Innehållsförteckning för March 2016 från World Soccer

“Dutch football officially has lost its innocence” Dutch FA director Gijs De Jong sums it up perfectly after confirming that a game between Utrecht and Willem II in 2009 was fixed Attempts to fix the result of a Dutch league match seven years ago have been uncovered by a Dutch FA (KNVB) investigation. It is the first time such a case has been established in Holland. The probe uncovered a bid by Ibrahim Kargbo, then a player at Willem II, to fix the outcome of a league match against Utrecht in August 2009 in co-operation with convicted Singaporean fraudster Wilson Raj Perumal. “We have long warned this could happen in the Dutch league,” said KNVB operational director Gijs De Jong. “But it is still difficult to swallow now that this…

The cameras are coming: video assistance set for landmark decision Never a weekend goes by in the Premier League maelstrom without one manager or another raging over a referee’s decision. Managers will never cease chasing excuses for themselves or their players, but the opportunities to blame everything on the man with the whistle will be significantly reduced if the game’s lawmakers take a decisive step towards a brave new world. On March 5, delegates of the four British home nations and the tottering FIFA meet in Cardiff, as the International Football Association Board (IFAB), to consider approving a two-year experiment in video assistance for referees. Six of the eight votes are needed for approval. Given the home nations all expressed conditional approval at the lawmakers’ annual meeting in London in…

Why does it have to be Mourinho? Why not Giggs? On the face of it, the question must seem bizarre. Yet I don’t think it is, even though Louis Van Gaal insists he may be staying, and Ed Woodward the foremost executive, who admires him, won’t confirm the Dutchman is on his way. Jose Mourinho himself seems convinced that his deal is virtually done and dusted. He will take over Manchester United next season. But would it work? There can be no doubt that he is always potentially a divisive figure and at Chelsea this season he emphatically lost the commitment of his players. That is ominous since the chief criticism ofVan Gaal’s reign this season has been that United have betrayed their great tradition of attacking football, with all…

Au-Be TELL US WHAT YOU THINK #WS500 New Entry Ten months ago, Dele Alli was playingin the third tier of English football for his local clubMK Dons as they won promotion to the EnglishChampionship. He had been signed by Tottenhamon the last day of the January 2015 transferwindow but was loaned back to the League Oneside for the remainder of the season. Less than a year later, he is the talk of Englishfootball, fast-tracked into the senior national sideand hailed as the scorer of a contender for Goalof the Season. In January, England manager Roy Hodgsonwas among those who saw Alli line up in Spurs’midfield against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.Receiving the ball on the edge of the penaltyarea, he flicked the ball over his own head, leavingPalace captain Mile…

New Entry Born in the suburbs of Paris, Ben Arfa has long been recognised as one of France’s most naturally gifted footballers. Back in 1999, aged 13, he was already known as one of the most precocious talents featured in a TV documentary that followed 24 hopefuls selected from 800 candidates to join the French Football Federation’s elite youth programme. Yet this may surprise English football fans, who most likely only remember his unsuccessful stints with Newcastle United and on loan at Hull City, where he failed to rip up any trees and fell out with managers and fans alike. However, since returning to France with Nice in August 2015, things have been on the up and up for the 15-times capped international in a season that has seen the…

Di-Du For someone who used to prioritise engineering studies over football, and who was playing in the Belgian third tier as recently as 2011, the bustling centre-forward is enjoying an astonishing amount of success. Having played his part in Gent’s domestic league triumph last term, and their subsequent surprise qualification for the knockout stage of the current Champions League, he won his first cap for the national side earlier this season and was second in his country’s player of the year ballot for 2015. A native of the Hainaut region of western Belgium, he played the game solely for fun as a teenager and young adult. Yet almost without realising it, he was climbing the league ladder step by step, picking up the tricks of the trade in regional competition…

Gi-Gu Last autumn, media reports indicated that a Barcelona scout was in attendance at a series of Juventus’ Champions League and Serie A games. In theory, the scout was there to keep an eye on Juve’s talented Frenchman, Paul Pogba, believed by many to be destined for a €100million move to Catalonia at the end of this season. Yet it could be that Barca have discovered another equally expensive object of their desire in the shape of Dybala. His development in the classic inside-forward or number 10 role this season has been breathtaking – and Barcelona aren’t the only ones to have shown interest. Intelligently handled by coach Massimiliano Allegri, Dybala was introduced gradually into the first team last autumn, having arrived from Palermo for €32m. Initially, this policy earned…

New Entry Since joining Borussia Dortmund from Freiburg in a €10million deal in the summer of 2014, this versatile defender has run the whole gamut of human emotions. He has known pride and excitement, frustration and heartache. And now he has experienced the ultimate satisfaction of coming back from the brink. A non-playing member of Germany’s World Cup-winning squad of 2014, Ginter surprisingly found it hard to settle in at Dortmund. Whether used as a centre-back or holding midfielder by the Schwarz-Gelben (black and yellows) he was, more often than not, seen as something of a liability, eventually losing his place in Jurgen Klopp’s side and spending most of the campaign on the bench. Throughout the 2015 off-season, rumours circulated thick and fast that the Dortmund management would cut their…

La-Lo In an age when strength, speed and stamina are attributes many coaches consider indispensable in their midfield players, watching the elegant Joao Mario dominate matches is an absolute delight for fans of the more artistic exponents of the beautiful game. Having impressed from the moment he made his senior debut on loan at Primeira Liga club Vitoria Setubal in the second half of the 2013-14 season, he was recalled by his parent club, seized his opportunity at Sporting early the following term and has not been out of the side since. Some feared for his development upon the appointment of Jorge Jesus at the Alvalade as the charismatic coach had developed a reputation for mistrusting Portuguese talent in his time at Benfica. But those concerns have been firmly quelled…

New Entry No one player typifies the remarkable rise of Leicester City than their Algerian winger. Two years ago he was playing in the French second division; now he is on the brink of a remarkable league triumph and is coveted by some of Europe’s top clubs. Mahrez has sparkled as one of Leicester’s main attacking outlets, with his pace and trickery helping the team to spring defence into an attack spearheaded by Jamie Vardy. His brilliant goal against Chelsea, when he bamboozled experienced full-back Cesar Azpilicueta and struck a powerful shot with little backlift, was one of the moments of the season. It also solidified his case for being voted player of the season. Mahrez was born in Sarcelles in the northern suburbs of Paris to an Algerian father…

Pe-Ra New Entry While some hard-to-please Russian critics make the rather uncharitable claim that Everton’s new Senegal front runner, recently signed for £13.5million from Lokomotiv Moscow, spurns as many chances as he converts, all those defenders he has terrorised out east might beg to differ. With 13 goals in 23 games for Lokomotiv in all competitions this term, the force-of-nature second striker or wide man indubitably kept his part of the marksmanship bargain. And as every Russian league adversary of his knows, he has several other strings to his bow: his physicality and ability to bully, his energy and commitment, his penetrative qualities and a good dollop of selflessness, racking up 10 assists in 2015-16. Voted the Russian Premier League’s player of the year for 2015 by readers of the…

New Entry Of all the uncapped German players still harbouring hopes of forcing their way into the Euro 2016 reckoning, the Gladbach attacker is arguably the most deserving of the waitingroom candidates. His form this season for his club, who he joined from Hanover for €8.5million last summer, has verged on the sensational, scoring 13 goals in all competitions and creating 11 more. And if Bundestrainer Joachim Low really does operate a meritocracy, the 27-year-old should, as a matter of course, be inducted. Not that his new life at Borussia Park started particularly auspiciously. On the losing side in each of his first five Bundesliga fixtures, he struggled to make an impact and, for his pains, came in for much criticism, most of it unwarranted. After five years with Hanover,…

“You were so close to taking Egypt to the 2014 World Cup. Do you still think about what might have been? Well, the experience in Egypt was still incredible in all ways. The idea that we could win seven out of eight World Cup qualifiers and not get there...the disappointment of getting so close. The terrible loss in Kumasi [a 6-1 defeat away to Ghana]. These are things that stick with you forever. Do you still speak to the Egyptian players? The experience with those players during that historic period; the idea that we came together and all tried to find a way to find something special for the country during that time. When you share this, no one can take that away. I still stay in touch with Aboutrika,…

● OVERVIEW Hungary qualified for their first major tournament since the 1986 World Cup by beating Norway in the play-offs with a gutsy, well-organised performance. ● Hungary changed coaches three times in the course of the qualifying campaign. Attila Pinter was sacked in September 2015 after a poor start (a home defeat by Northern Ireland). He was replaced by Pal Dardai, coach of Hertha Berlin’s youth team. Dardai made steady progress, drawing away to local rivals Romania, but when he was made Hertha’s fi rstteam coach, the club would not let him continue and Bernd Storck stepped in. ● Norway were technically superior in the play-offs but Hungary defended heroically and scored goals from unlikely sources: debutant Laszlo Kleinheisler and Tamas Priskin in his fi rst game for 14 months.…

● OVERVIEW Ukraine put their domestic troubles behind them to beat Slovenia in the play-offs, with wingers Yarmolenko and Konoplyanka leading the way. ● Ukraine have qualified for only their second major finals. Their previous tournament qualification was for the 2006 World Cup, when Andriy Shevchenko inspired the team to the quarter-finals. ● They were co-hosts with Poland in 2012 but losses to England and France resulted in elimination at the group stage. ● Won the Euro 2016 play-off against Slovenia after finishing third behind Spain and Slovakia in their group. ● They suffered an early setback in qualifying, losing at home to Slovakia in their opening game. ● The current side lacks star quality, although Yevhen Konoplyanka has made the switch to Spain and Andriy Yarmolenko could follow suit.…

While the new J.League season kicks off with intense focus on last year’s big three of Sanfrecce Hiroshima, Urawa Reds and Gamba Osaka, plus resurgent Kashima Antlers, Japan’s qualification for the Rio Olympics – secured by winning every match at the Asian Under-23 Championship in January – has given the media and fans the opportunity to keep tabs on a new generation of stars. Sanfrecce Hiroshima are again the team to beat after winning a third J.League title in four years in December. Hiroshima hasn’t seen anything like it since Toyo Kogyo – the club which became Sanfrecce – won five titles in the amateur Japan Soccer League’s first six seasons from 1965 to 1970. Sanfrecce’s third-place finish at the Club World Cup – following a 2-1 win over China’s…

The footballing revolution in China (page 24) is not a new phenomenon. We have reported on big-money transfers to the Chinese league before. But the recent fl urry of activity feels like a game-changer. Footballers have always followed the money – and there is potentially more money in China than any other country on the planet. Perhaps we should have known that Sven Goran Eriksson would be ahead of the curve. He and the likes of Asamoah Gyan had been in China for some time before the recent spate of transfers. But it would be wrong to dismiss the Chinese league as a mere retirement home for those reaching the end of their careers in Europe. The sheer size and wealth of China begs us to take them seriously. The…

LARISSA & ACHARNAIKOS Players and coaching staff of the two sidesstaged a sit-down protest at the start of theirGreek second-tier game in memory of refugeeswho have lost heir lives in the Aegean Sea. SALOMON KALOU The Ivorian striker became the first player toscore 10 goals or more in a single season inthe top flights of England (Chelsea), France(Lille) and Germany (Hertha Berlin). ALVARO BRACHI Signed for Slovenian top-tier side Domzale afteranswering an advert seeking for an attackingright-back on social networking site LinkedIn. CLAUDIO PIZARRO The Peruvian became the first foreigner tomake 400 Bundesliga appearances. Pizarrohas played his games for just two Germanclubs: Werder Bremen and Bayern Munich. ANIS BEN-HATIRA Sold by Hertha Berlin to Eintracht Frankfurt inthe transfer window after he attacked teammateMitchell Weiser on the Hertha team busfollowing a…

Still farce and slapstick as IFAB prune the rule book I have never considered any meeting of the International Football Association Board (IFAB) to be one of the world’s great news events because so little actually happens or gets done. But things may be changing. We shall find out at IFAB’s March AGM in Cardiff. After that, I may have to eat my words because it seems that IFAB will be eating a whole mountain of its own. We are promised a revised, and much less wordy, revision of the rule book. In fact, it is a reduction in wordage so drastic that I still cannot see how it can be accomplished. They’re telling us the current rule book contains some 22,000 words, and that 10,000 of them will bite…

Be-Bo Not long after he arrived at Barcelona, Arda Turanwas asked if he knew whether his new teammateshad started to take the mickey out of himyet. “No,” he replied, laughing. “They’re too scaredthat I’ll throw a boot at them.” He had done it to a linesman before – againstBarcelona, in fact – but it says something aboutthe Turk’s character that it became somethingto laugh about more than lament. When hecelebrated his birthday that year, friends gavehim a cake decorated with a boot on top. Arda is different, alright. There’s somethingabout him that fascinates, and the fact that hestill does not speak Spanish – or does not admitto speaking Spanish – only increases that senseof mystique. From the gloriously bushy beard to shaving hishair when Atletico Madrid won the Spanish Cupbecause…

Ch-Da It speaks volumes for the outrageous ability of the teenager that he has already worn the colours of three of Europe’s biggest clubs: his Paris Saint-Germain alma mater; Juventus, where he featured last season, and now Bayern Munich. A true speed merchant – so much so that he recently was clocked as the fastest player in the Bundesliga at 21.78mph – the young Parisian has been making a mad dash for stardom for as long as he can remember. Having invariably been used by PSG in higher youth age-groups, in February 2013 he became the capital club’s youngest-ever first-teamer at the age of 16 years, eight months and four days. The trouble for PSG was that the youngster was also in a prodigious hurry to move his career along.…

The most expensive footballer ever to play in the Premier League may have suffered something of a nightmare during his season-long ride at Manchester United, but moving to France to join Paris Saint-Germain in August 2015 has seen Di Maria finally playing with a smile on his face again. And after a worryingly difficult first few months in the capital, he is once again finding the kind of form that made him one of the world’s hottest football properties. Having been forced out of Real Madrid in August 2014, the £59.7million that United paid the Spanish side for his services seemed like a terrible piece of business as the Argentinian looked out of sorts and desperately unhappy in the north of England. But as things have turned out, United’s loss…

Gu-He Russia’s top scorer in qualification for this summer’s European Championship with eight goals and equally productive as Zenit topped their group in this season’s Champions League – netting six goals in total against Lyon, Valencia and Gent – 6ft 5in target man Artyom Dzyuba has earned a reputation for rising to the occasion when he has a point to prove. And the Muscovite loves nothing more than making his critics eat their words – something that he has certainly managed to do since controversially swapping Spartak Moscow for Zenit last July. As soon as the move had been announced, the centre-forward came under heavy media fire. Slammed for a supposed lack of consistency and for his unfulfilled potential, he was also angrily “disowned” by hard-core Zenit supporters because of…

New Entry His older brother, UAE international Faisal Khalil, may have once been arrested for allegedly employing a witch doctor to curse a rival for a starting spot, but there have been no such controversies for the 2015 Asian Player of the Year, who has defenders seeking divine intervention whenever he takes to the pitch. Having seemingly been around for years despite being only 24, Ahmed Khalil is still not yet at the peak of his powers. There is, however, a sense that he is shifting towards top gear – as 13 international goals in 11 games last year suggests. His purple patch started at the 2015 Asian Cup in January when he helped UAE to third place, eliminating defending champions Japan along the way. He finished the tournament in…

Na-On New Entry After the promise and the performances of 2014, when they reached their first World Cup quarter-finals, Colombia’s national team seemed to lose its way last year. The good news, though, was that the local championship threw up an interesting crop of youngsters – of which Moreno is one of the leading lights. Having appeared in cup games, and one league win in which Atletico Nacional fielded a reserve side, the teenager made his genuine debut until September 2015 – just 10 days before his 19th birthday – and marked the occasion with a goal against Deportivo Cali. By this time Nacional were coached by Reinaldo Rueda, who took Ecuador to the last World Cup, but it was his predecessor, Juan Carlos Osorio, currently in charge of Mexico,…

New Entry Talk about a Magnificent Magyar. Ever since pitching up at Legia Warsaw last summer, the Hungarian international striker has barely paused for breath in his sold-out, one-man show, netting 21 goals in his first 21 games in the Polish top flight and deservedly being voted Ekstraklasa Player of 2015 by his fellow professionals. Acquired for only €500,000 from Hungarian club Videoton, where he was twice a domestic champion, he is described by Legia director of recruitment Michal Zewlakow as having “goals in his blood” and that is no word of a lie. In five years leading the Videoton line, he amassed no fewer than 87 Hungarian league goals, twice finished as the championship’s top scorer – in seasons 2009-10 and 2014-15 – and last term made headlines by…

So-Th The past 12 months have been full of contradictions for Yaya Toure. He was captain of the winning Ivory Coast side at the African Nations Cup, making him a strong contender to be voted CAF African Footballer of the Year, an award he had won for the four previous years. Yet the prize went instead to Borussia Dortmund striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, prompting Toure to dismiss the poll of African journalists as “pathetic” and “indecent”. Aubameyang amassed 143 points, with Toure coming second with 136 points and Ghana’s Andre Ayew, top scorer at the Nations Cup, third with 112 points. At the CAF ceremony. Toure appeared gracious, paying tribute to Aubameyang, a prolific scorer in the Bundesliga and the first Gabonese player to win the award. However, later, when speaking…

New Entry Not a day seems to go by without at least one report of a big-beast European club drooling over Partizan Belgrade’s teenage flank virtuoso. His father, Jovica, claims to have rebuffed overtures from Real Madrid for his offspring, while the German tabloid Bild is adamant that Borussia Dortmund are at the front of the queue for the young Serb. Elsewhere, heavyweight French daily, sports paper L’Equipe believe Paris Saint-Germain rival Manchester City and Liverpool as his most likely destination. The youngster, whose contract with Partizan runs out this summer, is absolutely spoilt for choice. But before he does leave his homeland, there are all manner of legal and administrative knots to untie. Following his refusal to sign a new deal with Partizan, Zivkovic was recently banned from training…

As the UEFA club competitions approached the business end of the season, one team taking the continent by storm were PSV. Guus Hiddink’s side were strolling towards the Dutch title after recording 17 consecutive wins from the start of the season and were due to meet Bordeaux in the quarter-finals of the European Cup. Jim Holden reported on two Danish players, in the twilight of their careers, who were playing a major role in shaping PSV’s season. “It is entirely fitting that Frank Arnesen and Soren Lerby, brothers in boots, should be finishing their careers as they begun them, together,” he wrote. “Fifteen years ago, Arnesen and Lerby were rough and ready teenagers with Copenhagen club Fremad Amager, full of enthusiasm and natural ability. Lerby, indeed, needed only 12 first-team…

● OVERVIEW The traditional qualities of hard work and team spirit have taken the Republic to their second successive Euro finals. ●The Republic qualified for their second successive European finals after beating Bosnia in the play-offs. On paper, Bosnia had plenty of stars (Dzeko, Pjanic) but Irish spirit and organisation proved decisive: a classic case of being greater than the sum of their parts. ●They enjoyed a bright start to the qualifying campaign, with wins over Georgia and Gibraltar and a 1-1 draw with world champions Germany. But a home draw with Scotland stalled the campaign in a tough group where Germany and Poland came out on top. ●Victory in Dublin over Germany boosted hopes of automatic qualifi cation, but defeat to Poland in their fi nal game pushed them…

If expecting the unexpected means excitement, then quite definitely Major League Soccer has to be one of the more exciting football leagues in the world. The 2015 season, for instance, ushered in Portland Timbers as champions – a team who were surely not on anyone’s likely list. Playing only their fifth season in the league, Timbers were coming off a poor 2014 in which they failed to make the playoffs. And it wasn’t until half way through the 2015 campaign that Timbers, under their young American coach Caleb Porter, arriving straight from college soccer, started to mow down their opponents. Part of the early problem had been an injury to key Argentinian midfielder Diego Valeri. Once he regained fitness, Timbers swept through to the Final and a 2-1 win over…

The church is back in the centre of the village as Juventus beat Napoli 1-0 to go to the top of Serie A for the first time this season. And while it may have been mid-February, with some 14 games still to play, it could well be the turning point in the defending champions’ campaign Not since the days of Michel Platini v Diego Maradona had this fixture aroused so much excitement. For the entire week beforehand, one question turned up in just about every radio and TV news programme. The issue up for discussion might have been same-sex civil union legislation (which is currently going through the Senate) or the forthcoming mayoral elections in Rome, Milan and Naples, but eventually another question reared its head: who is going to…

Sang Ndong has returned to the Gambia hot seat and will draw on players closer to home for the forthcoming African Nations Cup double-header with Mauritania. A former Gambian international, Ndong was coaching club side Banjul Hawks and replaces Swiss Raoul Savoy, who left at the end of 2015 claiming his departure was linked to the withdrawal of a “dark sponsor”. Savoy, who has previously been in charge of the Central African Republic, said: “That made things very difficult to proceed, to bring in overseas players and play friendly games. Without money in Africa, it is difficult. It was a shame as the project was going well. The players are good. The local football is not very developed but Gambia has a lot of players outside the country. There is…

Cristian Manea, the 18-year-old Romanian full-back who was widely reported as having signed for Chelsea last summer, never joined the English side and his registration was instead transferred to Cypriot club Apollon Limassol. According to an investigation by Romanian newspaper ProSport, Manea was sold by Viitorul Constanta, the club owned and coached by Gheorghe Hagi, to Apollon in June 2014. Apollon are owned by former agent Nicos Kirzis, who is a close associate of “superagent” Pini Zahavi. In March 2015, it was said that Viitorul hadagreed a deal of between £2m-3m for the teento move to Chelsea. He would then be loaned toBelgian club Mouscron. In July 2015, Zahavistepped in to save Mouscron from bankruptcy. On Mouscron’s official website, Manea is listedas being on loan from Chelsea. However, Maneahas never…

“I was told by the coach that he was a Ferrari, only for him to end up being the Ferrari which stays in the garage” Porto president Pinto da costa offers an automotive take on the short,unhappy stint of French midfielder Giannelli imbula (left) at the club EUROPE To the surprise of no one, it wasconfirmed that PEP GUARDIOLAwill replace Manuel Pellegrini andbecome head coach of ManchesterCity when he leaves Bayern Munichat the end of the season. BEPPE IACHINI was reinstatedas Serie A side Palermo’s seventhcoach of the season. Russia captain ROMANSHIROKOV joined CSKA Moscowon a six-month deal after themidfielder’s contract with SpartakMoscow was ended by mutualconsent in January. RUUD VAN NISTELROOY willleave his post as assistant to Hollandboss Danny Blind in the summer andjoin the coaching staff at PSV.…

Rugby coach offers impressive Pep talk Eddie Jones, the vastly experienced coach of England’s rugby union team, is full of awe for the sporting manager he admires above all others: Pep Guardiola. Normally, the two codes are uneasy bedfellows – which only serves to emphasise the reverence across the world of sport for Guardiola as he prepares to become the manager of Manchester City next season. Jones has spoken of how he had gone to Bayern Munich to study the work of the master of soccer. “It was absolutely fascinating to watch Guardiola doing a training session,” he explained. “He was so bloody brilliant; and watching him work I was embarrassed by the standard of my own coaching. “I had an hour and a half with Guardiola, talking about his…

JIANGSU SUNINGAlex Teixeira Ramires Jo Sammir Trent Sainsbury GUANGZHOUEVERGRANDEJackson Martinez Paulinho Ricardo Goulart Alan Carvalho HEBEI CHINAFORTUNEGervinho Gael Kakuta Stephane Mbia Ezequiel Lavezzi SHANGHAI SIPGAsamoah Gyan Elkeson Dario Conca SHA NGHAI SHENHUADemba Ba Momo Sissoko Giovanni Moreno Fredy Guarin Avraam Papadopoulos Obafemi Martins SHANDONG LUNENGGil Diego Tardelli Walter Montillo BEIJING GUOANBurak Yilmaz Renato Augusto Ralf CHANGCHUN YATAIMarcelo Martins Moreno LIAONINGIbrahima Toure James Troisi HANGZHOUGREENTOWNAnselmo Ramon Matthew Spiranovic SHIJIAZHUANG EVER BRIGHTMario Rondon Ruben Micael SECOND DIVISIONJadson (Tianjin Quanjian)Luis Fabiano (Tianjin Quanjian)Zvjezdan Misimovic (Beijing Renhe)Nikica Jelavic (Beijing Renhe) CHONGQING LIFANEmmanuel Gigliotti TIANJIN TEDAFredy Montero Wagner HENAN JIANYERyan McGowan…

Bo-Ca New Entry Born in Brussels, he was snapped up by Anderlecht at just 13, but his career was almost torpedoed before it had begun when the Belgian outfit cut ties with the youngster because of his bad attitude. Luckily, a growing maturity, not to mention his extraordinary talent, saw him offered a second chance by Standard Liege in 2008 – and he hasn’t looked back since. After making his debut in February 2011, a haul of 44 goals in 120 games had a number of top European sides sniffing around before Marseille signed him on a five-year deal for €7 million in June 2014. Since arriving in France, he has quickly established himself as a fan favourite thanks to his lightning-quick feet and ultra-cool temperament in front of goal.…

TELL US WHAT YOU THINK #WS500 During a holiday in Ibiza last July, Napoli and Argentina striker Gonzalo Higuain had an altercation with a supporter, early one morning outside a nightclub. “Ah, come on, you can’t even take a penalty properly,” said the fan, annoyed that Higuain would not stop for the ritual selfie. Higuain’s annoyance was most untypical for a player whose off-the-field behaviour in three seasons in Italy has always been impeccable. Yet, there was no denying that a particularly sore point had been touched. Last season, the prolific Higuain missed two vital spot-kicks: one for Argentina in their Copa America Final loss to Chile and the other in a last-day Napoli v Lazio Champions League decider, eventually won 4-2 by Lazio. By the beginning of this campaign,…

Ma-Mi New Entry Thirty odd years ago, virtually every Bundesliga club possessed a crash-bang-wallop front-line spearhead. Now only one of the species remains: Hamburg’s Lasogga. Combative, physical, robust, powerful in the air and a guarantee of 90 minutes of acute irritation for centre-backs, the 6ft 2in, 14st Lasogga might be a throwback but that does not make him any less effective. With his battering-ram style and indomitable spirit, he is hugely popular with Hamburg fans and is effectively a new millennium reincarnation of Horst Hrubesch, the colossus whose goals underpinned the club’s European and domestic glory years of the 1980s. Born and brought up in the German football heartland that is the Ruhr, Lasogga is the classic example of a player from that largely blue-collar area: uncomplicated, raw-boned, wholehearted and…

Sa-Se New Entry The latest in a long line of young Chelsea hopefuls to be farmed out to Vitesse, teenage front-runner Dominic Solanke must now decide whether to remain in Holland for another term or go back to England next season and stake his claim for a Premier League spot. With his pace and eye for goal, Solanke has made quite an impact in Arnhem, with pundit and former Dutch international Rene Van der Gijp believing there is only one logical choice. “For his career it would be better to spend a few more years at Vitesse,” says Van der Gijp. “After playing one year in Holland it’s impossible to get much playing time at Chelsea. The gap is immense.” Van der Gijp’s argument is supported by the fate of…

Th-Va “When I saw my name up on the board, I was so excited.” It was February 2015 and 20-year-old Inaki Williams had just been handed his first start in European competition for Athletic Bilbao as they travelled to face Torino in Italy He’d already played three times in the first team but this was different and he admitted that he felt butterflies in his stomach. If so, it didn’t show. Just eight minutes into the game he scored the opening goal and the shirt he wore went in a frame and up on the wall. The shirt was historic too as Williams had just become the first black player to score for the club in its 117-year history, although he was not the first black player to play for…

When Leicester City beat Manchester City 3-1 in February – and made everybody wake up to the fact they might actually be serious title contenders after all – they had 36.1 per cent possession and their pass completion rate was just 64 per cent. Previously there had been a consensus of opinion, informed by the success of Barcelona under Pep Guardiola, that possession was key. Johan Cruyff kept telling everybody that if you have the ball, the opposition can’t score. Dominate possession; pass, pass, pass; grind the opposition down with the attrition of constant movement and exploit the spaces when they occurred. It was what the best teams did, celebrating their mastery by hogging the ball. Football, it seemed, had moved into a new phase. Ever since the 6-3 defeat…

To buy these products, visit subsidesports.com EURO MERCHANDISE… TROPHY MAGNET The official European Championship trophy magnet. Measures 60mm in diameter. £7.99 MATCH BALL The “Beau Jeu” ball at £26.99 (right, bottom) and the Winter Ball (right, top) made from “100 per cent polyurethane leather”. £99.99 CITY SPINNER KEYRING And, of course, no tournament would be complete without the official keyring, with host city “spinnner”. £7.99…

● OVERVIEW Zlatan Ibrahimovic holds the key to success in France after the Paris Saint-Germain striker inspired his fellow countrymen to victory over neighbours Denmark in the play-offs. ● Sweden are heading to France after a play-off victory over Scandinavian rivals Denmark. Zlatan Ibrahimovic proved to be the difference, scoring an acrobatic volley from a corner and a brilliant free-kick to see the Swedes through. ● In truth, Sweden were lucky to have the safety net of the play-offs after coming third in a relatively easy qualifying group. They dropped points with draws against Austria, Russia and Montenegro, while defeats to Russia and Austria last September left them playing catchup for the automatic qualifying places. ● Erik Hamren’s side have struggled in defence since the retirement of Olof Mellberg but…

CHICAGO FIRE In: Johan Kappelhof (Groningen, Hol), Joao Meira (Belenenses, Por) Out: - COLORADO RAPIDS In: Shkelzen Gashi (Basle, Swi), Mekeil Williams (Antigua GFC, Gtm) Out: Maynor Figueroa (Dallas), Marcelo Sarvas (DC United) COLUMBUS CREW In: Ola Kamara (Austria Vienna, Aut), Emil Larsen (Odense, Den), Amro Tarek (Real Betis, Spa, loan) Out: Kevan George (released), Emanuel Pogatetz (Union Berlin, Ger) DALLAS In: Maynor Figueroa (Colorado Rapids), Carlos Gruezo (Stuttgart, Ger), Juan Esteban Ortiz (Atletico Huila, Col) Out: - DC UNITED In: Marcelo Sarvas (Colorado Rapids) Out: - HOUSTON DYNAMO Agustin Garcia (Albacete, Spa), David Rocha (Gimnastic, Spa) Out: Brad Davis (Sporting Kansas City) LA GALAXY In: Ashley Cole (Roma, Ita, free), Nigel De Jong (Milan, Ita), Jeff Larentowicz (Chicago Fire), Jelle Van Damme (Standard Liege, Blg) Out: Omar Gonzalez (Pachuca,…

While the Republic of Ireland’s national team is well supported, there remains only limited interest in a domestic league that has provided several players for the international side over the years, with 10 of the 25 players used by Martin O’Neill in the Euro qualifying campaign starting their careers with League of Ireland clubs. The latest to try his luck over the water is last year’s domestic player of the year, Richie Towell, with the former Celtic and Hibernian striker joining Brighton & Hove Albion after scoring 25 goals in 32 league games for champions Dundalk. And Dundalk boss Stephen Kenny will miss Towell’s goalscoring touch as he bids to lead the club to a hattrick of titles for the first time in their history. “It’s going to be a…