2023 saw Manchester City win the Champions League with a starting lineup featuring nine different nationalities, amongst them even some Englishmen. It is now commonplace for the latter stages of the Champions League to feature representatives from all corners of the globe. However this is not an entriely new phenomenon and since its formation, diverse, global squads, have been a part of the European Cup's fabric.
In the early years, there were three main footballing migrant groups who lit up the tournament, these were the stats of Argentina and Uruguay (the Rioplatense), the magical Magyars of Hungary and the African stars of Portugal's colonies.
1. The Rioplatense
The most iconic figure in the early years of the European Cup, was of course, an Argentine. Though he became a naturalised Spaniard, Alfredo Di Stefano was Buenos Aires through and through. Argentina itself was a nation of immigrants and Di Stefano's grandparent's on his father's side had emigrated from Italy. It was Italy where most Argentine players did end up, with Luis Monti and Renato Cesarini blazing the trail in the 1930s, the first of the many 'rimpartiati' (players of Italian descent, considered legally as Italians) that would feature prominently for clubs and the National side.
Di Stefano would be joined by countryman Hector Rial in 1954, the same year that the Spanish government established dual nationality agreements with South American countries allowing players to gain Spanish nationality, which Rial and Di Stefano dually did. Argentina's neighbours across the River Plate, Uruguay, were also seeing some of their best talent venture to Europe. José Santamaría joined Real from Nacional and became a mainstay at the back, winning four European Cups.
It was not just in Spain that Argentines and Uruguayans were making an impact, across the Mediterranean, Italian clubs were also scouring the region for the best talent. Players who were considered to have Italian descent were considered 'oriundi', meaning 'coming from'. Unlike the early wave of Italians who had returned in the 1930s, the 'oriundi' were considered somewhere in between native Italians and true foreigners.
Juan Alberto Schiaffino became the most expensive and highest paid footballer when he joined Milan in 1954, goalscorer in the final game of the World Cup in 1950, Schiaffino was a creative talent of rare gifts and one of the outstanding players of the 1950s. Joining them up front was the Argentine duo of Ernestos - Grillo, a prolific striker for Independiente who joined Milan for the start of the 1957 season and ‘Tito’ Cucchiaroni, a left winger signed from Boca Juniors. Both had cost £40,000, a fee in excess of the British record at the time which stood at £34,000.
The influence of the Rioplatense on the European Cup would reach its zenith in the 1958 final as Real Madrid faced Milan. The game would end 2-2 with Di Stefano and Rial on the scoresheet for Real and Schiaffino and Grillo for Milan. Madrid would win it in extra-time, ensuring a second European Cup for their Argentine coach Luis Carniglia.
The man who would break Schiaffino's world transfer record, would be another Oriundi, the 21 year-old River Plate forward Omar Sivori who joined Juventus for £91,000 Sivori, with his gap-tooth smile was one of the 'Angels with Dirty Faces' who led Argentina to the 1957 South American Championship. He would win the Ballon d'or in 1961 but his Juventus side would fail to make a major impact in the European Cup, going out in the preliminary rounds twice, before an epic three match quarter-final against Real Madrid in 1962.
In most cases these players would repatriate themselves to represent their adopted countries. Di Stefano, Rial and Santamaria would all represent Spain whilst Schiaffino and Sivori would turn out for Italy. In 1964 FIFA changed the rules to prevent players who had taken a second nationality from representing their new country.
2. The Hungarians
It was a European Cup game that paved the way for one of the biggest transfers of sporting talent in football history. When the mighty Honved were drawn to play Athletic Bilbao in the first round of 1956/57 tie few would have envisaged the consequences that would ensue in later years of the European Cup.
Prior to the first leg, a a student protest had grown into a wider revolt against the oppressive Soviet policies placed on the country, leading to the Hungarian revolution, which lasted until November 10th. Honved would lose the tie 6-5, after having to play the return leg in Brussels such was the political situation in Hungary. Outside of the country and with no league football looking possible until the spring of 1956, the team took up an offer to tour South America. This put them on collision course with the Hungarian FA who were eager for the team to return.
When the players returned in late February to Vienna, Hungarian FA President Marton Nagy he made his presence felt in a move that would be appreciated by the Soviet regime. Puskás, the highest profile and considered by the regime to be the ringleader, was to be banned for 18 months. He remained in exile but willing to return to Hungary if the ban was rescinded. The FA refused and at that point, the die was cast. Sandor Koscis and Zoltán Czibor also received a one-year ban. All three would be sought after talents in the West.
The first Hungarian exile was László Kubala. Following the Soviet occupation of Hungary in 1949, Kubala, then at Vasas SC fled Hungary on the back of a truck. Following spells in Italy with Pro Patria and as part of a touring team of refugees known as Hungaria, he found himself at the first tug-of-war between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. Barca would win by virtue of the fact they agreed to employ his father-in-law Ferdinand Daučík. Kubala would be a terrific success at Barcelona and, up until a little lad from Rosario showed up, was considered their greatest-ever player. His prime years occurred prior to the beginning of the European Cup but he would win the Latin Cup in 1952 and the Fairs Cup in 1958. By the time of the latter he had convinced Koscis and Czibor to join him in Catalunya.
Together the three would combine and drive Barcelona to one of their most successful periods, winning the league in 1958 and 1959 under the tutelage of Helenio Herrera. Czibor was a left winger with an eye for goal, and capable of delivering on the biggest occasions. Sandor Kocsis, who became known in Spain as ‘Cabeza de Oro’ (the Golden Head), was one of the most prolific forwards of his generation. Scorer of 11 goals in the 1954 World Cup, he would end his career with a record of 296 goals in 335 games.
In the 1958/59 season Barcelona would win La Liga under Helenio Herrera. After dethroning Real Madrid domestically, they set their sights on taking their European crown. They would meet in the semi-finals in the spring of 1960. By this point, Real Madrid had signed their own Hungarian, and they'd got the best one of the lot.
After a year and a half out of football, an overweight Puskas had seemed destined to join Inter Milan, but when that move fell through Madrid stepped in. Within six weeks Puskás dropped the weight he was carrying through a regime of no bread, no alcohol, no spaghetti and donning plastic wrapping and extra sweaters in training. He also made a crucial friend in Di Stéfano, who had often made life hard for new recruits whom he may have deemed a threat to his status.
Puskas would make his mark on the European Cup in his first season, playing a crucial role in the semi-final as Real knocked out city rivals Atletico after three games. Puskas scored the winner in the deciding match to send Real into their fourth final in a row. Controversially he would be dropped for the final, in a move that would see manager Luis Carniglia lose his job.
Puskas would win the first battle, scoring three times across the two legs as Real won 3-1 home and away, Kocsis would get a consolation for Barca at the Nou Camp. Madrid would move on to their magnum opus, Di Stefano and Puskas starring, the former grabbing a hat-trick, the latter four as Real beat Eintracht Frankfurt 7-3 at Hampden.
Their reign would end the following year at the hands of Barca in controversial circumstances in the first round proper and set the Catalans on a path to the 1961 final. For Kocsis and Czibor it would lead to a haunting return to the Wankdorf Stadium in Berne, scene of the 1954 World Cup defeat to West Germany. All three Hungarians would start the match but it would be the same result, as Benfica would upset Barca 3-2 despite Kocsis putting Barca 1-0 ahead. Czibor would grab the other Barcelona goal but by this point Benfica had hit three. The two men would leave the field in tears, just like they had in 1954.
It would be the peak for the Barcelona boys, they would not return to the European Cup until 1974. For Puskas there would be two more finals, one more hat-trick and a winner's medal by virtue of his appearances in the early rounds of the 1965/66 season. In that time only one Hungarian has since played in the European Cup or Champions League final, Lajos Kű for Club Brugge in 1978.
3. The Africans
The third major group of players that influenced the European Cup was the African contingent from the periphery of the Portuguese empire, specifically, Angola and Mozambique, two countries not known today for producing players competing at the highest levels of the game. These players would star for Benfica and change the face of European football.
Benfica’s transfer policy only allowed them to sign players from Portugal or its colonies. In the late 1950s, Portugal, concerned about rising nationalist tides and the breaking of colonial empires across the globe, was making a greater effort to emphasise the unity of its empire and began relaxing travel restrictions between the colonies and the mainland.
Benfica’s awareness of the talent on African players came after a tour of Angola in 1950. In a game against a local side the opposing striker, José Águas, son of a white colonial family and at the time a professional hunter, scored twice against them in a subsequent defeat. Benfica would ask him to play for them for the rest of the tour, signing him at the end. Águas, would go on to make 281 appearances for Benfica, captain the club and score 290 goals including two in European Cup finals.
Águas would be succeeded as Captain by Mario Coluna who joined in 1954 from Benfica’s Angolan feeder club, Desportivo, based in the capital Lourenço Marques (now Maputo). Coluna was a gifted athlete, becoming National High Jump champion as a 17-year old and played as an inside forward or in centre midfield. He was noted for his stamina, awareness and long-range shooting with his left foot.
Coluna and Águas would be supplemented by two additional African-born players. The goalkeeper Costa Pereira, born in Mozambique, to white Portuguese parents, and Santana, a native of Angola, who played at inside right. All four would start the final against Barca in 1961, Águas and Coluna both scoring in Benfica's 3-2 win.
As they began their defence of their title, the Eagles added another African to their ranks. A chance meeting at his barbershop, alerted Bela Guttmann to a phenomenal talent in Mozambique: Eusébio da Silva Ferreira who was playing for the feeder club of Benfica's city rivals Sporting. Upon his arrival in Mozambique, and after viewing Eusébio in the flesh, Guttmann wasted no time in meeting the 500,000 escudos price tag (around $20,000). A large amount for an unproven talent, no doubt, but small change compared to what he would be worth in future years.
Sporting were raging that they had him stolen from under their noses and insisted they had legal rights to the player. Eusébio flew to Portugal in December 1960 and Benfica hid him away in the Algarve, checking him in under the pseudonym of Ruth Malosso, to avoid any further inducements from Sporting. It took five months before he officially was confirmed as a Benfica player and by that point it was too late to register him for the latter stages of the European Cup for the 60/61 season.
He was ready to go for the following season however where he would score five goals including one in the final as Benfica defeated Real Madrid 5-3 in Amsterdam. At the end of the match, Puskas would give Eusebio his shirt, a symbolic handing of the baton. Eusebio would play in three more finals but lose them all.
The Benfica teams that started the ‘61, ‘62 and ‘63 finals would contain four African players. This was not equalled until 2012 and the Chelsea starting eleven that featured Didier Drogba, Solomon Kalou (both Ivory Coast), John Obi Mikel (Nigeria) and José Bosingwa (Portugal international but born in Zaire). And prior to the formation of the Champions League only two African players lifted the European Cup after the Benfica contingent, Bruce Grobbelaar (Liverpool 1984) and Rabah Madjer (FC Porto 1987).
Domestic Foreign Player Bans
Though many of the players featured became naturalised citizens, changes from the footballing authorities, created a less diverse mix of talent during the latter part of the 1960s and into the 1970s. Spain and France closed their borders to international players in 1962 based on a decline on their national team performances. and Italy did the same in 1966 following their humiliation to North Korea in the 1966 World Cup.
Successful teams thus tended to be almost always representative of their country e.g. Celtic, Feyenoord, Ajax, Bayern. The English were always at an advantage with their ability to draw on players from all corners of the British Isles as the success of Manchester Utd, Liverpool and Nottingham Forest proved.
Further Reading:
The story of football, is effectively one of migration. The best book on this topic is Moving with the Ball: The Migration of Professional Footballers by Pierre Lanfranchi and Matthew Taylor.