La Bruja, however, was not to be made a fake Greek. Once again ultra-nationalism played a role, this time a reverse one: if normally foreigners had to pose as Greeks for the glory of club and country, La Bruja had to stay exactly who he was for the glory of club and country – Greece was showing to the world that it was becoming big football country. Watch out, world! Panathinaikos was coming to concur you! I guess an exemption from the rules was quietly made… which triggered a domino effect. It was not only Veron Panathinaikos bought, but two other guys – another Argentine named Irala and a Brazilian named Araken Demelo. Demelo at least can be traced: he played a bit for Vasco da Gama before moving to Huracan (Buenos Aires) from where Panathinaikos got him. He stayed three seasons in Panathinaikos, moving to Atromitos (Athens) in 1975, but his record is not impressive: 41 matches and 21 goals in four seasons. Irala is complete obscurity – even his first name cannot be found. Where Panathinaikos discovered his talent is also unknown. He posed with Demelo and Veron for photos intended to scare the world, but… he played 2 games if I am not mistken. Solid record of class. By the end of 1972 Panathinaikos obtained a forth foreigner – an Argentine again, Ramon Artemio Gramajo, who survived the grueling Greek football for two seasons. La Bruja himself played two years for Panathinaikos – a total of 57 matches in which he scored 22 goals. Not bad, but not great either.
However, if Panathinaikos is allowed to import players, Olympiakos must be allowed too. They were… 4 foreigners, so to be ‘fair’, but with a difference: as if to spit on their enemies, Olympiakos got Uruguayan player from Penarol (Montevideo), a little hint that Uruguayans had beaten Panathinaikos for the Intercontinental Cup in 1971. Milton Viera and Julio Losada arrived, joined by 2 Argentines – Antonio Justo Alcibar and Migel Alberto Nicolau, and Austrian of Greek ancestry Peter Persidis. There were already 2 French players and a Cypriot in the team from 1971 – Tryantafilos and Romain Argiroudis, and if they, Persidis, and Nicolau were to pass for Greeks, Losada and Viera were to be kept foreign, at par with Panathinaikos’s foreign stars. Curiously, the Olympiakos’s foreigners faired much batter in Greece than the Panathinaikos’s: Viera played 4 seasons and Losada (who later took Greek citizenship and settled in Athens) played 7 seasons for the club from Piraeus.
Now, if you allow Panathinaikos and Olympiakos to take foreigners, the third big club – AEK – cries murder. So they have to be allowed too… AEK acquired 3 obscure Argentines. The record went to a smaller provincial club, Kalamata, which was immediately graced by 5 foreigners – 4 Argentines plus a Brazilian, of which nobody ever heard of before… or after. And so it went: permitting Athens clubs to buy from abroad did not stay well with Thessaloniki’s big guys PAOK. If PAOK can import, its city rivals Aris and Iraklis should too… and very soon every Greek club was importing (largely unknown Argentines for the most of the 1970s) by the carload. Eventually, European players came to Greece and by the end of the 70s players of some fame started slowly to appear. It was far cry from Rivaldo and other major names routinely playing for Greek clubs nowadays, but it was the beginning of the improvement of Greek football. I strongly think the foreigners eventually introduced real professionalism into Greek football and started its ascent. As for the rule against foreign players, I suspect it was never changed, but quietly forgotten.
As for Panathinaikos becoming big, dominating club in the early 1970s European football – this did not materialize, La Bruja or no La Bruja. But the players market expanded nevertheless.
Julio Losada, the first successful foreigner in Greek football – 5 times champion with Olympiakos. Also called Losanta in Greece, the striker played for the national team of Uruguay before going to Piraeus, including 2 matches in the 1970 World Cup.

By far, the most foreigners in Greece were Cypriots – but were they foreigners? The question is tricky, and quite political. The military dictators of Greece were heavily responsible for the conflict in Cyprus, which divided the island and keep it divided today. In terms of football the Greek ultra-nationalism not only recognized Cypriots as Greeks, but also included the champions of Cyprus in Greek First Division. Thus, Cyrpus was similar to Second Division championship between 1967 and 1974 – the champion of the league was promoted to the Greek First for the next season. And ultimately relegated at the end of the season… so big was the difference between the lowly Greek football and the even lowlier Cypriot football at the time. Ironically, the only Cypriot club to avoid relegation was in the last season of this weird practice – in 1974 APOEL finished 13th in the 18-club league, but was ‘relegated’ anyway, for Cypriot clubs were no longer to play in the Greek championship.

But during those years Cyprus had independent federation; the national team played in the international tournaments; and the Cypriot champions – in the European Champions Cup and the other club tournaments. And it stands to reason that Cypriot rules may have been different from Greek rules – which included surprise foreigner in the Greek league in 1972, when Omonia (Nicosia) had obscure Romanian player in its squad – one Constantin Fratila. Yet, even by the end of the 70s various foreign players had to take Greek names if wanting to play in Greece, a recognized nightmare for football statisticians, unable to establish who is who.

Constantin Fratila may not be known to football fans around the world, but he played 221 league games, scoring 95 goals for Dinamo (Bucharest) before joining Omonia (Nicosia). He also played 7 matches for the Romanian national team, scoring 7 goals. A legend of Dinamo, he is a part of another little known story: Romania, by the early 1970s, was contemplating following the Polish model – quiet export of aging players. Fratila is one of the very early Romanian exports, as well as one of the very early Cypriot imports. An unique case in every aspect.

The third player went to Greece and two-folded story started with that.
Juan Ramon Veron – ‘La Bruja’, pictured with highly unusual transparent Panathinaikos jersey.
The Witch was a star player of the winning hooligans, Estudiantes (La Plata) before going to Greece. On one hand, he was part of the freshly invigorated European interest in South Americans and the general enlargement of players market. On the other – he represented big and intricate change in Greek football – he was the first major star to play for Greek club.
The background of the transfer was rather simple: after reaching the European Champions Cup final in 1971, Panathinaikos were determined to establish themselves as a big European club. And a big club needs big players, and big players are often foreign stars. After playing the Intercontinental Cup in 1971, South American stars were more or less obvious choice – the Greeks hardly had the means to buy European star and those from across the Atlantic Ocean were both famous and relatively cheap. The transfer of Veron is still understood as the first transfer of foreign player to Greece, a beginning of importation. This is wrong – Greece imported players since 1959, but in a very complicated way.
Alexander Mastrogiannopoulos prepared careful list of foreign players in Greece for the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation, where he makes very important note: ‘Many of the Players listed, came as Greek's, or obtained the Citizenship later. Cypriots do not count as Foreigners, but are also listed.’ Greece did not officially allowed foreign players – when the ban was lifted, if it was lifted, is unknown to me. It was certainly valid by 1972, but foreigners of Greek ancestry were permitted to play – the familiar ‘oriundi’ rule. Between 1959 and 1972 players from Austria, Italy, Yugoslavia, France, but also Syria,Ethiopia, and even Turkey appeared in Greek clubs – who was really a diaspora Greek and who was not is impossible to tell. None was even remotely known player and in fact the only player with a name was the French Yves Triantafylos, who came to Panathinaikos’s archrival Olympiakos (Piraeus) from Saint Etienne in 1971. But Tryantafilos is is recognizable name only from a distance, in retrospect: he became top goalscorer in Greece, moved back to France and became part of the first phase of Saint Etienne, when the club was becoming strong, but not yet European power. Tryantafilos eventually was included in the French national team – and played 1 match with the blue shirt, but already as a Saint Etienne player. He had another stint in Greece nearly at the end of his career.
Bearded Tryantafilos starts for France against Hungary in 1974. One Stefan Kovacs was coaching France, after his success with Ajax. By the time Tryantafilos donned the blue French shirt, La Bruja was thinking of going home.

Three transfers of Argentine players in the summer of 1972 I think were pivotal for the new changes: Pasoriza, Veron, and Piazza.
Jose Omar Pastoriza or ‘El Pato’ (The Duck) was bought by AS Monaco from Independiente. El Pato was getting old, but he was a star. He played 18 matches for Argentina between 1966 and 1972, but more importantly he was fresh from winning Copa Libertadores with Independiente this year. A high profile player of the kind not seen in Europe after 1966.
Osvaldo Piazza was the opposite of Pastoriza: not a striker, but central defenseman. Young, not old, and coming from little known midtable Argentine club hardly known in Europe – Lanus. Saint Etienne snatched him as soon as he made impression in his home land to replace the legendary Robert Herbin, who took the coaching position of the club. Piazza became a key player of the great Saint Etienne of mid-1970s, one of the best defensemen in Europe at the time, and played a total of 15 games for Argentina between 1972 and 1977. Menotti wanted him badly in 1978, but Piazza declined the offer for family reasons, which at that time may had been really political reasons. Thus, Piazza failed to become World Champion in 1978, but his reputation in Europe was great.
France was buying South Americans in the previous years, perhaps the only European country doing so in the late 1960s, but this time high profile players came – once again South American stars were interesting for the European clubs, both established and young and promising, and in the next years the number only increased.

All of the above was about to change soon, the first signs of change appearing in 1972. After long draught noticeable South American players came to Europe. One of them went to Greece – the biggest foreign import Greek football saw so far, and with this started the elevation of the Greek football. Ajax broke the old rule of having only as many foreigners as allowed to be fielded by the rules, broke another rule by keeping foreigners on the bench, instead of playing them to death, and made the first big transfer of their own player, thus braking another rule – not to sell stars when the team is in its prime and winning. The German bribery scandal suddenly provided a whole bunch of players, previously off the international market, to other countries, including the so far unusual places like Scotland and South Africa. Soon the market was to be very dynamic, with Spain lifting the ban on foreign players, Yugoslavia abandoning the age restriction and starting to include foreign based players in the national team as well. All of this was still in the future, but the market started to expand in 1972. The argument whether foreigners are good or bad is as old as football itself – and provides no clear answer. To me, it is clear that foreigners played a role in the success of Ajax, in the development of Greek football, in reestablishing of Barcelona among the big clubs after very lean 1960s, and many other achievements. It is also clear to me, that there is no much fun in having 20 foreign national players in the stable. After all, England’s Premier Division consists of 60% foreign players – and look what the English national team looks like steadily after 1972. Foreign players are not a curse, but they are not a blessing either, yet, it was much more interesting – to me anyway – to see transfers in the early 70s than nowadays.
And saying so, can you tell me, if such names are familiar to you at all, was Ole Bornmose a good player? Or Heinz van Haaren? Or may be Idriz Hosic? Were they to improve Denmark, Holland, or Yugoslavia respectfully, back then? For I have no idea.
Idriz Hosic, playing for 1.FC Kaiserslautern in the 1971-72 season. Perhaps I am a bit unfair to him: as a Partizan (Belgrade) footballer the Bosnian played at the 1968 European Championship final. Actually, in the replay, after the first match ended in 1-1 tie, which Yugoslavia lost 0-2 to Italy. So, he was silver medallist, but by 1972 the scrupulous German ranking did not consider him a ‘world class’.

Yugoslavia, Sweden, and Denmark provided the main supply of foreign players to small European market. It was enough. Occasional Turk or Finn appeared here and there, Austrian players went to play for small West German clubs, German journeyman not able to establish themselves at home went to help an Austrian or Swiss club to win a domestic title and practically that was all. Except one more country with peculiar exporting practice should be added: Poland. Occasionally and on individual basis, Poland allowed aging local stars to play abroad, almost exclusively in France. It was quite affair, never mentioned in the press, so very often fans thought that certain player already retired, when he was kicking the ball in France. So little was known – and always discovered too late and accidentally – that it is impossible to tell what the exact policy was, if there was established policy at all. Some players were allowed, but others – not. A middle of the road player may be allowed to go at about 30 years of age and end up in First Division, when a star would be kept until he was well over the hill and useless for anything else but Third Division. Active national players were not going to foreign pastures of course and in any case it was not frequent event – years may go by without any Pole allowed to play abroad, then suddenly four-five veterans were unleashed. It hide and seek game, played by the Polish Federation trying to establish export without attracting Communist political attention in the process. Certainly more Poles played abroad than, say, Turks, but it was insignificant number anyway.

Ryszard Gregorczyck, a typical Polish case: aging former national player with 23 matches and 2 goals, he was not included in the national squad since 1966. In 1971 he was allowed to play in France – here is with RC Lens kit during 1972-73 season. Nobody heard of the transfer and my original impression was that he defected. Apparently, I was wrong in 1973, but learned I was wrong in 2007.

Now, Sweden followed the same road until the end of the 1950s, but changed policy after seeing the famous Gre-No-Li line (Gren-Nordahl-Liedholm) going to Italy. There was no way to stop the players – top Italian clubs were offering big money and to play in top championship was more than tempting too. Even for the good of Swedish football it was better the stars to play in Italy, since domestic football provided nothing for keeping the stars stars. But the national team was the loser in the same time – if only amateurs were to play for Sweden, than… mediocrity. It would be much better to have Gre-No-Li – and other foreign based stars – in the squad. So, Sweden stopped using only amateurs – foreign based professionals were called to play for the national team, which in turn was much stronger. In 1970 it was the only country at the World Cup finals to have significant number of foreign based players in the squad. Sweden played at World Cup finals regularly; Denmark finished last in qualification groups, a punching bag almost everybody. And exporting in the same time good players one after another. Yugoslavia maintained the same policy as Denmark – only domestically based players (amateurs) were to be included in the national team. Yet, there were two significant differences: Yugoslavia was able to keep top players at home, no matter what the players wanted, and also had much bigger pool of talent – the ratio could easily be 10 to one in favour of the Yugoslavs even if Sweden and Denmark are combined.
Gunnar Gren, one of the biggest stars in the world during the 1950s and one of the many Swedes supplying European clubs for years. It was because of players like him Sweden changed its strictly amateur policy, and the national team profited from that.