FourFourTwo UK

Every month, our team deliver the biggest names, the finest features and the most respected columnists in football. FourFourTwo is the only magazine that truly reflects football in all its extremes. Spectacular, dramatic, hilarious, opinionated, authoritative, intelligent, quirky - from the grass roots up, if it's in the game, it's in FourFourTwo.

FourFourTwo UK

WELCOME

DANIEL STURRIDGE • “On Fridays, a player would be in a Superman or Batman suit – if you lost the challenge, you had to train in a donkey outfit”

UPFRONT • Playing off the last defender, it’s the big-man-little-man partnership of football and funnies

GAMES THAT CHANGED MY LIFE

JULES BREACH • The presenter hails a trio of Premier League bosses who walked away in May

THE ULTIMATE QUIZ • Surprise packages, small stadiums and scattered ashes all feature in our latest batch of football brainteasers

MY FOOTBALL • The 86TVs and former Maccabees guitarist on why Steed Malbranque is football’s Bob Dylan and when he spotted a goalkeeper while out whale-watching

MEANWHILE IN… • …Stockholm, Hammarby fans had a special message for their rivals after derby victory

THE DEBATE • Who had the more successful season in 2023-24: Manchester United or Arsenal?

ARNE SLOT REPLACING KLOPP, INSPIRED BY PEP • Liverpool’s new boss is one of a growing band of Guardiola disciples at Europe’s top clubs, even if the duo have never worked together, nor even faced each other. Tasked with stepping into a legend’s huge shoes at Anfield, the Dutchman wants to make his mark on English football… just like his idol

ENZO MARESCA: CHELSEA’S NEW GRANDMASTER • Even before working with the king of tactics at the Etihad, the Italian wrote a thesis on chess and must replicate such strategic nous if he’s to navigate life at the Bridge

MIKEL ARTETA: THE MAN MOST LIKELY TO TAKE PEP’S CROWN? • Apprentice came agonisingly close to trumping former master to the title in 2023-24 – the Arsenal gaffer could be on the verge of glory, before or after Guardiola’s departure

VINCENT KOMPANY: BAYERN’S BIGGEST GAMBLE • Tipped to follow Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, the Belgian has instead followed him to Munich. After relegation with Burnley, though, Vinnie must win over the German doubters, who remain unconvinced

XABI ALONSO: THE BOSS THAT TURNED NEVERKUSEN INTO NEVERLUSEN • The Spaniard stirred Germany by turning perennial bottlers into unbeaten Bundesliga champions – not since Pep himself has a young coach achieved so much so quickly

THE SUMMER OF TOTAL FOOTBALL • The Pep Guardiola philosophy was born 50 years ago from the Dutch genius of Johan Cruyff, Rinus Michels & Co. The Netherlands stole the show at the 1974 World Cup – FFT asks that team about a legacy not even a skinny-dipping final defeat can deny

CAN’T START A FIRE WITHOUT A SPARK • With two years to go until New York hosts the World Cup final, could ‘soccer’ culture finally be taking root in the Big Apple? To find out, FFT crossed the Atlantic to see Manchester City’s sister side NYCFC face the Red Bulls in the feisty Hudson River Derby

30 FOOTBALLERS WHO BECAME POLITICIANS • FFT runs through the game’s ballot paper, featuring secret Uber drivers, Vladimir Putin and a runaway hippo

THE SCORPION’S TALE • Nothing about Rene Higuita was ever conventional, from his bizarre tricks to his runs upfield and no fewer than 43 career goals. The Colombian was playing out from the back long before it became common for keepers – he tells FFT about his mad career, also featuring guns, gangs and jail…

THE WEIRD HISTORY OF OLYMPIC FOOTBALL • France have an all-star boss targeting gold in Paris – but if the past 128 years are anything to go by, he’ll have to navigate some bizarre events to...