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Players
Roles, stars and the making of a tournament icon
Players
The Number Ten Is Dead. Long Live the Number Ten.
The classic playmaker who strolled between the lines was declared extinct by pressing football — yet every tournament, someone wearing ten decides it. What the role has become.
6 min read
Players
The Hardest Job on the Pitch: What Modern Full-Backs Are Actually Asked to Do
Once the position for the worst athlete in the team, full-back is now the most tactically overloaded role in football — defender, winger, midfielder and safety valve in the same ninety minutes.
6 min read
Players
Arriving Fresh in June: The Science of Peaking for a World Cup
A World Cup begins days after the longest club season in history ends. How sports science tries to deliver players to the tournament fresh — and why some stars arrive already finished.
7 min read
Players
What a Captain Really Does
The armband is more than a formality. The real, mostly invisible work of leading a national team through the pressure of a World Cup.
5 min read
Players
Why the World Cup Launches Young Stars
Nearly every tournament crowns a breakout teenager or twenty-something. The reasons the biggest stage so often belongs to its youngest players.
6 min read
Players
The Changing Job of the Number 9
From poachers to false nines to complete forwards, the centre-forward role keeps reinventing itself. What a modern striker is actually asked to do.
6 min read
Players
How the Goalkeeper Became a Playmaker
The modern keeper is expected to start attacks with his feet, not just stop shots. How the role transformed, and why it can win or lose a World Cup match.
6 min read
Players
What Scouts Actually Watch When You’re Watching the Ball
Great scouting is about the moments away from the ball. The habits, movements and decisions that separate a good player from a tournament-defining one.
7 min read