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Football players and coaches are superstitious people and believe in omens. Most of them relate to everyday things – places in the locker rooms and the club bus, equipment order, and access to the field. But there are phenomena in football that defy explanation.
Aaron Ramsey
This story began in 2011 when Osama bin Laden was killed the day after Ramsey’s goal against Manchester United. Then no one paid attention to this fact, but then the deaths of famous people after Ramsey’s goal (precisely the next day) began to occur with alarming frequency.
Among the” victims ” of the Welshman Muammar Gaddafi, Steve Jobs, Whitney Houston, Jorge Rafael Videl Redondo (former dictator of Argentina), actors Paul Walker and Alan Rickman, musician David Bowie, boxer Ken Norton.
The death of Boris Berezovsky does not fit into this framework. He died when Ramsey scored another goal. But the fact is that it was in a match for Wales, and all the previous deaths happened when Ramsey scored for Arsenal.
Arubigny’s Toad
Brazil, 1937. The bus “Vasco da Gama” before the match with “Andarai” was in an accident, and several people were injured. “Andara”, having the possibility of a technical victory, agrees to play later and gets a 0:12 defeat.
After that, one of the players of “Andarai” Arubinha buried a toad on the field of the stadium “San Januario” (the home arena of “Vasco”) and said a prayer that “Vasco” would not win a single title for twelve years.
In that season, “Vasco” missed out on what seemed to have already won the championship and could not win a single trophy for eight years. Of course, eight is not 12, but the fact remains.
Gipsy curses
Two English clubs: Birmingham City and Derby County-have suffered here, and their stories are as similar as two drops of water. Both clubs were going to build stadiums, having driven the Gypsy camps from the construction site.
The Gypsies put a curse (on each club separately) that for 100 years, the clubs will not win a single trophy (according to another version-not a single FA Cup).
Since then, Birmingham has won only two League Cups (1963 and 2011), but the Derby managers have been more proactive. On the eve of the 1946 FA Cup final, they met with the gipsies and asked for the curse to be lifted. Derby then defeated Charlton 4-1 in extra time. However, this trophy remained the only one in the history of the club.
Shamanic Curse
In the qualifying matches of the 1974 World Cup, the Australian national team, which had never participated in the final part, met with the team of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Both matches ended in a draw 1:1. Then the Australians resorted to the help of a shaman from Mozambique (the games were held in this country), who conjured them a victory in the third match (3: 1).
But the promised fee of 1000 pounds was not paid to the shaman, and he decided to take revenge. However, the Australians still qualified for the 1974 World Cup (apparently, the curse did not take effect immediately, but it did not go any further).
In 2004, the TV presenter John Safari became interested in this story. He read about it in a book by Gianni Warren, a player of that team. So Safari went to Mozambique, where he found a shaman who performed a ritual to summon the sorcerer’s spirit who cast the curse. From this spirit, Safari asked for a petition for his countrymen. And what would you think? In 2006, the Australians went to the World Cup, reached the playoffs, and then participated in three more World Championships in a row.
The Curse of Bela Guttmann
Perhaps the most famous football curse. The Hungarian (or Austrian) coach of Benfica, whose name is associated with the club’s rise, in 1962, after the second consecutive victory in the Champions Cup, asked the management for a salary increase but was refused and left the club.
At parting, Guttmann said that in the next 100 years, Benfica would not win a single trophy. Since then, the “eagles” 8 (!!!) once we reached the finals of European club tournaments, but each time we were defeated.
And in 1990, on the eve of the Champions Cup final against AC Milan, held in Vienna, the city where Bela Guttmann is buried, the great Eusebio even went to the grave of his coach. He asked for the curse to be lifted, but Guttmann was adamant.