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Entire Soccer Team Defects

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by YankeeFan, Dec 15, 2009.

  1. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    Even Cuba laughs at Eritrea.

    Or maybe they were just sick of 0-0 ties that were decided by penalty kicks. Kidding. Funny story though.

     
  2. 93Devil

    93Devil Well-Known Member

    maybe it cost too much to send them and their luggage?
     
  3. Pastor

    Pastor Active Member

    Should have taken Southwest. Then the bags would have flown free.
     
  4. GB-Hack

    GB-Hack Active Member

    As was pointed out on the soccer thread, Eritrea is a pretty terrible place, and I wouldn't find these guys defecting to get away from the repressive regime there funny.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/country_profiles/1070813.stm
     
  5. tapintoamerica

    tapintoamerica Well-Known Member

    Upon hearing foreign athletes were defecting to the United States, several representatives of the New York Yankees descended upon the Miami airport in eager anticipation of signing as many as possible.
     
  6. qtlaw

    qtlaw Well-Known Member

    Had the opportunity to meet a member of the Hungarian water polo team that defected en masse after the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and was staggered at this response:

    "How long did you guys think about this before defecting?"

    "Two days."

    Amazing life story. Guy probably did not get to speak or see to his family for over thirty years.
     
  7. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    I've never heard this story. Can you tell me/us more or provide a link. Sounds pretty interesting.

    And GB-Hack, get a life. I don't think that life in Eritrea is funny -- just the thought of the plane coming back with no players. I'm thrilled for them, hope they find a better life, and that they can be reunited with their family at some point.
     
  8. GB-Hack

    GB-Hack Active Member

    You're the one finding it funny that these guys are running away from their country, and most likely their families, not me.

    I'd say that's pretty sad.
     
  9. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    Don't you have some other board you can post on?
     
  10. GB-Hack

    GB-Hack Active Member

    I am a sports journalist.

    How about you?
     
  11. qtlaw

    qtlaw Well-Known Member

    http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/blood-in-the-water.html

    At the time, Zador was a 21-year-old college student. When the Hungarian revolt began, in October 1956, he and his teammates were training at a mountain camp outside Budapest. They could hear gunfire and could see puffs of smoke in the city. Before they could determine the outcome, they were bused out of the country and flown from Czechoslovakia to Melbourne. At the Olympic Village, Zador recalled, they were desperate for news. A water polo player who was fluent in English read a Melbourne newspaper and told his teammates what had happened: after freedom fighters had tried to overthrow the Soviet-dominated Communist regime and establish a democratic government, about 200,000 Russian troops poured across the Hungarian border, their tanks rumbling through the streets of Budapest. They left more than 5,000 people dead. The first thing the water polo players did in the Olympic Village was tear down the Hungarian flag with the Communist emblem and replace it with the banner of Free Hungary.
    ...

    Of all the members of the Hungarian water polo team who defected to the United States, Zador's sacrifice was the greatest, in Nick Martin's estimation. "Most of us were older and our careers were coming to an end," Martin said. "Ervin was the youngest player on the team. He could have been one of the best—if not the best—in the world. Water polo is the second most popular sport in Hungary, after soccer. Ervin would have been a major star in Hungary for many years—a national institution."
     
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