Innehållsförteckning för Autumn 2021 från World Soccer

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Brazil and Argentina’s September World Cup qualifier in Sao Paulo descended into chaos following its abandonment seven minutes after kick-off, with several visiting players accused of COVID quarantine violations. Health authority officials entered the pitch to stop the match, objecting to three Argentina players they believed should not be playing after apparently breaking quarantine rules, prompting the away side to walk off. Although the players were not named, Premier League stars Emiliano Martinez, Cristian Romero and Giovani Lo Celso all started the game, and Brazilian rules state that visitors who have been in the UK in the 14 days before entering the country must quarantine for a fortnight on arrival. This wasn’t the only controversy arising from the latest CONMEBOL international window – eight Brazilians, along with players from Chile…

Jean-Pierre ADAMS (1948-2021) The former France defender spent the last 39 years in a coma after an error with his supply of anaesthetic during knee surgery in1982. During his career he played for Nimes, Nice and Paris Saint-Germain, while also winning 22 caps for France. His career was brought to a tragic end by a trainee anaesthetist, who caused his brain to be starved of oxygen while undergoing an operation on a ruptured ligament. His wife Bernadette cared for him for the rest of his life. The day after he died, a minute’s applause was held ahead of France’s World Cup qualifier with Finland. PAULAO (1969-2021) Paulo Antonio Alves played for Angola at the1996 and1998 Africa Cup of Nations finals and was signed by Benfica in Portugal. He also played…

Whatever else you can say about Manchester United’s leadership, they do clearly understand the value the fanbase places on former heroes. It’s hard to imagine any manager other than a popular former player being under so little pressure as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer after two and a half seasons of inconsistent performances, while the arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo in the transfer window has generated a clear spike in positivity. To an extent that’s understandable, especially when the alternative seemed to be Ronaldo turning out for “noisy neighbours” Manchester City. Even if he had been a failure there – and it’s hard to see how he could have fitted comfortably into a Pep Guardiola side – it would have tarnished the memories of his six seasons at Old Trafford, when he helped…

On September11, 2013, there was gunfire heard on the streets of Kabul, a sound not unfamiliar to the four million plus inhabitants of the Afghanistan capital. These circumstances were unique however. The men’s national team had just beaten India 2-0 in Kathmandu to win the final of the South Asian Championship – one of the four major regional titles up for grabs in the world’s biggest continent. To be champion of a territory that is home to close to two billion people is not to be sniffed at and hinted at bigger and better things to come. It remains to be seen if the future is still bright for the beautiful game in the country after the Taliban’s rapid capture of Kabul in August, but there is understandable trepidation. The…

ATK Mohun Bagan There are few players who have influenced an entire region, but Roy Krishna is one. Like most Pacific islands, Fiji is consumed by rugby and the idea of a professional football career was impossible when the striker from Vanua Levu left home for New Zealand in 2008. Initially rejected by Wellington Phoenix, he had a chance of a trial with Dutch giants PSV in 2009 but opted to focus on breaking into the A-League, which back then was an all but impossible dream for a Pacific islander. Krishna signed for Waitakere United, where 55 goals in 75 games earned a move to rivals Auckland City in 2013. That December, he became the first Fijian to score in the finals of a FIFA tournament, netting in a 2-1…

On a bright Sunday morning in Kobe, Japanese women’s football moved into a new professional epoch, accompanied by speeches, flags and a three-and-a-half-minute guitar solo rendition of the WE League anthem. WE is the first fully-professional women’s league in Japan, superseding the Nadeshiko League in which most players were part-time. In the first game, INAC Kobe Leonessa beat Omiya Ardija Ventus 5-0 and, appropriately, the first two goals were scored by one veteran of the old competition and a player for the future: former international Megumi Takase and 17-year-old rising star Maika Hamano. Players like Hamano are what the new competition aims to support and inspire. WE stands for Women Empowerment with the league backing up the branding with initiatives such as a three-year deadline for clubs to have female…

Football on the Falklands has battled isolation, difficult playing conditions and political hostility with Argentina, which claims the islands. But still, it continues to survive. The main focus is the football tournament at the Island Games. The Falklands have appeared six times, winning bronze in 2013, and the Football Association sent a side over in 2018 but the 2019 Island Games in Gibraltar did not include football due to a lack of facilities. A separate Inter-Island tournament was staged the same year but sending a team to north Wales would have cost £32,000. With the team in transition, the Falklands decided not to enter. COVID-19 then struck and paralysed sport on the islands. “Most sports had ceased on advice from the local hospital due to the lack of medical evacuation…

For the16th consecutive edition, the CONCACAF Champions League will be won by a Mexican team. It is the largest dominance of a country in a continental tournament in the history of football. Since the Costa Rican side Deportivo Saprissa won it in 2005, the trophy has not left Aztec lands. In fact, in 11 of those editions, the final has been between two Mexican clubs, and in 2021 that will be the case again. America and Monterrey, who together have11 continental title wins, will meet on October 28 to decide the Mexican participant in the Club World Cup. The two finalists arrive, in addition, with absolute merit, without suffering too much in any of their qualifying rounds. The first to book their ticket was America. After breezing past Portland Timbers…

2022 WOrlD CuP Qualifiers EUROPE section • 13 finals places available Group A Sep 1 – Luxembourg Luxembourg 2(Pinto 8, Rodrigues 28 pen) Azerbaijan1 (Mahmudov 67) HT: 2-0. ref: Peljto (Bih) Luxembourg: Moris – Jans, Mahmutovic, Carlson, Pinto (Veiga 76), Martins, O. Thill (Bohnert 74), S. Thill (Deville 90+2), Barreiro, Rodrigues, Sinani (Skenderovic 90+3). Azerbaijan: Mahammadaliyev – Huseynov (Krivotsyuk 46), Haqqverdi, Medvedev, Salahi (Sadikhov 67), Bayramov, Ibrahimli (Alaskarov 46), Qarayev (Nuriyev 74), Mahmudov, Ozobic, Ghorbani (Emreli 46). Sep 1 – Faro Portugal 2 (Ronaldo 89, 90+6) Republic of Ireland1 (Egan 45) HT: 0-1. ref: Jug (Svn) Portugal: Rui Patricio – Joao Cancelo (Guedes 82), Pepe, Ruben Dias, Guerreiro (Nuno Mendes 62), Bernardo Silva, Joao Palhinha (Joao Moutinho 73), Fernandes (Joao Mario 62), Rafa Silva (Andre Silva 46), Ronaldo, Jota. Republic…

After a year’s hiatus in 2019 we brought the World Soccer 500 list back in 2020, and it was a huge success with the feature generating lots of positive feedback online from all around the world. The annual article, which was first published by World Soccer in 2015, provides a current snapshot of the global game and includes a real mix of movers and shakers: world superstars, headliners from the past year, young talents to keep an eye on and players that either have or will soon be completing big moves in the transfer window. As always, it is not a definitive list of the world’s 500 best players, but rather a shortlist of stars making a real impact on football right now; and hopefully it can provoke further debate…

HARVEY ELLIOTT After a bright start to the season, the Liverpool teenager suffered a heart-breaking ankle injury against Leeds in September. After being rushed to hospital, he found himself next to a young boy who had also broken a bone while playing football that day. Elliott handed the13-year-old his match shirt and boots to help cheer him up. JORGINHO The Chelsea and Italy midfield metronome was voted UEFA Men’s Player of the Year for 2021, having won both the Champions League and European Championship. His manager, Thomas Tuchel, won the men’s coaching award, while Barcelona Femeni took a clean sweep in the women’s categories. Alexia Putellas was named the best player, while the coaching award went to Lluis Cortes, who stepped down after winning the Champions League with the club.…

A World Cup every two years, as Gianni Infantino and his acolytes want, will revolutionise not only the football calendar but the entire sporting universe. FIFA Congress could decide as early as next spring. Every major and minor sport currently builds its schedule around the traditional four-year foundation provided by the interlocking World Cup and summer Olympic Games. All of that, with the uncertain effect on television revenues, has been thrown up into the air. The concept of a World Cup every two years is not new. Back in January 1999 Sepp Blatter, then all-powerful as FIFA president, delivered the idea on the world game in a New Year message. He said: “The existing four-yearly tournament is out of time. It dates from the1930s when teams chugged from one continent…

For the last two years Xavi Martin has worked day and night, plotting the overhaul of Barcelona’s famous academy, La Masia. From the players’ sleeping arrangements to the decor around the canteen, no stone has been left unturned. It’s the single biggest project of his working life. And through it all, one moment in Barcelona’s recent history has provided inspiration. It came back in November 2012, when Tito Vilanova’s team travelled to Levante’s Ciutat de Valencia stadium for a league match. In the 12th minute, an injured Dani Alves was replaced by Martin Montoya. For the next hour, Barca played with11 academy graduates on the field. “That’s the dream,” Martin says. “To once again have 11 players from La Masia on the pitch. This isn’t about producing another group of…

Al Duhail If Qatar are to get out of the group stage of the World Cup next year then much rests on the shoulders of striker Almoez Ali. The 25-year-old already has an impressive tournament record, as fans in certain parts of the world already know. If he can do it on the global stage then the hosts should reach the knockouts. The Sudan-born striker has been turning heads for a few years. He was the top scorer in the 2018 Asia Under-23 Championship in which Qatar finished third. The following year he finished with nine goals in the Asian Cup, a record for the continental tournament, as the Maroons made headlines around the world after lifting the trophy in Abu Dhabi. Ali, a composed finisher with plenty of pace,…

Club America There is perhaps no Mexican player better known to international audiences right now than Guillermo Ochoa. The surprising thing is that he has built his reputation without having a particularly distinguished career in Europe. Good performances in small teams, such as Ajaccio, Granada and Standard Liege, mixed with a disappointing spell in Malaga, do not constitute a particularly bright resume for the best Mexican goalkeeper of his generation. It is for the national team that Ochoa’s career and fame have really been built. After being a substitute in 2006 and 2010, he leapt into the spotlight with his historic display in the 0-0 draw with Brazil in 2014, which included a save from Neymar that was compared to Gordon Banks’ iconic save from Pele in1970. He was one…

AFGHAN ESCAPE Players from the Afghanistan women’s team, plus many family members, escaped the chaos of the fall of Kabul with the majority evacuated to Australia. Youth-team players crossed the border into Pakistan, fearing for their lives with the Taliban banning women’s sport. EXPANSION DOWN UNDER Australia’s W-League is growing to a dozen teams, including one from New Zealand, ahead of the joint-hosted 2023 World Cup. Wellington Phoenix join this season followed in 2022 by Melbourne-based Western United and Central Coast, from Gosford north of Sydney. All have teams in the men’s A-League. END OF US PAY DISPUTE? The US Soccer Federation has announced it will offer identical deals to both the men’s and women’s national teams to try to resolve its gender pay dispute. It follows a lawsuit, and…

Amazing how quickly Italy’s triumph at Euro 2020 has rekindled empire-building aspirations in the peninsula. Just four years ago, the Azzurri were at rock bottom after spectacularly failing to make the Russia 2018 cut. Now, all of a sudden, coach Roberto Mancini and his charges have ambition oozing from every pore, openly setting their sights on a hat-trick of European Championship, UEFA Nations League and the World Cup in Qatar in 2022. The Nations League final is exactly the right event at the right time for the Italians. As the newly-crowned European champions, the Blues have an enormous wave of momentum to ride and what’s more, they will be hosting the event, a perfect opportunity for local fans to venerate their heroes and continue the Wembley celebrations. It will be…

Egypt sacked their coach, Algeria had a little stutter, Morocco got caught in a coup d’etat and Ghana lost away but the rest of the continent’s heavyweight contenders registered a successful start to the group phase of African World Cup qualification. Hossam El Badry was fired despite Egypt collecting four points from their opening two matches, including a late equaliser away to Gabon in a1-1 draw where Mohamed Salah and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang faced off. Salah had missed Egypt’s opening qualifier at home to Angola, where an early penalty from Magdy Afsha settled the outcome, in one of numerous cases of British-based players missing matches to avoid travelling to countries on the UK government’s COVID-19 red list because of the ten-day quarantine they would face on their return to their clubs.…

EUROPE 2021-22 CHAMPIONS LEAGUE Preliminary round Jun 22: Folgore 0-2 Prishtina; HB Torshavn 0-1 Inter Club d’Escalades Jun 25: Prishtina 2-0 Inter Club d’Escalades First Qualifying Round Jul 6:Fola Esch 2-2 Lincoln Red Imps; HJK 3-1 Buducnost Podgorica; CFR Cluj 3-1 Borac Banja Luka; Shkendija 0-1 Mura; Ferencvaros 3-0 Prishtina; Zalgiris 3-1 Linfield; Flora 2-0 Hibernians Jul 7:Slovan Bratislava 2-0 Shamrock Rovers; Malmo1-0 Riga; Bodo/Glimt 2-3 Legia Warsaw; Connah’s Quay Nomads 2-2 Alashkert; Teuta 0-4 Sheriff Tiraspol; Dinamo Tbilisi1-2 Neftci Baku; Maccabi Haifa1-1 Kairat; Ludogorets1-0 Shakhtyor Soligorsk; Dinamo Zagreb 3-2 Valur Jul13: Lincoln Red Imps 5-0 Fola Esch (agg 7-2); Shamrock Rovers 2-1 Slovan Bratislava (agg 2-3); Riga1-1 Malmo (agg1-2); Buducnost Podgorica 0-4 HJK (agg1-7); Borac Banja Luka 2-1 CFR Cluj (agg 3-4); Mura 5-0 Shkendija (agg 6-0); Sheriff Tiraspol1-0…

Following the closure of the European summer transfer window, some unique trends were clearly apparent and an obvious result of the on-going pandemic. While the English Premier League, according to analysis by financial experts Deloitte, led the way with an overall spend of £1.1bn – down11 per cent from 2020 – the market was mainly flooded by free transfers and loans with option-to-buy clauses. While clubs such as Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea all made signings valued at £50m or more, the number of Premier League transfers valued at £10m-£25m fell to 20 (from 33 in 2020), suggesting that while the bigger clubs were still able to spend large sums of money, mid-market deals were significantly curbed. Outside of the Premier League (a total of £560m net spend),…

WEST MIDLANDS TURF WARS By Steve Tongue (Pitch Publishing, £12.99) The third volume of the Turf Wars series looks at the history of football in the West Midlands. Aston Villa and Birmingham City were founded within a year of each other, as were equally bitter neighbours Wolves and West Brom. And just as in London and Lancashire, turf wars were fought off the pitch too. In Burton and Walsall, the biggest local clubs once amalgamated to carry the name of their town forward, but what an outcry there was in the Potteries when Stoke City and Port Vale almost did the same. SIXTY YEARS A RED… AND COUNTING! By Brian Barwick OBE (Pitch Publishing, £16.99) A unique, affectionate, fun and frank account of Liverpool FC. From attending his first game…

SUMMER 2021 LATE TRANSFERS £29.8m Kurt Zouma chelsea to West Ham £26.6m Eduardo Camavinga rennes to real Madrid £25.7m Emerson Royal Barcelona to Tottenham £25m Nikola Vlasic cSKA Moscow to West Ham £24m Daniel James Man. United to leeds £22.3m Matheus Cunha Hertha Berlin to Atletico Madrid £17m Cristiano Ronaldo Juventus to Man. United £15.5m Takehiro Tomiyasu Bologna to Arsenal £15.5m Marc Cucurella Getafe to Brighton £15m Odsonne Edouard celtic to crystal Palace £15m Maxwel Cornet lyon to Burnley £14.5m Pape Matar Sarr Metz to Tottenham £13.7m Rafa Mir Wolves to Sevilla £12.9m Gaetan Laborde Montpellier to rennes £12.9m Marcel Sabitzer rB leipzig to Bayern Munich £12.9m Amine Adli Toulouse to Bayer leverkusen £10.3m Teun Koopmeiners AZ to Atalanta £10.3m Luca Waldschmidt Benfica to Wolfsburg £10.3m Lovro Majer dinamo Zagreb to rennes £9.5m Xherdan Shaqiri liverpool to lyon £8.5m Andy Delort Montpellier to Nice £8m Davide Zappacosta chelsea to Atalanta…

“Weare in the shade of Drogba, KoloToure, Yaya Toure…but there is plenty of talent in this squad”The Ivory Coast coach speaks to World Soccer ahead of January’s Africa Cup of Nations… Do you think the burst of World Cup qualifiers from September through to November, with six difficult matches for each country, means that when the Africa Cup of Nations starts in January we can be assured of a high standard of football? My opinion about this next Africa Cup is that it will be really good. First of all, if you look at the teams and the groups, it is well balanced. Each group has one or two traditionally strong teams in Africa plus one or two outsiders, who did very well to qualify. There won’t be any small…

New York Red Bulls With a move to RB Leipzig on the horizon, Caden Clark will become one of an increasing number of young, talented Americans plying their trade in Europe. When Clark emerged in his home state of Minnesota as a promising, technically gifted midfielder, he was spotted by Miha Kline who works as a Director of Recruiting for the Barca Residency Academy in Casa Grande, Arizona. It was there his journey to Europe began. Clark went on to spend three years at Barca’s Grande Sport facilities in the Sonoran Desert before being offered a contract with New York Red Bulls who acquired his Major League Soccer rights from Minnesota United. By this time, he was already on Leipzig’s radar. The Red Bull path is fairly well documented in…

Montpellier In 2021, European football is awash with information. Everyone knows everything about everyone and few surprises remain for even the casual viewer. Montpellier midfielder Teji Savanier, however, has gone largely unnoticed and may be world football’s best-kept secret. Something of a late developer, Savanier managed to fly under even French football’s finely-tuned radar until the 2018-19 season when Nimes were promoted to Ligue1. Despite being accompanied by much the same squad that finished second to Reims in the second tier, Savanier dragged his team almost singlehandedly to a miraculous top-half finish under refreshingly gung-ho coach Bernard Blaquart. Savanier played midfield destroyer, dynamo and dictator all at once, imposing himself on Ligue1 games remarkably consistently - despite that being his first real foray into the French top flight. His swagger…

37 Italy’s current unbeaten run, setting a new world record for an international streak. 7 Assists by Paul Pogba in his first four Premier League games; matching the best-ever season tally of club legend Paul Scholes. 6 Bundesliga club Wolfsburg were eliminated from the German Cup after making six substitutions in their first-round tie against fourth-tier Preussen Munster. 66 Spain’s incredible unbeaten run in World Cup qualifiers was brought to an end by Sweden in September. The run, which stretched all the way back to 1993, tallied 66 matches. 62 Games that it took Gareth Southgate to reach 40 wins as England manager, matching the record of Sir Alf Ramsey as the joint-quickest. 600 After beating Aston Villa 3-0 in September, Chelsea became only the second team (after Manchester United)…

South Korea in the east and Saudi Arabia in the west had the best of the round of16 in the AFC Champions League in September. The tournament is split into two geographic zones until the final and in the east, hard work and doggedness made a difference, with individual brilliance winning ties in the west. Both Saudi Arabian clubs made it through to the quarter-finals past Iranian opposition. Al Hilal, going for a record fourth continental championship, defeated Esteghlal 2-0 with Matheus Pereira, newly signed from West Bromwich Albion starting to show his class in the Middle East. A smart pass set up former French international Bafetimbi Gomis, tournament top scorer in 2019 when Al Hilal won, in the first half. After the break Moussa Marega, recently arrived from Porto,…

Real Madrid 3 Valencia 0 2000 Champions League Final, Paris Steve McManaman remembers the night that he completed his journey from a young Evertonian to a European champion. I was an Everton fan growing up, so playing for Liverpool was never the dream for me. But Liverpool’s scouting department was more efficiently run when I was16 and, when the offer came in, they were the better team to join. I was given the job of cleaning John Barnes’ boots and they had some great players there like Ronnie Whelan, Steve Nicol, John Aldridge and Alan Hansen, so it was a great experience to be around these players. The history of the club was all around you at Liverpool. It was more than just a football club, it was part of…