Maybe you’ve never heard of John “Budgie” Burridge. That’s understandable, because although his career lasted nearly 30 years, he spent that time bouncing around 29 different clubs. However, he did make over 50 appearances for eight different teams: Blackpool, Aston Villa, Crystal Palace, Wolves, Sheffield United, Southampton, Newcastle United and Hibernian.
Unfortunately for us footie fans, there is no soccer at the Winter Olympics; we’ll have to wait a while before eisfußball becomes an Olympic sport. But there was one professional soccer player, Håkon Lorentzen, who was fully in the spirit of the games on Monday and his reaction to his brother’s performance in PyeongChang was priceless.
Ronaldinho retired this week. Maybe you’ve heard. We’ve mentioned it a few times. But it’s worth revisiting once more because the Brazilian was one of the most creative footballers to ever play the game. He was, in essence, the Nintendo Labo of soccer.
It’s the time of year when people decide to make personal promises to be better in the coming 12 months, because nothing says motivation like waiting until the end of one year to do better. But if you really want to make a difference in 2018, instead of resolving to spend more time in the gym or less money on Starbucks, might we suggest these new years resolutions to be a better soccer fan in 2018.
Introspection is not easy, so we did the heavy lifting to give you these six resolutions perfect for any soccer fan.
New Year’s Eve is approaching, so it’s time to get all stressed out about having the best time ever while throwing up Smirnoff Ice in the toilet or whatever. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed the holiday season, but it’s also extremely likely that you’ve suffered your share of anxiety due to travel, a damning inability to properly give justice to your own existence and personal beliefs over dinner conversation and the realization that another 365-day period has been spent slaving over inconsequential tedium in the face of death, which you’ll inevitably experience entirely alone.
Not many outside Scotland remember Paul Wilson, who played for Celtic and, for one 15-minute appearance, the Scottish national team. In fact, even in the land of celebrated Scots Robert Burns and Sir William Wallace, his name registers with only the most diehard fans of both club and country.
Who are the longest serving managers in Premier League history? Well, if we exclude the time before the Premier League’s formation in 1992, Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger tops this list, but we’re not going to do that. Including both the Premier League and the original First Division, here are the 10 longest serving managers at any one club in English football history.
Lionel Messi was never a little-known quantity. When he scored nearly 500 goals for Newell’s Old Boys as a young boy, people took notice. That’s why Barcelona made the highly unusual decision to sign a 13-year-old foreign player. That’s why, aged 17 years, three months and 22 days, he became Barcelona’s youngest-ever representative in an official competition. It’s why he represented La Albiceleste, the two-time world champions, at 18.
Valencia and Barcelona are set to battle it out this evening in a top-of-the-table clash. Valencia fans are certainly acting accordingly.