Cultured Football #104

Inside Emi Martinez's Mind. And more...

Inside the mind of a World Cup winner: Emi Martinez on the 'chaos' of Qatar, the pressure of penalties and 'completing football' with Lionel Messi

By Neil Jones for Goal

Not a fan of the theatrics that Aston Villa and Argentina goalkeeper Emi Martinez employs to gain an advantage at penalties. But now have a greater appreciation of his efforts after reading this article where he describes the impact of winning the World Cup final, how he prepares for penalty shootouts, and his work with a sports psychologist. Martinez explains how he tries to generate pressure for opponents in penalty shootouts to give his team-mates an edge and the benefits of working with a sports psychologist to balance out his mental game.

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Who Will Be Relegated From the Premier League in 2022-23?

By Matt Furniss for The Analyst

Can you predict who will get relegated by looking at statistics and using a super-computer to run some algorithms? I’d like to think not but we’ll truly see whether that’s the case by the end of the season.

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NXGN 2023: The 50 best wonderkids in football

By Tom Maston for Goal

In recent weeks, Goal have been going through their past lists of most promising players to identify whether these had managed to fulfill expectations or not. Now they’re back with a new list, that of the young players who will be on everyone’s lips for the coming months as being among the most promising in the world.

'I am surprised I am alive' - Everton star retired at 21, lost years to cocaine but turned life around after tragedy

By Joe Thomas for the Liverpool Echo

Billy Kenny was once considered one of England’s most exciting prospect. His football career as a star for Everton, however, was cut short due to injury, depression, and addiction to alcohol and cocaine. Despite two stints in rehab, it took the death of his mother to give him the strength to get sober. In this article, Kenny talks about his childhood in Liverpool, his rise as a footballer, and the factors that led to his addiction, as well as how his mother's death helped him turn his life around.

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Data Scouting Serie C for U24 Players: All Positions

By Ben Griffis for Cafe Tactiques

Here’s another list although one that is far more left-field than the earlier one: the best sixty players aged 24 or below in Italy’s lower leagues. Will any one of them make it to the top?

Last Week’s Most Read: NXGN: Bukayo Saka, Rodrygo and where 2020's best wonderkids are now

By Tom Maston for Goal

Three years ago, Goal selected fifty young players on the brink of greatness. Now they take a look back to see how those wonderkids have done since then. It is an exercise in how tough it is to make it to at the highest level even for those who are supremely talented.