Club hero John Taylor led the Cambridge United Legends team to Germany
They had never played together previously and it took a game for them to find their feet but Cambridge United Legends were such a hit at the Bretterknaller five-a-side legends tournament in Cottbus, Germany, that they have already been invited back for 2027.
Managed by Cambridge United’s all-time leading goalscorer, John Taylor, the U’s were represented by a strong squad of former players as Danny Potter, Andy Duncan, Ian Miller, Warren Goodhind, Omer Riza, Wes Hoolahan, Michael Kyd and Dave Kitson all donned amber and black once again.
The U’s produced an impressive series of performances throughout the tournament, finishing runners-up overall behind hosts Energie Cottbus, after victories against Hansa Rostock, Union Berlin and a Bundesliga Select XI.
Not bad for a team that was just a pipe dream three months previously.
“I got a call from a friend of mine, who went to school in Cambridge, but he’s now a journalist, specialising in German football,” explained Nigel Pearce, of 100 Years of Coconuts and Cambridge Fans United.
“He asked me if Cambridge United had a veterans team and I said no, and asked if we could put one together. It was a very busy time, just before Christmas, and so the football club said they weren’t going to be able to help out directly, but they said they’d be happy if I was to follow it up.
“So I contacted John Taylor and said I’d received this invitation for a Cambridge United Legends team to play in a tournament in Germany. And I asked him, would he be interested in putting a squad together? They just had to all be over 35. And he said, absolutely and that he’d ring around and see who he could recruit. Quite quickly he came up with a really, really exciting looking squad of eight players.
“John is a really popular figure at the club, our record goal-scorer and he was also manager for a couple of years, so his contacts book is obviously really, really impressive. It only took him a couple of hours to ring around and we already had enough say ‘count me in’.
“And while the club weren’t able to help with the planning they did give us permission to wear the home kit at the tournament and Dan [Branowsky] the club’s head of media was giving us support in the build-up and coverage during the tournament.”
However, the logistics of the tournament weren’t smooth sailing.
“John got the team together and then we found out our application to play in the tournament wasn’t guaranteed and it was going to a vote,” Pearce said.
“We were up against Glasgow Celtic and I think it was Frankfurt, and when I told John he wasn’t very optimistic about our chances. But we got the vote.”
And while the team lost their first game, they quickly improved and went on to claim a runners-up trophy with Wes Hoolahan, now 43, claiming the golden boot as the tournament’s top-scorer and Dave Kitson, now 45, being the joint winner of the competition’s most popular player award.
“We finished second out of six,” Pearce said. “It was won by hosts Energie Cottbus and they were far and away the better team. Energie Cottbus are a team from the third tier of German football and the other teams were Hansa Rostock, who are also in the third tier, Union Berlin, who are a top tier, Bundesliga, team, Sparta Prague, who play in the Champions League, and then the final team was a Bundesliga Select XI.
“Our team was really, really good. Although I have to say, for me, Wes Hoolahan was the star. He is obviously not the tallest and I think being small makes him quite suited to five-a-side.
“It was a remarkable performance from our team when you consider they hadn’t played together before. The German teams had all played together previously and in fact, two of the teams went off to play in another tournament the following day. They play regularly.
“Our United team were all new to it and I think it took the first game, which we lost to Energie Cottbus 3-1, for them to get tuned in to how to play it but after that, they were excellent. The second-place finish was beyond my wildest dreams and I think probably beyond John Taylor and the players’ hopes too.
“There were 2,500 spectators there, including a handful from Cambridge.”
And while there isn’t regular legends tournament in Britain like there is in mainland Europe, Pearce hopes this isn’t the last we’ll see of Cambridge United Legends.
“We have been invited back already for next year’s tournament,” he said. “Whether or not we can go and whether John can get the team together again, I don’t know.
“We will have to wait and see. We made so many friends over there though. It was remarkable.
“I’m going to have to investigate it but I don’t think legends tournaments are a big thing here compared to Germany. I’d certainly be interested in researching what opportunities are out there for legends sides.”
