Medium sized clubs providing a proving ground for footballing talent is one of the most common features of modern football, and particularly the transfer market. Clubs with promising young players will be watched…
Tag: spain
There may not be another manager in football quite like Quique Setién, who arrived late, rose slowly but now influences many up and coming coaches
STEPPING OFF THE PLATFORM at the Abando train station and into its main corridor, you are immediately reminded of where you are. As your footsteps take you through clouds of tobacco smoke…
MODERN FOOTBALL HAS become so sanitised in this day and age that it’s hard to recall if there was ever a time that top European football players were always so readily approachable. Teams…
GOOGLE IAGO ASPAS and you will find yourself presented predominantly with the words ‘Liverpool’ and ‘flop’. Google Iago Aspas and press spacebar and you will be given the suggestion ‘Iago Aspas corner’.…
IT WAS 15 FEBRUARY 2004 and Arsenal were trailing 1-0 at Highbury to Chelsea in the fifth round of the FA Cup. Adrian Mutu had put the visitor’s ahead in the first…
Clutching false papers and disguised as Russian soldiers while sheltering from the bitter winter on the back of a truck, a group of Hungarian men passed through the Alps in search of…
T he Estadio de la Cerámica was the venue, Villarreal versus Barcelona was the match, and as the pitch action ensued into the 90th minute, Lionel Messi was the target. He had…
THREE EVENTS OCCURRED in perfect synchronicity in order to facilitate Florentino Pérez’s second attempt at managing the global superpower that is Real Madrid. The first was on 10 March 2009 as Real Madrid…
“YES ISCO, I stopped the silliness.” This was Asier Illarramendi’s first return to Anoeta since he decided to switch the blue and white stripes of Real Sociedad for the famous white of…
BORN TO A World Cup-winning father in Mazinho, Thiago and Rafinha Alcántara have been surrounded by football and its culture for as long as they can remember, including growing up with cousin…
I can’t think of a specific watershed moment where the adulation of specific players changed into pleasant dispassion, but I know it happened. As I bled on paper for Fàbregas, Rosický, Nasri,…
As featured on Guardian Sport As Real Madrid’s Isco squeezed the ball through a helpless Tom Heaton’s legs, Spain did the unthinkable and completed a stupendous comeback to steal a draw after…
HAVE YOU EVER looked back at your life and wondered, ‘How did I get here?’ Although this may seem daunting, try to do that now. Trace back each aspect of your life…
As featured on Guardian Sport THE BUILD-UP TO THE FIRST GAME OF THE SEASON is always accompanied by a febrile sense of anticipation for the campaign ahead. Although the presence of Euro…
PICTURE THE SCENE. A multi-millionaire property developer is sat in a jacuzzi, where he is surrounded by half a dozen bikini-clad women young enough to be his granddaughters as he hosts his…
BAD TIMING WAS IN PEPE REIN’S BLOOD. His father, Miguel, while in goal for Atlético Madrid in the 1974 European Cup final, was guilty of perhaps the most ill-fated premature celebration in…
It is the end of the 2012/13 season and Juan Mata has just received the Chelsea Player of the Year Award for the second year in a row. “I just want to…