It is the opening day of the 2009/10 LaLiga season and all eyes are on Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu. In an all-white kit for the first time is Cristiano Ronaldo, the world’s…
Tag: la liga
Illustration by Matt Steven The number 10 was an important part of Juan Román Riquelme’s life. It would be the defining number on the back of his shirt – perhaps the last number…
Cup competitions can throw up the unlikeliest of footballing match-ups and, sometimes, the craziest of results. The smallest clubs can go global overnight while the superpowers of the game can be reduced…
He could once count Xavi, Luís Figo, Rivaldo and Luis Enrique amongst his teammates but Gbenga Samuel Okunowo was never quite in their league at Barcelona. This affable Nigerian, who also played for…
To see Iván de la Peña weigh up a pass was to see an artist gaze at his blank canvas. He had a whole plane of creation before his eyes. With the same…
At the end of the sublime, cinematically perfect 2008/09 season, Barcelona stood apart from their rivals. LaLiga champions, Copa del Rey winners and Champions League conquerors, this was a team not often…
Though Real Madrid have never been afraid to cast their nets overseas in search of talent, and the number of first-rate foreigners to have been handpicked to represent the club throughout its…
Football stadiums always seem to fall foul to the perverse nature of war and its cruel ability to turn something designed to bring joy and entertainment into a monstrous monument of death…
The path was clear for Antoine Griezmann. Bayern Munich’s defence had opened up before him and, courtesy of a nicely weighted through ball from Fernando Torres, he was clean through on goal.…
When Unai Emery was appointed Arsenal manager on 23 May 2018, it was a decision that was well received by fans and journalists. Emery’s exploits at Sevilla, inclusive of winning the Europa…
When the final whistle blew on a mild night in Gothenburg’s Ullevi stadium, there was an overwhelming sense amongst everyone connected with Valencia that they had achieved something really quite special. It was…
Señor Dávila blew the final whistle, sending the Balaídos stadium into raptures. Celta Vigo had just qualified for the Champions League for the first time in their history, a 3-2 victory over Real…
The notoriously predatory Emilio Butrageuño was the dominant figure within Real Madrid’s legendary Quinta del Buitre. The striker, who went by the nickname El Buitre (The Vulture) – was so lethal a marksman…
It’s difficult to describe geniuses without using the adjective obsessed. It’s as if it’s a requirement of all inventors, thinkers and philosophers to stumble into the realm of obsession. So it’s no…
It is late March 2002 in Athens. Not far from the centre of town, at the Apostolos Nikolaidis Stadium, a Champions League second group phase match is unfolding between Panathinaikos and Real…
“Whites weep. Congratulate the champions.” Enthusiastically delivered words of a similar emphasis were expelled from Luís Figo’s mouth, from his vantage point on the balcony of the Palace of the Catalan Generality…
Spain’s domestic cup competition, the Copa del Rey, has provided plenty of weird and wonderful moments over the years and through its various name changes. There was Real Madrid’s violent 11-1 destruction of…
The year 1975 was a very different time for Real Zaragoza. Los Maños finished second that year, the joint-highest finish in their history, and nobody had ever heard of a club called…