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We all Speak Football, Writer ⚽️ Tg: matchReportH, Dm for promotions 📩: [email protected]
London, England
Joined June 2024
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🚨 THEY TOOK SKIN FROM HIS ARM TO SAVE HIS FOOT, DOCTORS TOLD HIM TO FORGET FOOTBALL AND BACTERIA BEGAN EATING AWAY AT HIS ACHILLES TENDON.
SANTI CAZORLA’S STORY IS ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO BELIEVE. 🇪🇸
In October 2016, Santi Cazorla was still one of Arsenal’s most important players.
He was 31.
He had already won trophies in Spain and England, played for the Spanish national team, and was one of the most technically gifted midfielders of his generation.
Then, during a Champions League game pagainst Ludogorets, everything changed.
Cazorla damaged his Achilles.
At first, it looked like another football injury.
Something he would recover from.
Something that would keep him out for a few months.
It became something far more serious.
Cazorla underwent surgery.
Then came the infection.
His wound repeatedly opened.
The skin around his ankle deteriorated.
And bacteria began eating away at his Achilles tendon.
Doctors eventually discovered that approximately 10 centimetres of his Achilles had been destroyed and the infection had reached his heel bone.
The situation became so serious that Cazorla was warned he could lose his leg.
Think about that.
A professional footballer wasn’t being asked when he would return to the pitch anymore.
The question had become whether he would even be able to walk normally again.
One doctor told him he should be satisfied if he could eventually walk around his garden.
And then came one of the strangest parts of the entire story.
The damage around his heel was so severe that doctors needed a skin graft.
They took skin from his forearm and used it to repair the damaged area around his ankle.
But it wasn’t just any piece of skin.
Cazorla had a tattoo of his daughter’s name on that arm.
When doctors took the skin, they effectively split the tattoo in two and used it as part of the graft on his heel.
And the nightmare still wasn’t over.
He underwent operation after operation.
The number kept climbing.
Eight.
Nine.
Ten.
Eventually, Cazorla went through 12 operations during the ordeal.
Every time they tried to close the wound, it could break open again.
The infection kept fighting back.
Cazorla later described how the skin would deteriorate and split, while the bacteria continued attacking underneath.
For almost two years, football disappeared from his life.
636 days without playing.
Arsenal eventually decided not to renew his contract.
The club where he had produced some of the best football of his career was now behind him.
Most players would have accepted that their career was over.
Cazorla didn’t.
He went to Salamanca to continue his rehabilitation away from his family in London.
He kept working.
Walking.
Running.
Rebuilding the muscles.
Trying to teach his body to do things it had once done without thinking.
And slowly, incredibly slowly, football started becoming possible again.
There was another problem.
Part of his Achilles was gone.
So doctors had to reconstruct it.
A new tendon was created using tissue from his hamstring.
The man who had once been told to settle for walking around his garden was now trying to become a professional footballer again.
2005 League Cup Final — Liverpool 2–3
Chelsea — Drogba 37’
2007 League Cup Final — Arsenal 1–2 Chelsea — Drogba 20’
2007 League Cup Final — Arsenal 1–2 Chelsea — Drogba 84’
2007 FA Cup Final — Chelsea 1–0 Man United — Drogba 116’
2008 League Cup Final — Chelsea 1–2 Tottenham — Drogba 39’
2009 FA Cup Final — Chelsea 2–1 Everton — Drogba 21’
2010 FA Cup Final — Chelsea 1–0 Portsmouth — Drogba 59’
2012 FA Cup Final — Chelsea 2–1 Liverpool — Drogba 52’
2012 Champions League Final — Bayern 1–1 Chelsea — Drogba 88’
MatchReport retweeted
🚨 BREAKING: Pogba, Ronaldo, Messi and Bellingham are reportedly set to host a 5 team major youth tournament, inviting top academies from across Europe. 🌍⚽⚽
Teams invited ;
•Chelsea (England)
• Bodo glint ( Norway)
• Bayern (Germany) ….. love
🤖 Made with AI
MatchReport retweeted
A rare Messi video with his mom in Rosario , 2008 .
The cutest video you’ll see today 🥹❤️
MatchReport retweeted
🚨 BREAKING: Real Madrid fans have launched a poll to choose which of their players they believe should win the Ballon d’Or. 🏆🤍
• Mbappé 🇫🇷 64%
• Vinícius Jr. 🇧🇷 19%
• Bellingham 🏴 13%
• Cucurella ….. love
🤖 Made with AI
MatchReport retweeted
🚨 BREAKING: Chelsea are reportedly looking to strengthen their defence in January, with Xabi Alonso pushing for a new centre-back.
Targets Are ;
•Thiago Silva 🇧🇷
• Alejandro Bastoni 🇮🇹
• Calvin Bassey ….. love
🤖 Made with AI
MatchReport retweeted
Excluding Rashford and Gordon, name an English man who played for Barca
Level: Impossible
🚨 HE WAS DRINKING HIMSELF INTO OBLIVION WHEN HIS FRIEND TOLD HIM A FOOTBALL CLUB WAS FOR SALE ON RIGHTMOVE……..
Rob Smethurst had just sold his business for millions.
From the outside, life looked perfect.
But Smethurst later admitted that after selling his company, he had lost his sense of purpose.
The money was there.
The freedom was there.
But he didn’t know what to do with himself.
The partying got heavier.
Then came the drinking.
He described himself as “drinking myself into oblivion.”
One night, during a four-day drinking binge, a friend called him.
“Have you seen that there’s a football club on Rightmove?”
It sounded ridiculous.
But there actually was.
Macclesfield Town had collapsed financially and been wound up in 2020.
The club that had existed for more than a century was gone.
The stadium was rundown.
The town had lost its football club.
And now what remained of it was being advertised online.
Smethurst, still drinking heavily, decided to make an offer.
He told his solicitor to put forward around £500,000.
Then he went to sleep.
By the next morning, he had practically forgotten the whole thing.
Days later, his solicitor called.
The deal had gone through.
Smethurst had bought the remaining assets connected to the old club.
He eventually went to see what he had actually bought.
And it was a mess.
But instead of walking away, he decided to rebuild.
Macclesfield FC was formed as the phoenix club.
The colours stayed.
The supporters stayed.
The Moss Rose remained home.
And Smethurst reportedly put around £4 MILLION into rebuilding the facilities and giving the club a future.
A new pitch.
Fitness facilities.
Community spaces.
A social bar.
Slowly, Macclesfield started becoming a football club again.
But Smethurst didn’t just want to keep the club alive.
He wanted to take it somewhere.
And five years after that unbelievable Rightmove purchase…
Macclesfield were about to face the defending FA Cup champions.
CRYSTAL PALACE.
And what happened next was even crazier.
FIVE YEARS AFTER BUYING WHAT WAS LEFT OF A BROKEN FOOTBALL CLUB, ROB SMETHURST WATCHED MACCLESFIELD WALK INTO FA CUP HISTORY.
January 10, 2026.
Sixth-tier Macclesfield FC were drawn against Crystal Palace.
Palace were the reigning FA Cup holders.
Macclesfield were 117 league places below them.
This wasn’t just a difficult game.
On paper, it was almost absurd.
But Macclesfield had already survived six rounds of qualifying to get there.
And they had a town behind them.
The atmosphere inside Moss Rose was unbelievable.
Then the impossible started happening.
Paul Dawson put Macclesfield ahead.
1–0.
Palace pushed back.
But Macclesfield refused to disappear.
Then Isaac Buckley-Ricketts produced a brilliant flick to make it 2–0.
The sixth-tier side were two goals ahead of the FA Cup holders.
Palace eventually pulled one back through Yeremy Pino.
Then came six minutes of stoppage time.
Six minutes between Macclesfield and one of the biggest shocks English football had ever seen.
They survived it.
FULL-TIME.
MACCLESFIELD 2–1 CRYSTAL PALACE.
A sixth-tier club had knocked out the defending FA Cup champions.
There were 117 league places between the two sides.
The FA confirmed it was the biggest league-position gap overcome in the competition.
Macclesfield also became the first sixth-tier team to defeat a top-flight club in FA Cup history.
And there was another emotional layer to the night.
Macclesfield striker Ethan McLeod had died in a car accident less than a month earlier while returning from a league game.
His parents were at the Palace match.
When the final whistle went, the whole place erupted.
Fans invaded the pitch.
Players collapsed in celebration.
And Rob Smethurst?
He “legged it” onto the pitch to join them.
Think about that.
A man who had once been drinking heavily because he had lost his sense of purpose…
had found a completely new purpose in a football club he almost bought by accident.
He didn’t just rescue something that had collapsed.
He helped rebuild it.
And five years later, that club had just knocked out the FA Cup holders.
FROM A FOOTBALL CLUB ON RIGHTMOVE…
TO MAKING FA CUP HISTORY. ❤️⚽️
Enjoyed the story? ❤️
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I’ve got more unbelievable football stories coming your way.
🚨🇳🇬 HE HAD JUST WON OLYMPIC GOLD. THEN DOCTORS TOLD HIM HE MIGHT NEVER PLAY FOOTBALL AGAIN.
In August 1996, Nwankwo Kanu was on top of the football world.
At just 20, he had helped Nigeria win Olympic gold in Atlanta — scoring twice against Brazil in that unbelievable 4–3 semi-final comeback.
He had also been named African Footballer of the Year.
Inter Milan had signed him from Ajax.
Everything was going perfectly.
Then Inter’s medical examination changed everything.
Doctors discovered a serious congenital heart problem involving his aortic valve. One cardiologist said the condition was serious enough to end his career.
The same player who had been running around an Olympic football pitch weeks earlier was suddenly being told that playing football could be dangerous for his life.
Kanu underwent open-heart surgery in Cleveland, Ohio, in November 1996.
He spent weeks recovering and began a long rehabilitation programme.
For a young footballer who had just conquered the world with Nigeria, his career was suddenly hanging by a thread.
But Kanu wasn’t ready to walk away.
He eventually returned to football in 1997.
And somehow…
THIS WAS ONLY THE BEGINNING.
KANU CAME BACK. AND WHAT HAPPENED NEXT MADE HIS STORY EVEN CRAZIER.
After recovering from heart surgery, Kanu returned to professional football with Inter Milan.
But his biggest chapter was still ahead.
In 1999, Arsenal signed him.
And the Nigerian who had once been told he might never play again became one of the most memorable players of the Premier League era.
At Arsenal, Kanu scored 44 goals in 198 appearances and won two Premier League titles and two FA Cups. (Arsenal)
His famous hat-trick against Chelsea.
His outrageous skill.
His long legs.
His iconic celebrations.
The player whose career was supposed to be over was now winning trophies in England.
Then, in 2008, came another unbelievable chapter.
Playing for Portsmouth, Kanu scored the only goal in both their FA Cup semi-final and final, helping Portsmouth win the trophy. (Kanu Heart Foundation)
But perhaps the most important part of Kanu’s story happened away from the pitch.
After experiencing heart surgery himself, he founded the Kanu Heart Foundation in 2000 to help children and young adults with heart conditions access life-saving surgery.
The foundation says it has since helped hundreds of patients receive open-heart surgery. (Kanu Heart Foundation)
He was once told his heart might end his football career.
Instead, he came back…
won trophies…
and used his second chance to help give other people theirs.
THAT IS THE STORY OF NWANKWO KANU. 🇳🇬❤️
Enjoyed the story? ❤️
Follow @MatchReportH and turn on post notifications 🔔
I’ve got more unbelievable football stories coming your way. ⚽️
🚨 HE WENT FROM A CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL NIGHTMARE TO THINKING ABOUT QUITTING FOOTBALL, RECEIVED DEATH THREATS AND HORRIFIC MESSAGES ONLINE.
LORIS KARIUS’ STORY DIDN’T END IN KYIV.
In 2016, Liverpool signed a 23-year-old goalkeeper from Mainz.
Jürgen Klopp knew him.
Karius had already established himself in Germany and was seen as a goalkeeper with the potential to play at the highest level .
Liverpool wanted him to become their No.1.
And for a while, everything was going exactly as planned.
By January 2018, Karius had won back his place as Liverpool’s first-choice goalkeeper.
He was playing well.
He kept 10 clean sheets in 19 Premier League appearances.
Then Liverpool reached the Champions League final.
Real Madrid were waiting.
For Karius, it was supposed to be the biggest night of his career.
Instead, it became the night that nearly destroyed it.
Liverpool lost 3-1.
Karius made two huge errors.
First, he rolled the ball directly into Karim Benzema, who put Real Madrid ahead.
Then, with the game still alive, Gareth Bale hit a long-range shot that Karius failed to hold.
The ball slipped through his hands.
3-1.
At the final whistle, Karius was crying.
He walked toward the Liverpool supporters, apologising.
He later said:
“If I could go back in time, I would.”
But there was something nobody fully understood that night.
Shortly before his first mistake, Karius had collided with Sergio Ramos and taken a blow to the head.
Doctors later diagnosed him with a concussion.
Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp confirmed that Karius had suffered one during the match. (Liverpool FC)
That didn’t erase the mistakes.
But it added another layer to a night that would follow him for years.
And the abuse afterwards was brutal.
Karius received death threats and horrific messages online.
He later described the aftermath as the moment his career went from rising rapidly to crashing “all the way down to the bottom.” (Sky News)
#LFC signed Alisson the following summer.
Karius was sent to Beşiktaş on loan.
He was trying to start again.
But the fresh start never really became the comeback he wanted.
After Beşiktaş came Union Berlin.
Then Newcastle.
Then long periods sitting on the bench.
Between the beginning of the 2020/21 season and the end of 2024/25, Karius made only 11 appearances in total.
Eleven.
A goalkeeper who had once been playing in a Champions League final had practically disappeared from top-level football. (Bundesliga)
And eventually, something even more painful happened.
There were no suitable offers.
Karius was without a club.
He was 31 years old.
And he started thinking about something no professional footballer wants to admit.
Maybe it was over.
“I even thought about ending my career,” Karius later revealed.
He was only 25 when the nightmare began.
Yet years later, the psychological damage from that night was still affecting him.
He had lost his enjoyment of football.
He even sought help from a mental-health coach.
Eventually, he said he had to fight his way out of that period himself. (Bundesliga)
Then, when it looked like football might genuinely be finished for him…
Schalke called.
And that phone call changed everything.
MatchReport retweeted
🚨 HE WENT FROM A CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL NIGHTMARE TO THINKING ABOUT QUITTING FOOTBALL, RECEIVED DEATH THREATS AND HORRIFIC MESSAGES ONLINE.
LORIS KARIUS’ STORY DIDN’T END IN KYIV.
In 2016, Liverpool signed a 23-year-old goalkeeper from Mainz.
Jürgen Klopp knew him.
Karius had already established himself in Germany and was seen as a goalkeeper with the potential to play at the highest level .
Liverpool wanted him to become their No.1.
And for a while, everything was going exactly as planned.
By January 2018, Karius had won back his place as Liverpool’s first-choice goalkeeper.
He was playing well.
He kept 10 clean sheets in 19 Premier League appearances.
Then Liverpool reached the Champions League final.
Real Madrid were waiting.
For Karius, it was supposed to be the biggest night of his career.
Instead, it became the night that nearly destroyed it.
Liverpool lost 3-1.
Karius made two huge errors.
First, he rolled the ball directly into Karim Benzema, who put Real Madrid ahead.
Then, with the game still alive, Gareth Bale hit a long-range shot that Karius failed to hold.
The ball slipped through his hands.
3-1.
At the final whistle, Karius was crying.
He walked toward the Liverpool supporters, apologising.
He later said:
“If I could go back in time, I would.”
But there was something nobody fully understood that night.
Shortly before his first mistake, Karius had collided with Sergio Ramos and taken a blow to the head.
Doctors later diagnosed him with a concussion.
Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp confirmed that Karius had suffered one during the match. (Liverpool FC)
That didn’t erase the mistakes.
But it added another layer to a night that would follow him for years.
And the abuse afterwards was brutal.
Karius received death threats and horrific messages online.
He later described the aftermath as the moment his career went from rising rapidly to crashing “all the way down to the bottom.” (Sky News)
#LFC signed Alisson the following summer.
Karius was sent to Beşiktaş on loan.
He was trying to start again.
But the fresh start never really became the comeback he wanted.
After Beşiktaş came Union Berlin.
Then Newcastle.
Then long periods sitting on the bench.
Between the beginning of the 2020/21 season and the end of 2024/25, Karius made only 11 appearances in total.
Eleven.
A goalkeeper who had once been playing in a Champions League final had practically disappeared from top-level football. (Bundesliga)
And eventually, something even more painful happened.
There were no suitable offers.
Karius was without a club.
He was 31 years old.
And he started thinking about something no professional footballer wants to admit.
Maybe it was over.
“I even thought about ending my career,” Karius later revealed.
He was only 25 when the nightmare began.
Yet years later, the psychological damage from that night was still affecting him.
He had lost his enjoyment of football.
He even sought help from a mental-health coach.
Eventually, he said he had to fight his way out of that period himself. (Bundesliga)
Then, when it looked like football might genuinely be finished for him…
Schalke called.
And that phone call changed everything.
MatchReport retweeted
This clip of Hansi Flick, Raphinha and Lamine Yamal sitting on the stairs together will be one of those " late night finds" vid that Barca fans will cherish in a decade or so. 🥲♥️
🚨 HE WENT FROM A CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL NIGHTMARE TO THINKING ABOUT QUITTING FOOTBALL, RECEIVED DEATH THREATS AND HORRIFIC MESSAGES ONLINE.
LORIS KARIUS’ STORY DIDN’T END IN KYIV.
In 2016, Liverpool signed a 23-year-old goalkeeper from Mainz.
Jürgen Klopp knew him.
Karius had already established himself in Germany and was seen as a goalkeeper with the potential to play at the highest level .
Liverpool wanted him to become their No.1.
And for a while, everything was going exactly as planned.
By January 2018, Karius had won back his place as Liverpool’s first-choice goalkeeper.
He was playing well.
He kept 10 clean sheets in 19 Premier League appearances.
Then Liverpool reached the Champions League final.
Real Madrid were waiting.
For Karius, it was supposed to be the biggest night of his career.
Instead, it became the night that nearly destroyed it.
Liverpool lost 3-1.
Karius made two huge errors.
First, he rolled the ball directly into Karim Benzema, who put Real Madrid ahead.
Then, with the game still alive, Gareth Bale hit a long-range shot that Karius failed to hold.
The ball slipped through his hands.
3-1.
At the final whistle, Karius was crying.
He walked toward the Liverpool supporters, apologising.
He later said:
“If I could go back in time, I would.”
But there was something nobody fully understood that night.
Shortly before his first mistake, Karius had collided with Sergio Ramos and taken a blow to the head.
Doctors later diagnosed him with a concussion.
Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp confirmed that Karius had suffered one during the match. (Liverpool FC)
That didn’t erase the mistakes.
But it added another layer to a night that would follow him for years.
And the abuse afterwards was brutal.
Karius received death threats and horrific messages online.
He later described the aftermath as the moment his career went from rising rapidly to crashing “all the way down to the bottom.” (Sky News)
#LFC signed Alisson the following summer.
Karius was sent to Beşiktaş on loan.
He was trying to start again.
But the fresh start never really became the comeback he wanted.
After Beşiktaş came Union Berlin.
Then Newcastle.
Then long periods sitting on the bench.
Between the beginning of the 2020/21 season and the end of 2024/25, Karius made only 11 appearances in total.
Eleven.
A goalkeeper who had once been playing in a Champions League final had practically disappeared from top-level football. (Bundesliga)
And eventually, something even more painful happened.
There were no suitable offers.
Karius was without a club.
He was 31 years old.
And he started thinking about something no professional footballer wants to admit.
Maybe it was over.
“I even thought about ending my career,” Karius later revealed.
He was only 25 when the nightmare began.
Yet years later, the psychological damage from that night was still affecting him.
He had lost his enjoyment of football.
He even sought help from a mental-health coach.
Eventually, he said he had to fight his way out of that period himself. (Bundesliga)
Then, when it looked like football might genuinely be finished for him…
Schalke called.
And that phone call changed everything.
Schalke didn’t sign a superstar.
They signed a goalkeeper who had spent years trying to find his way back.
Karius arrived in January 2025.
And slowly, the career that looked finished started breathing again.
He became Schalke’s first-choice goalkeeper.
He kept clean sheets.
He made important saves.
And instead of trying to prove everyone wrong, Karius simply started enjoying football again.
Then came the 2025/26 season.
Schalke were fighting for promotion back to the Bundesliga.
And Karius became one of the most important players in their campaign.
He played 30 league games.
Kept 13 clean sheets.
Schalke finished as Bundesliga 2 champions.
After three years outside Germany’s top division, they were going back up.
And Karius was going with them. (Bundesliga)
But the redemption story didn’t stop there.
Schalke returned to the Bundesliga in August 2026.
Their first game ended in a 3-0 defeat to Augsburg.
Then came the match everybody wanted to see.
Schalke vs Bayern Munich.
Karius was standing in goal at the Veltins-Arena.
On the other side was one of the greatest goalkeepers Germany has ever produced:
Manuel Neuer.
The man who had spent years being remembered for one disastrous Champions League final was now standing between Bayern and a goal.
And he was brilliant.
Karius made save after save.
Bayern had chances.
Harry Kane had chances.
But Karius refused to let them score.
Schalke 0-0 Bayern Munich.
Bayern failed to score for the first time in 59 competitive matches.
Karius was named Man of the Match.
And Manuel Neuer himself praised him afterwards.
“Loris Karius was very good,” Neuer said. “He was definitely the right choice for Man of the Match.” (Bundesliga)
Think about that for a second.
Eight years ago, Karius was crying on the pitch in Kyiv after a Champions League final defeat.
He received death threats.
He lost his place at Liverpool.
He spent years bouncing between clubs.
He barely played.
He admitted he had considered ending his career.
There was a period when he didn’t even know if another club would call.
Then Schalke gave him one more chance.
He helped them win promotion.
He returned to the Bundesliga.
And now he’s making headlines again.
At 33 years old, Karius isn’t trying to recreate the goalkeeper he was before Madrid.
He’s simply enjoying football again.
And maybe that’s the real redemption.
Not erasing the worst night of your career.
Not pretending it never happened.
But surviving it…
and becoming a footballer again afterwards.
From the Champions League final in Kyiv…
to almost walking away from football…
to becoming Schalke’s hero against Bayern Munich.
Loris Karius’ story is still being written. 🧤🇩🇪
Enjoyed the story? ❤️
Follow @MatchReport and turn on post notifications 🔔
I’ve got more unbelievable football stories coming your way. ⚽️
#SCHALKE
