Every good story needs a villain, and who would be a more appropriate subject of football fans’ wrath than a team that crushed its competition thanks to the state’s backing? Winning the…
Tag: bundesliga
At 34 years of age, Arjen Robben shows no sign of slowing up. The flying Dutchman retired from international football this season, following on from Holland’s failure to qualify for the 2018…
IT WAS RB LEIPZIG’S meteoric, energy drink-fuelled rise that brought the Bundesliga’s fabled 50+1 rule to the forefront of football discussions as of late, but both the history and the future of…
THERE ARE SEVERAL WAYS you can get into managing a top-tier team. You can play professionally and work your way into management through what you’ve learned during your time within the sport;…
FOOTBALL IS A VICIOUS AND FICKLE BUSINESS where clubs must learn to adapt to survive to outdo one another. In order to succeed, there is little room for complacency and one must…
October 3, 1990: the day that East and West Germany reunified. It’s a day celebrated by many, a day in which family members could see each other again after, in some cases,…
FEW FOOTBALLERS IN HISTORY – few individuals, for that matter – have had their sport impact upon their life quite like Gerald Asamoah, though the Germany international was hardly your average footballer.…
Though it seldom finds use on the nation’s streets or in the homes of those who reside in Poland, there is a poignant turn of phrase belonging to the eastern European country that…
THERE ARE REALLY ONLY TWO TYPES OF CLUBS IN THE WORLD OF FOOTBALL – buyers and sellers. If you want to take this a step further, you could divide it into big…
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
Illustration by Federico Manasse Switzerland have never been an imposing football power. When the big tournaments have rolled around, Switzerland have proven themselves somewhat proficient, qualifying for their fair share, but never…
THE DATE ATOP the newspapers read 28 April 1978. On their back pages, the latest Bundesliga table told of a campaign 33 rounds old, just a day from its conclusion, whose two…
Two years ago, Hamburger SV came within seconds of a very first relegation from the Bundesliga. The Dinosaur, the only club to contest each and every Bundesliga campaign since its inception in…
BODO ILGNER, Andreas Köpke, Oliver Kahn, Jens Lehmann, Manuel Neuer; the list of Germany’s first-choice goalkeepers over the past three decades reads off like a reel of dynastic succession. Not only is…
PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALLERS are wondrous athletes. The sheer talent that many possess often ensures fans and media run out of superlatives to describe what they have just witnessed. However, there are fine lines…
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.…
ON 6 JUNE 2014, Marco Reus’s professional life plunged into darkness. Darkness often touches professional footballers, but for this exceptionally blessed German playmaker, it was a darkness that would come to plague…