FourFourTwo UK – Issue 389 April 2026 – FourFourTwo UK

The mafia isn’t romanticised here, because Palermitans have lived the reality. It’s not a glamorous past and there’s no mention of it beyond FFT’s initial taxi ride from the airport. Massimo, a Palermo resident, takes the scenic route to our hotel, past the prison on the city’s outskirts. He recalls four decades ago when a person was killed every day, and explains there are no mafia types at this particular prison – instead, they’re sent off to Milan and other mainland lock-ups. Association with known organised crime groups carries a 10-year minimum sentence.

The conversation takes turn after turn as Massimo’s taxi weaves through the streets, lined by balconies and trees bearing citrus fruits on either side. He’s especially eager to tell FFT all about the city’s football club – that’s the norm around here, as we discover later during our conversation with journalist Radicini from the local newspaper. “There’s an unbreakable bond between the club and the city,” Radicini explains. “The lives of the people revolve around the football club.

When the team gets a good result, you can feel how the city’s spirits are positive. When they suffer a defeat, the fans’ lives are affected. It’s an extraordinary relationship.” Supporters are keen to point out that four members of Italy’s 2006 World Cup-winning squad were Palermo players at the time: Andrea Barzagli, Cristian Zaccardo, Simone Barone and Fabio Grosso, who scored a memorable goal in the semi-final against Germany, then struck the penalty that won the trophy.

Luca Toni had departed the club just a year earlier, having bagged 50 goals across 80 league appearances. He’s now immortalised on a wall at the club’s new training ground in nearby Torretta – the first facility of its kind that Palermo have ever had, previously training on pitches at an army base. The next morning, we’re joined on the pitch at the Renzo Barbera, beneath the empty Curva Nord, by star striker Joel Pohjanpalo.

An experienced Finnish international with a handful of goals in the Bundesliga to his name, he’s the leading scorer in Serie B, lives within the city limits and enjoys bringing up his young family here. The Curva is where the club’s diehard fans situate themselves for matches, behind the goal – many grounds in Italy have something of a similar name, even though some aren’t curved at all. This one is – the 36,000-capacity stadium originally had a running track, but it was removed in 1948.

Palermo currently average crowds of nearly 29,000 for their home games – Sampdoria, battling relegation to the third tier again this season, average around 23,000, but every other Serie B club is watched by attendances of less than 12,000. During the Covid pandemic, when games were played behind closed doors, some eager Palermo supporters even climbed Monte Pellegrino, a rocky outcrop next to the Mediterranean Sea that peers right over the Renzo Barbera, to watch their team.

FourFourTwo is the world’s biggest and best football magazine, bringing you stories from the terraces to the touchline. Explore more than three decades of history, featuring well over 350 issues, for less than 14p per day! SCAN BELOW TO FIND OUT MORE ith January underway and 20 Premier League matchdays played, it was beginning to look as though the season was done and dusted.

Nottingham Forest had just beaten West Ham to open up a seven-point gap between the two sides, while at the top, Arsenal were six points clear of Manchester City. The fear was it could be a procession until May, with very little changing in the positions in the table that really mattered. By mid-February though, West Ham and Manchester City had narrowed those respective gaps to remind us once more that nothing is ever certain in the Premier League, before we reach the business end of the season in April and May.

In this issue of the magazine, we celebrate the footballers who make the English top fl ight the exciting and unpredictable league it is, as we rank the very best 50 players of the 2025-26 campaign. There will be those who say that it’s always the same players in the list every year, but think again. Of last year’s top 10, only three even make the top 50 this time around, such has been the emergence of new stars from Aston Villa, Brentford, Sunderland and Fulham, to name just a few.

Of course, if you don’t agree with our list, then jump on social media and tell us what we’ve got wrong, but make sure you use #FFTPL50. Enjoy the mag, and the twists and turns during the season’s run-in. James Andrew X @JamesAndrew_ E [email protected] FOURFOURTWOUK FOURFOURTWO FOURFOURTWO FOURFOURTWO.COM FOURFOURTWO SCAN TO SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER FOLLOW US HERE W FourFourTwo April 2026 3 Editor James Andrew Art Director Anthony Moore Production Editor Henry Burridge Online Content Editor Mark White Video Manager Matthew Frohlich Deputy Editor Matthew Ketchell Senior Staff Writer Chris Flanagan Staff Writer Ed McCambridge Senior Digital Writer Joe Donnohue Women’s Football Writer Ayisha Gulati Future PLC Quay House, The Ambury, Bath, BA1 1UA Phone 01225 442244 Email [email protected] To contact an individual, email fi [email protected] Editorial Thanks to Joseph Killingley, Dan Parry, Ellen Adamson, Zoe Rundle, Rob Ellis, Russell Yershon, Joseph Eskenazy, Alex Holland Photography Getty, Alamy, PA, Offside, iStock, Reuters All copyrights and trademarks are recognised and respected Advertising Media packs are available on request Commercial Director Richard Hemmings [email protected] Head of Sport Matthew Johnston [email protected] Account Manager, Sport Liv Wilford [email protected] International Licensing FourFourTwo is available for licensing and syndication.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 941764a567e8f6a6
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 60,244,090 bytes (57.453 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• Pages: 103
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 252.78 minutes
• Total Words: 50,556
• Total Characters: 294,102
• Average Words per Page: 490.83
• Average Characters per Page: 2855.36

Most Frequent Words

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