Faustino Asprilla

Faustino Asprillo, 'Tino' as the fans call him or 'Rubber Legs' as my Dad used to call him only spent two years in English football but had a profound impact. Sought out as the final piece of the jigsaw that would help Kevin Keegan's Newcastle United team lift the Premiership title, Asprilla was purchased for £6,700,000 from Parma. Quite a fee for the time! Asprilla made an instant impact, coming on at half time during a league game against Middlesbrough. He bamboozled a Boro defender before crossing the ball over for a goal to help Newcastle equalise. Asprilla kept at it and although inconsistent had some great goals during his time at Newcastle, though sadly his goals in the league totalled only 9 in 48 games.
Asprilla kept his best form for European competitions. In the 3rd round of the UEFA Cup Asprilla scored a goal and when celebrating lofted his shirt up on the corner flag. Unfortunately this got him suspended from the Quarter Final 1st leg defeat against Monaco. Of course the moment he is most famous for came during Newcastle's first foray into the Champions League. Asprilla became something of a cult hero on Tyneside through his hat-trick against the mighty Barcelona during a 3-2 victory at St. James' Park. Tino scored a penalty and then two headers which were assisted by an inspired Keith Gillespie. Soon after Tino was sold back to Parma in a £6,000,000 deal during a time when Newcastle were struggling under Kenny Dalglish in the league.

There were interesting rumours flying around later in 2002 that 'Tino' was to return to English football to sign for Darlington in the English 3rd Division but sadly nothing came to fruition. It would have been good to see old 'rubber legs' terrorising English defences again.


Picture from - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/n/newcastle_united/1127511.stm

Davor Suker

Davor Suker had a brilliant club career. He won La Liga and the Champions League with Real Madrid and was consistently one of La Liga’s top scorers over a period of about seven years. Maybe the only blip on his record was a miss in the penalty shoot-out of the Uefa Cup Final in 2000 for Arsenal against Galatasaray.

But it is Suker’s international record that he is most revered for. Suker first came to my attention during Euro 96. How could anyone forget his performance against Euro 92 winners Denmark with the brilliant Peter Schmeichel in goal. Suker scored the first with a penalty, set up the second for Boban and then on the break scored a brilliant lob over Schmeichel (possibly the goal of the tournament). 

Fast forward two years and Suker was one of the standout players of the 98 World Cup along with Zidane and Ronaldo. And it is even more remarkable as he did it in a team full of great players. Robert Prosinecki, Zvonimir Boban, Igor Tudor, Dario Simic, Mario Stanic, Slavin Bilic, Aljosa Asanovic, Robert Jarni and erm, Silvio Maric.

This was Croatia’s first World Cup tournament and didn’t they do well. You can’t argue with a third place finish for your first World Cup. Spearheaded by the magnificent Suker, Croatia beat the likes of Japan, Jamaica, Romania, Germany and Holland. Croatia only lost to eventual champions France by one goal. Suker was the star of the show, winning the Golden Boot with 6 goals in 7 games. He finished his career with 46 international goals in 71 games for Yugoslavia and Croatia. Just to put that into perspective, Croatia’s current second top goal record scorers (Srna and Eduardo) haven’t even scored half the goals that Suker did!

Picture from http://www.footballteamplayers.com/davor-suker-biography.html