Football prints

Boban's cause and affect. A skilled playmaker renowned for his passing range and vision, Zvonimir Boban, born 8 October 1968 in Imotski, Croatia (formerly Yugosalvia), captained the Croatian national team to third place at the 1998 World Cup. Croatia never lost a match when he scored. A known patriot, Boban is much loved in Croatia. In May 1990, whilst captain...

“When Zlatan was a boy, he had a bike that meant the world to him. The bike got stolen, so Zlatan started stealing bikes himself...“Aside from a few other foreigners, Malmö FF’s youth side were mostly made up of middle- and upper-class Swedish kids – though of course for a kid from Rosengård the difference between the two was negligible....

Zinedine Yazid Zidane; born 23 June 1972, in Marseille, France, is regarded as one of the game's all-time greats. One of only two three-time FIFA World Player of the Year winners, the French talisman’s career accomplishments are almost unequalled. Yet he left professional football under a cloud. Towards the end of the 2006 World Cup final he was dramatically sent...

The Hexagon (l' Hexagone) is an epithet of France, owing to the shape of its European mainland. The FIFA World Cup was contested in France in 1998 and 'Le football hexagonal' triumphed when the French national team won the World Cup on home soil. The team's World Cup success was seen as ultimate proof that integration had worked in France....

Zbigniew "Zibì" Kazimierz Boniek, born 3 March 1956 in Bydgoszcz, is widely regarded as the best player Poland has ever produced, and is one of the greatest Eastern European players ever.  He started his career with his hometown club Zawisza, before moving to one of the Poland's great clubs, Widzew Łódź, winning two Polish and scoring 50 league goals in...

Based in the East End of London, West Ham United Football Club, were founded as Thames Ironworks in 1895. The Thames Ironworks was a famous shipbuilding yard and although the club have officially had nothing to do with the old industry for almost a century, the nicknames 'Hammers' and 'Irons', acquired as Thames Ironworks, have stuck ever since. West Ham supporters...

The red dragon has been associated with Wales for centuries, and as such, the flag is claimed to be the oldest national flag still in use. It is considered that the Welsh kings of Aberffraw first adopted the dragon in the early fifth century in order to symbolise their power and authority after the Romans withdrew from Britain. Later, around...

Wanderers Football Club was founded and captained by Charles W Alcock in 1859 as an amateur football and social club in London. Originally named Forest Football Club, the club changed its name to Wanderers in 1864. At that time the team was mainly comprised of former pupils of the leading English public schools, such as Harrow, Eton and Westminster schools....

Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, is an English Premier League football club based in Tottenham, North London. The club's home is White Hart Lane and their Latin motto is Audere est Facere (lit: "To Dare Is to Do"). Commonly known as Spurs, they are one of the most successful and long-standing clubs in the top-tier of English football, having collected a host of silverware, including the UEFA Cup, the...

Football's greatest managers knew how much the sport owed to socialism. The very language is socialist – solidarity, unite, goal, come together. In short, football is a socialist sport. Matt Busby, Bill Shankly and Brian Clough were the embodiment's of the golden age of the socialist manager. The founding principle of their management style was a socialist one, in so...

Football's greatest managers knew how much the sport owed to socialism. The very language is socialist – solidarity, unite, goal, come together. In short, football is a socialist sport. Matt Busby, Bill Shankly and Brian Clough were the embodiment's of the golden age of the socialist manager. The founding principle of their management style was a socialist one, in so...

Football's greatest managers knew how much the sport owed to socialism. The very language is socialist – solidarity, unite, goal, come together. In short, football is a socialist sport. Matt Busby, Bill Shankly and Brian Clough were the embodiment's of the golden age of the socialist manager. The founding principle of their management style was a socialist one, in so...

Football's greatest managers knew how much the sport owed to socialism. The very language is socialist – solidarity, unite, goal, come together. In short, football is a socialist sport. Matt Busby, Bill Shankly and Brian Clough were the embodiment's of the golden age of the socialist manager. The founding principle of their management style was a socialist one, in so...

Football's greatest managers knew how much the sport owed to socialism. The very language is socialist – solidarity, unite, goal, come together. In short, football is a socialist sport. Matt Busby, Bill Shankly and Brian Clough were the embodiment's of the golden age of the socialist manager. The founding principle of their management style was a socialist one, in so...

Football's greatest managers knew how much the sport owed to socialism. The very language is socialist – solidarity, unite, goal, come together. In short, football is a socialist sport. Matt Busby, Bill Shankly and Brian Clough were the embodiment's of the golden age of the socialist manager. The founding principle of their management style was a socialist one, in so...

Pioneered by Dutch giants, Ajax, Total Football (totaal voetbal) is the influential tactical theory in which any outfield player can take over the role of any other player in a team. In this system, the only player fixed in a nominal position is the goalkeeper. No outfield player has a fixed nominal role. Anyone can successively play an attacker, a...

Sheffield resides in a natural amphitheatre created by seven hills and the confluence of five rivers. It is widely considered one of the greenest cities in Europe containing 150 woodlands and public parks. With an estimated two million trees, it has more trees per person than any other city in Europe.  In contrast, it is home to the largest listed...

Karl Marx argued that religion is the opium of the people. But it can equally be argued that football (soccer) is the religion of our times. There is an inherent value in following football; it can bond communities, gives people a sense of being part of something larger than themselves, and provides a diversion from the daily dramas of life....

“Like chess, like music, football is circumscribed in time, yet creates its own temporality within set time limits; or, if you prefer, it owes its abstractedness to a capacity for constantly remodelling the present, or truly inventing it. “One evening, we started to muse over the correspondence between music and football. I was not talking about Vindaloo, or why Seven...

Stuart Pearce, MBE, is the current manager and former player at Nottingham Forest. Born 24 April 1962, in Shepherds Bush, London, 'Psycho', as he became affectionately known to the City Ground faithful and subsequently the England fans, gained international notoriety for his honest but fiercely uncompromising, combative style of play and leadership. A career in professional football wasn't proving to...

The Corinthians' Democracy was an ideological movement spanning a period from 1982 to 1984. It was an innovative way to manage a club, in fact unique, and there is nothing else like this in the history of football. It is recognised in Brazil as one of the most important actions in opposition to the then-ruling military government. Not only an...

Brazil's 1982 World Cup squad, captained by Socrates, is widely regarded as the greatest team never to win the World Cup.Sócrates was capped 60 times for Brazil between May 1979 and June 1986, scoring 22 goals. He captained the national team at the 1982 FIFA World Cup, regarded by many as the best team ever not to win football's showcase...

Sócrates Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira, born 19 February 1954 in Belém do Pará, Brazil. one of the great midfielders and most compelling characters in modern football history, Sócrates captained the Joga Bonita Brazil squad in the 1982 and 1986 World Cups. In the same period he graduated from the Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto, receiving a...

On Wednesday 4 September 1867, the Wednesday Cricket Club formed a football branch to keep members together during the winter season. The cricket team played on Wednesday afternoons when members, craftsmen, shopkeepers and clerks had a half day off work. The new club was officially named ‘The Wednesday Cricket & Football Club’.  Although they were frequently referred to as Sheffield...

Sheffield United Football Club were formed on 22 March 1889, when they became an offshoot of the Sheffield United Cricket Club. They were the first English sports club to use 'United' in its name and are among the very rare select clubs formed to inhabit a sporting venue that was already in existence and which could be utilised for the...

The first ever inter-city football derby clash was played on Boxing Day 1860 at Sandygate between the two oldest football clubs in the world – Sheffield FC and Hallam FC.The Sheffield Rules were a code of football devised and played in the English city of Sheffield between 1857 and 1877.The match was played on the oldest football ground in the...

Brazilian legend Edson Arantes do Nascimento, better known as Pelé, is perhaps the best known footballer in the world, and popularly considered the best player of all time. Yet on a cold Wednesday afternoon in November 2007, he swappped Brazil for Sheffield in the north of England, to pay homage to the place where the modern game was born. His visit...

Sheffield FC’s contribution to the modern game cannot be overstated. It is the first and oldest football club that sought to bring order from chaos. The original rules for the world’s most popular sport were written by 'The Club' at the height of the industrial revolution. The City of Sheffield’s backdrop was that of forges, smoke and molten steel. Established...

In Paris 2004, FIFA acknowledged the contributions to the world's most popular game of Real Madrid C.F. and Sheffield F.C. The two football clubs were bestowed with the prestigious Order of Merit 'Centenary Award'.  The ‘Tree of Merit’ celebrates the direct lineage between these two highly-contrasting, but inextricably linked clubs, within the ancestry of the game. Sheffield FC (Est. 1857), the first and oldest club...

‘The Double Helix’ presents the hereditary relationship between these two great and pivotal clubs, a base pair in the very DNA of football.The intertwining double-stranded structure represents the connection between Sheffield FC, the first and oldest club in the world and Real Madrid CF, the greatest club of the 20th century.In 2004, FIFA acknowledged their contributions to the game awarding...

The South Yorkshire city of Sheffield is officially recognised as having several football 'firsts', including the world's first football club, the world's first football ground and the world's first inter-city football derby. Sheffield is where many of the original rules and innovations that still permeate the modern game today, were created and documented. The football heritage of the city is...

Sheffield is the birthplace of football and boasts the world's oldest clubs; Sheffield FC founded in 1857 (officially recognised by FIFA and the FA as the oldest football club in the world) and Hallam FC founded in 1860 (the world’s second oldest club). Hallam still play on their original ground, Sandygate Road, which is officially recognised by the Guinness Book...

Sheffield FC is the birthplace of the modern football and the world’s oldest club. With over 1,000,000 official football clubs world-wide, 'The Club' is the original pattern that has been repeating and tessellating since 1857.  Established on October 24th 1857 in the industrial north of England, ‘The Club’ Sheffield FC is the birthplace of the most popular game in the...

Ruud Gullit (born as Ruud Dil, September 1st 1962 in Amsterdam) is a Dutch footballer turned manager, who played professionally in the 1980s and 1990s. Raised in the school of ‘Total Footall’, he remains one of the most prestigious and accomplished players of the beautiful game and his incredible versatility allowed him to play as defender, midfielder and forward. In...

Leader, Winner, DestROYer. Central midfielder Roy Maurice Keane, was born on 10 August 1971 in Cork , Ireland. He began his 18-year playing career at Cobh Ramblers in the League of Ireland, before moving to Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest. After 3 highly impressive years, Manchester United secured his services for a record British transfer fee. An intimidating presence, Keane was noted...

The legendary and iconic Roberto Rivelino, born 1946 in Sao Paolo, featured in three World Cups for Brazil, including their third and most celebrated success in Mexico in 1970. Lining up alongside the likes of Pele, Carlos Alberto, Gérson, Tostao and Jairzinho, he played a key role in what is widely acknowledged as being the greatest football squad of all...

Roberto Baggio was born into a family of 8 brothers on February 18, 1967, in Caldogno near Vicenza in the north east of Italy, where his playing career began. Baggio played most of his professional career in pain, only hitting full fitness for a handful of games a season. Yet for much of that time, he was considered one of the most extraordinary and...

Jose René Higuita Zapata is a former Colombian football goalkeeper nicknamed 'El Loco' – 'The Mad One'. Born 27 August 1966 in Barrio Castilla, Medellín, he pioneered the Scorpion kick and was notorious for his over-confident outfield play which included dribbling the ball out of defence and acting as sweeper. This same over-confidence led to some incredibly bad decisions in...

Raymond James 'Ray' Houghton (born 9 January 1962, Castlemilk, Glasgow, Scotland), is revered by Irish football fans for being the scorer of a hugely important goal in the national team's history. The Republic of Ireland's first match in the 1988 European Championship was against England on 12 June 1988 at the Neckarstadion in Stuttgart, West Germany. It was the Republic’s...

FIFA has been beleaguered over ethical matters for many years. Platini, the president of UEFA, was once considered a sure bet for the presidency of FIFA. In October 2015 the Frenchman was handed a provisional 90-day suspension, together with FIFA president Sepp Blatter, amid allegations of corruption. Both men have vigorously professed their innocence. The following text is taken from...

During the 1980s, the French national team exhibited an elegant, skilful, and attacking style of play. Similar to their South American counterparts the team earned the nickname of the "Brazilians of Europe". They flourished under their coach Michel Hidalgo, and were led by the immensely gifted playmaker and captain Michel Platini, who, alongside Jean Tigana, Alain Giresse, and the tough...

Paul McGrath was born in Ealing, London, UK (1959). At the age of four weeks old he was given up for adoption. Enduring a tough childhood, he grew up behind closed doors in a number of Church run orphanages in 1960s Dublin. His first professional football club was St Patricks Athletic, Ireland, where he drew the attention of several English...

Paul John Gascoigne (born 27 May 1967, Dunston, Gateshead, England), commonly referred to as Gazza, joined Newcastle United as an apprentice in 1983. His talent as a youngster was recognised by manager Jack Charlton who handed him his full first team debut in 1985. He spent three more years at St James' Park where he won the PFA Young Player...

Pablo Aimar, nicknamed The Clown (‘El Payaso’) with a 'tear-like' birthmark on his left cheek, made a name for himself at Buenos Aires' River Plate, playing in the #10 shirt. He was considered to be one of the best and most talented young players in Argentina and the 'heir apparent' to Diego Maradona. Indeed, Diego himself stated that Aimar was...

Born 26 February 1973, in Kristiansund, Norway, Ole Gunnar Solskjær spent most of his career playing in England with Manchester United. Scoring 126 goals in 366 games during an incredible period of success for the north west giants, the prolific striker was, and still remains, a firm favourite with the Old Trafford faithful.  Before his arrival at United, Solskjær played for the...

Mario Alberto Kempes Chiodi (born 15 July 1954 in Bell Ville, Córdoba) is a retired Argentine footballer, most notable for being the leading goalscorer in the 1978 World Cup tournament hosted in Argentina. Nicknamed 'El Matador', he scored six goals in the tournament, two in the final against the Netherlands, which Argentina won 3-1. He had his most successful year...

Marco van Basten was born in the Dutch city of Utrecht in 1964. Three times European Footballer of the Year (1988/89/92) and FIFA World Footballer of the Year (1992), he is widely regarded as one of the most talented footballers the world has ever seen. His natural grace and elegance as a player earned him the title ‘The Swan of...

Manuel Francisco dos Santos was born in Pau Grande, a district of Magé, in the state of Rio de Janeiro (October 28, 1933 – January 20, 1983). He was known by the nickname 'Garrincha' (Portuguese for 'little bird'). His nickname is thought to have derived from his love of hunting small wrens 'garrinchinhas' and the fact that he was as...

On the afternoon of Sunday 23rd October 2011, fierce northwest rivals Manchester United and Manchester City met at United's Old Trafford Stadium. Both teams had started the season in extremely determined fashion, and after just eight games, were vying for the top spot in the Premier League. Sir Alex Ferguson's United had collected their record 19th league title the previous...

Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, once wrote: ‘Ideal, eternal love, purged of all hatred, exists only between the addict and his drug’. This theory, although not necessarily aimed at them, arguably applies to the millions of people, globally, who are unconditionally addicted to the beautiful game.  There are many possible reasons for why people can fall into addiction. With...

There are relatively few players whose sheer brilliance have helped revolutionise the game of football, but former USSR No1 Lev Yashin is unquestionably one of them. He is widely considered to be the greatest and most innovative goalkeeper ever, and is the only one ever to win the European Footballer of the Year (1963). Yashin’s popularity grew rapidly thanks to...

Laurence Paul 'Laurie' Cunningham (8 March 1956 – 15 July 1989) was one of the greatest footballers that England have ever produced.  A precocious and extraordinarily quick winger, he was skillful, creative, and captured the imagination of the millions who watched him.  Born in Archway, London, Cunningham started in schoolboy football somewhat modestly, being turned down by Arsenal before joining...

Barcelona is the capital of Catalonia, Spain, and designated as a world-class city by the Globalization and World Cities Study Group and Network. It is an important cultural centre with a rich heritage, and has become a major tourist destination. The city is synonymous with the architectural works of Antoni Gaudí. His most renowned work is the immense, but still...

Kenneth Mathieson Dalglish MBE (born 4 March 1951, Glasgow, Scotland, UK) is most noted for his phenomenal successes playing and managing Liverpool FC. On 10th August 1977, Liverpool manager Bob Paisley paid £440,000, a British record at the time, to bring Dalglish in from Scottish club Celtic, as a replacement for Kevin Keegan, an Anfield hero. He made his LFC...

On August 10 1974, English league champions Leeds United met FA Cup winners Liverpool in the FA Charity Shield, the football season's 'curtain-raiser' at Wembley Stadium. It was the first time the FA Charity Shield had been held at Wembley. Ted Croker, the FA secretary, had the idea that from 1974 the league champions would play the FA Cup holders...

John Charles Bryan Barnes MBE, was born 7 November 1963 in Kingston, Jamaica, and is widely regarded as one of the best wingers in the history of English domestic league football.The English national side had missed out on a place at Euro 84, and as a result embarked on small tour of South America. The highlight of the trip was...

RIP Johan Cruyff: April 25, 1947 - March 24 2016. Born in Amsterdam, Holland, Hendrik Johannes Cruijff (Cruyff) was one of the most famous exponents of the football philosophy known as Total Football explored by Rinus Michels for Ajax of Amsterdam and KNVB. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time. He was described as 'Pythagoras in...

“The parallels between Cruyff and Lennon are uncanny; working class heroes. They each suffer the life-defining loss of a parent. They get together with a bunch of other local boys. They invent something completely new. They become the face of the new pushy affluent generation of young people in their countries. And they both liked using words to spring surprises....

John ‘Jack’ Charlton, OBE, DL, was born in Ashington, Northumberland, 8 May 1935.Big Jack played his whole career for Leeds United in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. He made a club record 773 appearances and was an integral part of the successful side who won the league championship in 1969, FA Cup in 1972, League Cup in 1968 and two...

Hristo Stoichkov Stoichkov (Христо Стоичков Стоичков), was born 8 February 1966 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Nicknamed 'The Dagger' (Камата), he was the key member of the Bulgaria national team - the Golden Generation, that finished fourth at the 1994 World Cup. He was also honoured as European Footballer of the Year in 1994 whilst playing for Johan Cruijff's Barcelona. Known for...

Hidetoshi Nakata was born on 22nd January 1977, Yamanashi in Japan. He started his football journey with Hokushin Boys Football Club’s youth side in 1986. Nakata went on to become the most popular footballer in Japan and arguably the most popular Asian footballer of all time. He played in the top flight of two European leagues, the Italian Serie A...

Are you into the finer nuances of football, or just a man with few ambitions? Blizzard editor, Jonathan Wilson, claims he never said it, Guardian podcast listeners disagree. What do we think? We don't really care, but Goals are Overrated just seems to sum things up perfectly. The beauty is most definitely in the struggle.  As a tribute, we pay homage to the...

Legendary Sardinian playmaker Gianfranco Zola, OBE, was born 5 July 1966 in Oliena. He is currently the manager of English Championship club Watford. Zola spent the first decade of his playing career playing in Italy, most notably with Napoli and Parma, before moving to English Premier League side Chelsea. At Napoli, the young and talented Zola was lucky enough to...

George Best hailed from humble beginnings in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Born 22 May 1946, he was blessed with a prodigious talent. He was discovered in 1961, at the age of 15, by Manchester United scout Bob Bishop, whose telegram to United manager Matt Busby famously read: ’I think I've found you a genius’. His local club had rejected him for...

George Best hailed from humble beginnings in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Born 22 May 1946, he was blessed with a prodigious talent. He was discovered in 1961, at the age of 15, by Manchester United scout Bob Bishop, whose telegram to United manager Matt Busby famously read: ’I think I've found you a genius’. His local club had rejected him for...

The son of a slaughterhouse worker, prolific striker Gabriel Omar Batistuta was born on 1 February 1969 in Avellaneda in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina.Nicknamed 'Batigol' as well as 'El Ángel Gabriel' (Spanish for Angel Gabriel), Batistuta played most of his club football with Italian side Fiorentina, in the beautiful, historic city of Florence - home of the Renaissance....

Franz Anton Beckenbauer was born 11 September 1945 in Munich, amid the ruins of post-war Germany. He joined the youth team at Bayern Munich when he was 14, and three years later gave up his job as a trainee insurance salesman to become a professional footballer. He was nicknamed 'Der Kaiser' ('The Emperor') because of his elegant style, his leadership...

Football is one of the most popular sports in the world and is often regarded as the most ‘globalized' profession. Although football is still relatively small in the biggest entertainment market of all; the USA, it is the most important component of this sector in the rest of the world. Football clubs like Manchester United, Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Inter Milan...

Eric Daniel Pierre Cantona (born 24 May 1966) is a French actor and former footballer who began his professional football career with Auxerre in 1983. It has been commented that, at nine, Cantona was already playing like a fifteen-year-old. Though he possessed unquestionable creative ability he was also a volatile character and soon became involved in a catalogue of disciplinary...

The first emblem of the England football team was worn in the world’s very first international match against Scotland, in Glasgow in 1872. It consisted of three lions within a shield, in a similar stance to that of the English Coat of Arms. These lions were navy blue and the only distinguishable features were red eyes and mouths.  In 1949,...

Emilio Butragueño Santos (born 22 July 1963 in Madrid) is a former Spanish footballer. He joined Real Madrid's youth system in 1981. During this period, Butragueño acquired the nickname 'El Buitre' (The Vulture), a play on his surname. He was given his senior debut by Alfredo Di Stéfano on 5 February 1984. Prior to his first team debut, there was...

Duncan Ferguson, better known as 'Big Dunc', is a tough (and troubled) ex-Scotland international footballer. Known for his aggressive and highly-competitive style of play, the 6ft4" former striker plied his trade at Glasgow Rangers, Dundee United, Newcastle United, and most notably, Everton FC. In 1995, during the first of his two spells at Everton, he found himself imprisoned at HMP...

Without doubt, Diego Maradona, is the greatest player the world has ever witnessed. The Argentina legend is inextricably linked with the colour blue, the sky blue (Albiceleste) of Argentina and the sea blue (Azzurri) of Napoli, derived from the blue waters of the Gulf of Naples. On 30 June 1984, Diego signed for Napoli from Barcelona, for a (then) world...

Inherent within Diego Armando Maradona’s nickname of El Pibe de Oro (golden boy/kid) is a sense of mischief impossible to translate verbatim. The pibe is a classic anti-establishment rogue, street smart and full of guile. Diego was born 30th October 1960, in Villa Fiorito, an impoverished district of Buenos Aires. By the time he was 10 he was already a...

In conversation with David Winner in Issue One of The Blizzard, the great Dutchman describes arguably the greatest goal he ever scored: Holland v Argentina, World Cup quarter final, Marseille, 5 July 1998, in the 90th minute."I love good football, nice football but it has to mean something. It has to bring me somewhere. And that’s what happened with this...

Born in Amsterdam on 10th May 1969, Dennis Bergkamp, nicknamed 'The Iceman', is a former Dutch international footballer. At club level he played for Ajax, Internazionale, and Arsenal. He is widely regarded as one of the English Premier League's all-time greatest players. He has also finished third in the FIFA World Player of the Year award twice.Bergkamp was a renowned...

David Alfonso Arellano Moraga, born in Santiago, Chile on July 29, 1902, was a Chilean international football player, considered the father of modern day professional football in Chile. His professional debut came at 17 years of age for Chilean football club Magallanes in 1919. Due to internal institutional tensions at the club a group of young players led by David...

Colour plays a vitally important role in the world in which we live. Colour can sway thinking, change actions and cause reactions. It can irritate or soothe your eyes, raise your blood pressure or suppress your appetite. In theory, the Primary Colours are the root of every other hue imaginable. The primary pigments used in the manufacture of paint come from the pure source element...

Claudio Caniggia was born 9 January 1967 in Henderson, Buenos Aires. He played 50 times for his country and was a key player in both of their 1990 and 1994 World Cup campaigns. Over a 20 year period he controversially played for both Buenos Aires giants and fiercest of rivals - River Plate and Boca Juniors. He also went on...

Scottish giants Celtic are a world-famous club based in the Parkhead area of Glasgow. . Established in 1887, they played their first official game on 28 May, 1888 against Glasgow rivals, Rangers. Their home ground Celtic Park (Parkhead), has been their permanent residence since 1892, and is the biggest football stadium in Scotland with a capacity of just over 60,000....

In 1905, a group of Italian immigrants who lived and worked in the port of a south-eastern barrio of Buenos Aires, Argentina, decided to found a football club. They agreed to honour their poor riverside neighbourhood named ‘La Boca’ (the mouth of the river). Today, the club has grown into arguably the biggest in South America - Club Athletico Boca...

Bruce David Grobbelaar, was born 6 October 1957 in Durban, South Africa. He was goalkeeper for a number of clubs in South Africa, Rhodesia and Canada before making the number one spot his own at Liverpool during their dominant period throughout the 1980s. Grobbelaar played 627 times for Liverpool, being a trusted servant to three of Liverpool's greatest managers; Bob...

When the Brazilian national football team (Seleção Brasileira) participated in the 1982 FIFA World Cup, they maintained their record of being the only team to have entered every World Cup Finals. The finals, held in Spain, promised beautiful football, iconic stars, unforgettable matches and moments of high drama. The most gifted collection of footballers at the tournament, without doubt, were...

Marcelo Alberto Bielsa Caldera was born in Rosario, Argentina on July 21, 1955. Nicknamed El Loco, Bielsa has managed domestic football clubs in Argentina, Mexico and Spain and also the national teams of both Argentina and Chile. Considered an eccentric with idiosyncratic ideas, he has developed a very clear and precise vision of how football should be played; sporting a...

Battle of Santiago (Chile v Italy 1962). The 1962 FIFA World Cup Chile was marred by violence. The infamous first-round match between host Chile and Italy (2–0) is known as the Battle of Santiago. It is probably the most violent game in the history of the World Cup. The match saw repeated, deliberate attempts from players on both sides to...

Franco Baresi (born 8 May 1960 in Travagliato, Italy) and Paolo Maldini (born 26 June 1968 in Milan, Italy) are AC Milan legends, and widely renowned as two of game’s greatest ever defenders. Both players spent their entire professional careers at Milan, many of them together. Baresi put in 20 years from 1977 to 1997 playing 719 times, whilst Maldini...

In support of the Football Supporters’ Federation’s ‘Away Fans Matter’ campaign and inspired by a line from Herman Melville’s evocative 1851 masterpiece, Moby Dick, this design romantically portrays the unconditional devotion of the dedicated Away Fan, as a restless, driven adventurer. The design presents a beautiful visual analogy for the extreme lengths that the Away Fan goes to; the incredibly...

Born in Flero, Italy, on 19th May 1979, Andre Pirlo, nicknamed l'architetto (‘the architect’), is a living legend of Italian football. One of the most iconic and cultured playmakers of recent generations, he has enjoyed a football renaissance in the twilight of his career. Having served as an integral part of AC Milan’s midfield for over decade, he began to feel that he was becoming...

Athletic Club defender Andoni Goikoetxea Olaskoaga (born 23 May 1956 in Alonsotegi, Biscay) produced one of the worst tackles in the game’s history when he broke the ankle of a young Maradona. He is known as the Butcher of Bilbao and was given a 16-match ban for the incident. It was by no means an accident on the Butchers part as...

Alexander Chapman Ferguson, Kt, CBE, popularly known as Sir Alex or Fergie, was born 31 December 1941 in Govan, Glasgow. From humble origins as an apprentice toolmaker, he went on to become the most successful manager in English football history. Having presided over a phenomenal and seemingly cascading period of success at Manchester United, Sir Alex announced his retirement at the end of...

Alexander Chapman Ferguson, Kt, CBE, popularly known as Sir Alex or Fergie, was born 31 December 1941 in Govan, Glasgow. Having presided over 23 years of phenomenal and sustained success at Manchester United, he is rightly regarded as the modern game’s greatest manager. Infamous for his uncompromising, competitive nature and ferocious temper - Sir Alex’s reputation for letting his players...

The River Tyne and the magnificent Tyne Bridge are the city of Newcastle's most popular icons and a symbol of Tyneside and the North East of England's rich industrial heritage. Support for the city's team Newcastle United, is ubiquitous. Football is religion to the Geordie faithful. The team and fans are referred to as Magpies interchangeably. The stadium, St James'...