Back in September 2018, modest Real Valladolid, recently promoted from Spain’s second division, sparked a surprise with an announcement. Ronaldo, the Brazil legend who had previously played in Spain with Barcelona and Real Madrid, purchased 51 percent of the club and by the end of the month, became the club’s president, taking over from Carlos…

Since the start of the century, and in particular within the last decade, Qatar has taken steps to establish itself as a sporting nation as part of a wider drive to improve its international profile. A huge part of this drive has been its focus on the footballing sphere. The Qatari approach to ‘football diplomacy’…

“I’m forever blowing bubbles, Pretty bubbles in the air, They fly so high, Nearly reach the sky, And like my dreams, they fade and die, Fortune’s always hiding, I’ve looked everywhere…”   West Ham’s long-cherished matchday chant is a bittersweet ode to the highs and lows of relentless, undying hope. In recent years, the song…

  It is just past 6 am in Ukraine on the morning of August 23. The Donbass Arena, home to Ukrainian football champions Shakhtar Donetsk, was just bombed twice as the conflict between national forces and pro-Russian separatists hit a peak.   As it is not a match day, the 52,000-capacity stadium was empty and…

Turki Al-Sheikh’s footballing ventures have been nothing if not eventful. After being named head of the Saudi General Sports Authority in August 2017, the Mohammed Bin Salman confidant strode into Egyptian football in December of the same year, becoming honorary president of Al-Ahly SC.   Al-Ahly, the most historically successful club in Africa, were looking…

From Gary Neville to N’Golo Kanté, it appears just about everyone in England has voiced their opinion on ‘Project Restart’ – feasible, irresponsible, or a self-interested money grab. The stakes are, in one way or another, life and death: players risking their lives to play football in a nation that has amassed nearly 40,000 COVID-19…

On 19 June 1990 at the Stadio Artemio Franchi, Andreas Orgis and Gerhard Rodax scored two fine goals against the United States to win their first and only game of that year’s World Cup in Italy.   After losing to the hosts in the opener and then to Czechoslovakia, this saw two teams who had…

If this pandemic has done anything to our lives, it’s given us more free time than we know what to do with. Recently, I used that newfound free time to embark on a journey of watching as much documentaries I could find on the greatest manager the beautiful game has ever seen: Sir Alex Ferguson.…

The Angers SCO Sporting Director, Olivier Pickeu, was dismissed by the club on the 10th of March. He has been at the centre of the club’s fortunes since joining in 2006. From 2011 till today, the same three people have occupied the standout positions at the club. President Saïd Chabane, Head Coach Stéphane Moulin and…