After Fourteen Issues, We’re Taking a Break
FUTBOLISTA Magazine is coming to an end (for now) after the recent release of our fourteenth edition.
Starting your own football magazine is a simple process of trial and error. Since FUTBOLISTA first went to print in 2020, just before a Covid pandemic that hit so many print publications, it has changed significantly, and survived longer than I ever could have anticipated. It has evolved in design, content, style and so forth, just as my own interests in journalism have shifted over the years.
Five years ago FUTBOLISTA boldly entered into the surprisingly busy market of independent football magazines, with some crazy colour choices, stolen JPG images and lighthearted football writing. While some spend months if not years planning the launch of an independent magazine, this (then-)17-year-old editor had no such qualms.
Five years later I write this last Editor’s Letter with a much-changed view of what the magazine should look like and what it should bring to football journalism. This issue asks big questions of the financial set-up of French football; ISSUE 13’s leading feature was an interview with the top goalscorer of the Palestinian national team. The magazine’s design leans towards a cleaner, more newspaper-like tone.
But that is not to say that this fourteenth edition is definitely better than the very first. FUTBOLISTA has covered a wide range of football themes for readers of all interests, and I am proud of its journey.
There have been too many highlights to note them all here. But I was slightly starstruck when then-Monaco defender Jonathan Panzo requested a print of Jamie Orrell’s excellent cover art for ISSUE 03. It was even cooler that my magazine then reached the great Roger Milla (yes, that Cameroon striker from Italia ‘90 and USA ‘94), after I interviewed him for the fourth edition of FUTBOLISTA.
One wonderful thing about producing a magazine is the freedom to explore topics you care about, or even have only a vague interest in and wish to discover fully. It is a freedom that I have enjoyed sharing with dozens of freelance contributors over the years, many of whom have written some very personal and important pieces for the magazine.
When a feature I wrote on Hong Kong’s football scene during Covid for ISSUE 07, or more likely the stunning cover illustration by Lorenzo Duina, caught the attention of i Paper columnist Ian McMillan in 2021, FUTBOLISTA even made it onto the pages of a British national newspaper.
It has been very enjoyable to write and commission articles about world football, but sometimes it’s also worth remembering that the best stories can be much closer to home. Roddy Cairns’ story for ISSUE 07, ‘Partick Thistle: The Dozing Giant of Scottish Football Hipsterdom?’, and in this issue, Tom Murphy’s excellent account of recent success at Merseyside non-league club Marine, are great examples.
ISSUE 14 will be FUTBOLISTA’s last, for now. I will soon be starting a two-year Master’s in Madrid with the Spanish newspaper El País, and obviously need to spend as much time watching Spanish football as humanly possible.
I am very grateful to the magazine’s readers and contributors for their support, and my local Post Office staff who are probably wondering why I keep turning up with a bagful of envelopes to send all over the world. Enjoy ISSUE 14. It’s sold out in print already, but you can read it for only a pound as a digital PDF.
The views expressed in articles do not necessarily represent those of FUTBOLISTA Magazine or its editor. FUTBOLISTA Magazine is committed to publishing a wide variety of news and features.
FUTBOLISTA Magazine is coming to an end (for now) after the recent release of our fourteenth edition.
