The Foot of the Angels

by Laurent Bellaiche 

Every  year, International Left Handers Day falls on August 13. Such an event is crucially needed to overcome at least three prejudices. The first is  the fact that we are living in a world where many tools are made for right-handed persons, because lefties only comprise about 10% of the world population. Examples of such tools include scissors, utility knifes, safety cutters, tape measures, drill bits and so on. Second, the word “left’’ has often been used to describe failures and even demonic power. For instance, the French expression “avoir deux mains gauches’’ (to have two left hands) characterizes a clumsy person, and the left hand has been associated with the devil. Similarly, the word “sinister’’ originates from the Latin word sinitro, which means “on the left-side’’; to be contrasted with “dexterity’’ that refers to skills and grace, taking its origin in the Latin word “dexter’’ that translates as “on the right side’’. The third prejudice may be unintentional in the sense that the number 13 in August 13 is by itself considered unlucky or unworthy of honors. One may  recall that Judas Escariot was the 13th person to sit at the Last Supper or that the last grand master of the knights templar, Jacques De Molay, was arrested and tortured on Friday, October 13, 1307 (which is likely the origin of the curse associated with Friday the 13th).  

The 2001-2002 season of Michael Ballack when he was wearing jerseys with the number13 on his back further emphasizes such a tendency for bad luck. With his team of Bayer Leverkusen, Ballack finished second in the Bundesliga behind Dortmund by a single point, also lost the final of the German cup (the DFB-Pokal) against Schalke 04 by the score of 4-2 and was additionally defeated 2-1 in the final of the champion’s league by the Real Madrid of Roberto Carlos, Figo, Zidane and Raul. To make things even worse, Ballack received a yellow card in the semi-final of the 2002 world cup against South Korea, which prevented him from playing the final with Germany against the Brazilian team of Cafu, Roberto Carlos, Ronaldinho, Rivaldo and Ronaldo (the real one, as Mourinho once said); final that was won 2-0 by the Auriverde.

It is the strong belief of the author that the aforementioned prejudices have to be put to rest. For that, I intend to prove (with sometimes incredible bad faith) that left feet altogether with the number 13 can be a source of heavenly pleasures and grandiose victories, by taking advantage of definite facts from the most beautiful sport ever created and played, aka football. How to do that? A good start could have been to mention the unreal left foot of Lionel Messi and the realization that he arrived at Barcelona at the tender age of 13. Further proof could be  that another leftie of Argentine citizenship who is also considered to be one of the best football players of all time was making extraordinary accomplishments when he was 13.  El Pibe de Oro (better known as Diego Armando Maradona) was realizing the incredible feat of winning 136 successive games with his youth team of Argentinos Juniors, nicknamed los cebolitas (the little onions), at that age. These little onions likely generated a lot of tears, either of despair from their opponents or of joy from the fans who had the pleasure and honor of seeing Diego Armando and his young teammates in action.

However, it is  necessary to move from South America to Europe, to fully appreciate the full power of left feet, and particularly for a 13-year-window ranging from the 1974-1975 to the 1987-1988 season. The European Cup Winners’ Cup’s competition during that period  is an obvious choice because winning a cup among national cup winners can be considered  the holy grail of cups. Isn’t it? In some cases, I will even go further by discussing teams and players that succeeded to lift the European Supercup (against the winner of the European Champion Clubs’ Cup) after having brought home this European Cup Winners’ Cup.

This journey starts with the discovery by European spectators of a team coming from the Soviet Union, Dynamo Kiev, coached by the legendary Valeriy Lobanovskyi and playing in the 1974-1975 European Cup Winners’ Cup. The star player of that beautiful collective machine was a lefty, could run 100 meters in 11 seconds and wore the number 11 jersey, as characteristic of his left winger position. He was about 22 years-old at that time. His name? Oleg Blokhin.

The first round saw the Soviet team from Ukraine win both games by 1-0 against the Bulgarian club of CSK Sofia, with Blokhin scoring both goals.  Oleg then increased his tally by one unity in the 3-2 victory of Dynamo Kiev at the home turf of Eintracht Frankfurt during the first of leg of the second round. The second leg saw Kiev winning again, by a 2-1 score with Onyshchenko, who was a favorite partner of Blokhin, shining with the two Soviet realizations. Kiev then cruised in its quarter-finals against Bursaspor, with a 1-0 win in Turkey followed by a 2-0 victory at home. Uncharacteristically, Blokhin did not have his name on the scoring sheets in these two games. Such severance was short-lived since the leftie  Blokhin contributed a single goal to the 3-0 home victory of Kiev against PSV Eindhoven in the first leg of the semi-finals. Such a large win allowed Dynamo to qualify to the final despite a 2-1 loss in the Netherlands in the second leg of these semi-finals. The final of the 1974-1975 European Cup Winners’ Cup was disputed between Dynamo Kiev and the Hungarians of Ferencvaros, at the stadium of Basel in Switzerland in May 1975.  Blokhin showed his versatility during that game: a decisive pass for Onyshchenko for the first goal of the game at the 18th minute (with Onyshchenko scoring a second one in the 39th minute) and then Blokhin himself realizing the third one and last goal at the 67th minute.

Such triumph in the European Cup Winners’ Cup resulted in Dynamo Kiev facing the winner of the 1974-1975 European Champion Clubs’ Cup, the mighty Bayern Munich, for the prestigious prize of the European Super Cup. This Bayern team had not only one of the best goalkeepers, Sepp Maier, but also strikers of all time, Gerd Muller (winner of the Golden Ball in 1970). Furthermore, its captain was one of the best players of the game, Franz Beckenbauer, who also received the Golden ball in 1972. However, all these stars and golden ball winners comprising this Bayern club were no match for Blokhin. The young Soviet leftie scored the only goal of the game in the first leg at Munich in September 1975 before adding to his collection the two goals of the return leg in Kiev in October 1975. It was thus no wonder that Blokhin won the 1975 Golden Ball with 122 points, with the second and third places being given to the legends Beckenbauer and Johan Cruyff who received a mere 42 and 27 points, respectively. A leftie star was born and was illuminating the European sky.

The bar was therefore set very high by Blokhin and one may wonder if the following season would be able to showcase another left-footed player of international stature riding the 1975-1976 European Cup Winners’ Cup’s competition. The answer is in fact positive, and this player is no less than Rob (Robby) Rensenbrink that the present author considers as the best left winger that has ever played the game. This Dutch player, nicknamed the snake for his cold-blooded attitude in front of the goal, was instrumental in helping the Belgium team of Anderlecht in securing its first European Cup in 1976. In the first leg of the semi-finals against the East-German team of Zwickau, Rensenbrink scored one goal for a 3-0 away victory and had another tally in the return game that saw Anderlecht winning 2-0 at home. These two goals were no small feat when knowing that the goalkeeper , Jürgen Croy, was one of the best at that time, as evidenced by, e.g., his crucial role in helping East Germany to clinch the gold medal for the football tournament in the 1976 Olympic Games. Rensenbrink also found the net twice in the final against the English team of West Ham for a 4-2 victory in May 1976. Anderlecht thus earned their spot to play in the 1976 European Super Cup. The opponent was again the great Bayern, and exactly as the year before with Blokhin, a lefty was too strong for the Bavarians. After losing the first leg in Germany by 2-1, Anderlecht inflicted in the return leg a thumping 4-1 to the Bayern with two goals of Rensenbrink in August 1976. In contrast to Blokhin the year before, Robby did not win the 1976 golden ball. Rather, his 75 points  earned him the second place, 16 points behind Beckenbauer, despite the fact that the Dutch player outplayed the German one in this 1976 Super Cup.

Rensenbrink encountered another setback from Germany during the next season since Hamburg defeated Anderlecht 2-0 in the finale of the 1976-1977 European Cup Winners’ Cup. The second German goal was decisive and scored at the 88th minute by another talented left-footed player, Felix Magath. Note that Hamburg then was heavily defeated by Liverpool in the 1977 European Super Cup with a 6-0 thrashing at Anfield after a 1-1 draw in Germany. At that time, another left winger was enchanting Liverpool fans, the Irishman Steve Highway.

Rensenbrink and Anderlecht then reached their third consecutive finals of the European Cup Winners’ Cup in Parc des Princes, Paris, in May 1978. Their adversary was the Austria Vienna of Robert Sara and Herbert Prohaska. Rensenbrink had that evening an extraordinary game that should be mandatory to watch for any youngster dreaming of becoming a world-class player. His magnificent partition was accompanied by two goals and a 4-0 win for the Belgium team. That night, Rensenbrink  was not the snake but rather a royal eagle flying over the world of football. The 1978 European Super Cup was another prestigious encounter opposing the Anderlecht of Rensenbrink to the Liverpool of three Scots, Alan Hansen, Graeme Souness and Kenny Dalglish. Rob was once again flying too high in the first leg, scoring one goal against the great Ray Clemence, and helping Anderlecht winning 3-1 in Brussels. It was enough to secure the Super Cup since the return leg saw Liverpool winning by only 2 -1 in England. Lifting the European Cup Winners’ Cup and the European Super Cup in 1978 was, once again, not enough for Rensenbrink to collect the 1978 Golden Ball. He was ranked third with 50 points, trailing the winner, Kevin Keegan, by 37 points. The main reason for his failure to bring home the coveted trophy of France Football was likely the ball that went off the post of the Argentinian goalkeeper Fillol in the dying minutes of  regular time during the 1978 World Cup final between the Netherlands and Argentina. For a few centimeters, Rensenbrink lost the prize of the top goal scorer of this world Cup along with this world Cup and the Golden Ball. Talk about precision!

The second place of the 1978 Golden Ball went to the Austrian Hans Krankl who was part of the so-called Miracle of Cordoba where Austria beat Germany for the first time in 47 years. The score was 3-2 for Austria and Krankl scored two goals. Hans Krankl had a formidable left foot, that also allowed Barcelona to win the 1978-1979 European Cup Winners’ Cup in a hotly disputed final against the German team of Fortuna Dusseldorf, where another leftie, Klaus Allofs, was on his way to become one of the best forwards in Europe (as demonstrated by his award of the top goal scorer in the 1980 Euro won by Germany). Barca won the final by 4-3 after extra-time during which Hans Krankl scored the fourth goal of the Catalan team.

So, up to know, we have proven the rule that left feet has been instrumental in winning the European Cup Winners’ Cup from 1975 to 1979.  Similar to French grammar, all rules need  an exception, and 1980 is the year that this exception happens. As a matter of fact, after the extra-time ended in a goalless game, Arsenal lost the final to Valencia on penalty kicks because two lefties missed theirs for the gunners: the elegant Irishman Liam Brady first and then the Englishmen Graham Rix. However, due to my strong bias towards left-footed players, I would like to attract readers’  attentionto two important points. First of all, during the first leg of the semi-finals, the French club of Nantes played marvelously well against Valencia but could only win by a 2-1 narrow margin in France. While they were enroute to face Valencia in Spain for the second leg, a tragedy occurred: the midfielder Omar Sahnoun, who just left Nantes for Bordeaux in the precedent summer of 1979, had succumbed to a heart attack. The Nantes players, whom many were very good friends with Sahnoun, did not have their mind set up to play against the Spanish team and were defeated by 4-0. It is a pity considering that the center-forward of Nantes, Eric Pécout, was a gifted leftie that not only was the first person to realize a hat-trick at a French final cup (in 1979 against Auxerre in his case) but also scored three other goals against the Irish team of Cliftonville in the second leg of the first round of this 1978-1979 European Cup Winners’ Cup.  The second point is that one can look at  the European Champion Club’ Cup finalwhen the one of the European Cup Winners’ Cup does not bring good memories for lefties. And what happens there for the 1979-1980 season there? Simply that Nottingham Forest defeated the Hamburg of Keegan and Manfred Kaltz, thanks to a goal of their Scottish left-forward, John Robertson.

The good habits resumed in 1981 since the newcomers of Dynamo Tbilissi lifted the 1980-1981 European Cup Winners’ Cup by winning 2-1 against the East German team of Carl-Zeiss Iena, with the second goal for the Soviet team being scored by Vitaly Daraselia with his left foot three minutes before the end of this final. This goal is known as  the century’s goal in Georgia. On the other hand,  1982 can be considered as the definite proof that the world, including the one of football, can be unfair to left feet. In fact, the final of the 1981-1982 European Cup Winners’ Cup was a controversial game between the Belgium team of Standard Liege and Barca  played at the Nou Camp stadium. The left magic was first in full action: Vandersmissen scored with his left foot for Standard after receiving a cross from  Benny Wendt’s left foot. However, the Greatest Little Dane playing for Barca, Allan Simonsen, then tied the game with a header but a Belgium defender seemed to have been pushed from behind during that action. Even more scandalous was the second and winning goal (from Quini) of Barca that came from a free kick that was played before the referee had blown his whistle. Once again when unfairness hits left-footed players for the European Cup Winners’ Cup, one just has to look at the final of the European Champion Club’ Cup. This latter saw Aston Villa defeating the mighty Bayern Munich in May 1982 at De Kuip Stadium in Rotterdam. Tony Morley dribbled several times around a Bayern defender and delivered a perfect cross, from his left foot, of course, to find Peter Withe who was alone just a few meters away from the German goal line. Peter Withe thus scored the most important goal of Aston Villa’s history thanks to a perfect delivery from the left foot of  winger Tony Morley.

1983 confirmed that magical left foot could greatly help in triumphing in the European Cup Winners’ Cup.  We are now talking about  Aberdeen managed by Alex Ferguson. The preliminary round, as well as the first and second rounds, were rather easily taken care of against the Swiss team of Sion, the Albanian club of Dinamo Tirana and the Polish Lech Poznan for a combined 15 goals scored and only one conceded. The quarter-finals were another story, against, once again, the ogre Bayern Munich of Paul Breitner and Karl-Heinz Rummenige. A 0-0 draw in Germany was followed by a surprising and hard-fought 3-2 home victory of Aberdeen. The semi-finals were then easier to manage for the Scots against the Belgium team  Waterschei, that had just eliminated Paris Saint Germain for the first European participation of this French team. The Scottish club won 5-1 the first leg at Aberdeen and only lost 1-0 the return leg in Genk. It was now time to play the final of 1982-1983 European Cup Winners’ Cup against another European giant, namely Real Madrid of the Spanish Gallego, Juanito and Santillana and the German Stielike. And that night, the left forward of Aberdeen illuminated  Ullivi stadium in Gothenburg, Sweden: Peter Weir was simply exceptional and was by far the best player of the game won 2-1 by Aberdeen after extra-time. His Spanish opponent, the right-back Juan José, probably had the most difficult night of his career and was on the verge of having a nervous breakdown after the game ended. One man came and consoled him after the game. His name? Peter Weir. Who said that lefties cannot be magnanimous? Aberdeen even then became the first Scottish team to win the European Super cup in 1983, against Hamburg.  Alex Ferguson’s boys first drew 0-0 in Germany before winning 2-0 in Pittodrie stadiumx. Note that Hamburg qualified to this 1983 Super cup by beating Juventus in the 1982-1983 European Champion Clubs’ Cup, thanks to a powerful shot of Felix Magath, with obviously his left foot.

The Juventus players therefore did not want to experience any more regrets the year after, for the final of the 1983-1984 European Cup Winners’ Cup against Porto. Juve did win this game by 2-1. One may wonder who scored the first goal for the Italian team, and thus put them on the road to lift a European trophy. Could it be one of the five 1982 Italian world champions, Gentile, Cabrini, Scirea, Tardelli or Paolo Rossi? What about the genial Platini or the magnificent Zbigniew Boniek from France and Poland, respectively? The answer is none of them. This first goal came from a much lesser-known player, Beniamino Vignola. And how did he score? You have correctly guessed: with his left foot. Vignola then used again his magical left foot to find Boniek, who scored the winning goal of that final.  Boniek also found twice the nets in the 1984 European Super cup for the 2-0 victory of Juventus against the Liverpool of Grobbelaar, Neal, Lawrenson and Ian Rush.

It is another team from Liverpool that played the final of the 1984-1985 European Cup Winners’ Cup. Everton faced the Rapid Wien of Hans Krankl and Antonin Panenka in Rotterdam. The blue jerseys from Liverpool had a brilliant game and won 3-1, with their third and decisive goal being realized by the Irishman Kevin Sheedy, who is generally considered the best left-foot who to  playfor Everton. Sheedy is also the first player to have scored for Republic of Ireland during a world Cup; feat that was accomplished in 1990 against England.  Who can now argue that lefties do not make history?

Another impressive collective success happened in the subsequent final of the 1985-1986 European Cup Winners’ Cup at Lyon, France. A new remarkable Dynamo Kiev team was again assembled by Valeriy Lobanovsky and arch-dominated Atletico Madrid by 3 goals to none. Zavarov, Belanov, Rats, Yaremchunk, Demaynenko and Yakovenko were astonishing for the Soviet team but the second goal of Kiev came from no less than the leftie  Blokhin (who did score with his right foot on that occasion, to be fair). This latter was 33-year-old at that time, which may explain his resurrection and him being the top scorer of this European cup with five goals (tied with his teammate, Igor Belanov, who then won the Golden Ball that year).

On the other hand, something strange happened the year after, for the final of the 1986-1987 European Cup Winners’ Cup. Ajax lifted the trophy thanks to the following single goal against Lokomotiv Leipzig: the Dutch right-back, Sonny Silooy, run his right side of the field, made a cross with his right foot and found the head of Van Basten who then beat the German goalkeeper, René Müller. You may ask where are the left feet here? Hold your horses. First of all, the leftie Rob Witschge scored two goals in the semi-finals against Zaragoza. Secondly, in this Ajax team, there was Arnold Muhren. And who did the crossing from his left foot to Van Basten during the final of the Euro 1988 between the Netherland and the Soviet Union, for what is considered to be one of the greatest volleyed goals in football history? Arnold Muhren, of course.   Thirdly and finally, Porto won the European Champion Clubs’ Cup against the ill-fated Bayern Munich that 1986-1987 season, with a great performance from a left-footed player, Paulo Futre.

We now arrive at the last season of this 13-year journey to discuss the Belgium team of Mechelen, during the 1987-1988 European Cup Winners’ Cup. This club started with an easy qualification against Dynamo Bucarest in the first round (two wins by 1-0 at home and then 2-0 in Romania), followed by a draw 0-0 in Belgium against Saint-Mirren in the first leg of the second round. It was time for the left winger of Mechelen, Eli Ohana, to show his magical skills. His partition resulted in the two goals of the 2-0 away victory in Scotland for this Israeli player. The Belgium team then narrowly escaped an elimination in the quarter-finals against Dynamo Minsk, thanks to a goal of Ohana again in the return leg allowing Mechelen to draw 1-1 in Belarus, after having won the first leg 1-0 at home. Eli Ohana put his name in the scoring sheet again in the 2-1 victory of Mechelen against the Italian team of Atalanta of Bergamo in the first leg of the semi-finals. The exact same score happened in the return leg in Italy, which then opened the doors for Mechelen to face Ajax in the French city of Strasbourg for the final.  Eli Ohana produced a show during that game. On his left side, he dribbled the Dutch international Jan Wouters, before delivering a perfect cross from his left foot to the head of Piet Den Boer, who scored the only goal of the match. Mechelen has thus won the 1987-1988 European Cup Winners’ Cup for its first European competition, thanks to Eli Ohana whose nickname The King is rather appropriate to describe the incredible love story lefties had with this specific European Cup from 1975 to 1988.

And what did the UEFA decide in 1999? Simply, to abolish the European Cup Winners’ Cup. Is it another prejudice against lefties? 

To conclude, I hope I have convinced you that one should never think of the hand of the devil but rather of the foot of the angels when describing lefties. Definitive proof is that the Argentinian player, Di Maria, who  helped Lionel Messi  win the 2021 Copa America and the 2022 World Cup for  his country has a magical left foot and has the following first name: Angel. Are you fully convinced now?

Laurent Bellaiche is a Distinguished Professor in the Physics Department and Institute for Nanoscience and Engineering, as well as the Twenty-First Century Endowed Professor in Optics, Nanoscience and Science Education (for more details, please see: ccmp.uark.edu). His favorite team is Paris Saint-Germain, especially that of the first trophies (French Cups) in the 1980’s, with the three Dominique’s (Baratelli, Bathenay and Rocheteau) and two jewels (Safet Susic and Mustapha Dahleb). His two favorite male football players of all time are Diego Armando Maradona and Robby Rensenbrink. His current three favorite female players are Grace Geyoro, Melchie Dumornay and, of course,  Sophia Smith. His favorite soccer/football quote is one from Bill Shankly, “Some people think football is a matter of life and death – I assure you, it’s much more important than that.”