The word Balkan has a particular meaning. It’s an amalgam of the Turkish words bal,…
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FOR MANY PEOPLE, Spain’s victory in Euro 2008 was an unexpected triumph. For 44 years…
In my previous piece for These Football Times, I quoted a New York Times piece…
For the second time in three years, the two biggest teams in Madrid faced each…
ON 3 JUNE 1978, Peruvian footballer Teófilo Cubillas broke the hearts of five million Scots…
Valeriy Lobanovskyi sat on the bench, hands clasped tight. With frown lines permanently etched into his…
IT IS FRIGHTENING the rate at which our childhood heroes are retiring from football –…
You get the impression that José Mourinho has always quite fancied Manchester United. Even when he…
Messiahs, masterminds, magicians – the best football managers in history have been bestowed with one…
No coach in the history of the Copa Libertadores has won more titles than Carlos Bianchi, a man who was written off so often and kept coming back for more
And so, another one-nation final and yet another all-Madrid Champions League final awaits us. Beyond…
It’s 15 May 2016 at the Friuli stadium in Udine, and the final match for…
Ever since they invited Andalusian neighbours Recreativo de Huelva to a friendly match on 8…
Vitoria-Gazteiz is a proud city. The seat of government for the Basque Autonomous Community, it…
If you’ll forgive me for veering momentarily towards the preposterously pretentious, we must briefly visit…
For more than half a century, a few managers from the West of Scotland had…
THROUGHOUT ITS GLORIOUS HISTORY, many of the beautiful game’s most revered talents have cemented their…
For most fans and players, football in the Olympics plays second fiddle to the World…