Alexander Lipenko's column. Burst into the locker room with pistols

Football is multifaceted. A lot of unusual stories related to the most popular game in the world, which, as they say, remained behind the scenes. At least these, I hope, will be of interest to you.

Guns drawn

It happened before a match between the Italian football teams Casoria and Banco di Roma. Three masked men burst into the Romans' changing room, pointed pistols at the players and said: "If you win, you will get lead in your skull. And to confirm the seriousness of their intentions discharged pistols into the ceiling of the locker room. The decidedly weaker Casoria won. After the match, the hosts were jubilant. The guests were happy too - they were going home with a full squad.

Air attack on the players

In the 75th minute of the match between Brazilian teams "Atletico Paranaense" and "Hentaya" referee Moreira suddenly gave a sharp whistle and collapsed on the field. All 22 players threw themselves to the ground after him. All because of the bees that swarmed into the stadium. Fortunately, one of the stadium attendants realised to light some newspaper torches and jumped onto the pitch. The bees flew away and the match was continued. Only one player was injured - he broke his nose when he fell awkwardly.

Having fun

If English footballer Cunningham, who played for Real Madrid, knew that visiting a famous disco in Madrid would cost him $12,000 fine and 1 month disqualification, he would hardly have appeared there. Cunningham was released from training for 2 days, and he was prescribed bed rest. But the footballer decided to have fun at the disco, where, unfortunately, met ... the president of his club.

Cloudy goalkeeper

In the capital of Bolivia was a football match. Eagles were circling over the pitch. This did not surprise anyone, as the city of La Paz is located high above sea level, so to speak in the eagles' domain. But suddenly, the eagle was rocketing downwards. A second later, it soared into the sky... with a football in its talons. The surprise of the players and fans was unrivalled. The referee threw out a new ball, but the eagle circled in the sky again, aiming for the ball. The game was postponed.

The fastest goals

Englishman Michael Dobin is a statistician by profession. And as such, the figures he produces are inevitably credible. He set a goal to find out who of the players the fastest to open the account in official matches. In the 1981 Queens Park Rangers-Bolton game, Tommy Langley scored in the sixth second; James Fryd of Bradford City scored in the fourth second in 1964; and it took the famous Brazilian Rivelino only three seconds to score.

The original monument

The monument is located in Rio de Janeiro. It was built in 1958-1959 on the occasion of winning the football World Cup. It was then that the idea was born to take plaster casts of the feet of the new football kings and put them on display for the public to see. Later these casts were cast in bronze.

A goal of joy

Yugoslavian footballer Milan Vidinic played in France from 1970. As a centre-back, he usually did not think about attacking the opponent, but two years later, in 1972, in his life there was a joyful event: Milan, anxiously awaiting his first child, just before the match received a message that his wife safely gave birth to twin boys. As a result, in one of the episodes Vidinic received the ball and hit it with such force that it flew into the opponent's goal. And it was 55 metres to the goal...

Pilgrim

Argentine footballer Pedro Valdes became famous in the most unexpected way: he did not play for any club for more than one season. During his twenty-year career, Valdes changed 20 football teams.

What a sniper

It happened in Germany during a boring goalless match between Delbrück and Dortmund. A dog suddenly jumped onto the pitch, grabbed the ball and ran into the home team's goal. Five thousand spectators burst into wild applause, welcoming the real scorer.

Friends, play football, go to football matches and let your favourite teams win.

Oleksandr LIPENKO for Dynamo.kiev.ua