Sports Poets Society

http://gazzettadireggio.gelocal.it/sport/2015/10/27/news/federico-mussini-continuate-a-tifare-per-me-da-reggio-emilia-1.12340297?refresh_ce 27 ottobre 2015, di Andrea Montanari, Gazzetta di Reggio Il talento cresciuto nella Pallacanestro Reggiana all’esordio con St.John’s nel campionato di basket NCAA: «Amo ciò che sto vivendo in campo e fuori» di Andrea Montanari   REGGIO EMILIA. Federico Mussini ha conquistato Reggio Emilia, e non solo. La cavalcata biancorossa dell’ultima stagione ha portato il talento reggiano a diventare l’idolo del pala Bigi e a far conoscere il suo nome al di là dell’Oceano. Tutta la scorsa stagione, l’esterno di Albinea è stato l’ “osservato speciale” di molti scouts di college statunitensi. E’ piaciuto tanto da essere convocato, l’aprile scorso, al Nike Hoop Summit, rassegna che mette a confronto i migliori talenti under19 degli Stati Uniti con quelli del resto del mondo. E, ...

http://miasanworldwide.com/2014/01/08/the-most-important-man-in-the-history-of-fc-bayern-muenchen/ JANUARY 8, 2014 ARMAANFARID If one were to list out the names of “Legends” that have graced the ranks of FC Bayern München in one capacity or another throughout her glorious history, then it might not be any exaggeration to claim that an entire book could be written. A multitude of heroes have etched their name in the folklore of the club’s past as moments mixed with magic have given rise to memories that have, and will, last a lifetime. Let’s take a moment to turn back the clock and pay tribute to a few of those imperious characters that have defined Bayern, and try to find out if there was anyone who could be defined as “the most important person in the club’s history”. It started way back on February 27th, 1900 when a group of 11 rebels broke away from the Munich gymnastics club and went on to form the team we know today – FC Bayern München. The leader of the g...

Il pallone si arrende alla politica: Mkhitaryan non giocherà oggi nel match di Europa League fra Borussia Dortmund e Qabala. Troppo pericoloso per lui, armeno, andare in Azerbaigian. Colpa della guerra del Nagorno-Qarabaq, finita nel ’94 ma ancora viva nell’animo dei due popoli. La regione si è staccata dall’Azerbaigian nel ’92, scatenando un conflitto tra Baku e le forze locali, sostenute dall’Armenia.  A distanza di 20 anni la guerra continua ad avere ripercussioni, anche nel calcio. Mkhitaryan non è persona gradita in Azerbaigian. Anche per essere andato nel 2011 a Stepanakert, capitale del Nagorno, per omaggiare le famiglie dei soldati morti. Con l’incrocio in Europa League si è posto il problema della concessione del visto al giocatore armeno. Azerisport.com aveva addirittura scritto che il calciatore avrebbe potuto essere arrestato. Il Borussia ha preferito evitare bracci di ferro: Mkhitaryan non è stato convocato. «È un peccato dal punto di vista spor...

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2001/jul/03/newsstory.sport Football manager who took Liverpool to triple cup triumph Brian Glanville Tuesday 3 July 2001 02.44 BST Never, in his wildest fantasies, when he joined Liverpool towards the end of his playing career as a footballer, could Joe Fagan, who has died at the age of 80, have imagined the ultimate triumph he would enjoy. In his very first season as manager, in 1983-84, the club brought off the astonishing treble of European Cup, League Championship and Football League Cup. After the belligerent flamboyance of Bill Shankly, the true architect of Liverpool's postwar fortunes, and the wily, shrewd Bob Paisley, Fagan must have blinked in the light as he emerged from the boot room.  It was there, famously, that plans were hatched, tactics made and transfers discussed. Fagan was an invaluable contributor to those discussions, as he moved up the coaching and training hierarchy until, in 1983, Paisley retired, an...

http://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/may/15/guardianobituaries.brianglanville Innovative Ukrainian soccer coach who made champions of Dynamo Kiev and led the Soviet Union to two World Cup finals Brian Glanville Wednesday 15 May 2002 02.57 BST Valeri Lobanovsky, who has died aged 63 following brain surgery, was, for more than a quarter of a century, one of the world's most influential and innovative football coaches. Though he might have seemed an authoritarian figure at Dynamo Kiev - where he worked both before and after the demise of the Soviet Union - he deprecated any such idea, insisting that football had evolved to a point where no one man could cope with all its aspects, so that he needed a team of experts to assist him. He also managed the Soviet Union team in the 1986 and 1990 World Cup finals. Born in Kiev, in the then Ukrainian Soviet republic, Lobanovsky turned Dynamo Kiev into a team of remarkable skill and talent, climaxing first when, with a super...

http://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/oct/23/guardianobituaries.brianglanville A physiotherapist turned manager, he led Arsenal FC to their historic league and FA Cup double Brian Glanville Tuesday 23 October 2001 23.12 BST How much does a football manager do? It is a question that recurs frequently, and seldom more so than when Arsenal, in the 1970-71 season, won the elusive FA Cup and League Championship double 10 years after their north London rivals, Tottenham Hotspur, had achieved it. The Gunners' manager was Bertie Mee, who has died aged 82. Arsenal, who had not won a domestic trophy since 1953, ironically beat their rivals 1-0 to clinch the title, and five days later defeated Liverpool at Wembley to lift the FA Cup.  Mee had succeeded Billy Wright five years earlier, in June 1966. The contrast could not have been greater. Mee had never been more than a peripheral player, an outside right of sorts with Derby County. Wright, by contrast, had won 105 cap...

http://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/sep/20/guardianobituaries.football Powerful striker who broke Chelsea's cup final jinx Brian Glanville Friday 20 September 2002 00.12 BST The footballer Ian Hutchinson, who has died aged 54 after a long illness, arguably did as much, or more, than anyone to see that Chelsea finally defied the jinx and the joke on their participation in the FA Cup and, in 1970, won it. They had lost their first cup final, known for the preponderance of soldiers present as the Khaki Final, at Old Trafford against Sheffield United, 3-0, as long ago as 1915. Not until 1967 would they figure in another final, and then their London rivals Tottenham Hotspur beat them 2-1, this time at Wembley. In 1970, their third final, they seemed doomed to lose to the favourites, Leeds. A 1930s song, by the comedian Norman Long, was even exhumed: "On the day that Chelsea won the final, the universe went off the wheel." But Hutchinson had other ideas.  ...

http://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/sep/21/guardianobituaries.football A mercurial master among football managers, he transformed the fortunes of two rival clubs Brian Glanville Tuesday 21 September 2004 23.57 BST A prolific but unlucky centre-forward, who became a triumphant but star-crossed manager, Brian Clough, who has died of stomach cancer aged 69, was, in some sense, the victim of his own public image. He was a mixture of arrogance and initiative, bombast and generosity, intransigence and self-doubt. He scored 204 second division goals in 222 games for Middlesbrough, yet won only a couple of England caps, against Wales and Sweden in 1959. As a manager, he transformed Derby County into a championship-winning team, won the European Cup twice with Nottingham Forest, yet failed both at Brighton and Leeds, and never achieved the managership of England he so coveted.  Through almost the whole of Clough's career runs the theme of his collaboration with P...

http://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/oct/25/guardianobituaries.football Footballer, coach and manager of Tottenham Hotspur, he led his team to win the double in 1961 and two European trophies Brian Glanville Monday 25 October 2004 00.05 BST When Bill Nicholson, who has died aged 85, was made manager of Tottenham Hotspur in 1958, the club he had joined as a player before the second world war and then served as a coach, he scarcely believed it. He did not even tell his loyal and long-suffering wife Grace, always known as Darkie, who found out about it second hand. Though an ardent Spurs fan, she was, in any case, banned by him from attending any matches for reasons of superstition, as were his daughters Jean and Linda. Yet in Nicholson's first five years in the post, Spurs won the Championship and the FA Cup in 1961 - the century's first instance of that double - the FA Cup again in 1962, and the European Cupwinners' Cup in 1963. In an age of flashy club ...

http://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/nov/10/guardianobituaries.media Exhuberant left-half for Liverpool and England, who became a TV personality. Brian Glanville Wednesday 10 November 2004 00.19 GMT Last modified on Friday 11 January 2008 00.19 GMT Emlyn Hughes, captain of Liverpool and England, a forceful and exuberant left-half, whose charging runs upfield earned him the nickname Crazy Horse, has died aged 57. He underwent surgery for a brain tumour in August last year and his condition deteriorated in the last few days. In his 12 years at Liverpool, Hughes won the league title four times, the European Cup and Uefa Cup twice each, the FA Cup once, and the League Cup with his next club, Wolverhampton Wanderers. He won 62 England caps, 23 as captain.  After his playing career, Hughes became a popular figure on British television, appearing regularly as team captain on the BBC's A Question Of Sport. He was also a successful after-dinner speaker.  ...

http://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/mar/02/guardianobituaries.football Brian Glanville Thursday 2 March 2006 01.39 GMT The Chelsea, Southampton and England footballer Peter Osgood, who has died after a heart attack at a family funeral in Slough, aged 59, never truly fulfilled his enormous promise and potential. It was Geoff Hurst who scored three goals for England in the World Cup final of 1966 against West Germany. But it was Osgood who might so easily have played in his place. Precociously and richly gifted, an amalgam of power, finesse and opportunity, he had been in ebullient form that season in the Chelsea attack. But during a match at Blackpool, his leg was broken in a collision with a future England captain, Emlyn Hughes, and that was the end of his World Cup chances. I remember on England's pre-season European tour lamenting his absence to Hurst, who replied somewhat bitterly: "Instead of me, I suppose." He scored 150 goals altogether for Chelsea...

Manager who brought the England team to within a kick of their first World Cup final since 1966 Robson exhorting his Newcastle side to greater things against Manchester City in 2002. He was dismissed by his boyhood idols two years later.  Brian Glanville Friday 31 July 2009 17.02 BST Last modified on Monday 19 May 2014 14.00 BST It was Diego Maradona's notorious "hand of God" that eliminated England from the 1986 World Cup finals in Mexico – but it was the manager Bobby Robson who had taken them there, advancing one step further to the semi-finals four years later in Italy, only to lose to Germany on penalties. Although widely lampooned and vilified by the press for his perceived inadequacies, Robson, who has died of cancer aged 76, was the man who brought the national side closer than any other to a repeat of their 1966 glory. His achievement, however – followed by a successful managerial career at club level – seemed improbable in his early ...