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y<br />
EIGHTBYEIGHT<br />
OFF WITH<br />
THEIR HEADS!<br />
ANDREA PIRLO’S<br />
RUTHLESS REIGN<br />
AT JUVENTUS<br />
2<br />
ISSUE NO.<br />
<strong>02</strong><br />
THE MAGAZINE<br />
THE BEAUTIFUL GAME<br />
DESERVES
EIGHT BY EIGHT<br />
TABLE OF CONTENTS<br />
<strong>02</strong><br />
NO.<br />
PAGE<br />
4<br />
A Beautiful Mess Wayne Rooney has a nasty temper and neurotic tics, likes<br />
fags and whores, and is the pride of England. BY JONATHAN WILSON<br />
The Black Mark Against Les Bleus<br />
Football in France in rife with racism. BY PHILIPPE AUCLAIR<br />
PAGE<br />
66<br />
PAGE<br />
14<br />
You Have to Fight for Your Right to … uh, Fight?<br />
A blow-by-blow look back at ‘the most stupid, appalling,<br />
digusting, and disgraceful exhibition of football possibly in<br />
the history of the game.’ BY STAN HEY<br />
PAGE<br />
20<br />
Inglorious Bastards Led by a monkey and a Simeone,<br />
Atlético are pushing their more famous—and much<br />
richer—rivals in La Liga. BY PETE JENSON<br />
The Lords of Middle Earth Antonio Conte’s four horsemen<br />
make the midfield a living hell for Juventus’s opponents.<br />
BY PAOLO BANDINI<br />
PAGE<br />
80<br />
Group of Depth Jürgen Klinsmann’s World Cup side may not be<br />
the best the Stars and Stripes have ever seen,<br />
but they’re certainly the most lovable. BY NOAH DAVIS<br />
PAGE<br />
86<br />
England’s Got Talent Greg Dyke, the new<br />
FA chairman, wants 50 percent of footballers in the<br />
Premier League to be English. BY COLIN SHINDLER<br />
A Tale of Two Cities How rich, ruthle ss owner s<br />
lost a lifelong fan by firing Roberto Mancini.<br />
PAGE<br />
BY JOHN HEILPERN<br />
74<br />
Letter From the Editor....... p. 1<br />
Gazza Stripped<br />
BY DANNY TAYLOR............... p. 10<br />
A Very Good Bad Boy<br />
BY CHARLIE LASSWELL.......... p. 12<br />
The Museum of Innocence<br />
BY EMMANUEL POLANCO........... p. 19<br />
Loaner<br />
BY GRAHAM RUTHVEN........... p. 24<br />
Greed Is Good<br />
BY STAN HEY.......................... p. 26<br />
Pjanić Attack<br />
BY DYLAN FAHY..................... p. 30<br />
The Contortionist<br />
BY DIEGO PATIÑO.................. p. 48<br />
Grimwade’s Hall of Horrors<br />
BY JOHN GRIMWADE............. p. 50<br />
Always Mr. Nice Guy<br />
BY RUPERT FRYER................ ..p. 54<br />
International Man of Mystery<br />
BY JORGE ALDERETE.............. p. 62<br />
Class of ’58<br />
BY RUPERT FRYER.................. p. 64<br />
The Demystifier<br />
BY JOHN GRIMWADE............... p. 71<br />
10 Under 21<br />
BY CHARLIE LASSWELL....... ...p. 78<br />
The Spanish Inquisition The passions of Barça, Real Madrid, and<br />
32 The Majestic Bamboozler<br />
43<br />
BY RUPERT FRYER.................. p. 82<br />
A Crack in the World Cup The constant movement of<br />
footballers has made play in the Champions League much<br />
better than its international counterpart. BY MIGUEL DELANEY<br />
PAGE<br />
32<br />
PAGE<br />
56<br />
PAGE<br />
60<br />
The New Mr. Cool?<br />
The passion and intensity<br />
that made Roy Keane<br />
such a superb player are<br />
making it hard for him to<br />
adjust to life on the sidelines.<br />
BY MIGUEL DELANEY<br />
The Virgin’s First Ball Stoke City goalkeeper Asmir Begović<br />
talks to Eight by Eight about playing for Bosnia and<br />
Herzegovina in Brazil. BY ANDY BRASSELL<br />
PAGE<br />
34<br />
Bianconeri Highlights of the most notable moments<br />
in a momentous history. BY DYLAN FAHY<br />
A ‘Top, Top’ Chop A dis by Sir Alex has the world wondering<br />
just how good Steven Gerrard really is. BY KEN EARLY<br />
PAGE<br />
44<br />
PAGE<br />
28<br />
PAGE<br />
52<br />
Always Half Full A life<br />
measured out in<br />
World Cups. BY WILL FREARS<br />
PAGE<br />
72<br />
One Love Football is music.<br />
BY CHRIS SALEWICZ<br />
Write What You Want About That ?#$@!<br />
Ravel Morrison makes Jim Morrison look like<br />
a choirboy. BY DANNY TAYLOR<br />
Athletic Bilbao fans are rooted in regional hatreds that trace back to<br />
the war against Franco and beyond. BY JASPER LIPTON<br />
PAGE<br />
100<br />
PAGE<br />
90<br />
Fault Lines In replacing Sir Alex Ferguson at<br />
Manchester United, David Moyes has inherited an unstable<br />
midfield. BY JONATHAN WILSON<br />
PAGE<br />
106<br />
Marked Men<br />
BY JOHN GRIMWADE.............. p. 84<br />
Bicycle Kick<br />
BY BRIAN CRONIN.................. p. 97<br />
Custodian of the Recent Past<br />
BY ROGER BENNETT............... p. 98<br />
A League of Our Own<br />
BY JONATHAN WILSON........ p. 103<br />
A History of<br />
Goalkeepers’ Gloves<br />
BY NIGEL HOLMES............... p. 104<br />
Paper Doll:<br />
Eden Hazard..................... p. 115<br />
COVER ILLUSTRATION:<br />
ANDREA PIRLO<br />
by NIGEL BUCHANAN
A<br />
MYSTERIES<br />
OF THE<br />
GOALMOUTH<br />
B E A U T I F U L<br />
M E S S<br />
b y J O N A T H A N W I L S O N<br />
4 54545<br />
6<br />
5<br />
WAYNE ROONEY HAS A NASTY TEMPER<br />
AND NEUROTIC TICS, LIKES FAGS AND WHORES,<br />
AND IS THE PRIDE OF ENGLAND.<br />
I L L U S T R A T I O N b y S A M W E B E R
Brazilian fullback Filipe Luís<br />
of Atlético Madrid towers over<br />
Damián Suárez of Elche during<br />
last November’s match at Elche’s<br />
Estadio Manuel Martínez.<br />
N GL<br />
OR<br />
ATLÉTICO MADRID<br />
LED BY A MONKEY AND A<br />
SIMEONE, ATLÉTICO ARE<br />
PUSHING THEIR MORE<br />
FAMOUS—AND MUCH RICHER—<br />
RIVALS IN LA LIGA.<br />
O<br />
7 815<br />
2<br />
3 4<br />
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BASTARDS<br />
B Y P E T E J E N S O N
WE ALL FOLLOW • JUVENTUS<br />
The<br />
LORDS<br />
of<br />
MIDDLE<br />
EARTH<br />
ANTONIO CONTE’S FOUR HORSEMEN<br />
MAKE THE MIDFIELD A LIVING HELL<br />
FOR JUVENTUS’S OPPONENTS.<br />
BY PAOLO BANDINI<br />
ILLUSTRATION BY BEN KIRCHNER<br />
8<br />
PAUL POGBA<br />
CLAUDIO<br />
MARCHISIO<br />
6<br />
23<br />
21<br />
ARTURO VIDAL<br />
ANDREA PIRLO<br />
329 9 10 33
WE ALL FOLLOW • JUVENTUS<br />
AS HE SURVEYED the wreckage of Juventus’s<br />
5-0 aggregate demolition of Celtic in the<br />
Champions League last February, the veteran<br />
Italian sportswriter Alessandro Vocalelli found<br />
himself entertaining a provocative thought.<br />
“Are we sure, are you sure, that Barcelona’s<br />
midfield, the engine of the top team in Europe,<br />
is really better than Juve’s?” he asked in his<br />
column for the newspaper La Repubblica.<br />
“My personal sensation is that the Bianconeri<br />
midfielders have nothing to envy from their<br />
Spanish counterparts.”<br />
Many people scoffed at the thought. Even<br />
more might do so today, after Juve failed to<br />
qualify for the knockout stage of this season’s<br />
Champions League, while Barcelona cruised<br />
through with ease. But the Italian club’s continental<br />
failure had more to do with inefficiency<br />
up front than with any weakness in the middle<br />
of the park. It was a midfielder, Arturo Vidal,<br />
1897<br />
< 1905 ><br />
Juventus win their first<br />
Campionato Italiano di Calcio<br />
(Italian league title), triumphing<br />
over Genoa and U.S. Milanese<br />
in a three-way final.<br />
< 1897 ><br />
Pupils from the Massimo<br />
d’Azeglio school found Sport-<br />
Club Juventus. The teenagers<br />
regularly meet at a bench on<br />
Corso Re Umberto, united by<br />
their passion for the game.<br />
Their first jerseys were pink<br />
with a black tie or bow tie, the<br />
uniform they wear during gym<br />
class at school.<br />
KEY<br />
Notable<br />
Event<br />
< 1897 ><br />
Juventus’s first<br />
field is at Piazza<br />
d’Armi.<br />
< 1906 ><br />
First Juventus president<br />
Alfredo Dick leaves the<br />
club with several prominent<br />
foreign players after a series<br />
Death<br />
1904 1911 1918 1925 1931<br />
< 1903 ><br />
When Juventus need to<br />
replace their faded pink<br />
jerseys, John Savage<br />
(an English expat and member<br />
of the club) contacts a friend<br />
who supports Notts County.<br />
The club receives a set in<br />
bianconero (black and white).<br />
< 1913 ><br />
Carlo Bigatto is the first<br />
club captain in Juventus’s<br />
history. The midfielder<br />
spends 17 years with the<br />
Bianconeri—a record later<br />
surpassed by Alessandro<br />
Del Piero. He is remembered<br />
for being a great<br />
athlete and also for his<br />
distinctive hat.<br />
< 1920 ><br />
Goalkeeper Giovanni<br />
Giacone becomes the<br />
first Juventus player to<br />
represent Italy. Defenders<br />
Osvaldo Novo and<br />
Antonio Bruna also play<br />
for the Azzurri shortly<br />
afterward.<br />
Scandal<br />
$<br />
Investment<br />
Lineup<br />
Change<br />
< 1925 ><br />
Hungarian Ferenc<br />
Hirzer is the first<br />
foreign player to<br />
join Juventus. He<br />
is brought in by<br />
fellow countryman<br />
Károly. The<br />
inside left plays an<br />
integral part in the<br />
Bianconeri’s first<br />
Italian Championship<br />
victory in<br />
over 20 years. He<br />
has a curious habit<br />
of keeping a comb<br />
in his socks so<br />
he can groom his<br />
blond curls during<br />
games.<br />
Trophy<br />
< 1922 ><br />
Federico<br />
Munerati, the<br />
10th all-time<br />
goal scorer<br />
with 114 goals,<br />
and the winner<br />
of four<br />
Serie A medals<br />
is signed.<br />
< 1926 ><br />
Juventus win their second<br />
Italian title (Scudetto) with a<br />
resounding victory over two<br />
legs against Alba di Roma in<br />
the finalissima.<br />
< 1931 ><br />
Juventus win<br />
their third<br />
Serie A title.<br />
< 1930 ><br />
Giovanni Ferrari<br />
The winner of eight<br />
Scudetti, he’s on the<br />
Italian World Cup–<br />
winning teams in<br />
1934 and 1938.<br />
< 1928 ><br />
Goalkeeper Umberto Caligaris<br />
joins from Casale to create the<br />
legendary defensive trio with<br />
Gianpiero Combi and<br />
Virginio Rosetta. They also regularly<br />
play together for the Azzurri.<br />
< 1929 ><br />
of disputes. He creates a new<br />
Renato Cesarini arrives from<br />
34 11 < 1925 ><br />
makes more than 200<br />
who scored the majority of the team’s nine Pogba does not believe he has made it yet.<br />
< 1915 ><br />
Argentina. The agressive<br />
12 35<br />
team called Torino FC, which<br />
Juventus manager Károly<br />
appearances for the Bianconeri.<br />
A notorious prankster,<br />
spawns a rivalry known as<br />
During World<br />
midfielder is a force to be<br />
dies of a heart attack.<br />
the Derby della Mole between<br />
War I,<br />
reckoned with. He is<br />
he allegedly steals an antique<br />
the two clubs.<br />
Canfari<br />
naturalized to play for Italy miniature sailing ship from a<br />
dies during<br />
as an Argentine oriundo and Paris hotel where the team is<br />
the third<br />
wins five Scudetti as a player. staying but is forced to return<br />
Battle of the<br />
it to avoid a scandal.<br />
Isonzo.<br />
group-stage goals.<br />
Such form helped earn the Chilean a new<br />
contract in December, making him Juve’s<br />
joint-best player on €4.5 million per year. And<br />
yet even Vidal has not dominated the headlines<br />
as thoroughly as teammate Paul Pogba<br />
has in the past 18 months.<br />
Just 20 years old, the French midfielder has<br />
surprised his coaches with the speed of his ascent<br />
from untested prospect to integral member<br />
of Juve’s first-team squad. The Bianconeri<br />
knew Pogba had potential when they spirited<br />
him away from Manchester United in the summer<br />
of 2012, but nobody expected him to play<br />
60 games in his first season and a half in Italy.<br />
In December he was honored with the<br />
European Golden Boy award, a prize given<br />
to the continent’s most impressive under-21<br />
footballer, as voted on by an international<br />
panel of journalists. Although the accolade<br />
was conceived by the Turin-based newspaper<br />
Tuttosport in 2003, this was the first time it<br />
had ever been bestowed on a Juventus player.<br />
Not that everyone expects Pogba to remain<br />
with the Bianconeri for long. Club president<br />
Andrea Agnelli provoked speculation about<br />
the player’s future in October, during a speech<br />
about the economic decline of Italian football.<br />
“If I had to judge things from a player’s perspective,<br />
I would say that Italy is no longer<br />
a final destination but rather a transitory<br />
one,” Agnelli told attendees at the Leaders in<br />
Football conference in London. “I’m trying<br />
to imagine what will happen in two or three<br />
years’ time if we get an enormous offer for one<br />
of the greatest talents we have today—Pogba. I<br />
don’t know if we will be able to hold on to him.<br />
Right now I think we don’t have the strength.”<br />
The following day’s headlines were as predictable<br />
as they were misleading. Gazzetta<br />
dello Sport declared that the midfielder was<br />
“on the market,” while Corriere dello Sport<br />
attributed the phrase “Pogba can leave” to<br />
Agnelli on its front page.<br />
In fact, Juventus have no plans to sell anytime<br />
soon. Of course, if an outlandish bid were<br />
to arrive, then Agnelli would be duty-bound<br />
to consider it. Every player has a price, and<br />
even Zinedine Zidane was sold for roughly<br />
$100 million back in 2001.<br />
For now, Agnelli is more interested in extending<br />
Pogba’s contract, which runs through<br />
2016. He is reportedly willing to more than<br />
double the player’s wages to a potential<br />
€4 million per year once all bonuses are<br />
factored in. The midfielder himself, meanwhile,<br />
has hardly given the impression he is<br />
desperate to get away.<br />
“Serie A is the university of football, especially<br />
from a tactical standpoint,” Pogba told<br />
Gazzetta dello Sport in an interview published<br />
a day before Agnelli’s speech. “A midfielder<br />
who can make it in Italy can truly aim to become<br />
the best in the world at his job.”<br />
He described himself to Gazzetta dello Sport<br />
as a “nobody” who had achieved “precisely<br />
nothing” so far in his career. And if Serie A is<br />
indeed the university that he suggests, then he<br />
is also aware that he has landed himself with<br />
some of the best professors in the business.<br />
Who were his points of reference at Juventus?<br />
He named his midfield colleagues Arturo<br />
Vidal, Andrea Pirlo, and Claudio Marchisio.<br />
“In every training session I try to take something<br />
from them,” he said. “I would achieve<br />
perfection if I could have Claudio’s technique,<br />
Arturo’s aggression, and the brilliant clean<br />
passing of Andrea.”<br />
For all the quality elsewhere in Juventus’s<br />
starting 11, from the enduring excellence of<br />
Gigi Buffon in goal through to the craft and<br />
cunning of Carlos Tévez up front, there is no<br />
question that this team’s greatest strength<br />
lies in the midfield. With the exception of<br />
CONTINUED ON P. 112 →<br />
It all began innocently<br />
enough with a few teenagers<br />
and a bench in Turin.<br />
In 116 years, hundreds of<br />
players have pulled on the<br />
legendary black and white<br />
stripes. Triumph, scandal,<br />
and tragedy are never too<br />
far away from Juventus.<br />
The “Old Lady” manages to<br />
be both the most adored<br />
and hated football club<br />
in Italy. Dylan Fahy<br />
highlights the most<br />
notable moments in a<br />
momentous history.<br />
(back to the future)<br />
BIANCO-<br />
NERI<br />
< 1898 ><br />
Enrico Canfari<br />
is one of the 13<br />
founders, along<br />
with his brother<br />
Eugenio. He is club<br />
president from<br />
1898 to 1901.<br />
< 1900 ><br />
Now known as Football Club<br />
Juventus, they enter the<br />
third Campionato Federale<br />
di Football. The competition<br />
is made up of six teams from<br />
northwestern Italy.<br />
< 1922 ><br />
Goalkeeper<br />
Gianpiero<br />
Combi plays for<br />
the club for 14<br />
years. He makes<br />
his Serie A<br />
debut at age 19.<br />
< 1923 ><br />
Hungarian Jenő Károly<br />
becomes Juventus’s first<br />
professional manager and<br />
lays the foundations for the<br />
club to become a major force<br />
in Italian football.<br />
< 1924 ><br />
Virginio Rosetta’s transfer<br />
from Pro Vercelli provokes<br />
outrage as Juventus are<br />
alleged to have “tapped”<br />
him up. The move is<br />
deemed illegal by the<br />
Italian Football Association,<br />
and the Bianconeri are<br />
docked points. The incident<br />
is Italian football’s first scandal.<br />
Eventually the transfer<br />
is completed, and Rosetta<br />
goes on to play 338 games.<br />
1929<br />
< 1923 ><br />
Edoardo Agnelli is<br />
elected president of<br />
Juventus. The son of the<br />
founder of Italian automobile<br />
manufacturer Fiat<br />
builds the club its first<br />
proper stadium on Corso<br />
Marsiglia.<br />
< 1928 ><br />
Mario Varglien (right)<br />
and Giovanni Varglien, the<br />
Croatian-born brothers, win<br />
five Serie A titles. Mario is<br />
a member of Italy’s 1934<br />
World Cup–winning team.<br />
< 1929 ><br />
Scottish<br />
manager<br />
William<br />
Aitken<br />
guides<br />
Juventus to<br />
a third-place<br />
finish in the<br />
first girone<br />
all’italiana<br />
(Italian-style<br />
circuit).<br />
$<br />
< 1926 ><br />
József<br />
Viola is<br />
appointed<br />
Juventus<br />
manager.<br />
GIUSEPPE GIRIODI ANTONIO BRUNA GIUSEPPE GRABBI ORESTE BARALE<br />
< 1930 ><br />
Carlo<br />
Carcano<br />
becomes<br />
manager. Under<br />
his guidance, the<br />
club commences<br />
an era known as<br />
the quinquennio<br />
d’oro (five years of<br />
gold), in which it<br />
becomes the first<br />
team in Italian<br />
history to win five<br />
consecutive<br />
Serie A titles.<br />
< 1931 ><br />
Luis Monti, a robust defensive<br />
midfielder, also arrives from<br />
Argentina. He becomes<br />
known as L’Armadio a Due<br />
Ante (the Cabinet with Two<br />
Doors) for his physicality and<br />
No.1<br />
LEGENDS<br />
RAIMUNDO ORSI<br />
The left winger makes up for what<br />
he lacks in physical prowess with<br />
lightning speed and clinical precision<br />
in front of goal. The Agnelli<br />
family allegedly scouts him at the<br />
Olympic Games in Amsterdam, and<br />
he lands in Turin from Argentina’s<br />
Independiente in 1928. Mumo<br />
instantly assimilates into the setup<br />
and is naturalized to represent<br />
Italy, becoming one of the Azzurri’s<br />
longest-serving oriundi. In more<br />
than 175 appearances, Orsi nets on<br />
a respectable 77 occasions.
BY KEN EARLY<br />
13 14<br />
45<br />
A dis by Sir Alex has the world wondering<br />
just how good Steven Gerrard really is.<br />
PHOTOGRAPH BY ALEX TELFER
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