The Beautiful Game comes to St. James’ Park.
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Solano the Salsa king! |
‘Pancho’ Robledo |
The Peruvian Nolberto (‘Nobby’) Solano, described by Maradona as ‘the little master’, is the latest in a line of Latin football stars to grace the field at St James’ Park. Blazing the trail were the Robledo brothers from Chile in the 1950s. Both Ted and George played in the 1952 FA cup final which saw George score the winning goal. His medal can be seen in the NUFC museum. A Chilean international capped 34 times for his country, he scored 91 goals in 166 games for United equalling Hughie Gallacher’s 1927 record of 39 goals in a season (only topped by Andy Cole in 1994 with 41).
The mercurial Mirandinha was the first Brazilian to play in the league in 1987, although it would be Middlesbrough who took Brazil to their hearts with the talents of Juninho who thrilled crowds at the Riverside. Other Latin players at NUFC have included another Chilean, Clarence Acuña, the Paraguayan Diego Gavilán, Argentinean Christian Bassedas and the ‘Octopus’, Colombian Tino Asprilla, whose hat-trick in the Champion’s league against Barcelona has gone down in club history (although Colombians are more likely to recall his hat-trick in the five-nil victory over Argentina in the classification for the 1994 World Cup!).
Extract from Nobby Solano’s biography at NolSolano.com:
“I had been happy with my performances, and had enjoyed and benefited from the experience of playing in Argentina (for Sporting Cristal). However, my ambition to play in Europe was still unfulfilled. The profile of the Premiership had risen during the mid '90's, and out of all of the leagues in the world, it was probably the place to be. My agent received interest from both Arsenal and Newcastle, and both these sides were very attractive for me.
Whilst Arsenal took their time in negotiations, Kenny Dalglish and Newcastle made a firm offer. My mind was made up, I had seen a great deal of Newcastle on TV as the profile of the club had increased substantially in South America when Tino Asprilla had moved to St.James Park. I knew that the fans were very passionate and the club had finished second in the Championship twice, and then played in the Champions League.
In 1998 I fulfilled my ambition to play in Europe and signed for Newcastle. My first impressions were good, life in general is very different to South America, but I was enjoying it. The Premiership grounds are fantastic, so many clubs have excellent stadiums, and of course, I'm playing for the best supporters in England.”
For more on Brazilian football see: www.sambafoot.com/en/