Leon Goretzka began his football career at Werner SV 06 Bochum in 1999 before he moved to VfL Bochum two years’ later. He spent 11 years with the youth sides of Bochum before being promoted to the first team for the 2012/13 in the 2.Bundesliga during which the midfielder played 32 league games and netted four times. His solitary season ...

Claudio Ranieri The Leicester City boss is a strong contender to take home the top coach honour at the FIFA awards next January. Ranieri guided a team that was threatened by relegation just a season prior to the Premier League summit, helping the club win their first ever league title – a truly remarkable and unprecedented achievement. Fernando Santos The ...

The 2015/16 season was one of the best of Cristiano Ronaldo’s career. He helped Real Madrid win the Champions League and then captained the Portugal national team to a triumphant 2016 European Championship campaign in France, delivering his country its first ever major international honour in football. On the back of his success, he has signed a new five-year deal ...

Marco van Basten Van Basten is one of the greatest footballers of all time. The Dutchman was renowned for his spectacular strikes and volleys, the one against the Soviet Union in the final of the 1988 European Championship being the most lauded one. The attacking spearhead of the dominant Ajax and AC Milan of the 1980s and early 1990s, Van ...

The Premier League witnessed the influx of star players in the summer. The league has suffered the departure of big players to Spain, especially in recent seasons and this also coincided with the inability of English teams to win the Champions League and Europa League since 2012 and 2013 respectively which were both won by Chelsea in those years. Football ...

Stefan Kovacs began his playing career as a midfielder for Oradea in Romania and went on to play for several outfits in the country as well as Charleroi in Belgium. He also had a three-year stint with CFR Cluj, before he hanged his boots at the end of the 1952/53 season at Universatea Cluj. He wasn’t as gifted as his ...

Leading into the 2014/15 League Cup final against Tottenham Hotspur at Wembley, Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho had to make do without the presence of Nemanja Matic in midfield. The Serbia international had enjoyed a sensational season shielding the Blues defence as they eventually marched their way to the league title. And in his absence in the League Cup final was ...

The last 12 months or so have followed a similar narrative to the preceding eight years or so when it comes to football. Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have shone brighter than all of their contemporaries and are clearly ahead of them when it comes to being favourites to win the newly-formed The Best FIFA Men’s Player award. The duo ...

The Best FIFA Men’s Player On the virtue of his two European triumphs last summer, Cristiano Ronaldo is the clear favourite to win the inaugural edition of the The Best FIFA Men’s Player award in January next year. The Real Madrid forward set a Champions League record by scoring 11 goals in the group stage of the competition before putting ...

FIFA and France Football magazine announced their parting of ways in September this year after a six-year association that saw the magazine’s Ballon d’Or combining with FIFA’s World Player of the Year award to form a combined FIFA Ballon d’Or gong given to the best player over a defined period of 12 months. However, football’s governing body didn’t renew its ...