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Unsung Heroes in World Cups: Zizinho | 1950 Brazil
After a 12-year-long hiatus due to the Second World War, the FIFA World Cup reconvened in Brazil in 1950 for its fourth staging. Coming after two World Cups using a straight knock-out format, this was the only World Cup that did not have…
Unsung Heroes in World Cups: Gyorgy Sarosi | 1938 France
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…
Unsung Heroes of World Cups: Attilio Ferraris | 1934 Italy
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.…
Unsung Heroes of World Cups: Pedro Cea | 1930 Uruguay
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…
An Ode to Paco Gento and his 9 European finals | Part 2
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…
An Ode to Paco Gento and his 9 European finals | Part 1
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…
A spotlight on Mjallby AIF: Fairytale in Sweden
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…
What does qualifying for a World Cup mean today?
The magical day on which Cape Verde achieved their first FIFA World Cup qualification will be remembered for a really long time. Cape Verde had been under Portuguese rule up until 1975. Its football team played the first ever match in 1978.…
Ernst Kuzorra: Belonging and playing in Nazi Germany | Part II
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…
Ernst Kuzorra: Belonging and playing in Nazi Germany | Part 1
Through the grainy monochrome of a minute-long footage from a match that happened more than ninety years ago, one can still see a robust footballer dribbling past a nagging defender with confident ease. He enters the box, which came without…