Apocalypse in Aragón: How one of Spain’s deadliest fires set two promising careers on wildly different paths

Up or down?

It was a hell of a choice to make, and there was only a split second to make it. He hadn’t heard the pounding on his door, but he’d woken soon after when his slumbering senses told him something wasn’t right. The acrid smoke had seeped under the door and in through…

From Oviedo to the Oscars, the World Cup to the Wild West: the remarkable life and times of Florencio Amarilla

In a saloon bar on the edge of the desert, a man strides in, tosses his dusty Stetson on the counter and orders a beer to slake his high noon thirst. As he lowers his formidable frame on to a bar stool, the usual thing is on his mind — Native Americans. It was his…

Row 0, Seat 0: When Spanish football came together for the player who slept

Dear Friend,

You won’t be able to read this letter. For the past three years, you haven’t been able to read anything. For the past three years, you have had a son you haven’t even been able to get to know.

Unless God works some miracle —you will never read these things, kiss your son,…

From World Series to the waste bin: The extraordinary rise and fall of Leganés president Jeff Luhnow

The baseball men sat there, silently seething.

In front of them stood a man in his early sixties with thinning, grey hair with a sketch pad in hand. Behind him was a screen with the lecture title: “Classic Mechanics: A Throwing Model Based on the Construction of the Motions of Great Historic Pitchers.”

The man…

When the man who could organise anything nearly met his match: Raimundo Saporta and the 1982 World Cup

He was the man who could organise anything. The man on top of every little detail. That’s why they put him in charge of this.

He was the man who changed the course of Spanish football history by signing Alfredo Di Stéfano for Real Madrid from under the noses of Barcelona. The man who then…

El Centenariazo: The night Super Depor gatecrashed the biggest birthday party of all time – and even stole their dinner reservation

Preparations at Asador Donostiarra on Madrid’s Calle de la Infanta Mercedes were in full swing. The labyrinth of dining rooms buzzed as an army of waiters frantically buffed cutlery and polished glasses; sommeliers double checked there were enough bottles of cava on ice and enough reserva for later; while the chefs decided it was about…

Carmen: How Celta Vigo’s Wonder Woman took on Galicia’s drug cartels – and won

A woman hurries her youngest son through Vigo’s Casco Vello on their way to the city’s main market. As she looks up, she notices a man staring at her as he smokes in the doorway of the bar he owns and the pair lock eyes.

The woman feels her legs begin to tremble as her…

Testicle tugging and gallivanting goalkeepers: When the cream of Colombia came to Real Valladolid

“Independent of the mistake, he’s brilliant — fundamental and decisive.”

He’d said pretty much the exact words a month previous, in the heat of Naples, where he backed his goalkeeper, René Higuita, after the error that would become one of the iconic vignettes in World Cup history. Positioned a lot closer to the halfway line…

La Quinta del Reboot: When the Vulture Squad descended on Mexico

“To suddenly call up a Real Madrid player and ask them to come to your club, when you’re still in the second division — well you have to be a dreamer.”

In the summer of 1995, when the Real Madrid office staff told Emilio Butragueño to expect a call at home from a Mexican club,…

‘Paz olímpica’ : How the Barcelona Olympics brought gold and a brief moment of unity to Spanish football

As he climbed to his feet, detaching himself from the celebratory heap of bodies below, Pep Guardiola could see his prediction been wrong. “I’m confident there will be about 60,000 there, but filling it is impossible.”

He’d seen it packed before, of course. But this was different, surreal even. The entirety of the 95,000 crowd…

Pig farming, fleeing presidents and Helenio Herrera’s underpants: The bizarre story of Johan Cruyff’s spell at Levante

The shrill ring of a telephone breaks the mid-morning silence in a trendy Amsterdam apartment. Enjoying a restorative lie in after a nasty bout of flu, a woman climbs out of bed, wearily ruffles her blonde, bobbed hair and pads through to the living room to pick up the phone.

“Hello?”

“Sorry, he’s not here…

Talent, tantrums and tragedy: The story of Canito — once the future of Barça but forever Espanyol

He didn’t particularly like the comparisons with John Travolta but stood there at his presentation, tall and handsome, in an immaculate white jacket and plunging, open-necked shirt, you could see why they made them. He was certainly no stranger to the nightclubs — a regular at the iconic Bocaccio on Carrer Muntaner, always impeccably dressed…

“Rafa no me jodas,” — the human side of the celebrity linesman

Robinson was poignantly remembered as the programme began the new season by looking back over its three decades. As the montages relived moments from the annals of the show, one occasion inevitably featured. A remarkable interaction between a referee and his linesman captured by the Canal+ microphones that would forever be known by a phrase…

“I fell for the club in a really big way” — Howard Kendall’s love affair with Athletic Club Bilbao

The ink was barely dry on Howard Kendall’s two-year contract to coach Athletic Club Bilbao but he was regretting the decision already. “I honestly thought I’d made the biggest mistake of my life.”

His new club had flown him out to watch the 1987 Copa del Rey Final between Atlético Madrid and Real Sociedad in…