My son and I are trying to piece together a collage of my favourite ever foreign Charlton players. When finished and framed, it will go up on my son's bedroom wall. They can be past or present, but no British and Irish allowed. I will allow English born players who have represented their mother country. There are some foreign legends I am aware of, but they won't make my list if I have never seen them play(sorry, Eddie Firmani). To be honest, though, I am struggling to fill a few places. Any ideas are welcome. Ilic - GK Hreidarsson - LB Fish - CB Costa - CB Kishishev - RB LM Jensen - CM CM RM Kermit - CF Di Canio - CF Subs Peterson - GK Euell - CM Bartlett - CF Cheers, Ponders and Little Ponders
Omar Pouso. Legend!! And I saw him for 45 minutes v Portsmouth Bolanos - the little Chilean bloke who played in the friendly against Welling about 7 years ago with long hair and an Alice band. He was brilliant but we couldn't get a work permit. He was playing for a Danish team in the champions league this year. Rommedahl - well perhaps not.......... hasselb.........well definately not.
Atomic Rom gave me one of my greatest ever memories supporting Charlton. So for that, he may make the list. But I found him to be frustrating for the most part. Plenty of speed with little end product. I will have a think about it... Smertin and Song are great shouts. Nice one! I just have to consider the loan issue.
What about the South Africans? I was South African and played for Italy. How come I don't qualify if you have included Sean Bartlett who was not fit to polish my boots? Two other great South African players who should be automatic selections for any best Charlton XI (even including UK players) are Stuart Leary and John Hewie. Stuart Leary was 10 years ahead of his time as a player. Although South African he was called up for National Service in the UK (at a time when our forces were engaged in various hot wars) and lost two years out of his career, but denied the chance to play for England on grounds of nationality (talk about double standards!). Hewie could and did play well in every position in the team (including goalkeeper) so is a must at least for the subs' bench, though he was a far better player than any of the defenders you listed (with the possible exception of Costa at his peak, which was long before he played for us). What about Hans Jeppson? Top European star who saved us from relegation almost single-handed in 1951 by scoring 9 goals in 11 games. Was later transferred to Napoli for a then world record transfer fee (sadly, not from Charlton though, as he played for us as an alleged amateur).
Eddie - you will see in the initial post that I have apologised for your absence. Unfortunately, I never saw you play and that is one of the rules. No to Robinson. No Welsh, Irish or Scots. Otherwise Kinsella and Deano would be in there for definite.
Yes, sorry, I missed that. Too quick to blow my own trumpet. I guess that rules out all my other suggestions. I have never liked you, Ponders. I blame you for single-handedly driving the remorseless goal-machine that is Paul Benson out of our club on a (virtual) free. Almost as evil as Houndal's campaign against Parky.
You are quite right, SuperC. He was born in Zimbabwe. But he played for a home nation so I will probably not allow it. I am going to have a think about it, though...
Gonzalo Sorondo? Karim Begeria, Nicola Berti, Todorov, The Elk, el-talej (worse than Perso!), Kim Grant, Bradley Pritchard, John Barnes (more Jamican than Euall), Sol Diawarra, Jose Semedo, Zen Zi, Racon, Thomas myher, Andersson (the Keeper), Mick Amann, Corry Gibbs, Tom Hovie! That will do for now!
El kack is a great shout. Tried to shoot from everywhere. Zeng Zhi was on the other hand a massive frustration for me. He had everything. Skill, pace (well maybe not the good looks) but he just didn't do it.
