Appointments, sackings and loans
GLOBAL FOOTBALL INTELLIGENCE
EUROPE
MARK VAN BOMMEL was sacked by
PSV after a run of just two wins in eight
games in the Eredivise.
Bottom of Ligue 1, Toulouse sacked
coach ANTOINE KOMBOUARE.
CONCACAF
Newcastle Jets fired coach ERNIE
MERRICK after a poor start to the
A-League season.
AFRICA
KWESI APPIAH’s second stint in
charge of Ghana came to an end.
French coach SEBASTIEN DESABRE,
who led Uganda at the 2019 Africa Cup
of Nations, parted company with Egyptian
Premier League side Pyramids.
ASIA
After 135 appearances for his country,
Oman keeper ALI AL HABSI announced
his international retirement, aged 38.
“I am happy with my life. I played on two teams
that I really love. One meant everything and the
other got me inside as I expected”
Daniele De Rossi confirms his retirementMARTIN PETERS (1943-2019)
Had it not been for Wolfgang Weber,
Martin Peters would have gone down
in English football history as not only
one of the 1966 World Cup winners
but the 1966 World Cup winner.
Then a 22-year-old half-back with
West Ham United, he had been drafted
into the England team by Alf Ramsey
midway through the finals after the attack
misfired at the start of the group stage.
In the Final against West Germany, at
Wembley, it was Peters who stretched
a leg forward in the 78th minute to jab
England into a 2-1 lead. But as history
beckoned both team and individual, in
the last minute of stoppage time Weber
equalised and the Final went to extra
time, where it was Peters’ club-mate
Geoff Hurst who scored twice to
complete his hat-trick and steal the show.
Ramsey never had any doubt about
Peters’ quality, which permitted him
a rare versatility. “Martin Peters,” said
Ramsey, “is a player who is 10 years
ahead of his time.”
Although that now famous comment
was dismissed at
the time, Peters
would prove his
England boss
right as greatly
improved training
techniques, new
fitness regimes
and facilities saw
the development
of “Total Football”
and the evolution
of a whole new
football era.
Martin Peters
becomes the
fifth member of
England’s WorldCup-winning team to have died, along
with Bobby Moore, Alan Ball, Ray Wilson
and Gordon Banks.
Peters rose through the West Ham
academy, having signed as an apprentice
in 1959, and helped the club to win the
European Cup-winners’ Cup in 1965,
alongside Hurst and club-and-country
captain Moore.
After 364 games and 100 goals,
Peters left West Ham for Tottenham
Hotspur in 1970, becoming Britain’s
first £200,000 footballer in a deal
that saw Jimmy Greaves head in the
opposite direction.
Peters helped Spurs manager Bill
Nicholson to win the League Cup at
Wembley in 1971 and again, as captain,
in 1973, a season after playing his part
in the club’s UEFA Cup victory over
Wolverhampton Wanderers. He went on
to play for Norwich City and Sheffield
United before retiring in 1981, three years
after being awarded the MBE following
20 goals in 67 appearances for England.
In 2016 it was revealed Peters had
been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease,
one of several of the 1966 team to be
battling dementia.
Keir RadnedgeHANS TILKOWSKI
(1935-2020)
West Germany’s
goalkeeper in the 1966
World Cup Final, he
played 39 times for his
country and was their
player of the year in 1965.
He made over 350 appearances for
Westfalia Herne, Borussia Dortmund
and Eintracht Frankfurt, winning the
DFB-Pokal and European Cup-winners
Cup during his time with Dortmund.
As a coach he had two spells as boss
of Werder Bremen as well as taking
charge at Munich 1860, Nuremberg,
Saarbrucken and Greek side AEK Athens.BILLY HUGHES
(1948-2019)
Scored 81 goals in 335
games for Sunderland,
including the semi-final
winner against Arsenal
on route to success in
the FA Cup Final in 1973.
Capped once by Scotland, his brother
John was part of the Celtic squad that
won the European Cup in 1967, although
he didn’t play in the Final.De Rossi calls
it a dayItalian World Cup winner
DANIELE DE ROSSI
announced his retirement
at the age of 36 after
leaving Argentinian side
Boca Juniors, who he
joined last summer.
Prior to joining Boca,
36-year-old De Rossi
spent his entire career
at Serie A club Roma,
making 616 appearances.OBITUARIESGone...Antoine
Kombouare