The little-known English side that contributed hugely to world football

Matt Morley 6 years ago 1.2k
Corinthian-Casuals had a huge impact on world football. AFP

Imagine being the team that Real Madrid into 'Los Blancos', inspired a copycat side in Brazil or inflicted Manchester United's heaviest ever defeat, well, one English side did all three...

Corinthian-Casuals, now of the eigth tier of English football, are considered to have had a huge effect on popularising football worldwide when touring.

It is thought that their 1910 tour of Brazil inspired the natives of Sao Paolo to found a club of the same name, leading to the birth of Corinthians Paulista.

Unlike the original side, the Brazilian outfit has enjoyed significant success in recent years, winning the Club World Cup and Copa Libertadores in 2012, the Recopa Sudamericana in 2013 and the Campeonato Brasileiro Serie A in 2011 and 2015.

The South London-based side, who were known as Corinthian until they merged with another team in 1939, enjoyed considerable success in their early years but have been limited since.

Corinthian are the only team to have provided an entire England XI, a feat which they managed twice, whilst they also inflicted Manchester United's biggest ever defeat, an 11-3 thrashing way back in 1904.

Such was their appeal that Real Madrid were inspired to adopt Corinthian's strip, giving rise to 'Los Blancos' as they are known today. 

As well as their Brazilian copycats, Zejtun Corinthians in Malta also adopted the club's name, whilst a 1904 tour of Swede led to the creation of a tournament called the 'Corinthian Bowl'.

According to Josh Lacey who has written books on Corinthian: "As far as they were concerned, a gentleman would never commit a deliberate foul on an opponent. So, if a penalty was awarded against the Corinthians, their goalkeeper would stand aside, lean languidly on the goalpost and watch the ball being kicked into his own net. If the Corinthians themselves won a penalty, their captain took a short run-up and gave the ball a jolly good whack, chipping it over the crossbar."

The link with Corinthians Paulista remains to this day. According to the the English side's media officer Sturat Tree, every year thousands of fans of the Brazilian outfit make the 5,000+ mile pigrimage to London to see where their club was born. "It's insane, really, when you have fans coming 5,000 miles from Brazil to visit us. They revere our ground like it was Wembley," he explained. It is even possible to buy merchandise for the non-league side via the Brazilian team's club shop.

The two sides faced each other in a friendly in 2015 to mark 100 years since a prior engagement had to be cancelled due to the outbreak of WW1.

Time hasn't been kind to Corinthian but their place in history is safe forever.

Mentioned in the news story

Corinthians
Real Madrid
Corinthian
Brazilian Serie A