Indholdsfortegnelse for January 2024 i World Soccer

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As an impressionable young football fan in the mid-’90s, I have some wonderful memories of Terry Venables and his Euro ’96 England team. After the Three Lions had failed to qualify for the 1994 World Cup, my first memory of watching England in major tournament action was at the 1996 European Championship, where “El Tel’s” side captured the imagination of the public. The highs (thrashing the Netherlands 4-1) and lows (the agonising penalty-shootout defeat to Germany in the semi-finals), is basically football in a nutshell – from total euphoria to utter despair. The tournament left its mark on me, and I have Venables in part to thank for that. In addition to paying tribute to Venables in this month’s issue, we also remember the other members of the football family…

ECHOES OF AN ITALIAN SUMMER By Paul Grech (Pitch Publishing, £14.99) This book reveals the fascinating stories that underpin the magical Italia ’90 World Cup, many told for the first time. Learn about the other Schillaci who could have played at the World Cup, the goalkeeper who went on to play in the NFL, the story behind the famous Germany kit, and how Italia ’90 influenced football in such a profound way. Echoes of an Italian Summer is chockfull of nostalgia and previously untold tales. GOLDEN GENERATIONS By Michael Gallwey (Pitch Publishing, £25) Golden Generations is the definitive story of the 2006 World Cup. From Philipp Lahm’s extraordinary opening goal to Zinedine Zidane’s infamous headbutt, it was a World Cup that had it all. The book explores the plots and…

“I am forced to stop playing. I am a free agent now, but my physical shape is far from acceptable to return on the pitch. Now, I have time to understand which path I can take”Sampdoria legend and former Italy striker Fabio Quagliarella announces his retirement EUROPE JANNE ANDERSSON After Sweden failed to qualify for the Euros for the first time since1996, their manager stepped down after seven years in charge. STEPHEN KENNY Republic of Ireland opted not to renew the 52-year-old manager’s contract after he failed to guide them to qualification for Euro 2024. JAROSLAV SILHAVY The Czech Republic manager stepped down from his role despite qualifying for Euro 2024. GIANNI DE BIASI The Italian coach departed from Azerbaijan. PRIMOZ GLIHA Kosovo are looking for a new manager after…

ALBANIA Albania confirmed their place at Euro 2024 with a cagey1-1 draw in Moldova. Despite the anticlimactic finale, the streets of central Tirana were soon flooded with Albanian supporters donning the iconic double-headed eagle, overjoyed by their nation reaching only its second-ever major tournament. The qualification marks a risk successfully taken by the Albanian Football Association. The powers that be decided to break away from the formulaic, defensive football that had served the nation adequately since the departure of Gianni De Biasi who guided them to Euro 2016, by hiring former Arsenal, Barcelona and Brazil left-back Sylvinho. Sylvinho brought with him his ex-Manchester City team-mate Pablo Zabaleta and former Brazil colleague Doriva as assistants. He also brought a much-needed positivity to the role, which immediately warmed him to supporters, having…

On the evening of August 20, 2023 at Stadium Australia in Sydney, Jenni Hermoso stood at the very top of the football world. At 33 years of age, 12 years after she had made her international debut, she had accomplished her greatest dream of World Cup success with Spain. Over the coming days, her name would grace newspapers and be talked about all over the world, and would become the most searched name on Google from Malta and Portugal, to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uruguay. Hermoso started every World Cup match for Spain, covered more distance than any other player in the tournament, made the second-most successful dribbles and created the second-most chances. With Aitana Bonmati, she scored the joint-most goals for Spain (three), and was named the…

Why did so few fans of Bundesliga fairy-tale club Union Berlin call for the head of coach Urs Fischer when their side began the current campaign in free-fall, failing to register a win in14 competitive games, including13 defeats? The answer boils down to one word: faith. Faith in the human qualities of their Swiss boss, his modest, no-frills approach to his craft and the shrewd methods which, over five seasons, transformed second-tier no-hopers into Champions League participants. A banner held up at the Stadion An der Alten Forsterei a few months ago encapsulated local feelings: “Urs Fischer. Our Trainer – Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow.” Inevitably, however, the harsh realities of the football business would have the last word. With results so poor, a parting of the ways was always likely and…

We highlight the big stories of 2024 before they happen, shine the spotlight on Liverpool and England superstar Trent Alexander-Arnold and preview the 2024 CONCACAF Champions Cup ahead of the newly-formatted competition’s inaugural campaign. Plus, don’t miss our reviews of the Club World Cup and Mexican LigaMX campaign, our comprehensive season wrap-up from the South American domestic leagues, and updates on the African, Asian and Women’s UEFA Champions League group stages. Print £5.99 Digital £4.99 ORDER NOW shop.kelsey.co.uk/WSC23 Or Call: 01959 543 747 You may have missed… September 2023 October 2023 November 2023 December 2023 SAVE 10% when you spend £25 or more VOUCHERCODE: WSCSHOP23 shop.kelsey.co.uk/WSC23 +44 (0) 1959 543 747 Offers subject to availability. Prices for goods delivered to destinations outside of the UK may be higher Also from…

GROUP A IVORY COAST (2 AFCON wins, last in 2015) Three players – Serge Aurier, Eric Bailly and Max Gradel – who won the 2015 AFCON remain active with the national team and are likely to make the squad for this tournament. It was the second time that the Ivorians had won the top prize in Africa, following their first success in1992, and ironically came after Didier Drogba had finished his international career. He was the pivot of a “golden generation” that went to three successive World Cups and came close to continental glory but was never able to deliver, before Yaya Toure captained the side to a dramatic penalty-shootout win over Ghana in the 2015 final. There is much potential in their current squad and high hopes that come with…

GROUP A QATAR (1 ASIAN CUP WIN, 2019) Their sole Asian Cup win was an unexpected success and suggested that Qatar had arrived at Asia’s top table. Then came the ordeal of the 2022 World Cup: three defeats out of three with the entire planet watching. Within weeks, Felix Sanchez, the coach who delivered both triumph and disaster, was out and replaced by Carlos Queiroz. One of the most experienced coaches in world football, Queiroz himself was then suddenly fired in early December despite a good start to World Cup qualification, winning handsomely against Afghanistan and India. Just like before the World Cup, preparations have been extensive with the CONCACAF Gold Cup, Gulf Cup and various friendlies. A lot of the stars from 2019 are still around and it remains…

Columbus Crew defeated Los Angeles FC in the 2023 edition of Major League Soccer’s showpiece game, lifting their third MLS Cup, and second in four years. This MLS Cup final was an intriguing clash of styles: the pressing and counter-attacking of LAFC and the fearless possession with purpose of Columbus. It made for a classic, highly anticipated finale to round off an eventful season for the league. It was a season in which Lionel Messi arrived and starred briefly, but all the while, away from Messi Mania, Columbus Crew grew steadily in stature and profile, as an increasing number of onlookers cottoned on to this fascinating team. In a division that has 29 teams, it can be difficult to cut through the noise and stand out, but Wilfried Nancy’s side…

For England, the build-up to these Euros has a slight whiff of the build-up to the 2019 cricket World Cup. Then too, after years of underperformance, of playing a tamer, less sophisticated game than the world’s best, England had started to look like potential winners. And then too, just as optimism began to be kindled, they had been presented with an astonishing talent, one of an even higher level than an already gifted squad. For Jofra Archer then, read Jude Bellingham now. Players of that quality represent great opportunities for national team managers, but also great challenges. They have only increased since Bellingham joined Real Madrid and started playing in a more advanced role, since when barely a week has gone by in which he hasn’t scored a notable goal…

SEASON RANKINGS Cumulative votes through the season GOALKEEPERS Marcin Bulka (Nice) 6 Lukas Hradecky (Bayer Leverkusen) 6 Yann Sommer (Internazionale) 5 Wojciech Szczesny (Juventus) 4 Alisson (Liverpool) 2 Kepa Arrizabalaga (Real Madrid) 1 Ederson (Manchester City) 1 Kamil Grabara (Copenhagen) 1 Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich) 1 Jan Oblak (Atletico Madrid) 1 Andre Onana (Manchester United) 1 Ivan Provedel (Lazio) 1 Marc-Andre ter Stegen (Barcelona) 1 DEFENDERS Alex Grimaldo (Bayer Leverkusen) 15 Jonathan Tah (Bayer Leverkusen) 7 Dani Carvajal (Real Madrid) 6 Kyle Walker (Manchester City) 6 Jeremie Frimpong (Bayer Leverkusen) 5 Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool) 5 Bremer (Juventus) 4 Cristian Romero (Tottenham Hotspur) 4 Jean-Clair Todibo (Nice) 4 Micky van de Ven (Tottenham Hotspur) 4 Francesco Acerbi (Internazionale) 3 Joao Cancelo (Barcelona) 3 Alphonso Davies (Bayern Munich) 3 Federico Dimarco…

A mid the scandal that engulfed Spanish women’s football following the postmatch behaviour of subsequently axed federation president Luis Rubiales, the actual football was at times overlooked. That was a cruel irony as Spain’s players produced a string of performances of maturity and class, none more so than in the World Cup final when they defeated European champions England. At the heart of that, and so many other games in 2023, was Aitana Bonmati, who won the Golden Ball as the tournament’s best player. That made for an individual double as she also won the Champions League player of the season for her part in driving Barcelona to the crown. It would be easy to argue that it was the injury to club and country teammate Alexia Putellas that enabled…

When Luciano Spalletti sits down to write his memoirs, if he ever does, the chances are that he will reserve a special chapter for the year 2023. For this was the year when the 64-year-old had a doubly important impact on the national game, first leading Napoli to a memorable third league title success and then concluding his annus mirabilis by guiding Italy to a desperately wanted, late qualification for Euro 2024. Spalletti’s 2023 began on a positive note with his Napoli out in front, setting a blistering pace in Serie A. By January, Napoli’s high-octane football had Scudetto written all over it with a third league title – their first since the legendary days of club icon Argentine Diego Maradona 33 years earlier – seemingly on the way. Napoli…

Much like a young footballer taught to play in various positions to better understand the game as a whole, the Galician-born Jonatan Giraldez had an all-encompassing football education before joining Lluis Cortes’ coaching staff as a Barcelona Femeni technical assistant in 2019. Giraldez studied sports science in Pontevedra and then Barcelona, worked as an analyst, fitness coach and coach at youth level for the Catalan Football Federation in both men’s and women’s football, and has lectured at university and worked as a TV football commentator. All that has led the 32-year-old to where he is now: head coach of the best women’s club team in the world. His success since taking over from Cortes as head coach in 2021 has been unprecedented. His first season ended with 30 wins out…

Morocco’s ground-breaking march to the semi-finals of the World Cup in Qatar this time last year makes them the favourites for success at the Africa Cup of Nations finals in the Ivory Coast, even if the North African country has a spotty record at the continental championship. Morocco became the first African and Arab nation to go as far as the final four of a World Cup in a major fillip for the African game and have since beaten Brazil, albeit in a friendly international at home, to further enhance their credentials. Yet this will not be the first time that Morocco have arrived at a Cup of Nations finals in sparkling form and hotly tipped for success. The fact that they have failed to add to their solitary African…

Usually, the defending continental champions who then host the next tournament would be considered as a favourite to win once more, but Qatar will do well to win the 2023 Asian Cup in January. Instead, Japan are the clear frontrunners to lift the trophy. The Samurai Blue were Asia’s most impressive representatives at the World Cup, progressing to the last16 with victories over Germany and Spain, and any doubts that they are not still the best side in the continent have been dispelled by fine friendly results since. Indeed, Japan won the tournament, for a record fourth time, when it was last hosted in Qatar back in 2011, defeating South Korea in an epic semi-final and then beating Australia in the final. Those two also reached the knockout stages of…

The NWSL’s 2023 championship match was held in San Diego, but perhaps it would have been more fitting to have it played up the California coast in Hollywood. There were plotlines galore as Gotham FC pulled off an underdog victory against OL Reign. The match was dramatic enough, Gotham hanging on to a 2-1 win despite defender Nealy Martin going in goal for the closing minutes after goalkeeper Mandy Haught was dismissed. The winners’ story arc was just as compelling. Gotham were a league embarrassment three years ago and finished bottom as recently as last season. Though aided by a system that allows the sixth-placed team in a12-team competition to win the title via post-season play-offs, they did it the hard way, winning away to the teams placed second and…

Vissel Kobe won their first-ever J. League championship with a game to spare, eventually finishing seven points clear of defending champions Yokohama F. Marinos. It was only Kobe’s second major silverware, following the 2019 Emperor’s Cup, and made them the 11th different team to win the league. The victory held special satisfaction for the Kobe fans and their owner Hiroshi Mikitani. In the Rakuten CEO’s 20-year tenure, the club had never come close to winning the title, despite a number of high-profile signings including Lukas Podolski, David Villa and Andres Iniesta funded by significant investment. Kobe manager Takayuki Yoshida, who abandoned last season’s high-possession football in favour of a more direct approach, also had plenty to celebrate. “I have been with Vissel Kobe since my final years as a player,”…

With winter embracing Norway in its freezing arms once again, Eliteserien football in 2023 came to an end having witnessed record attendances across the entire division following supporters’ increasing rejection of the English Premier League in favour of their own top flight. As many predicted, the title returned to the Arctic Circle for the third time since 2019. Kjetil Knutsen’s all-conquering Bodo/Glimt team had slackened their grip on Norway’s top division last season, allowing Molde to clinch their fifth championship, but reclaimed their crown with a few games to spare. Installed as early title favourites, Bodo/Glimt still had to overcome the loss of key players Hugo Vetlesen and Joel Mvuka (the former commanding a €7.5 million fee to join Club Brugge) and ride out a summer wobble where they were…

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The dilemma in assessing the multi-faceted life and loquacious career of Terry Venables is deciding where to start. He was modern football’s renaissance man, applying an ever-inventive broad brush to the canvas of his modern sporting life, with all of its attractions but all of its distractions. The death of Venables at 80 generated a flood of tributes from the game in general and a notable cascade from his players in particular. Venables was a football man at heart and one can only speculate how far, how high and for how long he could have ruled the domain had his inquiring and inventive mind not sought to open so many other doors. Easy enough knowing where to start: Dagenham, East London, home to the Ford motor plant and a wealth…

Samu OMORODION (Alaves) Atletico Madrid signed the19-year-old striker in August, shortly after he had scored against them for newly-promoted Granada, then immediately sent him on loan to Alaves for the season. A tall striker, Omorodion comes alive inside the penalty area, with all of his first five La Liga goals scored from inside the box – including one against Barcelona in November after just17 seconds. Born in Melilla – a Spanish city in North Africa – to Nigerian parents, he recently quashed any hopes of joining Nigeria’s upcoming AFCON campaign, saying: “Spain has given me the opportunity and I am very grateful for it. I don’t think about Nigeria. My goal is to debut with the senior side and have my career in Spain.” Warren ZAIRE-EMERY (Paris Saint-Germain) PSG’s youngest-ever…

Looking back at the reports from Erling Haaland’s first competitive match in English football provides a reminder of the dangers of judging players too harshly too early. “Upstaged,” “a debut to forget,” and “barely touched the ball,” were all words that featured in ESPN’s report of Haaland’s debut in the 2022 Community Shield between Manchester City and Liverpool. A “horror show,” said The Sun. Haaland looked “bewildered,” according to The Daily Mail, while The Guardian said he was “near-anonymous” and “disrupted the side’s rhythm”. BBC Sport’s stats on the Norwegian were also damning: “In all, Haaland had just 16 touches of the ball in his 97 minutes on the pitch, completing seven of only nine passes he attempted in the game.” When Haaland’s game concluded with a miss from five…

It didn’t seem like much could have surpassed England’s historic Euro 2022 victory, but Sarina Wiegman came close to taking the Lionesses to even greater heights in the summer of 2023. The decorated coach added to her proven track record of being one of the best in-tournament coaches in world football when she led England to the 2023 Women’s World Cup final. Wiegman steered the Netherlands to home Euro glory in 2017 and followed that up with a World Cup final in 2019. She has now managed to mirror that same feat with England, taking her streak to four major finals in four consecutive tournaments. Ultimately England ended up losing 1-0 to Spain in Sydney, with Wiegman’s side putting in an underwhelming performance in the final 90 minutes that mattered.…

For Fernando Diniz it was the best of years, it was the worst of years. After a decade of being the great Brazilian coaching hope, 2023 was the season when Diniz finally made the breakthrough and won some silverware. But it was also the year when he took charge of a Brazil team which deservedly accumulated an unprecedented run of bad results in World Cup qualification. This was, then, a contradictory year for a fascinating figure. With a respectable career as a midfielder with some of Brazil’s biggest clubs, Diniz was a talented player. But he was not a happy one. He grew to despise the atmosphere of football, the way it chewed up its players and spat them out as commodities. In the second act of his life he…

Does Morocco’s success at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar make your team the hot favourites for the Africa Cup of Nations title? Of course, we are among the favourites, but often we have not been up to the task! It can be mental, it can be caused by many other factors. Maybe the fact that we have struggled to win the junior African titles at Under-17 and Under-20 level explains part of it. Many players have only gained tournament experience as seniors at the Africa Cup of Nations. But now, Morocco are the Under-23 African champions and this generation will have a certain experience in the future – just like Egypt, Ghana, Senegal and Nigeria, where all the young talents are used to that type of competition. This is…

You’ve been with India since 2019. How has the journey been so far? It has been a great journey. In the last four years, we totally reconstructed the team. It’s a whole new team. We kept a few experienced, older players as the spine of the team [but] we are one of the youngest teams in Asia with youth and energy, and we are proud of it. We are playing quite convincingly against lower-ranked teams – attractive football, I would say. As I said to our people in India, if you give me enough time to work with these boys we can achieve things. You have a young team but it’s heavily dependent on veteran and record scorer Sunil Chhetri. Is that a problem? We are not heavily dependent on…

The 2023 K-League season was a tale of two halves in South Korea. It always is, given that the 12-team top tier splits into two after 33 games of the campaign and then there are two mini-tables for the remaining five games. This time, the action at the bottom was a great deal more exciting and shocking than that at the top as Ulsan Hyundai strolled to a second successive title,12 points clear of Pohang Steelers. The deal was sealed with three games to spare thanks to a 2-0 win over Daegu FC in late October. It was another success for Hong Myung-bo. The captain of the 2002 World Cup semi-finalists looked to have been building a fine career as a coach as he led the Under-20 team to the…

Football in the Maldives is undergoing a reset after a monumentally disappointing 2023. The Indian Ocean Island have won the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Championship on two occasions, and finished third on home soil in 2021, but last summer they could not even get out of their group after losing two of their three games in India. Former Roma and Internazionale winger Francesco Moriero was sacked as coach and the Maldives did not even enter the football at last August’s Indian Ocean Games in Madagascar. Local coach Ali Suzain took charge on an interim basis for the subsequent preliminary round of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Bangladesh, who had beaten the Maldives 3-1 in India and triumphed again 3-2 on aggregate. “We see the disappointment and defeat as…