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Oct 16, 2026, 6:20 PM GMT+1
Hal is an experienced freelance sports journalist at GiveMeSport, having previously produced content for websites such as Goal, football.london, HertsLive, 90min, The Set Pieces and many others.
Hal picked up his MA in Sports Journalism and NCTJ qualification from St Mary's University Twickenham, Hal has since been part of Valnet since late 2021.
He started as a freelance football writer for This Is Futbol and carried that on over to FootballFanCast before becoming their social media editor. He now works as an editor for GiveMeSport, predominantly focusing on Premier League, Champions League, and English football.
He also helps GiveMeSport cover other major sports such as MMA, boxing, darts, tennis, and golf. Key events like the summer and winter Olympics are also highlights when they appear on the sporting calendar.
Hal is an Arsenal and Three Lions fan, but keeps an eye on the All Blacks, his favourite rugby team, having grown up in New Zealand.
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Forget the Ballon d'Or; the true peak of football is winning the World Cup. This is a team sport after all.
Cristiano Ronaldo will always be a legend, but his failure to win that prize will see many rank him behind the likes of Lionel Messi, Pele, and Diego Maradona, who all lifted the World Cup at least once.
Spain are the latest nation to win the game's greatest tournament. Luis de la Fuente's men beat Argentina 1-0 in the 2026 final, with Ferran Torres netting the winner in extra time. This capped off a remarkable season for Mikel Merino, who also won the Premier League with Arsenal in 2025/26.
However, the Spanish midfielder nearly missed out on all that, and not just because of a nasty injury suffered in the build-up to the World Cup.
Merino started out his career at Osasuna before moving to Borussia Dortmund in 2016. During his time with the German club, he was involved in a traumatic incident which nearly cost him his life.
On 11 April 2017, Dortmund's squad were on the team bus, heading to the Westfalenstadion for the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final against Monaco. They were attacked by three roadside bombs, which left senior defender Marc Bartra and a policeman wounded.
Thankfully, there were no casualties but things could have been very different had Merino been sitting in his usual spot. The midfielder usually sat next to fellow Spaniard Bartra on the bus, but moved to a different seat on that day, as his legs were tight.
Writing for the Players' Tribune, Merino revealed how, on another day, he may well have been killed, explaining:
"I think I have an angel on my shoulder. I’m actually fortunate to be alive at all. I was 20 and playing for Dortmund when three pipe bombs went off right next to our bus on the way to a Champions League match.
"A lot of young people probably would not even believe that it happened, or how bad it was, but it marked us all. There was a deafening noise, and then I remember the bus nearly tipping over. I looked behind me and saw blood on the floor. Smoke, screams. I remember being at the hospital later that night, waiting for Marc Bartra, who had his wrist badly cut up.
"The next day, someone told me that a huge piece of shrapnel was lodged in the headrest of the seat next to Marc. My usual seat. That day, the seat was empty. My legs were feeling a bit tight, and the seats in the front reclined. So I sat up there instead, and it may have saved my life."
Merino left Dortmund in 2017, joining Newcastle United briefly before returning to Spain with Real Sociedad. After six years there, he came back to England, this time signing for Arsenal.
With the Gunners, he became a Premier League champion but sadly had to miss out on most of the second half of the season after suffering a stress fracture in his right foot.
The Spaniard picked up the injury in February and was told he would be out for at least six months. He recalled: "Nobody knew how my foot would recover, or if it would recover at all. Part of me feared that I would never play football again."
Remarkably, though, he returned before the end of the season, playing in Arsenal's final league game as they lifted the title in May. Not only that, but he also made Spain's World Cup team.
He wasn't even supposed to be fit enough for the tournament, but Merino was a key player for his nation, scoring a stoppage-time winner in the round of 16 victory over Portugal, and then repeating the trick four days later against Belgium in the quarters.
He then came off the bench in the final, and even made a key block when Messi had a late chance to score for Argentina. Merino recalled: "At one point, Messi lined up to shoot just outside the box, and I was like, No, not him.
"I moved forward to close him down, one metre away. He hit it hard. BANG. Right in my face. I went down like I’d been shot, which I had. I got hit so hard that I was actually blind in one eye for the rest of the match. For a moment, I was really worried.
"But when the whistle went, I just felt this surge of relief, because we hadn’t messed it up. And then this image appeared in my mind. Me as a kid, with a ball. No text, no poetry, just that image. I could see the kid tell his mom that, one day, he would win the World Cup. Now, that little kid was running around on a pitch in New Jersey, as a world champion. It was difficult, yes. But not impossible."
It certainly was a magical moment for Merino, who had to survive a bomb attack and overcome a serious injury to get his hands on the game's greatest prize.
Did it happen before or after?
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