A Mixed Bag of European Football Quiz

Answer: Juventus

Juventus won their 27th championship in the 2002-03 season by 7 points over second-place Inter Milan. Juventus was founded in 1897 in Turin, Italy, and the arrival of businessmen Ajmone-Marsan and Edoardo Agnelli (who was FIAT's vice president) revitalized the club and set it up for success. Between its founding and 1950, the club amassed a total of eight Serie A trophies.

In the second half of the 20th century, the team continued to accumulate wins in local leagues and also in several international competitions. "Juve" won a European Cup (now known as UEFA Champions League) in 1985 and another one in 1996.

The club traditionally wears black and white striped kits.

Answer: Ruud Gullit

Ruud Gullit was an incredibly versatile player who could perform in almost any position. Between 1979 and 1987, Gullit played successful and goal-filled seasons with Dutch clubs HFC Haarlem, Feyenoord, and PSV. He then spent a significant portion of the rest of his career in Italy, playing first for AC Milan and then for Sampdoria. Between 1995 and 1998, Gullit served as a player-manager in English club Chelsea, becoming the first-ever Dutchman to manage a Premier League team. Since then, Gullit has managed teams in the Netherlands, the United States, and Russia. He also had a successful international career playing with the Netherlands, with which he scored a goal against Ireland in the 1990 World Cup.

Gullit is not the man in the picture, but his former hairstyle was similar!

Answer: Bologna

Bologna or Bologna FC 1909 is an Italian football club from the eponymous city in Emilia-Romagna. The club was founded, as its name suggests, in 1909. Though its success has been quite limited in the 21st century, the team won multiple Serie A titles between the 1920s and 1940s. They have since been relegated and promoted multiple times. Bologna, too, refers to a kind of meat also known as baloney. It is a pork sausage that can be seasoned with many different ingredients and used to make foods like sandwiches.

Giovanni Ferrari was born in 1907 in Alessandria, Italy. It is in that city that he started this professional football career, playing for US Alessandria between 1923 and 1925 and then again between 1926 and 1930 after being on loan with Napoli. In 1930, he switched to Juventus, where he scored more than 60 goals and won five consecutive Serie A championships. Five years passed and he moved to another popular Italian club, Internazionale. Then, he played for a year in Bologna in the 1940-41 season, winning the team's sixth Serie A title. Finally, Ferrari returned to Juventus for one last year, where he retired as a player-manager. Ferrari was also called to the Italian national team multiple times in his career, and also managed the Italian squad between 1958 and 1962.

Answer: Yes

Johan Cruyff had a strong connection with the Dutch club Ajax since he was young. He started his youth career there in 1957 and debuted in the professional arena in 1964. Between 1964 and 1973, Cruyff scored more than 150 goals and won several trophies with the club, including 6 Eredivisie league titles. During this period, he also received the prestigious Ballon d'Or award twice, in 1971 and 1973. Cruyff's next step in his career was in none other than Spain's FC Barcelona. Soon after the transfer, Barcelona won their first league title in 14 years, instantly turning Cruyff into a fan favorite. Between 1978 and 1983, Cruyff played for other clubs in the United States and Spain before returning to Ajax and then playing the last year of his career for Feyenoord. Only one year after his retirement as a player, Cruyff was appointed head coach of Ajax, and later managed Barcelona and Catalonia's national team.

The stadium in the picture is Stadion Feijenoord or De Kuip, which Feyenoord began using in Rotterdam in 1937. Feyenoord was founded in 1908 and has evolved to be one of the most successful clubs in the Netherlands. The team won their fifteenth Eredivisie title in the 2016-17 season, a number of trophies which at that time had only been won by Ajax and PSV Eindhoven.

Answer: Italy

Paolo Montero started his football career in his native Uruguay with the club Peñarol in 1990. The son of Uruguayan footballer Julio Montero Castillo, Montero transferred to Italian side Atalanta only two years later, in 1992. Despite playing mostly as a defensive player, Montero managed to score 4 goals while at Atalanta. He then made a big career move in 1996 when he moved to the highly successful Italian club Juventus. It is with Juventus that he won a number of accolades with the team, including four Serie A league titles and a UEFA Super Cup. Montero finished his career in Peñarol following a brief spell with Argentina's San Lorenzo. He retired in 2007 and transitioned to a career as a manager.

Tomatoes are part of many international cuisines like Italy's. Some of the country's famous tomato-based dishes include pizza, pasta pomodoro, caprese salad, and bruschetta.

Answer: Eintracht Frankfurt

Andreas Möller played as a midfielder and spent most of his career in his native country of Germany. Möller, who was born in Frankfurt in 1967, began his professional career at Eintracht Frankfurt in 1985, and then moved to Borussia Dortmund. He returned to Eintracht for two years before transferring to Juventus. He scored more than 15 goals with the Italian club and then left in 1994 to return to Borussia Dortmund. The final years of his career were spent in Schalke 04 and to bring things full circle, he retired while playing for Eintracht Frankfurt in 2004.

Eintracht Frankfurt is one of the distinctive features of the German city. It is often associated with the colors red, white, and black, and began playing at the Waldstadion in 1925. Though it has not been as successful in the local league as other clubs, some of its earned honors include the 1959 German Championship, the 1997-98 season of the 2. Bundesliga (German second division) and, more recently, the UEFA Europa League in 2022. The city's name is also associated with a type of pork sausage known as Frankfurter or Frankfurter Würstchen, often served with sauerkraut (as seen in the picture).

Answer: Monaco

Jean-Pierre Papin was a French forward who played for eight different clubs in his career. Arguably, his most successful era was between 1986 and 1992. This is the time when he played for Olympique de Marseille in France and scored over 100 goals, earning several Division 1 top-scorer awards. He was also awarded the Ballon d'Or in 1991. Following his time in Marseille, Papin played for AC Milan and Bayern Munich before returning to France, where he played for three different clubs before retiring from professional football in Saint-Pierroise in 2001.

One club where Papin never played was AS Monaco, a club that plays in the French league and has won the title multiple times. Monaco is a city-state that borders France but has its own sovereignty. The city has become known for being a place where affluent people go to spend their leisure time. The Monte Carlo casino opened in 1865 and was a game-changer for the place's economy. Interestingly, Princess Caroline forbade citizens of Monaco from entering the casinos, which means only foreigners can gamble in them.

Answer: Penalty shootout

The 1996 version of the UEFA Champions League, Europe's most prestigious club-level competition, was played in Rome's Stadio Olimpico. In that regard, Juventus came in with a slight advantage because they were playing in their home country. Both clubs had a spectacular tournament, finishing at the top of their respective groups and beating clubs like Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid to get to the final. Juventus gained an advantage early in the match with an eleventh-minute goal by forward Fabrizio Ravanelli. Before the end of the first half, Finnish striker Jari Litmanen helped Ajax come back to the match by scoring the goal that tied the game. The score stayed that way through the end of the match, and neither squad was able to score another goal in extra time. When Spanish referee Manuel Diaz Vega declared the end of extra time, the audience was ready to see the penalty shootout to define the winners. Edgar Davids missed the first penalty for Ajax, and defender Sonny Silooy missed the fourth, sealing Ajax's defeat. Meanwhile, Juventus scored all 4 penalties they took, winning the trophy via a 4-2 result in the penalty shootout.

After the match, some controversy was created over the alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs by Juventus players.

Answer: Villareal

Martin Palermo was born in La Plata, Argentina in 1973. He started his professional career in the local club Estudiantes de La Plata, where he developed his goal-scoring talent. He then moved to one of Argentina's most popular clubs. Boca Juniors, in 1997. There, he scored over 80 goals and won a Copa Libertadores (South America's most important club-level competition). In 2001, Palermo signed with Spanish side Villareal but his time at the club wasn't too good, mainly because of a horrific injury he suffered in his left leg while celebrating a goal. He briefly played for Betis and Alaves before leaving Spain and returning to his beloved Boca Juniors, where he played between 2004 and his retirement in 2011. He then became a manager and has been the head coach for clubs in Argentina, Chile, and Mexico.

Villareal CF was founded in 1923 in the Spanish city of the same name. They debuted in Spain's first division in 1998 against none other than Real Madrid. They were runners-up in the 2007-08 season and won the UEFA Europa League in 2021. The club has been nicknamed "yellow submarine" since 1967 when Villareal fans started singing the Beatles' song to cheer on the team. Another Spanish club, Cadiz, also is referred to as "yellow submarine". Both Villareal and Cadiz have yellow as their identifying color.

Answer: Greece

Zisis Vryzas spent the first decade of his career in his native Greece, playing for Skoda Xanthi and then PAOK. He then moved to Perugia in Italy and then was part of Fiorentina, Celta de Vigo, and Torino between 2003 and 2006. He went back to Skoda Xanthi in the 2006-07 season and finally retired in his beloved PAOK in 2008, where he was warmly wished farewell by the club's fans. Vryzas was part of the Greek national team that won the 2004 UEFA Euro trophy against Portugal.

Greece is a country in southern Europe that is rich in culture and history. Greece is known for its many contributions to modern life, including the concept of democracy, the Olympic Games, and famous philosophers and writers like Socrates and Homer. The Greeks refer to themselves as "Hellenic" because that is what the original inhabitants of that region were called. Pictured is The Parthenon, a famous temple in Athens dedicated to the goddess Athena.