Jamie Carragher’s light-hearted jibe at Gary Neville over his career as a full-back on an episode of Sky Sports Monday Night Football, where he claims that no young footballer aspires to grow…
Month: October 2017
From 1978 to 1988, I adopted a similar tactic to Her Majesty the Queen and afforded myself two birthdays. One was my actual date of birth, and the other was a slightly…
FOR THE AMERICAN GAME AT-LARGE – from every conceivable angle – nothing is what it seems. A diverse country with vast amounts of resources and a well-established sporting infrastructure has ensured these…
Though it seldom finds use on the nation’s streets or in the homes of those who reside in Poland, there is a poignant turn of phrase belonging to the eastern European country that…
THE NEW SOCIETY OF AC MILAN doesn’t sound too far from something the iconoclastic Italian politician and media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi would have dreamed up, but it is in fact the symbolic…
BEFORE FORMER SPANISH NATIONAL TEAM COACH LUIS ARAGONÉS noticed that his team could pass the ball faster than any player could run with or without it, Spain were far from a source…
The date is 13 June 2014. It is the 44th minute at the Arena Fonte Nova in Salvador, Brazil, and the Netherlands are playing defending champions Spain in their first group stage match…
IT SEEMED AN IMPOSSIBLE TASK, but by the end, Lazio had made it possible. For more than two years Juventus had been undefeated in Turin, an imposing, inexorable force with six successive…
Steven Burns was born in Liverpool on 25 May 2018. Liverpool Football Club is clearly in Steven’s blood. His dad, Tom, even ensured that he was named after club legend and fellow…
AS A CHILD GROWING UP IN THE 1990s, my father used to have a tape of the 100 best goals from a century of Italian football. He didn’t know much about the…
TWO YEARS AGO, a 24-year-old named Roland Putsche stood on the field in front Borussia Dortmund’s famous Yellow Wall, feeling the reverberation of the fans’ chants ebb through the studs of his…
COPENHAGEN, 17 MAY 2000. In the 13th minute of extra time in the UEFA Cup final between Arsenal and Galatasaray, Thierry Henry has just shot narrowly shot wide. In attempting to stop him,…
AS A FOUNDING MEMBER OF THE FOOTBALL LEAGUE, Wolverhampton Wanderers have carried with them an added impetus from their prestigious history to succeed. But even this has not been able to…
WHEN DAVID LUIZ WAS CARTED OFF TO PARIS SAINT-GERMAIN for a world-record £50 million transfer fee, it felt like Chelsea had conned their way into one of the deals of the century.…
FOOTBALL IS ALL ABOUT INCLUSIVITY. The most beautiful element of the sport is that it is available to anyone, and holds no regard for creed, colour or ability. This applies to players…
FOR A COUNTRY THAT COULD EASILY NAME A DOZEN PLAYERS in any all-time top 100 players list, Brazil would struggle to include a goalkeeper. Think of Brazilian football and many images come…
THE POWER OF ONE FOOTBALLER can often have an immeasurable impact on a club. Although the collective efforts of 11 players ultimately trump the effect of a single player, teams can easily…
Bullet Tooth Tony, Smasher O’Driscoll, Sphinx, Juggernaut, Killer. Through the commendable film career into which Vinnie Jones seamlessly segued following his 15-year professional football career, the Hertfordshire-born footballer-turned-thespian has in more recent…