It’s unlikely that anyone who witnessed the FA’s celebrations, which failed to capture the nation’s attention for over a year, will remember them fondly
Tag: england
I DON’T USUALLY ACCOST the footballing heroes of my 1980s childhood. At Anfield, you see plenty of them drifting past on a match-day. Many of them are afforded a degree of anonymity,…
Above all else, Harry Redknapp is a football manager, arguably the last English manager to work at a top team in his homeland, and one who represents a dying breed. Seen as…
Luton Town Football Club recently suffered a heartbreaking defeat in the League Two promotion playoffs, conceding an injury-time goal against Blackpool to deprive the club of a trip to Wembley for the…
At the end of the 19th century, the sons of the British industrial revolution headed to the iron-rich Basque Country in their thousands. The northern city of Bilbao was rapidly emerging as the…
England exited the European Under-21 Championships in the most familiar of circumstances – known well to those watching from abroad, or from the working men’s clubs across England, where the same situation occurs…
Though disappointingly there is still a paucity of black managers in today’s game, there is at least a much more balanced dynamic on the pitch. Almost 40 years ago, black professionals were still…
Football songs seemed to reach a peak in the 1990s. At the start of the decade came Italia 90, which spoilt us with Luciano Pavarotti’s Nessun Dorma and World in Motion by…
‘SÓ PARA INGLÊS VER’ is a phrase commonly used in Brazil, with roots in the slave trade, pertaining to façade laws and such created ‘only for the English to see’. In a…
Ron Greenwood’s England returned home from the 1982 World Cup finals an unbeaten side, having conceded just one goal in the five games they played. In the final reckoning, Sheriff Abubakar might…
All logic dictates that Peter Crouch should not have had a particularly successful career. That is not to say he lacks talent – as the old and tired maxim goes, “he’s got…
On the lengthy walk down the Seven Sisters road to White Hart Lane, there’s a banner outside one of the few reasonably priced pubs that wields a picture of Daniel Levy. The caption…
Illustration by Federico Manasse “It’s going to need a bandage, love.” Brilliant, just what I was hoping for. It’s September 1986 and I was just about to start my second season with Hornsea…
Football is a serious business – don’t let anybody fool you into thinking otherwise. Even without touching upon the desperate and very real need for vindication felt by those sat watching nervously…
It was possibly the most significant goal ever seen at Carrow Road, the home of Norwich City. Yet it did not mean a thing to the home team, who by then had…
Becoming a professional footballer aged 22, Ian Wright had to contend with numerous challenges before he went on to become a legend at Palace and Arsenal
Often forgotten about within the English game, Paul Mariner – though not first pick in a park game – was a complete goalscorer for over a decade at the top
This feature is part of The Masterminds: 10 Under 45 Joseph Bonaparte was a calm, unassuming man, but not really cut out to be king. Originally persuaded by his parents to train…