Table of contents for August 2020 in FourFourTwo UK

XI BEST: Nigel Martyn, Kenny Sansom, Mamadou Sakho, Jim Cannon, Joel Ward, Geoff Thomas, Mile Jedinak, Jason Puncheon, Wilfried Zaha, Ian Wright, Peter Taylor. WORST: Steve Mandanda, Zeki Fryers, Neil Ruddock, Valerien Ismael, Jason Crowe, Tom Ince, Jordon Mutch, Edgar Davids (yes, really!), Jimmy Kebe, Ade Akinbiyi, Patrick Bamford. PLAYER B: A toss-up between Zaha [right] and Wright, but Wilf wins on longevity. It’s been a joy watching him grow into the player he is today. W: Kebe. Recommended to Palace by an ex-boss, but did the bare minimum to earn his wages with us. GAME B: For the suspense, enormity of the occasion and result, the 2010 draw with Sheffield Wednesday which kept us in the Championship (and secured our future as a club). We only needed a point,…

After a brilliant Premier League-winning season, Liverpool have begun their 19th year as reigning champions of England. Only Manchester United have ruled for longer... right? Wrong. Everton have bagged only nine league titles – four fewer than Arsenal, 10 behind Liverpool, and 11 shy of Manchester United. They last conquered England in 1987. But bizarrely, their history has included 20 years as reigning champions – a record that United only matched thanks to their final title under Fergie. The Toffees first topped the First Division in 1891, when their home ground was actually Anfield. After their move to Goodison Park – Liverpool were formed to take over the vacant stadium – Everton’s second crown was secured when they pipped Oldham in 1914-15. The whole campaign was completed, despite the First…

PAOLO MALDINI 1985-2009 GAMES 902 CLUB MILAN BEFORE Following in a father’s footsteps is never easy, but when your old man is Cesare Maldini – he of four Scudetto-winning Milan teams between 1955 and 1962, and the first Rossoneri skipper to lift the European Cup in 1963 – well, expectations weigh a bit heavier. Despite Maldini Snr’s feats – he departed for Torino in 1966 having achieved iconic status – it could be argued that his most enduring legacy was actually his son, Paolo. LEGACY Just like his dad, Paolo was a gifted defender: elegant, versatile, accomplished on the ball and an intelligent reader of the game. Regarded as a generational talent in Milan’s youth setup, he was handed his senior debut at the age of just 16, coming on…

The Black Lives Matter campaign may have morphed from worthy cause into political grenade in the space of a few weeks, but its overriding mantra should always remain at the heart of any discussion. However, as statues have been toppled and peaceful protests have been overshadowed by retaliation, it’s hard to shake the feeling that ulterior matters have distracted from the original, simple message. But cutting through all the noise is like cycling through a bog: it’s hard work, and you’re going to get stuck. That’s why FFT enlisted former pros Marvin Sordell and Liam Rosenior for a Zoom chat about the realities of life from an ethnic minority background, and where football can improve. Topically, Rosenior went to Colston’s Primary School in Bristol – (formerly) named after Edward Colston,…

Decked in blue and white, they chanted his name on the Tube, and on all the buses to the stadium. They chanted it down Wembley Way. They chanted it from the terraces. “There’s only one Ricky Villa,” they yelled. A year earlier, Spurs’ languid Argentine had scored an FA Cup final ages; a mazy, - through Manchester City’s retreating defence, accompanied for the viewing millions at home by John Motson’s incomparable strangled coo: “And still Ricky Villa…” With 14 minutes to go, the 1981 centenary final had been won by Villa’s audacious effort; his second of the match crowning a thrilling, see-sawing, five-goal replay. Ossie’s Dream – the cup final ditty from Tottenham fans Chas & Dave, penned in honour of Villa’s compatriot Osvaldo Ardiles – had been realised. Fast-forward…

Even if you remember nothing else, anyone who watched Jossy’s Giants can remember the theme tune. The exact plot details may now be lost to childhood memory, but that jaunty Undertones-lite foot-tapper? It still echoes from the 1980s. Yet Jossy himself initially wasn’t a massive fan of the song. “The bloke who wrote it had a pub band,” explains actor Jim Barclay, aka Jossy Blair, “and we all went to this pub to hear him and his band play this song. I didn’t like it! But Sid [Waddell] and Ed [Pugh], the director, said, ‘It’s perfect’. I was totally wrong, of course: it’s very catchy and works terrifically.” Barclay duly treats FourFourTwo to a rousing chorus of “We’re called Jossy’s Giants…” Securing the defining role of his career at that…

Bayern Munich 2 Real Madrid 1 May 9, 2001 Champions League semi-final “I was 20 – until then, everyone had seen me as this Canadian kid who had come from the academy and cost less than a bread roll. I was playing against Luis Figo, the most expensive player in the world at the time. Before the game I thought, ‘I’m in trouble here’, but you get onto the pitch and it’s just football. The most powerful thing I ever experienced in a match was when I took the ball off Roberto Carlos and ran by him. This light went off in my head, like, ‘Wow, you can do this’. It changed my career and it made me think, ‘I belong here’.” England 0 Portugal 0 (1-3 pens) July 1,…

01 Gianfranco Zola joined Chelsea for just £4.5 million in November 1996 from which club? 02 Which defensive midfielder has made the most appearances in Premier League history? 03 Brentford hotshot Ollie Watkins began his career at which fellow Football League outfit? 04 Before Ligue 1’s season ended in April, which Monaco forward led the scoring chart alongside Kylian Mbappe on 18 goals? 05 Which La Liga team are also known as Los Periquitos (or ‘the Budgerigars’)? 06 Manchester United famously hammered Tottenham 5-3 in October 2001 – what was the score at half-time? 07 Which Englishman fired home a famous volley for Real Madrid in the 2000 Champions League Final against Valencia? 08 Which club has lost the fewest number of matches in Premier League history (19)? 09 Everton…

Dennis Bergkamp is smiling, as he remembers Clacket Lane services on the M25. Just the merest mention of his visit, and the Dutchman is already getting flashbacks to the summer of 1995. “It was unbelievable...” explains Bergkamp, chuckling as he chats to FourFourTwo. He isn’t talking about the service station’s facilities, as impressive as they undoubtedly were 25 years ago. He’s talking about the moment when fate intervened – the moment he knew his Arsenal career was bound for glory. A day earlier, Bergkamp had completed a £7.5 million deal to join the Gunners, following an unhappy spell at Inter in Serie A. Driving back home to the Netherlands from north London, he unwittingly took a much longer route than planned, ending up on the southern section of the M25…

Henrik Larsson was just 16 minutes into his Celtic career, but already it wasn’t going well. Introduced as a second-half substitute at Hibernian, his task was simple: help Celtic win the game. Instead, he inadvertently helped them lose it. When Larsson picked up the ball on the corner of his own penalty area, the dreadlocked Swede tried to start an attack, swivelling and aiming a pass towards team-mate Darren Jackson. However, it never got there. Chic Charnley, a 34-year-old barrel-chested journeyman also on his debut, intercepted Larsson’s pass and rifled home Hibs’ winner from 25 yards. A week later the Bhoys lost at home to Dunfermline, and sat bottom of the Scottish Premier Division on zero points. In the space of a few short months, Celtic’s three previous star forwards…

1 “THE TV’S BEHIND YOU, MICK!” Behind-closed-doors football has been far from ideal, but one fan has made the best of it – by striding around his living room in a pair of Speedos. Michael Cullen has become famous for turning up at Everton matches in his swimming trunks, starting the tradition after he’d swum the Channel for charity. ‘Speedo Mick’ also raised £500,000 by donning the trunks to walk from John O’Groats to Land’s End this season, braving sub-zero temperatures plus Storms Ciara and Dennis. “It was nearly blowing me knickers off, which wouldn’t have been a good sight,” he said. Fans at Everton’s January FA Cup clash at Liverpool got more than they bargained for, too – he stopped off at Anfield mid-walk, giving the front row…

There are two things in life that really deter a burglar: Duncan Ferguson, or a huge dog. In recent years, football’s leading stars have increasingly found themselves the targets for criminals – not least thanks to a fixture list that generously tells potential burglars when they’ll be away from home. Sadio Mané’s house was ransacked while he played for Liverpool in the Champions League, while Belgium’s Jan Vertonghen and Romelu Lukaku have also been robbed. Dele Alli was at home when thieves struck, held at knifepoint as they stole watches and jewellery in May. Ferguson twice took on crooks who tried to loot his residence, and twice he won. But not everyone can live with Big Dunc. Instead, Raheem Sterling, Marcus Rashford, Paul Pogba, Jack Grealish and others now own…

What was the first match you ever saw live? My first proper live game was Wales vs Belgium in March 1993, when Ian Rush became our record goalscorer and Ryan Giggs also netted on his full debut. My first Swansea game would have been one of Jan Molby’s first games in [1996] pre-season against Carmarthen Town. I sprinted on to get his autograph at the end, but his handwriting was so bad I had to put his name next to it for future-proofing. Who was your childhood hero and did you ever meet them? Ian Rush [right]. I discovered football myself, really: my dad, a clichéd West Walian father, is rugby-mad. It wasn’t until I started at primary school that I realised other boys supported teams. When you’re that age,…

Is there an issue you feel strongly about? Contact us: fourfourtwo@futurenet.com FourFourTwoUK FourFourTwo LAZY SCOUTING Following on from No.94 in your list of things we may have forgotten about the noughties [Collins out, John in], I just wanted to point out how surprisingly common it is for namesakes to be at the same club. In 2017, Rochdale signed Jordan Williams from Barrow and then brought in Jordan Williams on loan from Liverpool. Elsewhere, local rivals Bury signed Jordan Williams on loan from Huddersfield. Also, who can forget Wigan replacing Reece James with Reece James a year later? Not confusing at all. Michael Baines, via email FFT: We’ll see you there and chuck a pair of Tal Ben Haims (Maccabi Tel Aviv, Israel) into the mix for good measure, Michael... DENER:…

Joshua Kimmich always gets his wish. In March, Bayern Munich’s midfield metronome spoke to FourFourTwo ahead of a hectic end to the season in which he vowed to satisfy his Champions League itch and win Euro 2020 with Germany. It was our first chat since early 2017, when Kimmich welcomed us to Munich to celebrate both his 22nd birthday and being one of our best young players in the world. Let s hope it’s not three years until next time,” he laughed that nondescript spring afternoon earlier this year. He was right, too. It would be three months to the day. Twenty-four hours after Kimmich cheerily bid FFT farewell, the Bundesliga was suspended due to coronavirus. Within a week, football across Europe was on indefinite hold and the European Championship…

More than 40,000 Atalanta fans were on their feet, roaring Hans Hateboer on as he surged clear towards goal. A third of Bergamo’s population had gathered at Milan’s San Siro, to witness the high point of the club’s 112-year existence. Hateboer steadied himself, before crashing the ball into the net. Atalanta 4 Valencia 0, in the last 16 of the Champions League. For an unfancied side making their first appearance in Europe’s elite club competition, the score barely seemed possible. “In such an important moment, with all of those people at San Siro, I think that was the best match in Atalanta’s history,” Hateboer tells FourFourTwo now, as he thinks back to that game in February. “These are the kinds of things you dream about as a kid.” That Atalanta…