– Where are you going, Anderson Nascimento?– To the stadium, Mr. Júlio.– What are you talking about, boy? During your lunch break? You won’t make it in time!– Don’t worry, boss. I won’t be long. The exchange above is fictional, but it could very well have happened in October 1988. To understand why, we need […]
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Football is full of stories about loyalty and unwavering love. But, as in life, there’s always the other side. The side where a person can go from idolized to ostracized in no time at all—simply because they chose to leave one club for its hated rival. In the various retrospectives on football’s greatest traitors, names like […]
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Imagine you’re sleeping peacefully at home. You’ve dozed off, relaxed and unaware of what’s coming. Then, in the middle of the night, your door is smashed in and a swarm of police officers storms inside—like a scene from a movie or a crime series. They arrest you without explanation, without even giving you time to […]
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In the late ’80s and early ’90s, Italian football was dominated by defense. Coaches preached the gospel of “keep a clean sheet first, and if a goal happens to come our way, great.” High-scoring matches were a rare luxury. A 1-0 win wasn’t seen as a hard-fought, nerve-wracking victory—it was the national score and a […]
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There’s an old Greek saying: “Better to lose an eye than your reputation.” In the case of today’s protagonist, not only did he lose his reputation, but he almost caused others to lose an eye—or two. Gerardo Bedoya is infamous as “The Beast” or “The Monster.” And no, this nickname isn’t the “what a beast […]
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If you browse through the list of Primera A winners in Colombia and take a look at the champions for each year, you’ll spot something strange in 1989. Instead of a team’s name, there’s just a long blank space. No one won the league that year. Naturally, you’d wonder why. And if you know even […]
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