Summer Reading: Glory in Gothenberg

The day Aberdeen stunned Real Madrid and the world

Sir Alex Ferguson won everything that could be won with Manchester United. Yet his greatest footballing achievement very well could be Aberdeen FC’s incredible UEFA Cup Winners Cup Final victory over Real Madrid in May of 1983.

On that fateful day about 12,000 Aberdeen fans were in Gothenburg, having traveled by various means to get to the ground on the day. Getting from Scotland to Sweden sometimes required boat transit or a horribly indirect plane or bus route (including ferries) but still 12,000 Aberdeen fans made it.

The story of that match and in fact the entire 1982-83 campaign for Aberdeen FC is immortalized in one of my favorite books about football - Glory in Gothenberg. Not only does it follow the campaign of Aberdeen but then follows some of the more famous Aberdeen players through the rest of the footballing career. The case of one of the greats, Goalkeeper Jim Leighton is particularly interesting.

With Leighton between-the-pipes, Aberdeen won everything they could including the 1983 Cup Winners Cup. But Leigton who followed Ferguson to Manchester United (two years after his manager) was famously and cruelly dropped for the 1990 FA Cup Final replay versus Crystal Palace.

Leighton was such a great professional, in 1998, at the age of 39 he started all three of Scotland’s FIFA World Cup matches.

Being able to engage in mini-biographies about the likes of Gordan Strachan and Alex McLeish, two players I then followed closely as managers was also quite a reward of this book.

In general, reading about the plight of Aberdeen FC that season is so refreshing in this day and age. Currently, only the big clubs it feels can win big competitions, especially against the likes of Real Madrid.

But for one night in 1983, none of that mattered.

This book is not available as far as I can see on Amazon but I am sure via ebay or other third party sellers it can be obtained.