IT’S NO SECRET THAT BIG TOURNAMENTS CREATE BIG PLAYERS. To this day football fans all over the world still talk about how a 17-year-old Pelé dazzled spectators during the 1958 World Cup in Sweden. While…
Month: August 2015
A Moneyball approach, we examine the analytical detail that has brought FC Midtjylland success and is poised to do the same at Brentford.
From the depths of a 31-0 defeat, we look back at the remarkable redemption of American Samoa and their first competitve victory despite being FIFA’s lowest ranked side.
Elegant, intelligent, incisive and a match-winner; terms that can be applied to the greats of the game, and terms that unequivocally apply to Dublin’s Liam Brady. A midfielder with touch and poise ahead…
The story of Derby’s campaign will always remain a soft-centred tale for the neutral fan, a plight that is unlikely to happen again in the Premier League
This feature is part of The Fleeting Fraternity Football is a game that can be summed up in two words: ‘what if?’ As if the fates conspired – as they tend to…
AN HONEST RESPONSE IS EXACTLY WHAT THE PRESS LIKE TO HEAR as often as possible, in any line of questioning. What’s all the more alluring is a touch of some interest and intrigue;…
From refugee to national football star, Zohib Islam Amiri represents one of Afghanistan’s most uplifting and enjoyable sports stories.
Tim Lees profile (from Soccer School UK) Tim came through the academy system in England with both Bolton Wanderers and Everton as a youngster. He has over 300 appearances semi-professionally in England and in…
The career of Eamonn O’Keefe in Saudi Arabia is one of the least told but most bizarre stories in football. Welcome to a world of excess, greed, superstardom and a homosexual prince.
From a simple life as the son of two Algerian migrants to the peak of football, we celebrate the genius and madness of Zinedine Zidane and his career as football’s ultimate big-game player.
IT IS THE ESSENCE OF A FOOTBALL FAN to question and compare players. Whilst debating the merits of the heroic wingers past and present, the same few names frequently populate discussions. Cristiano Ronaldo,…
June 13, 2014: “Robotic, predictable and a bit too calculated.” Those were the words chosen by a tearful David Bentley, aged 29 at the time, to describe his views on the modern game…
As good as any tall and powerful England striker in recent years, Dean Ashton could have become a Premier League great. Sadly, injuries took hold
FROM HERO TO VILLAIN: it is a line written by countless sports journalists hundreds of times throughout a season. It is a heading so common that it has in many ways lost all…
AS THE IRON CURTAIN descended over Eastern Europe following the Second World War, when Josef Stalin’s Soviet Union held onto – or at the very least controlled – the land that it had…
Led by a young, energetic Alex Ferguson, and featuring the vastly underrated Peter Weir, Abderdeen reached neights in an iconic year – 1983
CALI IS OFTEN BILLED AS THE SALSA CITY OF THE WORLD and portrayed as a city beating to the rhythm of the dance clubs and music bars of La Sexta. Perhaps, though, it…