Inhaltsverzeichnis für February 2016 in FourFourTwo UK

“Yeah, but has he scored against an English side?” For some pundits, there is only one true test of whether a player is great, good or garbage, and that’s how he has fared against the Premier League’s big hitters in Europe. You may have won a league title, you may be the second-highest scorer in the history of Serie A, you may even have won a World Cup, but have you scored at the Stretford End, sunshine? For a long time, Francesco Totti was dismissed on these grounds, beaten with the same stick as Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Andrea Pirlo. The Roma captain is in good company. But we’re here to tell you that everything you think you know about Francesco Totti is wrong. He may not have a great record…

1 Wickham bubbles over A few weeks after popping the champagne corks to celebrate Sunderland’s miraculous Premier League escape in 2014, the now-Crystal Palace forward Connor Wickham partied hard with a £17,500, 15-litre gold bottle of Armand de Brignac bubbly in Marbella. “He didn’t really spray it everywhere,” an onlooker explained. “He and his mates actually drank it.” Unbelievable. 2 One man is an island What does the footballer who has everything buy for his representative who also has everything? A Greek island, that’s what. In August, Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo, acting as best man for agent Jorge Mendes, purchased the unnamed Aegean retreat for a reported £10m. “Cristiano really wanted to show Jorge how grateful he was for his guidance,” claimed a source. Wouldn’t a toaster or some…

France is world-class at a number of things – food, wine, cinema, stubby little beers, mid-budget family cars, adultery – but pop music isn’t usually one of them. Vanessa Paradis (a child hailing a cab) and Daft Punk (whose last album sounded like a pair of chipmunks mourning the loss of their nuts) are as good as it’s got so far. So when we found out that David Guetta, the Gallic electro-house cheesemonger, was producing a tune for Euro 2016, we were hardly thrilled, six UK No.1 singles be damned. However, This One’s For You is a bit different. The DJ is producing the song, but he’s also aiming to get one million fans on the recording. There isn’t a studio on Earth that can pack in that number of…

Dinosaurs are shrouded in mystery. Were they hot- or cold-blooded? What wiped them out? And, most importantly, which ones were fluffy? In our confusion, FFT somehow got dragged into a paleontological puzzle of our own. A few months ago [FFT 257], we featured Peter Lovell’s story as the then-teenage inventor of Arsenal’s mega mascot Gunnersaurus, for which he was later rewarded by having the 8ft furry monster show up at his wedding. But we’d only got half the story. G-Rex was in fact conceived in 1994 by two separate competition-entering Junior Gunners, 13-year-old Andrew Wainwright dreaming up a dinosaur mascot at the same time Peter did. Andrew’s sketched entry (above) was actually labelled as ‘Gunnerscorers’ as well as ‘Gunnersaurus’. Arsenal themselves expressed their surprise at the designs’ similarities, and decided…

You’re the chairman of a struggling football club and can’t find the man to coach your team to glory. What do you do? Hire yourself, of course. It might sound like the delirious vision of a deranged Football Manager fanatic, but that’s exactly what Droylsden head honcho Dave Pace did 20 years ago – and to great effect. “We were looking for a new manager and no one convinced,” Pace tells FFT of his bold decision back in 1996. “I said I’d take over for the interim and it’s gone from there.” Two miles away from Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium and their own proactive owners, Droylsden have occasionally bloomed under the benign dictatorship, winning promotion to the Conference for the first time in 2006-07 and earning several money-spinning FA Cup…

Q: In which year did Barnet first win promotion to the Football League? JA: I’m sure it was 1991. We finished just ahead of Colchester. GS: I think it was when Barry Fry was at the club. Was it 1998? 1-0 Fan Q: From which club did Bees sign goalsmith John Akinde in 2014? JA: If you asked me a question from 100 years ago, I’d know! It begins with an A and it wasn’t Aldershot... was it Alfreton? GS: It was Alfreton. 2-1 Fan Q: Which team did Barnet beat on the opening day of the promotion-winning season of 2014-15? JA: Chester – we beat them 5-0. GS: We were away and we hammered them! It was Chester. 3-2 Fan Q: Martin Allen is in his fourth spell as…

After reading your feature on South America’s goalscoring keepers [ FFT 259] I felt inspired to have a go myself. For a couple of weeks, I practised free-kicks after training. I have always been able to strike a football pretty well and even our centre-forward was impressed with some of them. Then came my chance in a game. We were 3-0 up and won a free-kick in the perfect position, just left of centre to the goal, about 20 yards out. I sprinted up and grabbed the ball. Our manager was furious but I was having none of it. I placed the ball, ran up, then tripped and toe-poked the ball towards the corner flag. It barely made it out of play, while I sprinted back, tail…

Can Romelu Lukaku become the best striker in world football? A calendar year ago, that might have seemed a ridiculous question. Having departed Stamford Bridge permanently in the summer of 2014 – with Jose Mourinho citing his £28 million transfer fee as a handy way to help balance the Financial Fair Play books – the big Belgian’s long-predicted march to the very zenith of the game appeared to be stuttering. Since his arrival in the Premier League, a carousel of Stamford Bridge bosses – Andre Villas-Boas, Roberto Di Matteo, Rafael Benitez and finally the Special One – had favoured other forwards, with Lukaku spending two seasons on loan, first at West Bromwich Albion, then at Everton. Despite some brilliance at The Hawthorns and Goodison Park, the six months that followed…

Lionel Messi may have netted more than 400 goals for Barcelona and won the Ballon d’Or on numerous occasions, but La Liga officials can’t be overly impressed. The Flea has never been named as the league’s player of the month since the award was introduced in 2013-14. Come back when you’ve scored some more goals, son. Neymar recently became the first Barcelona player to win the award and no Barça boss has ever won manager of the month, as emphasis is placed on giving credit to those at clubs who get less of the limelight. Nolito has won the player of the month award twice, and others have also pipped the stars of Real Madrid and Barcelona to the honour... Borja Baston Eibar The Atletico Madrid forward was dubbed the…

John Baggio Rakotonomenjamahary WHO HE IS… An unchantable Madagascan forward currently playing for Thai Division 1 outfit Sukhothai FC, and for the international team alongside the equally tongue-twisting Rhino Randriamanjaka and Francois Andrianomenjanahary. WHO HE SHOULD BE… With a surname like a Scatman John middle eight and an Italian legend slapped in the middle, we’re as confused as anyone. Can we call you Italy Angry after a couple of timid performances, Roma fans turned up at the club’s training ground with 50kg of carrots and a banner saying: ‘Eat up, rabbits’. As you do...…

Why all the fuss? You might assume Spakenburg, with a population of 20,000, is a one-team village. But one local fisherman thought differently, and formed IJsselmeervogels in 1932 in response to farmers founding SV Spakenburg a year earlier. Currently, the amateurs are doing battle in the third tier. Reasons for aggro The blues of SV Spakenburg were left green with envy in 1975 when IJsselmeervogels reached the Dutch Cup semis. Years later, continuing violence (including a bomb thrown at a linesman in 1987) meant the pair had to be put in separate divisions from 1995 to 2002. Maddest moment After Spakenburg made a 30ft inflatable Viking their mascot in 2010, their rivals let a pig loose on their pitch to mock the Blues’ farming origins. SV’s response in the next…

Super Sunday ? That’s nothing… The 6,162 matches in this season’s tournament mean there were will be at least 554,580 minutes of football played, and that doesn’t include extra time. If every match was played back to back it would provide 385 days of wall-to-wall football. Sky Sports would love it. Gaga’s biggest fans The brilliantly named US Pop Commentry reached the second round before returning to extolling the virtues of Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift. Rob Green can’t help you now It’s only six years since Bob Bradley was guiding the USA to the last 16 of the World Cup in South Africa, drawing with England en route. His first taste of the Coupe de France didn’t go quite as well, as his Ligue 2 side Le Havre…

STICK TO THE ROBOT Professional soccer players top the list of athletes most likely to suffer injury while celebrating, according to a 20-year study by US researchers. Footballers recorded a third of all celebration injuries, with one resulting in a cervical spinal cord injury and subsequent death. BOOZY BALLERS Enjoying a post-match pint isn’t just a social choice – researchers now believe sportsmen are hard-wired to enjoy a drink. Reward centres in the brain make players more likely to have a tipple after exercise as both give off a similar ‘high’. IMPACT PLAYER Ongoing US research into the impact that heading a ball has on the body suggests that a player who gets their nut on a goalkeeper’s punt upfield is experiencing forces similar to that of American football players…

“Balance is one of the key elements of conditioning that is underestimated and misunderstood. If a player wants to develop this part of their game, they need to understand the mechanics. Firstly, the body’s building blocks – bones, muscles, tendons and ligaments – are stacked upon each other, and the better they link, the more stable and mobile you’ll be. One of the elements that forges this equilibrium is core stability. The core is the lower torso region including the abdominals, obliques and lower back. Core strength helps facilitate almost every football action, but it isn’t enough on its own – you also need single-leg strength. Combine these two elements and you will be able to perform specific actions, such as balancing on one foot, receiving the ball from a…

“I played in the Champions League final two months after surgery. Doctors did not think it was possible” FACT FILE Full name Eric Sylvain Abidal Date of birth 11/09/1979 Height 6ft 1in Position Defender Place of birth Lyon, France Clubs 2000-02 Monaco 26 games (0 goals); 2002-04 Lille 68 (1); 2004-07 Lyon 107 (2); 2007-13 Barcelona 193 (2); 2013-14 Monaco 29 (0); 2014 Olympiacos 15 (0) International 2004-13 France 67 (0) Honours Ligue 1 2004-05, 2005-06, 2006-07; La Liga 2008-09, 2009-10, 2010-11, 2012-13; Copa del Rey 2008-09, 2011-12; Supercopa de Espana 2009, 2010, 2011; UEFA Champions League 2008-09, 2010-11; UEFA Super Cup 2009, 2011; FIFA Club World Cup 2009, 2011; Superleague Greece 2015; Greek Cup 2015 Barcelona has figured prominently in the life of Eric Abidal. It is the city…

50% Pay cut in 2008 so he could play a final year In the mid-’90s Noel Gallagher offered him £8m a year to sign for Manchester City CHELSEA Gianluca Vialli tried to persuade his fellow Italian to join him in London in 1996 PRIMAL SCREAM His 16 choices for a 2007 iTunes playlist included Country Girl THINGS PAOLO DOESN’T REGRET IGNORING Alex Ferguson’s phone calls 10% Silvio Berlusconi’s party invites 90% 74 Times he captained Italy, in 126 games CHIANTI His favourite film is The Silence of the Lambs 25 Years he represented Milan, playing 902 senior games JUVENTUS The team Paolo supported as a kid 8 Champions League finals he played in, a joint-high with Real Madrid’s Paco Gento 412 Matches his father Cesare played for Milan DENIMS He…

1 Commitment Didier Drogba (H&S, £20) The totemic Ivorian has had quite the career, from Abidjan’s backstreets to Champions League shootout glory in 2012 with Chelsea. But it’s Drogba’s early days that interest most, especially the back-and-forth between Africa and France with professional footballer uncle Michel Goba and ensuing homesickness. Best quote “I just felt the script had been written in Munich. It was mine.” 2 The Pictures Are Better on the Radio Adam Carroll-Smith (Pitch, £12.99) Part personal ode to the wireless, part oral history of recent sporting theatre, here Carroll-Smith reminisces with great affection. Listening to England against Germany at Glastonbury in 2010 – inside a boiling, cramped tent – is a highlight. Best quote “It was 2002 and no one had internet access. Cut off from civilisation,…

AWAY 1992-93 This fashion disaster may be the reason Leeds United slipped from defending champions to relegation fodder. There are comparisons with a poorly composed Christmas jumper. Apparently players were too embarrassed to wear it on away days. Well, you would be, wouldn’t you? STYLE RATING AWAY 2015-16 Voted the second-best kit in the Football League this season – only behind our own home kit – the new Kappa strip is alluring. Designed without a sponsor, it’s billed as a traditional shirt harking back to football’s golden age. Now if we could just do something about the owner… STYLE RATING…

“My son woke me up at 5am this morning, jumping round and saying: ‘is it time to go to Wembley yet?’” laughs Negus Morgan, the father of Birmingham-based Phoenix United player Menilek. “But you can’t blame him for being excited. This is like a mini FA Cup Final.” Negus isn’t wrong. On a chilly November morning, we’re at the Powerleague five-a-side pitches at Wembley for the second annual Indesit National Mini Soccer Cup. Overlooked by the glorious arch and Bobby Moore’s statue, teams from all over the UK are fighting it out to be crowned the best U8 and U10 teams in the country. Getting this far is a prize in itself: 140 teams started the competition, being whittled down to ten U8 and twelve U10 sides respectively. The teams…

“Michael Dawson would be first to get eaten. He’s a bit dopey and turns too slowly” Hi Jermaine. Wikipedia claims your dad “was born with the surname Genas, but changed it by deed poll as he wanted the initials D.J.” Is this awesome tale true? The only false part is the deed poll bit. He just changed the name himself. At school, he thought it would be cool to be ‘DJ’. It stuck, and when he had me, I became a Jenas. But then he moved to America, remarried, and they weren’t having any nonsense – they made him go back to Genas. So I’m the only Jenas with a ‘J’ in my family. Dads are mad. Ours unplugs his Freeview box when he goes out because he’s worried about…

PIERLUIGI COLLINA With a stern stare distilled from a thousand Victorian patriarchs, Collina was a centre-circle authority figure with enough gravitas to make the hardest midfield bully cry and accidentally call him ‘daddy’. His weapons-grade levels of fair play make him the perfect candidate to detoxify FIFA’s den of iniquity. Can we send him to the Middle East, too? RESULT ELECT HIM NOW! RICHARD KEYS The Qatari apologist The human oil slick oozes out of his big-time Doha nest and hops aboard his blog-powered bantzmobile, live-tweeting his brilliance in a dated font before being hunted down and swallowed whole by his own offspring, ending his #KeysToTheKingdom candidature. RESULT SENT TO COVENTRY MICK MCCARTHY The DIY approach Arriving at FIFA HQ atop a 46-tonne JCB digger with a huge wrecking ball,…

I’m proud to say I knew the answer to the ‘Life is like a box of chocolates’ Spine Line [ FFT 259] with barely a second’s thought. It’s nothing to do with Forrest Gump – La Bombonera, the stadium of your cover-story club Boca Juniors, translates as ‘The Chocolate Box’ in English. I paid £4.10 to watch Boca back in May 2008, which is much cheaper (and more interesting) than eighth-tier English football. A week earlier, I’d seen some 19-year-old called Alexis Sanchez partner a 22-year-old Radamel Falcao upfront for River Plate. Whatever became of those two, eh? Jack Taylor, via email Sounds like quite a trip, Jack. Enjoy your Trusox.…

Marouane Fellaini Everton’s previous bulky Belgian box-office buy did the business. The midfielder-slash-forward-slash-unorthodox-No.10 arrived from Standard Liege as a 20-year-old in 2008, costing £15m, and his physicality worked perfectly: he could bully defences but had a deft touch. VERDICT HIT Yakubu The Yak arrived for £11.25m in 2007, after goals aplenty at Middlesbrough and Pompey. His first season was sensational: wearing the No.22 – his strike target for the season – he fell one short, bagging 21. But then injuries hit and he was loaned to Leicester, before being flogged to Blackburn in 2011. VERDICT MIXED BAG Andy Johnson An in-your-face dynamo, Johnson arrived for £8.6m in 2006 after four great years with Crystal Palace had helped him win a handful of England caps. He got 22 goals in 74…

The key to recovery after 90 gruelling minutes? Returning your body to its pre-workout temperature, which is why the dreaded ice bath is a necessary evil in today’s game. Spending five minutes submerged at 8°C is the post-match norm for an elite footballer these days, but not every athlete regulates his or her internal boiler the same way. To help sports scientists design recovery plans for players, French boffins BodyCap have developed an ingestible pill that monitors and records an athlete’s core body temperature for up to 16 hours, wirelessly transmitting the results to a monitor every 30 seconds. About twice the size of a Tic Tac, the e-Celsius Performance has been used already by Ligue 1 side Nantes. “The data will help introduce recovery programmes for players based on…

“A mate of mine has a good chance of making it as a professional, but he’s getting distracted and throwing it away. What words of wisdom would you give him?” Will Manning, via Twitter “I would urge your friend to think about what he’s trying to achieve in life and apply himself to it. I’m from a council estate background, and I’ve seen hundreds of people who could have been good footballers, but they’ll tell you ‘If I hadn’t done this’ then they could have made it. Does your friend want to be that person? Or does he want to knuckle down and do what needs to be done? He can keep street cred by working hard, believe it or not. He has to focus on what is good for…

Session one (Monday) Bodyweight squats, pulse squats, squat jumps Reps 10 of each Sets 5 Session two (Wednesday) Mountain climbers, leg lunges Reps 30 mountain climbers, 20 leg lunges Sets 5 Session three (Friday) Press-ups, mountain climbers, sidesteps Preparation Position four cones or shirts in a line, spaced a metre apart Reps 5 press-ups, 10 mountain climbers, 10 sidesteps (to the last cone and back is one single repetition) Sets 5 Expert tip: “To build fitness and burn calories, work at 100 per cent,” says Ifil. “Do as many sets as you can without resting, building up to five – or more – over time, to a maximum of 20 minutes.” For more, visit iprovefit.co.uk…

GK PETER SCHMEICHEL OK, so I chipped him, but there’s no doubt he was the best goalkeeper in the Premier League throughout my time in England. In fact, he’s probably one of the greatest keepers in history. RB LEE DIXON Part of perhaps the best backline the Premier League has ever seen, alongside Nigel Winterburn, Tony Adams and Martin Keown. He was good going forward and solid defensively. CB TONY ADAMS What a leader! He was the key man for Arsenal and led by example. He was everything you wanted from a defender: good in the tackle, great in the air and never afraid to take responsibility. CB GARY PALLISTER Like Adams he perhaps wasn’t the best technically, but he was really important for Manchester United. There were a lot…

I knew I’d made it as a player when Inter Milan bought me in 2000. For a club of that size to come to Romania for some cocky kid was amazing. I was in great form for Dinamo Bucharest, but when I saw players like Roberto Baggio and Laurent Blanc playing for Inter, I knew that I couldn’t say no. My hero growing up was Gheorghe Hagi. He was everywhere, and an inspiration to everyone. It was an honour to match his goalscoring record for Romania, and I still dream of breaking it [despite having been banned by the FA since 2013]. He and I actually became great friends – so much so, he is Godfather to my son! I was happiest at Fiorentina. Everything just came together. I hadn’t…

1 Kevin De Bruyne was eligible to play international football for Burundi. True or false? 2 Which League Two club were originally nicknamed the Hillmen in the 1880s? 3 Mark Robins was the first English player to achieve what goalscoring feat in the Premier League? 4 Sevilla won a record fourth UEFA Cup or Europa League in May 2015. Name the three teams that have won it three times. 5 Which 2015-16 League One club have the smallest ground? 6 Against which club did Jamie Vardy (above) begin his record-breaking goalscoring run this season? 7 Juventus have been European Cup or Champions League runners-up on six occasions (as well as winning the trophy twice). Name the six teams who beat them in those finals. 8 Which player has scored the…

WE WANT TAT! A few weeks ago, I went to the biggest game in club football: El Clasico. It was an amazing experience, but one thing I noticed, having read your recent feature on classic programmes [FFT 258], was that the Spanish don’t have these sort of mementos, match pins or good-quality scarves. It was exactly the same when I went to Milan’s Coppa Italia game in August against lower-league side Perugia, but that time there were no scarves at all! Back in Blighty, meanwhile, programmes, match pins, scarves and more are fundamental all the way down the football pyramid. They are things you can hold on to for a lifetime; a way to remember the day. It’s a shame our European cousins don’t have the same affinity for such…

THE REAL PLAYERS Christian Fuchs @FuchsOfficial One question to you: Why is there a #tank driving on the street? Seriously that’s live guys!!!! #NoFuchsGiven Wilfried Zaha @wilfriedzaha Great weekend especially being batman for the day back to work now FOURFOURTWO IS RUBBISH Daniel Boden @DBoden512 Are @FourFourTwo waiting for Phil Coutinho to go to Barcelona before he slides right in to the Top20 on the #FFT100? Paul Turner @PaulRT92 I’ve given myself time to calm down but I’m still fuming. Lloris not in the top 100??? Even Salah is 100th. Lloris > Cech Ben Wills @_BenWills Don’t envy anyone involved in the #FFT100 business. Don’t know how you can rank defenders over strikers etc and no one ever agrees anyway. FOURFOURTWO IS GREAT Kevin Bridges @kevinbridges86…

Last season you scored 13 goals and bagged 13 assists. How have you approached this season? With a lot of happiness and desire to do even better. We’ve been really competitive this season, even being top of the league at one point. What do you think has been the difference this campaign? We’ve got more fight upfront with the arrivals of Iago Aspas and John Guidetti from Liverpool and Manchester City. We’ve had a good first half of the season. We’ve been very confident and have believed totally in what we’re doing. Do you think you will make Spain’s squad for Euro 2016? You never know, but why not? I’m going to try. You need to have some dreams in life. If I keep playing well and get the call…

Before FFT can finish asking Xavi about his favourite ever goal, the Barcelona legend interrupts with a misty-eyed “oh yeah”. In 767 official matches for Los Cules, the pass master managed 85, but none mean quite as much as his deft lob in the April 2004 Clasico against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu. “Above all else, I was thinking I was offside because Ronaldinho saw me late!” Xavi laughs. “I was looking around straight away, expecting to see the flag, but I was in line with Raul Bravo so it was fine.” The Brazilian’s scooped pass over Los Blancos’ defence was characteristically impudent, as Xavi ran towards the left edge of the six-yard box with four minutes remaining and the score at 1-1. He continues: “While…

If you think the FA Cup is the biggest domestic tournament on the planet, think again. In truth, it’s not even close. A cup that starts in August and involves 736 clubs sounds impressive, but in France they are Gallicly shrugging their shoulders and wondering what all the fuss is about. If it’s convoluted cup chaos you want, then the Coupe de France is the competition for you. Last season’s tournament, won by Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s Paris Saint-Germain, was still at the quarter-final stage when the 2015-16 competition commenced in March, with the first handful of the cup’s 6,163 clubs embarking on long the road to Saint-Denis. As well as Le Dog and Duck, and vast swathes of amateur teams, clubs based in France’s overseas territories – or DOM-TOM (departements et…

PRO TIPS Troy Deeney Record-breaking Watford captain The Premier League hitman offers his advice on how to fulfil your potential and make the grade as a professional. INJURIES Bobby Bacic Millwall physiotherapist The Lions’ injury expert outlines the best ways to play through the winter onslaught and emerge a winner. MASTERCLASS Thiago Alcantara Bayern Munich pass master Find out how to take your street skills onto the football pitch, with some top tips from the Spanish midfield man. NUTRITION Drew Price Nutritionist who has worked with Chelsea Eat more yet shrink your waist, thanks to these meal suggestions from the best-selling food guru and author.…

1 Channel your inner child Jumpers down, footballs out “I always played football on the street as a kid, in any space that we could get our hands on. We used to set up a goal and off we’d go, with everyone joining in. These were my best moments as a kid and I try to take that enjoyment into my game now as a professional. You get a lot of touches of the ball on the street and develop skills that you take into adult football. There’s no better education for a player – even adults.” 2 Enjoy yourself Play for fun and learn as you go “Like anything, what you do as a youngster, especially for fun, impacts on your later career. The more you play just for…

GOAL SCORING Allan Russell Follow @superiorstriker 84,200 followers Allan Russell has gone on to develop “the world’s number one training programme to maximise the performance of strikers and attacking players”, tailoring drills to each individual’s needs. Who they train... Top training tip “Train to aim for complete trust in your technique. This is achieved through intelligent, disciplined repetition. Visualise the intelligence of the movement off the ball – and the perfect technical execution on it” PSYCHOLOGY Tom Bates Follow @TomBatesCoachng 4,800 followers A performance psychologist, UEFA ‘A’ Licence coach and highly respected author, Bates has worked with several footballers and Team GB athletes to get them thinking in a winning way. Who they train... Top training tip “Build a picture of what you want to achieve in your mind’s eye.…