The Everton goalkeeper is facing competition for his England jersey but being well suited to international duty may save himAs the shot from Daniel Podence rolled towards the Everton goalline, it was tempting to wonder – in a covid-free parallel universe – how Jordan Pickford might alternatively have been spending Sunday 12 July 2020.As the ball squirmed between Pickford’s legs, as he scrambled to scrape the ball off the line like a man trying to salvage the remains of his doner kebab from the pavement, it was impossible to ignore the fact that – with all due respect to Wolves and Everton – this tragicomedy could have been unfolding on a far bigger stage. Specifically, how might England fans feel...
Violent protests on Saturday were painfully familiar and the problem could increase as anti-immigrant rhetoric continuesTwenty years ago this week, more than 1,000 England supporters were arrested and deported for fighting and disorderly behaviour at Euro 2000. The Guardian, which reported they had attacked French, Turkish and North African supporters in Brussels before scrapping with Germans and Turks in Charleroi, called it a “shameful new low”. In truth it felt merely like a variation on a decades-old theme. Same ultra violence and rabid nationalism, different location.Afterwards, as politicians began the rush to condemn, the Labour peer Roy Hattersley uttered a stark truth. Those in power – and parts of the media – were also to blame. “Football provides the opportunity...
The England legend, with one flick of his right hand, mystified Pelé a half-century ago and glamourised his craft from then onPerfection means different things to different people. To some, its pursuit invests life with rich meaning, nobility even, while others merely see a misery-inducing, distinctly Sisyphean, obsession.Most regard it as subjective but, just occasionally, the rarest of moments offer an objective definition. Fifty years ago on Sunday Gordon Banks’s split second of sheer brilliance melded flawlessness, completeness and excellence in one single gravity-defying save from Pelé. Related: Gordon Banks on his famous Pelé save: 'I didn’t even realise I’d made it' Related: From the archive: England 0-1 Brazil, World Cup match report (1970). By Albert Barham Continue reading...
In 1950 the ‘kings of football’ were presented as certain to win, but what followed was calamitousRoll back 70 years to a grey, austere postwar Britain, still in ruins, still enduring food rationing, queues and misery, a nation where football provided a scarce escape. It was also when, for the first time, England took part in the game’s major global tournament, the World Cup, which began on 19 June 1950 in Brazil.To hyperbole stirred up by the national prints, England were presented as certain to be returning home triumphantly from South America with the Jules Rimet trophy. Failure was never considered. Here, after all, was the greatest assembly of footballing talent ever to leave England’s shores: Matthews, Finney, Mannion, Mortensen,...
Nicknamed ‘Norman bites yer legs’, the Leeds strongman won 28 England caps but had his biggest successes at Elland RoadNorman Hunter had to wait 41 years for his World Cup winners’ medal – as a non-playing member of England’s 1966 squad he was not deemed entitled to one until the rules were eventually revised – yet the Leeds United centre-half’s no-nonsense playing style is as fondly remembered today as any other from the era when televised football turned local heroes into household names.Partly that is to do with the wonderfully apposite nickname that followed him around after the 1972 FA Cup final against Arsenal, when a banner in the Leeds end declaring “Norman bites yer legs” was spotted and commented...