New Year's season is rich in football holidays with the presentation of numerous prizes. The distinguished athletes barely have time to move from one city to another in order to receive the rewards due to them. And the stars of the past make similar tours to give these evenings a unique solemn atmosphere. On Monday, many of them could be seen in Salzburg, Austria, where an organization with a long name and not all known destination, the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS), summed up the year in the prestigious Mozart House. Surely many of the readers are familiar with her ratings of the best clubs in the world, but few know what else she does.
The Federation was created in 1984 thanks to the efforts of its permanent president Dr. Alfred Pege, who lived in those years in East Germany, and the assistance of the then FIFA Secretary General Helmut Keser. For some reason, the very founder of the federation was immediately recorded as unreliable and expelled from the GDR, but he continued his work.
Today, hundreds of members of this organization conduct research in the history and statistics of football in their countries, and books published by the federation are certainly very valuable.
“You are unique people, real experts and football enthusiasts. Without you, many facts from the history of football would be forgotten. I myself have forgotten many of the matches I played, but I’m sure that you have all the details in your archives, ”said one of the most honored guests Franz Beckenbauer at the evening, addressing the members of the federation.
Since 1987, the federation began to award various prizes to the best players of the season (one of the first prize winners to the best goalkeeper was, by the way, the USSR goalkeeper Rinat Dasaev), and later to hold gala evenings.
The recent evening was very representative and was broadcast in 25 countries of the world. As usual, many distinguished guests gathered, including Franz Beckenbauer, Jose Mourinho, Juste Fontaine, Jean-Marie Pfaff, Raymond Kop, Giovanni Trapattoni, Josef Masopust and many others. They were waiting for other stars, but who could have imagined that on this day the Italian president will appoint a reception for his team, and Frank Rikard - an additional penalty training for his “Barcelona”. To top it off, Zinedine Zidane was stuck at the Paris airport and did not have time to fly in to receive, perhaps, one of the last football awards.
Nevertheless, the holiday was a success, and the organizers did not, as usual, change the lists of awards to oil the arrived stars. For example, Jose Mourinho, who became one of the top stars of the evening, received only the “Silver Ball”, and the prize for the best club coach of the year will receive later Ricard. Mourinho, however, was very pleased that he received his prize from the hands of Giovanni Trapattoni, whom he called the legend of the coaching workshop. “I devoted my previous prizes to my family members, and I dedicate this one to my colleagues in the lower divisions. Many of them will never receive prizes, but their work does not become less significant for football. ”
The Chelsea coach came to the ceremony accompanied by Petr Cech, who stated that he had already begun training and hoped to return to duty soon. “Injured football players do not like girls, so I’ll try to get out of them as soon as possible,” the Double Czech joked. Mourinho's other neighbor in the hall was Chilean striker Umberto Soaso. According to IFFHS, this little-known footballer of the Kolo-Kolo club has become the top scorer in world football (here goals are taken into account in the games for the national team and in the continental cups) and the second scorer in national leagues. “Would you like to try your hand in Europe now?” Asked his evening host, sports commentator on Austrian TV Rainer Pariasek. “I have not yet received offers,” the Chilean answered modestly. “Listen to your neighbor, they say he can do quite good,” the host reacted to the audience’s laughter.
Presented quite exotic prizes this evening. For example, Estonian striker Vyacheslav Zakhovayko was recognized as the most effective scorer of national championships. In the 2006 season, he scored 25 goals in 21 games in the national championship and in average performance (1.19 per game) was ahead of the Dutchman Huntelar from Ajax (35 goals in 35 games) and German Klose (25 goals) who finished second and third in 26 games).
The nomination, invented as if deliberately for Valery Gazzayev, was “The Best Playmaker of the World”, the award in which was Zinedine Zidane.
The focus was on the famous joker Jean-Marie Pfaff, pleased with the meeting with his old acquaintance Beckenbauer and amused the audience with stories about him. In general, the Belgian with pleasure entered the role of entertainer and, presenting the winner in the nomination "The best goalkeeper of the world", did not fail to show off his humor again. “I am delighted with Buffon and am very upset that he preferred to meet with the Italian president,” said Pfaff. “I’ll have to ask you to give him a prize as the best goalkeeper, and then next year, maybe I will be able to meet him.”
The happiest on this day looked the new teammates of Alexander Kerzhakov. Sevilla was recognized as the best club in the world in 2006 and on this occasion in Salzburg landed an entire landing led by club president Jose Maria del Nido, coach Juande Ramos and captain Javi Navarro, accompanied by a dozen Seville journalists. “I’m in a panic, our radio planned a two-hour live broadcast of the evening, but it turned out on the spot that it wasn’t possible to report from the audience,” the speaker of the leading Seville radio station Estilo Sevilla Jesús Marquez rushed about. In the end, the problems were resolved, and at the end of the evening his face shone, as, indeed, the faces of all the guests from Andalusia.
“I am very proud to hold in my hands this trophy, which we received for excellent results in 2006. I hope that in 2007 we will achieve our goals, which means victories both in the Spanish championship and in the international arena. I believe that we have one of the best lines of attack in Europe, which has become even stronger with the advent of Alexander Kerzhakov. A Russian needs a few days to adapt, but soon he will enter the field and everyone will see what a successful purchase we made, ”Del Nido said after the end of the gala evening.
Best 2006 IFFHS
National coach - Marcello Lippi (Italy)
Judge - Horacio Elisondo (Argentina)
Goalkeeper - Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus, Italy)
Playmaker - Zinedine Zidane (Real Madrid, France)
National League scorer - Jan Huntelaar (Ajax, Holland)
World Bomber - Umberto Suaso (Chile)
Club Coach - Frank Rykard (Barcelona, Netherlands)
Club - Seville (Spain)
League - Serie A, Italy
Miron GEYHMAN, Salzburg