Even fans of Atletico Madrid, Lille, Internazionale and Villarreal, who have all seen their teams achieve great success, might have been forgiven for breathing a sigh of relief at the end of the 2020-21 domestic season. Empty stadiums, combined with a relentless schedule that pushed players to their absolute limits, meant that for large parts of the season, it just didn’t quite feel the same.
And yet, in such a bleak year, football often found a way to shine a light through the gloom; whether as a distraction from depressing news stories by injecting a rare thrill of excitement, or even just providing a sense of routine as the days stretched on from one lockdown to the next.
So yes, in many ways it was a miserable season, but to borrow an expression from Father Ted’s Mrs Doyle: “Maybe we like the misery.”
As usual, we’ve asked our best people to summarise Europe’s major leagues, as well as the Champions League and Europa League finals (pages 32-49). Thanks in particular are due to our resident French football expert Howard Johnson, who is hanging up his World Soccer boots. Howard has been a terrific servant to the magazine for the last 20 years, and will be difficult to replace.
Thanks also to you, the reader, for sticking with us throughout the last year. This issue completes a full cycle of issues since World Soccer joined the Kelsey Media family, and from a personal perspective it has been a pleasure and privilege to be a part of. We hope you’ve enjoyed reading the magazine as much as we’ve enjoyed working on it.
Jamie Evans, Assistant Editor

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