Hi all, welcome to All Football's On This Day! Let's find out what happened today (March 20th) in football history. If you have more stories and news that happened on this day in history, feel free to post them in the comment area and share them with AFers!
On this day in 1984, 'El Nino' Fernando Torres was born
Torres joined Liverpool in 2007, after signing for a club record transfer fee. He marked his first season at Anfield by being Liverpool's first player since Robbie Fowler in the 1995–96 season to score more than 20 league goals in a season. The most prolific goalscoring spell of his career, he became the fastest player in Liverpool history to score 50 league goals. Torres left the club in January 2011 to join Chelsea for a British record transfer fee of £50 million, which made him the most expensive Spanish player in history. In his first full season at Chelsea, Torres won the FA Cup and the UEFA Champions League. The following season, he scored in the final of the 2012–13 UEFA Europa League, helping Chelsea to win the competition for the first time.
Torres has been described as having "an eye for the spectacular" and being "capable of world-class skill", as well as being regarded as a "technically proficient, highly successful striker". He has the ability to find himself in goalscoring positions, using his pace and vision to get in behind defenders. A hard-working striker, he is also known for his willingness to chase down and put pressure on opposing defenders, and is capable of playing off his teammates and creating chances for other strikers, in addition to scoring goals himself; this has also seen him be deployed in a deeper role as a second striker on occasion.
On this day in 1990, 'Black Spider' Lev Yashin died
Born in Moscow, Yashin spent his entire professional career with Dynamo, making 326 league appearances from 1949 to 1971. In the process, he won five league titles and three Soviet Cups. Once, when asked about his incredible record for stopping penalty kicks, he said the secret was "to have a smoke to calm your nerves, then toss back a strong drink to tone your muscles."
Despite his success with Dynamo, he rose to international fame as keeper for the Soviet national team. He earned his first cap in 1954 and was instrumental in their gold medal winning 1956 Summer Olympics campaign, allowing only two goals in the tournament. He was equally frugal in the 1960 European Championship, again allowing only two goals in the tournament as the Soviet Union won the inaugural tournament.
In 1963, the year he captured his fifth league title with Dynamo, he won the Ballon d'Or, becoming the first--and to date only--goalkeeper to win the award.
He suffered a knee injury in 1986 that led to the amputation of one of his legs. That created complications that led to his death in 1990. Four years later, FIFA created the Lev Yashin Award, given to the best goalkeeper at the World Cup.
On this day in 2004, Chelsea's 86 matches home unbeaten streak start
On 20 March 2004, Chelsea beat Fulham 2-1 in an English Premier League match at Stamford Bridge, starting a home unbeaten streak that would last a total of 86 matches - an English record.
The last match in that run was a 2-0 league win over Aston Villa on 5 October 2008. Liverpool finally ended Chelsea's home dominance with a 0-1 league win on 26 October 2008, when Liverpool's Spanish midfielder Xabi Alonso scored in the 10th minute off a deflection from Chelsea defender Jose Bosingwa. Just two months later, Chelsea suffered another home defeat in the league, this time a 1-2 loss to London rivals Arsenal.
On this day in 1987, Ex-Man City striker Jo was born
Jo is a Brazilian player who plays as a striker for Japanese club Nagoya Grampus. He has previously played for Corinthians, CSKA Moscow, Manchester City, Everton, Galatasaray, Internacional and Atlético Mineiro. Jô made his full international debut for Brazil in 2007 and also played at the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
On 31 July 2008, Manchester City signed Jô for an undisclosed value thought to be worth about £19 million, a club record at the time. He scored just one league goal in 4 matches for Manchester City and also scored a brace in the UEFA Cup against Omonia Nicosia.
VanishPrasad
86
Happy Birtgday El Nino. To my knowledge he was one of the most feared strikers in world football spanning between 2005-2010. He was a kid who helped athletico madrid come into laliga from the second division football they were playing. He was the top scorer for them at that time. Then when he was 19 he captained the side. The fans love him Back at Vincent Calderon. His technique was so good and inexplicable. In order to rise funds for athletico he made his big money move to Liverpool (20m£). It was in 2007 that this happened- golden era for Torres and Liverpool! He was merciless in front of goal . He never used to play the full game because he was very young and yet managed to be their top goal scorer with 33 goals in his first season in the premier league. He was injury plagued most of the time. His only problem was that! But he was constantly used inspite of his injuries by Rafa Benitez (mistake in my perspective) week in week out and this made Torres weak and he eventually had a serious knee injury! He was a nightmare for defenders and goalkeepers during his Liverpool days! He was big match player! His goals against Chelsea, arsenal , United , city , Spurs , Barcelona , Real Madrid say it all! He know the right time to peak and he's quick and agile and always on the run! Unpredictable for the defenders !! He was only next to Messi and ronaldo in 2009. That is his class... He made his move to Chelsea in 2010. He had undergone a very serious knee surgery that year . It was reflected in his World Cup performance in 2010! He was a very very big money transfer (50m£). But to be honest he never really lived up to his standards. The standards he set for himself was way to high for us to relate him to his Chelsea performances. But he was their big game player again. He scored in their FA cup finals v United , champions league semi v Barcelona ,Europa finals v benfica , super cup finals v bayern and many other important instances. His ability to reproduce the spark when it was required is impeccable. He might have slowed down because of his injury but his class is always permanent! His work for Spain proves it all! Goal against Germany in euro 2008 finale Goal against Italy in euro 2012 finale Golden boot winner in euro 2012 Golden boot winner in confederation cup 2012 Third top goal scorer for Spain.. Says it all. Their big match player even when he was their super sub! He played very minimal number of minutes. For me he's right at the top He goes right to the top of best strikers list! I'm not bothered about his misses.. Cuz to be honest Cristiano ronaldo has missed more open goals than Torres has ever missed.. So those were just moments of sheer bad luck!
lukzlat910
71
On this day, 20th March 2016, Marcus Rashford, a Manc born and bred, the Mancunian Pele, played his first Manchester Derby and scored becoming the youngest player to ever score in the Manchester Derby, 18 years and 141 days old #MR10 🔴🔴🔥🔥
YashrajNagarwal
61
happy birthday to fernando torres The man who made me fall in love with football till this day we will never forget your unbelievable accomplishments and will be always so proud. All the hard work and dedication pays off you were world class striker for liverpool, atletico and spain but chelsea and injury ruin your career the goat feliz cumpleanos El Nino!!!💜💜💜 records he became the fastest player in Liverpool history to score 50 league goals. He was named in the FIFA World XI in 2008 and 2009.He has been capped over 100 times and is his country's third-highest goalscorer of all-timeWith Spain, he has participated in six major tournaments: UEFA Euro 2004, the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Euro 2008, the 2010 World Cup, Euro 2012, and the 2014 World Cup. Spain won the three tournaments from 2008 to 2012, with Torres scoring in the finals of both Euro 2008 and Euro 2012. He scored the winning goal in the 2008 European Championship, and won the Golden Boot for highest goalscorer in 2012. FIFA World Player of the Year third place: 2008 UEFA European Championship Golden Boot: 2012 [Ballon d'Or third place: 2008