Faith and Football: Liverpool's Muslim Men
What do Mo Salah, Sadio Mané, Xherdan Shaqiri and Naby Keïta have in common? Besides their football club, of course. The answer I'm looking for though is their religion, Islam.
It's very rare in my writing that I stray away from tactics, statistics or areas in which I feel well-versed in, indeed, identity and faith are aspects rarely covered by sporting literature in general. Exceptions do stand out - take Muhammad Ali as a physical manifestation of a religiously-centred sportsman, …
Mascherano to Fabinho: The Long-Awaited Revival of the Defensive Midfielder
Some players are real bastards of the game, plying their trade with the kind of snide and underhanded disregard of the rules that causes outright fury from opposition fans. (See Sergio Ramos for details).
Yet, they’re also the type of player you desperately want in your team. A player who’d go the extra mile, commit the cynical foul and take the booking when the team needed it most. Those individuals are invaluable, doing the dirty side of the game to …