Illustration by Federico Manasse It took Benni McCarthy some time to score his first-ever international goal, but when he eventually managed it, everyone at the Bobo Dioulasso stadium knew they were watching…
Watching it back now, as Néstor Araujo’s half-hearted clearance on the edge of the 18-yard box sees the ball squirt out towards New Zealand’s Clayton Lewis 30 yards from goal, Chris Wood…
To talk about street football is to talk about the beautiful game at its core. It has connotations of getting back to basics, of the sort football fans, and stars, used to…
IF YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF SÁNDOR KOCSIS, it’s likely that you’re not from Hungary or you’re not a die-hard Barcelona supporter. Held up as a cherished cult hero by both sets of fans,…
Much has often been made of the reduced number of Republic of Ireland players plying their trade in the top flights, with particular emphasis on the Premier League, which has become something…
Illustration by Charis Tsevis. View more of his work here The collective radar of world football is an enigmatic mechanism at the best of times. Sometimes it unearths tantalising treasures made to entrance…
It’s shortly after 9pm on 1 July 2016 and Wales are taking on Belgium in a Euro 2016 quarter-final match in Lille, northern France. For many, this is a match-up between a…
Ranked with Henrik Larsson as the greatest import in Scottish football history, Brian Laudrup was a consistent show of mazy dribbles and world-class skills
When Englishman Paul Wandless moved to Norway a few years ago, the only work he could get was in a local supermarket, but after a lot of perseverance and hard work he…
IT’S 7 JANUARY 1995 – EL CLÁSICO DAY. The tension, as always, is incredibly high, but this match between Real Madrid and Barcelona, midway through the campaign, has the feel of a contest…
It’s around 4:20pm on 14 May 1995. The sunlight is beaming across the packed terraces at a gloriously electric Anfield on a fine summer’s day as 22 players drift this way and…
Eighteen months ago, Ray Power had to pull up a map on Google to find out exactly where Tanzania was located, but nowadays he’s right at home in the east-African country. He’s…
“Why couldn’t you beat a richer club? I’ve never seen a bag of money score a goal.” The words of Johan Cruyff. That’s the sort of trailblazing, fearless thinking that helped push…
Not many footballers simply fall into the habit of kicking a ball around a patch of grass for a living. It might not seem that way sometimes with play-acting, cynicism and the…
“Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player; That struts and frets his hour upon the stage; And then is heard no more. It is a tale; Told by an idiot, full of sound and…
Percentages are a major aspect of what makes today’s game so intriguing. Statistics engines, cultivated by teams of data-crunching analysts, power the biggest match-days of our time and provide us with the…
Lovers of calcio are all well aware that football is a great deal more than a game. Sometimes it can be difficult to put that notion into the right words or to…
Building a respectable reputation in any line of work requires time, effort, the right results and plenty of satisfied customers. It’s the very same in the world of football management. Yet something gives…