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799 cards. Each one is a 40-second story with a five-minute read behind it. Page 2 of 14.

61. In England's football pyramid, a village club could in theory reach the Premier LeagueEnglish football is one giant ladder. Nearly 5,300 clubs fielding more than 7,000 teams sit in linked leagues, bound by promotion and relegation. Win enough, meet the ground and f…
62. Enzo Fernández is the first footballer sold twice for over £100 millionIn 2022 Benfica paid River Plate a modest initial fee for an Argentine midfielder. Six months, a World Cup winner's medal and a young player award later, Chelsea met his €121 mill…
63. Chelsea exists because Fulham turned down a stadium lease in 1904In 1904 the businessman Gus Mears bought the Stamford Bridge athletics ground and offered to lease it to Fulham, the local football club. Fulham said no. So Mears founded his own …
64. Club Brugge's first home ground was a rat-baiting pit owned by terrier fansClub Brugge began life playing on a patch of Bruges known as the Rattenplein, the rats' ground. It belonged to the local fox terrier club, which used it for rat baiting, another E…
65. Cole Palmer's academy coaches wanted to release him at 16 for being too slightFrom the age of 14, coaches at Manchester City's academy worried that Cole Palmer was too skinny to make it as a professional, and at 16 they wanted to let him go. The academy dir…
66. Twice bankrupt, Como climbed from Italy's amateur tier to the Champions LeagueIn 2004 Como went bankrupt and was thrown out of professional football entirely, restarting in Italy's top amateur division. In 2016 it collapsed again. Yet within a decade of its…
67. Mexican clubs have won North America's club championship 41 timesSince 1962, clubs from North America, Central America and the Caribbean have competed for a continental crown, and one country has dominated. Mexican teams have taken the title 41…
68. British TV sets had a button waiting for Channel 4 years before it arrivedMany televisions sold in Britain during the 1970s and early 1980s carried a spare tuning button marked "ITV 2" or "IBA 2". Everyone expected a second commercial channel; broadcast…
69. Charlton Athletic fans formed a political party to win back their stadiumWhen safety fears and debt forced Charlton Athletic out of The Valley in 1985, the club spent years as a lodger at other grounds. So supporters formed the Valley Party and ran can…
70. Burnley won England's league title with a squad that cost just £13,000When Burnley became champions of England in 1959–60, they had spent only £13,000 on transfers: £8,000 for playmaker Jimmy McIlroy and £5,000 for defender Alex Elder. The rest of t…
71. Cadbury sent test chocolates to schoolchildren, and one of them was Roald DahlBetween the two world wars, Cadbury mailed boxes of trial chocolates to British schoolchildren and asked for their verdicts. One of those young tasters was Roald Dahl, who would l…
72. Brazil's national football league once had 92 clubs in one seasonIn 1979 Brazil's national championship had 92 teams. For decades the league changed its format, rules and size almost every year, sometimes without promotion or relegation at all.…
73. How the CBC brought television to Canada's far north by flying tapes aroundFrom 1967, remote northern Canadian towns got television by aeroplane. The CBC recorded four hours of black-and-white programmes a day in Calgary, flew the tapes to a small transm…
74. Carlo Ancelotti once turned down Roberto Baggio, then built a record careerAs a young coach at Parma, Carlo Ancelotti blocked the signing of Roberto Baggio. He was so sure a rigid 4–4–2 was the only way to win that he saw no place for a playmaker, and he…
75. Casemiro told Manchester United he would fix them, and briefly didAfter Manchester United were thrashed 4–0 by Brentford in 2022, Casemiro reportedly had his agent pass on a blunt message: "Tell them I'll fix it." He arrived from Real Madrid wit…
76. Celtic's European Cup winners in 1967 were all born near GlasgowOn 25 May 1967 in Lisbon, Celtic beat Inter Milan 2–1 to become the first British club to win the European Cup. Every player in the side had been born within 30 miles of Glasgow. …
77. The towns that quietly ignore their official North American time zoneKenton, Oklahoma, sits legally in the Central Time Zone, yet its clocks run on Mountain Time, reportedly because most people it deals with live in New Mexico or Colorado. Phenix C…
78. A World Cup loss to Yugoslavia helped push Germany into creating the BundesligaUntil the 1960s, West Germany had no national football league. Its champions emerged from a knockout tournament between regional winners, and its best players were drifting abroad…
79. Brian Clough scored goals at a record rate, then became a legendary, abrasive managerBefore he won two European Cups with Nottingham Forest, Brian Clough was one of the deadliest strikers England ever produced, scoring 251 league goals in 274 games. An injury ende…
80. Brighton went 14 years without a home ground before climbing to the Premier LeagueIn 1997 Brighton sold their stadium to pay debts, avoided dropping out of the Football League only through a late equaliser on the final day, and spent two seasons playing home ga…
81. Britain's scattered overseas territories are the last pieces of a vanished empireFourteen territories, home to about 250,000 people, still sit under British sovereignty far from the British Isles. They range from Gibraltar, the smallest by land, to a vast wedg…
82. Bukayo Saka joined Arsenal at seven and grew into the club's talismanBukayo Saka walked into Arsenal's Hale End academy aged seven and has never played first-team football anywhere else. He first broke through covering at left-back, scored the club…
83. Borussia Dortmund was born when young players locked a priest out of a pubIn December 1909, young footballers fed up with their church youth group met in a Dortmund pub to start their own club, and blocked the door when the parish priest came to stop th…
84. Gladbach's early footballers quarrelled with churchmen over shorts and Sunday matchesBorussia Mönchengladbach, the Foals who ruled German football in the 1970s, began as thirteen restless young men in a pub in 1899. They sheltered for a while inside a Catholic you…
85. Bradley Barcola went from Lyon fringe player to France's fastest scorer in 90 yearsIn January 2023 Bradley Barcola was so short of minutes at Lyon that he nearly went on loan to St. Gallen in Switzerland. The deal collapsed, he forced his way into the team, and …
86. Brazil's yellow shirt was born from the national trauma of 1950Brazil hosted the 1950 World Cup needing only a draw against Uruguay in the last match at the Maracanã. They lost 2-1, the country went into mourning, and the team's white kit was…
87. Brentford got their nickname from a college chant and rose three divisions in three seasonsBrentford's nickname came almost by accident: students from Borough Road College, cheering a friend in the team in the 1890s, shouted their college's buzz-word chant, and the pres…
88. Released at 16, Ben White climbed all four English leagues to ArsenalSouthampton let Ben White go at 16 after eight years in their academy. He then worked his way up through loans in League Two, League One and the Championship before Arsenal paid £…
89. Birmingham City were England's pioneers in European footballBefore any other English club ventured abroad, Birmingham City were playing in the first Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1956. They went on to become the first English side to reach a E…
90. Bobby Charlton survived Munich and went on to win almost everythingIn 1958 a 20-year-old Bobby Charlton was pulled from the wreckage of the Munich air crash by his goalkeeper. A decade later he captained Manchester United to the European Cup, two…
91. Bolton Wanderers hold a record for top-flight seasons without a league titleNo English club has spent longer in the top division without being crowned champions than Bolton Wanderers, whose tally stands at 73 seasons. What they did win was the FA Cup, fou…
92. Bangladesh's football team began as a touring side raising money for independenceBefore Bangladesh existed as a state, a group of footballers toured India playing exhibition matches and handed all of their prize money to the provisional government. That Shadhi…
93. From Neverkusen to an unbeaten double: Bayer Leverkusen's long waitIn 2002 Bayer Leverkusen lost the league, the German Cup final and the Champions League final within weeks, earning the mocking nickname Neverkusen. Twenty-two years later the clu…
94. Belgium topped the world rankings without ever winning a major trophyIn November 2015 Belgium climbed to number one in the FIFA rankings and stayed there for five months. No other national team has reached the top spot without first winning a World…
95. Ben Chilwell's career runs through title winners in Leicester and LondonBen Chilwell was a young squad member when Leicester City pulled off their 2015–16 Premier League title. Five years later his first senior trophy came in the Champions League fina…
96. Why every ABC office in Australia uses PO Box 9994Write to Australia's public broadcaster in any state capital and the address is the same: PO Box 9994. The digits echo the record-breaking Test batting average of the cricketer Do…
97. Iniesta's World Cup-winning goal carried a message for a lost friendWhen Andrés Iniesta scored the goal that won Spain the 2010 World Cup final against the Netherlands, he lifted his shirt to reveal words written underneath: Dani Jarque, always wi…
98. Pavarotti heard a demo tape and told Zucchero to hire the unknown singer insteadIn 1992 the rock star Zucchero auditioned tenors to cut a demo of his song Miserere for Luciano Pavarotti. Pavarotti listened to the tape and insisted Zucchero record it with the …
99. Shevchenko failed a dribbling test as a boy and still became Ukraine's greatest strikerAt nine, Andriy Shevchenko flunked the dribbling test for a specialist sports school in Kyiv. A Dynamo Kyiv scout happened to see him at a youth tournament anyway. Four years late…
100. Al-Hilal won a Saudi title thanks to a header nicknamed Yasser's hairOn the last day of the 2007–08 Saudi season, Al-Hilal needed a win away at leaders Al-Ittihad, who needed only a draw. Four minutes after half-time Yasser Al-Qahtani barely grazed…
101. Before Manchester United, Alex Ferguson was sacked by St Mirren and lost his tribunalThe manager who went on to win more trophies than anyone in football history was fired only once, by the Scottish club St Mirren in 1978. He sued for wrongful dismissal and lost, …
102. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain nearly became a rugby player or a county cricketer insteadAt school in Portsmouth, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain played scrum half and was offered a trial at London Irish rugby club. He also kept wicket, bowled and opened the batting, and turn…
103. From semi-pro Guernsey to a 25 million pound Premier League moveAlex Scott made his senior debut at 16 for Guernsey FC, a semi-professional island side in England's Isthmian League, becoming the youngest player in its history. Four years later…
104. Amazon's streaming service began in 2006 under the forgotten name Amazon UnboxLong before Prime Video bought a Hollywood studio, it launched on September 7, 2006, as Amazon Unbox, a US store for video downloads. It went through a string of names, including …
105. Andoni Iraola took Bournemouth into Europe, then Liverpool came callingIn his final league game for Athletic Bilbao, Andoni Iraola was offered a penalty by striker Aritz Aduriz and turned it down. Four minutes later the pair combined and he scored fr…
106. Alan Shearer scored 260 Premier League goals and turned down Manchester United for homeAt 17, Alan Shearer marked his full debut with a hat-trick against Arsenal, beating a record Jimmy Greaves had held for 30 years. He went on to score 260 Premier League goals, sti…
107. Del Piero started out in goal and stayed loyal when Juventus fellAs a boy, Alessandro Del Piero played goalkeeper because his mother reckoned he would sweat less and get hurt less. His brother talked her round. The boy moved up front and became…
108. Alexander Isak went from Stockholm prodigy to Britain's most expensive footballerAt 16, Alexander Isak became the youngest player ever to score for AIK in Sweden's top flight. Nine years later Liverpool paid 125 million pounds for him, a British record and the…
109. Two feuding brothers split one shoe factory into Adidas and PumaAdi Dassler began making sports shoes in his mother's laundry room, sometimes powering the machines with a stationary bicycle when the electricity failed. Two decades later he and…
110. Asia's football crown has passed from Seoul to Tehran, Riyadh, Tokyo and DohaThe AFC Asian Cup began in 1956 with just four teams playing in British Hong Kong. It is the second-oldest continental championship on the planet, behind only the Copa América. Si…
111. Bournemouth renamed itself to top the alphabet, then climbed the leaguesIn 1971 a small Dorset club chose a new name partly so it would appear first in alphabetical lists of English teams. For decades that was about as high as AFC Bournemouth got. The…
112. Asia's top club competition keeps reinventing itself, name and format alikeAsia's premier club tournament has worn at least three names, vanished for 14 years, and swung between 24, 32 and 40 clubs in its main stage. Today it is the AFC Champions League …
113. Asia's second-tier club cup grew from a contest for developing football nationsIn 2004 the Asian Football Confederation created a cup for clubs from countries that could not get into its top competition. Fourteen developing football nations entered 18 teams.…
114. Africa's football championship began in 1957 with three teams and two matchesThe first Africa Cup of Nations, staged in Khartoum in February 1957, needed only two games to crown a champion. South Africa had been thrown out for insisting on an all-white squ…
115. Relegated for the first time in 2022, Al-Ahli were Asian champions three years laterStudents at a Jeddah school founded Al-Ahli in 1937. It became one of Saudi Arabia's great clubs, once hosting Maradona in its shirt and holding a 51-match unbeaten league run. Th…
116. An Englishman founded AC Milan, which is why it isn't called MilanoItaly's most successful club in European competition was started in 1899 by an English expatriate, Herbert Kilpin, as the Milan Foot-Ball and Cricket Club. It still uses the Engli…
117. A crossword in The Daily Telegraph helped recruit wartime codebreakersDuring the Second World War, solving The Daily Telegraph crossword in under twelve minutes could earn you a mysterious invitation to do special war work. The newspaper quietly hel…
118. Millwall's Den was England's first all-seater built after HillsboroughWhen Millwall left their old ground in 1993, they moved just a quarter of a mile. The New Den was the first all-seater stadium finished in England after the Taylor Report on the H…
119. The Gabba, fortress of Australian cricket, is heading for demolitionFor 32 years no visiting side could beat Australia in a Test at Brisbane's Gabba, until India broke the run in 2021. The ground has hosted cricket's first tied Test, greyhound rac…
120. The Gherkin's curved glass skin contains just one curved paneLondon's rounded tower at 30 St Mary Axe looks like a single sweep of curved glass. In fact every pane is flat except the lens-shaped cap at the very top. The building breathes th…

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