Perhaps no man in football history has had as wide an impact on his nation’s game as Franz Beckenbauer, a man synonymous with leadership and success
Tag: bayern
At his best, Lúcio was a modern, unstoppable libero, sweeping up in defence then breaking out with the ball with no fear and bags of energy and skill
ON ZÉ ROBERTO’S 43rd BIRTHDAY, Gabriel Jesus took to social media in order to thank “a man who helped [him] no end in [his] arrival as a professional”. His “biggest reference” and…
WITH CREATIVE ATTACKING FOOTBALLERS there tends to be stand-out, pivotal moments in their careers; wonderful flashes of genius or spectacular goals that are fondly recalled after they retire. There are countless examples.…
FALSE NINE, REGISTA, LIBERO; these are all terms that will undoubtedly be familiar to the typical football enthusiast. As indeed will the players associated with them, the likes of Lionel Messi, Andrea…
Reporting for pre-season training in the summer of 1971, not many at Bayern Munich recognised Gerd Müller. To those even remotely familiar with the career of Der Bomber, this would seem perplexing.…
Werder Bremen were in trouble. Viktor Skrypnyk’s side was only one point above the relegation zone entering the winter break during the 2015/16 Bundesliga season. Thankfully, Bremen managed to pick up a…
ANDRÉ SCHÜRRLE EMBARKED ON A POWERFUL, driving run down the left wing, and lifted a hopeful ball towards the six-yard box, picking out the awaiting Mario Götze. The substitute immaculately controlled the…
German sporting dominance was often viewed with an air of suspicion on the British Isles, thanks to World War sentimentality, relative economic strength, and historical state-sponsored doping for political gain by the…
The tenure of Pep Guardiola at German giants Bayern Munich will be remembered for a number of things: the dominance on the ball, the switches in emphasis from central penetration to wing superiority,…
BORN TO A World Cup-winning father in Mazinho, Thiago and Rafinha Alcántara have been surrounded by football and its culture for as long as they can remember, including growing up with cousin…
BAD TIMING WAS IN PEPE REIN’S BLOOD. His father, Miguel, while in goal for Atlético Madrid in the 1974 European Cup final, was guilty of perhaps the most ill-fated premature celebration in…
I once heard a joke involving Owen Hargreaves when the midfielder was a Manchester United player. The joke went along the lines of ‘Hargreaves ruled out for a further four weeks after…
ONE OF THE great misfortunes of being a professional athlete is that your biggest failures are inevitably caught on camera. The ubiquity of media coverage for modern-day sport is a double-edged sword:…
It was around 380BC that one of Western philosophy’s founding fathers, Plato, of Classical Greece, first speculated about the purpose of art. In his dense investigation into society titled The Republic, it is…
THE DATE IS 7 July 1974 in a packed Olympiastadion in Munich. With the scoreboard showing 1-0 in favour of the dominant Total Footballers from the Netherlands, Bernd Hölzenbein latches onto the…
This feature is part of The Masterminds THE PRESS CONFERENCE was an explosive three minutes, leaving a cluster of Germany’s top journalists stunned and bewildered. Bayern Munich coach Giovanni Trapattoni was addressing…
IT IS FRIGHTENING the rate at which our childhood heroes are retiring from football – slowly descending away from the turf, slipping out from the present and into a deep-sea of nostalgia…