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It is the middle of Sunday afternoon, and he has not yet finished his shift at the barbershop. “I took a break for the love of the game,” Mr. Adeshina said. Mr. Adeshina became an Arsenal fan in the late 1990s, when Nigerian cable channels first began broadcasting the Premier League. If anything, though, Mr. Adeshina says his connection to the team is even deeper now. “He’s Yoruba, I’m Yoruba,” Mr. Adeshina said, in a tone rather softer than that with which he celebrated his idol’s first-half goal against Spurs.

Persons: Mayowa, “, Mr, Adeshina, Germain, Nwankwo Kanu Organizations: Arsenal, Real, Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur, Spurs Locations: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, Nigeria, London

☆ Lessons in Democracy From F.C. Porto
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-26 | by ( Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Few, though, will prove quite so virulent — or offer quite such an instructive case study of the state of democracy in 2024 — as the one to decide who gets to be president of F.C. Like dozens of clubs around Europe, Porto — one of the three great houses of Portuguese soccer — is owned by its members. Only a small percentage of members vote. The choice is usually between two essentially indistinguishable old men, when there is a choice at all. Until the last round of elections, in 2020, Porto had been a democracy in only the most nominal sense.

Persons: — Organizations: European Union, F.C, Porto Locations: Porto, Europe, Porto —

☆ This Town Had a Reputation Problem. Premier League Soccer Changed Things.
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-24 | by ( Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As the announcement trilled out over Kenilworth Road, the jumble of rusted metal and peeling paint that Luton Town F.C. At the start of the sentence, it was little more than the traditional polite welcome to the stadium for that evening’s visiting team, Manchester City. By the end, though, the voice of the announcer seemed overcome by what sounded a little like awe. Cup, the champions of England and the champions of Europe.” Luton seems to be having a hard time believing the company it now keeps. Fifteen years ago, Luton Town had been relegated to the fifth tier of English soccer, a world away from the power and the prestige of the Premier League.

Persons: Luton Organizations: Luton Town F.C, Manchester, Luton Town, Premier League Locations: Kenilworth, Manchester City, Luton, England, Europe

☆ Why Don’t More People Resent Manchester City?
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-19 | by ( Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Silence swept from one end of the Etihad Stadium to the other, a wave of dawning realization. The background noise that a crowd cannot help but generate — the rumble and murmur of 20,000 separate conversations — fell away. For most of Wednesday evening, the natural operating assumption was that Manchester City would advance past Real Madrid and reach yet another Champions League semifinal. Pep Guardiola’s City team was creating so many chances that victory felt, really, like a statistical inevitability. City went close with a chance again.

Persons: —, City, Bernardo Silva, Mateo Kovacic Organizations: Etihad, Manchester City, Real, League, Guardiola’s City Locations: Real Madrid

☆ A Perpetual Bridesmaid Gets the Crown, and Germany (Mostly) Likes the Look
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-13 | by ( Rory Smith | Christopher F. Schuetze | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Executives at Bayer Leverkusen, the longstanding but habitually middleweight German soccer team, have been fielding the messages since at least February. Some were delivered in person, a quiet blessing after yet another victory. Others came via WhatsApp, unsolicited and unexpected notes from peers and acquaintances and, to their occasional surprise, traditional foes. But as the German league season gathered pace, plenty wanted to laud Leverkusen’s impending achievement: It was, with each victory, getting closer and closer to being crowned national champion for the first time. Leverkusen will, this weekend, surge over the line and end a run of Bayern championships that stretches back more than a decade.

Persons: laud Leverkusen’s Organizations: Bayer Leverkusen, Soccer, Rivals, Bayern Munich, Bayern, Werder Bremen Locations: German

☆ Coaches Have to Be Salesmen, Too
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-12 | by ( Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

West Ham, in the end, could not quite withstand the barrage. Bayer Leverkusen’s first goal — a Jonas Hofmann shot that picked its way through a thronged penalty area — broke its resistance. The club’s Europa League adventure will likely extend no further than the quarterfinals. Xabi Alonso, its estimable young coach, remains on course to claim a treble — league, cup, Europa League — in his first full season. West Ham is starting to feel at home on the continent: It reached the Europa League semifinals in 2022, losing out to Eintracht Frankfurt, and then beat Fiorentina to claim the Europa Conference League trophy in 2023.

Persons: Bayer Leverkusen’s, Jonas Hofmann, Victor Boniface, Xabi Alonso Organizations: Europa League, Leverkusen, League —, Premier League, Newcastle United, Chelsea, Manchester United, Eintracht Frankfurt, Fiorentina, Europa Conference League Locations: West Ham, Europe

☆ A Soccer Team Stopped Charging for Tickets. Should Others Do the Same?
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-10 | by ( Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Neither Paris F.C. There was, really, precious little to remember at all: no goals, few shots, little drama — a drab, rain-sodden stalemate between the French capital’s third-most successful soccer team and the country’s sleepiest giant. Last November, Paris F.C. There were a couple of exceptions: a nominal fee for fans supporting the visiting team, and market rates for those using hospitality suites. Everyone else, however, could come to the Stade Charléty — the compact stadium that Paris F.C.

Organizations: Paris F.C, Stade Charléty

☆ Is Soccer’s Model Club Actually … Real Madrid?
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-05 | by ( Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Florentino Pérez had a contented smile on his face, and with good reason. He had just watched Spain and Brazil share a thrilling, freewheeling draw at the stadium he has expensively, lavishly, reappointed. Now, Pérez, Real Madrid’s all-powerful president, found himself in a whitewashed tunnel, presented — completely by chance, obviously — with his favorite kind of photo opportunity. To one side stood Vinícius Júnior, Real Madrid’s standard-bearer and main event, dutifully introducing the man who pays his wages to his Brazil teammates. But Pérez’s focus was on Endrick, the 17-year-old star-in-waiting who will complete his long-awaited move to the Santiago Bernabéu this summer.

Persons: Florentino Pérez, —, Vinícius Júnior, Endrick, Pérez, “ We’re, ” Locations: Spain, Brazil, Santiago

☆ TV’s Saviors Are Here, and They’re Wearing Spandex
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-29 | by ( Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

First it was the streamers: the seismic arrival of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+ and the rest, offering television’s previously captive viewers the chance to watch seemingly whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted. Then TikTok joined YouTube in conclusively shattering what was once a unified small-screen audience into a billion individual fragments. On both sides of the Atlantic, ratings plummeted. Viewers drifted away. Now, in Britain, a group of bodybuilders, personal trainers and sundry gym rats have stepped unto the breach.

Persons: TikTok, —, Gladiators ” Organizations: Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple, YouTube, Gladiators, BBC Locations: Britain

☆ Stop Looking for Flaws in the Premier League Contenders
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-29 | by ( Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The commentators may mention it in passing, but their tone will indicate that the hyperbole is not to be punctured. And if Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta try to point it out before Manchester City faces Arsenal on Sunday, it will be viewed as gamesmanship, or deflection, or unapologetic sophistry. Still, it is true: The meeting between City and Arsenal will not provide the deciding, defining moment in the Premier League’s most compelling title race in a decade. It is a game of glowering significance and considerable heft, of course, a chance for one team to clear a towering, looming hurdle. There is a better than even chance that by the time the whistle is blown at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday night, neither of them will be top of the league.

Persons: Pep Guardiola, Mikel Arteta Organizations: Manchester City, Arsenal, Premier, Etihad Locations: City

☆ Where’s the Next Generation of Great Coaches?
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-15 | by ( Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Greek triumph came a few weeks after Porto, led by a charismatic young coach with hair more pepper than salt, lifted the Champions League trophy. That was after Werder Bremen finished the season as champion of Germany and Valencia secured its second Spanish title in three years. The compilation clip could, at a push, be used as a sort of generational Rorschach test. Werder Bremen should be able to win the Bundesliga. You might not want to watch Greece win the Euros again, but it was nice that it happened.

Persons: craven, Kate Middleton, —, pang Organizations: Greece, European, Champions League, Werder Bremen, Valencia, Caldas, Copa Libertadores, Bundesliga, Porto Locations: Porto, Germany, Colombian, Europe

☆ The Best Player in the Premier League? Look Deeper.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-08 | by ( Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Pep Guardiola would, in an unguarded moment, probably concede that he has a slight tendency toward hyperbole. With eyes wide and voice breathless, he will sing the praises of some hopelessly overmatched opponent his Manchester City team has just beaten by 6-1, his players’ jerseys untainted by sweat. “Guys,” he will say, “guys, they are so good. The likeliest explanation is that it is just who Guardiola is: passionate and intense and deeply enthusiastic, still, about his sport. There might be just a dash of noblesse oblige in there, too, a little well-intentioned clemency from soccer’s great conqueror.

Persons: Pep Guardiola, breathless, Guardiola, soccer’s Organizations: Manchester City

☆ Want to Lose a Lot of Money, Fast? Buy a Small Soccer Team in England.
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-24 | by ( Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Few industries are quite as appealing or as prestigious as English soccer, and Mr. Thompson has a piece of it. But while his team might be small, Mr. Thompson is of the view that it is, at least, as perfectly formed as any minor-league English soccer club could hope to be. Mr. Thompson has spent considerable sums of money modernizing the bathrooms, the club shop and the private boxes. “We have done most of the hard yards,” Mr. Thompson said. After a cancer scare last year led him to reassess his priorities, Mr. Thompson has, reluctantly, decided that he has to “hand the baton” to someone else.

Persons: Geoff Thompson, Thompson, South Shields, Mr Organizations: Shields F.C, Premier League, English Locations: South

☆ Want to Play in Asia’s Champions League? It Will Cost You.
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-23 | by ( Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

At least nobody can accuse Asia’s soccer authorities of failing to sweat the small stuff. can still find the time to dictate precisely which water bottles, with which labels, fans should be allowed to carry into stadiums. That kind of attention to detail should reassure you that soccer’s future — from Beirut to Beijing, and Ulaanbaatar to Hobart — is in safe hands. Unfortunately, that is not quite the picture that emerges from a report, commissioned by soccer’s global players’ union, FIFPro, assessing the benefits and shortcomings of Asia’s most prestigious club competition, the Asian Champions League. Instead, the report documents a tournament that acts as an almost perfect microcosm of soccer’s general direction across the globe.

Persons: Hobart — Organizations: Asian Football Confederation, ’, Asian Champions League Locations: —, Beirut, Beijing, Ulaanbaatar, Hobart

☆ Kylian Mbappé, P.S.G. and the Dangers of a Loveless Marriage
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-16 | by ( Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

This time, Kylian Mbappé means it. The reports on Thursday of his decision to leave Paris St.-Germain, his hometown team, might have carried with them an unmistakable sense of déjà vu. They might have been copied and pasted, almost verbatim, from the last time this happened, and the time before that. It is less than two years since he and P.S.G. last came to the brink, his boxes packed, his desk emptied, his goodbye card signed.

Persons: Kylian, Germain, He’s, P.S.G Locations: Paris St

☆ An English City Gave Soccer to the World. Now It Wants Credit.
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-14 | by ( Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As far as the man in the food truck is concerned, the patch of land he occupies in Sheffield, England, is about as humdrum as they come. To him, the spot — in the drab parking lot of a sprawling home improvement superstore, its facade plastered in lurid orange — is not exactly a place where history comes alive. John Wilson, an academic at the University of Sheffield’s management school, looks at the same site and can barely contain his excitement. He does not see a parking lot. He can see the history: the verdant grass, the sweating players, the cheering crowds.

Persons: John Wilson, Monty ” — Organizations: University of Sheffield’s, Sheffield Locations: Sheffield, England

☆ Is Soccer Ready to Retire Its Last Taboo?
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-09 | by ( Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For as long as he could remember, his ambition had been to become a professional soccer player, to make a living doing the thing he loved. Martin was gay, and there were — as far as he knew — no gay soccer players. Forever.” Or at least, he thought, long enough “for me to live out my dream.”In reality, that contrast was not quite that stark. In 2018, at age 23, and while he was playing for Minnesota United in Major League Soccer, Martin came out as gay. He was thought to be the only openly gay male professional soccer player in the world at the time.

Persons: Collin Martin, Martin, —, ” Organizations: Minnesota United, Major League Soccer

☆ When Soccer’s Content Mine Loses Sight of Reality
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-27 | by ( Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The show, depicting Liverpool’s preparations for the 2012-2013 Premier League season, ran for only one series, amounting to just six episodes. Its subsequent cultural half life has been limited, too; those few elements which have lingered illustrate perfectly why it was not renewed. It would emerge later, of course, that both incidents were a little more nuanced than first assumed. The envelope trick had been adapted from a method once used — albeit with considerably more success — by Alex Ferguson. The portrait had been a gift from a disability charity with which Rodgers had worked closely during his time at his previous club, Swansea.

Persons: Marc Andreessen, ruefully, Brendan Rodgers, …, Rodgers, Alex Ferguson Organizations: maven, League Locations: Liverpool, Swansea

☆ A Message From the Premier League’s Rules-Free Future
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-19 | by ( Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In the summer of 2025, after Manchester City’s acquittal via appeal on 115 charges of breaching the Premier League’s financial regulations, the league’s clubs voted to abolish their discredited Profit and Sustainability Rules, the set of guidelines created years earlier in the failed hope they might prevent teams from spending themselves — and everyone else — into ruin. The decision brought an end to more than a year of increasingly bitter infighting among the league’s members, and even the final vote was hardly unanimous. Six teams lobbied furiously to retain the cost controls, though that number did not include City or Chelsea, two members of the supposed “elite” whose status was effectively protected by the rules. The outcome was attributed largely to public pressure. Punishments applied in previous years to Everton and Nottingham Forest for more minor breaches had been deemed as unjustly “punishing the fans,” despite the fact that the same could be said for the existence of the red card.

Persons: Manchester, ” Organizations: Everton, Nottingham Forest Locations: Chelsea

☆ Loyal to Their Soccer Team, and to Their Burger Van
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-13 | by ( Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Surveying his territory, Tony Aujla is pleased. His business, after all, is all about location, and he has a prime one. Like a general surveying a battlefield, he points to his right: a short walk that way is Aston train station. Over to the left is Villa Park, with its grand, brick-lined facade, home of the city’s Premier League soccer team, Aston Villa. Should any of them require sustenance to complete their (not especially arduous) trek, he is there, spatula in hand, to sell them a burger.

Persons: Tony Aujla, amble, Aujla, Burger Organizations: Aston, Villa Park, city’s Premier League soccer, Aston Villa Locations: Villa

☆ At P.S.G., a Coach’s Vision Collides With a Star’s Power
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-01 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ultimately, a single wrong answer cost Rafael Benítez his job, the one he had coveted for most of his working life. Perhaps Benítez was trying to be clever. Ronaldo was certainly one of the best players in the world, he responded. “It would be like asking my daughter if she prefers my wife or me,” he said, by way of explanation. Barely four months later, Benítez was out at Real Madrid.

Persons: Rafael Benítez, Benítez, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, ” Organizations: Real, Real Madrid Locations: Real Madrid

☆ Watching People Watch a Game. With 100,000 Friends.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-25 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

With the lights adjusted and the cameras rolling, the production team gives Joe Smith his cue. In five seconds, he will be broadcasting live to a couple thousand people. Mr. Smith’s mind, though, is elsewhere. “Slate is definitely the best way to build a roof,” he mutters to his co-host, Jay Mottershead, as the countdown hits three. “All these years on, they haven’t topped it.”And with that, they are on air.

Persons: Joe Smith, mutters, Jay Mottershead, Mottershead Organizations: Manchester United, F.C, Copenhagen Locations: Danish

☆ The Premier League Needs a Commissioner
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-24 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Pete Rozelle’s immediate reaction could not accurately be described as unbridled enthusiasm. He had, for the last three years, been the general manager of the Los Angeles Rams. They wanted to put him in charge of the whole league. It was an offer, in Rozelle’s mind, that he had to refuse. “You’ve got to be kidding,” he told them, according to Michael MacCambridge’s magisterial history of the league, “America’s Game.” “That is the most ludicrous thing I have ever heard.”

Persons: Pete Rozelle’s, Mara, Jack, Dan Reeves, Paul Brown, “ You’ve, ”, Michael MacCambridge’s Organizations: Los Angeles Rams, Giants, Rams, Rozelle Locations: Kenilworth, Miami, Wellington, Cleveland

☆ Swedish Soccer Prioritized Fans Over Finances. Now, Business Is Booming.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-19 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The warning sounded over and over, first in Swedish and then in English. But in the stands, as a thick cloud of smoke wreathed and coiled in the floodlights, nobody moved. The fans were going to make the game happen by sheer force of will. The top two teams in the Allsvenskan, Sweden’s elite league, had gone into the final day of the season separated by just three points. It has not happened in England since 1989, and Italy has not produced such a denouement in more than half a century.

Organizations: Allsvenskan, Elfsborg Locations: Malmo, England, Italy

☆ Xabi Alonso Isn’t Coming to Save Your Team. Not Yet.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-17 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Xabi Alonso has always done things at his own speed. As he contemplated the idea of becoming a coach, he saw no reason to change. He did not start out on the second phase of his career with a five-year or a 10-year plan in mind. “But I had not really mapped anything out.”There were plenty of people who were more than happy to do it for him. Everything about Alonso seemed to indicate not only that he would go into management when his playing days drew to a close, but almost that he should.

Persons: Xabi Alonso, “, ”, Alonso Organizations: Champions League, Liverpool, Real, Madrid, Bayern Munich Locations: Europe, Real Madrid, Spain

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