Continuing our look back at West Ham United’s presence at previous FIFA World Cups, we feature the three tournaments held in the 1990s, where just two Hammers features, but plenty of former and future Irons made their mark...
Languishing in the second tier of English football, it was little surprise that West Ham United had only one representative at the 1990 FIFA World Cup finals in Italy.
But there was some astonishment at the Boleyn Ground when goalkeeper Luděk Mikloško headed home to meet up with the Czechoslovakia squad driving a sponsored Nissan Bluebird every mile of the way in aid of Barnardo's!
‘Ludo’ neither sought nor got any charity in Italy, though, as Sparta Prague’s Jan Stejskal was selected between the sticks by head coach Jozef Vengloš and helped his country advance to the quarter-finals before losing to eventual winners West Germany.
While the West Ham No1 might have been confined to the substitutes’ bench, his teammate Tomáš Skuhravý, also of Sparta Prague, scored five goals – two in a Group A victory over a United States team that included future Hammers midfielder John Harkes, and a hat-trick in a round of 16 win over Costa Rica.
The West Germans also put paid to England’s chances with a semi-final penalty shootout win over Bobby Robson’s side, with future Hammer Stuart Pearce seeing his spot-kick kept out by goalkeeper Bodo Illgner.
Jack Charlton’s Republic of Ireland fielded Academy of Football graduate Ray Houghton against a Romanian squad boasting future Irons Ilie Dumitrescu and Florin Răducioiu, and won a round of 16 penalty shootout, only to lose to the host nation in a Rome quarter-final.
Going back to Harkes, he enjoyed better fortune on home turf in 1994 at a World Cup that was without England, who had failed to qualify.
Playing in their own back yard, the Americans made it to the round of 16, where they lost to eventual winners Brazil. Houghton and former West Ham striker David Kelly, by now with Leicester City, also made it to the knockout stages with the Republic of Ireland before losing to the Netherlands.
Elsewhere, the goal-scoring exploits of striker Răducioiu and attacking midfielder Dumitrescu, who netted six between them helped the Romanians to the quarter-finals before losing to Sweden.
The USA 94 challenge of future Hammers Rigobert Song and Marc Vivien- Foé, then aged just 17 and 19 respectively, soon fell by the wayside, as Cameroon finished bottom of Group B. To make matters worse, Song also became the youngest player to be sent-off at a World Cup finals.
"It was only a good, strong tackle," he later protested after baulking Brazil's Bebeto.
Sadly, a broken leg forced the ill-fated Foé out of France 98 at the eleventh-hour and that scuppered a move to Manchester United before Harry Redknapp swooped to sign the midfielder – who tragically died while playing for his country in 2003, aged just 28 – for West Ham United.
Song, who would join West Ham from Liverpool in 2000, again found himself on an early plane home after Cameroon's Indomitable Lions failed to roar and found themselves bottom of Group B, behind a Chile side fielding future Hammer Javier Margas.
Future Hammer Christian Dailly was also eliminated at the group stage with Scotland, but former defender Marc Rieper, by now with Celtic, helped Denmark to reach the quarter-finals before being edged out 3-2 by a Brazil side inspired by two-goal Rivaldo.
West Ham's only England representative was 19-year-old Rio Ferdinand, who made it into Glenn Hoddle's squad ahead of Paul Gascoigne, Dion Dublin and Phil Neville. "This is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me," beamed the teenager.
"There are so many who have never made it to the finals and I'm so lucky to have the chance. I know I won't be first choice for a starting place but whatever happens it's going to be a great experience for me just being there and I am to make the most of it."
Ferdinand would have to wait another four years for his World Cup chance, as Glenn Hoddle preferred Tony Adams, Sol Campbell and current manager Gareth Southgate at the heart of defence.
Meanwhile, ex-Hammer Paul Ince and future Irons Teddy Sheringham and Rob Lee helped England to finish second in Group G behind Dumitrescu's Romania, who were eliminated in the round of 16 by a Croatian side which included former Hammer Slaven Bilić and future West Ham pair Igor Štimac and six-goal Golden Boot winner Davor Šuker. Ferdinand’s Three Lions went out on penalties to Argentina at the same stage.
And, after Bilić had been sent-off in Croatia’s semi-final defeat by France, the hosts defeated Brazil to win the trophy, with reserve goalkeeper Bernard Lama, who had spent the second half of the 1997/98 season at the Boleyn Ground, among their 22-man World Cup-winning squad.
