As France lay in a state of shock following several high-brow terrorist attacks, Dimitri Payet reinvigorated the nation by propelling Les Bleus to the final of Euro 2016. By way of his immense trickery and illustrious set-pieces, Payet produced a plethora of fantastic moments to inspire a nation in what has been described as arguably…

Football is the most famous sport on the planet with over 4 billion estimated fans. However, it plays second fiddle in Asia, where Cricket reigns supreme as the primary sport of choice. As the second most sport in the world, Cricket boasts 2.5 billion viewers, many of whom come from South Asian countries such as India, Sri…

Once Galician giants and La Liga champions in 2000, Deportivo de La Coruña surprised everyone with their rapid rise in Spanish football in the 1990’s. Now precariously sitting fourth-bottom of the Segunda División, the famous blue and white stripes could soon find themselves playing in Spain’s third tier for the first time since the 1980-81…

As it turns out, Argentina is the breeding ground for a lot of things. Tango (both the dance and the greatest ball of all-time), Gauchos, and world-class footballers. However, with Argentina’s conveyor belt of high-quality footballers comes an expectation that is often too much for the players to deliver when the World Cup comes around. …

If it isn’t raw feeling, football fans don’t want to know. Corporatism, footballers who don’t like football outside of their professional lives, empty stadiums, players not celebrating goals – all are treated with undiluted contempt by a hopelessly romantic footballing public.    But the game can be a dispassionate pursuit. Though their supporters might expect…

When we look at how Barcelona, Manchester City, Ajax, even Sheffield United play, our minds invariably go back to the Total Football of Rinus Michels and Johan Cruyff. The high press, positional rotations and pursuit of space preached by the Ajax, Barcelona and the Dutch national sides of the 1970s have come to define how…

From Pelé and Diego Maradona in the last century, to Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in this one – each generation produces a handful of players that are truly elite. These are the superstars of the sport whose on-the-field displays can confound even the sharpest analytical minds. Even though these are the players that frequently…

In many respects, Berlin is an anomaly. The heart of geopolitical discourse for the best part of the 20th Century, the memories of a different world are still fresh in the minds of many of the city’s residents. Whilst there is no doubt that the fall of the Wall liberated the German capital’s soul, the…

There have been clubs that have won their respective leagues without losing a game, like Arsenal (2003-04 season) and Juventus (2011-12). There have been clubs that have won the Champions League without losing a game, such as FC Barcelona (2005-06) and Manchester United (2007-08). However, no club has managed to match Ajax’s incredible feat of winning…

The biennial celebration of Italia ’90 is perhaps one of the most fascinating rituals in England. Forget Cheese-Rolling, forget Cornish hurling, forget burning 17th-century arsonists with your children. Every English football fan has been bought up on tales of Paul Gascoigne’s tears and Chris Waddle‘s penalty, and it’s no doubt this tradition would have played…