There were a few tourists from Madrid taking selfies outside the Allianz Arena yesterday lunchtime and, as footballing pilgrimages go, this is one you really have to want. Wedged between two major road junctions and approached either through a concrete jungle of slip roads or a 40-minute schlep on the train followed by a long trudge past a sewage treatment plant, perhaps the nicest thing you can say about the location of Bayern Munich's stadium is that it at least offers easy access to everywhere else.
How many times will Harry Kane have to peer at this stadium through blacked-out windows before it begins to feel like home? The language will take years to master, if he ever manages it. The Allianz does not feel like a part of Munich in the way that the Estadio Bernabéu looms above Madrid or the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium looms above the High Road. And, of course, his name has already been made at the boyhood club that still has a buy-back clause for him. However long he stays at Bayern, on some level home will always be somewhere else.
Jude Bellingham has only been at Real Madrid for 10 months, and yet already it feels like 10 years. As he returns to Germany for the Champions League semi-final, he does so as one of the most adored footballers on the planet, as universally accepted as your favourite credit card. More than this: somehow in his comportment, Bellingham seems to represent some intangible quality that goes beyond anything he can do on a football pitch, the same quality that Kane for all his talents - does not.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة April 30, 2024 من The Guardian.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة April 30, 2024 من The Guardian.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
New year refresh A month-by-month guide to sorting out your finances
Rupert Jones and Hilary Osborne offer a checklist of the vital tasks you need to tackle throughout the year, from filing your tax return to making the most of your holiday cash
Lost in music How Britain's clubs are disappearing fast - and why they are worth rescuing
When the patrons of Watford's Przym nightclub celebrated New Year's Eve a year ago, they were marking the end of an era - or rather, seven eras.
Nissan shares down 15% as investors react to plan for merger
Shares in the Japanese carmaker Nissan have taken their biggest fall since August's stock market sell-off, as investors turned their attention to the company's planned tie-up with domestic rivals Honda and Mitsubishi.
Climbing out of trouble? Rise in share price suggests BA's turbulent days may be over
It's been a long and turbulent time since anyone used British Airways' old slogan \"the world's favourite airline\" with a straight face.
North-south divide flips as EU's periphery beats core economies
The European Central Bank is facing a tough balancing act in 2025, trying to navigate a reversal of fortunes in eurozone economies as the hardest-hit nations of the 2010s debt crisis outperform the traditional core.
Number of retailers on the brink of collapse up by 25%
Footfall levels up 18% on Christmas Eve compared with last year.
London-listed mining company halts operations in Mozambique
The London-listed mining company Gemfields said yesterday it had temporarily halted its ruby mining operation in Mozambique after groups \"took advantage\" of political unrest to attempt to invade and set fire to its site, resulting in two deaths.
Aid convoy reaches besieged area of Sudanese capital
An aid convoy has reached a besieged area of Khartoum for the first time since Sudan's civil war broke out in April 2023, bringing food and medicines in a country where half of the people are at risk of starvation.
Mexico The mayor who turned wasteland into a utopia
Mexico City's mayor, Clara Brugada, has never been afraid to court controversy and has taken some imaginative steps in her efforts to undo decades of economic and cultural inequality.
Crisis on cat island On Aoshima, is time finally running out for human and feline inhabitants?
The reason for Aoshima's nickname is clear before we set foot on the island.
