FFT Newsletter: 25 Beautiful Years

It's our birthday and we'll watch Leo Messi if we want to. [FourFourTwo]( Friday 3 May 2019 [View this email online]( [People]( It's Our 25th Anniversary! ...you forgot, didn't you? It's our super-sweet 25th birthday and you didn't even get us anything. Yes, we are at the ripe old publishing age of 25 years and to celebrate we've created a special anniversary mag and an even more special bundle; only 250 of the bad-boys are available. Expect a month filled with nostalgic features and questionable covers - they weren't all winners. So thanks for supporting us, here's to 25 more wonderful years. Salut! The Things We’ve Loved From Football This Week Lionel Messi hit his 600th goal for Barça this week, and what a goal it was. In homage to the little alien man, we've put together a list of [the 15 best free-kicks of all-time.]( In all honesty, Messi could have had a list of 15 all to himself. Utterly ridiculous. It's our anniversary - have we mentioned? - and to celebrate we've had a look back at our favourite covers from each club over the past 25 years, starting with Arsenal. [Reminisce with us, won't you?]( Few footballers share a connection with a club's fan base like Pontus Jansson does with Leeds. In our new mag he discusses his adulation for boyhood club Malmo – but we also discovered how the [Swede learned to love Leeds almost as much.]( As another manic season in the Championship draws to a close we’ve taken a look at the thrilling young stars from the second tier that we think deserve [the chance to do it in the top flight next year.]( We’re sure you’ll agree 100%. FourFourTwo 25th Anniversary FourFourTwo 300 - Out Now! Three hundred magazines is a hell of a lot, but thanks to you lot we're still going strong. To mark 25 years of the mag we hailed the 101 best players to grace the game since 1994, met up with Cherries' boss, Eddie Howe - who actually appeared in FourFourTwo in 1994 albeit as an apprentice - and got you to ask your questions to Gaizka Mendieta. On top of that we sat down with Asamoah Gyan, got to know James Maddison and learnt about Pontus Jansson's love of Malmo. There's an ode of Boca's iconic jersey, an incredible selection of never-before-seen images of Pele and Mark Goldbridge even makes an appearance. With this issue you'll also receive two prints - hand selected by our lovely art director, Anth Moore - from a handful of the most iconic photos in football history. It's an absolute cracker of an issue. Get involved. [BUY IT HERE]( # Extra-time At FFT we appreciate you, the newsletter faithful, and to reward you we've decided to add a slice of extra content here that won't appear anywhere else. Welcome to Extra-time. Anyway, as promised here’s our recent interview with Lothar Matthäus, exclusively for the FourFourTwo newsletter. Enjoy. In the new issue of FourFourTwo, Matthaus speaks about some of his favourite players from the last 25 years, as we celebrate the anniversary of the magazine's launch in 1994. FourFourTwo's columnist picked out Matthias Sammer and Philipp Lahm as two of the most important players for Die Mannschaft in that period, before turning his attention to the current Germany team. Matthaus also says Leroy Sane is quickly establishing himself as one of Germany's key players - and has tipped the Manchester City winger for 10 years of success. Sane was surprisingly left out of last year's World Cup squad by Jogi Low, when Germany surprisingly crashed out in the group stage, but the 23-year-old has since been recalled and has scored three goals in his last four games for his country. He's impressed Matthaus to such an extent that the 1990 World Cup winner now regards Sane as second only to Toni Kroos, in terms of his importance to the national team. "When you see the titles he's won and his whole career, Toni Kroos is Germany's best player right now," Matthaus told FourFourTwo. "He's won four Champions League titles, he won the World Cup, he's a leader at Real Madrid and he's a leader for the German national team." "But we also have a young talented player like Leroy Sane - for sure he will have a great career. They are the faces now of the German national team." "Missing out on the World Cup was not Sane's mistake - that was a mistake from the coach. We missed players like Sane and that was one of the reasons why we went home after three games. Leroy has everything that an offensive player needs today - he has high speed, and he has speed with the ball too. He's a very good dribbler, he can score, and he can give the last pass. I think he's a player who will really make great results in the next 10 years." What was it like to play against Paul Gascoigne, Hristo Stoichkov and Ronaldinho? Read Matthaus' column in the [special 25th anniversary issue of FourFourTwo, out now!]( ⚜ Quiz Of The Week ⚜ Look at them. Look how happy Carles Puyol and Xavi were. And you couldn’t blame them. They’d levelled up their 2012 semi-final with Chelsea, and two minutes later were a man up after John Terry was sent off. And then it got even better: Andres Iniesta put them ahead two minutes before half-time. But oh, Barça. Silly, silly Barça. Ramires! Fernando Torres! Gary Neville’s return to puberty! Champions League semi-finals are great, we can all agree. But for this quiz we want you to tell us who’s actually been in one since 1993/94 – the first time that the rebranded competition used them, after a peculiar knockout game followed by a two-group system in 1992/93. We’re giving you seven minutes to get as many as you can. Good luck! [THINK YOU CAN GET 100%?]( The FourFourTwo Podcast In each episode our Editor in Chief, James Brown, will be taking a look at the big issues. The FourFourTwo podcast covers culture and analysis, with some of the biggest names in football journalism. This week's episode, out today, sees Steve Hilltalk us through his pieces in the new issue of the magazine – revisiting Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe nearly 25 years after first interviewing him for FFT, and speaking to new media sensation, Manchester United YouTuber Mark Goldbridge. It also has football shirt aficionado Neal Heard explaining thee appeal of the beautiful Boca Juniors strip. Previous episodes have featured legendary football journalist Hunter Davies, the man inside Man United Andy Mitten, and Jurgen Klopp biographer Raphael Honigstein. It's available now on Spotify and iTunes. Get involved – [subscribe now!]( SUBSCRIPTION OFFER [Spring has sprung and to celebrate we've got a banging offer for you.]( [5 issues of our mag for just £5 - saving you a whopping £20!]( [Get involved 🌻]( [SUBSCRIBE HERE TO GET 5 ISSUES FOR JUST £5 🙌]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( [Future Logo] © Future Publishing Limited. Reg No. 3757874 England. Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA To unsubscribe from FourFourTwo newsletter please [click here]( To unsubscribe from ALL emails you may receive from Future, such as newsletters, marketing communications, etc, please email [contact_us@futurenet.com](mailto:contact_us@futurenet.com?subject=Please%20remove%20me%20from%20all%20mailing%20lists%20) View our Terms and Conditions [here](