Whilst doing research for an article about the decline of Romanian football, the story of Nicolae Dobrin came up. He was a brilliant footballer whose career began at 14 and he helped his fairly unknown site, Arges Pitesti, defeat the mighty Real Madrid in a European Cup tie. This prompted the Spanish club to make…

We all know the meme by now, every year on Boxing Day every football meme page and sports section of the tabloids post the same picture. When it first came about people genuinely shared it around to illustrate how much football had changed. Fast forward to a few years later and it has become a…

A third star on the jersey of its national team is something most nations dream of. The third star went to Argentina this time, France being bitterly disappointed as they failed to make up some ground on Brazil, Germany, and Italy. With the tournament still fresh in our memories, let’s take a look at how…

In the 87th minute of the 2022 World Cup Final, referee Szymon Marciniak awarded a yellow card to Marcus Thuram, for diving. Apart from the very keen eyes of the ref, this moment stood out as the cameras immediately panned to Lilian, Marcus’ father, smiling coyly in the stands.   If the spot kicks had…

When asked what team in red the natives of Middlesbrough support, any of you will yell out: why Middlesbrough FC of course! However, a few keen World Cup enthusiasts might point out, that there is, in fact, another red-shirted team, that the natives hold dear in their hearts. That team, however unlikely, is North Korea.…

We took part in the inaugural World Cup. Our best performance at a World Cup was reaching the quarterfinal, after knocking out Argentina. We also reached the quarterfinal at the European Championships, coming out of a group containing Germany, Portugal and England. Our club sides reached the finals of the Champions League and Europa League,…

A transition is happening in the footballing world in these few days before the final, as we slowly shift our attention from the surprise packages, disappointments and superstars of this World Cup, back to the club game. News outlets are more and more focused on transfer news, as the January silly season is breathing down…

Geoff Hurst vs West Germany in 1966, Diego Maradona vs England in 1986,  Carlos Alberto vs Italy in 1970, Mario Gotze along with James Rodriguez in 2014. These are some of the most memorable and fantastic goals in the history of the World Cup that have been replayed countless times by TV companies as part…

Putting together ‘The Greatest XI in World Cup History’ is both one of the most daunting tasks and dicey propositions in football for obvious reasons:   Recency bias can skew jurors’ judgment to lead them to favor the players they saw in action over the ones they never had the chance to witness. Cultural bias…

Seven seasons is an awfully long time in football. In that same time frame, Graham Potter took Östersund from the fourth tier of Swedish football to the first and into Europe, Leicester City went from League One to Premier League Champions, while Sevilla went from the Segunda to two-time UEFA Cup Winners. But in France…