Elastico Chop

ELASTICO CHOP THE PULLBACK ISSUE

No.0 Autumn / Winter 2014 Five Pounds

Exploring the people in football

SAMUEL ETO’O | MONTPELLIER NEW AGE MAGAZINES | DUTCH FOOTBALL | IBWM BEN LYTTLETON | DAN LEYDON | WALEED ABU NADA FOOTBALL MANAGER

“When the ball is about six to ten inches away, start to bring the ball back like a regular elastico, but also bring your none dominant foot back around the ball like a scissor or a regular chop.�

WHEN THE BALL IS ABOUT SIX TO TEN INCHES AWAY START TO BRING THE BALL BACK LIKE A REGULAR ELASTICO, BUT ALSO BRING YOUR NON-DOMINANT FOOT BACK AROUND THE BALL, LIKE A SCISSOR OR A REGULAR CHOP

ELASTICO CHOP

THE PULLBACK ISSUE AUTUMN / WINTER 2014

EDITOR’S NOTE

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FEATURES

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Understanding Samuel Eto’o Montpellier: How they beat the Big Boys?

New Age Magazines Why you should watch Dutch Football

INTERVIEWS

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In Bed with Maradona The enduring power of Football Manager The art of the penalty kick Dany Leydon Waleed Abu Nada

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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Thank You & Contributors

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EDITOR’S NOTE My affection for football runs deeper than pre-match goose bumps, a half-time Bovril and hysterical post-goal celebrations.

Personally, the beautiful game gives me structure, comfort and - with technology such as Twitter, dual-monitors and smart phones - a cheap and stable 24-hour psychologist. Basically, when there is football on - be it my beloved Newcastle United against Stoke City, Dortmund versus Stuttgart or Shakhtar taking on FC Basel – it gives my regular unbalanced day a soothing framework.

For me, football is not all about goals. It’s the pronunciation of Serie A players’ names, it’s remembering the capacity of the Luzhniki Stadium and where to put the umlaut in Mesut Özil’s name. It’s the kit sponsors, the possession statistics, the different brands of boots; it’s OPTA stats and TV graphics, ‘first-goalscorer’ bets and the reasoning behind Yaya Toure sporting the number 42.

Nowadays, I wouldn’t contemplate watching the Champions League, for instance, without my smart phone, multiple screens, and social networks. Without these technologies how would I select which game to watch? How would I track my “over 2.5 goals” accumulator? How would I analyse Sergio Busquet’s pass completion? Who would call me a “buffoon”?

The game I fell in love with - from the moment my dad took me to see Newcastle United v Manchester City in the Coca Cola Cup, 1994 – is rapidly changing. It’s an interactive, electronic juggernaut sent gleaming and glistening from the footballing Gods on high (a heavenly, Olympian, combination of Sky TV and a white-bearded Zinedine Zidane). If you wish to accept it, you may embrace it forever. I have, and it’s wonderful.

Here at Elastico Chop I strive to bring you the latest in football culture, the Pullback issue acts as my pilot magazine labelled issue zero. It has been a lengthy and demanding process ensuring Elastico Chop achieved the high targets intially set, but I am extremely happy with the final product. The response to the magazine has been remarkable and I can’t thank all the journalists interviewees and industry professionals enough for taking a chance on something I believe can be very special.

MATT SMITH

Editor in Chief

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UNDERSTANDING SAMUEL ETO’O Words: Matt Smith

FROM REAL MADRIDS YOUTH ACADEMY TO LONDON’S KING’S ROAD, ELASTICO CHOP TAKES A CLOSER LOOK AT CAMEROON’S MOST DECORATED PLAYER

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ou may have seen the viral video. “Eto’o! Eto’o! Eto’o!” shouts a young boy, as three-time Champions League winner SAMUEL ETO’O ambles towards the Cameroon team bus. Three Group A defeats during Brazil 2014 mean that the bus – and ultimately by some sort of aircraft - will transport Eto’o out of Brazil and away from what is likely to be his last World Cup. Perhaps it is this realisation that prompts him to acknowledge the young fan before boarding. He smiles and reaches over the barrier. The boy isn’t after an autograph or any free merchandise; he simply wants to embrace one of his heroes. They hug and Eto’o reassuringly pats him on the head before stepping away. The boy begins to cry and they hold each other once more; but this time it’s different. Now it is Eto’o who is in need of the young boy’s compassionate squeeze. He buries his head into the boy’s shoulder and for 25 seconds the former Barcelona, Inter Milan and Chelsea legend appears to be propped up by the child.

Samuel Eto’o was born on March 10, 1981 in Nkon, Cameroon. He was the son of an accountant and while the family was not rich, they lived relatively well in a country of widespread poverty. At school, his natural football skills earned him the nickname ‘Little Milla’ after his childhood hero Roger Milla, who Eto’o believed to be the best footballer in the world, not just in Africa. Author Okyere Bonna, in his book ‘Africa’s Football Legends’ describes Eto’o as being “known for his quick pace and agility on and off the ball and an ability to score equally with both feet as well as his head,” and you would struggle to disagree with him.

Simply put, Eto’o is a goal machine. But who is he really? If we gaze into the eyes of the most decorated African player of all time, what do we really discover?

Goals, yes - but also a complex, sensitive and stubborn individual who, despite conquering so much during his effervescent career, has never truly found his home.

In 1997 Samuel Eto’o joined Real Madrid’s youth academy, ‘La Fabrica,’ although as a junior he could only train with the B team. That season, Castilla

were relegated to the third tier of Segunda Division B, from which non-European Union players are excluded. As a result, Eto’o was loaned out to second division side Leganes for the 1997-98 season. He returned to Madrid at the end of the year but was subsequently loaned again, to Espanyol (where he failed to make a single appearance). At 19, Eto’o was allowed to leave Real Madrid after he failed to make a breakthrough and – despite Arsenal seemingly being in pole position for his signature – he signed for Luis Aragones’ Mallorca, a move he would not regret.

David Cartlidge, of the Mirror, describes Eto’o’s stay at Mallorca as the most symbolic of his time in Spain: “His reputation in Mallorca simply couldn’t be higher; he’s regarded without doubt as the best player in the entire history of the club. His 54 goals in 133 games saw him become the highest scorer the club ever had.”

Cartlidge continues: “The most important part of this chapter was guiding Mallorca into the Champions League and winning the Copa del Rey with a 3-0 win over Recreativo Huelva. He scored two of the three goals - and this was 48 hours after his great friend Marc Vivien Foe died. Eto’o dedicated the title to Foe, and in another great gesture, he paid €30,000 out of his own pocket for the fans of Mallorca who travelled to have luxury meals.”

Eto’o’s time at Mallorca was not without incident. Metro La Liga writer Jason Pettigrove defines Eto’o as a “diamond that would very definitely need polishing,” and inevitably this is a label that Eto’o has found extremely difficult to remove throughout his career. To his credit, or perhaps because of his exceptional talent, it is rare that he would let his off-the-field ‘misdemeanors’ affect his performances on the pitch; something that separates him from other footballing mavericks.

Luckily, Eto’o had finally found a coach who believed he was worth the effort.

Cartlidge told me: “Few understood him better than Aragones. The images of the pair arguing on various occasions are famous, but Eto’o maintains that the

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coach was always ‘Papa’ to him. Even in his saddest times, Eto’o had Aragones to lean upon. Several times he looked to quit the club, only for Aragones to keep him there.” Sid Lowe, in his book, ‘Fear and Loathing in La Liga: Barcelona vs Real Madrid’ says that,

On one occasion he celebrated a strike at the Bernabeu by pointing at the pitch and mouthing: “I was here, I was here!” After the match, he explained about his time at Madrid and how he believed the club needed to give more opportunities to the players in the youth system.

His nine goals in eight games during his final season at the club saved Mallorca from relegation and possible obscurity; job done, Next stop, Barcelona.

It was Eto’o himself who forced through the move. The transfer saw €12

a question of feeling. On and off the pitch he’s been fine all year, the decision is exclusively mine,” said the Barcelona boss as Eto’o was ushered out of the door to Inter Milan just weeks after Barcelona’s most successful season of all time.

Even the celebrated man-management skills of Guardiola were unable to cope with Eto’o’s convoluted personality. Pettigrove summarises his departure from Catalonia as “an ignominious, but entirely predictable, end for a player who had scored over 100 goals for Barcelona.”

ESPN writer Kristen Heneage reveals: “The most interesting thing about Eto’o’s stint at Internazionale is that it almost never happened. The Cameroonian had all but agreed a transfer to Manchester City when he received a phone call it was Jose Mourinho. “I’m calling to find out what shirt you want. Is the No.9, OK?” Heneage continues: “It was typical Mourinho, and had the desired effect on Eto’o”. “I had to tell the English [that I was joining Inter],” Eto’o explained to L’Équipe. “And it was really the hardest [thing to do]. But they understood.”

Once more, the striker had a point to prove. His transfer wasn’t about a “dream move” - it was purely business. Frank Rijkaard and Guardiola hadn’t, he felt, given him the care he felt he deserved at Barcelona and, once again, he would strive to prove his doubters wrong. And this time he would have Jose

million go to Mallorca and €12 million to Madrid, despite the latter’s reluctance to see him join their rivals. Yet Eto’o refused to go anywhere else; he was not prepared to play second fiddle to Ronaldo, Figo, Beckham or Zidane and was quoted as saying: “If the bench isn’t good enough for the Galacticos, it isn’t good enough for me.” It was clear his grudge against Madrid was far from over.

“Madrid, carbon, saluda al campeon”, (roughly translated as, “Madrid, bastards, salute the champions”) chanted Eto’o provocatively as Barcelona celebrated winning the La Liga title in 2005. Although he later apologised, stating “I have spat on the plate that fed me,” his egotistic outburst gave further insight into Eto’o’s complex, and often difficult, character.

Eto’o scored 25 league goals in his first season at the Camp Nou including strikes in both Clasicos. In his second season, Barcelona retained the league title and won the Champions League, with Eto’o instrumental in both. “Basically, where Samuel Eto’o went, trouble invariably followed. But so did goals. Lots of them. A propensity to hit the net on such a regular basis seemed to mask his shortcomings elsewhere,” Pettigrove recalls.

He explains: “In February 2007, Eto’o flatly refused to come on as a substitute against Racing Santander. His excuse - that he hadn’t warmed up properly fooled no-one, and within a few weeks he acknowledged that if his behavior was a problem to the team, he would need to leave.” Lowe’s book recalls Eto’o eventually exploding during an event in Vilafranca de Penedes and jabbing his finger at the TV cameras during an incoherent rant about an internal civil war and “bad people.”

Graham Hunter’s book, ‘Barca: The Making of The Greatest Team In The World’ states that Eto’o refused to take rejection lying down, and worked brutally hard to convince the new coach, Pep Guardiola, to change his mind. Hunter wrote: “That summer, Eto’o kept his mouth shut, trained like a dervish, scored 11 goals in 11 games for club and country and, crucially, not only scored against Wisla Krakow, but lead the team in work rate.” Guardiola liked what he saw. He sat Eto’o down and told him: “I like your work rate, I value your pressing. If you play and train like you have been, then you stay. No more warnings, one strike and you are out. That season, Eto’o scored 30 times in La Liga and scored a goal in every other game of the Champions League, including the opening strike in the Final against Man United. A total of 36 goals that season repaid Guardiola’s faith.

Or did they?

“I understand perfectly that people want to know why this is happening, because he’s a marvelous footballer. But in fact there aren’t ‘football’ reasons. It’s

Mourinho by his side, a partnership to mirror that with Aragones at Mallorca.

“I’m not sure if he is the best piece of transfer business ever, but he is for us.

Eto’o is fantastic.” Former Inter president Massimo Moratti’s words sum up his spell with the Serie A giants. In all competitions, the Cameroon striker ended up with 53 goals in 101 games. Even more impressive was the way he fitted into Mourinho’s team. He scored a reasonable – if un-Eto’o-like – 15 goals during his first season; the selfless role that he filled, as an inside forward deployed on the right-hand-side of a trio fronted by Argentinian striker Diego Milito, meant he lacked clear cut chances, but this work rate was essential to Inter Milan’s 2009/10 domination.

Heneage states: “While Eto’o did not score in the [2010 Champions League] Final against Bayern Munich, the game embodied what Eto’o brought to the club during his first season. When he arrived in Italy I was surprised by both his tenacity as a player and his incredible work ethic. Shunted out onto the right wing to accommodate a front three, his selflessness in the pursuit of team success was an admirable trait. Even more so when you consider he had only recently left Barcelona, where he was the figurehead of the attack.”

“When Mourinho asked me to change my position, I tried and it went well,” Eto’o explains. Working with the less heralded Milito, the two cultivated a compelling partnership. Known for being deadly inside the penalty box, Eto’o’s wider movement was surprisingly impressive. In Serie A - a league that prides itself on defensive positioning - he proved a constant threat.

While Zlatan Ibrahimovich – the player who replaced Eto’o at Barcelona – struggled to adapt to Guardiola’s (and Messi’s) demands, Eto’o completed another League/Cup/European Cup treble, the first player in history to do so in back-to-back seasons. Yet Serie A writer Simon Friday has even fonder memories of Eto’o’s second season at Inter: “Despite winning that treble in 2010, Eto’o’s greatest goal scoring season was the following year; he hit 37 goals in all competitions and he was considered one of the best strikers within the European game. That said, there were a few sadder moments for Eto’o: on 17th October 2010 while he played away against Cagliari, he was subject to some vile racist abuse from the home team fans. He tried to walk off the pitch but his teammates – for better or worse – convinced him to remain on the pitch. Magically, Eto’o scored the winning goal in a 0-1 victory, which was a brilliant way to silence the abuse that he had horribly endured.”

Despite his excellent goal return during that second season, it seemed Eto’o’s familiar off-pitch-problems were once more rearing their ugly head. Heneage told me: “His second season at the club was not as smooth, as he found himself

“DRIVEN BY A BURNING SENSE OF INJUSTICE AND PERMANENT DESIRE FOR VINDICATION, ETO’O SCORED GOAL AFTER GOAL – ESPECIALLY AGAINST REAL MADRID.”

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butting heads with [new coach] Rafa Benitez [Mourinho having departed for Real Madrid]”. “There are things that happen in the dressing room that I keep to myself,” Eto’o revealed in a 2011 interview with Italian chat show ‘Chiambretti Night’.

No longer as willing to ‘sacrifice’ himself by playing wide on the right with Mourinho gone, things reached a crescendo during one game when Inter fullback Christian Chivu shouted: “If he doesn’t track back, I’m walking off.”

In the two years Eto’o was at Inter, he played under four managers, Mourinho, Rafael Benitez, Leonardo and Gian Piero Gasperini. He won six trophies, one Serie A, two Coppa Italia’s, a Super Coppa, a World Club Championship and a Champions League. Friday writes: “His stint in Seria A might have been short lived, but Eto’o walked out having won the lot. He left a huge legacy as a great Inter Milan striker, they haven’t had one of the caliber since, that is for sure.”

In 2011, in typical Eto’o fashion, the striker decided to leave Inter Milan and in the process became the highest paid player in world football, moving to Anzhi Makhachkala for a salary of €20 million (after tax) per season. Yet he claims it wasn’t about money: “Money is not the most important to me,” he said after securing the deal: “The money I have earned has given me the opportunity to give back to the people who do not have the same opportunities as me.”

decided to bring the Anzhi ‘project’ to a halt, by cutting the wage budget, but he kept a close relationship with Eto’o who visited a few times later. In my opinion he was a perfect fit to the project as a leader and a football idol for a club that has never seen good football. However, this status always has consequences and he didn’t try hard to deal with them.”

His move to Chelsea in August 2013 saw Eto’o reunited with Mourinho. At

To this end, the Foundation Samuel Eto’o (FSE) was set up in 2006 and strives to ‘promote the opportunity to develop the individual abilities of each child through training grants and aid to support their cultural activities or sports skills.’ Eto’o says this about the Foundation: “As a footballer, the best I can do for youths in Cameroon is to give them a platform where they can learn how to play football and make a living out of it, and be successful in life, for a better tomorrow.”

Freelance Russian football journalist, Ivan Kalashnikov says: “His impact [in Russia] was immediate – he scored an equaliser after coming on as sub in the first game. He had a pretty decent goal-scoring record after that. At first...

32, Eto’o had lost the pace that had made him so essential during his time in Spain and Italy. Yet, he scored vital goals in big matches, most notably against Liverpool, Arsenal and a stunning hat trick against Manchester United. But even Mourinho began to lose patience with his once beloved striker. In a secretly recorded conversation, the Chelsea coach questioned Eto’o’s age and his ability to cut it in the Premier League. Eto’o responded by calling Mourinho a “fool” and a “puppet” and, unsurprisingly, his time at Chelsea began to run out…

His passion, however, did not. During the final round of qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup, a TV crew was given access to the Cameroon changing room at half time: Eto’o is leading the team talk as the players and coaches all link arms and stand in a circle around him. Eto’o starts to talk, quietly at first but building to a great crescendo: “As young boys we all dreamed of becoming great players.

We were lucky to achieve this. We wanted money, God gave us money. We wanted to play in the national team, he granted us that too! Today we have our mission.

Fuck! There are only 45 minutes left in this game and we’re leading 2-0. But fucking shit, we have to keep the mindtset of the very first second. The score is 0-0, guys. I repeat, the score is 0-0. We Wkill the game here. But with our heads, guys. It’s not the time to start playing like Peles. We are the Lions. Let’s go and collect our qualification!” The speech is applauded with whoops and screams from all his team-mates; Cameroon win the game 4-1.

Whether he returns to Cameroon, London, Milan, Spain, or discovers America remains to be seen. But whatever the decision, it was that time spent, head buried, in the embrace of a child near the team bus in Brazil where he felt truly at home. Because for each of those twenty-five emotional seconds, Samuel Eto’o was ‘Little Milla’ once again.

...EVERYONE THOUGHT HE’S EXACTLY WHAT ANZHI NEEDED, A FADED SUPERSTAR WITH THE ABILITY TO BE THE LEADER OF A NEW TEAM.”

Eto’o scored 32 goals over two seasons in Russia, once more reminding everyone of his capabilities in front of goal, but his off-the-pitch antics were not far away either.

Kalashnikov continues: “In the Winter of 2012, Eto’o was behind the decision to sack Yuri Krasnozhan just a month and a half after his arrival. He didn’t like the manager’s approach and decided that he was too important to work with a no-name coach. The club supported him and that’s how he became more of a string-puller than a football player. There were a couple of other incidents, such as an urgent demand for a bottle of Coke in the middle of a training session or hiring a helicopter for a lift. That was pretty much the fashion of Anzhi owner, oligarch Suleyman Kerimov. On one occasion, Eto’o also brought Hublot watches for everyone in the team to show his gratitude. Again, this was very Kerimovesque, who once gave Roberto Carlos a Bugatti as a present.”

Eto’o was very much the King of the Russian castle, as he had been at Mallorca, Barcelona and Inter Milan – but, unlike at these previous clubs, his performances began to deteriorate. Kalashnikov told me: “the problems began at the start of the 2013-14 season when Eto’o’s form dropped significantly. There was also tension between him as a team leader and a bunch of new Russian players, especially Igor Denisov from Zenit St Petersburg. Anzhi were a divided club and Rene Meulensteen failed to get them together. After a poor start Kerimov

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: MONTPELLIER HOW THEY BEAT THE BIG BOYS Words: Matt Smith

IN A YEAR THAT PARIS SAINT-GERMAIN WERE SET TO DOMINATE, AN UNFANCIED CLUB FROM THE SOUTH HAD OTHER IDEAS

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t was one of the most unexpected Title triumphs there’s ever been in the French top flight,” recalls French football scout and journalist, James Eastham. “ There were so many admirable elements to it. The clever manner in which their coach, Rene Girard, built a team greater than the sum of its parts; the capacity of key players – Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, Jamel Saihi, Oliver Giroud and others – to rise to the occasion week after week; in the very best French tradition, the unexpectedly prominent role that certain youth products such as Remy Cabella and Benjamin Stambouli took on during the title run in. They really were a ‘bande de potes,’ as the French say – a group of mates.”

In 2012, Montpellier won their first Ligue 1 title, finishing the season with 82 points, three more than title favourites Paris Saint-Germain. Montpellier’s annual budget of £29 million was only the 13th highest in France and noticeably lower than the £37 million PSG spent of Palermo’s Javier Pastore. In a season where Carlo Ancelotti’s PSG were expected to sweep everyone aside in the domestic league – having been purchased by the wealthy Qatar Investment Authority group – “La Paillade” instead wrote a beautifully refreshing narrative. The title win was built, not on money, but on nurturing the young players in the academy, maintaining team spirit and noticing talent and value in footballers who had been rejected by the rest. “There was this wide-eyed excitement,” Eastham tells me. “The kind of excitement that only unlikely title challengers can have, but beneath it lay this steely determination to land the big prize and a genuine belief that the they could do it, which Girard and his coaching staff had instilled in the players.”

“MY STRONGEST MEMORY OF THAT TEAM WAS HOW HAPPY THEY SEEMED IN EACH OTHER’S COMPANY. THE PLAYERS ACTED AS THOUGH THEY WERE UNDER ABSOLUTELY NO PRESSURE AT ALL.”

French Football Weekly writer Philippa Booth moved to Montpellier in 2008.

A prolonged gap-year led her to develop a deep affection for the French game and after watching MHSC against their archrivals Nimes, in October 2008, she adopted the Stade de la Mosson as her second home. Consequently, Booth witnessed the miraculous 2011-12 season from her doorstep: a campaign she summarises as a “perfect storm”.

“Everything that could go right, did go right,” Booth tells me. “The other challengers had a variety of things to deal with: newly moneyed PSG hadn’t quite bedded in yet, Marseille had a nightmare and Lille were drawing too often.”

The last time that Montpellier had enjoyed any silverware was when they won the Coupe de France in 1990 - and the club had never come to close to challenging the likes of Lyon, Marseille or PSG in the ensuing years. Booth recalls: “We [Montpellier] were promoted to Ligue 1 for the 2009/10 season; it was something of a shock when we ended up in fifth place and qualified for the Europa League. But that didn’t go well, [MHSC were beaten on penalties in the third qualifying round by Hungarian club Gyori ETO] and we ended up finishing 14th in the league and dead last in the fair play standings in 2010-11.

Therefore, going into 2011-12, there wasn’t a great deal of expectation around.”

“That season ended up being an even bigger shock, however,” Booth continues. “We had more shots than anybody else and three players in the top 20 goal scoring chart: Olivier Giroud, Younes Belhanda and Souleymane Camara.

On top of that, in defence we were rigorous and conceded only 35 goals. Mosson had become a fortress, with just one defeat and two draws at home. Also, there was very little pressure on them, and the players seemed to thrive on this. They just got on with it, while concentration was focused elsewhere.”

Eastham has similar recollections: “My strongest memory of that team was

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how happy they seemed in each other’s company. The players acted as though they were under absolutely no pressure at all. In Canal Plus’ weekly flagship show, ‘Canal Football Club’, the players would be filmed laughing and joking and taking the mickey out of each other as they came off the training ground, often just a couple of days before the latest key fixture.”

There is an opportunity in France for efficient, well-organised teams to excel beyond their capabilities. Ligue 1 has had six different champions in the last seven years, which proves there are opportunities for smaller sides. Montpellier’s business model is simple: stability, spend within budget and invest in youth.

Certainly an honourable plan, yet one that rarely – with a couple of exceptions – works. Yet this group of players were special and refused to believe their form would run out.

Booth explains: “Yes, Montpellier started well, but were expected to drop off in the autumn, then by Christmas, then surely for the restart, then Easter? It seemed by the time they were being taken seriously as title contenders, it was too late for the pressure to get to them. Although, it did a bit. We stuttered going into the Winter break, taking only one point from three games to let PSG back to the top-spot; Giroud’s scoring slowed from thirteen in the first half to eight in the second; talismanic number 10, Belhanda stepped into the breach but got himself banned for the final three games after a chaotic home draw to Evian in game 35 that saw Camara miss a last-minute penalty that would have won the game. It looked for all the world like we were about to bottle it after all.”

Cue eccentric club president, Louis Nicollin. “Montpellier champions?

Impossible,” he said to French newspaper L’Equipe. “If I were at PSG, Lyon, Lille or Rennes, and Montpellier finished as champions, I’d want to stab myself in

needed to avoid defeat in their last fixture to claim their first-ever title. Simple, right?

“The final match at Auxerre was the most chaotic,” Booth recalls. “The home fans - who were livid with their board at the relegation of their historic team were protesting. The pitch was peppered with tomatoes, tennis balls, flares and toilet paper. Goalkeeper Geoffrey Jourdren enlisted the help of the back four to

try to clear the detritus as the referee stopped the match three times and the riot police moved in. Oh, and Auxerre were winning.” “Montpellier don’t deserve this,” said former France striker Christophe Dugarry on television. Despite the drama, this was not the climax anybody had hoped for.

Booth continues: “The delays meant that the planned simultaneous finish had gone out the window. All eyes were on the Stade Abbe Deschamps, including those of the PSG players, who were huddled around TV monitors at Lorient, where they had won 2-1. If Auxerre could hold on, PSG’s goal difference would win them the league. So, it was not Ait-Fana’s ‘le but pour l’histoire’ that sealed the title for us, but actually a brace from former Portsmouth striker John Utaka.

The roar of the crowd in Montpellier’s main square blasted out and upwards and could be heard everywhere. There was flare-smoke and car horns and flags waved in joyous disbelief. They’d really, really done it.”

Booth tells me that it has all been a bit prosaic for the club to get back to normal after all that. Montpellier sold Giroud to Arsenal, captain Yanga-Mbiwa and Cabella to Newcastle United, Belhanda to Dynamo Kyiv and Henri Bedimo to Lyon. They finished bottom of their Champions League group, and ninth in the league, changing their manager twice. A nervy scramble to fifteenth last season didn’t exactly resemble the teamwork, effort and character of the 2011-12 team. Yet she remains optimistic: “It’s nigh-on impossible to see a consistent pattern in Montpellier’s performances year on year, so…why not dream – again.”

Perhaps the most delightful thing about it all is that, no matter how many trophies PSG go on to win, the record books will show that, in the Qataris’ first year of ownership, they were denied the title by an unfashionable little club from the south of France.

“IF I WERE AT PSG, LYON, LILLE OR RENNES, AND MONTPELLIER FINISHED AS CHAMPIONS, I’D WANT TO STAB MYSELF IN THE BACKSIDE WITH A SAUSAGE. WHAT A DISGRACE THAT WOULD BE!”

the backside with a sausage. What a disgrace that would be!” Perhaps “disgrace” is over the top, but Nicollin did have a point. Montpellier broke their transfer record to sign Giroud for £1.7 million from Ligue 2 side Tours FC. They captured defender Vitorino Hilton on a free transfer and left-back Henri Bedimo for £1.6 million. Giroud was believed to be the club’s top earner on £15,000 a week – less than a PSG squad player. On a wafer-thin budget, Nicollin had somehow created a group of mavericks. He was quoted: “so long as I’m president, you’ll never see a Montpellier player earning £40,000 a week.”

“During game 36, at Rennes, Nicollin made a rare away appearance,” Booth tells me. “Before the match, he approached Camara – his eight goals were all scored at Mosson – and whispered in his ear, “You are going to score”. He did, midway through the first half and Remy Cabella scored the second to secure the win. Game 37 - at home to Lille - was even tenser. Not only were Montpellier looking over their shoulders at PSG, who were just three points behind them, but a result for LOSC would keep them in the title race. It was goalless going into injury time; then – in a moment so crucial that it was dubbed ‘pour L’Histoire’, in the 94th minute, Giroud hovered just inside his own half to be ahead of the defensive line, received the ball, and headed for the goal, pulling Lille defender Aurelien Chedjou with him and disguising the fact that he wasn’t trying to score but was waiting for someone to cut it back to. Karim Ait-Fana got the message and sprinted the length of the pitch to bury it, and that was it. LouLou [Nicollin] yelled down the post-match microphone, “juste un petit et on est champions de France!” – just one more point and we are the champions.”

The “impossible,” as Nicollin had claimed it, had become possible. They

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NEW-AGE MAGAZINES: YOU WANTED MORE, YOU GOT MORE Words: Matt Smith

THE FOOTBALL MAGAZINE MAGAZINE INDUSTRY IS CHANGING, IT IS THE DAWN OF A NEW-AGE TAKEOVER. THE GREEN SOCCER JOURNAL, PICKLES AND EIGHT BY EIGHT ARE A FEW OF THE BRANDS LEADING US INTO THE REVOLUTION

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I

’ve boarded my train – first class. I have a three-hour journey home but thankfully today’s meeting in London has gone well. I’ve undone the centre buttons of my Reiss blazer and ordered a Stella Artois. As I recline into the moquette fabric, accompanied by the sounds of Vampire Weekend’s first album, I gaze around the packed East Coast carriage and wonder whether it’s time yet.

It is. I reach into my Fred Perry satchel and pull it out. The man sitting opposite tilts his head awkwardly to try and make out the front cover. I’ve caught him looking: “Yes,” I think to myself, “yes, that is Arsenal forward Lukas Podolski wearing a ludicrously tight Adidas original and a pair of cargo trousers and no, of course I did not purchase this magazine at WH Smith.” I take a sip of Stella, gaze proudly around the carriage and throw myself into the first feature: “The Sucker Game” by Nick Hornby. “Green Soccer Journal, you have done it again”, I discreetly mouth.

Football magazines are changing. We have entered the ‘new-age’. It is no longer socially acceptable for you to pick up a ‘FourFourTwo’ or a ‘World Soccer’ from Asda and digest enough of them to get you narrowly through a Friday night pub outing with a fellow supermarket chancer. You deserve more. Don’t get me wrong, I mean no disrespect to the aforementioned titles; they still have a huge part to play in the day-to-day of football gossip. They remain the timekeepers, with their fingers firmly pressed on the football pulse, but is this all we want?

Football is a beautiful game and therefore should be presented in the format it deserves. No longer should you read about Stan Collymore’s national team concerns in your tracksuit bottoms. From now on – wearing your Sunday trousers - you will make time to indulge Arsenal’s Thomas Vermaelen in a turtleneck; you will marvel over an aristocratic illustration of Juventus’ Andrea Pirlo; and you will amaze your mates with your new-found understanding of Nike Football Design Director, Denis Dekovic. It’s time to appreciate football content the right way; imagine Sky Sports News presented by Leonardo Di Caprio…

Matt Oldfield from the Of Pitch & Page website states: “The football market is certainly changing, but I don’t think the development is unique to this genre.

Like most consumers these days, football fans are willing to pay more for a more developed and stylish product. When basic content is free and now so widely available, you have to make something special to get people to spend the money.”

Three magazines who have successfully ticked that ‘special’ box – in very different ways - are The Green Soccer Journal, Eight by Eight and Pickles, whose high-end style and established content make them a constant joy to read. I recently had the pleasure of talking to each magazine’s editorial team, in order to get their take on the football magazine industry and discuss their individual products.

‘The Green’ is a biannual football magazine that is unapologetically cultured in its portrayal of the world’s favourite sport. It could be summarised as a mixture of football, fashion and design yet the overall product makes it even more than that. It’s a footballing bible that wouldn’t look out of place at a dinner party. Its mixture of breathtaking photography and charismatic writing makes it impossible to throw away. Quite simply, the Green Soccer Journal isn’t a football magazine; it’s a time capsule.

“What we have come to realise is that people will always pay for quality,” Roper says. “If you want the latest scores, transfer news or statistics, you go online or read the daily newspapers, all of which are either free or very cheap. We always wanted to create more depth, timeless pieces that are exclusive to GSJ. We wanted to build a more premium product rather than a throwaway periodical.

It took us a while to get the pricing right; we started at £5 and slowly increased it until we settled at £10. When you think about the time and production that goes into every single feature, it’s amazing value in our opinion. There are no press releases or stock imagery, we take great care over every single aspect of the magazine’s content.”

“WHAT WE HAVE COME TO REALISE IS THAT PEOPLE WILL ALWAYS PAY FOR QUALITY,...WE ALWAYS WANTED TO CREATE MORE DEPTH, TIMELESS PIECES THAT ARE EXCLUSIVE TO GSJ. WE WANTED TO BUILD A MORE PREMIUM PRODUCT RATHER THAN A THROWAWAY PERIODICAL.”

Roper and Towle’s professional experience in the design industry gave them a natural pathway to the style and tone of their magazine. Yet, at a glance it’s hard to imagine that they haven’t had help putting together such a substantial product.

“No one quite believes us when they find out GSJ is just a two-man operation, and the design and layout is all handled just by Adam,” Roper declares. “We both work on the art direction and commissions to create the content, and have always done everything in-house. We have enough trust from the photographers, stylists and writers for us to have total freedom with the design, although sometimes we may sit down with the photographers to discuss a final edit to ensure that everyone is happy with the outcome.”

The help from photographers has been a key facture in GSJ’s success. “From day one we always approached people we respected and had been following for some time,” Roper recalls. “We have always worked with up-and-coming photographers and writers alongside established names, and they have been really supportive of the project. Many of them are big football fans and it allows them to work with subjects that they may not normally have access to through other fashion titles. A selection of photographers have invested their own money into the shoots, as it provides a great portfolio piece and has often led to future commissions from brands such as Nike and Adidas. One of our favourite photographers, Stefan Ruiz flew himself over from New York for issue one so that he could photograph a behind-the-scenes project at Manchester City with us. His only request was that he could have ten minutes with Carlos Tevez, which we managed to arrange! He has since become a good friend of ours and has worked on commercial projects with Nike as part of the GSJ set up. It has been an amazing experience.”

The Green Soccer Journal has changed the magazine genre - and with conventional football content becoming more and more accessible, it simply offers fans an alternative. Roper says: “There have been an influx of independent football titles over the last few years and we’d like to think that we were the first to take this kind of approach. Match day programmes are great for your weekly

GREEN SOCCER JOURNAL First I spoke to GREEN SOCCER JOURNAL’S Editorial and Creative Director, James Roper who - with his business partner Adam Towle – launched their magazine in 2009. “We were our own target audience, which I suppose is fairly naïve – but it worked!” Roper says. “When we started the magazine I was 24, Adam was 26, and we were both working in the fashion and design industries. We started the project purely out of passion, so there was very little time for market research. I suppose we created the magazine for people that were our age and had similar interest. There never seemed to be any doubt that we were creating something completely different and the confidence we gained from that allowed us to be fairly open with the content and not overcomplicate it by trying to pander to a certain audience.”

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NEW AGE MAGAZINES fix and the Internet has endless information available, which there will always be a demand for. We are giving fans a different option. It may not reach the same number of people but there is definitely a market for what we do; our readers tend to be creative types, between 18-40 years old, who are willing to spend more on luxury items.”

issue was based on ‘Pride’ and with the World Cup returning to Brazil for the first time since 1950, Alcides Ghiggia (scorer of the Jules Rimet-winning goal for Uruguay that year, against Brazil) seemed like a suitable cover star. Ghiggia is in keeping with the approach we have taken with the magazine – slightly left field.” Illustrator Paul X Johnson was the man given the task of creating an illustration of Ghiggia. Read says: “He was perfect for this project and his work is massively inspired by films, design and art from the early half of the 20th century. Paul researched vintage football cards before creating the portrait and he really captured a feeling of that period.

I ask Read if there is any danger of the artwork possibly over shadowing the content: “The balance and overall look of each issue of Pickles is carefully considered,” he answers. “If the issue has been a success, the illustration and art shouldn’t overpower the written content. I think the look of Pickles appeals and may encourage readers to engage with the issue and hold their attention.”

I finish by asking Read about the football magazine market and the possible changes it’s going through. He replies: “There seems to be a steady flow of new football magazine titles over the last 18 months, Rabona, Eight by Eight and Thin White Line, for example. There are only a certain amount of magazines a football fan can engage with. In reality, I imagine most football fans will get their fix from a range of websites, blogs, forums and maybe one or two magazines. It just seems

PICKLES MAGAZINE Okay, so PICKLES was established in 2011” says Ned Read, editor and founder of the magazine. “The aim was to create something original and unique. At the time there seemed to be very few independent football magazines that were really embracing design and illustration. The Green Soccer Journal launched in 2009 and was clearly a high-end publication, great design and photography. Our aim was to take a different approach. Pickles is free in selected bars and stores in London and Manchester. If you can’t grab a copy from those places it’s available to read online and you can help support Pickles by ordering a printed copy. We were keen to make sure it was accessible and appealed to ‘football fans’; that’s reflected in the choice of newsprint [Pickles mag resembles a traditional tabloid newspaper], rather than a glossy magazine stock.”

Pickles is a quarterly publication offering football fans fabulous written features complimented by images of equally high quality. In contrast to the Green Soccer Journal, Read – who, like Roper and Towle has natural flair for graphic design – decided to use illustrations rather than photography. Pickles also offers an alternative voice on football culture and a more subjective commentary on the modern game.

Its features are timeless, opting for opinion-led articles and obscure footballing tales rather than titillating gossip. It’s rare to find a football magazine that is visually brilliant but that also connects with the reader on an emotional and intellectual level.

football fans have a greater choice now and there is an abundance of quality reading material.”

EIGHT

BY EIGHT Finally, I had the chance to talk to Robert Priest, Editor of EIGHT BY EIGHT magazine as well as his Communications and Marketing Director, Cooper Lemon. When Grace Lee, Co-founder/Creative Director and Priest first started their design company, five years ago, they were looking for a project that wouldn’t rely on other clients.

They had spent a lot of time working on fairly major magazines in the USA, and they wanted to try something where they would have complete freedom – a football magazine. They looked at England and around the rest of the world to see if they could find an editor and in the end they came across two Americans. They joined forces and created Howler magazine – which is still very successful to this day -, as a group of four equal co-founders. “We did two issues with them,” says Priest.

“We created the logo and the whole visual identity, but we then realised that we had creative differences, and that we didn’t really share their point of view on many things.

“EVEN, IF YOU’RE NOT A DIE-HARD FOOTBALL FAN, PICKLES FEATURES GREAT WRITING, DESIGN AND ILLUSTRATION, WHICH I THINK APPEALS. THE MAGAZINE SEEMS TO BE MOST POPULAR IN THE UK AND THE UNITED STATES, BUT WE’VE GOT READERS ALL AROUND THE WORLD WHICH IS GREAT TO SEE.”

Read says: “Even, if you’re not a die-hard football fan, Pickles features great writing, design and illustration, which I think appeals. The magazine seems to be most popular in the UK and the United States, but we’ve got readers all around the world which is great to see.”

Like Green Soccer Journal, Pickles has benefitted from the magazine’s growing circulation, attracting interest from significant writers and illustrators. “I’m the creative director, I design the concept, the look of the magazine and put each issue together,” says Read. “For the first few issues I was illustrating the majority of the features, but as the magazine has grown, I’ve been fortunate enough to get more people involved and work with some great artist and designers. Each issue generally features around 12 different artists who work independently with the magazine. As soon as the writers are briefed and I know what they’re planning, I can start thinking about which illustrators to use.”

I ask him more about the extremely striking front covers: “Every cover so far has a featured portrait illustration” Read tells me. “Someone who features heavily in the magazine or fits in with the theme of the issue. Each issue of Pickles is based on a theme - we are currently working our way through the deadly sins. Our World Cup

“WE TEND TO USE ILLUSTRATION TO MAKE A STATEMENT...FOR US, THEY ARE ALMOST LIKE POLITICAL CARTOONS; LIKE THE ONES IN THE NEW YORKER. IT ALLOWS YOU TO TELL A STORY, IT’S NOT MERELY AN ILLUSTRATION.”

That’s when we went back to our original plan to start our own magazine, which is how Eight by Eight came into being.” And they have never looked back. Eight

by Eight magazine is simply brilliant. It’s a quarterly publication that, despite only launching in 2013, has become a global success. Awash with sublime pictures boisterous writing and eye-catching fonts, the magazine’s American roots shine through in an entirely magical way. The illustrations reveal a story before you read a single word, with the writing subsequently expanding on those initial impressions.

“We tend to use illustration to make a statement,” Priest tells me. “For us, they

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are almost like political cartoons; like the ones in the New Yorker. It allows you to tell a story, it’s not merely an illustration.” He continues: “The visuals/illustrations are clearly a big attraction and selling point for our publication. It seems like there has been a drastic increase in football illustration since we started Howler about two years ago, but we feel comfortable that we do illustration better than anyone out there. I founded a magazine called American Illustration some time ago and have worked with top illustrators for much of my career. Because of this we are quite selective in the illustrators we use, and we tend to not just accept contributions, but rather work with illustrators and act as Creative Directors until we are happy with the finished product.”

Remarkably, their design team consists of just Priest and Lee, with the occasional help from a friend or two. Priest told me: “We’ve always worked very well and efficiently.”

The design and format of the magazine played a huge part in garnering the interest of top international writers such as Philippe Auclair and Rafa Honigstein, who contributed in the magazine’s first issue. Priest recalls: “It was really just a matter of reaching out, explaining what we were trying to do and showing people what it would look like. Everyone was very open to contributing and we’re so pleased to have been able to work with such high quality journalists over our first three issues.”

fans definitely want more coverage and look to be getting it. The interesting question becomes, can all of these new publications survive?”

I asked the Eight by Eight team about the new found craving for a more fulfilling football magazine and questioned whether people are now willing to pay more for a better quality product? “The short answer is yes!” said Lemon. “We’ve come to this conclusion through the sales and the rapid growth we’ve experienced. Especially in the US, football fans have, for a long time, been devoid of this sort of coverage of the game, which has driven them to follow via the Internet and social media. We wanted to create something tangible, something you can hold onto and cherish, as well as get your dose of footy from. Print is something we all care deeply about and the trends in the industry seem to indicate that niche publications are, generally, doing quite well”.

Eight by Eight is quite highly priced compared to most other football publications, but their aim is to bring their readers the best quality design, illustration and journalism possible and all that combined costs quite a large amount to produce.

Priest says: “We feel like we’ve put a lot of energy into it and we think the readers can understand that. That’s certainly the first response, that they can’t believe the amount of detail. It’s pricey and we are going to lose a certain number of potential customers, but the readers who get it really enjoy it and I feel like there are enough of them out there.”

Similar to the editors of Green Soccer Journal and Pickles, it’s Priest and Lee’s fearless spirit that is so refreshing. Each has taken a gamble in creating a product that they believe in, rather than lowering the quality in order to attract sales. Priest says: “A lot of what we are trying to do with Eight by Eight is to be different, less predictable and generic than other publications, not just football publications.

We’ve worked in publication design for most of our careers, so we really want to put our own spin on things. Just by having illustrated covers we are immediately quite different from most publications out there, especially sports magazines. On top of that, most football publications seem to put the latest signing or some combination of top players on their covers and then call it a day. The illustrations allow us to be a bit more creative and to make more of a statement than can sometimes be made with a generic photograph. Our World Cup issue for example – we wanted to take a bit of a risk, not just put one of the big three - Neymar, Messi or Ronaldo – or a picture of Brazil, or the World Cup trophy on there. We felt Argentina would win (we were close) and that Sergio Aguero might be the one to come up with the winning goal. Yes, we may have sold more magazines by putting Neymar on the cover or by taking less of a risk, but we’re here to make statements and not to conform, I hope people appreciate that.”

Lemon adds: “The football magazine market is absolutely changing. There has been a dramatic uptick of late in the amount of new publications out there.

Interestingly they have all seemed to have fairly different editorial focuses. Football

“THE FOOTBALL MAGAZINE ‘MOVEMENT’ IS TWO-PRONGED: FOOTBALL WRITING AND FOOTBALL ART. I DON’T THINK THAT TITLES LIKE WORLD SOCCER, CHAMPIONS, OR FOURFOURTWO WILL EVER DIE OUT, BUT THEY CATER TO A SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT AUDIENCE” Oldfield, from the Of Pitch & Page website, believes that there is every chance of continued success for the new breed: “The football magazine ‘movement’ is twopronged: football writing and football art. I don’t think that titles like World Soccer, Champions, or FourFourTwo will ever die out, but they cater to a slightly different audience. They get the big player interviews and they make a cheaper product.

I don’t think anyone would deny that a magazine like Eight by Eight is a higher quality product than, say, FourFourTwo; but the former is quarterly and the latter is monthly - one focuses on design and flair in a timeless way and the other documents the weekly footballing events.

“I think variety of content is key. You want a mix of interviews, lengthy features, pundit columns, book and equipment reviews, player and match analysis. Personally, I’m a big fan of the recent rise of football artwork. I think it’s important to have a good, clean design for a quality, ‘new-age’ magazine”.

Oldfield’s football magazine checklist is successfully met by all of the above publications. Next time you’re on a train, give them a try.

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“THE FOOTBALL MAGAZINE MARKET IS ABSOLUTELY CHANGING. THERE HAS BEEN A DRAMATIC UPTICK OF LATE IN THE AMOUNT OF NEW PUBLICATIONS OUT THERE. INTERESTINGLY THEY HAVE ALL SEEMED TO HAVE FAIRLY DIFFERENT EDITORIAL FOCUSES...”

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THE PULLBACK ISSUE

WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH DUTCH FOOTBALL Words: Matt Smith

WHY THE EREDIVISIE SHOULD BE YOUR GUILTY PLEASURE THIS SEASON

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D

uring the early 1970s, Dutch football set the standard for the rest of Europe.

Feyenoord’s European Cup win in 1970 – beating Celtic 2-1 at the San Siro – followed Ajax’s 4-1 defeat to AC Milan the previous year. Dutch football had arrived. ‘Total football’ tacticians Rinus Michels and Stefan Kovacs successfully managed Ajax to the next three European Cups, the first club to do so since Real Madrid in the 1950s. Dutch football had been represented in five consecutive finals and was widely regarded as the finest league in world football.

In 1988, PSV beat Benfica on penalties to lift the prize and in 1995 - a staggering 22 years since their European domination, Ajax lifted the cup – now known as the Champions League – once more, finally getting their revenge on AC Milan by narrowly beating them, courtesy of a late Patrick Kluivert goal. The following year, Ajax were beaten at the Stadio Olimpico on penalties by Marcello Lippi’s Juventus; right back Sonny Silooy and midfield general Edgar Davids missed from the spot to deny Ajax further European glory in Rome. Nevertheless, with players such as Nwankwo Kanu, Frank and Ronald De Boer, Danny Blind, Edwin van der Sar, Jari Litmanen, Davids and with Louis van Gaal in charge, Ajax and Dutch football were once again amongst Europe’s elite.

Yet, that 1996 Final was the last time that a Dutch club reached the Champions League final. Last season, the Eredivisie did not have a single representative in the

What’s more, clubs like Ajax, Feyenoord and PSV all have great histories with interesting back-stories. All in all, the Eredivisie is a unique competition, quite different from the mainstream and unoriginal stuff we’re all used to. ” Born’s words are echoed by Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Christian Eriksen who lit up the Dutch top division before making a move to the Premier League.

He recently told Sky Sports: “I learned to play football there. All the teams you play against in the Dutch league want the ball. They all want to play attacking football.

I learned so much. I moved to the Netherlands very early; when I was 16. I spent my youth there. Ajax was a structured club. When the trainer wanted you to do something, you had to do it right; you were taught the right way.

“You also get noticed if you are doing well. I wanted to be in the first team as quickly as possible so you always want to do better. A lot of young players come through in the Dutch league, because it is not the highest league. But that is good.

When you are young, you have to start somewhere and I think the Dutch league is one of the best places.”

“..IT’S A PROBLEM THAT THEY DON’T PLAY AGAINST STRONG OPPONENTS WEEK IN, WEEK OUT, AS THEY WOULD HAVE DONE IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE. WHEN YOU SEE PLAYERS LIKE DALEY BLIND, STEFAN DE VRIJ AND MEMPHIS DEPAY DO WELL DURING THE WORLD CUP, THAT’S A BIG SHAME... SO IMAGINE THEM GAINING EXPERIENCE AGAINST REAL STRONGER OPPOSITION ON A WEEKLY BASIS?”

Champions League knockout phase. Perhaps more worrying was PSV’s inability to get out of their Europa League group and Vitesse and Feyenoord’s elimination during the qualifying rounds. Ajax, who only qualified for the Europa League by finishing third in their Champions League group, were humiliated by Austrian side Red Bull Salzburg 6-1 on aggregate in the round of 32.

However, all is not lost. To coincide with Sky Sports 5 preparing to broadcast the Eredivisie this season I spoke to Dutch football writer, Elko Born, who told me exactly why the game he grew up with still has some stimulating charms.

“My earliest memory of football is playing it outside, on the playground at school, in the park around the corner from my house or just wherever I was at that moment” says Born. “I also remember watching Ajax with my mother, who was a huge fan.

During Ajax’s successful Champions League campaign in 1995 I was even allowed to stay up late and watch it. The pure joy I felt as a child when Ajax won in 1995 is something I will never forget. It felt like the world I lived in was perfect, like nothing could ever go wrong”.

“There are loads of young, talented players in the Dutch League,” Born tells me, “but it’s a problem that they don’t play against strong opponents week in, week out, as they would have done in the Premier League. When you see players like Daley Blind, Stefan De Vrij and Memphis Depay do well during the World Cup, that’s a big shame. Apparently they can do it against strong opponents, so imagine them gaining experience against real stronger opposition on a weekly basis?”

Yet, Born explains that this situation also has its advantages: “In a league like the Premier League, I think it’s important to sign as many world-class players as possible. In Eredivisie, that’s impossible: you need a lot of luck just to sign one player who has the potential to become world-class. So, in the Dutch league when you do have a truly great player, you’re in a special position and you will cherish every minute. You watch the beginning. It was a joy to behold players like Christian Eriksen, Kevin Strootman and Dusan Tadic in the Eredivisie, before their special talent really came to the fore.”

Losing future world stars may be an issue for the Dutch league, but not for the viewer. Watching them learn their trade now gives you an idea of what kind of impact they might make on a better side. The Eredivisie –like Ajax’s infamous youth academy - is a talent breeder and the next time a Wilfried Bony, Luis Suarez, Bryan Ruiz, Mateja Kezman or Afonso Alvez transfer their skills to the English Premier League, you will know whether they are worth the fee, their character flaws and their unique goal celebrations. You will be an insider and in today’s football society that is a valuable skill to have.

For now though, let Elko Born fill you in: “Now that Siem de Jong has left for Newcastle United, Ajax have lost another key player,” he tells me. “The thing is, Ajax lose key players on a regular basis; just think of Jan Vertonghen, Christian Eriksen and Toby Alderweireld in the past couple of years. Once more, they’ll have to rebuild, but with manager Frank de Boer, and with an army of academy graduates seemingly ready to follow these great players’ footsteps, it wouldn’t come as a surprise if they managed to win the league again. Feyenoord came close last season, but with players like Bruno Martins Indi moving to Porto, Daryl Janmaat signing for Newcastle United and Graziano Pelle leaving for Southampton, their exodus is even bigger than Ajax’s. What’s more, they have a new manager in Fred Rutten, while Ajax has sailed a

“MY EARLIEST MEMORY OF FOOTBALL IS PLAYING IT OUTSIDE, ON THE PLAYGROUND AT SCHOOL, IN THE PARK AROUND THE CORNER FROM MY HOUSE OR JUST WHEREVER I WAS AT THAT MOMENT”

Now working in England as a football journalist, Born misses his home football comforts: “I used to have a season ticket for Ajax,” he tells me. “I went to every single game. These days, I don’t ever go. I do miss it, and I also miss talking to my friends, or random people on the street or in a bar in Amsterdam, about the latest developments at the club. I’ve become heavily involved with the goings-on in the Premier League, and while I enjoy that too, it feels like another world from the type of football I grew up with in the Netherlands. Now, I watch Dutch games on the laptop, and it almost feels like I’m doing something secretive, something only I understand.”

The television coverage of the Eredivisie will give football fans an exclusive taste of what Elko has privately enjoyed over the last few years and a refreshing alternative to the boisterous theatre of England, Spain and Germany.

Born states: “As Louis van Gaal recently said in a press conference: tactically, the Dutch league is one of the strongest leagues in the world. You’ll see a lot of clubs playing an attacking style of football, and often, it will be technical and intelligent.

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ELASTICO CHOP steady course under Frank de Boer for four whole years now. Then there is PSV, who have been trying to rebuild for the past couple of years, but who can’t seem to get their groove back, and Vitesse, who will hope to finally start challenging for the title.

We are also waiting for a new managerial “character”, now that former FC Nurnberg manager Gertian Verbeek – who looked like Chuck Norris and liked to build houses in his spare time – and Dick ‘the hot-headed little general’ Advocaat have both left the league, the ‘Mourinho-position’ is up for grabs.”

Born also tells me to keep an eye on Ajax’s Davy Klaassen: “He’s an incredibly

“EVEN, IF YOU’RE NOT A DIE-HARD FOOTBALL FAN, PICKLES FEATURES GREAT WRITING, DESIGN AND ILLUSTRATION, WHICH I THINK APPEALS. THE MAGAZINE SEEMS TO BE MOST POPULAR IN THE UK AND THE UNITED STATES, BUT WE’VE GOT READERS ALL AROUND THE WORLD WHICH IS GREAT TO SEE.”

intelligent attacking midfielder. He is certainly one to watch this season. Also, Jordy Clasie will truly start fulfilling his potential at Feyenoord. After Memphis Depay’s excellent World Cup experience, he will also be spurred on to perform for PSV.” Despite Ajax’s confident title win last season, the Eredivisie tends to be less predictable than the other top European leagues. A number of sides can compete for the title, making playoffs for both relegation and European qualification extremely compelling. In Holland, the 5th to 8th place finishers compete over two legs in order to decide who will get the final Europa League place. Similarly, the 16th and 17th place finishers each play two teams from the Eerste Divisie to decide who will stay in the division. These mini tournaments provide that extra spark to the end of the season.

Although, it has been a while since Dutch teams were able to compete in the latter rounds of European competitions, Born remains optimistic: “Look, last year Ajax beat Barcelona, and with a bit more luck, they would have qualified for the round of 16. It has been like that for a couple of years now: they’ve come close but they’ve lacked the professionalism and attitude to really drag the result home. Finally, though, this could be the year they manage to go past the group stage. The problem is, it’s impossible for Dutch clubs to hold on to their top players, even for a club like Ajax, who play in the Champions League on a regular basis.”

While the loss of top players will certainly have an impact on the top clubs and on the league itself, the Eredivisie will always have players waiting to take the limelight. Pay close attention to Viktor Fischer, Jurgen Locadia, Jean-Paul Boetius, Tonny Vilhena, Hakim Ziyech, Jean-Paul Boetius and Luc Castaignos.

You may get a higher level of quality football in other leagues because of this exodus, but if you’re looking for entertaining matches in Europe, then the Netherlands – o, more practically, Sky Sports 5 – is the place to go. Attacking football, unpredictability, numerous title contenders and exceptional young talent is a delectable mixture of footballing entertainment. The Netherlands is a country that covets attacking football. It goes back to the aforementioned Rinus Michels, who introduced ‘total football’ in the 70s. In 2011/12 the Eredivisie finished second in Europe in terms of goals per game, at 3.26. In third place was the Eerste Divisie, the Dutch second division. Expect to see 4-3-3 everywhere, high pressing all over the place and out-and-out wingers. Just winning doesn’t matter in Holland - you have to win in style.

What’s not to like?

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THE PULLBACK ISSUE

IBWM Words: Matt Smith

JEFF LIVINGSTONE OF IN BED WITH MARADONA ON IDOLISING PAOLO ROSSI AND EXPANDING HIS FOOTBALL VIEWING TO THE BOLIVIAN LEAGUE

I

heard someone say that we’re now in a post-football hipster world, aren’t we?

Anyway, I always liked the idea of a football hipster. I’m happy to say I meet all of the criteria! It’s a badge of honour really; I’m not ashamed of it! If the only criterion is wanting to know as much about football in other countries as possible, then that can’t be a bad thing can it?” Jeff Livingstone – founder, designer and editor of football website In Bed With Maradona - has the right to define the term ‘football hipster’ any way he wants: he was the original.

A 1980s package holiday to Pineda on Spain’s Costa del Sol first presented him with the beautiful notion that football existed beyond the English game. “There were Espana ’82 flags and posters everywhere and I was immediately taken in,” says Jeff. “The 1982 World Cup is the first international tournament I can recall; I was eight and thanks to the weekly purchase of Shoot and Match magazine, knew my football at home. However, the players on show in the corner of our living room were something else. I wanted to be Zico, Socrates, Tardelli. These players were different.

They could actually DO things with a football.

“Over the next few years I was glued to midweek football on TV,” he continues.

“Seeing Villa, Forest, Spurs and Liverpool play in Europe on TV gave me a fix. I was introduced to Malmo, Anderlecht, Videoton... but wanted more. The obligatory Newcastle and Sunderland Subbuteo teams I received at Christmas 1984 became Juventus and Athletic Bilbao. While my schoolmates were recreating Peter Beardsley slotting past Chris Turner, I only had eyes for Paolo Rossi leaving Andoni Zubizarreta clutching at thin air.”

In 2010, Jeff set up the IBWM website, something he originally intended to act as an outlet to chronicle the daily activities of Diego Maradona. “On the run up to South Africa 2010 he [Maradona] offered a consistent stream of material,” Jeff recalls. “Ultimately though I wanted to take the website somewhere and provide an open forum for anyone to write about any topic they choose without any editorial patronage. That’s pretty much the formula we’ve stuck with since, and over the course of the last four years I’ve seen a lot of fledging bloggers move on to much bigger things, which really emphasises how important this scene has become. Sports

editors of broadsheet newspapers in several countries have told me they’d rather see someone’s impact online via their own blogs than look at a list of qualifications. It’s a wonderful proving ground.

THE WEBSITE, WHICH WAS ORIGINALLY GOING TO BE NAMED ‘THREE MONTHS WITH DIEGO’ UNTIL JEFF’S WIFE TURNED TO HIM – WHILE HE WAS WATCHING ARGENTINA AT 4AM ON HIS LAPTOP – AND SAID, “YOU SPEND MORE TIME IN BED WITH MARADONA THAN YOU DO WITH ME.” IBWM WAS BORN..

The website, which was originally going to be named ‘Three Months with Diego’ until Jeff ’s wife turned to him – while he was watching Argentina at 4am on his laptop – and said, “you spend more time in bed with Maradona than you do with me.” IBWM was born, and it hasn’t looked back since, despite football’s rapid growth in blogs, podcasts and magazines. “As a collective, football supporters are wise to a lot more of the global game now and the next generation will know even more again.

To give an example, I heard my twelve-year-old son arguing over Belgium striker Divock Origi’s strengths and weaknesses with a classmate a few months ago. Neither had ever seen him play but they know his characteristics inside out, through his representation on ‘FIFA’, on the Playstation. That’s something that media outlets will need to take into account in the future. Basically, audiences are a lot more clued up; you can’t take them for mugs.”

As informative as games such as FIFA and Football Manager are, it takes a more rigorous process for Jeff and his team to complete IBWM’s infamous ‘100’ (an annual list of the best footballing talents aged 22 and under). The list was actually what first drew my own attention to the IBWM brand and something that I religiously look forward to every year. “I’ve always been obsessed with ‘next big things’ in world football,” Jeff says. “I made sure that Don Balon’s annual 100 list [the former Spanish football magazine’s own list of the 100 best young players in the world] was posted to me on the day that it came out. I used to admire the

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ELASTICO CHOP gravitas that their list carried, but I was always a little dismayed that they didn’t go back a year later and revisit their choices. A kind of ‘yeah, we fucked that one right up, apologies’ or ‘ yep, told you he was good’ would have been welcome. Once IBWM was up and running it just seemed that revisiting their list was the logical thing to do. We started reviewing their list in November 2011 and within days news broke that Don Balon had become a victim of the credit crunch and ceased to be. Our review had been a hit, so we cobbled together what we knew, asked around and put our own list out for 2012. Since then it has become an absolute juggernaut - when Barcelona are making your choices for The 100 the main news item on their website, you know it’s carrying some serious muscle.

“The process for selection is perpetually on-going; we start off with a massive database of eligible names that gets whittled down. Opta are very helpful here and we maintain dialogue with hundreds of people that work in the game. At the end of each twelve months we thrash out pros and cons between the editorial team and nail

reflect what their audience wants, otherwise they go out of business, but this has led to a lot of ‘dumbing down’. Nevertheless, there has been a real shift over the last few years - building on the work Channel 4 did in the 90s with Italian football. Not everyone wants to watch the Bundesliga or Eredivisie, but enough now do to make it viable for BT and Sky to broadcast. You can’t replicate being at a match of course, but it’s an amazing sport to graze on, which is exactly how I approach the game. There are so many layers to it, well beyond what you see on the pitch.”

IBWM’s innocuous interface provides them with the perfect canvas to showcase their work via the Journal or Subculture tabs. Users can cruise around the hyperlinks as if they are in a magical football library – perhaps pausing for a second as they pass artist Fulvio Obregon’s ‘Fat Real Madrid Players’ or illustrator Davide Bonazzi’s depiction of critical moments from World Cup finals. “Design is very important to me and there is a lot more I’d like to do with IBWM in that area,” Jeff tells me. “A lot of it comes out of necessity. We made a conscious decision not to rip anyone’s pictures off and if you can’t get a hold of a certain player’s image then you have to be creative. I was very influenced by The Run of Play football blog in that respect.

Brian (of ROP) used some amazing artwork and imagery to illustrate an article and proved that if you were writing about a certain player you shouldn’t just use a stock photograph. I buy shit-loads of old art books and I’ve ended up with this huge image

“I GUESS IT’S ALL ABOUT OFFERING AN ALTERNATIVE. THERE ARE SO MANY FASCINATING STORIES BEING PRODUCED EVERY WEEK RIGHT ACROSS THE GLOBE THAT IT JUST SEEMS WRONG TO PUT SO MUCH FOCUS ON TO SUCH A SMALL AREA. SO WE TRY TO EMBRACE THE LEFT-FIELD, THE OBSCURE...”

bank of Italian religious sculptures that are beautifully shot. It may be that we use these to represent the 100 at some point. Actually, that is very likely…”

“An IBWM magazine?” Jeff says in reply to a suggestion of mine. “Hmm, only as a one off I think. I’m happy with where we are - being immediately accessible via a desktop, tablet, phone or whatever. By not taking in a subscription fee or hammering the ads, it really makes the site and therefore the writers, a lot more prominent, which is imperative; IBWM really is all about the collective. We may do something around The 100, or perhaps something far removed and ‘uber-limited’: a Sean Murphy-inspired graphic novel covering the life of Matthias Sindelar, perhaps.

Never say never, I guess!”

Jeff has never tried to make money from his website. IBWM stays clear of pop-up ads and Jeff remains uninterested in littering his squeaky-clean blog, regardless of the income they would bring him. “The second that money becomes your primary goal is the second that you’ve lost your way,” he tells me. “Advertisers, in main, want to pay per click, so to achieve that you’ve got to play to the gallery and go for the click-baiting transfer stories. That type of stuff hit saturation point many years ago, so you’ve got to be different. I suppose my only regret is that we’ve never made money to pay writers, which I would have loved to have done. If there have been paid approaches to use any content we’ve passed those requests on to the writers themselves: the articles are their property, not ours. IBWM is just a stage, a platform. Tony Wilson’s famous quote “The company owns nothing, the musicians

the list. The next day, we start the process all over again! It continues to expand and evolve and while the selections might be open to conjecture, our choices really have been agonised over. Nobody makes the list that we don’t think deserves it.”

It’s features such as The 100 that distance IBWM from its competition.

Intellectual writing, accompanied by sumptuous design, make the website a relaxing football rehab, shielding visitors from the endless modern stream of Vines, memes and rumours. “If there’s a news story, or something that has the absolute attention of the football media then I want IBWM to be as far away from that as possible,” Jeff tells me. “I guess it’s all about offering an alternative. There are so many fascinating stories being produced every week right across the globe that it just seems wrong to put so much focus on to such a small area. So we try to embrace the left-field, the obscure. There is certainly a time and place for videos and memes and transfer rumours, but I’ve always preferred to read about something that is new to me, and if I feel enriched by that then all the better. Football is littered with amazing events and these unfold on a daily basis, my only regret is that there just isn’t enough time to watch them all.”

When Jeff says ‘watch them all’ he seriously means it. Accompanying his dad to St James’ Park in the late 1970s, his love for football was ignited by watching Newcastle play QPR, aged 6 years old. “The whole experience of just being there was simply wonderful,” Jeff recalls. “The journey to the ground, a gradual crescendo build, it all still resonates with me today, regardless of which venue I am visiting or which team is playing. Now, the only time I ever make a point of sitting down to watch a particular game on television is during the World Cup when I watch every second. I’ll tune in if there’s someone I particularly want to watch play, be it a team or a player for the 100 perhaps. More often than not, I’ll seek a match out if I’m visiting somewhere or if I’m at home I’ll catch a stream of whatever is available at that time, whether that is at 10pm or 4am! I still always make a point of watching the weekly highlights of the bigger leagues, but live games can easily be from China, Russia, Bolivia, wherever; I like to keep expanding my horizons. That’s the benefit of technology now; I really craved this sort of coverage in the 1980s.

“I don’t mean any disrespect to the Premier League fixtures in saying that though,” Jeff adds. “The Premier League enjoys unbounded coverage via conventional media in the UK so it’s almost impossible to imagine that good players and good teams are playing good football anywhere else, but they most certainly are. Technology means we’re all a lot more joined up these days, so it’s possible to watch football from pretty much anywhere - and there is so much to choose from. The English media has to

“FACTORY RECORDS DIDN’T MAKE ANY MONEY BUT THEIR INFLUENCE WILL LAST FOR CENTURIES. I’D GLADLY SEE IBWM FOLLOW THAT PATH.” own their music and everything they do, and all artists have the freedom to fuck off ” is categorically applied here. Factory Records didn’t make any money but their influence will last for centuries. I’d gladly see IBWM follow that path.”

I ask about IBWM’s future plans. “I’d like to get The IBWM Retro page up to full speed again soon,” Jeff replies. “I’m sitting on thousands of old articles from World Soccer’s archives but just need the time to scan and publish them. I’m also determined to get more women’s football on the site, but it’s tough when you don’t dictate what’s written. We very nearly had a record label set up recently too! That’s still imminent, by the way! There’ll be spin offs, a few pop up websites and side projects, that I’m very keen to run, but fundamentally IBWM will continue on its existing course with a few surprises and tweaks along the way. We’re open to all submissions, all topics considered, and no experience necessary.

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Interview with Illustrator Dan Leydon

THE PULLBACK ISSUE

THE ENDURING POWER OF FOOTBALL MANAGER Words: Matt Smith

FM LEGENDS LEE SCOTT, GUIDO MERRY AND JAMES WILLIAMS TALK ABOUT JUST HOW BIG THE SERIES HAS BECOME commentators were looking at our data, because we had them all covered.”

In order to better understand the Football Manager series, I spoke to three of the most sharp-witted FM buffs that - in an era of inescapable digital technology – are revelling in the company of the game’s newfound community. Lee Scott, 33, Guido Merry, 30 and James Williams, 34, explain all…

DO YOU MEAN ON YOUR GAME, OR IN REAL LIFE?” MY DAD USED TO ASK ME NERVOUSLY, AFTER I WOULD CONFIDENTLY ANNOUNCE THAT HIS BELOVED CHARLTON ATHLETIC HAD DECLARED INTEREST IN TOTTENHAM’S POLISH NUMBER NINE, GRZEGORZ RASIAK. My answer varied: “On the game, mate, sorry”, or, “Real life pal, apparently Zheng Zhi has always fancied life in the Premier League.” The point was, my Dad would never know the answer.

Originally named ‘Championship Manager’ and first launched in 1992, the data contained in the Football Manager series has always been painstakingly accurate; it’s the main selling point of the brand. Just like football itself, it isn’t ‘just a game’; it’s a second - yet equally important - life. During my Masters course at Sunderland University – studying Sports Journalism - I decided not to purchase Football Manager 2014 in an effort to focus on my studies. “If I’ve got time to play on FM, I’ve got time to write,” I told myself. But something was up: my blog posts weren’t as sharp, sinuous or witty and I was starting to hear – via various media platforms - about players that I’d never heard of. I realised that I’d parted with the one thing that has been consistent throughout my 26 years on this planet; my teacher, my footballing syllabus… my friend.

Yes, it is only a game in the literal sense, but in terms of providing the user with a professional, dynamic and incredibly scientific learning experience, it’s an education. During Sam Allardyce’s spell at Newcastle United in 2007 I began to question why football clubs didn’t use the game as a trusted source to sign worldclass talent. Newcastle signed Manchester United’s Alan Smith for £6 million - hedidn’t score a single goal and I wasn’t surprised. Had Big Sam perused my FM shortlist he could have purchased River Plate’s 20-year-old striker, Falcao; Dinamo Zagreb’s £1.5 million rated midfielder, Luka Modric or San Lorenzo’s Ezequiel Lavezzi, for roughly the same price as Smudger.

Seven years later and it’s finally happening. Sports data company Prozone is using stats from Football Manager to help real clubs recruit players. Shortly, the legendary football simulation will be employed by clubs all over the world to help them scout new players. “The Sports Interactive database is a highly accurate and valuable resource that will further enhance the recruitment services that we provide,” says Prozone’s CEO, Thomas Schmider.

The game provides data on 300,000 players, each represented by a detailed table of statistics, from striking and heading to positional sense and aggression.

Sports Interactive Director, Miles Jacobson says: “Think about the Ecuadorian players that no one knew about at the World Cup. I’d hope that match

Q: HEY CHAPS, COULD YOU JUST TELL ME A BIT ABOUT YOURSELF AND YOUR FIRST MEMORY OF PLAYING ON THE CHAMPIONSHIP/FOOTBALL MANAGER SERIES? A. LEE SCOTT: Sure, I’m from Aberdeen, Scotland. I work as a manager within the city council but having three kids means that they are my main focus. I’ve been playing Championship/Football Manager for years now. One of my earliest memories is playing CM Italia [this version simulated the top two divisions of Italian football] back when you could only play in one league. My brother used to play as Juventus and I’d use Milan. You could only have three foreigners at the time so it got fairly competitive.

A. GUIDO MERRY: I am a teacher in a secondary school, where I teach 12-16 year olds the finer intricacies of the Dutch language. I started playing when I fished an old version of Championship Manager out of a bargain bin at my local toy-store. My younger brother and I were instantly hooked. I think we started out with CM2 and we’ve played every instalment since. It was such an exciting time for us, as Dutch football supporters. Louis van Gaal had his Ajax side playing amazing football, PSV had a very young Ronaldo upfront and Feyenoord also impressed in Europe and here was this game, giving us the chance to emulate and perhaps even surpass the real-life achievements.

A. JAMES WILLIAMS: My first memory of Championship Manager is from about 1993 when I played it round a friend’s house. He had an Amiga, I had a Atari ST. Needless to say this amazing football management game put an Amiga console at the top of my Christmas list.

Q: THESE DAYS FOOTBALL MANAGER IS A TACTICAL JUGGERNAUT. IS THIS SOMETHING WE SHOULD EMBRACE? LS: I’ve always been really interested in the tactical side of football so, for me,

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it’s been a natural progression to play Football Manager that way as well. I can remember experimenting with different tactical variations years ago when the match engine was far less advanced than it is now. It was a natural again as the game and match engine evolved for me to try new things and see how far I can push the system. I found that writing about the tactical side of the game and sharing my theories with others has led to me exploring even further exactly what the game is capable of.

Manager management style no longer cut the mustard. Determined to get back in to it I searched for Football Manager blogs and came across ‘FM Veteran’, a blog detailing the efforts of a guy called Shrew Naldo. The blog was informative, catchy and interesting and it helped bring me right back in to the fold. I ended up getting involved in the FM blogging and twitter scene and after talking to a few people I decided to share my game details.

Q: LEE, YOUR EVERTON BLOG SHOWED A TACTICAL BREAKDOWN AND A UNIQUE 4-1-2-3 STRIKER-LESS FORMATION. HOW DID THAT COME ABOUT?

Q: YOU MENTION YOUR WRITING LEE, YOUR BLOG IS ALMOST A SCIENCE OF STATS, FORMATIONS AND THEORIES. WHO IS FOOTBALL MANAGER’S TARGET AUDIENCE NOW?

LS: I’d already decided that I wanted to experiment with three players in the attacking midfield zone and the positioning of the three players stemmed from there. I love to use a truly creative player in the centre of the pitch as it opens up the entire field for him to play into. With Lukaku, I wanted to try and isolate him against physically inferior full backs so again it made sense to play him tucked in to the left hand side. As the season progressed Lukaku became unplayable and dominated opposition defences.

Ironically, a couple of weeks after setting this tactic up and writing the blog post I was watching Monday Night Football and they ran an analysis of the

LS: I think that at the moment the game is on a fine edge, and that depending on the progression of the next couple of versions we could see it start to lose some of its customers. The creation of the FM classic option has opened the game back up to those that used to play and no longer have the same amount of time. The main section of the game though will continue to develop as it has over the last few years and people will choose which parts of the game they spend time on and parts of that they don’t. Some will play the game purely as a squad building exercise while others will play with a focus on developing tactics.

Everton performance against Arsenal. Funnily enough Roberto Martinez had used Lukaku on the right side of the attack to isolate the main weakness for Arsenal at left back.

JW: It depends why people play the game. Obviously people play to win, but some like to win at all costs and will download a ‘super tactic’ from the internet whereas others are happy to try and figure tactics out themselves. I feel the game in its current format should be embraced; the aim is to emulate a football manager and that is what the increased tactical elements allow.

Q: SPEAKING OF MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL, COULD YOU ARGUE THAT FOOTBALL ANALYSIS IN GENERAL HAS MOVED ON OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS? THERE SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN A RECENT INFLUX OF TACTICAL IDEAS, FORMATIONS, GAME ANALYSIS AND HIGHER LEVELS OF PUNDITRY?

GM: Yes, I feel we should be grateful for all the various options FM offers. It allows those who want to tinker the freedom to do so, even though you are restricted by the game mechanics. I can see how some people would feel it’s overkill though, there are a lot of options to choose from. Just remember you don’t need to use an ‘enganche’ besides a ‘trequartista’ though, keep it simple is my advice, unless you really know what you’re doing.

LS: Yes definitely. The rise of MNF on Sky with Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher has opened people’s eyes to the lack of quality from other pundits and outlets.

They are able to explain the tactical moves and changes within the game using visual tools that make things clear even to those that aren’t interested in the tactical side of the game. Unfortunately the likes of Match of the Day still seem content in dumbing down their content so as not to alienate their audience.

I think the producers of MOTD need to give the viewing public, a little more credit.

Q: WHAT MADE YOU START WRITING ABOUT FOOTBALL MANAGER? GM: I have been writing about Football Manager for nearly fifteen years now.

Initially, it was just scribbling down names of amazing players I had scouted into a notebook. Next came sharing these lists with people online. I loved the idea of exchanging ideas and thoughts about a game I enjoyed playing. I was one of those kids who scribbled line-ups and scouting lists in the sideline of his school notebooks.

After writing for several websites, both in English and in my native Dutch, I eventually got a bit fed up with deadlines and admins telling me my ideas were too far-fetched to ever lead to proper articles and hits for the website, I took a two year sabbatical, which coincided with the release of FM Live [A multi-player online version of the Football Manager series]. That game was truly amazing, it had everything, real name players, random squads, a vivid in-game economy and you played live against other human managers.

During my FM Live tenure, I barely touched FM. I did start with blogging. I just ranted regarding the various flaws I encountered in the game and shared some of the strategies I used to be successful. After FM Live was shut down, I tried going back to writing for websites, but I never really got into it. I enjoyed the freedom my own blog offered. When FM14 came out, I decided I had enough ideas left I wanted to share, so I started the ‘Strikerless’ blog, after the style of play I enjoyed the most.

JW: I think that football has moved on yes, but only through natural evolution. As soon as something becomes successful it is quickly thought to be on the decline.

Tiki Taka was the panacea for a while but then the current trend switched to a high pressing game. Players are fitter and technology is used to gain the slightest edge. These contribute to the changing face of the game. Gary Neville offers excellent insight that comes from playing the game. I do think things can be over-analysed and I’m not a fan of the still pictures of a given moment annotated with premonitions of how the play will develop.

GM: Football fans certainly have become more sophisticated, mostly due to easier access to foreign leagues. When I started watching football, you had the World Cups and various European club tournaments where you could see foreign clubs, some of which had very distinctive styles of play.

Q: WHAT ARE YOUR FAVOURITE FM SAVES OF ALL TIME? LS: That’s a really difficult question and I can’t choose between two. I had a Dortmund save a few years ago. I think it was the season before they exploded into the public conscious. In the first year I picked up a Brazilian ‘newgen’ [a generated fake player made by FM as the years go on] striker called Arthur for £500k from Sao Paulo and he went on to become the best player I’ve ever seen.

GM: I fell out of love with the game for a couple of years, when my Championship

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The save culminated in having a 120,000 capacity stadium named after me. The second was a save where I managed both Shanghai Shenhua and China with the aim to develop Chinese talent for the national team. Some of the newgens that were produced were truly excellent and I ended up winning the World Cup with a team almost exclusively from my club.

names in Championship Manager and Football Manager long before they actually became renowned in real life. They sometimes get it wrong of course, but it was good fun seeing some of these CM or FM heroes making their debut in the Champions League, years after I signed them in the game.

GM: My favourite save was managing India, spanning over four decades. I started with East Bengal, mostly because I wanted something new and had never played in India before. It turned out to be pretty fun, short and sweet seasons and pretty challenging due to the lack of resources. In 25 years time, I managed to turn East Bengal into one of the richest clubs in the world, renewing the entire youth set-up and setting up an extensive scouting network in Africa. Then I got bored and took up the national team role alongside a club job with New Delhi Heroes.

I played for another 15 years, actually reaching a World Cup final with India and challenging my own East Bengal dynasty with the New Delhi side. Then the next FM instalment came out and this save got scrapped.

LS: It’s a part of the game that those who don’t play simply do not understand.

The amount of research and work that goes into building the database each year is staggering. It’s little wonder that professional clubs like Everton have been known to use the database as part of their recruitment strategy. For every Freddy Adu or Cherno Samba that SI have missed on over the year there are hundreds that they have got correct. To this day the first thing that I do when I get a new version is look up all the young players that I’ve heard some buzz about [in real life] to see whether they are rated within the game. This year the first player that I looked up was Eder Alvarez Balanta, the Columbian centre half at River Plate.

Any of you that have seen him play can attest that SI have got this one spot on.

He is going to be a superb player for years to come.

Q: ANY PARTICULARLY FUNNY STORIES YOU WOULD CARE TO SHARE?

Q:FINALLY GUYS, DO YOU EVER THINK YOU WILL GROW TIRED OF THE GAME?

GM: I work as a teacher. As I was heavily into FM, I tended to persue the various message boards dedicated to the game, both in English and Dutch. During a class, I caught two of my students posting on the same forum as I had. In fact, it turned out we had interacted via these boards without either of us knowing the identity of the other. It started with me giving the lads a few pointers and ended with a full-blown afterschool class, using the digi-boards and discussing transfer strategies and the merits of various tactics.

GM: Probably not, but there may come a time that I will stop playing anyway because real life obligations have become more important. An FM addiction is not an easy one to get rid of. The game becomes addictive, you say to yourself, “just one more game,” but when you check the time several hours have passed.

Even though it is a universe of statistics and numerical values, it’s strangely immersive and compelling, especially when you do a long-term save. It works because I care about those numbers and statistics, I project my own ideas upon them, let my imagination turn the numbers into actual people. The players, especially the good ones that score crucial goals or perform exceptionally well, become almost like real-life characters, up to the point where I have shouted at the TV at a player because he was underperforming in the game. Should I ever have kids? I reckon I need to stop playing or at least cut back my gaming time drastically, for fear of alienating myself from my kids and girlfriend.

JW: That is a tough question. Back in the days of Championship Manager I took Torquay on a rollercoaster journey to the top of European football but it was almost too easy back then. My current save with Hansa Rostock will just edge out my FM13 save with Amiens SC as my all time favourite. I took Hansa from the third tier of German football to numerous titles, winning everything possible with a core of homegrown players.

Q: YOU MUST HAVE SOME HUMOROUS TALES TO TELL?

LS: Yes, at least I think I will. I’ve now got a young family and a job that’s extremely time consuming. I really don’t play anywhere near as much as I used to but I still use the game as a way to relax.

JW: While at university, I lived in a flat of six football-obsessed lads, so we obviously fired up Championship Manager between us. We had a six-player game on one desktop PC that took forever to play. It took us a month of real time to get through pre-season and we had a clock installed to limit the playing time, giving us all a fair share. I came back from a night out with a lady in tow and went in my room to find two of the other lads had picked the lock on my door and were sat playing at 3am. They took some shifting even when I explained the urgency of the situation!

JW:I don’t think I ever will. As I alluded to earlier, I did have a phase where I was agitated by the game, but I still played it. It just took me a while to realise that I need to bring myself on board with the changes the game had undergone. Real life will always rear its ugly head and mean that sometimes I don’t get logged on for a while but if I’m being brutally honest I am wondering if I will get a game in after speaking to you tonight! That is something you can’t shake!

Q: WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE FM PLAYER DATABASE? JW: The FM database astounds me; it really is a work of art. While it is good to see the players become superstars and end up at big clubs, I have a love of finding the players you know in more unusual situations. Often I will be trawling through the [real life] Europa League scores and see a name I recognise and find myself on Wikipedia to see if it really was the player I had a Haugesund on FM09, who has scored for Lens against Wisla Krakow.

GM: It’s an amazing piece of work, especially when you consider it’s mostly volunteers who provide Sports Interactive the data, so not even professional scouts. They’ve often been spot-on regarding certain players, who were household

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THE PULLBACK ISSUE

THE ART OF THE PENALTY KICK Words: Matt Smith

AUTHOR, BEN LYTTLETON DISCUSSES THE PERFECT SPOT KICK

I

cried when Gareth Southgate missed his penalty kick against Germany in Euro 1996. Alan Shearer, David Platt, Stuart Pearce, Paul Gasgoigne and Teddy Sheringham all found a way past Andreas Kopke from twelve yards. Southgate appeared hurried as he placed the ball on the spot. His run up – which started from outside the box – resembled a man dashing for the bus in icy conditions while wearing an impractical loafer. Andreas Moller’s was the opposite. The Schalke 04 midfielder simply sauntered towards the ball, arrogantly lashing it past the hapless David Seaman.

Back then I didn’t analyse the shootout too much at the time. I was more concerned with ripping up the official England team calendar (free in Match Magazine) that previously hung proudly above my bed. I reached Southgate’s glossy, April-themed spread and hysterically tore through it like a polar bear, frantically whispering “you’re a professional footballer and you can’t score from twelve yards out? That’s strange isn’t it? Isn’t it? ISN’T IT?” I got no reply from the saliva-blemished debris, but the gist of my frenzied question remains relevant to this day.

Rather than shrieking at a photo of England’s hapless centre half, European football writer and author Ben Lyttleton has looked into this theory further. In his book Twelve Yards: The Art and Psychology of the Perfect Penalty, Lyttleton tells the definitive story of the spot-kick - how to take them, how not to miss them, and the different ways that penalty-takers and goalkeepers approach them, both physically and mentally. Why did Roberto Baggio miss in the 1994 World Cup final? How did Petr Cech dive the right way six times running to help Chelsea win the 2012 Champions League final? Supposing Antonin Panenka had missed? And what has John Wayne got to do with penalties?

Having worked with Ben on a few footballing projects over the years I know him to be one of the nicest blokes in football. Descriptive, passionate, knowledgeable and open minded, Lyttleton is the epitome of the modern football journalist. I spoke to him just days after the launch of his new book …

was interest in that kind of product, because it was tangible, and we supplied it to Portsmouth before their FA Cup final v Chelsea (where Frank Lampard missed a penalty) and the Netherlands before the 2010 World Cup final, (which was four minutes from a shoot-out). Therefore, I knew there was interest in penalties from the professional side. Then I watched Ashley Cole take two penalties six weeks apart in the summer of 2012 – he scored for Chelsea in the Champions League final against Bayern Munich but soon after missed for England against Italy at Euro 2012. Not only that, but his body language was different too. I wanted to know what that was, and with the World Cup coming up, I had a suspicion that shoot-outs are not, as often said, a lottery.

MORE TO TAKING A PENALTY KICK THAN PEOPLE THINK THEN? BEN: Absolutely – in terms of technique, surely if you are good enough to represent your country at a World Cup, or even just play in the Premier League, you should be good enough to score from 12 yards every time. So why isn’t the success rate 100%? Why does it go below the 78% conversion rate and in World Cup shoot outs – down to 71%. It’s all about pressure, psychology and how to prepare and approach that. For me, that difference is crucial – and the first step towards success is to admit it’s not a lottery and can in fact be practiced.

YOU MENTION PSYCHOLOGY AND YOUR BOOK TOUCHES A LOT ON THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ISSUES THAT HELP A PLAYER TO TAKE A PENALTY SUCCESSFULLY. ARE THERE ANY METHODS THAT STAND OUT? BEN: One of my most surprising findings was that when Portugal played England at the 2006 World Cup, a game in which Wayne Rooney was sent off, the Portuguese were happy to play for penalties because they knew they had a better chance of beating England in a shoot-out than in extra-time even though they had an extra man (and they did, as England missed three penalties in that shoot-out).

I spoke to Ricardo Pereira, the Portuguese goalkeeper who has denied England in two shoot-outs. Ricardo is a dapper man in mustard-coloured slacks and a lime-green polo shirt who likes to spend most of his time on the golf course.

“I’ll tell you why England lose,” he said, standing over a six-foot putt. “It’s

SO BEN, WHAT MADE YOU TACKLE THE SUBJECT OF PENALTY KICKS? BEN: Two things – one, when I set up the consultancy business Soccernomics, based on the book of the same name, one of the first services we offered was a penalty analysis looking at the trends and patterns of penalty-kickers. We found there

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because they are a bit shit and they bottle it. In terms of psychological tips, every individual is different but I spoke to a golfer and a professor of memory about the issues of over-thinking things as you wait for your kick. What goes through your mind at those moments is very significant.

out defeat in history, in the 1976 European Championship final [against Czechoslovakia]. It was an honour to meet him and only then did I realise that for a guy to pull off such a spontaneous and crowd-pleasing gesture, representing what was then a Communist country, was a very brave thing to do. Had he missed, he would have faced a lifetime of punishment. And I now believe that a scored Panenka is worth more than the value of one goal because of the psychological affect it has on the opponent: often the next kicker will miss his penalty – see Ashley Young’s after Pirlo’s Panenka in 2012, or Bruno Alves after Sergio Ramos’s Panenka in the same tournament.

SO LOUIS VAN GAAL’S DECISION TO SUBSTITUTE JASPER CILLESSEN AND BRING ON TIM KRUL FOR THE SHOOT-OUT IN THE 2014 WORLD CUP WAS CRUCIAL? BEN: Exactly, the key damage was not done by Krul intimidating the kickers – even Bryan Ruiz, who missed his penalty said he was fine with that – it was more the decision to bring him on in the first place. That was the moment when the momentum swung back to Holland and even though Krul was not a penalty specialist, in the eyes of the Costa Rican players, he was one. It shows the importance of reputation in the penalty scenario and in Krul’s case, it became a self-fulfilling prophecy. They thought he was brilliant and as a result, he became brilliant.

WHY IS IT THAT ENGLAND HAVEN’T WON A PENALTY SHOOTOUT SINCE THEY BEAT SPAIN IN EURO 96?

BEN: Lots of reasons, partly psychological and partly technical. Losing to Germany in 1996 was highly traumatic as it was on home soil, and in the semis, and to Germany. Then following that up with the 98 loss to Argentina, with whom we have a complicated political and military history, was further trauma. Had we lost to Switzerland, or Greece, I don’t think it would have become such an issue.

There is also the fact that the more you lose, the more you lose; statistics show that there is a vicious cycle of defeat, and a virtuous cycle of success. From a technical point of view: English players traditionally rush their penalties; they have the quickest reaction time after the referee blows his whistle, and that is a sure sign of stress. England players also look away after spotting the ball; it’s called gaze avoidance, and has a similar affect. Also, goalkeepers tend to find the right way for English kickers more often than for other teams, so maybe they are less skilled at randomizing their penalty kicks, or simply they are easier to read.

Another point is that English goalkeepers have a below-average saving record.

HOW INTERESTING WAS IT TO WATCH THE SHOOT-OUTS DURING THE BRAZIL WORLD CUP AFTER DOING SO MUCH RESEARCH ON THE SUBJECT. HOW OFTEN DID YOU CALL THE WINNER? BEN: It’s quite hard to call the correct winner because you don’t know which kickers are going to appear until they do; so the narrative only emerges in real time. But Brazil had the advantage on Chile because they kicked first, same as Costa Rica and Greece and both winning sides also had momentum, with Chile hitting the bar in the last minute, and Costa Rica down to ten men for an hour and holding on.

RIGHT, DOWN TO BUSINESS: YOU, BEN LYTTLETON, HAVE TO TAKE A PENALTY TO WIN £100,000 AGAINST MANUEL NEUER AT A FULL CAPACITY MARCANA STADIUM; WHICH WAY ARE YOU PUTTING IT AND WHEN DO YOU DECIDE? I READ ABOUT THE GERMAN NATIONAL TEAM’S RIGOROUS PENALTY TRAINING, USING THE AMERICAN FITNESS GURU SHAD FORSYTHE. DO YOU BELIEVE MORE TEAMS SHOULD IMPLEMENT THIS PROCESS?

BEN: What a question! Against Neuer you have to be brave. He likes to wait as long as possible before he commits, so I would spend years of training, (which is what all professionals can afford to do) honing my technique to kick the ball into the sidenetting of my natural side. There is a zone that is out of the goalkeeper’s reach if you find it – Robin van Persie and Dirk Kuyt did just that in their penalties against Costa Rica. I decide before the game itself. When the penalty comes along, I am not thinking about where the ball is going – I am only thinking about my routine of execution, what I need to do. Focus on the routine, not the outcome.

BEN: The penalty practice in the Germany camp takes place throughout the qualifying phase, but stops once the tournament begins. It only re-starts once the team reaches the knockout stages. In 2006, when Klinsmann was coach, after training, every player took a penalty; before doing so, he would have to nominate into a camera where he would kick the ball – bottom right, top left, that sort of thing.

Anyone who missed would be eliminated, and the competition would continue until only one player was left. It normally took four or five penalties to find a winner. But the German method is not unique. I’m sure other teams do it too – the point is that the practice has a competitive element and is purposeful. In 2006, England practiced penalties by congregating with balls at their feet on the edge of the area and waiting for the chance to kick one. But that’s not how it happens in a real game. Think how golfers, tennis players, or any solo sportsmen prepare for that major pressure moment – just by practicing with purpose. As Sir Dave Brasilford said: “It’s a penalty – it’s easy!”

AND FINALLY, IS THERE GOING TO BE A FREE-KICK-BASED SEQUEL? BEN: Ha! No plans for a free kick follow up, no, but the book is coming out in other languages and markets, including France, Germany and USA, so I am working on some World Cup updates. Also, I hope to use my penalty knowledge to help clubs in the future. the system. I found that writing about the tactical side of the game and sharing my theories with others has led to me exploring even further exactly what the game is capable of.

SOMEONE WHO DID FIND PENALTY TAKING EASY WAS ANTONIN PANENKA? BEN: Panenka spent two years practicing the ‘panenka’ style penalty, a slow chipped penalty down the middle of the goal, which caused the only German shoot-

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THE PULLBACK ISSUE

ILLUSTRATOR, DAN LEYDON, ON WORKING FOR L.A GALAXY AND BEING INSPIRED BY JOHN FAVREAU “YEAH, I’D CONSIDER THAT ONE OF MY BEST CREATIONS, I’M SO PROUD OF IT,” DAN LEYDON IS SAYING. I TAKE A GLANCE: A TRUNCATED XAVI HERNANDEZ SITS CENTRALISED ON TOP OF HIS DOMESTIC RED AND BLUE. Faceless, yet instantly recognisable, the image conveys the Barcelona playmaker’s four hundred and fifty plus caps, his twenty-five trophies and his infinite number of successful throughballs. The accompanying text, “…Always looking for spaces…” is delicately placed underneath Xavi’s oozing torso and, whether this glorious image was your Macbook wallpaper, your smartphone cover or precisely positioned above your bed, the Spanish mastermind would undoubtedly be asking for the ball.

Football illustrations come naturally to Dan Leydon. Aged 27, he has been drawing since his parents handed him a pencil at the age of two. Dan studied Industrial Design at college, which gave him a strong grounding in Photoshop and

back in the Champions League. Last season was great to follow and I suppose it’s just good to see the players enjoying playing the way they do. As long as they’re entertaining and win the Champions League, I’ll be happy.

Illustrator. Working from his studio in Strandhill on the West coast of Ireland, Dan ‘s unique approach to his work has attracted clients such as Nike, KICKTV, ESPN, The LA Galaxy and Backpage Press.

“I can’t just make a piece with a player,” Leydon tells me. “There has to be a hook somewhere; with Xavi, I read some great articles by Sid Lowe, which gave me the ‘spaces’ tagline, and one from the The Run of Play blog which gave me an insight into the man himself and how he was perceived at large. These things are very useful.”

YOU RECENTLY DID SOME WORK FOR LA GALAXY, HOW WAS THAT? DAN: Yes, they were the first actual football club I got to work with. They’re sending me a jersey and it’s that type of small perk that makes me realise what I’m working at and how lucky I am. I always enjoy working with ESPN, they are great to bounce ideas around with.

DREAM JOB? DESIGN A NEW ‘THIS IS ANFIELD’ SIGN? DAN: It’s funny you say that, as I just moved into an apartment and the stairs leading to the front door are similar to the stairs leading down out of the tunnel at Anfield. My friend Fergal suggested getting a ‘This is Danfield’ sign for the wall above so I can tap it on my way out. It’s so cheesy it might just work!

YOUR ILLUSTRATIONS FOR GRAHAM HUNTER’S BOOK BARCA WERE WIDELY NOTICED, TOO? DAN: Yes, Graham was very kind to pick me to illustrate his book on Barcelona. It was a colossal chance for me and I’m proud to have worked on the book. I used to pester him on Twitter to look at my Barca illustrations. He eventually took notice and liked my work. It all worked out great in the end.

SO DAN, CAN YOU EXPLAIN THE PROCESS BEHIND YOUR WORK? DAN: My process involves getting a blank sheet of A3 paper, writing a word I want to make a piece about and circling it in red pencil. Then I write down anything that comes into my head about it. I try to link suitable things and find odd ways they have a relationship with the subject matter. If I can come across an angle that no one else has approached then I’m happy. Or simply, if there’s a witty element, then I pursue that. I love making silly jokes through nicely finished work.

HOW IMPORTANT IS IT FOR A PICTURE TO TELL A STORY? DAN: I really try to get an idea running through a piece as I think an illustration should be more than what’s on the page or screen. My work should carry a message or idea, or, at the very least hold a second meaning that’s available to a knowledgeable viewer. I think that having a functional, less beautiful style can sometimes elevate the message of a piece. I try to do this with my FootyNews [Dan’s blog] pieces. I post current affairs illustrations to social media found on Instagram via #DansFootyNews.

IT WAS FASCINATING TO SEE YOU ACT OUT THOSE PROCESSES DURING YOUR LIVE INSTAGRAM SESSION? DAN: I did enjoy it. I had just seen the film Chef in the cinema, in it, Jon Favreau stays up all night cooking a masterpiece and it inspired me to do that. I headed to my studio at 12am and posted everything to Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, I was all done by 5am. I wanted to share how a piece comes together. It felt like there was an audience who were interested in what I was sharing.

HOW MUCH HAS SOCIAL MEDIA PLAYED A PART IN YOU GETTING EXPOSURE FOR YOUR WORK? DAN: Nothing has been as influential in my working life as Twitter. I don’t think I’ve realised how useful it is.

AS WELL AS JON FAVREAU DIRECTED FILMS, WHAT ELSE INSPIRES YOU? DAN: I read all the Roald Dahl books when I was young, so Quentin Blake has had a massive influence on me. His style is quite messy, but his characters all have such energy in their poses, but quite sparse definition. Also, [British Cartoonist] Ralph Steadman influenced me. Again, his work is quite messy and full of personality. I’d like to produce work that has personality scrambling to get off the page.

FINALLY DAN, WHAT IS YOUR LONG-TERM GOAL AND ADVICE FOR ASPIRING FOOTBALL ILLUSTRATORS? DAN: The long-term goal is for my work is to have a style that people know at first glance and find it rewarding to look at. Clever, stylish work would be my aim, I suppose. I’d love to think that eventually as I get better, people would have a connection with my work when they see it. My dream client? I suppose Liverpool Football club. In terms of advice, I still see myself as an aspiring illustrator and I live by this line: the harder you work, the luckier you get.

AND OF COURSE, FOOTBALL? DAN: I love football. I try to collide that with my love of film to find moments of tension in matches of narratives. These collisions lend themselves brilliantly to illustrations or posters. I’ve supported Liverpool since I was a kid, I’m really happy to see them

Left: Illustration by Dan Leydon

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THE PULLBACK ISSUE

WALEED ABU NADA ON BEING RETWEETED BY RONALDO & FOOTBALL’S INFLUENCE ON CHILDREN trained over a one-month period, including profiles of each child as well as indepth analysis of their results before and after the implementation of the strategy.

“I decided to write my book in order to raise awareness about the importance of sport in people’s lives,” Waleed says. “Sports open new doors and paths to life, presenting people with an adventurous journey. The money raised from the sales of the book will be dedicated to building more youth programmes in Jordan; I’m hoping that one day I will be given the chance to expand my platform on a larger scale.”

He tells me more about the project: “I decided to choose unprivileged orphans, as they would benefit much more from the experience. I chose eight children who live in an area called Marca in Jordan. The group knew nothing about football

“I READ IT, GREAT JOB,” BRAZIL’S RONALDO COMMENTED, AS HE SHARED WALEED ABU NADA’S ARTICLE WITH HIS MILLIONS OF FOLLOWERS ON TWITTER. Ronaldo’s helpful retweet saw Waleed’s piece, ‘Ronaldo Luis Nazario de Lima, a true legend’ receive around 140,000 hits in 24 hours.

Not every aspiring football writer can say their writing career was lucky enough to be started by one of the greatest strikers of all time, yet almost three years later – and still aged only 16 - Waleed certainly hasn’t wasted the opportunity.

Waleed was a staggering 13 years old when his article went viral. Originally from Jerusalem he immigrated with his family shortly after the Palestinian/ Israeli conflict occurred and now resides in Amman, Jordan. Now entering his junior year in high school, he will shortly undertake a two-year international baccalaureate degree. He is also captain of his local football club in Amman. “I’m currently very focused on engaging in community and service projects,” he tells me. “I enjoy volunteering and teaching several youth activities, mainly focusing on sports. I try my best to provide a platform for the less fortunate to display their talents no matter what sport they play. Later on, I try to keep them on the right track; everyone deserves to showcase their skills and talent, so why not help them with that?

It’s hard to picture a young man so self-assured; yet having known Waleed since he first appeared on Twitter it doesn’t surprise me to hear his stimulating diligence. “I definitely remember those early days,” he tells me. “I started writing for fun, with my very first article being for FootballSpeak.com and it was a tribute to Ronaldo - the man who made me fall in love with the beautiful game.

His remarkable retweet kick-started everything for me. I got FootballSpeak’s writer of the month with only 2 articles – compared to the other who wrote five weekly – and by the end of the year, I was in the website’s top five writers.

Through FootballSpeak, I met many talented writers; I built my connections and worked with other magazines and websites, which I would later expand on with the use of my Twitter account.” Just in case you had forgotten, this was all achieved before his fourteenth birthday.

“It was a really big day for me when I revealed my age back in 2011,” Waleed recalls. “I wrote a piece providing tips for journalists of tomorrow that had contributions from Grant Wahl, Sid Lowe, Graham Hunter, Philippe Auclair and Tancredi Palmeri, basically, the best journalists in the business. I was afraid that people would look at me differently and not take me seriously, however, the reactions I got stunned me. I received a lot of support, and my article got 11k views in 3 hours, which was quite remarkable at the time. I’m very proud of that accolade. It taught me that age is just a number!”

Twitter became a wild experience for Waleed. He gathered 10,000 followers – many being Guardian, Daily Mail, Telegraph, Mirror and ESPN Journalists, correspondents from the BBC and CNN, award-winning authors, and several European-based professional footballers. “When I first started tweeting, I never thought I’d get the opportunities I received through it later on. It has been a vital tool for me,” Waleed tells me.

It’s evident that Waleed isn’t one to rest on his success. Everything at which he succeeds provides a new platform for him to excel further. He holds the title of youngest published writer in his hometown of Jordan after the publication of his book ‘Sports-Based-Youth-Development’ in April 2014, a football-based ‘learning strategy’, aimed at helping young people deal with stress, emotions and feelings. The book chronicles his experience with a group of orphans that he

before they began participating, yet they ended up being extremely professional athletes after just one month. Day by day, I became extremely attached do the children. We would have breakfast after each training session, and I would take them out every now and then.

Born in 1998, Waleed is the youngest in his family. He has two older siblings, a brother and a sister, who he values dearly. “They always kept me on the right track,” he tells me. “I’ve always been an athletic person so I stuck with that; I play a variety of sports, however there is something special about playing football.”

He continues: “I’m currently the captain of Amman Elite FC’ - a private local club which has participated in several international tournaments – for the second consecutive year. I was fortunate enough to be trained under the supervision of Mr. Saeed Al Karmi. He taught me so many things, off the pitch as much as on it. Without his guidance, I am positive that my life’s path would have been different. Being a member of the club kept me away from smoking, drinking and so many problems that young peoplein our world face today. Based on a personal experience, I can only encourage teenagers to get more involved in sports.”

Football has been a significant part of Waleed’s life since the age of six. “It started with it being an after school activity; ten years later and it’s something that I fall in love with on an almost a daily basis,” Waleed tells me. “My family played a huge role in my passion for football, as they always kept me busy with sports-related afterschool activities. One man, however, remains the main reason behind my attachment to football. That man is the Brazilian Ronaldo, one of the finest players ever to touch a ball. After that, I got into the tiny details of the game in an attempt to understand how it works. I started watching games from 1954 till this very day.”

He continues: “Jordanians are all in love with football. It brings people together across religious beliefs, geographical territories and political stances.

Everyone comes together for ninety minutes and forgets whatever they might be doing in their lives; they simply unite due to their love of football. Travel through the Jordanian streets to witness the love that young children have for it. You will see youthful neighbours embracing over football matches, hoping that one-day, they’ll be lucky enough to play in these iconic stadiums.”

Waleed’s outlook on football is intelligently expressed; not only does he hold a strong personal passion for the game, but he recognises its global appeal and the positive impact it can have on a community. He remains set on a career in sport, whether that be in a psychological, management, journalism or a marketing based field. You certainly wouldn’t bet against the ambitious 16 year old. He tells me his career with football is yet to start, but what a journey he’s already had.

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EDITORIAL & CREATIVE DIRECTION Matt Smith

CONTRIBUTORS David Cartlidge Jason Pettigrove Simon Friday Kristen Heneage Ivan Kalashnikov Philippa Booth James Eastham James Roper Ned Read Robert Priest Cooper Lemon Matt Oldfield Elko Born Jeff Livingstone Ben Lyttleton Dan Leydon Waleed Abu Nadax Lee Scott Guido Merry James Williams

THANK YOU Alex Lockwood Billy Wood Deborah Smith Jenny Simmons Mark Bellamy Robyn Wilson Sean Smith Tom Smith

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