Hello, all!
Defender Abbie McManus is at the top of the Hoddle today.
Ramble of the Day
I didn’t intend for the Hoddle to become a destination to discover every footballer who has been on any country’s version of Masked Singer, but what can I do? I’ve already started, so I might as well make it a thing. I’ll do more research on a different day, but in the meantime, I’ve got two entries from the most recent season in France. Here’s the first, and I’ll give you a couple of clues: he played from 1998 to 2019, was capped 41 times by France, and played for two Premier League clubs.
Congrats to you if you guessed former Liverpool and Queens Park Rangers forward Djibril Cissé! I don’t know if he’s a great singer, but he performs M. Pokora’s “Tombé” well enough — he has limited range, but I don’t think he needs more than he has here. He also sang Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ “Can’t Hold Us,” which I don’t think demonstrated his abilities much. He made it four episodes and was the sixth person out.
Now, hints for the second footballer: he played from 1983 to 1997, was capped 45 times by France, and played for one British club.
If you guessed former Rangers defender Basile Boli, you were right! He made it a little further than Cissé, getting out two episodes later. Based on the one song I could find, I feel similarly about him as a singer as I did about Cissé — limited for sure, but the song choice doesn’t reveal it. It helped, at least in this case, that he picked an engaging song in K.Maro’s “Femme Like U.”
tl;dr: Djibril Cissé and Basile Boli were on the most recent season of France’s Mask Singer.
Stay informed, read this: Inkoo Kang interviews writer-director Lee Isaac Chung on the experience of immigration to the United States in his family and in his new film Minari for The Hollywood Reporter
Links of the Day
Argentina World Cup winner Leopoldo Luque died aged 71 from COVID-19.
Stoke’s James McClean and wife Erin revealed they have suffered years’ worth of abuse on social media.
Borussia Mönchengladbach manager Marco Rose will leave for the Borussia Dortmund job ahead of the 2021-22 season.
A longer read: Nick Ames on the status of National League clubs, who have hit a crisis point as the money runs out for The Guardian