The Hindu : Sport / Football : Oh, brother! you're on the wrong side

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Monday, May 01, 2006

Sport

Sport - Football

Oh, brother! you're on the wrong side

Andres Burgo

Madrid: The duel between the Kalou brothers could take place on June 16 in Stuttgart when the Netherlands meets Ivory Coast in Group C of the football World Cup.

A meeting between the Vieri brothers, however, depends on the possible pairing of Australia versus Italy, which could happen in one of the matches to decide the last 16.

Dutch justice

The confrontation between the Kalous is presently in the hands of Dutch justice.

To date, Bonaventure, the elder of the Ivory Coast brothers, central midfielder with Paris Saint Germain, already has a guaranteed place in his country's national team, and is, in fact, one of its star players.

But Salomon wants to play for the Netherlands and has a good chance of achieving this aim.

Kalou the younger is an outstanding forward for Feyenoord. So much so, that national coach Marco van Basten asked him to try to obtain Dutch citizenship so he could be picked to play in Germany this summer wearing the orange jersey of the Dutch.

This has sparked off a controversy involving politics and sport. Dutch Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk has refused the application from the young Ivory Coast player, basing her decision on a law which states that foreigners can only be naturalised after a five-year period of residence.

Salomon Kalou has only been resident for two years. But he is trying to speed up the naturalisation process, and the Ministry of Health and Sport has become involved in the application affair. Johan Cruyff has also endorsed Van Basten's request. The case is now to be resolved by the Supreme Court.

The confrontation between the Vieri siblings Christian and Massimiliano, also known as Max, depends only on questions of football.

Christian, the elder Italian brother, is now with Monaco after leaving AC Milan, where he was lately not guaranteed a place. The forward still needs to convince national trainer Marcello Lippi with goals before he can be included in the squad for Germany.

Should he obtain a berth, it will be his third consecutive World Cup. Christian was born in Bologna, but his brother Max is a native of Sydney.

"I am very pleased to play for the country of my birth," said Max. "Christian has already wished me good luck before I come to Europe. Now I hope that we can meet up face to face on the pitch. Australia versus Italy would be a great meeting."

Siblings war

If these confrontations should in fact take place, Kalou versus Kalou and Vieri versus Vieri would mark the first "fratricides" to take place in a World Cup.

Although no brothers have yet played against each other, there have been 20 cases of brothers playing on the same side in World Cup history.

In the first World Cup in history, the France versus Mexico match which inaugurated the competition in 1930 saw the brothers Manuel and Felipe Rosas playing for the Aztecs. In the last match by the Mexicans in that same World Cup, brothers Rafael and Francisco Gutierrez also played along with the Rosas brothers.

Also in 1930, Argentina was able to count on the talents of brothers Mario and Juan Evaristo, and as far back as 1950, Spain fielded the Gonzalvos, Jose and Mariano.

Germany's Fritz and Ottmar Walter were the first brothers to win the coveted World Cup trophy in 1954, a record shared only by the Charlton brothers, Bobby and Jack, who in 1966 took England to glory.

Rene and Willy Van der Kerkhof did not have such luck, losing the final match in 1974 and also in 1978. In the World Cup which took place in Argentina, the Italians Patrizio and Claudio Sala finished the tournament in third place.

The 1958 tournament in Sweden also saw a double set of brothers in one squad, with Wales including John and Mel Charles along with Len and Ivor Allchurch. Only Len of the quartet did not get to play a match as Wales progressed unbeaten from its group only to go out narrowly 1-0 to eventual winner Brazil.

Goalkeeping brothers have also featured at World Cups, although Victor and Viacheslav Chanov did not get to play in Spain in 1982, both permanently overshadowed by the figure of Rinat Dassayev.

That same year, Karlheinz and Bernd Foerster made their mutual contribution to West Germany's second place. The World Cup in Spain, in addition, featured the Yugoslav pairing of Zlatko and Zoran Vujocic.

A peculiar case is that of the Brazilian brothers Socrates, who played for the national team in 1982 and 1986, and Rai, who took part in 1994. Similarly peculiar is the case of Franco Baresi who participated in 1982, 1990 and 1994, but brother Giuseppe only took part in 1986.

The Egyptians Ibrahim and Hossam Hassan went together to the 1990 World Cup in Italy. The Netherlands selected Ronald and Edwin Koeman in 1990, and in 1994 and 1998 Frank and Ronald de Boer.

Family affair

In France in 1998, Michael and Brian Laudrup made their paired contribution to Denmark's brilliant performance, but still more significant was the presence of the Norwegian Flo family: to the existing pair of brothers Tore Andre and Jostein, cousin Havard was added.

Already in 2002, Niko and Robert Kovac, originally from Berlin, played for Croatia. And Michal and Marcin Zewlakow did the same for Poland.

Even parents and their offspring have participated in World Cups, but logically at different times. Frenchmen French Roger Rio (1934) and Patrice (1978), for example, and Spaniard Martin Vantolra took the honour in 1934, his Mexican son Jose in 1970.

Father-son duo

Brazilian father and son Domingos da Guia (1938) and Ademir (1974), Mexican father Mario Perez father (1950) and his son of the same name in 1970, French father Jean Djorkaeff (1966) and his son Youri (1998), the Spaniards father Manuel Sanchis (1966) and son (1990), Italians Cesare Maldini (1962) and son Paolo (1990, 1994, 1998 and 2002), Spaniards Vicente Asensi (1950) and Juan Manuel (1978), Scotsman Archie Gemmill (1978) and son Scott (1998), the Swedes Anders Linderoth (1978) and Tobias (2002), South Korean Cha Bum-Kun (1986) and Doo-Ri (2002), finally Uruguay's Julio Montero (1970 and 1974) and Paolo (2002), round up the family appearances.

But curious as this peculiar section of World Cup statistics is, nothing could have a more morbid fascination that the possible confrontation — fratricide if you like — of the Kalou and Vieri brothers. Germany 2006 will tell. — DPA

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