About David Dodds

Sportswriter covering global football, from the ninth division in Germany to matches in Antarctica to (more frequently) England and the Bundesliga. My work has also been featured by World Soccer Magazine, In Bed With Maradona and Bundesliga Fanatic. I get on the radio for an hour every week with fellow TFNer Simon to talk about the week's football. Find me on twitter.

The 23 Transfer Target Strikers to watch this Summer: from Lewandowski to Andy Carroll

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With a host of top clubs on high alert for a new frontman to lead the line, David Dodds looks at the 23 strikers making up the most sought-after shopping list in world football this summer…

This summer is going to be fun. After the failure of last year’s transfer window to deliver the gross manifestations of über-affluence we’ve now come to expect, plenty of clubs will be looking to splash out this summer. One thing this window looks likely to be defined by is the lucrative movement of blockbuster strikers to the titans of contemporary football. And, as always, cash-strapped teams will also be on the prowl for a new man up top.

So here’s a look at some of the men whose painfully-protracted transfer sagas are likely to dominate media narratives this summer: players whose exorbitant transfer fees we’ll either be laughing about or lauding this time next year; cheaper options whose progress is worth keeping an eye on; a crop of youngsters so good they’ll leave you questioning how the striker could have ever been declared dead; and just a jolly good chance to acknowledge the entertainment value of speculation. Whether such media pressure lifts them to the status of icons or causes their careers to crash and burn is another story all together. Continue reading

Gennaro Gattuso’s Swiss Adventure

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David Dodds profiles Italian World Cup winner Gennaro Gattuso, and his late career move to Switzerland…

Even the Italian government recognised Gennaro Gattuso’s ample contributions to football when they awarded him the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic–one of the highest decorations an Italian citizen can be given. An industrious defensive midfielder and dextrous (although sometimes overly-zealous) tackler, he served as the anchor for Milan’s midfield for over a decade.

In a career spanning thirteen years for the Italian giants, the inveterate defensive midfielder played alongside the many legends who were part of the revolving carousel of world-class players at Milan throughout the 00s. During his time at the club he helped them to two Serie A titles, a domestic cup and two Champions League trophies. Known for his temerarious tackling and sometimes-belligerent attitude, Rino also has a World Cup under his belt and in the year when Italy became campione del mondo was voted one of the top ten players of the tournament. Continue reading

The TFN Writers Awards: 2012-13

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The False Nine team respond to the results of the 2013 PFA Awards with their own picks for Player of the Year, Young Player of the Year and Manager of the Year…

Continuing on in his quest to become Wales’ answer to Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale was last night crowned as Player’s Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year at the 2013 PFA Awards at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel. His double win follows in the footsteps of Ronaldo who achieved the same feat in 2007.

While the main prize of the PFA Awards is voted for by the players of the Premier League, here at TFN we didn’t want to miss out on the fun and so have taken upon ourselves to put forward our own picks for Player, Young Player and Manager of the Year. Continue reading

Is this the Year of Bayern Munich?

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The False Nine‘s David Dodds previews the Champions League clash between Bayern Munich and Juventus, with a focus on the formidable German side…

It’s the 87th minute, and you’re level with the only team who have beaten you in the league this season. The 1-1 scoreline doesn’t look like it’s going to budge. Then, a stroke of genius. Not a sudden moment of inspiration by a striker, not a visionary defence-splitting pass by a playmaker, and not an unexpected and overdue header from a goal-shy tall and gritty centre back. In fact, if we’re to believe Bastian Schweinsteiger, then the genius was cultivated off the field. Continue reading

From Ceni to Chilavert: Goalscoring Goalkeepers

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The False Nine’s David Dodds takes a look at football’s most infamous goalscoring goalkeepers…

As far as the records stretch back, there are almost fifty goalkeepers in top divisions around the world who have scored five or more goals in domestic and international tournaments. Goalscoring goalkeepers are something of a novelty in the top divisions in Europe, but they have abounded throughout the ’80s, ’90s and into this century in South America. Continue reading

Are English commentators that bad?

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David Dodds explores the world of the English commentator…

Football hipster checklists have abounded over the last couple of months, and there have been more and more incarnations lately. Most of them are spot on and I imagine the writers and most readers of TFN find themselves either playfully nodding in agreement and being good sports because they see a picture of themselves painted in these checklists, or rendered incandescent because they see themselves in the lists but are reluctant admit it.

But there’s one curious omission to the lists I’ve seen. None of them mention our—which is to say the generation of hyper-informed and thoroughly post-modern omnivorous consumers of football from leagues of all shapes, sizes and stadium attendances—attitude towards commentators. When I say commentator, I mean play-by-play commentators, the people who are there to tell you what’s happening and who’s doing it. Martin Tyler, David Coleman and Ian Darke, for example. We often malign our commentators for their shoddy pronunciation, their obsession with regurgitating stats and their unbridled chauvinism during international and European games. These hipster checklists all point out rightly that we revile any pundit who isn’t Gary Neville or Pat Nevin, but make no mention of our similar attitude to play-by-play commentators.  Continue reading

Around the world with Lutz Pfannenstiel


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David Dodds looks at the extraordinary tale of Lutz Pfannenstiel, who represented 25 clubs and remains the only professional to have played in all 6 FIFA Confederations…

Earlier this month I wrote a profile of Lutz Pfannenstiel and his charity Global United F.C. which appeared on In Bed With Maradona For the sake of brevity I excluded a lot of biographical information from that article, but his story is so interesting that I’ve decided to construct a more comprehensive account of his footballing life from the remaining notes and research I have.

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Mercenary. Greedy. Financially-motivated. When you see a footballer who has played for twenty-five different clubs, you might be forgiven for thinking this. The game has no shortage of players who consider football a job, a way to pay the mortgage. But in the words of Lutz Pfannenstiel, the globetrotting German goalkeeper: “It’s nice to be rich. But it’s better to be wealthy in the head, wealthy in experience”. Continue reading