On This Day: Utd hosted Liverpool in newly built 'Old' Trafford; Icardi was born

Hi all, welcome to All Football's On This Day! Let's find out what happened today (February 19th) in football history. If you have more stories and news that happened on this day in history, please post them in the comment area and share them with AFers!

On This Day in 1910 - Back When It Was Just "Trafford"

On 19 February 1910, Liverpool spoiled the debut of Manchester United's new stadium, winning there 3-4.

Originally named United Football Ground, the stadium was designed by architect Archibald Leitch and cost approximately £60,000 to complete. It opened with a capacity of 80,000--substantially higher than the 50,000 of their previous Bank Street ground--but only 45,000 people turned out for that opening match.

United's opponents were Liverpool, who had already beaten them at Anfield earlier in the season. They completed their sweep of the Red Devils with a 3-4 win thanks to a brace each from Arthur Goddard and James Stewart (United's scorers were Tom Homer, Sandy Turnbull, and George Wall).

Renamed Old Trafford in 1936, it has remained United's home ever since, except for a brief spell after World War II when bombing damage rendered it temporarily unusable. Its highest attendance, however, did not involve United; that was set at 76,962 for a 1939 FA Cup match between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Grimsby Town when Old Trafford was still a terraced stadium. The record after conversion to an all-seater is 76,098, set during a league game between United and Blackburn Rovers in 2007.

On This Day in 1993 - Wanda Nara's husband Icardi was Born

Mauro Icardi (born 19 February 1993) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a striker for Italian club Inter Milan, and the Argentina national team. 

Icardi was at Barcelona's youth system La Masia, before moving to Sampdoria where he began his professional career. After an impressive season in 2012–13 with Sampdoria, he joined Inter Milan in July 2013 and has since scored over 100 goals in Serie A for them. He is currently Inter's ninth highest goalscorer of all time. Icardi won the Capocannoniere (the top scorer in Serie A) in 2014–15 and 2017–18, being the joint winner in both seasons. After the 2014–15 season, he was named the new captain of Inter. Three years later, Icardi was integral for Inter reaching a place in the UEFA Champions League, which was their first time in six years.

But days ago, Icardi's captaincy was stripped after he was rumoured with other clubs and some controversial comments from his wife and agent.

Icardi has been a subject of controversy due to his marriage to Wanda Nara, whose ex-husband is Icardi's former Sampdoria teammate Maxi López. López and Nara divorced because of her exposed relationship with Icardi.

Icardi is an Argentina international and made his senior debut in October 2013 but since has played very rarely. His controversial marriage has brought a lot of animosity against him in Argentina, and it has been considered to be the reason for him not playing for the national team. Icardi was controversially left out of Argentina's final squad for 2018 FIFA World Cup.

On this day in 1977, Gianluca Zambrotta was born

Throughout his club career, Zambrotta played for several different Italian clubs. He began his career with local club Como in 1994, and gained prominence while playing for Bari, which earned him a transfer to Juventus in 1999. During his seven seasons with the club, he won two consecutive Serie A and Supercoppa Italiana titles in 2002 and 2003, also reaching the 2003 UEFA Champions League final. He also later spent two relatively unsuccessful seasons with Barcelona between 2006 and 2008, where he won the 2006 Supercopa de España, before returning to Italy to play for Milan, where he won his third Serie A and Supercoppa Italiana titles in 2011. He ended his career after a season with Swiss club Chiasso in 2014, whom he later went on to coach.

At international level, Zambrotta won 98 caps for the Italy national team, playing at three FIFA World Cups, three UEFA European Championship, the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup and the 2000 Summer Olympics. He was part of their side that reached the Euro 2000 final, and he was also selected to the Euro 2004 Team of the Tournament. He was most notably a key member of the starting lineup of the Italian squad that won the 2006 World Cup, and he was selected in the Team of the Tournament for his performances.

On This Day in 2008 - Who You Gonna Call?

On 19 February 2008, the Daily Mail reported that Arsenal goalkeeper Manuel Almunia believed his house was haunted.

Almunia, who joined the Gunners in 2004 from Celta Vigo, purchased a house in the Hertsfordshire village of Abbots Langley, close to Arsenal's Shenley Training Center. According to the Daily Mail, the house may have been built on the site of Leavesden Hospital, a mental hospital that closed sometime during the 1990s.

The goalkeeper claimed that his wife, Ana, had seen "a monk-like figure with a candle in his hand at the end of the bed." Almunia himself had not seen the ghost, but heard chains rattling, saw stereos turn on at full volume, and was, in his own words "shit-scared." The situation had gotten so bad that Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger granted permission for Almunia to go home for lunch so that his wife would not be there alone.

He left Arsenal in 2012 and played two seasons for Watford before retiring in 2014.

On This Day in 2006 - Caught Playing A Shell Game

On 19 February 2006, the Football Association of Ireland relegated Shelbourne FC to the second tier, despite the club having just won the 2006 Premier League title.

Established in 1895, the Dublin club is one of Ireland's most successful teams, with thirteen league titles (only Shamrock Rovers have more, with 15). Under manager Pat Fenlon, Shels dominated the League of Ireland in the 2000s, winning the title in 2000, 2002, 2003, and 2004 before winning their thirteenth title overall in 2006 by edging second-place finishers Derry City on goal differential. Their success, however, was not cheap.

Shels had spent freely in the preceding seasons, bringing in several expensive transfers. By the 2006 season, the spending had begun to catch up to them and the club's finances began to show signs of strain and, by the end of the season, Shelbourne owed wages to seventeen players. The financial distress sparked an exodus of several players as well as Fenlon, who took over at Derry City.

The FAI investigated Shelbourne's financial state and, as a consequence, decided to drop the club out of the Premier Division and into the second-tier First Division. Shelbourne returned to the top flight in in 2012, but finished the 2013 season in last place and dropped back down to the First Division.