The Hollywood Pass
It was June 18, 2006. Miami Heat, the NBA team from Florida, had just won a close game against the Dallas Mavericks to win their third straight game in the NBA finals to race to a 3-2 lead in the 7-match series. The Heat’s achievement was all the more impressive because they had bounced back […]
“Some people think that if their opponent plays a beautiful game, it’s OK to lose,” Norwegian chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen once said. “I don’t. You have to be merciless.” Carlo Ancelotti, one would think, would be inclined to agree. “We just think about winning matches, not thrashing teams,” the Real Madrid manager said in the […]
Alf Ramsey, the English manager who led the Three Lions to World Cup glory on home soil in 1966, was once interacting with his players after an England match at the old Wembley stadium. “I had had a fairly good game and he’s shaking everybody’s hands,” recalled Gordon Banks, England’s legendary goalkeeper who was also […]
José Mourinho chose his words carefully. “I think,” he said and paused. “It hurts me a little bit to say this, I want to give 99% credit to (Erik) Ten Hag, the beautiful work he did with this team. But I have to be critical in one per cent.” “I think in this second half, […]
“It’s football. Football, football, football. I don’t think he has any other interest in life.” That’s Sven-Göran Eriksson describing Roberto Mancini in the podcast ‘The Big Interview With Graham Hunter’. Eriksson, who coached Mancini for 9 years — first at Sampdoria and then at Lazio – must know what he was talking about. However, if […]
Florentino Pérez embraced Raúl González. The former Real Madrid captain said something in Pérez’s ear, which made Pérez playfully slap across Raúl’s face. The pair hugged again before Raúl walked away to let Pérez enjoy the presentation ceremony of the UEFA Champions League 2021/22 final at the Stade de France. As Real Madrid players came […]
The last miracle in Italian football occurred on a Sunday in May 1991, when U.C. Sampdoria won their first – and so far only – Serie A title, pipping defending champions AC Milan to the Scudetto. Thirty-one years later, Milan conjured a miracle of their own on a Sunday evening in May in the northern […]
Franck Ribéry looked peeved. The clock showed 75 minutes at Bayern Munich’s Allianz Stadium in the Der Klassiker against Borussia Dortmund. Ribéry had opened his team’s scoring, lashing home, on first touch, a cross from the right by Philip Lahm in the 4th minute. He had also made an assist. Now the fourth official was […]
Coaching is about, ‘How do I get people to play at their peak level?’ It is a spiritual quest. And if it’s not that, you don’t have a challenge, you don’t have a mission. Forming a brotherhood and trying to move it forward – that’s what coaching is. Phil Jackson, 11-time NBA title winning coach […]
When British driver Nigel Mansell clinched the 1992 Formula 1 World Championship at the Hungarian Grand Prix, Brazilian racing great Ayrton Senna joined him on the podium. While Senna had won the race, Mansell had managed to win the championship despite finishing second in Hungary. As Mansell was preparing to celebrate his maiden (and only) […]