It’s Never Too Late: the incredible story of Jose ‘El Brujo’ Martinez
There doesn’t seem to be much romance in football anymore, does there? Leicester City and Jamie Vardy’s tandem rise to the top of English football is almost a decade old and within…
Fan Culture as Community in Caracas
I’ve been a serial note-taker all my life. Doodling in the back pages of school exercise books, writing reminders in biro on my hands, and noting down quotes whenever they resonate or…
Kickabouts in Cuba with Diego Maradona
“I’ve always chafed at the comparisons between the two countries.” After four years of friendship that has impacted our lives in ways we couldn’t have predicted, Andy Cawthorne is ready to talk…
Portuguesa and the Venezuelan Ultra Turned Kidnapper
In 1963, with Real Madrid, FC Porto, and Sao Paulo in Caracas to play in the Pequeña Copa del Mundo, two-time Ballon d’Or winner Alfredo Di Stefano was kidnapped. After being held…
Why a Documentary About the Liverpool “Spice Boys” is a Good Idea
A regular feature of the YouTube show “Stick to Football” is the preamble before the official recording starts. Here’s a brief excerpt of the 15th February edition of the show involving Gary…
Arsenal 1-1 Porto (4-2 pens): This Is Where We Want to Be
Just under two weeks ago, I was once again staring intently at a mute glowing rectangle, this time cradled in my palm, later propped up against a pillow, instead of its more…
Football’s Shuffle Between Skin and Silhouette
“I like going down to a nice little local pub,” Leah Williamson, fitted in Acne Studios and Gucci loafers, says. “I can’t say where or people will know it.” In another video,…
When Caracas Fans Made it Rain at the Clasico
When Deportivo Tachira arrived in the capital of Caracas at the start of March, they were on an unprecedented unbeaten run in Venezuelan football. Stretching back nearly a year, Eduardo Sarago’s men…
How the Korean Public Failed Lee Kang-in
I don’t have enough words to express how disgusted I am at the way South Korea crashed out of the 2023 Asian Cup. But there have been enough articles on the web…
Atletico Diritti: A Unique Football Revolution
The Beginning It is one of the most romantic and picturesque settings you can imagine for a football pitch. In the shadow of an ancient Roman aqueduct in the suburbs of Rome…
Why AFCON and the Asian Cup Matter
The World Cup comes around every four years. For a greedy international football fan like me, that’s four years too long. I can somewhat satisfy those cravings through continental tournaments like the…
Y’All Means Y’All: Why Women’s Football and Trans Players Need Each Other
Have you ever played on a football team? Perhaps you play for a grassroots team. Maybe it’s more casual, a regular five-a-side game with your mates. You might just have fond school…
The Beauty of a Neighborhood Game
The August nights were humid and pleasantly long. As the summer turns to fall, the game gets shorter. The kids take the fields until six and it’s dark by 7:45. The weather…
From Podcast to Promised Land? Could Open Goal Replicate Its Studio Success on the Pitch and Progress through Scotland’s Footballing Pyramid?
Media group Open Goal, after taking over Lowland League club Broomhill FC, have designs on progressing up the professional ladder of Scottish football.
Sean Dyche and Burnley: Like town, like gaffer, like football club
Sean Dyche and Burnley: “Hard working, rough around the edges, an acquired taste to some, but more widely, downright unpopular…”
“The ballet of the masses”: Football and Dance from Shostakovich to ‘Pop’ Robson
In the endless quest for an explanation of football’s enduring and universal appeal, one aspect that is often overlooked is its aesthetic appeal: the elegance of its motions, the joy of its…
Ramadan and Football: The Synergy of Faith and Sport
The holy month of Ramadan saw several elite footballers fasting and yet contributing vastly on the pitch. Undeterred faith seems to have played a significant role in that.
The League That Couldn’t: Why the NWSL Is Its Own Worst Enemy
What if the people who are paid to care about women’s football cared even a tenth as much as its fans? What would that look like? Another day, another SNAFU. Now in…
Forget the Tournaments, Football Is Already Home
Football is obsessed with nostalgia. At no time is this more evident than during international competition wherein football cultures, nationalisms, and emotion blend into a heady liquor which draws in even the…
The Messi vs Ronaldo Debate is the Low-point of Modern Football Conversation
Like the mythological snake, Ouroboros, the self-consuming egos of Cristiano Ronaldo and Leo Messi have devoured Portugal and Argentina’s World Cup chances. And we, the fans, are responsible. For those who only…
Loris Karius, Dazed and Confused: Depression, Sabotage, Toxic Masculinity
The reprehensible reaction to Loris Karius’s howlers highlights the need for not only empathy and perspective but better diagnosis and policy changes in high-performance sports like football, where head injuries are rampant.…
Witnessing Liverpool’s Reclamation of Shankly’s Vision – A front-row view
“For Liverpool it’s been the season of Peter Gabriel, Beautiful South and James; Channel 4 News celebrating our chants and we’ve had James Milner as the best midfielder in Europe. And losing…
Brazil and the birth of a footballing culture
Mexico 1970 was Brazil’s coronation as a footballing culture, coming 20 years since the tragedy of the Maracanazo. But the wheels were set in motion in Sweden, when a 17-year-old Pele helped…
The FIFA World Cup: A legacy tournament, but still a fan favourite?
The World Cup is not what Jules Rimet envisioned it as anymore: a picture of peace and togetherness. In the inflated club ecosystem, international tournaments have faded in importance too. For the…
Edin Dzeko: From Yugoslav minefields to Champions’ League semis – Part 1
As a kid, Edin Dzeko used to play football in the fields of Sarajevo, unsure whether he’ll be able to play there the next day. This is Part One of his incredible…
Total Football Evolution – From Michael Jackson to The Weeknd
Is the relationship between football and the people of the Netherlands, love or lust? Total football’s evolution, from Cruijff to Depay, has been mirrored by popular music’s shift in themes, from Michael…
Oscar Heisserer: The Footballer Who Defied the Nazis
One of the most versatile players of his generation, Frenchman Oscar Heisserer was coveted by the Nazis in order to aid the German National team. Yet he defied them and created an…
Identity Crisis of Modern Fullbacks – Football’s Most Underappreciated Role
There is a new theory of football being a weak-link sport. Which is to say, a fullback like Nélson Semedo is a more important purchase for Barcelona than Phil Coutinho, despite the…
Arigato, Arsène Wenger – The Portrait of a Sensei
Arsene Wenger is known for many things – his Japanese philosophy, his then-revolutionary training methods, and The Invincibles – but he equally represents the idea of football as art, and its principled…
A Love Letter to the Scissor Kick
If the answer is ”the scissor kick”, the question of course is, ”What do Chilean strawberries, a Spanish Spy, the Aztecs and Peter Crouch have in common?” Dear Chilena, I found your name…
A Barcelona Fan’s Exploration of Francisco Franco’s Fascist Real Madrid
This is a Barcelona fan’s exploration into the fascist history of Real Madrid and the indelible black mark left on the all-whites by Spanish military dictator Francisco Franco. The telling of this…
Mahatma Gandhi’s Experiments with Football – Resistance vs Racism in South Africa
During his stint as a barrister in South Africa, Mahatma Gandhi discovered the power of football in uniting the masses. He set up clubs in Durban, Pretoria and Johannesburg and helped bring…
Kindness of Strangers – A Liverpool Fan’s Postcards from South Africa
Globetrotting Liverpool fan, Pete Martin, was apprehensive of a racially-tense Cape Town, South Africa. What he found instead were the surprising kindness of fellow football fans and a bit of home away…
When Barca bowed to Athletic Bilbao – Giant-killing legacy of Fred Pentland
Join us as we go on a mythological exploration of the history of the Basque region, its football and Freddie Pentalnd’s Athletic Bilbao side which felled the largest giants. Mythologists studying the…
Captain, Leader, Nazi Collaborator – Alexandre Villaplane, Football’s First French Villain
Following the Nazi invasion of France, Alexandre Villaplane swapped the captain’s armband of the French national team, for the armband of the SS. This is a story of a conman, a sadist…
The New York Red Bulls – How Consumerism is shortchanging Fandom
The New York Red Bulls had the best midfield in their league, then ‘team-building’ was shortchanged for “target allocation money.” Tom Bogert addresses an alarming trend. In 2016, the New York Red…
Homage to Catalonia – How Guardiola’s Yellow Ribbon Reveals FA’s Hypocrisy
Pep Guardiola’s yellow ribbon homage to Catalonia reveals worrying aspects of hypocrisy and ignorance of The FA. Football Paradise explores the complex politics of revolution. A sytem of beaureaucracy engenders the apathy…
“It’s Only A Game” – Why Football Matters
Have you ever been told matter-of-factly, on a miserable Monday morning, that it’s “only a game”? Joel Slagle explains why football matters and that you’re not alone. My wife doesn’t particularly care…
The Lords of the Ball – J.R.R. Tolkien’s Legacy and FC Barcelona
The unlikeliest confluence of FC Barcelona with JRR Tolkien’s works of high fantasy. Join us, as we throw light upon the beauty of sheer “pedantry” and legacy. In the summer of 1930,…
The Football Battalion – Staring Down the Barrel of World War 1 – Part 2
Part 2 of Samiran Mishra’s brilliant account of footballers who sacrificed their lives for the nation in World War 1; legends of the Football Battalion. Part one can be found here. The…
Football’s Call of Duty: Playing in the trenches in World War 1 – Part 1
Privileged footballers once played a pivotal role in shaping the world as we know it today. Here is the tale of their gallantry in World War 1. The tree of Liberty must…
God is Round: Why Football Writing Matters
Citing the examples, anecdotes & words of Coltrane, Van Gogh, Chesterton, Einstein, Mondrian, Cruyff and Bob Dylan to tell you why football writing matters. ‘’Have you heard the story about the Church…
Tacoma Stars: Keeping America’s Footballing Eccentricity Alive
Football in America was fringe culture, and its recent growth has meant a loss of eccentricity. Thankfully the Tacoma Stars keep the weird traditions alive. I often forget how obscure football used…
The Legacy of Chapecoense – One Year of Loss & Beginnings
One year on from that fateful night that claimed so many lives, Chapecoense have secured qualification to the Copa Libertadores. Life and football go on. Emotion makes mankind a beautiful thing. It’s our…
The Ballon d’Or: It’s time football stopped trying to be Hollywood
Football has long aspired to bathe in glitz, glamour and gold. Awards like the Ballon d’Or are turning a team-sport into a pathetic individual race. Something strange has happened over the last…
Lily Parr: The gun which dodged bullets to pioneer women’s football
We look into the story of Lily Parr, the woman who shook the world and pioneered ladies’ football in the backdrop of World War I. It’s 2017. A brave, modern world with…
The Cost of Pearls – The Unbelievable Tale of José Leandro Andrade
Before you arrive at the end, you must start at the beginning. For Part 1, The Voodoo Child, click here. José Leandro Andrade was the toast of Paris. He knew each of his…
The Voodoo Child – The Unbelievable Tale of José Leandro Andrade
A continuation of Football Paradise’s Evolution of the Dribble series. For Part 1, The Search for Football’s Missing Link, click here. For Part 2, Salvador Dali’s Favourite Footballer, click here. This is…
Salvador Dali’s Favourite Footballer – Surrealista, Josep Samitier
This is a continuation of Football Paradise’s Evolution of the Dribble series. Part 1 can be found here. This is a story about magical streets, lofty ideas, and football’s first surrealist, Josep…
The Search for Football’s Missing Link: The Evolution of Dribbling – Part 1
This is a series on the history of English Football’s Anxieties. This is part 5. Here’s part 1 – Masturbation and muscular Christianity2, part 2 – It’s Bad Manners Being Clever!, part 3 – Magician, Stakhanovite, Stanley…
Vinnie Jones, the Portrait of an Antagonist: A Brief History of English Football’s Anxiety – Part 4
This is a series on the history of English Football’s Anxieties. Here’s part 1 – Masturbation and muscular Christianity2, part 2 – It’s Bad Manners Being Clever!, part 3 – Magician, Stakhanovite, Stanley Matthews. The BS-372 was…
Magician, Stakhanovite, Stanley Matthews: A Brief History of English Football’s Anxiety – Part 3
This is a series on the history of English Football’s Anxieties. Here’s part 1 – Masturbation and muscular Christianity, part 2 – It’s Bad Manners Being Clever! Disclaimer: This feature is not so much about Sir…
World War, Mon Amour – A Brief History of Women’s Football
The story of women’s football has always had the theme of ‘them against the world’. So, it’s fitting that unrequited love began with the kiss of World War. It’s 2014. You step…
It’s Bad Manners Being Clever: A Brief History of English Football’s Anxiety – Part 2
This is part 2 of a series on English Football’s Anxiety. Part 1 can be found here: Masturbation and Muscular Christianity: A Brief History of English Football’s Anxiety – Part 1 link The atmosphere…
Speed of Sound: How Atlanta United’s Rise is Ushering in the Modern MLS Fan
Beginning their existence this year, Atlanta United have already captured the hearts of soccer fans across USA. FP explores the success behind the club. The major allure of being a football fan…
A dash of tango in a small corner of Asia: The story of Bangladesh’s love affair with Argentina
From Diego and Batistuta to Lionel, a small country from Asia breathes La Albiceleste – we look at football in Bangladesh and their love for Argentina. It’s the nineties and the Premier…
The Football Match That Broke Yugoslavia’s Back – The Battle of Maksimir
Red Star visited Dinamo Zagreb two weeks after Yugoslavia’s communist party had lost an election to the Croats. The match triggered the fall of a regime. “There were many sides to it,…
Masturbation and Muscular Christianity: A Brief History of English Football’s Anxiety – Part 1
History of English Football – How England was bereft from having a sensual relationship with the ball that the libertines (Brazil, Netherlands) have. The essence of the relationship between fancy foreigners and doughty Englishmen…
The Punk Rockers of Football: A Story of Pirate Flags and the Anti-Nazi St Pauli
The story of FC Sankt Pauli, the football club from Hamburg’s Reeperbahn, that has managed to retain its distinct identity in a football era of excess. February, 1976. Bang in the middle…
An Adventurer With Caution As His Watchword – Herbert Chapman, part 2
We continue our journey into Herbert Chapman’s life, this time looking into how he changed the dimension a football manager could operate at. This is the 2nd part. For the first part,…
The Gentleman from Kiveton Park – Herbert Chapman, part 1
A look into the life of one of football’s most visionary men, Herbert Chapman. He took Huddersfield and Arsenal to unprecedented success in the pre-WWII era. 14 miles from the birthplace of…
The Land of Yellow Dzambhala – Paraphrasing the Lure of the Chinese Super League
FIFA credited Linzi, China as the cradle of football. Two years since, the Chinese Super League is out to reclaim its rightful place in the world. Money, it’s a gas Grab that…
An Irishman in Hanoi – A Rabid Tale of Vietnamese Football
An Irishman in search of a Vietnamese football experience has a night to remember. The streets of Hanoi, Vietnam are brutal, rabid and eternally humming with traffic of every description. So the…
Introducing The Best Team The World Never Had – Suriname
Football Paradise explores Suriname national football team, the best international team the world never had. whose legacy reaches out to Dutch football. The World Cup is here. France plays the host and…
Hope, tragedy and blood: Colombia at World Cup 1994
The story of Colombia’s colourful and tumultous footballing journey as a nation, with the 1994 World Cup encapsulating the madness within one tournament. Art is a fantastic concept. In our formative years,…
Ideologies At War: Deconstructing The Essence Of The Football Club
Football Politics – Former heroes names are sung more than any martyr, or liberator. A stadium elicits tears, more often than Auschwitz or Pearl Harbour. Why does one support a football club?…