Zinedine Zidane
“Hamit Altintop’s thunderously crisp volley against Kazakhstan earlier this week was one of the finest strikes seen for quite some time and, with a nod to The Guardian’s “Joy of Six“ feature, got me thinking about some of the game’s greatest volleys. So, without further ado, here is a selection of some of the cleanest strikes ever witnessed. If you’ve got any more suggestions then please add them in the comments at the bottom of the page.” (The Equaliser)

“One of the greatest blights of modern football is that it looks the same wherever in the world you go. Teams from Addis Ababa to Zurich play with equipment made by the same handful of manufacturers and, with this, we have lost something. The global game has become homogenised and stripped of a couple of the layers of its colour and panache, and perhaps the most visual aspect of this on the pitch are the goalposts and netting themselves. Almost all clubs and countries now avail themselves of the now ubiquitous free-standing box net style of goal, with two poles holding the nets up and out of harm’s way.” (twohundredpercent)