The World Game

English football has always assumed the game happened here first and everywhere else second. This hub is the correction. Soviet football runs from a felt carpet laid over Red Square in 1936 to Lobanovskyi’s cybernetics, until Van Basten’s volley in Munich broke the logic. Mazzola’s Grande Torino were more than the Superga tragedy. Boban gets the riot and the myth, and Džajić is Red Star’s third star. Cheung Chi Doy came from Hong Kong to Blackpool as the first Asian footballer in Europe. Dick, Kerr Ladies drew 10,000 to Deepdale, and Souness reverses the old traffic, bringing England internationals north to Ibrox.