Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2025 i FourFourTwo UK

X @JamesAndrew_ E james.andrew@futurenet.com First of all, may I wish you a very Happy New Year, I hope you had a wonderful festive period and got stuck into plenty of football. There are many things to look forward to in 2025 – the Lionesses’ defence of their Euros crown in Switzerland, the Club World Cup in America this summer and an exciting title race. Also, it’s the latest new dawn at Manchester United, the sixth since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013. Will Ruben Amorim be the answer and will he be able to turn around the fortunes of the Red Devils, after David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Erik ten Hag all tried and failed? Time will tell, but in this issue we chart…

Here at FourFourTwo, we marked our 30th anniversary with a special issue recently – then followed it by holding a birthday bash in London. A selection of readers, VIP guests, musicians and ex-footballers gathered inside the impressive Classic Football Shirts store at Aldgate East, the walls adorned with pretty much every famous strip from yesteryear that you care to imagine. For one night only, they were accompanied by TV screens showing classic magazine covers, too. FFT’s Adam Clery kicked things off with a quiz to bag a Manchester City top, signed by Ballon d’Or winner Rodri when we chatted to him in Madrid, plus a limited edition FFT 30th anniversary shirt produced by Admiral for the milestone. Which non-league club were once the first in Britain to have a sponsor…

JAMES ANDREW EDITOR @JamesAndrew_ NO The answer is clearly ‘no’ but nevertheless, I will have to write more than that to fill the space on this page. I was born in Hammersmith and grew up in west London – with no family ties pulling me towards one team or another, the choice of who to support boiled down to pure geography. There are a number of possibles to pick in the west London area, as Fulham, Chelsea, QPR and Brentford are all within very close proximity. In the early ’90s, QPR were the best of the four and for one season even the best team in London – then came Chelsea with Fulham and Brentford battling it out down in the bottom tier of the Football League. For various reasons…

By the time three police officers tried to arrest the giant rooster, Copa Libertadores chaos had already taken over Buenos Aires. Wearing a black-and-white jersey, the man inside the two-metre rooster costume – one of Atletico Mineiro’s official mascots, O Galo Doido – had become the centre of attention, adjudged as being the ringleader of a particularly raucous gaggle of fans, 24 hours before kick-off in the Argentine capital. While supporters continued to jeer the three officers, the rooster finally strutted off with nothing more than a warning for unruly behaviour. It’s possibly the first time that someone disguised as a chicken has been able to roam freely in the streets of La Boca without being attacked by Boca Juniors supporters – they have long insulted supporters of arch-rivals River…

Earlier this season, Erling Haaland reached another milestone: his 100th goal for Manchester City, little more than two years after joining. While playing for what has oft-been England’s most dominant footballing force has been a major contributing factor to his personal achievements since he arrived at the Etihad in 2022, that does his ability to sniff out a goal a serious disservice. Haaland is a one-off, an anomaly, an all-consuming football oddity that seems totally at odds with what everyone takes for granted in the modern game. Not a relentless presser, not a false nine, but an all-or-nothing battering ram centre-forward, who’s for the most part thrived under the manager who apparantly made the concept obsolete, Pep Guardiola. Smashing 100 goals in 105 matches didn’t happen just because Manchester City’s…

The second half of the season is when titles are decided, cups are raised aloft and fans make memories to last a lifetime. But not every competition guarantees bums on seats. The newly-reintroduced National League Cup, contested between non-league outfits and top professional U21 sides, will enter its knockout stage on a tide of controversy and disinterest. “The competition has really split our fanbase,” says Neil Maskell, club secretary at Maidenhead United, one of 32 teams to enter from the start. “We’ve seen very low attendances, but many of those who have come have appeared to enjoy themselves at some entertaining matches.” The tournament – first introduced as the Bob Lord Challenge Cup in 1979 and most recently contested as the Setanta Shield in 2009, but only including non-league clubs…

Walk into London City Lionesses’ training ground and it’s still possible to make out a former dancefloor in the centre of the players’ lounge. But while plans to transform the facility into the beating heart of an elite club might soon see that disappear, realising their dreams would surely get more people up on their feet. The second-tier outfit buck the trend as one of only two independent clubs in England’s top two divisions, and having been taken over by US entrepreneur Michele Kang 12 months ago, they have big ambitions for the future. Kang, the owner of eight-time Champions League winners Lyon Féminin and American side Washington Spirit, hasn’t been shy in announcing her plans to establish the Lionesses as a major force, thanks to an innovative approach that…

The ex-Newcastle defender tells FFT about the Entertainers era and King Kev’s meltdown – plus seeing Roy Keane’s horror tackle on Haaland Snr Is it true you started out as a striker? I actually joined Newcastle as an attacking midfielder. I’d scored a lot of goals as a schoolboy and I often played upfront with Lee Clark in the Newcastle reserves. I even debuted as a striker as a 17-year-old against Manchester United. When Ossie Ardiles came in as first-team manager, in 1991, he got rid of quite a few older players and gave the kids more opportunities. He played me at centre-back in training because I was comfortable on the ball, and I enjoyed it. It all went from there. Kevin Keegan replaced Ossie and kept me at the…

TIRING WORK CARY, UNITED STATES There are no easy games in NCAA Division One, so the players of the North Carolina Tar Heels – former college team of Lucy Bronze and Alessia Russio – needed a lie down after beating the Wake Forest Demon Deacons to seal the title. And breathe… Pic Grant Halverson/NCAA Photos/Getty Images “WHO LET MARIO BALOTELLI IN?” COLOGNE, GERMANY FC Köln put themselves in contention for a swift return to the Bundesliga thanks to a good run before Christmas under former Barnsley boss Gerhard Struber, although fireworks are a bit premature – don’t celebrate yet, guys… Pic Andreas Dick/imageBROKER/Shutterstock TWINKLE… KNEES?! BERGAMO, ITALY Vinicius Junior was a star for Real Madrid as he finished second in last year’s Ballon d’Or vote, then won FIFA’s best men’s player prize.…

Retired footballers’ pastimes are pretty varied these days – playing golf, podcasting, shilling for cryptocurrency schemes – but few have taken the path trodden by Eric Di Meco. Since 2019, the former Marseille and France left-back has been playing bass guitar in an Oasis tribute band. “I’ve always been interested in music,” Di Meco tells FourFourTwo. “I took my bass with me to Euro 96 and would often be sat in my room wearing headphones, playing Rage Against the Machine and Red Hot Chili Peppers. “About five years ago, I put a band together with some mates but we didn’t have a singer. We were playing AC/DC, Marilyn Manson and angry stuff like that. Then this guy called Axel got in touch – he’d grown up listening to Oasis because…

01 David Beckham (right) was playing under which boss when he retired at Paris Saint-Germain in 2013? 02 In November, which man became the third to rack up 100 Champions League goals, following Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo? 03 Name the only club to have beaten both Real Madrid and Barcelona in all competitions in 2024. 04 Which Italian outfit are known as Il Biscione (‘The big grass snake’)? 05 Which side defeated New York Red Bulls 2-1 in December to clinch the MLS Cup for a sixth time? 06 Who were the last nation to reach the World Cup final while hosting the tournament? 07 In 2012, Blackburn fans released what kind of animal onto the pitch in a protest against their owners? 08 In what year were Serie…

One simple sentence gave the game away, and has become more telling with every passing year. Sir Alex Ferguson knew. “Your job now is to stand by our new manager,” the Scot told the Old Trafford crowd after his final home game as Manchester United boss, in May 2013. That he felt it necessary to utter those words made it clear that Ferguson was concerned about whether United would remain united without him. Concerned, too, about whether United would remain United without him. In the near-12 years since, the glory days have grown ever more distant. Stepping into Ferguson’s shoes always felt like it might be the impossible job, and so it proved for his first five permanent successors. David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and…

30 GOLEO VI The people behind The Muppets devised the official 2006 World Cup mascot – an anthropomorphic lion, accompanied by sidekick Pille… a talking football. CONTROVERSY The non-native lion didn’t go down well with the German public. “We have eagles and gnomes and garden dwarves, but not lions,” huffed design expert Erik Spiekermann. “That’s English or French, or whatever.” 29 BILLY THE BADGER Fulham share their colours with the wood-dwelling mustelid, who replaced knight Sir Craven of Cottage and giant computer Terry Bytes in 2006. Likes to dress up as Dracula for Halloween. WEIRDEST MOMENT A February 2008 red card from Chris Foy after a half-time breakdancing routine against Aston Villa delayed the restart. Short-sighted and greying, Foy is now a retired referee. 28 HAMMERHEAD Noted illustrator David Squires…

The odds: 5,000/1. If you’re not the gambling sort, that means if you were to bet £1 on Leicester City to win the Premier League… you’d lose £1. The odds reflected the sheer improbability of the Foxes upsetting an established order of megaclubs – as it turned out, though, you’d have popped back into the bookies the following year to pocket £5,000… plus your £1 bet back. It won’t happen again. Claudio Ranieri’s ridiculous feat required the stars to align on a scale never seen before – Liverpool, Chelsea and both Manchester giants underperformed to such an extent that all four outfits had dispensed with their coach by the season’s end, while Arsenal were hanging on to an Arsene Wenger era that was rapidly going sour. Only 72 points were…

XI BEST: Emi Martinez [below right], Graeme Murty, Ibrahima Sonko, Ivar Ingimarsson, Nicky Shorey, Steve Sidwell, Mikele Leigertwood, Glen Little, Michael Olise, Jobi McAnuff, Kevin Doyle. WORST: Joao Virginia, Reece Oxford, Zat Knight, Bongani Khumalo, Marcus Williams, Adrian Popa, Jordon Mutch, David Meyler, Brandon Barker, Royston Drenthe, Marc McNulty. MOMENT B: Garath McCleary equalising against Arsenal in the 2015 FA Cup semi-final. Pandemonium in the Reading half of Wembley – we were so close to the final. W: Fans being driven to such despair in January 2024 that a forced match abandonment against Port Vale was required to seize the world’s attention. PLAYER B: Michael Olise, an absolute wonderkid we were lucky to have at all. I’m so proud he’s tearing it up for Bayern Munich on the highest stage.…

Robert Lewandowski could, the story goes, have been playing for Blackburn Rovers in 2010 if an Icelandic ash cloud hadn’t prevented him from flying to England to meet Sam Allardyce. Months later, Venky’s bought Blackburn, Allardyce was sacked and the Polish striker might have found himself in a relegation battle under Steve Kean. Instead, having joined Borussia Dortmund, he helped Jurgen Klopp’s exciting side to win the Bundesliga in each of his first two seasons playing there, and the rest is history. Thanks a lot, Eyjafjallajökull. Now, Lewandowski has 12 league titles in three different countries and more than 700 career goals, giving him a collection of Golden Shoes and Golden Boots that would make Imelda Marcos feel inadequate. He has twice been named FIFA’s best player in the world,…

SWANSEA 0 LIVERPOOL 4 FA Cup Third Round, 1982 “I’d only recently taken over from Ray Clemence, but things hadn’t been going very well. On Boxing Day, we lost 3-1 at home to Manchester City and Bob Paisley was adamant for change. He soon summoned me into his office and said, ‘If you don’t [improve], you’ll find yourself back at Crewe’. Before we played Swansea in the cup, Bob walks into the dressing room and says, ‘I’m making a change’. My heart sank. Then he looked at Phil Thompson and said, ‘Is the captaincy too much for you? It’s going to Graeme Souness, now get up and play’. I had a great game that day and we did a fantastic job from then.” LIVERPOOL 1 ROMA 1 European Cup Final,…

The FA Cup third round never loses its magic. Each season, the draw for this stage of the competition is met with much excitement and anticipation, as the 20 Premier League sides and 24 Championship teams enter the fray. This year, it’s thrown up exactly what we want from an FA Cup weekend: local derbies across divisions, blockbuster ties and the ones we relish most – classic David versus Goliath match-ups. Two non-league teams are still punching above their weight, and both meet mammoth opposition. Dagenham & Redbridge face second-tier Millwall at The Den, and with less than 15 miles between the two stadiums, it’s set to be lively. Elsewhere, fellow National League club Tamworth welcome Spurs to The Lamb in one of the standout encounters. A minnow getting to…

For people with Liverpool in their hearts, Istanbul will forever be associated with that miraculous 2005 night at the Ataturk Stadium. It still makes the hairs on the back of every Red’s necks stand up… But for me, something else dramatic also springs to mind whenever the city is mentioned. I’ll never be allowed to forget the night I unwittingly became part of Istanbul history and ended up being compared to an ancient warrior. In Turkey, I’ll always be remembered for planting a Galatasaray flag at bitter rivals Fenerbahce’s Sukru Saracoglu Stadium on April 24, 1996. I’m proud to say that photographs of the incident adorn Gala’s new ground – there’s even images in the home dressing room, and a while back [2014], fans unfurled a ‘tifo’ to honour it…

ADAM CLERY FFT HEAD OF VIDEO @AdamClery You don’t want to hear this, and I certainly don’t want to write it, but when you hit 30 it’s nearly over as an elite sportsman. Unless you play darts. You may yet have plenty left in your career, but the body enters a gradual stage of physical decline and, with each passing year, your game needs to adapt to be able to offset that. Joints creak, legs slow, every knock you take hurts that little more. In entirely unrelated news, Mo Salah will be 33 this year and has not only looked as good as ever, but somehow has arguably been improving. Just something to think about the next time you make a straining noise getting in or out of a big…

In your playing days, you won four top-flight promotions across spells with Bradford, West Bromwich Albion and Derby. Did you consider yourself something of an expert at going up? When you achieve a few promotions, there is definitely a feeling you get used to – a trend to the season that you start to understand and appreciate better. You learn how to manage defeats, wins, your own emotions and how you push yourself. Younger players might be ecstatic about a win or crushed after a big loss, but when you’ve been there and done that, you know how to handle yourself. I always told my team-mates and I say it now: the way you played to get yourself into promotion contention is what matters. It’s about maintaining that and not…

How would a football match directed by Quentin Tarantino look? Why are FIFA interested in the tiny Scottish island of Eriskay? How hard is it to be a ballboy? It’s these zany questions, and more, that hit football show A View from the Terrace tries to answer. Originally a podcast before being turned into a TV series – the first show to make that switch in the UK, no less – the BBC Scotland production is now gearing up for the release of its seventh season, which hits screens in February. Described in one review as, “four hipsters in throwaway Matalan getting together in mum’s front room to talk about Scotland’s bargain-basement leagues”, AVFTT has gained a cult following to its Friday night slot. “When we pitched the show, we…

The jet-heeled Belgian shares his time at Everton and beyond, from clashes with Koeman to his love for Big Rom, and crying when he left Goodison Park Of the many exciting prospects at Lille when you started your professional career there, with several later moving to England, who impressed you most? Lille produces a lot of talented young players. Yohan Cabaye and Mathieu Debuchy were with me in the academy and we moved into the first team together. Yohan was a very intelligent box-to-box player, great at passing, shooting, and taking free-kicks. I spent many years with him. It was a pleasure to play against him in England, too. Why did you decide to leave Lille and join Saint-Etienne in 2008? The coach changed and it was time for me…

A good football shirt has a delicate blend of ingredients. Overcook your pattern and people turn away at first glance. Take too little interest in details and they’re left wanting more. A crucial element in the recipe is the sponsor – which many would prefer didn’t exist in the first place. I’m convinced sponsors have plenty to offer, narratively as well as aesthetically. So, in this series on fabled football shirts, I’ll be highlighting outfits improved by the signage, not hurt by it. In 2025, we are drowning in nostalgia. The things we loved, and even the things we hated, are being served to us again in rose-tinted packaging at an increasing rate. The football world peddles this sort of bygone bait especially well, and remakes of cherished football shirts…