Tag: spotlight

What it’s like to play against Wayne Rooney

THE PREMIER LEAGUE IS BACK with a bang but few transfers over the summer have divided opinion as much as the return of the prodigal son to Goodison Park. Some people say…

Claudio Gentile: in defence of the dark arts master

The brutality was as effective as it was violent. The claustrophobia inflicted on his opponents was stifling to the point of suffocation. Reputations were swept away as easily as a standing leg…

The inconsistent but storied career of Jefferson Farfán

PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALLERS are wondrous athletes. The sheer talent that many possess often ensures fans and media run out of superlatives to describe what they have just witnessed. However, there are fine lines…

Jan Mølby: Liverpool’s original pass master

THERE WAS A TIME, NOT LONG AGO, when footballers were permitted the luxury of vastly different physical forms and appearances. Today’s identikit toolbox of tattoos, ruggedly groomed facial hair, short back and…

How Zé Roberto defied time to remain a star at 43

ON ZÉ ROBERTO’S 43rd BIRTHDAY, Gabriel Jesus took to social media in order to thank “a man who helped [him] no end in [his] arrival as a professional”. His “biggest reference” and…

How the modern full-back became football’s hottest commodity

“NO-ONE WANTS TO GROW UP TO BE A GARY NEVILLE.” Jamie Carragher’s remark in the Sky Sports studio may have appeared nothing more than a whimsical jibe directed at fellow pundit Neville, however,…

Edwin van der Sar: the master of Cruyffian methods in goal

FOOTBALLERS TEND TO decline as they move into their 30s, with dimming enthusiasm and an assortment of injuries tending to slowly draw the curtain on their careers. But goalkeepers are the anomaly…

The divisive final days of Francesco Totti at Roma

Few players have ever been revered with the same level of adulation, bordering on hysteria, as Francesco Totti. Il Capitano was the poster boy for the dying art of loyalty in modern…