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An award given each year to the best male and female footballer for the previous year. It is presented by France Football magazine and voted for by one representative journalist from each country inside the FIFA top 100 rankings. The Ballon d’Or is the most prestigious individual award in football. It began in 1955 as an award for the best European player but expanded to include any player based in Europe in 1995 and then to any player in the World in 2007. The Ballon d'Or Féminin was first awarded in 2018 and is now a central part of the big gala awards night each year. To win a Ballon d'Or marks you down as an all-time great.
After years of back and forth between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi (13 wins between them over 15 years) the men’s award has opened back up in recent years, Harry Kane winning it in 2026. Spanish players have dominated the Ballon d'Or Féminin, winning 6 in a row between 2021 and 2026, Aitana Bonmatí and Alexia Putellas with 3 wins apiece..
A term used to describe a club that was once at the top of the football pyramid, with title wins and pedigree but has since fallen on tough times. A sleeping giant has a big fanbase, stadium and potential to get back to the top but are currently suffering. There are plenty of examples of sleeping giants in England in recent years, some that have returned to the Premier League after years down in the Football League.
Leeds was a sleeping giant in the 16 years it spent out of the top flight, going down as low as League One. It was a far cry from the glory days of winning titles, cups, and competing in European finals through the 1970s until the early 2000s. In the 2020s Leeds is back to being a regular Premier League club with higher ambitions.
The oldest cup competition in the world, the FA Cup, first played in the 1871-72 season. There’s still a prestige to winning the trophy even if the gloss isn’t quite as shiny in recent years. Arsenal are the team that have won the most FA Cup, with 14 victories. A sunny day out at Wembley in May, the history of the occasion. It’s the domestic cup competition that every football fan and player around the world knows about dreams of winning.
Cardiff City are the only non-English winners of the FA Cup, beating Arsenal in the 1927 final at Wembley
A term used by rival fans to describe Manchester City in the wake of the guilty verdict of financial doping in 114 of 115 charges between 2009-2018. The term ‘sham contract’ was used in the verdict, a legal description from the 1960s. In this case, Manchester City are deemed to have used sham contracts to pump money into the club disguised as sponsorship deals, hugely inflating revenue to circumvent FFP rules. It meant they could throw money at the best players and the best manager of his generation (Pep Guardiola), winning countless titles, as a result. The punishment is yet to be dished out, but could be anything from titles stripped to expulsion from the Premier League.
The day the verdict was confirmed by the Premier League, reporter Rob Harris approached Manchester City CEO Ferran Soriano at the European Football Clubs board meeting. Amongst other things he asked Soriano if he would apologise to fans, and if this meant that City were not a sham club Sham FC was born as a nickname.
The international break is the time when club football around the world pauses and players are handed over to their respective international coaches for a period of two to three weeks at a time. Four times a year, countries play qualifying matches for confederation tournaments and the World Cup, alongside the Nations League and friendly matches. During international tournaments like the World Cup, Copa America, Euros and African Cup of Nations, players are with their countries for up to 6 weeks at a time. The international break is fantastic for national coaches and fans who love watching their country. For club managers, owners, and fans, it can be a long wait to see if players come back to the club game fit or injured.
This new International break at the start of the 26/27 season is so long! Most countries are playing 4 matches over 3 weeks, which is almost as long as the World Cup. I guess it’s now only two international breaks instead of three before Christmas though.