Cultured Football #244

Big in Chile. Coupe of Glory. Brit Kids Leaving. Non League Beauty. xG Pains.

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.

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

By Simon Binns for More Than Just Football

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.

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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.

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Viz a Viz - Blyth Spartans v Hallam

By Ian Rands 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

[Drew Farmer x Drew FC]

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

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

By Scott Willis 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.

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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.

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