New year, new weekend, and we’re off in an unconventional direction. The big match of the coming days for our purposes is in Paris, but it ain’t PSG. RED STAR PARIS travel to face TROYES on Saturday for a meeting of second against first in France’s Ligue 2.

It’s a perfect opportunity to have a look at one of the world’s more storied — if off-beat — football clubs. Red Star was founded way back in 1897 by Jules Rimet, eventual inventor of the FIFA World Cup, and in the time since it’s acquired layer upon layer of identity. It’s the French capital’s rebel club, a vessel of alt-Paris, a different kind of chic from the glitz of the European champions at the Parc des Princes.

Simon Binns is a veteran journalist who wrote a book on Red Star — and fell in love with the club along the way. Red Star Paris: Punks, Politics and Power Struggles in the Fight for the Coolest Club on Earth is a history, a social study, and a love letter, though Binns also made use of his background as a financial journo to tackle the issue of Red Star’s new owners: 777 Partners, most famous for a failed takeover attempt of Everton Football Club.

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David Novo from Lisbon's Record newspaper joins to help us preview the Dérbi de Lisboa, as Benfica host Sporting CP in a battle for bragging rights in the Portuguese capital. Along with Porto — which hails from the town of the same name further north — they make up the Big Three clubs in this nation of under 11 million people that punches far above its weight on the global stage.

We got into how, exactly, Portugal and these clubs in particular produce so many fantastic players. We traced some of the history of this rivalry, including the crucial intervention of the legendary Eusébio, who turned the tide after years of Sporting dominance to deliver Benfica into a new era. We talked over the return of José Mourinho to Portuguese football, as he's now coaching Benfica after all his years of massive success with Porto and across Europe. And David offered some intel on where to eat and drink if you’re going to the Estádio da Luz — where this one will be played on Friday — or the Estádio José Alvalade.

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And get your rundown of all the matches worth your time this weekend at TheFootballWeekend.com ↗️

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Brad Friedel played his college ball at UCLA and had a stint at Liverpool before a longer and seriously fruitful one at Blackburn Rovers. He also stopped shots for Aston Villa and for Tottenham Hotspur, where in his final season he ran into a guy named Mauricio Pochettino. The goalkeeper, who was capped 82 times for the U.S. Men’s National Team, got a front-row seat to the Argentine’s methods when he came in and transformed the club, and his faith has never wavered that Pochettino will deliver now as head coach of the American team.

We talked about all that when Friedel joined the show this Thanksgiving week, but we also got into a fascinating early chapter of his career. In 1995, he went off to Istanbul to play for Graeme Souness at Galatasaray. Along the way, he got a true taste of one of the world’s most combustible football derbies, Galatasaray against Fenerbahce, the latest edition of which will play out this coming Monday.

Friedel talked the derby, his times with Brian Clough and Kevin Keegan, and a bit about life in Istanbul.

Get more sharp coverage of the world's game at TheFootballWeekend.com ↗️

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