Football’s paradox: the game is ever more team-oriented on a tactical level while many fans are now obsessed by individualsThe journalist in the seat next to mine at Portugal’s 6-1 win over Switzerland at the World Cup – French, late 20s – had been shooting some video content outside and arrived just after half-time. Portugal were already 3-0 up and, with Gonçalo Ramos replacing Cristiano Ronaldo in the starting lineup, playing by far their best football of the tournament. The reporter was devastated. He wanted to see Ronaldo.That Portugal had improved without their star player was of no concern to him. When Ronaldo came on after 74 minutes, he couldn’t have been more excited if he had been a teenager...
Brazilian’s move to Al-Hilal is end of his meaningful career but I have adored watching his limitless beauty as a footballerBittersweet memories. That is all I’m taking with me. So goodbye. Please don’t cry. We both know, I’m not … Ah. Sorry. It’s fine. Just a little dusty in here.When it comes to Neymar and I, me and Ney, the feelings, the farewells, the deeply personal – I’m going to say it – love story of the last 13 years (legal clarification: Neymar has no idea who I am) I feel a lot closer to the Dolly Parton original version right now – rueful, sad, fondly heartbroken – as opposed to the Whitney Houston super-cover: sad but also defiant, hopeful,...
The Brazil striker can still win things but his major-chord career is over in the place that made him rich but stole his valueThe morning after its seven-game World Cup lifespan was complete, Stadium 974 – the shipping container one, a kind of elite Qatari hipster project, cod-Hackney to go with the cod-Paris – was already being dismantled by men with diggers and grabbers and electric wrenches.This is the way of things here. Indeed, as the yellow-shirted travellers streamed through the night on Doha’s driverless metro, another Brazil World Cup campaign done in a haze of tears and grief, it was tempting to wonder how long before the men who dismantle things would be out with their wrecking bars, setting...
Absurdly wealthy owners with scant regard for the game placating absurdly remunerated players – is this really football?Was there a moment, back in August, when Christophe Galtier wondered what the fuss had been? Did he watch his Paris Saint-Germain team smacking in 21 goals in their first four games of the season and think how easy this all was? Take what is probably the starriest forward line in the history of the game, let them play and watch the brilliant goals stack up. Lionel Messi, after a disappointing first season in Paris, was re-energised. Neymar, playing alongside his mate, was thriving. And Kylian Mbappé …Well, what was Mbappé? He was still impossibly quick. He scored four goals in those first...
If Lukaku was too immobile for the manager’s system, there is no way Ronaldo let alone Neymar can be the answer It is still relatively early. There is still a month before the Premier League begins again. There is plenty of time for a club to make signings. Chelsea began from a position of unusual chaos. There is no reason to panic yet. It might all be fine. But equally it may not and it’s fair to say that if you’re planning a major overhaul of your squad, it’s easier if you haven’t just lost a load of leading figures from the recruitment department.Perhaps it is unreasonable to expect too much this summer, so soon after the removal of Roman...