Long before the takeovers of Roman Abramovich and Todd Boehly, another Chelsea takeover would create an arguably even bigger shift in the club’s fortunes. In 1982 businessperson and former Leeds owner Ken Bates acquired the club for one pound. The price tag may seem like a bargain to many, especially knowing the monster Chelsea are…

The debate has raged online about the most dominant and competitive leagues in Europe for some time now. Premier League fans love to throw the “farmer’s league” moniker around to show the perceived superiority of their league over its continental counterparts. But as we will see, the Premier League is one of the least competitive…

Few rivalries have captured the attention of the entire world quite like El Clasico. Barcelona’s 3-1 victory in the Supercopa de España on January 15 was the 251st time that Real Madrid and their Blaugrana rivals faced off against each other in official competition, with Real winning 101 of them, Barcelona claiming 98 wins, as…

A one-club man is essentially a player who spends his entire career at a single club, largely out of loyalty and love for the club. The player often becomes synonymous with the ethos of the club and the community. The idea of a one-club man is becoming less and less common as football becomes increasingly…

Soccer, as the Americans call it, has had its fair share of ups and downs in the land of the free (spending) and the home of the brave (rule changes). Highlights of them trying to make the game more appealing to American audiences include replacing the offside rule with a “Blue Line”, penalty shots that…

The full-time whistle blew on May 21st, 2022 and Racing Club Strasbourg Alsace’s players found out that what could have been a famous day in the club’s history was relegated to one they would want to forget. It had not mattered that they were losing 4-0 to Ligue 1 giants Olympique Marseille because they were…

Founded in 1919 (now known as Association Sportive de Saint-Étienne Loire), the club based in the Rhone-Alps region is the joint record holder of the number of Ligue 1 titles. Les Verts have won ten titles, a number which Qatari-backed PSG equalled with their title victory last season.    The football club was founded by…

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…