Tag: juventus

Why Paul Pogba is the 21st century prototype footballer

Illustration by Luigi Coari Platini, Brady, Baggio, Del Piero, Tevez; all footballers blessed with authenticity and unique personality. Legendary, iconic names, bound together by one common denominator – they were all bestowed with…

Liam Brady: the most complete Irish footballer of all-time

Elegant, intelligent, incisive and a match-winner; terms that can be applied to the greats of the game, and terms that unequivocally apply to Dublin’s Liam Brady. A midfielder with touch and poise ahead…

Zinedine Zidane and the making of a king

From a simple life as the son of two Algerian migrants to the peak of football, we celebrate the genius and madness of Zinedine Zidane and his career as football’s ultimate big-game player.

In celebration of Roberto Baggio: the divine ponytail

“Only those who have the courage to take a penalty miss them. I failed that time. Period.” These are the words of a man who has been forced to defend his reputation on…

The final countdown for Xavi and Pirlo

FOR THE GENERATION OF FOOTBALL FANATICS FROM WHENCE I CAME, the summer of 2015 will be a poignant one. Time, it appears, has flown. Now our idols, those we were besotted by –…

The relationship between age and the regista

As featured on Guardian Sport A FEW WEEKS AGO, THERE WAS A SUDDEN FRISSON OF ENTHUSIASM surrounding Michael Carrick. Having played for Manchester United for nearly a decade and having been capped by…

Ian Rush: twelve months in a foreign country

By the mid-1980s, the landscape of the United Kingdom had become synonymous with mass protests and bitterness. On the political front, the Conservative government fought continued battles on numerous fronts: Arthur Scargill and…