Footballers win their league’s Golden Boot and suffer relegation | Soccer

“Giorgos Giakoumakis finished top scorer in the Eredivisie (by a certain margin) but his team, VVV-Venlo, were relegated”, writes Willem Cleven. “Has a Golden Boot winner ever suffered such a despicable fate?” “
They sure did, Willem. Let’s start with the south coast of England. âMick Channon from Southampton pulled off this feat,â writes Andy Grace. “The famous Windmill celebration was seen 21 times in 1973-74 and it topped the Division One scoring charts despite being relegated the same season.”
Dirk Maas points out that a few years later, in the 1975-76 La Liga season, Enrique Castro González (better known as “Quini”) suffered the same fate at Sporting Gijón. He stayed on to send them straight back to La Liga the following season, when they even qualified for the Uefa Cup. Dirk also discovered that Thomas Dalgaard lost Viborg FF in the 2013-14 Danish Super Liga while scoring 18 goals in 33 games.
It happened in Italy too. “Igor Protti was the only Serie A player to have suffered this fate,” suggests Jörg Michner. âIn 1995-96, he scored 24 goals and became capocannonière alongside Lazio legend Giuseppe Signori, but his Bari side were relegated anyway. Oddly enough, Protti’s scoring prowess earned him a move to Lazio at the end of the season. However, he flopped badly and was released from his contract two years later. Incidentally, along with Dario Hübner, Protti is also the only player to have been the top scorer in Serie A, Serie B and Serie C. “
Give up after refusing to leave
“Has a team ever lost a match by refusing to restart the match with a kick-off?” “ wonders Kári Tulinius.
“This past weekend, Dinamo Vranje did just that in the Serbian second tier in a game against Radnicki SM,” said Richard Wilson. Dinamo Vranje have long been an extremely controversial club in the country and manager Dragan Antic was recently banned from football for 12 months after a long series of disciplinary problems which resulted in his being escorted from a field by police after he refused to agree to be deported.
âWhen Radnicki SM equalized on the hour mark, the club hierarchy – led by Antic, who attended the game despite being banned – simply pulled the side off, with the game ending after 64 minutes. Perhaps most surprisingly, doing so meant that Dinamo Vranje’s relegation from second tier to the Serbian regional leagues was confirmed. While Serbian football has a long and entertaining tradition of walkouts, this is the first one I can remember in recent times when the game ended up being abandoned.
More pathetic streaks of results outside the Bogey team
Following last week’s column, there is more …
“I’m surprised no one mentioned Spurs record at Liverpool,” writes Sean DeLoughry (among others). “They’ve had a few wins recently, but between a 2-1 league win in March 1912 and a 1-0 league win in March 1985, Spurs’ record at Anfield was an impressive P48, W0 D15 L33.”
Stu Banks points out that Everton’s terrible away form at Anfield has received a lot of attention, but their league form at Chelsea is even worse. âThe last time Everton won a championship match at Stamford Bridge (1994), I didn’t even pass my GCSE practice exams⦠I’m 43 this year. Their away form at Arsenal, until this season, was almost as bad – no wins since 1996. Their league record at Old Trafford is utterly miserable: one win in August 1992, and only one since (2013 ). I’m sure I’m not the only Evertonian who manages to be busy when some away games are on TV.
“I can beat the previous examples of bogey away team results,” begins Jon Smith. âAs a Coventry City fan we have had a ridiculous race of misery against our most hated rivals, Aston Villa. Coventry first played at Villa Park in 1936 and it was 62 years before we recorded our first victory there in the 27th attempt in 1998. Unfortunately, we haven’t faced each other for 20 years, we haven’t. therefore not been able to maintain this excellent form. ! Miserable race details. “
“As an Arsenal fan I was relieved when Eddie Nketiah scored a very late equalizer in the 97th minute at home against Fulham,” applauded Simon Harding. âI remember the Guardian MBM with a comment that Fulham had never won at Arsenal. As it turns out, Fulham’s record is P30 W0 D6 L24 across the league and FA Cup since 1903-04. Ouch.
And Alex Metcalfe highlights a miserable day of absence for Oldham. âThe Latics have never won at Charlton (either Valley or Selhurst Park). Twenty-six aircraft since the first in 1929: W0 D11 L15. Terrible.”
Knowledge Archives
“In light of Feyenoord’s 10-0 loss to PSV, when was the last time a European Cup-winning team conceded a brace?” asked Rich Symes in October 2010.
The Rotterdam team, victorious in 1969-70, joined a rather closed group with this humiliation at the hands. The vast majority of the winning European Cup and Champions League teams have never scored 10 goals in a game – only three had done so before that – although unlike the Dutch team, they did not. were not European champions at the time.
Barcelona were beaten 12-1 by Athletic Club (later Athletic Bilbao) in February 1931, Porto were beaten 12-2 by Benfica in February 1943 and Dortmund were on the wrong side of an 11-1 against the Bayern Munich in November 1971, when Gerd Müller scored four, Uli Hoeneà scored a brace and even Franz Beckenbauer put his name on the scoresheet.
Can you help?
âWhich top-level team had the best goal difference without qualifying for Europe? asks Ira Seligman.
âMuch of the reporting on Alisson’s goal for Liverpool against West Brom commented on the ‘last moment’ of it. This is surely the least surprising thing for a goalkeeper goal. What is the first time in a game a goalie scored in free play, âasks Steve Richards.

âSutton United fan here, giddy with excitement. I’m just wondering, at 123, is Sutton the oldest club to enter the Football League for the first time? asks Rob Yeoman.
For @TheKnowledge_GU (or anyone else): What’s the most winning streak at the end of the season to reach a key position in the league, when something else would have meant finishing at least one place lower?
– Omar Chaudhuri (@OmarChaudhuri) May 20, 2021
âThe title of Atlético Madrid last weekend came seven years after the first title won by Diego Simeone with the club,â begins Matthew Armstrong. “Has there been a bigger gap between league wins for a manager at a single club in the modern era (I’m thinking of a single spell, so managers who left and came back to win again don’t do not count).
@TheKnowledge_GU The United States Major League Baseball celebrated the 150th anniversary of the first professional game in 2019; on Friday 9:05 pm, Jose Godoy made his Seattle debut and became the 20,000th different player; an idea of ââthe equivalent figure since the creation of the Football League?
– Marc’Antonio Bentegodi (@bentegodi) May 22, 2021
âJosef Bursik signed as a goaltender on emergency loan for the Lincoln City play-offs,â notes Ben Milner. âHe was promoted with Peterborough a few weeks ago via automatic promotion spots (also as an emergency loan) and is now in the playoff final. Has a player ever been promoted twice from the same division in the same season? “
Email your questions and answers to knowledge@theguardian.com or tweet @TheKnowledge_GU.