From the Assistant Editor

Expect some familiar names, and some not so familiar

So, how was it for you?

Having gone months without football, Europe’s major leagues have now been and gone in an intense and relentless flurry of fixtures, with several games a day. Now it’s over, all that’s left to be decided are the Champions League and Europa League.

UEFA have devised a couple of mini-tournaments, one in Portugal and one in Germany. With this summer’s Euros pushed back a year, it should act as a decent stand-in for a major tournament. We’ve got everything you need to know about the competitions on pages 22-27.

The rest of this issue is dominated by our list of the 500 most important players in the world (pages 42-83). It is not definitive, nor is it about who is the best, but rather a guide to the players that we think you should know about in the upcoming season. Expect some familiar names, and some not so familiar.

Finally, we pay tribute to Jack Charlton. The World Cup-winner’s football achievements are given a fitting tribute in Keir Radnedge’s obituary (page 20), while his warm yet forceful personality shines through in Paddy Agnew’s memories (page 28).

Charlton’s career was before my time, but it has been a pleasure to read about his achievements and humour. Of themany anecdotes to emerge about “Big Jack”, my personal favourite was told by the man himself: “I told them it wasn’t about the money, it was about the honour,” he recalled of his negotiations with the Irish FA in 1985. “They wrote a number on a piece of paper, put the paper face down on the table and slid it over to me. I looked at it and said: ‘It’s not that much of a f****** honour.’”

Rest in peace, Jack.

Jamie Evans, Assistant Editor