ISSUE 16, 7 FEBRUARY 2014 ENGLISH EDITION Fédération Internationale de Football Association – Since 1904 RONALDINHO MY WORLD CUP YEARNING GEOFF HURST “IT WAS A GOAL BACK IN 1966” PAULO RINK A BRAZILIAN IN GERMANY Mia Hamm The Trailblazer WWW.FIFA.COM/THEWEEKLY CONTENTS Mia Hamm, the face of the women’s game North and South America She is the living embodiment and glittering icon of the women’s game Central America 10 members in the USA, and arguably the world too. A two-time World Cup winner 35 members www.conmebol.com and twice an Olympic gold medallist, Mia Hamm won the lot as the www.concacaf.com USA’s greatest central striker. The mother of three and ambassador for Barcelona devotes her time to good causes nowadays. 6 Hertha fans fear the worst 15 The English Premier League has long been a playground for super-rich investors. Hertha BSC Berlin have become the first Bundesliga club to follow suit, but the fans are unhappy about a “deal with the devil”. Manchester City’s damaged aura 19 Manchester City’s 1-0 defeat at home to Chelsea in a potential Premier League title decider was an abrupt reminder that the road to a possible Quadruple will be a long and hard one. Sepp Blatter: Brazil needs women’s football Brazil has much catching up to do in the women’s game. “There has Mia Hamm to be change,” the FIFA President urges, calling for a competitive The original superstar of women’s football 23 women’s league with professional structures in the nation of the five-time men’s World Cup winners. Prevention programmes work 25 Since the implementation of “FIFA 11+” in Iran, injuries in football at different levels of skills, age and gender have dropped by up to 25 percent. The World Cup minus Ronaldinho 26 Atletico Mineiro’s 33-year-old has enjoyed a fine season and was voted 2013 South American Footballer of the Year, but Felipe Scolari continues to turn a blind eye. We examine a gifted player who has never been prepared to sacrifice the good life for his job. Hurst: I wanted to believe it 30 Forty-seven years after his famously controversial goal in the 1966 World Cup Final against Germany, England hero Geoff Hurst is sure of one thing: “It was a goal.” Ronaldinho Farewell A Seleção? “The Dutch will have their day.” 36 In our Netzer Knows! column, renowned expert Gunter Netzer answers a reader’s question from Ukraine: “The Netherlands never win the World Cup – what are they doing wrong?” A Brazilian in a Germany shirt. 37 Paulo Rink was expecting a relaxed chat with Leverkusen general manager Reiner Calmund, but he came away from their meeting with a five-year contract and moved to the land of his forefathers. The story of the first Brazilian to represent Germany. CPi / U-17 Women’s World Cup Blue Stars/FIFA Youth Cup 15 March to 4 April 2014, Costa Rica 28 to 29 May 2014, Zurich Getty Image / Cover: Frank Ockenfels W. Imago 2 THE FIFA WEEKLY THIS WEEK IN THE WORLD OF FOOTBALL Europe Africa Asia Oceania 53 members 54 members 46 members 11 members www.uefa.com www.cafonline.com www.the-afc.com www.oceaniafootball.com Gunter Netzer Analysing Dutch footballing history ISSUE 16, 7 FEBRUARY 2014 ENGLISH EDITION Fédération Internationale de Football Association – Since 1904 RONALDINHO MY WORLD CUP YEARNING GEOFF HURST “IT WAS A GOAL BACK IN 1966” PAULO RINK A BRAZILIAN IN GERMANY Mia Hamm The Trailblazer WWW.FIFA.COM/THEWEEKLY The Trailblazer This week, the cover shows a legendary image of Mia Hamm captured by leading American photographer Frank W. Ockenfels. The picture depicts our cover star during her time at the University of North Carolina between 1989 and 1993. Zlatan Ibrahimovic Paris Saint-Germain’s match-winning icon Landry Chauvin A new challenge at Club Africain CPi / FIFA World Cup U-20 Women’s World Cup Youth Olympic Football FIFA Club World Cup 12 June to 13 July 2014, Brazil 5 to 24 August 2014, Canada Tournament 10 to 20 December 2014, Morocco 15 to 27 August 2014, Nanjing Getty Image / Cover: Frank Ockenfels W. Imago THE FIFA WEEKLY 3 r3m1_AD_Design_ROUTE_FWCTT.pdf 1 10/24/13 11:22 AM C M Y CM MY CY CMY K UNCOVERED Bigger than Michael Jordan Power and skill Mia Hamm at the 1998 Goodwill Games in New York City. Thomas Renggli comes to physical recreation. Baseball and Hamm’s success, including becoming a American football, far and away the most world and Olympic champion, has turned her ith a television audience of 800 mil- popular team sports, are considered male-only into a true superstar. She was one of only two lion, a further 82,500 spectators fill- territory, while women’s basketball is viewed women to be named in the “FIFA 100” list, a ing the East Rutherford stadium, the disparagingly in comparison to the men’s game. compilation of the 125 best footballers of all cost of a 30-second advert standing at All of which only leaves women with the time, while in 1997 she was voted as sports- $4m USD and the half-time entertain- European form of football, known as soccer in woman of the year in the USA. ment – courtesy of Bruno Mars and the USA, a sport which was nevertheless a Despite hanging up her boots in 2004, Wthe Red Hot Chili Peppers – a mammoth media springboard to a dazzling international career Hamm’s popularity remains as widespread as frenzy, last Sunday’s 48th Super Bowl provided for Hamm. In an interview with The FIFA ever and her career left deeper marks on the a reminder that sport takes on a whole new Weekly editor Perikles Monioudis, Hamm game than any American before her. A Barbie meaning in the USA. reveals how she discovered her passion for such doll and one of her sponsors’ office buildings The names of the sports do too: American an ‘un-American’ sport, how her daydreams have been named after her and in a television football is a somewhat misleading term seeing would revolve around the stars of AC Fiorenti- advert she made the greatest American as the game is played primarily with the na rather than the members of the Washington sportsman of all time, Michael Jordan, look hands and only occasionally is the ball kicked Redskins and how she became the most impor- like an extra. with the feet. tant ambassador for football in her homeland. When the world’s best young girls travel Women’s roles within the physically brutal The New York Times described her as “not to Costa Rica in March for the U-17 World confines of the sport are also clearly defined: only America’s best women’s soccer player. She Cup, Hamm will be one of the role models in they are limited to the sidelines as cheerlead- is America’s best soccer player,” while the whose footsteps they aim to follow. In his ers. While they also require a high level of Washington Post hailed Hamm as “perhaps the weekly column, FIFA President Sepp Blatter physical fitness, in reality their purpose is most important athlete of the last 15 years.” urged Brazil to create a “women’s league with purely as an aesthetic garnish. Haircut, weight German news magazine Der Spiegel went even professional structures”, an appeal that can and tan are what matter most. further in calling Hamm a living legend of the indirectly be traced to Hamm’s work as a Mariel Margaret “Mia” Hamm hails from game: “Hamm has decidedly more sex appeal sporting pioneer. Without Hamm, the game the southern state of Alabama, a stronghold of than Gerd Muller, is more elegant on the ball would not be the same, and in the USA foot- mauritius mauritius images / American traditions and traditionalists where than Oliver Bierhoff and celebrates as telegeni- ball would still only be a sport that men play Alamy women do not have many options when it cally as Jurgen Klinsmann.” with their hands. Å THE FIFA WEEKLY 5 6 power College Mia Hamm during her time at the University of North Carolina from to 1989 1993. MIA HAMM MIA THE FIFA WEEKLY THE FIFA WEEKLY Will Mcintyre / Time Life Pictures / Getty Images MIA HAMM “It’s incredible how football is growing in America” American women’s football legend Mia Hamm speaks to The FIFA Weekly about the power of family values, the quest for happiness, and why football is continuing to grow in popularity in the USA. Mia Hamm was talking to Perikles Monioudis You discovered football while in Florence. How This means that kids become aware of foot- did that happen? ball at a much younger age than in the past. Mia Hamm: We spent 18 months in Flor- Football now has a solid fan base in this ence when I was small, as my father studied country, thanks to the success of the women’s for his master’s degree at the university there. national team, the professional National My mother often took us to the piazza, where Women’s Soccer League and the Major I mixed with the other kids and kicked a ball League Soccer in the men’s game. around. And matches are shown on TV these days. You were the first member of your family to It surprises some people to see how many play football. leagues we’re able to follow in the USA My father didn’t know much about foot- nowadays.