2022-08-18 11:30
Barrie Davies’s journey to the Champions League Final takes a turn when he finds a rundown flat, smelly bar, and ‘Magic Messi Milk’ between himself and Paris. Part one of a… Read More
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Football Paradise Blog
footballparadise.com
International award winning creative literature football website advocating football stories since 2008
2022-08-16 11:30
As the football season kicks off around Europe, the Greek Super League may fly under the radar for many fans of the game. We explore the history of Greece’s top teams and interview exp… Read More
2022-08-11 13:30
Sean Dyche and Burnley: "Hard working, rough around the edges, an acquired taste to some, but more widely, downright unpopular..." Read More
2022-08-09 13:57
It cannot be denied that the number of Scots departing clubs in their homeland at a young age is on the rise. Just this summer, the highly rated Calvin Ramsay, Rory Wilson and Charlie… Read More
2022-08-02 11:30
When you are not thriving at one place, you try to rediscover yourself by moving to another. Even after winning a Bundesliga and Champions League double in 2020 when on loan at Bayern Munich… Read More
2022-07-26 13:36
Despite the reported strong interest from a couple of English Championship clubs, Aaron Mooy has become Celtic’s latest summer signing, linking up with his former Australia coach Ange… Read More
2022-07-14 11:30
I have always had an uneasy and uncomfortable relationship with the work of Jack Kerouac. Even when I was what observers would have identified and described as an “impressionable&rdquo&hell…Read More
2022-07-12 15:23
Noa Lang is a sort of commodity who has lit up the league in his stint with the champions of Belgium. He formed dangerous partnerships with the likes of Bas Dost and Charles De Ketelaere and… Read More
2022-07-07 11:30
Ajax full-back Noussair Mazraoui recently signed with Bayern Munich on a free transfer. He encapsulates everything we love about Ajax: determination against all odds, a pension for highwire… Read More
2022-06-30 14:00
A last-minute goal from Jimmy Glass saved Carlisle United from relegation. But it may have also been the catalyst behind their future struggles Read More
2022-06-28 13:43
Over a week ago, the Australian National Football Team managed to qualify for the 2022 World Cup, catching the last train to Qatar, after beating Peru in a fairly dull game where they didn&r&hell…Read More
2022-06-16 11:30
I have a problem. I know what a successful club looks like. The trophies, the glory, the squad full of killers capable of blowing you away 7-0 or grinding out the jammiest three points… Read More
2022-06-14 13:30
Simone Biles considers the Tokyo 2020 Olympics balance beam bronze medal her most meaningful win, above all the golds she has accumulated as the most-decorated Olympian gymnast in history. B… Read More
2022-06-09 11:30
Kylian Mbappé’s transfer saga, where he played two of Europe’s most prominent clubs off each other, has ended with PSG retaining the French superstar. Rare is the player w… Read More
2022-06-07 11:30
At 38 years old, with over 500 goals on his account, a devastating goal-scoring campaign in the MLS behind him, a recurring Achilles problem to ponder, and no football in over 3 months, Zlat… Read More
2022-06-02 14:40
Erling Haaland is now a Manchester City boy. After years of “nearly-theres” on the European stage, the club needed a decisive force, and they seem to have found it in a 21-year-o… Read More
2022-05-30 13:17
In an interview, Stefano Cusin, the Italian manager of the South Sudan national team, speaks of his experiences, beliefs, and a love for challenge Read More
2022-05-19 19:11
Ange Postecoglou has reinvigorated Celtic football club in the 2021/22 campaign. The Greek-Australian manager was known to few supporters of the club when appointed. However, through the sim… Read More
2022-05-17 11:30
The small South American country of Suriname has a deep historical connection to the Netherlands and Dutch football. André Kamperveen was its first player to make that trip overseas… Read More
2022-05-12 11:30
In the endless quest for an explanation of football’s enduring and universal appeal, one aspect that is often overlooked is its aesthetic appeal: the elegance of its motions, the joy o… Read More
2022-05-11 11:30
For years, cross-Atlantic sporting relations have revolved around the ‘Football’ vs ‘Soccer’ debate. Will Jesse Marsch’s appointment as Leeds United head coach… Read More
2022-05-04 15:13
Martin Scorsese’s ‘Shutter Island’ is the perfect specimen of deception. Teddy Daniels reaches the brink in search of the truth and it ends up taking a breakdown for him to… Read More
2022-05-03 14:46
The holy month of Ramadan saw several elite footballers fasting and yet contributing vastly on the pitch. Undeterred faith seems to have played a significant role in that Read More
2022-05-02 13:43
What if the people who are paid to care about women’s football cared even a tenth as much as its fans? What would that look like? Another day, another SNAFU. Now in its third year, the… Read More
2022-03-21 17:27
Oligarchic supremacy in football is over now that Roman Abramovich’s tenure as Chelsea F.C. owner is ending. Well, that’s what the Western political-media class wants us to think… Read More
2022-03-16 17:34
For many young African footballers who migrate to Europe, their challenge is not to break into the starting XI, but to find something to eat, somewhere to sleep. This is the sad truth of one… Read More
2022-03-14 12:54
And what does one gain from tearing it down? Former USWNT teammates Carli Lloyd and Hope Solo chatted on a recent podcast, deriding the team culture as “toxic” despite opposite r… Read More
2022-03-13 08:30
A look at the behavioural similarities between Athletic Bilbao’s traditions and Marcelino’s managerial career over the years. The Basque club has a unique identity, and the Astur… Read More
2022-03-07 09:56
Fans like to believe that their club has some intrinsic identity. There is some quality that must exist within those 90 minutes for a club to be recognisable. In actuality, the DNA of a club… Read More
2022-01-30 14:58
I am a man, and just reading detailed reports on physical abuse makes me sick. I cannot begin to imagine what it must be like for women, who live in physical danger every day, to go through… Read More
2022-01-25 03:10
If you were to mention the name Goran Pandev to an informed commentator of European football, they’ll tell you of his dynamic forward play, his wicked left foot, and an impressive reco… Read More
2022-01-13 14:36
The unassuming market town of Ossett, nestled between Wakefield and Dewsbury in Yorkshire’s West Riding, is not known for its football prowess or reputation. Located around eight miles… Read More
2022-01-12 12:54
Age can limit us in our understanding of what we love the most. Without delving into the territory of gatekeeping, there is a demarcation of attachment to an event between those who were the… Read More
2021-12-13 13:37
In the dying minutes of a nail biter of a Chelsea/Juventus match-up, Sam Kerr added a new role to her CV – matchday security, taking down a pitch invader who interrupted play to get a… Read More
2021-12-10 14:14
What do you do when you have one of the most accomplished players of all time on your squad, and she’s facing her last international game? If you’re Pia Sundhage, you give her fi… Read More
2021-11-30 14:02
The clichéd story of a football team financially hyper-extending itself, filing for bankruptcy, before re-modelling as a ‘Phoenix Club’ is not a particularly new or unique… Read More
2021-11-21 13:08
And so, after a stretch of performances that can be labelled as a total suspension of talent and intelligence, Manchester United’s Solskjaer Experiment is over. Last night’s defl… Read More
2021-11-07 13:20
Most of us have known this feeling. At playgrounds and classrooms, backyards and alleyways, nothing hurts more than a bully taking their sweet time to pull you apart. On his podcast, Gary Ne… Read More
2021-10-25 13:26
“If you ask me what my life will look like a few years from now, where I will be, what I will be doing–the honest answer is, I don’t know. But, I do know that I’ll st… Read More
2021-10-19 12:38
(This piece was written following the September 18-19 football weekend.) Over the previous international break, we all laughed as Louis van Gaal shot back at a journalist deriding the Nether… Read More
2021-09-26 12:02
I sometimes wonder how tough life must be for a Premier League footballer. The ball flies past before you know it is coming; you must adapt to overcome the ever-growing number of convoluted… Read More
2021-09-19 16:05
The Dutch are a society littered with contradictions. Rising waters threaten a country largely below sea level, but it was Amsterdam that served as a breeding ground for the very capitalism… Read More
2021-09-11 14:15
The European Championships this summer were a lesson in team play, for both the robust attacking outfits and the overly conservative. Disregarding his country’s catenaccio history, Rob… Read More
2021-08-28 15:09
450 goals in 438 games for Real Madrid. 101 in 134 for Juventus. 91 in his last three seasons for Manchester United. Five Champions’ League titles. Five Ballon d’Ors. Rape allega… Read More
2021-08-22 18:16
This sport we love is loud. It is heavy handed, a picture of excess and consumerism featuring high-drama competition between lavish-living millionaires in front of tens of thousands of screa… Read More
2021-08-15 13:18
Erik Lamela is 29 years old. There is something almost cruel about this sentence, which seems less like a statement of fact and more a dispatching of judgment. How is Erik Lamela only… Read More
2021-07-27 13:40
Football is obsessed with nostalgia. At no time is this more evident than during international competition wherein football cultures, nationalisms, and emotion blend into a heady liquo… Read More
2021-06-15 14:34
Is a legacy what you leave behind in the past or what is built upon what you leave in the present? The history of something or the same thing’s unwritten history? Nobody would doubt th… Read More
2021-06-04 14:11
Data and charts courtesy Lee Chunhang. David de Gea did not want to take that penalty. His face was tense, run-up short, and his kick neither had power or precision. Penalty shoot-outs are c… Read More
2021-05-09 14:53
This week marks fifty years since Arsenal won the league-and-cup double. There is a lot to learn from that season - for the club and fans both Read More
2021-04-07 13:26
By any football club’s standards, 2020 was a catastrophic year. Pandemic-driven shortfalls caused by the absence of fans has left clubs across Europe cash-strapped. The continent&rsquo&hell…Read More
2021-03-11 13:01
What is the measure of a life? Is it tangible successes or achievements, personal or professional? Is it quality or quantity of output? Is it the legacy we leave behind? Is it happiness? &ld&hell…Read More
2021-03-03 13:41
Dennis Bergkamp is my favourite footballer (or organism) of all time. From watching the calm, measured way he played, to reading about his thought processes while on the field, he gives me t… Read More
2021-02-19 14:52
On the 16th of July, 1950, a great crowd surged into a seatless, concrete grandstand in Rio to watch a football match. It was supposed to be a trivial impediment that would be easily overcom… Read More
2021-02-05 14:15
The word ‘myth’ comes from the Greek ‘mythos’ which has a range of meanings—word, saying, story, fiction—and is defined as a “symbolic narrative, us… Read More
2021-01-28 15:41
Illicit Activities, Champagne Football, and a Three-Way Title Race – let us convince you that Serie A is the place to be, especially this season. To attempt to quantify what makes a le… Read More
2020-12-26 13:05
Football touches on every aspect of life, which means you can put a book about the game in most sections of a library: politics, economics and social science; languages and geography, when d… Read More
2020-12-09 14:39
The word “passion” has become a bit of a joke. It’s the kind of superficial thing you throw into a job application to be a shelf stacker at ASDA. Its watered-down nature is… Read More
2020-12-05 15:28
I’m holding these old boots in my hands. Nike Tiempos. Leather. White with lime green highlights. Top-of-the-range boots that cost a small fortune back in the day. Battered now, though… Read More
2020-12-04 15:21
The Trinidad and Tobago football team of the late 1980s, nicknamed the Strike Squad, was but a single point away from qualification to the 1990 World Cup in Italy. Needing only a draw and pl… Read More
2020-12-03 14:56
In football, Europe has cultivated an international export in a way that no other continent or nation has been able to produce. Outside of the World Cup, the Champions League final is the mo… Read More
2020-12-02 15:14
First came Joe Cole. Then there was Wayne Rooney. Then Jack Wilshire. Soon after, Ravel Morrison. Next Ross Barley. Most recently Dele Ali, and now Jack Grealish. These current or former boy… Read More
2020-11-28 14:31
This is a weird one. In a lot of ways, fans from my generation are not qualified to talk about Diego Maradona. He was a comet that lit up the sky and left well before people my age knew what… Read More
2020-11-17 13:29
This year has been defined, naturally, by the coronavirus pandemic sweeping our globe. The same can be said of football. Fans are barred from stadiums and many places of congregation, with a… Read More
2020-11-11 13:36
As the sun set over Soligorsk in early August, it looked as if Shaktar Soligorsk vs. Dinamo Brest was heading towards a drab 0 – 0. However, with ten minutes left on the clock, Shakhta… Read More
2020-10-27 15:27
If you are involved in the sport in any way, the odds are that you’ve at some point pondered the pointless question about who the greatest player of all time is. But, despite all our e… Read More
2020-10-25 12:40
Ballet, Bites, Brazil The year was 2014 and the FIFA World Cup in Brazil had already worked its magic and captivated the eyes and ears of the world. As had been the case for years, the chore… Read More
2020-10-12 13:13
The 1-6 scoreline was flattering to Manchester United. It is rare to feel any relief after such a defeat, but somewhere deep within, United’s coaches and players would know they got of… Read More
2020-09-30 14:04
There is no place for the Dialectical Method in football. The rabidly tribal football fanatic will, however, engage lustily in argument and lose many hours in vociferous debate. But she is… Read More
2020-09-26 15:32
I’m a cultural goods aficionado, including that of classical cinema. Imagine a world where Alfred Hitchcock and Marilyn Monroe made a documentary about zebras together, with Hitchcock… Read More
2020-09-14 14:09
“He never told me until I stumbled upon it!” Charlie Davies came home from school one day with a permission slip for his parents to sign. The six year old thought this would allo… Read More
2020-09-07 15:10
There’s no denying that Frank Lampard has received mixed reviews regarding his first year in charge of his beloved Chelsea. Some argue that, considering the circumstances – inclu… Read More
2020-09-04 15:18
“Protesting and I lost my sign/ standing up ‘cause they crossed my line” speaks Open Mike Eagle on his 2018 song “Happy Wasteland Day,” a ballad about a post-ap… Read More
2020-08-30 13:48
It must be 5:00 PM somewhere in the world. That’s what I tell myself as I pour a stiff glass of whiskey over ice before the sun sets on a gloomy day in my city. I sit in the corner of… Read More
2020-08-29 14:49
In the last article I wrote, I started by shooting the bull about actor Marlon Brando, so I fancy, “Hey, what if I do that exact same thing this time as well?” But what could I t… Read More
2020-08-26 15:00
It may seem hard to believe that Colombia used to be football minnows. Nowadays, we are used to seeing Colombians of the stature of James Rodríguez, Falcao, Juan Cuadrado and Duv&aacu&hell…Read More
2020-08-06 14:56
It would be fair to say that Klopp’s ability to construct a squad of unlikely heroes into one of Europe’s most revered sides has been one of modern football’s most impressi… Read More
2020-08-05 13:58
Football has always been entangled with notions of national identity. It’s not a simple relationship, nor a consistent one, but its unitary power is a big part of what makes the intern… Read More
2020-08-03 13:30
“There’s still so much I could give to these players, but I can’t give them everything I’ve got,” Pep Guardiola told a trusted member of his backroom staff in t… Read More
2020-07-26 05:53
Frank Lampard is incensed. His eyebrows are furrowing and his voice is dipping lower in pitch with every sentence. Speaking to Sky at the post-match interview, he tries his best to suppress… Read More
2020-07-22 13:55
In South America, the world’s longest mountain range stretches 7,000 kilometres from the very bottom tip of Argentina in the south to the Caribbean coast of Venezuela in the north. Whe… Read More
2020-07-17 13:56
What a kerfuffle about big bronze blokes (hardly any women) there is in Britain today. For those who don’t know, the movement to bring down statues of difficult figures of the past hit… Read More
2020-07-15 13:23
Sporting excellence in the Caribbean could be understandably thought to lie within the domains of athletics and cricket. In the popular imagination, Jamaican athletes with Olympic gold medal… Read More
2020-07-09 15:26
It seems to me that the real political task in our contemporary society is to criticize the workings of institutions, particularly the ones that appear to be neutral and independent, and to… Read More
2020-07-04 12:07
Everton forward Bernard believes working with a psychologist for the past year after suffering a “scary” anxiety attack has made him stronger and more confident Read More
2020-07-04 11:45
Dean Smith insists Aston Villa can take inspiration from their drop rivals ahead of the daunting trip to champions Liverpool on Sunday Read More
2020-07-04 10:35
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp insists he would “run through a brick wall” for his players Read More
2020-07-04 10:11
David Moyes admits he cannot begin planning for next season until West Ham have secured their Premier League survival Read More
2020-07-04 09:50
AFC Fylde boss Jim Bentley is set to undergo heart surgery, the National League club have announced Read More
2020-07-04 09:40
Sheffield United defender George Baldock wants to turn his side’s season into an “unforgettable” one, but still will not talk about European qualification Read More
2020-07-04 09:34
Defender Gemma Bonner has signed a two-year extension with Manchester City Women Read More
2020-07-04 08:00
Rodri believes this season could still be the greatest in Manchester City’s history Read More
2020-07-04 07:00
Burnley boss Sean Dyche has praised his players for “pushing away the noise” when they beat Crystal Palace Read More
2020-07-04 06:40
Steve Bruce will not allow Newcastle to coast to the Premier League finishing line after guiding them to safety with weeks to spare Read More
2020-07-04 05:00
On this day in 2007, Spanish forward Fernando Torres left his home nation and boyhood club of Atletico Madrid to join Premier League side Liverpool Read More
2020-07-04 05:00
Jens Lehmann watches helplessly as Fabio Grosso’s extra-time shot hits the back of the net in the World Cup semi-final between Germany and Italy Read More
2020-07-03 22:27
Gary Rowett insisted Millwall rejuvenated their Championship play-off bid with a gritty 1-0 derby win at Charlton Read More
2020-07-03 22:00
Delighted Wycombe boss Gareth Ainsworth remained calm despite his team cruising to a 4-1 victory against Fleetwood in the League One play-off semi-final first leg Read More
2020-07-03 21:30
Brighton boss Graham Potter admits he has embraced the five substitute rule having used his full quota since the restart Read More
2020-07-03 21:30
Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta has offered an insight into what he expects from his players following the continued absences of Matteo Guendouzi and Mesut Ozil Read More
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