Stephen Darwin profile image

Stephen Darwin

Senior Editor

📝 Bio: I'm an editor with over 15 years of experience and joined GOAL in 2009 after having received a BA (Honours) degree in Sports Journalism from the University of Huddersfield. After realising the dream of becoming a professional footballer wasn't going to become a reality, I've been privileged to be able to settle for the next best thing - creating content about the sport I love. I'd consider myself a Premier League and European football expert and have been lucky enough to report on matches in England's top flight, attend two Champions League finals and cover England at international level.

⚽ My Football Story: I remember my trips to Old Trafford as a starry-eyed young lad watching Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United dominate English football, choosing them as my team despite my brother's best efforts to convert me to Arsenal. There was obligatory England heartache as well, with a vivid memory being that looping Ronaldinho free-kick that knocked us out of the 2002 World Cup. Gutting. That same year I was a ball boy at the Champions League final in Glasgow but regrettably missed Zinedine Zidane's iconic volley as I was in the changing room getting ready for the second half. It still haunts me to this day.

🎯 Areas of Expertise:

  • Expert football opinion & analysis
  • Social media content creation
  • Premier League, Champions League & European football insight
  • Comment & analysis on the England national team
  • Writing & editing the football stories that matter to fans

🌟 Favourite Footballing Memory: Seeing Manchester United miraculously come from behind to win the Champions League and complete a treble in 1999 takes some beating. There was also a special moment in 2021, when I was lucky enough to be one of few fans allowed inside Wembley to see England play Croatia at EURO 2020. This was at the time when fans were starting to be let back into stadiums amid the Coronavirus pandemic, and being able to celebrate a win with the close friends you had got used to seeing exclusively on Zoom quizzes provided a particularly fond memory.

Articles by Stephen Darwin
  1. Mark Clattenburg Jurgen KloppGetty/GOAL
    M. ClattenburgJ. Klopp

    Mark Clattenburg drops EIGHT F-bombs in Klopp rant

    Mark Clattenburg has lifted the lid on a spat he had with Jurgen Klopp that led to the former Premier League referee telling the German to 'f*ck off'. Joining Adebayo Akinfenwa for episode seven of the Beast Mode On Podcast, Clattenburg explained how Klopp had sought to blame the match official for a 3-0 defeat to Real Madrid, leading to a fiery response from the referee.

  2. FBL-ESP-LIGA-REAL MADRID-ESPANYOLAFP
    Player ratingsReal Madrid

    Mbappe upstages Vini Jr again as Madrid stay perfect

    Real Madrid made light work of Espanyol as they claimed a 2-0 win to maintain their perfect start to the Liga season. Eder Militao and in-form Kylian Mbappe delivered the goals for the hosts, and the result, if only temporarily, moves Xabi Alonso's men five points clear of title rivals Barcelona at the top of the table.

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