Milutinovic meeting
- 8 Jul 06, 01:54 AM
I generally look forward to my all-too regular four-and-a-half hour train journeys in Germany about as much as the third place play-off but my trip to Berlin held an unexpected surprise.
First of all I managed to get a seat!! Secondly, a former World Cup manager only came and sat next to me and started chatting about all things football...
It was Bora Milutinovic. He's managed five different countries in as many World Cup tournaments - Mexico (1986), Costa Rica (1990), United States (1994), Nigeria (1998) and China (2002). He took all of those except China into the second round.
Now, Bora's isn't exactly a name or face that's instantly recognisable even with someone like me who's quite good on the old Question of Sport numbers board.
So, when he walked past me and some Brazilian fans who I’d got chatting to, it clicked he was somebody to do with football but who?
We asked him after he’d interrupted our conversation as he walked past our seats but he would only say you don't need to know. (Yes, that only made it worse).
The Brazilian lad with a Corinthians shirt on had drawn a reaction from Bora, who made it clear he supported Palmeiras before he scarpered.
We were searching the depths of our collective minds for a moment of clarity as to who he was when the white-haired and bespectacled fella returned.
He again got involved in our football talk and we asked him again for his name.
This time he nudged (pushed) me over into the spare seat next to me and, seeing I had my laptop on, told me to type Bora Milutinovic into my search engine.
He closed my laptop before I could investigate his career and I was going to have words before counting to 10 and letting it go!!
Anyway, along with the two Brazilians opposite me and a couple of others who decided to join in, we got talking Brazil, England and the World Cup.
It wasn’t a proper interview so I can’t say what he said but it made my journey fly by before he left again to join his family.
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What a lovely story. It's always nice to meet former world cup managers on the train.
Actually, a very similar thing happened to me recently. I was on the Piccadilly Line, travelling from Finsbury Park to Holborn, when I spotted an elderly gentleman sitting opposite me. Imagine my surprise when I realised that the man in question was none other than "Sir" Bobby Robson. Apparently he'd been doing his weekly shopping in Morrissons in Wood Green, and had then taken the 29 bus to Finsbury Park to travel into town where he had to drop the groceries off with his brother-in-law, who runs a market stall (I have no idea why he didn't take the tube directly from Wood Green to Holborn). He had bought a lot of salami and cured meat.
We chatted for a while about football and he told me that he felt that Marlon Harewood should have been in the England squad. He also offered his opinions on the current charts, telling me that he thought that Maneater by Nelly Furtado was the "single of the year so far, hands down" and saying that he was really looking forward to the new Muse album. I asked him about the current shenanigans at Newcastle, and he would only reply cryptically with "The eagle that steals the magpie's eggs will not profit in the land of the blind". Which doesn't really make much sense, but Bobby is getting old and I felt it best to humour him.
I offered to help him carry his shopping up the escalators at Holborn (keen tube travellers will know there are two sets of escalators at Holborn) but he wouldn't hear of it. What a gent.
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Bora Milutinovic has something exceptional in him. He brought something extra to each of the teams including even China. This world cup is changing a lot of things and one of the interesting things is the new found popularity in India for football. Even official website of world cup has acknowledged it. This time, world cup received 3 times more media buzz than cricket in India. it is unreliable. May be the next is USA. So, Bora Milutinovic should consider coaching India for the next world cup.
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Viva la France luck for tomorrow night!
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Thank you, thank you, Greg S for the only intentionally funny posting that I've come across in all these WC blogs.
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I actually spent quite a lot of the world cup whilst I was in Germany looking for famous people i.e. famous ex-players, pundits and/or commetators.
I actually arrived in Germany on the 7th of June meaning I had little chance of knowing where the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ's coverage would be coming from. Little did I know that the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ of Childs, Lineker, Hansen and co would be beamed to us from just outside the Brandenburg gate beside that giant football thing in the middle of the street. What makes it very frustrating was that I walked past the studio at least twice a day whilst i was in Berlin and never saw Dixon, Lawro or any of the other seven once. (Incidently did any of the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ team know that they are just a stone's throw away from Hitler's bunker?)
I did see Alan Green though once but even that was tinged with frustration. Being an avid Radio 5 listener Green comes high on my list of favourite commentators (even higher now after the Ronaldogate hysteria..more of that later).
I had been on a train to Munich from Frankfurt after just having been at Togo v South Korea. I got off at Munchen Haupbanhof to see Green getting off the train as well with some guy who was carrying what looked like Greens notes. I even got to hear him utter the words on exiting the station ..'where do we go now' and with that he was off.
I did see Rudi Voller one Sunday evening. They were filming what I guessed to be a live highlights package show for RTL in the Fan mile in Berlin and Voller was one of the pundits along with Caumann the extra large president of Leverkusen with the extra extra large personality. And I was in the audience..I even have the photos to prove it but none of Alan Green though as he got in the taxi before I could get a picture.
I only wish now that I had seen one of the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 'team' during my time in Berlin. Since I have been back in Scotland Motson, Dixon and Linekar et al came right down in my estimations predominatly over the Ronaldo witch hunt circus that followed last weeks game v Portugal. Guess then i will just have to make do and be happy with my memories of Voller and Green then?
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Good old Bora, seems like a lovely chap. Afraid I'll never forgive him though for leading Costa Rica to a 1-0 win over Scotland in Italia '90 - It was my generation's Vietnam. Ruined my whole summer...
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