Alexander Wolff has just written a beautiful piece at Sports Illustrated on Joe Gaetjens, the Haitian footballer who scored the single goal in the 1950 World Cup upset by the U.S. against England. It’s a great piece of investigative reporting and an important tribute to a man whose story has long been either forgotten or… Read More »
As the big countdown ticks away, less than 100 days before the World Cup, perhaps Africa’s strongest team, Ivory Coast, is still without a coach. An article in the Zimbabwean brings up the state of African football and its reliance on foreign coaches. In Cote D’Ivoire, the disgruntled Vahid Halilhodžić was unceremoniously dispensed with following… Read More »
An article by Jonathan Wilson in the Guardian today asks an interesting question for those of us who grew up in an era in which West African football was the realm of skilled artists such as Abedi Pele, George Weah, Roger Milla, and exciting teams like the “original” Nigerian Super Eagles who played swashbuckling, imaginative… Read More »
The whole army of Spanish media outlets has been splashed with this bit of news, regarding the facebook page of suspected ETA members–ETA being, for those unfamiliar with Spain, the Basque separatist-terrorist group responsible for thousands of acts of violence since their establishment during the Franco dictatorship. From sports dailies such as AS to Marca,… Read More »
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Check out this preview for Stevan Lovgren’s documentary-in-progress on football in Africa. It looks like it will be a wonderful film, which should be ready sometime this Spring in the lead up to the 2010 World Cup. You can read a bit more about the film on an earlier post on this site and at… Read More »
Stefan Lovgren, a documentary filmmaker who has worked on a many previous films about Africa, is now making one about football in Africa. It focuses in particular on one football academy in Ghana to tell a broader story about African football, the hopes and exploitation of footballers, and the broader context surrounding the history 2010… Read More »
I stumbled upon this article that describes Ghana national team coach Milovan Rajevac’s new pursuit of Italian striker Mario Balotelli. Balotelli, an Inter Milan forward, is widely regarded as one of the top young talents in the world. Having been born in Italy to Ghanaian nationals, Mario is eligible to play for both national teams.… Read More »
Here is an interesting article on the World Cup draw “show” and match-ups hosted by Theron. It was funny how the article mentions, “The only uncomfortable moment came when Blatter forgot the venue of the World Cup’s first match (which, of course, is Johannesburg). The FIFA president redeemed himself, however, when he announced that the… Read More »
In the early days of the World Cup draw, in the 1930s, organizers from FIFA gathered around a table and drew lots from a hat. Once it was Jules Rimet’s grandson Yves who got the job of picking the lots. Until relatively recently, the draw still consisted of men in suits from FIFA doing the… Read More »
