In June 2014, prior to the World Cup’s grand opening ceremony in Brazil, Julio Humberto Grondona spoke to the German Press Agency. “When I leave FIFA, it will be to go to…
The final whistle blew after an exhilarating 120 minutes in the Argentine capital, ecstatic roars escaping from El Monumental’s roofless bowl into the dusk of the Buenos Aires sky. La Albiceleste were…
In February 2018 a State Championship game in Brazil between Vitória and Bahia was abandoned after a mass brawl resulted in 10 red cards and six cautions. The melee ensued after Bahia’s Vinicius…
In any field of culture or entertainment, whether it be sport or the arts, greatness is often defined by longevity. It’s thought to be hard to reach the pinnacle of any discipline,…
The first Argentine World Cup winner to perish, José Luis Cuciuffo was an understated hero, and forgotten by so many in the wider game today
When Mark Robins scored for Manchester United at Nottingham Forest’s County Ground in January 1990, it reportedly kept their Scottish manager in his job. It’s almost unthinkable that the man now known…
The English media, fans of the Three Lions, and Premier League aficionados were aghast when Pep Guardiola arrived in England in 2016 to take over at Manchester City, almost instantaneously declaring then…
After watching the Dutch side at the 1974 World Cup, Sergio Markarián gave up his well-paid job to become one of the great journeymen coaches of his time
THERE IS AN ADAGE in sport that success is easier to attain than it is to maintain. Keeping the motivation and hunger to get up every day and repeat the process once…
SMOKE BILLOWED FROM THE PALACIO DE LA MONEDA in the heart of Santiago de Chile as fighter jets circled menacingly above. Salvador Allende was in the last few hours of his presidency,…
RYAN GIGGS IS CONSIDERED ONE OF THE GREATEST PLAYERS in Manchester United’s history, collecting 34 major honours with the team he joined as a teenager. No player in the club’s history has…
BRITS ARE OFTEN PERCEIVED as having an island mentality, an insular view of oneself no doubt exacerbated by the unexpected Brexit vote last June. Another characteristic of island mentality is the perception…
Fireworks, smoke from flares and ticker tape filled the Buenos Aires night sky as Boca Juniors lifted their 32nd Argentine championship in June 2017. The title had been sealed five days earlier…
Nature or nurture? It’s a question psychologists have debated for centuries. In the context of sport, it’s interesting that so many gifted individuals have raised children who have also gone on to…
Football songs seemed to reach a peak in the 1990s. At the start of the decade came Italia 90, which spoilt us with Luciano Pavarotti’s Nessun Dorma and World in Motion by…
As enigmas go, Álvaro Recoba ranks as high as anyone, possessing a devastating left foot and an attitude that often saw it wasted at Inter
This season has seen contrasting fortunes for the two representatives of the second city of Córdoba in Argentina’s top flight. Newly promoted Club Atlético Talleres returned to the Primera División after 12 years in the wilderness, winning…
FOR MANY, 11 September conjures up memories of infamous moments that have been seared into modern history. In the USA, in 2001, the attacks on New York’s World Trade Center; in Chile,…