Joe Paterno wasn't one of us. He was a football coach, and damn good one a that, but an outsider to the world of soccer. He may have won 409 games with Penn State and made himself one of the most storied characters in the history of collegiate football, but he definitely wouldn't have known Kyle Beckerman from David Beckham.

When Al Wasl paid a hefty sum of money to Diego Maradona to lead their team, they did so not with the idea of getting the next great football coach, but with the idea that he'd be part coach, part entertainer, occasionally part circus clown. He rarely disappoints, if he does so by disappointing.

::: FistedAway welcomes a guest post from Mark Patterson :::

Ireland striker Robbie Keane intends to fulfil the last major ambition of his career by making a January switch to a club for which he feels absolutely nothing.

Keane, 31, has played for nine different clubs since he left Crumlin United as a bright-eyed youngster for the bright lights and orange shirts of Wolves, but told Fisted Away that he had set his heart on a new challenge.

The more time I spend on a college campus, the more I realize that true education comes from not only gaining theoretical experience through classroom lectures and assignments, but from gaining practical experience in that desired field.
Whether it be from internship opportunities to interviewing professionals, getting your hands dirty by experiencing it yourself is the truest form of development.

For the longest time I have been a type of Eurosnob, you know those fans who want the MLS to be like Europe. I am not a fan of the single table, nor am I a fan of only the ManUre's of the world. I was only a Eurosnob about youth development. They have been doing it there for 100+ years so they have to know how to do it.

This report is from East African based blogger/coach Tom Legg ( @tomlegg on twitter) who writes over at Eastern Promise. If you're on twitter you noticed a few retweets that showed that he followed the tourney. He and I have also talked over email a bit about Mrisho Ngassa, Tanzanian league play and Seattle's ambitions over there.

Neil Blackmon reminds that the "BPL" returns to action this weekend.

"Can't See Nothing In Front of Me,

Can't See Nothing Coming Up Behind,

I make my way through this darkness,

I can't feel nothing but this chain that binds me.

You maybe wondering what has occurred to Spanish Football Club VILLAREAL this season. The Club finished in Champions League positions last season & is currently struggling in La Liga & has already said goodbye to Champions. Plus their Coach Garrido, considered a rising Football Coach promise, is against the ropes with his position on the line.

Stuart Pearce confirmed as 2012 Olympics football coach

Hope Powell will manage the women's team

View the full story here: The Mirror

A news article on 2011-10-20 10:39:07 from: The Mirror

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

SPANISH NATIONAL FOOTBALL Coach & Selector Vicente Del Bosque handed in his list of Spanish Football Players that will make up the National Team for the upcoming Euro Group matches against the Czech Rep & Scotland to be played on the 7th ( Praga) & 11th ( Alicante, Spain) of October respectively. The novelty is the call up of Valencia defender JORDI ALBA & perhaps the surprise, the call up of

Former United States football coach, Bob Bradley, arrived in Cairo on Wednesday morning and is set to meet Egyptian Football Association (EFA) officials to finalise contract details for his new job as manager of the Egyptian national team.
The meeting was supposed to be held on Tuesday but Bradley's arrival was delayed due to flight ticketing problems.

A few weeks ago we traveled back to the land of beer and cheese, Wisconsin, for a family reunion. Wisconsin is the place where the idea for the Free Beer Movement was birthed (induced... with beer, of course) and the where we cut our teeth playing soccer from the youth level on up to college (intramurals.

SOURCE: REPUBLICA
KATHMANDU, July 21: "A pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty," former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had said this during World War II.
Though it´s not World War II, Nepal has made it to the second round of the 2014 World Cup Qualifiers for the first time in its football history and is ready to face strong opponent Jordan in its away match on Thursday.

SOURCE: REPUBLICA
KATHMANDU, July 17: Nepali national football coach Graham Roberts on Sunday claimed that All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) is not providing proper training facilities to the team and alleged that ANFA itself wants to lose the 2014 World Cup Qualifying match against Jordan.

Having admitted that before the arrival of Jose Mourinho, he had not really been a football coach able to get the best out of his side at the start of the new domestic season, Sir Alex Ferguson surely now knows that in this day and age, even with Mourinho gone, he is still facing an extremely tough start as he seeks to find out whether or not he has retained the skills acquired during the Special One's spell in England.

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has detained a Selangor state football coach over match-fixing during the President's Cup U-20 youth tournament and charged Singaporean R.K. Rajendran, a bookie, with match-fixing in connection with the same tournament. Another football coach, from Negeri Sembilan state, Yusarman Yusof, was charged with match-fixing earlier this month.

Newly-appointed, but interim, Indian football coach Armando Colaco presented to the media to defend and explain his "new beginning" program for India's international campaigns. "Youngsters need experience and for that there has to be a beginning. I have a lot of respect for the seniors and they will be call back if they perform well.

The SPANISH NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM defeated comfortably VENEZUELA 0 - 3 in their International Friendly. Spain wrapped things up in the first 45 min with goals from Villa, Pedro & Xabi Alonso. Spanish Football Coach Del Bosque gave his squad member a run rotation in the second half. The Spanish Football players go on their summer break in perfect winning fashion.

For many the personification of genius is the wizened portrait of Albert Einstein in old age. And yet, the famous professor was in his early forties when he received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921. Moreover, his key research on the subject had been done while still in his twenties.

Likewise, the iconic image of the football manager remains the grey-haired suited figure on the touchline a man who has seen and done it all.

Timo Scheunemann has guided Persema to the top of the Liga Primer Indonesia. But as well as being a top football coach, Timo has one other burning passion! Read what it is in the Jakarta Globe!

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) Barcelona's directors were meeting Thursday to decide whether to report Jose Mourinho to UEFA after the Real Madrid coach hit out at the club and its coach, Pep Guardiola, following the Catalan club's 2-0 Champions League semifinal victory.

Barcelona's legal team was analyzing Mourinho's news conference from Wednesday night, when the Portuguese coach said Guardiola should feel "ashamed" if his club goes on to win the trophy.

John Leicester of the AP writes of the lack of dignity that he felt Mourinho displayed in the 2-0 defeat of his Real Madrid side by Barcelona.
Sounding like a stuck record by a lovesick crooner, but repellently sour not sweet, Jose Mourinho wailed why, oh, why? In the warped view of Real Madrid's coach, the dice are stacked in Barcelona's favor.

"Winning titles is winning titles, it's always good. Only a few days ago, someone called me a coach who wins titles and not football. Thank you. I like being a coach who wins titles."
-- Jose Mourinho after Real Madrid beat Barcelona, 1-0, in overtime to win the Copa del Rey. Mourinho's remarks came after former Dutch great Johan Cruyff criticized Mourinho for only working for titles and saying he wasn't a "football coach.

A young Jürgen Klopp (left) with his teammates of TuS Ergenzingen's A-Youth team. Back then he was still undecided whether he should earn millions working as a football coach, or whether he should earn billions starting his own computer company.

Any conversation that discusses the great coaches and managers has to include Jose Mourinho.
Grant Wahl of Sports Illustrated writes of not only where Mourinho rates among soccer coaches in the world today, but among coaches of all sports.
Where does Mourinho rank among the world's soccer coaches?

By Ollie Irish

Number one, bitches

The International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS), which sounds like a tremendously fun place to work, has voted Arsene Wenger the No.1 football coach of the last decade. Wenger > Fergie, Mourinho, Allardyce, Megson, Brown et al.