Tijjani Reijnders ‘really excited' to link up with Man City for Club World Cup
Tijjani Reijnders 'could not wait' to undergo his medical with Manchester City and expects to be in their squad for the Club World Cup.
The 26-year-old Netherlands midfielder has agreed a five-year contract to move to City from AC Milan for 55million euros (approximately £46million) and told Italian media he had spent Sunday conducting a medical with Pep Guardiola's side.
Advertisement
City will play their first match of the Club World Cup against Morocco's Wydad AC on June 18 and the arrival of Reijnders could also impact the future of Jack Grealish at City.
Reijnders told Gazzetta: 'The medical? I couldn't wait to do it. The plan is to take part at the Club World Cup with City. I'm really excited about that.
'Doing that means I'll get to know my new team-mates soon.'
Reijnders was a bright spark in a disappointing season for Milan, who only finished eighth in Serie A, missing out on qualification for Europe.
Manchester City's Jack Grealish could leave this summer (Martin Rickett/PA)
Reijnders, who joined the Italian giants from AZ Alkmaar in the summer of 2023, scored 15 goals in 2024-25 and will bolster Guardiola's midfield options following the departure of Kevin De Bruyne.
Advertisement
As first reported by the Daily Telegraph on Wednesday, England international Grealish looks set to miss out on City's final 35-man squad for the Club World Cup.
The 29-year-old was not summoned from the bench in last month's FA Cup final defeat by Crystal Palace and omitted from the squad for the last game of the season at Fulham altogether.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Emilio Azcárraga aims cheeky dig at Chivas and Cruz Azul
América had a tough end to the season, as they added a defeat against Toluca in the Liga MX and against LAFC in a single match for the last ticket to the Club World Cup, followed by a thrashing from San Diego FC. After this series of unfortunate events, Emilio Azcárraga admitted the first half of the year for the Águilas as a "failure" and also took the opportunity to take a jab at Chivas. "América is here to win titles. Not winning is a failure. I prefer to be in the failure of not having won a four-peat than in what others do," he said to TUDN microphones. Advertisement "I have seen interesting memes, one for example says: 'I did see my team win a three-peat, my grandfather didn't have to tell me about it,' which I find very amusing and it's a great truth, because what was done was very impressive," he concluded. América was proclaimed as the first three-time champion in the history of short tournaments, joining the list of Chivas and Cruz Azul who achieved the three-peat between the late 1950s and 1974. This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here. 📸 Agustin Cuevas - 2024 Getty Images
New York Times
2 hours ago
- New York Times
Inside Mamelodi Sundowns: South Africa's superclub, the home of ‘shoeshine and piano'
Mamelodi Sundowns won their eighth South African Premiership title in a row with a game to spare in May but, before their last league fixture, the mood inside the meeting room at the club's training centre revealed much was still at stake. As Portuguese head coach Miguel Cardoso pulled down the blinds and clapped his hands for attention, the players could see a slogan on the wall behind him that reminded them that 'discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishments'. Advertisement The club's Chloorkop base, just outside Johannesburg, is decorated with motivational messages. Across four days embedded in the Sundowns camp before they compete at the Club World Cup in the United States, it becomes clear they have absorbed into the consciousness of anyone who represents the club, one confident enough to call themselves 'The Brazilians'. This is partly because of their colours but also the expectation to deliver attacking football, a style known across the country as 'shoeshine and piano'. An identity is strong here, yet the team's yellow shirt also has levelling qualities. It has a badge with a hand that points upwards and proclaims: 'The Sky is the Limit' as well as a phrase 'Ubuntu-Botho', which comes from African philosophy and, according to chairman Tlhopie Motsepe, 'highlights the importance of respecting the humanity of others and caring for the communities around us'. In basic terms, this creates a 'brotherhood' that Motsepe, Cardoso and the players speak about a lot. Cardoso, who worked in Portugal, Ukraine, France, Spain and Greece before arriving in South Africa at the end of 2024, thinks it contributes towards the sort of 'elite mentality' he has seen in Europe. Through May and June, Sundowns' schedule was packed. Cardoso steered the team to its first CAF Champions League final since 2016 and across subsequent weekends, there were two legs to prepare for against Pyramids from Egypt. The weekend after that, the squad would fly to Florida for the Club World Cup, with group games against Ulsan, Borussia Dortmund and Fluminense to follow. But first, a home game against Magesi, a challenge Cardoso was not taking lightly. The league trophy was due to be presented in Pretoria after the final whistle but he did not want to frame the match as a party. 'We have a f***ing job to do, very important,' he stressed in English at the start of a 30-minute presentation that began with memories from a year ago when, under a different head coach, Rhulani Mokwena, Sundowns missed the opportunity to go the entire campaign unbeaten by losing the final game against Cape Town City in front of their own supporters. Advertisement Cardoso had examined photographs on the players' social networks from that day and none seemed to be celebrating, despite wider achievements. Cardoso explained that he did not want to be responding to questions live on television about the team's personality because the performance had not matched the season's high standards. 'When the responsibility is less is when the character appears,' he enforced. Two Sundowns players were competing to win the Golden Boot for top scorer in the Premiership and Cardoso was wary of distractions because he did not want team-mates thinking about who they were passing to. There was a better chance of everyone getting what they wanted by doing what comes naturally to them. 'Football is flow,' he stressed, turning to an overhead projector that beamed images and footage of recent games. Cardoso has the look of Pep Guardiola but during this trip, it became clear that he shares some of his compatriot Jose Mourinho's ideas and forcefulness, which he sometimes gets across using the creative messaging of Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta. He wielded a red light pen to demonstrate to his players how they would expose Magesi's weaknesses but he would also caution against some of the opponent's strengths. Sundowns might be the best team in South Africa and one of the wealthiest Confederation of African Football (CAF) clubs but Cardoso knows they can't simply do what they want all of the time. 'Some people call this pragmatic,' Cardoso said later in his office. 'I call it more clever.' Follow the Club World Cup on The Athletic this summer… The following evening, Tlhopie Motsepe was back just in time to see his team take the early 2-0 lead against Magesi they never surrendered. The club's chairman had been at a wedding in Portugal the day before but wanted to be around for the celebrations, and that meant he could take questions from The Athletic at Pretoria's Loftus Versfeld Stadium, a brutalist venue primarily used by the Blue Bulls rugby union team, which Motsepe's billionaire father also part-owns. Advertisement Patrice Motsepe made his money in mining before transforming Sundowns' economic possibilities following his purchase of the club in 2003. After emerging as president of CAF 18 years later, he was still legally able to own Sundowns but had to relinquish his involvement, passing the responsibility onto his son, then aged just 31. It is fair to say Tlhopie seems comfortable with the role. He wears a suit and T-shirt with trainers. He is passionate and knowledgeable about football, evidenced by small talk where he discusses his interest in Scotland's Old Firm derby. Tlhopie explains his father's connection with Mamelodi dates back to some of his earliest experiences in business: the Motsepe family had a corner shop, some eateries and a beer hall, which distributed alcohol in the township, just east of Pretoria, during the 1970s. Patrice Motsepe, however, was born in Soweto, the home of the two most supported clubs in South Africa. At the turn of the 21st century, the names of Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates were more famous, but they were not initially more successful than Sundowns since the end of apartheid and then the launch of the South African Premiership in 1996. Pirates and Chiefs each have four titles, the same number as Sundowns in 2003. Twenty-two years later, Sundowns have accelerated to 15 and their dominance of South African football has stirred much debate. For critics, especially rival fans fed up with losing their best players to a financed competitor, Motsepe's money has created an uneven sport where the outcome seems inevitable at the end of every season. From a Sundowns perspective, new money has helped drive standards, developing players and coaches — and changing perceptions about what is possible for African clubs when investment is made available. South Africa's men's national team, regularly populated by many Sundowns players, has certainly benefited because they are used to performing with one another — they are among the outside favourites to win the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) that starts in December (they were last champions in 1996) — and if they qualify for next summer's World Cup in the U.S., Mexico and Canada, as expected, it will be for the first time since South Africa hosted the tournament in 2010. Tlhopie says that after becoming chairman, he wanted to 'maintain' his father's vision of turning Sundowns into one of the best clubs in Africa before 'sustaining that position'. He also wanted to prove Sundowns could become an institution, 'a symbol that can represent something bigger than just football'. Advertisement He referenced the townships, where people feel let down or struggle to find relatable inspirational figures or stories. During apartheid, the townships were reserved for non-Whites who lived near or worked in areas that were designated 'White-only'. When The Athletic visited Mamelodi two days earlier, a greeting came from supporters at a community event organised by the club outside a shopping mall. It seemed like they could have danced for hours and on a Friday night. The main road running through Mamelodi was a continuation of barbecues, shebeens selling alcoholic drinks and tuck shops. In the cold, groups of men and women huddled around fire pits. Kids were everywhere. It was crawling with people having a good time. Yet warnings come with places like Mamelodi, especially for visitors entering after dark. It has high unemployment, crime and low life expectancy. One of the reasons Sundowns play matches in Pretoria is that stadiums in South Africa have to be owned and maintained by local authorities, and Mamelodi does not have enough money to go around. Fewer than 10,000 fans watched the team's trophy-lift but a week later, when Pyramids scored a stoppage-time equaliser to secure a 1-1 draw and take an away goal back to Cairo in the CAF Champions League final, 52,000 pack the terraces above Motsepe. Sundowns will have less support in the U.S. at the Club World Cup, with the club helping to finance and solve the logistical challenges facing travelling supporters. Motsepe nevertheless sees it as an opportunity first and foremost for the players to show what they've got, while acknowledging that the financial benefits from prize money, branding exposure and any potential new partners will only strengthen Sundowns' position at the top of their domestic league. African football is often viewed through the success of its national teams and maybe, for the first time, this is the chance for one of its clubs to really express themselves. If that is to happen, Cardoso will need to lift spirits and work his magic because in Cairo, Sundowns ultimately came up short, losing 2-1 on the night and 3-2 on aggregate. The defeat would prompt more discussion about the team's approach. Yet as they rolled over Magesi, Cardoso had Motsepe's full support. After interviewing him for the job in Europe, he realised that Cardoso was a coach who spoke to 'the hearts and minds of the players'. Though Sundowns are known as a team that entertains, they have been criticised since 2016 for lacking defensive substance when it has really mattered. Motsepe could see during Cardoso's earliest months in charge, as he tried to get his message across, that flair was being sacrificed but once the team was settled, it would know how and when to open up again. Like so many owners and managers across the world, the chairman and head coach of the most successful team in South Africa has spent a lot of time talking about identity. According to Motsepe, the hardest moments of the season were spent 'trying to make sure that supporters understood that the results would come and that the style of football that we cherish so much would be preserved.' When the trophy was lifted, the last player to return to the pitch from the tunnel was Sundowns club captain Themba Zwane. The 35-year-old midfielder's presence in their Club World Cup squad seemed unlikely earlier this year after he ruptured his Achilles playing for South Africa in Congo. Zwane is fit again but has a challenge getting back into a team packed with talent, one that has been reinforced in his absence. At Chloorkop before the Magesi game, he explains it was his dream as a child to 'create history'. He has certainly achieved that, having become Sundowns' most decorated player, winning nine league titles. Though he performs with a tigerish spirit, he is quietly spoken to the point that he is barely audible. Advertisement Zwane grew up a 10-minute drive away from the training ground in Tembisa, a township he described as a 'good place but not easy'. Some days, he went without food and this led to four-on-four street games, where children would compete for money. These experiences had a lasting impact. 'I'm able to face any situation that I come across,' he insists. 'We want to make history, every time, and then we try to make history repeat itself.' Zwane arrived at Sundowns because the club decided to focus hard on recruiting the best young players from the townships. One of the coaches involved was Trott Moloto, who has filled almost every role at the club. In the 1980s, he was assistant to head coach Stanley 'Screamer' Tshabalala when he returned from Italy with new ideas, having studied methods at Milan, Inter and Juventus. 'Shoeshine and piano' came from a few words that he picked up and the things that he saw. Tshabalala was convinced that he'd heard one of the coaches say 'piano', as well as another word that sounded like 'shoeshine'. The coach was trying to tell his players to 'calm down'. For Moloto, he has seen the spirit passed down from Tshabalala in Zwane. 'When he gets the ball, he has already thought about his next move,' he explains at Chloorkop. 'When I watch Themba, I see shoeshine and piano.' Look out for parts two and three in our series with Mamelodi Sundowns this week, as well as a special audio documentary. (Illustration: Kelsea Petersen / The Athletic; FIFA / Getty, Phil Magakoe / Getty)
New York Times
2 hours ago
- New York Times
Club World Cup team guide – Chelsea: Expensively assembled fringe contenders or a serious threat?
FIFA Club World Cup champions in 2022, Chelsea are relishing the chance to make history by winning the first edition of Gianni Infantino's expanded tournament in the United States. Group D opponents Los Angeles FC, Flamengo and Esperanto de Tunis will inspire little fear in Enzo Maresca's expensively assembled squad, but even if they match expectations and advance as winners, the degree of difficulty will rise sharply in the knockout stage for a club emerging from two seasons outside the UEFA Champions League. Chelsea are determined to show the best version of themselves in the Club World Cup, and not just because of the lucrative financial rewards on offer. This tournament also presents a golden opportunity to reclaim their seat at elite club football's top table after a bumpy few years. Follow the Club World Cup on The Athletic this summer… A stirring end to the season has Chelsea feeling very good about themselves as they head to the United States. Maresca's young team ground out the results they needed to secure a fourth-place finish on the final day of the Premier League campaign, then justified their status as overwhelming favourites to win the UEFA Conference League with a comprehensive dismantling of Real Betis in the final in Wroclaw. Advertisement Chelsea's group stage opposition at the Club World Cup may remind them of the level of team they faced in the Conference League en route to beating Betis. It will certainly be closer to that than to the weekly examinations that Maresca's side encounter in the Premier League, which may allow them to ease their way into their best rhythm. It would be foolish to discount Chelsea as threats to win the competition — this is a club who have won every major domestic and European honour and their golden age lasted for much of the first quarter of this century. But with different owners, a relatively inexperienced coach and the youngest squad in the competition, they are best classified as fringe contenders. Chelsea qualified for this summer's Club World Cup by lifting the Champions League in May 2021. That triumph in Porto feels like a lifetime ago, given just how much has happened at Stamford Bridge since: sanctions, a club sale and an almost total overhaul on and off the pitch. Club captain Reece James is the only surviving member of that team in Maresca's squad. In the first three years of its ownership, the consortium led by Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly has moved fast and broken things. Virtually every trace of the Roman Abramovich era has gone and the revolution has been painful, with Chelsea plummeting to 12th in the Premier League in 2022-23 and finishing sixth in 2023-24 while spending aggressively on transfers. A fourth-placed finish this season, coupled with a first trophy for Clearlake and Boehly to celebrate, creates the impression that the new Chelsea that will grace the Club World Cup stage is ready to compete again, even if it looks nothing like the old one. Chelsea play a Pep Guardiola-influenced style: a possession-focused, positional game. The nominal starting formation is a standard 4-3-3 but one of Maresca's full-backs will usually 'invert', often into the base of midfield and sometimes into one of the attacking half-spaces. In possession, the goal is for Chelsea to arrange themselves with a three-man defence and a three-man attack with a midfield box between them, creating the possibility for overloads around opposing formations. The goalkeeper is also encouraged to act as an '11th outfielder' in possession to facilitate playing out through and around pressure. Maresca's aim is to control games by creating numerical superiority on the ball. Maresca has risen fast to the Chelsea job. A midfielder who enjoyed a decorated but nomadic playing career, he was encouraged to go into coaching by Manuel Pellegrini when the two men were at Malaga in 2011. Seven years later, Pellegrini got Maresca on to a Premier League touchline, hiring the Italian as part of his backroom staff at West Ham United. No wonder, then, that Maresca still calls Pellegrini his 'professional dad'. Guardiola, however, has been every bit as impactful on his coaching journey, both in the season Maresca spent coaching Manchester City's elite development squad to the Premier League 2 title in 2020-21 and in Maresca's experience as Guardiola's assistant in the 2022-23 treble-winning campaign. Advertisement Those stints at City bookended a short, failed spell as coach of Parma and primed Maresca for his next opportunity to strike out on his own. He made the most of it, guiding Leicester City to promotion from the Championship as title winners in 2023-24 and attracting admirers among the Chelsea hierarchy in the process. Maresca was a bold choice to succeed Mauricio Pochettino at Stamford Bridge, and his first season at Chelsea had plenty of challenges — not least the open hostility of supporters less than enamoured with his style of play at times. But he delivered a top-four Premier League finish and a trophy, and comes into the Club World Cup in a strong position. He may have looked out of sorts for much of 2025, but Cole Palmer remains the undisputed star of this Chelsea team. That reality was underlined by his thrilling assists for the two goals that turned the Conference League final on its head: the first a beautiful in-swinging cross with his left foot on to the head of Enzo Fernandez, the second a brilliant turn followed by a pinpoint delivery with his right to meet Nicolas Jackson's run to the near post. 'I was just sick of getting the ball and going backwards and sideways,' Palmer explained after the match. He is the only Chelsea player capable of changing a game simply at his whim. There are a number of candidates given the youth of Chelsea's squad, but the player most supporters will be intrigued to watch in the U.S. is Andrey Santos. The dynamic Brazilian has blossomed on loan at BlueCo sister club Strasbourg and could bring some much-needed physicality and goal threat to Maresca's midfield. Chelsea fans have cultivated a vibrant repertoire of songs about their team, individual players and rival clubs over their long history. One particularly rousing supporter anthem is Carefree, bellowed to the tune of the English hymn Lord of the Dance': Carefree, wherever you may be, We are the famous CFC, And we don't give a f**k, Whoever you may be, Cos we are the famous CFC. Four years ago, when The Athletic asked this precise question of Chelsea fans on X, the answer was emphatic, with Tottenham Hotspur garnering 58.6 per cent of the vote. Spurs serve both as Chelsea's favourite punchline and their preferred punching bag. It's one of football's stranger rivalries that dates back to the 1960s, when Tottenham — with the help of Chelsea youth products Jimmy Greaves and Terry Venables — triumphed in a 1967 FA Cup final meeting and were seen as the more glamorous and successful club. The roles have long since reversed, but the animosity endures. Chelsea were the first club (along with Arsenal) to wear numbered shirts for a league match, against Swansea Town on August 25, 1928. Chelsea have not been the neutral's easiest choice since the 1990s, when they charmed with Gianfranco Zola and a cosmopolitan collective of charismatic veterans. Abramovich's disruptive billions instead made them compelling villains and the vast transfer spending of Clearlake and Boehly has done little to endear them to anyone not affiliated with Stamford Bridge. But if you want a reason to cheer for Chelsea, just watch Palmer. His nonchalant genius is of the Gianfranco Zola lineage, and forms the essence of why football is worth your time. (All kick-offs ET/BST) (Top photos: Eurasia Sport Images, Charlotte Wilson/Getty; design: Kelsea Petersen/The Athletic)
