There are hundreds of these, elements who flicker and illuminate, but whose role in the football universe is, in hindsight, a minor one. They are meteors and comets, not planets, but they had their moment(s).

LEN SHACKLETON

(England, Forward)

Distrusted by the authorities and the England selectors, Len Shackleton was the forerunner of the so-called maverick players of the sixties and seventies: George Best, Rodney Marsh, Stan Bowles, Frank Worthington, Duncan McKenzie and all those flair in flares guys.

Once when through on goal he stopped and pretended to look at his watch before advancing on goal. He would often stop the ball on the goal line and wait for a defender to come and challenge him before poking it into the net. Many opposition players took exception and found it disrespectful, so Shackleton had to be tough to take the kickings he was often handed by lesser talents.

It wasn’t that Shackleton was unfit or that he was rebellious or had a flaky lifestyle, he just wanted to play the game in a fun way, not stick to regimented tactics or hold a defensive line.

Shackleton started at Bradford Park Avenue but didn’t play much league football until after the Second World War when he was twenty-four. He earned a move to Newcastle but didn’t fit in and he moved south to Sunderland – not a move likely to endear him to the Toon. He was a great hit there and the fans loved him, but some critics suggest that his presence in the side wasn’t always positive: they point to the fact that the club won nothing despite spending more money on players than any of their rivals.

On his retirement Shackleton published his autobiography, The Clown Prince of Soccer. It featured a chapter called ‘The Average Director’s Knowledge of Football’. The next page was blank.

EDUARD STRELTSOV

(Russia, Attacking Midfielder)

The best player you’ve never heard of, that’s who. Streltsov was a massively talented inside forward with Torpedo Moscow in the 1950s. He won twenty-one caps for the Soviet Union between 1955 and 1958 and another seventeen between 1966 and 1968. Streltsov was quick, skilful, strong and aggressive, with good technique and a particular gift for using back-heeled passes to release colleagues into space. He was brilliant in the Soviets’ campaign at the 1956 Olympic Games, but missed the final after the coach (bizarrely) concluded that he was only effective if his teammate Valentin Ivanov was playing, and Ivanov was injured. The Soviets were approaching the 1958 World Cup as genuine contenders.

What happened between 1958 and 1966? Streltsov and two colleagues were arrested, tried and sentenced for rape. Streltsov enjoyed a lifestyle at odds with the Soviet notion of a good citizen. He was mistrusted by the apparatchiks and there are rumours that he may well have been set up. He equally may well have been guilty; such is the obfuscation surrounding what took place in the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War that we will never know for sure.

Streltsov was freed in 1963 and soon acquired a cult following while playing for his works team. When Brezhnev replaced Khrushchev he was persuaded to lift the lifetime ban on Streltsov playing at the top level and he returned to play for Torpedo Moscow and win those last few caps for his country. He wasn’t as quick or strong – the Gulag had taken its toll – but the football brain was still there and he played in a deeper playmaking role, finally winning a league title in 1965.

FLÓRIÁN ALBERT

(Hungary, Forward)

Did you think Hungary were finished as a national team when the great team of the 1950s broke up? In fact, Hungary qualified for both World Cup tournaments in the 1960s and also reached the semi-finals of the 1964 European Nations’ Cup (As the European Championship was originally called). They rebuilt the team from scratch after the mass exodus following the 1956 Soviet invasion and by 1962 just goalkeeper Gyula Grosics remained from the glory days, but some good young players had come through.

The defender Kálmán Mészöly was a cultured ball-playing central defender who liked banging away penalties. Lajos Tichy was a compact and busy goalscoring forward, and in the squad was a rapid winger called János Farkas. By 1966 they had added Ferenc Bene, a potent goalscorer with Újpesti Dózsa.

First among equals was Flórián Albert, socks around ankles, dictating play from the deep-lying centre-forward position pioneered by Nándor Hidegkuti. He could look disinterested at times and tended to disappear if closely and well marked, but if he was in the mood the opposition were in trouble. His close control was exceptional, his vision and passing first rate and his shooting dangerous, usually opting for low rasping drives to make the goalkeeper work.

Albert’s best day for Hungary came against Brazil in the 1966 World Cup. It looked like the absent Pelé had decided to turn out for the other team and Hungary ran out easy winners (Brazil – always talented but not so good with the man-marking). A slide-rule pass for Tichy to latch on to and cross so Farkas could belt home on the volley was the highlight. Albert’s best day for Ferencváros, his only club, was winning the Inter Cities Cup (later UEFA Cup), the only time a Hungarian team won a European club trophy.

ALAN HUDSON

(England, Midfielder)

Alan Hudson was a fantastic player. He started with Chelsea in the glamour years, joining Peter Osgood and Charlie Cooke in an entertaining side that finished third in the league in 1970 and won the FA Cup – Hudson, still only eighteen, missed the final through injury. The youngster was a prompter and a creator, never a great goalscorer, but he brought the best out of lesser players around him with his craft and vision.

As Chelsea hit money trouble, Hudson was sold to Stoke City and became the fulcrum of the club’s most successful spell. Stoke finished fifth for two successive seasons and Hudson earned a long overdue call-up to the England side in 1975.

In the first game the opponents were reigning world and European champions West Germany. England used Hudson alongside Alan Ball and Colin Bell in midfield and the energy and tackling of those two allowed Hudson to show his full range of playmaking skills, with England running out 2-0 winners. When they won the next match 5-0 against Cyprus, with Malcolm Macdonald scoring all five, a bright new dawn was heralded. Unfortunately, Hudson was injured for the next game and Don Revie, ever mistrustful of what he deemed maverick talents, didn’t use him again.

Hudson was again sold to ease a club’s debt, this time to Arsenal. He never got on at Highbury and by twenty-seven he was playing in the circus that was the US league. It was a loss. He was a drinker and sometimes a contrary character, but that was hardly novel in the seventies. He was also a fantastic footballer.

Hudson was hit by a car in 1997 and has needed crutches since; he has alleged the incident was a deliberate attempt on his life.

TEÓFILO CUBILLAS

(Peru, Attacking Midfielder)

Peru were a bit of a surprise package at a couple of World Cup tournaments way back when, and they won the Copa América in 1975. One of the principal reasons was the presence of a genuine world-class player in Teófilo Cubillas, an attacking midfield player with a vicious shot.

Peru turned up in Mexico in 1970 having qualified (at Argentina’s expense) for the first time in forty years and never having won a game at the World Cup Finals. That record looked secure as they went 2-0 down against Bulgaria, but then Cubillas inspired a great comeback. It took Brazil to stop the adventure, but El Nene (the kid) scored in every game.

Cubillas was just as influential as Peru beat Brazil and Colombia to win the Copa América, and three years later he was back at the World Cup in a group with the Dutch and Scotland. The Scottish manager was Ally MacLeod, and he didn’t do his homework. He fielded two slow full backs against a team with one of the great passers of the ball and two express wingers, Juan Muñante and Juan Carlos Oblitas. Cubillas scored twice, the second a brilliant free kick curled around the wall with the outside of his foot. Peru reached the second stage but were beaten by strong sides in Poland, Brazil and Argentina. By the time the 1982 Finals came around even Cubillas, now thirty-three, couldn’t coax a weak side into the latter stages.

It was Peru’s best spell in their history, orchestrated by their best ever player – one of the most ferocious strikers the game has known.

Cubillas played for Alianza Lima in Peru, had spells in Switzerland and Portugal but also enjoyed a four-year spell with Fort Lauderdale Strikers in the NASL; he was one of the few to take the whole thing seriously and was a great favourite in Florida.

GUDNI BERGSSON

(Iceland, Defender)

Forgive the author, for I am indulging myself here.

Gudni Bergsson was a giant for Bolton Wanderers and was one of the most underrated defenders to play in the Premier League. When he was released by Tottenham approaching thirty years old in 1995, Bergsson must have thought he was nearly done – so much so that he started his studies to become a lawyer. A bit prematurely as it turned out, as ‘The Iceman’ managed another eight years as the first name on the Wanderers team sheet.

Bergsson and Bolton had their ups and downs: the team struggled to hold on to Premier League status at first, and Bergsson was one of the few who could hold his own at that level. He settled at centre half (he was mainly used at right back at Tottenham) and was an uncompromising presence – rarely falling foul of the referees he had the Italian knack of fouling discreetly.

As Bolton toughened up under Sam Allardyce, Bergsson was persuaded to keep going for another year or two to help them cement their place at the top table. They did, and it was no small thanks to Iceland’s best ever defender (they also had their best ever striker for a while, but Eidur Gudjohnsen will keep for another book).

Bergsson’s debut for Wanderers was in the 1995 League Cup final when he came on as a substitute to try and get a grip on a rampant Steve McManaman. Bergsson’s first touch was a cross for Bolton’s goal, which brought it back to 2-1. He even started a hero.

MATTHEW LE TISSIER

(England, Attacking Midfielder)

There was one good reason why a club with limited resources like Southampton was able to stay in the Premier League from its inception until 2005: Matthew Le Tissier. ‘Le Tiss’ played for the club from 1986 to 2002 and scored over 100 Premier League goals, the first player to do so who wasn’t an out-and-out striker. Many of those goals were exquisite and delicate pieces of skill: a gem of a lob over Tim Flowers and a Sunday afternoon saunter through the Newcastle defence stand out in the mind.

Le Tissier had brilliant close control, good vision and a quite remarkable ability to strike the ball hard and true with little backlift. He wasn’t the quickest but his touch was so instinctive that he stole a yard before the defender moved.

So why only eight caps for England? There were reservations about his work rate and his appetite; his loyalty to Southampton was perceived in some quarters as lack of ambition or fear of failure. The presence of Paul Gascoigne was another reason – the two players occupied the same space and, talented as he was, Le Tissier was not as good as Gascoigne. He lacked pace, so he couldn’t be used further forward as he would never get away from international defenders.

Glenn Hoddle gave Le Tissier a trial for the 1998 World Cup squad in a ‘B’ match against Russia. Le Tissier responded with a hat-trick but Hoddle didn’t pick him – and he didn’t take Gascoigne either. Would it have been too big a gamble to leave out one of the squad makeweights like Rob Lee or Les Ferdinand and take a match-winner? Maybe. Maybe Le Tissier’s failure at international level was just one of those quirks. But it’s hard to believe he just wasn’t good enough, remembering some of those Southampton performances.

Le Tissier was a brilliant penalty taker – of forty-eight attempts forty-seven found the net, a record of which both Matt Le Tissier and former Nottingham Forest keeper Mark Crossley are very proud.

JUAN ROMÁN RIQUELME

(Argentina, Playmaker)

Every nation has players who promise to be the answer to their footballing prayers: players with all the skills necessary to achieve everything the game can offer but never quite realise it. I’m not talking about boy wonders who never quite happen or players who get over-hyped and turn out just not to be that good, but really, really good top-class players who just miss out, for whatever reason.

England had Hoddle; France had Cantona; Germany had Schuster and Effenberg; and Argentina had Juan Román Riquelme.

Riquelme wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Barcelona signed him in 2002 against van Gaal’s wishes and the Dutchman virtually ignored him (he should have played under Cruyff: Cruyff would have loved him). Riquelme moved to Villareal, where he became a cult hero as the club over-achieved outrageously, reaching the last four of the Champions League. Riquelme was playing his way, at the hub of the team where his vision and his balletic movement could have the maximum influence. He had time on the ball, time he created with use of space and vision. For a brief while he looked the unique talent first seen at Boca Juniors.

During this happy spell he played at the 2006 World Cup, masterminding a couple of scintillating Argentinian displays before the team lost to Germany on penalties. Two years later Riquelme captained his country as an over-age player as they won the Olympic football tournament in Beijing.

It couldn’t last. Riquelme was soon at odds again, first with Manuel Pellegrini, his fellow countryman and Villareal manager, and later, inevitably, with Diego Maradona, now inexplicably in situ as Argentina coach. Riquelme retired in 2014, largely forgotten outside Argentina, Villareal and a few who remembered him destroy Serbia in 2006.

Riquelme admired the Brazilian playmaker Sócrates. He admired his worldview and his respect for the common people. He admired his belief that football is an art, and to achieve something beautiful is more important than simply to win a game. He might not hugely appreciate the scientific ordering in this book then…?

The Periodic Table of
FOOTBALL

Introduction

Football is like chemistry. No, no, hear me out. Chemistry is a science, and the laws of science help explain the way the different elements of our universe hang together. For all the apparent randomness and unpredictability of human behaviour, we follow the laws of science and nature. Just as elements combine in chemistry to produce different and exciting results, so the disparate elements in football sometimes combine to produce something out of the ordinary.

In this book are the key elements of football, the players and managers, grouped according to the characteristics they bring to the game. Some elements are here by dint of exerting control over the way the game is policed and played. Some are elements that shine brightly and illuminate the game; some of these burn a little too brightly and extinguish themselves, so we only briefly see their full brilliance. Others have more subtle skills, they are catalysts and conductors, whose contribution is to bring out the best in those around them. There is praise too, for some of those rugged elements whose unpretentious skills are less admired, but no less important.

Having assessed all the factors that make up a player and designate his place in the pantheon we arrived at fourteen lab-tested groups in which to place our footballing elements: Precious Metals; Bedrocks; Solids; Sustainables; Conductors; Catalysts; Transmuters; Porous; Unpredictables; Explosives; Combustibles; Corrosives and two ‘rare earth’ categories, Polymorphs and Trace Elements. Yes, this is sports science taken to the nth degree.

Most players could easily fit in three or four different sections, so we have looked for some kinship with the other components in a group or, in some instances, just followed a gut feeling that they belong in a particular group.

Many of these players may have finished their careers before the majority of this book’s readers were born. If we believe what we read in the papers today the current scene is littered with glittering superstars. Totti, Ibrahimović, Tévez, Robben are all really good players, but none of them true greats, and none of them offering a new perspective on the game or the way it is played and coached. It is probably true to say that a career can only properly be assessed when it is over, the dust has settled and we can reflect on the true contribution of that career. That said, you’ll find two contemporary greats listed – Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo would be world-class players in any era.

Some elements in the table might surprise you but they are here because their character or involvement in a specific event demands that we discuss them in the same breath as greater players. And a few are here because we are acknowledging what might have been, had circumstances been ever so slightly more in their favour.

There is no attempt to give a detailed biography of each player; all we’ve given is a name with a country of birth and a role in the game in brackets; this is more of a flavour, a feeling for the essence of a player, sometimes with a key moment that encapsulated that essence.

This is football’s periodic table. Grasp this and you will have a feel for the checks and balances of the beautiful game.

Precious Metals