A World Cup third place with Sweden in 1994, a vital part of Manchester United’s treble winning side of 1999, but whatever happened to Jesper Blomqvist?

Starting his youth career with hometown side Tavelsjö IK, he was very quickly snapped up by Umeå who were in the second tier of Swedish football. His performances for Umeå caught the eye of IFK Göteborg who signed Blomqvist on 11th September 1993. This was the big break that Blomqvist waited for and he grabbed it with both hands.

Scoring in a 3–1 win over Manchester United in the Champions League, knocking them out of the competition. This performance caught the eye of United manager Alex Ferguson. Winning four consecutive Allsvenskan (Swedish Championships) with IFK Göteborg, goal of the season for a goal against Helsingborgs, midfielder of year in Sweden and fans’ player of the year in 1996. He was then bought by AC Milan who were champions of Italy.
In his only season with Milan they finished 11th in Serie A and failed to qualify for Europe, during this season Blomqvist spent most his time on the bench, despite Manchester United trying to sign the player, Milan refused to sell but surprisingly he was later transferred to Parma. His reason for leaving was the search for first team football. After a relatively successful season with Parma Sir Alex Ferguson eventually snapped him up for £4.4 million.

Commenting on the signing, Sir Alex said, “Looking back I should have tried harder to bring cover for Ryan Giggs on the left side. I did try to buy Blomqvist from AC Milan but they wouldn’t sell him. They eventually let him go and perhaps I should have pushed them harder.”

Essentially at Manchester United for three years, he only played in his first; the magnificent 1999 treble winning season. He was bought as cover for Ryan Giggs on the left wing, and managed to play 25 games for the club scoring only one goal, against Everton in a 4-1 victory. He also started in the 1999 Champions League Final eventually making way for Teddy Sheringham who went on to score the equalizing goal. But this was his last game for the club as a serious knee injury prevented him making any more appearances.

Two years after this final United released him and Everton manager Walter Smith snapped him up on the recommendation of Sir Alex Ferguson. Only 15 games were managed as injuries ravaged his career and new Everton manager released him in June 2002 only to sign for Charlton Athletic with whom he managed four appearances.

A return to Sweden came when he signed for Djurgårdens IF; Blomqvist played a part as the side became Swedish champions that year. Injury problems, however, restricted him to only nine league appearances. As with Manchester Unied he stayed at the club for two years without kicking a ball, before eventually announcing his retirement in 2005.

Blomqvist joined Enköpings SK as a coach in 2008 and has since made a playing return in the Superettan, the second tier of Swedish football. Ironically, a shortage of players at the club due to injury forced Blomqvist’s playing return. He left Enköping after one season and later signed a contract with newly relegated Hammarby IF as assistant manager.

After officially retiring in 2005, he became a pundit for Swedish television station TV4. He also owns a nightclub in Stockholm.

Before David Beckham and even before Ryan Giggs, there was another young starlet wowing the crowds at Old Trafford. He was none other than Lee Sharpe. The left winger was one of the first of Fergie’s Fledglings to break into the first team, but all the promise soon faded away as his career nosedived in his mid twenties. But what has Lee Sharpe been up to since those glory …

Read more & vote on this transfer rumour »

Kirkby born Mike Marsh first came to prominence in August 1987. At the time the 18 year old Marsh was playing amateur football with Kirkby Town and Liverpool’s reserve coach, Phil Thompson spotted something in the youngster that he liked a great deal. He advised Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish to sign the young midfielder/full back.

Marsh established himself in the reserve team at Liverpool during his first two years at the club …

Read more & vote on this transfer rumour »

Pierluigi Casiraghi carved out a very respectable career in Italy with Monza, Juventus and Lazio, then moved to England to play for Chelsea and all but disappeared off the face of the earth… or did he? What actually happened to the former Italian international?

Casiraghi started of his career in 1985 playing for local side Monza in Serie B and Serie C1, he helped them achieve promotion to Serie B, …

Read more & vote on this transfer rumour »

Long before becoming a star at Liverpool and Tottenham, the young Ronny Rosenthal was snapped up at the age of 11 by his hometown club Maccabi Haifa. Spotted at such a young age, he progressed through the ranks at the club until making his debut as a substitute aged 16, where he came off the bench to score two goals on his debut. The career of ‘Rocket’ Ronny Rosenthal was under way.

It wasn’t all plain sailing in the early years for Rosenthal however. Three years after his debut the coach of Maccabi Haifa at the time, Englishman Jack Mansell, didn’t rate the 19 year old and tried to release him on a free. It was only when Haifa’s president Yochanan Vollach, stepped in and vetoed the decision that Rosenthal was saved from being forced out of the club. Vollach believed in the young Israeli striker and said that the club would not sell him at any price.

A year later Vollach hired Shlomo Sharf and his change of tactics allowed Rosenthal a regular starting role in a three pronged attack that would spearhead Maccabi Haifa’s two Israeli league titles in three seasons. Rosenthal’s performances, he’d now notched 38 league goals in 138 league games, were being noted on a wider stage by the summer of 1986 Belgian side Club Bruges snapped him up for $275,000.

He won the league title with Bruges in 1988 and in the summer of that year Standard Liege snapped him up as part of a swap deal. In his two years in Liege he rediscovered his best form, scoring 24 league goals in 54 league games and attracting interest from abroad. He went on loan to Udinese and then to Luton Town, where he was spotted by scouts from Liverpool who quickly snapped him up on loan for the latter stages of the 1989-90 season.

Rosenthal’s impact at Anfield was immediate. On his debut he scored a hat-trick against Charlton Athletic and his 7 goals in 8 games were an invaluable contribution towards Liverpool’s 18th league title success. Liverpool signed the Israeli striker for £1.1m the following summer and although the rest of his time at Anfield was not as successful, he did make 97 appearances for the Reds and scored 22 goals.

However Rosenthal is probably best remembered in his time at Anfield for the following miss at Villa Park in 1992;

In January 1994, Rosenthal was snapped up by Tottenham for £250,000 and he once again scored on his league debut for the club. However Rosenthal is best remembered by Spurs fans for his incredible performance in an FA Cup tie with Southampton. 2-0 down to the Saints, Rosenthal was brought off the bench to fire an incredible hat-trick and inspire Spurs to a 6-2 win. In his three years with Tottenham, Rosenthal played 100 games, scoring 11 goals.

He finished his career with Watford, initially making a big impact with goals like this one against Blackpool;

However injuries and age took their toll and in 1999, after 35 appearances and 11 goals for Watford, Rosenthal retired from the game.

After retiring Rosenthal remained in England with his family and sons, one of whom is on the books at Watford and he has since become a “Football Consultant”. A job that Rosenthal explains as;

“I just try to give the best advice for the clubs – not only in England, but abroad. I help them find foreign players. I cannot help them with local players – they know them already – but they know less about players abroad.”

In recent years Chelsea have become notorious for their narrow midfield, having often been criticised for lacking width and out and out wingers have been a rare sight at Stamford Bridge over the last decade. The names Arjen Robben and Damien Duff will spring to mind for most when considering significant Chelsea wingers and cause many to forget the Danish international Jesper Gronkjaer, who was a popular figure amongst …

Read more & vote on this transfer rumour »

Cast your mind back almost two decades, the Cold War was ongoing, Margaret Thatcher was leader of a Conservative government in the UK and everyone was doing the Vogue, courtesy of Madonna. But there was something else about 1990 that will have you in a world of excitement and wonder; it was indeed the performances of Salvatore ‘Toto’ Schillaci for Italy at the 1990 World Cup. The tournament propelled …

Read more & vote on this transfer rumour »

Do you remember Nico Claesen? I won’t blame you if you don’t; it was after all over 20 years ago when the Belgian international was playing for Spurs. Nico was one of those players the fans love – a hard-working, loyal man who’d put his all into every performance. Something of a one-trick pony with his habit of using his pace to race onto a through ball and slot the ball …

Read more & vote on this transfer rumour »

If you are old enough to remember the great Everton side of the mid 1980′s, you will recall that one of their most potent offensive weapons came down the flanks. On the left was Kevin Sheedy, a man with a left foot that could open a tin of beans whilst writing a baroque masterpiece and down the right was Trevor Steven, the slight of build, impish winger from Burnley who had the pace, skill and style to create chance after chance for the Everton frontmen, as well as scoring more than his fair share of goals from midfield.

Steven began his career with Burnley in 1980 in the lower reaches of the English football league, however three years later, Howard Kendall was convinced by his talents to spend £300,000 on him to bring him to Goodison Park. At Everton, Steven would mature from a slight teenager with talent, into one of the best right midfielders in Europe.  Playing a pivotal role in Everton’s title successes in 1985 and 1987. Indeed his performances were so impressive during the 1985 campaign that England manager Bobby Robson called up the right sided midfielder for his England World Cup squad.

Steven would go on to represent his country in four successive major finals, The Mexico World Cup of 1986, Germany for the European Championships in 1988, Italy for the World Cup 1990 and Sweden for the 1992 European championship finals. He would end his international career with 36 caps, scoring four goals.

At club level, Steven’s time at Everton came to an end in 1989 when Graeme Souness wanted to pair him alongside former Everton and England team mate Gary Stevens down the right for Rangers. Smith paid Everton £1.5m for the winger. His three years at Rangers saw Rangers claim the league title on each occasion and his form was excellent, enough to convince Marseille to splurge £5.5m on the winger. Steven played a key role in helping Marseille win the French title, but never really settled in France, moving back to Rangers in 1992.

His second spell at Rangers was punctuated by continual injury problems and despite the fact Steven played for five years after his return, Rangers winning the title in each one, his role gradually diminished at the club until he announced his retirement at the end of the 1996-97 season. A glittering career had come to an end.

Since hanging up his boots, Steven has moved, like many players into the media. He had a spell with Eurosport and also worked for the BBC during the 2002 World Cup finals as a co-commentator. He has continued to develop a career for himself in the media, working currently as a pundit or co-commentator for Irish television station RTE, covering the English Premier League and Champions League, as well as the World Cup finals in Germany.

However the erudite, intelligent Steven does not just confine himself to punditry. Steven has set up Mimax, an umbrella company who provide payroll services for contract and freelance workers in the UK. In addition to that he writes a weekly football column for financial newspaper City AM as well as being a respected and established FIFA licensed football agent based out of his adopted him Glasgow.