1) Micky Quinn (PAOK Thessaloniki 1995-96)
It is hard to imagine a striker as typically old-school as Micky Quinn choosing to broaden his horizons. He was a burly scouser, his nickname was “Sumo” because of his wobbly midriff and he was unashamedly fond of a pie and pint. So how was it that he ended up seeing out his career in northern Greece with PAOK Thessaloniki aged 33? “They offered me twice as much money as I’d been earning for just one season in Greece.” Ah. He also wanted to carry on playing after being released by Coventry and had received very few offers in England despite having been prolific pretty much everywhere he played. His signing was seen as a coup in the Greek Super League. The club met him with garlands off the flight and hundreds of fans turned up to roar their approval as he stepped off the plane with eyes agog. That was as good as it got.
The Dutch coach Arie Hann left to manage Feyenoord a few months into the season and PAOK’s form took a nosedive. The club chewed up three managers between October and February and “the chairman was driving round with guns in his car because of all the stick he was getting”, explained Quinn who was as wary of possession football as he was of club owners with firearms. “[It] was dire. There were 70 passes before you even crossed the halfway line … you’d get one chance and if you missed it you’d be slaughtered in the papers.” Quinn left in February, criticising the club in the press for the shambolic way in which they were run, with many players not receiving their wages unless the previous game had attracted a large crowd. He still kept his goal ratio up though, having scored seven in 15. He never played again.
2) Johan Cruyff (Feyenoord 1983-84)
Three years after leaving Barcelona to see out his career in his slippers in the US, Johan Cruyff got bored and returned to Ajax to end it on a serious note. Even in his mid-30s his brilliance was such that he inspired his boyhood club to the league and cup double in 1983, his majestic left foot launching wave after wave of attacks that swept the club to glory. So when he wasn’t offered a contract extension at the end of the season, you can imagine how it went down. His blood boiled to the extent that he crossed one of football’s most venomous divides, signing a contract at Feyenoord.
The sight of Cruyff in Feyenoord’s kit simply didn’t look right. The press were stunned. Fans of both sides, who bitterly hated each other, didn’t know how to act. Cruyff’s new Feyenoord team-mates treated him warily at first, perhaps still unsure of his motivations but they soon found their groove and won five of their first six games before Cruyff’s return to face Ajax. Feyenoord lost 8-2 amid scenes of violence on the terraces. Was Cruyff’s move about to turn into a disastrous one?
Not in the slightest. With the burgeoning talent of a young Ruud Gullit beside him, Cruyff’s Feyenoord went on a run of 15 games unbeaten, including 12 wins. As the season neared its end, Ajax visited De Kuip. Cruyff wouldn’t be humbled again. He had been allowed to have his say on tactics and Feyenoord were now confusing teams by playing advanced full-backs. Ajax could not handle them. Feyenoord were 2-0 up inside 15 minutes thanks to goals from Gullit and Cruyff. Their 4-1 victory fuelled a successful push for the title. The satisfaction this win gave Cruyff cannot be underestimated. Feyenoord won the Cup too. Cruyff had wrestled away the two trophies he won at Ajax and placed them in Feyenoord’s trophy cabinet as a gigantic and simply glorious two-finger salute to Ajax. He could now retire. Bravo.
3) Terry McDermott (Cork City and Apoel 1985-87)
The five-time league champion and triple European Cup winner was 34 when he got a phone call from his former Newcastle team-mate Tommy Cassidy asking him to come and play for Apoel in Cyprus, for whom Cassidy was manager. At the time Terry McDermott was flying over to Cork City each weekend, where he was often taken out for a night on the booze before having to trot out at Turners Cross the next morning for which he’d receive a brown envelope containing his wages. It wasn’t the most glamorous – or healthy – way to end such a decorated career and he was on another level in terms of ability. “There was a big difference,” he said. “I’d be making the runs I used to make at Liverpool and unfortunately, the players couldn’t find you because they’re not looking for you.”
With his shaggy hair and pale skin, he wasn’t a fan of hot weather but decided to give Cyprus a go. He would be helping out a mate after all and Cassidy believed that with McDermott running things in midfield he could help get the best out of the former Spurs and Leyton Orient striker Ian Moores, who had joined Apoel the previous season. McDermott struggled to make an impact at first. “Terry’s game was all about running,” said Cassidy. “For four months in the heat he was rubbish. Then one day Terry rang me, thrilled it was raining, and in the end he won us the title.” He helped win them the Cup too, to complete the double for the first time in the club’s history. And despite mostly hating the weather, he stayed another season before bringing the curtain down on a brilliant and often overlooked career in 1987.
4) Clarence Seedorf (Botafogo 2012-14)
The only player to win the European Cup with three different clubs was quite some signing for the least celebrated of the four big Rio teams, Botafogo. At 36, Clarence Seedorf had been pushed into the background at Milan by Max Allegri, who wanted to field a more youthful team. Often – and this seems absurd – Alberto Aquilani and Kevin Prince-Boateng were preferred in midfield. There were no shortage of suitors for Seedorf in Europe when he left San Siro, so why Botafogo? Partly because of a deep admiration for the Brazil national team. “When I was watching the 1986 World Cup with my dad, he had to take me outside and calm me down after Brazil lost to France,” Seedorf explained. “I was crying with anger, because it was Zico’s last tournament. For me, he was what football was all about.”
Another reason is Seedorf’s heritage. He was born in Suriname, which borders northern Brazil and returning to play football in south America felt right. He also wanted to play with freedom in his twilight years, and this he did. It’s not often you see a 37-year-old bursting forwards so often in matches but the sight of his powerful legs defying their years to transport Seedorf to the edge of the box was a regular one in his season and a half at the Estádio Nilton Santos. He scored 24 goals, his athletic ability – which was far greater than that of most other footballers his age – meaning he was able to get around the pitch extraordinarily well and constantly get on the ball. He instilled a winning mentality in callow team-mates and inspired them to win the Rio State Cup and qualify for the Copa Libertadores by finishing fourth. To make his swansong even more romantic, he scored the third goal in the 3-0 win against Criciuma – his final professional appearance – to take them there. “I’m retiring with tranquility. Brazil welcomed me with open arms. I’ll never forget that,” a tearful Seedorf said after the match. His influence was such that without him Botafogo were relegated in 2014.
5) George Best (Brisbane Lions, Osborne Park Galeb 1983 and Tobermore United 1984)
“I’m as fit as one can be at 37,’’ smiled George Best upon arrival in Australia in 1983. “Of course I don’t compare for pace with the player I was 10 years ago. But skill – that improves with age.” Best’s descent from one of the most talented players in the world to a late-30s alcoholic desperately on the lookout for a payday to help him out of debt is an achingly sad one. Best was reported to be earning around £25,000 to play in the National Soccer League for three weeks. Brisbane expected a bumper crowd and good publicity. It didn’t quite work out to plan. Only 3,500 fans turned up at Perry Park to watch Best help Brisbane to a 2-1 win over Sydney Olympic in his first game. According to Queensland’s Courier Mail, the match was a bruising one, with Best dislocating a finger and confining “himself to probing passes and corner kicks” while keeping “clear of some robust midfield skirmishing, preferring to find space for himself in a deep-lying role on the left wing” whatever that means. Still, a win’s a win.
Best showed very little interest in the next three matches, a 3-0 defeat by St George, a 1-1 draw with Marconi and a 4-0 humbling at the hands of Adelaide. “Best’s disinclination to run or tackle became a handicap,” reported the Courier Mail. He did score on his trip Down Under, when he turned out for Osborne Park Galeb, a wealthy amateur club founded by Croatian immigrants. Best’s final competitive appearance came closer to home at Tobermore United, the only Northern Irish club that Best represented. Fortwilliam Park was packed as 4,000 fans flocked to watch Best, who had flown in from LA. They lost 7-0 to Ballymena. “He had agreed to play in the game and did what he had to do, attracting a crowd of thousands,” said Tobermore’s current chairman, Raymond Beatty. But the truth is that Best was the footballing equivalent of an ageing exotic animal being gawped at in the zoo in the hope it will do one last trick. That so many people were prepared to part with their hard-earned knowing they would probably be let down, tells you how good his tricks used to be.
6) Socrates (Garforth Town 2004)
“Substitution for Garforth Town, ladies and gentlemen. Replacing No2, Matt Higginbottom, is No6, Socrates.” It still beggars belief that this happened in a competitive match, the 50-year-old chain-smoking World Cup star peeling off his coat (but not his gloves) to make a 13-minute appearance in midfield on a freezing cold November night at Wheatley Park stadium. “I hear it’s 28 degrees in São Paulo!” came a shout from the crowd as Socrates familiarised himself with a football pitch again 15 years after he thought he’d retired.
With the score 2-2 against Tadcaster Albion, Garforth were soon in the ascendancy and Socrates took a feather-toed touch on the edge of the box before stinging the palms of the visiting goalkeeper with a dipping shot. “Give t’ball to Socrates! Give t’ball to Socrates!” yelled a couple of old fans, according to a report in the Yorkshire Post. Socrates was probably quite happy to avoid it. “The second I got out on the pitch I suffered a terrible headache,” he said afterwards. “Unfortunately, the cold was very bad. I don’t think I’ve experienced anything like it.” His brief appearance in the Northern Counties East League came after Simon Clifford, the club’s then owner and manager, had met the Brazilian while promoting his Brazilian-style Socatots coaching schools. “I decided not to play him in the next game because his warm-up had consisted of drinking two bottles of Budweiser and three cigarettes which we had in the changing rooms,” said Clifford, when paying tribute to the Brazilian after his death in 2011.