Out now: Green Soccer Journal

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MagCulture.com Has Just Posted the Following with the title Out now: Green Soccer Journal



Despite being a mad keen football fan since childhood I never really enjoyed kids football magazines (though I do remember having the little cardboard league tables with interchangeable tabbed team names that were published at the start if each season). Like so much sports coverage they were ahead of the publishing curve in the sense they too often descended to overawed celebrity worship. Even with today’s football magazines there’s a set agenda of celebs, top 100 lists and stats. So it’s good to see a few alternatives out there – Sepp from Germany, Spiel from Liverpool and London’s Green Soccer Journal. (and not forgetting The Blizzard, as Mathew points out in his comment).

The third GSJ is out now – here are some of the highlights that make it special for me.





The issue is a goalkeeping special, with a set of shots of England ’keepers hands from Harley Wier.…



…a clothes shoot based around the tradition of ‘jumpers for posts’…



…and an amusing look back at a 1974 soft porn feature for Viva magazine featuring NY Cosmos player Shep Messing. Unimaginable today.



Cover star Italian goalkeeper legend Gianluigi Bufon is interviewed by Paulo Bandini (the issue also has interviews with Everton’s Tim Howard and ex–Arsenal keeper Bob Wilson)…



…and this shoot based on goalie training drills made me laugh, as did a set of goalkeeper’s shirts positioned to recreate famous saves (shot by Neil Bedford).

In amongst all this are the more match-related details: a comparison of stud-tightening tools; a look at the perfect pre-match pie; a pair of young merseyside players to watch. Editor/creative directors Adam Towle and James Roper only put a foot wrong once – a shoot and fold-out poster of a glamourised nude streaker lacks the irony required to make it work.

Loving football almost as much as I love magazines, it’s great to have a publication that combines both things so well. I’ve written about new magazines taking on old genres before –*Ride Journal, Carl*s Cars, Anorak, Fire & Knives – and the Green Soccer Journal is doing the same thing for football.

The Green Soccer Journal is the latest addition to the magCulture shop.





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