Football

Long deemed "unmanageable", Mario Balotelli might be the man to rescue Italy's World Cup qualification

ROB HUGHES on the potential return of Christian Eriksen, eight months after his heart stopped suddenly on the pitch

Lawyer Joe Tacopina has represented the great and the not-so-good. But what’s he doing as the owner of a club in Italy’s Serie B? By RYAN HERMAN

Two of the leading lights behind the failed European Super League bid have since gone in very different directions

Freiburg's Christian Streich is similar to a managerial legend in more ways than one

Football's authorities need to pay more attention to players' physical and mental burnout, says ROB HUGHES

Diego Maradona’s move to Sevilla in 1992 was supposed to be a rebirth. Instead, it resulted in more controversy and the start of a decline that ended with his death a year ago this month.

You could now almost fill a team with the number of players and pundits ready to take a stand against this abysmal government.

Like Emma Raducanu, Jamal Musiala has become the new Wunderkind of his sport, writes ROB HUGHES

Arsène Wenger changed the Premier League forever. Now, he tells ALASTAIR CAMPBELL he’s creating radical ideas about how the sport itself should evolve while sharing a few thoughts on the present day

Italy is not only in it's financial conundrum. The summer transfer window shows the unequal distribution of wealth in global football, writes ROB HUGHES

If Bryan Robson is right, the value of Cristiano Ronaldo’s return to Manchester United could extend beyond the pitch, writes Rob Hughes

Gerd Müller, who died earlier this month, was not only a Bayern Munich icon but a man who gave Germans their pride again. So when he fell, club and country helped pick him up By ROB HUGHES

Giuseppe Meazza was the greatest footballer Milan, and arguably Italy, ever produced, meaning many turned a blind eye to his excessive habits

A tale of two Jurgens and the power of German coaching

As he approaches 70, the veteran coach is ready to make the orange brilliant again

Rob Hughes asks how long Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi will stay at the top before they finally retire from football Some day, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo will cease being the most extraordinarily gifted among more than 250 million men and women playing football around the world. Their body clocks are ticking. They face […]

MITCH BENN offers four good reasons to feel proud of England’s footballers and to look forward to the World Cup despite their Euro final defeat to Italy By the time you read this, several days will have passed since England’s defeat (on penalties, inevitably) at the Euros final on Sunday.  How are things going, up there […]

ROB HUGHES examines England’s near-miss at the Euros and finds that for all their advantages, a change of mindset is necessary at the top So near, and yet so far. England released itself from the European Union, but remain far from the world-beaters some fans imagine it is their birthright to be as the motherland of […]

Ireland’s former ambassador to the UK BOBBY McDONAGH says political tensions mean many of his compatriots have found it much tougher to lend their support this time When the president of Ireland, Michael D Higgins, made a state visit to the UK in 2014, he expressed the hope that the England football team would “go all the […]

England's footballers have brought joy to the nation. Nonetheless, ROB HUGHES explains how our opponents still have much to teach us

Scotland fan ALASTAIR CAMPBELL on his texts with Gareth Southgate, meeting Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling – and why he’s found England so easy to like this summer I wouldn’t overstate my England football credentials, but I have seen Harry Kane naked but for his underpants (more later); and Raheem Sterling has given me a guided tour of […]

Sometimes brooding, sometimes brilliant, sometimes bludgeoning, Roberto Mancini’s remoulded Italy face a Euros date with destiny against Belgium European football is never complete without Italy. Sometimes brooding, sometimes brilliant, sometimes bludgeoning, Roberto Mancini’s remoulded Azzurri will on Friday aim to make Roberto Martinez’s Golden Generation of Belgium suffer and perhaps be suffocated in Munich. The […]

John Blankenstein was back-page news when he took charge of England’s first match at the 1992 Euros – but it wasn’t his refereeing the newspapers were interested in… When England faced Denmark in their opening match of the 1992 Euros, many tabloid-reading fans knew as much about the referee as they did about the Danes. […]

The medical protocols that helped saved Denmark’s Christian Eriksen are partly down to the work of one man, football doctor Michel d’Hooghe It was a Swedish writer, Erik Niva, who observed last Saturday: “Denmark lost but life won”. He reported on the collapse, the apparent death, and then the resuscitation that saved the Danish playmaker […]

Victory for France in the Euros would give Chelsea’s N’Golo Kante the kind of trophy cabinet that even Messi and Ronaldo would envy Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are on opposite sides of the world preparing to lead their countries in tournaments that represent their last chance to win major honours. No-one of sound mind […]

David Baddiel has accused Boris Johnson of playing a “culture war game” as the comedian urged football fans to support the England team in taking the knee during the Euros. Downing Street has not backed the players’ decision to adopt the anti-racism gesture, instead only issuing a statement urging fans to be “respectful” and saying […]

Nothing will better define this European club football season than Diego Simeone’s Atlético Madrid upsetting Real and Barcelona to win La Liga When we come to analyse the European club season that ended with Chelsea’s deserved victory in the Champions League final, nothing will better define the fight against adversity – the empty stadiums, the pandemic, […]

As club football’s strangest season comes to an end, photographer Stuart Roy Clarke shares images of fans taken during the pandemic I started The Homes of Football photography series more than 30 years ago as a love letter to this country, yet I knew that the Germans and Scandinavians and latterly the Americans revere our […]

This all-English Champions League final between Man City and Chelsea is no guarantee of success at the Euros Beware the siren song telling us England will rule the playing fields of Europe in the coming weeks.  It is true that the Premier League is where the money is, and that two English clubs contest the […]

Boris Johnson thought the European Super League was a “great idea” and promised No. 10 would not intervene to stop English clubs joining, a Downing Street insider has claimed. In a Mirror exclusive, those sources claimed the prime minister’s chief of staff, Dan Rosenfield, told him about the proposal after a No 10 meeting with Manchester United’s […]

The FA Cup holds an almost mystical appeal in south-east Asia. Now a Thai family have rewritten its history, as well as the destiny of unfashionable Leicester City If you ever spent time in South East Asia in the month of May you would know that there was one match that had almost mystical appeal. […]