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First a message from our editor, James Andrew:
With just a matter of days remaining until the 2024 European Championship kicks off, the excitement is really starting to build. The club season is in the rear-view mirror and the focus is now fully on the next few weeks in Germany. There’s plenty to get excited about as we look forward to a summer of stunning goals, scintillating games and being soaked in beer.
If it’s goals you’re interested in, then the tournament’s greatest ever goalscorer, Cristiano Ronaldo, is featured in this issue as he prepares for his record sixth Euros – will it be his last major finals? The second-highest scorer in Euros history, Michel Platini, talks us through Euro 84, when he scored nine goals in five games and helped France triumph for the first time. Then the joint third-highest goalscorer at the Euros, Alan Shearer, discusses all things 1996, when he bagged the Golden Boot but England suffered penalty pain in the semis.
This tournament promises to be one of the most exciting and open ever, so enjoy it, whether you’re going to games in person, watching from home or heading down the pub with pals.
Ronaldo: The last hurrah?
Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal career was as good as over when he was dropped at the last World Cup – instead, CR7 goes to Euro 2024 as their main man once more, aged 39. Will this be the end, and can he make one last pitch to be considered the best player of all time?
Bellingham’s summer to shine
Three years ago, Jude Bellingham briefly became the Euros’ youngest-ever player – now, after a superb debut campaign at Real Madrid, he’s ready to make an even bigger impact.
Capitaine. Leader. Legende
Kylian Mbappe wrote his name into history at successive World Cups. Now France’s captain and desperate to break his Euros goal drought, can Real Madrid’s latest Galactico lead Les Bleus to the Berlin showpiece and succeed where Zinedine Zidane failed 18 years ago?
Sylvinho: King of Albania
The ex-Arsenal and Brazil full-back was an unexpected appointment last year, but he guided the Balkan nation to Euro 2024 – now he tells FFT that he wants to spring another surprise.
Georgia’s rise to Euro 2024
A Frenchman, an Englishman and a local genius walk into a Caucasus country to qualify for a first major tournament – is this a joke? Not for Georgia, who are dreaming big in Germany.
Platini relives Euro 84
Forty years ago, Michel Platini’s Euros-record tally of NINE goals propelled France to glory on home soil… and he wasn’t even a forward. No player has ever enjoyed a finer European Championship – now, in his own words, the midfield maestro remembers it all with FFT.
How Shearer starred in 1996
Only Cristiano Ronaldo and Michel Platini have plundered more goals at the European Championship than Alan Shearer’s seven – the forward walloped five of them at Wembley to secure the Golden Boot in 1996, and tells FFT why he found form at the perfect moment.
The greatest opinion-offerers on UK television, via Del Boy, Space Jam and Donald Trump…
Don’t forget the Copa America!
Family feuds, Bielsa’s return and an Icelandic dentist – it’s all been going on ahead of South America’s biggest tournament hosted by, er, the USA. Oh, and Messi will be turning up, too.
Paul Lambert answers YOUR questions
The former Borussia Dortmund, Celtic and Scotland midfielder talks ‘One Team in Tallinn’, marking Zinedine Zidane out of a Champions League final, taking Norwich from League One to the Premier League in successive seasons, working with Roy Keane and much more.
Tactically speaking
Adam Clery whips out his Subbuteo gear once again to summarise how England could take the handbrake off at the Euros, why Scotland might just be the dark horses of the summer and what Spain’s 2012 champions did to prove you don’t need a goalscorer to score goals.
Around the grounds in the EFL, non-league and Scotland
Last season’s Scottish Premiership top scorer, Hearts’ Lawrence Shankland, opens up about false career starts, transfer talk and the prospect of leading the line at Euro 2024.
Nathan Owolabi’s skills on everyone’s favourite managerial sim, Football Manager, earned him a job at Bromley in February – now they’re an EFL club and he’s living a lifelong dream.
Diehard Peterborough fan Chris Dowsett describes Posh’s Best & Worst days, including ankle-breaking celebrations at Cardiff and excruciating play-off defeats at Hillsborough.
Mayor of the Mascots:
From decking dragons and chasing cheerleaders to throwing up in Silvio Berlusconi’s toilet, H’Angus the Monkey wasn’t exactly your average politician…
Kernow confusion: Cornwall’s national side still await their debut at the CONIFA World Cup – as non-league Truro City can attest, it’s a familiar tale for the county football left behind.
The Mixer
Our round-up of the game’s sought-after stuff features retro knitwear, Sunderland-inspired whiskey, Invincibles beer, iconic Predators and the creme de la creme of football tables.
Seen something you want to put in The Mixer? DM Deputy Editor Matt Ketchell
Upfront
Playing off the last defender, it’s the big-man little-man partnership of football and funnies…
Republic of Ireland royalty Ray Houghton names the games that changed his life, while FFT columnist Jules Breach picks out a handful of players who could become stars at Euro 2024.
Try to ace all 18 questions in another Euros quiz, then read about the time Suede icon and Arsenal fan Bernard Butler dined out with fearsome referee Pierluigi Collina in My Football.
Elsewhere, we debate who should manage England after the Euros, hear how a Norwegian goalkeeper killed a seagull and why a Brazilian team celebrated by pretending to be dead…
In the Players Lounge this month…
Stelios Giannakopoulos hits back at claims that Greece were overly defensive en route to winning Euro 2004, Stefan Kuntz recalls wrecking England’s dreams at Euro 96 and Darijo Srna reveals how partying hard helped Croatia deny the Three Lions a place at Euro 2008.
Perfect XI
Teddy Sheringham selects a Euro 96-themed side of Three Lions legends, but offers his place up front in Terry Venables’s fabled line-up for one of his favourite England attackers.
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