John Riordan: How Cruyff and Best are still wowing crowds in a New York neighbourhood

There's a mural of the legendary footballers in the Lower East Side of Manhattan which emerged out of the darkest days of 2020’s lockdown and has caused a stir around the hipster soccer circles so enamored by what they like to call Fútbol.

The Cruyff and Best mural painted by BKFoxx at The Ground in the Two Bridges neighbourhood of Manhattan's Lower East Side. Image: John Riordan

Very early in Kenneth Branagh’s latest film, Belfast, there is a brutal disruption of the youthful innocence held dear by the main character, a nine-year-old Protestant boy whose ambition is to fight dragons or be the greatest footballer in the world.

His narrow working class street forms a T-shape with another row of terraced houses, forming a seemingly safe and enclosed haven in which a mixed community can live harmoniously together towards the end of the 1960s.