On This Day: Manuel Neuer was born; Scholes bagged 1st & only England hat-trick

Hi all, welcome to All Football's On This Day! Let's find out what happened today (March 27th) in football history. If you have more stories and news that happened on this day in history, feel free to post them in the comment area and share them with AFers!

On This Day in 1986 - Happy Birthday! Manuel Neuer!

Captain for both Bayern Munich and the Germany team Manuel Neuer was born in 27 March 1986, happy birthday!

Neuer has been described as a "sweeper-keeper" because of his unique playing style and speed when rushing off his line to anticipate opponents; he is also known for his quick reflexes, excellent shot-stopping abilities, strength, long throwing range, command of his area, and accurate control and distribution of the ball.

Regarded by pundits as the best goalkeeper in the world (he won the IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper award for four consecutive years between 2013 and 2016), and as one of the best and most complete goalkeepers of all-time, Neuer won the 2014 FIFA World Cup with Germany as well as the Golden Glove award for being the best goalkeeper in the tournament, and is considered by some in the sport to be the best goalkeeper in football since Lev Yashin.

In 2014, Neuer finished third in the voting, behind Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, for the FIFA Ballon d'Or award. The same year, he was ranked the third-best player in the world by The Guardian.

33 today, Neuer is still one of the best in the world.

On This Day in 1999 - Scholes' First and Only England Hat-Trick

On 27th March in 1999, Paul Scholes scored his first and only England hat-trick in a 3-1 win vs. Poland at Wembley.

England lived up to Keegan's promise of exciting football as Scholes got the hosts off to the perfect start, stabbing captain Alan Shearer's slight touch in the box past the advancing 'keeper after 11 minutes, before chesting the ball into the back of the net from David Beckham's cross 10 minutes later.

England, with the game seemingly under their control, conceded a goal after 29 minutes, Jerzy Brzeczek running onto a cut-back to fire home from 12 yards, but Scholes made it 3-1 in the 70th minute with a powerful header from six yards out, before being substituted seven minutes from time to a rapturous ovation.

Scholes' goal

On This Day in 2002 - He May Have Won The Match, But He Got Screwed On The Shirt Deal

On 27 March 2002, the shirt worn by Pelé in the 1970 World Cup Final sold at an auction for a record £157,750. The bid, placed by an anonymous telephone bidder, smashed the expected sale price, estimated by Christie's auction house at a mere £50,000.

The shirt still had grass stains from the Final, in which Pelé scored the opening goal in Brazil's 4-1 win over Italy. The shirt was auctioned by Italian defender Roberto Rosato, who acquired it by swapping shirts with Pelé at the end of the match.

The sale beat the previous auction record of £91,750, paid for the shirt worn by England's Geoff Hurst in the 1966 World Cup Final.

On This Day in 2012 - The Game Doesn't Always Stop After The Final Whistle

On 27 March 2012, five players received post-match red cards after Crawley's 1-2 win over Bradford City, matching a Football League record.

Played at Bradford's Valley Parade ground, the League Two match paired two teams headed in opposite directions. Crawley, freshly promoted from the Football Conference, had won their previous three games to climb to fourth in the table. The hosts, meanwhile, had lost three and drawn one of their last four, falling to nineteenth.

Holding to form, Crawley went up 0-1 in the 54th minute with a header from Leon Clarke. Bradford's Chris Dagnall equalized in the 72nd minute, but Gary Alexander scored two minutes later with another header to restore Crawley's lead. Despite seven minutes of added time, Bradford were unable to find the net again.

After the final whistle, Bradford defender Andrew Davies lashed out at Crawley captain Pablo Mills, prompting players from both sides to engage in a full-on brawl. Both Davies and Mills received red cards, as John McLaughlin and Luke Oliver from Bradford and Crawley's Claude Davis.

The five reds matched a Football League record for a single game, set in a February 1997 contest between Plymouth Argyle and Chesterfield and matched by Bristol Rovers and Wigan Athletic in December of that year.

On This Day in 1988 - Kundé Claims The Cup For Cameroon

On 27 March 1988, Cameroon won their second African Cup of Nations, beating Nigeria with a second-half penalty from defender Emmanuel Kundé. It was Cameroon's third trip to the final and the second one in which they faced Nigeria (they beat the Super Eagles 3-1 in 1984 to claim their first title). 

The two teams were paired in the same group for the 1988 tournament and had played to a 1-1 draw. Nigeria went on to top the group, with Cameroon in second. Cameroon advanced to the final with a 1-0 win over Morocco, while Nigeria claimed their spot by beating Algeria on penalties, 1-1 (9-8). 

Throughout the tournament, goals were scarce. With a total of sixteen matches, teams scored more than one goal only twice. The final, played before a crowd of 60,000 at the Stade Mohamed V in Casablanca, continued that trend, as the teams played to a hard-fought scoreless draw at the break. Ultimately, they were separated only by a 55th-minute penalty kick, duly converted by Kundé to seal the win for Cameroon.

Since then, the Indomitable Lions have won the cup twice more (2000, 2002) to take their overall total to four. Nigeria, meanwhile, has two cups of their own, won in 1980, 1994 and 2013.

On This Day in 1989 - The Tigers Declawed

On 27 March 1989, Bradford City held Hull City to a 1-1 draw, starting a club-record streak of 27 winless league matches for the visiting Tigers.

In fairness, Hull hadn't fared too well before the streak, either. By the time they visited Bradford's Valley Parade ground in March, they had won only 11 of their 35 matches in Division Two that season and were sitting in 19th place. They had beaten Plymouth Argyle the week before, but that rare victory stemmed a string of six straight losses. The draw with Bradford City dropped them into 20th place and they barely escaped relegation, finishing the season in 21st after 5 draws and 5 losses in their last 10 matches.

The next season, they picked up where they had left off, going without a league win in their first 16 matches. They finally broke the streak on 11 November 1989, when they returned to Bradford City and managed a 2-3 victory.