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Stories
It’s almost time for the annual winter break debate to begin, but it would remove the unfair, messy sport we’ve been thriving on for a century
Nick Dorrington ponders whether the return of the great Basque manager Xabier Azkargorta will inspire a new generation of Bolivian players
The 2011 Copa América seemed to illustrate the closing gap in quality between the traditionally stronger and weaker nations in South America, but there was one team to whom that didn’t apply. Bolivia were eliminated at the group stage with just a solitary point to their name and now, four matches in, lie dead last in the qualifying group for the 2014 World Cup.
A struggle to adjust to life abroad and cope with a career-threatening injury led to a dramatic fall from grace for one young Brazilian star, as Paul Joyce recounts
When Bayern Munich signed Breno Vinícius Borges for €12.3 million (£9.6m) in December 2007, they appeared to have landed a major coup. The 18-year-old central defender had just been voted “Discovery of the Year” by journalists after helping São Paulo FC to become Brazilian champions. Already an Under-20 international, Breno had been nominated captain of Brazil’s 2008 Olympic team by national coach Dunga.
Simon Tyers on how documentaries investigating football’s underworld are flattering to deceive
If making an impression is as much about what you don’t say as what you do, Martin Tyler gave a masterclass after Fernando Torres’ eye-rubbingly bad miss in the Manchester United-Chelsea match on September 18. After an “Oh no!” in the shock of the moment, Tyler couldn’t bring himself to elucidate about what we’d all just seen for a full five seconds. Hardly Pinter length, but by Sky Sports standards it was the sort of delay that would make nervous editors prepare an apology caption. Andy Gray would have shouted all over it. It was quite sweet, really.