The following article first appeared in Issue 16, released in March 2016. As the political wrangling continues over Qatar’s World Cup, what’s the reality on the ground? At the edge of an empty man-made lagoon near to the shore of the Arabian Gulf, I count skyscrapers looming from the dust. The road, lined on one […]
Search Results for: tag/the-past
Building The Dream, James Corbett
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The Duellists
An edited extract from Paolo Conde’s new book, looking at the relationship between Pep and Jose as played out in 2011’s 4 clásico’s in 18 days.
Roy’s Swedish Revolution, Gunnar Persson
The following article first appeared in Issue Eleven, released in December 2017. How Roy Hodgson transformed the face of the Swedish game Roy Hodgson — young, unknown and unproven — got his first experience of front-line coaching in November 1975 when he was appointed by the Swedish no-hopers Halmstads Bollklubb. A year later he could light […]
Turkish Delight
Below is an extract of John Toshack’s autobiography Toshack’s Way, published by deCoubertin, which looks at his time in Turkey, as manager of Besiktas, between 1997 and 1999. Turkey is a unique country. If you go to Turkey to work, in any line of business, then you’ve got to have your sensors on. You’ve got […]
The Lost Kingdom
The Hakeem al-Araibi affair has confirmed the end of the unifying dream of Bahraini football
Beskov v Lobanovskyi, Sasha Goryunov
Two great players, two great coaches, two different visions of the game “How many times have you heard this? We pass our way through the middle of the park! But you decided to take someone on.” With his team 1-0 up Konstantin Beskov was berating one of his players at half-time in the changing rooms […]