40 replies to this topic

[Moomin Grecian]

So what random foreign players have your team signed in the past. Good or bad?

For us there have been a few:

Steeve Epessi-Titi - French defender, signed from Wolves on transfer deadline day in the late 90s. He had a man of the match performance on his debut but then faded away and left after 6 games. He once made the bench for the mighty Bordeaux in a European game.

Sebastien Scalise - Argentinian striker signed by the two crooks in charge of City during our relegation season in 02/03. He previously played for Velez and Inepentiente in Argentina and scored quite a few goals for them. However, as our manager at the time (John Cornforth) never signed him, he decided to never give him a chance.

Marcio dos Santos Gaia - Brazilian CB, signed at the beginning of the 02/03 season. Previously played for Brazil under 17s and forged a decent career for us, spanning 3 or 4 seasons. Ended up playing for a host of non league clubs after leaving.

Jukka Vanninen - Finish midfielder signed for a nominal fee in the late 90s. Never played more than 4 or 5 times before breaking his leg and returning home.

David Adekola - Nigerian striker signed on loan from Bury in the mid nineties. Only played 4 games but scored against Plymouth so did fine by all accounts.

[NicktheDagger]

Vincelot - amazing.

[PlayUpBrompton]

Paulo Gazzaniga - Young Argentine keeper signed during last season's pre-season, came through the youth set up at Valencia, and has an obvious class about him. He won't be here long, but for the moment he's ours and we love him.

[Si Robin]

Sido Jombati - Fans player of the season last season.

[halftimeresults]

Kelsuke Takano from Japan, scored my favourite Shrimp goal against Emley in the F.A cup!

[RotherhamTilliDie]

We had a bloke from Cape Verde called Jose Miranda or Mirandinha. Had a magical left foot for all of a few games (to earn a 2 year contract) then turned shit lol.

We also had someone from Surinam called Brian Wilsterman (who might be known down the Oxford way). A decent rightback who's a bit of a club legend now because he used to smash the ball out for a throw in whenever it came near him.

We also once had a Lincoln City legend by the way of Gijsbert Bos. A striker who scored 4 in 18 for us. My Uncle used to call him Gijsbert Sob for the amount of chances he missed.

Another one from the Ronnie Moore era who we signed during our Championship years (I think) was a Frenchman by the name of Stephan Le Marchand. Billed to be the man to score us the goals. Needless to say he did naff all.

I'm sure there's more but I guess players like Shaun Goater don't count because they were already established in England before joining us and added to that I'm only 25 and can't be arsed to do the research.

[Babs Taylor Bratfud]

Willy Topp. We waited months for his debut and he played probably the best 1st half I've seen from Any Bradford player since we've been down here. Everybody thought we'd unearthed a South American gem. He was taken off at half time in that match vs Shrewsbury in 2008 and played about the sum total of 10 minutes thereafter, before leaving the next season. Absolute madness was the whole thing, from start to finish.

[bantamigo]

Juanjo was pretty random and not very good. He played for Barcelona once you know.

Edited by bantamigo, 06 July 2012 - 11:07 PM.

[lovesmevale]

Robin Van Der Laan, midfielder, signed in 1991 from FC Wageningan for £80,000 sold on to Derby in 95 for £475,000.

One of the best foriegn players i've seen play for the Vale. Scored in front of the kop in the 2-2 draw against Liverpool in the league cup, won the Tinpot trophy & helped us gain promotion in 94. Cracking no nonsense player.

Edited by lovesmevale, 06 July 2012 - 11:43 PM.

[Anonymous (ECFC)]

Willy Topp was a really odd one. Him and Kim Kallstrom were always like the 2 staple automatic promotion buys for lower league clubs in Football Manager. In reality both of them are injury prone, erratic, lightweight and occasionally just bad.

[Wizwag]

We signed a Brazillian called Rogerio. Young, tall, pacey, looked like he'd never kicked a ball in his life. Stayed for a few weeks never to be heard of again.

[joethegill]

We signed a French full back called Anthony Scarramozzino in 2005 on a season loan - think he featured on the bench for the first game of the season but never heard of him again!

There was also a time when we had 3 Trinidad + Tobago internationals in the squad at the same time (Ian Cox, Brent Sancho and Kelvin Jack) which was also slightly weird!

[spike1911]

Bruno Rodriguez. Signed from PSG but it turned out they had scouted a different player and in fact signed a random player who our chairman thought was worth 6 Million. Needless to say he was rubbish.

Edinho the samba superstar, City legend.

Edited by spike1911, 07 July 2012 - 10:58 AM.

[Northampton1]

Willy Topp. We waited months for his debut and he played probably the best 1st half I've seen from Any Bradford player since we've been down here. Everybody thought we'd unearthed a South American gem. He was taken off at half time in that match vs Shrewsbury in 2008 and played about the sum total of 10 minutes thereafter, before leaving the next season. Absolute madness was the whole thing, from start to finish.

Willy Topp wins hands down both for cracking name and backstory. We had a bloke called Efan ELad around the time we were in adminsitration. Known as " a bottle of fizzy pop" he used to embark on forest gump style runs but became a bit of a cult figure because our team was so bad.

Lately we had Poul Hubertz from Denmark who was an enigma to say the least. Tall and rangy but very skillfull he scored an overhead kick against Nottingham Forest which will long be remembered

[Museshrimper]

Zoltan Liptak. Barely played a first team game, but last year there he was playing for Hungary at Wembley! Amazing.

Bilel Mohsni is a more successful one in terms of performances for us. The failed obscure foreign signings are too many to mention.

[markpvfc]

Andreas Lipa. Brian Horton signed him after seeing 1 performance on a video. He was absolutely useless and even got in trouble for racially abusing an opponent.

[valefan16]

Andreas Lipa. Brian Horton signed him after seeing 1 performance on a video. He was absolutely useless and even got in trouble for racially abusing an opponent.

Lipa was a strange one, came with a good record, played for Austria in the days they qualified for tournaments and had been in the Europa League for most seasons prior to coming to us, think Horton watched a video of his side Skoda Xanthi holding Lazio to a 0-0 and he was the key player in that game...

If I recall he used to play really well when we played a good team like Forest or QPR that season but then if we played someone weaker where it was more blood and guts football he was dire, and racially abusing Argyle's Jason Bent on our anti-racism day didnt really help his cause!

George Abbey was a Nigerian we had, he was phenomenal in the cup ties at Tottenham and more so Villa where he kept nut-megging James Milner and doing fancy flicks past him... as with Lipa though when it came to someone in League One he would often go missing...

Ville Viljanen was one we signed who was a Finnish International in our Championship days, was amazing until he signed permanent when he couldnt get fit at all!

[AlexAdam]

Pavol Suhaj- 6 ft 4 striker signed from AS Trencin in 2005, released two years later after just one start. He was f**king garbage.

[SkullGas]

Vitalijs Astafjevs - the Latvian international captain how we had such a great intelligent midfielder in the lower leagues I'll never know, he was the iniesta of the football league. pure class.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitālijs_Astafjevs
On November 15, 2009 in a friendly
match against Honduras, Astafjevs set
a new record with 158 caps. The
current European record is 167
international matches with Astafjevs
as the record holder.

Edited by SkullGas, 07 July 2012 - 06:30 PM.

[Anonymous (ECFC)]

Actually Bertie Cozic probably falls into this category. He never played in france but somehow started his career at Cheltenham and went on to play for Hereford, Northampton, Kidderminster and Aldershot making a combined total of 40 appearances for all those 5 clubs.

According to soccerbase we signed him from aldershot where he had made a whopping 2 appearances that year in the conference. Somehow from that he managed to end up playing over 100 games for us with 65 starts throughout our rise to L1, scoring a couple of goals along the way. A bit odd since he was a pretty poor footballer, I guess he's living proof that you don't need a lot of skill to actually be quite a useful player.

Anyway he retired somewhat prematurely in order to persue his dream of running a creperie, I guess you can't fault him really, he's apparently very passionate about traditional breton cuisine.

[Si Robin]

Strange one was Bertie Cozic. He signed for us from Team Bath at a time when Bobby Gould thought all you needed was midfielders. He played a few games never to be heard of again. Didn't think much of him, but he scored a real cracker early on in the season. I was amazed when I saw he was playing for Exeter in League 1.

[Moomin Grecian]

Actually Bertie Cozic probably falls into this category. He never played in france but somehow started his career at Cheltenham and went on to play for Hereford, Northampton, Kidderminster and Aldershot making a combined total of 40 appearances for all those 5 clubs.

According to soccerbase we signed him from aldershot where he had made a whopping 2 appearances that year in the conference. Somehow from that he managed to end up playing over 100 games for us with 65 starts throughout our rise to L1, scoring a couple of goals along the way. A bit odd since he was a pretty poor footballer, I guess he's living proof that you don't need a lot of skill to actually be quite a useful player.

Anyway he retired somewhat prematurely in order to persue his dream of running a creperie, I guess you can't fault him really, he's apparently very passionate about traditional breton cuisine.

I believe Bertie did play for Quimper (sic) before signing for an English club. He had very little ability but worked his arse off for us. However, was BSP standard at best

[kieran_vale]

Jermaine Holwyn, we signed him from Ajax I think it was for a couple of grand. Made his debut when we were 4-0 up at home to QPR, promptly scored an own goal which if it was at the other end people would have been praising a bullet header which then allowed QPR back into the game and eventually drew 4-4.

Stephane Pounewatchy also made about 2 appearances for us, I think he may have represented Carlisle as well? Also it was who orignally brought Onandi Lowe to English football when Brian Horton was manager. Was largely ineffective for us but then left when Bill Bell refused to front up for a car for him and he walked out on his contract. Last I heard of him was when he got arrested on suspicion of smuggling crack cocaine.

Edited by kieran_vale, 08 July 2012 - 10:35 PM.

[NickGull]

Remember us signing 3 French lads, Morike Sako, Mamadou Sow and Carl Priso.

Sako was actually alright, a 6'7 beast who scored an absolute screamer at Bristol Rovers one game (35 yarder). Sow played about four games, looked like he had something but then never played again. Carl Priso was the worst though, played about 25 minutes at Mansfield when we lost 3-0, never played for us again if I remember rightly.

[the_wwfc]

Good - Sergio Torres, currently of (wash my mouth out) Crawley Town. I don't reckon he's L1 standard, but a) I'd genuinely love him to prove me wrong and b) he was great for us at this level.

Financed his own plane ticket from Argentina, got a trial for Brighton but got turned down, and was turning out for Basingstoke whilst stacking shelves in Boots at night. Then we plucked him from non-league obscurity. Even got snapped up by Posh at one point only for it to become clear he wasn't good enough for them.

In classic South American style, over-complicates things relentlessly and showboats for days but was a total fan favourite.

Cack - Mexico's very own Carlos Lopes, popularly acknowledged to be one of THE worst WW players of all time.

Claimed to have played for Athletico Madrid, who said they'd never heard of him.

Had the dubious distinction of being a dead ringer for then manager, Lawrie Sanchez.

Turned out for a couple of games at right back before it became obvious to all concerned that he was shite.

Is now a pundit on Mexican TV, of all things.

[HertsCobbler]

We have had loads..

The best which is cheating a little was Gabor Gyepes who was back in Hungary after a nasty injury at Wolves.

From a cult view it has to be Pedj Bojic - a crazy Aussie right back we had. He also had a stunning missus as well.

[Jason H - ECFC]

Very harsh on Bertie, who I thought could actually play a bit (IMO better on the ball than James Dunne), and of course the energy he gave us meant we more often than not would win the midfield battles.

In 08/09 I'd have said the injury to Alex Russell at Rochdale, which ushered Bertie back in from the cold, was the defining moment in our subsequent promotion.

Another foreign signing we had was of course Alex Jeannin. Capable of some fine moments, sadly my defining image of him was his "performance" at Grays in the FAT Q-F. Not just the free kick that is STILL in orbit, but the vision of him standing on the halfway line, hands on hips, as this 16 year old called Gary Hooper burst down his flank to put the minnows 4-1 up.

[crewelad87]

the best weve had would be an Algerian Defender from some lowly french team called Madjid Bougherra. went onto play for Sheff Wed, Charlton, Rangers and in the world cup in south africa. I think he plays in the UAE or somewhere over that way. Class player

[bantam82]

The mid to late 90's when Kamara was in charge was tremendous for obscure foreign imports

Magnus Pehrsson, Eric Regtop, Edinho, Marco Sas, Rob Steiner, Ole Bjorn Sundgot etc.

The most random by quite some way was a chap called Jari Vanhala. The first I knew of him was when his name was read over the tannoy. He came on in the second half of a game against Reading, didn't touch the ball, fell over and was promptly never heard of again!

Edited by bantam82, 10 July 2012 - 11:52 AM.

[Bradford_Kenneth]

Anyone remember Xavier Barrau?

Signed back in 2007. Made 3 appearences, scored twice, and was released.

[bantamigo]

Anyone remember Xavier Barrau?

Signed back in 2007. Made 3 appearences, scored twice, and was released.

Both his goals were in a dead rubber in the last game of the season to be fair.

Edinho was great and one of the reasons I started going to City regularly. I remember when he swore loudly in front of the Bradford End one game and spent 5 minutes apologising to everyone in the stand for it after the game. Can you imagine someone like Rooney or Terry doing that?

Edited by bantamigo, 13 July 2012 - 03:56 PM.

[J@B]

Well if PP doesn't do too well this season (however I think he will) Lawn should tap Edinho up and bring him in as the manager and get some samba football down at VP. I have dvd's of City's seasons and still enjoy watching him getting played through round the goalie at hudders. We also had Robert Zabica who was awful if anyone can remember him

[Bobbydazzler]

Pavol Suhaj- 6 ft 4 striker signed from AS Trencin in 2005, released two years later after just one start. He was f**king garbage.

Is he still at Nantwich town?

[T-Rex]

A few of our good ones:

David Friio & Romain Larrieu were both on the verge of quitting football when they appeared as trialists. Friio was converted into a box-to-boxer and was unbelievable at getting on the end of crosses, whilst 10 years on Larrieu is our assistant manager.

Akos Buzsaky came over on loan, impressed and we quibbled hugely and pathetically before spending £250k on him from Porto back when we were in the Championship. We doubled that when QPR bought him off us despite only having 5 months on his contract to run (I'd have screwed the £500k and kept him and let him go in the summer for free as we weren't too far off the playoffs that year - he eventually achieved promotion at QPR).

[Moomin Grecian]

Another one that springs to mind:

Cheriff Diallo - Senegalise CF signed by Noel Blake not long before Blake got the sack for being trully awful. Diallo was raw, had a bit of pace but generally speaking was quite poor. I think he played for Scarborough in the conference before siging for us and did ok for them but have not heard of him since.

[T-Rex]

the best weve had would be an Algerian Defender from some lowly french team called Madjid Bougherra. went onto play for Sheff Wed, Charlton, Rangers and in the world cup in south africa. I think he plays in the UAE or somewhere over that way. Class player

He was a very good player. I really wanted us to sign him from yourselves at the time. I think we got Rufus Brevett and Taribo West instead.

[GasheadWes]

Rogvi Baldvinsson.

Signed a couple of weeks ago, has now decided he's homesick and has fucked off back to Norway.

[SkullGas]

Rogvi Baldvinsson.

Signed a couple of weeks ago, has now decided he's homesick and has fucked off back to Norway.

+1

[miagsygas]

Rogvi Baldvinsson now must take the biscuit of all obscure foreign signings. We are in trouble this preseason now!

[GasheadWes]

Rogvi Baldvinsson now must take the biscuit of all obscure foreign signings. We are in trouble this preseason now!

Actually i'd say another obscure foreign signing was even worse - Marcus Andreasson. Amazingly fucked us over twice.

Nice one sson!