Premier Skills English Podcast 3

Jack: Hello and welcome to our new Premier Skills English podcast.

Rich: Hi Jack, hello listeners. I hope you enjoyed the record breaking football this weekend.

Jack: Record breaking? What do you mean?

Rich: You know Jack. Like the sprinter Usain Bolt. He has run the fastest 100 metres ever. 9.58 seconds. It’s a World record. You can say that Usain Bolt holds the world record for the 100 metres.

Jack: Yes, that is fast. Records are used a lot in sport. For athletes who run the fastest, or players who score the most goals or get the best results.

Rich: Yes, in the Premier League there are lots of records. Did you know that John Terry has scored more goals than any other defender in Premier League history or that Thierry Henry has scored the most goals for one club (175) but it’s Alan Shearer who has the most goals in Premier League history with 260.

Jack: - Yes - those are some impressive records, Rich. But why was it  a record breaking weekend?     

Rich: Like I said before, when someone does something better, faster or more than anyone else, you can say that they hold a record but when someone else does the same thing even better, he or she breaks that record.

Jack: Aha! And who’s broken a record this weekend, Rich?

Rich: His name is Sadio Mane he’s a winger and plays for Southampton. Last weekend, he scored the fastest hat-trick in Premier League history against Aston Villa. It was timed at just 176 seconds.

Jack: Wow! Three goals in less than three minutes. That is fast I’m surprised there was time to start the match again between the goals. Whose record did Mane break?

Rich: Robbie Fowler scored a hat-trick for Liverpool against Arsenal in 1994 in 273 seconds. Mane broke Robbie Fowler’s record.

Jack: Wow - that record had stood for a long time and he didn’t just break the record Rich, he smashed Fowler’s record! That’s nearly 2 minutes faster! You must be disappointed to see another Liverpool record broken, Rich?

Rich: Not really, records are there to be broken.

Jack: Well, Sadio Mane is our record breaker this week. But now we have this week’s challenge for you. Can you find any other record breakers in the Premier League? If you can, leave us a message in the comments section below.

Rich: Well that’s all for now. Thanks for listening.

Jack: If you want to learn more about Sadio Mane, he’s the Player of the Week.

Rich: Or if you want to find out more about Premier League records have a look at our record-breaking numbers article. There are links to both of these articles on the right of the page.

Jack: If you’re listening to this on itunes or elsewhere, come back to Premier Skills English for some language activities, a quiz and lots more. You can find us at www.britishcouncil.org/premierskillsenglish. Don’t forget if you sign in, you can score points to see if you can get your club, your country and your name to the top of our leaderboard.

Rich: Bye for now and enjoy your football.