Illustration by Federico Manasse Before the summer of 2002, Asia was largely forgotten by the footballing world. A general awareness existed among top-level clubs that the continent offered large swathes of untapped…
Tag: calcio
“My only real regret was not being able to share my life and success with my parents. If anyone could help me with this problem I would say to him: bring them…
It was in the second leg of the playoff tie between Benevento and Carpi that George Pușcaș’ clinical goal in the 33rd minute sealed promotion for the Beneventani. The Stadio Ciro Vigorito was sent…
ON 15 APRIL 2017, a packed Stadio Pierluigi Penzo celebrated an occasion now etched forever in Venice’s sparkling history. So rarely has this 7,500-capacity stadium been so full in recent years, but…
OVER THE COURSE OF TIME, football has seen its share of starlets burst onto the scene. And with every passing year, their age tends to be a bit younger as modern football…
Gianluigi Buffon ran triumphantly, alone, to the anticipant, raucous Juventus fans in the Curva Sud. The applause was mutual, the celebrations were shared, a collective admiration apparent even for those that know…
Oftentimes, people with the greatest potential take the longest to find their path and discover themselves. They wander through life unaware of their talent, or even worse, neglecting and ignoring it. The…
BORN IN THE TOWN of Castellammare di Stabia, beneath the brooding Mount Vesuvius, Fabio Quagliarella would have been four-years-old when his beloved Napoli won the Scudetto and Coppa Italia in 1987. Led…
From the 17th to the 19th century, there existed a custom amongst the British upper class, famously known as the Grand Tour. Considered as a necessary rite of passage for aristocrats, this tradition became…
This feature is part of The Masterminds: 10 Under 45 In 560 BC, the mathematician Pythagoras lived in a small village in what is now known as Calabria, the southern part of…
BENEDIKT TASCHEN’S BOOK ON 1970s FOOTBALL PHOTOGRAPHY is titled The Age of Innocence. An apt title, perhaps – it was the final time when footballers were still at some level “our lads”, clubs…
This feature is part of The Masterminds: 10 Under 45 Vincenzo Montella is not entirely dissimilar to Roberto Mancini. Like the former Inter and Manchester City manager, Montella exudes effortless charisma and…
It was not the most popular of appointments. When Antonio Conte departed his post as Juventus manager on the eve of pre-season in the summer of 2014, the Italian champions turned to…
With the dismissal of Frank de Boer after less than three months in the job, it came as little surprise that Internazionale were not suitably prepared to find and subsequently hire his…
What are the 1980s famous for? Perhaps the rise of Madonna and Michael Jackson in pop, or MTV bringing a new era into music. Maybe the arrival of Michael Jordan on the…
A QUICK GOOGLE SEARCH for ‘art and football’ conjures the proverbial mixed bag of results. Online stores pedalling various prints and t-shirts, YouTube clips featuring an array of Brazilian World Cup dream…
As featured on Guardian Sport ON 15 SEPTEMBER 2016, the small town of Sassuolo in the north-west of Italy geared up for something special. With a population of 41,000, the Province of…
PRIOR TO THE 2002 WORLD CUP, Marcelo Bielsa found himself deciding who to play in the most advanced position of the field for Argentina. On one hand, an ageing Gabriel Batistuta had…