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The Story of Henrik Larsson, His Ties to Home-Town Club Helsingborgs IF and the Day the Hooligans Turned on Him as Manager
Considered to be one of Europe’s greatest ever strikers, Henrik Larsson enjoyed a dazzling career that saw him play for some of the biggest clubs in the world. With stints at Feyenoord, Celtic, Barcelona and Manchester United to his name, his career as a world-class, well-rounded striker is common knowledge to most football fans. However,…
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Enzo Bearzot’s Italy: Part 3: The Slow and Painful Demise of Bearzot and His Boys
Euphoria swept over Italy after they won the 1982 World Cup in Spain. A 44-year drought was broken and the team went home in the private jet of Italian president Sandro Pertini. One of the most iconic images after the tournament is of Coach Enzo Bearzot playing cards with several of his players on the…
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Enzo Bearzot’s Italy: Part 2: From Whipping Boys to National Heroes
Italy was awarded the right to host the 1980 European Championship, the first edition to have eight teams, and as a result, they only played friendlies prior to the tournament. Between September 1978 and April 1980, the Azzurri won most of their games by close margins, but they also had a couple of heavy defeats; a…
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The Case for Wide Target Men: Investigating Mario Mandžukić and the Role Overall
The concept behind wide target men is simple yet extraordinarily effective, both as a tactical tool for an individual match as well as a fundamental cog through the duration of a season. The most prominent and effective use of this was Mario Mandžukić under Massimiliano Allegri at Juventus. My hypothesis behind the wide target…
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Player Analysis: Mikel Merino
After failing to secure a place in Europe last season – ending the season in ninth place – Real Sociedad have completely turned it around the season, currently sitting fourth in the league and having already advanced to the Copa del Rey Final. In a team that has scored the third-highest number of goals in La…
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Breaking the Ceiling: CSKA Moscow’s 2005 UEFA Cup Win
Russian football has enjoyed several notable moments on the international stage such as winning Euro 1960 and Lev Yashin being awarded the Ballon D’or in 1963. Despite this, Russian clubs in the second half of the 20th Century struggled to progress in European club competitions. However, the 21st Century has led to improving fortunes for…
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Scouting Report: Eberechi Eze
At 21 years old, Eberechi Eze is standing out as one of the most exciting talents in the Championship, but three years ago, his football career looked destined to crash and burn. After being released by Millwall in 2016 and failing to impress in trials with Arsenal, Reading and Fulham, Eze took a part-time job…
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How Three Africans Became the First Fighters in German Football’s War on Racism
“We are ashamed of everyone who screams at us.” This quote was painted across the walls of Eintracht Frankfurt’s stadium in 2014, in homage to their former Ghanaian striker Anthony Yeboah. It was extracted from an “open letter to racism” published 20 years prior by several African footballers who were playing in the…
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Panathinaikos 2003/04: The Toppling of Olympiakos’s Empire
Empires have been a constant through human history, but there eventually comes a time when the empire falls. Whilst the Byzantine Empire, which now encompasses present-day Greece, fell at the hands of the Ottoman Empire in 1453, Greece’s footballing empire Olympiakos was toppled by their bitter rivals Panathinaikos in 2004. Since the Greek football…
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How to Approach Racism? Don’t Ask Football
Racism is a scary concept – it’s uncomfortable to talk about and requires incredible sensitivity – but we do need to talk about it. We expect racism to be the product of racists, people who openly discriminate against and vilify individuals of a different race. We expect them to be nationalists, we expect them…
