EK MAG - #06 August 2020

EK MAG

ELEVEN KINGS MAGAZINE 06 | AUGUST 2020

• TOP 10 GLOBAL

Wunderkings

#elevenfacts

elevenkings.com

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Liverpool won 32 Premier League games this season, a joint-record in the history of the English topflight alongside Manchester City.

Juventus won their ninth straight Serie A title this season. Juventus have now won 36 league titles in Italy, a record among Europe’s top five leagues, and their ninth title win in a row aligns them with Celtic and Ludogorets who are currently also on a run of ninth league titles on the spin.

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#elevenfacts

3Real Madrid seal 34th La Liga title to extend record this season. This is Madrid’s first league title since the 2016/17 season, and the second under the stewardship of manager Zinedine Zidane.

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Bayern München won their eighth straight Bundesliga title this season. Prior to FCB’s current run of eight consecutive titles, no team had ever won the Bundesliga more than three seasons in a row. Having won 29 of the 57 campaigns played since the league was founded in 1963, Bayern have now brought over half of the titles home to Munich.

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Istanbul Basaksehir won the Turkish title for the first time this season, ending the dominance of the city’s big three clubs Fenerbahce, Galatasaray and Besiktas.

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Gian Piero Gasperini

and His Magnificent Atalanta

Atalanta Bergamasca Calcio, commonly referred to as Atalanta, is an Italian football club based in Bergamo, Lombardy. The club is nicknamed La Dea, the Nerazzurri and the Orobici. Founded in 1907 by Swiss students in the gym of the liceo classico, Atalanta play in blueand-black vertically striped shirts, black shorts and black socks. Atalanta joined the Italian league in 1929. However the club has never won Scudetto so far. The biggest success of Atalanta in domestic competitions came in 1963, when they won Coppa Italia. The club reached the Cup Winners’ Cup semifinal in 1988, when they were competing in Serie B. This is still the best ever performance by a non-first division club in a major UEFA competition together with Cardiff City. Atalanta also participated in four seasons of the UEFA Europa League, reaching the quarter-finals in the 1990/91 season. The club began to experience its greatest days after the appointment of Gian Piero Gasperini as head coach. At the beginning of 2016/17 season, Gian Piero Gasperini was appointed as a manager of Atalanta. Atalanta stuttered at the beginning of the season and new coach was on the verge of dismissal. However with an amazing

run of positive results, the team secured an impressive 4th-place finish with 72 points. With that result, Atalanta qualified for 2017/18 Europa League and reached the round of 32. In this round they lost to Borussia Dortmund on aggregate. In 2017/18, Atalanta placed 7th in the Serie A, earning them a berth for the chance to qualify for 2018/19 UEFA Europa League group stage. However, they were defeated by Danish side FC Copenhagen in the final of qualification. In 2018/19, Atalanta struggled at the beginning of the season, getting only one win in their first 8 matches. A strong second half to the season including a 13 match unbeaten run to end the season meant Atalanta finished third in the league, qualifying to the 2019/20 UEFA Champions League group stage for the first time in their history. Atalanta also made the finals of the 2018/19 Coppa

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From football coach to

Azerbaijan’s National Hero

It is difficult to talk about Qarabag FK without mentioning their courageous and tragic history. The club were founded in Aghdam, a town of rich history in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, and played in the Azerbaijan championship in the Soviet era. After the USSR ceased to exist, they won the title in 1993, but at the same time huge ethnic conflict erupted in the region. Armenian armed forces captured Aghdam, destroying most of it, including the Imarat stadium and committing war crimes. The local Azerbaijani population had to flee to other parts of the country, leaving Aghdam the largest ghost town in the world. It remains empty today. Allahverdi Bagirov was a footballer and a hero. Not the hype kind of heroism that is celebrated in modern media when a footballer scores a goal, makes a last ditch tackle or a goalkeeper dives bravely at a center-forward’s feet. Former

Qarabag FK coach was a real hero. During the “Golden Wheat Cup”, he was the captain of FK Qarabag against a team from Jabrail in 1970. In 1976, Bagirov became the club’s head coach. The former Azerbaijani football legend Mushfig Huseynov remembers: “He was my first football coach. Allahverdi Bagirov taught us to be kind and

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