Silent Lonesome Man

Imagine, you're watching TV, where you found a football game, it showed the scenes of Poland, this time wrestling against England as the result was 1-0 for the English in Warsaw. In the end, you expected little, until a header from Damian Szymański salvaged Poland a point and kept the Poles intact with the hope to qualify, at least, by reaching the playoffs. You feel proud and pleased, but at the same time, you could not celebrate loudly because of your own national duty: you will represent a national team with a cedar badge on the jersey. This is the story of Omar Bugiel , a special member of the national team of Lebanon. First connection to football Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła, Kiedy my żyjemy. Co nam obca przemoc wzięła, Szablą odbierzemy. Marsz, marsz, Dąbrowski, Z ziemi włoskiej do Polski. Za twoim przewodem Złączym się z narodem... Poland Is Not Yet Lost. Yes, the anthem of Poland, and probably for football fans, the Polish hymn in big stadiums across Europe and sometimes in t...

This is the word I may hear from some Argentine and Brazilian fans after the fixture between them in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers was halted. Well, we all know how: Brazilian police stormed the stadium, arresting Giovani Lo Celso, Emiliano Martínez, Emiliano Buendia and Cristian Romero after English football clubs filed a complaint about these players illegally left the clubs' base camps. Yet Brazil and Argentina aren't the only ones who lost their best players because of the English. Colombia is suffering a denting hardship in the qualification because of the absence of their England-based players. Uruguay failed to produce the promised form in the qualification. The United States is struggling in the final round when the Americans suffered a blowing home draw to Canada - which are not even interested in the sport more than Americans. Luckier, but little changing, Croatia's England-based players Mateo Kovačić and Nikola Vlašić were the only few available options even thou...

The Peruvian election poll has come to a stand-still, with the extreme left Pedro Castillo of Peru Libre only gains a marginal lead over the extreme right Keiko Fujimori of Fuerza Popular. In a country where the influence of the Fujimori family remains deep in the society, this could evoke an emotional riot across Peru, notably among the conservatives. And in this group of pro-Fujimori people, also include surprise packets: nearly half of the senior members of the Peruvian national team dedicated their tacit backup for the Fujimori candidate. Many normal, libertarian Peruvians had come to disbelief when the national team had so many supporters for the Fujimorists. In a video that lasted only one minute, Edison Flores, who was the new star of the resurgence Peruvian side and played in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, made his first appearance condemning indirectly Pedro Castillo and warned voters not to choose communism. Then followed Carlos Zambrano, Jefferson Farfán, Pedro Gallese, Luis Advín...

Magomed Ozdoyev is special. He is very special because of his background. I have been watching him all along since he first admitted into the Russian national team. But he is more than a player - he is everything, a phoenix of the time. He was born in Grozny, November 1992. At the time, the city was the epicentre of the widespread Chechen uprising, demanding the Russian government to go out and Chechnya to be an independent country. One of the leading figures was Dzhokhar Dudayev, a former pilot who served in Afghanistan. When he only aged two, the Chechen War officially broke out, forcing the Ozdoyev family to flee to Sunzha, in the neighbouring Ingushetia. Magomed survived the war, but it was a difficult experience for the player. Magomed himself was born in Chechnya, but he is ethnically Ingush, a close relative of the Chechens. Unlike the majority of Caucasus families, the Ozdoyev family had a nice, low-profile yet proud and tragic past. His grandfather was the pilot Murad Ozdoyev...

Sweden has been historically recognised as one of the world's best men's football teams, and frequently appear in the major international arena, be it FIFA World Cup or UEFA European Championship. Leave alone a Swedish player trained in Sweden would also receive highly by other European counterparts. So no doubt, Swedish players are viewed with gold. For a country with only more than 10 million people, this achievement is beyond expectation. Who else forget 1958 World Cup when Sweden as hosts almost occupied their first World Cup trophy had not for Pelé's brilliance shone against? And who forget Sweden almost knocked out Germany in the 1992 Euro also on Swedish soil? Sweden's competitiveness has made football more entertaining and contributed to Europe's rich sporting tradition. But today, so many Swedish players are flooding Russia. Why? Well, it'd be a bitter case. This has something to do with the Euro 2008. UEFA Euro 2008 was hosted in two countries: Austria...