Germany’s football league system, the Bundesliga, holds the best attendance records in European football. The fans are as passionate and loud as any in the world. And this season, the decibel count will rise higher still because of one little side from Hamburg. Yes, St Pauli – the club from the town’s red-light district – have been promoted after an eight-year absence from the German top flight.

In 2006, St Pauli were in the German third division, where the average league attendance was roughly 2,000 – yet the club’s Millerntor-Stadion regularly pulled in crowds of 15,000. So what was so special about this small side, which always seemed to be in the shadow of its neighbour, SV Hamburg?

Principally, the club’s cult status derives from the extent to which it has represented the underdog. Initially the fanbase consisted of local dock workers, but this changed in the 1960s when immigrants arrived, followed soon after by students, leading to an eclectic mix of cultures.

The left-wing politics for which the club is now renowned first came to light during the 1980s when the Hafenstraße area of St Pauli was up for redevelopment. The local government was attempting to evict residents so the building could undergo demolition and reconstruction instead of repairs (subsequently found to be the cheaper option by an official report). In a massive protest, students, intellectuals and other political activists squatted on the property and their left-wing politics were gradually embraced by the growing, local fanbase of a previously conservative club. The skull and crossbones flag flown by protesting punks even became the unofficial emblem of the club.

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It’s a good time to be involved in soccer in the United States (and before you scoff, the etymology of the word is British, not American).

In July a record 24.3million American viewers watched the World Cup final between Holland and Spain (the previous record was set only two weeks before when USA faced Ghana in the last 16). Then, following the tournament, an array of big-name players arrived on American shores to play for various Major League Soccer (MLS) sides: Thierry Henry, Rafael Marquez, Nery Castillo, Alvaro Fernandez, Blaise N’Kufo and even Rooney (John Rooney, the brother of the Manchester United striker, is on trial at Seattle Sounders).

Cynics may point out that this list of big names is another step in the MLS reverting back to the financially reckless behaviour of its predecessor, the North American Soccer League (NASL), which ran from 1968 to 1984 and allowed players such as Pele, Franz Beckenbauer, Carlos Alberto and George Best to earn large sums in the twilight of their glittering careers for sides such as the Washington Diplomats and the New York Cosmos. But the MLS, formed in 1996, is very unlikely to become a retirement home for Europe’s best footballers due to the requirement for all franchises to have their own youth development initiatives. To read more, go to Spiked.

“He is considered a retard, but we are the retarded ones – because we think, we rationalise. Next to him, next to the prodigious instantaneity of his reflexes, we are luggards, bovines, hippopotamuses”, Nelson Rodrigues, playwright.

When Manuel Francisco dos Santos was born on the 28^th of October 1933, the midwife noticed that his left leg was curved outward (it was six centimetres shorter than the right leg during his career) and his right leg curved inward. In the modern game, this Brazilian genius would have been shunned for lacking the physique of an athlete. Not that he thought football should be taken seriously.

He was born in the idyllic town of Pau Grande, 40km from Rio. Nicknamed Garrincha or little wren by his elder sister Rosa, his carefree attitude made sure the name stuck. He had a natural talent for football but little else. He could accelerate brilliantly his ability to change direction whilst dribbling was unrivalled in the town. He was kept on at the local textile factory where he started work aged fourteen just so he could play for the company’s football team. He was an awful employee, lazy and unambitious.

But when he took to the pitch, no-one cared. His ability to constantly humiliate his marker totally compensated for the lack of a work ethic. He would have remained an amateur, had he not been taken reluctantly to trials at the big sides. He was turned away by Vasco Da Gama and Fluminense, because he hadn’t brought any boots, while he left his trial at the latter earlier to catch the last train home.

It changed in a trial for Botafogo, he was placed on the wing against Nilton Santos, a member of the Brazil squad. He dribbled past the international defender as if it was a kickabout back in Pau Grande, nutmegging him in one dribble. He won a contract and promptly scored a hat-trick on his full debut for Botafogo.

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