Innehållsförteckning för September 2021 från FourFourTwo UK

Regardless of which football team you support, you’ll always remember the sport’s seismic events and where you were when you heard them. I wasn’t born when Trevor Francis became the first million pound player in 1979, so the first major move that really registered was Andy Cole’s shock £7m transfer from Newcastle to Manchester United in January 1996. It felt like such a big deal – not just because of the fee, but that it was also shocking to see a player switch between rivals. Then there was Alan Shearer’s hefty £15m transfer from Blackburn to Newcastle. Since then, fees have risen lazily – and then quite spectacularly. Now, we’re at a place where the most exciting player in British football is worth £100m. But while there’s no doubt that…

Lyon 4 Fenerbahce 2 November 3, 2004 Champions League group stage “Nothing got past me that night. I felt like I was so fit, I could take on any player in the world right then. Before we could get going, though, Fenerbahce took the lead and silenced our fans. Not long afterwards, I got upfield and connected with a cross that bounced in – I call it the Essien volley! It brought us level and got us going. Florent Malouda put us ahead before they equalised again, but then Nilmar scored twice in injury time. After, it felt like the whole city of Lyon couldn’t stop talking about me. I felt the love of what it was like being a professional footballer playing in the Champions League against big-time players.”…

It’s 30 years since Bari hosted the European Cup final and snapped up one of English football’s biggest stars – but sadly, they’re unlikely to be repeating either feat any time soon. Based on Italy’s south-east coast, the city has a population of only 325,000 but boasts the 58,000-capacity Stadio San Nicola – built for the 1990 World Cup, it’s the third-biggest stadium in Italy, behind Milan’s San Siro and Rome’s Stadio Olimpico. Within a year of opening, it was the venue for Red Star Belgrade’s European Cup triumph over Marseille. Bari lured David Platt from Aston Villa for £5.5 million two months later – a record fee for a transfer involving a British club. “I didn’t even know where Bari was,” the midfielder (top) admitted. Promoted to Serie A…

Jack Grealish isn’t the first member of his family to have represented England and Aston Villa – his great-great grandfather did the same more than 100 years ago. Three of his grandparents hail from Ireland, but another strand of his family links back to West Midlander Billy Garraty (circled), a lethal inside-right who earned one England cap in a 2-1 victory over Wales at Fratton Park in 1903. He was the First Division’s top scorer with 27 goals when Aston Villa won the league in 1899-1900, and went on to make 260 appearances for the club. Garraty also helped them to beat Newcastle 2-0 in the 1905 FA Cup Final, watched by more than 100,000 supporters at Crystal Palace.…

You returned to QPR in January after five years away, and helped the club climb from 20th to ninth in the table. What did that mean to you? I had my head down at West Brom and tried to get back into Big Sam’s plans [Sam Allardyce]. I was on my way to training one Thursday when my agent called me to say QPR were interested. I just said, “If we can get a deal sorted, let’s go.” By that night the deal was all but done. It was the one club I wanted to join, and they gave me the perfect platform to get my love back for the game. I needed it more than anything. The world was going through a strange time and I didn’t want to…

CARLOS MENDES GOMES LUTON TOWN LOWDOWN From Dakar to Didsbury via Atletico Madrid, Mendes Gomes’ route to the Championship has been rather unconventional. Born in Senegal, he moved to Lanzarote, then Madrid as a teenager – spending time with both Getafe and Atletico – before the family swapped sunny Spain for, er, Salford. Morecambe spotted him in 2018 during a spell with 10th-tier West Didsbury & Chorlton, and the versatile forward’s 15 league goals fired the Shrimps into League One last season. Luton won the fight for his signature over the summer. HIGHLIGHT The emphatic penalty that earned Morecambe victory in last season’s League Two play-off final (right). He loves the spectacular. THEY SAID... “I haven’t seen anything like Mendes Gomes in all my years of developing players,” gushed former…

Manuel Pellegrini looks across the Staffordshire countryside and spies a hint of blue between the heavy clouds of late July. “An English summer,” says the smiling Real Betis manager, 67, who has brought his team to England for pre-season. With Seville’s temperatures touching 40 degrees, St George’s Park and its plush facilities make for a welcome base as Betis prepare for their return to European competition. Last term was a roaring success under the manager who joined them a year ago, as Betis leapt from 15th to sixth under Pellegrini to nab automatic qualification for the Europa League group stage. After a rough ride at West Ham – an uncharacteristic failure for the Chilean – it was a welcome return to normality for Pellegrini, who has made a career of…

What was the first match that you ever attended? I had a ticket to see Scotland against the Czechs in 1973 – if we won, we’d qualify for the 1974 World Cup. I got a ticket because I lived close to Hampden Park, only two streets away. I was up in the North Stand and went on my own; Scotland won 2-1 and Joe Jordan scored the winner. My seat was in line with it, a spectacular diving header. Jordan went where other men were scared to. Who was your childhood hero, and did you ever meet them? In Glasgow, my hero was Kenny Dalglish at Celtic. He was just f**king amazing, a wizard. I marvelled at the way he’d get the ball with his back to the opposition’s goal…

MARADONA Guillem Balague (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £20) ●●●●● After serving a 15-month ban for drug use, Maradona joined Sevilla in 1992, vowing that it marked “the dawning of a new era of modesty”. So naturally, one of the first things that he did in Andalusia was to rent the opulent house of Juan Antonio Ruiz Roman, the city’s prime bullfighter. As this layered new biography reveals, the most corrosive and long-standing of Diego’s varied addictions was his constant craving for fame and publicity. Through a host of interviews with old team-mates, journalists and school friends, the reader learns about the poverty that surrounded Maradona in Villa Fiorito (the Buenos Aires shanty town in which he grew up), and how the seamier side of his personality helped to first turn him…

FIVE ALIVE I enjoyed the Olympics this summer, but had very little interest in watching any of the men’s football. Because what’s the point? With only some teams there, it’s not the pinnacle of the sport – so I would suggest changing things up for 2024. One event I did enjoy was the 3x3 basketball, which was great fun. I may just be putting rose-tinted glasses on for FIFA: Road to World Cup 98, but I think it’d be great if football at the Olympics was five-a-side instead, using each country’s best amateurs. Surely, fans around the world would love it? Count me in... Oliver Smith, Stevenage…

LILLE’S LIGUE 1 TRIUMPH HAS PROMPTED ANOTHER PSG TRANSFER SPLURGE, WITH SOME ADDED NIBBLE PSG’S ‘NO, REALLY, THIS YEAR’ RECRUITMENT In 1992-93, Marseille lifted a nation on its shoulders by defeating Milan 1-0 in the first Champions League final of a newly branded era. But France’s sole European Cup win was soon tainted: amid the sordid French football bribery scandal that came next, Marseille never defended their title. It’s taken a while for France to scale those heights, but Paris Saint-Germain winning the Champions League might unite the country in a different way: as long ago as 2013, PSG were top of a L’Équipe survey on the nation’s most despised club. They’re a natural Bond villain: extravagant, well-dressed and prone to a tantrum. Remember their Manchester City meltdowns? Or the…

Georgi Kinkladze wasn’t the only Georgia international to end up at Manchester City in the ’90s – three more followed, too. Just eight months after Kinkladze’s City bow, Mikheil Kavelashvili made his Sky Blues debut – but the striker netted only three times in 30 appearances. It wasn’t enough to earn a renewal of his work permit, and he was shipped off on loan to Grasshoppers. Kinkladze’s former Saarbrucken team-mate Murtaz Shelia (left) arrived in 1997, as did fellow defender Kakhaber Tskhadadze. Both were hit by injuries but outlasted Kinkladze at Maine Road, going on to feature for City in the third tier. Only three other Georgians have played Premier League football: Rati Aleksidze made three cameos for Chelsea, Zurab Khizanishvili swapped Rangers for Blackburn, and Temuri Ketsbaia used his…

STUART PEARCE LONGFORD (2016) CREDENTIALS 1990 World Cup semi-finalist. Euro 96 semi-finalist. Scorer in the 1991 FA Cup Final. Two-time League Cup winner. A top-flight player in every season bar one from 1983-84 to 2000-01. Quite a lot, really. Pearce forged a well-earned reputation as one of the most dependably terrifying left-backs in England, having been plucked from non-league with Wealdstone in his early 20s while famously working as an electrician. A Nottingham Forest legend in 12 seasons at the City Ground, Pearce also had stints at Premier League Newcastle and West Ham, plus a swansong season at second-tier Manchester City. Then, in January 2016, a 53-year-old Psycho agreed to turn out for Longford – bottom of Gloucestershire Northern Senior League Division Two... HOW’D IT GO? Not bad. Longford had…

1 CLEAN LIVING Cardiff won the 1927 FA Cup and remain the only non-English club to do so. Hughie Ferguson was the hero in a 1-0 defeat of Arsenal, though the last touch came off Gunners gloveman Dan Lewis, who blamed his slippery new woollen jersey. The error inspired a lasting Arsenal tradition of washing their keepers’ kits before every game. 2 REAL RATTLED The Welsh Cup offered a handy route into the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1971 – leading to victory over Real Madrid in their quarter-final first leg, as Brian Clark’s goal saw off Miguel Munoz’s giants at Ninian Park. They lost the return 2-0, but hey: still sounds good 50 years on. 3 IRANIAN INFLUENCE Cardiff fans regularly implore their players to ‘do the Ayatollah’, a celebration…

You’ve joined new MLS club Charlotte FC – how did the opportunity arise? I’ve been in touch with them for a couple of years and know them through Steve Walsh, who scouted me for Leicester. I know that when he’s a part of a programme, it’s bound to be good! It’s a great challenge. He told me all about their setup and what the plans are. When I visited Charlotte to finalise the deal, I saw their professionalism – it’s a well-run club and I was impressed with the facilities. You played alongside Raul during your first season at Schalke in 2011-12 – what was that experience like? He was a true gentleman. I played with him for one year, but he taught me many things. He was very humble…

How did you get into football growing up, and why did you become a goalkeeper? For as long as I can remember, I’ve played football. Everyone plays sport in Trinidad and Tobago – given the hot weather, you can play outdoors all year. Most people play football or cricket. I remember Trinidad and Tobago were putting together a national under-12s football team and my dad took me along to the regional trials. I’d never played in goal before, but as I was walking up to register for the try-outs, the coach looked at me and said, “You’re the tallest, you’re the keeper.” That was the first time I’d played in goal. I made the regional team and then eventually went on to make the national side. How did the Reading…

STEVE MANDANDA “I played with Steve at Marseille. He was such a calm head and I saw him become the best goalkeeper in France for years. He never got the recognition he deserved, but he’s played at Marseille for almost his whole career and is a legend there.” CESAR AZPILICUETA “Cesar was always determined at Marseille. He got to training early and left late – he was so focused. When Chelsea made him their captain, I wasn’t surprised because I knew he was that kind of guy. You can rely on him. He has quality offensively and defensively.” JOHN MENSAH “John was our captain in the Ghana national team and known as ‘The Rock’ – I think he’s the best centre-back Ghana has had over the past 30 years. If…

“I’VE GOT SO MUCH BLINDERS MERCHANDISE IT’S RIDICULOUS. I WANT TO BE AN EXTRA ON IT” Hi Karen. You’re from Solihull – who is the greatest Brummie of all time? Hi. Ooh, wow, that’s a tricky one. Ozzy Osbourne maybe, or Jack Grealish… probably Jasper Carrott? You’ve caught me off guard. How about JRR Tolkien, who wrote Lord of the Rings? He lived two minutes around the corner from ours. He’s right up there. What about Sir Alfred Bird, founder of Bird’s custard? What a Brummie. We all owe him an immense debt. Oh, that’s so true. Who doesn’t like a bit of custard? I like vegan custard. My mum is obsessed with bananas and custard. We grew up on that stuff. Very nice. Are you horrified by the Brummie…

Anguilla have just moved below San Marino to sit bottom of the men’s FIFA rankings. How and why did you become their manager last autumn? Dennis Lawrence was the manager of the Trinidad & Tobago team and I was his assistant, but there were problems and he got the sack. I saw Anguilla needed a head coach, I applied, and a few weeks later I had an interview. I knew Anguilla were bottom of FIFA’s rankings, and there’d be challenges, but I’ve always started out from the bottom in my career and I wanted to see if I could make a difference. There are a lot of decent players, but they don’t play much football. It’s all about changing the culture. How have you found the job? It’s been great.…

“WHEN HE WAS IN FULL FLOW, HATEM BEN ARFA WAS JUST IMPOSSIBLE TO STOP” 9 RIYAD MAHREZ You know a trick is good when everyone sees it coming and it still works a treat every time. Much like Arjen Robben, Mahrez and his chop inside has embarrassed a long line of foes, and the spindly-legged assassin continues to put it to regular, effective use for Manchester City. Best moment Google ‘Mahrez Aston Villa’ – then watch him put three defenders on their backside with one 2015 feint for would-be champions Leicester. 10 JOHN BARNES Barnes won his top-flight titles when it was still the First Division, but he had seven years in the Premier League with Liverpool, Newcastle and Charlton, and was one of the finest dribblers England has seen.…

Before turning professional, you worked on a building site and in a factory – what was that like? I realised pretty quickly that I didn’t want to work on a building site or in a factory for the rest of my life – it was the perfect motivation to work on my fitness and keep chasing my dream. I had to carry a hod on my back up a set of ladders all day long, but it gave me great lower body strength and huge calves. After work every night, I’d go for a five-mile run with a couple of rugby players who lived near me, and my physicality improved a lot. You made your senior debut for Hull at 22 – that’s late for most footballers... It was the…