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miedemamadness · 3 years

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Vivianne Miedema Helden Magazine Interview

You recently starred with Lieke Martens in a peanut butter commercial. Is a new career beckoning?

Viv - Laughing: “My acting wasn't very strong. It was way out of my comfort zone. Oh, those things are included. It's nice that boys and girls who are fans of ours see this on TV."

When you walk down the street in London, are you recognized?

Viv- “That's starting to come now, and it's mainly because I've kind of become the face of the English league. We regularly go to London with a few girls from the team. As a group we stand out a bit more anyway, of course we also look sporty. Then people can put a face to the name. But it is not as crazy in England as it is in the Netherlands.”

Do you think your fame limits your freedom?

Viv- “We were the first to shout: 'We want to make women's football big and known.' It comes with a price. I don't really like that attention, it still takes some getting used to after all these years. Last year I was back in Hoogeveen after the lockdown. I hadn't been to my parents' house for a long time. I went out for a night with my brother Lars and had a beer. Two minutes later it was on the internet. I couldn't play games for a holiday and six months because of corona, is it also allowed once… But yes, that's part of it. Fortunately, it is still not that bad in sports, artists are being monitored more closely. I don't have such an interesting life."

You have been playing for Arsenal for four years, are only 24 and already the all-time top scorer in England and of Orange.

Viv- Laughing: "They say you have to stop at your peak, right?"

You're not going to announce your retirement now, are you?

Viv- Laughing: “No, really.”

Are you someone who remembers every goal?

Viv- “I sometimes forget something because of the adrenaline. The list of goals is also getting longer, thankfully. When we were in lockdown last year because of corona and couldn't play football, I did look back on some special matches, such as those of the European Championship won in 2017 and the World Cup in 2019 when we reached the final. It's nice to see your own goals again."

Do you value those lists?

Viv- "It's not that I'm hugely into it, but I like being at the top of a few lists."

You have also been chosen as Player of the Year 2019 and Best Player of the Decade in England and included in FIFA's World Team of the Year 2019.

Viv- “I have some of those cups at home and a few at the club. It's definitely an honor to be named, don't get me wrong, but I play football because I want to win trophies with the team. I think it's more important that I have developed over the past few years and have not only been a scoring striker, but also showed myself as number 10."

Vivianne the mouthpiece

“I have an exemplary role when it comes to certain topics and I am not afraid to give my opinion to help women's football move forward. I've created the platform for that and I think I've earned the respect of being able to voice my opinion too."

Has that also become some kind of mission for you?

Viv - “I am now one of the most famous strikers in the world in women's football, so I also think I should stand up for what is happening in women's football. We are still so behind in men's football. We must fight for equality. It's not just about money, it's also about opportunities."

It was recently announced that the format of the Champions League is changing. There will be a group stage and the prize money has been increased to 24 million. A step in the right direction?

Viv- "Absolutely. The Champions League in women's football is big, but it wasn't what it should be. The club that currently wins the Champions League is even losing money. Hopefully, clubs will now also have something to do with it.”

Before the World Cup in Canada in 2015, you said in an interview in Helden: 'Hopefully parents will one day say: 'My daughter plays football like Vivianne, that seems very special, if that is ever said.' That is only six years old. ago.

Viv- “And that remains bizarre. I was only eighteen at the World Cup. Two years later we became European champions. In my day there was no figurehead in women's football. I looked at Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder and Robin van Persie, dreamed that I would stand between them in the field. Now we see girls say: 'I want to play football like Miedema or be like Shanice van de Sanden.' That is a super step. We all contributed to that.”

Every interview you give is about the development of women's football. Do you feel that it is enough about the successes?

Viv- “That development could go a bit faster, you know, then we don't have to talk about it anymore. But we should also consider our achievements. To be so successful with a small country that is relatively new in women's football is special.”

Vivianne the world improver

What does your ideal world look like?

Viv- “That boys and girls grow up in a world in which they are given the same opportunities. Not just in football, but in all of life. That is why I became an ambassador for War Child. There are also many musicians and artist ambassadors. Music brings a lot of joy to the world, but so does sports. Unfortunately I can't travel yet due to corona. Instead, I did a lot online; tried to set up projects with schools in the Netherlands and recorded films for children in distant countries. When life is somewhat back to normal, I also hope to be able to go to war countries and children.”

What do you want to mean for the world?

Viv- “I wish I could change the world, but I don't have that illusion. I have been so lucky in my life, had a great childhood in Hoogeveen. If I can give a little happiness back to children who are having a hard time, it's included. If I can improve a day in the lives of thirty kids by playing football with them so that they can forget for a moment that they are having a hard time, then my goal has already been achieved at that moment. A year and a half ago we were in a township in South Africa with the Orange Women. Every minute we were told by those children how wonderful they were that we were there. Such a day only increases my will to help.”

Where does that feeling of 'wanting to do good' come from?

Viv- “I already had that as a little girl. When I used to watch TV, I was drawn to social topics and my primary school in Hoogeveen worked together on various projects. When actions needed to be set up, I was the first to raise my hand to help. I also made sure that my old football uniforms ended up with poorer children in the Netherlands. I still do.

Every two months we receive five pairs of new football boots. Via Instagram I make sure that my old shoes end up with Dutch boys or girls or they are sent to a good cause via the club. Last year, our entire team's clothing went to children in Jakarta.”

Vivianne the sober Dutchman

You have been playing at Arsenal for four years. Your girlfriend Lisa Evans is Scottish and you study in English. Are you half English now?

Viv- “It's really not that I forget Dutch, that will never happen, but sometimes I make a sentence or I write something down and I think: Viv, what the hell are you doing? In fact, I often hear that I speak English with a Scottish accent. I hang out with the Scottish girls a lot, then you pick that up. I think Scotland is a great country; nature, the way of life and the people.”

And what about your Northern Dutch roots? You played for Heerenveen for three years and grew up in Hoogeveen, in Drenthe.

Viv- “I don't think it's very likely that I'll ever live there again. But the Netherlands has done many things well. So I'm not saying I'll never go back, but I don't think I'll go back to Hoogeveen. I did get the soberness from the Northern Netherlands. I will always keep that.”

You and Lisa have been together for years, and teammates for years. What makes your relationship so good?

Viv- “We played together for two years at Bayern Munich and now four years at Arsenal. We are complete opposites. That seems to work. I'm quite calm and I'm fine with moving in the background. The moment Lisa enters a room, everyone becomes happy and she transfers her happiness to other people. I can enjoy that immensely. She's also crazy. It just clicks between us. Lisa and I have been living together for a while. Some will think: how complicated that you are also on the team together. I don't think so. She makes me better every day. We are the two fastest in the team and I like that I can beat her in sprints every now and then. We develop each other both on and off the field.”

And you don't think: it is sometimes a lot of Lisa around me?

Viv- “Oh, of course you do. Go to the bedroom and keep your mouth shut, I think regularly. But that will also be the case the other way around. I'm actually quite apprehensive that I won't be seeing her for a long time during the Olympics. We are normally together 24 hours a day. But sometimes being away is also part of football.”

Vivianne the thinker

“I'm quite an overthinker in life. I was eighteen when I went to the 2015 World Cup in Canada. There was a ten hour time difference and I could barely make contact with home. I had a really hard time that tournament, I thought everything was terrible. But that tournament made me mature quickly in the football world. First I became big as a football player in the Netherlands, then in Europe and at the moment I am big in the world. I do feel the pressure that comes with that. I always used to think: I don't need a psychologist. But as I got older and started going through things, I realized I can't do it alone and I need help. People I can tell my story to. Football is certainly not always fun. There are definitely moments when I think: what am I doing all this for?

After that first World Cup, I also thought about quitting. If people can't appreciate you, what are you doing it for? I play football for myself, but also to make others happy. Top sport is beautiful, but also mentally very tough.”

Do you find your support mainly in family and friends?

Viv- “The friends I have outside of football are never going to fully understand what I'm going through. The same goes for my parents. My brother Lars also plays football, first at FC Den Bosch and since this year at Vélez C.F. in Spain. He knows what I'm going through, he helps me a lot. But sometimes others don't get it. When I'm at home, I really enjoy talking to my mother about things in life other than football.”

Is the top sport life ever too much for you?

Viv- “Last year's lockdown came at the right time for me. I spent five months with my in-laws in Scotland. I enjoyed not feeling pressure for a while. The first week I thought: what should I do with my life, I have nothing but football. But the second week I enjoyed doing other things; for walking and enjoying nature. And in the third week I felt free. I woke up and could be who I wanted to be, I didn't have to pay attention to anything.”

So that lockdown has been your salvation?

Viv- "Maybe. Before corona, there were nine girls at Arsenal who had to play all games because we had a lot of injuries. There was a lot of pressure on us. I was occasionally in training with tears in my eyes because I had to play football again.”

And how did you feel this season?

Viv- “We football players are in a privileged position, I am well aware of that. We were still allowed to play soccer, while many people couldn't leave their home because of corona. But the mental consequences for girls who could not or cannot go home should not be underestimated either. I have seen my parents once in the past few months, the time before that was in July last year. I didn't go home for Christmas either. Mentally, this has been the toughest season of my football career so far.”

You now hear many stories of athletes who end up in a burnout due to the high pressure and overcrowded schedules.

Viv- “I discussed that with Lisa. During her studies she is now learning about mental problems in sports. Depression is common in athletes. I have the idea that girls are open about mental problems among themselves. But bringing it out also goes a step further. Not that there is a taboo on it, but it immediately leaves a mark on you when you tell your story. Especially in men's football. There, players have to move in a certain box to be accepted. They don't feel the freedom to say: I don't feel okay for a while. I hope that in the coming years it will become normal for athletes to speak out about this and that we can help and support each other in this. When I was still playing for Bayern Munich, I studied psychology at university the first year. I couldn't combine that with football and I stopped, but it's still in my head to do something with that later. I would like to help young girls make the transformation from youth teams to first teams. When I was fourteen, I got into the premier league to play in the women's team who were 32. That wasn't always easy. Hopefully I can help young talents in this area.”

Vivianne De Feyenoord

Feyenoord announced that it will start with a women's team next season. When will we finally see you in that Feyenoord shirt, the club you are such a fan of?

Viv- “It's great that it's possible now. But I'm just a little too young. At Arsenal we have a number of girls who have the club running through their veins. I also think Arsenal is a great club to play for, but I don't feel that intense love. When Feyenoord came out with the news that they will play with a women's team in the Eredivisie next year, I suddenly felt that warm feeling inside. That feeling of club love, of: wow, there will come a day when I can play for this club, the club that I have always been a fan of. Feyenoord needs time to become as good as Ajax, PSV and Twente, but I have every confidence that it will succeed in the coming years. One day I will play for Feyenoord. But for now I can still be found abroad.”

Vivianne the trainer

"I am following the UEFA B training, but I am not allowed to give training now because I am not allowed to get out of my 'Arsenal bubble' because of corona."

You also study Football Business. What are your ambitions after your football career?

Viv- “I have already completed a number of trainer diplomas, a psychology course and I am now studying Football Business. A nice combination that will come in handy later on. In what way I don't know yet, but once I've stopped I'm sure I want to return to the football world after a break."

Is there a national coach in you, a 'Sarina Wiegman plus'?

Viv- Laughing: “We did talk about that. Also with Arjan Veurink, the assistant. Tactically, I assert myself, the staff and the team see that too. Jokes were certainly made: 'Stop searching, we already have Sarina's successor in house.' In women's football there are simply not many top coaches around. And yes, I might want to be one in the future.”

Talking about Sarina Wiegman: she will become England national coach after the Games and Mark Parsons will succeed her. Do you regret having to say goodbye to her?

Viv- “Under Sarina, we became European champions, we played a World Cup final and we are at the Games for the first time. But in the end I think a new impulse, a little refreshment, is good after five years of working together. I think Sarina will do very well as England coach. For her and hopefully for us, it will be a positive development. And of course we will miss her.”

But first to Tokyo.

Viv - “The Games have always been my big dream, even though the World Cup is a bigger tournament for us. Despite the fact that it will now look different than usual, I am very excited.”

Vivianne Miedema in Tokyo group matches

Wednesday 21 July Netherlands-Zambia from 13.00

Saturday 24 July Netherlands-Brazil from 13.00

Tuesday 27 July Netherlands-China from 13.30

Quarter-finals Friday 30 July

Semi-finals Monday 2 August

Battle for bronze Thursday 5 August Final Friday 6 August

#vivianne miedema #football #womens football #arsenal women #arsenal wfc #dutch #oranje leeuwinnen #olympics

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f1notebook · 3 years

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do you watch or like any other sports or motorsport ?

Oh take a seat it’s my time to shine.

Well let’s put the boring part behind us, I only watch F1 and young series for motorsport.

Now the others sports !

I am a football fan, but you can’t imagine how much !! Football is MY sport, so I enjoy football way more than F1 or whatever other sport. It’s really the sport that makes me feel alive, that rhythms my days. My first ever memory of football I was 4 years old, it was when the team I support won the champions league, I can remember my dad’s joy, he took me outside, with a pan and a big spoon and just told me : “Tonight we are in the top of the world, make as much noise as you want, we are champions”

And I just remember been there, with my pan and my big spoon making as much noise as I could, happy and I didn’t even knew why.

It’s my first memory, but I cant tell you at which point I really realize what football was because it’s been part of my life since I can remember.

I have 2 siblings, and I can tell you, when your team plays, it’s total silence home, eyes focus on the tv screen.

I am 21 years old now, it’s been 16 years with football, and honestly if I had to chose a sport in the world it will be it.

Since Friday night I watched 9 football games and I am ready to watch another one in 45 minutes because it’s Europa League night.

More than supporting my team, I have every year one or two clubs I chose to follow during the season.

Like 3 years ago it’s was Juventus year, I follow every game, 2 years ago it’s was Bayern and last year, I didn’t chose any one and try to follow a little bit of everything but it wasn’t fun so this year I chose 3 teams more than mine : Chelsea, Wolves and Braga, it’s really my little pleasure football.

Of course I follow the young teams as well (the young league and the B teams are my paradise !)

Additionally I enjoy watch handball as well, I played it a little bit so it’s really cool watching it now, principally the football team I support has an handball team so I enjoy watching them in the national league, I enjoy watching the EHF champions league and the world and euro cups, and the Olympic cup as well (<- is this how it’s call ?)

We are talking about the Olympic Games, it’s something I enjoy watching as well, it’s often sports I don’t watch in my daily life so when it’s the Olympic Games I just enjoy watching everything I can, just keeping in touch with everything going on.

Changing subject, I watch tennis sometimes, but only the big games, I am not a big fan, I just enjoy it when I have time and find the game interesting so I am not really a “fan” just a watcher.

And I am into MotoGP as well (forget that in the motorsports category 😂), I enjoy watching it, but here I only watch Quali and the race. Before I watched randomly the young series as well but I stopped after what happened in Mugello.

So here are the sports I follow and enjoy !

As you could see, Football is a big part of my life and it’s been a long time, F1 comes after, than MotoGP, handball, tennis occasionally and the Olympics Games 🥰

#it was a long answer #but if you ask me to talk about sport 🤷🏽‍♀️#I mean #football #f1 #ask

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thomas-mvller · 4 years

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Tag games x 283129

Hello everyone so uh lately i've started to be more active on my music sideblog which means i've been hearting stuff like crazy for the past couple of months aka all the things i've been tagged in has been buried under all that nonsense SO because i hate leaving things undone i thought on doing them all at once and tagging a bunch of people so they can get a little distraction by doing them (as in, not all of them but whichever they might want to do)

Again: you do not have to do all of them, not even one if you don't feel like doing so! there's a game for everyone so hey!

Tagging: @havertsz @foreverbayern @germanynts @sherlockisonfire @debushit @sadiiomane10 @miasanmuller @elishamanning @abcde-fc @bbjim @littletentaclemonster @tamtam-elizabeth @minimalloss @pearfight and whoever wants to do this! if you see it, consider yourself tagged >:))

Alright, here we go:

1) I was tagged by @/tamtam-elizabeth and @/sadiiomane10 to post a capture of my lockscreen, homescreen and last song i listened to. Thank you both <3

I used to be very annoying when it came to changing my lock/homescreen so now i just don’t do that often anymore (previous to that my homescreen was a pic of lfc winning ucl OBVIOUSLY) also i haven’t really been listening to music lately but i did have a depeche mode phase like two weeks ago and this was the song i replayed the most so hey!

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2) “Get to know me” tag

Tagged by the always thoughtful @/tamtam-elizabeth , thank you and i’m sorry for taking so long ;-; <3

Name: Cloud

Birthday: sometime in november

Zodiac Sign: scorpio

Height: 5′4′’ or 1.65 (last time i checked..... which was like seven years ago)

Hobbies: lately it has been sewing facemasks 😂 that aside i like watching movies, random videos on yt, baking and crafting sometimes

Favorite colors: black, red and teal

Favorite Book: don’t think i have one :o

Last Song Listened to: barrel of a gun by depeche mode

Last Movie Watched: currently watching prince of egypt. if that doesn’t count then ben hur 😂

Inspiration or Muse: i really don’t know what to say here 😂

Dream Job: i still haven’t given up to my goal but at this point i just want a job that gives me stability and zero worries

Reason Behind my URL: Thomas Müller (German pronunciation: [ˈtoːmas ˈmʏlɐ]; born 13 September 1989) is a German professional footballer who plays for Bundesliga club Bayern Munich. A versatile player, Müller plays as a midfielde- okay no in all seriousness yess this url is bc of a football player 😂

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3) Ten songs playlist tag

Tagged by the joy that is @/foreverbayern and the always sweetest @/havertsz . thank youuuuu <3

Rules: We’re snooping through your playlist. Put your entire music library on shuffle and list the first 10 songs and then choose 10 victims.

Some months ago I made the mistake of transfering the songs i had in my old computer to my current laptop and there are some stuff that just........ should not be acknowledged so i can’t do shuffle HOWEVER i will choose ten random songs i’ve listened to/discovered this year (technically speaking is the same) so here it is:

art-i-ficial by x-ray spex

sunny afternoon by the kinks

desire lines by lush

paper cuts by incubus

pure love by hayley williams

spirit by bauhaus

no one knows by screaming trees

let’s love by suho

all we need is a dream by cheap trick

cosmonauts by fiona apple

bonus: you’re so close by peter murphy (god i adore this song)

I wouldn’t be surprised if these aren’t your cup of tea tbh 😂

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4) “Core aesthetic” tag

Tagged by @/havertsz - i’m sorry for the delay ;-; and thank you <3

rules: search your name + "core aesthetic" on pinterest, get a moodboard & select a few photos that come up

i can’t really use pinterest so i googled it instead, as you might’ve guessed this is what i got 😂

ps: i’ve been informed not to use pinterest so if you wish follow this post’s indications

ah this is so pretty, i loved doing this!

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Tagged by @/germanynts @/havertsz and @/elishamanning to do this tag, thank you all <3

rules: describe yourself with pictures you already have saved. no downloading or searching for new ones. then tag 10 people.

if you want further explanations for each pic... ask ahead 😂

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6) “bold what applies” tag

Tagged by the always enJoyable @/foreverbayern, thank yoooou <3

rules: bold what applies to you and tag a bunch of people

- Appearance

I am over 5’5 // I wear glasses/contacts // I have blonde hair // I prefer loose clothing over tight clothing // I have one or more piercings (had three...) // I have at least one tattoo // I have blue eyes // I have dyed or highlighted my hair // I have gotten plastic surgery // I have or had braces // I sunburn easily // I have freckles // I paint my nails // I typically wear makeup // I don’t often smile // I am pleased with how I look // I prefer Nike to Adidas // I wear baseball caps backwards

- Hobbies and interests

I play a sport // I can play an instrument // I am artistic // I know more than one language // I have won a trophy in some sort of competition // I can cook or bake without a recipe // I know how to swim // I enjoy writing // I can do origami // I prefer movies to tv shows // I can execute a perfect somersault // I enjoy singing // I could survive in the wild on my own // I have read a new book series this year // I enjoy spending time with my friends // I travel during school or work breaks // I can do a handstand

Relationships

I am in a relationship // I have been single for over a year // I have a crush // I have a best friend I have known for ten years // my parents are together // I have hooked up with my best friend // I am adopted // My crush has confessed to me // I have a long-distance relationship // I am an only child // I give advice to my friends // I have made an online friend // I met up with someone I have met online

- Aesthetic

I have heard the ocean in a conch shell // I have watched the sunrise // I enjoy rainy days // I have slept under the stars // I meditate outside // the sound of chirping calms me // I enjoy the smell of the beach // I know what snow tastes like // I listen to music to fall asleep (i did that for a long time and i sicnerely don’t recommend it) // I enjoy thunderstorms // I enjoy cloud watching // I have attended a bonfire (quick story time: one time when i was 12 my friends and i sneaked into our seniors’ school anniversary activities and they lit this huge bonfire near the football field, it was nuts) // I pay close attention to colours // I find mystery in the ocean (spoopy shit) // I enjoy hiking on nature paths // Autumn is my favourite season

- Miscellaneous

I can fall asleep in moving vehicles // I am the mom friend // I live by a certain quote(s) // I like the smell of sharpies // I am involved in extracurricular activities // I enjoy Mexican food // I can drive a stick-shift // I believe in true love // I make up scenarios to fall asleep // I sing in the shower // I wish I lived in a video game // I have a canopy above my bed // I am multiracial // I am a redhead // I own at least 3 dogs

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my god this is getting embarassing i had stuff long due ;-;

Tagged by @/tamtam-elizabeth. think you for thanking on me when doing tag games, i mean it :-: <3

How old are you?: 24

Surgeries?: one

Tattoos?: none yet ://

Ever hit a deer?: i have never seen one so... no 😂

Sang karaoke?: yeah... years ago 😂

Ice skated?: nope

Ridden a motorcycle?: had the chance but nope

Ridden in an ambulance?: nope

Skipped school?: a handful of times

Stayed in a hospital?: for a few hours

Broken bones?: nope

Last phone call?: i haven’t called anyone in ages 😂

Last text from?: my mom

Pepsi or coke?: coke but i don’t mind having pepsi

Favorite pie?: haven’t had one

Favorite pizza?: chorizo + corn + red pepper

Favorite season?: autumn

Received a ticket?: don’t even know how to drive

Favorite color?: black, red and teal

Sunset or sunrise?: both!

Favorite Christmas song?: don’t think i have one, maybe universe by exo?

Cupcakes or cookies?: uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh good q, cookies?

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8) “find your match” tag game

Tagged by @/tamtam-elizabeth, you’re allowed to punch me in the face at this point

Rules:

Take the test

Reblog this post with what type you got

Tag 7 mutuals to do the same!

I got the Dreamer and my ideal partner would be The Innovator ?)

Seek out opportunities to collaborate with INNOVATOR types, who combine your lofty idealism with a focus on pragmatic solutions. The grounding energy of the INNOVATOR can inspire you to apply your imagination to real-world change.

that’s deep fam 😂 but okay!

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9) “get to know me tag”

Tagged by: @/littletentaclemonster . thank you and sorry for the delay ;-; <3

nickname: cloud zodiac: scorpio height: 5′4″ / 1.65 last movie I saw: can you believe i managed to watch another thing while making this? anyway it was The celluloid closet last thing I googled: block site extension favorite musician: as of right now? depeche mode song stuck in my head: you’re so close by peter murphy other blogs: @/brltpop and @/s-lay-ing amount of sleep: as long as i can get (usually 7 or 8) lucky numbers: don’t think i have one dream job: whatever gives me stability what am I wearing: pajamas favorite food: chinese, mexican and italian language: which ones do i know? spanish and english somewhat. i want to learn japanese and german :c can I play an instrument: nope favorite song: atm is YOU’RE SO CLOSE (8) random fact: my nails usually grow sort of square except for my thumb and index fingers, they grow round for whatever reason describe yourself in aesthetic things: ?????????? idk man, messy room? loose clothes? football? cd’s on a shelf, posters on the walls ?????

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MY GOD WHY AM I LIKE THIS?????????

10)

Tagged by @/littletentaclemonster you too can punch me in the face

Rules: Bold the statements that apply to you, italicize your aspirations, then tag nine people.

AIR: I have small hands • I love the night sky • I watch small animals and birds when I pass them by • I drink herbal tea • I wake to see dawn • The smell of dust is comforting • I’m valued for being wise • I prefer books to music • I meditate • I find joy in learning new truths from the world around me

FIRE: I don’t have straight hair • I like to wear ripped jeans • I play an organized sport • I love dogs • I am not afraid of adventure • I love to talk to strangers • I always try new foods • I enjoy road trips • Summer is my favorite season • My radio is always playing

WATER: I wear bracelets on my wrists • I love the bustle of the city • I have more than one set of piercings • I read poetry • I love the sound of a thunderstorm • I want to travel the world • I sleep past midday most days • I love dimly lit diners and fluorescent signs • I rewatch kids’ shows out of nostalgia • I see emotions in colors not words

EARTH: I wear glasses/contacts • I enjoy doing the laundry • I am a vegetarian • I have an excellent sense of time • My humor is very cheerful • I am a valued advisor to my friends • I believe in true love • I love the chill of mountain air • I’m always listening to music • I am highly trusted by the people in my life

AETHER: I go without makeup in my daily life • I make my own artwork • I keep on track of my tasks and time • I always know true north • I see beauty in everything (sort of) • I can always smell flowers • I smile at everyone I pass by • I always fear history repeating itself • I have recovered from a mental disorder • I can love unconditionally

Water an aether huh, i don’t know what to do with this information 😂

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if you ask me i would very much appreciate it if you do the songs playlist tag bc i need recommendations thanks. Also massive apologies to the ones that were due since last year I had them in my drafts i swear!

Stay safe everyone :D

#ask games #yaay!#FINALLY #THE GUILT........ GONE #well this was fun

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bongaboi · 4 years

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Liverpool: 2019-20 Premier League Champions

30 years of hope: my life as an ardent Liverpool fan

After three decades of near misses, slips and tears, the Merseyside team’s wait for another league title is nearly over. So what does it mean to a scouser and lifelong fan?

by Hannah Jane Parkinson

I am three years old in the photograph, hugging a plastic, flyaway football. I am seven, arriving tentatively for my first training session at a local girls’ club. I am bounding back to my mother’s car, blowing hot breath on cold hands, beaming, the salt from the artificial turf embedded in the soles of my trainers.

I am eight and glued to the television, watching teen wunderkind and my Liverpool hero, Michael Owen, score the perfect goal against Argentina in World Cup 98.

I am nine. I give up one of the few days I have to visit my father to attend my first ever match at Anfield, Liverpool FC’s famous stadium. A week later, my father dies. These two events are inextricably linked in my mind, and the guilt continues to whichever day you are reading this.

I am 10 and make my first appearance in print in a feature for the local paper, the Liverpool Echo, about girls getting into football. I am quoted as saying that all my sister cares about is boys and fashion.

Twelve years old and the fuzzy letters of “Parkinson” on the back of my shirt arch down my shoulder blades.

I am 13. Our team, known as Liverpool Feds, are approached by Liverpool FC to become their official girls’ outfit. We visit Melwood, the first team’s training ground. The full-size goals loom like scaffolding.

I am 14. My hero, Owen, makes the same move to Real Madrid that Steve McManaman made five years before him. This breaks my heart. Suddenly, all I care about is boys and fashion. Without really making a decision, I give up football. Cold winter nights are spent inside on the sofa watching Sex and the City. I discover live music and MySpace.

I am 15. I own the entire range of Clearasil products. A group of my schoolfriends and I take a night off GCSE revision to watch the 2005 European Champions League final in Istanbul; the first the club has reached since the mid-80s, and so it is forbidden not to watch. Liverpool are losing by three goals at half time. A lost cause. Minds wander to the second biology paper… But wait. Liverpool pull back to 3-3. And win on penalties. Pandemonium. We join the throng in the streets; the blaring car horns; the beer jumping, like salmon, from pint glasses; the embrace of strangers; the straining vocal cords.

I am 18 and living in Russia, watching games on my first-generation smartphone via a 2G internet connection. Each time a player goes through on goal the signal drops to endless buffering. Liverpool finish second in the league, four points behind bitter rivals Manchester United.

I am 26, we are bearing down on the title. Steven Gerrard in an impromptu on-pitch team talk, after a crucial win against the newly flush Manchester City, shouts hoarsely at his players: “This does not fucking slip now!” The next home game, Gerrard – one of the best players the club has ever seen, captain, scouser, Liverpool FC lifer – literally slips on the turf against Chelsea to concede a goal. We lose. Manchester City finish top of the league by two points.

I am 29. I am in Cuba, where the internet is heavily censored. But I manage to watch the last game of the season, which will be decisive. Liverpool finish the league with 97 points; the highest points tally ever for a team that doesn’t win the title. City win again. With 98 points. Liverpool do, however, win the Champions League – for the sixth time – after scoring four goals in a sublime semi-final comeback against Barcelona. The injured Mohamed Salah, watching on the bench, wears a T-shirt bearing the slogan “Never Give Up”. The T-shirt sells out.

I am 30. I have never witnessed my beloved Liverpool FC lift the title. Two months from now, this is going to change. As I write Liverpool have a 22-point lead at the top of the table. Of 84 points available this season, they have taken 79. Next Monday is the derby against Everton.

I want to untangle what this will mean to me – the fan who met Steven Gerrard a couple of years ago, grinning like a child; the fan who, two weeks ago, was unbelievably touched when current star Trent Alexander-Arnold recorded a video message to cheer her up during a bad time. What it means to other fans: those who witnessed the dominance of the 1980s, and the younger ones who have known only disappointment. And what it means, too, for the future of the area of Anfield itself.

It’s late February in the Flat Iron pub, one of the many dotted around Anfield. Steve Dodd, who is 49, is with his friends Dan Wynn, 26, and Gerrard Noble, 47. All from Somerset, they are having a pre-match drink before the home game against West Ham. Steve talks of the current Jürgen Klopp-assembled side as the best Liverpool side he thinks he’s ever seen.

The friends have been scouring the internet for places to stay in the city for the last home fixture of the season, but to no avail. “Rooms are going for £400 a night,” Gerrard says, his eyes widening. He and Steve are allowing themselves to get excited, but Dan, who like me has yet to experience a league title win, looks anxious and rubs his thighs. “No,” he says, “I don’t want to jinx it. Though I’ve been kicked out of various WhatsApp groups for being smug about all the results.” Steve tells me they weren’t prepared for it, this three-decade-long wait: “I just thought we’d go on winning.”

We talk about how important it is that Klopp’s politics match the club: Liverpool is a leftwing city; Liverpool is a leftwing club. At the last election, Labour retained all of its 14 MPs on Merseyside. The city has never forgiven the Tories for former chancellor Geoffrey Howe’s strategy of “managed decline”. Thatcher is a hated figure. But so is Derek Hatton, the former city council deputy leader and member of the Marxist group Militant. Last month, Italy’s rightwing politician Matteo Salvini was forced to deny that he had pulled out of a visit to Liverpool after the metropolitan region’s mayor called him a “fascist”. During several games last year, chants rang out for Jeremy Corbyn. The current prime minister conspicuously avoids visiting. As Gareth Robertson, who is a part of the immensely popular The Anfield Wrap podcast, with more than 200,000 weekly downloads in 200 countries, puts it to me: “Not only do we want a good football coach, we expect almost a political leader, someone who gets us, and our city, its values.” Humorously, there have been petitions for Liverpool to become a self-determined scouse state, and “Scouse not English” is a frequent terrace chant.

The club has a mantra: “This means more.” It pisses off other teams and is, understandably, dismissed as marketing speak. But isn’t it true? Isn’t the 127-year-old club what people think of when anyone, anywhere in the world, mentions “Liverpool”? The famous football team that plays in red – allowing for the Beatles, of course.

The city has another team, the blue of Everton. I have nothing against Everton. I consider Everton fellow scousers and too little a threat to focus animosity towards. In a way, the clubs are unruly siblings; we love and scrap in equal measure. Totally different personalities, but born of the same streets.

Four years ago, a man named Jürgen Klopp arrived on these streets. Or more accurately, he arrived in the suburb of Formby, renting the house from his managerial predecessor, Brendan Rodgers. Klopp is the football manager that even non-football fans like. He’s Ludovico Einaudi, seducing those previously uninterested in classical music. He is a man of principle; a baseball cap permanently affixed to his head, as though at any point he might be required to step up to the plate on a blindingly sunny day. Perhaps for the Boston Red Sox, owned by Liverpool FC’s American proprietor, John W Henry.

Klopp is erudite. He is proudly anti-Brexit in a city that voted 58% Remain. “For me, Brexit makes no sense at all,” he has said. He is a socialist: “I am on the left … I believe in the welfare state. I’m not privately insured. I would never vote for a party because they promised to lower the top tax rate. If there’s something I will never do in my life it is vote for the right.” He grew up in a humble village in Germany’s Black Forest, and it shows. There’s a saying in the region: “the hair in the soup”. It means focusing on even the tiniest things that can be improved.

He has the good looks of one of my favourite 1960s Russian film stars, Aleksandr Demyanenko. He hugs his players as though they were the loves of his life and he might never see them again. Journalists like him for his press-conference banter as well as his eloquence. He visits children in hospitals. He is funny. When Mario Götze, one of his star players at former club Borussia Dortmund, left for Pep Guardiola’s Bayern Munich, his explanation was: “He’s leaving because he’s Guardiola’s favourite. If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s mine. I can’t make myself shorter and learn Spanish.”

Liverpool have had many famous managers, of course. Bill Shankly (there’s a statue of him outside the ground); Bob Paisley (ditto); Kenny Dalglish. But Klopp is already being talked of as one of the best ever.

Liverpool the city has evolved from its shamefully prominent role in the slave trade – in common with other major British ports – to a place with a diverse population and a well-won reputation for being friendly and welcoming. But the tragedy and scandal of Hillsborough, in which 96 fans were crushed to death in 1989 at Sheffield Wednesday’s ground, is etched into the nation’s sporting history, and its social justice record. After a 27-year-long battle to clear the names of the Liverpool fans whose reputations were smeared, after inquests that lasted two years – the longest case heard by a jury in British legal history – a verdict of unlawful killing was returned. But, as Margaret Aspinall of the indefatigable Hillsborough Family Support Group pointed out, after David Duckenfield, police commander at the ground, was cleared of manslaughter last year, no one has yet been found accountable for those killings.

The Sun, which categorically did not report “The Truth”, as the infamous headline went, but was found to have published untruths that blamed Liverpool fans for the disaster, is a red-top pariah here. The paper is the bestselling national in print, but shifts a measly 12,000 or so copies on Merseyside. A branch of Sainsbury’s was once found to be selling copies under the counter, as though they were counterfeit cigarettes. It’s a boycott that has lasted longer than many marriages.

The socially progressive values of the club extend to it supporting an end to period poverty – free sanitary products are available in every women’s loo at Anfield. Last month, the Reds Going Green initiative saw the installation of organic machines to break down food waste into water. The club even has its own allotment, which grows food to serve to fans in the main stand. It was the first Premier League club to be officially involved with an LGBT Pride event in 2012, at the invitation of Paul Amann. Amann tells me how he set up the LGBT supporters group, Kop Outs, because: “It’s essential that our voices are heard, our presence is welcomed and respected.” The group works alongside the Spirit of Shankly supporters’ group and the Fans Supporting Foodbanks initiative and has regular meet-ups. These things mean something to me: a football fan as a girl, and now as a woman. A woman who dates other women. A woman who doesn’t want to hear homophobic chants on the terraces. Or, it goes without saying, racist ones. Jamie Carragher, ex-player and pundit, has apologised on behalf of the club for its backing of striker Luis Suárez, who was banned from playing for eight matches in 2011 for making racist comments. “We made a massive mistake,” Carragher said. “What message do you send to the world? Supporting someone being banned because he used some racist words.”

Back on the pitch, some of this season’s performances have been, quite simply, balletic. Others as powerful and muscular as a weightlifting competition. Formations as beautiful as constellations. Forward surges as though our fullbacks were plugged into the mains. Possibly the best fullbacks playing today: 21-year-old local lad Trent Alexander-Arnold (known just as Trent) and the fiery Scot Andy Robertson (Robbo) are spoken about by pundits as innovators. Gary Lineker and I text, rapturously, about the two of them.

For a football team to be consistent, for a team to win the league, it must be capable of winning in many different ways. The aesthetically pleasing playing out from the back. Lightning counter-attacks. Scraping 1-0 wins in the final minutes (and, particularly at the start of this season, we have done a lot of that. It’s something Manchester United used to do in their 90s pomp, and naturally, I hated them for it). Mindful of the trauma of The Slip, the agreed club line is “one game at a time”, said again and again, as another scouse son, Pete Burns, once sang: “like a record baby, right round, round, round… ” And my God, how many of those we’ve smashed. The current side is the first in England to hold an international treble (the Champions League; Uefa Super Cup; Fifa Club World Cup). We have not lost a home game for almost two calendar years. Shortly, we’ll no doubt break the record for the earliest title win during a season; the most points across Europe’s top five leagues.

It is, even to the neutral, extraordinary stuff. It is, even to the haters, albeit grudgingly, extraordinary stuff. In 2016, one of the greatest stories of modern football was the previously mediocre Leicester City winning a surprise title. Liverpool’s dominance this season surpasses that for drama. It is watching history in the present.

Being at a game at Anfield is like being high while ingesting nothing. The stands seem to have lungs. Though You’ll Never Walk Alone has become supremely emotional, an anthem for strength and perseverance post-Hillsborough (“walk on through the wind / walk on through the rain”) it’s a song originally from the musical Carousel. It was a standout 1963 cover version by Liverpudlian band Gerry and the Pacemakers that kicked off its adoption at Anfield. “It’s got a lot of lovely major-to-minor changes at often unexpected moments that have the effect of emotionally blindsiding you,” music journalist Pete Paphides says (although he’s a United fan, so feel free to discount everything he tells me). “But it’s also obviously very hymnal, with a chorus which invites that religious ambiguity. It was Aretha Franklin’s version that John Peel played after Hillsborough and rendered himself incapable of carrying on by virtue of doing so.”

Anfield has always been something special; players from countless teams often talk of it being the greatest ground they have ever played at. Or the most intimidating. Or the most electric. But of late, there’s an extra buoyancy. The crowd salivates.

Watching the game against West Ham, we take the lead within 10 minutes, but they quickly equalise, before going ahead. We score twice more. It is our 21st consecutive home win, setting a Premier League-era record. At the end of the game, Klopp and his players applaud the Kop end, fans’ eyes glistening with both emotion and wind chill (“walk on, through the wind… ”)

Adjacent to the stadium at the redbrick Albert pub, Clara, Tom, John – all in their 20s, students, and local – and John’s dad, David, who is 53, are cheering the last-ditch win. I repeat what I asked Steve and his friends: just how excited should we all be?

“Very fucking excited,” says John. “Very fucking excited,” Tom concurs. (Scousers use swear words as ellipses. And the speed of Liverpudlian patter matches the rat-a-tat-tat of freestyle rappers.) The Albert is floor-to-ceiling in flags; unassuming from the outside, iconic inside. Across the road at the Park – the “Established 1888” sign above its door – it is Where’s Wally? levels of rammed, entirely usual for a match day. But the mood is as disbelieving as triumphant. It hasn’t happened yet, but it already feels as though people are waiting to be shaken awake from a dream. Around the corner, posters at another fan favourite, the Sandon, advertise a huge end-of-season victory party. I grab a burger at the Kop of the Range, a kebab joint not far from a scarf stall that has seen its business rocket over the past three years.

My Uber driver, Mohamed, 35, moved to the city from Sri Lanka. A massive Salah fan, he tells me his own revenue booms when the club win a game – happier fans means higher fares. “People don’t want to spend money on a loss,” he says. “If we win, the whole mood lifts. You can feel it in the car. Though when you start driving with Uber, they tell you not to mention what football team you support. Because football means a lot to people. There are many feelings involved with football.”

It’s unsurprising to me that even back in Sri Lanka, Mohamed was a fan. Liverpool is a global behemoth. The richest club in the UK outside Manchester.

A £1.7bn valuation; £533m turnover; pre-tax profits of £42m. Matchday ticket revenues increased (thanks to a regenerated £110m main stand). Visiting the club shop, there is LFC-branded gin; babygros; even a Hello Kitty tie-in range. As Richard Haigh at consultants Brand Finance tells me, next season’s kit deal with Nike is “expected to represent the largest in history. Brands will be willing to pay to have some magic dust of LFC.” There are official stores as far afield as Dubai and Bangkok.

John W Henry has won the support of the fans for his positive handling of the club. And yet, despite this huge wealth, Anfield is the 10th most deprived neighbourhood in the country. Boarded-up houses surround the stadium. The club has not covered itself in glory in the past, accused of buying up properties in unscrupulous ways. But it is hoped that local enterprises, such as the community-run Homebaked cake shop and new housing association properties, will make the neighbourhood better.

Last week, we were knocked out of the FA Cup in a match against Chelsea. Or, as I call that fixture, Kensington versus Kensington. (In Liverpool’s “Kenny”, 98% of residents are among the most deprived 5% nationally. In London’s, residents earn three times the national average.)

In the league, there has been a blip. Last weekend we finally lost. And we lost 3-0 to, with the greatest respect, Watford; not a bad side, but a side ensconced in a relegation battle. Arsenal, who once went a whole season unbeaten (“the Invincibles”), and are keen to keep that record, tweeted from the official club account: “Phew!”

But I am not panicking. It’s possible Dan from the Flat Iron is panicking. But Klopp isn’t panicking. In typical fashion, he said the fact we played an absolutely awful game of football was “rather positive… ”

“A couple of years ago,” our hero reminds us, “I said we wanted to write our own stories and create our own history, and obviously the boys took what I said really seriously. It is so special. The numbers are incredible.” In a nod to Sir Alex Ferguson’s famous line that his greatest challenge was “knocking Liverpool right off their fucking perch”, Liverpool chief executive Peter Moore says now: “We are back on our perch.” As The Anfield Wrap’s Gareth says: “In a dream scenario, a period of dominance follows. Not so long ago that dream was just that. Now, it’s a reality that is much easier to imagine.”

Four more games. Eyes on the prize. For me, at last, 30 years in the making, eyes on the prize.

#2020 #premier league #ynwa #liverpool fc #you'll never walk alone

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jbaeteng · 5 years

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David in BOA #2 Mar 2019

What do you lose if you win everything? David Alaba and Jérôme talk about victories and defeats - on and off the pitch

The Munich Glockenbachviertel on a mild February afternoon. David Alaba appears with mirrored sunglasses in the photo studio, where the shoot for this issue is to take place. Jérôme is already there, receiving his teammate in the dressing room. A handshake, a smile, then the funk starts. Jérôme says to the make-up artist: "Please put a lot of make-up on David's skin." David soon gets his revenge in the photo studio as he grunts at Boateng with a grin. The native Viennese and the native Berliner do not need a long warm-up to get in the mood. It's Travis Scott. Between the recordings David Alaba dances in the studio, Jérôme raps.

Both of them actually came here to talk to us about a big topic of life: about victories and defeats, sporty and personal. As defenders, they are at least sporty, so our guess. On the plus side: Both won together with the team of FC Bayern six German championships, three DFB Cups and a Champions League trophy. But they also know what it means to lose. The tragic »Finale dahoam« 2012. The repeated defeats in the European Champions League against Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and Atlético Madrid. And if the individual form did not fit, the critics did not deal with the two tenderly. As a professional footballer they learned early that even fame and recognition can be lost quickly. As people, they learned how difficult it is to make friends and meet women when you can not even walk on a street unrecognized. So what do you lose when you have won almost everything? We have a few questions. Here we go.

David and Jérôme, is winning an addiction?

D Maybe already, but a positive addiction. J To win a big title in a big stadium is like a rush, an absolute feeling of happiness. And if I'm not allowed to play, for example because I'm hurt, I can not wait to get back on the pitch. It tingles in me. I do not know many addictions, but maybe the term is actually quite good. You give your all to get back in the field as fast as possible, to play, and yes, to win. It was a dream as a child.

What's better: playing in front of 70 000 spectators in the stadium or sex?

J Depends on how sex is. But if you ask me for the best feeling I can remember, the answer is not difficult. That was the moment when we became world champions in Rio de Janeiro. Even in Brazil, where football is almost a religion. I still can not believe it.

David, was triple-year 2013 the biggest in your career for you? D Yes, clearly, that was enormous. When I think about how much power that cost back then, how many victims we had to bring, physically and mentally, to collect the harvest in the end, to become German Champion, Champions League winner and cup winner. But equally emotionally were my two debuts at Bayern and in the Austrian national team. These were events that I did not dare to even dream about as a little boy in Vienna. I also think there are many different highlights in a career, sometimes they can be very small, but they are meaningful to you personally. J That's right. For example, if you can save the ball on the goal line in a game and know that this really helps the team in the situation, because this again forces are released. As at the EM 2016.

Is a big stadium necessary for great feelings of victory, or is this also possible on a football pitch? D victories in front of great audience, of course in the home stadium in particular, but also in the legendary arenas such as Madrid, London or Dortmund are always something incredible that I can hardly get used to. The feeling of victory on the football field can also be moving. I still remember how I kicked in the small squares of Vienna as a teenager. Since I never thought that it is about nothing. On the contrary, buffets are about something that most even consider most sacred - honor. J I can only confirm that. Emotions take place in the huge stadium as well as on a small playing field. If I bet with my friends on the pitch, who wins, it can get down to business.

When were you last on a football field?

J I gambled with mates in my garden in Munich in September. We played three against three. Although I watch a bit in a duel, you do not want to hurt yourself - but I have to win already! D He then chooses the teams so that he does not have to do much, but still wins.

How long does the feeling of happiness last after winning a trophy? D Our profession is fast-paced. When the new season comes, the last title is immediately forgotten. In addition, you should not lose as a Bayern player actually. Otherwise, the pressure will quickly increase and everything in the media will be called into question. This has been seen again in the first round. J One must also remember that one was hardly used to defeats at Bayern. This is not supposed to sound overbearing, but controlling the League as much as our team for several seasons changes the mindset of all players and maybe even the people around it. Victories are the norm. If, as in this first round, we suddenly do not win in almost every Bundesliga game but lose ourselves at home, it is suddenly a new feeling that we all have to deal with. That also unsettled us as a team. It is all the better if you can fight back, as at the beginning of the second half, when we approached Dortmund. That gave a boost.

Do defeats have a longer after-effect than victories? J In any case. I can not lose, I've never been able to, not even in my youth. If I lose, my mood is often legendary lousy for days. It can happen that I can not speak for anyone, listen to music, nothing else. Only my two daughters can get me out of this condition, for example if they want to get on my arm. Then I feel better.

Do not you also console all the titles you already have? D Unfortunately not. What lies behind us does not matter anymore. If Jérôme and I slip through in the defense, it does not help much that we both won the triple years ago. But that's also the cool thing about sports. With every kick-off, it starts again.

David, how do you deal with setbacks? D defeats affect me very differently, depending on how the game was. If you lose in the first round against Borussia Mönchengladbach, that's not nice. Worse, the defeat last season felt in the semifinals in the Champions League. That's where we went against Real Madrid, even though we were the better team. This is especially bitter. You work towards the goal of winning the Champions League for so long - and suddenly it's all over, even though you were better.

These weeks will decide if you will end this season as a felt winner or loser. Does it also depend on you feeling like a winner or loser for one summer? D At least I can say that if you win the Champions League then you're in a different mood for a summer. In the summer of 2013, I definitely shot down a few rockets! J Yes, but if I fly out of such an important competition unhappily, I need my peace first. Then I can not go on holiday with friends and celebrate parties, but stay with the family, which brings me to other thoughts. Everyone has their own methods to deal with disappointments. I am a believer, draw my strength from it. I pray and read in the Bible. I do that in front of almost every game in the hotel room and afterwards when I get home.

Do you always want to win when playing Monopoly, Cards or PlayStation? J As I said: I can not lose, no matter where. I get extremely angry then. Especially if I feel that I have been treated unfairly. D I'm fine too. If I lose, everything is unfair. But you have to explain that we both play rather little. In the team, others are the gamer.

Do you have the feeling that you are winning or losing on important match days in the morning?

J Yes, I have. And mostly the feeling comes true.

D I have it too, but if I have a bad feeling in the morning, I try to deal with it, leave the negative thoughts aside, and concentrate on more positive things. This sometimes works.

Is it true that the coaching in the half-time break can decide on victory or defeat? J The speeches are very important. The team listens closely to how the coach talks about individual players. That makes a huge difference. When the coach proves to be sensitive and sets the right tone, we attack players in a different way.

Which coaches have reached you the best? D Hard to say, everyone has their own style.

J For me, Jupp Heynckes and Pep Guardiola were the best coaches. Tactically, Pep was the best I met. He just saw almost everything in the square. Jupp and Pep have personally motivated me most in the cabin.

Who did not do that well? D I want to clean up with a common misconception. If it does not work, it is often said that the coach does not reach the team anymore. That's true in the rarest cases. Most of the time it's up to something else. J I have seldom experienced that. If anything, there was a language barrier. That was the case with Carlo Ancelotti, who spoke a lot of Italian. Since we could not communicate so well. In addition came the getting used of Peps football to Carlos football. These were two different ways of looking at the way you play football. The transition was very complex.

When do you get more WhatsApp messages from friends and acquaintances: when you won or when you lost? D I get more news on wins. J In my case, that keeps the balance. More importantly, the bigger the game, the more messages I have on my phone. If we've lost, there are actually only two varieties: either "head up, well played" or "Can I be in the next game?"

Many well-known people report that success and fame also lead to a very different profit, namely to a significant increase in new friends, acquaintances and those who would like it. Can you confirm that? D Yes, there is something in it. There are so-called friends who are only there for you if you give them the crème de la crème of one. And there are the real friends who always there for you. So I had to learn to deal with it. I had to build up human knowledge. And I also had to part with one or the other. J I imagine that I am careful enough and only slowly open myself to new people. That's my protection.

Do you sometimes notice how other professionals are flocking gold diggers, ie people who only or mainly want to gain the assets of the players? J I can see that already. At Bayern or at the national team I know no player who surrounds himself with these gold diggers. But abroad I see in some restaurants, colleagues, where I creeps this dull feeling that it is not everyone honestly means. What sometimes sit there for funny people at the tables!

David, how do you protect yourself from false friends? D I'm always traveling with the same people With the Kobli (Philipp Koblischek, editor's note) I played together in Austria at Austria Wien. We have known each other since we were ten. Two or three years ago he moved from Vienna to Munich. That makes me very happy.

How many best friends do you have? D For me it's the Kobli! J I have only one best friend, Alex. I've known him since I was six. Our friendship deepened over the years. Alex lives in Berlin. He also has a family, two children, a job. We call every day. We exchange ideas, we really talk about each other. He knows me inside out. He just remembers me writing him on Whatsapp, whether I'm good or bad. With the latter, he also knows that he should rather not call now.

Back to our magazine motto "Win & Lose": Which sacrifice you had to make for your professional career was the hardest for you? J First, there were the typical victims as a teenager. When my friends went to the disco, I usually went to bed early. As a professional footballer we have to give up a part of our private life. I can not go to the swimming pool or the cinema with my children without being disturbed or without my children noticing that they are being watched. D That's why I've got more mixed feelings of fame now than I used to, when I was happy to see myself in the paper. I remember how much I, as a child, dreamed of having my own poster in Bravo Sport. That has completely settled.

You can also win and lose in love. Do you have any tips on how to conquer the hearts of women? J I can not say I have a specific method that always works. Women have different tastes. Some like a cool look, others humor or clever, profound conversations. I always try to show good manners, to behave like a gentleman, to hold the door. D I also do not know if it's just about impressing someone. It is more important to me to find a woman who does not want to get to know the professional footballer David Alaba, but the person David. I still remember my first relationship, my childhood sweetheart. Since I had no problem at all to build trust. I did not have a known name back then. In my second relationship, I needed much longer for that. And today it takes even longer before I can totally open myself.

J I'm fine too. In the meantime, I prefer it best if the woman does not understand football at all, does not even know who I am. But that is mostly the case abroad and not everywhere anymore.

Is that why you travel to the US so often because footballers are more likely to be left alone? J Both of us are mainly going to America because of the lifestyle: we like the people, the sports, the fashion and the music. And I personally like that so many nationalities come together in cities like New York and Los Angeles. D We do not go to America to meet ladies! (:D)

One day, the question will ask you how you want to end your careers. And with it, how you will cope with the loss of your favorite occupation. Some ex-professionals have lost their sense of life in these turmoil, others lost their wealth. How do you deal with it? D Sorry, but I do not think about such things. Even though I've heard that one should plan the life after the football out and provide accordingly, I must say: I think only from week to week. J Maybe you notice the four-year age difference that separates David and me. Because I have to say that I know only one fear: the end of my career. I am seriously concerned with the question of what will happen if one day I can no longer play football. Football is my life. I can not imagine this feeling that I will have after my retirement. I'm afraid of that. I know that one day I will have to retire. But on the other hand, it does not want to go right into my head.

People who had to rebuild their lives, it should have helped to look forward to something that they had to give up a long time. What would you think? J I would take a long trip around the world after the end of my career, look at everything, start in Australia, I always wanted to go there. That would be the first. You can still do a coaching certificate later. D Maybe you can train me then yes. Because then I will definitely still play. But seriously: I do not look that far ahead. I hope that I can live my dream for a few more years.

#jerome boateng #david alaba #BOA 2 #sorry guys i just translated it with google translator :P #so there will be some mistakes #but i'm sure you'll get the idea #and it's a little late but anyway ..

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gadgetsrevv · 5 years

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Sergio Ramos: What we learned from his new documentary

Ramos with wife Pilar Rubio and their three children Sergio Jr, Marco and Alejandro

“In soccer, there are no brothers.”

Sergio Ramos’ mother recalls what her famous son said after breaking his elder brother – and now agent – Rene’s nose in a friendly a number of years ago.

No anecdote better encapsulates the winning mentality of a footballer who is both loved and loathed.

It is one of many revelations from an Amazon documentary about the Real Madrid and Spain captain, which attempts to show his other sides – the family man, the musician and even the world champion horse trainer.

“That image doesn’t always reflect who I really am,” the 33-year-old says at the start of El Corazon de Sergio Ramos (Sergio Ramos’ heart). “I have never shared my private live with anyone.”

This is what we learned about Ramos – warning, spoilers ahead.

‘The worst season ever’

“When we opened the doors to Prime Video to make this documentary series, we didn’t imagine that it would be the worst season,” Ramos told Esquire.

Filmed over the course of the 2018-19 season, Real, who had won four Champions League titles in five years, finished third in La Liga, were knocked out of the European Cup by Ajax and had three managers.

Early in episode two, before Real are beaten 5-1 at the Nou Camp by Barcelona to signal the end of manager Julen Lopetegui’s reign, Ramos says: “We’ve never experienced anything like this since I’ve been here.

“We can’t go out with these results, we can’t even take our kids to the park.”

He also addresses deliberately picking up a yellow card during Real’s Champions League tie at Ajax, which led to a two-game ban by Uefa and him missing the subsequent 4-1 defeat in the return leg as they crashed out of Europe.

“It was the one small dark moment in the game,” he says.

Raheem Sterling also gets a mention in one episode after Spain lose 3-2 to England in the Nations League and Ramos is accused of stamping on the Manchester City forward.

“It’s nothing, the guy knows that. I didn’t even touch him, yet he claims I stepped on him,” adds Ramos. “With everything that’s happened that is the last thing I needed.”

His father ‘almost killed him’ over his first tattoo

Ramos’ tattooed back

“I honestly couldn’t tell you how many tattoos I have today,” Ramos says.

His body is covered in ink, including images of the Champions League and World Cup trophies etched on his calf muscles.

But his first ever tattoo, he reveals, was a small elf with a football which was inked on his back when he was 14 or 15 years old. “My father nearly killed me,” he says.

That tattoo is no longer visible – he has since covered it up with a wolf.

He’s a world champion horse breeder and guitar player

Aside from football, Ramos’ other passions in life are horses and music.

He is a horse breeder, owning the Yeguada SR4 stables in Seville. His favourite stallion, Yucatan de Ramos, which he describes as the “apple of my eye”, has been crowned world champion.

Ramos also loves flamenco music and is a keen singer and guitar player, saying that music is a “way of freeing myself”.

When told by wife Pilar that he sings well, he replies: “I sing with conviction, but I don’t sing well.”

In one episode called ‘Music’, we see Ramos play his guitar live on the Spanish show El Hormiguero.

He has a bromance with Vazquez

Vazquez and Ramos

Spanish winger Lucas Vazquez and Croatia midfielder Luka Modric are the only other Real players to feature in the documentary.

Vazquez and Ramos have special handshakes the pair started creating “when we first had aspirations of winning the Champions League”.

The pair bet on who will score the most goals, which Ramos would have won with his 11 compared Vazquez’s five.

And they love to wind up Ballon d’Or winner Modric.

As Vazquez and Ramos talk about their prospects of winning the Copa del Rey, Modric can be seen speaking on a video call next to them.

“Modric is on the phone all day,” says Ramos. “We give him a hard time, plus he starts talking Croatian very loudly, so we give him an even harder time.”

He practices Panenka penalties… a lot

Many of Ramos’ 108 goals for club and country have come from the penalty spot and he favours the ‘Panenka’ style chip down the middle of the goal.

Ramos is shown practising the technique long after training has finished.

He says he started using it as he scored in Spain’s penalty shootout win against Portugal in the Euro 2012 semi-finals, just months after he missed a penalty against Bayern Munich in the 2012 Champions League semi-final.

“We have all copied someone and in this case it was Panenka, often the easiest thing to do is the hardest,” he adds.

He’s a family man but his isn’t his child’s favourite player

His three children Sergio Jr, Marco and Alejandro and wife Pilar are clearly the most important things in Ramos’ life.

We see Ramos play football with his kids in the garden, give them advice and lament being away from his family.

He also reveals that, before he met TV presenter Pilar, he “dreamt of her for three nights in a row”, adding: “I thought she was a bit out of my league, but she eventually came around.”

And in the Ramos household, the defender is not his son’s favourite player, with Sergio Jr choosing Modric instead.

While he may have broken his brother’s nose when they were younger, Rene is Ramos’ closest confidant.

And going through his vast football shirt collection, which includes those worn by David Beckham, Frank Lampard, Andres Iniesta, Lionel Messi and Roberto Carlos, he holds up a “legendary” one with Rene’s name on the back, from his playing days in a third division side.

Sergio Ramos and brother and agent Rene

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#Gossip Sergio Ramos: What we learned from his new documentary

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bloggerblagger · 3 years

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91) Is this the man who scuppered the Super League?

Question: Which of the really big teams did not join the breakaway? Answer: Bayern Munich, Ajax, PSG.

Of these, whose owners were most threatened by the Superleague? Answer: PSG. Why? Because they are owned by the Qataris and Qatar host the World Cup in 2022. The second to last thing the Qataris want is to fall out with FIFA now. And the very last thing they want is Messi, Ronaldo, Kane et al being barred from playing in their World Cup. So it seems to me highly likely that Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, Emir of Qatar, needed to do something.

Next question: Which team was the first to pull the rug from under the Super League? Chelsea*. Who makes the decisions at Chelsea? I think we all know the answer to that.

Do we really think Roman is the kind of man who would bow to pressure from a few hundred fans demonstrating outside Stamford Bridge? On the other hand we do know, do we not, that there is one man whose bidding even Roman Abramovic has to do.

It may have escaped your notice - it had mine - that there has been a marked thawing of relations between Qatar and Russia over the last couple of years. But a quick bit of Googling will tell you that there has been. The Qataris have quite a lot of investments in Russia apparently.

So I do not think it beyond the bounds of possibility that a telephone conversation has taken place over the last day or so, that went along these lines:

“Hello, Vlad speaking.”

“Watcha Vlad, me old cocker, it’s the Emir ‘ere. I need a bit of a favour.”

And then a second call might have followed.

“Roman?”

“Yes, Your Esteemed Excellency, Master of All You Survey?”

“You know this Super League your plaything is joining?”

“Yes, Your Magnificence, Emperor of the Universe, isn’t it a wonderful idea? Many millions are the roubles that will be cascading into our joint bank account.”

“Hm. Well, I’ve been thinking that it might not be that wonderful an idea after all.”

“Do you know, Your Tremendousness, Supreme Leader with Knobs On, now you come to mention it, it is an absolutely terrible idea.”

Of course, this is pure conjecture on my part. `But I think it is a damn sight more plausible than the idea that these ruthless billionaire owners would have been put off their stroke by a rabble of pissed up football fans.

* Although, technically, Manchester City were the first club to pull out, they only did it after Chelsea had publicly signalled their intent to do so by preparing documentation to withdraw.

The myth of the pyramid.

Everybody has got their knickers in a twist over the proposed Super League being a closed shop. Although actually it would have been only a partially closed shop, because although fifteen teams would have been guaranteed their place, the plan did leave room for a changing roster of five poor relations to be allowed in. Apparently, the whole thing was an unforgivable affront to the great traditions of the British game.

Au contraire.

Until 1986 the Football League was a closed shop. A completely closed shop. The only way any one of the ninety two clubs could be removed was if they were voted out by the other members, and routinely, for many years, even the club that finished ninety second was voted back in. Only after 1986 was there a right to promotion to the Football League for the team that won the Conference.

Yes, there was relegation and promotion between the divisions within the closed shop, but if you didn’t have the golden ticket, there was no way of gaining admission as of right.

So if this league of twenty had been divided into two divisions of ten (the size of the Scottish Premiership) with promotion and relegation between those two divisions, it would have every bit in the English tradition. Except the Super League was prepared to guarantee a ladder to five teams every year. Which was exactly five more than the old Football League did.

Blame it all on the Yanks.

‘Overpaid. Over sexed. And over here.’ That was the phrase used to describe the GIs who came to Britain in the war. And at the root of that, quite obviously, was envy.

Not much has changed. The rapacious American owners have been fingered as the villains of the piece, wanting to undermine our cherished Corinthian ideals with their alien way of doing sport.

In fact, the NFL, although it lacks the ‘jeopardy’ of relegation which is apparently essential to the British enjoyment of football, is much fairer than our Premiership. (Side note: In 60 odd years of watching football, I have never before heard the word ‘jeopardy’ used in connection with it, never mind it being so incredibly important.)

In the NFL - and I believe in baseball and basketball - there is a built in concept of competitive fairness. Basically the team that does worst in one season gets the pick of the new players for the next, via the ‘draft’ from the College teams. That way each team has a chance of success. And there is a salary cap. It’s quite complicated but the basic idea is that each team must spend approximately the same total on player wages. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salary_cap#National_Football_League

Behind all this is the rather socialist ( and seemingly unAmerican idea) that the collective good is important for the individual good. The product they are selling is the NFL and for that to be interesting to people it needs to be competitive.

Compare that to our ludicrously unfair system where money rules. Only the teams with the big money can win the big prizes. Yes, Leicester won the Premiership a few years ago. But that was the only time in 30 years. That was the exception that proves the rule.

No, these rather egalitarian ideals were not part of the Super League proposals. We were to get the worst of their system and none of the good bits. But to reflexively dismiss the American way of doing things as being ‘greedy’ and necessarily inferior to ours is just plain stupid.

Was the whole thing really Boris’s idea?

If it had been I would have been rather impressed because it would have implied a degree of competence that he certainly doesn’t have. But honestly, he couldn’t haven’t dreamed up anything more useful to him.

At the very moment when the ’Tory sleaze’ story is beginning to have some traction along comes this Super League nonsense to divert the credulous nation. And it’s not just any old diversion but the perfect way to put another brick or two in the once red wall. Boris as saviour of the people’s game!

Now he can order Oliver Dowden to rush off to parliament to fulminate about the awfulness of it all and threaten to send gunboats to Anfield. And Boris himself can invite flat capped footie fans to Downing Street to tell them he is going to drop a ‘legislative bomb’ and promise his undying support.

The truly amazing thing is that, listening to the Chief Someone or Other of the National Supporters Something or Other on Radio 4 at lunchtime, it seemed to me like they actually believed him. They seem completely oblivious to his being a compulsive bare faced liar. (“There will no border down the Irish Sea Etc.”)

I can see him in his Downing Street flat right now, bitterly complaining to Carrie.

“Fucking Putin. Why did he have to sticking his sodding oar in? We could have strung this out for another month.”

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jamesv-t · 4 years

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I follow too many football teams

Decided to sit down and compile a list of all the various football teams I'm following at the moment, across different leagues and countries, and note the reason I started supporting them as well as the extent to which I follow. I was surprised.

Arsenal WFC: started following the club on 4th July 2018, when they signed my favourite footballer, Tabea Kemme. Bought a season ticket and attended as many games as my work pattern would allow; from the first game I was amazed by Dutch striker Vivianne Miedema, the best forward I'd seen play since Robert Taylor's purple patch in 1999. Despite missing all 4 of Tabea's appearances for the club, I bought a shirt with her name and number on it which I've worn to every game possible, home and away. The last match I saw in person was a 4-0 win at Brighton back in January (easier to get to than home games, so of course I'd go) during which I realised that despite Tabbi's injury worries, I was in deep enough to care about the other players. This turned out to be prescient as two days later she retired from playing. Thanks to the FA Player, I can watch (almost) every match streamed live to my tablet.

Matches seen: 5 home, 5 away (Lewes, Brighton [Amex], Crawley, Spurs [new White Hart Lane], Brighton)

Shirts: 1 - 2018/2019 home shirt with Kemme 22 on the back.

Gillingham FC (mens): Where it all began. Attended my first game against Doncaster Rovers in April 1995, taken by my dad and granddad. The Gills won 4-2, my younger brother and I had room enough to chase each other around the terrace. Since then I've experienced nauseating lows, dizzying highs, and creamy middles. As of 21st May 2019 my support for the club has been on hold - they appointed Steve Evans - a man who had previously convicted of tax evasion and falsifying accounts, a man who had previously sought to incite Gillingham staff and players whenever his teams played against the Gills, and an all round nasty piece of work - as manager of the first team. I could not in good conscience support a side managed by him, in person or remotely, so I packed away my shirts/scarf/badges, muted the club's social media accounts, and my Saturday afternoons were a lot more fun as a result. He's still at the club, they're currently fourth in the League One table, but this summer they cut loose the associated women's side, so I don't know if I'll ever go back.

Matches attended: bloody loads. In the three figures, easily. Had a season ticket one year. Attended at least 1/3 of all games - home and away - in the promotion season linked above. Been going at least once a season for the past 20-odd years, mostly more than that. Away games at Crawley a few times (making it my joint second most visited stadium, apart from Priestfield and tied with Meadow Park), once at Spurs (old White Hart Lane), West Brom, Millwall (that was fun, got the tickets through work, ended up with the home fans, Gillingham got a last minute winner that we couldn't celebrate), Charlton twice, a reserve game at Leighton Orient, the above linked game against Wycombe when we went down, strangely not Brighton though despite living here for nearly 10 years.

Shirts: had plenty over the years. I've still got the shirt we got promoted in with Thomson 27 on the back, signed by a number of the squad, somewhere. Currently I only have two - the 2009 promotion shirt because it looks pretty good, and the 2011 home shirt because of fond Football Manager memories!

Borussia Dortmund (mens): Over a decade ago I started a relationship with a German woman. In the getting to know you stage, I asked her what her nearest Bundesliga* club was. (My small talk has since improved. Slightly.) She replied "Dortmund", and I started following the club. I'm not saying that I'm responsible for the team's subsequent uptick in form - they won the league two seasons running after I visited the ground, adding the Pokal (cup) in the second season as well - but I'm not not saying that either. The availability of streams plus the free-flowing, attacking football made them an easy follow, especially at a time when Gillingham went 35 games without an away win in all competitions. I look forward to the club starting up a women's side next season, especially as they're starting from the bottom rather than expecting to be parachuted into the Frauen Bundesliga.

Matches: just the one so far in person, an entertaining 2-3 loss to Wolfsburg in December 2012.

Shirts: had a 2004 home shirt that was horrible material, very plasticky. Also have a really comfortable and stylish 2012 away shirt that I couldn't wear for a few years due to it having Hummels' name on - thankfully he's returned from his Bayern defection now. A Munich fan who stayed with us a couple of years ago found the whole thing hilarious.

*I'm glad I specified the country, as while she grew up nearly 100km from the Westfalonstadion, she was only 20km from FC Twente - but it was complicated enough explaining to people in the early days why I was following a German team, and I think trying to tell them I was following a Dutch side due to my German partner might've been far too much!

BSG Chemie Leipzig (mens): Dortmund aren't the only German side I've hitched my wagon to, but they're the most high profile. Faced with an indefinite period of time with nothing to do during lockdown, and growing tired of my other FM careers, I set about giving myself a challenge. Due to the high praise dished out by the media to Red Bull Leipzig, a team funded by the energy drink conglomerate who bought their way up the league, I decided my challenge would be to - in the words of Sir Alex Ferguson - "knock them off their f**king perch. I wanted to make another team the biggest side in Leipzig. Scouting around the Wikipedia page for the city, and aided by this thoroughly informative Reddit post, I settled on Chemie due to their political leanings and colour scheme. Six real-life months and a dozen fictional seasons into the career, I'm one Bundesliga and one Pokal away from equalling the energy drink's trophy haul. I've taken an interest in the real life side as well, languishing away in the fifth tier of German football (an unholy hell of regional leagues and village sides).

Matches: not yet. One day I'll stand on the terrace of the Alfred-Kunze-Sportpark, Freiberger in hand, cheering on the side. But the raging pandemic that brought me to start the career is, ironically, preventing me from properly indulging.

Shirts: none, as I rarely wear football shirts these days. But this t-shirt is pretty cool.

Gillingham WFC: Simple thing here - when the side were cut adrift from the parent men's club as part of a cost-saving measure in the summer, I decided to go with the team who were not managed by an odious berk. I'm kooky like that.

Matches: one so far, a pre-season friendly away at Lewes last summer. I was the lone Gills fan. There were more dogs supporting the home side than humans cheering on the away team.

Shirts: none, as the club have switched to red after no longer being under the men's umbrella.

Valur (women's team): Some of these have deep, meaningful reasons behind my follow of them. Others, less so. In the early part of 2019 a friend of mine and his Czech girlfriend moved to Reykjavik to live for a bit. We visited them and were surprised to see floodlights from their balcony. Their flat overlooked a football ground, where Valur play, and so it was a simple thing to follow their side to feel closer to Paul and Barbora. It was weird seeing Valur's main striker, Elin Metta, posting Insta stories of playing with the same friendly cat that Paul does!

Matches: just the one streamed so far, due to a dearth of matches available online, but Valur won!

Shirts: christ don't give me ideas.

ACF Fiorentina Femminile: And if you thought that was a tenuous reason...last month we took a tour around Italy, stopping in Rome, Florence, Bologna and Venice. I wanted to get something football related to remember the trip by. Venice was out - I was going to the Venezia store anyway to pick up a few things for a mate who had guided them to glory on Football Manager, and didn't want to tread on his toes. Rome was unsuccessful - Lazio's kits have been cool in the past, but their right-wing fans aren't for me, and Roma had some lovely coloured merch but nothing that grabbed me. A surprise heavy shower sent us scurrying into the Fiorentina club shop, a place I'd earmarked to visit anyway, and a lovely flattering jacket jumped off the shelf at me. (It helped that it was reduced from €100 to €30!) Why the women's side over the men's? Women's football is just much more fun!

Matches: just a 3-1 loss to Sassuolo a few weeks ago. Who loses to a Phil Collins single?!

Shirts: no shirts, but a sexy jacket.

Ashwood City FC (mens, fictional): Ashwood City are Kent's only Premier League side. One of the founder members of the Football League, they've never been relegated from the Premier League. They're also fictional, the main subject of football podcast The Offensive. Now in its third season, it's been a weekly highlight, weaving current football events into an ongoing story arc. It's occasionally sweary, frequently hilarious, and clearly written by someone who's lived in Kent judging by the accurate jabs at Kentish people/Gillingham! It also used an entire episode as set-up for a reference to the 1992 Whitney Houston/Kevin Costner film The Bodyguard, which still frequently makes me chuckle at random moments.

Matches: tricky, as they don't exist. Like Steve Evans' moral compass.

Shirts: nope.

#football

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scooploop-xyz · 4 years

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1. One of the largest ever football tournaments was played in the year 1999.

The tournament was a total of 5,098 teams had participated and more than 35,000 players took part.

2. The highest goals were 149-0.

AS Adema 149–0 SO l'Emyrne was a football match played on 31 October 2002 between two teams in Antananarivo, Madagascar. It holds the world record for the highest scoreline, recognized by The Guinness Book of Records. SO l'Emyrne (SOE) intentionally lost the game against their arch-rivals AS Adema in protest over refereeing decisions that had gone against them during a four-team playoff tournament.

3. Paul Pogba (Juventus-Manchester United) is the world’s most expensive football player.

French star Paul Pogba has moved from Juventus to Manchester United for a reported 89 million pounds ($116.4 million USD) which makes him the world's most expensive player.

4. Asmir Begovic scored the fastest and longest goal in football.

On 2 November 2013, Stoke City goalkeeper Asmir Begović scored the fastest goal for a professional goalkeeper (13 seconds, although this has been beaten) in football history and the longest goal in football history (100.5 yards / 91.9 meters, beaten in next year by Koo Sang-min) in a match against Southampton.

5. The FIFA World Cup has been held every four years since 1930, except for a 12-year hiatus during and after World War II.

During World War II, FIFA struggled to keep itself afloat, and it had no financial or personnel resources with which to plan a peacetime tournament for when hostilities ended. When the war ended in 1945, it was clear that FIFA would have no hope in a single year of planning and scheduling a 1946 World Cup. In fact, FIFA's first meeting was on 1 July 1946 – around the time the 1946 World Cup would ordinarily have been played – and when it planned the next World Cup for 1949 no country would host it

6. More than 80% of the world’s footballs are manufactured in Pakistan.

Now a days, Pakistan's Sialkot produces up to 60 million footballs a year, making up 70% of the world’s total production. Over time, the sporting goods industry has spurred other exporters to setup their factories here, producing everything from sporting apparel, to surgical instruments, leather jackets, musical instruments, gloves, guns, and a full range of cutlery.

7. The first professional football player was William “Pudge” Heffelfinger.

Pudge Heffelfinger. William Walter "Pudge" Heffelfinger (Hafelfinger) (December 20, 1867 – April 2, 1954) was an American football player and coach. He is considered the first athlete to play American football professionally, having been paid to play in 1892. He was paid $500 to play in a game in 1892.

8. The fastest red card in football/soccer history was 2 seconds.

The reason for the almost instant dismissal was down to foul and abusive language. Lee Todd was given a red card after he was taken aback by the ref's whistle as he blew for the start of the game by proclaiming 'F** me, that was loud'.

9. Before Alex Ferguson took over at Manchester United, Aston Villa were more successful than the Red Devils.

Yes, Fergie took over in 1986 at which point Villa had won seven league titles and FA Cups, three League Cups and the European Cup. United, meanwhile had also won seven titles, but six FA Cups, a European Cup and Cup Winners Cup. That’s 18-15 in terms of major honours won.

10. Mark Hughes once played for Wales and Bayern Munich in the same day.

Hughes had just signed for Bayern and was due to play for Wales against Czechoslovakia in Prague in a Euro ’88 qualifier. “I had dinner with Uli Hoeness who asked me what time the Wales match was,” he said. “I told him it was around midday and he said: ‘That’s OK then, you can play in the evening as well.'” Hoeness watched the game and then flew him to the Bayern game on the other side of the Czech border where Borussia Monchengladbach were the opponents. “We actually flew over the ground and missed the first half, but I got there at the start of the second half.” Bayern won.

11. Apart from the US where the game is called 'soccer', everywhere else in the world, it’s called football.

One of the best-known differences between British and American English is the fact that the sport known as football in Great Britain is usually called soccer in the United States. Because the sport originated in England, it is often assumed that soccer is an Americanism. In fact, the word is thoroughly British in origin.

12. The Olympics did not permit professional footballers to participate in the games.

FIFA was formed on May 21, 1904 with the goal to govern association football internationally. After the Olympics did not permit professional footballers to participate in the games, FIFA established the World Cup. The first World Cup was held in 1930 in Uraguay; 13 teams competed and Uruguay won.

13. Football was invented in China nearly 476 B.C.

It’s not known when Football actually started, but it’s believed to have started some 3,000 years ago in China where the balls were produced by sewing clothes together and filling them with rubble. In the Middle Ages, Europe made its balls from inflated pig bladders.

14. Brazilians refer to soccer as the “jogo bonito” or “beautiful game.”

The Beautiful Game (Portuguese: o jogo bonito) is a nickname for association football, popular within media and advertising. It was popularised by the Brazilian professional footballer Pelé. Although the exact origin of the phrase is disputed, football commentator Stuart Hall used it as far back as 1958.

15. A microchip in the ball and sensors in the goal!!!!

There has been a lot of technological advancements in the world of sports, be it in the method used to make a football, to how a player’s stats are measured & studied, to how a referee can now tell if a ball has completely crossed a line thanks to something buzzing on his wrist. In 2007, FIFA first tested technology to track the movement of the ball relative to the goal, to determine if a goal was actually scored. A microchip in the ball and sensors in the goal make it possible.

#football #factss #knowledge #fun #scooploop

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thisdaynews · 5 years

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Garth Crooks' team of the week: Mane, Abraham, Longstaff, Grealish, Luiz

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/garth-crooks-team-of-the-week-mane-abraham-longstaff-grealish-luiz/

Garth Crooks' team of the week: Mane, Abraham, Longstaff, Grealish, Luiz

A fantastic weekend of Premier League action saw Liverpool extend their lead at the top of the table to eight points following a last-gasp 2-1 victory over Leicester.

Champions Manchester City lost ground with a shock 2-0 home defeat by Wolves, while Tottenham’s week went from bad to worse with a heavy 3-0 loss at Brighton.

Newcastle moved out of the relegation zone with an impressive 1-0 win over troubled Manchester United, while there were wins for Burnley,Aston Villa and Crystal Palace.

Here’s my team of the week – have a read and select your own below.

Goalkeeper – Mat Ryan (Brighton)

Ryan:As bad as Tottenham were against Brighton, this game could have finished 4-4 had it not been for the brilliance of Mathew Ryan. Two wonderful saves from Lucas Moura, one from Erik Lamela and another from Harry Kane put Spurs firmly in their place.

The longer the game went on the more confident Ryan became. This was a first-class performance from the Brighton keeper.

Did you know?Ryan made three saves against Spurs, registering a clean sheet against the Lilywhites for the first time in his Premier League career.

Defenders – Gary Cahill (Crystal Palace), David Luiz (Arsenal), Lewis Dunk (Brighton)

Cahill:It is coming to something when Crystal Palace fans start ‘insisting’ who I should put in my team of the week. Just what it has got to do with them I don’t know.

However, I did find myself bowing to the wishes of one of their followers who was mightily impressed with Gary Cahill’s performance against West Ham.

He also went on to tell me that he couldn’t understand why Chelsea had let him go when they obviously need his experience in view of who they are currently playing at the back.

He then went on to say, “how could Arsenal pay Chelsea £8m for David Luiz when Cahill went on a free transfer?”. He does have a point.

Did you know?Cahill completed 95% of his 60 passes against West Ham for Crystal Palace – the best completion rate among the Eagles’ players.

Luiz:Just when Spurs fans think the week cannot get any worse, Arsenal win at home to Bournemouth and the victory takes them up to third in the table.

Luiz, who never does things the easy way, scored his first goal for the Gunners and the only goal of the game but more importantly kept his first clean sheet in an Arsenal shirt.

I cannot believe this Arsenal team are third in the table. I know we are only eight games into the Premier League season but their defence has been so bad, how is this possible?

Did you know?10 of Luiz’s 12 Premier League goals have been scored in home matches, with this his first goal for Arsenal.

Dunk:Another performance that was agony to watch for Tottenham, only this time Lewis Dunk was to blame. The defender slammed Brighton’s back door in Tottenham’s face.

He won every header, every challenge, trampled over any Spurs player who got in his way without so much as an apology or hint of respect and that is exactly how you deal with superstars indulging in a pity party.

I don’t know what is going on at Spurs – although manager Mauricio Pochettino insists there is a bad feeling at the club – but whatever is the matter they had better sort it out, and quickly.

Spurs’ players are paid an awful lot of money and fans are entitled to a performance, not a charade.

Did you know?Dunk helped Brighton to a clean sheet against Spurs, making 10 clearances – the most of any Brighton player.

Midfielders – Jack Grealish (Aston Villa), Matty Longstaff (Newcastle), James Milner (Liverpool), Adama Traore (Wolves)

Grealish:It has not been an easy journey for Jack Grealish over the years but he seems to have found his destination. To captain Aston Villa in the Premier League is no mean feat. Villa are a big club.

Grealish was outstanding away at Crystal Palace and he led his team to victory against a Norwich team that was demolished by a rampant Villa. I have not seen a Villa captain with such an appetite for the game since Dennis Mortimer, who played for the club between 1975-85 and skippered them to the 1982 European Cup.

Did you know?Grealish scored his first Premier League goal since netting against Leicester in September 2015 (1,483 days ago).

Longstaff:This was a massive win for Newcastle and Steve Bruce in particular. It was his first managerial win over Manchester United and he called on a young 19-year-old local Geordie lad to do it.

Matthew Longstaff is the kid. Remember the name. It is not often a manager takes up most of the column inches in my report but on this occasion Bruce deserves it.

It takes a tremendous amount of courage for a manager to give a young lad his debut against Manchester United when points are in desperate need. Not only did the kid deliver, he scored the winning goal.

This could have turned out very badly for Bruce, but instead it turned out extremely badly for United and their manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

Did you know?At 19 years and 199 days, Longstaff became the youngest player to score on his Premier League debut for Newcastle United.

Milner:James Milner is back: back in the Liverpool team and back among the goals. The ball from Milner for Sadio Mane to slot home was just glorious.

However the pressure to score a 95th-minute penalty when your team have underperformed, and knowing a victory keeps your unbeaten run alive, must have been excruciating.

It is Milner’s coolness under extreme pressure that is so impressive and should Liverpool lift the title, he is a player that can seriously be considered for the Footballer of the Year award, if only for his service to the game. Or should that be an OBE?

Did you know?Milner’s penalty in the 95th minute was the latest Liverpool have scored from the spot in the Premier League since Christian Benteke against Crystal Palace in March 2016 (96th minute).

Traore:This lad is what is commonly known in the game as a speed merchant but also as somebody who seldom delivers the killer blow.

That theory (the killer blow part) was shot down in flames against Manchester City because Traore’s two goals against the champions may have already consigned Pep Guardiola’s side to a runners-up place in the title race.

I have begged Wolves to ditch the Europa League for fear of a team with limited resources struggling in the Premier League. With results like this I need not have worried.

Did you know?Traore had not scored in his last 32 Premier League games before netting twice against Man City. His previous goal was against West Ham in September 2018.

Forwards – Aaron Connolly (Brighton), Tammy Abraham (Chelsea), Sadio Mane (Liverpool)

Connolly:I thought that Wednesday, when Spurs got battered 7-2 in the Champions League, was a bad night but at least they were facing Robert Lewandowski and Bayern Munich.

I had only heard of Aaron Connolly when he came on briefly as a substitute for Brighton in their mauling by Manchester City. Every Spurs fan in the country knows him now. What a performance by the 19-year-old.

He took Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen, two experienced Belgium internationals, apart. If Brighton can continue to play like this at home and turn the Amex Stadium into a fortress, they won’t be talking about Premier League survival but mid-table security.

Did you know?Connolly became the first teenager from the Republic of Ireland to score a Premier League brace since Robbie Keane did so for Coventry against Derby in August 1999.

Abraham:It was the great Jimmy Greaves who said that football is a funny old game. Well, who would have thought that Chelsea fans would be chanting the name of Tammy Abraham in the same manner they used to celebrate Didier Drogba.

That is because the young striker is leading the line in a similar manner to the Ivory Coast legend. If Abraham continues to develop at this rate, manager Frank Lampard will have another problem on his hands – keeping him at Stamford Bridge.

Did you know?Abraham has scored nine goals for Chelsea across all competitions in 2019-20; the joint-most of any current Premier League player along with Raheem Sterling.

Mane:I thought the penalty awarded by referee Chris Kavanagh for the tackle on Sadio Mane was a poor decision. Do I blame Mane for going down when contact is made in the box? Of course I don’t, but it wasn’t an infringement, it was merely contact in a sport that allows an element of contact.

Regardless of that decision, Mane was back to his sparkling best and Leicester’s Marc Albrighton should have known better than to lay even a finger on the Senegal international in the box.

Did you know?Mane, making his 100th league appearance for Liverpool, scored his 50th Premier League goal for the Reds. He is the 10th player to reach the milestone for the club in the competition, more than any other side.

Now it’s your turn

You’ve seen my selections this season. But who would you go for?

Crooks of the Matter

If you are a Spurs fan then this has been a very bad week for all of us. Defeat by Bayern Munich at home was a humiliation and losing to Brighton away only added insult to injury.

However I have never laughed so much at the genuine ‘witty banter’ posted online by those fans who love to hate us.

It’s what real football fans used to be famous for. We also know who the real culprits are and it’s largely due to the fact that we always do things with an element of style. We even lose elegantly!

Football banter, when delivered properly, brings fans together like nothing else. The quip of the week was, without doubt, the shot of Tottenham’s famous Seven Sisters Tube station renamed (by some cleverclogs) Seven-Two Sisters Station after Wednesday night’s drubbing.

To make fans laugh in the midst of such anguish is quite a skill. More banter and less abuse, all.

I just hope it’s not all at Tottenham’s expense.

#Grealish #Longstaff

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thiagosalcantaras · 7 years

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Football tag game

1. Gigi Buffon or Manuel Neuer? Interesting since one is the goaler on my NT and the other the goalkeeper of my club. However I think everyone knows what my answer is. At present Neuer is better, but there’s of course a big age difference and Gigi still slays at 39 years. My answer is Gigi. He’s not only my all-time fave but also the reason I even started watching football in the first place.

2. Why is your favourite player your favourite player? I don’t even know why Gigi is my favourite, he was always just… there. I always truly admired him off and on the pitch, and when I was young I used to watch many matches just to see him tbh. Same thing with Basti, but I fell in love with him even more during the World Cup 2014 final. I saw a side of him I had never seen that strong before. A fighter. Then with Thiago I remember the exact moment I did. When I started following Bayern, he had already moved to the club but he was injured so I didn’t get to see him play straight away. Then a few months after I saw him play I started really liking him, but the moment he won my heart was when I was scrolling through Tumblr one afternoon (I looked it up a few days ago and it was actually on December 4th 2014) and I saw a gif set of his celebration when he scored a goal in the 93rd against Stuttgart and won us the match. He kneeled down with his face in his hands, nearly crying, and the others were all around him hugging him ahhh binch it was the cutest I’m getting emotional writing this

3. How long have you been supporting your club and what made you support them? I started supporting them in April 2014. Idk, I used to say to people I supported Juve just to be like my mum but I didn’t really feel that connection to them the same way I did with the Italy NT and my local club, so I knew they weren’t really my team. My brother and father support Bayern and I always used to interest myself in them wayyy more than in Juve. On April 9th Bayern were playing Manchester United. I was just doing my homework when suddenly I just called mum and was like “Can I go to the Bayern supporters club with dad and [my brother]?” They were all confused, but they let me go. I just knew I belonged there.

4. Who do you think is going to win the World Cup next year and why? Ohhh it’s a bit early to tell I guess. I’d say Spain have a pretty good chance tbh.

5. Best goal ever? I’m probably forgetting many goals, but one that I couldn’t shut up about is Florenzi’s goal against Barca. It was insane.

6. Best moment in football? There are too many and I’ve only been a football fan for 3 years, I don’t know much about anything before 2014. One that makes me really emotional was when Brazil were knocked out of the 2014 World Cup and that supporter handed the trophy he was holding to a German supporter. Bayern vs. Juve in the 2016 CL was pretty damn amazing, as well as Liverpool vs. Dortmund. Idk I’m probably forgetting many other great moments, those are the first that came to mind.

7. First football memory? I have no idea what match it was, but all I remember is we were sitting in the living room watching the German NT and I was thinking about how cute Ballack was ansksndkskd he was my first football crush, but then in that same match he got injured 🤷🏽

8. Who do you think is going to win Champions League this year? who do you WANT to win Champions League this year? I think it’s between Real Madrid (yes I’m being a negative Nancy for next Tuesday once again) and Juve. Of course I’d want Bayern to win, though the odds are a bit against us now. Then tbh I’m rooting for Juve as much as I’m rooting for Bayern, not for Juve itself but just for Gigi. I’d give up anything to see him lift the Champions League once in his career. No one deserves it as much as him, and some people would then stop saying that goalkeepers X and Y are better than him just because they have won the CL. It’s not like the entire team depends on him, so the honours of a club do not reflect the work a footballer puts in, but that’s how some dumbasses see it. 9. Player you hate the most? Just one? Pepe, Pique, Suarez, Diego Costa…

10. Have you met any of your favourite players? If not, who would you like to meet? Aha, so I’ve met quite a few I guess I’m pretty damn lucky. I’ve seen all of the Croatian NT and met & took pictures with Olic, Pivaric, Vrsaljko, Rakitic and Vida. I met Lena Lotzen, Clara Schöne, Katrin Hartmannsegger and Sarah Romert from Bayern's Ladies team. Then I also saw all of the Italy NT. Pelle and Zaza waved at me, then I met & got the signature of/took pictures with Immobile, Darmian, De Rossi and Florenzi (aaaahhhhh 😍😍😍😍). I also got Gigi’s signature, but that’s cause one of the security guards saw me waiting there for 9 hours and felt sorry for me so he took my jersey and asked him to sign it for me, bless him. But I didn’t exactly meet him, I just saw him like 5 times though. Then I wouldn’t exactly consider myself lucky on this but I SORT OF MET THIAGO??? That was actually the worst though lmao we were exactly 6 people outside and his driver stopped his car, then Thiago signed exactly 4 people’s jerseys. The other two were my father and I. I was next, I was literally less then one foot away from him (he looks even lovlier irl aaaahhh help). Then his driver drove off hahaHAHAHA im not ok. (I got so frustrated that about 2 hours later I was still trying to hold the tears back, which then resulted into the only nosebleed I’ve ever had in my life and it ended up all over the jersey I had just bought the day before HAHAHAHAfuck.) I mean I’d be happy meeting anyone tbh, but I’d love to get a proper shot at meeting both Gigi and Thiago, and also Basti. I really want to meet Florenzi again because the moment he left I just really regretted not hugging him lmao. Also yikes I talk too much.

This was hella fun, thank you so much for the tag @ilmiracolodigigibuffon 💕 Even though I talk a lot, surprisingly enough I suck at asking questions, so I’m not going to tag anyone.

#you could do this using zak's questions if you'd like of course as long as he doesn't mind #then tag both of us!!#thanks a lot zak!! also the questions were good and fun so don't worry #tag game #about me

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gadgetsrevv · 5 years

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Jadon Sancho will be soccer’s next superstar … but only on his terms

Craig Burley gives his top five U-21 English players, with Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford and Trent Alexander-Arnold all battling for the top spot.

DORTMUND, Germany — Jadon Sancho lives in a contemporary home overlooking an artificial lake in Phoenix-See, an affluent development on the edge of Dortmund. He drives a white Mercedes, but he doesn’t drive it far. He’ll go to practice, which is about five minutes away. If it’s hot, maybe he’ll get ice cream. Then he’ll come home.

He’ll settle in with a video game, FIFA or Fortnite, and wait for his private chef to make him dinner. It’s a life so bland, so willfully anonymous, that you’d think it wouldn’t matter where he lives.

It matters. Still only 19, Borussia Dortmund’s Sancho has emerged over the past year as a transcendent footballer. “He’s an exceptional talent,” Jurgen Klopp said after his Liverpool team lost to Dortmund, his former team, in a friendly in July. “There’s no doubt about the potential of Jadon Sancho.” These days, he’s regarded as the best player in the world born in the 21st Century; there is nobody younger who is better. The website Transfermarkt gauges his value at 100 million Euros. “He can be a very, very, very important player in Europe,” says Lucien Favre, the Dortmund manager.

Axel Witsel, Sancho’s teammate, goes further. “I’ve watched him improve since I came here,” Witsel says. “He works hard. He scores goals. If he keeps going like that, he will be one of the best players of his generation.”

Sancho scored 12 goals last season for Dortmund. ‘When I left Manchester [City], there were a lot of people that doubted me,’ he says.

And Dortmund? It’s a working-class city in the Ruhr Valley, Germany’s version of Pittsburgh. Hardly a tourist destination, it would seem unlikely to attract a young, ambitious Englishman in any profession. But it’s crucial to Sancho’s trajectory because it isn’t Manchester. Or London, Liverpool, Watford, Southampton, or anywhere else in England.

Three summers ago, Sancho declined the opportunity to tour North America with Manchester City after refining his game at its youth academy. The club regarded him as a potential first-teamer somewhere down the road. Sancho believed he was there already, even at 17. “I was standing out, week in and week out,” he says, describing his success with Man City’s U-23 team. “I felt it was time to seek another challenge.”

Pep Guardiola, Manchester City’s manager, wanted to move slowly. He proposed letting Sancho test his skills against the first team during training sessions. “You start the phase where you duel with Kyle Walker, with [Benjamin] Mendy, with [Vincent] Kompany,” Guardiola said, listing three of City’s — and the world’s — leading backs at the time. “And then we will see what is your level, your dribbling, when you are going to play against all the fullbacks in the Premier League. That is what we believe is the next step.”

It sounded sensible, but Sancho didn’t want to wait. Crucially, he didn’t have to. Over the past decade, starting around the time that Klopp inherited the team in 2008, Dortmund has aggressively pursued promising teenagers, including Christian Pulisic. It was primed to do the same with Sancho. “You could see how good he was,” says Michael Zorc, Dortmund’s sporting director.

The Premier League is regarded as the best in football. Aspiring stars are supposed to come to England to make their fame and fortune, not leave it. But rather than striving to play for Guardiola, who had won titles at Barcelona and Bayern Munich and would win at Manchester City, Sancho decided to leave him before his senior career had even started. He was driving, somebody said, the wrong way down a one-way street.

Dortmund isn’t much further from South London than Manchester is. But it was in another country, and it might as well have been another world. “Going there was a very bold move,” says Arsenal’s Reiss Nelson, a childhood friend. “Not everyone would have done it. It was brave.”

Sancho had never played a first-team match. He couldn’t speak German. He didn’t know anyone in Dortmund, where he became the first Englishman to play for the club. He wasn’t criticized so much as pitied. Was he delusional? Getting bad advice? “When I left Manchester, there were a lot of people that doubted me,” Sancho says. “Saying it’s too early to leave England. It’s a big club. I might not play. That it was very rare for an English player to do well in Germany.”

But Sancho knew he was ready to go because he knew where he’d already gone.

As a kid, Sancho honed his game playing street soccer. ‘There’s no rules. I was just freestyling, finding ways to nutmeg people. You’d bring back tricks to the training ground,’ he says.

The Kennington tube stop is the one after Elephant and Castle, heading south on the Northern Line. Topped by a metal dome, it has pretensions of grandeur. It must have looked quite stately some sixty or seventy years ago. But the stained and crumbling concrete, and the straggle of bystanders on the street corner in front of it — one in a workout pants and a ripped jacket, another in knicker-length trousers and a soiled checked shirt — give it away.

This is Kennington, in the London borough of Southwark. It’s where Sancho grew up, a lower-middle-class neighborhood with the accent on the lower. Like Camden Town and then Bermondsey, it has started to gentrify because affordable housing near central London is hard to find. It looks a lot better, residents insist, than it did a few years ago. But it has a long way to go.

Until he was 12, Sancho lived with his mother and sister on the ground floor of Kennington’s Guinness Trust Estates, red-brick apartments that were built in 1921 with a government grant. In primary school, Sancho would arrive home shortly after three o’clock. By four, he’d have eaten a snack, done his homework, packed his gear. If his father, Sean, was able to swing by in his old Citroen, Sancho would wait for him in the parking lot. If not, Sancho would head to that tube stop with one of his father’s friends, who had been designated for the assignment that day.

– Lukaku on a mission: Win with Inter and prove Man United wrong – ESPN FC’s Ultimate XI: We pick our dream team – Play ESPN Fantasy Soccer

Driving from Kennington to Watford F.C.’s academy, which is located on the far northwestern edge of Greater London, takes maybe two hours each way during the afternoon crush. By tube, the trip is shorter, but only slightly. Take the Northern Line toward Charing Cross. Get off at Euston and wait for the National Rail. Go two stops on a Midlands train toward Milton Keynes. Then transfer to an Overground train at Watford Junction for the short hop to Watford High Street. It’s a fifteen minute walk from there. Leave at four and you’ll make the 6 p.m. training, assuming none of the trains arrived late or got stuck in one of the delays that plague London transit. “It took a long, long time,” Sancho says.

Two hours there, two hours back — all for two hours of training with a Watford youth team. Watford had discovered Sancho during a camp it ran in Battersea, across the river from Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge. Sean Sancho’s friend was working as a liaison between the community and the club. Young Jadon showed up and impressed everyone. “They realized he was good,” Sean says, “and they sent that up the line.”

Pep Guardiola, Manchester City’s manager, wanted to develop Sancho’s game slowly. Sancho didn’t want to wait.

The first-generation son of a Guyanese father and a Jamaican mother, Sean, 45, grew up in Kennington. He never married Jadon’s mother, so he used football to stay connected with his son. They’d occasionally go to see Chelsea or Arsenal, but mostly Jadon liked to play. Sean encouraged it. Football would help keep him away from trouble. “If you’re idle, something can come and take your mind away,” Sean says. “You’ve got to have something else to do.” After Jadon’s skills started turning heads, Sean started thinking of football as his son’s ticket to a better life. “Without football, I don’t know what path he might have taken,” he says. “I’d like to be optimistic, but who knows?”

Soon Jadon was offered a place at Watford’s academy. “We saw it as the next step,” Sean says. “That was always what was in my mind. Whatever needs to be done needs to be done.” At the time, Jadon was eight years old. The academy had no provision for boarders that young. But the trip from Kennington to Watford was too long for him to make every day. It was agreed that he would do it three times a week.

On the other days, Sancho headed to the cages. Blacktopped playgrounds surrounded by chain-link fencing, they’d been devised by cynical developers as a way to devote as little real estate as possible to inner-city exercise. They’ve evolved into one of Europe’s greatest manifestations of street football. Games there are raw, unstructured, often dangerous. Nobody is ever offside. You call fouls at your risk. “You’re allowed to do anything,” Sancho says. “There’s no rules.”

More talented players are on display in the cages of South London than anywhere else in the city, maybe anywhere in Europe. A few make it out. Crystal Palace’s Wilfried Zaha developed his game in the cages. So did Liverpool’s Joe Gomez. Tottenham’s Ryan Sessegnon and Chelsea’s Tammy Abraham are two of the latest to break through. “You come home from school and you maybe don’t even change your shoes,” recalls Nelson, who lived a short walk from Sancho in Aylesbury. “You’ve got the ball at your feet, and you learn what you can do with it. Going into the academy, you bring that rough flair from the streets with you.”

One of the playgrounds is located over a tall fence that borders the development where Sancho lived. What passes for a pitch there is tiny, no bigger than a basketball court. Even five-on-five, there’s little room to maneuver. Dribbling makes far more sense than trying to thread a pass through the crush of defenders. Sancho is renowned for his speed, but in the cages speed becomes irrelevant. It’s all quickness, a shake of the head in one direction, then acceleration in another. “You have to shuffle your body,” Sean Sancho says. “It’s about the feint, like boxing. You get the defender to second-guess.”

Because he didn’t go to Watford every day, Sancho was able to get the best from each of his disparate worlds. The skills he honed on rough blacktop were even more effective on a proper field. “I was just freestyling, finding ways to nutmeg people,” Sancho says. “You’d bring back tricks to the training ground. And not many people have them kind of tricks at a young age, so I would stand out.” At the same time, the coaching he received at Watford made him shine even brighter in neighborhood games. He learned how to make a pass, and how to effectively receive one. “You add that to the cage,” he says, “and become a complete player.”

Sancho commuted to Watford for four years. When he turned 12, the club proposed to pay his tuition at an elite boarding school near its facility. Many of the students there were sons of foreign millionaires. “It was a very different culture,” Sancho says. That, too, was part of Watford’s plan. Sancho had brought his street football nous with him from Kennington, but he’d also brought some of the street’s less desirable characteristics. “My attitude wasn’t the best,” he admits. “That part of the hood was still in me. I was getting into trouble, getting detention. And one of my coaches sat me down and said, ‘We rate you highly, but you’ve got to choose which way you want to go. Left or right. Good or bad.'”

By then, his game had evolved into a rough version of what we see today. “Some people said I seemed Brazilian,” he says. “I understand where they’re coming from. Because English players don’t typically play like I do.”

He had just turned 14 when Manchester City made an offer. Moving there was his third journey. “The hardest one,” he says. “Could I handle that next step? And obviously, I handled it very well.”

Sancho was a star for Man City’s youth teams. ‘I was standing out, week in and week out. I felt it was time to seek another challenge,’ he says.

“The team sheet,” Michael Zorc says. He smiles. “It’s my best argument.”

He’s explaining how Dortmund manages to get tomorrow’s stars to spurn some of world’s biggest clubs and come to the Ruhr Valley. “They know we are not afraid to use young talent,” he says. “I tell them, ‘Look at our team sheets. You will play!’ And not in a cup game against a second-division team, but important games against Schalke, Moenchengladbach, Bayern. In the Champions League.”

By 17, Pulisic was on Dortmund’s senior team. When Mario Gotze was 17, he was playing every week. Ousmane Dembele, now with Barcelona, had turned 19 when he came to Dortmund in 2016. Jurgen Klopp’s unheralded Dortmund team that upset Bayern Munich in 2011 had an average age of 22. “On 3:30 on a Saturday afternoon,” Zorc says, referencing the usual Bundesliga start time, “we typically have three, four, five players under 20.” Zorc wanted Sancho to be the next.

One of football’s most adept executives, Zorc has made a virtue out of necessity. Dortmund won the Champions League in 1997, a stunning apotheosis for a working-man’s club. By 2004, though, it had spent itself into bankruptcy. If not for a bridge loan of two million Euros from Bayern Munich, and then a crucial vote by investors in March, 2005, that ratified a restructuring plan, it would have been dropped into the nether reaches of German football, and without the financial capacity to return.

Frightened into frugality, Dortmund has since operated far more prudently. The home dressing room lacks the luxuries that even smaller clubs routinely offer. Players don’t even get a cubicle, just four metal hooks for their street clothes and accessories. A wooden bench runs the length of room like in a sauna, with a rubber-covered floor beneath. If the hair dryers, which are permanently installed beneath the small mirror at one end, look like remnants from the 1970s, it’s because they are.

Sancho joins a front line of Marcus Rashford, Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane for England.

Even with one of the largest stadiums in Europe, Dortmund’s earning capacity doesn’t come close to matching that of the world’s biggest clubs. Its fans can’t afford the ticket prices that most of its Champions League competitors get. Nearly 30,000 standing-room places in Signal Iduna Park cost under 20 euros. Even the priciest seats top out at 60.

Like many small clubs, Dortmund generates revenue by selling players to the giants. The difference is, it also wants to successfully compete against them. So Zorc combs the world for young talent. He hopes his discoveries will make their most dramatic progress at the end of their teens and the start of their twenties, while they’re wearing black and yellow. Then he’ll sell them to a bigger club at a sizeable profit. These days, Dortmund’s alumni association would field a competitive team in nearly any league in Europe: Bayern’s Robert Lewandowski, Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Man City’s Ilkay Gundogan, Barcelona’s Dembele, Chelsea’s Pulisic, Japan and Real Zaragoza’s Shinji Kagawa. Klopp took many of those players to the Champions League final in 2013. And Sancho was watching.

Sancho had shaken off homesickness and raced through the Manchester City youth program after arriving there in 2015. In the summer of 2017, director of football Txiki Begiristain offered a professional contract. Begiristain assumed it was pro forma, a done deal. Who turns down Man City?

But Sancho wasn’t convinced. The world’s greatest collection of forwards was already fighting for playing time under Guardiola: Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane, Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus. “The opportunity, I didn’t see it,” Sancho says.

And while Dortmund was noticing Sancho, Sancho had been noticing Dortmund. He saw that Pulisic was playing regularly. He knew that Dortmund competed in Europe nearly every season. He hadn’t been there, but when he Googled the city, Borussia Dortmund came up as the top attraction. “I thought of it as an opportunity to show the world who I am and what I can do,” he said. “I thought of it like just another away trip. ‘I just need to go away and play football.'”

The deal Zorc and Beguristain negotiated called for a price of seven million euros, with a clause that gave Manchester City 15 percent of the profit from a future sale and a first-refusal option. Dortmund gave him the same No. 7 shirt that Dembele had worn. “That surprised me,” Sancho said, but it also gave him confidence. As a 17-year-old in 2017-18, he started seven games and came on as a substitute in five more. His first goal in any senior competition came against Bayer Leverkusen on April 21, 2018.

Sancho’s progression has been so rapid, it’s hard to believe that goal happened only 18 months ago. He added 12 more goals and 14 assists last year, helping Dortmund finish second in the Bundesliga, a point behind Bayern Munich. Under Favre, whose idea of perfect football is Brazil’s 1970 World Cup team, Dortmund plays a free-flowing style that enables Sancho to show far more creativity than he would for another German side. “We can play very active football because we have players like Jadon,” Favre says. “He can play short, he can play long. He can play with one touch. He can dribble in front of the goal, he can use his head. He destabilizes the other team.”

Sancho is still learning, like any teenager. He makes mistakes. Accustomed to watching young players develop, Dortmund’s supporters shrug them off. That’s not the reaction he’d be getting if he’d stayed in Manchester. “There’s just a lot of pressure in England,” he says. “The media is so hard on young players. If you have not a good game, it’s like you’re not ready, you’re not good enough. Germany is relaxed. I think a young player needs that.”

Sancho played for England in the UEFA Nations League in June. By the time he reported back to Dortmund, he was a full-fledged star. “It isn’t just that he made the team, but that he continues to build on it,” said teammate Thomas Delaney. “I would almost call it a privilege to watch Jadon every day in training. It’s spectacular. He does things with the ball I’ve never seen before. If I tried to do what he does, I’d hurt myself.”

Will Sancho leave Dortmund after this season for a Premier League club? When asked, he smiles and says he’ll do what seems right to him no matter what the expectations dictate.

It’s a quiet night in Dortmund. But then, what other kind is there?

Zorc grew up there. He spent his entire 17-year senior career playing for Dortmund as a central midfielder. Now he has placed the success of the club in the hands of players who can’t legally drink a beer in the United States. In that situation, he understands, dull is desirable. “There’s no nightlife,” he confirms. “No distractions. It’s not Las Vegas, not Berlin, not London. You have to go 100 kilometers for anything.” That allows young players to focus on their football. If Sancho fritters away his evenings playing Fortnite after the occasional ice cream, well, Zorc knows he could be doing far worse somewhere else.

Eventually, Sancho will want more, on and off the field. Lewandowski ultimately left for Munich. So did Gotze, though he returned. Aubameyang and Gundogan moved on to the Premier League, and Dembele for Barcelona. They were replaced by the next generation of hot prospects, the likes of Pulisic and Sancho. Pulisic now plays for Chelsea, a deal that enhanced Zorc’s budget by $73 million. As he was leaving, perhaps the next great American prospect — Gio Reyna, Claudio’s son, who turns 17 next month — arrived. And hidden away in Dortmund’s youth program, a 14-year-old named Yousouffa Moukoko is scoring goals by the dozen.

Soon enough, too, Sancho will be gone. It almost happened last summer, after Manchester United made its intentions known. But Zorc advised Sancho that the time wasn’t yet right, and Sancho agreed. In August, Sancho signed an extension through 2022 that pays him more than 200,000 euros a week, but nobody is under the illusion that he will finish the contract. This season in the Bundesliga is almost certain to be his last.

Sancho reflects on his decision to move to Dortmund. ‘Could I handle that next step? And obviously, I handled it very well,’ he says.

On this particular quiet night in Dortmund, Sancho has just been chosen to represent England for Euro 2020 qualifying matches against Bulgaria and Kosovo. Unlike his first senior selection, when he was expecting to be chosen for the U-21s, this one was a foregone conclusion. Very quickly, Sancho has become the best sort of problem for England manager Gareth Southgate, whose front line of Marcus Rashford, Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane will need to make room.

Sancho is the only England player who hasn’t played in the Premier League. Until Kieran Trippier left Spurs for Atletico Madrid before this season, he was the only one not playing in England. But that hasn’t hampered his international advancement. “I don’t see a negative at all,” Southgate said recently. “Jadon’s playing before 80,000 fans at Dortmund every week. That brings huge pressure. We want our players to be feeling that intensity.”

Sancho ended up scoring twice in England’s 5-3 victory over Kosovo. That set the English media on its latest frenzy about which Premier League team he will be headed to next summer. In recent months, he has been linked not only with Man United but also Man City, Arsenal, Tottenham, Chelsea and Liverpool. He’d be open to the idea of playing in England but insists it isn’t something he needs to do, not now. That’s a point that Frederik Obasi, one of two South London brothers who represent Sancho, made before the summer. “Everyone is talking ‘England, England, England,'” he said. “But why do they assume he has to go there? There are other leagues and other clubs that would also make sense for Jadon at this point.”

For a player on the cusp of worldwide stardom, spurning an offer from one of the Premier League’s top clubs would seem counterintuitive. By next summer, he’ll be 20: a proven England international, and one of the biggest stars in the sport. Why wouldn’t he want to compete in the world’s best and most remunerative league, coming home as a superstar to a place where friends and family could watch him? To go anywhere else would be to defy logic.

Sancho smiles and says he’ll do what seems right to him, no matter what expectations might dictate. Believe him. He has done it before.

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Gerrard ended Rangers' title drought. Can he end their Champions League exile?

3:30 AM ETSteven Gerrard is a winner again, and he is determined to make up for lost time by winning over and over as Rangers manager. And he wants the pressure and expectancy that comes with it, too.Having ended the Glasgow club's 10-year wait for the Scottish title last season by delivering a record 55th domestic championship, the former Liverpool and England captain admits he had almost forgotten the sensation of lifting a major trophy, having last done so as a player in the 2011-12 EFL Cup final with Liverpool.2 RelatedBut as Rangers prepare to begin the defence of their Scottish Premiership crown with a 2021-22 season opener against Livingston at Ibrox on Saturday, in an exclusive interview with ESPN, Gerrard says that last season's success served as a personal reminder of the rewards of winning and reinforced his desire to ensure that he and Rangers become serial winners again."I hadn't won for a long time," Gerrard told ESPN. "For the majority of my career, I had always competed at the back end of seasons to try to win trophies, but it has been well documented that I never won the Premier League as a player and then I went off to LA (Galaxy) and started doing my coaching badges at Liverpool's youth team, so a lot of time had passed by without the opportunity to compete. I took this job just over three years ago now and it gave me the opportunity again to try to compete and get that winning feeling back from a personal point of view."And the wait was certainly worth it because it felt ever so good . It was a big relief, obviously, to get that first big trophy in the bag, but just reminiscing and thinking back over my playing career, to feel that winning feeling again and get a winners' medal over your neck, it was absolutely top class."But if you look at previous managers here, like Graeme Souness, Walter Smith and the guys that have gone before me, one trophy is never enough. The demand and responsibility is always to add to the success."- Stream ESPN FC Daily on ESPN+ (U.S. only) - Don't have ESPN? Get instant accessGerrard's achievement with Rangers last season went beyond merely guiding the club to the top of the pile in Scotland. In doing so, Rangers not only drew a line under the most turbulent decade in the club's history, when they were demoted to the fourth and bottom tier of Scottish football in 2012 and forced to fight back to the top as punishment for the financial mismanagement of previous owners, but they also prevented bitter rivals Celtic from creating history by winning 10 consecutive titles.The pressure on Gerrard and his players was intense at the start of last season, but despite the potential ignominy of failing to stop Celtic from achieving 10 in a row, Rangers would emerge as champions without suffering a single league defeat, amassing 102 points in the process. They finished 25 points clear of runners-up Celtic and ensured that the balance of power in Glasgow swung firmly back to Ibrox from Celtic Park.But for Gerrard, the only value of last season is its use as a launchpad for more success rather than an opportunity to wallow in the past."I think at Rangers you are always trying to reset the remit," he said. "Since I first came here (in summer 2018), we have completed a lot of the challenges that were set for me, my staff and the players, but the goalposts always move at a club that has experienced the kind of success that Rangers have."We've had incredible success, we made history last year, but it's about parking that up now and looking to build on that.play0:54Rangers manager Steven Gerrard says he would never take the Everton job, but wasn't surprised former Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez did."I think this job comes with huge pressure every single season, no matter whether it is a success. There are always things to improve on, you always reset and get ready to go again. The pressure never changes, I don't feel under any other pressure than I did on day one really."My job every day comes with that responsibility to try to make this club better, and keep striving for success. We've got targets now set for the end of the season and that is to try to be as dominant as we can and get as much silverware we can to add to last year."At 41, Gerrard is clearly at the outset of a career in management that many believe will ultimately see him take charge of Liverpool or England. His success with Rangers last season has done little to diminish the perception within the game that Gerrard will become a leading manager at the very highest level."I can't control any media speculation about my position," he said. "I don't welcome it, I don't add to it. All I do is focus on the job I have here and I'm very flattered and grateful for the position."I'm very happy here, I've said it on numerous occasions, it's a huge club, I'm settled, I'm happy and I can continue to develop and keep trying to push this team forward."There is no sense with Gerrard that he is remotely interested in cutting short his time in Scotland. He told ESPN that succeeding Carlo Ancelotti at Everton was "never a possibility," while there were no moves by his friends or representatives to connect him with the vacancy at Tottenham Hotspur this summer.Contracted to Rangers until the end of the 2023-24 season, it appears that Gerrard believes he has unfinished business at Ibrox and is in no rush to look elsewhere. He enjoys the pressure of the job and admits he actually relishes the challenge that comes with being a central figure at a huge club.Steven Gerrard ended Rangers' 10-year wait for a Scottish Premiership title. Craig Williamson/SNS Group via Getty Images"It depends how you look at that pressure," he said. "You can either shrink by the thought of it and let it weigh you down, or you can see it as a challenge, put your shoulders back and try and embrace it."It is something that you want and demand for yourself. For me, I would always want to be in a position where the pressure and responsibility is big because it means you are in a top job and that, if you are good enough to win in that position, the feeling and the experience can be up there with the best things that ever happen to you."We have become the team that everybody wants to knock off the top, so we will have to try to defend that with our lives and also attack the next one with everything we've got."This season, the challenge facing Gerrard is simple: keep winning. But on top of the expectation of domestic success, Gerrard must also restore Rangers to the Champions League.The club hasn't played in the competition since losing a third-qualifying-round tie against Malmo in August 2011, but they renew acquaintances with the Swedish champions at the same stage of the tournament next month, aiming to win that tie and seal a place in the playoff round, which is the gateway to the group stages. On paper, Rangers are two steps away from the group stages, but Gerrard, a Champions League winner with Liverpool in 2005, insists that his team must clear two big obstacles before contemplating the prospect of glamour ties against the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and his old club, Liverpool.Dan Thomas is joined by Craig Burley, Shaka Hislop and others to bring you the latest highlights and debate the biggest storylines. Stream on ESPN+ (U.S. only). "Very big obstacles," Gerrard said. "The Champions League is obviously a level up from the Europa League, so we have to be ready for that. It's going to be a tough challenge to get into that final round of qualifying, but for me, with experience you always worry about what is front of you, so the focus is very much on trying to overcome Malmo."It's been a case of us trying to grow as a group from a European point of view. Obviously, there was a major setback here before I joined the club in terms of qualification (Rangers lost to Luxembourg-based minnows Progres Niederkorn in 2017), but the club needs Europe financially and the fans also expect the team to deliver in Europe. We've had three really exciting journeys in Europe over the last three seasons, twice reaching the Europa League last 16, but it's all about raising the bar and trying to go that one or two steps further."For now, however, the focus is on the start of the new Premiership season. Celtic, under new coach Ange Postecoglou, will be the biggest threat to Rangers' hopes of defending their title -- no team outside of Glasgow's big two has won the Scottish championship since Alex Ferguson's Aberdeen in 1985.But having ended Rangers' long title drought in front of empty stadiums last season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Gerrard admits that one way to make this season better than the last is by winning the title again with supporters able to watch every kick along the way."The only tinge of sadness and frustration I had (last season) was that we couldn't celebrate in front of a full house at Ibrox, but obviously the scenes and experience of doing it was very much enjoyable," he said. "But life is how it is at the moment and we have to respect the virus and the situation that everyone is in, abide by all the rules that are put in front of us and try to do what we need to do."It just makes you that extra bit determined to go and do it again when things are hopefully back to normal and the crowds are in the stadium, when the experience will be even more enjoyable." Read the full article

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