This feature is part of The Masterminds IF TROPHIES ARE your thing, let’s start with them. Marcello Lippi, the grandfather of modern Italian football, won a World Cup, a Champions League and…
Tag: serie a
Raised in Wales to Italian parents, Giorgio Chinaglia took a unique route to reach the top of football. We look back at the remarkable career of the man voted Lazio’s greatest player and who scored over 200 official goals to become the greatest import seen at the New York Cosmos.
As something of a vagabond journeyman, Luca Toni has carved out an unlikely career as one of the continent’s most effective goalscorers. We celebrate his rise from obscurity to dominance at the World Cup, goals at Bayern Munich and longevity at Verona.
THERE ARE FEW images that evoke memories of Serie A in the 1990s better than the sight of Giuseppe Signori wheeling away with one hand in the air, having scored yet another trademark…
In the historic Italian city of Naples, football goes very much beyond the game. This is the story of one man’s journey through the tifosa-laden streets of the Mezzogiorno and his Enterprise…
WHEN VALENTINO MAZZOLA rolled up his sleeves on the pitch, it signalled to the rest of the team that he was about to take over, that the greatest player of calcio was about…
MOST FOOTBALL TRIVIA BUFFS AND HISTORIANS you ask will tell you that the transfer of Trevor Francis to Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest in 1979 was the first million pound deal in football. Famously, when…
WHEN IT COMES TO LISTING THE GREATEST DEFENDERS OF ALL-TIME, Paolo Maldini is up there with the best there ever was. His calibre is proven in the European Cup and the Champions…
They are there for all to see; the burning intensity of the glare, the endless cavern of passion, and the relentless desire that seems to give an advantage in any confrontation. They’re ever-present in the sublime, the ludicrous,…
IN FOOTBALL, the greatest legacies are reserved for those who pioneer their way into folklore. Manager and players alike are remembered in the grandest terms by evaluating their role in changing the course…
The thought of becoming a football superstar is a childish reverie that most youngsters casually engage in at one point or another. It can be a torturous exercise because plenty will never…
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 Pavel Nedvěd walked off the pitch for the final time he could’ve been forgiven for wondering what exactly was going on. He was being substituted in the 89th minute of his last…
IN 1973, a tall, handsome Swede bought the Villa Boemia estate in the Monferrato hills in the Asti region of Italy. A verdant area known for its fine wines and amazing vistas, this…
Illustration by Danilo Costa at Artworks Vexel. See more here “PEOPLE CONTINUED TO GO TO WORK AND GO ABOUT THEIR BUSINESS. There was no panic. For days the press and television would…
There is one man who towers above the rest when it comes to the uncomfortable entwining of football and politics: Zvonimir Boban. The former AC Milan midfielder enjoyed a richly successful club career,…
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…
“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…