Last Updated : May 23, 1997
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Bill Shankly, former manager of Liverpool, once said: Some people think soccer is a matter of life and death. I don't like that attitude. I can assure them it's much more serious than that.George Weah of AC Milan is named the World Player, European Footballer and the African Footballer of the year! What an accomplishment! And he is the first non-European player to be named European Footballer of the year. Here is the list of the previous European Footballer of the year. and the list of World Player of the year.Congratulation to South Africa for winning the African Nation Championship. Since returning to International Sports, they'd won the World Championship of Rugby when they hosted the event last summer. This could be a sports giant we overlooked.
Ajax of Amsterdam's amazing undefeated streak came to an end on January 14, 1996. They were undefeated for 75 games, dated back to May 1994. They also set a record in the Dutch league by going 52 games without a defeat. They lost to Wilem II 0-1, a team who handed them the last defeat in May 1994!
Manchester United
and Liverpool , probably the two most successful team in England, will play against each other in this year's FA Cup Final on May 11th. Many considered this a dream final. Whether this would turn out to be a great game remain to be seen, but this is only the second time these two teams meet in a FA Cup Final. The first one was in 1977, Manchester United won 2-1.On April 13th, in the heat of chasing the league title, Manchester United played
Southampton away. They fell behind 0-3 in the first half. When they returned for the second half, they changed their uniform to the blue and white stripe. They claimed the grey uniform they wore in the first half made it hard for them to spot each other! They went on to win the second half by 1-0! That make me wonder if the result would be different had they wore the blue and white stripe to start the game. Will they ever wear that grey uniform again??? Manchester United did it. They beat Liverpool to win the FA Cup and became the first team to win the DOUBLE (League and FA Cup) twice. (The first DOUBLE DOUBLE!) On the same day, Eric Cantona, a Frenchman, became the first non-British player to lift the FA Cup at Wembley Stadium. The 1996 FA Cup 
Final also marked the final game for Ian Rush as a Liverpool player. He will move to Leeds United next season. He is probably one of the best scorer around. Did you know that between 1981 and 1987, Liverpool never lost a game when Ian Rush scored at least a goal! Awesome! During Euro 96, Scotland once again failed to make to the second round on goal difference. They'd been go through the same thing in 1974, 1978 and 1986 World Cup, all by goal difference. Somebody must had put a curse on them. Now that Euro96 is done, we can turn our attention to the Olympics. Here is the list of all the Olympics Soccer Event Medalists. Brazil failed to win the Olympic Gold Medal for Soccer, and Italy remain the only country who won both the Olympic Gold (1936) and the World Cup (1934) in the same cycle. Nigeria took the Gold medal in Atlanta and this is the first time an African country won in a major international soccer tournament. 
On Labor day [September 2nd, 1996], Maradona stopped by Toronto when he was on his way back home after treatment in Switzerland. His brother, Lola, who plays in the Canadian soccer league asked Diego to play an exhibition game between the Toronto Italia and the CSL Allstars. Diego claimed that might be his last game of his career. Toronto Italia won the game 2-1, by a goal scored by Diego Maradona from a corner! This year's(1997) FA Cup final between Chelsea and Middlesbrough turn out to be a record breaking day. First of all, Chelsea's Roberto di Matteo scored after only 43 seconds, beating the old record (set by Newcastle's Jackie Milburn in the 3-1 victory over Manchester City in 1955) by 2 seconds. Chelsea's victory also make Mark Hughes the first player to be on the champion side a record 4 times. His previous victories were all with Manchester United, in 1985, 1990 and 1994. He appeared in 5 FA Cup finals, the only lost was to Everton in 1995. Chelsea's manager Ruud Guillit became the first foreign manager to win the Cup.Homepage
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