Design for a New Soccer Magazine

No, it's not football!
In Australia we have rugby, football (Aussie Rules) and soccer. It's simple, it works, so don't mess with it.

Soccer, like cricket and baseball, is a sport which has inspired much great writing. But soccer has also inspired great magazine design. People who read soccer mags are not intimidated by experimental design.
Two titles in particular stand out. 8X8 and Field - The Match Day Paper combine compelling writing with design that is right at the cutting edge. If you haven't seen them, take a look.
With these titles in mind, I wanted to create designs for a soccer magazine that were as contemporary as possible.
I chose Forward as the title of my publication. It has a great double meaning. Forward is a position on the soccer field but it obviously also evokes the idea of progress, innovation and positivity.

I decided that this magazine would use illustration for its cover imagery. This puts it in the company of such fine publications as The Word, 8x8, The New Yorker and The Big Issue.

My cover "star" is Sam Allardyce, who, as a result of some very poor decision making, was recently stood down as the manager of the England national team, thereby making himself a prime target for ridicule.

For my sample spread I used Zlatan Ibrahimovic as inspiration. He is a man whose talent is surpassed only by his mind boggling self regard. I thought it would be interesting to create a graphic which showed how many games he has played for each of the many clubs he has played for. It really highlights the obvious fact that while fans may love their clubs with wild passion, soccer is merely a career to most players.