THE FIRST IFFHS AWARD WINNERS IN 1987 : Jean-Marie PFAFF and Romualdo Arppi FILHO

Picture 1 : Jean-Marie Pfaff (Belgium) was the first winner of the IFFHS Award THE WORLD’S BEST GOALKEEPER in 1987.

Picture 2 :Romualdo Arppi Filho (Brazil) (at the center of the picture) won the first IFFHS Award THE WORLD’S BEST REFEREE in 1987.

Picture 3 : Romualdo Arppi Filho, the referee of the World Cup Final 1986 between Argentina with Diego Maradona and Germany with Karl Heinz Rummennigge.

PRESENTATION IFFHS AWARD WINNERS

We remember the two first IFFHS Awards THE WORLD’S BEST GOALKEEPER and THE WORLD’S BEST REFEREE in 1987. The IFFHS created these two Awards to honour the “special” role of two so important actors in the football, the Goalkeeper and the Referee.

We will publish the presentation of all IFFHS Award winners in the next months.

PRESENTATION

JEAN-MARIE PFAFF 

Jean Marie Pfaff

Born in Lebbeke (Belgium) the 4 December 1953, Jean-Marie Pfaff made a great career. At 16, he joined KSK Beveren (1972-1982, 305 matches) and won a Belgian Champion title (1979) and a Belgian Cup (1979).In 1982, he entered the FC Bayern München squad (1982-1988, 156 matches), getting 3 Bundesliga titles (1985,1986,1987) and 2 German cups (1984,1986). Pfaff  was capped 64 times playing for Belgium (1976-1987), he was its Goalkeeper during Euro 1980 and Euro 1984 and participated at the 1982 FIFA World Cup and 1986 FIFA World Cup tournaments. He played also with Lierse (Belgium – 23 matches) and Trabzonspor (Turkey- 22 matches) to finish his career in 1990.

Since, Jean-Marie Pfaff has managed the team of K.V. Oostende (1998-1999) and has many activities in football.

IFFHS AWARD 1987 : he won the Bundesliga title and was finalist of the UEFA Champions League against FC Porto with FC Bayern München. He played also great matches with Belgium and so he became the first winner of THE WORLD’S BEST GOALKEEPER.

ROMUALDO ARPPI FILHO

Romualdo Arppi Filho

Romualdo Arppi Filho will celebrate his 80th anniversary the 7 January in 2019. Born in Santos (Brazil), he was passionate by football et chose to become referee. He was FIFA referee from 1963 to 1990 (27 years). He is mostly known to be the second Brazilian after Arnaldo Cezar Coelho (1982) to referee a FIFA World Cup Final , it was in 1986 between Argentina and Germany. He participated also as referee at the Olympics Games 1968 in Mexico,  1980 in Moscow and  1984 in Los Angeles. He was also the referee of the Club World Cup final in 1984.

IFFHS AWARD 1987 : he was on the top of performances after the World Cup Final 1986 and became the first winner of THE WORLD’S BEST REFEREE.