When I asked the FourFourTwo staff at an editorial meeting who they felt the coolest footballer around is, they all replied “Andrea Pirlo”.
The answers came one by one from around a boardroom table, a chain of admiration and appreciation. It was the shortest cover meeting I’ve ever held, and once we’d put together the supporting list of contemporary names, we were off commissioning a mix of football writers, style writers and fans with a basic brief: tell us why you love these guys away from the pitch.
We’ve compiled a combination of shorter profiles and longer reads, like Chelsea fan Clive Martin’s loyal last stand on Jose Mourinho and sportswear expert Neal Heard’s fascinating back story on the coolest international shirts ever. The cover feature, though, is something else. I asked Italian football expert James Horncastle to go to town, to write as stylishly as Pirlo lives life, and he certainly didn’t disappoint.
I read it on the London Underground, and three stops and seven paragraphs in I was laughing in delight. It’s one of the best articles I’ve published, and I’ve been doing this since goalkeepers were allowed to pick the ball up from a backpass.
At a time when we are publishing more interviews following the introduction of The Players Lounge, it was just a pleasure to sit back and read great football writing like this.
My aim is to make FourFourTwo better and different, to have its own energy and editorial outlook. Great writing is at the heart of that. You, the readers, help too, especially with one of the most popular sections, You Ask The Questions. This issue’s subject is Kevin Phillips and it’s a compelling read. The man scored a lot of goals for a lot of clubs.
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