce Grobbelaar
- 77 October: Diego Costa
- 88 October: Zvonimir Boban
- 99 October: Gheorghe Popescu
- 1010 October: Tony Adams
- 1111 October: Bobby Charlton
- 1212 October: Cristhian Stuani
- 1313 October: Raymond Kopa
- 1414 October: Matt Le Tissier
- 1515 October: Didier Deschamps
- 1616 October: Paulo Roberto Falcão
November
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December
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★ published · ✎ written, waiting for their day · the red circle is today
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Dates, clubs, individual awards and photos come from Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons, under free licences, and update themselves. Ages are not written anywhere: they are calculated the moment you open the page, so this page always shows the right age, this year and twenty years from now. If any of these players signs for another club or wins an award, their profile picks it up on its own. What is written by hand is the story and the judgement: who the day belongs to, and why.