With crucial goals and a tendency to elevate Spain to new levels, David Villa’s zenith would come at the 2010 World Cup – and where better?
Features
Reclaiming the football you thought was lost through journalism you can trust.
A hero to many of the game’s greats, a player who struck fear into Paolo Maldini, Cha Bum-kun came to Europe and conquered as it’s first great Asian import
The point at which the 1980s faded and a bright new 90s began, the 1991 FA Cup final should be remembered for more than just Paul Gascoigne’s busted knee
The Netherlands women’s team, out of every nation in Europe, are leading the way in innovation and art, both on and off the pitch
The penalty kick is the rawest distillation of psychology and repetitive practice in football – but what makes a player good or bad at them?
Despite a stop-start Liverpool career thus far, the rise of Takumi Minamino points to a player well-versed in adversity and scrapping for success
Boasting one of the most forward-thinking academies, closely aligned with the government, Daniele D’Eustacchio is shaping the future of Chinese football
Led by a visionary president, Tenerife – known for its beaches not football – would rise in the 1990s thanks to a remarkable cast of star names
The symbol of a city and its people, the bull that adorns Torino’s crest has had many iterations but its meaning has always remained the same
From Bolton to Bengal, the path to fulfilment and limelight in the game was a tricky one for Bernard Mendy, once one of the most promising full-backs around
Bolivia have the worst reputation in South American football, but their home in La Paz remains a church of upsets – just ask Diego Maradona and Argentina
Beyond all the early-career questions, John Obi Mikel rose to become of the best midfielders of his generation – selfless at Chelsea, heroic for Nigeria
One of the few clubs to win the league unbeaten and then promptly get relegated, the rise and fall of B71 Sandoy is one of football’s great tales
From the frequency of one-cap wonders in early decades to its decline and rebirth recently, playing just once for England is a unique and proud moment
Long before Sindelar, Meisl and Austria’s brilliant Wunderteam, Josef Uridil was a hero for the masses, a man whose goals united an ailing nation
In the history of Bayer Leverkusen, no man has done more, seen more or won more at the club than former goalkeeper and all-round hero, Rüdiger Vollborn
Mourinho reinvented Chelsea and the Premier League: astute analysis, unconventional formations, below-the-belt mind games, and a new tactical blueprint
In 2010, Mesut Özil was untouchable for Werder and Germany. He was elegant, audacious and daring. He was, and always will be, unapologetically, Özil