By for

Brian Clough took his European Cup winners for a coffee. Pep Lijnders ran triple sessions and tracked every heartbeat. Both won everything. So what changed?

Daniele De Rossi Delivers the Miracle of Ostiamare

By for

This has been quite some season for Daniele de Rossi. Not only has he managed to take over Genoa CFC and dragged them away from relegation but the club that he owns (and where he started playing) won promotion to the Serie C for the first time in their history. Proof that someone with De Rossi’s character, influence can stretch further than any single dugout.

Bonus Read: The Miracle of Torres Vedras

[]

The Portuguese Cup has delivered a unlikely finalist. One that will surely have most neutral rooting for it.

Ultra-high pressing isn’t dead

By Mohamed Mohamed for Transfer Flow

In a Bundesliga season shaped by tight margins (well, except for the top of the table), Hoffenheim have moved from the edge of trouble to the edge of the Champions League places. Christian Ilzer has built it on pressure without the ball, a restless, coordinated aggression that unsettles opponents and creates moments before defences can settle. It is not without risk, but it has given the team a clear identity. Understanding how it works tells you something about what modern football is still willing to become.

Most people find Cultured Football through someone else. You can be that link.

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The Challenges of Phoenix Clubs

By André Encarnação for Football Heritage

Far too many clubs across European leagues have had to learned to begin again after collapse. Phoenix clubs rebuild on memory, sustained by supporters who refuse to let identity disappear. And, whilst a few manage to thrive immediately, for the majority progress is slow and uncertain.

An Unkindness of Ravens: How Bromley became League One’s newest club

By Matt Watts for

Bromley’s rise to League One - their second promotion in three seasons - feels extremely unlikely. Built on patience and a structured plan, they have turned modest means into momentum and made Hayes Lane matter in new ways without losing the sense of place. In a game increasingly drawn to the stories of wealth, this is a reminder that success can still be built without losing your soul, and that such journeys are still worth paying attention to.

Each week on Cultured Football we pick the five great football stories from the previous seven days.

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In Case You Missed It Here’s Last Week’s Most Read: Keisuke Honda: A genuine one-off

By John Duerden for How Football Explains Asia

I had no idea that Keisuke Honda was still playing. Then again, Honda has always been one to move in directions that don’t make immediate sense. Across continents and roles, from player to unofficial coach, his path has been about resisting the idea that there is a correct place to stop. A genuinely intriguing player, may there be many more like him.

The following is an extract by Chris McMenamy from the magazine TIRO: Atalanta and published by Tiro Football. It is available for purchase here.

If this reads like a love letter that’s because it is. I’m giving you fair warning not to expect detailed analysis of Josip Iličić’s strengths and weaknesses, instead I’m taking my chance to give much deserved flowers to a footballer I’ve enjoyed watching perhaps more than any other, at least in a team I don’t support.

Football discourse deals in polarised absolutes, often failing to grasp that this is just a game to be enjoyed. Whether you prefer the entertainment of an open game or the gritty siege mentality of a 1-0 defensive masterclass, there’s something for every taste. You just have to know where to look.

My personal preference is to watch a player with grace, flaws and an ability to make the game look effortless in ways we can’t truly comprehend. Josip Iličić fits that trend, especially during his peak years in Bergamo between 2017 and 2020.

A 6 ft 3 wide attacker with the grace of a ballet dancer and precision of a laser. The ball stayed hit when Iličić put his foot through it, nothing ever done without intent despite his languid style perhaps saying otherwise.

His career reads like a Greek tragedy rewritten by an arthouse director. A late bloomer whose career reached its peak moments before circumstances out of his control forced him to almost abandon the game that gave him such joy.

A bold director would set the scene in Valencia on 10 March 2020, scoring four times as Atalanta knocked their hosts out of the Champions League in the competition’s first game to be forced behind closed doors by an intensifying COVID pandemic.

It had hit the city of Bergamo hardest, making it a ground zero for the disease in Europe. Thousands of Bergamaschi lost their lives throughout the grim year that was 2020, but Atalanta still went to Spain for a game that is now remembered as Iličić’s footballing zenith. His world came crashing down shortly after, the images on TV of Italian army personnel loading dead bodies into trucks triggering awful memories from his childhood.

Iličić was born to a Croat family in Bosnia just as the breakup of Yugoslavia began in the late 1980s. His father was murdered by a Serbian neighbour when Iličić was just a year old, prompting his family to leave the country for safer pastures in Slovenia. Seeing the bodies of those from his adopted home of Bergamo depressed Iličić to the point that he was struggling to play when football returned from COVID lockdown in the summer of 2020, so he left for Slovenia with Atalanta facing a Champions League quarter-final, the biggest game of his career to date. He didn’t play another game that season.

He’d been quietly discussed as a potential Ballon d’Or candidate prior to the enforced break, having scored for fun in a landmark Atalanta season but found himself dealing with much bigger issues than football, which famous Milan coach Arrigo Sacchi aptly once described as “the most important of the least important things”.

But rather than ponder what might have been had Iličić not been struck down by an unfortunate string of events, I’d much prefer to celebrate the ultimate romantic footballer in a time when those who take the field are often asked to be robots.

Iličić came to Atalanta in 2017 as a 29-year-old enigmatic attacker who had blown hot and cold across seven seasons in Serie A with Palermo and Fiorentina. But his new team’s boss Gian Piero Gasperini knew him from a brief spell together at Palermo four years earlier and believed that he’d found the man to take his new Atalanta attack up a notch.

He wasn’t wrong. Iličić was Atalanta’s top scorer with fifteen goals in a tough 2017/18 season and things only got better the next year when Gasperini added new signing Duvan Zapata into the mix. La Dea had Papu Gomez’s Argentine flair, Zapata’s physicality and aerial threat, then Iličić’s elegance as he painted his masterpieces.

Accused of inconsistency and laziness prior to his days at Atalanta, sometimes fairly, but Gasperini weaponised his laissez-faire approach in a team built on hard work. Iličić focused on finding space, a key tenet of their attacking philosophy, and was often deadly when he found some room to manoeuvre.

He was a luxury in a team of physical freaks, making his interventions quite divine. Atalanta’s wing-backs would make lung bursting runs, supported by the tireless midfielders and somewhere in the chaos of rapidly moving chess pieces — then the knight Iličić would strike.

The eighteen-month period from September 2018 was Iličić at his most imperious. Cristiano Ronaldo won the official MVP award in 2018/19, but Iličić was the people’s champion. This was a season that began with him in hospital with a serious lymph node infection and mental health struggles as he came to terms with the sudden death of Fiorentina teammate Davide Astori, but he rallied to fire Atalanta into the Champions League, even scoring hat-tricks at Chievo and Bologna along the way.

Iličić arguably played his best football in 2019/20, scoring for fun in whichever way pleased him — a Zidane-esque volley against Parma, a free-kick from the halfway on the way to a hat-trick against Torino. He played like he had the world at his feet and for six months he did.

He returned from his mental health issues early in the 2020/21 season and had a decent campaign, but eventually succumbed again towards the end of 2021. Gasperini managed to get him fit enough to appear late on in the last game of 2021/22, just to allow Iličić the adoration of his adopted home one last time as an Atalanta player. He terminated his contract and went home to Slovenia early in the 2022/23 season.

Football’s full of people asking what might have been had the cards not fallen the way they did, but it’s better to view Iličić’s career as similar to a band that released two unforgettable albums and called it quits.

He’s a stark reminder that footballers are human beings and not impervious to the afflictions of life, but more than anything, he’ll always be Josip Iličić. Now I’m off to watch one of his seemingly endless YouTube highlight reels because I fancy feeling pure joy.

About the Magazine: Tiro is an Italian football zine. The second edition featured forty-eight pages of football, culture, food and every other aspect of Bergamasque culture all combine to create Atalanta, the football club that is the city’s pride and joy.

About the Author: Chris McMenamy is the founder of TIRO Football, a platform dedicated to Italian football, established in 2020. He is also a Staff Writer at The Square Ball, the award-winning Leeds United fanzine, which also produces a podcast and blog. Alongside this, he works as a freelance writer and copywriter, with experience across print and digital formats.

Each week on Cultured Football we pick the five best football stories from the previous seven days so you can skip the scroll.

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By Jordan P Hickey for Longreads

In a high school stadium in Arkansas, far from the Pacific, the Marshall Islands men’s national team came into existence. Drawn from a scattered diaspora, many meeting for the first time, they gathered not just to play but to define what representing a nation could mean. A beautiful story about beginnings and how football can still bring people together.

The Rise Of Sant Andreu

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It is not easy to forge your own identity when you’re playing in the shadow of a giant like FC Barcelona. UE Sant Andreu are managing, however, attracting thousands to home games despite playing in fourth tier. At least, till this season. Now promoted to the third league for the first time in a decade, the joy is tinged with worry over where the club can exist next, and whether growth can remain rooted without losing the ground that made it matter.

Bonus Read: Seven games to go and half the league at risk — Who is going down?

[Mark Sochon x La Liga Expert]

This is a bit more topical than usual picks but the relegation battle in Spain this season is too intriguing to pass by.

How does Germany produce such good goalkeepers?

By for The Goalkeeper

Across decades of German football, the figure in goal has rarely been an afterthought. Shaped by strong personalities and visible lineage, this is a culture that treats the role with unusual seriousness. That is why Germany has always produced great goalkeepers. Even so shifting structures now leave that tradition feeling less certain than it once did.

Keisuke Honda: A genuine one-off

By for How Football Explains Asia

I had no idea that Keisuke Honda was still playing. Then again, Honda has always been one to move in directions that don’t make immediate sense. Across continents and roles, from player to unofficial coach, his path has been about resisting the idea that there is a correct place to stop. A genuinely intriguing player, may there be many more like him.

Short Term-ism In Football

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In football patience is spoken about more than it is practiced, and only a few clubs manage to hold their nerve long enough to turn intention into something that can endure. Football clubs speak endlessly about vision and identity, yet the moment results turn, the reset button gets pressed.

Bonus Read: Marco Rose to Bournemouth: Why Coach Influenced by Klopp, Tuchel and Rangnick Makes Sense for Cherries

[David Segar x The Analyst]

One club that always sticks to its plans is Bournemouth. They have moved quickly to replace Andoni Iraola with Marco Rose. Unlike Iraola, however, Rose has had a few disappointing spells in recent past. What made Bournemouth certain he is the man for them?

Each week on Cultured Football we pick the five great football stories from the previous seven days.

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In Case You Missed It Here’s Last Week’s Most Read: My experience in professional Italian youth football (and everything that’s wrong with it)

By Federico Tomadin for Serie A in depth

A LOT has been written about the demise of Italian football following the Azzuri’s failure, yet again, to make it to the World Cup. I’ve gone with this, however, the thoughts someone who spent years playing in a professional youth set-up in Italy. There is plenty of value in pundits’ expert takes but found this to be more insightful.

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In the aftermath of the First World War, the city of Fiume’s passage to Italy emerged from the instability that followed the collapse of Austria-Hungary, which left it suspended between competing national claims.

Both Italy and the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes saw it as their own, turning the port into one of the Adriatic’s most symbolic disputes. In September 1919 the poet-soldier Gabriele D’Annunzio marched in with a band of volunteers and proclaimed the Italian Regency of Carnaro, an audacious, short-lived experiment in nationalist politics and spectacle.

A year later D’Annunzio was expelled from the city by Italian troops leading to the creation of the internationally recognised Free State of Fiume, a fragile compromise that survived only a few years.

Political instability, a coup, and the rise of Mussolini in Italy paved the way for the Treaty of Rome of 27 January 1924, which dissolved the Free State: the city was annexed to Italy, while Sušak passed to Yugoslavia, fixing a border that reflected the tensions of the age.

By the time of D’Annunzio proclamation, football had already formed deep roots in the city. Club Sportivo Olimpia had been founded in 1904 with its football section beginning official activity on 25 November 1906.

In 1917, Club Sportivo Gloria was founded as a workers’ club of the city. The two sides quickly became the main rivals in local championships, representing respectively the wealthier and the more popular classes of Fiume.

All this changed in 1926 when both teams were compelled to join forces to form Unione Sportiva Fiumana.

The origins of the merger, as with many others that took place around the same time, were rooted in the deep crisis that shook the FIGC in the spring of that year, a moment the fascist regime used to reshape Italian football along new political and organisational lines.

The Viareggio Charter of 2 August that year created the Divisione Nazionale, the direct forerunner of Serie A, and promoted a model based on stronger, unified urban clubs. Internal rivalries were seen as wasteful and socially divisive; in their place the regime ‘encouraged’ mergers that would mirror its ideal of collective discipline.

In a border city such as Fiume, where questions of identity were already politically charged, the policy was applied with particular speed.

There was, however, also a clear sporting logic. By bringing together the two strongest local sides, the city aimed to present a single, competitive representative capable of holding its own at national level, especially after the construction of a new stadium gave Fiume a stage worthy of higher ambitions.

That stadium, opened in 1925 in the Borgomarina district, had been carved dramatically out of the mountainside. Known in the Italian years as the Stadio Comunale del Littorio and today as Kantrida, it became the physical and symbolic home of the new entity.

The club’s identity drew consciously on the recent past: its cardinal red, blue and yellow colours echoed the tricolour of the former Free State of Fiume. On the pitch this translated into cardinal red shirts, blue shorts and blue socks trimmed with maroon and yellow.

The team began its life in the interregional Prima Divisione, then the second tier of Italian football, carrying with it both the weight of political design and the more familiar, universal hope that unity might bring sporting strength.

On the field the new club grew into its role with a mixture of steady progress and abrupt turns that mirrored the volatility of the era. In its first championship, 1926–27, Fiumana finished fifth in Group B of the Prima Divisione, a respectable placing that suggested consolidation rather than immediate prominence. The following season brought a sharper rise: third place out of ten and, above all, victory in the Coppa Federale, the first tangible silverware for the unified side and a sign that the project carried real competitive weight.

Its entry into the expanded Divisione Nazionale in 1928–29 came not only through sporting merit but through politics. Initially excluded, Fiumana was admitted at the last moment to replace the vacancy created by the enforced merger of Inter and US Milanese, part of a broader strategy to strengthen the presence of clubs from the “redeemed lands” on the national stage.

Yet the step up proved too demanding. A fourteenth-place finish consigned the team to relegation to the newly formed Serie B, and a year later, after finishing bottom, it slipped back into the interregional world.

It was in this third tier that Fiumana spent most of the 1930s, first the Prima Divisione, then, from 1935, Serie C. There was to be on final ascent, however, as the Serie C title of 1940–41 returned the club to Serie B, only for survival to be missed by two points the following year, behind Savona.

War, however, was already closing in.

The 1942–43 Serie C campaign, which saw US Fiumana finish in an honourable third place, became the last Italian championship the club would play.

In the spring of 1943 Fiumana dissolved, its story ending quietly after a 4–1 victory over Vittorio Veneto on 14 March.

The war brought to an end not only a championship but an entire civic and cultural framework. After the Italian armistice of September 1943, Fiume passed under German occupation, becoming part of the collapsing architecture of the Axis frontier. The change was abrupt and heavy with uncertainty, and when Tito’s Yugoslav army entered the city in May 1945 it marked the definitive end of Italian rule and of the world in which Fiumana had been created.

The political settlement followed soon after. The Treaty of Paris in 1947 formally transferred Fiume and the whole of Istria from Italy to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, turning a military reality into an internationally recognised border. What had been a contested Adriatic city for decades now began a new life under a different name, Rijeka, and within a different state.

The transition was not merely administrative but reshaped the human geography of the city. Between twenty and thirty-eight thousand Italians - from a city that had previously contained around sixty thousand souls - left in the years that followed, part of the wider Istrian exodus that emptied the city.

In 1948 the former Yugoslav suburb of Sušak was formally merged with Rijeka, completing a process that created a single, unified city out of what had long been divided space. What emerged was not simply a renamed Fiume, but a new place, carrying within it the layered memory of the one that had disappeared.

Football still managed to survive. In 1946 the local Trade Union Representative Team looked to take part in the new Yugoslav championship that was due to begin the following autumn despite the city of Fiume designation as a military occupation zone.

Participation in the competition could only be achieved with a name and a legal identity that would be acceptable to the new authorities; continuing with the US Fiumana was not an option.

The solution was to found a new club, Società Cultura Fisica Quarnero a deliberately neutral title that, soon afterwards, was joined by its Croatian form, Kvarner, making the institution officially bilingual.

In substance, it was a continuation. The founding members, players and directors of Fiumana passed almost entirely into the new entity.

That fragile balance between languages and identities lasted less than a decade. In 1954, at a moment of heightened tension between Italy and Yugoslavia, the Titoist authorities abolished the city’s bilingual status. The club was compelled to follow suit, dropping the dual name and becoming simply Rijeka; a final, symbolic step in the long transition from the world in which Fiumana had once played.

And yet, the story of US Fiumana still echoes on. HNK Rijeka, the club that replaced it and changed the kit to an all white one, would go on to win Rijeka two Croatian First Football League titles, two Yugoslav Cups and seven Croatian Cups. Its official year of foundation, however, remains 1904, a quiet but telling acknowledgement that the teams which represented the city in different states, languages and championships all belong to the same unbroken narrative.

Honours Won:

Coppa Federale Winners: 1927–28

Serie C Winners: 1940–41

Serie C Second place: 1942–43 (Group A)

Prima Divisione Second place: 1934–35 (Group A)

Each week on Cultured Football we pick the five great football stories from the previous seven days.

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Late March in the plains of northern Serbia brings lower-league football back to life, where village derbies carry names that echo far beyond their fields. Across Vojvodina, clubs hold traces of migration, language and memory, their identities shaped as much by history as by results.

High‑Risk, High‑Reward: Dick Schreuder’s Intense Football Philosophy Is Rewriting History for N.E.C.

By Joris Van Den Ban for The Analyst

Long overshadowed by the giants of Dutch football, N.E.C. Nijmegen now find themselves on the brink of a season that could bring silverware and a first genuine breakthrough in Europe. Much of it is down to manager Dick Schreuder.

My experience in professional Italian youth football (and everything that’s wrong with it)

By Federico Tomadin for

A LOT has been written about the demise of Italian football following the Azzuri’s failure, yet again, to make it to the World Cup. I’ve gone with this, however, the thoughts someone who spent years playing in a professional youth set-up in Italy. There is plenty of value in pundits’ expert takes but found this to be more insightful.

Share Cultured Football

How Manchester City Grew a Die-Hard Fanbase in Uganda

By Adam Marrett for Esteemed Kompany

There is no doubt that Manchester City’s successes have won them admirers from all over the world. Yet the passion for them from Uganda seem to be on a different level. How and why?

From shame to pride - inside Europe’s most exciting league

By Guillame Balague for the BBC

With spring closing in, Poland’s Ekstraklasa where those at the top and the bottom are bunched together. Years of investment, modernisation and renewed belief have lifted attendances and raised standards, restoring a sense of pride in the domestic game. Still the doubts remain whether competitiveness alone is enough to carry Polish football forward.

Each week on Cultured Football we pick the five great football stories from the previous seven days.

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In Case You Missed It Here’s Last Week’s Most Read: AGF Aarhus’ Story: What made the Danish “sleeping giant” suddenly wake up?

By Bergas Brillianto for Analytics FC

Aarhus has long seen itself as something bigger than its recent past; a club with memory but little to show for it. Now, despite lacking any obvious financial strength or star power, that gap is closing.

By for

It may be difficult to imagine now, but one of the most revered football shirts of all time was met with uncertainty on its release. Now considered a classic, in 1990 West Germany’s kit marked a move away from tradition, shaped as it was by an outsider’s perspective and emerging technology. For some, it was quite simply too much.

AGF Aarhus’ Story: What made the Danish “sleeping giant” suddenly wake up?

By Bergas Brillianto for Analytics FC

Aarhus has long seen itself as something bigger than its recent past; a club with memory but little to show for it. Now, despite lacking any obvious financial strength or star power, that gap is closing.

The Yellow Wall is Dortmund’s only real (glorious) tourist attraction

By Uli Hesse for Glory / Football 365

When you’re from Paris, people will often ask you about art, fashion and food. When you’re from Rome, you will regularly have to answer questions about landmarks, history or architecture. When you’re from London, conversations might turn to music, films or museums. But when you’re from Dortmund, there is only ever one thing non-locals are interested in – football.

The unlikely story of the first English manager to reach a World Cup final

By Chris Evans for The Set Pieces / The Guardian

In England, George Raynor struggled even to receive a reply when a job opened up. Abroad, he built one of international football’s most remarkable records, winning an Olympic gold and reaching a World Cup final. To this day, however, recognition at home has never followed.

The Egyptian King

By for Dan Krishan

There are players you admire and players who come to define your life as a supporter. Mohamed Salah became the latter at Liverpool. Records explain part of his emotional pull, but not all of it. Now he is leaving, and with him goes a way of experiencing the game for a generation of fans.

Each week on Cultured Football we pick the five great football stories from the previous seven days.

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In Case You Missed It Here’s Last Week’s Most Read: Everything Frank McCourt touches turns to crap

By Brendan Dentino for Out in Left

In modern football ownership, wealth often arrives with promises of revival and ambition. Yet the distance between money and stewardship can be vast. The career of Frank McCourt offers a stark example of that, where clubs become stages for financial ambition rather than sporting care.

Bonus Read: Botafogo on the brink: From South America’s champions to relegation candidates

[Nathan Joyes for The Copa Club]

Poorly though McCourt’s teams do, that is nothing compared to what John Textor seemingly does at every club he owns.

By for

I love a good underdog story and that of Recoleta FC certainly is one. The club from an area mostly known for a cemetery and a women’s prison, they’ve experienced a recent upturn in fortune that will see them play continental football for the first time.

The Accidental Hero of El Salvador

By for

Vladan Vićević arrived in El Salvado as an outsider but became something much more than that, carried by circumstance, conviction and a country willing to claim him. This is the story of how, in a country where the game can feel like a matter of national pride, a Serbian defender found himself unexpectedly at the centre of it all.

How assistant managers handle players, personal ambition

By Tom Hamilton for ESPN

Assistants managers occupy the space between; carrying ideas, sharing thoughts and acting as the bridge with the players. Their influence is constant but rarely visible, built on trust, timing and restraint, and measured less by recognition than by the stability they help create around others.

BUY TIRO ISSUE TWO

Superstition

By Jonee for Football Heritage

In a sport that now measures and tries to explains almost everything, superstition still thrives. Football’s rituals, whether private, collective or inherited, reveal how players, managers and supporters try to live with uncertainty and stay close to hope.

Everything Frank McCourt touches turns to crap

By for

In modern football ownership, wealth often arrives with promises of revival and ambition. Yet the distance between money and stewardship can be vast. The career of Frank McCourt offers a stark example of that, where clubs become stages for financial ambition rather than sporting care.

Bonus Read: Botafogo on the brink: From South America’s champions to relegation candidates

[ for ]

Poorly though McCourt’s teams do, that is nothing compared to what John Textor seemingly does at every club he owns.

Each week on Cultured Football we pick the five great football stories from the previous seven days.

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In Case You Missed It Here’s Last Week’s Most Read: How a kid from Northampton earned a Barcelona trial while on holiday.

By Jack Kenmare for Sports Bible

A family trip to Barcelona once gave a seven year old from Northampton an unlikely route into football’s grandest academy. And whilst that was something of a fairytale, the ending wasn’t exactly one you’d see scripted in a movie.

By for

Few careers in football have wandered as widely as that of German goalkeeper Lutz Pfannenstiel. From lower league England to distant corners of the global game, his is a path shaped by an insatiable appetite for experience. The result has been a life marked by brushes with danger, flashes of absurdity and the determination needed to keep moving through football’s farthest outposts.

How a kid from Northampton earned a Barcelona trial while on holiday.

By Jack Kenmare for Sports Bible

A family trip to Barcelona once gave a seven year old from Northampton an unlikely route into football’s grandest academy. And whilst that was something of a fairytale, the ending wasn’t exactly one you’d see scripted in a movie.

Who Protects Young Players When It All Goes Wrong?

By

Should managers be expected to look after the mental health of the players they lead? Especially when there are young players involved?

BUY TIRO ISSUE TWO

Premier League to Isthmian League: My Story

By Jacob Waller via for

For Jacob Waller, following West Ham was what he did; what his family did. Yet a return to a small ground in Sittingbourne reopened another version of football, one built on volunteers, familiar faces and shared effort. The shift to a game that felt closer than ever began on that day.

Bonus Read: On Football, Localism and Pub Pianos

[]

This is a reflection on localism, on the value of smaller clubs and amateur fields, where the meaning of sport lies less in spectacle and more in shared belonging.

San Diego Maradona

By

On the streets, Diego Maradona moved through crowds that seemed to swallow him whole, every outstretched hand reaching for a fragment of the legend. Fame offered adoration but little peace. On the pitch he found brief clarity, yet even there the myth was already forming. The man and the icon slowly separated, until Maradona the symbol began to eclipse Diego the person.

Each week on Cultured Football we pick the five great football stories from the previous seven days.

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In Case You Missed It Here’s Last Week’s Most Read: Is Serie A really ‘disappearing’?

By Simon Binns for More Than Just Football

Once the centre of football’s global imagination, Serie A now lives in a different landscape. The league still carries the weight of its history yet attention seems to have shifted elsewhere.

By for

Once the centre of football’s global imagination, Serie A now lives in a different landscape. The league still carries the weight of its history yet attention seems to have shifted elsewhere.

Uncommon People

By Mike Bayly for Terrace Edition

In a quiet corner of south Manchester, far from the spectacle of the professional game, West Didsbury & Chorlton have quietly built something rare: crowds grow, songs travel beyond the terraces and a small ground begins to feel like a gathering place. If you’re looking for an antidote to the football of the Premier League, this must be it.

Monchi and San Fernando: Redemption

By for

On the island of San Fernando, just across the water from Cádiz, football is finding its way back. After the sudden liquidation of their club, the community restarted in the ninth tier and the first promotion has been ticked off. At the heart of everything is Monchi, a man who has built the success of many others but is now working for the happiness of his own people.

Ferry Days And Step 5 Dreams

By for How The Game is Lived

On the Isle of Man, football has always lived with a quiet sense of distance. By joining the English pyramid, FC Isle of Man pushed away from that isolation. Ferry crossings, crowded stands and long weekends on the mainland now shape the club.

Why Jesse Lingard has left Seoul for Sao Paulo

By Nathan Joyes for

Few careers travel as unpredictably in football as Jesse Lingard’s. From Manchester to Seoul and now São Paulo, his path has rarely followed the expected route. Brazil offers another unfamiliar stage, one that seems shaped by ambition as much as revival.

Each week on Cultured Football we pick the five great football stories from the previous seven days.

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In Case You Missed It Here’s Last Week’s Most Read: The Worst Premier League Season Ever

By Steve AQ for CannonIQ

That this is the worst Premier League season ever has been a familiar refrain these past few months. Which, I guess, means that people have forgotten how last season was labelled as the weakest Premier League season ever. Still, beyond the usual exaggerations, there might be something to the complaints.

By & for

In Belgium clubs work in the knowledge that there is a value beyond the final result in every appearance. Players are brought through and given chances with the exit already in mind. Yet, despite the transactional nature of it all, this is a competition that seems to have made peace with its place.

Ellison’s turnstiles: The unsung Salford invention hidden in plain sight across Britain

By for

At grounds across Britain, the match still begins with a narrow passage and a mechanical rhythm first cast in Salford. The turnstile was designed to count bodies and control the crowd. Somewhere along the line, it became the most personal part of the experience.

The Worst Premier League Season Ever

By for

That this is the worst Premier League season ever has been a familiar refrain these past few months. Which, I guess, means that people have forgotten how last season was labelled as the weakest Premier League season ever. Still, beyond the usual exaggerations, there might be something to the complaints.

The Hawthorns: Where love goes to die

By for

This, if you haven’t been watching, is turning out to be a bad season for West Bromwich Albion. And it threatens to get even worse. In the meantime, a club long sustained by effort, characters and shared defiance now watches a team that seems to return nothing of the feeling invested in it.

A Glimt in the eye: if the plucky Norwegians can do it, why can’t we?

By Max Rushden for the Guardian

In the Champions League, Bodø/Glimt have briefly made the hierarchy feel negotiable. A small-town side, run with rare competence, are beating opponents who normally turn nights like this into formality. For a moment, the dream feels so real that others are sharing it.

Bonus Read: Why Fulham’s Premier League success may have hit a glass ceiling

[ x ]

A counter-point to Bodo-Glimt’s success are the new rules in the Premier League that seemingly limit a club like Fulham from progressing.

Each week on Cultured Football we pick the five great football stories from the previous seven days.

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In Case You Missed It Here’s Last Week’s Most Read: Soccer managers’ latest source of inspiration? The rugby pitch.

By Tom Hamilton for ESPN

Purists might not like it but football has a lot to learn from rugby. That some leading managers are already borrowing ideas off it is proof enough of that.

By Tom Hamilton for ESPN

Purists might not like it but football has a lot to learn from rugby. That some leading managers are already borrowing ideas off it is proof enough of that.

Remembering Siniša Mihajlović

By for

In the football memory of a country that no longer exists, Siniša Mihajlović remains a figure both unifying and unresolved. His left foot, his temper, his loyalties and contradictions carried the marks of the place that formed him, while his final struggle was faced with the same defiance as a free kick on the edge of the area.

Lleida CF: A fight for survival

By for

In the crowded landscape of Catalan football, Lleida live with the threat of disappearance for a second time in a generation. Between municipal pressure, a rival project with money, and unpaid debts, the club survives on reduced means and collective will.

Bonus Read: Celta’s Vigorous Approach to Youth is Flying Under the Radar

[Charlie Rhodes x ]

Not enough is being made of the club that is giving 40% of minutes played to home grown players.

Why is Uruguay so good at football?

By

In Montevideo the pace might be unhurried, but football sits at the centre of the national story. Uruguay’s triumphs feel less like miracles than the legacy of a moment when wealth, reform and leisure combined to give the game purpose and prestige. The old stadiums, the duopoly of Nacional and Peñarol, and the lingering myths all point to a country that once shaped the sport and still measures itself against that memory.

How do Brentford keep appointing the right managers?

By Simon Stone for the BBC

In a league that increasingly devours managers and demands instant change, Brentford move to a different rhythm. Successive appointments emerge from within a structure that outlives any individual, where continuity matters more than reputation and expectation is carefully managed.

Bonus Read: Why Spurs Fans Turned Against Thomas Frank

[ x ]

Thomas Frank must have known that leaving the ideal football project for a big club was going to be hard. But he underestimated just how hard it was going to be.

Each week on Cultured Football we pick the five great football stories from the previous seven days.

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In Case You Missed It Here’s Last Week’s Most Read: Before Data Departments, Football’s Greatest Managers Were Already Running Systems

By James Callan for How the Game is Lived

Long before performance departments formalised process, certain managers had already turned training grounds into laboratories of repeatable behaviour and quiet control. Their teams moved with an internal logic that outlived results and eras. Crucially, they were given the time to do so.

By for How the Game is Lived

Long before performance departments formalised process, certain managers had already turned training grounds into laboratories of repeatable behaviour and quiet control. Their teams moved with an internal logic that outlived results and eras. Crucially, they were given the time to do so.

The Importance of the Matchday Programme

Jacob Waller for

In an era where most of the matchday is experienced on a screen, the printed programme remains a steady reference point around the ground and beyond it. It records who we were, how clubs function, and the voluntary work that sustains the lower leagues. Yet their value lies not in nostalgia alone, but in the small, physical proof that a Saturday afternoon once belonged to you.

Is Gegenpressing Dying - or Simply Evolving?

By for

As the season stretches under a heavier calendar, the sight of teams hunting in packs has given way to something more calculated. The counter-press still shapes elite matches, but now appears in brief, rehearsed phases rather than as a permanent state. The idea remains, only the rhythm has changed.

New study reveals how stressful footy fandom can be

By David Mark for ABC News

Ever joked after a tense match that the game is going to kill you? Well, probably you’re not that wrong.

Premier League’s 50 worst transfers of all time

By Bill Connelly for ESPN

The next time anyone counters an argument with the phrase “these people work in football so they probably know about it more than you do”, just show them this list of the worst transfers in the Premier League. Before you read it, here’s a fun exercise: who would be your number 1? How does it rate alongside that chosen by ESPN?

Each week on Cultured Football we pick the five great football stories from the previous seven days.

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In Case You Missed It Here’s Last Week’s Most Read: What future for Europe’s “mezzanine” clubs?

By Neil Fredrik Jensen for Game of the People

There is a group of clubs who are powerful at home, historic in name but no longer in a position to dream of winning the major continental competitions. From Glasgow to Lisbon and Amsterdam, the question is the same: how to grow without losing identity, and whether relevance can still be enough in a game reshaped by money.

By for

If you don’t enjoy an article about a club called Club Sportivo 2 de Mayo (Sporting Club 2nd of May) with a nickname of Northern Cock and their debut in the Copa Libertadores, what do you enjoy?

What future for Europe’s “mezzanine” clubs?

By Neil Fredrik Jensen for Game of the People

There is a group of clubs who are powerful at home, historic in name but no longer in a position to dream of winning the major continental competitions. From Glasgow to Lisbon and Amsterdam, the question is the same: how to grow without losing identity, and whether relevance can still be enough in a game reshaped by money.

Is it a Problem That Spurs Score So Many Wondergoals?

By Ali Tweadale for The Analyst

Tottenham have struggled to score this season yet few sides have produced so many unforgettable goals. Bicycles, scorpions and long-range strikes have punctured an otherwise bleak season. Such brilliance can mask structural flaws, but it rarely sustains success. For Spurs, the danger is mistaking moments of magic for a working attack.

How to make a Premier League goalkeeper

By Sam Hudspith for The Goalkeeper

At Liverpool FC, goalkeeper development is built on patience rather than prophecy. For Mark Morris, progress is uneven, individuality non-negotiable, and readiness judged as much by mentality as technique. Big saves still matter most, but so does knowing when a career needs time. In an era obsessed with shortcuts, it is the quiet work that remains decisive.

Crash

By Jamie Hamilton on Medium

Modern football is obsessed with speed, especially the speed of decisions. Training is stripped of options, perception narrowed, habits drilled until choice almost disappears. The promise is efficiency; the cost may be imagination. As attacking systems collide with equally optimised defences, the game begins to buckle under its own logic, leaving a nagging question about what is lost when acceleration becomes the point.

In Case You Missed It Here’s Last Week’s Most Read: Brasileirão 2026 Preview: Everything you need to know

By Nathan Jones for The Copa Club

Want to know which former Crystal Palace winger will be lining up for Chapecoense in this year’s Brazilian league? Or which player looks to be next to emerge from the Palmeiras production line? A look at the stories, names and threads worth following as the Brasileirão kicks off.

By Leire Martinez for Football Heritage

La Liga rarely leaves room for clubs like Deportivo Alavés who live on the margins, shaped by proximity to giants and long stretches of anonymity. One spring night in 2001, that order briefly dissolved in a European final that felt both improbable and unreal. The result was an evening that remains a reminder of how far belief can carry the humble.

Bonus Read: Are we seeing the return of Malaga?

[ x La Liga and Beyond]

Malaga once tasted nights of glory in the Champions League and threatened to disrupt the historical hierarchy of Spanish football. Then reality kicked in with a vengeance. After a long, dark period, however, they could be on their way back.

Is Versatility Quietly Hindering Korean Players?

By for

In Europe’s top leagues, versatility is treated as a virtue. For a growing group of Korean players, it may also be a quiet constraint.

Brasileirão 2026 Preview: Everything you need to know

By Nathan Jones for

Want to know which former Crystal Palace winger will be lining up for Chapecoense in this year’s Brazilian league? Or which player looks to be next to emerge from the Palmeiras production line? A look at the stories, names and threads worth following as the Brasileirão kicks off.

Debt, doubt and a dancing No.9

By for

Lyon have spent the past year staring into the financial abyss, shedding players, trust, and certainty. Survival was all that mattered. A rebuilt spine, calm leadership, and a young Brazilian scoring freely have improved their mood. After so much fear, Lyon are allowed to feel joy again.

Bonus Read: Montpellier HSC: The Rise and Fall of a Southern Underdog

[]

Montpellier were once the authors of one of French football’s great stories. Since then, life has been one of steady regression.

Passion, prospects and a thrilling title race: why Polish football is booming

By Nick Ames for the Guardian

Winter has returned to Poland, but the league feels anything but frozen. With crowds growing, money steadier, and an impossibly tight title race is impossibly tight, the Ekstraklasa is booming. And whilst the football is raw there is a sense lingers that something long dormant is finally stirring.

In Case You Missed It Here’s Last Week’s Most Read: ‘Tout in Haut de Ch’Terril’: The Incredible Half-Season of RC Lens

By Luca Lamanna for The Ligue 1 Story

For once, Paris Saint-Germain aren’t running away with the French league. Instead, Lens sit atop Ligue 1, and it is hard not to fall for underdogs from a small town carried there by a blend of tactical clarity, late-career revivals, and data-smart recruitment. It might not last but, for now, it feels like something truly special is happening in Artois.

By for The Ligue 1 Story

For once, Paris Saint-Germain aren’t running away with the French league. Instead, Lens sit atop Ligue 1, and it is hard not to fall for underdogs from a small town carried there by a blend of tactical clarity, late-career revivals, and data-smart recruitment. It might not last but, for now, it feels like something truly special is happening in Artois.

Motherwell are Amazing... and no one is Talking About it.

By for

While the spotlight stays on the Old Firm and Hearts, a quieter story is unfolding in the Premiership. Motherwell have reshaped themselves with patience and intent, trading chaos for clarity under a new hand. Results, control, and a growing sense of belief have followed, even when few are watching.

Chievo Verona: The Donkeys Who Dared to Fly

By

In a city ruled by tradition, a parish club from Verona’s industrial edge learned how to defy it. Chievo rose from anonymity to unsettle Serie A, built an identity that outlived collapse, and found a way back after disappearance. Theirs is a story of stubborn belief, modest ambition, and a small club refusing to vanish when the lights went out.

Premier League sporting directors: who are they, and how much power do they all have?

By Various for the Guardian

Sporting Directors are everywhere. Or so it seems. Because, whilst most clubs seem to have someone in that role, they don’t all hold an equal say in how things are run.

Chelsea, Clearlake, and the Lie We Tell Ourselves

By for

“Even Chelsea — one of the biggest commercial machines in world football — can run a monstrous operating loss. Which tells you something pretty fundamental about the economics of the sport at the top end.” Many Chelsea fans aren’t happy with the the way that the club is being run. This brutally honest piece won’t change those sentiments.

In Case You Missed It Here’s Last Week’s Most Read: Klopp’s Red Bull role has grown much bigger than first anticipated

By Constantin Ecker for ESPN

What was assumed to be a ceremonial Red Bull role for Jurgen Klopp has evolved into deep involvement and hard decisions across a sprawling multi club network. Influence now stretches from transfer calls to sackings, blurring lines between coach, executive, and fixer. Stepping away from the touchline clearly did not mean stepping back.

By Constantin Ecker for ESPN

What was assumed to be a ceremonial Red Bull role for Jurgen Klopp has evolved into deep involvement and hard decisions across a sprawling multi club network. Influence now stretches from transfer calls to sackings, blurring lines between coach, executive, and fixer. Stepping away from the touchline clearly did not mean stepping back.

Behind the Great Firewall, the Beautiful Game is Far From Dead

By for

Perhaps football’s obituary in China has been written far too early. The era of vanity signings and thinly disguised policy project has passed, yet the game itself survives. And what remains looks more like football again.

Xabi Alonso Discovered Real Madrid Is the Impossible Job for All But Two People

By for Sports Illustrated

At Real Madrid, time is a luxury almost no one is afforded. Xabi Alonso arrived with pedigree, promise, and goodwill, yet quickly discovered that history, ego, and expectation form an unforgiving trap. When winning is the minimum requirement and patience does not exist, the job ends up being a test few are meant to survive.

The resurgence of Club Sport Marítimo

By Kevin Fernandes for PortuGoal

Marítimo are one of the few clubs to have edged out Portugal’s big three to win a league title. Yet their story is also one of distance, delay, and stubborn survival, shaped as much by geography and politics as by results. Now, with a revived identity, modern ideas, and a fanbase pulling in one direction again, the Madeiran club feels ready to make a return to the big time.

In search of Berlin football

By for

Football in Berlin hides in plain sight. Overshadowed by clubs, galleries, politics, and constant reinvention, football does not announce itself as Berlin’s defining culture. Yet beneath the surface, through amateur pitches, immigrant teams, and stubborn communities, the game quietly mirrors Berlin itself. Football in Berlin may hide in plain sight but this brilliant three part series reveals how the game thrives in the city’s margins.

In Case You Missed It Here’s Last Week’s Most Read: The Football Tourism Paradox

By Josh Bland for Against the Run of Play

Football travel promises connection but can also deliver contradiction when it exposes tensions between locals and visitors. Hard though it might be to admit, there exists the reality that it quietly dilutes the very cultures it seeks to celebrate.

By for the BBC

Eintracht Frankfurt have made a habit of identifying attacking talent early: Randal Kolo Muani, Omar Marmoush and Hugo Ekitike all rose to prominence in Frankfurt. Their latest project is Younes Ebnoutalib, who in the spell of eight months went from the regional leagues to the Bundesliga via a goal-filled spell at second tier SV Elversberg. If recent history - and a debut goal - is any guide, the question is not whether he will develop, but how long Frankfurt will be able to keep him before others decide he is ready.

No games, no league and now no City Football Group: Indian football faces up to ‘global embarrassment’

By for The Guardian

After finally taking root in the US, football’s claim of being the world’s game sounds more convincing than ever. And yet the biggest country remains untouched: India. In the world’s most populous country, a domestic league that was meant to start last September still hasn’t kicked off yet, big names are walking away, and the whole project looks increasingly chaotic.

Liam Rosenior’s Chelsea move and the breaking point for Strasbourg

By for

Everyone knew that Liam Rosenior’s spell with Strasbourg was also an audition for the bigger job at sister club Chelsea. Yet Strasbourg fans have every reason not to like it along with the reminder that the potential of success for them matters very little for those who own the club: Chelsea is all that matters.

Inside SG Sacavenense: The Lisbon Club That Lives for Its Community

By

SG Sacavenense is a club shaped by work, loyalty, and community, running youth teams, social projects, and a promotion push with the same seriousness. From academy pathways to players juggling jobs and football, this is a lovely portrait of how the game survives and thrives away from the spotlight.

The Football Tourism Paradox

By for

Football travel promises connection but can also deliver contradiction when it exposes tensions between locals and visitors. Hard though it might be to admit, there exists the reality that it quietly dilutes the very cultures it seeks to celebrate.

Each week on Cultured Football we pick the five great football stories from the previous seven days.

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In Case You Missed It Here’s Last Week’s Most Read: As Big as Chile

By Nebojša Marković for The Belgrader

I stumbled upon this piece about a football club from the small Serbian village of Žabar, formed during the COVID pandemic and drawn into an unlikely friendship with a much bigger club thousands of kilometres away. And I’m glad I did. And I’m glad I did, even if there is a melancholic ending to it.

The following is an extract from the book Girls Allowed by Nick Brown and published by Halcyon Publishing. It is available for purchase here.

The first official women’s football game in Britain, played using Football Association rules, took place on 7 May 1881. It was staged at Hibernian Park, now the site of Easter Road, the home of Hibernian. How seriously was the game taken? Both sides, you assume, wanted to win, but perhaps — in the context of public perception — it is more telling to examine how the game actually came about.

Local theatrical agent Alec Gordon, along with colleagues Charles Scholes of Blackburn and George Imbert from London, put together teams to represent Scotland and England. Aside from drumming up a bit of publicity for the organisers and the chance for each of them to form new contacts, it is also possible that the match was put on merely as a money raiser, considering that Scholes’ theatre chain had collapsed the previous year. I’m not saying that was definitively the case of course, I’m sure the gentlemen involved were all for promoting the women’s game and getting it into the public’s subconscious ...

The players that day were not, of course, actual footballers. Theatre houses and ballet schools provided the participants. The game ended in a 3-0 victory for Scotland, Lily St Clair becoming the first official goal scorer in women’s football with the other two goals added by Louise Cole and Maud Rimeford. Considering the kits that we use today — shirts, shorts, socks and boots — it is a wonder that any of the players were actually able to move, let alone play a game of football in the outfits they were given. The Scottish team were attired in blue jerseys, white knickerbockers, red stockings, red belts and high-heeled boots. They also wore blue and white cowls.

On 9 May 1881, the Glasgow Herald reported on the match, stating that there was “a considerable amount of curiosity” and that “upwards of a thousand persons watched it”. The line-ups that day were, as reproduced in the Herald: Scotland: Ethel Hay (goalkeeper), Bella Osborne, Georgina Wright (backs); Rose Rayman, Isa Stevenson (half backs); Emma Wright, Louise Cole, Lily St Clair, Maud Rimeford, Carrie Balliol, Millie Brymner (forwards).

England: May Goodwin (goalkeeper); Mabel Hopewell, Maud Hopewell (backs); Maud Starling, Ada Everston (half backs); Geraldine Vintner, Mabel Vance, Eva Davenport, Minnie Hopewell, Kate Mellon, Nelly Sherwood (forwards).

A tour was arranged for these exhibition matches, with the return match being played the following week, on 16 May 1881.

This time the venue was Shawfield Ground, Glasgow, and things did not exactly go as planned. After nearly an hour’s play, with the score still 0-0, the game had to be abandoned. The reason? A report in the Nottinghamshire Guardian told the story:

“What will probably be the first and last exhibition of a female football match in Glasgow took place on Monday evening at Shawfield Grounds. Upwards of 5,000 spectators were present, and the absence of the fair sex was specially noticeable. The teams were supposed to be representative of England and Scotland, and as the Scotch team had won the recent match in Edinburgh, much excitement was thereby caused as to the result of the encounter.”

“The meagre training of the teams did not augur much for proficiency of play, and if the display of football tactics was a sorry description, it was only what might have been expected, and not much worse than some of the early efforts of our noted football clubs. The costume was suitable and at a distance the players could scarcely have been distinguished from those in ordinary football matches. The game was continued without interruption till the ends were changed but the chaff of the spectators was anything but complimentary. Cries of ‘go it Fanny’ and ‘well done Nelly’ resounded from all parts of the field, but the players went on the even tenor of their way regardless of interruptions. At last a few roughs broke into the enclosure, and as these were followed by hundreds soon after, the players were roughly jostled and had prematurely to take refuge in the omnibus which had conveyed them to the ground. Their troubles were not, however, yet ended for the crowd tore up the stakes and threw them at the departing vehicle, and but for the presence of the police, some bodily injury to the females might have occurred. The team of four grey horses was driven rapidly from the ground amid the jeers of the crowd and the players escaped with, let us hope, nothing worse than a serious fright.” It didn’t take long for crowd trouble to begin, did it?

You would have thought that that would have been the end of the ladies’ football matches, but no such thing. There is a saying that all publicity is good publicity — was that on the minds of the theatre impresario organisers? Despite the abandonment, they pressed on with their plans and headed south of the border. Just four days after being forced off and having makeshift weapons hurled at their getaway car, the players took to the field again — the show must go on, after all. This time it went on at the superbly named Hole-i’th-Wall Ground, the home of Blackburn Olympic. The match passed without incident and a 1-0 victory was had by the English.

The tour continued. Scotland secured a 2-1 win in Sheffield, there was a 1-1 draw in Liverpool followed by another Scottish victory, 3-2 in Bradford. All seemed to be going well until the touring party arrived in Manchester for a game at Cheetham Football Club on 20 June. The Manchester Evening News takes up the story:

“Last evening the female football players who, it will be remembered, were playing in Scotland a short while ago, put in an appearance on the ground of the Cheetham Football Club, Tetlow Fold, Great Cheetham Street. The time announced for commencement of proceedings was 7:30, but it was fully half an hour after that time before the players arrived on the ground. A large number of spectators were present, and although entrance money was charged the greater proportion of those in attendance managed to elude the vigilance of the gatekeepers. The match was announced as one between eleven of England and eleven of Scotland, and after some indifferent play, which lasted something like half an hour, the ring was broken into and the wildest confusion prevailed, with the players having to make good their escape.”

Another pitch invasion. At least there seemed not to have been too much violence this time.

Not to be deterred, the players returned to the ground the following evening to play the game. The next day, the Manchester Guardian printed the following report. I cannot help thinking by the opening remarks that the reporter was secretly amused, dare I say delighted, by the outcome:

“The score or so of young women who do not hesitate to gratify vulgar curiosity by taking part in what is termed a ‘ladies’ football match appeared last evening for the second time this week on the ground of the Cheetham Football Club, Tetlow Fold, Great Cheetham Street. The club however had nothing to do with the affair. The public had been invited by placard to witness a match between eleven of England and eleven of Scotland, the kick-off to take place at half past seven pm. The players, attired in a costume which is neither graceful nor very becoming, were driven to the ground in a waggonette and, as was to be expected, were followed by a crowd largely composed of youths eager to avail themselves of the opportunity presented for a little boisterous amusement.”

“Play — if kicking the ball about the field can be so described — was convinced pretty punctually. Very few persons paid for admission to the ground but a great multitude assembled in the road and struggled for a sight of what was going on within the enclosure, whilst an equally large number gathered on the higher ground on the other side of the field for a similar purpose. A number of police constables were present to maintain order and prevent anyone entering without paying, and for about an hour whilst this so-called match was being played, they succeeded. There were frequent attempts, however, to elude the constables. At length a great rush was made by those occupying the higher land and the football ground was speedily taken possession of by the mob.”

“Apprehending a repetition of the rough treatment they have met with in other parts of the country the women no sooner heard the clamour which accompanied the rush then they also took to the hills and ran to where their waggonette was standing. This they reached before the crowd could overtake them, and amid the jeers of the multitude and much disorder they were immediately driven away.”

About the Book: Girls Allowed traces the hard-won fight for women’s football in Britain, from dismissal and bans to its current status as the fastest-growing sport, while refusing to gloss over what remains unresolved. Celebratory yet cautionary, it highlights how progress in England contrasts sharply with Scotland, where only a handful of teams are fully professional and many players juggle jobs alongside football.

About the Author: Based in Cambridge, Nick Brown is the author of a number of football and travel books as well as and magazine articles. He has also presented sports programmes on local radio stations as well as being a football commentator.

Each week, Cultured Football picks five stories that inform, surprise, and remind you why the game matters, sharing football writing worth your time.

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By for

I stumbled upon this piece about a football club from the small Serbian village of Žabar, formed during the COVID pandemic and drawn into an unlikely friendship with a much bigger club thousands of kilometres away. And I’m glad I did. And I’m glad I did, even if there is a melancholic ending to it.

The Coupe De France puts Montreuil and Bayeux into the French footballing limelight

By for

Want a controversial take to start off 2026? How about the Coupe de France being a better competition than the FA Cup? It is a bold claim but recent events mean that the author isn’t without his reasons.

Bonus Read: Lens Are Making the Ligue 1 Title Race Interesting Again

[David Segar x The Analyst]

If the Coupe de France is open to upsets the same cannot be said about Ligue 1 where in recent years it has been utterly dominated by Paris St Germain. Not this year, however.

Why the trickle of homegrown Brits leaving for Europe is becoming a flood

By Tom Hamilton for ESPN

With paths from academy promise to first team certainty more limited than ever, young British players are increasingly choosing distance over patience, swapping familiar systems for minutes, responsibility and growth elsewhere. What used to feel like an exception is suddenly becoming direction.

Viz a Viz - Blyth Spartans v Hallam

By for United Lite

Football is often less about the scoreline than the feeling of being somewhere you count. A winter trip north does exactly that as it becomes an afternoon at Croft Park, taking in a struggling club, familiar non league rhythms and the small conversations that fill the gaps between action. More than the game itself, this piece is a reminder of why these places have such a hold on our imagination.

Bonus Read: Non-League Football on Boxing Day: A Cold Pint, a Warm Bobble Hat, and Eighth-Tier Football at Alder Street

[ x ]

With almost no Premier League football on Boxing Day, many opted to visit local non-league sides. Based on this, it was a blast.

Why xG Doesn’t Need Fixing (But Our Communication Might)

By for Cannon Stats

Slowly, Expected Goals has become a thing in football speak. Yet, whilst it is widely used, it doesn’t mean that it isn’t without its issues.

Each week on Cultured Football we pick the five football stories from the previous seven days that we most enjoyed reading. If that sounds like something you’d enjoy, all you have to do is…

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In Case You Missed It Here’s Last Week’s Most Read: The Myth Of The Wrexham Model

By Jordan Wise for GAMEPLAYER

If you’ve been following football as long as I have, it is hard not to feel good for the Wrexham fans who are finally seeing their club on the up after decades of struggles. Yet their success is bringing in a lot of people who are still new to the sport who feel that it is something that can be easily replicated. The kind of people who you could, unkindly, describe as having more money than sense.

At a time when AI slop has become a thing and much of what we read feels automated and disposable, Cultured Football is deliberately human in how it curates football writing. All the articles we link to are manually selected - I go through a database of 200+ sites each week to make our picks - not hidden behind paywalls and largely from independent writers. No one can pay to have an article featured on Cultured Football; I only choose the articles that I really like and think that readers will enjoy.

Incredibly, 2026 marks five years of Cultured Football. The energy that led me to press send in January of 2021 hasn’t faded, and knowing that it now lands in thousands of inboxes each week is a constant nudge to raise the bar, and to try out a few ideas I have in mind.

What won’t change is the care taken in choosing what makes it into your inbox. However it evolves, Cultured Football will continue to be shaped by curiosity, independence, and a belief that good football writing still deserves to be found.

To close out the year, the final edition will revisit the five most clicked stories. They aren’t necessarily the “best” pieces, but they are the ones that resonated most.

The Myth Of The Wrexham Model

By Jordan Wise for GAMEPLAYER

If you’ve been following football as long as I have, it is hard not to feel good for the Wrexham fans who are finally seeing their club on the up after decades of struggles. Yet their success is bringing in a lot of people who are still new to the sport who feel that it is something that can be easily replicated. The kind of people who you could, unkindly, describe as having more money than sense.

Bonus Read: Birmingham City promoted from League One under Chris Davies

[Adam Bate x Skysport]

Whilst it is still unclear where Wrexham will be playing next season, there are no such doubts for Birmingham who have run away with League 1. And that, they say, is just the start.

Football’s class appropriation problem

By Josh Bland for Against the Run of Play

Football clubs are very quick to make use of their working class origins and surroundings when it suits them. And, then, quickly ignoring them when money comes into play.

Bonus Read: CAF Champions League final: the billionaire’s club

[Ali Howorth x On The Whistle]

It isn’t just in Europe that football has become a billionaire’s playground, it is very much the same in Africa where bankrolled clubs. Two of these will vie for the CAF Champions League. One is unpopular at home; the other hated.

Is there a limit to Brighton’s transfer strategy?

By Stefan Bienkowski for Bienkowski’s Bletherings

Brighton & Hove Albion’s much-lauded recruitment model - identifying undervalued talent, developing it, and selling at a premium - has been wildly successful and transformed them into a side no one takes lightly. Yet is there a limit to this model? Can they keep repeating the trick? Evidence elsewhere suggests not.

Football needs time to breathe

By Kyle Boas for Tactics Journal

This is not a long read. But an important one.

The myth and mystery of Indy Kaila: the X account that ‘won’ the transfer window

By Rory Smith for the Observer

If you don’t know who Indy Kaila is, then I invite you to move to the next article. If you do, I think you’ll find this a fascinating read.

Each week on Cultured Football we pick the five football stories from the previous seven days that we most enjoyed reading. If that sounds like something you’d enjoy, all you have to do is…

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In Case You Missed It Here’s Last Week’s Most Read: Far have I travelled, much have I seen...

By David Marples for David Marples. A Sigh in the Wind.

“Another way to alleviate a tedious game of football is to note the weird and random advertising hoardings: Betterwave – what do you do? Is MFR Motors trustworthy? How much do EBay pay for a small board at Accrington? What exactly prompted Kellogg’s to pay for a small board? What the heck is Britcon and why are Scunthorpe so at the mercy of it? And scan hard enough – especially in the northwest – and you are never far away from a Rainham Steel advertisement.” Such a perceptive, self-aware and gently funny set of fifty observations from a fan who has completed the 92.