This feature is part of Virtuoso After the game against Czechoslovakia in the group stages of the 1970 World Cup, when he audaciously tried to chip opposing goalkeeper Viktor from the halfway…
This feature is part of Virtuoso History likes snapshots, images frozen in time that serve as an aide-mémoire for a much more significant event; emblems of grander, more comprehensive stories. The 93rd…
During the late 1960s and early 70s, West German football was the dominant force in the game. As well as Die Mannschaft lifting the World Cup in their homeland in 1974, Bayern…
Roughly translated from German, ‘ein kampf zwischen brüdern’ means ‘a struggle between brothers’ and has been used to describe the game that took place as part of the initial group stages of the World…
Football produces many stories. Some are sad, some are uplifting, and just a few are writ through with an impossible tale of devotion and romance that would test the credibility of any…
This feature is part of Duology At the heart of almost every successful team is a solid back line, usually built around the central defensive partnership. They are the bedrock of the…
This feature is part of Duology The big man, little man combination is a common thread among successful striking partnerships. There’s the big man, full of muscular hustle and bustle, aggression and…
This feature is part of Duology Sometimes it can be difficult to definitively measure the effect of a partnership. For example, not many would demur from the opinion that Patrick Vieira and…
This feature is part of Duology If the sobriquet of ‘Dolly and Daisy’ sounds like a double act from an Old Time Musical Hall playbill, you’ll probably be surprised to learn that,…
This feature is taken from the Philosophies issue of These Football Times magazine. Order your copy of this beautifully crafted, timeless print edition via our online shop. In the process, you’ll support…
The 1968 European Championship looked very different to its modern-day equivalent. Back then, rather than the bloated jamboree involving more than 20 countries, it was very much a mini-tournament. After a protracted…
Provincial sides rarely achieve glory in Serie A, and though Perugia fell agonisingly short of the title in 1979, their names are atched into history
By almost any measure you choose to evaluate a player’s worth, Martín Palermo was an exceptional striker. The Argentine played in both Spain and Argentina, netting 249 goals in 592 games across…
Quiz time. How many players can you name that have played in consecutive World Cup finals? Ten? Come on now. Twenty? Now you’re trying. Any more? In fairness, to play in successive…
AS WORLD CUP FINALS GO, the one played out between Argentina and West Germany in 1986 would take some beating for drama. The game seemed won, before being cast into huge doubt,…
Illustration by Brandon Layzell THE TITLE OF Marcel Proust’s epic seven-volume masterpiece À la Recherche du Temps Perdu has been variously translated as either ‘In Search of Lost Times’ or ‘Remembrance of Things Past’.…
I’VE HEARD IT SAID that non-football fans are – to paraphrase Bart Simpson – the MTV Generation, knowing neither highs nor lows. Anyone not hooked up with a femme fatale of a…
Although of late there has been a trend for a single striker to be the norm at many of the bigger clubs – Kane, Drogba, Agüero, Costa, Torres and Lukaku immediately come…