United trio get call ... and play alongside Pele
WITH the 2022 FIFA World Cup finals in Qatar nearly upon us, we are looking back at previous tournaments, discovering the Newcastle United connections, and remembering what else was going on in those years.
We recently recalled the involvement of Jackie Milburn and George Robledo at the 1950 finals and that of Ivor Broadis four years later.
The finals in 1958 were played in Sweden and were defined by the arrival of football’s first global superstar and a player who, for many, remains the greatest of all time.
Thankfully, 17-year-old Edson Arantes do Nascimento, Brazil’s brilliant new striking talent, and a product of Santos FC, chose to adopt a simpler nickname for his footballing activities – Pele.
The gifted teenager would lead his team to victory at this and two future World Cups.
Here on Tyneside 64 years ago, three dependable but admittedly rather less gifted players than Pele were packing their bags for Sweden.
The Newcastle United trio of Dick Keith, Alf McMichael and Tommy Casey were all called up for Northern Ireland.
They join Milburn, Robledo and Broadis as our fourth, fifth and sixth World Cup Magpies.
They form part of an elite group of 33 players, including six current stars out in Qatar, to get the World Cup call for their respective countries while on the United’s books.
Keith, McMichael and Casey played at right-back, left-back and wing-half respectively.
Their call-ups came on the back of a disappointing season at St James’ Park.
The FA Cup glory days of the early decade seemed distant memories as the team slumped to 19th in the first division and fell in the fourth round of the Cup.
In the wider world 60 years ago, the average annual UK salary was £570, an average car cost £750 and the average house price was £2,250.
In the news headlines, 1958 delivered the Munich air disaster in which 23 people including eight players were killed as a plane carrying the Manchester United team crashed on an ice-strewn runway in Germany.
Out in Sweden, the Northern Ireland team did well to finish joint second in their group before crashing out after a 4-0 play-off hammering by France.
England, meanwhile, featuring substitutes Bobby Robson and Bobby Charlton, bowed out after a 1-0 defeat to the USSR in their play-off game, thus failing to make the knockout stages.
It was Pele who famously stole the headlines. The teenager’s goal tally included three in the semi-final and two in the final – where Brazil beat Sweden 5-2 – as a global TV audience watched the World Cup for the first time.