4 October: Valdano, world champion and inventor of «stage fright»
Jorge Valdano
«the philosopher of football»
- Club Atlético Newell’s Old Boys 1973-1975 · 12 goals
- Deportivo Alavés 1975-1979 · 21 goals
- Real Zaragoza 1979-1984 · 47 goals
- Real Madrid Club de Fútbol 1984-1987 · 40 goals
Alavés, Zaragoza and the Bernabéu
He came to Spain very young, in 1975, to play for Alavés in the Second Division. At Real Zaragoza he became a top-flight striker, and in 1984 Real Madrid signed him.
At the Bernabéu he lived through the nights of the great European comebacks: he won the 1985 and 1986 UEFA Cups and two league titles, alongside Butragueño, Hugo Sánchez and the Quinta del Buitre. From those nights he coined an expression everyone now uses: miedo escénico, stage fright, what the opposition felt when they walked out into a packed, roaring Bernabéu.
Mexico 86
At the World Cup in Mexico he was Maradona's partner up front and scored four goals. In the final against West Germany, at the Azteca, he made it 2-0 after a run from midfield. Germany equalised and Burruchaga won the title for Argentina.
Shortly afterwards, hepatitis forced him to quit football at just thirty-two.
Tenerife
As a coach he started at Tenerife and wrote one of the strangest stories in La Liga. On the final day of 1991-92 Madrid arrived in Tenerife as leaders and lost; the title went to Barcelona. The following year exactly the same thing happened. Valdano was only on the bench for the second, but in Madrid they already saw him in a different light.
In 1994 Madrid themselves hired him. In his first season he won the 1995 league title and gave a debut to a seventeen-year-old called Raúl. He was later sporting director and general manager of the club, and a football commentator and writer with a voice all his own.
Also born on 4 October
Mauro Camoranesi, an Argentine world champion with Italy
Born in Tandil, in Buenos Aires province, he played in Mexico and Uruguay and arrived in Italy almost unknown. Of Italian descent, at Juventus he became an Italy international and started for the side that won the 2006 World Cup. After the final in Berlin, a team-mate cut off his ponytail on the pitch.
He was one of those who stayed at Juventus when the club was relegated to Serie B in the Calciopoli scandal.
- Club Atlético Aldosivi 1995-1996
- Club Santos Laguna 1996 · 1 goals
- Montevideo Wanderers Fútbol Club 1997 · 1 goals
- Club Atlético Banfield 1997-1998 · 16 goals
- Club de Futbol Cruz Azul 1998-2000 · 21 goals
- Hellas Verona Football Club 2000-2002 · 7 goals
Another 51 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.
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- 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
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- 2626 September: Michael Ballack
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