User:Timbouctou/HarryGame

Harry Game was an English football player and manager.

He played as a striker for Millwall FC, Cardiff and Crystal Palace. He stopped football as an athlete at the age of 24 due to a serious injury. In the period 1950-51, at the age of 27, he assumed the technical leadership of the Panathinaikos team in Greece. The team had proceeded with renewal by acquiring footballers such as Linoxylakis, Panakis, Nempidis. Harry Game introduced innovative training methods to the team, was strict and pursued competitive discipline.

During his second season, 1951-52, at Panathinaikos, the team began to show remarkable results and won the Athens Championship. The Greek championship was not held due to the obligations of the national team. In the period 1952-53, Petropoulos, Roditsas, Filippou and other notable athletes were transferred to Panathinaikos. Panathinaikos won the Greek Championship undefeated in the final phase having only one defeat in the Athens Championship which they also won, which also qualified them for the final phase of the Panhellenic. Family problems as well as internal disputes in the team, forced Harry Game to return to England with the consequence that he could not complete his project.

He then went to Belgium and Antwerp where he stayed for 7 years and worked successfully. During this time the Royal Antwerp team won the Belgian Cup in 1955 and the Belgian championship in 1957. In 1956 and 1958 his team finished second in the Belgian championship.

At the age of 37, Harry Game returned to Greece again to take up the role of coach at Panathinaikos. A year earlier, the first First National Championship was held in Greece, with Panathinaikos winning it with 3 veteran athletes, Antonis Miyakis and co-coaches Odysseas Tsoutsos and Nikos Simos, in the technical leadership. It was Mimi Domazos' first season at Panathinaikos. With the addition of Phylakouris and Pytichoutis, Panathinaikos had a highly successful year winning the Greek Championship with 7 points difference from 2nd Olympiakos, 10 from Panionios and 11 from AEK. The team's great performance was in the wide-ranging 8-1 victory over Progressevtii with 3 goals from Andreas Papaemmanouil. In the same period, Harry Game was the coach of Panathinaikos in the team's first official European participation as Panathinaikos competed for the first time in the European Champions Cup against Spartak Hradec Kralove. The qualification was decided by a goal in the 89th minute scored by the Czech team in the first match.

The following year, Takis Loukanidis is transferred to Panathinaikos while the team is in excellent condition. Panathinaikos scored its first defeat in the league on matchday 27 against PAOK. The following matchday, Panathinaikos had also mathematically won the championship with the consequence of competing in the 30th and last matchday at the Karaiskaki stadium, already being the champion in a match that ended with 1-1. It was the third consecutive championship for Panathinaikos and Harry Game's third with the club. With his conquest, he is the coach of Panathinaikos with the most championships in Greece to this day (he is followed by Bobek, Puskas and Rotsa with 2). In the same year in Europe under coach Harry Game, Panathinaikos was eliminated by Juventus after remarkable performances (1-1 in Leoforo and 2-1 in Torino).

The next season, Harry Game had the opportunity to win another championship with Panathinaikos. It tied in the Greek championship with AEK and a play-off match was needed to be crowned champion. The match ended with a score of 3-3, but AEK was the one that emerged as the champion as the goal difference was in their favor. The match was attended by Stefan Bobek, who replaced Harry Game after the completion of the Championship, continuing his work with similar success. Then he found himself again in the technical leadership of Royal Antwerp.

Honours

 * Panathinaikos
 * Greek Championship: 1952–53, 1960–61, 1961–62
 * Greek Cup: 1951–52, 1952–53
 * Royal Antwerp
 * Belgian Championship: 1956–57
 * Belgian Cup: 1954–55
 * Hapoel Tel Aviv
 * Israel State Cup: 1971–72

By nation
Teams from thirteen nations have been to a Champions League final, and teams from ten of those have won the competition. Since the 1995–96 season, other than Porto's win in 2003–04, the winners have come from one of only four nations – Spain (11), England (6), Germany (4) and Italy (4) – and other than Monaco in 2003–04 and Paris Saint-Germain in 2019–20, the runners-up have all come from the same four nations.