· By Fine Margins
Founders Stories | Bossen Mag

Founders Stories 06 | Callum Turner and Danny Harvey, Bossen Mag
When and where did you launch Bossen?
Danny - Well, that depends on what you mean by launch! The magazine’s first “meeting” took place with a couple of mates during the back end of 2022 in the Cobden, Liverpool’s greatest pub, during which we spent about half an hour of our six-hour stint in there chatting about the magazine, and had to return the next morning to pick up our notepad full of absolute gold. The social media accounts were created in a hungover haze, and from there we were ready to crack on with our quarterly mag, knock out four issues over the course of 2023 and take the footballing world by storm. This proved to not quite go to plan, but we did manage to get our first issue, The Special One, released in the September – which I suppose you could also count as the official launch!
Cal - Danny launched it, and I got involved a little later. I met Danny through a friend from uni, who introduced me to his mates—a big firm of Scousers from Halewood. I’m a Manc myself, but we all seem to get on well, proper hands-across-the-divide stuff.
Who are the founders of Bossen and what are their day to day roles now?
Danny - I originally set the mag up by myself, using the aforementioned friends as a sounding board to bounce ideas off and twisted their arm to write a couple of articles – but they weren’t in a position to get fully involved at the time. So for the first issue it was just me, before Cal became more involved during issue two. Running a small, independent magazine, you have to just muck in and do a bit of everything – but it’s definitely a lot easier now we share the load. We both contribute to discussions with contributors and planning content, while I make sure orders are packaged and misuse our finances, Cal deals with stockists and anything that requires a hint of organisational skills!
Cal - I’ve taken to calling myself the Deputy Editor-in-Chief because I reckon it sounds mint. But the truth is, we both muck in wherever we’re needed. I like reaching out to stockists, and trying to bring a bit or organisation, while we work together on content and direction. The mag is still brand new, so it’s all about wearing loads of different hats and chipping in wherever needed.
What was your motivation for starting Bossen?
Danny - It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, starting from when I used to make EURO/World Cup guides as a kid. I had threatened to do it a couple of years earlier, going as far as collecting a couple of articles before realising just how little of a clue I had about what exactly running a magazine entailed. Instead, I temporarily set up a website with my brother, called Lovely Cushioned Header, which was fun but the allure of the beauty of print media kept calling to me. I think that with modern media content being so disposable, it’s important to show that print is still very much alive and kicking.
Cal - As soon as I heard Danny had started it and was looking for contributors, I wanted to get involved. I made it my mission to send him as many articles as I could. This kind of project has always been a bit of a dream for me, and I think Danny picked up on my enthusiasm. I also think he’d come to realise that me pecking his head with article ideas wasn’t going to go away, so, one night in Liverpool, after a few bevvies, he asked if I’d like to get more involved. I didn’t need to think twice.
Do you have a favourite piece of content from your issues published to date? Why is it your favourite?
Danny - I would have to go with John Tregoning’s unbelievable Jose cover illustration from Issue One. Not only is it an absolutely outstanding piece of art, but as I saw draft after draft it was a real sign that things were coming together, we were actually on our way to creating our very own magazine, and it was going to look fucking good!
Cal - The next one, an ode to Sven. I think it’s a pivotal issue for us, and if we get it right—and I think we’re on track—it could be something really special.
Oh, and the illustration of Carlo smoking a little ciggy, where the wisps of smoke spiral up to become his white hair. The detail is incredible, and it makes me want to immediately nip out for a smoke because he looks dead cool.
What would be your bucket list story/interview/profile/event to cover?
Danny - The team I play for, MSB Woolton FC, are currently pushing for promotion into the North West Counties, with building work hopefully being completed later in the season to ensure that we meet the ground grading criteria to go up. From there, it’s just the six promotions until we’re into the Football League – so the dream would be to cover our inevitable rise through the divisions (with a couple of FA Vase’s and big FA Cup ties thrown in for good measure)!
Cal - Gotta be the World Cup. A big, dob-off special focused on all the international gaffers—their backstories—and all these narratives from each of the nations converging on one tournament, while the whole world watches. Of course, in order to cover it properly, we’d have to saunter over to the States, land in Miami or somewhere similar, soak in the atmosphere, get stuck in with the fans, boots on the ground, pints in the sun. Real bucket-list stuff.
What do your 2025 plans look like? Are there any projects you are especially excited about?
Danny - After a difficult, dramatic end to 2024 involving cease and desist letters, multi-national law firms and the daunting prospect of an enforced rebrand, we’re now back in business under the temporary name of BOSSEN.
To kick off 2025, we’ll be launching a special edition paying tribute to the late, great Sven Goran Eriksson, celebrating his life and career, which I think could be our biggest and best yet, with some really exciting names lined up to contribute.
Cal - 2025 feels like a big year. I want to see the mag become a proper quarterly, grow the fan base, and get it into as many hands as possible. Once people pick it up, they tend to love it, so the goal is to spread that love far and wide.
Finally, what other sports media do you consume for inspiration and enjoyment?
Danny - After the release of their Once In A Lifetime: Argentina series (excellent, obviously), I’ve found myself in something of a Copa90 hole at the minute, going back through and rewatching a whole host of their documentaries, which I love.
In terms of magazines, once I moved on from Match, FourFourTwo became my go-to, which I still read monthly, but if I had to choose only one it would definitely be Glory. I was lucky enough to write a piece for their City Stories: Seville issue, which played a major part in getting the writing bug back – without which we possibly would have never gotten off the ground.
I’d also recommend Issue One of NINE magazine, which our designer, Stephen Underwood, founded. I think it’s a really exciting time for footy magazines, with the likes of Trasferta, These Football Times and Nutmeg just a couple of others that I love.
Cal - I love Mundial. When I saw how they wrote about football—conversational, personal, visceral, with the odd niche reference to art or culture, but all centred around the things that keep us loving footie—I knew they got it.
Beyond that, I’m your typical English and Creative Writing graduate, always looking to draw inspiration from (or shamelessly rip off) other media to help tell the stories I want to tell. I’ll nick it from books, film—basically whatever I can to get it right—or, probably more accurately, to make it a little more pretentious.
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Follow Bossen Mag on Instagram @bossenmag.
Jose Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti are available here. Sven is launching this March.