one-club men

[frederic38]

one club men are extremely rare these days, but there are still some
what are your favourite ones? or the best ones? from now and from the past ofcourse

 

[Europe]

There are Gerrard and Terry in England. I think Scholes was a one club man. Gary Neville also was.

 

[Porthos]

Well, as a Serie A guy, Alex Del Piero from Juventus and Francesco Totti from Roma come to mind.
Del Piero prefers to sit on the bench in Juventus than play elsewhere. He is a great player to watch because of his highly technical playing style which I like. It kind of breaks my heart watching him on that bench knowing what kind of player he used to be and what he's given to Juve. I am not too fond of Totti, mostly because of his prickish character.
From the (recent) past, Paolo Maldini, Francesco Baresi (both Milan).
Also from the past (early 1990s), Matt Le Tissier from Southampton is probably my favourite, not only because he was a great technical player utterly ignored by the England coaches who prefer more physical players, but also because he preferred to stay in a relatively small, obscure club turning down offers from much bigger clubs, showing that there still are (incredibly!) players that put loyalty in front of money.
It s one thing spending all your career in a relatively small team like Southampton, another (and completely different) spending your whole career in AC Milan or Real Madrid (like Raul) where you earn top money anyway.

 

[Rebajlo]

Here is a smattering of well known players.

Let's start with England. Legendary fellows Tom Finney (Preston North End), Nat Lofthouse (Bolton Wanderers), Billy Wright (Wolves), Jack Charlton (Leeds United), were all one club men. More recently, we have Tony Adams (Arsenal), Manchester United's Paul Scholes, Gary Neville, and Ryan Giggs; plus Liverpool's Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher. Porthos has already mentioned Matt Let Tissier...

Turning to Scotland, there's Paul McStay (Celtic), Willie Miller (Aberdeen), and the Dundee United duo of Paul Sturrock and Maurice Malpas.

In Spain, we have Athletic Bilbao's Txetxu Rojo, Julen Guerrero, Jisu Urrutia and Aitor Larrazabal; Real Sociedad's Luis Arconada; Deportivo La Coruna hero Fran; in addition to current goalkeepers Iker Casillas (Real Madrid) and Victor Valdes (Barcelona).

Moving to Italy, notable one club men include Internazionale icons Sandro Mazzola and Giacinto Facchetti, plus Giuseppe Bergomi, while AC Milan boasts Paolo Maldini and Franco Baresi.

Now, for all the German fans: Sepp Maier (Bayern Munich) and Berti Vogts (Borussia Monchengladbach).

Russian goalkeeping great Lev Yashin spent his entire career with Dynamo Moscow.

Well, that's enough for now... :icon_wink:

 

[frederic38]

thanks for these great answers
my favourite one is totti, because he was very spectacular and because he loved roma, he is the typical guy from roma

[video=youtube;0NRJ4gtZ6KM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NRJ4gtZ6KM&feature=related[/video]

de rossi will be the next one club man from roma, it seems

it's great that gerrard and maldini are one club men, because they made history with their clubs

there are also many one club men in barcelona currently, carles puyol, valdes, xavi, iniesta...
even messi, the best player in the world, is a one club man currently
this sends a strong message to all the people who want soccer to be a sport full of mercenaries
messi will probably play for another club, but it will probably be in his native country, so it won't be a transfert to earn more money


2 one club men from brasil, 2 legends
marcos, or sao marcos, from palmeiras

and rogerio ceni from sao paulo
althought technically he is not a one club man, because he turned pro in a small club where he never played
but he played more than 1000 matches with sao paulo, i can't think of a player that did more than this
and also more than 100 goals, not bad for a goal keeper
[video=youtube;fwKZO3Ii3Hg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwKZO3Ii3Hg[/video]

both of them won the world cup in 2002 (marcos was titular), and always turned down big oportunities to play in europe




by the way regarding gerrard, is it usual for a guy from liverpool to be catholic? or is he of irish origin? his name sounds english, it's also a french name

 

[Rebajlo]

by the way regarding gerrard, is it usual for a guy from liverpool to be catholic? or is he of irish origin? his name sounds english, it's also a french name

frederic38 - It's not unusual for Catholics to turn out for Liverpool - contrary to various myths there was never a clear-cut Glasgow-style "Rangers-Celtic" religious divide between the two clubs and their supporters. As things go, the hard-core sectarianism that Liverpool experienced in the past has evaporated. The city itself obviously has a very high proportion of people of Irish descent, but one must keep in mind that English Catholics also exist.

As for Gerrard, I don't really know much about his background, apart from his troubles with several Scouser hard men...

 

[Giles Daldanus]

Great thread and responses!

The famous Klaus Augenthaler who spent his whole career with Bayern Munich immediately comes to mind.

German Thomas Schaaf ticks all the boxes:

1978-1994: played for "Werder" (Bremen)
1987-1995: coached "Werder" (Bremen) youth sides
1995-1999: in charge of "Werder" (Bremen) reserve team
1999- present: first team manager of "Werder" (Bremen)

Here are some examples from Eastern Europe:

Igor Denisov is a Russian midfielder (he will be part of Russia's Euro 2012 squad) who has been on Zenit's roster since 2001. He is humble, hard-working and very popular with the fans. He is only 27 years old, but I don't think that he will move to a different team.

Waldemar Fornalik (Poland) - loyal servant of Polish side Ruch Chorzow over the course of 12 years. Currently the manager of the team.

Biser Mihaylov (Bulgaria) - goalkeeper, played for Levski Sofia (1961-1975), charismatic personality, good at saving penalty kicks.

Lev Yashin (USSR & Russia) - he was possibly the greatest goalkeeper in history, spent 20 years (his whole career) with Dynamo Moscow.

 

[frederic38]

thanks giles, i was hoping that you would name a few from eastern europe

it's still too early for gotze, but he could be a one-club man :
http://www.givemefootball.com/premier-league/gotze-loyalty-inspires-one-club-man-thoughts