Hi all, welcome to All Football's On This Day! Let's find out what happened today (February 1st) in football history. If you have more stories and news that happened on this day in history, please post them in the comment area and share them with AFers!
On This Day in 2016 - Man City announced the signing of Guardiola
On 1st February, Pep Guardiola agreed a three-year contract to become Manchester City manager at the end of the season.
The 45-year-old, in charge at Bayern Munich at that time, would replace Manuel Pellegrini, who would leave June 2016.
A statement from City said Chilean Pellegrini, 62, was "fully supportive" of the announcement being made.
The club said negotiations with former Barcelona coach Guardiola had been "a recommencement of discussions that were curtailed in 2012".
Roberto Mancini was City boss at the time, and led them to the domestic title that year.
Pellegrini succeeded the Italian in 2013 and took the club to a Premier League and League Cup double the following season.
He has won 64 of his 99 Premier League games as a manager, a record only eclipsed by Jose Mourinho, who won 73 of his opening 99 league matches as Chelsea boss.
On 17 May 2018, Guardiola signed a two-year contract extension at Man City after winning the Premier League title in record-breaking 100 points.
On This Day in 1969 - Batigol was born
Gabriel Omar Batistuta was born 1 February 1969
Batistuta is an Argentine retired professional footballer. After beginning his career in Argentina in 1988 with Newell's Old Boys, followed by River Plate and Boca Juniors where he won titles, the prolific striker played most of his club football with Fiorentina in Italy; he is their all-time top scorer in Serie A with 152 goals.
When Fiorentina was relegated to Serie B in 1993, Batistuta stayed with the club and helped it return to the top-flight league a year later.
He became an icon in Florence; the Fiorentina fans erected a life-size bronze statue of him in 1996, in recognition of his performances for the club. Despite winning the Coppa Italia and the Supercoppa Italiana with the club in 1996, he never won the Italian league with Fiorentina, but when he moved to Roma in 2000 for €36 million – then the highest fee ever paid for a player over the age of 30 – he finally won the Serie A title to crown his career in Italy. After a brief loan spell with Inter Milan in 2003, he played his last two seasons in Qatar with Al-Arabi before he retired in 2005.
At the international level, Batistuta was Argentina's all-time leading goalscorer with 54 goals in 77 official matches, a record he held until 21 June 2016, when he was surpassed by Lionel Messi. He participated in three FIFA World Cups, scoring 10 goals, making him Argentina's all-time top scorer in the competition, and the joint eighth-highest World Cup goalscorer of all time.
Batistuta is the only player in football history to score two hat-tricks in different World Cups. With the Argentina national team he won two consecutive Copa América titles (1991 and 1993), the 1993 Artemio Franchi Trophy, and the 1992 FIFA Confederations Cup.
On This Day in 2006 - Bentley Rolls Over Man United
On 1 February 2006, Blackburn winger David Bentley became the first person to score a hat-trick against Manchester United in the Premier League as Rovers won 4-3.
The match was Bentley's first as an official Blackburn player--he signed with them the day before after spending the first half of the season with them on loan from Arsenal. Playing at home before a crowd of 25,484, he celebrated the move by putting Rovers ahead in the 35th minute, finishing off a free kick that United keeper Edwin van der Sar tipped onto the bar.
United striker Louis Saha returned the favor in the 37th minute, but a poor clearance from Rio Ferdinand allowed Bentley to double his tally four minutes later. Rovers extended the lead to 3-1 before the break when Lucas Neill converted a 45th-minute penalty kick. Then, in the 56th minute, Robbie Savage found Bentley unmarked in the United box; the winger took the chance, claiming the first hat-trick against United since QPR's David Bailey did it in January 1992 when the top flight was still called Division One.
United's Ruud van Nistelrooy, who had come on as a second-half substitute, scored a brace of his own in the 63rd and 68th minutes, but the rally ended when referee Phil Dowd sent Ferdinand off in the 88th minute--Ferdinand's first career red card, earned by having drawn a second yellow card for a challenge on Savage that left the Welshman with a gash on his shin.
The win completed a Blackburn double over United that season, which ended with Rovers in sixth place and United in second.
On This Day in 2012 - The Port Said Stadium Riot
On 1 February 2012, 79 people died and over 1,000 were injured in an outbreak of violence following an Egyptian Premier League match.
The match, between Al-Ahly and Al-Masry at the latter's Port Said Stadium, was played in a charged atmosphere from the beginning, with supporters on the pitch forcing a thirty-minute delay to the opening kick-off. The hosts went on to win 3-1, with subsequent pitch invasions after every Al-Masry goal.
When the game ended, a group of Al-Masry supporters launched an attack on the Al-Ahly players and fans, using knives, clubs, and rocks. A total of 79 people died from a combination of stabbings, beatings, and stampede-related injuries. Another 1,000 people were injured, but survived.
Afterward, many people claimed the riot was politically motivated, accusing the police and the armed forces of conspiring to punish the Al-Ahly supporters, who had been very critical of them in the wake of the previous year's Egyptian revolution.
Authorities arrested 73 people. Of those, 21 were tried and received death sentences in January 2013, which sparked another set of riots even more deadly than the first. After a series of appeals, the number of death sentences was reduced to 10. Among other defendants, 32 received prison sentences ranging from 5 to 15 years and 21 were acquitted.
On This Day in 1937 - The Game Of Shame
On 1 February 1937, Argentina won the South American Championship over Brazil with two extra-time goals from Vicente de la Mata.
The precursor to the Copa América, the tournament consisted of six teams, with each one playing the others once and the winner to be decided on points. But Argentina beat Brazil in the last scheduled match on 30 January, giving them identical records of four wins and a loss to finish level at the top of the table. As a result, they met again in a playoff to determine who got the cup.
Playing in Buenos Aires, the match was scoreless through regulation, forcing it into extra time. There, nineteen year old de la Mata (pictured) scored in the 102nd minute to take the lead, then sealed the win with another goal in the 112th minute, setting the final margin at 2-0.
Brazil disputed both goals and claimed that the Argentina supporters insulted their players with racist language, then threatened them as they tried to leave the pitch. As a result, the Brazilian press dubbed the match "the game of shame."
De la Mata, meanwhile, went on to enjoy a lengthy career with Independiente, making 362 appearances and scoring 151 goals between 1937 and 1950.
