THE ARCHIVE
Europe
Saving grace | Saving grace |
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Steaua Bucharest’s run in this season’s UEFA Cup brought the club to international attention for the first time since the 1980s, when they twice reached the final of the European Cup. Their triumph in 1986 against Barcelona was entirely down to one man, goalkeeper Helmuth Duckadam, who saved four penalties in Steaua’s 2-0 shootout victory. Duckadam was in the news recently when it was revealed that he was unable to afford the equivalent of £100 or so to travel from his home town of Arad to see the UEFA Cup quarter-final against city rivals Rapid. In fact things began to wrong for Duckadam within days of the 1986 final when he was diagnosed with a potentially lethal aneurism in his arm, which was only saved after eight hours’ surgery.
At the time it was rumoured that this injury had been caused by the henchmen of Nicu Ceausescu, the son of Romania’s dictator, Nicolae, who resented the attention Duckadam was receiving. Later, when he had nothing to fear after the 1989 revolution, Duckadam strongly denied the story: “It’s the most stupid thing I heard in my life. I had the pains in my arm some months ago before the final, but didn’t have them checked. People hated Ceausescu so much that they invented incredible stories about him and his family.” From WSC 232 June 2006. What was happening this month On the subject...
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