title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: After originally committing to UCLA, Sherman received an athletic scholarship to attend Stanford University, where he played for the Stanford Cardinal football team from 2006 to 2010 under head coaches Walt Harris and Jim Harbaugh. He began his career at Stanford as a wide receiver and led the Cardinal in receiving as a freshman in 2006 while being named an honorable mention to the Freshman All-American Team by Sporting News. In the 2006 season, he had 34 receptions for 581 receiving yards and three receiving touchdowns. He caught 47 passes over the next two years before suffering a season-ending knee injury after playing in the first four games in 2008, which became a redshirt year. He was granted his request to switch to cornerback after his injury and made 112 tackles over his final two years, with six interceptions. He was part of the 2010 Stanford Cardinal team that finished 12–1, a school record.


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: Sherman is a member of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity and graduated from Stanford University in 2010 with an undergraduate degree in communications. He began work towards his master's degree when he returned for a fifth year during his final year of eligibility.


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: On January 29, 2011, Sherman played in the 2011 Senior Bowl and deflected two passes as part of Marvin Lewis' North team that lost 24–10 to the South. Sherman was added as a late replacement after Curtis Marsh Jr. sustained a hamstring injury on the first day of practice. His Senior Bowl performance was well received and was expected to raise his draft stock. Sherman attended the NFL Scouting Combine and completed all of the combine and positional drills.


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: On March 17, 2011, Sherman participated at Stanford's pro day and attempted to improve on his combine performance. He performed the 40-yard dash (4.53), 20-yard dash (2.56s), 10-yard dash (1.58s), vertical jump (37"), broad jump (11'0"), short shuttle (4.29s), and three-cone drill (6.72s). At the conclusion of the pre-draft process, Sherman was projected to be selected anywhere from the fourth to sixth rounds by the majority of NFL draft experts and scouts. The Sporting News projected Sherman to be a second round pick and Fox Sports' Peter Schrager projected Sherman to be a fifth round pick. He was ranked as the fourth best cornerback in the draft by "The Sporting News", was ranked the 22nd best cornerback by "USA Today", was ranked the 24th cornerback prospect by DraftScout.com, and was ranked the 30th best cornerback by "Pro Football Weekly".


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: The Seattle Seahawks selected Sherman in the fifth round (154th overall) of the 2011 NFL Draft. Sherman was the 25th cornerback drafted in 2011. While watching the draft with his family at home, Sherman was "livid" about players he perceived as inferior getting drafted before him.


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: On July 22, 2011, the Seattle Seahawks signed Sherman to a four-year, $2.22 million contract that included a signing bonus of $182,424.


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: Throughout training camp, Sherman competed to be a starting cornerback against Walter Thurmond, Kelly Jennings, Byron Maxwell, Brandon Browner, and Kennard Cox. Head coach Pete Carroll named Sherman the fourth cornerback on the depth chart to begin the regular season, behind Marcus Trufant, Brandon Browner, and Walter Thurmond.


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: He made his professional regular season debut in the Seattle Seahawks' season-opening 33–17 loss at the San Francisco 49ers. In Week 4, Sherman made his first career solo tackle during a 13-yard punt return by wide receiver Eric Weems as the Seahawks lost 30–28 to the Atlanta Falcons. On October 30, 2011, Sherman earned his first career start after Marcus Trufant and Walter Thurmond were both placed on injured reserve for the remainder of the season. He finished the Seahawks' 34–12 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals with five combined tackles, a season-high three pass deflections, and made his first career interception. He made his first career interception off a pass by quarterback Andy Dalton, that was originally intended for wide receiver A. J. Green, in the third quarter. In Week 12, he collected a season-high seven combined tackles, a pass deflection, and intercepted a pass by Rex Grossman during a 23–17 loss to the Washington Redskins. On January 1, 2012, Sherman recorded a season-high six solo tackles, a pass deflection, and an interception in the Seahawks' 23–20 loss at the Arizona Cardinals in Week 17. Sherman intercepted a pass by Cardinals' quarterback John Skelton, that was initially intended for wide receiver Andre Roberts, and returned it for a 33-yard gain in the fourth quarter. Sherman finished his rookie season in 2011 with 55 combined tackles (47 solo), 14 pass deflections, four interceptions, and a forced fumble in 16 games and ten starts. Sherman was selected to the 2011 PFW All-Rookie Team and led all rookies with 17 pass deflections and four interceptions. Pro Football Focus gave Sherman an overall grade of 85.2, which ranked 16th among all qualifying cornerbacks in 2011.


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: Sherman entered training camp slated as the starting cornerback, but saw minor competition from Marcus Trufant. Head coach Pete Carroll named Sherman and Brandon Browner the starting cornerbacks to begin the regular season.


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: He started in the Seattle Seahawks' season-opener at the Arizona Cardinals and made four solo tackles, two pass deflections, and intercepted a pass by John Skelton in their 20–16 loss. On October 14, 2012, Sherman made three solo tackles, three pass deflections, and an interception during a 24–23 win against the New England Patriots. After the game, Sherman taunted quarterback Tom Brady and posted a photo of himself yelling at Brady with "U mad bro?" superimposed on it on his Twitter account. He later removed the post. Prior to Week 8 against Detroit, Sherman nicknamed himself Optimus Prime, an action intended to send out the message that he would shut down Detroit's wide receiver, Calvin Johnson, known by his nickname Megatron. He collected a season-high eight combined tackles and held Calvin Johnson to three catches for 46-yards as the Seahawks lost 28–24 at the Detroit Lions. On November 11, 2012, Sherman recorded three combined tackles, three pass deflections, an interception, and made his first career sack during a 28–7 win against the New York Jets. Sherman sacked quarterback Mark Sanchez and forced a fumble that was recovered by teammate Jason Jones in the fourth quarter. Sherman earned NFC Defensive Player of the Week for his game against the Jets. On November 25, 2012, it was reported that Sherman and teammate Brandon Browner were both facing four-game suspensions after


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: they were accused of taking Adderall which violated the league's policy against performance-enhancing substances. On December 9, 2012, Sherman recorded two combined tackles, deflected three passes, recovered a fumble, made two interceptions, and returned an interception for his first career touchdown during the Seahawks' 58–0 victory against the Arizona Cardinals. Sherman intercepted a pass by quarterback John Skelton, that was originally intended for wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, and returned it for a 19-yard touchdown in the second quarter. In Week 16, Sherman made five combined tackles, a season-high four pass deflections, and intercepted a pass by quarterback Colin Kaepernick during a 42–13 victory against the San Francisco 49ers. During the second quarter, Sherman recovered a blocked field goal and returned it for a 90-yard touchdown after teammate Red Bryant blocked a 21-yard field goal attempt by 49ers' kicker David Akers. On December 27, 2012, it was announced that Sherman won his appeal of a four-game suspension for violating the league's performance-enhancing drug policy. Sherman had intentions to sue the league if the suspension was upheld. He started all 16 games in 2012 and made 64 combined tackles (53 solo), a career-high 24 pass deflections, eight interceptions, a touchdown, and a sack. He received an overall grade of 94.3 from Pro Football Focus in 2012. Sherman earned First Team All-Pro honors.


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: The Seattle Seahawks finished second in the NFC West with an 11–5 record and earned a playoff berth. On January 6, 2013, Sherman started in his first career playoff game as the Seahawks defeated the Washington Redskins 24–14 in the NFC . The following week, he made three pass deflections as the Seahawks were eliminated from the playoffs following a 30–28 loss at the Atlanta Falcons in the NFC .


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: Sherman and Brandon Browner returned as the starting cornerbacks alongside safeties Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor. In Week 2, Sherman earned NFC Defensive Player of the Week for his game against San Francisco. In Week 4, Sherman made four solo tackles, two pass deflections, and returned an interception for a touchdown as the Seahawks' defeated the Houston Texans 23–20 in a comeback victory. Sherman intercepted a pass by quarterback Matt Schaub, that was intended for tight end Owen Daniels, and returned it for a 58-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter to tie the game 20–20 which sent it into overtime. He earned NFC Defensive Player of the Month for September. In Week 15, he made two combined tackles, a season-high three pass deflections, and intercepted two passes by quarterback Eli Manning in a 23–0 win at the New York Giants. He earned NFC Defensive Player of the Week for his game against the Giants. The following week, he recorded a season-high eight combined tackles, deflected two passes, and intercepted two passes by quarterback Carson Palmer during a 17–10 loss to the Arizona Cardinals in Week 16. On December 27, 2013, it was announced that Sherman was voted to the 2014 Pro Bowl, marking the first Pro Bowl selection of his career. He finished the season with 48 combined tackles (38 solo), 16 pass deflections, eight interceptions, and a touchdown in 16 games and 16 starts. He was voted to the Associated Press NFL All-Pro First Team for the second consecutive season. Sherman received an overall grade of 87.8 from Pro Football Focus in 2013.


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: The Legion of Boom allowed the fewest passing yards in the league and the Seahawks had the top ranked defense in 2013. The Seattle Seahawks finished first in the NFC West with a 13–3 record and earned a first round bye. The Seahawks reached the NFC Championship after defeating the New Orleans Saints 23–15 in the NFC . On January 19, 2014, Sherman made two combined tackles and a pass deflection as the Seahawks defeated the San Francisco 49ers 23–17 in the NFC Championship Game. He played a critical role and deflected a pass by quarterback Colin Kaepernick, that was intended for Michael Crabtree, which was caught by teammate Malcolm Smith to seal the Seahawks' 23–17 victory.


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: The play was later dubbed "the Immaculate Deflection" (as an homage to the Immaculate Reception), and would later be voted by Seahawks fans to be the most significant play in franchise history. After the play, Sherman ran over to Crabtree and offered a handshake with Crabtree responding by shoving Sherman in his facemask. Sherman proceeded to make a choke sign towards Kaepernick and was immediately penalized by the officials for unsportsmanlike conduct. The NFL went on to fine Sherman $7,875 for his taunting directed towards Kaepernick.


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: Sherman's rant was the subject of scrutiny by fans and the media, some of whom deemed him a "thug". He later blamed Crabtree's shove for fueling his post-game rant, though he also said he regretted his attack and was dismayed by the negative response from the public. In response to the word "thug" being widely used to criticize Sherman following the incident, Sherman said "The reason it bothers me is because it seems like it's an accepted way of calling somebody the N-word now."


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: On February 2, 2014, Sherman started in Super Bowl XLVIII and made three combined tackles and a pass deflection as the Seahawks defeated the Denver Broncos 43–8. He held wide receiver Eric Decker to one reception for a total of six-yards during the game.


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: On May 7, 2014, the Seattle Seahawks signed Sherman to a four-year, $56 million contract extension with $40 million guaranteed and a signing bonus of $11 million. The agreement made him the highest paid cornerback in league history. On June 6, 2014, Sherman was announced as the cover athlete for "Madden 15".


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: Defensive coordinator Dan Quinn retained Sherman as the Seahawks' No. 1 starting cornerback alongside Byron Maxwell. In Week 6, he collected a season-high eight combined tackles during a 30–23 loss to the Dallas Cowboys. On November 27, 2014, Sherman made two solo tackles, two pass deflections, and intercepted two passes by Colin Kaepernick during the Seahawks' 19–3 win at San Francisco during the Thanksgiving Day game. His performance earned him the NFC Defensive Player of Week award. Sherman started all 16 games in 2014 and made 57 combined tackles (45 solo), eight passes defensed, and four interceptions. Pro Football Focus gave Sherman an overall grade of 89.9 in 2014. He was named to the Pro Bowl and earned First Team All-Pro honors.


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: The Seattle Seahawks finished first in the NFC West with a 12–4 record and earned the No. 1 seed in the NFC. On January 10, 2015, Sherman recorded three combined tackles, two pass deflections, and intercepted Cam Newton during the Seahawks' 31–17 victory against the Carolina Panthers in the NFC . The following week, Sherman made four combined tackles, a pass deflection, and intercepted Aaron Rodgers during a 28–22 overtime victory against the Green Bay Packers in the . On February 1, 2015, Sherman started in Super Bowl XLIX and made three combined tackles as the Seahawks lost 28–24 to the New England Patriots. The following day, it was announced that Sherman would need Tommy John surgery to repair a torn ligament in his left elbow. Following the conclusion of the NFL season, the Pro Football Writers Association selected Sherman to win the PFWA Good Guy Award for his willingness to work with and provide insightful information to the media. He was the second consecutive Seahawk to win the award, as quarterback Russell Wilson was the previous recipient. Sherman was awarded NFC Defensive Player of the Year honors by the Kansas City Committee. He was ranked 11th by his fellow players on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2015.


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: The Seattle Seahawks' new defensive coordinator Kris Richard retained Sherman as the No. 1 starting cornerback on the depth chart in 2015, along with Cary Williams. Sherman was voted to the 2016 Pro Bowl, marking his third consecutive selection. He started all 16 games in 2015 and recorded 50 combined tackles (33 solo), 14 pass deflections, and two interceptions. Pro Football Focus gave Sherman an overall grade of 86.7 in 2015. The Seattle Seahawks finished second in the NFC West with a 10–6 record and earned a Wild Card berth. They reached the NFC before losing 31–24 at the Carolina Panthers. He was ranked 20th by his fellow players on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2016.


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: Head coach Pete Carroll named Sherman and Jeremy Lane the starting cornerbacks to begin the regular season. On October 2, 2016, Sherman recorded five combined tackles, deflected two passes, and intercepted two passes by Jets' quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick during a 27–17 victory at the New York Jets. In Week 8, he collected a season-high eight combined tackles during a 25–20 loss at the New Orleans Saints. On December 20, 2016, Sherman was voted to the 2017 Pro Bowl. He started all 16 games in 2016 and made 58 combined tackles (38 solo), 13 pass deflections, and four interceptions. He was also ranked 21st by his peers on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2017. Pro Football Focus gave Sherman an overall grade of 84.6, which ranked 13th among all qualifying cornerbacks in 2016.


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: After the season, it was revealed that Sherman was battling a sprained MCL in his right knee, an injury that hampered him during the second half of the year. The Seahawks were suspected to have failed to disclose this injury, which prompted the NFL to investigate. If the injury was not disclosed in time, the Seahawks could have faced a heavy fine as well as a forfeiting a second-round pick in the 2017 Draft. Ultimately, the Seahawks were not penalized.


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: Sherman was bothered in 2017 by his Achilles, which he initially injured in Week 5 during a 16–10 win against the Los Angeles Rams. In the following weeks, he tried to avoid making any severe cuts. On October 29, 2017, Sherman made four combined tackles, two pass deflections, and intercepted two passes by quarterback Deshaun Watson during a 41–38 victory against the Houston Texans. During Week 10 in a 22–16 win at the Arizona Cardinals, he left the game in the third quarter after rupturing his Achilles, and was ruled out for the season. It would be his final game as a Seahawk, as he was released the following offseason. He finished the season with 35 combined tackles (25 solo), seven pass deflections, and two interceptions in ten games and ten starts. His injury ended his streak of 106 consecutive game appearances and 100 consecutive starts. Sherman received an overall grade of 82.7 from Pro Football Focus, which ranked 33rd among all qualifying cornerbacks in 2017. Despite only playing nine games, he was ranked 64th by his peers on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2018.


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: On March 7, 2018, it was reported that Sherman did not expect to return to the Seahawks for the 2018 season, and that he had spent the previous day telling his teammates goodbye. He was officially released on March 9, 2018.


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: On March 10, 2018, just a day after being released by the Seahawks, Sherman agreed to a three-year, $39 million contract with the San Francisco 49ers.


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: Sherman made his debut with the 49ers in week 1 against the Minnesota Vikings. During the game, Sherman recorded two tackles and recovered a fumble forced by teammate Fred Warner on Dalvin Cook in the 24–16 loss.


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: In week 8 against the Arizona Cardinals, Sherman recorded a season high 7 tackles and sacked rookie quarterback Josh Rosen once during the 18–15 loss.


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: During Week 16 against the Chicago Bears, Sherman was ejected from the game after throwing punches at Bears' wide receivers Josh Bellamy and Anthony Miller, who were also ejected. The incident was triggered after 49ers' safety Marcell Harris made a late hit on Bears' quarterback Mitchell Trubisky. On December 29, Sherman was fined $10,026.


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: Sherman finished his first season with the 49ers with 37 tackles, one sack, four passes defended, and a fumble recovery in 14 games played.


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: In Week 1 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Sherman intercepted a pass thrown by Jameis Winston and returned it 37 yards for a touchdown in the 31–17 win. This was Sherman's first interception and touchdown as a member of the 49ers.


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: In week 5 against the Cleveland Browns, Sherman recorded an interception off Baker Mayfield in the 31–3 win.


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: In week 8 against the Carolina Panthers, Sherman recorded his third interception of the season off Kyle Allen in the 51–13 win. On December 17, Sherman was selected to his fifth Pro Bowl, his first with the 49ers and first since 2016 with the Seahawks.


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: In the of the playoffs against the Minnesota Vikings, Sherman intercepted a pass thrown by Kirk Cousins and returned it for 13 yards during the 27–10 win. In the against the Green Bay Packers, Sherman recorded two tackles and picked off Aaron Rodgers in the final two minutes of the game which sealed a 37–20 win and a trip to Super Bowl LIV.


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: In Super Bowl LIV against the Kansas City Chiefs, Sherman's quest for a second Lombardi Trophy failed as the 49ers were defeated 31–20 in a game in which Sherman was criticized for a poor performance during the Chiefs' game-winning drive, as he gave up a 38-yard reception to wide receiver Sammy Watkins and then missed an important goal-line tackle on running back Damien Williams, allowing him to score the touchdown that gave the Chiefs a 24–20 lead with under three minutes to play. He was ranked 28th by his fellow players on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2020. He was named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame All-2010s Team.


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: On September 16, 2020, Sherman was placed on injured reserve due to a calf strain. He was activated on November 28, 2020. In Week 12 against the Los Angeles Rams, Sherman recorded his first interception of the season off a pass thrown by Jared Goff during the 23–20 win. On February 17, 2021, Sherman was released from the 49ers.


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: On September 29, 2021, Sherman signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on a one-year deal worth $2.25 million.


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: In Week 7, against the Chicago Bears, Sherman served as the Defensive Backs Coach for the Buccaneers during the game and in practice that week due to Defensive Backs Coach Kevin Ross being ineligible due to COVID-19 protocols. During pregame warm-ups before the Week 10 game against the Washington Football Team, Sherman suffered a calf injury that resulted in him not playing and being placed on injured reserve three days later. He was activated on December 10. He was placed back on injured reserve on January 11, 2022, with an Achilles injury, ending his season. He finished the season playing in just five games with three starts, recording 11 tackles, a pass deflection, and one interception.


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: On February 5, 2015, four days after Super Bowl XLIX, Sherman's girlfriend gave birth to their first son. Moss and Sherman were engaged in June 2015. The couple welcomed their second child, daughter Avery, on April 16, 2016. Sherman and Moss were married on March 28, 2018.


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: Sherman's outspoken personality, tendency for making big plays, and his frequent trash-talk have seen him become one of the NFL's most well-known players. His trash-talking personality is what has brought him into the spotlight. In January 2014, he garnered national attention with a post-game interview made immediately after his tipped pass ensured the Seahawks a victory over the San Francisco 49ers in the 2013 NFC Championship game, in which he labeled himself the "best corner in the game" and called San Francisco wide receiver Michael Crabtree, to whom the decisive pass had been thrown, a "sorry" receiver. Sherman was featured on the cover of "Madden NFL 15". Sherman also actively writes for "The Players' Tribune".


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: Sherman has his own charity called Blanket Coverage – The Richard Sherman Family Foundation. In 2013, Sherman started his charity to help children in low-income communities by providing them with school supplies and clothing. His foundation was formed to help children across the country achieve academic success.


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: Sherman is interested in cryptocurrency and tech stocks and is also an ambassador for the trivia app FleetWit. Sherman is a co-owner of the Glacier Boyz for the Fan Controlled Football league. Their first game was on February 13, 2021.


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: On July 14, 2021, Sherman was arrested in Redmond, Washington and initially booked on suspicion of burglary domestic violence, a felony charge which was later dropped. Sherman's charges were later updated to include 5 misdemeanors: second-degree criminal trespass and malicious mischief in the third degree, both with a domestic violence designation, as well as resisting arrest, driving while under the influence, and reckless endangerment of roadway workers. Sherman required stitches on his ankle as a result of the officer's deployment of a police dog to subdue him. He was treated at a hospital prior to being taken to jail. Sherman was booked into the King County Correctional Facility in Seattle just after 6am on July 14, 2021. Sherman was denied bail on the day of his arrest. On July 15, 2021, the King County judge ordered Sherman released on his own recognizance. The NFL reportedly activated its emergency Domestic Violence protocols and opened an investigation into the matter to determine appropriate discipline for Sherman on July 14, 2021.


title: Richard Sherman (American football)

text: In a March 2022 plea bargain, Sherman pleaded guilty to first-degree negligent driving, second-degree criminal trespass, and speeding in a roadway construction zone. Sherman was placed under court supervision for up to two years and ordered to pay $2,500 in court fees, but serve no additional jail time. He was also ordered to pay restitution to his father-in-law, with the amount to be determined at a later date, and to the Department of Transportation. In addition, Sherman was ordered to undergo 16 hours of community service along with a DUI course.


title: Ramy (TV series)

text: Ramy is an American comedy-drama streaming television series that premiered on April 19, 2019, on Hulu. In May 2019, Hulu renewed the series for a second season, which premiered on May 29, 2020. The series stars Ramy Youssef as the titular character. In July 2020, Hulu renewed the series for a third season, which premiered on September 30, 2022.


title: Ramy (TV series)

text: The series has been praised for its portrayal of American Muslims when most Western pop culture depictions are "usually as the bad guys". In January 2020, Youssef was awarded the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Television Series Musical or Comedy for his role in "Ramy". Additionally, Youssef was nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, and in 2020 he also received the Peabody Award.


title: Ramy (TV series)

text: "Ramy" follows "a first-generation American Muslim who is on a spiritual journey in his politically divided New Jersey neighborhood. It explores the challenges of what it is like being caught between an Egyptian community that thinks life is a moral test, and a generation that thinks life has no consequences."


title: Ramy (TV series)

text: On October 4, 2017, it was announced that Hulu had given the production a pilot presentation order. The series was created by Ramy Youssef, Ari Katcher and Ryan Welch, and Youssef and Welch both wrote episodes for the series. Executive producers include Katcher, Welch, and Jerrod Carmichael. Production companies involved with the series include A24.


title: Ramy (TV series)

text: On April 18, 2018, it was announced that Hulu had given the production a series order for a first season. On February 11, 2019, it was announced that the series would premiere on April 19, 2019. On May 1, 2019, it was reported that Hulu renewed the series for a second season, which premiered on May 29, 2020. On July 9, 2020, Hulu renewed the series for a third season, which premiered on September 30, 2022.


title: Ramy (TV series)

text: Alongside the series order announcement, it was confirmed that Ramy Youssef would star in the series. On October 19, 2018, it was announced that May Calamawy had been cast in a series regular role. In July 2019, it was announced Mahershala Ali would guest star in the second season. In November 2019, it was announced Laith Nakli had been upped to a series regular.


title: Ramy (TV series)

text: On March 31, 2022, it was announced that Bella Hadid will have a recurring guest role in the third season. It will also be her acting debut in the show.


title: Ramy (TV series)

text: In Europe, the series is available to stream on StarzPlay. In the United Kingdom, the series premiered in March 2021 on Channel 4. In Latin America, the series premiered in August 2020 on FX.


title: Ramy (TV series)

text: In India, the series is available on Amazon Prime. In South Africa, the series is available to stream on Showmax.


title: Ramy (TV series)

text: The series held its world premiere during the 2019 South by Southwest film festival in Austin, Texas, as a part of the festival's "Episodic Premieres" series of screenings. It won the Episodic Audience Award for the festival.


title: Ramy (TV series)

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the first season holds an approval rating of 98% based on 42 reviews, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "An insightful and hilarious glimpse into the life of a Muslim American family, "Ramy" perfectly articulates the precarious nature and nuances of identity and announces Ramy Youssef as a talent to watch." On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 87 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".


title: Ramy (TV series)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the second season holds an approval rating of 95% based on 43 reviews, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The website's critical consensus reads, ""Ramy"'s layered approach yields rich rewards in a poignant second season that digs deeper without losing faith in the power of levity.""" On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 82 out of 100, based on 12 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".


title: Ramy (TV series)

text: For its first season, Ramy Youssef was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy. He won the award


title: Kristy Swanson

text: Kristen Noel Swanson (born December 19, 1969) is an American actress. She is best recognized for having played Buffy Summers in the 1992 film "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and appeared in the 1996 film "The Phantom".


title: Kristy Swanson

text: Her first starring role was in Wes Craven's horror film "Deadly Friend" (1986), followed by her portrayal of Catherine "Cathy" Dollanganger in the film adaptation of V. C. Andrews's "Flowers in the Attic" (1987). Swanson also starred in several films, including "Hot Shots!" (1991), "The Program" (1993), "The Chase" (1994), "8 Heads in a Duffel Bag" (1997), "Big Daddy" (1999), and "Dude, Where's My Car?" (2000), and appeared in "Pretty in Pink" (1986) and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" (1986).


title: Kristy Swanson

text: Swanson was raised in Mission Viejo, California. At the age of nine, she expressed interest in acting to her parents, and began pursuing roles in television commercials. She landed her first job appearing in a doll house commercial, which was followed with several more commercial appearances.


title: Kristy Swanson

text: Swanson began her acting career at The Actors Workshop with R. J. Adams and promptly moved into TV advertising roles and several one-off appearances in TV series such as "Cagney and Lacey" and "Alfred Hitchcock Presents". In 1986, she debuted on the big screen in two John Hughes films: "Pretty In Pink", in a non-speaking role, and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" as a character who announces a convoluted excuse for Ferris's absence in class. Her first starring role was later in 1986, in Wes Craven's "Deadly Friend" as Samantha"the girl next door." The next year she played Cathy in the adaptation of V. C. Andrews' best-seller, "Flowers in the Attic".


title: Kristy Swanson

text: Swanson described how she was cast in "Pretty in Pink": "[Writer] John Hughes said, 'We're re-shooting the end of "Pretty in Pink". I was wondering if you would come be in this scene with our main character, Ducky, because the way we tested it in the movie theater, it didn't work. We need him to end up with somebody else at the end of the movie. So would you play the part?'"


title: Kristy Swanson

text: By 1990, Swanson had made many television appearances, including multiple appearances in "Knots Landing" (1987–1988), "Nightingales" (1989), her first starring role in a television series, although it only lasted a season, and a short-lived Burt Reynolds television series called "B.L. Stryker" (1989).


title: Kristy Swanson

text: Throughout the 1990s, she starred mostly in films. She played the title role in the 1992 film "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". Although not a hit at the box office originally, it had a profitable rental life. She appeared in both starring and supporting roles in films such as "Hot Shots!", "The Program", "The Chase", or her most critically acclaimed role, playing Kristen Connor, a student discovering her sexuality, in John Singleton's "Higher Learning". She also appeared in the film adaptation of the comic-book "The Phantom" and the dark comedy "8 Heads in a Duffel Bag" with Joe Pesci. Most of these films failed at the box office and she reverted to television work, in the late 1990s.


title: Kristy Swanson

text: In the 1998–99 season of "Early Edition", Swanson played Erica Paget, a love interest of the main character, Gary Hobson. In 1999, Swanson played Vanessa, the ex-girlfriend of Adam Sandler in the film "Big Daddy". In 2000, she returned to a television series, as the star of "Grapevine", a revamp of a 1992 TV series that was canceled after five episodes. The same year, she starred in the successful film "Dude, Where's My Car?", alongside Ashton Kutcher, Seann William Scott and Jennifer Garner.


title: Kristy Swanson

text: Swanson posed nude for "Playboy" magazine in November 2002 in a cover-featured pictorial. She appeared in and won in the 2006 Fox television program "Skating with Celebrities", partnered with Lloyd Eisler.


title: Kristy Swanson

text: In 2007, she became a spokesperson of the Medifast diet. In the following year, she guest-starred in three episodes of the lesbian web series "3Way". The same year she appeared in "" (TV Series), "Bombshell" episode as Lorelai Mailer.


title: Kristy Swanson

text: In 2021, a release date of June 15 was announced for Swanson's recent feature and a Jennifer Nichole Lee and Paul Schneider collaboration, "Just Another Dream". She co-starred alongside long-time friend Dean Cain.


title: Kristy Swanson

text: Swanson married her "Skating with Celebrities" partner Lloyd Eisler in 2009. They have a son, and two children from his previous marriage.


title: Kristy Swanson

text: Swanson is a Republican. Swanson reported that she and fellow actor Dean Cain received death threats for taking part in "Obamagate", a stage play that focused on Donald Trump.


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: Helene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl (; 22 August 1902 – 8 September 2003) was a German film director, photographer and actress known for her role in producing Nazi propaganda.


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: A talented swimmer and an artist, Riefenstahl also became interested in dancing during her childhood, taking lessons and performing across Europe. After seeing a promotional poster for the 1924 film "Mountain of Destiny", she was inspired to move into acting and between 1925 and 1929 starred in five successful motion pictures. Riefenstahl became one of the few women in Germany to direct a film during the Weimar Period when, in 1932, she decided to try directing with her own film, "Das Blaue Licht" ("The Blue Light").


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: In the 1930s, she directed the Nazi propaganda films "Triumph des Willens" ("Triumph of the Will") and "Olympia", resulting in worldwide attention and acclaim. The films are widely considered two of the most effective and technically innovative propaganda films ever made. Her involvement in "Triumph des Willens", however, significantly damaged her career and reputation after World War II. Adolf Hitler was in close collaboration with Riefenstahl during the production of at least three important Nazi films, and they formed a friendly relationship.


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: After the war, Riefenstahl was arrested and found to be a Nazi "fellow traveller" but was not charged with war crimes. Throughout her later life, she denied having known about the Holocaust, and was criticized as the "voice of the 'how could we have known?' defense." Riefenstahl's postwar work included an autobiography and two photography books on the Nuba people.


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: Helene Bertha Amalie Riefenstahl was born in Berlin on 22 August 1902. Her father, Alfred Theodor Paul Riefenstahl, owned a successful heating and ventilation company and wanted his daughter to follow him into the business world. Since Riefenstahl was the only child for several years, Alfred wanted her to carry on the family name and secure the family fortune. However, her mother, Bertha Ida (Scherlach), who had been a part-time seamstress before her marriage, had faith in Riefenstahl and believed that her daughter's future was in show business. Riefenstahl had a younger brother, Heinz, who was killed at the age of 39 on the Eastern Front in Nazi Germany's war against the Soviet Union.


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: Riefenstahl fell in love with the arts in her childhood. She began to paint and write poetry at the age of four. She was also athletic, and at the age of twelve joined a gymnastics and swimming club. Her mother was confident her daughter would grow up to be successful in the field of art and therefore gave her full support, unlike Riefenstahl's father, who was not interested in his daughter's artistic inclinations. In 1918, when she was 16, Riefenstahl attended a presentation of Snow White which interested her deeply; it led her to want to be a dancer. Her father instead wanted to provide his daughter with an education that could lead to a more dignified occupation. His wife, however, continued to support her daughter's passion. Without her husband's knowledge, she enrolled Riefenstahl in dance and ballet classes at the Grimm-Reiter Dance School in Berlin, where she quickly became a star pupil.


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: Riefenstahl attended dancing academies and became well known for her self-styled interpretive dancing skills, traveling across Europe with Max Reinhardt in a show funded by Jewish producer Harry Sokal. Riefenstahl often made almost for each performance and was so dedicated to dancing that she gave filmmaking no thought. She began to suffer a series of foot injuries that led to knee surgery that threatened her dancing career. It was while going to a doctor's appointment that she first saw a poster for the 1924 film "Mountain of Destiny". She became inspired to go into movie making, and began visiting the cinema to see films and also attended film shows.


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: On one of her adventures, Riefenstahl met Luis Trenker, an actor who had appeared in "Mountain of Destiny". At a meeting arranged by her friend Gunther Rahn, she met Arnold Fanck, the director of "Mountain of Destiny" and a pioneer of the mountain film genre. Fanck was working on a film in Berlin. After Riefenstahl told him how much she admired his work, she also convinced him of her acting skill. She persuaded him to feature her in one of his films. Riefenstahl later received a package from Fanck containing the script of the 1926 film "The Holy Mountain". She made a series of films for Fanck, where she learned from him acting and film editing techniques. One of Fanck's films that brought Riefenstahl into the limelight was "The White Hell of Pitz Palu" of 1929, co-directed by G. W. Pabst. Her fame spread to countries outside Germany.


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: Riefenstahl produced and directed her own work called "Das Blaue Licht" ("The Blue Light") in 1932, co-written by Carl Mayer and Béla Balázs. This film won the silver medal at the Venice Film Festival, but was not universally well-received, for which Riefenstahl blamed the critics, many of whom were Jewish. Upon its 1938 re-release, the names of Balázs and Sokal, both Jewish, were removed from the credits; some reports say this was at Riefenstahl's behest. In the film, Riefenstahl played an innocent peasant girl who is hated by the villagers because they think she is diabolic and cast out. She is protected by a glowing mountain grotto. According to herself, Riefenstahl received invitations to travel to Hollywood to create films, but she refused them in favour of remaining in Germany with a boyfriend. Hitler was a fan of the film, and thought Riefenstahl epitomized the perfect German female. He saw talent in Riefenstahl and arranged a meeting.


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: In 1933, Riefenstahl appeared in the U.S.-German co-productions of the Arnold Fanck-directed, German-language "SOS Eisberg" and the Tay Garnett-directed, English-language "S.O.S. Iceberg". The films were filmed simultaneously in English and German and produced and distributed by Universal Studios. Her role as an actress in "S.O.S. Iceberg" was her only English language role in film.


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: Riefenstahl heard Nazi Party (NSDAP) leader Adolf Hitler speak at a rally in 1932 and was mesmerized by his talent as a public speaker. Describing the experience in her memoir, Riefenstahl wrote, "I had an almost apocalyptic vision that I was never able to forget. It seemed as if the Earth's surface were spreading out in front of me, like a hemisphere that suddenly splits apart in the middle, spewing out an enormous jet of water, so powerful that it touched the sky and shook the earth".


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: Hitler was immediately captivated by Riefenstahl's work. She is described as fitting in with Hitler's ideal of Aryan womanhood, a feature he had noted when he saw her starring performance in "Das Blaue Licht". After meeting Hitler, Riefenstahl was offered the opportunity to direct "Der Sieg des Glaubens" ("The Victory of Faith"), an hour-long propaganda film about the fifth Nuremberg Rally in 1933. The opportunity that was offered was a huge surprise to Riefenstahl. Hitler had ordered Goebbels' Propaganda Ministry to give the film commission to Riefenstahl, but the Ministry had never informed her. Riefenstahl agreed to direct the movie even though she was only given a few days before the rally to prepare. She and Hitler got on well, forming a friendly relationship. The propaganda film was funded entirely by the NSDAP.


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: During the filming of "Victory of Faith", Hitler had stood side by side with the leader of the Sturmabteilung (SA), Ernst Röhm, a man with whom he clearly had a close working relationship. Röhm was murdered on Hitler's orders a short time later, during the purge of the SA referred to as the Night of the Long Knives. It has gone on record that, immediately following the killings, Hitler ordered all copies of the film to be destroyed, although Riefenstahl disputes that this ever happened.


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: Still impressed with Riefenstahl's work, Hitler asked her to film "Triumph des Willens" ("Triumph of the Will"), a new propaganda film about the 1934 party rally in Nuremberg. More than one million Germans participated in the rally. The film is sometimes considered the greatest propaganda film ever made. Initially, according to Riefenstahl, she resisted and did not want to create further Nazi Party films, instead wanting to direct a feature film based on Eugen d'Albert's "Tiefland" ("Lowlands"), an opera that was extremely popular in Berlin in the 1920s. Riefenstahl received private funding for the production of "Tiefland", but the filming in Spain was derailed and the project was cancelled. (When "Tiefland" was eventually shot, between 1940 and 1944, it was done in black and white, and was the third most expensive film produced in Nazi Germany. During the filming of "Tiefland," Riefenstahl utilized Romani from internment camps for extras, who were severely mistreated on set, and when the filming completed they were sent to the death camp Auschwitz.) Hitler was able to convince her to film "Triumph des Willens" on the condition that she would not be required to make further films for the party, according to Riefenstahl. The motion picture was generally recognized as an epic, innovative work of propaganda filmmaking. The film took Riefenstahl's career to a new level and gave her further international recognition.


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: In interviews for the 1993 documentary "The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl", Riefenstahl adamantly denied any deliberate attempt to create Nazi propaganda and said she was disgusted that "Triumph des Willens" was used in such a way.


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: Despite allegedly vowing not to make any more films about the Nazi Party, Riefenstahl made the 28-minute "" ("Day of Freedom: Our Armed Forces") about the German Army in 1935. Like "Der Sieg des Glaubens" and "Triumph des Willens", this was filmed at the annual Nazi Party rally at Nuremberg. Riefenstahl said this film was a sub-set of "Der Sieg des Glaubens", added to mollify the German Army which felt it was not represented well in "Triumph des Willens".


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: Hitler invited Riefenstahl to film the 1936 Summer Olympics scheduled to be held in Berlin, a film which Riefenstahl said had been commissioned by the International Olympic Committee. She visited Greece to take footage of the route of the inaugural torch relay and the games' original site at Olympia, where she was aided by Greek photographer Nelly's. This material became "Olympia", a hugely successful film which has since been widely noted for its technical and aesthetic achievements. "Olympia" was secretly funded by the Nazis. She was one of the first filmmakers to use tracking shots in a documentary, placing a camera on rails to follow the athletes' movement. The film is also noted for its slow motion shots. Riefenstahl played with the idea of slow motion, underwater diving shots, extremely high and low shooting angles, panoramic aerial shots, and tracking system shots for allowing fast action. Many of these shots were relatively unheard of at the time, but Riefenstahl's use and augmentation of them set a standard, and is the reason they are still used to this day. Riefenstahl's work on "Olympia" has been cited as a major influence in modern sports photography. Riefenstahl filmed competitors of all races, including African-American Jesse Owens in what later became famous footage.


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: "Olympia" premiered for Hitler's 49th birthday in 1938. Its international debut led Riefenstahl to embark on an American publicity tour in an attempt to secure commercial release. In February 1937, Riefenstahl enthusiastically told a reporter for the "Detroit News", "To me, Hitler is the greatest man who ever lived. He truly is without fault, so simple and at the same time possessed of masculine strength". She arrived in New York City on 4 November 1938, five days before "Kristallnacht" (the "Night of the Broken Glass"). When news of the event reached the United States, Riefenstahl publicly defended Hitler. On 18 November, she was received by Henry Ford in Detroit. "Olympia" was shown at the Chicago Engineers Club two days later. Avery Brundage, President of the International Olympic Committee, praised the film and held Riefenstahl in the highest regard. She negotiated with Louis B. Mayer, and on 8 December, Walt Disney brought her on a three-hour tour showing her the ongoing production of "Fantasia".


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: From the "Goebbels Diaries", researchers learned that Riefenstahl had been friendly with Joseph Goebbels and his wife Magda, attending the opera with them and going to his parties. Riefenstahl maintained that Goebbels was upset when she rejected his advances and was jealous of her influence on Hitler, seeing her as an internal threat. She therefore insisted his diary entries could not be trusted. By later accounts, Goebbels thought highly of Riefenstahl's filmmaking but was angered with what he saw as her overspending on the Nazi-provided filmmaking budgets.


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: In "Triumph of the Will", Tom Saunders argues that Hitler serves as the object of the camera's gaze. Saunders writes, "Without denying that "rampant masculinity" (the "sexiness" of Hitler and the SS) serves as the object of the gaze, I would suggest that desire is also directed toward the feminine. This occurs not in the familiar sequences of adoring women greeting Hitler's arrival and cavalcade through Nuremberg. In these Hitler clearly remains the focus of attraction, as more generally in the visual treatment of his mass following. Rather, it is encoded in representation of flags and banners, which were shot in such a way as to make them visually desirable as well as potent political symbols". The flag serves as a symbol of masculinity, equated with national pride and dominance, that supposedly channels men's sexual and masculine energy. Riefenstahl's cinematic framing of the flags encapsulated its iconography. Saunders continues, "The effect is a significant double transformation: the images mechanize human beings and breathe life into flags. Even when the carriers are not mostly submerged under the sea of colored cloth, and when facial features are visible in profile, they attain neither character nor distinctiveness. The men remain ants in a vast enterprise. By contrast and paradoxically, the flags, whether a few or hundreds peopling the frame, assume distinct identities".


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: Riefenstahl distorts the diegetic sound in "Triumph of the Will". Her distortion of sound suggests she was influenced by German art cinema. Influenced by Classical Hollywood cinema's style, German art film employed music to enhance the narrative, establish a sense of grandeur, and to heighten the emotions in a scene. In "Triumph of the Will", Riefenstahl used traditional folk music to accompany and intensify her shots. Ben Morgan comments on Riefenstahl's distortion of sound: "In "Triumph of the Will", the material world leaves no aural impression beyond the music. Where the film does combine diegetic noise with the music, the effects used are human (laughter or cheering) and offer a rhythmic extension to the music rather than a contrast to it. By replacing diegetic sound, Riefenstahl's film employs music to combine the documentary with the fantastic."


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: When Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, Riefenstahl was photographed in Poland wearing a military uniform and a pistol on her belt in the company of German soldiers; she had gone to Poland as a war correspondent. On 12 September, she was in the town of Końskie when 30 civilians were executed in retaliation for an alleged attack on German soldiers. According to her memoir, Riefenstahl tried to intervene but a furious German soldier held her at gunpoint and threatened to shoot her on the spot. She said she did not realize the victims were Jews. Photographs of a potentially distraught Riefenstahl survive from that day. Nevertheless, by 5 October 1939, Riefenstahl was back in occupied Poland filming Hitler's victory parade in Warsaw. Afterwards, she left Poland and chose not to make any more Nazi-related films.


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: On 14 June 1940, the day Paris was declared an open city by the French and occupied by German troops, Riefenstahl wrote to Hitler in a telegram, "With indescribable joy, deeply moved and filled with burning gratitude, we share with you, my Führer, your and Germany's greatest victory, the entry of German troops into Paris. You exceed anything human imagination has the power to conceive, achieving deeds without parallel in the history of mankind. How can we ever thank you?" She later explained, "Everyone thought the war was over, and in that spirit I sent the cable to Hitler". Riefenstahl was friends with Hitler for 12 years. However, her relationship with Hitler severely declined in 1944 after her brother died on the Russian Front.


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: After the Nuremberg rallies trilogy and "Olympia", Riefenstahl began work on the movie she had tried and failed to direct once before, namely "Tiefland". On Hitler's direct order, the German government paid her in compensation. From 23 September until 13 November 1940, she filmed in Krün near Mittenwald. The extras playing Spanish women and farmers were drawn from Romani detained in a camp at Salzburg-Maxglan who were forced to work with her. Filming at the Babelsberg Studios near Berlin began 18 months later in April 1942. This time Sinti and Roma people from the Marzahn detention camp near Berlin were compelled to work as extras. Almost to the end of her life, despite overwhelming evidence that the concentration camp occupants had been forced to work on the movie were later sent to the Auschwitz death camp, Riefenstahl continued to maintain that all the film extras survived. Riefenstahl sued filmmaker Nina Gladitz, who said Riefenstahl personally chose the extras at their holding camp; Gladitz had found one of the Romani survivors and matched his memory with stills of the movie for a documentary Gladitz was filming. The German court ruled largely in favour of Gladitz, declaring that Riefenstahl had known the extras were from a concentration camp, but they also agreed that Riefenstahl had not been informed the Romani would be sent to Auschwitz after filming was completed.


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: This issue came up again in 2002, when Riefenstahl was 100 years old and she was taken to court by a Roma group for denying the Nazis had exterminated Romani. Riefenstahl apologized and said, "I regret that Sinti and Roma [people] had to suffer during the period of National Socialism. It is known today that many of them were murdered in concentration camps".


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: In October 1944 the production of "Tiefland" moved to Barrandov Studios in Prague for interior filming. Lavish sets made these shots some of the most costly of the film. The film was not edited and released until almost ten years later.


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: The last time Riefenstahl saw Hitler was when she married Peter Jacob on 21 March 1944. Riefenstahl and Jacob divorced in 1946. As Germany's military situation became impossible by early 1945, Riefenstahl left Berlin and was hitchhiking with a group of men, trying to reach her mother, when she was taken into custody by American troops. She walked out of a holding camp, beginning a series of escapes and arrests across the chaotic landscape. At last making it back home on a bicycle, she found that American troops had seized her house. She was surprised by how kindly they treated her.


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: Most of Riefenstahl's unfinished projects were lost towards the end of the war. The French government confiscated all of her editing equipment, along with the production reels of "Tiefland". After years of legal wrangling, these were returned to her, but the French government had reportedly damaged some of the film stock whilst trying to develop and edit it, with a few key scenes being missing (although Riefenstahl was surprised to find the original negatives for "Olympia" in the same shipment). During the filming of "Olympia", Riefenstahl was funded by the state to create her own production company in her own name, Riefenstahl-Film GmbH, which was uninvolved with her most influential works. She edited and dubbed the remaining material and "Tiefland" premiered on 11 February 1954 in Stuttgart. However, it was denied entry into the Cannes Film Festival. Although Riefenstahl lived for almost another half century, "Tiefland" was her last feature film.


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: Riefenstahl tried many times to make more films during the 1950s and 1960s, but was met with resistance, public protests and sharp criticism. Many of her filmmaking peers in Hollywood had fled Nazi Germany and were unsympathetic to her. Although both film professionals and investors were willing to support her work, most of the projects she attempted were stopped owing to ever-renewed and highly negative publicity about her past work in Nazi Germany.


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: In 1954, Jean Cocteau, who greatly admired the film, insisted on "Tiefland" being shown at the Cannes Film Festival, which he was running that year. In 1960, Riefenstahl attempted to prevent filmmaker Erwin Leiser from juxtaposing scenes from "Triumph des Willens" with footage from concentration camps in his film "Mein Kampf". Riefenstahl had high hopes for a collaboration with Cocteau called "Friedrich und Voltaire" ("Friedrich and Voltaire"), wherein Cocteau was to play two roles. They thought the film might symbolize the love-hate relationship between Germany and France. Cocteau's illness and 1963 death put an end to the project. A musical remake of "Das Blaue Licht" ("The Blue Light") with an English production company also fell apart.


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: In the 1960s, Riefenstahl became interested in Africa from Ernest Hemingway's "Green Hills of Africa" and from the photographs of George Rodger. She visited Kenya for the first time in 1956 and later Sudan, where she photographed Nuba tribes with whom she sporadically lived, learning about their culture so she could photograph them more easily. Even though her film project about modern slavery entitled "Die Schwarze Fracht" ("The Black Cargo") was never completed, Riefenstahl was able to sell the stills from the expedition to magazines in various parts of the world. While scouting shooting locations, she almost died from injuries received in a truck accident. After waking up from a coma in a Nairobi hospital, she finished writing the script, but was soon thoroughly thwarted by uncooperative locals, the Suez Canal crisis and bad weather. In the end, the film project was called off. Even so, Riefenstahl was granted Sudanese citizenship for her services to the country, becoming the first foreigner to receive a Sudanese passport.


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: Novelist and sports writer Budd Schulberg, assigned by the U.S. Navy to the OSS for intelligence work while attached to John Ford's documentary unit, was ordered to arrest Riefenstahl at her chalet in Kitzbühel, ostensibly to have her identify Nazi war criminals in German film footage captured by the Allied troops shortly after the war. Riefenstahl said she was not aware of the nature of the internment camps. According to Schulberg, "She gave me the usual song and dance. She said, 'Of course, you know, I'm really so misunderstood. I'm not political'".


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: Riefenstahl said she was fascinated by the Nazis, but also politically naive, remaining ignorant about war crimes. Throughout 1945 to 1948, she was held by various Allied-controlled prison camps across Germany. She was also under house arrest for a period of time. She was tried four times by postwar authorities for denazification and eventually found to be a "fellow traveller" ("Mitläufer") who sympathised with the Nazis. While never an official member of the Nazi party, she was always seen in association due to the propaganda films she made in Nazi Germany. Over the years, she filed and won over fifty libel cases against people who had accused her of complicity with Nazi crimes.


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: Riefenstahl said that her biggest regret in life was meeting Hitler, declaring, "It was the biggest catastrophe of my life. Until the day I die people will keep saying, 'Leni is a Nazi', and I'll keep saying, 'But what did she do?'" Even though she went on to win up to fifty libel cases, details about her relation to the Nazi party generally remain unclear.


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: Shortly before she died, Riefenstahl voiced her final words on the subject of her connection to Hitler in a BBC interview: "I was one of millions who thought Hitler had all the answers. We saw only the good things; we didn't know bad things were to come."


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: Riefenstahl began a lifelong companionship with her cameraman Horst Kettner, who was 40 years her junior and assisted her with the photographs; they were together from the time she was 60 and he was 20.


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: Riefenstahl traveled to Africa, inspired by the works of George Rodger that celebrated the ceremonial wrestling matches of the Nuba. Riefenstahl's books with photographs of the Nuba tribes were published in 1974 and republished in 1976 as "Die Nuba" (translated as "The Last of the Nuba") and "Die Nuba von Kau" ("The Nuba People of Kau"). They were harshly criticized by American writer and philosopher Susan Sontag, who wrote in "The New York Review of Books" that they were evidence of Riefenstahl's continued adherence to "fascist aesthetics". In this review, which art critic Hilton Kramer described as "one of the most important inquiries into the relation of esthetics to ideology we have had in many years", Sontag argued that:Although the Nuba are black, not Aryan, Riefenstahl's portrait of them is consistent with some of the larger themes of Nazi ideology: the contrast between the clean and the impure, the incorruptible and the defiled, the physical and the mental, the joyful and the critical. [...] What is distinctive about the fascist version of the old idea of the Noble Savage is its contempt for all that is reflective, critical, and pluralistic. [...] In celebrating a society where the exhibition of physical skill and courage and the victory of the stronger man over the weaker have, at least as she sees it, become the unifying symbol of the communal culture—where success in fighting is the "main aspiration of a man's life"—Riefenstahl seems only to have modified the ideas of her Nazi films.In December 1974, American writer and photographer Eudora Welty reviewed "Die Nuba" positively for the "New York Times", giving an impressionistic account of the aesthetics of Riefenstahl's book:She uses the light purposefully: the full, blinding brightness to make us see the ail‐absorbing blackness of the skin; the ray of light slanting down from the single hole, high in the wall, that is the doorway of the circular house, which tells us how secret and safe it has been made; the first dawn light streaking the face of a calf in the sleeping camp where the young men go to live, which suggests their world apart. All the pictures bring us the physical beauty of the people: a young girl, shy and mischievous of face, with a bead sewn into her lower lip like a permanent cinnamon drop; a wrestler prepared for his match, with his shaven head turned to look over the massive shoulder, all skin color taken away by a coating of ashes.Art Director's Club of Germany awarded Riefenstahl a gold medal for the best photographic achievement of 1975. She also sold some of the pictures to German magazines.


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: Riefenstahl photographed the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, and rock star Mick Jagger along with his wife Bianca for "The Sunday Times". Years later, Riefenstahl photographed Las Vegas entertainers Siegfried & Roy. She was guest of honour at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: In 1978, Riefenstahl published a book of her sub-aquatic photographs called "Korallengärten" ("Coral Gardens"), followed by the 1990 book "Wunder unter Wasser" ("Wonder under Water"). On 22 August 2002, her 100th birthday, she released the film "Impressionen unter Wasser" ("Underwater Impressions"), an idealized documentary of life in the oceans and her first film in over 25 years. Riefenstahl was a member of Greenpeace for eight years. When filming "Impressionen unter Wasser", Riefenstahl lied about her age in order to be certified for scuba diving.


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: Riefenstahl survived a helicopter crash in Sudan in 2000 while trying to learn the fates of her Nuba friends during the Second Sudanese Civil War, and was airlifted to a Munich hospital, where she received treatment for two broken ribs.


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: Riefenstahl celebrated her 101st birthday on 22 August 2003 at a hotel in Feldafing, on Lake Starnberg, Bavaria, near her home. The day after her birthday celebration, she became ill.


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: Riefenstahl had been suffering from cancer for some time, and her health rapidly deteriorated during the last weeks of her life. Kettner said in an interview in 2002, "Ms. Riefenstahl is in great pain and she has become very weak and is taking painkillers". Riefenstahl died in her sleep at around 10:00 pm on 8 September 2003 at her home in Pöcking, Germany. After her death, there was a varied response in the obituary pages of leading publications, although most recognized her technical breakthroughs in filmmaking.


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: Gisela Jahn, Leni Riefenstahl's former secretary and sole heir, donated the estate bequeathed to her to the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. Items included photographs, films, manuscripts, letters, files, and documents dating back to the 1920s.


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: According to Taylor Downing, Riefenstahl's Nazi-era work "made it acceptable, even desirable, for millions of Germans to go along with Hitler. And in promoting the Nazi leadership, there is a direct line from her infamous Nazi party films to Auschwitz and Belsen." Similarly, Abraham Cooper argues that Riefenstahl's work was essential to the carrying out of the mission of the Holocaust and describes her as an "unindicted co-conspirator."


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: Film scholar Mark Cousins notes in his book "The Story of Film" that, "Next to Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock, Leni Riefenstahl was the most technically talented Western film maker of her era".


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: When traveling to Hollywood to showcase her film "Olympia" shortly after the coordinated attack of German Jews known as "Kristallnacht", Riefenstahl was criticized by the Anti-Nazi League and others.


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: Reviewer Gary Morris called Riefenstahl, "An artist of unparalleled gifts, a woman in an industry dominated by men, one of the great formalists of the cinema on a par with Eisenstein or Welles".


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: Film critic Hal Erickson of "The New York Times" states that the "Jewish Question" is mainly unmentioned in "Triumph des Willens"; "filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl prefers to concentrate on cheering crowds, precision marching, military bands, and Hitler's climactic speech, all orchestrated, choreographed and illuminated on a scale that makes Griffith and DeMille look like poverty-row directors".


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: Charles Moore of "The Daily Telegraph" wrote, "She was perhaps the most talented female cinema director of the 20th century; her celebration of Nazi Germany in film ensured that she was certainly the most infamous".


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: Film journalist Sandra Smith from "The Independent" remarked, "Opinions will be divided between those who see her as a young, talented and ambitious woman caught up in the tide of events which she did not fully understand, and those who believe her to be a cold and opportunist propagandist and a Nazi by association."


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: Critic Judith Thurman said in "The New Yorker" that, "Riefenstahl's genius has rarely been questioned, even by critics who despise the service to which she lent it. Riefenstahl was a consummate stylist obsessed with bodies in motion, particularly those of dancers and athletes. Riefenstahl relies heavily for her transitions on portentous cutaways to clouds, mist, statuary, foliage, and rooftops. Her reaction shots have a tedious sameness: shining, ecstatic faces—nearly all young and Aryan, except for Hitler's".


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: Pauline Kael, also a film reviewer employed for "The New Yorker", called "Triumph des Willens" and "Olympia", "the two greatest films ever directed by a woman".


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: Writer Richard Corliss wrote in "Time" that he was "impressed by Riefenstahl's standing as a total auteur: producer, writer, director, editor and, in the fiction films, actress. The issues her films and her career raise are as complex and they are important, and her vilifiers tend to reduce the argument to one of a director's complicity in atrocity or her criminal ignorance".


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: In 2002, Steven Bach wrote that "Riefenstahl disturbs because she remains the adamant, fierce, glib voice of the 'how could we have known?' defense, an argument fewer and fewer Germans, and almost none of the current generation, still feel comfortable making."


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: In 1993, Riefenstahl was the subject of the award-winning German documentary film "The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl", directed by Ray Müller. Riefenstahl appeared in the film and answered several questions and detailed the production of her films. The biofilm was nominated for seven Emmy Awards, winning in one category. Riefenstahl, who for some time had been working on her memoirs, decided to cooperate in the production of this documentary to tell her life story about the struggles she had gone through in her personal life, her film-making career and what people thought of her. She was also the subject of Müller's 2000 documentary film "", about her return to Sudan to visit the Nuba people.


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: In 2000, Jodie Foster was planning a biographical drama on Riefenstahl, then seen as the last surviving member of Hitler's "inner circle", causing protests, with the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's dean Marvin Hier warning against a revisionist view that glorified the director, observing that Riefenstahl had seemed "quite infatuated" with Hitler. In 2007, British screenwriter Rupert Walters was reported to be writing a script for the movie. The project did not receive Riefenstahl's approval prior to her death, as Riefenstahl asked for a veto on any scenes to which she did not agree. Riefenstahl reportedly wanted Sharon Stone to play her rather than Foster.


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: In 2011, director Steven Soderbergh revealed that he had also been working on a biopic of Riefenstahl for about six months. He eventually abandoned the project over concerns of its commercial prospects.


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: Riefenstahl was portrayed by Zdena Studenková in "Leni", a 2014 Slovak drama play about her fictional participation in "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson". She was portrayed by Dutch actress Carice van Houten in "Race", a sports drama film directed by Stephen Hopkins about Jesse Owens. It was released in North America on 19 February 2016.


title: Leni Riefenstahl

text: In the 2016 short film "Leni. Leni.", based on the play by Tom McNab and directed by Adrian Vitoria, Hildegard Neil portrays Riefenstahl. In 2021, she was the subject of Nigel Farndale's novel "The Dictator's Muse".


title: Stoke City F.C.

text: Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1868, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Stoke-on-Trent was granted city status. Stoke's home ground is the 30,089 capacity bet365 Stadium. Before it was opened in 1997, the club was based at the Victoria Ground, which was their home ground since 1878. The club's nickname is The Potters, after the pottery industry in Stoke-on-Trent, and their traditional home kit is a red-and-white vertically striped shirt, white shorts and stockings. Their traditional rivals are Midlands clubs West Bromwich Albion and Wolverhampton Wanderers, whilst their local rivals are Port Vale with whom they contest the Potteries derby.


title: Stoke City F.C.

text: Stoke were one of the twelve founding members of the Football League in 1888. They failed re-election in 1890, but were re-admitted after winning the 1890–91 Football Alliance title. The club were relegated from the First Division in 1907 and entered liquidation the following year. Though the club was saved, they were not re-elected until 1915, and instead spent the intervening years in the Birmingham & District League and Southern League. Promoted from the Second Division in 1921–22, the club were relegated twice in four years by 1926. Stoke won the Third Division North in 1926–27 and then the Second Division title in 1932–33. They remained in the top-flight for twenty years and then spent a decade in the Second Division, before winning promotion as champions in 1962–63.


title: Stoke City F.C.

text: Under the stewardship of Tony Waddington, Stoke won the League Cup in 1972 with a 2–1 victory over Chelsea. Stoke had also been beaten finalists in 1964. The club spent fourteen years in the top-flight, and would secure promotion in 1978–79 after being relegated two years earlier. Stoke remained in the top-flight from 1979 to 1985, though were relegated to the Third Division in 1990. Having won the Football League Trophy in 1992, they were promoted as champions in 1992–93. Relegation in 1998 allowed the club to win another Football League Trophy title in 2000, before promotion was secured with victory in the 2002 play-off final. Manager Tony Pulis took Stoke into the Premier League at the end of the 2007–08 campaign. They played in the final of the FA Cup in 2011, finishing runners-up to Manchester City, which saw the club qualify for European football. Ten years of Premier League football culminated in relegation to the Championship in 2018.


title: Stoke City F.C.

text: Although there are reports of the game being played in Stoke in 1863, the Stoke Ramblers club was formed in 1868 by Henry Almond, who had been a student at Charterhouse school where a dribbling form of the game was popular. Almond arrived in the region to become an apprentice with the North Staffordshire Railway Company and, wishing to continue playing the game that he had enjoyed whilst at school, established the first formal association football club in the region. The club's first documented match was in October 1868, against a scratch team brought together for the occasion by E.W May. Harry Almond captained the Stoke Ramblers team and also scored the club's first goal. The club's first recorded away match was at Congleton, a rugby club that were convinced to play a one-off fixture under association rules, in December 1868. From the 1860s, the club played at the Victoria Cricket Club ground; however they switched to a nearby ground at Sweetings Field in 1875 to cope with rising attendances.


title: Stoke City F.C.

text: In 1870, after two seasons as the Ramblers, the club dropped the suffix from its title and became known as Stoke Football Club. It became closely aligned with Stoke Victoria Cricket Club, sharing facilities and some administrative responsibilities. The club played at the Athletic Club ground, which soon became known as the Victoria Ground. It was around this time that the club adopted their traditional red-and-white striped kit. In August 1885, the club turned professional.


title: Stoke City F.C.

text: Stoke were one of the twelve founding members of the Football League when it was introduced in 1888. The club struggled in their first two seasons, 1888–89 and 1889–90, finishing bottom on both occasions. In 1890 Stoke failed to be re-elected and joined the Football Alliance, which they won and thus were re-elected to the Football League. Stoke spent the next 15 seasons in the First Division and reached the FA Cup Semi-final in the 1898–99 season before being relegated in 1907 with severe financial problems. Stoke went bankrupt at the end of the 1907–08 season and entered non-league football, playing in the Birmingham & District League and Southern League until 1914, when the First World War meant the Football League was suspended for four years. During the wartime period, Stoke entered the Lancashire Primary and Secondary leagues. When football recommenced in August 1919, Stoke re-joined the league.


title: Stoke City F.C.

text: The club became owners of the Victoria Ground in 1919. This was followed by the construction of the Butler Street stand, which increased the overall capacity of the ground to 50,000. In 1925, Stoke-on-Trent was granted city status and this led the club to change its name to Stoke City F.C.


title: Stoke City F.C.

text: The 1930s saw the debut of club's most celebrated player, Stanley Matthews. Matthews, who grew up in Hanley, was an apprentice at the club and made his first appearance in March 1932, against Bury, at the age of 17. By end of the decade, Matthews had established himself as an England international and as one of the best footballers of his generation. Stoke achieved promotion from the Second Division in 1932–33 – as champions – however Matthews only featured in fifteen games in this season. He did however score his first goal for the club in a 3–1 win against local rivals Port Vale.


title: Stoke City F.C.

text: By 1934, the club's average attendance had risen to over 23,000, which in turn allowed the club to give the manager Tom Mather increased transfer funds. The club was now considered one of the top teams in the country. It was in this period that the club recorded its record league win, a 10–3 win over West Bromwich Albion in February 1937. In April of that year, the club achieved its record league crowd – 51,373 against Arsenal. Freddie Steele's 33 league goals in the 1936–37 season remains a club record.


title: Stoke City F.C.

text: Following the resumption of the FA Cup after World War II, tragedy struck on 9 March 1946, as 33 fans died and 520 were injured during a 6th round tie away against Bolton Wanderers. This came known as the Burnden Park disaster. In 1946–47, Stoke mounted a serious title challenge. The club needed a win in their final game of the season to win the First Division title. However, a 2–1 defeat to Sheffield United meant the title went to Liverpool instead. Stanley Matthews left with 3 games remaining of the 1946–47 season, opting to join Blackpool at the age of 32.


title: Stoke City F.C.

text: Stoke were relegated from the First Division in 1952–53; during the season Bob McGrory resigned as the club's manager after 17 years in the role. Former Wolverhampton Wanderers defender Frank Taylor took over at the club looking to gain promotion back to the First Division. However, after seven seasons in the Second Division without promotion, Taylor was sacked. Taylor was shocked at being fired and vowed never to be associated with football again.


title: Stoke City F.C.

text: Tony Waddington was appointed as the club's manager in June 1960. He joined the club in 1952 as a coach, before being promoted to assistant manager in 1957. Waddington pulled off a significant coup by enticing Stanley Matthews – then 46 years old – back to the club, 14 years after he had departed. The return of Matthews helped Stoke to an improved eighth position in 1961–62. Promotion was achieved in the following season, with Stoke finishing as champions. In their first season back in the top flight, 1963–64, Waddington guided Stoke to a mid-table finish. Stoke reached the 1964 Football League Cup Final, which they lost 4–3 to Leicester City over two legs.


title: Stoke City F.C.

text: Waddington counted on experience; Dennis Viollet, Jackie Mudie, Roy Vernon, Maurice Setters and Jimmy McIlroy were all players signed in the latter stages of their careers. Matthews was awarded a knighthood for services to football in the 1965 New Year's Honours list. This was followed by his final appearance for the club against Fulham in February 1965, shortly after his 50th birthday. Gordon Banks, England's 1966 World Cup-winning goalkeeper, joined in 1967 for £52,000 from Leicester. Regarded as the best goalkeeper in the world, Banks proved to be a shrewd signing for Waddington as he helped the club maintain stability in the First Division. During the close season of 1967, Stoke City played in the one-off United Soccer Association which imported clubs from Europe and South America. Stoke played as the Cleveland Stokers and finished as runner-up of the Eastern Division.


title: Stoke City F.C.

text: The club won its first major trophy on 4 March 1972 in the League Cup Final against Chelsea. Stoke won 2–1 in front of a crowd of 97,852 at Wembley with goals from Terry Conroy and George Eastham. Preceding this victory, Stoke had progressed through 11 games in order to reach the final. This included four games with West Ham United in the semi-final; the two-legged tie was replayed twice. Stoke fared well in the FA Cup; the club progressed to the semi-final stage in both the 1970–71 and 1971–72 seasons. However, on both occasions Stoke lost to Arsenal in a replay. Stoke also competed in the UEFA Cup in 1972 and 1974 losing at the first attempt to 1. FC Kaiserslautern and Ajax respectively.


title: Stoke City F.C.

text: In January 1976, the roof of the Butler Street Stand was blown off in a storm. The repair bill of nearly £250,000 put the club in financial trouble; key players such as Alan Hudson, Mike Pejic and Jimmy Greenhoff were sold to cover the repairs. With the team depleted, Stoke were relegated in the 1976–77 season. Waddington, after a spell of 17 years in charge, left the club after a 1–0 home defeat to Leicester in March 1977.


title: Stoke City F.C.

text: Waddington was replaced by George Eastham in March 1977. However, he could not prevent the club's relegation to the Second Division in 1976–77. Eastham left in January 1978 after only ten months in charge, and was replaced by Alan Durban from Shrewsbury Town. Durban achieved promotion to the First Division in the 1978–79 season, but after consolidating the club's position in the First Division, he left to manage Sunderland in 1981. Richie Barker was appointed for the 1981–82 season, but was sacked in December 1983 and was replaced by Bill Asprey. Asprey decided to bring back veteran Alan Hudson, and the decision paid off as an improved second half of the season saw Stoke avoid relegation on the final day of the 1983–84 season.


title: Stoke City F.C.

text: The 1984–85 season proved to be disastrous. Stoke finished the season with only 17 points, with just three wins all season. Mick Mills was appointed player-manager for the 1985–86 season, but was unable to sustain a challenge for promotion in his four seasons as manager and was sacked in November 1989. His successor, Alan Ball Jr., became the club's fifth manager in ten years. Ball struggled in his first season in charge, 1989–90, and Stoke were relegated to the third tier of English football after finishing bottom of the Second Division. Ball kept his job for the start of the following season, 1990–91, but departed during February 1991, in an indifferent season that saw Stoke finish 14th in the Third Division, Stoke's lowest league position.


title: Stoke City F.C.

text: Ball's successor, Lou Macari, was appointed in May 1991, prior to the start of the 1991–92 season. He clinched silverware for the club; the 1992 Football League Trophy was won with a 1–0 victory against Stockport County at Wembley, with Mark Stein scoring the only goal of the match. The following season, 1992–93, promotion was achieved from the third tier. Macari left for his boyhood club Celtic in October 1993 to be replaced by Joe Jordan; Stein also departed, in a club record £1.5 million move to Chelsea. Jordan's tenure in charge was short, leaving the club less than a year after joining, and Stoke opted to re-appoint Lou Macari only 12 months after he had left. Stoke finished fourth in 1995–96 but were defeated in the play-off semi-final by Leicester City. Macari left the club at the end of the following season. His last match in charge was the final league game at the Victoria Ground. Mike Sheron, who was signed two years previously from Norwich City, was sold for a club record fee of £2.5 million in 1997.


title: Stoke City F.C.

text: 1997–98 saw Stoke move to its new ground, the Britannia Stadium, after 119 years at the Victoria Ground. Chic Bates, Macari's assistant, was appointed manager for the club's first season in the new ground. He did not last long though, and was replaced by Chris Kamara in January 1998. Kamara could not improve the club's fortunes either, and he too left in April. Alan Durban, previously Stoke's manager two decades earlier, took charge for the remainder of season. Despite his best efforts, Durban was unable to keep the club up, as defeat against Manchester City on the final day of the season consigned Stoke to relegation to the third tier.


title: Stoke City F.C.

text: Brian Little, formerly manager of Aston Villa, took charge for the 1998–99 season. Despite an impressive start, the team's form tailed off dramatically in the latter stages of the season, which led to Little leaving the club at the end of the season. His successor, Gary Megson, was only in the job for four months. Megson was forced to depart following a takeover by Stoke Holding, an Icelandic consortium, who purchased a 66% share in Stoke City F.C. for £6.6 million. Stoke became the first Icelandic-owned football club outside of Iceland. They appointed the club's first foreign manager, Guðjón Þórðarson, who helped Stoke win the Football League Trophy in the 1999–2000 season, with a 2–1 win over Bristol City in front of a crowd of 85,057 at Wembley.


title: Stoke City F.C.

text: Þórðarson achieved promotion at the third time of asking in 2001–02 after previous play-off defeats against Gillingham and Walsall. Cardiff City were defeated in the semi-final before a 2–0 win against Brentford at the Millennium Stadium secured promotion. Despite achieving the goal of promotion, Þórðarson was sacked by Gunnar Gíslason just five days later.


title: Stoke City F.C.

text: Steve Cotterill was drafted in as Thordarson's replacement prior to the start of the 2002–03 season, but resigned in October 2002 after only four months in charge. Tony Pulis was appointed as Stoke's new manager shortly after. Pulis steered Stoke clear of relegation, with a 1–0 win over Reading on the final day of the season keeping the club in the division. However, Pulis was sacked at the end of the 2004–05 season, following disagreement between himself and the club's owners.


title: Stoke City F.C.

text: Dutch manager Johan Boskamp was named as Pulis' successor on 29 June 2005, only one day after Pulis was sacked. Boskamp brought in a number of new players from Europe, but his side was inconsistent and only a mid-table finish was achieved. Boskamp left at the end of the 2005–06 season amidst a takeover bid by former chairman Peter Coates. On 23 May 2006, Coates completed his takeover of Stoke City, marking the end of Gunnar Gíslason's chairmanship of the club. Coates chose former manager Tony Pulis as Boskamp's successor in June 2006. Pulis took Stoke close to a play-off place, but an eventual eighth-place finish was achieved in the 2006–07 season.


title: Stoke City F.C.

text: Stoke won automatic promotion to the Premier League on the final day of the 2007–08 season, finishing in second place in the Championship. A 3–1 defeat to Bolton Wanderers on the opening day of the 2008–09 season saw Stoke written off by many media outlets as relegation certainties. Stoke managed to turn the Britannia Stadium into a "fortress", making it difficult for teams to pick up points there. In their first home match, Stoke defeated Aston Villa 3–2, and wins also came against Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, Sunderland and West Bromwich Albion. After a 2–1 win at Hull City, Stoke confirmed their place in the Premier League as the "Potters" finished 12th in their return to the top flight, with a total of 45 points. Stoke finished the following 2009–10 season in a respectable 11th place, with 47 points. Stoke also made it to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup for the first time since 1972, defeating York City, Arsenal and Manchester City before losing out to eventual winners Chelsea.


title: Stoke City F.C.

text: Stoke reached the FA Cup Final for the first time, beating Cardiff City, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Brighton & Hove Albion, West Ham United and a famous 5–0 win against Bolton, the largest post-war FA Cup semi-final victory. However, they lost the final 1–0 to Manchester City. By reaching the final, Stoke qualified for the 2011–12 UEFA Europa League. In the Europa League, Stoke advanced past Hajduk Split, Thun and a tough group containing Beşiktaş, Dynamo Kyiv and Maccabi Tel Aviv which Stoke managed to progress through finishing in second position. City's reward was a tie against Spanish giants Valencia and despite putting up a spirited second leg performance, Stoke went out 2–0 on aggregate. In the Premier League, Stoke made the high-profile signing of Peter Crouch as they finished in a mid-table position for a fourth time. The 2012–13 season saw Stoke make little progress, and Pulis left the club by mutual consent on 21 May 2013.


title: Stoke City F.C.

text: Pulis was replaced by fellow Welshman Mark Hughes, who signed a three-year contract on 30 May 2013. Hughes led Stoke to a ninth-place finish in 2013–14, their highest position in the Premier League and best finish since 1974–75. The 2014–15 season saw Stoke again finish in ninth position this time, with 54 points. Despite breaking their transfer record twice on Xherdan Shaqiri and then Giannelli Imbula, in 2015–16, Stoke did not make any progress and finished in ninth position for a third season running. Stoke declined in 2016–17, finishing in 13th position. In January 2018, Hughes was sacked after a poor run left the club in the relegation zone. He was replaced by Paul Lambert, who could not prevent the club ending their 10-year spell in the Premier League.


title: Stoke City F.C.

text: Following their relegation to the Championship, Lambert was replaced with former Derby County boss Gary Rowett. Despite spending nearly £50 million on players in the summer transfer window, results and performances were poor and Rowett was subsequently sacked on 8 January 2019 with the team 14th in the table. He was replaced with Luton Town boss Nathan Jones. Stoke went on to end an uneventful 2018–19 season in 16th place with a record number of draws (22).


title: Stoke City F.C.

text: After achieving just two wins in the opening 14 games of the following season, Jones was sacked on 1 November 2019 with the team in the relegation zone. Northern Ireland boss Michael O'Neill was confirmed as his replacement a week later. Results improved under O'Neill and the team managed to avoid relegation, finishing in 15th. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the entire 2020–21 campaign was played without supporters present as Stoke again finished in mid-table. The following campaign started brightly with the team challenging for the playoffs, though a poor finish to the season saw them finish in 14th. A slow start to the 2022–23 season marked the end for O'Neill's time in charge and he was dismissed in August 2022, with Sunderland boss Alex Neil replacing him.


title: Stoke City F.C.

text: It is not clear where Stoke's original playing fields were located. Their first pitch was certainly in the site of a present burial ground in Lonsdale Street, although there is evidence that they also played on land near to the Copeland Arms public house on Campbell Road. In 1875, they moved to Sweetings Field, which was owned by the mayor of Stoke, Alderman Sweeting. It is estimated that as many as 200–250 spectators were attending home matches at Sweetings Field, paying one penny for admission. Stoke were to stay at Sweetings Field until a merger with the Stoke Victoria Cricket Club in March 1878, when Stoke moved to the Victoria Ground.


title: Stoke City F.C.

text: The first match to be played at the Victoria Ground was a friendly against Talke Rangers on 28 March 1878; Stoke won 1–0 in front of 2,500 fans. The ground was originally an oval shape to cater for athletics, and this shape was retained for the next 30 years. Major development work began in the 1920s, and by 1930 the ground had lost its original shape. By 1935, the ground capacity was up to 50,000. A record crowd of 51,380 packed into the Ground on 29 March 1937 to watch a league match against Arsenal.


title: Stoke City F.C.

text: Floodlights were installed in 1956 and another new main stand was built. Over the weekend of the 3/4 in January 1976, gale-force winds blew the roof off the Butler Street Stand. Stoke played a home League match against Middlesbrough at Vale Park whilst repair work was on-going. The Stoke End Stand was improved in 1979 and through the 1980s more improvements were made. By 1995, Stoke drew up plans to make the ground an all seater stadium, to comply with the Taylor Report. However, the club decided it would be better to leave the Victoria Ground and re-locate to a new site.


title: Stoke City F.C.

text: In 1997, Stoke left the Victoria Ground after 119 years, and moved to the modern 28,384 all seater Britannia Stadium at a cost of £14.7 million. Stoke struggled at first to adjust to their new surroundings and were relegated to the third tier in the first season at the new ground. In 2002, a record 28,218 attended an FA Cup match against Everton. With Stoke gaining promotion to the Premier League in 2008, attendances increased. However, the capacity was reduced to 27,500 due to segregation. The name of the ground was changed to the Bet365 Stadium in June 2016. Work began on expanding the stadium to over 30,000 in February 2017 and was concluded in the summer of 2017.


title: Stoke City F.C.

text: While much of the support that the club enjoys is from the local Stoke-on-Trent area, there are a number of exile fan clubs, notably in London and stretching from Scandinavia to countries farther afield such as Russia, the United States and Australia. A capacity crowd regularly turned out to see them in the Premier League.


title: Stoke City F.C.

text: Stoke have had problems with football hooliganism in the 1970s through the early 2000s, due to the actions of the "Naughty Forty" firm which associated itself with the club and was formed by supporter Mark Chester. Chester reformed himself and now works as a youth inclusion promoter. In 2003, the BBC described Stoke City as having "one of the most active and organised football hooligan firms in England". In response to these criticisms, the club introduced an Away Travel ID scheme. It was subsequently suspended in 2008 as a result of improved behaviour and an enhanced reputation. More recently, Stoke City's fans and stadium have been perceived as loud, friendly, passionate and modern, welcoming as guests Sugar Ray Leonard and Diego Maradona. There is in the media now "genuine admiration for the volume and volatility of the club's loyal support". Stoke announced that they would offer supporters free bus travel to every Premier League away game in the 2013–14 and 2014–15 seasons.


title: Stoke City F.C.

text: In November 2008, a group of Stoke fans was forced by the Greater Manchester Police to leave Manchester before a league match against Manchester United. The human rights group Liberty took up their case, and the Greater Manchester police eventually apologised for their actions and the fans received compensation.


title: Stoke City F.C.

text: Supporters of the club have adopted "Delilah" as their anthem since the 1970s, when a supporter was heard singing it in a local pub. Some of the song's lyrics have been adapted for the terraces, but most remain the same. Stoke's official club anthem is "We'll be with you", which was recorded by the Stoke players prior to the 1972 Football League Cup Final.


title: Stoke City F.C.

text: Between 2008 and 2011, local fan "Pottermouth" contributed a series of raps to BBC Radio Stoke about Stoke's promotion, their battle to stay in the Premier League, and the 2011 FA Cup Final.


title: Stoke City F.C.

text: Stoke's local rivals are Port Vale, based in the Burslem area of Stoke-on-Trent. As the two clubs have regularly been in different divisions, there have only been 46 league matches between the two sides, with the last match being in 2002. Regardless of the lack of matches, the Potteries derby is often a tight and close game of football with few goals being scored. Stoke have won 19 matches while Vale have won 15.


title: Stoke City F.C.

text: Due to the rarity of this fixture, Stoke have more established rivalries with Midlands clubs Derby County, West Bromwich Albion and Wolverhampton Wanderers. A rivalry with Welsh side Cardiff City was formed in the 2001–02 season where the sides played each other in the Second Division play-offs.


title: Stoke City F.C.

text: Stoke's traditional kit is red and white striped shirts with white shorts and socks. Their first strip was navy and cardinal hoops with white knickerbockers and hooped stockings. This changed to black and blue hoops before the club settled on red and white stripes in 1883. However, in 1891 the Football League decided that only one club could use one style of strip "per" season and Sunderland were allowed to take red and white stripes. So between 1891 and 1908 Stoke used a variety of kits with plain maroon being the most common. In 1908, Stoke lost their League status and were able to finally revert to red and white and when they re-joined the league in 1919 the rule was scrapped. Since then, Stoke have forever used red and white striped shirts, with the only time when they diverted from this was for two seasons in the mid-1980s, which saw them wear a pin-striped shirt.