Apalak

The 1938 FIFA World Cup was staged in France as Europe was driving headlong into a history-defining war without remotely acknowledging the possibility of such. The crisis-riddled backdrop cast a shadow over the proceedings. In a…

The 1934 FIFA World Cup was held under the auspices of the Fascist regime in Mussolini’s Italy. I would love to point out the differences which the 1934 World Cup and the recent ones, but I can't help but be inundated by the similarities.…

The first ever World Cup staged in Montevideo, Uruguay, feels today like a dreamt-up patchwork of events and/or myths ranging from ridiculous to profound. A tournament held 95 years ago was almost nothing like the behemoth World Cup has…

Barcelona halted Madrid's undefeated run in the round of 16 in the 1960/61 European Cup, but Madrid were back playing their sixth final in the seventh iteration of the tournament. A 28-year-old Paco Gento was captaining Los Blancos against…

Paco Gento maintained that he was “a dissatisfied player”. Such a suggestion would feel outlandish because Gento won 12 league titles and 6 European Cups and etched himself deeply into the folklore of the game. Still, it is a testament to…

The Swedish top division, Allsvenskan, has been operational for more than a century now. Never in its history has Sweden been considered a powerhouse of the club game. Among its clubs, only Malmö FF has been sporadically present at European…

It was always on the cards. The notorious Forest owner had never seemed quite patient, and the winless run that the newly appointed Ange Postecoglou was overseeing had finally plunged the club into the relegation places. Minutes after the…

Ernst Kuzorra had been associated with Schalke 04 since his boyhood. In the years before the formalisation of players’ wages and transfer fees, most German footballers were essentially one-club men. Kuzorra also spent his whole playing…

Four months before he led Boca Juniors to the club's latest Copa Libertadores crown, Angel Miguel Russo was seated alone at a bar in Buenos Aires. Jonathan Wilson, one of the most accomplished football writers of our time, had incidentally…

When Chelsea met Leeds United in the final of the FA Cup in 1970, it produced one of the most exhilarating contests for what was then the most prestigious prize in English football. It was, in many ways, a clash of styles, the flashy and…