Balkan Cup 1929-31

The first edition of the Balkan Cup was played on a home and away league basis between October 1929 and November 1931.
The competing nations were Romania, Yugoslavia, Greece and Bulgaria.
Albania expressed an interest, but withdrew before the tournament got under way.
During the course of this tournament Romania and  Yugoslavia also traveled to the World cup in Uruguay (Yugoslavia finishing in notional third place.).

Romania at the 1930 World Cup

Romania
The Romanian football federation had been founded in (1909). They made their international debut in 1922
 in the King Alexander Cup (a tournament with Poland and Yugoslavia). Romania also competed  in the Paris Olympics of 1924, but lost all 3 of their games. During the first Balkan Cup the team were under the guidance of  Constantin 'Costel' Rădulescu, (he was either coach or manager for 42 games from 1923 to 1940). 

Yugoslavia at the 1930 World Cup

Yugoslavia

The Football Federation of what was then known as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes  was formed in 1919, and the national team made its entry into the international football arena at the Antwerp Olympics in 1920,  losing to Czechoslovakia and Egypt. 

The country was renamed Yugoslavia 1929. Yugoslavia reached the semi-final of the 1930 World Cup, where they were beaten 6-1 by Uruguay. 

Following the World Cup  Blagoje "Moša" Marjanović and Aleksandar "Tirke" Tirnanić (both of BSK) became the country's first professional players.


Greece
Greece had been represented at 1920 Olympics, an Izmir dominated side losing their only game 9-0 to Sweden, but did not compete in a full international until 1929. In fact their opening game of the Balkan Cup, a 2-1 win over Yugoslavia, was only their third official international. The Greece team featured 4 brothers, Olympiakos' Ntinos, Georgios, Vassilis and Leonidas Andrianopolous.


Bulgaria
The Bulgarian national football team was formed in 1922. In 1923 The Bulgarian Football Union was formed and the team's first match was held in Vienna in May 1924, a 6–0 defeat by Austria.

06.10.29	Romania	2	1	Yugoslavia	Bucharest
26.01.30	Greece	2	1	Yugoslavia	Athens
25.05.30	Romania	8	1	Greece	Bucharest
12.10.30	Bulgaria	5	3	Romania	Sofia
16.11.30	Bulgaria	0	3	Yugoslavia	Sofia
07.12.30	Greece	6	1	Bulgaria	Athens
15.03.31	Yugoslavia	4	1	Greece	Belgrade
19.04.31	Yugoslavia	1	0	Bulgaria	Belgrade
10.05.31	Romania	5	2	Bulgaria	Bucharest
28.06.31	Yugoslavia	2	4	Romania	Zagreb
25.10.31	Bulgaria	2	1	Greece	Sofia
29.11.31	Greece	2	4	Romania	Athens

	P	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
Romania	6	5		1	26	13	10
Yugoslavia	6	3		3	12	9	6
Greece	6	2		4	13	20	4
Bulgaria	6	2		4	10	19	4

Iuliu Bodola

The tournament yielded an average of 5+ goals per game, and no draws. Bulgaria (twice, against Yugoslavia) were the only side to fail to score in all of their games. Despite finishing bottom Bulgaria were the only side to beat champions Romania.

Iuliu Bodola and Rudolf Wetzer of Romania were joint top scorers with 7 goals each. Bodola went on to represent Hungary.

Aire Libre- Revista De Deportes 1920s

Cover images from a Spanish magazine, Aire Libre- Revista De Deportes , produced in the 1920s.

Zenón Díaz & Harry Hayes

Two of Rosario Central's early stars showing off some of the club's trophies.
Club Atlético Rosario Central evolved from Central Argentine Railway Athletic Club in 1904. The Liga Rosarina de Fútbol was founded in 1905, and Central won the first of their league  titles in 1908. They were Liga Rosarina champions 11 times during the  the amateur era (which ended in 1931). Rosario Central also won the following National titles: Concurso por Eliminación (1913); Copa Ibarguren (1914); Copa de Honor &  Copa Jockey Club (1916); Copa Competencia (1920). 
On the left is  Zenón Diaz , who, in Argentina's 4th international (15.08.06), became the first 'native' and also the first non-Buenos Aires player to be selected for Argentina. 
 To the right is Juan Enrique Hayes. Hayes, known as 'Harry' (his parents were English) was Rosario Central's first ever purchased player. He was 14 years old and his services cost the club a fee of A$4. In 1914 Hayes scored 51 goals for Central in a 20 match league season. Hayes represented Argentina 21 times (1910-19) and spent the entireity of  his 19 year club career at Rosario Central .
The photograph apparently dates from 1908, so among the silverware on display would be Copa Nicasio Vila  (Rosario First Division) and Copa Santiago Pinasco (championship of the second tier in Rosario). 

Barcelona- stars of the 1920s

This postcard shows three of Barcelona's earliest superstars,  Josep Samitier, Ricardo Zamora and Paulino Alcántara. Zamorra, the great goalkeeper, was only at the club a few years, and went on to greater things with other teams. Samitier and Alcántara though are really the stuff of legend. 
Between them they played 811 games for Barca and scored a phenomenal 702 goals. And Samitier was the playmaker/ midfield general rather than an out and out forward!

Josep Samitier
Barcelona- (1919–32) 454 appearances, 333 goals.
Campionat de Catalunya- 12 wins.
Copa del Rey- 5 wins.
La Liga- 1 win.
Catalonia 21 appearances 15 goals (at least).
Copa Princep de Asturies-3 wins.
Spain (1920–31) 21 appearances, 2 goals.
 Olympic silver medal (1920).


Ricardo Zamora
Barcelona- (1919–22)
Campionat de Catalunya-3 wins.
Copa del Rey- 2 wins.
Catalonia 13 appearances (at least). 
Copa Princep de Asturies-3 wins.
Spain 46 appearances.
Olympic silver medal (1920).

Paulino Alcántara
Barcelona- (1912–16 & 1918–27) 357 appearances, 369 goals.
Pyrenees Cup- 1 win.
Campionat de Catalunya- 10 wins.
Copa del Rey- 5 wins.
Philippines
Catalonia appearances and goals unknown.
Copa Princep de Asturies-3 wins.
Spain (1921-27) 5 appearances, 6 goals.

Reddie Lang

J. J. Lang.

Originally a member of the 3rd L.R.V., Lang left that club and joined the Clydesdale in 1874. He played in the final, I think, as centre forward, and backed up Mr. J. R. Wilson. Possessing splendid dribbling powers, he was a very "showy" player, but his short steps did not make anything like the progress with the ball one imagined at the time. He was a somewhat heavy charger when he got the chance, and frequently preferred to take his man before the ball.

Scottish Football Reminiscences and Sketches by D. D. Bone 1890

James J 'Reddie' Lang was a Scottish forward who played in the 1870s and 1880s. He probably provides us with the earliest evidence of professionalism in association football.
Here are some milestones in Lang's career:

1874: Joined Clydesdale from Third Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers.

 1874: On March 21st Lang played in the first Scottish Cup final. He was in the Clydesdale team that lost  2-0 to  Queen's Park. 


1876: Lang played in the Glasgow representative XI in their fixture against Sheffield on  February 19th. Glasgow won 2-0 and the Sheffield representatives were impressed with his display to the extent that they invited him to join The Wednesday.


1876: On March 25th Lang, still a Clydesdale player, made his international debut. He scored Scotland's 2nd goal in the 4-0 win over Wales.

1876: Lang joined The Wednesday and was given a job in the office of a blade manufacturer. He had no actual duties and stated that he used to just read the newspapers in the office. This effectively makes Lang the first paid professional in football history, although it would be another 9 years before professionalism was accepted in England and 17 in Scotland. 


1877: Lang returned to Scotland, joining Third Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers.

1878: In his 2nd and last international Lang scored Scotland's final goal in a 9-0 rout of Wales (March 23rd).  

1878: The Scottish Cup Final-  Vale of Leven  1-Third Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers 0. (March 30th).

1879: Lang rejoined The Wednesday. In the meantime he had lost the sight of an eye whilst working in the shipyards. He hid this minor detail from his new employers. 

1885: Professionalism legalized in England.

1886: The Wednesday remained (officially) an amateur side so, ironically, Lang left the club who had paid for his services ten years before to pursue an openly professional career with Burnley. 

Celeste

This is the Uruguay team that beat Argentina 3-1 to win the Copa  Lipton on August 15th 1910.

Back: José Benincasa (River Plate), Oscar Sanz (River Plate), Cayetano Saporiti (Wanderers), Jorge Pacheco (Nacional), Juan Pena (Nacional), Carlos Scarone (CURCC);
 Front: Vicente Módena (River Plate), Pablo Dacal (River Plate), Pedro Zibechi (CURCC), José Piendibene (CURCC), Juan Carlos Bertone (Wanderers).

This eleven had the distinction of being the first to represent their country in the famous Celeste jersey.
The blue shirt was a tribute to Montevideo club River Plate*, who had recently defeated  Alumni of Buenos Aires.
Both River Plate and Alumni played in red and white stripes, so in the away match River Plate had worn their sky blue change strip.
Uruguay recorded only their 3rd victory in what was the 15th meeting of the 2 sides.

* There is room for considerable confusion here: River Plate FC, extant from 1897–1929, were one of the leading clubs in the early days of Uruguayan football, winning the Primera División 4 times from 1908- 1914.
The present Club Atlético River Plate was formed in 1932.
There is also , of course Club Atlético River Plate across the water in Buenos Aires.

Just like watching...

When Botafogo chose their black and white stripes in 1904 they did so on the insistence of one of their founder members who had just returned from college in Italy. This fellow, Itamar Tavares, was an admirer of Juventus.
In 1904 Juventus had adopted these colours accidentally. Abandoning their original pink jerseys they had intended to take the colours of Nottingham Forest. However, they inadvertently ended up with the colours of the other Nottingham team, Notts County.  
Notts County had been playing in black and white stripes since 1890.

Tottenham Hotspur's white strip is a classic. However, they played in a variety of colours before taking to the white in homage to Preston North End in 1898. Preston had first used these colours  in 1888. Amongst Tottenham's earlier kits (1885-1887) was a copy of  Blackburn Rovers' famous blue and white 'quarters' (first worn by Rovers in 1882). 
Another team to pay their respects to Blackburn by imitating their colours was Morozovtsi Orekhovo-Zuevo Moskva, formed in 1887 by English mill owners Clement and Harry Charnock. This club were the forerunners of Dinamo Moscow.

Nottingham Forest had worn redcurrant shirts since their earliest days (1868). In 1886 2 former Forest players who had joined the newly formed Dial Square approached their old club for assistance and were given a set of kit. Dial Square became Woolwich Arsenal in 1893.

  In 1906, on a visit to England,  Dr. Petřík, president of Sparta Prague, acquired a set of jerseys in Woolwich Arsenal's  redcurrant.

In 1904 Nottingham Forest changed from redcurrant to scarlet. When Forest toured south America in 1905 Arístides Langone, the President of the Argentinian club Independiente (Avellaneda) , was inspired to change his team's colours from blue and white halves to red.

The famous English amateur club Corinthians played in white shirts and blue knickers very similar to the England national team (Corinth were formed in 1882 in  an effort to bring the England team up to the level of Scotland).

In 1902 a rift in the Español de Madrid club led to the formation of Madrid Football Club (later Real Madrid). Madrid were coached by an Englishman, Arthur Johnson, and this influenced their adoption of the white strip of the world famous English club.

 Sport Club Corinthians Paulista took both the name and  the colours (although their jerseys were originally cream rather than white) of the 1910 English tourists who inspired their foundation.

Burnley played in a wide  variety of colours during the first 18 years of their existence. Then, from 1900 to 1909 they played in green. This brought them no luck, so they adopted the claret and blue of Aston Villa.

In his youth Joan Gamper (then known as  Hans Kamper) played for FC Basel in his native Switzerland. The club colours were garnet and blue. When Gamper founded Barcelona  in 1899 they adopted these colours.

From 1902 Athletic Bilbao and Club Bizcaya  played in a strip resembling that of Blackburn Rovers. In 1909 Athletic asked Juan Elorduy, a student who was travelling to London,  to buy them a new set of kit. Not being able to acquire the chosen colours, Elorduy settled for the red and white of  Southampton* as these were also the civic colours of Bilbao. Bilbao's sister club, Athletic Club de Madrid, founded by Basques in the capital, were given half of the kit, and retain the colours in their present incarnation as Atlético Madrid.

* Wikipedia incorrectly gives Sunderland.  Why would a journey from London to Bilbao include a stop in Sunderland ?

In 1899 Sparta Rotterdam decided to adopt the colours of Sunderland. Sunderland had introduced the red and white stripes in 1887, adding the black knickers in 1888.

Formed in 1885 Millwall Rovers were a works side, based at JT Morton's cannery and food processing plant on the Isle of Dogs. Morton's was a Scottish firm and many of the employees/ players were Scots. They chose, therefore, the colours of the Scotland national side for their strip.

Italy- The Azzuri- began by playing international games in a white strip, copied from that of the dominant team of the era, Pro Vercelli. Italy changed to blue after one year (in 1911), generally keeping the white as a change strip. 

Founded in  1905 as Club Atlético Estudiantes, Club Estudiantes de La Plata took the colours of Alumni Athletic Club, the most successful team in the early days of football in Argentina. 

Anfield

The Kop, 1906

The ground has now been completely walled in with fancy brick setting, with large exit gates on the four sides as well as numerous entrances. Therefore, there will be no difficulty in either entering or leaving the enclosure. The directors’ aim has to been to provide as compact and comfortable a ground as possible in which every person, no matter what position he may visit, will have a full view of the game.
Liverpool Echo August 1906

Liverpool took over Anfield when they were formed as a result of a rift in Everton in 1892.  Everton went on to develop Goodison park, the first great purpose built football stadium in England. Anfield remained modest in comparison.
The Anfield ground was redeveloped inn preperation for the 1906-07 season. 
The 2 most notable changes were the construction of the new stand and the raised bank constructed at the Walton Breck Road end of the ground.
Ernest Edwards, the Sports editor of the Liverpool Post & Echo, named it Spion Kop after the battle of Spioenkop that took place during the Boer War in 1900.
 Liverpool's Spion Kop  consisted of 132 steps reaching a height of 50 feet. It was 135 feet wide. This was constructed on a cinder bank topped with a six feet wall .The terrace was accessed by  12 feet wide steps that climbed to the top of the embankment from the level of the street below.

The first game in the restructured Anfield on September 1st 1906 attracted a crowd of 32,000 to watch defending champions Liverpool defeat Stoke 1-0.