Cultured Football #92

Pele: a Transcendent Gift to the World, and more...

Dec 31, 2022

By Jonathan Wilson for Sports Illustrated

Only the passing of a true great like Pele could bring the game of football to a standstill. Every news outlet around the world issued its own obituary but few managed to capture his impact as well as this.

God's Own Country Welcomes America

By Dan Friedman for Howler

There is a growing American influence at Leeds United, both on and off the pitch. The arrival of talents like Brenden Aaronson and Tyler Adams has created a positive feeling but it will likely be the impact of the American group who could take over the club in 2024 that will likely determine how these recent arrivals are viewed long term. Given that one main interest seems to be the possibility of building a mall near Elland Road, perhaps it would be for the best if Leeds fans kept their guards up.

Using Transition Metrics To Scout For Liverpool's Midfield

By James Nalton for Analytics FC

If you have a Liverpool fan in your life you’ll probably have been subjected to a rant or two about how desperately they need to add a midfielder. But, Liverpool being Liverpool, they don’t buy any player without taking a deep look at their stats. So it is rather fortuitous that James Nalton has done just that to identify possible candidates. Share this with your Liverpool supporting mate so they can drop some of the names mentioned in their next rant.

Spurs Are Back But Nothing Much Changes

By Alan Fisher for Tottenham On My Mind

As with all other English clubs, Tottenham returned back to action this week and the picked up where they left off. Which is not a positive thing. Most, Spurs fans were actually hoping that the World Cup break would help some of the issues they’d faced in the first part of the season. Sadly for them, that hasn’t happened (yet, at least) and the feeling once more is that they’re in some sort of a cross-roads.

Eliesse Ben Seghir, 17, scores stunning brace on league debut for Monaco

By Ben Church for CNN

“The teenager is yet to be added to the first-team squad on Monaco’s website but you would never have guessed it in the way he took center stage against Auxerre”: on Eliesse Ben Seghir, yet another bright talent to emerge from French football.

Something Else We Loved This Week

There is no escaping Pele this week but, among a lot of great stuff, this really captured our attention. Imagine having an impact so huge that one of the world’s most famous rappers (Snoop Dogg) and a former world heavyweight champion (Mike Tyson) talk about you in awe…

Thank you for reading Cultured Football. If you’ve clicked on any of this issue’s links, we’d really appreciated if you shared Cultured Football with at least one friend. Thanks!

A few years back, when independent football sites were far more common than they are today, In Bed With Maradona was a favourite of many for its combination of quality writing and quirky subjects. Sadly, IBWM has gone the way of most of those sites in being mothballed. All except for one annual feature where they pick the 100 most promising players in world football. This is the list to follow for 2023.

Last Week’s Most Read (2): The position every Premier League club should be targeting in January

By Fraser Spinney for Post & In

Premier League football is back! An the January transfer window is about to open! Why not combine those two and look what each club needs to look out for this January?