A Sticker's Worth 500 Words

Today Mat Jolin-Beech takes a look at one of football’s more unassuming talents who nonetheless ended his career with an Olympic gold medal, league titles in three different countries and back-to-back African Cup of Nations’ winners’ medals. The man also knew how to take a great free kick and was even nominated for the Ballon d’Or in 2000. No wonder he was held in such high regard by his managers. Over to Mat. Here at A Sticker’s Worth 500 Words, we give another shot at glory and time in the spotlight to those players who often failed to hit the trophy laden heights. Lionel Messi, Sergio Ramos , Neymar, and all of Paris Saint Germain’s new summer signings have trophy cabinets that we all, including Tottenham Hotspur, would lust after. But, they do not all currently have the same honour that the likes of Ade Akinbiyi , Oleg Luzhny , and Mark Noble , among some very esteemed sports stars, of being the subject of soccer’s best* sticker related blog. (*subject to opinion, but if your opin...

The 1990s are back everyone. For many of us this could be some of the best news we’ve had in a while. After all, according to this blog at least, there were some exceptional footballers around in the last decade of the twentieth century and some of them did some pretty incredible things both on and off the pitch. By all accounts there were some fairly great bands whom emerged in this period across a range of genres too. Sadly neither of these things are particularly prevalent in this 1990s resurgence and the likes of Alan Shearer , Roberto Baggio and Andy Turner aren’t dusting off their boots for one last moment of magic. Walk along any high street (or look at Instagram or TikTok if you’re young and cool) and you will see that nineties fashion, from bucket hats to cargo trousers, has well and truly returned. Not all aspects of 1990s attire should be consigned to Leon Trotsky’s “dustbin of history”. As well as providing us with some of the best footballers of all time the decade also...

We have another request post for you today this time taking a look at a former Danish wing wizard who lit up Amsterdam and Manchester in the 1980s. Thanks to both Derrick D’Souza and Michael from 80s&90sfootball for your suggestion and, as always, we hope this does the trick. When the excellent No Score Draws recently asked for ideas for their ‘EPL Moments’ print they were inundated with excellent suggestions covering all the bases that nearly thirty years of football has produced. The final print did not disappoint and features Tony Yeboah ’s foot like a traction engine, Delia Smith’s call for the Norwich City fans to make their presence felt, George Weah’s cousin (sadly not Chrisopher Wreh ) and a former Liverpool captain who “let it f***in’ slip”. There was also room for a moment from Arsenal’s 1-0 win over Manchester City back in October 2005 where French stars Robert Pires and Thierry Henry attempted a two-man penalty kick with farcical consequences. I distinctly remember ...

The return of fans to football stadiums was a sight to behold on the opening weekends of August and there is no doubt that the added edge of having tens of thousands of people chanting encouragement and/or screaming abuse brought much more to the games than the sterile pre-recorded crowd noise that had become the soundtrack to our lives. In the Premier League this also meant the return of high-class shithousery as Jamie Vardy added to his repertoire of celebrations in front of the travelling Wolverhampton Wanderers fans with a theatrical wolf howl to cap off his goal just before half-time. It’s good to see that the man who brought us the flapping wings against Crystal Palace and various renditions of cupped ears to visitors to the King Power still has so much to offer. Back in the halcyon days of playground football such behaviour was commonplace. In Year 11 I was part of a notorious forward trio we branded ‘The Gleesome Threesome’ who focused more on providing the imaginary crowd w...

Welcome to our 200th post and thank you once again to everyone who has read, liked, retweeted, shared or acknowledged anything we have churned out in the last eighteen months. Today all four of us are joining forces to pay tribute to the sparkling wordplay we have witnessed in the realms of the Fantasy Premier League and the five-a-side pitches we have had the dubious honour of playing on. As this was Mat Jolin-Beech’s idea it only seems fair to let him start proceedings. Apologies to anyone expecting a hagiographical exploration of the career of one of tiki-taka and theatrical diving’s greatest ever talents. Bear with me here but fantasy football teams are very much like signatures. If, like me, as a bright-eyed youngster, you got your first debit card as your parents signed you up to a child’s current account as a way to teach you financial responsibility, the moment came. Flip over the brand new, shiny rectangle of plastic, and there it was. Staring back at you and a moment that cou...

Today Mat Jolin-Beech takes some time to focus on the playing career of a man who often fell into the shadows of others despite winning 36 England caps and a domestic treble of the Premier League, FA Cup and League Cup (although not in the same season). Football creates a fair number of heroes and villains and it’s fair to say today’s subject came across a few of the latter. Over to Mat. Gareth Southgate ’s near-perfect decision to pick four right backs in the Euro 2020 squad brought back memories of Sven Goran Eriksson’s England . Southgate’s multiple full back approach was nothing new, with the Swede pipping him to the decision by sixteen years in another attempt to solve the left-sided problem . In a 2006 World Cup qualifier, the natural left winger choice of the time, Joe Cole, was injured, so Eriksson plumped for a Bridge in front of Cole (Ashley) solution on that flank. The fact it never stuck shows how successful that attempt was. But the former Southampton man made a much bigg...

During Sven Goran-Eriksson’s five-year stint as England manager the Three Lions lost only five competitive games, two of which were a result of the dreaded penalty shootout, and the Swede resigned from the post with a better win percentage than his far more popular predecessors Bobby Robson and Terry Venables. He led England to three consecutive major tournaments in which they reached the quarterfinal stage making him the nation’s third most successful manager after Alf Ramsey and some bloke called Gareth Southgate . Eriksson’s England beat Germany 5-1 in Munich and scored a cathartic victory over Argentina at the 2002 World Cup thanks to a David Beckham penalty and, at times, actually played some half decent football. This glowing CV is probably not what Eriksson is best remembered for, however, as his perceived failure to win a major international tournament whilst managing England’s supposed ‘golden generation’ meant that he was continually criticised by the sporting press. Sven d...

Today Emlyn Jones brings us the story of a hugely popular, and incredibly talented, star who lit up the Premier League with his skill and personality in equal measure. He also doubles down on our superfluous references to 90s sketch shows and hosts of daytime television staples. You all know the drill by now. Over to Emlyn. In the mid 1990s , Newcastle United became a home for a number of overseas stars, including some players from South America who had little previous exposure in the UK, but were immediate hits. Colombian star Faustino Asprilla was probably the inspiration for Paul Whitehouse's Julio Geordio, the Colombian star who steadily peppered his Spanish with increasing forays into the Geordie tongue, bemoaning the 'Cold Wind aff the Urals' and planning evenings watching the X Files. Another South American import was a tricky winger who created countless goals for his colleagues while also chipping in with a number of his own, with a penchant for sweetly struck fre...

We have another request post today this time coming from Gary Cook of the Retro Football Network . Once again we would strongly suggest you give him a follow on Twitter for your daily dose of football nostalgia. It’s fair to say today’s subject provided the beautiful game with several great moments and his passing in 2018 was a huge loss to both the sport and the country as a whole. We hope this serves as a fitting tribute to a man who, in Gary’s words, “was liked and respected” whether he played for your club or not. The penalty shootout between England and Italy which concluded the European Championship back in July took approximately eight minutes. Sadly it took little more than eight seconds for racists to take to social media to hurl abuse at Marcus Rashford , Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka. This was not the first time that these three exceptionally talented young men had been on the receiving end of such risible behaviour and depressingly it’s unlikely to be the last. To present th...