Club Deportivo Leganés, a small team from a quiet suburb in southern Madrid, will this autumn become the 61st club to contest a La Liga season, just two years after even tinier…
Tag: la liga
This story starts in Valencia, but not where you might expect. The year is 2015 and Benicàssim is hosting one of biggest music festivals on the continent. Thousands of sunburnt revellers are…
For the second time in three years, the two biggest teams in Madrid faced each other in the Champions League final. Real Madrid had endured a somewhat disappointing season, unable to fight…
Ever since they invited Andalusian neighbours Recreativo de Huelva to a friendly match on 8 March 1890, history has always been a vital component in the makeup of Sevilla FC. Los Rojiblancos…
Vitoria-Gazteiz is a proud city. The seat of government for the Basque Autonomous Community, it also serves as the unofficial capital city for the region. The home of not one but two…
FOOTBALL ARRIVED QUIETLY ON SPANISH SHORES through British workers employed at the Rio Tinto Mine Company on the outskirts of Huelva, Andalucia, in the late 19th century.At the time, it would have…
Few players with the CV that Gerard Piqué boasts divide opinion quite like the Spaniard. From his pro-Catalan public statements to his defending, which sways from world class to erratic, we examine how the Barcelona star polarises the football world.
When European football anoraks look back at the 2015-16 campaign the temptation may well be to label it the season of the underdog. Leicester City’s odds-defying title win would be used as evidence,…
Football fans are often crying out for an icon to lead them towards glory, a rare talisman who can create dreams on the field of play by acting as a glowing beacon to…
The art of diplomacy, it is said, is to recognise the beliefs, opinions and feelings of other people and to balance them accordingly with those of their opponents – breeding it itself an…
AS 2015 approached its conclusion one team had dominated the European football landscape. The five trophies claimed by Barcelona set a standard that many will struggle to match. Just as impressive as…
This feature is part of The Masterminds More than anything else, a football manager thinks about winning. It’s the source of their happiness, their confidence and, ultimately, keeps them in employment. No manager…
While Italy’s famed Catenaccio system may have been invented elsewhere, nobody used it to such devastating effect quite like the legendary Helenio Herrera
As featured on Guardian Sport With one brief, shocking press conference, he was gone. Marcelo Bielsa announced to the media at the Stade Vélodrome following Olympique Marseille’s 1-0 loss to Caen that he had…
This feature is part of A Tale of One City GAZING OUT ACROSS THE MIRAGE of sparkling lights littering the night sky, it was impossible not to fall madly in love. There…
As colleagues and peers from the world of football stood up and applauded as he left the stage at an event organised specifically for his goodbye, one of Barcelona’s greatest leaders closed one chapter…
The story of Diego Tristán is an all-too-common tale, one that has beset numerous players across the eras of football. Aptly nicknamed ‘The Lizard’ for his slippery style of play, most notably when dribbling,…
The first thing that anybody fortunate enough to visit Barcelona’s Camp Nou will notice is the club’s proud slogan, Més que un club (More than a club). This mantra is a philosophy…