“It’s your brother-in-law, Andre. Arsenal needed to win by two clear goals at Anfield to win the league and did it with almost the last kick of the match!”
And that tinny, brief and precious Trans-Atlantic message was how I found out in post-university U.S. exile how my North London team had its greatest moment since 1971, winning the First Division title at Liverpool, a team that had dominated the English game since the late 1970s.
It’s now globally known as the English Premier League, a multi-billion-dollar behemoth that is ubiquitous outside the stadiums in which it is played, paying some of the most eye-watering wages to international household names — Manchester United’s World Cup winner, Paul Pogba, Arsenal’s Mesut Ozil, Chelsea’s Eden Hazard, Liverpool’s Mohammed Salah and Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero to name but a few of its biggest stars.