FourFourTwo UK

editor’s letter

There are a few things that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and I have in common. We both wore a Norway shirt in the 1990s (I was a 13-year-old football hipster, sorry), we’ve both come off the bench to score four goals at the City Ground and, this season, we’ve both taken temporary charge of an iconic football institution.OK, only two of those things are true, but I’ll be at the helm of FFT until our new Editor-in-Chief arrives a little later in the year.Successful caretakers (and Tim Sherwood) often make a point of blooding youngsters, and with that in mind, this month we’ve made Jadon Sancho our youngest cover star since Lionel Messi first graced our front page back in 2005. Sancho may not go on to win five Ballons…

played a blinder

Tom Chase The designer-for-hire helped to bring many of this month’s features to life – and he had one particular favourite. “Designing the Gareth Bale interview was a treat. I’ve long been a fan of his, and it’s always a bonus to work with such great photography.” Stefan Grey The Dortmund-based snapper went out to our Jadon Sancho cover shoot in Marbella with a few surprises in his luggage. “My friend Christian let us borrow his ace collection of retro phones, boomboxes and more – Jadon couldn’t have been happier playing along!” Chris Flanagan Our staff writer sat down with Arsenal icon Nigel Winterburn for this month’s One-on-One. “He was lovely and keen to stress he’s not really a nutter, even if he did…

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the beautiful game

LIGHTS! CAMERA! FOOTBALL!Named after a local brewery, the Cuauhtemoc Stadium has always occupied a special place in Puebla, Mexico’s fourth city. The ground hosted games at the 1970 and 1986 World Cups, and its fluorine-based plastic ETFE structure – similar to that seen at the Eden Project and Bayern Munich’s Allianz Arena – dominates the skyline. For their opening match of the Liga MX Clausura season against Cruz Azul in January, Puebla lit up the city, though could only scrape a 1-1 draw. A NOD AND A WINKSIt’s safe to say Harry Winks wouldn’t feature near the top of anyone’s list of players you’d expect to pop up and score an injury-time headed winner. Especially his own. “I didn’t, either!” laughed the Spurs midfielder after his 93rd-minute goal condemned…

one-on-one nigel winterburn

CLUBS 1981-82 Birmingham 1982-83 Oxford 1983-87 Wimbledon 1987-2000 Arsenal 2000-03 West Ham COUNTRY 1989-93 England When FFT asked Nigel Winterburn to recreate the time Paolo Di Canio could have flattened him, we weren’t sure how he’d react. “You won seven major trophies, Nige, but will you relive your most embarrassing moment for us?”We needn’t have worried. “Oh, that’ll be easy – I’ve got that pose down to perfection!” he says, smiling, seemingly delighted we’ve raised the idea when we meet at Winterburn’s home on the outskirts of Aylesbury, where an Arsenal league title winners’ pennant proudly hangs in the corner of the room.Not only is he willing to re-enact his infamous flinch against Di Canio, having squared up to the Sheffield Wednesday hothead after the…

highs & lows

LOW: 1982 Gets released by Birmingham without playing a match HIGH: 1986 Reaches top tier with Wimbledon, completing their rise up leagues LOW: 1988 Sees his penalty saved as Luton stun Arsenal in League Cup final HIGH: 1989 Wins the first of two top-flight championships in three years LOW: 1995 Comes off injured as Arsenal lose Cup Winners’ Cup final in the last minute of extra time HIGH: 1998 Helps the Gunners to secure a league and cup Double ■…