Euro vision

Schalke keep their stars and aim for the skies above Dortmund

Stefan Bienkowski — Fri, 10 May 2013 16:08:00 GMT

‘Change’ certainly seems to be the word on everyone’s mouth these days. Whether it’s the new manager at Old Trafford, the new head jester at Real Madrid or the whereabouts of football’s next top youngster, every topic seems steeped in metamorphosis and transformation.

In Germany it goes a little deeper than just the dynamic Euro-conquering duo of Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, and the impending alterations to their playing and management staff. As another Bundesliga season concludes, few teams embody change as much as the forward-looking Schalke.

Nothing quite lights the fire of incentive like the continued success of a local rival. And as Dortmund march towards a potential second Champions League title, Schalke have been in media overload to establish just how close they are to their North Rhine-Westphalia rivals.

This season's third-place spot may have been taken by Sami Hyypia's Bayer Leverkusen – analysed by Michael Cox on these pages last week – but Schalke are in no mood to slip down the rankings.

"We will inevitably consolidate our position among the top three in Germany" came the battle cry from chairman Clemens Tönnies last week as his side further cemented their fourth-placed position with a 4-1 win against Hamburg, before overcoming a resolute Gladbach 1-0 last weekend.

Julian Draxler celebrates the winner against Gladbach

And they may well be right. From a financial point of view Schalke are technically already the second biggest team in Germany. According to the latest listings from Forbes, the Gelsenkirchen club are still one place ahead of Dortmund in the rankings of the sport’s richest clubs.

Despite Dortmund actually reporting slightly higher profits and revenue than their rivals this year, Schalke are still considered the stronger of the two clubs in monetary terms, with a sturdier commercial backbone - their sponsors include such giants as Volkswagen, Gazprom and Adidas, while Dortmund still rest on existing deals with Puma and Evonik – as well as a more efficient matchday model that made £27.6m more than Dortmund despite housing almost 20,000 fewer fans in their Veltins Arena than the Westfalonstadion.

But it isn’t just on the spreadsheets that Schalke are on the up. In terms of the quality of player on show in Gelsenkirchen and the type of player that the club has been able to attract, Schalke aren’t too far off Dortmund, and have all but assured that fourth Champions League spot despite a turbulent managerial turnover in January.

In re-signing Klaas Jan Huntelaar to a new contract, Die Knappen have avoided the frequent problem of key players leaving at knockdown prices – a hurdle that Dortmund themselves are currently stumbling toward with their own star striker – whilst pointing out that they can match even the most demanding player’s ambitions.

Even when their young stars have moved on, as with Lewis Holtby’s hasty January exit to Tottenham, they have simply turned back to their eternal spring of capable youth players.

Julian Draxler, the closest thing Schalke has to a young, sporting messiah, is exactly who rose to the occasion in Holtby’s stead and has quickly come to symbolise the club’s hunger and desire to step out of Dortmund’s shadow.

At the tender age of 19, the young German has contributed 12 goals and seven assists this season – not as much pitching in as driving the team on. He shows the same promise displayed by a young Mario Gotze last season – a comparison that Schalke have been wise to act on by giving him a two-year contract extension until 2018, ending rumours of a switch to Dortmund.

Described as already being "one of the best players in the Bundesliga" by his general manager Horst Heldt, Draxler has been catapulted in to the German media – in no small part due to Schalke’s desire to show a bright new face at the same time as Dortmund’s former wonder-boy turns his back on the club for Bayern Munich.

Having already stated that he’d only ever move to Dortmund if he was brainwashed – amidst a tidal wave of talk (almost exclusively from Heldt again) suggesting otherwise – the emerging midfielder’s Royal Blue glow of loyalty has been used as a perfect example of just how Schalke are more adept at holding on to their stars.

With that new contract keeping the player at the club for the next five years, Schalke made light work of the announcement. With a fleet of lorries displaying the player’s image alongside the slogan ‘With Pride and Passion’ the ploy is designed to drive around the surrounding area, delighting Schalke supporters and tormenting Dortmund fans in equal measure: war games in this football-mad battlefield.

Trucking with the enemy's minds: A Draxlermobile, today

For the majority of Schalke fans, the most notable sign of change has been beating Dortmund home and away in the Rivierderbys, for the first time in five years. In the most recent encounter, in early March, the opening goalscorer and man of the match was Draxler.

Upon scoring, the youngster ran to the crowd and pointed to the emblem on his chest. "A goal against Dortmund is something very special," was his simple post-match conclusion. "I grew up here: this is my region."

His region today, possibly his nation tomorrow. For Schalke, the intention of catching Dortmund and all their successes comes with a clear guideline: hold on to your star players and your days in the shadows may well be numbered.

Which was the greatest Champions League final goal?

FourFourTwo Team — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 23:01:00 GMT

The 20 Champions League finals have produced 51 goals and their fair share of corkers. But which was the greatest of all? We agonised over the list and whittled it down to these final five. You can do the rest…

1994: Dejan Savicevic (AC Milan) v Barcelona
Johan Cruyff's Dream Team inspired awe in everyone except AC Milan. Fabio Capello's side were weakened by injury, suspension and the three-foreigners rule – but one of those ex-pats, Savicevic, excelled throughout and put the game beyond Barça with the killer third just after half-time. Having chased down the right to close down Miguel Angel Nadal, he robbed the Spain international and noticed Andoni Zubizaretta off his line – at which he produced a priceless, perfectly weighted lob. "An unthinkable play of brilliance," said Capello. "It is the way of Savicevic."

1997: Lars Ricken (Borussia Dortmund) v Juventus
Juventus had halved Borussia's lead in the Munich Olympiastadion when Ottmar Hitzfeld turned to substitute Lars Ricken and said "You're on, son" (presumably in German). The Dortmund-born midfielder was still only 20 but his youth worked wonders for his confidence when, just 16 seconds after coming on, he was put through by Andy Moller. Noting Angelo Peruzzi off his line, Ricken lobbed him from 30 yards – with his first touch.

2000: Steve McManaman (Real Madrid) v Valencia
Before Beckham came McManaman. The shaggy-haired Scouser may not have the Beckham brand, but he was named Man of the Match in this Champions League final, and not only for this goal – but what a cracker it was. Roberto Carlos's long throw had been headed clear by Valencia's defence, but it fell perfectly for McManaman to slam a scissor-kick into the corner of the net. Notably failing to self-mythologise, our hero cheerfully admitted that "I just shut my eyes and it went in."

2002: Zinedine Zidane (Real Madrid) v Bayer Leverkusen
Over-excited by flowery reminiscences of the epoch-making 7-3 win over Eintracht Frankfurt 42 years earlier, a damp Hampden Park crowd was somewhat underwhelmed – until this happened just before half-time. The rampaging Roberto Carlos hooked a high cross to the back of the box, where lurked Zinedine Zidane. As the ball slowly fell, Zidane ignored the attentions of three Leverkusen players (including Michael Ballack), kept his eye on the ball, composed his shape and unleashed an unforgettable left-foot volley to seal Real Madrid's second Big Cup win in three years.

2005: Hernan Crespo (AC Milan) v Liverpool
The only one of the five not to be scored by the winning team, but it sure didn't look that way at the time. Hernan Crespo's second and Milan's third came at the end of a first half completely dominated by the Rossoneri. And what a goal it was. Kaka turned Steven Gerrard and knocked a 70-yard ball which bypassed four Liverpool players en route to the Argentine hitman, who dinked the ball first time over the onrushing Jerzy Dudek. Liverpool may have levelled the match and won the cup, but nobody can take that goal away from Crespo.

Which goal would you decree the best? Watch them all at ESPNClassic.co.uk/FinalGoals and vote for your favourite. ESPN Classic (Sky channel 425, Virgin 533) is rescreening 12 of the tournament's greatest finals in the run-up to this season's finale on May 25.

Meantime, for the chance to win an iPad, tweet your choice – and justification – in 120 characters or fewer @FourFourTwo with the hashtag #BestUCLFinalGoal (or we might not find it, so you won't win). Terms and conditions

Hoeness hirelings Guardiola and Gotze show Bayern's determination to dominate – and dismantle

Stefan Bienkowski — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 10:09:00 GMT

Florentino Perez, the Real Madrid president who created the Galactico project that bestrode European football at the beginning of the new millennium, has been described as a "golden tongue and a lucrative contract tucked under his arm".

Yet such a description may better befit a new man, one who has taken over as the man behind the next conveyor belt of world stars, at a club with an insatiable appetite for any and all silverware. This man is Uli Hoeness and he is the genius behind Bayern Munich.

This week Bayern stunned football by signing their biggest rival's greatest talent, Mario Götze of Borussia Dortmund, offering a fee triggering his contractual release clause. For £31.5m, Bayern have strengthened their own squad, nullified their opponents and ensured domestic superiority.

Of course, superiority isn't enough for the Bavarians. Bayern Munich don't just want success: they crave it. Not just the hyperbolic bravado of fist-pumping after each win, but the silverware and limelight. This is, after all, the club which has embraced the supposedly hurtful nickname of FC Hollywood.

To men like Uli Hoeness, the romance of football was never more than a means to an end: a means to get fans through the turnstiles or tuned in onto TV, and an end to the financial obscurity that limited the Munich side when compared to their European counterparts throughout the decades.

Hoeness at the Barcelona match

As long as the Champions League has existed in all its commercial capacity, gold has been just as important as silverware to the German giants.

For Bayern, success isn’t another Bundesliga title or the challenge of a Champions League campaign, but the fame and fortune that come with continued accomplishment. This is not a club that breeds athletes or candid professionals, but champions and galacticos.

Even the hiring of Pep Guardiola – a coach whose expertise seems way beyond necessity – makes perfect sense: where one coach may well achieve the perceived impossible, another still waits in the wings with the reputation and promise of greater things.

When Bayern and Dortmund raced together towards trophies, it inspires lethargic comparisons to the Spanish Primera División or the Scottish SPL (as it was). Now it might be more appropriate to consider the Bundesliga as one ultimate contender and a number of lesser challengers.

This is far from the first time that Bayern have dismantled their opponents for their own gains. Stuttgart, Wolfsburg and Schalke can all bear testament to the Bavarian's ruthlessness with a chequebook.

Götze and Guardiola: hirelings

But the manner in which they managed to sway young Götze – the fulcrum and embodiment of Klopp’s youthful side – in the very week that Dortmund stood on the cusp of greatness is what will truly leave a sour taste in most mouths.

German football may well be witnessing the dawn of a new age, with a very distinctive Allianz Arena-shaped shadow cast over all the brightest lights of the Bundesliga.

As we saw against Barcelona last night, the gap between good and great is narrow enough to be surmountable with preparation and astute investment. The Catalans may not be merely beaten in the semi-finals, be dethroned as the default favourites for the Champions League every season by the next superpower of European football.

For Tito Vilanova, Bayern's brilliant battalion of superstars is very much in the present, but for the rest of Europe this week’s news comes with a chilling statement of intent. German football is already all but Bayern’s, and Hoeness's galacticos want the same dominance across the continent.

NEWS Mon 22 Apr: Hoeness remains silent on tax evasion probe

PSG's reluctant hero Thiago Silva earns applause but eyes the door

Jonathan Fadugba — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 11:28:00 GMT

Is Thiago Silva the best defender in the world – or better than that? Ahead of PSG's second leg at Barcelona, French football expert Jonathan Fadugba examines the brilliant Brazilian

When Fabio Cannavaro became only the third defender in history to win the Ballon D'Or for European Football of the Year in 2006, he put his inspirational form at that year's World Cup down to three simple reasons. "Eating well, getting plenty of sleep and having sex – these are all important things."

Having moved that summer to Real Madrid from Calciopoli-relegated Juventus, Cannavaro was quick to praise his former club upon receiving the coveted award. "Of course I will take this trophy back to Madrid but I would also love to take it to Turin," said the Italian. "It is thanks to Juventus that I have been able to show my qualities on the pitch. I want to thank my Juve team-mates and all my colleagues from the national team."

Deference to a former club and a genuine claim to being the world's best defender are just two things that Cannavaro had in common with a man who could one day succeed him as a Ballon D'Or-winning defender: Paris Saint-Germain's Thiago Silva.

In recent weeks, the Brazilian international has been described as, among other things, "the Messi of defenders", "faultless" and "a ladyboy", the latter by chief stirrer Joey Barton.

The 28-year-old is a vital component of 'Project Paris', world-class not only in terms of performance but also in reputation – a valuable commodity when your owners are trying to establish their club as a global brand.

Captain, natural leader and magnificent defender, Thiago Silva is the type of player every club dreams of; after his performance against Barcelona in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final, his claim to being the best defender in the world has never been stronger.

Leading the way against Barcelona

A rock at the heart of PSG's defence in that 2-2 draw, Silva was subsequently lionised, with people around the world chiming in to champion the breathtaking ability of this gentle yet fierce Brazilian.

Le Parisien declared him "already a legend." Alain Roche, a former France centre-back who won the European Cup Winners' Cup with PSG in 1996, called Silva 'the Lionel Messi of defenders.' "The question is no longer if he is the best defender in the world," said Roche, "because he is quite simply one of the best players in the world – better than Cannavaro when he won the Ballon D'Or." Ricardo, another Brazilian centre back who played for and coached PSG in the 1990s, simply dubbed his compatriot "a monster."

His display against Barcelona was remarkable. He was in the right place, at the right time, nearly all the time. He made more interceptions than any other player on the pitch as well as his fair share of tackles, blocks and clearances. He was also decisive at the other end of the field, his towering header clipping the post for PSG's opening goal before Zlatan Ibrahimovic, PSG's other big money signing from AC Milan, tapped in.

Defensive work v Barça, as assessed by our free Stats Zone app

For Thiago Silva to be one of the standout performers in a match that involved Messi, Xavi, Iniesta & Co. will come as no surprise to many, however. The 28-year-old has been at the top of his game for years now, going back to his time at Milan, where he was lured from Fluminense in 2008 by Leonardo, then Milan technical director.

Thiago Silva's influence on Milan was huge. He won the 2011 Scudetto and was named Serie A Defender of the Year. In his final two seasons at San Siro he helped keep 33 clean sheets and in 2011/12 he was the most accurate passer in Serie A. His stamp on the club was indelible as Ibrahimovic, his teammate then and now, attests.

"I have played with many fantastic central defenders – Thuram, Cannavaro, Piqué, Puyol – but Silva is like all of them put together. Perhaps fewer have noticed because he's Brazilian and Brazil is not known for good defenders, but he's the best in the world."

His reading of the game, distribution of the ball and aerial ability are all phenomenal. Current boss Carlo Ancelotti raves about him too. "No one has the concentration, the speed, the heading or the sense of anticipation he has. He's on track to become the next Maldini." With such glowing personal testaments, it's little wonder PSG eventually stumped up the €42m necessary to take him to Paris.

Knowing me, knowing you: With Carlo Ancelotti

But despite all this, does Thiago Silva really want to be in Paris?

His transfer from Milan was murky, a high-stakes poker game between Qatari billionaires and the erstwhile Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Despite additional interest from Barcelona, he wanted to stay in Milan and signed a new contract in the middle of the negotiations, before being told to pack his bags just a few days later after an improved offer was accepted.

There's no doubt he was deeply sad about his exit: "I did not want to leave Milan, and neither did my family" is a stance he has repeated several times since, much to the chagrin of PSG supporters who read his words with gritted teeth.

In December Thiago Silva again reiterated his yearning for Milan in an interview with Sky Sport24. "I cannot deny that I miss Milan," he commented. "They will always remain in my heart because after Fluminense they are the club that helped me become known on the world stage. I would like to go back there in the future because it's a massive club. If the opportunity ever arose I would be pleased to return."

As if that weren't bad enough, ahead of the Barcelona second leg the Brazilian has also been quoted extensively by Catalan newspaper Mundo Deportivo waxing lyrical about his boyhood heroes and apparently leaving the door open for a future switch to the Camp Nou.

"There were conversations with my agent, but we had given our word to Leonardo, who I knew from Milan," the Brazilian is quoted as saying. "Once I gave my word, it was difficult to pull back. But you never know what might happen in the future. People dream. I have always been a Barca fan since I was a boy, when they had Romario, Rivaldo, Ronaldo... I am their No. 1 fan. After Wednesday, I will continue to be.

"I am happy at the moment at PSG, and I hope to keep helping this project. I have just arrived here, I am not thinking about that, my agent looks after those things. But the people know that such bureaucratic things can be resolved in some way. When you sign a contract, you expect to fulfil it, but this depends on a lot of things. You never close the door as you do not know what might happen. I am happy now, but you can never speak about the future."

August 2012: PSG unveil their man

Such statements are glossed over by PSG but must sting, given they come at a time when the Parisian club yearns to portray itself as naturally capable of attracting the world's finest. For now he remains in Paris, the 'monster' at the heart of defence and undoubtedly Ligue 1's best defender.

"He is already among the best defenders in the history of Brazil, alongside Mozer, Julio Cesar and Aldair," Ricardo told Le Parisien recently. "If he wins the World Cup next year he will become the greatest of all time. He is already the best defender in PSG's history."

A bold claim, but one supported by another legendary French defender: Laurent Blanc. "He is already in the category of Baresi, Sammer and anyone else you want to name. Ultimately what he wins will decide where he ranks, but his qualities make him stronger than all of them."

Feyenoord finally thriving thanks to their award-winning academy

FourFourTwo Team — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 11:55:00 GMT

Financial difficulties at Feyenoord may have necessitated a focus on youth development, but the Rotterdam club are thriving as a result, as Scott Johnson explains…

The last few years have hardly been a period of great joy or success for Feyenoord. In the history of the Eredivisie, they have only twice stooped lower than the 10th place finish of 2010, while their 14-year wait for the domestic title is their longest since the league was formed in 1956.

But there are finally signs of improvement. Last season's second-place finish was enough to earn them a Champions League spot for the first time in a decade, and although the De Kuip side were beaten by Dynamo Kiev in the third qualifying round, they have maintained their forward momentum.

Currently third in Eredivisie, Feyenoord trail leaders Ajax by a single point after the weekend's 2-1 victory over Utrecht. They are determined to maintain a title challenge and go one better than last term's league showing. They boast a squad packed with young Dutch prospects, many of whom are regularly selected for the senior or under-21 national sides. And now a string of exciting performances are helping them steal the plaudits from their esteemed rivals.

Feyenoord celebrate victory over Utrecht last weekend

A recent 3-1 victory against AZ Alkmaar was notable for the contribution of two of their impressive teenagers, Jean Paul Boetius and Tonny Vilhena - both still just 18. Boetius opened the scoring with a curled effort from the edge of the penalty area, while Vilhena secured the win in injury time, calmly finishing a counter attack. The performance was soon bettered by the defeat of leaders PSV in Rotterdam, a game in which Feyenoord came from behind to earn a 2-1 win.

This talented collective were hot-housed at Varkenoord, the academy shared by Feyenoord and Excelsior, where reserve and youth sides have been merged. Awarded the Rinus Michels Award for Holland’s best academy in each of the last three seasons, they are inundated with consultancy offers from clubs keen to adopt a similar philosophy. Unfortunately, in recent seasons, the club has been losing players as fast as they can produce them.

Legislation stipulating that sides competing in UEFA competitions must include a minimum of eight home-grown players in their squad has had a detrimental effect on Feyenoord’s ability to hold on to their best youngsters. The ruling states that only half need to be produced locally, while the rest must merely have spent at least three years with the club between the ages of 15-21. As a result, highly-regarded prospects are being harvested early in their development by elite clubs, who can offer far greater financial incentives and status.

Bruma, Ebecilio and Rekik were all snapped up by English clubs

Centre back Jeffrey Bruma moved to Chelsea in 2007 before Feyenoord could offer the 15-year-old a professional contract. He has found opportunities at Stamford Bridge scarce and is currently on loan at Hamburg. The following year, winger Rajiv van La Parra departed the under-17 side for Caen, while defensive midfielder Kyle Ebecilio joined Arsenal in 2010. In the summer of 2011, Chelsea returned for 15-year-old Nathan Ake, while Manchester City acquired 16-year-old centre back Karim Rekik.

Leroy Fer, Jonathan de Guzman, Georginio Wijnaldum and Luc Castaignos all departed the senior side in recent seasons, and Feyenoord currently boast a trio of 21-year-olds who are already attracting the attention of potential suitors.

Jordy Clasie was initially regarded as too small and weak to succeed at the highest level, but has since been heralded as ‘the Dutch Xavi’. Having developed during the 2010/11 campaign on loan at Excelsior, Clasie is indispensable in the heart of the Feyenoord midfield. His vision and creativity are complimented by his endeavour and ability to win and retain possession. He made Bert van Marwijk’s stand-by list for Euro 2012 and having since made his Oranje debut, his international prospects look bright.

Clasie's ability to levitate has come in handy over the course of the season

Bruno Martins Indi is seen as the poster boy of the talented, hard-working Feyenoord side. Not initially regarded as one to watch, he has developed his strengths to become a key performer for club and country. Quick, good in the air, mentally strong and adaptable, the left-footed defender has been utilised at both centre back and left back. He is regarded as Holland’s most talented defender since Jaap Stam and has a long-term contract with the Rotterdam side. But interest from outside is intensifying.

Martins Indi’s partner at the heart of the Feyenoord defence is Stefan de Vrij, who broke in to the senior side at 17 and was named captain by the time he was 20, when Ron Vlaar departed for Aston Villa. Chelsea were linked with a £5 million January bid that failed to materialise, while Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers recently scouted him in person. Thus far, de Vrij has rejected two contract offers, perpetuating an escalating problem for Feyenoord, as a succession of players allow their contracts to run down to force through moves.

Manager Ronald Koeman is rebuilding his reputation in Rotterdam, after disappointing stints at Valencia and AZ. The first man to play for and manage each of the Netherlands’ ‘big three’ of Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord, his continued success depends on retaining as many of his star performers as possible, while also maintaining the rich supply line from the academy.

Feyenoord are on a more steady financial footing than in recent years, but to keep it that way they will occasionally have to make a big sale. If the club can attain continued success on the pitch, coupled with added financial security, their best players may be more reluctant to leave in future.

Beckham will boost Ligue 1, but key to development is keeping young stars

Vaishali Bhardwaj — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 08:30:00 GMT

By the time the final day of the January transfer window had arrived, lovers of French football were understandably quite concerned.

January had been a damaging month for French football. It had seen several of Ligue 1’s most talented up-and-comers leave for pastures new abroad. And it had all happened so quickly.

In just a few short weeks Le Championnat had been plundered by clubs in traditionally stronger leagues, with several of the division’s top performers poached. The most prolific offenders were Premier League side Newcastle United, who signed no fewer than five Ligue 1 players during the 31 days the transfer window was open – most notably Montpellier title-winner Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa.

While many of these transfers represented good business for both the buying and selling clubs, for fans of the game in France, it was undoubtedly disappointing to see so many talented players leave simultaneously. It was therefore natural that when deadline day arrived, there was a fear even more stars would leave. But Ligue 1 followers were in for a surprise. The league was not only about to acquire a talented player – but a footballing superstar.

On the morning of January 31, Paris Saint-Germain announced they would be holding a press conference later that day. Rumours circulated that one of the most recognisable faces in football was joining the club. A few hours later, it was confirmed. David Beckham was signing for les Parisiens on a five-month deal. It was huge news for PSG, perhaps more on a commercial level than from a footballing perspective.

Beckham arrived in Paris to much fanfare

With the signing of Beckham, Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) had seized the media’s attention and thrust PSG into the spotlight yet again. Journalists from Britain and across Europe rushed to Paris to see Beckham’s first press conference as a PSG player. After all, that is what the 37-year-old’s arrival in French football is all about: exposure for PSG.

QSI are no strangers to the fact Beckham will attract a new worldwide fan base to the club; he will help sell shirts and he will help enhance the club’s reputation. The very fact Beckham’s wages will be donated to a local children’s charity is one example of the immediate positive press the club and player have received. Marketing-wise, the signing is a coup for PSG.

On a footballing level too, Beckham will be important for the team. He may be nearing 40 but he is still a classy player who will be expected to help the current league leaders win the title this season, starting with his possible debut against Marseille on Sunday.

Aside from his famous set-pieces, Beckham will be expected to act as a leader on and off the pitch. QSI know Beckham can pass on his vast experience playing at some of Europe’s biggest clubs - Manchester United, Real Madrid and AC Milan - to the younger players in the squad. Players such as Marco Verratti and Lucas Moura – both just 20.

Indeed, Lucas called Beckham "a football icon" and "a star, both on and off the pitch", insisting that PSG would benefit by gaining ‘visibility’.

Beckham may not play for the full 90 minutes every week, but there is no doubt PSG have yet again signed a player who has boosted interested not only in PSG, but also the league in general.

But what kind of championship has Beckham walked into? PSG may be playing their part in helping to increase the appeal of Ligue 1 outside France, but it is still not enough. French football’s top flight is still predominantly a selling league – as the winter transfer window demonstrated.

Along with Yanga-Mbiwa, Lille’s Mathieu Debuchy, Toulouse’s Moussa Sissoko, Nancy’s Massadio Haidara and Bordeaux forward Yoan Gouffran all joined Newcastle’s French revolution.

Marseille striker Loic Remy also decided to swap France for England, signing for relegation-threatened Queens Park Rangers.

Then there were those who chose to go further afield, with last season’s joint top-scorer Nene moving to Qatari club Al Gharafa, and Rennes midfielder Yann M’Vila signing for Russian side Rubin Kazan.

Going, going, gone: Nene, M'Vila and Remy

Others completed loan moves away from France. Lyon’s Michel Bastos swithced to German side Schalke on an 18-month deal, while PSG defender Diego Lugano moved to La Liga outfit Malaga until the end of the season.

Several other players came close to leaving, but ultimately remained. Saint-Etienne, for example, rejected offers for in-demand forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, while Lyon’s Lisandro Lopez, Bafetimbi Gomis and Yoann Gourcuff were all touted with moves away from Stade Gerland.

Some of these players, such as Nene, were expected to leave in January, so their departure did not come as much of a surprise. But what was disappointing for French football fans was that so many of Ligue 1’s young talents were keen to leave France during this transfer window rather than finish the season with their clubs.

Yanga-Mbiwa’s acrimonious split from Montpellier was an example of just that. The central defender’s desire to quit the league champions resulted in president Louis Nicollin branding the 23-year-old ‘an ass’ for choosing Newcastle, a club which in the outspoken president’s mind was not ‘a good choice’ for the France international.

"He [Yanga-Mbiwa] will get himself moved on next year, but it doesn't bother me," Nicollin told L’Equipe.

"We're not going to cry," Nicollin added. "His head was no longer at Montpellier, but it's not a problem. He's not irreplaceable. The important thing is that we get some money in."1

Although it is understandable that some players would want to leave France for countries such as England – and the chance to play in one of the most competitive and exciting leagues in the world, but Yann M’Vila’s move to Russia left some fans scratching their heads. After all, the 22-year-old France international had previously been linked with the likes of Tottenham and Arsenal, before signing for Rubin Kazan – a team who finished sixth in Russia last season.

One positive of the winter transfer window was that it also enhanced France’s reputation abroad of producing quality players. Indeed, Marseille midfielder, Joey Barton, seemed to think the same when he tweeted: "Looks like French league has more quality than people think. Great to see the exports settling in to the Premier league."

He added: "This league doesn't get the credit it deserves. Consistently producing players that go all over Europe and succeed."

Barton has been impressed by the standard of Ligue 1

Sissoko demonstrated just that when he scored two goals on his home debut to steer Newcastle to a much-needed 3-2 victory against European champions Chelsea in early February.

French newspaper L’Equipe drew attention to Newcastle’s new French contingent in jest when they published the headline "Neufch‚teau renverse Chelseaî (Newcastle overturn Chelsea) on their front page following the game.

Yet while foreign clubs such as Newcastle are benefiting from their new French recruits, it is undeniable that the exodus of players in January has weakened Ligue 1 in the short and long term.

How can Le Championnat develop and become one of the most competitive in the world if France’s most talented players continue to leave? Yes, PSG are attracting some of the best foreign players to Ligue 1, as shown by the signing of Beckham and others preceding him such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, but the ideal future for the league would be to see more homegrown talent choosing to stay in France, and to see clubs such as PSG conducting more of their business within French borders.

Whether or not that will happen is another matter. Yet, despite the exit of a number of players in January, there is still much to be positive about.

Several clubs used the winter transfer window to buy well and bolster their squads. Lille were just one example as they signed 20-year-old Florian Thauvin from Bastia, beating Newcastle for his signature at the same time.

Marseille were another club who recruited well as they brought in Foued Kadir from Valenciennes, Alaixys Romao from Lorient and Modou Sougou from CFR Cluj.

In fact, there are still many talented youngsters left in the French top flight who have already begun making a mark on the league. Yassine Benzia, Rachid Ghezzal and Samuel Umtiti – who scored a wondergoal in Lyon’s 2-1 Europa League loss to Tottenham Hotspur last week – are all names to remember.Indeed Lyon boast other, more established, young talent such as 22-year-old Clement Grenier, 21-year-old Alexandre Lacazette and 21-year-old Gueida Fofana – all of who scored in the club’s 4-0 hammering of Bordeaux at the weekend.

But Lyon are not the only club to possess promising players. Rennes forward Axel Ngando (19) and Lille attacking-midfielder Divock Origi (17) made their debut on matchday 23 and went on to score vital goals, which helped their respective clubs salvage crucial points.

Ryad Boudebouz (23) is another player who proved to be important for his team, when his influential performance helped Sochaux claim a 3-2 shock win over PSG at the weekend.

The very fact that in the days following the close of the transfer window promising players such as Ngando, Origi and even Sochaux’s Edouard Butin scored goals for their clubs shows that Ligue 1 fans need not be too concerned, for French football is already looking to the future.

Before Ajax and Barcelona, there was Schalke

Stefan Bienkowski — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 10:00:00 GMT

The biggest German club never to win the Bundesliga, Schalke dominated the domestic game in the 1930s and 40s with a pioneering style played by tight-knit local lads, reports Stefan Bienkowski

To describe FC Schalke 04 as anything other than huge in German football would simply be ridiculous. With more than 100,000 members, the state-of-the-art 60,000-seat Veltins-Arena and continental talents such as Raul, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Lewis Holtby among the alumni, their fans rightfully consider their side as one of the forerunners of Europe’s most exciting league.

Earlier this season, the Gelsenkirchen club topped their Champions League group in unprecedented fashion ahead of English ever-presents Arsenal and Ligue 1 champions Montpellier: not bad for a club with a solitary UEFA Cup trophy to its name. Schalke's group-topping spot is matched by the other Bundesliga participants, Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich, giving the strong impression that the Germans have their sights set on European silverware.

Yet despite their European exploits, Schalke’s league form hasn't so much skidded to a halt as steered off the track entirely. The club finished the first half of the Bundesliga season with one win and five losses in their last eight league games – a run of form that ultimately cost Huub Stevens his job.

As the Royal Blues slunk into the hibernation of the winter break a startling 17 points behind leaders Bayern Munich, the loyal fans were left to endure the absent weeks of no football, feeling as a bitter as any North Rhine frost. Although they won their first Bundesliga match of 2013 in thrilling fashion - a topsy-turvy 5-4 victory over Hannover - they've taken just two points from four matches since.

Just how did this once great club fall so far behind Bayern and their bitter rivals Borussia Dortmund? Compared to the Bavarian marketing colossus and the gung-ho contemporary movement so painfully close by in Dortmund, the Gelsenkirchen side drift leagues apart from the two, with no ideas or style of their own. They start the second half of the season down in seventh, below Freiburg, Mainz and new boys Eintracht Frankfurt.

Schalke's European success this season has masked domestic struggles

Schalke haven’t won a title in quite some time. In fact, Schalke haven't won the league in the Bundesliga’s 50-year existence, despite finishing second or third on nine occasions – including five of the last nine seasons. For all of the club’s prestige, size and general influence over the league, the absence of the coveted "salad bowl" trophy undermines the club’s claim as one of the Bundesliga’s best.

In Schalke’s trophy room, large domestic cups stand tall – redolent of a pre-Bundesliga era when the great club dominated domestic football, as well as the national team. Of a team who led through intuitive football never before seen on German soil, with a brand of passing that took the sport by surprise. A team dubbed the Schalker Kreisel: the Schalke spinning-tops.

Many consider perfection in passing as the exclusive birthright of a select few Dutch or Spanish players. But eight decades before Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona dominated Manchester United in the Champions League final, four decades before Johan Cruyff’s Ajax conquered the continent with Total Football, Schalke won national titles as an afterthought to their affection for passing their way through opponents.

Schalke's successful style of play is said to have originated from Scotland and the passing game developed by the famous Glaswegian side Queens Park 20 years beforehand, who gained the nickname the Spiders for their revolutionary approach to passing the ball around the football pitch.

Long before Vic Buckingham took over at Ajax and laid the foundations for the club it would become, Schalke were experimenting with the notion of exploiting space on the pitch and the importance of player movement when they didn’t have the ball (an idea not lost these days on Dortmund).

The programme for the 1939 Championship final: Schalke 9-0 Admira Vienna

That Schalke side became famous for their ability to prioritise ball movement over the necessity to win a football match, with one-touch passing as players moved back and forth to retain possession. Such a mentality was where they picked up their ‘spinning-top’ nickname, as the side moved the ball from side to side, back and forth, as opposed to the common lump up the park.

Yet the initial reception of such football was far from favourable, with fans questioning the efficiency of such movement of the ball. With a local magazine famously summing up the football community's viewpoint by stating that "Schalke’s love affair with the ball is restricting and unproductive", it was down to the team to prove them wrong. And didn’t they just.

Between 1933 and 1944 Schalke’s innovative side won 11 West German regional championships, in a league featuring such opponents as Herne, Bochum and Borussia Dortmund, and six national championships. They also reached the national Cup final on five of the first eight occasions, and although they only won it once – beating Fortuna Dusseldorf 2-1 in front of 72,000 spectators in 1937 – that made them the first German double-winners. In those 11 seasons, the club never lost a home game; in six, they went completely undefeated.

In another foreshadowing of the great Ajax and Barcelona sides to come, the majority of that Schalke first-team squad came from the Gelsenkirchen area and came up through the club playing together from a very tender age. What differs is just how close the squad got.

Having lived alongside each other from birth, when they weren’t winning championships the players often worked together in the local mines. This led to an incredible level of intimacy between the players. Ernst Kuzorra, widely regarded as the greatest Schalke striker of all time, saw his sister marry midfielder Fritz Szepan, who captained Germany on 30 occasions through two World Cups; then Szepan's other sister married fellow team-mate Fritz Thelen. Ernst Reckmann and August Sobottka married two women who happened to be cousins, while winger Bernhard Klodt was even closer to goalkeeper Hans Klodt: they were brothers.

Szepan (l) and Kuzorra in 1950: No off-field shenanigans at Schalke

Pioneering tactics and a squad full of local world-class talent? It may seem like nothing more than a pipe-dream to any club outside Catalonia these days, but that's what Schalke once was and it's an ideology that still resides in the hearts of the fans that loyally show up each season.

With midfield starlet Lewis Holtby the latest to up sticks for pastures new as he chases his dream of international success, older fans will feel let down by the player, but more so with their club. The Schalke who once nurtured local talent to national acclaim seems long gone, replaced by a side happy to dabble in third place.

Schalke may never match the innovation and domination of the spinning-top side, but if they are to justify their claim to be one of Germany’s great clubs, they need to go much closer to winning the Bundesliga title – although that may already be beyond them this season, with Bayern having only dropped nine points in 22 games.

But at least there is a fresh start under a new coach, and one whose appointment might please the romantics. Huub Stevens was replaced from within the club: U17s coach Jens Keller was promoted to first-team duties, albeit only initially until the end of the season. The Royal Blues may only need a drop of optimism to get their season back on track. Let’s hope for their sake that they finally do.

Plus ça change? PSG aim to end France’s failure at European level

Guest Writer — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 17:06:00 GMT

Can Qatari-backed Paris Saint-Germain end half a century of French underachievement at Europe's top level? TheFootballDiaries.com editor Stuart Coleman investigates...

Although Britain will always claim to be the cradle of the game, much of what modern football has to be thankful for originated in France. After football’s initial development and proliferation from the British Isles, the free-thinking French took up the baton and conceived some of what have become the very cornerstones of European and world football.

UEFA. FIFA. The European Championships. The World Cup. European Player of the Year. Each one of these world-famous competitions and organisations was formed either partly or, in the main, entirely by Frenchmen. Indeed, European football’s most-sought after, most valuable and most prestigious club trophy was, as you may have surmised, also created by a French football man, a visionary journalist and former player named Gabriel Hanot.

Having heard reports of South America’s newly-formed continental competition, the exoticism-rich, brevity-poor Campeonato Sudamericano de Campeones, Hanot set about creating an annual competition that would put the complacent Home Nations, who were thought to display a sense of entitlement over and disdain for their continental counterparts, in their place and prove without prejudice which club team was the continent’s best.

As Joao Baptista Martins scored the first European Cup goal for Sporting Lisbon against Partizan Belgrade in September 1955, Gabriel Hanot could scarcely have imagined the commercial behemoth his competition would become; nor could he have predicted the paucity of success that French teams would have to show for their endeavours almost 60 years later.

The giants of Madrid stole a march on the rest of the continent in collecting the first five competitions in a row, but French football showed it was far from the European backwater it is often considered today, with Stade de Reims displaying pluck and promise in making the final twice in the first four years (1956 and 1959).

1959: Ten-goal top scorer Just Fontaine takes on Madrid in Stuttgart

Sadly these appearances in the competition’s ultimate game were merely the French flattering to deceive. It would be almost two decades before any club from across the channel reached such heights again.

Before gargantuan sums of money were invested into football through television companies, the playing field of European football was a relatively even place (metaphorically, if not literally). This meant that great players often remained in situ with their club for years on end, thus allowing for a certain continuity and an almost dynastic level of success, with teams such as Ajax, Bayern Munich and AC Milan winning consecutive European Cup titles.

Les Verts of St Etienne, famous for their distinctive green jerseys, rose to prominence in France during the 1960s and went on to win eight French titles between 1964 and 1976. After many fruitless attempts, St Etienne finally reached the European Cup final in 1976, only to be dispatched by the mighty Bayern of Beckenbauer and Müller, who in beating them became the third of just three teams to win three European Cups in succession.

The desperate upset of the St Etienne players, who had spurned numerous chances during a closely-contested game, was felt across France, where a European Cup victory over German opposition would have cheered most French football fans. As the players sank to their haunches at Hampden Park, tears in their eyes, so began a European malaise that would last for a quarter of a century.

1976: Bayern celebrate the winner against St Etienne

Despite the brilliance of the national team during the 1980s, the clubs provided little encouragement; the best their teams could muster was Bordeaux and Monaco making some paltry quarter-final appearances. However, as the tumultuous decade drew to a close, a team was being constructed on the Mediterranean coast with a stated, focused aim of conquering Europe.

Marseille emerged under the stewardship of flamboyant club president Bernard Tapie to become one of the greatest sides French league football has seen. Boasting some of the world’s finest players, including Rudi Völler, Marcel Desailly and Enzo Francescoli, L’OM won four league titles in a row from 1989 to 1992 and it was from this foundation of domestic success that they would build towards their zenith, finally clinching Europe's top trophy – freshly rebranded the Champions League – in 1993.

After thrashing Northern Ireland’s Glentoran in their opening game and making their way past Dinamo Bucharest in the second round, Marseille progressed to the group stage at a time when the Champions League still contained solely Europe’s national champions. The winners of the two groups would meet in the final and, hard as it may now be to believe currently, Rangers pushed Marseille all the way in Group A, as the Frenchmen topped the group by a single point from their Glaswegian counterparts.

The team waiting for Marseille in the final was the formidable Milan side of Marco van Basten, Frank Rijkaard and Franco Baresi, who had won every game and conceded only one goal on their way to the final. Despite their billing as underdogs, Marseille were robust in defence and, after going 1-0 up on 43 minutes through a Basile Boli header, played the rigid, disciplined, and notoriously defensive catenaccio system against one of the tactic’s most famous proponents. Try as they might, the frustrated Milanese could not find a way through and Marseille held on to win.

1993: Marseille celebrate victory over Milan

Although the extravagantly-gifted Marseille side had finally collected Europe's top trophy, after 38 years of French failure, the achievement was tainted in the years following the victory. It emerged that the club’s less-than-scrupulous then-owner Bernard Tapie had been involved in bribery: paying off two Valenciennes players before Marseille’s penultimate Ligue Un game allowed his squad to win the tile before the last game against arch-rivals PSG, thus leaving them in fine fettle for the Champions League final a week later against Milan.

Marseille were relegated and stripped of their Ligue Un title and although their Champions League victory still stands, the events surrounding the 1993 win have left a permanent mark over France’s only triumph in the competition they had created in 1955.

In the last decade, one team has dominated Ligue Un, in a run that both set incredible records of sustained success and stretched the boundaries of tedium, Olympique Lyonnais won seven consecutive Championnats from 2002 to 2008. Despite their all-consuming accomplishments domestically, Lyon were very much the England of the international club scene. Perennial quarter-finalists, with the odd expedition into semi-final territory, and the occasional victory over the elite (Real Madrid fell to Lyon three times in five seasons), Lyon never quite progressed to the highest echelons.

As representatives of Ligue Un in Europe, Lyon were consistent if unspectacular bastions of the last eight, but no more. Even during their domestic reign, they were outdone by the only French finalists of the last 20 years: AS Monaco.

It's hard to imagine now as a deflated Monaco languish in Ligue 2, but the glamorous Mediterraneans reached the showpiece final of the Champions League as recently as 2004. Unfortunately for Les Rouge et Blanc, Jose Mourinho was too busy elevating himself to the position of most sought-after coach in Europe with his all-conquering Porto side to allow the Champions League to slip through his fingers. In a disappointingly one-sided affair, the Portuguese champions systematically undid Didier Deschamps’ talented team, who had performed excellently in knocking out Real Madrid and Chelsea on their way to the final.

2004: Jerome Rothen, distraught in defeat

The heady heights Monaco had reached were soon forgotten however, as they subsequently became carried away with their European over-achievement and over-reached themselves financially, for which they paid a heavy price in suffering a painful relegation in 2011.

Indeed, Monaco’s 2004 final defeat helped to cement an already established, universally unwanted record: France has by far the worst finals-to-victory ratio of any country whose teams have made the European Cup final more than once. One solitary victory in six finals tells the tale of woe that has been French teams’ experiences at the concluding, vital stage of the continent’s elite competition.

Having wallowed in the abyss of mediocrity around the middle and bottom of Ligue Un during Lyon’s domination of the top flight in the 2000s, Paris Saint-Germain are desperate to redress their domestic failings and their distinct lack of appearances at Europe’s top table in recent years.

Since 2011, the investment of PSG’s uber-rich Qatari owners QIA has allowed one of France’s biggest clubs to acquire players and staff of the requisite pedigree to offer a significant challenge not just domestically, but in the moneyed world of the Champions League.
With Carlo Ancelotti at the helm and a squad packed with big-name signings, including the press’s best friend Zlatan Ibrahimovic, €45m-man Lucas Moura and football’s international globetrotter and ceaselessly productive cash cow David Beckham, PSG are through to the upcoming round of 16 in the Champions League, having finished top of Group A with an impressive five wins from six games.

2013: PSG power through the group stage

Having drawn Valencia in the last 16, Ancelotti must be delighted that he has avoided the continent’s big guns. Indeed, the affable Italian with the rogue eyebrow mentioned after the draw that Valencia have “a few problems at the moment”.

Since that time, when Los Che were in a lowly 11th in La Liga, things have perked up a little; Valencia are currently doing a respectable job in fifth place. But with the Spanish side’s recent history of chronic financial difficulties, the nouveau-riche PSG, who sit proudly atop Ligue Un, are the team in form and must fancy their chances against the 2001 finalists.

Should PSG progress to the quarter-finals, it would be their first appearance at that stage of the competition since their semi-final appearance in 1995. Their chances of reaching the last eight are surely increased by the favourable draw: two of Milan, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Manchester United will be knocked out in the last 16 as the Italians host the Catalans and Cristiano Ronaldo takes on his old club.

Could 2013 be the year that France ends its embarrassing wait for a second European Cup winner? Perhaps it’s unlikely. PSG have neither the technique of Barcelona nor the experience of Manchester United. That said, the French wannabes have a highly experienced and successful coach; a fanatical support wounded by years of under-achievement; and an arsenal of international players desperate to prove that they’re not simply collecting a hefty pay-packet while living the easy life of a Baudelairean wanderer, strolling through the stylish Parisian boulevards.

Leonardo welcomes Ancelotti

While Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich et al remain favourites for the Champions League this year, every season PSG qualify they will be swelling their ranks with an aggressive, bullish transfer policy and increasing their chances of breaking the cycle of failure. Carlo Ancelotti’s recently expressed dream of a PSG v. Milan final is no longer a risible notion of mere fantasy, as it certainly was just a few years ago, but a mouth-watering possibility that PSG fans are relishing.

What of the other French teams dreaming of European glory? Reigning champions Montpellier have neither the extremely wealthy benefactor nor the popular support necessary to provide the financial footing necessary to battle with Europe’s big guns. Bordeaux are one of France’s traditionally larger teams, who will be helped by their Stade Chaban Delmas expanding from 34,000 to 42,000 for Euro 2016, but the club will struggle to match the draw and financial muscle of Marseille and Paris Saint-Germain. Lyon failed to build European success upon their domestic domination, and since their Ligue 1 influence has waned there is no real reason to believe that their continental threat will increase in the near future.

It seems the only possible French threat to PSG is France’s best-supported club, Marseille. They have a huge fan-base, a newly-renovated 67,000-seat Stade Vélodrome ready for summer 2014, and a former league-winning manager Élie Baup who is improving quickly on his worrying record at previous club Nantes. L'OM could well be part of an unhappy alliance, as they and their arch-rivals from the capital launch a two-pronged assault on Europe’s greatest prize.

By Stuart Coleman, editor of TheFootballDiaries.com

Dortmund's Euro-conquering '97 vintage: What Happened Next?

Titus Chalk — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 11:37:00 GMT

The new issue of FourFourTwo goes deep inside Borussia Dortmund, Europe's most exciting side. In 1997, they were Europe's best, beating Juventus 3-1 in the Champions League final. What happened next to the heroes of 1997?

Stefan Klos, goalkeeper
Klos was already subject of Rangers’ interest at the time of the 1997 final and eventually joined the Glasgow club in 1999. When he retired, he moved to Switzlerland to hit the slopes and as he says, “be a taxi driver for my children.”

Matthias Sammer, sweeper
Sammer coached Dortmund to the league title and UEFA Cup Final in 2002. Now, after a spell as technical director at the DFB, he is Bayern Munich’s technical director. His summer arrival has refocused the club, who lead the Bundesliga by some margin.

Jürgen Kohler, centre-back
The World Cup winner turned out for amateurs Alemannia Adendorf as late as 2009. He then trained the Under-21s at sixth-tier Bonner SC, but stopped due to TV work. Still clearly passionate, he advises Bad Breisig and women’s club 07 Bad Neuenahr on the side.

Martin Kree, centre-back
After football, Kree trained at a marketing company in Cologne. He struck out on his own in 2004 and set up an IT training centre in his native Ruhr region. Since summer 2012, he has been a member of VfL Bochum’s supervisory board.

Stefan Reuter, right wing-back
The flying wing-back went on to work behind the scenes at Dortmund and TSV 1860 Munich. From 2006 to 2009 he was 1860’s general manager – and has now taken the same role at nearby Bavarian club FC Augsburg.

Jörg Heinrich, left wing-back
Another who kept on playing as long as possible, Heinrich still turns out for the Rathenow seniors, his local club. He recently completed his training badges, and hopes to train a youth team in the near future.

Back, l to r: Chapuisat, Kohler, Heinrich, Sammer, Reuter, Kree
Front, l to r: Sousa, Moller, Lambert, Klos, Riedle

Paul Lambert, centre midfield
Despite his current travails with Aston Villa, Lambert remains a popular figure amongst German fans. With the season spiralling out of control though, it remains to be seen if he can recapture his Norwich City success, after earlier spells managing Colchester, Wycombe and Livingston.

Paulo Sousa, centre midfield
Also a Champions League winner with Juventus in 1996, Sousa has gone on to a sparkling managerial career, too. A blip at Leicester aside, he excelled at Queens Park Rangers, Swansea and Hungarian side Videoton. In January, the Portuguese gaffer was hired by New York Red Bulls.

Andreas Möller, attacking midfield
After retiring in 2004, Möller got his coaching badges and did some work experience at Juventus, learning training methods from Didier Deschamps. Spells at the helms of Viktoria Aschaffenburg and Kickers Offenbach followed, though he resigned form the latter in April 2011.

Karl-Heinz Riedle, striker
After finishing his playing days in the Premier League with Liverpool and Fulham, Riedle became a director at Grasshoppers Zurich. He left that post in 2007 to concentrate on his sports agency, as well as the hotel and kids' training camp he owns.

Stephane Chapuisat, striker
Switzerland’s finest export went on to be an ambassador for charity SOS Children’s Villages, before his involvement in Euro 2008, which Switzerland co-hosted. Now he coaches youth team strikers at his former club Young Boys Bern.

Champions: Note raincoated gaffer Hitzfeld

Substitutes:
Lars Ricken
In keeping with his playing career, one-club man Ricken is now involved at Dortmund as youth co-ordinator. He has also worked as a pundit for German Sky Sports and completed his coaching badges in 2011.

Michael Zorc
Zorc is half of Dortmund’s dynamic duo, the technical director to head coach Jurgen Klopp. The pair recently signed contract extensions until 2016 and may yet match the success of the club’s 1997 vintage.

Heiko Herrlich
Having battled a brain tumour in 2000, Herrlich played on until 2004. He trained Under-19 teams for Dortmund and Germany and coached in the lower leagues. In June 2012 he resigned from third division Unterhaching and is now hotly tipped to join Sammer at Bayern.

Manager:
Ottmar Hitzfeld
About to celebrate his 30th anniversary as a coach, Hitzfeld is one of only three managers (along with Ernst Happel and Jose Mourinho) to win Europe's top competition with two clubs, having triumphed again with Bayern Munich in 2001. Having collected 18 trophies in club football, in 2008 he switched to international management with Switzerland, whom he is still coaching at the age of 64.

The Dortmund stars who could take the Premier League by storm

Andrew Murray — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 14:20:00 GMT

Terrifying Europe with the most exhilarating football outside Catalonia, FourFourTwo's current cover stars Dortmund are everyone’s favourite Germans. FFT staff writer Andrew Murray ponders who should be on the Premier League radar

Arsenal – Robert Lewandowski
Yes, Theo Walcott has signed a new contract, but the 23-year-old is still to marry searing pace with consistent goal output. Still only 24, Polish poacher Lewandowski has averaged better than a goal every other game for the last 18 months, but just as importantly his movement, selflessness and sure technique are qualities highly prized by Arsene Wenger.

Alternatively, diligent defensive midfielder Sven Bender – a leggy operator with the engine to fly from box to box – would also be an astute signing, adding bite and physique to the Gunners’ tiki-taka Plan A. Whether Wenger is prepared to part with the necessary cash to get either is another matter entirely.

Manchester City – Mats Hummels
With Joleon Lescott and Kolo Toure out of favour, Roberto Mancini lacks trusted centre-back cover should injury or loss of form befall Vincent Kompany and Matija Nastasic. First choice for club and country, Hummels excelled in both Champions League group games against City, his assurance in possession and aerial dominance the ideal complement for either Belgian or Serb.

Also an adept defensive midfielder, the 24-year-old would provide added options in what has become something of a problem position for Mancini, with Javi Garcia, Jack Rodwell and Gareth Barry all suffering niggling injuries.

The feeling remains, however, that moves for Dortmund poster boys Mario Gotze or Marco Reus would be more likely Eastlands arrivals. Young, gifted and hard-working, either skittish attacker has the profile and talent to excel in a lavish midfield three with David Silva and Samir Nasri.

Manchester United – Sven Bender
A long-time Old Trafford target, the leggy Bender has the physicality and dynamism United fans crave. They may be top of the Premier League, but with Darren Fletcher sidelined indefinitely and Anderson still an enigma, the Red Devils lack a dedicated defensive midfielder to play alongside the uber-consistent Michael Carrick.

Not always first choice in Klopp’s deliciously fluid 4-2-3-1, the 23-year-old anchorman – whose twin brother Lars plays for Bayer Leverkusen – could be available for the right price.

Tottenham – Marcel Schmelzer
Kyle Naughton may have deputised well for the injured Cameroonian this season, but Benoit Assou-Ekotto remains the only natural left-back at White Hart Lane. A diligent defender with sure technique, Dortmund’s buccaneer-in-chief Schmelzer would be a shrewd addition to Andre Villas-Boas’s squad.

The 24-year-old is tied to a long-term deal at the Westfalenstadion, but his reliability would provide a fine counterpoint to Gareth Bale’s surging wing play.

Liverpool – Nuri Sahin
It’s been three-and-a-half years since a Xabi Alonso-shaped hole emerged at Anfield. Joe Allen has been tidy enough since following Brendan Rodgers from Swansea, but is yet to fully convince as a deep-lying playmaker alongside Lucas’ ceaseless buzzing. Back at Dortmund after an unhappy spell at Real Madrid, Sahin could be the answer.

[What do you mean he’s already played for them? *Hastily re-writes*]

Jakub Blaszczykowski’s hustle and bustle from the right wing would give a sometimes one-paced Anfield midfield extra legs missing since the days of Steve McManaman.

Chelsea – Jurgen Klopp
Sufficiently satiated with impish schemers, the European champions need more systematic change. Seduced by Bayern Munich’s fan-owned meritocracy, Pep Guardiola has left Roman Abramovich searching for another sprightly coach to reinvent the Blues' ailing fortunes.

A Guardiola disciple who has imposed a Barcelona-style system at the Westfalenstadion since his 2008 arrival and won the last two Bundesliga titles, 41-year-old Klopp fits the bill. Trophies, flowing football and admirers: it's a mouth-watering combination for Chelsea’s oligarch.

Eintracht Frankfurt bring fireworks to the top flight

Stefan Bienkowski — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 12:19:00 GMT

The Bundesliga's back with a bang in Frankfurt, as Stefan Bienkowski reports...

With Eintracht Frankfurt, expect fireworks. From the promoted side's sparkling start with an introductory undefeated run that surpassed Leverkusen, Hamburg and even Dortmund, to the damp squib of a first-round defeat to Aue in the DFL Pokal, to the actual display of fireworks and flares from the fans which resulted in last weekend’s tie against Leverkusen being delayed for 15 minutes, the Bundesliga has certainly been a brighter place since their return.

"I'll just put this out…"

Despite the unfortunate 3-1 loss to Sami Hyypiä’s Bayer Leverkusen, the Eagles’ form this season has made them one of Europe’s most exciting teams and rocketed them into the top four for their troubles, as opposed to the bottom three.

It's testament to Eintracht that they have caught the eye despite Bayern collecting 45 points from a possible 54. After promotion from the second division the Eagles swooped into the transfer market and pulled off a number of signings that have since proved bargains as the club rose straight to the top of the German table.

Glad tidings of great joy: The team celebrate Christmas

Seven of the regular starting team were brought in over the course of the summer transfer window for a sum of around €6.5 million – half the cost of Rafael van der Vaart’s move to Hamburg. Yet while the northern club have had to make do with mid-table mediocrity, Frankfurt have stayed in the top four almost all season.

Manager Armin Veh has done incredibly well to integrate so many signings: stubborn goalkeeper Kevin Trapp, solid centre-back Bastian Oczipka and dynamic midfield trio of Stefan Aigner, Anderson and Takashi Inui have all played their part in changing the side from relegation tips to Champions League challengers.

It’s not just their results that have had neutrals watching with interest. They’ve scored 34 goals in 18 games, with towering striker Alexander Meier second in the Bundesliga goalscoring charts with 12 – not bad for a striker who’d only scored 70 in nine previous seasons for the club. But they concede, too: 30 goals against means their fixtures average 3.5 strikes per game.

Aigner (r) celebrates a goal with Meier

With 18 games played and 30 points well-earned, 17 points separate these young players from a relegation fight they never seemed too worried about. Instead, the Eagles dare to dream of European and Bundesliga football aplenty in the years to come. With these players, this coach and a promise of fireworks of some sort each week, perhaps the sky really is the limit.

PSG resume struggle to stay on top in France while eyeing Europe

Vaishali Bhardwaj — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 08:42:00 GMT

Ligue 1 starts again on Friday, with Paris Saint-Germain on top – but they struggled to get there, and their owners expect success, says Vaishali Bhardwaj

When Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) took over Paris Saint-Germain a year and a half ago, they had grand plans – and a specific timetable.
“Our aim is to qualify for the Champions League every year as of 2012,” stated new PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaïfi. “Then, from 2015, we want to play a major role in the French championship”. Al-Khelaïfi went on to add "We want the new Messi… We want to invest in the big stars of tomorrow, from all over the world, including from France."

Al-Khelaïfi’s comments showed that QSI planned to build a side that could win titles quickly while creating the potential to become a football powerhouse in the longer term.

With that in mind, ahead of the 2011/12 season, PSG decided to invest in personnel. New sporting director Leonardo came from Inter Milan to take responsibility for the recruitment of players, and he soon put the Qatari chequebook to good use, signing Javier Pastore, Kevin Gameiro and Salvatore Sirigu, among others. With fresh faces in the squad, coach Antoine Kombouaré was able to lead PSG to the top spot in Ligue 1 at the close of 2011.

Koumbare congratulates Pastore as PSG lead the way

Despite his side being 'autumn champions', though, Kombouaré was dismissed on December 29th and replaced by Carlo Ancelotti. Considering the team’s position in the league, Kombouaré’s sacking seemed harsh – but QSI clearly believed the former Chelsea and AC Milan boss was the man for the long-term plan.

Even so, the 53-year-old wasn't expected to sacrifice immediate success. Despite starting 2012 atop Ligue 1, the Parc des Princes side were overhauled by Montpellier. René Girard’s side won Le Championnat as a true collective, while PSG were still performing as a group of individuals, albeit talented ones.

Still, they had qualified for the Champions League, as per Al-Khelaïfi's timetable. And once the summer transfer window opened, they certainly became active, to say the least. The club spent an estimated €112m on Ezequiel Lavezzi, Marco Verratti, Gregory van der Wiel and the AC Milan duo of Thiago Silva and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Al-Khelaïfi and Leonardo welcome Thiago

With such talent in the team, many unsurprisingly tipped les Parisiens to win the league title ahead of the new season. And six months on, PSG do indeed lead Ligue 1, again as autumn champions – although only on goal difference, and the journey to the summit was far from smooth.

The club started the season with three draws against Lorient, Ajaccio and Bordeaux as Ancelotti struggled to fashion a first-choice XI from his reshaped squad. When he did, the club went on a five-match winning streak, starting with a 2-1 at 2011 champions Lille.

Firmly on track, PSG faced a major test in the Champions League at Porto. They failed, losing 1-0, and drew their next game at league leaders Marseille. Four straight wins without conceding a goal only masked the problems within the team – and only two of the wins were in the league, narrow 1-0 scrapes against Reims and Nancy.

In November, inconsistency caught up with them. A shocking 2-1 home loss to Saint-Etienne was glossed over with a 4-0 Champions League whitewash of Dinamo Zagreb, but then a poor 1-1 at Montpellier was followed by a home loss to nine-man Rennes. With PSG in third place, Ancelotti's anger exploded into the public domain.

Rennes harsh PSG's buzz at the Parc des Princes

"It is unbelievable. Our attitude out there was not good," the Italian said after the game. "We've lost two games at home, and that's unacceptable for a team that wants to win the league. We aren't yet playing as a team... We have to change things – and I'm going to change things. We need to be more concentrated, more determined and harder… I'm not scared to say it: we are in a crisis."

Considering that the defeat to Rennes was only PSG’s second league defeat, Ancelotti’s comments seemed rashly premature – especially when the team then beat Dynamo Kyiv in the Champions League before thrashing Troyes 4-0. But when Saint-Etienne sent PSG out of the Coupe de la Ligue on penalties and Nice beat them in the league at the start of December, critics began asking questions in earnest.

Some said that Ancelotti was struggling to deal with the many star names, and certainly he was unhappy with his players’ performances: "My players don't make a team. They're still a group of individuals,” he said. “We still don't have any consistency in our game. It's neither solid nor unified.”

One of the players Ancelotti singled out for criticism was Pastore. Clearly finding it difficult to accommodate the playmaker, the coach admitted that he was dissatisfied with the 23-year-old’s “disappointing” displays.

While some critics questioned individual performances, others attributed PSG’s problems to the players not focusing on the domestic cause. Still more blamed Leonardo's transfer policy for the lack of cohesion on the pitch.

Ancelotti and Leonardo: under pressure

Ancelotti, too, came under intense scrutiny as November wore on and rumours about his future fuelled speculation about his potential successor. L’Equipe reported that Pep Guardiola’s advisors had begun talks with the club while Le Parisien reported that Arsène Wenger had met PSG’s owners in a Paris hotel.

The Spanish press believed that QSI preferred José Mourinho – and Marca claimed that Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez would consider a 'swap deal' with Ancelotti replacing the Portuguese at Madrid. Comments in the Italian media from Ancelotti himself about wanting to coach Madrid one day hardly helped quash the speculation.

The conjecture over Ancelotti and the club’s poor league form came to a head before PSG’s final Champions League group game, at home to Porto. Win and PSG would top their group; lose and Ancelotti could be on his way out of Paris.

He's still there. Although the 2-1 victory was slightly fortunate, the pressure on Ancelotti subsided and the Porto win has seemingly been the turning point for the club. PSG beat both Evian and Valenciennes 4-0 in December; they then crucially defeated title contenders Lyon 1-0 before a 3-0 victory at Brest ahead of the winter break confirmed them as autumn champions in top spot.

Ibra and Pastore celebrate Lavezzi's winner against Porto

This time, they will be expected to stay there. The next five months will not be an easy journey for anyone at PSG. There is ongoing uncertainty about the future of some players – such as last season’s joint top scorer Nenê, who seems set to leave the Parc des Princes after seeing his playing time on the pitch reduced.

But there is optimism too. While some players may be leaving the club, others are joining – like Lucas Moura, the highly-rated Brazilian midfielder Lucas Moura who completed his long-awaited move from São Paulo for €45m last week. QSI believe that the 20-year-old represents the future of the club – after all, Al-Khelaïfi did say that he wanted to find the new Lionel Messi.

Whether Moura is quite that good is another matter, but PSG will still be looking ahead to 2013. The club undoubtedly has the players and coach to win the league and progress in the Champions League, provided they can continue their good run of recent results. And if that happens, then 2013 might well be a very successful year for PSG – and indeed Ancelotti.

What the Dickens!? How Ricardo Quaresma fell on hard times

Victor Ferreira — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 09:00:00 GMT

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was a career of skill, it was a career of foolishness. He had everything before him, and in a flash, he had nothing before him. The complications of Ricardo Quaresma’s story seem almost straight out of a Charles Dickens novel.

Quaresma’s career has been a tale of two promises. Although the second is well on its way to being kept, to say that the first promise of Quaresma’s career has been broken is an understatement. It was shattered.

Bursting onto the scene after being promoted from Sporting Lisbon’s B team in 2001/02 at the tender age of 17, Quaresma dazzled teammates, football directors, and of course, opponents with his immense skill. Sporting fans were left in a state of bliss by the winger’s tricks and flicks and took delight in watching him daze and confuse his markers. Quaresma played in 36 games and scored five goals in his debut campaign.

The winger, along with Portuguese Liga legends Joao Vieira Pinto, Mario Jardel, and current national team manager Paulo Bento, triumphantly led Sporting to a league and cup double.

It was here that the first promise was made. Quaresma, who undoubtedly had the skill to do so, was going to follow in Luis Figo’s footsteps and become one of the greatest talents in Europe.
One year later, a young Cristiano Ronaldo began to impress in the same manner. Both playing in the same team, and with similar styles, the comparisons of the two players began. Although Sporting fans agreed that both were destined for greatness, it was Quaresma who was pegged to outshine and take over for Figo. Ronaldo was in the shadow of his teammate.

Ronaldo (No.11) and Quaresma (No.7) line up for Portugal's under-21 side

At the end of the campaign, the Portuguese side sold their two star wingers. Ronaldo headed to Manchester United in exchange for €15 million, while Quaresma was sold to Barcelona for €6 million and Fabio Rochemback. While Ronaldo’s stock continued to rise as he began his trek to fame at the Theatre of Dreams that is Old Trafford, Quaresma struggled to find form with the Catalan club, scoring only one goal in 22 appearances. Near the end of the season, the winger fell out with Frank Rijkaard after criticising the Dutchman for his lack of playing time.
One step forward, two steps back - the trend that has marked Quaresma’s career.

In the same move that saw Deco move from FC Porto to Barcelona, Quaresma was shipped back to his homeland, along with €20 million, to join the newly-crowned European champions.
Unlike his time at Barcelona, Quaresma impressed from the start with the Dragons.

Making his debut as a substitute in the UEFA Supercup against Valencia, Quaresma cut through David Albelda, leaving the rugged midfielder’s head spinning, and unleashed a curling 30-yard effort that flew past Santiago Canizares and into the net. Although Porto would ultimately lose the game, Quaresma had quickly won the respect of the fans, players and coaching staff. It was no wonder he earned the nickname ‘Harry Potter’. In his following outing - the Portuguese Supercup, against archrivals Benfica - Quaresma scored the only goal to seal a win over his new club’s eternal nemesis. There’s no better way to impress Porto management than by gunning down the Eagles.

In his four years with the Dragons, Quaresma re-emerged onto the European scene, after wilting in Catalonia. He became an idol and hero at Porto, scoring 24 goals in 114 league matches. The trickster led his side to three consecutive league titles between 2005 and 2008, a Portuguese Cup, a Portuguese Supercup, and an Intercontinental Cup. His skills helped Porto to consecutive appearances in the Champions League round of 16 and earned him enough recognition to finally maintain a consistent spot on the Portuguese National team.

The master of the trivela, a signature move where he displays his skill by crossing or striking a ball at goal with the outside of his foot, Quaresma’s magical displays for Porto once again made him a star. The winger earned another multi-million euro transfer away from Portugal, this time to Internazionale. Pundits believed that after maturing as a player and sharpening his skills with Porto, Jose Mourinho’s tutelage would be enough to finally allow Quaresma to transcend the final barrier and become an elite player. But instead of jumping over the final hurdle, Quaresma crashed into it and began a descent that has stained his career.

At Inter, all of Quaresma’s flaws, particularly on the defensive end of the field, were exposed for the world to see. While at Porto, the winger was spared of most defensive duties by manager Jesualdo Ferreira, who preferred to have him hover around the midfield line. This allowed Porto to have a dangerous outlet on a counter-attack but also spared Quaresma’s blushes defensively.
Mourinho, a manager well known for expecting his entire squad to perform on both ends of the pitch, did not appreciate Quaresma’s lack of two-way football. The former Chelsea manager noticed how his countryman’s presence on the field was to the detriment to Inter defensively.

This left Quaresma in the role of an impact substitute, heavily relied upon to shift the tide with his offensive ability. But unfortunately for Quaresma, his offensive flaws were also put on display.
Although he was loved by Porto fans, Quaresma was often the target of whistles and jeers at the Estadio do Dragao for his poor decision making that resulted in giveaway after giveaway.

A rather moist Quaresma celebrates title glory with Porto in 2008

Wearing the black and blue of Inter, the same rang true. Quaresma, seemingly affected by the pressure on him to perform after an €18.5 million transfer, attempted to do too much on the field. Instead of surprising defenders with a rare trivela, every touch was taken with the outside of his foot. Instead of continuing the flow of possession, Quaresma attempted to dribble past more than one beefy Serie A defender at a time.

No longer holding the trust and confidence of Mourinho, Quaresma only played in twelve games throughout the first-half of the season. A loan move to Luiz Felipe Scolari’s Chelsea didn’t improve the player’s situation as he only managed to make four appearances in the latter half of the season.

In 2008, former teammate Ronaldo was crowned Europe’s best player by winning the Ballon D’or. Ironically, Quaresma was awarded the Bidone D’Oro (the golden traschcan), a mock prize awarded by Rai Radio 2 listeners to the worst player in Serie A.

A second year at Inter saw Quaresma’s situation further worsen. Although he only played one less game, his playing time was cut in half. In 11 appearances, Quaresma averaged 35 minutes per outing, only once completing the full 90.

Two years of misery was enough for Inter to pull the trigger and sanction a permanent transfer out of the club. Quaresma was shipped to Besiktas for €7.3 million.

Just like he did at Porto, the winger had to start from square one if he had any hopes of re-establishing himself. However, at 27 years old, that would be more difficult to accomplish.

Quaresma’s stock sky-rocketed during his first season at Besiktas. Scoring 11 goals in all competitions, many of them the kind of wonder strike Porto fans had grown accustomed to, Quaresma seemed to have rediscovered his swagger. His play led the Turkish side to a domestic cup win. But, near the end of his second campaign in Turkey, Quaresma blew it.

Ricardo's recent shenanigans have left him with some explaining to do...

Down 1-0 to Atletico Madrid during the second leg of a Europa League round of 16 tie, manager Carlos Carvalhal hooked Quaresma at half-time in favour of Ismail Koybasi. The Portuguese winger allegedly exploded with rage and told Carvalhal that he was worthless while rampaging in the locker room.

Besiktas officials chose to side with Quaresma and Carvalhal was discarded. Heading into the last year of his contract, the higher powers at Besiktas wanted Quaresma to return the favour by agreeing to a lower salary. When Quaresma refused, the second promise was made. After negotiations failed, president Fikret Orman told the Turkish press in September that he would end the career of his star player. Quaresma has not turned out for the Black Eagles since.

Little did he know, Orman’s promise would be close to being fulfilled as little as two months later. Since the threats, the former Inter player has been embroiled in levels of controversy that would make even Joey Barton blush.

In October, club official Ahmet Mur Cebi accused the winger of publicly urinating in the Besiktas locker room and flashing his genitals at female employees. Although Quaresma plead innocence, his reputation took a further hit as the footballing world burst with laughter.

Nearly two weeks ago, the winger once again made headlines, for the wrong reasons. Quaresma was arrested by police in Lisbon after having assaulted an officer, who required hospitalisation as a result. Quaresma’s mother had been mugged outside the court house where the player was testifying about having been mugged himself. Quaresma attempted to pursue the individual when he was stopped by the officer. A heated confrontation ensued and ended with Quaresma in police custody.

More than ever, Quaresma’s career can be defined as one of blaring highs and excruciating lows. Now 29, the two recent incidents will surely mean an end to any highs. After his image on the pitch was obliterated at Inter, his image off the pitch has been given the same treatment at Besiktas.

When he sees out his contract at the end of the season, there will surely be several suitors. A third return to Portugal has been rumoured for more than a year now, and it would perhaps be best to end his fluctuating career in the place he experienced the most success. Even if he does manage to revitalise himself once more, Quaresma will spend the last few years of his career wondering what went wrong from his brilliant start at Sporting to his final, brutal year at Besiktas.

Dickens concludes A Tale of Two Cities with Sydney Carton, a brilliant young character, known for wasting his life, being executed by guillotine. The blade is currently hanging ominously at the top, waiting to bring the end of Quaresma’s football career.

Nancy boys get violent

Jonathan Fadugba — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 13:56:00 GMT

Things have gone very sour very quickly for Nancy, reports Jonathan Fadugba...

In a way, it was like a scene from a comedy show. Rennes had just taken the lead for the second time against Nancy, pushing into a 2-1 lead at the Stade Marcel Picot thanks to an absolute wonder goal from Romain Alessandrini.

Minutes later Nancy – cut adrift at the bottom of Ligue 1, in hopeless form and so bad their own fans recently erected a banner behind the goal with a giant red arrow pointing to the net with the words 'the goal is here' – won a penalty.

With eight minutes left, this was Nancy's chance. An opportunity to rescue a point, an opening to salvage something from the smouldering wreckage that has been ASNL's start to the season. But who would step up?

To audible gasps from sections of the home crowd, substitute Paul Alo’o Efoulou walked forward to take the kick. “Djamel Bakar is supposed to take penalties but Alo'o Efoulou decided he'd take the initiative,” deflated Nancy coach Jean Fernandez sighed after the game.

Alo'o Efoulou stepped up, his faced etched with fear. He missed. Predictably Rennes went straight up the other end and made it 3-1, in part thanks to a mad rush of blood from goalkeeper Guy-Roland Ndy Assembé. "If I laugh," to paraphrase Lord Byron, "'tis that I may not weep." But what happened next was no laughing matter.

As disgusted Nancy supporters filtered out of the stadium, a group of around 300 fans managed to sneak into the bowels of the stadium via a side door, making it as far as the home dressing room. Suddenly, all hell broke loose.

As the players tried to make their way through the narrow corridor into the dressing room, fights broke out. A serious scuffle ensued: punches were thrown, cameramen were sent flying and it required police back-up to help security stop the melée and restore order to a club thrown deep into crisis.

For the players, already humiliated and floundering at the foot of the table, the shock was palpable. Some left the stadium in tears, traumatised by the experience. “It was surreal,” said Ndy Assembé, a particular boo-boy target who took a blow to the face. “I was one of the first to see these guys enter the dressing room. I even took a punch, but fortunately it wasn't too serious as I was able to avoid the full impact.”

“I can understand that people are unhappy with the results but those who came into the dressing room with such hatred are not real fans, no matter what they say,” lamented defender Joel Sami.

“We were scared, because you never know how far people like that can go. There were knives on the table, to cut fruits that we eat in the dressing room. What if someone had picked up one of these knives? Everyone has to realise that we, the players, are the first to be affected by the situation. ASNL is our club. It's our life.”

The fights, broadcast unwittingly via a backstage camera feed, were truly remarkable. "Intolerable and absurd" in the eyes of club president Jacques Rousselot. Fortunately no-one was injured.

After a promising first season under Fernandez it has all gone wrong for Nancy, who currently sit bottom of the table with just one win and nine defeats from 12 games. A former Marseille, Lille, Metz and Auxerre coach who led Auxerre into the Champions League merely two years ago, Fernandez guided les Nancéens to a creditable 11th-placed finish last season – their best in four years.

Fernandez wonders where it's all gone wrong

Playing an effective and functional (if slightly drab) style of football, Nancy were resolute and tough to beat at the best of times last year. The season's highlight came in doing the double over big-spending Paris Saint-Germain, with wins seemingly so impressive it prompted Carlo Ancelotti to vote Fernandez the best coach in Ligue 1 at the annual end of season awards.

From that platform, the club that gave Arsene Wenger his break in management back in the 1980s and boasts Michel Platini as one of its finest ever players was supposed to push on and reach for new heights this year. But having lost some of their star performers during the summer – Bakaye Traore to AC Milan and Samba Diakite to QPR, to name but two – Fernandez has struggled to fill the void.

Coupe de la Ligue winners as recently as 2006, Nancy now already look in real danger of being embedded in a relegation scrap, so terrible have they been this season. Withb the team leaking goals and as hopeless in attack as a Donald Trump Twitter election rant (five goals in 1,080+ minutes of football!), Rousselot recently met with the manager for showdown talks and has politely reminded the players of the club's history, in an attempt to jolt them into some kind of awakening.

Fernandez, who held talks with Lyon before joining Nancy in 2011, has called this "the toughest moment of my career." He has previously described himself as a "sensitive" man who "likes to feel the warmth of people around him". For now Nancy's descent into l'enfer has left him – and his job security – at boiling point.

Why it took so long for Germany's team to become multi-cultural

Stefan Bienkowski — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 11:55:00 GMT

The Germany team is a model of multi-cultural harmony – but only since the turn of the century. Bundesliga expert Stefan Bienkowski investigates why...

It’s been six months since Germany beat Holland in the preliminary group stages of Euro 2012. Six months since that angelic twirl from Mario Gomez to score the initial goal; six months since his perfectly-placed second; and six months since that viral photo of Mats Hummels gleefully strolling past Rafael van der Vaart & Co. in the midst of a team breakdown.

Despite that joyous victory over old foes, Germany's Euro 2012 never lived up to its promise; after a run full of talent and hyperbole, Joachim Low’s side bowed out to perennial bogey-men Italy.

Yet while this Germany side lacks silverware, at least it displays pleasingly modern attitudes towards the country's integration of ethnic minorities. Defender Jerome Boateng's father was West African; midfield linchpins Mezut Ozil and Sami Khedira are of Turkish and Tunisian lineage respectively; key forward Mario Gomez's father was Spanish. And of course Lukas Podolski, now well beyond his 100th cap, was born in Poland and insists "there are two hearts beating" in his chest.

The current German side maintains a level of ancestral diversity like none other before it – and surely few other contemporary national sides.

German teams have been reliably powering through to the latter stages of international tournaments for half a century or more. But when we compare the country’s past teams to neighbours like France and Holland, we quickly notice a striking difference: there have been barely any black players in the German national team.

Exceptions existed: Erwin Kostedde, the son of a German mother and African-American father, broke the mould in 1974 and William "Jimmy" Hartwig followed five years later. But during their time in the Bundesliga, both faced indescribable amounts of racism from home and away fans alike; it took until 2001, and the success of Ghanaian-born Gerald Asamoah, for black players to truly be accepted in the national side.

Isolated pioneer: West Germany's Erwin Kostedde

Of course, racism has been regrettably commonplace throughout Europe’s major leagues; fortunately for football, the courage of many who overturned the abuse would pave the way for the proud, multicultural sport that we enjoy today.

Yet for Germany – a nation whose history provokes more misunderstandings and suspicion than most – it would be a misconception to assume that there was a discriminatory agenda to exclude players of mixed ethnicity, right up to the turn of the millennium.

GERMANY: OUT OF AFRICA
It can be argued that Germany's black community is older than the nation itself. As far back as the 17th Century, when the territories that Julius Caesar had named Germania were still either part of the Holy Roman Empire or nation-states like Prussia and Bavaria, German traders brought African workers – not slaves – back to work alongside indigenous labourers.

As the years passed, there was a gradual improvement in the standing of black people in Germany. In the 1720s, Ghanaian-born Anton Wilhelm Amo became the first African to attend a European University – or rather several: he studied philosophy at Helmstedt, law at Halle and logic, metaphysics, physiology, astronomy, history, theology, politics and medicine at Wittenberg, while mastering six languages.

Things picked up further pace in 1884. At heart, the Berlin Congo conference existed to exploit the African continent by splitting it between the European superpowers, but it immediately encouraged a sizeable migration of Africans to Germany to obtain higher education and training at German schools and universities.

But Germany's situation changed drastically after World War I, when the Treaty of Versailles reclaimed all the country's existing colonies and dispersed them amongst the allied forces. The punitive treaty is often blamed for the rise of the Nazi party, but the repercussions it would have on the African colonies would also alter the course of multiculturalism within German society – and sport – for the remainder of the century.

Versailles: The UK, Italy, France & USA carve up Germany

Under the German empire, the colonies had enjoyed education and a degree of genuine citizenship with the possession of German ID cards in Germany and Africa. After the war, Africans in occupied Germany lost their citizenship – forcing many into terrible poverty during an already bleak depression – while those in Africa were encouraged to take up citizenship of their new European counterparts. Africa had been forcefully separated from Germany, and there was nothing either could do.

LEGALLY DIVIDED
Even during the second half of the century's ‘Wirtschaftswunder’ – Western Germany's postwar 'economic miracle' – when millions of immigrants from Eastern Europe, predominantly Turkey, flooded into the country to snap up the available work, the newcomers were segregated rather than integrated.

A law dating back to 1913 stated that anyone wanting to obtain German nationality would have to give up their own nationality. Such decisions are rarely taken easily among economic migrant communities, and it's perhaps telling that the German term is 'Gastarbeiter' – guest worker.

So while die Nationalmannschaft unquestionably remained predominantly 'white' until the turn of the century, it wasn't due to football's institutionalised racism as much as political and legal hangovers.

And it was national legislation, followed by a radical nationwide overhaul of youth training, that has allowed Germany to field a side that accurately depicts the country's bubbling cultural mix of ethnicities – in the process changing the team's image, in the words of the country's biggest football monthly 11 Freunde, "from rolling tanks to multi-cultural football aesthetes".

Khedira, Ozil, Schweinsteiger and Podolski at Euro 2012

The turning point came about on January 1st 1990 when German authorities made it possible for the process of dual-nationality to children born of foreign parents. Twelve years later, the German FA launched the 'Extended Talent Promotion Programme' – and finally, an inclusive generation came through the ranks together: Germany won the 2008 Euro U19s, the 2009 Euro U17s and the 2010 Euro U21s.

Like Holland's Euro 88-winning squad included Surinamese-descended players like Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard, and France's World Cup-winning 'Black, Blanc, Beur' team including Marcel Desailly and Zinedine Zidane, this current German side embraces a multiplicity of ethnicities that can do nothing but good for a country that has struggled to define its own nationality for too long.

Finally, it would seem, Germany can move forward as many cultures but one nation.

FourFourTwo.com: More to read
• Flowers, fog and George Orwell: How Dinamo Moscow conquered postwar Britain
• And Europe's finest passing nation is... England! (Sort of)
• From a 289-goal season to running a chippy: How a record-holding striker found cod

From out of the shadows: Why Newcastle, Liverpool & Spurs should respect the Europa

Guest Writer — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 11:30:00 GMT

Blogger and FourFourTwo contributor Ben McAleer explains why fans of this year's Premier League representatives in the Europa League should relish their team's involvement...

It’s sometimes difficult for fans to get excited by the Europa League.

The long journeys to the far reaches of Eastern Europe for a Thursday evening match against a team some will have never heard of, let alone be able to spell their name.

The competition suffers for being so regularly compared to its more sexy and popular cousin, the Champions League, and as such is seen almost as the Capital One Cup of Europe.

In recent seasons, clubs have began to field under-strength teams, instead preferring to focus their efforts on domestic competitions. This is particularly true of clubs from England.

Last season alone, Tottenham crashed out of a relatively weak group thanks largely to fielding under-strength teams in their away fixtures; Birmingham City also faltered at the group stages for similar reasons, while Tony Pulis sent what was effectively a Stoke reserve side to Valencia for the second leg of their last-32 tie, having already lost the home leg 1-0.

Pulis admitted the competition had been a distraction. It certainly seemed to be one they struggled to come to terms with – the Potters lost the four Premier League matches that followed their first four Europa League group stage ties.

"Ah but could they win on a February night in Stoke?" Yes.

Manchester City and Manchester United dropped into last year’s competition after a poor showing in the Champions League, but they too failed to navigate their way into the quarterfinals, eliminated by Sporting CP and Athletic Bilbao respectively.

Two such big hitters appearing in the competition made for improved viewing in England, and although it didn’t last long it was enough to convince ITV to gazump Five when it came to negotiating broadcast rights for the 2012/13 competition.

By the end of last season, they will have been glad they did. The three sides flying the flag for England in this season’s instalment – Spurs, Liverpool and Newcastle United – are all clubs with traditionally strong support.

Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas has great affection for the competition, having won it with Porto in 2010/11. Speaking ahead of his new club’s Group J opener against Lazio – a battle of England and Italy's fourth-placed finishers – the Portuguese said of the tournament: “It's full of history and different winners. It doesn't generate financial advantages for the clubs in it, but it generates emotions when you win it.”

The 34-year-old has a point from both perspectives. Few teams can expect to turn a profit thanks to their involvement in the Europa League unless they win it, but an opportunity to pick up some silverware isn’t to be sniffed at.

1984: Spurs celebrate winning the UEFA Cup

Newcastle manager Alan Pardew didn’t necessarily echo the sentiments of his Spurs counterpart, saying ahead of the second leg of his team’s play-off round victory over Greek side Atromitos: “These are great opportunities for them [fringe players] to show their stuff. If we were fortunate enough to get to the later stages of the competition, then the profile of it would rise, and so would the standard of our team.”

1969: Newcastle celebrate winning UEFA Cup forerunner the Fairs Cup

Pardew may not yet be prepared to risk his key first-teamers, but is at least insinuating he is hopeful of reaching the latter stages with his current crop that are looking to prove a point.

Liverpool’s Brendan Rodgers made his position clear during the Reds’ 5-3 win over Young Boys two weeks ago, having taken a largely inexperienced squad to Switzerland, and returning with all three points.

Liverpool celebrate wins in 1976 and 2001

Fans can understand the need to field weakened teams in the Europa League, especially if, as Tottenham and Newcastle did, they came close to securing a Champions League berth last year.

Regardless, it is an opportunity to add some silverware to the trophy cabinet, often for clubs starved of regular honours. Atletico Madrid and Athletic Bilbao fans certainly enjoyed their clubs’ respective runs to last year’s final.

Much coveted Athletic striker Fernando Llorente even went as far as to claim helping the Basque side to the Bucharest showpiece was a better feeling than picking up a World Cup winners’ medal with Spain two years earlier.

After all, the team who lift the trophy at the Amersterdam Arena on May 15th won’t have had an easy ride. Inter, Marseille, Napoli, Sporting, Lyon, Leverkusen and big-spending Anzhi Makhachkala join last year’s two finalists (and 38 others) in the group stages. On top of that, there are still eight teams who will drop down from the Champions League into the last 32.

Nevertheless, English teams still have a substantially greater chance of picking up the trophy next year. Liverpool, Newcastle and Spurs are all within the top 10 favourites to win the Europa League and with the players available to Rodgers, Pardew and Villas-Boas it’s hardly surprising.

The latter has insisted he will play a strong team throughout the competition, a decision which has been welcomed by fans of the North London side. They believe Spurs have a genuine opportunity to advance from Group J and make an honest attempt for the silverware.

Pardew may not have fielded a number of his first-teamers during their recent draw with Martimo, but the Magpies manager has insisted that during the lifespan of his recently signed eight-year contract, he wants to pick up silverware.

While Rodgers appears to have also decided against starting his bigger names for the time being – and you can understand his apprehensiveness given Liverpool’s sluggish start to the new season – the Reds still find themselves among the favourites to lift the trophy.

The fact English football has three teams capable of navigating their way to the final is a testament to the strength not only of the Premier League, but also its clubs.

It’s a given that the Europa League will forever remain in the shadow of the Champions League, but if Liverpool, Newcastle and Spurs all approach the tournament positively, they may find they gain more than just air miles.

Watch the competition with the help of FourFourTwo's award-winning Stats Zone app – now available for the Europa League and completely free in association with Western Union.

Blast from the past drags Marseille back to the summit

Vaishali Bhardwaj — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 08:19:00 GMT

An unexpected and unpopular appointment is winning over the Marseille fans – by winning all five of their games so far, as Vaishali Bhardwaj reports...

It hadn't happened in France for 14 years, since the 1998/99 campaign. Fourteen years had passed, but still no team had been able to repeat what Bordeaux had achieved that season.

Fourteen years ago, Les Girondins won their opening five league matches and signalled their intent to win silverware from the very start of the 1998/99 campaign. By the close of season, they were duly rewarded with the league title.

Fourteen years later, Bordeaux’s impressive 100% record after the first five games of a new league campaign had finally been repeated – by Marseille. Les Phocéens claimed their fifth straight win of the 2012/13 season when they defeated Nancy 1-0 last weekend.

The most striking aspect of Marseille’s feat, however, was not simply that they had repeated what Bordeaux had done all those years ago. It was that the same man had guided both teams to that achievement – Élie Baup.

The 57-year-old, who replaced Didier Deschamps as Marseille manager in the summer, has done a remarkable job in his short time so far at the Stade Vélodrome. Under Baup, Marseille have a 100% win record in Le Championnat and lead the league with 15 points.

Baup’s revival of the club is all the more impressive considering Marseille's situation on and off the pitch last season, and most certainly coming into the current campaign.

This time last year, l'OM were hovering just above the relegation zone after a poor start. The team had to wait until matchday seven to claim their first win of the season and inconsistency on the pitch was made worse by a public spat between Deschamps and sporting director José Anigo.

By the end of the season, Marseille had failed to qualify for the Champions League after finishing in 10th place, Deschamps had left for the vacant France managerial position and rumours began swirling about which players would have to be sold because of the club’s precarious financial position.

Even with the capture of France's secondary Coupe de la Ligue trophy, which ensured Marseille would qualify for the Europa League, the season had been a disappointment.

The immediate question was who would succeed Deschamps? When the answer came, some were left crestfallen. The new man was supposed to signal the club’s intent; some saw Baup's rapid appointment as a step backwards for Marseille.

Baup is unveiled by Anigo (l) and l'OM president Vincent Labrune

The 57-year-old possessed a mixed managerial record overall. Yes, he had tasted success with Bordeaux 14 years ago, but that's a long time ago: for English comparison, it was the season that David O'Leary first got his young Leeds United side to qualify for Europe. And since then, things had looked bleak for Baup.

After being fired by Bordeaux in 2003 he had been unable to save Saint-Étienne, and then Nantes, from relegation; in between those two spells he had also come close to going down with Toulouse, although he had led the club to Champions League qualification the year before. And before arriving at Marseille in July, Baup had spent three years away from management – swapping coaching for punditry on French TV channel Canal+.

With several players leaving the Stade Vélodrome this summer including Alou Diarra, César Azpilicueta and Stéphane M’Bia, the difficult task facing Baup was to make Marseille competitive while working within the club’s budget.

Marseille still had a number of talented players – Steve Mandanda, André Ayew, Benoît Cheyrou, Loïc Rémy and Morgan Amalfitano, as well as new recruit Joey Barton. But could Baup realistically steer Marseille back to competing for the league at a time when Paris Saint-Germain were spending freely and other teams such as Lille had strengthened? Could he lead the club back into a Champions League position? Could he guide his team to victory in the Europa League?

Based on the fact that some Marseille fans saw Baup’s appointment as less than inspiring, perhaps not. Yet maybe the lack of expectations surrounding the club is exactly what Baup needed to help revive the team and start the 2012/13 campaign off in a positive manner. Marseille have always been laden with expectation but with the majority of attention on big-spending PSG this season, l'OM have thrived without the glare of the media attention on them.

Baup is back: at his new Velodrome home

The club’s 100% success rate so far has in part been aided by the return to form of striker André-Pierre Gignac, who has scored three goals in five matches – including the winner against defending champions Montpellier.

And with Gignac scoring, a positive team spirit and a sense of unity in the dressing room, in addition to a distinct lack of expectation surrounding the club so far and Baup at the helm, Marseille are flourishing.

“We haven't talked about the five wins," Baup said following Marseille’s 1-0 win against Nancy. "We're aware that we're picking up points which are going to be useful for us later on."

And perhaps that is exactly the mentality the southerners need to have if they want to emulate the success of Baup’s Bordeaux side 14 years ago and attempt to win – or at least successfully challenge for – the Ligue 1 title this term.

Vaishali Bhardwaj is a European sports journalist, shortlisted for the Football Media Award at the 2012 Asian Football Awards.

A Lancastrian in Hungary: that's football Europa

Guest Writer — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 15:53:00 GMT

Why would Lancashire lad Chris Flanagan find himself in deepest Hungary watching a Europa League qualifier? For the love of football...

It's 3am and I'm waiting in the departure hall at Szekesfehervar railway station. To my right, an elderly gentleman is muttering to himself in a rather bizarre fashion.

I have no idea what he's saying. The only two words of Hungarian I know are Ferenc and Puskas. But I imagine even if I did speak the language, he'd still be making no sense.

To my left, a drunk man falls off his seat and makes a thud on the floor that shakes the entire station.

This is a quiet town of 100,000 people, 40 miles south west of Budapest. Few people have heard of it, and fewer tourists visit, yet here I was waiting for a departing train in the middle of the night. The reason was quite simple. Football.

A few hours earlier, at the nearby Sostoi Stadion, local side Videoton had faced Trabzonspor in the play-off round of the Europa League. Granted, it was possibly not the most glamorous fixture Europe had to offer that week: the previous night on the other side of the continent, Real Madrid had played Barcelona.

And when my day-to-day work involves writing about sport as a Lancashire-based journalist, it perhaps wasn’t exactly getting away from it all either.

But this was not a new thing for me. Over the past few years I have watched football in Latvia and Macedonia, in Romania and Bulgaria, in the winter chill of Russia and Norway.

Travel didn't always interest me but football changed that when my team, Bolton Wanderers, qualified for the UEFA Cup in 2005. Off we went to Lokomotiv Plovdiv, to Besiktas, to Vitoria Guimaraes, to Marseille. Two years later we qualified again and visited Rabotnicki, Bayern Munich, Red Star Belgrade, Atletico Madrid and Sporting Lisbon.

Bolton fans in Madrid honour their favourite local export

Europe’s secondary club competition isn’t exactly a crowd-puller in the UK, and admittedly the football isn't always top class, but I wouldn’t have missed any of those trips for the world.

It's the same sport but each country is unique, each set of fans possessing their own nuances of passion for the game. England is often said to be unrivalled for its big-match atmosphere, but anyone who thinks Stoke is loud should probably try Istanbul.

Bolton’s European days are now long gone, but the fascination for such football – and for travel to such varied places – remained. So this time it was Hungary, taking in the tourist sights of the capital Budapest before making the 75-minute rail journey to Szekesfehervar.

Slightly ominous was the march of Videoton’s Red Blue Devils ultras from the town centre to the stadium before kick-off, accompanied by around 100 riot police. This was one of Videoton’s biggest European matches since the 1980s, when they were beaten by Real Madrid in the 1985 UEFA Cup final.

Up until this season, they had won only two European ties in the following 27 years. But backed by the local electronics company of the same name, and counting the current Hungarian Prime Minister among their fans, they appointed Paulo Sousa as manager last year after the former Portugal midfielder had spells in Britain with QPR, Swansea and Leicester.

Clearly a popular man, he inspired fans to learn a little Portuguese to produce a banner saying ‘Feliz Aniversario Paulo’ to congratulate Sousa on his 42nd birthday on the day of the game.

"Aw shucks": Sousa marches on Europa

Around 10,000 were present and, despite the lack of a roof inside the bowl of a stadium, they produced noise levels of probably double that in this country – while launching tickertape into the air like it was Argentina '78. All it was missing was Mario Kempes.

I had waited for the first-leg scores before deciding upon my destination for the week and a perhaps surprising 0-0 draw in Turkey had put the tie in the balance.

Trabzonspor had Didier Zokora, once of Tottenham, and ex-Leicester man Sol Bamba in their line-up. Their most impressive player was the diminutive Alanzinho, who admittedly does sound like a bloke called Alan given an ironic Brazilian nickname by his Sunday League team-mates, but was actually quite good.

Alanzinho: "Something funny with my name?"

Videoton, now possessing funds to strengthen, had a starting line-up including seven different nationalities. They later brought on ex-Crystal Palace battering ram Sandor Torghelle, who proceeded to throw his weight about to such degree that he was on the verge of getting sent off within five minutes, before launching one of the most hopeless volleys I have ever seen almost out of the stadium. The Premier League misses you, Sandor.

With the last train due to depart Szekesfehervar 25 minutes after the scheduled final whistle, the one thing I didn’t particularly want was extra time. So 0-0 it was then and eventually all the way to penalties, when Zokora missed and Videoton celebrated victory as if they had won the Europa League rather than merely qualified for it.

Sousa was hurled into the air by his jubilant players, who then embarked on a lap of honour lasting fully 10 minutes – seemingly determined to shake hands with almost every fan in the stadium. The four-hour wait for a train, eventually getting back into Budapest at 4.30am, wasn't ideal. But it was worth it nonetheless.

Sousa won the Champions League with both Juventus and Borussia Dortmund, and yet it was clear from his celebrations that this would be another night he would treasure for some time.

Then and now: Sousa in 2005 and unveiled at Videoton

Don’t expect Videoton to win the Europa League this season. Don’t even expect them to qualify from a group including Sporting, Basel and Genk. Hungarian football still has some way to go for any sort of return to the days of the Magnificent Magyars, of Puskas, Sandor Kocsis and the like.

The national stadium in Budapest, once called the Nepstadion and now named after Puskas, was just five years old when Hungary famously won 6-3 at Wembley in 1953. Now it looks horrendously tired and will soon be replaced. The national team lost 4-1 there to the Netherlands in the latest round of international fixtures.

But the passion for football was still clear to see in Szekesfehervar. It's the same wherever you go in Europe, just different.

Tattoos, luck & barbecued bananas: Borini returns to England with the bit between his teeth

James Horncastle — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 09:55:00 GMT

Among the tattoos Fabio Borini has inked on his body, there is ‘The Talking Cricket’. Like Jiminy was for Pinocchio in the Disney animation, he is supposed to represent the Italy international striker’s conscience.

Whether the imaginary green insect recommended that the right thing for Borini to do this summer was leave Roma and transfer to Liverpool in a deal worth £12m is unclear. But England, it seems, has almost always been his calling.

“I knew that sooner or later I would return,” he said.

This isn’t the first time Borini has played here. At 16, he took “a leap in the dark” and joined the Chelsea academy. “I don’t like doing things the easy way,” he reflected. “If you choose the comfiest solution, you never get to understand what’s your maximum.”

As expected, it was tough in the beginning. Borini, then just a teenager, missed home. He found adapting to a new culture and language difficult. With time, however, he grew fond of his new surroundings and a lot of that is thanks to his former landlord Keith.

“I owe a special recipe for the barbecue to him, a desert, I believe it’s his invention,” Borini explained. “You cut a banana in half, leaving on the skin, cover it in chocolate, wrap it in foil, then put on the grill. When done, you unwrap it and eat it. Now whenever I have people round for dinner it’s my specialty.”

So integrated did Borini become in the ways of the English that once back in Italy “I had great deal of difficulty getting used to left-hand drive again.”

It was while playing for Chelsea reserves that he first came into contact with Brendan Rodgers. He then followed his mentor to Swansea for a loan spell in spring 2011 and proved decisive in their promotion to the Premier League.

On his return to Chelsea, Borini found that Carlo Ancelotti had been fired [“he was a father to me”] and the club were only prepared to offer him a one-year contract.

He went back to Italy with Parma, who sent him on loan to Roma. Borini was an unexpected success. He struck seven times in eight games, celebrating each of them as though he had a knife between his teeth. “In Italy it means you’re a warrior; someone who never gives up.”

Not the most naturally gifted of players, Borini makes up for it with a Dirk Kuyt-like work ethic. He runs up and down, up and down hence the nickname Nascar.

Yet he’s a sniffer too and has that intangible quality of popping up in the right place at exactly the right time. For that reason, Ancelotti has compared him with Pippo Inzaghi.

His integration will be helped by the experience of playing in England before, but also the continuity of philosophy between Rodgers and Luis Enrique, Roma’s former coach, who had his team try to play pass-it-out-from-the-back possession based football.

Borini will wear the No 29 shirt. For him, it’s a lucky number. He was born on that day of the month. Scored his first goal for the Italy Under-21s on that day of the month. And made his full international debut on that day of the month too.

Liverpool play Norwich on September 29, 2012. If Borini hasn’t opened his account for the club by that time, maybe expect it to come there and then.

For an exclusive interview with Fabio Borini, pick up the September 2012 edition of FourFourTwo, out now.

U19 Euros preview: England set for glory... possibly

Tom Bennett — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 13:41:00 GMT

After England’s typically frustrating Euro exit in Kiev, most Three Lions fans will think all is lost this summer. They’re wrong.

The European Under-19 Championships kick off this week in Estonia – and a strong England squad could well emulate the success of John Peacock’s triumphant U17 squad in 2010.

An annual tournament, the Euro U19s were won last year by Spain, who have triumphed five times in the 10 tournaments since its 2002 reformatting from an under-18 competition. During that decade England have finished runners-up twice, in 2005 (a team featuring Matt Mills, Matty Fryatt and Matt Jarvis) and 2009 (Henri Lansbury, Nathan Delfouneso, Kyle Walker).

However, this year offers more hope than ever. A quick glance at the England squad displays established young talent that any top Premier League side would be grateful to have coming through the ranks; indeed, 15 of the 18-man squad are on the books at Premier League sides.

Whilst Spain’s back-line dominated UEFA's team of the tournament for this year’s senior Euros, England’s defenders will be hoping to do the same in this competition.

At left-back for Noel Blake’s side will be Liverpool’s youngest-ever debutant. In a Premier League game in April 2011, Jack Robinson confidently coped with the frightening pace of Arsenal's Theo Walcott despite only being 16. Having climbed through the England ranks, Robinson is now a regular in the under-19s.

Playing alongside him will be Eric Dier, who has an interesting back-story. Cheltenham-born but raised in Portugal, the 6ft 2in centre back has been on Sporting Lisbon's books since the age of nine and signed professional terms at 16.

Dier went to Everton on a six-month loan in 2011 but didn't make the first team, and featured in a high-profile Umbro England kit promotion – despite, as the Daily Mail pointed out, never having represented the country of his birth at any level. That was quickly rectified and England will be hoping Dier sticks with the country of his birth.

Alongside Dier could be another recent call-up with mixed heritage: Michael Keane. A regular for Manchester United reserves, the Stockport-born centre-back has Irish ancestry and represented the Republic at U17, U18 and U19 level but switched to England. His twin brother Will, a striker also on United's books, has represented the Young Lions at all levels from U16 to U21 but sadly suffered a cruciate knee ligament on England duty.

The U19s during qualification: (back, l to r) Jack Robinson, Michael Keane, Tom Thorpe, William Keane, Harry Kane, Sam Johnstone; (front) Eric Dier, Ross Barkley, John Lundstram, Nathaniel Chalobah, Saido Berahino

England's captain is also a Manchester United player, Tom Thorpe, who can play at centre-back or in defensive midfield. If selected in the latter position he may be alongside Ross Barkley. The highly-regarded Everton player has won four England U21 caps and should find room to express himself in Estonia among younger players. Not that age fazes him: he appear nine times for Everton's first team in 2011/12 and was rewarded with a four-and-a-half year contract at Goodison Park.

Adding even more strength to the midfield is Conor Coady, captain of the Liverpool side that reached last season’s NextGen Series semi-final. Chelsea's Nathaniel Chalobah may be the squad's youngest member but he's experienced at various levels since his elevation from the U16s: he captained England at last summer's U17 World Cup, where he was joined by Everton reserve regular John Lundstram, a hard-tackling left-footer who has now been drafted into the U19s.

One of England’s most gifted and experienced youngsters is Nathan Redmond: the 18-year-old made 37 appearances for Birmingham City last season, scoring seven goals in the process. The electrifying winger was also won 19 caps for the U17s before making the step up and should feature in Stuart Pearce’s under-21 plans next season.

Every side needs talent up top and England should have no problems scoring in Estonia. After impressing in last season’s Europa League and repeatedly netting for Millwall during a six-month loan spell, Harry Kane comes into the tournament full of confidence and eager to impress in a bid to push for a first-team spot at White Hart Lane next season.

Chalobah and Kane celebrate. Will they be at it again?

Among the other options are Arsenal’s Benik Afobe, who has scored five in seven for the U19s after bagging 11 in 23 for the U17s; West Brom’s Burundi-born Saido Berahino, who has scored for England at every level from the U16s up; and Everton’s Hallam Hope, who scored in last summer's U17 World Cup.

Alternatively, England could turn to West Ham forward Robert Hall, who won the 2010 Euro Under-17 tournament in Liechtenstein alongside Chalobah, Thorpe, Coady, Barkley, Berahino and Afobe – and isn't worried about making the step up. As he told TheFA.com last week, "I've played one game before at U19 level and I scored the winner – so I know I can play at this level and do well.” Noel Blake will hope he's right.

In their group, England start on Tuesday 3rd against Croatia before facing Serbia and France. If they finish in the top two they'll face a semi-final against Portugal, Spain, Greece or the hosts.

Looking to the longer term, as long as they avoid finishing bottom of the group they will qualify for next year’s Under-20 World Cup. That can only help further the education of an pleasingly promising group of players representing England's future.

England Under 19 squad:
Goalkeepers Sam Johnstone (Manchester United), Connor Ripley (Middlesbrough)
Defenders Eric Dier (Everton), Luke Garbutt (Everton), Michael Keane (Manchester United), Jack Robinson (Liverpool), Tom Thorpe (Manchester United)
Midfielders Ross Barkley (Everton), Nathaniel Chalobah (Chelsea), Conor Coady (Liverpool), John Lundstram (Everton), Nathan Redmond (Birmingham), George Thorne (West Bromwich Albion)
Forwards Benik Afobe (Arsenal), Saido Berahino (West Bromwich Albion), Robert Hall (West Ham United), Hallam Hope (Everton), Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur)

Fixtures (kick-off times in BST)
Tue 3rd: England v Croatia (3.30pm)
Fri 6th: Serbia v England (3.30pm)
Mon 9th: France v England (6pm)
Semi-final: Thu 12th
Final: Sun 15th

Manolo Preciado: more than just a Spanish Ian Holloway

FourFourTwo Team — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 09:59:00 GMT

Manolo Preciado, one of Spanish football's most beloved characters, tragically passed away on June 7, just a day after agreeing to take over as manager of the recently relegated Villarreal and a day before his planned unveiling at El Madrigal.

The following article is taken from the July 2011 issue of FourFourTwo, after Preciado had ended Jose Mourinho's nine-year unbeaten home record and led relative minnows Sporting – who would later let him go in January 2012 – to an impressive top-half finish.

An Iberian Ian Holloway with more hair and a better moustache, Manuel Preciado is adored in Spain, not just for his mixed metaphors – "Joaquin is about as dangerous as a monkey with a gun" – but also his strength of character. Asked how he got over his wife's death from cancer in 2002 and a fatal car accident involving his 15-year-old son two years later, the Sporting Gijon coach declared: "I could have shot myself or I could have moved on." He moved on.

A former Racing Santander player, and lifelong fan, he had a short-lived spell as coach of his beloved team in 2002, only for new president Dmitry Piterman to sack him almost immediately. "I moved into a dream home but a pigeon flew by and sh*t on my roof," he later thundered.

But this is no incompetent comedy character. After spells in charge of Levante, Murcia and back at Santander, he led Sporting to La Liga in 2008 and has kept them there, overcoming the league's smallest budget. His better players have stayed to play for Preciado and his surviving son travels with fans to every game. "This is a cheap team, but it's one with a pair of b*ll*cks, like General Esperanto's horse," he neighs.

In April came the Cantabrian's finest moment. Before a feisty 1-0 loss to Real Madrid last November [2010] he called Jose Mourinho a "scumbag" after the Special One questioned Preciado's management style and intimated Sporting were for the drop. "Who the f**k does he think he is to say that?" 'Manolo' raged at the time. Five months later he ended Mourinho's nine-year unbeaten home record with a famous 1-0 win. "If you spit upwards, it comes down eventually," smiled Preciado.

"What he's doing with Sporting is equivalent to a big team winning the Champions League every year," believes the more prosaic Sergio Fernandez of sports daily Marca. As well as the Madrid win, Los Rojiblancos have drawn with Barcelona.

Tragically, Preciado lost his father to another traffic accident at the end of April. At Sporting's next game, 22 players were joined in the centre circle by the mourning 53-year-old as fans unfurled a banner reading: 'Your hurt is our suffering. Chin up, boss.' His response? To cameo in Spanish rocker Igor Paskual's music video Chica de Gama Alta [The Upmarket Girl], strumming a guitar in front of a mirror.

There's only one Manolo Preciado.

Words: Andy Murray.

LA LIGA LOCA: Sadness as Spanish football loses one of its most loved figures

Dutch development model highlights where England are going wrong

Guest Writer — Mon, 21 May 2012 14:19:00 GMT

With the European Champions now less than three weeks away, Tom Bennett explores the differences between youth development in England and the Netherlands...

As Euro 2012 moves ever closer, it's no secret that the Netherlands are one of the driving forces in world football, and will be among the favourites to lift the trophy come July 1. Their dominance comes with the flamboyant elegance of their ‘total football’ style and it shows no signs of stopping anytime soon.

Oranje have just won UEFA's European Under-17 Championship in Slovenia, triumphing over an equally impressive German side which hadn't conceded a single goal in the four games en route to the final against their old foes.

The final turned out to be a very close encounter. Germany took the lead just after half-time from captain Leon Goretzka’s header, but in time added on Elton Acolatse hammered home an equaliser to send the tie into extra-time and penalties.

In a break with perceived national traits, Netherlands came out on top in the shootout, as Marc Stendera saw his penalty saved and they won 5-4. The tight nature of the game was typical of the tournament these two sides have had and the players that have been on display for both teams.

It was evident the two sides would be challenging the final from the moment they kicked off what is the 10th edition of the tournament since it changed from its previous Under 16 format.

These two sides - along with Spain - have dictated European youth football for the past few years, and that continuous supremacy shows no signs of cessation. Highlighted by the fact both the 2009 and 2011 European Under 17 Championship finals included the two sides, with the Netherlands victorious in 2011 and Germany triumphant in 2009, the continent will be shaking in fear of facing these potential outfits in a four or so years time, as if they aren't already. But what are they doing that is so different from the rest of us?

Johan Cruyff, Marco van Basten, Dennis Bergkamp and Ruud Gullit have all graduated from the Dutch academy ranks and led their country to extraordinary glory in the past few decades and a new crop of world-beaters are just on the horizon.

Rai Vloet, Nathan Ake, Tonny Trindade de Vilhena and Thom Haye have all produced consistently outstanding performances throughout the tournament, helping Albert Stuivenberg’s team reach the final with ease. All four have linked up luminously to provide intelligent movement, undisturbed possession and an abundance of goals for Oranje in the five matches that led them to the title – and that sums up where they come from, what they’ve been taught and what they will bring to the senior team in what looks a bright future.

Tonny Trindade de Vilhena is among the stars of Holland's next generation

It is common to see a 4-4-2 system used by clubs in England, but in Holland they actively encourage to adopt a 4-3-3 formation and make training sessions about enjoyment rather than pressure to move on to the next level. They believe in keeping possession to create opportunities, but also to always move in an attacking way – backwards movement does not exist here.

There is a lot of pressure at all levels in England to win, whereas in Holland the focus is more on the pleasure of playing the game, which ultimately brings with it a natural hunger for success.

This indirect way of winning is as apparent off the pitch as it is on it, the country focuses on providing top class facilities and invests vast sums of money into amateur clubs to make them the focal point of the community.

Following the introduction of the model by Louis van Gaal on behalf of the Dutch FA (KNVB) in 2002, it may be surprising to know that only 36 clubs in Holland are officially professional, but a further 2,700 amateur sides benefit from the KNVB’s £1 billion investment every year. Despite this huge contrast in money and numbers from England, the relationship between professional and amateur sides is much closer, with regular games between the sides across all levels.

In England, grassroots football can only hope to benefit from a fraction of that investment. The Premier League contributes £43.4 million to grassroots football (less than 5% of it’s TV rights deal) and even though the FA stated in 2000 that they would contribute £20m per annum to grassroots football, in 2010 they only paid £12 million.

Another factor in their success could be the uninterrupted commitment of the community towards developing youth football in the country, which is nothing short of admirable. The KNVB has 1.2m members - 7% of the Dutch population.

This lack of investment and enthusiasm for the grassroots game in England leads to poor facilities, which means the top coaches and players will lack the motivation to get the best out of themselves or their players when it comes to developing them into world-class talent. A typical amateur side in Holland has warm changing rooms, floodlit artificial pitches, spacious clubhouses and a dedicated medical centre run by approximately 100 community volunteers. A typical amateur club in England is lucky to have hot showers.

The facilities are impressive but it is the consistency of those that makes it evident why Holland are currently ranked fourth in the FIFA World Rankings. Every one of those 2,700 amateur sides has their own academy with equally impressive amenities. It seems the only way is up.

After securing and now maintaining this state-of-the-art platform for development, the Dutch are now focusing on tactics more than the technical side of the game that will keep them as a major force in world competitions for many years to come. England – be very, very scared.

Sackings, cup wins & relegation: Why Spurs will want to avoid 'doing a Zaragoza'

James Maw — Mon, 21 May 2012 08:00:00 GMT

Tottenham fans will have been left feeling rather green in the gills after their club's Champions League spot was pilfered by London rivals Chelsea on Saturday evening, but this isn't the first time a club finishing in a qualifying position has missed out.

Real Zaragoza finished the 1999/00 Primera Liga season in fourth place, only to lose their spot in the following season's Champions League when Real Madrid - who had finished fifth - beat Valencia in the final of that year's competition.

With the prize of a place in the most prestigious competition in club football taken away from them, things soon started to unravel.

Manager José Francisco Rojo had his head turned by the chance to return to his hometown club, Athletic Bilbao. Juan Manuel Lillo replaced him in the hot seat, but top scorer, spitting-Serb Savo Milosevic, was soon also off to Parma.

Savo upped and left when Zaragoza missed out on the Champions League

Zaragoza then fell at the first hurdle in the 2000/01 UEFA Cup. Having led Wisla Krakow 4-1 after the first leg, the Spanish side took an early lead in Poland to extend the aggregate score to 5-1. But four goals in ten second half minutes levelled the tie, and the Polish outfit eventually won on penalties.

That result played a part in the speedy sacking of manager Lillo after only three months at the club, with Luis Costa arriving as his replacement - his fourth of five spells in charge at La Romareda. But that didn't lead to any kind of upturn in fortunes in la Liga, with los Blanquillos eventually finishing the season in 17th - just one place and point above the drop zone.

There was some good news, at least, in the form of a Copa del Rey victory which secured a return to the UEFA Cup in 2001/02, though they failed to make much of a splash then either.

Rojo returned after just a year in Bilbao, but the club's troubles came to a head - or more accurately, a bottom - when the Aragonese side were relegated from the top flight after finishing the season at the foot of the table (apologies for any anatomical confusion).

Although they made an immediate return, the club have only managed one top half finish in their eight top flight seasons since, having also spent 2008/09 in la Segunda.

The fact Spurs will enter the Europa League at the group stage means they will be in European competition until at least December – so no chance of an exit as early as Zaragoza's, while it also seems they have already avoided losing their manager to his ‘dream job’. But holding on to their star names may prove a little tougher, not least as Gareth Bale has been pretty much gone from the neck up since mid-February.

Still, there's that cup win to look forward to. Perhaps.

Madrid's youth academy deserves as much respect as Barcelona's

Gareth McKnight — Thu, 17 May 2012 12:21:00 GMT

Barcelona's la Masia youth academy is renowned for its productivity, but as Gareth McKnight reports, Real Madrid's Castilla has arguably had a bigger effect on Spanish football

Much to Real Madrid’s displeasure, Barcelona’s La Masia youth setup is viewed as football’s No.1 breeding ground for new world-beating talent. With the likes of Leo Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi examples of the quality coming off the Catalan production line, and seven youth-team graduates in the starting XI that won last season’s Champions League final, the praise is understandable and justified.

The easy theory, prompted by the capital club's star-collecting 'galactico' ethos, is that Barcelona make players and Real Madrid buy them. But the Santiago Bernabeu side’s youth system has more of an impact on their side, and La Liga, than first meets the eye.

Whilst Madrid’s current first-team may be dominated by big-money buys such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema, this has not always been the case. In the late 1980s a combative and direct Madrid side won five successive Primera Division titles with five homegrown players at the core of the team.

Those five players – Emilio Butragueno, Manolo Sanchis, Martin Vazquez, Michel and Miguel Pardeza – were nicknamed La Quinta del Buitre (the Vulture’s Cohort), and led the club to one of their most successful periods in recent times. The club prided itself on its Spanish core, coupled with a hardworking and passionate ethos.

The change in philosophy came during Florentino Perez’s first tenure as Real Madrid president between 2000 and 2007, with Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo and David Beckham high-profile, foreign Galacticos signings. Perez’s policy was initially coined Zidanes y Pavones, after Zidane and youth team product Francisco Pavon, the idea being to introduce one new big-money signing and one youth team member per season.

However, the young players, blinking in the limelight of the big-name signings, were rarely given opportunities and the team was accused of elevating entertainment above achievement, with the teamwork of La Quinta del Buitre not present.

Zidane and, two to his right, Pavon

The policy of signing big-name players has continued into recent times, but many Madrid fans see Jose Mourinho’s current approach and style of play more similar to the hard-working Quinte del Buitre team rather than the lavish Galacticos idea. Furthermore, looking at Real Madrid's Castilla youth system, there have been a large number of graduates to have made a significant impact in the game in Spain, right up to the present time.

The poster-boy for the Madrid academy has always been Raul, who still holds the club’s all-time goalscoring record from his 16-year stint at the Bernabeu. Similarly, Guti was a fans’ favourite in his 15-year spell, making almost 400 appearances throughout the 1990s and 2000s. Despite the capture of the world’s most recognisable stars, these two remained the darlings of the Bernabeu.

In the current side Iker Casillas is held in as high a regard as anybody, and captains the club; Spain’s all-time record cap-winner needs no further praise and is a tribute to the pedigree of the Castilla. There were high hopes that Esteban Granero would be the next Castilla protégé, but as yet the talented midfielder hasn't been able to hold down a regular place in Los Blancos’ first team.

Raul and Casillas: homeboys

Some have graduated from the Castilla, gained first-team experience elsewhere and returned, such as defender Alvaro Arbeloa and forward Jose Callejon, who currently provide depth to Mourinho’s squad. However, Madrid’s youth setup is apparent in other sides across La Liga (and indeed Europe).

Spain internationals Juan Mata and Roberto Soldado got first-team experience at Valencia and matured into world-class players, with both being linked with a move back to the Bernabeu at various times in their careers. Alvaro Negredo has swapped the Spanish capital for Andalusia, and has made sufficient waves at Sevilla to battle his way into the national set-up.

Other examples include highly-rated Benfica midfielder Javi Garcia, Villarreal’s Borja Valero and Valencia midfielder Dani Parejo, alongside countless others through the divisions.

Real Madrid's youth system have produced some excellent players in recent times, and although La Masia may be fabled in terms of the last 10 years, the Castilla has had widespread influence over Spanish football, both at the Bernabeu and further afield.

With the style, components and emphasis of almost all clubs and teams evolving and changing over the years, perhaps the Castilla will come to play an even bigger role in the future Mourinho is building.

Prosinečki's Red Star revolution already bearing fruit

James Horncastle — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 12:05:00 GMT

Robert Prosinečki did a hop, skip and a jump. He hugged a member of his coaching staff, then turned back towards the field of play and raised a celebratory fist in the air. Once the elation subsided, he pulled at the lapels of his suit jacket, took in a deep breath and hoisted his trousers up a bit as though to compose himself. Try as he might, Prosinečki couldn’t keep the emotion in and incited the crowd once more.

A few moments earlier Red Star striker Filip Kasalica had been put through on goal. This was a chance for individual glory in the Belgrade derby. Challenged by Partizan defender Nemanja Rnić, he stayed strong and held his ground, but by now the ball was getting away from him. Just as it seemed to be out of reach, he slid and prodded a shot between onrushing goalkeeper Vladimir Stojković’s legs. It rolled into the corner of the net.

Kasalica promptly vaulted the advertising hoardings and ran, arms-outstretched, towards the hardcore support at the Marakana. He had already announced himself to them on March 14 by scoring the fastest debut goal in Red Star’s history a minute and 13 seconds after coming on against Smederevo. Yet the meaning attached to a match-winning strike in a fixture of this intensity will inevitably bring endearment almost beyond comprehension.

There was still a quarter of an hour remaining in the first leg of Serbia’s Lav Cup semi-final, but at 2-0, Red Star had broken Partizan’s resolve. They’d been on the ropes at times, legs wobbling, and were fortunate that each of their sucker punches landed. Both goals were opportunistic. Luka Milunović’s opener, a dinked finish over Stojković’s shoulder inside the 20th minute, came when another youthful Luka, this time carrying the surname of Milivojević, slotted his teammate through after capitalising on a costly defensive mistake.

Red Star fans celebrate victory over their bitter rivals

This was the game’s narrative arc. Whereas Red Star left nothing unpunished, Partizan spared their rivals. Lamine Diarra hit the post and Saša Illić fluffed his lines when presented with a one-on-one, skewing an effort wide. Better finishing may have left the visitors with fewer regrets. Instead, by letting Red Star off the hook, there is a burgeoning sense that this is the latest sign that the momentum might just be gradually swinging away from Partizan.

If anyone had suggested as much back in December, they’d have been open to ridicule. Set on what looked like an unstoppable course for a record fifth straight league title, Partizan were 10 points clear at the winter break. But a fall-out which started after their early exit from the Europa League at the hands of Shamrock Rovers back in August has threatened to derail their campaign.

Left seething at their elimination, president Dragan Đjurić refused to let the issue die. He repeatedly criticised Partizan’s coach Aleksandar Stanojevic and Mladen Krstajić, last season’s captain, who had been installed as the club’s director of sport at the beginning of the season. When a run of 13 consecutive wins didn’t appease him, a sick and tired Krstajić decided it was time to hit back. He was fired for his trouble. Stanojevic then resigned in protest.

Considering the size of Partizan’s lead at the top of Serbia’s SuperLiga, there was little reason to panic. They were ‘untouchable’. Whoever came in would merely have to pick up where Stanojevic left off and follow the script he had laid out. How hard could it be? No one could possibly stuff this up, could they? So confident were Partizan, they even dared to appoint the hapless Avram Grant as Stanojevic’s successor.

It didn’t take long for things to turn ugly: back-to-back draws in Grant's first two games against struggling Novi Pazar and mid-table Sloboda Point Sevojno brought dissent from the Partizan crowd. Grant was pelted with lighters. He won the next two, but defeat to Red Star in the derby left him under more pressure. He seemed indifferent to it all. “I cannot make him show emotions, he’s just that kind of guy,” Đjurić said. “If it was up to me, I’d be emotional even if Partizan were playing cricket.”

Prosinečki took over at Red Star in December 2010

While Grant remains on a sticky wicket, Prosinečki is all of a sudden bowling everyone over. In the last month, Red Star have won six games in a row and have reduced the gap at the top to six-points. There’s an outside chance of reclaiming the league championship, a feat they haven’t achieved since 2007. No longer also-rans, Red Star are at least headed in the right direction and that owes a lot to a courageous decision Prosinečki took in the winter.

A year into the job and frustrated at a lack of progress, he tore up his original plans and started over, placing 11 players on the transfer list. “We need to inject fresh blood into the club at once by adding young talents from Red Star’s academy,” Prosinečki said. “They are the club’s future and I am convinced that’s the only way of looking at things because signing players who become surplus to requirements after six months is not the best policy.”

Red Star promoted their kids and reinvested the £2.5 million recouped from player sales in yet more blossoming talent. It was thought that such a strategy would not yield instant results, that everyone needed to have faith and be patient. “Building a team capable of giving our fans something to cheer about will take time and we can only think of domestic silverware again in a few years,” Prosinečki concluded. Instead, beyond all expectation, they’re already in contention for honours.

Enthusiasm. Exuberance. The benefits associated with youth have reinvigorated Red Star. Milunović, in particular, has caught the eye. A free transfer from Zulte Waregem in Belgium, the 19-year-old Serbia Under-21 striker has scored three times in his first four games for his new club. Like fellow new signing Kasalica, one of five derby debutants last week, his goal against Partizan has been taken as a signal of intent, perhaps even the portent of a new dawn.

But forget talk of Red Star bringing through a generation capable of winning the European Cup again, as Prosinečki famously did in 1991. He admits that a repeat of that achievement is impossible today. “When I think about the players of that time, I am convinced that victory was inevitable,” he said. “Boban, Jarni, Mijatović, Suker… The Yugoslav league was among the top five in Europe. A revival would be difficult. Yugoslavia had a population of 24 million and the players weren’t allowed to leave before they were 28. Today the best players leave at 17. Red Star, Partizan and Dinamo Zagreb live on this, on talents. Maybe a team can emerge, but it’d only last a year.”

For now, that’s what Prosinečki is aiming towards. If he were to win something this season, then the chain-smoking former playmaker could at least afford to put down his Marlboros and light a cigar instead. There’s a lot of smoke at Red Star and perhaps this team is about to come alight too.

Ribéry returns to Marseille with a point to prove to France

James Horncastle — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 10:00:00 GMT

Franck Ribéry is coming home. Not to Boulogne-sur-Mer, the place where he grew up and is about to open a shisha bar called O’Shahiz with his brother and two brothers-in-law, but to Marseille.

As he walks out on the field at the Stade Vélodrome for the first leg of a Champions League quarter-final on Wednesday night, memories of the two intense years he spent there will flash before the Bayern Munich winger’s eyes. “Playing Marseille again will be special,” said Ribéry. “My relationship with the fans was magnificent. I was an idol.”

Ribéry hails from the same area in northern France as another club legend, Jean-Pierre Papin, and it wasn’t long after he signed for Marseille in 2005 that Ribéry was adopted by a group of supporters notorious for being hard to please.

A cheeky urchin, he could have been one of their own from down on the docks, shouting and swearing with the best of them. The scar on his face, a sad memento of a childhood car crash, may once have made him a figure of fun but now added a certain street appeal.

Reunited with his former Metz mentor Jean Fernández, he had just walked out on Galatasaray after a payment dispute. Their loss, which was made all the more painful following Ribéry’s performance in the Türkiye Kupasi final when he had scored one and set up another in a 5-1 thrashing of bitter rivals Fenerbahçe, was undoubtedly Marseille’s gain.

Pile-on! Ribéry in his Marseille pomp

Ribéry had shown glimpses of his talent before in France with lower-league clubs Boulogne, Alès and Stade Brestois before Fernandéz game his a chance at Metz – but never on a stage like Marseille, where the hype and media attention is quite unlike any other club. It can distort the reality, but it was clear from the outset that Ribéry was the legitimate article.

Nicknamed FerraRibéry at Galatasaray, he got off to a flying start in Marseille. His first season there remains one of his finest ever, all blistering acceleration and Brazilian dribbles.

All of France sat up and took notice after the goal of the season against Nantes, a quickfire turn-and-shoot screamer from nearly 40 yards that swerved as it rose out of the goalkeeper’s reach, smacking a kiss on the bottom of the bar before bouncing down and crossing the line. At that moment Ribéry became Le Phénomène.

He was the star of an underachieving Marseille team. They looked to him to give them a sense of direction. Club captain Fabien Barthez wore the armband, but it was Ribéry who shouldered the fans’ expectations. Only he, it seemed, could make the difference. The matchwinner became the unofficial leader.

Come the end of the season, Ribéry had inspired Marseille to a fifth-place finish. Regrettably they lost the Coupe de France final to rivals Paris Saint-Germain, but on a personal level he couldn’t consider his first campaign as anything other than a success.

Named Young Player of the Year, he received a call-up from Raymond Domenech to represent France at the 2006 World Cup. He proved one of the tournament’s revelations and although les Bleus lost the final to Italy on penalties, Ribéry was anointed as the retiring Zinedine Zidane’s successor and with that title came the interest of Europe’s biggest clubs.

His head was turned. Arsenal were mentioned, as were Real Madrid. Ribéry said: “My wish is to leave Marseille. I’d like to leave because I want to win other things. I’d like to play in the Champions League. I want to keep evolving. I want to have great players around me. It’s important for me.”

He flirted openly with Lyon, the Ligue 1 champions, an affair that ended with their owner Jean-Michel Aulas defending himself from allegations of tapping up.

In the end, Ribéry decided to stay; all was forgiven because he offered the prospect of leading Marseille to their first league championship since 1992. But it wasn’t to be: a groin injury, then a fractured metatarsal, meant that he was missing from the action all too often. He lacked consistency and couldn’t get into a rhythm.

Marseille, bolstered by Djibril Cissé and the emergence of Ribéry’s ‘little brother’ Samir Nasri, finished the season as runners-up, 17 points behind Lyon. For a second year running they came up just short in the Coupe de France final too, Ronald Zubar’s miss in a penalty shoot-out against Sochaux prolonging a trophy drought dating back to the 1993 Champions League win.

Front-runners: Ribéry with Djibril Cissé

Unconvinced that Marseille could match his ambition any time soon, Ribéry left in summer 2007. He was careful not to betray his supporters, choosing to leave not for Lyon but for Bayern Munich in a transfer worth £22m that would be reinvested to strengthen the team. They couldn’t begrudge him for it.

“Franck is a player that we helped bring to light and it’s with a heavy heart that we see him go today,” said Marseille president Pape Diouf. “When a player of his stature departs, it leaves a void.”

As was the case with Didier Drogba, the time Ribéry spent with Marseille was short but sweet: it stayed with them. Before an emotional return to the Vélodrome with Chelsea for a Champions League group stage match last season, Drogba recalled how difficult it was to wrest himself away from Marseille.

“I was really down,” said the Ivorian. "I went to the dressing room on my own for the last time and then I broke down. I cried and cried. I went out on the pitch for the last time and, again, I broke down in tears. All my emotion flowed out of me.”

While sentimental, Ribéry perhaps doesn’t share as strong a bond with Marseille as Drogba. To him, the club was a stepping-stone to bigger and better things, not a rock on which he’d have quite happily built a castle and lived forever.

Yet his popularity in France has arguably never been as high as it was than in the summer of 2006. Since then, injuries, an unsavoury scandal, plus the perception that he bullied the teacher’s pet Yoann Gourcuff and was one of the ringleaders of the strike at the 2010 World Cup have taken a lot of the shine off his reputation back home.

Ribéry is the best-paid French player, with an annual salary worth £9.7m. Few Bayern fans question whether he’s worth it, not on the back of this season’s virtuoso performances. But in France, it’s a different story. He has repeatedly let his country down, failing to fulfil the promise he showed in his first handful of caps and to replicate his club form.

In the 57 appearances he has made for France since the 2006 World Cup, Ribéry has scored only seven goals and laid on nine assists for his teammates – hardly anonymous, but a disappointing return when one considers that many hoped he’d effortlessly pick up the baton from Zidane.

Signing for Bayern: is club eclipsing country?

Against Germany last month, a friendly that many thought was designed for him to shine in, he flopped even though France unexpectedly won 2-1 in Bremen. “You all know his career and the difficulties he has been through in the last two years,” Laurent Blanc told reporters.

“He is capable of finding his level again in the national team," insists the national manager. "It’s for that reason that we persist with him because he is one of those rare players who is able to unlock defences. For the moment, he has not given what he is capable of.”

With that in mind, Wednesday’s match at the Vélodrome takes on a greater significance. It’s another opportunity for Ribéry to redeem himself in front of his compatriots. He is playing some of the best football of his life and has 14 goals and 15 assists for Bayern this season.

Confidence is high and there are several good reasons to believe in victory. Bayern have won five on the bounce, including a 20-goal spree over three games in a week. Meanwhile, Marseille are on a run of seven straight defeats and will be without first choice goalkeeper Steve Mandanda as well as centre-back Souleymane Diawara. The timing and the setting couldn't be any better.

THE FUNDESLIGA, Wed 21 Mar: Resurgent Bayern face biggest test yet at glorious Gladbach

Will Ribéry rise to the occasion? He missed Bayern’s last visit to France, when they knocked out Lyon to reach the 2010 Champions League final, after receiving a red card in the first leg. Whether he keeps his head or not remains to be seen. The mind games might have already begun.

“It’ll be special,” insisted Marseille coach Didier Deschamps. “On a psychological level, it won’t be easy [for Ribéry]. I know about it [as I played against my old team] with Chelsea. I was terrible. My coach took me off after about an hour…”

If an ex-player formerly known as the ‘water carrier’ once bottled it, then Ribéry might need a stiff drink to settle himself before kick-off. France is watching.

Pavey looking to keep walking down English football's rarely trodden path

Kris Heneage — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 17:00:00 GMT

Its fair to say that the forging a career overseas is not a well trodden path for English footballers.

When it comes to discussing the subject, your mind may subconsciously edge towards Joe Cole at Lille or David Beckham, formerly of Real Madrid, now with LA Galaxy. However in Stockholm there’s only one Englishman that matters, and his name is Kenny Pavey.

The most striking thing about Pavey is that, despite spending thirteen years in Sweden, his accent remains intact. A friendly ‘Alright mate’ greets FourFourTwo as we begin the interview and share a laugh at his cockney vernacular.

The story of how he ended up in Sweden is a curious one. He tells of his time with Sittingbourne United and a potential move to Aston Villa in 1997. All seemed well at first after an impressive trial, but things quickly turned sour when Sittingbourne were unable to agree to financial terms with the Midlands club.

As if the situation wasn’t bad enough, Pavey heard of the deal's collapse in the worst possible fashion.

“I found out it wasn’t happening when I was in a train station, on the way to a match,” Pavey explains. “It was in the Gazette. I don’t know what made me buy the paper that day, but I did and there it was: ‘Villa dream for Pavey falls through’ and it had a big interview with the manager and the chairman saying how well I’d taken it and I’d bounce back. I just got a big lump in my throat.”

He still has that edition of the Gazette in his house - a memento of what could have been. With Sittingbourne in administration it was a difficult period for the club. It was around that time he was approached by David Wilson, Aston Villa’s Scandinavian scout. Wilson offered him a chance of a move abroad, but not to where Pavey was expecting. “I was thinking where are we going? France? Spain? But no, it was Sweden,” he laughs.

The club Ljungskile SK had at the time just suffered relegation from Sweden’s top tier (The Allsvenskan). After a trial, the club confirmed their desire to make the move permanent, but once again Sittingbourne dragged their feet. With a year still to run on his contract, he was forced to wait for his move. Looking back Pavey admits to losing focus, saying; “I lost my head a bit and I got sloppy, I was still a bit annoyed about the whole Villa thing.”

When he finally completed his move to Ljungskile he settled in well. It’s at this point that FFT poses the question most Englishmen abroad have to entertain; “How did you manage with the language?”

If Youtube is anything to go by, it would seem well. Fluent interviews in Swedish suggest a strong grasp of a difficult language.

Pavey is slightly more modest in his assessment; “I’m alright talking football, but when it comes to talking stuff like politics, I’m not so sure.” He goes on to explain how he caused ‘mayhem’ at one of his early Swedish classes.

During an exercise which involved naming an animal in Swedish, then drawing it for the rest of the class, Pavey asked the teacher if he could contribute. Knowing the word for badger (grävling) he attempted repeated it to his fellow students.

Confusion ensued a class of international students – many of whom had never heard of badgers – couldn’t work out what he was trying to say. He struggles to finish the story without laughing. It’s at this point FFT notes the mischievous side to his character.

This part of his personality was also demonstrated when he scaled the fences at AIK’s Råsunda Stadium after scoring a second half goal against Hammarby, piercing his hand in the process, something he was unaware of until he later inadvertently smeared his face with his own blood.

FFT asks him about the club's fans, whom he describes as “very passionate.”

He speaks of the AIK faithful as if they were family. He is clearly being careful with his words so as to not do them a disservice. “They appreciate you if you work hard, and give your all. They are very respectful to you in public. They travel all around Sweden and are some of the best fans in the country,” he explains.

Partly due to an inability to agree an extension with the club, Pavey is calling time on his career with AIK after five years in Sweden's capital. The winger has career options throughout Scandinavia, and also back home in England.

For Pavey though, his decision now includes the potential impact on his family. "If I do end up going to Denmark it means they can stay in Sweden and either fly to see me or get the train, I don't really want to move them, to be honest."

While there’s currently an uncertainty about what’s next for Pavey, he does still believe the time was right to leave AIK; “I think after the great send off they gave me, it wouldn’t be right to go back now, I had a great time there and now it’s time to try something new.”

Having discussed his career in some depth, we move onto the subject of what will come after his playing days are over. The modern footballer has a wealth of options at his disposal, with coaching or media-work being the route taken by many.

“I’d really like to do something out here, to be honest. I’ve got a lot of good contacts in Scandinavia and I think some time out here could do a lot of young lads that fall through the cracks some good,” he said.

Of course it’s worth remembering that Pavey took something of a risk with his Swedish adventure. There was no guarantees other than a change of scenery. It’s through his own hard work that he has achieved his medals and been able to play in the Champions League.

Pavey’s demeanor is both friendly and down to earth, it’s more akin to chatting with an old school friend than a footballer with Champions League experience.

Wanting to go out on a high – as Pavey is aiming to do at AIK – FFT asks how it felt the first time he heard ‘There’s only one Kenny Pavey’ reverberate around the stadium

“It was brilliant, but they actually have a few songs for me,” he explains, before bursting into a full vocal rendition of ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’.

Much like the many other versions of the Frankie Valli-penned classic that have echoed around stadiums across Europe down the years, AIK fans profess their love for Pavey and then offer their wives up to him. FFT asks quite how his missus, Danielle, feels about this generous offer – once again, Pavey can only answer with a fit of laughter.

More Than A Game: Germany v Holland

FourFourTwo Team — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 10:30:00 GMT

As Germany prepare to face Holland in Hamburg, FFT looks back to Euro 2004 when the two teams met in Porto's Estadio do Dragao. In a More Than A Game special, we presented two views – the Dutch and the German – on this great, historic rivalry.

Fittingly, the two sides matched each other blow-for-blow that night in Portugal. Neither side has defeated the other since 2002, when Holland prevailed 3-1 in Gelsenkirchen (Germany's last win was in 1996). As both teams look to change that, we remember what makes Holland v Germany such a momentous fixture; a true battle, it seems, of good versus evil.

THE GERMAN VIEWPOINT
by Uli Hesse, author of Tor! The Story of German Football

Two hours after Feyenoord had beaten  Borussia Dortmund 3-2 to lift the 2002 UEFA Cup, I was steering my car through the streets of Rotterdam, trying to leave the place behind as quickly as possible, when the mobile rang.

My friend Bernd had gone to the game on a chartered coach with other Dortmund fans. He knew I was on my own and that I must have left the ground late on account of the press conference. Which is why he feared for my life and limb. “You know,” he said, “the sad thing is not that we lost, but that  everybody on this coach is glad we did. Otherwise we wouldn’t have gotten out alive.”

That morning, I’d left my car on the other side of town, because when I called the club to ask about parking, a nice woman told me it wouldn’t be safe if it carried a German licence plate.

Then I strolled through the southern part of Rotterdam all day, ignoring police advice that no German should cross the river.

Around noon I saw a Dortmund coach that had lost its way. An elderly Dutchman lifted a small child onto his shoulders so the kid could give the finger to the Germans while men in Feyenoord shirts came running out of a bar, looking for something to hurl at the coach.

Later, I heard that a train carrying German supporters had been shot at with  a rifle and during the match Feyenoord fans fired rockets into the Dortmund stand.

The last time Dortmund had played in Rotterdam, in September 1999, no German fans had made the trip because the club  considered it too risky. It may have been an  over-reaction, but fresh in the memory was  a Feyenoord visit to Bayer Leverkusen that resulted in £180,000 worth of damage as 500 Dutch fans ran riot, smashing whatever was within reach and setting fire to a ticket booth. The police of North Rhine-Westphalia later announced that a third of all football-related arrests in the 1998-99 season had been made at this one game. It was a friendly.

And it’s not just Feyenoord. Six months after the Leverkusen riots, Cologne played  a pre-season match in the Dutch city of Groesbeek against Nijmegen. When the Germans made it 3-3, the stand with their 300 fans was invaded by thugs. “People could have been killed,” gasped a pale Ewald Lienen, then coaching Cologne.

Ajax and Utrecht fans show their violent side in 2002

Nor is it just football. Last September, German third  division ice hockey club Ratingen Aliens played host to a team from across the border, the Eaters Geleen. One local paper spoke of “unimaginable hunting scenes”, saying the visitors had “sullied the sport’s image in an unprecedented manner”. Ice hockey is no game for sensitive souls, but 1,000 people chanted “Stop this!” as the Dutch ran amok. After 16 minutes, Ratingen came off the ice.

As far as Germans are  concerned, you can sum up the situation in two statements. First, Holland-Germany is one of the most heated  rivalries in Europe. Second, the mentally unstable party in this explosive relationship are the Dutch. They not only started this rivalry, they have also carried it to a point where it is obsessive, almost psychotic. “We’ve played a few friendlies against Dutch teams,” says Bochum’s goalkeeper with a dry smile. “And we’ve been lucky enough to get out of them without major injuries.” His name is Rein van Duijnhoven. He’s Dutch himself.

Yet this second assumption, that it’s our  neighbours who go over the top, will be taken with a grain of salt by anyone who was in Munich the day England won 5-1.

One of the most crushing defeats in our history seemed forgotten the instant news came through that Ireland had beaten Holland. For the next  10 months, the most popular chant at German grounds was: “We’re going to the World Cup without Holland.” There was even an  (unexpectedly humorous) website called 'You’re not there', with an online game where users could knock down orange-clad players by throwing spliffs or clogs at them.

But the German reaction is not always so light-hearted, and it’s not always merely  a reaction. As early as 1989, there was trouble in Rotterdam when German firms used the occasion of a World Cup qualifier to “invade enemy territory”, as they dubbed it on leaflets. Six years later, Bayer Leverkusen and PSV Eindhoven fans fought, not least because, as a Leverkusen fan’s online diary notes, “the Germans knew how to provoke the Dutch”. For instance by yelling, “Hooray, hooray, the Germans are here”, which will sound more ominous to Dutch ears than to some.

What is true is that the Dutch created this rivalry. And for a while the Germans even failed to notice what was happening...

A German hooligan is tackled by Dutch police in 1996

During the first decades of its existence, the German national team, established in 1908, played Holland more often than any other side, save Switzerland. Germany usually lost, but it didn’t rile them. Mainly because they were  beaten by all sorts of teams, but also because Holland was a small  country that kept a low profile. France was a different matter. When Germany and Holland drew 2-2 in November 1927, it was the 11th game between the two sides – the first Germany-France meeting would not be agreed upon for another three years, such were the enmities.

After WWII, things changed. Reconciling the French with the Germans became a major political issue, and while it would take a long time, it was so  successful that even Harald Schumacher’s dreadful foul on Patrick Battiston at the 1982 World Cup didn’t lead to anything nasty. The simmering resentment of the Dutch,  meanwhile, went unnoticed. And it didn’t help that the Germans were suddenly becoming  a footballing super power.

In 1956, Holland beat the World Cup holders, but it was a misleading result. The next four matches against the Dutch were all won, beginning with a 2-1 in 1957. In 1959, Uwe Seeler scored a hat-trick in a 7-0 rout that allowed the Germans to finally draw even in the overall record between the two sides. In 1966, Franz Beckenbauer netted two as his team won 4-2 in Rotterdam. Then, in 1974, Bernd Hölzenbein went down and referee Jack Taylor pointed to the spot...

Almost 30 years on, Beckenbauer attended an official banquet with Hölzenbein and recounted the story of how the latter had won his Frankfurt team a crucial penalty against Bayern in the German Cup semi-final of 1974 by running against a defender’s outstretched leg. Then he addressed the culprit: “But you made up for that in the summer, when you went down again.” It was one of those quips Beckenbauer distributes like sweets, but Hölzenbein had a sour look on his face.

Many people in Germany will tell you that Hölzenbein dived in the 1974 World Cup final. Even more will say the Dutch were undeniably the best team at that tournament. Still, it took those same people years to realise how painfully the Dutch felt the thorn. Maybe because West Germany had often been hard done by in the preceding decades without thirsting for revenge (Gothenburg 1958, Wembley 1966, Mexico City 1970). Maybe because it was only Holland.

Gerd Muller scores the winner to break Oranje hearts

The first signs that something was up came four years later when the teams drew 2-2 at the 1978 World Cup, and Holland’s Dick Nanninga was sent off after a row with Hölzenbein. “He grabbed me by the nose so I pushed him” was how Nanninga described the incident. But Hölzenbein said: “When the ref was looking away, he hit me in the stomach. For no  reason! That’s why I grabbed him.”

A similar incident took place at Euro 1980. The Germans won 3-2, but the talking point came when Schumacher and Johnny Rep went up for  a cross, and the Dutchman hit the keeper in the abdomen. Schumacher was so enraged that a sub was placed behind his goal to calm him down. Karl-Heinz Rummenigge noted that games between the two countries were having “an electrifying effect”.

On the day in June 1988 when the Dutch finally  exorcised their demons,  beating West Germany for  the first time in 32 years, the rivalry spilled over for good. The Germans were hit so hard by losing the semi-final of Euro 88 on home soil that they didn’t leave the dressing room for half an hour after the final whistle. “I had to lift my players,” said Franz Beckenbauer, looking as if he could use some help himself. “It was no penalty. Never.” He didn’t mention that the Germans had led through an equally dubious penalty, but he didn’t have to. What counted was the image of 15,000 delirious Dutch fans celebrating their victory in Hamburg.

Beckenbauer, who had played when games between West Germany and Holland were just games, boarded the Dutch coach to give his regards to the winners, but most of his players didn’t even shake hands with the opposition. They must have felt the Dutch had gone stark raving mad, from throwing insidious punches to chanting about the Nazis. Enough was enough. Yet there was another, subtler aspect to the matter: the verdict of the Dutch newspaper which called the West German team “poor grafters”. David had not only won, did not only feel morally superior – he was also very simply better than Goliath.

Which is why a game that many have  forgotten lives on in Germany’s collective football memory as one of the 10 greatest in our history: the 2-1 win over Holland at Italia 90. The Dutch still had their masters of the delicate touch. We had Augenthaler, Kohler, Brehme and Buchwald. But when Frank Rijkaard repeatedly spat at Rudi Völler,  resulting in a red card for him and, bizarrely, the innocent German, the match took on mythic proportions. Jurgen Klinsmann, now alone up front, ran his lungs out and would collapse after the final whistle. Buchwald made the first goal with a double stepover. Brehme scored the second with a stunning swerving shot. Then the Argentinian ref awarded the Dutch a silly penalty, whereupon the German TV commentator yelled: “Send that man back to the pampas!” In brief: it was perfect.

Since then, you can’t help but feel that the Germans have begun to take the rivalry more seriously than those who started it. In November 1998, the teams drew 1-1 in Gelsenkirchen – but only because the Dutch weren’t fired up. “At times they showed us up, even though they didn’t have their first team,” said Jupp Heynckes. Horst Hrubesch said:  “I was shocked how they dominated us in the first half.” And Hölzenbein added: “It seems German football is in a crisis.”

Six years on, it still is. There are serious doubts that Germany can perform at the same level as Holland, which is why the teams’ opening game at Euro 2004 will be crucial. Another marvel along the lines of 1990 would again exorcise demons – not ones haunting the Dutch but those plaguing Germans. Like the Dortmund fans thinking how lucky they had been to lose a final in Rotterdam.

Louis van Gaal: bringing Holland and Germany together, sort of

THE DUTCH VIEWPOINT
by Simon Kuper, author of (among other books) Ajax, The Dutch, The War

The match I hope to be watching on DVD on my deathbed is West Germany v Holland of June 21, 1988. On that summer evening in Hamburg, the Dutch played some of the best football of the era – think Marco van Basten, Ronald Koeman, Frank Rijkaard and Ruud Gullit all at their peak simultaneously – and Van Basten won it with an improbable  sliding goal three minutes from time.

Back in Holland, the staid nation surprised itself: on a Tuesday night, nine million  people, 60 percent of the population,  celebrated on the streets. It was the largest public gathering since the Liberation. “It feels as though we’ve won the war at last,” said  a former Resistance fighter on TV.

Ger Blok, a 58-year-old Dutchman, heard the news in Tegucicalpa, where he was  managing Honduras. He ran through the streets carrying a Dutch flag. “Hysterical, intensely happy,” he said. “The next day I was ashamed of my laughable behaviour.” In the Leidseplein square in Amsterdam, people threw bicycles (their own?) into the air and shouted, “Hurray, we’ve got our bikes back!” During the Occupation, the Germans had confiscated all Dutch bicycles.

“When Holland scores I dance through the room,” said Professor Dr L de Jong, a dusty grey man who had spent the last 40 years  writing the official history of the Netherlands in World War II in umpteen volumes. “What these boys have done! Of course it’s got to do with the war. Strange that people deny that.”

Ronald Koeman revealed that after the match he had wiped his backside on the German shirt he had swapped with Olaf Thon. Holland’s manager Rinus Michels, the man who coined the phrase, “Football is war”, admitted to “an extra feeling of satisfaction for reasons I don’t want to sum up now.” Emerging from the tunnel for the second half to jeers from the German crowd, Michels had raised a dignified middle finger.

Michels surveys the battlefield four years later

It is tempting to think that Van Basten (who refused to speak German in interviews) had unleashed a nation’s war traumas by scoring in Hamburg, but he did not. The war has less to do with this rivalry than one would think. Before Hamburg, few Dutchmen felt that strongly about Germans. Certainly there was distaste. I lived in Holland for 10 years as  a child from 1976, in Leiden near the North Sea, and I could see that German tourists were not greatly popular – “How do the Germans celebrate the invasion of Europe?” “By doing it again every summer” – but when England played West Germany in 1982, most of the teenage boys in my class supported the Germans. The fact was that until 1988 the football rivalry barely existed.

Before the war, the Dutch had been  mostly philo-Germanic. Many of them spoke excellent German, the way they now speak excellent English, and Dutch books and  magazines of the time were full of throwaway quotes from Goethe and Schiller.

After that, from the 1950s until 1970, there was no hope of rivalling Germany: it was  a great footballing nation, while the Dutch were pathetic. This was the era of defeats to Luxembourg, and never qualifying for World Cups or European Championships. The big rival in those days was Belgium.

Then suddenly, in 1974, Holland were  facing Germany in the World Cup final. No doubt some of the Dutch players that day in Munich had the war in mind. As a baby, Willem van Hanegem, Holland’s left-half, lost his father and 10-year-old brother  during a British bombardment of his village on September 11 1944. Ruud Krol, the left-back, was the son of one of the few Dutchmen who really had been in the Resistance as opposed to just boasting about it after the war.

In 1999, I visited ‘Kuki’ Krol in Amsterdam. A tiny man, his right foot encased in an  outsized boot, Kuki looked nothing like his handsome son. On a table in his living room stood a framed photograph: a dead young man, his brillantined hair combed backwards in the fashion of the 1940s. At the time he had worked in Krol’s shop.

“Some were lucky,” said Krol, “but not him. One day the German secret police raided my shop. They came for me, but they found him. He was in the Communist Resistance. They put him against the wall, his hands by his sides, and his bad luck was that he had three  identity cards on him that day. He never came back. But they came for me.”

Krol told me that at one point during the war, he had hidden 13 Jews above a café in Amsterdam. But he had never got over the war. His nerves were shot. The traumas stayed with him until his death last year. This is the atmosphere in which Ruud Krol was raised.

Yet when I asked Johnny Rep whether the war was ever mentioned in the Dutch camp during that World Cup, he replied: “Never.” Even the defeat in the final passed off calmly. Van Hanegem did leave the field in tears, and the match meant more to him than just any old World Cup final, but the mood of 1988 was absent. In 1974, Dutch and German  players seemed of a kind.

The captains, Franz Beckenbauer and Johan Cruyff, were friends, and Rep and Paul Breitner thwarted the FIFA ruling against shirt-swapping on the pitch by trading jacket and tie at the post-match  banquet. Jan Jongbloed, the Dutch keeper, wrote in his diary: “A short disappointment that slowly passed into being satisfied with  silver.” Holland didn’t expect to beat the world, or the Germans. Being better than Belgium was quite heady enough.

Friends to the end: Cruyff and Beckenbauer

In 1974, the war was a mostly undigested period for the majority of Dutch people.  It was still too close, too painful to recall. Only in the 1980s did the war experience a revival in Holland. Holocaust monuments were erected, May 5 again became a holiday marking the Liberation, and in 1985, on the 40th anniversary of the end of the war, dozens of books appeared depicting it as a conflict between ‘good’ Dutchmen and bad Germans. The Dutch were not yet ready to look at their own collaboration: the highest percentage of Jews killed anywhere except Poland, the largest Nazi party outside Germany.

It was in this atmosphere of Good versus Bad that the 1988 match took place. The German team of Lothar Matthäus, Rudi Völler and Jürgen Kohler, violent ugly divers who couldn’t play football – not like our boys  anyway – seemed to the Dutch to exemplify ‘Germany’. In a poem, How Deeply It Runs, the cabaretier Erik van Muiswinkel wonders how to explain Good and Evil to his daughter:

Adam, Eve, apple?
Hitler, Florence Nightingale?
I don’t know, I’m agnostic
And preferably amoral.

Good and Evil
Look, darling, look at the TV:
Orange, Gullit, White.
White, Matthäus, Black.

Holland vs Germany, Good vs Evil. Our shirts were bright, if unfortunately striped; the Germans wore black and white. We had black players, including Gullit, our captain, and our fans wore Gullit hats with rasta hair; their players were all white and their fans made monkey noises. Our players were funny and natural; A Thousand Years of German Humour is the shortest book in the world, and Völler had that absurd perm. Our players were  individuals; the Germans could barely be told apart by their numbers. They dived.

The two teams, in short, summed up the way the Dutch wanted to see themselves and the way they saw the Germans. We were like Gullit and they were like Matthäus. There were obvious flaws to this notion and so, to make it fit, the Dutch briefly forgot their own discipline, their own staidness, and their own intolerance of Turks and Moroccans and Surinamese like Gullit. “We should really explain to the Germans that we hate all  foreigners,” suggested the magazine Vrij Nederland, but nobody did. The Germans were Evil and we were Good.

The match was, in short, a romanticised version of the war. Since the venue was Hamburg, it was also a symbolic reversal of the German invasion of 1940: an orange-clad Dutch Army drove its cars into Germany and defeated the inhabitants. People in Holland sang: “In 1940 they came / In 1988 we came.”

After 1988, Holland v Germany was never the same again. The teams next met at the World Cup of 1990, but this time there was no moral contrast: the bickering Dutch deservedly lost, and moreover Rijkaard spat at Völler. There was a Dutch attempt to claim that Völler had racially abused him – the old story – but Rijkaard inconveniently denied it.

"Mr Referee, this nasty man has discharged in my hair"

Our 3-1 win at Euro 92 was very enjoyable, but only a reworking of 1988 and it was the last time the countries met in a competitive match. Since then Holland vs Germany has lost much of its fizz for the Dutch (just as the Germans begin to cotton on).

I realised that something had changed in February 2000, when the Germans came to Amsterdam for a friendly. Matthäus gave  a sort of grand farewell interview to European journalists. Confusingly, he was friendly and charming, much like his fellow villains Völler and Kohler. I asked why the Dutch disliked him so much. “I’d rather ask the Dutch that,” he said. “It continues to be a mystery to me.”

I said, “The Dutch hate you because to them you are Germany, you are the team.”  (I didn’t add, “Because they think you are  a violent, ugly diver.”)

Matthäus replied, “So every whistle is  really a nice compliment for me?”

But in the stadium two days later, hardly anybody whistled him. He was winning his 144th cap, a world record if you didn’t count certain African players, which FIFA didn’t, and before the match the Dutch captain Edgar Davids presented him with a bouquet of  flowers. Matthäus looked surprised, perhaps because the socially dysfunctional Davids was captaining Holland, probably because he had never expected flowers in Holland. When  he waved the bouquet at the crowd, there  was far more clapping than booing. The  arch-German (“Matthäus = Hitler”, said a Dutch banner at a Holland vs Germany game in 1989) had been accepted by the Dutch.

In fact, this was an insult. The Dutch had stopped hating Germans because they had stopped fearing them. When Germany was reunited in 1990, many Dutch feared the huge new country would become a threat again. The German economy was mighty. Even the football team were world champions. But  a decade later, Germany had no noticeable foreign policy, a stagnating economy and  a terrible football team. Matthäus was nearly 40. Admittedly two years later Germany reached the final of a World Cup for which Holland hadn’t qualified, but it didn’t matter – they still had a terrible team.

While Germany had ceased to be an Evil Empire, the Dutch no longer believed in their own Goodness. In the 1990s, revisionist books about the Dutch war demolished the myth that everyone had been in the Resistance. The period 1940-45 is now seen as a shameful episode in the nation’s history, not something to beat the Germans over the head with.

Nor is it easy to claim that the Germans are racist now the Dutch have a large anti-immigrant party, created by the assassinated homosexual columnist Pim Fortuyn. We still do have black players in our team, but most Dutch people would prefer to see Kluivert, Seedorf and Davids dropped, while Germany have  fielded their first black player for two decades (and only the third ever) in Gerald Asamoah.

Oh, for the days of Good versus Evil.

Words: Uli Hesse and Simon Kuper. From the July 2004 issue of FourFourTwo. Subscribe!

Czech chances of Euro qualification hinge on Petr's head being right

James Horncastle — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 14:55:00 GMT

Referee Mike Dean stopped play at Ewood Park for seven minutes on Saturday as Chelsea’s medical staff tended to Petr Čech’s bloodied nose.

The goalkeeper had put himself in harm’s way again, clashing with teammate Ashley Cole in a successful attempt to prevent the Blackburn striker Yakubu from scoring.

Patched up, he played on as Chelsea got back to winning ways and kept their first clean sheet in the Premier League since the opening day of the season. “What can I say about Petr?” Andre Villas-Boas mused after the match. “He is very injury prone in football and all sorts of things have happened to him.”

A medial ligament injury meant Čech missed the visits of West Bromwich Albion and Norwich City to Stamford Bridge in August. He had been back between the sticks for just three matches when he went off at half-time in the Carling Cup against Fulham with a concussion after a coming together with Orlando Sá.

“My head went back like when you get a right hook in boxing,” Čech said. “What happened, I don’t know. I think the helmet took most of the impact. I had a concussion. When I came inside the dressing room I couldn’t see properly and I didn’t have the awareness of the space.”

Thoughts inevitably turned to that afternoon in October 2006 when the right knee of Reading midfielder Stephen Hunt fractured his skull. Čech was out for three months. He has worn a scrum cap ever since, a reminder of the event and the vulnerability of the goalkeeper.

“When I played again after my first injury I said if I need to put my head somewhere I will do it,” Čech insisted. “It’s part of the game. One day if I feel the fear of putting my head in the middle of some battle or scrum, then I stop. But so far I haven’t felt that.”

His frequent need for treatment indicates he has stayed true to his word. Čech even felt able to laugh about his most recent knock, which threatens to rule him out of the first leg of the Czech Republic’s Euro 2012 play-off against Montenegro at the Stadion Letná in Prague on Friday.

“We’ll see how it turns out. If I were to start, then it would only be while wearing a mask. I already wear headgear and I think that I would look like Batman.”

Already without Shakhtar midfielder Tomáš Hübschman, suspended for another two matches, Czech Republic coach Michal Bílek faces a dilemma at the back. “A broken nose is a painful injury, particularly for a goalkeeper who can be the target of challenges from tall strikers,” he noted.

“Petr will have a special mask from Italy and how he feels will be crucial for my decision about who starts in goal. I hope he will be ready, his presence on the pitch is very important for us because he is one of the best goalkeepers in the world.”

With 84 caps, Čech’s experience and influence is undeniable. Still only 29, he should be about to enter his peak. Yet his recent form has not made for good statistics. Before last week’s trip to Blackburn, Opta revealed that Čech had the worst saves-to-shots percentage in the Premier League at 46%. This time last year, he led the way in that regard with 91.7%. The 5-3 defeat to Arsenal on October 29 was a case in point.

Cole inadvertently plants one on his teammate at Ewood Park on Saturday

Čech was beaten too easily at his near post first by Andre Santos to his right then Theo Walcott to his left. He was also fooled by the trajectory and velocity of Robin van Persie’s hat-trick goal when his positioning was suspect too.

It’s worth asking whether Čech has been left more exposed by Chelsea’s use of a high defensive line under Villas-Boas. On the one hand, his team have conceded fewer shots in the Premier League than last year. The number has fallen by 29%. On the other, Chelsea’s style of play has perhaps led to Čech facing more high-risk situations. The opposition might be restrained to fewer goal-scoring chances, but the ones they are presented with are ‘clearer’, like a one-on-one for instance.

Čech has wobbled before, notably in the 2007/08 season following the departure of José Mourinho. He experienced hip problems and got contact lenses. There was a falling out with Luiz Felipe Scolari amid claims that he wanted his mentor at Rennes, Christophe Lollichon, to be his personal goalkeeping coach and not work with Henrique Hilario and Rhys Taylor, claims Čech was disappointed by and rejected out of hand.

Once those issues had been dealt with he rediscovered his form, winning the FA Cup under Guus Hiddink and the Double under Carlo Ancelotti. Then last winter, after a 3-1 loss to Arsenal and a 3-3 draw with Aston Villa, he came under scrutiny again.

Speaking to The Times in January, Čech answered the critics who had described him as a shadow of his former self. “I always question why people say that,” he said. “I do the analysis of my game with the people who work at the club and if someone says: ‘He’s not the same’, then I’m happy to take all the analysis of my performances for someone to judge…

“When you look at the statistics, the amount of crosses I catch, how far from the goal I go, how big an area I cover in my interceptions, the last two seasons I have caught more crosses and covered more ground than ever before.”

The Dark Knight rises...or something

Proving the doubters wrong, Čech bounced back again and was named Chelsea’s Player of the Year. Still, the notion persists that he is in slow decline. It’s worth bearing in mind that Čech was just 22 when he arrived from Rennes in 2004. Goalkeepers tend to mature later than outfield players. The early emergence of Gigi Buffon and Iker Casillas in their teens was taken for an anomaly. Now, with the examples of Manuel Neuer [25] at Bayern, David de Gea [20] at Manchester United, Yann Sommer [22] at Basel and Wojciech Szczęsny [21] at Arsenal all starting in the Champions League there is evidence that the process is occurring more quickly. To elaborate on that theme, maybe goalkeepers are peaking sooner rather than later, and perhaps therefore the very best of Čech is behind him.

Yet that presumption is not entirely fair and seems premature, even if Chelsea’s acquisition of the precocious Thibaut Courtois from Genk in the summer for £7.9 million shows forward-planning on the club’s part for Čech’s eventual succession, which is not forecast to happen in the near future.

The 6ft 6in 19-year-old is on loan at Atletico Madrid where he has steadily impressed. A man of the match performance against Sevilla was a particular highlight. It was one of seven clean sheets he has achieved in 15 appearances so far in all competitions. He still has a lot of improving to do, particularly in judging crosses, before legitimately challenging Čech for his place, though he isn’t exactly lacking in confidence.

Villas-Boas was forced to comment on an interview attributed to Courtois with the Spanish radio station Onda Cero in October when it was reported he said: “Chelsea’s goalkeeping coach told me he doesn’t know how much time Čech can play at the top level. I know he has problems in his knees and on his back. Chelsea told me to spend two years at a club like Atletico. After that one season in an English team so I can integrate myself into the Premier League.”

In a press conference, Villas-Boas retorted: “A statement has come out from Courtois’s agent and the situation has been addressed. He has been misled on his information and he has been unfortunate with his quotes because he felt the other way around.”

For now, Čech remains one of the best `keepers in Europe, even though the heights he once scaled, which only a select few of his generation have reached, seem beyond consistent attainment. That’s not a slight on Čech. Maintaining a world-class quality of performance over a prolonged period of time is a formidable challenge for any athlete, particularly when injuries, no matter how big or small, affect the mechanics of a goalkeeper, from their take-off leg to their reach. Age can dull reaction times, although that’s less of a concern in this case and one can also point to the precedent of Dino Zoff winning a World Cup at the age of 40.

It is unlikely, of course, that Čech will get a similar chance with a mediocre Czech Republic side, one that had been ranked second in the world by FIFA as recently as five years ago but now finds itself in 47th place, below the likes of Venezuela, Iran and Wales. Bílek is their fourth manager since the snowy-haired sage Karel Brückner left his post in 2008, and the next Pavel Nedvěd, Jan Koller or Karel Poborský is yet to materialise. Čech, along with Arsenal’s Tomáš Rosický and Galatasaray’s Milan Baroš, is one of the few survivors of that era.

A lot of responsibility rests on their shoulders against the strongly favoured Montenegro of Mirko Vučinić and Stevan Jovetić. No wonder Bílek is sweating on Čech’s fitness. If the Chelsea `keeper has to play with a scrum cap and a mask, he won’t care, just as long as Batman Returns and gives the Czech Republic a fighting chance of qualifying for next summer’s European Championship.

Ole Gunnar Solskjær follows Fergie into trophy triumph

Kris Heneage — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 12:19:00 GMT

In the same week Sir Alex Ferguson celebrated his 25th year at Manchester United, one of his former players was revelling in his first managerial success. And while Ferguson has to wait three years to get his first trophy, his latest protegé has gained silverware at the first attempt.

Ole Gunnar Solskjær has had something of a fairy-tale start to life in club management back at Molde FK, the club he left to join the Red Devils in 1996. His return coincided with their centenary year and, thanks to Solskjær, their first ever league title.

To take on the challenge, Solskjær had left the relative comfort of overseeing United’s reserve team, but shrewdly he didn't leave Manchester alone. His backroom staff is complimented with friends and former United colleagues Mark Dempsey and Richard Hartis.

A former United youth team player who made two appearances under Ron Atkinson, Dempsey spent nearly a decade under Ferguson coaching the 13- to 16-year-olds. Accordingly, he has split his duties between being Molde's first-team coach and training local youngsters as part of a bank-sponsored scheme.

"He’s a fantastic, teaching coach," Solskjær told the press conference at which all three coaching staff were first presented. "I know the Norwegian players will love his approach to training."

Hartis joined United early in the last decade as director of goalkeeping development, growing close to Solskjær after the Norwegian became reserve-team coach in summer 2008.

"I’ve worked with Richard for three years as a coach and we’ve got a good working relationship," said Solskjær. "I think his methods are very good and he’ll bring something to the keepers and the back four in relation to the keeper."

On the pitch, typifying this mix of Manchester and Molde, is Magnus Wolff Eikrem. Born locally in 1990, he was picked up by Molde after impressing at one of Solskjær's soccer schools despite being underage; he was then signed by United on his 16th birthday, impressed in the reserves and made the first-team bench for a League Cup game, but was brought back to Molde by Solskjær in January 2011 and has played a major part in the club's success.

The son of former Molde player Knut Hallvard Eikrem, Magnus is officially deemed a foreign player, having spent half a decade growing up in Manchester. The fulcrum of Solskjær’s midfield, he has displayed an elegant style which is likely to see him interest bigger European clubs in the near future.

As for the manager, Solskjær employs a very direct counter-attack with full-backs encouraged to go forward – as epitomised by American defender Joshua Gatt. Recently announced as the league’s fastest player, the Michigan-born winger/full-back utilised his blistering pace to great effect across the season.

Gaffer: "Go, Gatta" – Solskjaer sends on speedy sub

Despite cantering to the title, Molde didn't go through the season without problems. An opening-day defeat at newly-promoted Sarpsborg 08, followed by two draws at Tromso and Viking FK, was not quite the start some had expected. With Sir Alex Ferguson having often stated how clever and analytical his former striker was from the bench, many fans had expected the team to hit the ground running.

In the fourth game of the season, Solskjær secured his first win, narrowly conquering Stabaek IF 3-2 at home. That was followed by an impressive 3-1 win away at Brann in which Solskjær showed that tactical nous. Although often preferring Molde to play 4-3-3, he switched to a sturdier 4-2-3-1 for the trip to Brann.

Reverting back to his favoured 4-3-3 for a game against Rosenborg he suffered his second defeat of the season. Although Solskjær suffered setbacks throughout the campaign (including his leading goalscorer Pape Paté Diouf leaving for FC Copenhagen midway through the season), credit must go to the Norwegian for his team’s ability to respond to defeat. It's noteworthy that they never lost back-to-back matches.

Much has been made of the decline of Norwegian football. And the country’s most successful side Rosenborg may have suffered early-on in the season following the departure of key players but the Tippaligen remains a competitive league.

Off the pitch much of the news centered around the healthy financial backing Molde have gained, which allows them top-class facilities. Although many may have expected it, Solskjær has not looked to invest heavily in the transfer market.

By no means minnows, Molde were expected to place in the upper reaches of Norway’s league without ever being considered title favourites. They held on for the title despite a late surge from Rosenborg and solid challenges from Valerenga and rather surprisingly, the financially depleted Brann – whom many had tipped to implode this season.

OGS back at OT for SAF's 25th last week

While it may only be seen as a stepping stone for Solskjær, by Norwegian standards his victory is a major achievement, especially considering how one-sided Norway’s league has been for the past two decades: Rosenborg won the Tippeligaen every year from 1992 to 2004 and three out of the six seasons thereafter.

With Ferguson seemingly no closer to retirement, Solskjær is still a fair distance away from the job that a few of Manchester United’s fans have begun tipping him for. But his achievements on the east coast of Norway have gone someway to justifying the hype surrounding the ‘baby faced assassin’.

Ranieri hops aboard Moratti's £70m carousel and into Mourinho's shadow

James Horncastle — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 14:01:00 GMT

Claudio Ranieri knows what the inferno looks like. He doesn’t need to read Dante. He doesn’t need Virgil to be his guide.

Interviewed after resigning from his position in charge of Roma, the club of his home and his heart, an emotional Ranieri, embittered by his recent experiences, expressed a desire to get out of Serie A and work elsewhere, perhaps in the Premier League again.

Asked to explain why, he laughed: “Because in football there is heaven or hell and you get to choose where to coach. Here there is hell.”

Six months later, Ranieri has been led back into temptation, leaving his cushy new job as an opinionista for Rai covering both the national team and the Champions League to return to coaching with Inter where he replaces the ill-fated Gian Piero Gasperini.

A glutton for punishment, this time he might have bitten off more than he can chew. No one lasts long under Inter owner Massimo Moratti. Ever since he bought the club on February 25, 1995, the bench has doubled as a carousel.

Sixteen coaches have come and gone, and a reported €70 million has been spent on paying them off. It’s hardly a thankless task. But for many in the coaching profession it’s a Mission Impossible all the same. Why? Because their contract often self-destructs five seconds after they’ve chosen to accept it.

Without a win from their opening three matches in Serie A, Inter have made their poorest start to a season since 1983, and Ranieri has his work cut out for reasons that aren’t necessarily within his control.

Working at Inter has been likened to Alfred Hitchcock’s film adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s gothic novel Rebecca about Maxim de Winter’s dead first wife, who continues to haunt him, his newlywed Joan Fontaine and the housekeeper Mrs Danvers.

Unable to escape the lingering memory of the title character, the country manor Manderley is burned to the ground, ending any hope of recovering the happiness that once existed within its walls.

For 45 years, Helenio Herrera felt like Inter’s Rebecca, as no matter how hard they tried, the club couldn’t bring back the good old days of when they won the European Cup back-to-back in 1964 and 1965. José Mourinho of course then broke that spell, but on leaving appears to have cast another one.

Just as Chelsea have been through five managers in the four years since the Special One’s departure from Stamford Bridge, Inter have now had three in the time that has elapsed since their victory over Bayern Munich in the Champions League final at the Santiago Bernabeu on May 22, 2010 and their defeat to Novara at the Stadio Pioli on September 20, 2011.

The hold he has over his former clubs and the state he leaves them in with exhausted and aging squads fiercely loyal to his personality cult, not to mention the heightened expectations of fans, is a hangover that clearly gives his successors a headache.

Each has had to confront Mourinho’s legacy in their own way.

Rafa Benítez reportedly asked that a picture of him be taken down at Inter’s training ground. Leonardo called him for advice and admitted that “Mourinho has left something here – you can feel it in the atmosphere, he is everywhere.” Gasperini, meanwhile, who had been earmarked by the Portuguese as the best coach he had faced during his time in Serie A for the chess match-like qualities of their encounters, instead chose to respectfully ignore his blessing and said it was time to move on and live in the present rather than in the past.

When set in this context Ranieri’s appointment is the most intriguing of all, for he, like no one else in recent years, represents the anti-Mourinho.

Rarely did a day go by without the pair clashing. They couldn’t resist having a pop at each other.

Ranieri would say, for instance, that, unlike Mourinho, he didn’t have to win things to be sure of what he was doing. He questioned his rival’s habit of not appearing in post-match interviews, claiming that it was disrespectful, and brought up how easy it was for someone to lift trophies when working under owners like Abramovich and Moratti whose purse strings could always be prised open.

Mourinho never ceased to take the bait. He would tell journalists that at the age of 70, Ranieri [who was 56 at the time] had won relatively little, “an Italian Super Cup and another little Cup”; He reveled in bringing up how after five years in England, Ranieri could only say ‘Good morning’ and ‘Good afternoon’, and then ridiculed his decision to sit his players down at Roma and make them watch Gladiator before a match because if anyone had tried that at Inter everyone would have fallen about laughing.

How strange it must be then for Mourinho to see Ranieri assume control of the team he still calls “my Inter,” train his players and sit on his bench. But that’s life. “I was an opponent,” the Tinkerman told the Inter Channel. “These kind of things are normal for a professional. When I marry myself to a cause I always give the maximum.”

Moratti announced Ranieri as the “best choice” for the job. “I think he has the common sense needed to revitalise the team, both as individuals and as a unit,” he said. It’s certainly hard to dispute that sentiment when presented with Ranieri’s CV. Described as a ‘normaliser’, a contrast to Gasperini the revolutionary, he is at his best when it comes to getting back to basics and keeping things simple. De-cluttering is Ranieri’s forte.

When he stepped in at Roma for Luciano Spalletti two games into the 2009/10 season, he spoke to the players about learning the “ABC of Calcio” again. He didn’t ask too much of them too soon, and proposed that Roma play 4-4-2, a system that everyone was comfortable with. It was a masterstroke. Bottom of the league when he arrived, Roma led the way for 37 minutes on the final day of the season. Sadly they weren’t masters of their own destiny, and when Diego Milito found a winner for Inter at Siena, the impossible dream of the Scudetto vanished.

What Ranieri accomplished was nothing short of a miracle. Only when expectations rose and with them the egos of certain players did his bench begin to creak at Roma, leading to a school of thought that he is a man for seeing out a crisis, not one for securing a championship title.

Who else but Mourinho would recognise this in one of his more cutting barbs. “It’s not my fault if in 2004, after arriving at Chelsea and asking why they were changing Ranieri, the club replied that they wanted to win things,” he bristled.

That stung Ranieri. It hit close to home and wounded his pride.

Winning the Scudetto with Inter would be a fine response even if right now the odds are stacked against him. “I will try to get the team back to playing the way it knows how to with the strength that it has,” Ranieri told Domenica Sportiva on Wednesday night.

He also aired his view that “Sneijder must play in his role, that of a trequartista” which would appear to indicate a return to either the 4-2-3-1 used under Mourinho or the 4-3-1-2 preferred by Leonardo.

Incidents like Tuesday’s in Novara when Esteban Cambiasso grew so frustrated at the confusion caused by Gasperini’s three-man defence that he effectively mutinied and told his teammate Andrea Ranocchia “we’re playing a back four” should be a thing of the past.

“This team has the DNA to come back fighting and win,” Ranieri opined. Others feel it’s missing a chromosome or two. For now, it seems the so-called Pazza or Crazy Inter is back. The question is: can Ranieri bring method to the madness?

Ajaccio get more than they bargained for in Guillermo Ochoa

James Horncastle — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 10:24:00 GMT

The red light flashed. The Blackberry vibrated. Another email. Another message. Another Facebook status update. “We receive hundreds on a daily basis,” revealed Ajaccio President Alain Orsoni.

Under the pressure, the club’s website has gone down. It just can’t handle the traffic. Before June 29, an average of 8,000 users logged on per day. Since that date, the number has jumped to 30,000, an increase of 275 per cent. The source of the hits isn’t Corsica, but cities in Mexico and the United States, from Guadalajara to Los Angeles. So why the sudden interest in Ajaccio?

Is it the fairytale of their unexpected promotion to Ligue 1? No, unfortunately not, though that too deserves a mention. After all, Ajaccio, the club with the fourth smallest budget in Ligue 2, were 15th in mid-October and had to overcome the trauma that followed their vice-president Antoine Nivaggioni’s assassination later that month.

Olivier Pantaloni, the Ajaccio coach, managed to rally the players and to everyone’s surprise, not least their supporters, they finished second, in part because of a fine record at the Stade François-Coty where they lost just once all season and collected 44 points.

Back in the top flight for the first time in five years, little was expected of them. That is until Orsoni pulled off a real coup in the transfer market.

Forget Javier Pastore to Paris Saint-Germain or Joe Cole to Lille. Perhaps the most incredible move of all in France this summer saw Ajaccio come from nowhere to sign the highly regarded Mexico international goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa on a free transfer from Club América.

With a shock of frizzy hair, the like of which hasn’t been seen between the posts since René Higuita hung up his gloves, he is second only to Javier Hernandez in popularity back home. Featured on the cover of FIFA 2008 and 2009 in North America along with Ronaldinho and Maurice Edu, ‘Memo’ as Ochoa is known has over 235,000 followers on Twitter.

To say he’s more than a footballer is no exaggeration. He’s a bona-fide media phenomenon, as Duarig, the French sports apparel company that provides Ajaccio with their red and white shirts, has recently found out.

“People did not foresee such a craze around Memo’s arrival,” their chief executive Alexandre Audry admitted. “We are now reflecting on how best to supply the Mexican market.”

As the cash registers keep singing, Orsoni has hardly stopped rubbing his hands together. “You know that Messi sells six million shirts a year,” he grinned. Ochoa isn’t at that level, but in relative terms his impact has been huge.

All of which begs the question: how did Ajaccio do it? Even the Mexicans are aghast.

Edgar Martínez, a journalist for the Mexican television channel TDN, went to Corsica to find out. He left scratching his head. “Ajaccio are an even smaller club than I imagined and below the standard of most clubs in our league,” he complained.

Capped 45 times by his country, Ochoa had bigger and better offers from more established clubs in Europe. “I was in contact with Paris Saint-Germain, Olympiacos, two Spanish clubs and a few others in Turkey and in Greece,” he told L’Équipe. Fulham were also reportedly interested at one stage.

But in June everything changed. Five players on Mexico’s team at the Gold Cup, including Ochoa, tested positive for the banned substance clenbuterol. His world caved in.

Decio de Maria, the secretary general of the Mexican Football Federation [the FMF], claimed the results came after the players ate contaminated beef, a defence used by Tour de France winner Alberto Contador a year earlier when he found himself in the same situation.

The FMF later cleared Ochoa and his teammates, but in August the World Anti-Doping Agency [WADA] filed an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport requesting a ban.

“After this doping business, all the teams broke off negotiations. They didn’t know when a resolution would arrive,” Ochoa lamented. “Ajaccio were the only club who supported me and made me an offer and with the season about to start, I didn’t want to wait, so I said ‘yes’. I understand the position taken by the other clubs.”

Joining Ajaccio sure felt like a fait accompli but in the end it was a deal that suited everyone.

Club América, the team with whom Ochoa had played since the age of 12, are owned by Televisa, the largest mass media company in Latin America, who incidentally have the TV rights to show Ligue 1. They therefore had a clear interest in letting their star go to France in an effort to make one of the business’s products more appealing to its audience.

Ajaccio, on the other hand, got a top class `keeper, the kind of upgrade on veteran Thierry Debés that they could never have imagined, not to mention great exposure in return. It was a win-win scenario, although it must be said Ochoa has made no secret of the fact that to him this is but a staging post on the way to a position with one of Europe’s elite teams.

Orsoni isn’t disappointed by that attitude. Far from it. He accepts the reality of the matter and is happy to help. “We can be the trampoline that he needs,” the persuasive Corsican explained. “When Memo wants to go, he can leave.”

To his credit, Ochoa didn’t arrive with ideas above his station. This isn’t the case of a player who thinks he’s bigger than the club, even when there’s every indication that he is. Ajaccio goalkeeping coach Enrico Pionetti has been impressed with his work ethic. “Memo is very talented but he’s also a very professional player,” he beamed.

At 26, and with his career at a crossroads, Ochoa is simply grateful for the opportunity, so much so he has made great sacrifices. A strict wage structure means that he has taken a pay cut of more than half to try himself in Europe.

“I didn’t ignore that I was going to a promoted club whose objective is to stay up,” he confessed to France Football. “I told myself that it would be easier to draw attention to myself there… If I’ve moved here, it’s in order to play for a big club as soon as possible. I hope it’s in the near future. In a year, two years… we’ll see.

“I don’t earn as much as I did in Mexico and I would’ve had a much more favourable contract if I’d signed for a Paris or a Marseille,” Ochoa insisted. “All that doesn’t stop me from being happy. I am proud to be the first Mexican goalkeeper to play in Europe. Money isn’t everything. It’ll come later.”

Following in the footsteps of José Luis Chilavert, the great free-kick and penalty taking Paraguay international goalkeeper who had a two-year stint at Strasbourg, Ochoa’s own extroverted playing style has delighted the crowds. His free-style approach, which includes catching the ball one-handed in a crowded penalty area and throwing himself here, there and everywhere has been one of the highlights of the season so far in Ligue 1.

“In South America, goalkeepers push the ball away more in their saves rather than catch it,” Ochoa revealed to L’Équipe. “Here, they stay on their line more too, they play less with their feet.” His technique, though unorthodox, has shown itself to be both aesthetically pleasing and effective.

When Ajaccio paid a visit to the Stade de Gerland in August, Ochoa kept Lyon at bay for much of the match and by doing so he earned the begrudging respect of Lisandro Lopez, the Argentinian gunslinger and scorer of the home side’s equaliser in the 83rd minute, who’d otherwise had a frustrating evening.

“He congratulated me at the end of the game by calling me a hijo de ***. It was affectionate,” Ochoa laughed.

If Ajaccio are to survive this season they need more performances like that from their star attraction. After six games, Pantaloni’s side lie 17th, one place above the relegation zone, with one win to their name. Their defence has already leaked 12 goals.

Ochoa has a fight on his hands. But like a Lucha Libre wrestler, albeit without a mask, he’ll strive to ensure Ajaccio are not out for the count.

Purple the colour for Cagliari as owner Cellino comes over all superstitious

James Horncastle — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 12:49:00 GMT

On Monday evening, Cagliari's press office issued a statement on the club's website. Nothing strange about that, you might think. Except this wasn't another banal training update or a new ticket offer, rather an odd call for help from the club's owner Massimo Cellino.

His principal grievance rested with the Serie A fixture list. Yet congestion is not the issue here. After all, Cagliari aren't in Europe.

Even so, TV scheduling meant that their opening home game of the season would be played not on a Sunday, as is tradition, but on a Saturday instead… and not just any Saturday.

When writing the date into his diary, Cellino noticed something. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up and a chill went down his spine. It fell on the 17th, his unlucky number.

Since the 1995-96 season, Cellino has made every effort to purge the No 17 from Cagliari. No player has been allowed to wear it on the back of their shirt under his tenure and if it really means that much to them, a 1+6 is offered.

Massimo Cellino - lucky horse shoe not pictured...

Therefore, with the stars apparently aligned against Cagliari ahead of newly promoted Novara's visit to Sant'Elia, Cellino sought advice. From who or what exactly, no one knows.

Could it have been from someone like Mario Maggi, the self-proclaimed 'wizard', and confidante of great former Roma coach Nils Liedholm? Maggi frequently claimed to offer an insight into what formation he should play before big games. He even predicted Roma’s defeat in the 1984 European Cup final. “Nils didn’t speak to me for two months after that,” Maggi sighed.

Whoever it was, Cellino insists he has the answer… Every Cagliari supporter must turn up to the ground wearing the unlucky colour purple. Why? Because, "according to the well-informed," one negative cancels out another.

"Is this a joke?" asked several Cagliari fans. "At this point, why not replace coach Massimo Ficcadenti with Merlin?"

Before everyone scoffs at Cellino, however, it's worth remembering that his intuitions have worked in the past. When Max Allegri lost his first five games at the club in 2009, Cellino thought it could be down to the colour of his suit.

Such an observation might sound superficial, but Maurizio Zamparini had sacked Luciano Spalletti purely on that basis at Venezia in 2000 because his sartorial preference was always for black. "It was gloomy, funereal and didn't bode well," he complained.

Allegri also tended to dress in black. But rather than send him to the dry cleaners with a P45, Cellino recommended that he get a new suit, a blue one.

Allegri shows off his new blue threads

Bizarrely, it 'worked' as Cagliari ended the season in ninth place, their highest finish for 15 years, and Allegri beat José Mourinho to the Panchina d'Oro, Italy's Coach of the Year award.

Of course, superstition and Serie A have gone hand in hand for years.

For instance, when asked to predict a score line, it's thought of as unlucky to bet on your own team.

The Juventus legend Giampiero Boniperti would never back his side in the media. When he was president of the club, he once wagered five ties on them losing to Udinese with the journalist Piero Molino.

Juventus won and Boniperti had to come up with the goods. Weeks went by then one day a crumpled-looking package turned up at Molino's office. Sure enough the ties were there, but they'd been bought from one of the Chinese street sellers for a lira on the corner outside.

It wasn't a lack of class on Boniperti’s part - no one had more of that than him. Rather it was an indication of his distaste for ostentation.

Still, Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani would have appreciated the gesture. He considers his light yellow tie a good luck charm and knotted it to his shirt collar at the Camp Nou on Tuesday night. Beyond all expectation Milan raced into the lead and ended up with an unlikely 2-2 draw, which few had predicted in the pre-match build-up. Was it the tactics or the tie?

To some it would appear that a wardrobe malfunction in the director's box or on the bench might be as costly to a team's chances of success as a dressing room split between the players.

"Did somebody turn up the heat in here?"

Ask former Bologna coach Renzo Ulivieri (pictured above), who insisted on wearing the same heavy blue duffle coat even in the heat of summer. He'd sit and sweat without grumbling. It was completely irrational, but Ulivieri wasn’t the only one.

Livorno owner Aldo Spinelli still pulls on a special yellow waterproof even in bright sunshine and that’s not all. On away days, he demands to stop at the same motorway service station for a pizza. In fact, pre-match meals are a case in point.

Recall how Luis Suárez - that's the sinewy former midfielder of the Grande Inter in the '60s – thought that if a glass of wine were spilt at dinner, he would score the following day. That prompted Inter’s coach Helenio Herrera to slyly walk into the table and knock over his player’s drink. Suárez would then hurriedly dip his finger in the wine before touching his head and foot.

More food for thought comes in the memory of Romeo Anconetani, the larger than life former president of Pisa. Before one match against Cesena, he covered the pitch in 25kg of salt. Before another against Padova, he set a chicken free then ate it after the match. All out of superstition.

In football as in life, the Lord moves in mysterious ways. Juventus coach Antonio Conte was seen kissing a santino before Sunday’s season opener at home to Parma, calling to mind when the former Vicenza striker Marcelo Otero used to play with the picture of a saint in his socks.

No matter how ridiculous, people believe in superstitions because it gives them the illusion of control in an uncertain world. Ironically, a character like Cellino, with a reputation as a mangia-allenatori already well established on account of his decision to sack 25 coaches in 19 years, doesn’t exactly exude an air of stability. If it works for him then so be it. But come what may on Saturday, Novara won’t be put off.

“Cagliari can wear whatever they want,” a group of their fans told ANSA. “In the end they’ll be crying because blue will be the colour that triumphs. Novara are stronger than superstition itself.”

Conte looking to the future as Juventus hope to rediscover themselves

James Horncastle — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 10:19:00 GMT

The Old Lady was developing Alzheimer’s. That was the analysis of Andrea Agnelli after his first year as President of Juventus.

“I am disappointed,” he said following yet another disappointing seventh place finish in Serie A. “At the end of the season it emerged with great clarity that a series of new players haven’t understood what this club represents and those that do know have forgotten.”

Agnelli himself hadn’t. How could he? The 35-year-old is the fourth member of his family to take the helm after the terms served by his grandfather Edoardo, his father Umberto and his uncle Gianni. Since 1923 the dynasty with a controlling stake in FIAT has proudly upheld lo stile Juve, the mythical Juventus style, which finds its meaning in the three S's of semplicità, serietà and sobrietà.

Many players have come to personify those values, not least Pavel Nedved, the former Czech winger now sitting on Juventus’ board at Agnelli’s request.

Speaking at the launch of his book, he looked back at the season just past and said: “The blame lies first and foremost with the players. The new arrivals haven’t understood what it means to wear the Juventus shirt while the veterans have lost this awareness and haven’t managed to transmit the winning spirit to the rest of the team. Right now we have to work.”

So when Juventus parted company with Gigi Delneri at the end of May, the criteria on which his successor would be appointed were clear. The candidate needed to walk, talk and think like a Juventino. He needed to be a winner. Agnelli looked no further than Antonio Conte. Fresh from getting Siena back into Serie A, his second career promotion after ending Bari’s top-flight exile in 2009, the 41-year-old returned to Turin, his spiritual home. Winding down the window of his car at the gates to Juventus’ training ground in Vinovo, he said: “I have always dreamed about it.”

Agnelli had got his man. That much was clear from Conte’s first official press conference as coach of the Old Lady. “The history of Juventus says that you need to win here and that’s it,” he claimed. “We have the job of working hard with a lot of sacrifice so as not to betray this history if we are to get Juventus back to where they deserve and quickly.”

Juventus have been a part of Conte’s life since the very beginning. Aside from running a car rental business back in Lecce, the family’s hometown, his father Cosimino also coached and presided over a local amateur football team.

That team was called Juventina Lecce and their colours were strictly black and white. Right from the start, there was never any question of where his support lay. At the age of 10, Conte entered a local newspaper competition asking kids to draw their favourite player. He sent a picture of Roberto Bettega, Juventus’ greying striker of the '70s and early '80s. Conte would play much deeper than his hero, though, emerging as a fearless midfield player. He soon caught the attention of the then Lecce coach Eugenio Fascetti, who would later launch Antonio Cassano further up the coast of Puglia in Bari. Conte’s rise was no slower. He was given his Serie A debut aged just 16. Giovanni Trapattoni’s Juventus were top of the table inspired by Le Roi himself Michel Platini.

Conte wanted to get there too, but a fractured tibia, the first of several injuries that he would overcome, halted his progress. He stayed humble, worked hard and acted responsible. Conte put his first pay packet into a savings account. He bought a second hand Vespa and then a Volkswagen Golf from Giuliano Terraneo, Lecce’s goalkeeper at the time. There were no delusions of grandeur, especially not when his side were relegated to Serie B.

Then the phone rang at home. His mother Ada picked it up. It was Giampiero Boniperti, the Juventus President. “Signora, don’t worry,” he said reassuringly. “Antonio will find another family in Turin. We’ll make him grow up. We’ll help him in the difficult moments.” Conte couldn’t believe it. He now had the chance to swap the replica shirt he’d worn for Juventina Lecce in return for the real thing. Conte would play for the team of his heart.

Unveiled before the Turin press, the 21-year-old from Salento bullishly said: “I want to become like Beppe Furino and Marco Tardelli.” Few thought that he would last. Even Conte had his doubts. “Perhaps I was a little timid, but I remember that I didn’t say a single word. There was the great Trapattoni. There was Roberto Baggio. I was very emotional. I was a player-fan.”

Conte outlasted them all and became the club captain. In 13 years, he made 419 appearances, scored 44 goals and won five Scudetti, a Champions League and a UEFA Cup, the latter trophy coming under Trapattoni, the rest under Marcello Lippi, his biggest champion. “Antonio is a fantastic professional, a leader of all the Juventus sides in which he has played, a great captain,” Lippi told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “He’ll transmit everything that he has inside, his passion and his desire to win.”

Conte hated losing. No more so was that evident than in November 2000 when Juventus went out of the Champions League in the group phase. “A team that calls itself Juve can’t make these screw-ups,” he raged. “It’s useless to think about the past. We have to look to the future. Here we need to change mentality and get back to eating and drinking football. I am the captain and I take responsibility.”

Conte was as good as his word. He relished the battle. Take May 5, 2002 as an example. Juventus dramatically won the Scudetto on the final day of the season at Friuli, avenging the time when the rain in Perugia conspired to rob the Old Lady of another title two years beforehand. He appeared in front of the cameras outside the dressing room drenched in champagne and couldn’t resist needling Lazio. “We’re loving it,” he smiled, before being dragged away by his jubilant teammates.

Nearing the end of his playing days, Conte started to consider his future. “I don’t know what I’ll do afterwards. Perhaps I’ll take my studies further and then coach.” And that’s just what he did following his retirement in 2004. He enrolled on a sports science degree at the University of Foggia and wrote a thesis entitled The Personality of a Coach. Then it was time to put the theory into practice.

He started life on the bench with a prophecy. “I am starting from zero as a manager and I want to reach the top of the mountain,” he said. “The Juventus job is my objective. If within three of four years I haven’t got to the highest level then I’ll give it up.”

By 2009, he had already been interviewed for the post after the dismissal of Claudio Ranieri. The board, however, disastrously opted for his former teammate Ciro Ferrara with reports indicating that he had been appointed on an interim basis at least until Marcello Lippi became available after the World Cup the following summer. In 2011, Juventus didn’t make the same mistake.

“The past doesn’t interest me,” Conte said. “I always look at the present and to the future.” But as a Juventus fan, he’ll surely be aware of what the names Bigatto, Cesarini, Parola and Capello have in common. That’s right, they all managed to win the Scudetto with the Old Lady both as players and coaches.

The question is can Conte join them?

The rise, fall and re-birth of Davide Santon

James Horncastle — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 10:34:00 GMT

The night of February 15, 2009 seemed like a watershed moment in Italian football.

Milan and Inter were lining up in the tunnel at San Siro awaiting kick off and the cameras focused on the old man and the young boy stood across from each other. Paolo Maldini, now 40, was reflecting on his last ever Derby della Madonnina while Davide Santon, still only 18, was contemplating his first.

To those in the press box, it was destiny that they should meet, a passing of the torch from one great full-back to another.

Barely a month earlier, Santon had made his first team debut in a Coppa Italia tie against Roma and convinced José Mourinho that he deserved to keep his place in the starting XI the following weekend when Inter hosted Sampdoria. He successfully ousted Maxwell, a player deemed of a high enough calibre to earn a move to Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona, and soon afterwards was almost unanimously tipped for greatness.

Lest we forget, it was Santon who was given the responsibility of marking the reigning Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo when Inter met Manchester United in the last 16 of the Champions League that year. “The fact that José decided to play him is a sign of the confidence he has in the lad,” noted Sir Alex Ferguson. “He is a fantastic footballer,” added Ronaldo.

Previously not known for nurturing young talent because of the short-termism that has always appeared to underline his ‘win-now’ coaching philosophy, Mourinho developed a real soft spot for Santon. To him, he was simply known as the Bambino, a fresh faced kid with a willingness to learn who offered a stark contrast to Mario Balotelli, the club’s other star academy graduate already renowned for his bad behaviour.

“I’m willing to bet on one thing,” Santon told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “I will keep my feet on the ground. I will keep looking forward to getting home and eating the lasagna that my mother and grandmother make, I will keep listening to my father, who repeats to me every day: ‘Davide, you've done nothing yet’.”

Not meaning to pour cold water on his son’s achievements, Santon senior had a point. A former amateur footballer himself, he used to bang in the goals as a striker for Mazzocco. He knew first hand how fickle the game could be and preached caution.

Up until the previous summer, his son had not been a defender but a midfielder. The change of position had been thrust upon Santon during a Primavera match when Marco Filippini, the team’s right-back, was sent off and a replacement was needed.

Far from looking out of his depth, he thrived and never went back. Gianluca Zambrotta had evolved in exactly the same way tactically at Juventus under Marcello Lippi, but once established in Inter’s first team Santon’s assured performances began to draw comparisons with other, more revered names from the annals of Italian football history.

“Davide is a great player and in 10 or 15 years time when he has made 400 or 500 appearances for Inter like Giacinto Facchetti and Javier Zanetti, who knows, he might remember me,” Mourinho smiled.

Suitably pleased with himself, the former Porto and Chelsea manager looked on like a proud dad as his young charge made his Italy debut in a friendly against Northern Ireland on June 6, 2009. It was then that Lippi caught the Santon bug too. “I always thought he was a person destined for great things and now that I’ve seen him up close I can confirm that this is absolutely the case,” he declared.

With the ink not yet dry on his school exam papers, Santon was on his way with Italy to the Confederations Cup in South Africa. Meanwhile, his teammates back at Inter’s training ground were also getting carried away. “If you don’t go to the 2010 World Cup you should go over to the balcony and throw yourself off,” Marco Materazzi joked.

Lo and behold, when Lippi named his 23-man squad in the alpine resort of Sestriere a year later, Santon’s name wasn’t on the list. There was no misprint, no oversight. He had disappeared.

If, as Mourinho had frequently suggested, “we must no longer talk about Santon as a great talent because he is already a great footballer”, then what had happened to the player he called the “White Maicon” or “the Next Maldini”? When and how did his fall from grace occur?

The turning point came in late October 2009 when Inter played host to Palermo in Serie A. Samuel Eto’o and Mario Balotelli had put the home side 4-0 to the good at half-time and with his team cruising, Mourinho decided to throw on Santon after the interval.

It was then that he received a lesson, as the marauding Palermo full-back Mattia Cassani proceeded to run rings around him. By the 67th minute the score was 4-3 and Mourinho was furious. A late Diego Milito goal put the match beyond the visitors, but it wasn’t enough to save Santon who felt the full force of his manager’s anger in the dressing room. He was seen leaving San Siro that night in tears, a broken young man.

Out of favour, Santon lost confidence in himself. He had fallen in with the wrong crowd too, dating Balotelli’s ex-girlfriend, Sofia. Matters only got worse when he tore the meniscus in his right knee while playing for the Italy Under-21s against Luxembourg in November. The injury was much graver than Inter’s doctors first thought and there were complications. Two operations later, Santon was brought back to reality.

It seemed the curse of the left-back at Inter had struck again. With the exception of Facchetti, Andy Brehme and Roberto Carlos, the position has always been a poison chalice. Santon was now no longer considered worthy of their company. He was unfairly lumped with the flops like Fabio Macellari, the defender Lippi played when Inter were knocked out of the Champions League preliminary stages by Helsingborg in 2000. Then there was Vratislav Gresko, the hapless Slovak, at whose door the blame for losing the title on the final day of the season in 2002 had been laid.

“It’s been really tough psychologically,” Santon revealed. “It was hard having all those eyes on me, giving me for a phenomenon. Then it was even tougher to get back after the injury knowing that I had to show everything I was worth straight away. But the worst has past. Now I am thinking with optimism.”

Although Santon got back on the straight and narrow, dumping the showgirl for the girl next door, and swapping nights out in Milan’s clubs for fishing trips with his dad, he still struggled to rediscover his form and recapture the imagination of Mourinho’s successors. In January, he begrudgingly accepted a loan to Cesena as part of the deal that saw Yuto Nagatomo join Inter.

While it would be wrong to suggest Santon saw the move as below him, the new recruit’s initial sulky attitude frustrated the local supporters who rather cynically thought he was more preoccupied with picking the No 46 shirt in honour of Moto GP legend and Inter fan Valentino Rossi than actually sweating for it.

Belatedly, Santon’s talent flickered again. Buoyed by Ciro Ferrara’s decision to give him the captain’s armband when the Italy Under-21s played England in February, he began to turn a corner at Cesena with a series of steady rather than sensational performances.

“I have learned to suffer,” Santon admitted once his loan ended.

Asked about his future, he added: “Like everyone, I don’t like being on the bench. I’d prefer to play a season as a regular in the first team somewhere and then perhaps return as a protagonist at Inter.”

Santon won’t get that chance now. On Tuesday, he left the club for Newcastle in a surprise deal said to be worth £5 million. “It’s never easy to leave any country, never mind Italy,” he told nufcTV. “It was a difficult decision but I’ve only been here for a short while and I feel very comfortable. There are some good people here, it’s a beautiful place, therefore, I am very, very happy.”

Photographed on the pitch at St. James’ Park, he held the No 3 shirt aloft - the number Santon could never wear at Inter because it had been retired in honour of Facchetti. The question for Newcastle fans this morning is have their club signed the next Paolo Maldini or the new Alessandro Pistone?

Crisis at Marseille as Deschamps oversees another sluggish start

James Horncastle — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 15:52:00 GMT

The name Jung Jo-Gook is enough to cause Didier Deschamps a sleepless night or two.

When he closes his eyes, the Marseille coach can still picture the scene clearly. It's the 77th minute on a hot summer's afternoon. His team are 1-0 up at home to relegation-threatened Auxerre.

With less than a month of the season remaining, the holders have finally overtaken Lille at the top of Ligue 1. It seems another double is on the cards. The long march to a second consecutive championship crown is almost complete.

Then an angled long ball played from the defence falls between Marseille's centre-backs and sits up for Jo-Gook. The onrushing Steve Mandanda makes himself big, and jumps in front of his opponent. But the Auxerre striker retains his composure and nudges the ball underneath the goalkeeper and into an empty net. How apt that the player South Koreans call the 'Patriot' due to his missile-like shooting abilities, should be the one to shoot down Marseille's title challenge.

Down but not out, a born winner like Deschamps soon set about analysing what went wrong, conducting a post-mortem on Marseille’s disappointing league campaign.

He immediately identified the club's handling of transfers last summer, and in particular the situation created when Hatem Ben Arfa was put on the market then sensationally taken off it after Mamadou Niang, Marseille's captain and Ligue 1's top scorer, left it late to reveal his desire to leave in search of a new challenge.

The carpet was pulled right from under Deschamps. With the season already started, his plans were torn to shreds. He unexpectedly lost both players and with little time to react, had to accept replacements that weren't necessarily what he had in mind.

Ben Arfa and Niang in 'happier' times...

On the opening day, Marseille lost 2-1 to newly promoted Caen at the Stade Vélodrome and then suffered a 3-2 defeat to Valenciennes a week later.

"Last year, what happened with 'Mamad' and Hatem had consequences on the life of the group," Deschamps told L'Équipe.

Inconveniently, he was blindsided again in March when Brandao, the club's hefty target man, was held for questioning over an alleged sexual assault. It was decided that he should be loaned to Cruzeiro, hampering Deschamps' efforts yet again.

At one point he bitterly noted that the one area in which Marseille had improved last season was in their ability to add inches to France's gossip columns.

It was clear that someone would have to pay. And so it came to pass that, in circumstances similar to those in which José Mourinho has strengthened his position at Real Madrid, the club's president Jean-Claude Dassier was ousted and replaced with Vincent Labrune, a candidate favourable to Deschamps.

Rewarded with a contract extension until 2014 and the new job title of 'general manager', Deschamps won a small but significant power struggle within the club, adding a key ally in the boardroom to counter the influence of Marseille’s director of sport José Anigo in competing for the ear of owner Margarita Louis-Dreyfus.

“Vincent is on the same wavelength,” Deschamps smiled. The mistakes made last year were corrected. This time, Marseille did their shopping early and on the cheap, spending €11 million on five new players, a stark contrast to the €130 million the club invested in the squad over the previous three seasons.

The defence that had cost Marseille dear by shipping 10 goals in the team’s final six league games of the 2010/11 campaign was reinforced with the arrivals of Lorient left-back Jérémy Morel and Monaco centre-back Nicolas Nkoulou.

Dressing room leader Gabi Heinze was replaced by Deschamps’ long term transfer target Alou Diarra, the Bordeaux midfielder and frequent France captain, whose armband is on rotation under Laurent Blanc.

Alou Diarra had long been in Didier Deschamps' sights

Meanwhile, any fears that the uncertainty surrounding the future of Lucho González would weigh on the squad’s mind as in the case of Niang or that his prospective late departure would leave Marseille short in terms of creativity were nipped in the bud by Labrune with the signing of Morgan Amalfitano, another recruit from Lorient with 11 assists in Ligue 1 last season.

All were brought in before Marseille’s two summer training camps. All had time to understand Deschamps’ methods and get to know their new team-mates.

"The transfer market is 60% of the season," Labrune claimed. "We have a solid squad. Our recruits arrived very early and 99.9% of the players signed were the ones Didier wanted, versatile players who are hungry. It has contributed to a good atmosphere."

As the fans and the media got caught up in the hype surrounding Paris Saint-Germain and the club’s extravagant spending under their new Qatari owners, Marseille enjoyed the favour of French football’s coaches with 42.5% naming them favourites for the title in a poll conducted by L’Équipe.

Enthusiasm for Deschamps’ side only grew after the Champions Trophy, in which Marseille showed the character to come back from 2-0 down then 3-1 down to beat Lille 5-4 in the 95th minute and lift their fifth trophy under his reign in Tangiers.

André Ayew scored a hat-trick. His brother Jordan won two penalties. Lucho even rediscovered his best form, laying on two assists. The signs were encouraging.

“It was a beautiful advert for French football,” Deschamps said - not to mention excellent for morale ahead of the new campaign.

So as Marseille stood on the starting blocks in Ligue 1 the last thing they wanted to hear after the gun was a beep indicating a false start.

Marseille's start has given Deschamps plenty to chew over

“We all have in mind our start to last season,” revealed Benoît Cheyrou. “We must be more concentrated. We chased after points all last season.”

But the beginning already looks like it could be the end for Marseille, even if it is still early days. Without a win from their first three games of the campaign there was naturally talk of a crisis as Deschamps and his side caught the plane north to face champions Lille on Sunday.

“Why should we be alarmed?” asked a defiant Alou Diarra. “We haven’t won, but we haven’t lost either. The Champions Trophy is in our cabinet. Of course, we can and must do better, but let’s wait until the end of the season before passing judgement.”

Unfortunately, the inquest has already begun. Marseille’s new fitness coach Antonio Pintus, hired on Deschamps’ personal recommendation, has taken a share of the blame for inadequately preparing the players. But the buck doesn’t stop there.

Marseille’s defence has continued to leak goals. Injuries such as the fractured metatarsal suffered by Stephane Mbia and a discernible lack of form have meant they have thus far been unable to field the same backline in consecutive matches. Yet the team selections and substitutions Deschamps has made haven’t exactly helped Marseille either.

Come Sunday, their trip to Lille was dubbed a ‘must-win’ game by the French media and the tension was palpable. Luckily for the neutral a fixture that has averaged nearly five goals in each of the last five encounters between these two sides didn’t disappoint.

Last season’s top scorer in Ligue 1 Moussa Sow opened his account for the season after 15 minutes. He slid in and beat Mandanda to a cross from Franck Béria to give Lille the lead. Mathieu Valbuena then equalised for Marseille before the hour mark when his speculative shot from 35 yards out took a deflection off Aurélien Chedjou and flew over Mickaël Landreau in the Lille goal.

The pint-sized France international doubled the away side’s advantage five minutes later, latching on to a rebound from a free-kick which he smashed with such venom that Landreau, standing shell-shocked on his line, nearly ended up in the net with it.

The outcome of the match hinged, however, on what happened next. Lille restored parity when summer signing Dimitri Payet pulled a pass back across goal for Chedjou to sweep under a despairing Mandanda. The response from Deschamps raised eyebrows. He hauled off, Valbuena, the team’s most dangerous player, and threw on André-Pierre Gignac, perhaps their least effective striker last season.

As if Marseille hadn’t shot themselves in the foot already, they did so again when Rod Fanni brought down Eden Hazard in the penalty area after 75 minutes. Referee Clément Turpin pointed to the spot and Sow notched his second of the night to ensure Lille won 3-2, giving their title defence some real momentum.

“It’s a huge disappointment,” Deschamps admitted. “Evidently it hurts.”

Although the international break couldn’t have come at a better time for Marseille, there is little to indicate that the pain stops now. When Ligue 1 returns in September, Deschamps’ side host Rennes then travel to Olympiacos and Lyon.

Hovering precariously above the relegation zone, the only crumb of comfort comes from the annals of Marseille’s history. Twenty-three years ago, OM started in exactly the same fashion, collecting three points from their first four games.

After sacking Gérard Banide and failing in his effort to hire Michel Hidalgo, Marseille’s owner Bernard Tapie settled on the understated Gérard Gili. It was under his calming influence that OM, backed by the goals of Jean-Pierre Papin, went on to win the first league title of the Tapie era.

Deschamps joined the club from Nantes the following season. Right now, it might be worth picking up the phone and giving Gili a call.

Mutual Maradona memory meeting is més que un friendly for Barca and Napoli

James Horncastle — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 11:33:00 GMT

A Swiss businessman with a waxed moustache starts his daily commute to the office. He takes the train and from the carriage window sees a motley group of youngsters kicking what could be described as a primitive ball on a strip of wasteland.

Intrigued, the man gets off at the next stop, tracks back and asks if he can take part. Accepted by his new team-mates, he jogs out on to the pitch and doesn't take long to make his influence felt.

He unleashes a shot of such force that the ball, perhaps nothing more than a tightly bound collection of rags, falls apart. Embarrassed, the man apologises profusely and, to make up for his transgression, promises to order another two from back home in Switzerland.

That man was Hans Kamper and he is acknowledged as the founder of FC Barcelona. On October 22, 1899 he placed an advertisement in the sports paper Los Deportes to let the locals know that he was "keen on organising some football games and encourages anyone who feels enthusiastic enough about the sport to make themselves present."

Kamper soon became an adopted son of the city, assuming the Catalan name Joan Gamper, and since 1966 Barcelona have organised a trophy in his honour.

Initially a four-team tournament, the Gamper is now a one-off exhibition match. It is a celebration of Barcelonismo, and tonight Pep Guardiola's side play host to Napoli, a club they have met just once before in a friendly at the San Paolo in 1978.

That night Johan Cruyff's saying that "Italians can never beat you, but you can lose to them" almost came true. The game ended 1-1 with a header from Moreno Ferrario cancelling out a goal scored by Esteban.

"Barcelona have always been at the vanguard," recalled Gianni Di Marzio, Napoli's coach in the late '70s. "For example, at the time Rinus Michels sat on the bench, the prophet of total football.

He played zonal marking with three strikers. Guardiola's team seems like a photocopy of the one we faced."

But what links Napoli and Barcelona is not a deep rivalry or a rich history of past encounters. It is, quite simply, Diego Armando Maradona. The story of his discovery is remarkable for the insight it gives into scouting at the time.

In early 1977, Nicolau Casaus – an Argentine émigré who, a year later, would become Barcelona vice-president under the Josep Lluís Núñez regime – received a phone call from an old friend by the name of Beltrán.

A cake shop owner from Mar del Plata, 250 miles south of Buenos Aires, Beltrán had recently watched the 16-year-old Maradona inspire Argentinos Juniors to victory – and recommended that the kid be signed immediately by Barcelona. But Barça would instead wait five years – and spend a world-record £5 million – to capture him.

As for Napoli, they had first heard of El Diego when an engineer who had emigrated from Italy to Argentina collared Di Marzio in the lobby of the Don Carlos hotel in Buenos Aires during the 1978 World Cup. Di Marzio ignored him a couple of times – then relented and went to watch Maradona play in a club friendly.

"We arrived at the ground, the pitch was all beaten up, the two teams were ready, but Diego wasn't there. We had to go to his house in Villa Fiorito. It took us a while to make him come with us. He was angry with [then national team coach] César Luis Menotti for not calling him up. In quarter of an hour he scored three goals."

Di Marzio claims he could have signed Maradona for $220,000 there and then, only for Napoli president Corrado Ferlaino to balk at paying such a figure for a youngster. They missed their opportunity and El Pibe de Oro arrived at Barcelona in 1982 for just over $5 million.

The Catalonia years are retold in the chapter of Maradona’s autobiography entitled: The Frustration. He was eclipsed by Bernd Schuster, contracted hepatitis, played a part in ousting his first manager at the club Udo Lattek because he insisted on training early and with 8kg medicine balls.

While the appointment of Menotti placated Maradona to an extent, he still acted up, even throwing a Teresa Herrera piece of silverware to the floor in Barcelona's trophy room when Núñez confiscated his passport and stopped him from playing in Paul Breitner's testimonial before the final of the Copa del Rey.

Then came that tackle from the Athletic Bilbao hatchet man Andoni Goikoetxea. "My time at Barcelona was always ill-fated," Maradona wrote. "Because of the hepatitis, because of the fracture, because of the city as well, because I'm more... more Madrid."

He joined Napoli on June 29, 1984 as Ferlaino wrote a cheque for 15.8 billion lire (£6.6 million), and after performing a few kick-ups in front of 40,000 fans stood in the San Paolo's Curva B, he said: "I want to become the idol of the poor kids of this city because they are like I was when I lived in Buenos Aires."

Maradona was everything and more. He was the people's champion, granting a city and a region the recognition and the status that it had lacked by leading Napoli to their first and only Scudetti in 1987 and 1990.

Famously during that era a piece of graffiti appeared on the walls of the city graveyard: "Guagliu!" it read. "E che ve sit pers! You don't know what you're missing!"

The 8,000 Napoli fans who have travelled to Barcelona will perhaps bear that message in mind when they watch their team walk out on to the pitch at the Camp Nou. For this is més que un friendly for a club that is officially back in the big time, their qualification for this season's Champions League coming seven years after bankruptcy and a place in Italy's third division.

"History says that only the big clubs can come and play in this stadium," Napoli coach Walter Mazzarri explained. "What we have done in recent seasons has made us important too, to the point of deserving an invite from the best club in the world."

Tonight Napoli are looking to become only the second Italian team to win the Gamper Trophy after Fabio Capello's Juventus lifted it in 2005 following a penalty shoot-out.

"They have many champions," said Napoli's new signing Gökhan Inler, "but anything is possible. In football you can never take anything for granted, you can never say never. With Switzerland we also beat Spain."

Played under the shadow of Maradona, and in light of his heir Lionel Messi, it’s a friendly not to be missed.

A Bari clasico between locals from Italy and Spain

James Horncastle — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 10:52:00 GMT

A grainy photograph taken in the early 90s shows a mischievous looking scamp riding a green bicycle through the streets of Bari Vecchia, his hair parted to the side, as though combed by a doting mother.

It's unclear where he is going, but one can hazard a guess at Pro Inter, the local football club where he would play until darkness fell.

Tonight that little boy returns home. His name is Antonio Cassano, and Pro Inter's owner Tonino Rana, the man who discovered him as a seven-year-old, will unveil a poignant banner as Italy's players walk out on to the pitch at the San Nicola for their friendly against world champions Spain.

"It will be written in Neapolitan," he told La Gazzetta dello Sport," and inspired by a scene from 'O' Zappatore' by Mario Merola: 'Sons can forget their mothers, but mothers never forget their sons'. I am Antonio's mother from a football point of view."    Bari's maternal instinct will no doubt be piqued enough to guarantee Cassano a warm reception – and he could certainly do with a cuddle right now.

Apparently 5kg overweight when he arrived at Milan's pre-season training camp, Cassano isn't first choice for his club and risks losing his place for his country ahead of the 2012 European Championship in Poland and the Ukraine.  

 Italy coach Cesare Prandelli has always stood by Cassano, most notably throughout his ugly dispute with Sampdoria last autumn. But after picking him at every available opportunity in his first year in charge of the Azzurri, even he now admits that only Villarreal striker Giuseppe Rossi is assured of a position up front.    

Still, Cassano will definitely start again this evening. But the neutrals in the crowd would do well to turn their attention to another 'local' player, one who wears the Roja of Spain, not the Azzurro of Italy.    

Thiago Alcántara was born in San Pietro Vernotico, a town about two hours drive from Bari. His father is Mazinho, a key component of the Brazil squad that won the World Cup in 1994 and also one of the participants in Bebeto's famous rock-the-baby celebration.    

At the time of Thiago's birth in 1991, Mazinho was playing for Bari's fierce local rivals Lecce. Giuseppe Palaia, a doctor then associated with the club, still remembers the due date. He was the anesthesiologist.    "It's a day I will never forget," Palaia told La Gazzetta dello Sport. "Mazinho wanted to film the birth on a video camera, but at a certain point he was about to faint...

“He was a great professional: a Brazilian, but with the work ethic of a German. With a father like that, it doesn't surprise me that Thiago was destined to become a footballer. One day, I would like to see them again."  

 Thiago spent the first year of his life in Italy. His father moved on to Fiorentina, with whom he played a season in midfield alongside Dunga, before returning home to Brazil and Palmeiras.  

 His part in the Seleçao's triumph at the World Cup in the United States attracted attention from Spanish clubs, so Mazinho returned to Europe with Valencia and then Celta Vigo.

It was along the Galician coast that Thiago grew up, playing futevolei with his father and his younger brother Rafa like they were on the sandy beaches of the Copacabana.  

 "I understood that Thiago could do something in football when he was an eight-year-old," Mazinho recalled. "We were in Vigo and above all he dedicated himself to five-a-side. In 2005, Barcelona signed him and I followed him there."    

With the genes of a World Cup winner already instructing his DNA, Thiago then arguably had the best football education anyone could hope for at La Masia, Barcelona's esteemed academy. He worked for a short while with Pep Guardiola in the B team before becoming a regular in the same side under Luis Enrique.    

As fate would have it, Thiago's debut with Barcelona B would come in Vigo, and before long word of this midfielder's special talent had spread to the rest of his adopted country.  

 How can anyone forget the brilliantly-conceived free-kicks he executed with Sergio Canales at the Under-19 European Championship last summer, when he chipped the ball over the wall into the box, like a golfer playing on to the green, for his teammate to finish.

 Doing it once clearly wasn't enough. Three days after seeing it work against England, Thiago and Canales audaciously tried it again, this time when faced with Poland. And what do you know? It came off, becoming the highlight of the tournament.  

 It was so outrageous, a few observers in the crowd were wondering why Brazil weren't making more of a fuss about calling him up. But for Thiago, the debate was cut and dried.    

"I have never thought about playing for Brazil," he explained on Tuesday, "because I grew up in Spain and I was formed there as a player."   Signed to a new contract with Barcelona until 2015, which features a €90 million buy-out clause, Thiago, with his vision and incisiveness, is spoken of as a possible successor to Xavi Hernández.

 He should get the opportunity to audition for the part at some point against Italy after his clubmate was left at home following an injury to his right calf muscle.    

Fresh from inspiring the Under-21s to the European Championship in Denmark earlier this summer, Thiago can come of age tonight and where better to do so than near the place he was born.

Cassano should perhaps bear that in mind. After all he doesn't want another 'local' spoiling his welcome home party.