Life is a drama, a comedy and a tragedy. To make the best of it, you need a damn good cast of characters.

When a man of almost 56 years old opens a Twitter account for the first time, it’s fair to say one would not expect him to attract over 214,000 followers in as little as two hours, but that’s exactly what happened in September of 2014 to a Saudi man named Majed Abdullah.

Anyone who watched Jonathan Reis star for PSV Eindhoven in the late part of 2010 would have seen a player with limitless potential soon to be plying his trade at the very top of the European game. 

Ever since the ‘beautiful game’ spread across the globe - imbued with the late 19th century values of muscular Christianity and Empire - many aspects of football have been inexorably linked to politics.

If you've always wanted to write, or have previously written on music, film, art, history, culture or sports, from any region and any era, we'd be very interested to hear from you - especially so if music is your thing.  

The disastrous past couple of years have not provided many reasons to cheer for the red half of the residents of Avellaneda, and so it is little wonder that supporters of Club Atlético Independiente have occupied their time reminiscing over past glories.

The tale of England’s humbling at the hands of Hungary at Wembley in November 1953 has become something of a legend.

There are no towering floodlights or giant grandstands and it would be fairly easy to get lost in the labyrinth-like roads around the ground on matchdays.

Fans called it ‘the attack of dreams’, for defenders it was the partnership of nightmares.

As one year ends and another begins, the football world looks back on the marvels of Atletico Madrid’s La Liga triumph and Germany’s 7-1 rout of Brazil.

When the 2014/15 Europa League kicked off its preliminary stages back in June, 195 teams began a journey which comes to an end in May at Warsaw's impressive Stadion Narodowy.

It is the evening of August 24, 2013. The cool breeze is blowing welcomingly through the trees that envelope the Stadio Artemio Franchi Arena. 

Of all the reasons to like a footballer or to wish them every future success, “because he’s really unlucky” is one of the more unusual.

Our watchlist for 2015. 

If you’ve been with us for a while then you’ll know exactly how this works.

Not many players get their face on the cover of Marca, the most read sports paper in Spain, at 18-years-old. Then, not many players are Marco Asensio.

At first glance, a trip to Livorno’s Stadio Armando Picchi appears to be an ordinary footballing experience.

English football clubs have held nicknames and titles since the 19th century, when the sport first became fully regulated and gained mass popularity. 

When Didier Deschamps lifted the World Cup aloft in 1998, many England fans felt a deep sense of ‘what might have been’.

"The masses of the people of Africa are crying for unity…"

Kwame Nkrumah, Ghanaian Leader from 1951 to 1966

Hungary in 1968 was a different nation to the one that had witnessed bloody Revolution twelve years earlier.

Irish football is a complicated affair often dominated by politics. Interspersed with the drama we get brief occasions of joy, ecstasy and delight.

As a second-generation Tamil born in Switzerland, raised and living in England (and an avid football fan), to which national team I pledge my support has been under constant enquiry.