It’s not about bigger or lighter. That’s been done for decades. Instead, your next racket will measure how well you play the game
Milan’s financial situation […] is by no means disastrous, but is bad enough to give the club pause for thought. Their traditional modus operandi has been to operate with substantial losses, which are then covered by the owners, but this will not be possible in the new world of UEFA’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules where clubs will have to live within their means without the assistance of a wealthy benefactor. This will test to the limit the negotiating skills of Milan’s vice-president Adriano Galliani
Bayern were founded in the bohemian quarter of Schwabing, and were very much a Jewish club before the second world war, with a Jewish president and a Jewish manager. As a consequence, Bayern were targeted by the Nazis but players and officials continued to defy the regime with small acts of personal courage. “All those things were forgotten in the post-war years,” said Dietrich Schulze-Marmeling, the author of 2011’s award-winning Der FC Bayern und seine Juden (FC Bayern and their Jews). “Bayern’s success in the 60s and 70s submerged the past, and West German society on the whole only started to look back at the Holocaust in earnest in 1979, in any case.”
Few people have done as much for Britain’s ailing newspapers as Mario Balotelli. Since the Italian footballer joined Manchester City in 2010, he has thrown darts at youth players, experienced an allergic reaction to grass, escaped from his burning house after a firework incident, tried to drive into a women’s prison and inspired the undying tabloid headline, “Balotelli hooker in romp with randy dwarf (Hi-ho, hi-ho, it’s off to bed we go)”. Such is the national fascination with Balotelli that when he walked into a school to use the toilet, it was news. In between he has scored some goals. In his mix of play, hedonism and rule-breaking, Balotelli resembles a 1970s rock star. However, rock stars are no longer tolerated in football. The model for today’s footballer is focused Corporate Man.