27 October: el Loco Abreu and the Panenka in Johannesburg

Sebastián Abreu

A striker everywhere

He came out of Defensor Sporting, passed through San Lorenzo and in 1998 joined Deportivo de La Coruña, where he barely got a game. From there began a career without parallel: Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Greece, Israel, Spain again with Real Sociedad, Uruguay, El Salvador, Chile… He made it into the Guinness book as the footballer who had played for the most professional clubs, and kept adding to the tally.

Soccer City, 2 July 2010

Uruguay and Ghana were playing their World Cup quarter-final in Johannesburg, level at one in extra time. In the last action, Luis Suárez handled on the line a header that was going in. Red card and penalty. Asamoah Gyan smashed it against the bar.

In the shoot-out, with Uruguay one goal from the semi-finals, Abreu took the fifth penalty. With the stadium against him and everything at stake, he walked up slowly and chipped it softly down the middle as the goalkeeper dived to one side. Uruguay were back in a semi-final forty years later. That is where the nickname comes from: nobody in their right mind takes that penalty that way.

Also born on 27 October

Glenn Hoddle, the Englishman who played like a Frenchman

🎂 turns 69

A midfielder of exquisite technique, a Tottenham idol, who in eighties English football seemed like a luxury that did not fit. In 1987 he joined Arsène Wenger's Monaco and won the French league. He later managed England at the 1998 World Cup.

Born27 October 1957

CountryEngland

Positionmidfielder

Clubs

• Tottenham Hotspur Football Club 1975-1987 · 88 goals
• A.S. Monaco F.C. 1987-1991 · 27 goals
• Swindon Town Football Club 1991-1993 · 2 goals
• Chelsea Football Club 1993-1995 · 1 goals

National teamselección de fútbol de Inglaterra

Other awards

Salón de la Fama del fútbol inglés

↻ Dates, clubs and individual awards come from Wikidata and update themselves

🔴⚪ 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.

Another 48 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.

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.