Football

Thirty years ago, one writer captured the essence of the game like no one before him

The World Cup has begun. How can we tell? Snow has fallen in Berlin and pro-Alternative für Deutschland groups have been filling up with racist comments

Son Heung-min is the perfect case study for a game pushing players past acceptable limits by saturated schedules

Holding the tournament in the red planet’s temperate deserts would be more hospitable and less oppressive for fans

The World Cup should spark anticipation and joy. But, says one reporter who has covered 12 tournaments, the prospect of Qatar brings only corruption and misery

Another World Cup means another official song of the tournament

Football can often serve as an entry point to learning more about the history, politics and architecture of a country, city or village

If a butterfly flaps its wings in Sumatra, who wins the World Cup in Qatar? Examining chaos theory in football

Gerard Piqué has played his final match for Barcelona. He may not have been blessed with athletic pace but he always played instinctively

Ridiculed by Jack Grealish, "playing like Miguel Ángel Almirón" suddenly looks like something to be envied

Mikel Arteta and Xabi Alonso are on a mission to manage at the top

Kylian Mbappé is becoming such a prima donna that he risks destabilising the clubs that pay his fortune

The tragedy is Indonesia is not remotely incomprehensible. They recur with dreadful regularity

This weekend's Manchester derby is a reminder how, six years after his death, the Dutch master's vision still dominates the game

Another transfer window shows a sport increasingly at wild odds with the lives of those who follow it

Not for the first time, France's national football squad is going into a major tournament facing internal strife

After so many false starts, will this be the season Paris Saint-Germain finally attain their Holy Grail of the Champions League?

The Dutchman is just the latest Manchester United manager to struggle to shake off the ghost of Alex Ferguson

Barcelona, heavily in debt, have managed to go on a summer spending spree

Sarina Wiegman, the mastermind of that Euros win, is steeped in a rich coaching tradition

We should have just enjoyed a World Cup, but money means this year's will take place in winter

When the Women’s Euros begin this week, some will carp about a quality gap with the men’s game. The rest of us will just enjoy the skill and the spectacle

The fictionalised story of a real Swedish football prodigy’s struggles tells ugly truths about the beautiful game

The 1954 West Germany captain will always be remembered for the Miracle of Bern but an earlier game was far more important

The Portuguese capital is fast becoming the go-to place for elite football clubs looking for the world's best young talent

Ukraine's captain, Andriy Yarmolenko, epitomises his team's cause but a play-off against Wales had a sting in the tale

Zlatan Ibrahimović could be forced to draw the curtain on an epic career. Meanwhile Italian football more generally is finding its place in Europe's ecosystem

Liverpool and Real Madrid are the last two teams standing in Europe’s – the world’s – most prized club competition, the Uefa Champions League

Chelsea's attempt to change their luck by wearing yellow in the FA Cup final didn't pay off

The Europa League final represents the night of a lifetime for Eintracht Frankfurt and Rangers fans, but the cost of getting there will be a challenge

He was born in Malta, played in the first-ever final, rose to become a British army Colonel and ended his days as an Irish republican

In agreeing new contracts at Liverpool and Manchester City, Jürgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola are putting down roots that are rare in modern life, let alone in the ephemeral world of football