Adventures in Soccer

One of the original Busby Babes Only three players played more games for Manchester United than Bill Foulkes — Ryan Giggs, Bobby Charlton and Paul Scholes. Bill racked up an enormously impressive 688 appearances. Born 25 miles from Old Trafford, he spent time working in a coal mine, Lea Green […]

I met him on a plane flying west to east — Los Angeles to Chicago — to attend a big and famous sporting goods trade show. A football bag I had designed was being marketed at the show. There are no two ways about it — Alf Ramsey was, and […]

Little giant from Northern Ireland The small outside right was only 5 ft. 7 ins. tall, but when he left Glentoran for Sunderland in 1950, he “worked hard at the practical and theoretical side of the game… he developed pace, strength and control to enable him to beat full-backs.” He […]

There are people in life you feel proud to have as friends. Robert (Bobby) Victor Tambling, Sussex boy (born in Storrington in 1941), is one of those in my life. Chelsea legend? Certainly. For 47 long years he was their all-time top scorer — 202 goals in all competitions. Frank […]

Whereas the term “Gentle Giant” has become more or less a cliché, John Charles of Wales was the real thing, the embodiment of fair play. Never once in his 25 years playing football was he even cautioned, let alone sent off. And yet, with all that, he is still reckoned […]

The outpouring of tributes and grief that followed Alan McLoughlin’s death from cancer was understandable. He was only 54, and as one obituarist put it, 54 is no age. His death was sad and shocking. With one educated swing of his left foot in Belfast’s Windsor Park on the 17th […]

Dalglish signed the Dundalk Defender Steve Staunton was only 17 in 1986 when Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish saw him playing for Dundalk, his hometown team. Dalglish was so impressed by the 6 ft. 1 inch young defender that he signed him for Liverpool for a fee of £20,000. Steve made […]

La Galerna del Cantabrico “Pardon my French” is a common English phrase used to excuse the use of profanity. “Pardon my Spanish” is nothing of the kind — it’s just that the above headline seems to me one of the most extraordinary nicknames any footballer anywhere was ever given. It […]

Why call him “Amazing”? Well, read on! He spent 16 years at Spurs — 1982 until 1998 — and was the club captain for 11 years — from 1987 to 1998. His overall number of appearances for Spurs amounted to 477, and though he mostly played in central defence, he […]

1 LESS GOALS CONCEDED 2 MORE GOALS SCORED 3 M0RE ASSISTS 4 MORE CHANCES TO PLAY FORWARD AND LESS SIDE TO SIDE 5 STOPS PLAYING IN THE ONE DIRECTION 6 MORE OPTIONS TO TACKLE CORRECTLY,USING EITHER FOOT THUS REDUCING FOULS / INJURY. 7 MORE FIRST TIME CROSSES 8 BETTER MORE […]

One of the problems in writing about Alex Ferguson is, where do you begin? Another is, where and when to end? After all, he was the most successful manager in British football history. His achievements and statistics with Manchester United are awesome. They won 13 (thirteen) Premiership League titles, and […]

  As Max Bygraves used to say:  “I wanna tell you a story.” But first let me say that football player, club manager (currently of Cardiff City) and international manager Mick McCarthy’s accomplishments and honours speak for themselves. Some time maybe I’ll come back to that and spell them out. […]

Pat Crerand is nearly always referred to as “Irish-Scottish”. Pat’s father, Michael, from Newtownstewart in County Tyrone, didn’t live long enough for Pat to get to know him. He was killed when a German plane dumped a load of bombs on John Brown’s shipyard in Clydebank on the night of […]

O.K., so his proper full name is David Robert Joseph Beckham, and he comes from the East End of London. But it was his wife Victoria (“Posh” from the Spice Girls) who gave him his nickname. Whether it had anything to do with soccer, or otherwise, is a matter of […]

Jock Stein was the son and grandson of coal miners, and he himself worked down the mines until the age of 27. It was only then he switched to professional football in his beloved native country, Scotland. But it was as a manager that he left his greatest mark on […]

“The Ultimate Goalscorer” — that’s just one of the many complimentary nicknames given to the great Scotsman who graced the game of football at Manchester’s legendary two top clubs — Manchester City and Manchester United. I feel proud and privileged to have both seen him play, and met him in […]

The nickname the British press gave him had a lot to do with his blinding speed and his “killer instinct.” Echoing Kenny Dalglish’s “He could play a bit” comment about Pele, so, too could Eusebio. He certainly could “run a bit”, and by heavens could he “score goals a bit.”Let’s […]

After Bob Paisley took over as manager of Liverpool, his very first signing was Phil Neal. And Phil would go on to play 365 consecutive league games for the club. Note that word “consecutive”. It is a phenomenal statistic — to play 365 games one right after the other, no […]

Newry in County Down has produced quite a number of people distinguished by their association with sport. The founder of the GAA, for instance, Michael Cusack, was born there. So also was golfer Ronan Rafferty, and former British Heavyweight Boxing champion Danny Macalinden.However there are those who will tell you […]

John Giles said that Franz Beckenbauer was “just unbelievable.” Giles knew what he was talking about — he had played against the great German, the inventor of the modern sweeper role in football, the libero.Asked why players didn’t get stuck into Beckenbauer, Giles said, “Like all great players, he gave […]