Freelance football writer featured in the South London Press, Capital Football and Mail Sport

Sports Gazette •

World Cup column: Argentina embrace the emotion to secure Messi’s date with destiny

It is impossible not to associate Argentinian football with emotion. The ticker tape laden fields of 1978 hark back to a time before World Cups truly became the identikit commercial exercise they now are. The beauty of Diego Maradona in Mexico in 1986 is just as much a part of his story as the wide-eyed brutality of his premature exile from the competition in the USA eight years later.
Sports Gazette •

World Cup column: Familiar names show their many faces in thrilling Quarter-finals

It is comforting to think that the greats of football were always great, are always great and will always be great, but even for those imbued with brilliance from a promising start to a glorious end, the path to pre-eminence is not without divots and diversions. To be without imperfection would mean they lack the very human essence that goes so far in enthralling those who watch them. It is the minor shortcomings that make their stories whole and well-rounded.
Sports Gazette •

World Cup column: Portugal show there is life beyond the implosion of a supernova

Fernando Santos’ press conference on Monday included the seemingly empty threat that captain Cristiano Ronaldo could be dropped for Portugal’s Last 16 tie against Switzerland. An angry reaction to being substituted and then told to hurry along by South Korea’s Cho Gue-Sung had upset Santos to such an extent that he dared to speak out against his captain for the first time.
Sports Gazette •

World Cup column: Kylian Mbappé continues to decide games from the shadows

The logic of top-level professional football is so often informed by reacting to what can be visualised most easily. Taking each game as it comes, focusing on winning your one v one duels and keeping it simple in the first ten minutes are part of the genetic fibre of every wannabe manager across the globe. Not showing support for any cause or issue that goes beyond the strict confines of ‘focusing on football’, is a grim yet predictable extension of this logic.
Sports Gazette •

World Cup column: Messi slays the giant to keep World Cup fairy-tale alive

Lionel Messi had seen everything the game of football has to offer long before his 1000th appearance in Argentina’s World Cup Last 16 meeting with Australia on Saturday. From winning titles and re-writing record books to battling against himself in goal of the season contests and embarrassing the best that the mortal world has to offer on a weekly basis. There are few mountains left for him to climb, little wonder remaining in the twinkling of the stars.
Sports Gazette •

World Cup column: Ghana miss out on redemption but at least get some revenge

Sometimes football produces storylines so nourishing and wholesome that you can feel as though the sport itself is capable of writing all of the wrongs in the world. But sometimes, often more regularly, it can crush any sense of promise or hope, as the villain of the piece steals the story for themselves and rubs it in the face of their victim. And sometimes both can happen at once.
Sports Gazette •

World Cup column: Argentina cannot allow Messi’s last dance to be a solo affair

Released at the height of the world’s initial Covid-19 lockdown, Netflix series ‘The Last Dance’ quickly became a cultural phenomenon. With millions of people left with little option but to sit in front of screens for hours on end, the story of Michael Jordan trying to win one last NBA Championship with the Chicago Bulls became a cornerstone of popular culture, easily applicable to other sports.
Sports Gazette •

World Cup column: Wales's World Cup dreams run into some unfortunate realities

This was not the World Cup return that Wales wanted, it was not the one that they deserved. 64 years filled mostly with pain, disenchantment and downright apathy was reason enough for a small nation oft in the shadow of neighbours to enjoy a summer on the global stage. But this glorious period of Welsh football, previously unforeseen and unthinkable, was owed a crowning moment in front of the eyes of the world.
Sports Gazette •

World Cup column: Uncertain Germany find a way to break World Cup stereotypes

Ill-informed stereotypes and sweeping generalisations are the lifeblood of World Cups. Brazil will always bring samba flair and live or die playing breath-taking football. The French players will either fall out and combust in the group stage or win the entire tournament, there can be no in between. And Germany will be dull and predictable yet always make it to the latter stages without any fanfare or hyperbole.
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