Search: ' Co Adriaanse'
Stories
A nomadic lifestyle drove a young Swiss star to God, abstaining from football and eventually back to the country of his birth. Paul Knott finds out why
The 12-year-old Johan Vonlanthen was in tears when he was taken away from his hometown of Santa Marta in Colombia in 1998 because he thought it meant he would never see a football pitch again. For a while, it seemed that he need not have worried. There were plenty of pitches in Switzerland, the home country of his mother’s new husband. During his teens Vonlanthen did little else but play stunning football on his way to becoming one of the most sought after prospects in Europe.
Last season's Dutch champions are having a radically different campaign this year. Derek Brookman looks at an economic crisis
When PSV hammered Ajax 6-2 on April 19 this year, AZ Alkmaar became Dutch champions by default; the Amsterdam side could no longer catch AZ at the top of the table. They were many reasons for this monumental event – the first title not to go to Ajax, Feyenoord or PSV for 28 years – but without doubt the biggest was Dick Scheringa.
Portugal's most successful export is certainly admired at home for his achievements and wealth – but his compatriots don't exactly like José Mourinho, reports Phil Town
In the last two years, José Mourinho has been to Portuguese football what Manderley was to the heroine in Daphne du Maurier’s novel Rebecca and Hitchcock’s film: absent but omnipresent. At his old club FC Porto, various coaches have tried and failed to measure up to the historic yardstick set by Mourinho during his spell there, whether in material terms (back-to-back championships, a Portuguese Cup, a UEFA Cup and a Champions League title in two seasons) or in terms of style. Coach Co Adriaanse has just won the championship with Porto, but the team was widely seen as barely the best of a poor bunch vying for the title. And, however honourable the man might be, his appeal factor struggles to rise above the dishwater-dull when held up against Mourinho’s charisma, still hovering ghost-like above the Estádio do Dragão.
Challenging for the title is the exclusive prerogative of a privileged few in most of Europe's leagues. But no one has told AZ Alkmaar, writes Derek Brookman
Out of the 32 million or so eyebrows in the Netherlands, the number raised when AZ Alkmaar visited PSV Eindhoven two games into the Dutch season and lost 5-1 probably didn’t exceed single figures. After all, this was the natural order: big eating small, famous club and previous European Cup winner putting team from cheese-market town with an 8,390 capacity stadium in their place.