The Archive

A principled former Premier League striker is raising money and awareness for charities in Africa. Dermot Corrigan explains

On December 30 last year, while most Spanish footballers were on their winter break, 60 African and European players were at Atlético Madrid’s Vicente Calderón stadium for a charity Champions for Africa game organised by Sevilla’s Frédéric Kanouté. Over 40,000 fans paid in to see a José Mourinho-managed Africa United team, featuring players such as Kanouté, Lass Diarra and Carlos Kameni, win 3-2 against a Spanish League selection captained by Sergio Ramos and including Kun Agüero, David Trezeguet and Juan Valerón.

Read more…

An internatioanlly renowned midfielder who failed to live up to the hype but became a cult hero anyway. Damian Hall tells a heart-warming tale

Reputations, it is said, take ages to build but can be destroyed in an instant. This adage, though probably quite apt generally, is not at all true of John Jensen. He earned a reputation very quickly and lost it in a painfully slow, grinding kind of manner.

Read more…

The Asian Cup in Qatar highlighted the strengths and weaknesses of football in the region. John Duerden was there

You had to feel a bit sorry for Qatar. Despite having over a decade to prepare for the 2022 World Cup after the events of December 2 in Zürich, the tiny nation in fact had just five weeks before it was put on the spot. On January 7, the 2011 Asian Cup kicked off in Doha giving an international media, one that needed no second invitation to demonstrate the extent of FIFA’s madness, the chance to scrutinise Qatar’s hosting capabilities/football culture/traffic and pretty much everything else.

Read more…

Football is popular in France’s former colonies but geography and politics provide a number of challenges. Steve Menary explains

French Guiana is probably best known as home to the European Space Centre, or the infamous island prison that once housed Henri Charrière – better known as Papillon – but not football. That is hardly surprising, as the country’s footballers face hindrances that few others could imagine.

Read more…

While the rest of Europe remained quiet, underachieving Premier League clubs Chelsea and Liverpool splashed out during the transfer window

His was a signing that served to demonstrate Liverpool FC’s standing in English football, a player whose contributions to a game would be one of the main topics of any post-match discussion. But, after a torrid few months at Anfield, Paul Konchesky has been shipped out on loan to Nottingham Forest. Meanwhile, the one player Liverpool supporters didn’t want to see leave, Fernando Torres, has departed for Chelsea for £50 million.

Read more…