October 9, 2026
The history of football is linked to strange stories about “curses” that are believed to haunt some clubs and players, after a series of defeats and coincidences turned into legends passed on by fans, despite the absence of any scientific evidence of their authenticity.
One of the most famous of these stories is “The Curse of Béla Guttmann,” the Hungarian coach who led Portuguese Benfica to the European Cup title in 1961 and 1962, before leaving the club following a dispute over his salary. The circulating story says that the team vowed not to win any European title for 100 years, after which Benfica suffered a series of defeats in the continental finals.
These beliefs were not limited to clubs, as the name of Welsh player Aaron Ramsey was linked to what is known as the “Ramsey Curse,” after users on social networking sites noticed coincidences between his scoring goals and the deaths of famous figures. However, the player ridiculed this narrative, stressing that he scored many more goals than the cases that fans associated with his name.
The legends extended to the world of sports betting, with the emergence of what is known as “Drake’s Curse,” named after the Canadian singer who lost large financial bets on the results of matches, which prompted some fans to consider his betting on a specific team a bad omen.
In England, Derby County and Birmingham City were linked to old tales of “curses” that were said to have haunted them for many years, until some coaches and officials resorted to strange rituals in the hope of getting rid of them.
Although these stories continue to circulate, they remain popular beliefs that arose from sporting coincidences and results, without evidence proving that they have any actual impact on matches or tournaments.
