In 2017, Hull City’s Andy Robertson wasn’t your first pick as a future Champions League winner, but no one would doubt his value now.

Tifo Football teamed up with The Athletic to bring you the best signings of the last ten years.

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As we’re facing another weekend without football for us all to immerse ourselves in, we thought we’d continue with our short guides – not only to the few, blessed games still going ahead but also recommending some things to watch, read and listen to over the weekend.

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? What to watch

How about a Nordic themed playlist, for your viewing pleasure?

?? Copa90 explore the love affair between Swedish club Hammarby and cult hero, Kennedy Bakricioglu.

?? With the news that Finland’s first major tournament appearance has been pushed back a year, why not look back at how they finally qualified for the Euros.

?? Have you heard about the Danish team, FC Nordsjælland and their homegrown squad? Tifo Football tell the story here.

?? And from here in Norway to setting the world alight thanks to his performances in the Champions League with Salzburg and Dortmund, Copa90 ask whether Haaland is the next Zlatan!

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✅ Test your knowledge

Can you name every team to have appeared in the UEFA Champions League? In 15 minutes!? Give it a go by clicking here.

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?? Last man standing – The Belarusian Premier League

Our friends in Belarus are still flying in the face of the rest of European football, content to carry on whilst all leagues around them have been suspended or even voided.

By the time you’ve read this, there will have already been games today and there’s more to follow across the weekend. Here in the office, we’ve pledged our allegiances to various teams so why not do the same now and see how they get on over the coming days!

Last weekend’s first round of games saw a host of upsets so we’ll be looking out to see whether any of the big boys get up and running. Last year’s champions, Dynamo Brest are away at FK Slutzk whilst BATE Borisov face Slavia and Dinamo Minsk have a derby in the capital.

Momo Yansane, of @fcisloch scores the best goal, perhaps anywhere in the world this weekend. ? ?

?: @MatchTV pic.twitter.com/35J9h5x6jy

— FotMob (@FotMob) March 22, 2020

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? Something to read

There’s been some interesting news articles and features in the app this week, so here are a couple of our favourites.

?? Monza – the Serie C club with the Serie A mindset. 16 points clear at the top of the table before Italian football shut down, this story looks at the upward mobility of a club with the resources to get all the way to the top.

?? The Next Generation Series focuses on the young players tipped to become the elite of world football by the late 2020s – first up, the transfer frenzy surrounding Valencia’s Ferran Torres.

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⚽️ Club Friendlies

The Belarusian league action isn’t the only football we have in the app this weekend, we will have coverage for a lot of friendly games – mainly involving lower league Swedish teams. For us, it’s been an education in club history and crest design that we didn’t know we needed until now.

Head to the club friendlies section in the app to find a new team to fall in love with.

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? Something to listen to

This week, we thought we’d point you in the direction of two podcasts that we’re very proud to support.

Golazzo – The Italian Football Show is a series of documentaries looking back at the often dramatic and sometimes scandalous history of Serie A, as told by James Richardson. This week’s episode is the second part of the Bunga Bunga years at Milan under the ownership of former Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi! Listen here.

Two Girls Talk Balls specialises in everything to do with the women’s game, particularly but not exclusively, in England. And this week’s episode, recorded remotely with the UK currently on lockdown is a lesson in what you can find to talk about football, when there is no football! Click through the tweet below to listen.

? NEW PODCAST ?

Euro 2021, P-Nev, USWNT and the 3 WSL players we'd choose to be isolation with! We're back with a SPECIAL remote, self-isolated, lockdown TGTB plonkcast ?

iTunes: https://t.co/9ziagSJJ9x

Spotify: https://t.co/BPUqbGe1fp

acast: https://t.co/2bdqhboI8N pic.twitter.com/dhO336qnSQ

— Two Girls Talk Balls (@TGTalkBalls) March 27, 2020

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If you want to follow any of the games mentioned above, click on the relevant link and tap the bell icon to receive all the key match updates.

Or join us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to discuss all the important football going on this weekend!

What makes a footballing supervillain? After assembling an Ultimate Supervillain XI, Stadio founders, Musa Okwonga and Ryan Hunn take us through their selection process.

Deep down, everyone loves a villain. We saw this in response to Thursday’s Stadio episode, where we picked a starting XI, together with substitutes, a manager and a home ground, of some of the devilishly cunning footballers of all-time. Many responses questioned the omission of certain heroes. “Where’s Cantona?” asked one, incredulously. “I can’t believe you didn’t pick Chiellini!” lamented another.

However, it’s important to stress what we’re dealing with here. This isn’t low-level petty thievery, this isn’t casual nastiness, nor is it even simple villainy. Merely being known as one of football’s most notorious hard men doesn’t warrant a place in such a squad. Nor does the consistent display of varying levels of shithousery. There can be elements of both, for sure, but this team not only demands but deserves a better class of criminal.

Supervillains operate on another level to the everyday rogue, and not always in the same way. Take, for example, our preferred centre-back pairing. If this were a movie, the police would have had a tail on Sergio Ramos for months, before finding out that Franco Baresi – fronting as a well-respected local businessman and philanthropist – was actually overseeing the whole criminal operation. Dani Alves at right-back may raise a few eyebrows, but every crew of villains needs someone who’s good for morale. Someone to draw the opposition into a false sense of security – “hey, this guy’s ok, y’know,” before turning to see he was the one who was running away with all your cash, laughing as he did so.

If you thought the defence was enough to worry about, think again. Graeme Souness wanted to see everything burn – maybe even himself at times – but would only prefer that it be done to a soundtrack of Debussy’s Clair de Lune. Then there’s Diego Maradona, a genius who fed off the devastation his artistry would inflict upon opposition players, and quite often his own teammates. Deep down you get the impression that Maradona actually wanted to be the hero, but ultimately got a thirst for villainy, then supervillainy, that he would never be able to quench.

Breaking through two lines of the world’s most notorious supervillains might be easier if the front line wasn’t arguably the most villainous of all. On one flank lurks Dejan Savićević, a man so good at what he did that the best would always hire him, whilst probably despising him. On the other waits Hristo Stoichkov, a man who Johan Cruyff was convinced had been ‘nurtured with an evil milk’. Stoichkov was a curious player, built like a buffalo – and containing the temper of one – but who also possessed jaw-dropping technical wizardry, like a guitarist playing the most unbelievable solos whilst their fingers bled.

And who, you might ask, did we choose as the centre forward of this accursed selection?  Well, it’s safe to say, there was only one choice for who should lead the line…

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COPA90‘s Doc of the Day: Eli Mengem traveled to the Balkans to find out how much the World Cup Qualifiers meant to two of the smallest nations competing for a spot at the world’s biggest sporting event.

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