Ferenc Puskás – football's all-scoring, all conquering Marco Polo
In Episode 26 of the Ademola Bookmen Podcast, we reviewed Captain of Hungary, by Ferenc Puskás. It's a name that every football fan probably knows but to most, he is probably little more than a name.
The (other) one that got away
There are probably very few people who have looked wistfully at the face of Martin Keown and thought 'what if'. In fact, maybe I am the only one.
Eric Cantona and the mitigating effect of football
It’s 30 years since Eric Cantona kicked Matthew Simmons in Selhurst Park. It was arguably the most famous kick of all in English soccer and it didn’t even involve a ball.
Los Irlandeses, the Green Arrow, and the ones that got away
Conor Bradley is the latest “one that got away”. The GAA shirt wearing teenager has grown up to win the Premier League with Liverpool.
The Great Socrates and the unkillable Dublin Myth
Growing up in Ireland in the 1980s and 1990s, Sócrates Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira didn't mean much to me. But I did know that he played in Ireland. Or actually, I knew that he didn't.
Clough-Taylor – the exception that proves the rule
The story of Brian Clough and Peter Taylor helps to explain why managers very rarely come in pairs. And almost never – with them really being the only exception to this rule – with any degree of success.
Johan Cruyff - football's modern Prometheus
At the turn of the century, Johan Cruyff was voted as the greatest European footballer of the previous hundred years. When he turned 50 three years earlier, he said that he had already lived 100 years.
The Little Bird and the Mynah Bird
The early blues musician Robert Johnson is said to have sold his soul at a crossroads in Mississippi in exchange for mastery of the guitar. When he died of poisoning at the age of 27 it was the devil collecting his debt.
Tony Cascarino and the art of making the most of what you got
"You asked if I'd be anyone from history fact or fiction, dead or alive. I said I'd be Tony Cascarino, circa 1995." That's the chorus line from All Your Kayfabe Friends by Welsh band Los Campesinos.
Robbie Fowler and the problem of honesty
Robbie Fowler has an honesty problem. After crawling through the morass of banal cliches of James Milner's book, I didn't think honesty could be a problem where autobiographies were concerned, but Fowler's My Autobiography has set me right on that score.
Maradona: Messi but backwards and in high heels
Fred Astaire was the best dancer in the world, someone once said, but Ginger Rogers could do everything he did but backwards and in high heels. As they near the end of their careers, it's clear now, Messi was better than Cristiano Ronaldo.
Arsene Wenger – great manager, terrible book
Arsene Wenger was a great manager, the best of the Premier League era according to Neil Warnock. In his time as Arsenal manager, he won the Premier League three times and his 2003-04 Invincibles are the only team ever to go a whole Premier League season without losing a game.