MATCH! 17 January 2023

15 He signed his first pro contract at Santos and scored his first senior goal when he was just 15 years old! 16 He scored his first-ever Brazil goal when he was 16 and remains their youngest-ever scorer! 17 He was 17 at the 1958 World Cup when he became the WC’s youngest-ever goalscorer and the youngest star to play and score in the final! 3 He’s the only player in World Cup history to win the trophy three times! 8 His eight all-time World Cup assists is a joint-record, with his six in 1970 a record for a single tourno! 1,283 He’s estimated to have scored over 1,200 goals for clubs and country throughout his career in just 1,363 games! 77 Pele is tied at the top of Brazil’s…

GOODBYE, BALE! Gareth Bale announced his retirement from football at the age of 33 earlier this month! We’ll feature some of his greatest career highlights in MATCH’s next issue! EXPERIENCEDWONDERKID! Chelsea’s new centre-back Benoit Badiashile, from Monaco, is the only player born in the 21st century to have featured in more than 100 matches in Ligue 1! NEW ITALY CREST! Not featuring at the World Cup clearly gave the Italian football federation some free time to finish their new crest, which is a slightly different shape and colour! FACT PACK! Age: 23 Position: Forward Height: 6ft 4in Country: Netherlands Caps: 14 1 INTERNATIONAL OPTIONS! Gakpo was born in the Dutch city of Eindhoven but his father’s roots meant he could also have played for Togo or Ghana! He represented Netherlands…

FA CUP KING KANE! Spurs striker Harry Kane has scored 14 goals in his last 14 appearances in the FA Cup, averaging a goal every 63 minutes in the competition in that period! IN-FORM IHEANACHO! Since his first appearance in the competition in January 2016, Leicester’s Kelechi Iheanacho has scored more FA Cup goals than any other player! BECKHAM’SABEE! Romeo Beckham, the son of former England captain David Beckham, has joined Brentford’s B team on loan from MLS side Inter Miami for the rest of the season! 1 STOKE V STEVENAGE League Two promotion hopefuls Stevenage were definitely one of the fairy-tale stories of the third round! They shocked Prem club Aston Villa with two goals in the final two minutes of normal time to turn the game on its…

JOAO FELIX Atletico Madrid to Chelsea Loan MISLAV ORSIC Dinamo Zagreb to Southampton £8 million ANDREY SANTOS Vasco da Gama to Chelsea £13 million JACK BUTLAND Crystal Palace to Man. United Loan DALEY BLIND Ajax to Bayern Munich Free Transfer BENOIT BADIASHILE Monaco to Chelsea £32.7 million KEVIN SCHADE Freiburg to Brentford Loan MAX WOBER Red Bull Salzburg to Leeds £17.7 million CODY GAKPO PSV to Liverpool £35 million DAVID DATRO FOFANA Molde to Chelsea £10.6 million CRISTIANO RONALDO Man. United to Al-Nassr Free Transfer BETHANY ENGLAND Chelsea Women to Tottenham Women Undisclosed JORDAN NOBBS Arsenal Women to Aston Villa Women Undisclosed VICTORIA PELOVA Ajax Women to Arsenal Women Undisclosed…

If you didn’t receive these MATCH Annuals for Christmas, don’t stress! We’ve got three brilliant bundles to give away! Each lucky winner will win a Barcelona Annual, a Rangers Annual and a Football Skills Annual! All three annuals are still available at amazon.co.uk The Football Skills Annual counts down the top 50 tricksters in world footy, while the Barcelona and Rangers Annuals are must-haves for fans of the clubs! CLOSING DATE: FEB. 17 3 PRIZES! ANI LOVES FOOTBALL BOOKS Ani Loves Football is an amazing activity book all about A girls’ football – and we’ve got ten copies to give away! ay! The book is packed with tons of mega fun footy activities like word searches, spot the difference and mazes! You can be the star of the book because…

Water boy! Injured Jesse Lingard was also on cone duty! Faes fail! Two own goals in one game does this to you… Face palm emoji! That feeling when you get dribbled past… Super-San! Forget Superman, check out Brighton’s Super-Sanchez! Mitro-pong! Aleksandar Mitrovic is clearly still eating leftover sprouts from Christmas! Headlesshero! Has Ebere Eze misplaced his head or what? LOL! Ball boy banter! Vini can have the ball…only if he high-fives the ball boy! Cheeky keeper! We can see your lunch, Aaron! HappyJimenez! Who is the Wolves striker waving to in the crowd? Head-to-head! Has someone glued Barisic and McGregor’s heads together?…