Innehållsförteckning för March 2019 från World Soccer

At the start of this season, few people would have predicted that six months later two of the most talked about footballers in the world would be Emiliano Sala (page 30) and Hakeem Al Araibi (page 34). Sadly, events of the past month have ensured that they have made headlines for all the wrong reasons. Sala’s time in French football was largely undistinguished, bar his recent achievements at Nantes. Sadly, his career will be remembered for a fateful plane journey that has raised all sorts of questions about modern football clubs and the way they conduct their business. The case of Al Araibi has again exposed the complex world of Middle East politics with which football often entangles itself. Events off the pitch at the recent Asian Cup (page 26),…

Whistle-blowers are playing a dangerous game It takes courage to be a whistle-blower. The convention is that the individual is an insider outraged by the corrupt, illicit, illegal and/or immoral behaviour of bosses or colleagues; the righteous putting integrity ahead of job security and friendships. But, sometimes, all may not be quite as it seems… This is the conundrum concerning “John”, now revealed as Rui Pedro Goncalves Pinto, whose “Football Leaks” exploits have brought sleepless nights to football’s high and mighty. Pinto is 30, Portuguese and lives in the Hungarian capital of Budapest, which provides him with a lifestyle he believes his own country trashed long ago. Or, at least, this is where he lives right now, under house arrest with an electronic tag on one ankle. Portugal has launched…

Gordon Banks: a goalkeeper of strength, courage and agility That outstanding England goalkeeper, Gordon Banks, will stay long in the mind for a stupendous save and a mysterious episode of food poisoning. He once told me that Alf Ramsey convinced him that, after he had let in a long-range, left-footed Brazilian freekick at Wembley, his “mind’s not got to wander”. Nor in future would it. The save he made from Pele’s pointblank header in the 1970 World Cup finals in Guadalajara stays vividly in the mind. So, alas, does the memory of seeing him, early in the morning of a World Cup quarter-final versus Germany in Leon, walking shakily across the grass on the arm of the England doctor. Somehow or other he had become subject to food poisoning. No…

The sad loss of Argentinian striker Emiliano Sala and British pilot David Ibbotson in an air accident on January 21 led to an outpouring of grief on both sides of the Channel, with the ripples spreading far and wide as the football world paid tribute to the 28-year-old footballer Yet even before Sala’s body had been recovered from the wreckage of the Piper PA-46 Malibu light aircraft in which he had been travelling from France to Wales, football’s harsher side had begun to show itself. BBC Wales revealed that French club Nantes, who had sold Sala to Cardiff City for €17million on January 19, were demanding the first of three payment instalments agreed for the player. In an article on their website, French TV news channel LCI quickly captured the…

Although the final decision is not his to take, FIFA’s deputy secretary-general says there is no chance of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar being expanded to 48 teams when Council meets in March. “To go to 48 teams would make difficulties for Qatar because of the preparations already made for 32 teams,” says Boban, who won the Champions League and four Serie A titles with Milan as a player in the 1990s. “Qatar, in itself, would find it difficult to accommodate a finals with 48 teams. In that case it would be necessary to spread the matches into some other countries nearby and this brings other issues into play.” The idea of the tournament being shared with neighbouring nations is a non-starter due to the political and economic blockade…

Weston McKENNIE Age 20 (28.08.98), midfielder, Schalke (Ger) & USA In a sentence A Texan titan of a central midfielder who is useful on the ball, can chip in with a goal or two and has copious amounts of running power. What they say Schalke coach Domenico Tedesco: “He has a great mentality, he’s level-headed and is the sort who doesn’t give up. When things aren’t going so well he embodies the direction we need to take.” Club-mate Daniel Caligiuri: “The kid is a fighter. He’s not one to admit defeat. He does everything to 100 per cent. Few at the age of 20 show this sort of talent.” Story so far A very single-minded young man, he turned down a MLS Homegrown Player contract with Dallas and a scholarship…

Sides from Argentina and Brazil are again expected to dominate South America’s top club competition – and teams from the two continental powerhouses have already met in the qualifying rounds. Libertadores champions three times, Sao Paulo are already out after losing to provincial side Talleres, who were in the Argentinian third division less than five years ago. But even without Sao Paulo in the group stage, Brazil will still have a powerful contingent in this year’s field. And three teams in particular will fancy their chances of going all the way and ending their country’s dismal record of just one finalist since 2013. While the previous administration at Flamengo concentrated on getting the finances right, the current one wants titles and has shown itself willing to spend in order to…

Big-spending Vissel Kobe have once again been making all the headlines as the J.League prepares to kick off the 2019 season, announcing the addition of a third World Cup-winner, David Villa, to their increasingly star-studded squad. Spain’s all-time top scorer, 36-year-old Villa joins close friend, fellow countryman and former Barcelona team-mate Andres Iniesta, 34, and 33-year-old German striker Lukas Podolski at the league’s most ambitious club. David Villa modestly chose to describe his main strength as “effort” on his unveiling in Japan Vissel’s other big signings include 28-year-old Hotaru Yamaguchi from Cerezo Osaka – who himself is a veteran of two World Cups – to shore up midfield, and Kashima Antlers full-back Daigo Nishi. They were also linked with Lazio’s Uruguay defender Martin Caceres, but he chose to return to…

JANUARY 2018 GOALKEEPERS ALISSON (Liverpool) 10 Jan OBLAK (Atletico Madrid) 10 Marc-Andre TER STEGEN (Barcelona) 10 EDERSON (Manchester City) 7 David DE GEA (Manchester United) 6 Wojciech SZCZESNY (Juventus) 5 Thibaut COURTOIS (Real Madrid) 4 Gianluigi DONNARUMMA (Milan) 3 Roman BURKI (Borussia Dortmund) 1 Petr CECH (Arsenal) 1 Ralf FAHRMANN (Schalke) 1 Hugo LLORIS (Tottenham Hotspur) 1 Mike MAIGNAN (Lille) 1 Jordi MASIP (Real Valladolid) 1 NETO (Valencia) 1 Oier OLAZABAL (Levante) 1 Rui PATRICIO (Wolverhampton Wanderers) 1 Jordan PICKFORD (Everton) 1 DEFENDERS Virgil VAN DIJK (Liverpool) 32 Jordi ALBA (Barcelona) 16 Giorgio CHIELLINI (Juventus) 15 Leonardo BONUCCI (Juventus) 14 Ashraf HAKIMI (Borussia Dortmund) 13 ALEX SANDRO (Juventus) 11 Joao CANCELO (Juventus) 11 Gerard PIQUE (Barcelona) 9 MARQUINHOS (Paris Saint-Germain) 8 Sergio RAMOS (Real Madrid) 8 Joshua KIMMICH (Bayern Munich)…

LISANDRO LOPEZ The Racing Club striker managed to score 10 goals in 10 games to lead the scoring charts In Argentina’s Superliga. CRAIG FOSTER The former Australia international turned media pundit played an instrumental role in the campaign to prevent Hakeem Al Araibi being extradited to Bahrain from Thailand. EDINSON CAVANI & KYLIAN MBAPPE The duo became the first team-mates for 40 years to score Ligue 1 hat-tricks in the same game as they helped Paris Saint-Germain to a 9-0 victory over Guingamp. JASPER CILLESSEN The Barcelona goalkeeper, who was famously substituted by Dutch coach Louis Van Gaal prior to the start of Holland’s 2014 World Cup penalty shoot-out win over Costa Rica, saved the first spot-kick of his club career when he denied Ever Banega in a Spanish Cup…

IN EUROPE SINISA MIHAJLOVIC, who coached the Serie A side in the 2008-09 season, returned to Bologna after they sacked Filippo Inzaghi. Hanover replaced Andre Breitenreiter with THOMAS DOLL, while Augsburg appointed former Germany goalkeeper JENS LEHMANN as assistant coach. Ex-international midfielder THOMAS HITZLSPERGER was appointed sporting director of Stuttgart. Without a club since leaving LA Galaxy in November, 38-year-old defender ASHLEY COLE rejoined former England and Chelsea team-mate Frank Lampard, who is now manager of Championship side Derby County. Bottom of the Premier League, Huddersfield Town appointed JAN SIEWERT as manager following David Wagner’s decision to stand down. Former Liverpool and Switzerland centre-back STEPHANE HENCHOZ was appointed coach of Neuchatel Xamax. PAUL HECKINGBOTTOM replaced Neil Lennon at Hibernian, while BRIAN RICE took charge of Scottish Premiership strugglers Hamilton Academical.…

Both on and off the pitch, the 2019 Asian Cup was all about Qatar, with few nations and eventual champions dominating a tournament’s narrative quite so much. Winning the trophy for the first time, their success was fully deserved as they scored 19 goals and conceded just once along the way, beating continental powerhouses Saudi Arabia, South Korea and, in the Final, Japan. Going into the tournament there was an appreciation that the 2022 World Cup hosts had improved under Spanish coach Felix Sanchez following a disappointing effort to qualify for Russia 2018. A November win over Switzerland and a draw with Iceland raised eyebrows and expectations, but a semi-final place would have been wholeheartedly accepted beforehand. Having spent years working with various youth teams at the Aspire Academy in…

The business of football can be brutal at times. Yet the game can also be a force for good. This was underscored by the case of little-known player Hakeem Al Araibi, a refugee who got caught up in an extradition tug-of-war between his native Bahrain, Thailand and Australia. Al Araibi’s story starts with the Arab Spring protests, during which he was accused of vandalising a police station in Bahrain in 2012. In his defence, Al Araibi says he was playing in a Bahraini Premier League game for Al Shabab at the time of the alleged crime – a claim supported by fact that the match was being shown live on TV. Despite this, he was sentenced by Bahrain to 10 years in jail in absentia after he fled to Australia,…

Abel Xavier’s eccentricities were famous in his playing days, and while his dyed-blond hair is still neatly tied into a man bun at the back of his head, he is now resplendent in a black dinner jacket on the side of the pitch. Despite the tropical heat, he wears this as he prowls up and down the touchline in his role as coach of Mozambique. Although a Portugal international, notorious for giving away a penalty in the semi-final of Euro 2000 and earning a red card in the process, he was born in Mozambique – in Nampula, like Carlos Queiroz, who recently quit as Iran coach to take charge of Colombia – and he has come home to take the team to the brink of a first African Nations Cup…

With action from a qualifier between Kuwait and New Zealand on the cover, World Soccer began its countdown to the forthcoming World Cup. The issue profiled finalists Algeria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, El Salvador, Peru, Russia and Yugoslavia, and also took a look at some of the coaches who would be heading to Spain that summer. Although in charge of Algeria at the time, Yevgeni Rogov was far from certain of being one of those leading a team at the finals – as John Goodbody suggested in his review of the North African side. Goodbody said of Rogov: “A man with shining eyes and a lively character he considers the principal weakness of Algerian players [to be] a lack of dedication.” And he quoted the Russian coach as saying of his team:…

Eight years ago, Neymar and Lucas Moura shone for Brazil in the South American Under-20 Championship but then missed the World Cup at that level as they were at the Copa America with the senior squad, leaving the stage clear for Oscar, Philippe Coutinho and Casemiro to grab the glory as Brazil were crowned under-20 world champions in Colombia. Since then, however, the country’s record at under-20 level has been dismal. While a final-day 1-0 victory over Argentina restored a little morale at this year’s continental tournament in Chile, Brazil were in need of a three-goal margin – something that always looked beyond a team that scored just six times in nine games – and they will miss out on the World Cup for the second consecutive time and for…

Joao FELIX (Benfica) The 19-year-old attacking midfielder has been a revelation in recent weeks. He was the subject of a €60million offer from an unnamed Premier League side in January, a move that prompted Benfica to raise his release clause to €120m. Having made his debut for the club in August, his big opportunity came in January when they parted company with coach Rui Vitoria. His successor, Bruno Lage, had coached Felix in the club’s B side and the youngster, who can play as a winger or striker, quickly became a key part of his 4-4-2 system, alongside Swiss centre-forward Haris Seferovic. A cooly-taken goal against Sporting in the Lisbon derby was watched by Cristiano Ronaldo, prompting inevitable comparisons, but Felix already has better stats than the Juventus star at…

Stats cannot explain football’s beauty or its artistry If we must have game stats could we at least have intelligent ones? The more game statistics I see, the more irritated I get because I’m never sure what these figures are trying to tell me. I’ve seen a set of stats that includes, as a category, “clearances”. What the heck is a clearance? A hefty whack, into touch probably. Is that a positive or a negative stat? By way of introduction that’s a frivolous touch, but I have a more serious aim. I want to question the value of the soccer stats that are currently thrust before us. We get two versions of stats: pregame and post-game. If pre-game stats have any use at all, it ought to be as a…

€64m Christian Pulisic (B Dortmund, Ger, to Chelsea, Eng) €47m Leandro Paredes (Zenit, Rus, to Paris Saint-Germain, Fra) €42m Paulinho (Barcelona, Spa, to Guangzhou Evergrande, Chn) €35m Shoya Nakajima (Portimonense, Por, to Al Duhail, Qat) €35m Lucas Paqueta (Flamengo, Bra, to Milan, Ita) €35m Krzysztof Piatek (Genoa, Ita, to Milan, Ita) €24m Miguel Almiron (Atlanta United, USA, to Newcastle United, Eng) €21.2m Dominic Solanke (Liverpool, Eng, to Bournemouth, Eng) €20.5m Jonny Otto (Atletico Madrid, Spa, to Wolves, Eng) €20m Marek Hamsik (Napoli, Ita, to Dalian Yifang, Chn) €17.3m Brahim Diaz (Man City, Eng, to Real Madrid, Spa) €17m Emiliano Sala (Nantes, Fra, to Cardiff City, Eng) €16.5m Stefano Sturaro (Juventus, Ita, to Genoa, Ita) €15m Leonardo Balerdi (Boca, Arg, to Borussia Dortmund, Ger) €15m Wilmar Barrios (Boca Juniors, Arg, to…

The Asian Cup proved tournaments are still a great place to catapult names onto the global stage, and there were a number of impressive performers in the Qatari ranks. Akram Afif managed 10 assists before clinching the trophy with a late penalty in the Final, and the emergence of Tarek Salman and Bassam Al Rawi suggests the future is bright. Yet it is Almoez Ali who was the standout. By the end of the tournament he had a golden boot, an MVP award, a signed Barcelona shirt from Lionel Messi and interest from a number of big European clubs. Born in Sudan but a resident of Doha since he was seven, Ali scored his first goal of the tournament in the opening win over Lebanon and then never really stopped.…

When fans of Fluminense flocked to Rio de Janeiro airport to welcome new signing Paulo Henrique Ganso, some compared it to the reception given to Ronaldinho when he joined the club in 2015. But there was, of course, one very obvious difference. Ronaldinho was beyond any doubt a genuine world star, the biggest and most entertaining name in the global game for an all-too-brief period. What he did in a Barcelona shirt between 2004 and 2006 captivated a worldwide audience in a way that few players have ever done, storing up a vast quantity of goodwill that greets him wherever he travels. The case of Ganso, however, is entirely different. The hopes that he generated a decade ago have never come remotely close to being realised and he returned from…

Elected football officials at FIFA and confederation level have over the years been regarded with increasing suspicion, with many seen to be using the game to build a public profile or to profit from the riches and largesse that the sport offers. Many of these would appear to have murky backgrounds and seem ill-fitted for service to football, yet they are still able to win the confidence of voting associations and take their place at some of the sport’s top tables. And this is indeed true of Patrice-Edouard Ngaissona, who won a surprise place on the executive committee of the Confederation of African Football in February last year. Less than 12 months later, the president of the Central African Republic Football Federation was in the dock at the International Criminal…

Paris Suburbs FRANCE Where would the all-conquering French national team be without the huge contribution of its numerous Parisians? The obvious answer is in tremendous difficulty. Their World Cup-winning squad last year contained no fewer than eight players either born or brought up in the tower block suburbs of Ile-de-France (Greater Paris) and it was the same story at Euro 2016, with nine players from the environs of the capital city. France’s triumph in Russia was essentially built around a Parisian core of midfielders in Paul Pogba, N’Golo Kante and Blaise Matuidi, plus attacking boy wonder Kylian Mbappe. Indeed, the banlieues, as these satellite towns are known, might have figured even more prominently at Russia 2018. Bayern Munich winger Kingsley Coman was in line for selection until struck down by…

Glenn Moore When Jill Ellis surveys the coaching landscape ahead of this summer’s Women’s World Cup she will feel like a battle-scarred veteran as the USA coach is by some distance the most established dug-out presence after an extraordinary cull by the game’s leading nations. Australia’s shock axing of Alen Stajcic in January meant seven of FIFA’s top-10 ranked countries in the women’s game have changed coaches in the 18 months since Euro 2017. Of these, five were fired – including those in charge of four of the world’s top six. Three parted company because of poor results, but Stajcic – like England’s Mark Sampson – went due to off-field issues. As with Sampson, events appear to have been set in motion by a confidential survey of players. This, said…

Despite the loss of coach Tata Martino, who is now in charge of Mexico’s national side, and Paraguayan playmaker Miguel Almiron to Newcastle United, defending champions Atlanta United are the front runners to win the 2019 MLS Cup. While the departure of Almiron will obviously hurt, the blow is softened by the $27million Atlanta received from the Premier League side and the arrival of Gonzalo “Pity” Martinez, from Libertadores Cup winners River Plate, who was South America’s player of the year in 2018. The man brought in to replace Martino and to lead a largely Latino team is Dutch coach Frank De Boer, which is an interesting appointment considering European bosses have never really flourished in MLS. Atlanta’s biggest challengers this term could be Los Angeles FC. Coached by former…

We have a population of 30,000 but that went down to 20,000 after the hurricane,” says British Virgin Islands FA president Andy Bickerton, whose own home was one of the many destroyed by Hurricane Irma in 2017. And while some of those who left in the aftermath have returned, the impact of the disaster still reverberates. “The hurricane caused lots of players to relocate to a lot of countries,” says the nation’s most-capped player, Troy Caesar. “It caused a lot of problems in the BVI. We had just started on a new stadium and that was damaged. Even some of the youngsters that I used to coach were gone and people’s addresses were lost.” With the pitch at the $5million stadium in Tortola ruined, the national team had to play…

The last 10 places at this year’s expanded African Nations Cup will be decided over the weekend of March 22-24, with South Africa facing the prospect of an embarrassing setback, while tiny Burundi and Lesotho are both one result away from first ever appearances at the finals. South Africa, who won the title in 1996, are unbeaten in their group and have only conceded one goal in five qualifiers yet, bizarrely, they will miss out if they lose away to Libya in their last game. They began Group E with a victory in Nigeria and looked set to go to the finals – even more so when it was then announced that the Nations Cup field would be expanded to 24 teams, with the first two in each of the…

Played in United Arab Emirates Group A Jan 5 - Abu Dhabi United Arab Emirates 1 (Khalil pen 88) Bahrain 1 (Al Romaihi 78) HT: 0-0. Att: 33,878. Ref: Makhadmeh (Jor) UAE: Eisa - Al Ahbabi, Khalifa Mubarak, Juma, Saleh, Khalfan Mubarak (Rashid 54), Salmeen, A Abdulrahman (M Abdulrahman 54), I Al Hammadi, Mabkhout, Esmaeel (Khalil 81). Bahrain: Alawi - Al Shamsan, Issa, Al Hayam, Juma (Marhoon 87), Al Safi, Saeed, Madan (Al Husaini 90+3), Al Aswad, Rashid (Helal 81), Al Romaihi. Jan 6 - Abu Dhabi Thailand 1 (Teerasil 33) India 4 (Chhetri pen 27, 46, Thapa 68, Lalpekhlua 80) HT: 1-1. Att: 3,250. Ref: Liu (HK) Thailand: Chatchai - Tristan, Chalermpong, Pansa, Theerathon, Thitipan, Sanrawat (Korrakot 58), Adisak (Sumanya 79), Chanathip (Siroch 73), Supachai, Teerasil. India: Singh Sandhu…

AFRICA CONFEDERATION CUP Play-off round 1st legs - Jan 11-14; 2nd legs - Jan 19/20 African Stars (Nam) v Raja Casablanca (Mor) 1-1, 0-1 (agg 1-2); Al Ahly Benghazi (Lby) v Hussein Dey (Alg) 1-0, 1-3 (agg 2-3); Al Hilal Omdurman (Sud) v Mukura Victory (Rwa) 3-0, 0-1 (agg 3-1); Al Nasr (Lby) v Salitas (BuF) 1-0, 1-3 (agg 2-3); AS Otoho (Con) v KCCA (Uga) 3-0, 0-2 (agg 3-2); Bantu (Les) v Enugu Rangers (Nga) 1-2, 1-2 (agg 2-4); Coton Sport (Cam) v Asante Kotoko (Gha) 2-3, 1-2 (agg 3-5); Gor Mahia (Ken) v New Star (Cam) 2-1, 0-0 (agg 2-1); Ittihad Tanger (Mor) v Zamalek (Egy) 0-0, 1-3 (agg 1-3); Jaraaf (Sen) v RS Berkane (Mor) 2-0, 1-5 (agg 3-5); Jimma Aba Jifar (Eth) v Hassania Agadir (Mor)…