List of All Articles with Tag 'football'

Mauricio Pochettino admitted he empathised with Thiago Silva’s frustration after the defender appeared to lose his temper with Chelsea teammates during their goalless draw at Bournemouth on Sunday. At one stage, whilst in possession of the ball during the first half at the Vitality Stadium, the defender was visibly angered by the team’s set-up, with little movement in front of him and huge gaps between forward players and the defence. Silva, who turns 39 on Friday, is one of the club’s most experienced and successful players having won seven Ligue 1 titles with Paris St Germain, the Serie A title with AC Milan and the Champions League with Chelsea in 2021. He has also collected 113 caps for Brazil during a 15-year international career. By contrast three of his teammates who started the draw with Bournemouth – Lesley Ugochukwu, Levi Colwill and Malo Gusto – were not born when Silva made his professional debut for Brazilian third-tier side RS Futebol in 2002. With an average age of just over 23 Chelsea have the youngest squad in this season’s Premier League, and an injury crisis that has left Pochettino without 12 first-team players has increased his dependency on youth. “We need to be more relaxed,” said Blues boss Pochettino. “Sometimes the defensive players want to help the team to score because the feeling is that we are creating chances but can’t score. “Then we need to be clever. Thiago has experience, but too many players (in the team) are still learning about the game. That is the construction and the building of a new team. There are many rules in football that you can’t write. “In these type of games when you are pushing, pushing, trying to score and if you don’t score, it’s normal (to be frustrated), you know.” Pochettino also clarified the absences of Marc Cucurella, Noni Madueke and Moises Caicedo, none of whom were in Sunday’s squad. Instead the manager was forced to name three players who were 19 and under with no first-team experience on the bench, as well as two goalkeepers. “Cucurella had a fever (on Saturday) and was at home and didn’t train,” said Pochettino. “Noni came from the national team with a muscle problem. Caicedo came with a knock in his knee. “We need to assess (on Monday). That’s why they weren’t available, plus another 10 or 11 players.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Paedophile former football coach Barry Bennell dies in prison George Williams keen to avenge England’s World Cup heartbreak with Tonga success Kyle Walker says Man City ‘start at the bottom of the mountain’ this season

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Former football coach and serial paedophile Barry Bennell has died in prison, the Ministry of Justice has confirmed. The former Crewe Alexandra coach was serving a 34-year sentence after being convicted of a number of child sex offences. A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said: “Prisoner Barry Bennell died at HMP Littlehey on September 16. “As with all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will investigate.” Bennell, also known as Richard Jones, was jailed for 30 years in 2018 after being convicted of 52 child sexual offences against 12 boys. He was ordered to serve an additional four years in 2020 after pleading guilty to other offences against two boys. When he was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court in 2018, Recorder of Liverpool Judge Clement Goldstone QC said he “may well die in prison”. His final prison sentence, in 2020, was the fifth time he had been jailed. At that hearing, the court was told he had a detached retina after being attacked in prison and was in remission from cancer. Bennell, a former Manchester City scout, abused boys he coached in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live

Kyle Walker claims Manchester City consider themselves back at the bottom of the mountain again this season. City scaled the heights last term as they became only the second English team to win the treble of Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup. Now, as City prepare to begin the defence of their European crown at home to Red Star Belgrade on Tuesday, Walker has revealed manager Pep Guardiola wants them to prove themselves all over again. The England right-back said at a press conference: “It’s our job to stay motivated. We’re at a massive club for a reason, because the manager believes in us and we’re all great players. “It comes from within that you have to keep going. The hunger is still definitely in the changing room and from him as a manager as well. He still wants to win more. “You can see what he is like in games and training. He doesn’t settle for second and we need to follow in his footsteps because he has managed some great teams that have won fantastic things. “What we have done is in the past now. It is a new season, you draw a line under it. “The manager did a diagram for the first game of the season. We start at the bottom of the mountain and we are climbing to the top. “Our flag will always be at the top because we have won the Premier League and Champions League but we have to go again and again. It is what separates the good teams from the great teams.” I've been very honoured (so far) and it's a privilege to lead this special group of players out Kyle Walker Walker has captained the team so far this season and looks likely to retain the armband following a squad vote to find a permanent successor to the departed Ilkay Gundogan. Walker would not reveal who came top in the vote, which has taken place in recent days, other than to confirm he has been nominated as one of the group of five senior players who make up the captaincy group. However, with the other main contender for the job, Kevin De Bruyne, currently out injured, it would be a surprise if the 33-year-old did not lead out the team for the Group G clash against Red Star. Walker said: “The captains’ vote has come in and the five captains that have been chosen that will lead the team for the season and make sure all checks and fines are paid up. “I don’t think the order really matters but it’s down to myself, Kevin, Rodri, Ruben (Dias) and Bernardo Silva. “I’ve been very honoured (so far) and it’s a privilege to lead this special group of players out. “I will continue to do that and hopefully lead by example on and off the field to ensure we are collecting the trophies at the end of the season.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live AC Milan’s Fikayo Tomori relishing clash with former team-mate Sandro Tonali Attacking play and big-game wins – Roberto De Zerbi’s first year at Brighton Paul Collingwood backs Zak Crawley to excel in role of England captain

England international Fikayo Tomori has warned Sandro Tonali that friendship will go out of the window when AC Milan and Newcastle head into Champions League battle on Tuesday night. The two men were team-mates last season as Milan made it to the semi-finals of the competition and finished fourth in Serie A, but they will be on opposing sides at the San Siro following midfielder Tonali’s £53million summer switch to St James’ Park. Former Chelsea defender Tomori, 25, admits it will be god to see his former colleague again – but only after the final whistle. He told a press conference: “Obviously it will be nice to see him again. We played a lot of games together. “It will be nice to see him again so soon after he left, but we are professionals. When the game starts, friendships go out of the window. We want to win. “After the game, we can start being friends again. During the game, though, we are not friends.” The Italians will hope for a positive start to the campaign as they attempt to bounce back from Saturday’s 5-1 derby mauling by Inter, the side which dumped them out of the Champions League last season. Tomori was a frustrated by-stander at the weekend as he sat out through suspension following his red card in the 2-1 win at Roma before the international break and is determined to make up for lost time after witnessing a horror show in the wake of three successive league wins. He said: “I was disappointed not to have been able to help my team-mates on the pitch. Watching the match on TV is tough, you can’t help the team. “Tomorrow I’ll be on the pitch, I hope. We’ll try to win and start the group well.” Milan, who received a visit from former player Zlatan Ibrahimovic on Monday morning as they finalised their preparations for the game, are expecting an all-action approach from the Magpies on their return to the competition after a gap of 20 years. Eddie Howe’s men warmed up for the trip to Italy with a narrow 1-0 Premier League win over Brentford, and the Rossoneri are in little doubt as to what will lie ahead. Boss Stefano Pioli said: “[Newcastle] seem like a classic English team to me with physicality, pressure and intensity. “They are very tall and dangerous on the dead ball, without neglecting their quality.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Attacking play and big-game wins – Roberto De Zerbi’s first year at Brighton Paul Collingwood backs Zak Crawley to excel in role of England captain Pep Guardiola challenges Man City to win back-to-back Champions League titles

The eyebrows that were raised when Brighton replaced Graham Potter with Roberto De Zerbi have been put firmly in their place over the last 12 months. It was on September 18 a year ago, only 10 days after Potter’s departure for Chelsea, that the Seagulls announced their new boss would be a little-known Italian. Brighton chairman Tony Bloom had identified De Zerbi as his next managerial target some time before after being impressed by his work in Italy with Benevento and Sassuolo, which then continued when he moved to Shakhtar Donetsk. Arriving at Brighton with little English and big boots to fill, it was perhaps not surprising it was seen as a risky move but the only question now is how long the Seagulls will be able to hang onto him. De Zerbi did not win any of his first five games in charge but thumped Potter’s Chelsea 4-1 for his maiden victory and did not look back. Premier League highlights included the double over Chelsea and wins over Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal while they also beat Liverpool during a run to the semi-finals of the FA Cup that only ended with a penalty shoot-out loss to United. Brighton eventually finished sixth, securing European football for the first time in the club’s history with a place in the Europa League. And they have picked up where they left off this season, winning four of their opening five matches, including back-to-back 3-1 wins over Newcastle and Manchester United. That is despite again selling a number of their star performers, with Moises Caicedo and Robert Sanchez heading to Chelsea and Alexis Mac Allister to Liverpool. Selling on players and reinvesting the money in potential stars of the future is central to the Brighton model. Marc Cucurella, Yves Bissouma, Leandro Trossard, Ben White and Dan Burn have all departed the Amex Stadium for bigger Premier League names in recent seasons while the likes of Kaoru Mitoma and Evan Ferguson are sure to be on many wishlists. The no-nonsense De Zerbi has clearly had a big impact on the players he has worked with, and Lewis Dunk opened up on the Italian’s methods after regaining his place in the England squad. “Football-wise, since the new manager at Brighton has come in I see football in a completely different way, I picture it in a different way and that is the biggest thing,” he said earlier this month. “Football is not what I thought it was. Just how we play now. The idea of what I did before, I thought it made sense. But when you learn something completely different, you believe in it and this makes sense. “You think, ‘Why didn’t I know this?’ and, ‘Why didn’t I do this before?’ “(I) know every position on the pitch and where they should be. The time they should move and what angles they should give. We see it every day and it makes life simpler.” That attention to detail and precision is at the heart of De Zerbi’s footballing philosophy, with Brighton widely praised for their attacking panache and high-energy game. Balancing trying to take another step forward in the Premier League this season with the demands of European football is a new challenge for De Zerbi but, based on the last 12 months, it would be no surprise if he found the right formula. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Paul Collingwood backs Zak Crawley to excel in role of England captain Pep Guardiola challenges Man City to win back-to-back Champions League titles Conor Murray: Ireland squad in ‘unbelievable nick’ ahead of South Africa clash

Pep Guardiola has challenged his Manchester City side to achieve something special and win back-to-back Champions League titles. The treble winners begin the defence of their European crown as they host Red Star Belgrade at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday. City finally put years of near-misses behind them to win the competition for the first time last season but, while Guardiola is proud of their achievements, he feels their mission is not yet over. The City manager said at a press conference: “I’d like to say that for our club to win the Champions League is incredible – the first time in our history – but, in perspective, how many teams have won the Champions League once? “A lot have won two, three, four, five. In perspective, we did nothing special. It’s just one. “Let’s go. Let’s try to win tomorrow against a team so aggressive, so fast up front.” Guardiola is viewing the challenge as nothing different to past seasons, although he accepts the pressure of trying to defend the trophy will be easier than when trying to win it for the first time. “It’s most difficult to win the first one,” he said. “But every season we start the competition in the first game with the target to win the first game, then the group stage, then try to win the Champions League. Nothing changes from before. “The same for Red Star tomorrow. It depends on our performance and our level. “We’re incredibly happy to defend this crown but this competition doesn’t allow you mistakes. “But always we were so strong at home, nine points from nine. When that happens you can win just one game away and you qualify. Tomorrow is the first step.” City reached the European summit, and capped a glorious treble, when they beat Inter Milan 1-0 in the final in Istanbul in June. Yet the club have not sat back and dwelt on their success, adding the UEFA Super Cup and starting the new Premier League campaign with five successive wins. Guardiola admits he has not even watched back the final, which was won with a single goal from Rodri. He said: “People say we won it and it’s done. It’s not done. They’re happy, we’re happy. Every time we come here, people take pictures with the four trophies. “That makes us so happy, you cannot deny, but if I wanted to live for the memories I wouldn’t be here. I’d be at home or on a beach. “I didn’t watch the game, no. Not at all. The competition gives us a new challenge so let’s at least try – and I don’t have any doubt we will try.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Conor Murray: Ireland squad in ‘unbelievable nick’ ahead of South Africa clash Eddie Jones says Australia ‘under the pump’ heading into crunch Wales showdown Scotland step up preparations ahead of second World Cup match with Tonga

Today's Premier League news includes Jadon Sancho linked with Barcelona, Conor Gallagher potentially on his way to Tottenham Hotspur and Bayern Munich interested in Trevoh Chalobah.

Absentee-hit Manchester United have confirmed right-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka is set for a “period on the sidelines” after picking up an injury as a late substitute against Brighton. Erik ten Hag’s men have endured a challenging start to the season, with off-field issues compounded by poor performances and results on the pitch. United are preparing for Wednesday’s Champions League group opener at Bayern Munich on the back of a 3-1 home loss to Brighton on Saturday, when their injury issues worsened. Wan-Bissaka was named on the bench having dealt with illness in the build-up and then picked up an injury when brought on as a 85th-minute substitute. United said in a statement: “Aaron Wan-Bissaka is set for a period on the sidelines after sustaining an injury during the closing stages of Saturday’s game against Brighton and Hove Albion. “Further assessment will be needed to determine how long Wan-Bissaka will be out for, but initial indications suggest it will be several weeks.” It has been reported that Wan-Bissaka is facing two months out as the right-back joins United’s lengthy list of absentees. Left-backs Luke Shaw and Tyrell Malacia are out along with centre-back Raphael Varane, while deadline-day signing Sofyan Amrabat has to make his debut due to a knock. Mason Mount has not featured since picking up an injury in last month’s loss at Tottenham, while Kobbie Mainoo, Amad Diallo and Tom Heaton are also sidelined. Jadon Sancho has been banished from the first team “pending resolution of a squad discipline issue” and Antony has been given a leave of absence following assault allegations against him. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live

Manchester United and Chelsea’s dreadful starts to the Premier League season continued as they dropped points again this weekend. United were well beaten 3-1 by Brighton on Saturday to leave them 13th in the table while Chelsea, held by Bournemouth on Sunday, are one place worse off – and only one ahead of their winless opponents. Here, the PA news agency looks at the two clubs’ records in their first five games. Points United have six points from their first five games this season and Chelsea just five, in both cases matching their second-worst record in the Premier League era. United had only five points at this stage in 2014-15 and six in 2004-05, eventually finishing those seasons in fourth and third place respectively. They had seven in both 2013-14 and 2020-21. Chelsea’s five points matches their total at this stage from all the way back in 1993-94, which was in keeping with the club’s record in the early days of the Premier League – they had six in both 1992-93 and 1995-96 as well as 2000-01. Since their initial big-money takeover by Roman Abramovich in 2003, the only comparable season is 2015-16 when they followed up their title win the previous season with just four points from their first five games. Jose Mourinho was sacked as manager that December as the Blues eventually finished 10th. Even last season under Thomas Tuchel, on their way to a 12th-placed finish with a revolving door of managers, Chelsea had seven points at this stage. Wins and losses United have lost three of their first five games for the first time in the Premier League era, with the Brighton result following defeats against Tottenham and Arsenal. Erik ten Hag’s side lost two of their first five last season, for the seventh time in the Premier League, but have now gone one worse. They have at least won the other two, beating Wolves 1-0 and Nottingham Forest 3-2, to avoid matching the 2004-05 and 2014-15 seasons when they won only one of their first five. Chelsea have only one win, against Luton, the sixth time in the Premier League and first since 2015-16 that they have won only one of their first five. Mauricio Pochettino’s men have two defeats, the same as last season and one fewer than their nightmare start in 2015-16. Goals Chelsea’s five goals scored are their fewest in the first five Premier League games since 1995-96, matching that campaign and 1993-94 for their lowest total. Raheem Sterling’s brace against Luton makes him their only player with more than one to his name. United have scored six – only five times have they scored fewer at this stage, including five goals last season and a record low three in 2007-08 – but their bigger problem may be at the other end. The 10 goals they have conceded, three each to Arsenal and Brighton and two each to Spurs and Forest, is their second-highest total after five games. The only worse start defensively came in 2020-21, when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side scored nine in their first five but conceded 12 to leave them with seven points. That included losing 3-1 to Crystal Palace and 6-1 to Tottenham. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live England offer discarded opener Jason Roy chance to be World Cup injury reserve Martin Odegaard believes competition for places is healthy for Arsenal Lewis Ludlam urges booing fans to keep the faith after England’s win over Japan

Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard welcomes the increased competition within the squad – highlighted by manager Mikel Arteta now choosing to rotate his two goalkeepers – as he believes it will make them stronger. David Raya, who signed on loan from Brentford and on whom the Gunners have a £27million option to buy, made his debut in the 1-0 victory at Goodison Park, which extended their unbeaten start to five matches. It means England international Aaron Ramsdale’s position as established number one is likely to be challenged over the coming weeks, but Odegaard said that principle should apply to the whole squad. That was evident as Leandro Trossard came off the bench for the injured Gabriel Martinelli to score the only goal in the second half, but it is the position of goalkeeper which is set to remain the major talking point. “I think it showed the depth in the squad now. We have so many quality players, the players on the bench can come on and change the game if we need it,” said the Norway international. “The competition for places is huge and I think that is a great thing for us and helps a lot. “You see in training every day the quality we have so everyone has to be on their best every day in training and that’s a good thing and will help us improve as a team as well.” On Ramsdale’s response to being dropped at Goodison Park, having started England’s friendly victory over Scotland just a few days previously, Odegaard added: “I think he will just keep working hard, like he is always doing. “He was there supporting us, cheering for us, helping us. He is a great character and he showed a very good response today by backing his team-mates, being there and giving us energy. “Excellent from him. We have two good goalkeepers there and it’s big competition. “Two top goalkeepers, different qualities, and both so good on the ball and in the goal as well. “We are lucky to have two such good goalkeepers and we will see who will play, but both of them are excellent.” Victory at Goodison Park, where they had not won in their previous five visits, was psychologically important to keep pace with the rest of their top-four rivals and the manner of the performance, having to grind out three points despite not being at their best, was pleasing for the Gunners captain. “It was a tough one. We knew it was a tough place to come, it’s been a tough place for Arsenal for a long time, but I think we did really well and deserved the win as well so very happy,” he added. “It’s a tough team and they play a bit different, and we had to deal with a lot of different things. “But we knew it would be a tough game, but were ready for it and I think we did really well on the pitch to fight and get the goal in the end so credit to the team and happy for the win.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Lewis Ludlam urges booing fans to keep the faith after England’s win over Japan Leon Smith believes Great Britain have a chance of Davis Cup glory in Malaga Big-spending Chelsea rarely threaten in drab goalless draw at Bournemouth

“Ja so eisern wie Granit, so wie einst Real Madrid und so zogen wir in die Bundesliga ein und wir werden auch mal deutscher Meister sein (Irgendwann).” “Yeah, so iron, like granite, just like Real Madrid, so we’ll move into the Bundesliga, and we’ll also become German champions.” They could sing that at Union Berlin, safe in the knowledge they would never actually play Real Madrid. It was a fanciful chant, from a different footballing universe. In 2005-06, when Sergio Ramos was making his Real debut, Union were playing in the Oberliga-Nord, a regional league of clubs in the old East Germany. Less than two decades later, Union’s players and staff and their families gathered to watch the Champions League draw. Eventually, there were two possible pools for them: B and C. They were placed in the latter. And then it became clear: they would meet Real as peers. “Surreal and overwhelming,” said Christian Arbeit, the matchday announcer at Union’s Alte Forsterei ground and a lifelong fan. “For the very first time we are playing the biggest competition in club football and meet the biggest club in the world and it is the very first game.” For Union, life as a Champions League club starts at the Bernabeu. It caps the rise of Union, the underdog club from East Berlin. They haven’t become German champions yet, though they led the table after two games of this campaign and finished fourth last season. They have gatecrashed the European elite with an old-fashioned formula, an almost defiant anti-commercialism that has given them an authenticity that, paradoxically, some corporations find attractive and with a ground that was rebuilt by the fans. Arbeit is one of them, a supporter for almost four decades who took a few days’ leave from his job at a cinema company. “I knew I could never come back if I wouldn’t have helped,” he recalled. Without Arbeit, without the 2,333 supporters who provided 140,000 hours of voluntary work in 2008 and 2009, it is safe to say Union would not have reached the Bundesliga, let alone the Champions League. There was nothing inevitable about this, about the organic, improbable surge of the people’s club from the DDR. The people saved Union when the city of Berlin and the district of Kopenick, each having done nothing to maintain the Alte Forsterei, handed it over to the club, but at a point when the German Football Federation denied it a licence to host matches; unless it was refurbished, anyway. “A very heartwarming 13 months of a building site,” Arbeit remembered. “There was around about 100 people each day – you couldn’t employ more – and 80 of them had never built something before. They were like me – cinema people, teachers, sales people – and you had 20 guys, proper building people, and they had to guide us through this building site. It is kind of a miracle. We have told this story a million times but still when I do talk about it, it gives me goosebumps because it is such a crazy story.” The miracle had its roots in a different country and a different time. Union were not the dominant club in the East German capital; that mantle resided with Dynamo, who were in a run of 10 consecutive titles when a 12-year-old Arbeit first went to a game in 1986 with his father, an engineer who tended to spend his spare time playing the trombone in a Dixieland jazz band. “Until that day I was not interested in football and we came to the stadium and it was a strange world I had never experienced before,” Arbeit said. “There were grown-up men singing and chanting and shouting and swearing and using words I was not allowed to use at home so it was a huge impression of a strange way of freedom.” That freedom brought a contrast with Dynamo Berlin, the club of the notorious Stasi chief Erich Mielke and who benefitted from his patronage. “You don’t go to the secret police unless you have to,” Arbeit rationalised. And so Union attracted a different crowd. “It was more what we nowadays would call alternative culture: the young guys with longer hair, with parka jackets. The club was not an opposition club or a rebel movement because that would not have been possible. But I remember when my classmates noticed I go to Union. It was: ‘They are so-called rowdies and hooligans.’ They were considered a wild bunch, the Union fans. But I experienced them mostly like they are today, very engaged in supporting the team. In funny ways, of course.” Relegation was an occupational hazard for Union back then. German reunification brought other problems. “We played in the third division and it was very regional, it was more or less a Berlin-based league,” Arbeit said. “You had to play on Sunday at 11 in the morning in the drizzling rain and it was about 700 people turning up; it was really depressing. The people had so many more existential problems: How can I find a job? How can I feed my children?” And Union disappeared off the radar of many people, re-emerging with a first indication of their 21st-century propensity to upset more fancied teams. They had spent the 1990s acquiring the nickname of Unpromotables as, stuck in the third division, they found a range of ways not to go up. They were “Unaufstiegbar”. Twice even winning their league was not enough; financial issues meant they were not granted the licence needed to play in a higher division. And then, in 2001, they got promoted and reached the German Cup final, knocking out Borussia Monchengladbach and Bochum on their way. “It was like, wow, how did we do that?” Arbeit recalled. “After many years of being ignored, everyone noticed us.” The route to the Bernabeu nonetheless involved going backwards. Union were relegated twice in four years after the German Cup final. Short of funds, they needed the unpaid labour of their supporters to ensure they could keeping playing at the Alte Forsterei. But it helped they had a loyal fanbase: their status as outsiders may have benefited them whereas Dynamo, the former secret-police club, are now found in the Regionalliga-Nordost. Along the way, Union have acquired different rivals within the same city. They went up to the Bundesliga in 2019, a year after the appointment of the catalytic manager Urs Fischer. And then Hertha BSC got in touch. “I remember when we first got promoted to the Bundesliga, even in the congratulations was included, ‘congratulations, Union, we are happy and we are looking forward to six points,’” said Arbeit. Last season, as Hertha propped up the Bundesliga, Union took six points at their neighbours’ expense. There was long the sense that Berlin, one of Europe’s great capitals, ought to have a Champions League club. Hertha thought it should be them. No one thought it would be Union. The investor Lars Windhorst put €374m into Hertha and got just €15m back. Hertha spent more than €100m on signings in 2019-20, a season of four managers and a bottom-half finish. The most expensive of those buys, Lucas Tousart, joined Union for a cut-price fee this summer. “They manoeuvred themselves into financial and organisational instability,” Arbeit said. “We had not that much money but we had a very stable organisation.” Hertha’s grandiose dreams extended to Union territory. Dirk Zingler, Union’s president since 2004 and another lifelong fan, has described them as an East Berlin club; in a city that was divided for almost three decades, the distinction matters. “We would never go out with the approach to say we are the one club for Berlin,” Arbeit said. “The funny thing is Hertha did that for a very long time. They tried a lot of public campaigns to say that: ‘one city, one club, we are the club for the whole city’.” Instead, Hertha’s members are largely in the west, Union’s generally in the east. Now Champions League football will come to Hertha: or their ground, anyway. When Union first qualified for Europe, Uefa did not allow them to play their 2021-22 Conference League games at the Alte Forsterei. Now they had a choice: a ground with a capacity of 22,000, with fewer than 4,000 seats, but a home of symbolic importance, or a massive venue. Real Madrid, Napoli and Braga will go to West Berlin, to the Olympiastadion. So will thousands of fans, with cheap tickets. “The Champions League is for all Unioners,” said Zingler at the time. “It was one of the most difficult decisions we had to make,” said Arbeit. “We always say it is the people we are doing it for. It is something extraordinary, it is possible it is the only time in our history we reach that competition and that is why we decided to show it to as many people as possible. Still we are a bit sad.” Even Union have to compromise sometimes. But not often. Their matchday is a different experience. “We want to keep the dignity of the football match itself,” Arbeit said. “We don’t want any advertising Zeppelins flying around at the half-time break and no kiss-cam and no T-shirt gun. We don’t make any noise or any announcements in a commercial way and just a little bit, this is already something special in German football. We don’t do a half-time show with sponsored games or quiz shows. You can’t win some products. You have no entertainment before the game. “The people come here and meet their friends and they can have their beer and sausage. Just 20 minutes before kick-off, I just come on the pitch and say hello and introduce the guest team and then our team.” Union nevertheless have a corporate shirt sponsor, Paramount, and JD Sports on their sleeves, but on their own terms. “We develop in sponsorship terms from regional and local companies to international,” Arbeit said. If Union may be Germany’s least commercial club, their opposites are the other East German representatives in the Champions League: RB Leipzig, propelled by the Red Bull group. “From the view of our fans, it was about establishing a monumental marketing piece in football for a product which is Red Bull,” Arbeit said. “We are the last protesting audience: whenever we play against Leipzig our fans spend the first 15 minutes in silence.” If Leipzig – parachuted into a city with two established clubs, Chemie and Lokomotive – are the break from the past and Union a link with it, that still did not bring Ostalgie, the nostalgia for East Germany; DDR flags have been seen at other grounds behind the old Iron Curtain, but not Union’s. But they were born in the DDR. About three-quarters of off-field staff are supporters, some converts after they start working for the club. For most, it is not a stepping stone. A community club nevertheless display their ambition. As a newly-promoted club, they signed the former double Bundesliga winners Neven Subotic and Christian Gentner. A year later, Max Kruse, once the enfant terrible of German football, joined: he ended his first season with an injury-time goal on the final day to take Union into Europe. “Since then, everyone in our surroundings believes we can sign whoever we want. We are not afraid of calling someone up and asking,” Arbeit said. That policy reaped a reward this summer. Enter Robin Gosens, whose final contribution in an Internazionale shirt was to almost equalise in last year’s Champions League final, and, most remarkably, Leonardo Bonucci. The Euro 2020 winner and Italy captain left Juventus to play Champions League football with Union, a sentence that would long have sounded ludicrous. “He was perfectly prepared,” Arbeit explained. “When we had talks with him, he knew almost everything about our club; that was for us kind of a surprise because we didn’t expect this guy to know we have three sides of standing terraces. That meant to us that this person might perfectly fit because he could have gone to America or Saudi Arabia to take the next 20 million or anything but it looked like that he wanted for himself something special as well. When I was a boy, I always thought, why don’t players in the late years of their career, when they made their money already, why don’t they do something nice? And now I experienced that.” Union’s unique sales pitch is to offer less money. After all, they have no billionaire backer, a small stadium, low ticket prices and eschew some commercial deals. They have got players to buy into them, into the dream. Their wage bill last season, before bonuses for Champions League qualification, was in the bottom half of the Bundesliga’s, perhaps the bottom third. The chances are that striker Kevin Behrens can afford a car but, after he scored an opening-day hat-trick against Mainz this season, he was spotted cycling home. Only at Union, perhaps. But then the Unpromotables have done it their way as they have kept on going up and up. Union are the antidote to the worst excesses of 21st-century football. And for the fans who gravitated towards them 40 or 50 years ago, the long-haired and the parka-jacketed who sought some freedom and some wildness in communist East Germany, they don’t need to sing about playing Real Madrid anymore. It’s really happening. 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