Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2022 i FourFourTwo UK

At some point, you wonder what more there is to say about Mohamed Salah. He’s been the Premier League’s outstanding performer in recent seasons, while many believe that this is his year to win the Ballon d’Or – a competition he’s never finished higher than fifth in. So we decided to ask the Egyptian king himself, getting Liverpool’s leading light to offer his take on the big talking points surrounding him right now. FFT was delighted to sit down for a lengthy chat with Salah himself, who discussed the highs and lows of his Anfield career to date, his highly ambitious hopes for the current campaign – and of course, the red-hot topic of his future on Merseyside. As well as being one of the world’s best players, Salah also…

Verona 1-2 Milan April 23, 1978 Serie A “The beginning of a beautiful football journey. I was a teenager and curious to see what would happen if I got into Milan’s first team, as I’d only been with the youth team for a couple of years. My debut was three games before the end of the season and it was a big surprise to play, but Maurizio Turone was suspended and I was called up by the coach, Nils Liedholm. We won, then Turone left and I was promoted to replace him the following season. When I took to the field for that first match at Verona, I could never have dreamt that I’d make more than 700 appearances across 20 years at one club.” Steaua Bucharest 0-4 Milan May…

PASSU PAKISTAN You may not find turf as lush as Wembley in the small village of Passu, but it’s home to one of the most breathtaking pitches on the planet. Sitting at the foot of the Karakoram mountain range in the far north of Pakistan, the pitch has hosted fixtures in the budding Gilgit-Baltistan Girls Football League run by sisters Sumaira and Karishma Inayat, giving females in this remote area the opportunity to play. With a backdrop like that, who wouldn’t fancy a kickabout?…

Which was the first match that you ever saw live? It feels weird saying this, as I didn’t see a QPR game until I was older than 10 – the first game was Liverpool at home to Nottingham Forest, in 1985 or 1986. I supported QPR because that was my dad’s team, but whenever we were in Liverpool visiting my family, we’d go to Anfield. My first ever QPR match was at Southampton in September 1992. I’d been wearing my QPR shirt for years, and from then on I hardly ever missed a game until about ’97-98, when rock ’n’ roll took me on a different path. The ’92-93 campaign was really what I call my QPR team. Who was your childhood hero and did you ever meet them? His…

It’s 18 years since you first landed in Europe with CSKA Moscow – are you aware that you’ve become a bit of a cult hero, racking up almost 50 goals in UEFA competitions? Not really! But to be able to play and still be involved in those competitions makes me feel glad. When I received the offer to join Midtjylland midway through this season, I was playing in Kazakhstan, having already featured in the Conference League group stage for Kairat Almaty. We were out, and I thought I’d have to watch the next round from the stands, but that wasn’t the case. I was part of the Midtjylland squad for both games against PAOK. It’s mind-blowing for me to think that it’s almost 20 years since I won the UEFA…

Third was Ajax’s Champions League winner Jari Litmanen on 67, 10 ahead of Alessandro Del Piero. And trailing in joint-32nd, alongside Ian Wright with one point? Alan Shearer, scorer of 37 goals in all competitions as Blackburn won the 1994-95 Premier League title, and another 20 before the year was up. If ever there was a sign of how the Ballon d’Or has shifted in the modern era, this was it. Rovers’ main man had fired the Lancastrians to a surprise title victory and liberally bludgeoned goals throughout the year, yet was basically a nobody beyond Britain’s borders. Back in a pre-internet 1995, European and international exploits were vital. Suddenly, Shearer flew up to third in 1996 on 107 points, behind Ronaldo and Matthias Sammer. Blackburn had tried to defend…

Brian Clough being linked with Barcelona in 1970 wasn’t quite as fanciful as it sounded – the Catalan club did actually have an English manager at the time. Barça had recruited Londoner Vic Buckingham in 1969 after an unusual managerial career that took him from Bradford Park Avenue to success at Ajax, but his maiden season in La Liga ended with an underwhelming fourth-placed finish – hence the Clough links. How would football history have changed had Old Big ’Ead marched into the Camp Nou? Well, Barcelona may not have hired Dutch boss Rinus Michels in 1971, which probably would have ruled out signing Johan Cruyff from Ajax in ’73, a transfer that shaped the club’s future direction. Cruyff and Clough would have been quite the incendiary relationship, though –…

It’s 25 years since Sean Dyche put Chesterfield 2-0 up in the FA Cup semi-final against Middlesbrough – no third-tier team has ever come so close to reaching the final. The Spireites were the seventh side from that level to reach the last four, after Millwall (1937), Port Vale (1954), York (1955), Norwich (1959), Crystal Palace (1976) and Plymouth (1984). Millwall and Vale both held single-goal leads in their semi-final fixtures, but eventually suffered the same fate as the other four underdogs. Chesterfield progressed to the semis in 1997 thanks to wins over Wrexham and Dyche’s former club Nottingham Forest, then took the lead against Boro at Old Trafford. Step forward Dyche to make it 2-0 after an hour with exactly the sort of penalty you’d anticipate – thundered straight…

Retirement is the life for Guus Hiddink these days, but he’s still in good nick. And no wonder: before reflecting with FFT on a distinguished career, the Dutch doyen had his weekly training session with other former pros such as Sjaak Swart and Danny Muller, something he relishes at the age of 75. Hiddink spent most of his modest playing career with De Graafschap and NEC Nijmegen before teaming up with George Best in the USA, but he tells us his left foot is “still functioning well”. He made his commute on a blue Vespa – a farewell gift from Chelsea players in 2016, and very handy when navigating Amsterdam’s busy traffic. It’s also a nice reminder of two short but sweet spells in west London, where Hiddink delivered an…

In Armenian folklore, Noah’s Ark still rests on the slopes of Mount Ararat, the giant peak overlooking the capital city of Yerevan. Admittedly, no one has ever found it yet, despite a raft of searches more extensive than the hunt for the Loch Ness Monster, so the prospects of stumbling across a 600-foot boot at the top of a mountain appear slim at this point. Ararat – higher than Mont Blanc, at 16,854ft tall – actually resides in Turkey these days, but remains Armenia’s national symbol and lends its name to two of the country’s biggest football clubs, Ararat Yerevan and Ararat-Armenia. They’ve now been joined by an outfit named after Noah himself, that chap who gathered a selection of the world’s animals in pairs and then stuck them on…

WHO IS THE MOST UNDERRATED FOOTBALLER IN HISTORY? * STAR TWEET Paul McGrath never gets mentioned in the all-time Premier League teams, or best defender lists. But he was PFA Player of the Year in the league’s first season. @KnowleChris Michael Laudrup was rated, but wasn’t talked about nearly enough as he was before the YouTube, social media generation. Such a technically gifted player. @JReadingAloud87 The answer is Josef ‘Pepi’ Bican, the 1930s Austrian/Czech international star. Scored 805 goals in 629 senior games, second only behind Cristiano Ronaldo. A member of the Austrian ‘Wunderteam’ which reached the 1934 World Cup semi-finals. @aceofspies64 Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink. The guy was a goal machine and won the Golden Boot twice. Even scored a load of goals for mid-table Boro. But he never gets…

“Mo Salah is so much more than a ‘striker’ for us. Our game stimulates this development and forces it to be that way, as everyone is responsible for everything. At the same time, he’s become more and more of a playmaker as well. He’s a gifted finisher – his imagination and intuition in those moments is brilliant. The way that he can keep the ball in the toughest situations and find a way to come out and score is what identifies him. Many players have that, but few have it consistently; if you do, you’re part of the world’s best, because it’s all about the mentality to never give less. In the most influential matches, he’s everywhere to be found. For me though, bigger than the achievement of his goals,…

“WEAH WAS LIKE A CHILD DISCOVERING A CHOCOLATE AT EASTER – I’VE NEVER SEEN ANYONE EXPLODE ONTO THE SCENE LIKE HIM” Can a Ballon d’Or winner be underrated? Blame Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi for freakishly skewing records and expectations. Messi’s award-winning 2012 featured 91 goals for club and country, including 59 league goals. Fifty-nine. In 1995, George Weah scored only seven. To the overly invested Ronaldo stans and ‘Messi GOAT’ accounts on Twitter, that may seem laughable for a striker also named the world’s best player that year – just as three European league titles and five domestic cups makes for a comparatively lean career CV. Nor was Weah a YouTube footballer: he made great goals look simple and his most famous strike, that instantly recognisable box-to-box dribble for…

40 PES 2021: SEASON UPDATE The end of an era. Before the disastrous launch of eFootball 2022, Konami afforded Pro Evolution Soccer one last hurrah. Alas, this reskin of PES 2020 couldn’t recapture the excitement of the series’ PlayStation 2 heyday, but some cerebral attacking play and accurate likenesses still made for an entertaining swansong. BEST BIT A goodbye to the hallowed Master League mode, in which you slowly upgraded a team of pathetic no-hopers into a trophy-hoarding monopoly. 39 FIFA MANAGER 11 The other half of gaming’s big two nudges into our top 40 rundown under a forgotten guise. Way before Ultimate Team became omnipresent, EA dabbled in a bit of dugout simulation with some curious results. This edition incorporated the proper FIFA engine for the first time, though…

You’ve been Salisbury manager since 2015. A lifetime for any boss… Well, I’m not just the manager! I was one of five who bought Salisbury after it had been liquidated – for not much money, I hasten to add. The club had lost an absolute fortune under the old owners. I sometimes drive the minibus and am here on Sunday mornings after games, putting the pitch back together – it’s all hands on deck. In my time as manager, we’ve won two promotions and reached the play-offs twice, and had COVID to deal with on top of that. The target now is to be competitive in the Southern Premier. When you arrived, there weren’t any players on the books. How have you managed to enjoy so much success? There was…

JAN PAUL VAN HECKE BLACKBURN LOWDOWN Football fans aren’t the most patient bunch, and Van Hecke sure did test the Blackburn faithful. The 21-year-old centre-back joined injured on loan from Brighton and didn’t make his debut until October; four games later, Van Hecke went full Van Damme when trying to behead Harry Wilson in a 7-0 annihilation by Fulham. That clumsy red card meant he featured in only five of their first 19 games. Thankfully, better was to come. He didn’t miss a minute from late November to April, with Rovers keeping 11 clean sheets to inspire an unlikely promotion bid. Van Hecke’s transformation was sealed in March, when his form earned him a maiden call-up for Netherlands Under-21s. HIGHLIGHT Bagging a fine header at second-placed Bournemouth in December, as…

In 1995-96, you won the last Anglo-Italian Cup with Genoa, defeating Port Vale in the final. What are your memories? I have great memories of that game – it was the first final I ever played in. It was at the old Wembley and the atmosphere was fantastic; we won 5-2 and I scored a bicycle kick! I was still young and couldn’t have asked for more. You left Genoa for city rivals Sampdoria – that was a brave decision… The city and its clubs had always fascinated me as a youngster. I’d played just one year with the Rossoblu in the second tier before Sampdoria, an ambitious Serie A side, made a move for me. I barely had to think about it, as playing alongside Roberto Mancini had been…

Hi Hal. You’re now a top entrepreneur turning people onto turmeric – what made you become a spice merchant? Hi! When I was a teenager, I realised that my body had adverse effects to standard medications, so my dad and I went on a research binge down the library, studying natural remedies like pomegranate, pineapple, watermelon, ginger… and turmeric! It sounds like a refreshing smoothie. Well, it’s more of a shot format – you have it in one go. It’s a potent product. From when I was 17 up until a decade later, we probably ruined dozens and dozens of blenders; every kitchen top that you can imagine… If we order huge tikka masalas every night, with loads of turmeric in it, can we become international footballers? In a curry…

THE DREAM FACTORY Ryan Baldi (Polaris, £17.99) A raft of England stars have graduated from their clubs’ academies – but the journey from wide-eyed local boy to superstar is a rocky one. In this book, Baldi discusses the philosophy behind player development at Man City, as espoused by sporting director Txiki Begiristain, chief executive Ferran Soriano and manager Pep Guardiola, pointing out that before Phil Foden’s emergence, defender Micah Richards was their last graduate to break in. Perhaps more revealing is the discussion with Bury’s former academy boss Mark Litherland, whose account of the Shakers’ demise and its brutal impact on the club’s youngsters makes for sobering reading. Despite a more scientific and holistic approach to nurturing young players, the dropout rate from academies is still sizeable; the terse ‘Dear…

It’s impossible to escape George Weah in the nation of his birth. Just ask Peter Butler, the Halifax-born ex-journeyman midfielder who is currently in charge of the Liberian national team. Butler resides in a house owned by the country’s current president and, though the pair don’t exactly sit down together and discuss tactics over a glass of red, the 55-year-old tells FFT that Weah is an omnipresent figure in Liberian life. “It’s every kid’s dream to emulate him,” he explains to FFT. “George Weah was a football icon in Africa and massively respected. We could do with him now, to be honest – our current top scorer has five international goals! I’ve been getting lads from overseas who are eligible to play for Liberia – players in their early 20s…

Celebrated quote-fountain Oscar Wilde had a much-repeated, typically callous line about how losing one parent could be regarded as misfortune, but losing both resembles carelessness. Conversely, while winning the league once with an under-heralded never-before-champion club could only be regarded by the harshest critic as somewhat fortuitous, to repeat the process with another lesser light might resemble genius. Before Brian Clough, only two men had led two different clubs to be champions of England, both way back in the day. Even since, in an era of managerial movements between superclubs, only Kenny Dalglish has been able to join them. What worked for Clough was an incendiary combination of ego, ambition, daring, charm, chutzpah, motivation, fear, friendship and loyalty. And it started with personal tragedy… “I constantly doubt my ability to…

FERENC PUSKAS SOUTH LIVERPOOL (1967) CREDENTIALS Well, a few: in 1967, Puskas was at the end of a glorious career that had begun in his native Hungary before blossoming at Real Madrid. As one of the game’s most celebrated stars, his status among the greats was assured. Puskas was virtually finished at the Bernabeu, aged 40, when a telegram arrived from Brian Taylor, the director of Bankfield House community centre in Garston. To raise funds for their work, Taylor had arranged a charity match with various famous faces. He’d already contacted Pele to no avail… but a pidgin reply came from Madrid: “I only wait you send me plane ticket.” The Galloping Major would play for South Liverpool, the formative club of Liverpool heroes like John Aldridge and Jimmy Case.…

As one of the first Brazilian goalkeepers to play abroad, how proud are you to see lots of compatriots following in your footsteps? Very proud, it’s a great feeling. When I went to Parma in 1990, Serie A was the place to be. There was a restriction on foreign players too, so you could only have three in your squad – imagine using one of the spots for a Brazilian keeper! I obviously learned a lot in European football, but I already had my own style and technique when I moved to Italy. It’s a sweet feeling to see that I was right. Now the world acknowledges the value of a Brazilian keeper. What was it like joining Parma before their first ever Serie A season in 1990-91? Like a…

PETER SCHMEICHEL “Two goalkeepers instantly spring to mind – Peter Schmeichel and Shay Given. I’ve gone for Peter as, quite simply, he’s the greatest Premier League keeper we’ve seen. I played a handful of first-team matches with him at Manchester United and he was outstanding – as he was in training, too.” GARY NEVILLE “I grew up with the Class of ’92 and played a lot of games alongside Gary over the years. He was ultra-consistent and never put a foot wrong. His longevity at one club – and that club being United - shows you what a player he was. For the majority of his career, he was probably the best full-back in England.” GARY PALLISTER “Gary was a tremendous signing for United. He struggled a bit when he…