NO ROOM FOR TIKI TAKA, WE WANT TO KICK MANCHESTER UNITED: BERND, DIEGO AND THE BRUTALITY OF BARCA 84
Barcelona’s Camp Nou is as awesome as ever, its tiers rising endlessly, obliterating a clear, winter's sky. The place exudes prosperity and arrogance, seemingly challenging the world to match its majesty. But linger here, mingle with the customers, listen to the players and watch the football. Then the senses communicate an entirely different story of this enormous club.
SEARCHING FOR THE YOUNG SOUL REBELS: THE REAL MADRID BLUEPRINT 1965
It has been said by the critics that one man cannot make a team, yet when Argentina-born Alfredo Di Stéfano flew the Atlantic to join Real Madrid in 1953, it marked the beginning of an era in which the blond centre-forward led the club to real greatness. Champions eight times in eleven seasons, Real became the most famed and most feared club side of all time, and at the height of their power between 1956 and 1960, set up what will probably remain an all-time record by taking the European Cup five times in a row.
FOOTBALL AND THE FUTURE OF THE BLACK SPIDER: IBWM MEETS LEV YASHIN
It’s early 1971 and the footballing world is still coming to terms with the god like genius of current World Champions, Brazil. As the curtain comes down on an illustrious career, Dima Istow, for World Soccer magazine, catches up with the legendary USSR goalkeeper Lev Yashin to talk football and the future.
MATTHAUS: THE DESIGNER STAR
Lothar Matthaus, 28, the midfield ace and captain of the West German national side looks back on a splendid year. In his first season with Italy's lnternazionale he won the league championship, and with the national team he is on course for the World Cup finals next year.
BERTI: ITALY'S NEW TARDELLI
If one player symbolises the renaissance of lnternazionale then that young man is Nicola Berti. While the media glare focuses on Giovanni Trapottoni, free-scoring Aldo Serena and imported German stars Lothar Matthaus and Andy Brehme, 22-year-old Berti has captured the hearts of Inter's 'tifosi' with his driving midfield play and ability to score vital goals. Not only has Berti played an instrumental part in Inter's first 'scudetto' since 1980, he has also laid claim to a permanent spot in an Italian team among the favourites for next year’s World Cup.
HODDLE WINS OVER ROBSON
England went some way to restoring the tarnished reputation of British football with their ultimately successful, if gruelling, tour of Mexico and North America. Starting the three-week tour within hours of the carnage of Brussels and against a backcloth of grief and emotion, the players revealed a profoundly genuine team spirit that was to support them right through the tour to its ritzy finish on Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles.
JUAN ALBERTO SCHIAFFINO AND THE DEMISE OF URUGUAY
Juan Alberto Schiaffino is now 51, and it's 34 years since he was given the opening to launch a career which brought him fame as the world's most expensive footballer. Today Schiaffino lives on the outskirts of Montevideo, his native city, in a spacious villa out towards the airport. “I’m not rich," he'll tell you. "But I'm not poor either."
BERNARD TAPIE'S FRENCH REVOLUTION
“Droit au but" (straight for goal) is the motto of current French League and Cup winners Olympique de Marseille. That phrase has particular relevance this season as club president; Bernard Tapie has invested heavily on new faces so that Champions’ Cup quarter finalists Marseille can achieve their goal of becoming the first French club to lift a European trophy.
BECKENBAUER WANTS OUT, BAYERN WANT "TO RIP THE HEART OUT OF LIVERPOOL"
The bitterness behind the Franz Beckenbauer shock, and the audacious dreams of Bayern Munich's future planning are only just emerging. But it is already clear, as the ex-West German skipper's £700,000 transfer to New York Cosmos goes through, that it was Beckenbauer himself who instigated the latest, vital talks. The reason? Anger at what he considered a West German press campaign against him involving his private life and his recent income tax troubles.