Football Literature: The Gift That Will Always Give
Football touches on every aspect of life, which means you can put a book about the game in most sections of a library: politics, economics and social science; languages and geography, when…
My Life in Red and White: Wenger and the Artist’s Curse
The word “passion” has become a bit of a joke. It’s the kind of superficial thing you throw into a job application to be a shelf stacker at ASDA. Its watered-down nature…
Football fiction: Old Leather
I’m holding these old boots in my hands. Nike Tiempos. Leather. White with lime green highlights. Top-of-the-range boots that cost a small fortune back in the day. Battered now, though. They’re starting…
The Dance of Ambition: USA at World Cup 1990
The Trinidad and Tobago football team of the late 1980s, nicknamed the Strike Squad, was but a single point away from qualification to the 1990 World Cup in Italy. Needing only a…
Take a Look Around: Football Needs to Get Over Eurocentrism
In football, Europe has cultivated an international export in a way that no other continent or nation has been able to produce. Outside of the World Cup, the Champions League final is…
Finding Gazza – Jack Grealish and English Football’s Great Chase
First came Joe Cole. Then there was Wayne Rooney. Then Jack Wilshire. Soon after, Ravel Morrison. Next Ross Barley. Most recently Dele Ali, and now Jack Grealish. These current or former boy…
The Cosmic Kite – Farewell, Diego Maradona
This is a weird one. In a lot of ways, fans from my generation are not qualified to talk about Diego Maradona. He was a comet that lit up the sky and…
How American Culture Gave Rise to the Premier League’s Perverse Structure
This year has been defined, naturally, by the coronavirus pandemic sweeping our globe. The same can be said of football. Fans are barred from stadiums and many places of congregation, with authorities…
How Belarusian Football Rose up Against Europe’s ‘Last Dictator’
As the sun set over Soligorsk in early August, it looked as if Shaktar Soligorsk vs. Dinamo Brest was heading towards a drab 0 – 0. However, with ten minutes left on…
The Top 21: Experts Pick the Greatest Player of All Time
If you are involved in the sport in any way, the odds are that you’ve at some point pondered the pointless question about who the greatest player of all time is. But,…
Luis Suarez: More Than Fútbol’s Big Bad Wolf
Ballet, Bites, Brazil The year was 2014 and the FIFA World Cup in Brazil had already worked its magic and captivated the eyes and ears of the world. As had been the…
Would You Hire Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as Your Manager?
The 1-6 scoreline was flattering to Manchester United. It is rare to feel any relief after such a defeat, but somewhere deep within, United’s coaches and players would know they got off…
Maradona and Messi Walk Into a Pub: The Anatomy of a Great Debate
There is no place for the Dialectical Method in football. The rabidly tribal football fanatic will, however, engage lustily in argument and lose many hours in vociferous debate. But she is, more…
Sarri and Juventus Swiped Right for Each Other. Why Did They Fall Apart?
I’m a cultural goods aficionado, including that of classical cinema. Imagine a world where Alfred Hitchcock and Marilyn Monroe made a documentary about zebras together, with Hitchcock doing the directing and Monroe…
Charlie Davies – Between the Goalposts of Life
“He never told me until I stumbled upon it!” Charlie Davies came home from school one day with a permission slip for his parents to sign. The six year old thought this…
Frank Lampard: The Player vs the Manager
There’s no denying that Frank Lampard has received mixed reviews regarding his first year in charge of his beloved Chelsea. Some argue that, considering the circumstances – including a transfer ban, the…
Standing Up ‘Cause They Crossed My Line: Parasite & Dietmar Hopp
“Protesting and I lost my sign/ standing up ‘cause they crossed my line” speaks Open Mike Eagle on his 2018 song “Happy Wasteland Day,” a ballad about a post-apocalyptic wasteland – the…
Booze and the Boardroom – Watching Messi Leave
It must be 5:00 PM somewhere in the world. That’s what I tell myself as I pour a stiff glass of whiskey over ice before the sun sets on a gloomy day…
When Everything’s Right: Looking Back on Luka Modric’s Ballon D’or Victory
In the last article I wrote, I started by shooting the bull about actor Marlon Brando, so I fancy, “Hey, what if I do that exact same thing this time as well?”…
When a Draw Is the Greatest Result in Your Nation’s History
It may seem hard to believe that Colombia used to be football minnows. Nowadays, we are used to seeing Colombians of the stature of James Rodríguez, Falcao, Juan Cuadrado and Duván Zapata…
Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp: Where do we go now?
It would be fair to say that Klopp’s ability to construct a squad of unlikely heroes into one of Europe’s most revered sides has been one of modern football’s most impressive feats.…
Tibet, Greenland, and Football’s Power of Recognition
Football has always been entangled with notions of national identity. It’s not a simple relationship, nor a consistent one, but its unitary power is a big part of what makes the international…
FP Book Review – Pep’s City: The Making Of a Superteam
“There’s still so much I could give to these players, but I can’t give them everything I’ve got,” Pep Guardiola told a trusted member of his backroom staff in the bowels of…
Liverpool 19-20: There is no asterisk next to their name on the trophy
Frank Lampard is incensed. His eyebrows are furrowing and his voice is dipping lower in pitch with every sentence. Speaking to Sky at the post-match interview, he tries his best to suppress…
Football Academy In The Andes: Redefining football in Venezuela
In South America, the world’s longest mountain range stretches 7,000 kilometres from the very bottom tip of Argentina in the south to the Caribbean coast of Venezuela in the north. When one…
Football Statues XI: Because symbolism is never out of fashion
What a kerfuffle about big bronze blokes (hardly any women) there is in Britain today. For those who don’t know, the movement to bring down statues of difficult figures of the past…
Caribbean football administration – inches from the precipice
Sporting excellence in the Caribbean could be understandably thought to lie within the domains of athletics and cricket. In the popular imagination, Jamaican athletes with Olympic gold medals or West Indian cricketers…
Man City, Sportwash, and A Battle For Equality
It seems to me that the real political task in our contemporary society is to criticize the workings of institutions, particularly the ones that appear to be neutral and independent, and to…
Antonio Conte: The Philosophy of Work
Football managers who had their genesis on the other side of the touchlines tend to mold teams into the image of who they were as footballers. In this respect, Antonio Conte is…
Spurs 1-1 Man United: A bit of Pogba and lot of Mourinho
A football match involving José Mourinho begins and ends with the press conferences. The unpredictability of a Mourinho press conference is one of the most popular things about English football and many…