As the UEFA Champions League final takes place tomorrow at London’s historic Wembley Stadium, football fans across the world will be looking forward to see a game full of joy and dramatic swings. One of such games was the 1999 final between Manchester United of England and Bayern Munich of Germany played at Camp Nuo in Barcelona, Spain. In an extraordinary night, Alex Ferguson’s men made history, fighting back from an early goal down to score twice in stoppage time to become champions of Europe. The iconic match is now remembered for the unrivalled scenes of ecstasy at the full-time whistle, as Fergie’s United finally got their hands on the trophy after a decade of domestic domination.
Among the most iconic photos in the history of the competition is the photo of the legendary referee, Pierluigi Collina, offering assistance to a distraught former Ghana International Samuel Kuffour. The Bayern centre-back, who was at the pinnacle of his career, and had done incredibly well for the German side had no option but to break down in tears after United got the second goal through Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. With some seconds still left, Pierluigi Collina, who was the referee on the day, was captured helping Kuffour back on his feet.
Now, sports discourse is always about who is GOAT (Greatest of All Time) in one field or another. Borrowed from the the US where hype is a staple of conversations, and perhaps started by Muhammed Alli who proclaimed himself “The Greatest”, it is now a worldwide phenomenon.
So we have endless GOAT debates on football, basketball, tennis, boxing, you name it. Interestingly, there’s never any universal agreement on who takes the mantle. Tennis fans, for example, are forever arguing over the credentials of Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal and Novak Djokovic. Basketball is about Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Lebron James. Football, of course, has Pele, Messi, Maradona and Ronaldo to excite many.
But in one area of football, we can find something as close to consensus as is possible. That is the GOAT referee. There have been many great referees, from Brazil’s Jose Wright, arguably the best of the 1980s; to Sandur Puhl who won the top referee award for four straight years (1994 – 1997); to Markus Merk who was crowned top referee three times and holds the record for the most matches refereed by a single individual in the Bundesliga. Despite the stiff competition, there is little doubt that Pierluigi Collina is primus inter pares. There’s so much evidence backing the Italian. Start with the fact that he was named the World’s Best Referee for six straight years (1998 – 2003).
Take a look at the important finals he was saddled with. There was the Olympics Final of 1996 when Nigeria’s Dream Team defeated Argentina to win Olympic Gold, it was the first time an African side would reach such height in global football and the fear of bias from the continent before this historical moment was justified due to precedents but Pierluigi Collina proved himself an upright professional, standing firm on the positive side of history by allowing fairness to prevail in the epic final.
By the time Pierluigi Collina blew the final whistle the 86,000-strong crowd was ecstatic. For the first time ever, an African team had won the Olympic football tournament. There was the unforgettable Champions League Final of 1999 between Manchester United and Bayern Munich; then the 2002 World Cup Final between Brazil and Germany. In six years, the only big one missing on his list is the European Championship Final, and that’s because his home country, Italy, made the final in 2000.
Collina’s qualities came from his great understanding of the rules of the game, and his humane application of same. He was strict yet approachable. His great emotional intelligence always came to the fore, never more so than at the Champions League final of 1999 when he went about picking up Bayern Munich players as they slumped and cried after conceding a second goal to Manchester United in the dying minutes of the game.
“It was the last minutes, I saw the Bayern players on the bench preparing to celebrate the title, the fans were happy in the stadium with their team being crowned the champions league title.
Suddenly Manchester united scored two goals in two minutes and reversed the score. I would never forget how the English side were bursting with great noise as if they were Lions roaring, while there was funeral silence in the Bayern stands.
The United were celebrating their second goal hysterically when I saw a Bayern player completely hopelessly fall to the ground and he was feeling great disappointment.
I approached him and found nothing to say except, ‘get up and fight, you still have 20 seconds!’, at that moment I saw the true face of football, death and life in one stadium, people celebrating madly and people desperate to death!”
The iconic Pierluigi Collina here narrating his encounter with Kuffour, one of the greatest African footballer ever who was the only non-German in the Bayern side in a defence line that had sweeper Lothar Matthäus, and Thomas Linke in the epic 1998-99 European champions league final that could pass as the most dramatic club football final in modern history.
Another key attribute was his distinctive look. Gangly built, he was (still is!) bald headed and kept his face completely free of any hair – beards, moustache, eye brows. All these gave him a menacing look, very much in the mould of a task master. He was happy to play on this fact!
Sadly, Collina had to retire at the relatively young age of 45 based on the rules of the Italian Football Federation. This denied world football of his supreme abilities and the game was the big loser for it. Mercifully, he has never completely left the game, and he now heads FIFA’s Referees Commission. One of his initiatives, as head of the commission, is the reduction of time wasting in the game – which explains the huge number of added-time during the recent World Cup in Qatar.
Football will continue to produce great players and referees. Amongst the latter, Pierluigi Collina will remain unforgettable. Truly, the GOAT of Referees!!.
References:
- Aizelwood, John (2 January 2015). “United as one: Schmeichel and Kahn”. Union of European Football Associations. Archived from the original on 26 April 2018. Retrieved 23 January 2017.
- Italian referee Pierluigi Collina details backstory behind iconic photo with Sammy Kuffour. Ghanaweb 13 January 2023.
Contributions from Kehinde Fagbuaro, Edited by Bimbo Ajayi
