Reviews from When Saturday Comes. Follow the link to buy the book from Amazon.
As Federico Bassahun reports, an international striker faces some serious and outlandish accusations
Claudio Pizarro recently completed a permanent move from Chelsea back to Werder Bremen, for his fourth spell at the club since first moving to Europe 11 years ago. However, that was a rare bright moment in a wretched summer for the striker.
As Martin Ling begins his second spell as Cambridge United manager in the space of a few weeks, Matthew Gooding reflects on a bizarre sequence of events at the Abbey stadium.
Although it isn’t unusual to see a manager returning to his former club, it’s rare to hear of one going back to the job he left just a week previously. And when you also consider that Martin Ling’s first spell in charge of Cambridge United only lasted eight days, you begin to get a flavour of what a bizarre summer it has been for fans of the Blue Square Premier club.
A new Maradona documentary flatters to deceive. Terry Staunton explains his disappointment
As a minister leads his congregation in a revised football-friendly rendition of the Lord’s Prayer before performing a wedding on the pitch of an Argentine stadium, it’s clear we’ve dropped in on no ordinary place of worship. This is the Church Of Maradona, just as surreal as anything in Sarajevo filmmaker Emir Kusturica’s back pages, but it’s tiny moment of light relief in a disappointing movie.
FC Twente's new creative midfielder wants to be known just for his football. Jonathan Wilson reports on a reluctant trailblazer
“I have packed,” Nashat Akram said with a smile, “my diplomatic passport.” The joke was apt, and was delivered as a friendly way of ending the conversation, but there was also a tiredness in the Iraq midfielder’s voice as he made it. Nashat understands why the question keeps being asked, and recognises the need to provide some sort of answer, but he is clearly also sick of constantly being asked whether he is an ambassador for Iraqi football.
Adrian Mutu failed a drugs test in 2004 but is still being pursued by Chelsea. Matthew Barker examines the case
Adrian Mutu was in pre-season training with Fiorentina when the news came through. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne had rejected an appeal against a FIFA ruling that the Romanian should pay €17 million (£14.9m) to former employers Chelsea. In a public statement, the player called the punishment “profoundly unjust”, while Viola patron Diego Della Valle talked of arranging a sit-down with Roman Abramovich in order to solve the matter in a more civilised fashion.