Milan's Rafael Leao not seen as key target by Arsenal
Serie A side Milan find themselves in the middle of chaotic protests and with fans keen on making their voices heard about sales, Rafael Leao's future remains uncertain.
Daniele Longo has reported that the Portuguese is not unsellable, having not featured at all for the club against Monza yesterday. There is a feeling that his time at Milan is coming to a sad ending.
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Jorge Mendes is quite close to Leao's father and he is doing some work to bring an exit forth. Arsenal sporting director Andrea Berta did make initial contact for the Portuguese ten days ago.
There is interest from the Gunners, but Leao isn't their key target. Arsenal have other players on the shortlist and the winger is seen as an alternative target for the left-wing.
Interest from Bayern Munich fails to find confirmation, but there is interest from Saudi Arabia and Chelsea.
Kaustubh Pandey I GIFN
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New York Times
31 minutes ago
- New York Times
Football's capacity to make men cry: ‘I was buying milk and just burst into tears thinking about Palace'
Forget the scoreline in the top corner of the screen. The image of the distraught Inter Milan supporter who flashed up on television screens around the world, as his team prepared to take a meaningless corner in the 76th minute, told the story of the Champions League final. Crestfallen and broken, his bottom lip was quivering and tears were streaming down his face. A fourth Paris Saint-Germain goal had not long been scored at the other end of the stadium and it was all too much for a man who looked like his world had come to an end. 'Imagine getting like that about football?' It's hard to explain to people who have no interest in the game why so many of us are so immersed and emotionally invested in this sport that it leads to the kind of behaviour — uncontrollable tears (of joy as well as despair), hugging total strangers, or even turning the air blue after something totally innocuous — that would be almost unthinkable in a public space anywhere else. Advertisement Football, essentially, is escapism; a place for us to forget about the trials and tribulations of everyday life and, for better or worse, completely lose ourselves. 'It's a cathartic experience,' Sally Baker, a senior therapist, says. 'Men are very rarely given permission to express their emotions. But within the context of football, they are — and no one's going to judge them. Everyone's in it together. 'They could swear — people use language at a football match that they never would use outside. It's a safe place and it's a unique environment for men to let off steam.' Those comments resonate on the back of something else that happened last Saturday night in Munich. With less than two minutes remaining, the television cameras showed PSG's assistant coach in tears in the technical area. His name is Rafel Pol Cabanellas and he lost his wife to a long-term illness in November last year. With or without a heartbreaking personal story, football's capacity to stir the emotions is extraordinary. Carrying our hopes and fears, the game plays with our feelings in a way that few things in life can and, at the same time, provides a form of sanctuary. The video features crying. A lot of crying. It lasts for one minute and 24 seconds and was filmed at Wembley Stadium on the day of the FA Cup final. The referee's whistle had just blown after 10 minutes of stoppage time and Crystal Palace, after 164 years of waiting, had beaten Manchester City 1-0 to finally win the first major trophy in their history. Joao Castelo-Branco, ESPN Brazil's correspondent in the UK, had decided to leave his seat in the press box moments earlier to try to get some footage of the Palace supporters. To describe what follows as scenes of celebration doesn't come close. It's so much more than that. It's raw. It's magical. It's moving. It's genuinely heart-warming. It's football — that simple game that means nothing and everything — touching the soul. Advertisement 'It just captured something special,' Castelo-Branco says, smiling. So special that you find yourself watching it over and again, looking at the faces of the people — men and women, young and old — and thinking about all the stories they could tell you about how their lives became so entwined with Crystal Palace Football Club, as well as wondering why this moment means so much personally to them. 'When I was there, I was feeling, 'This is incredible, and I was just trying to hold it together',' Castelo-Branco says. 'There was so much going on that you don't know where to film. And I think sometimes then you see fans turning the camera everywhere really quickly. But I tried to hold on a bit, to rest at that couple, but then at the same time move on a bit to show that there were all these different characters that were celebrating. Everywhere I turned was a beautiful shot of emotion.' 'That couple' feature at the start of the footage, when a woman overcome with emotion falls into the arms of a man who looks like he has been following Palace for more years than he cares to remember. His eyes are filled with tears. Behind them, another supporter of a similar age stands alone with his arms aloft, totally overwhelmed by the moment. Some fans have their hands over their mouths in disbelief, almost frozen. Others are wiping away tears with their scarves. One man is hunched over, face down and sobbing. Another supporter — his father, perhaps — wraps his arms around him and the two of them end up singing together. People of all ages are crying everywhere you look — crying and smiling. 'It's beautiful,' Castelo-Branco adds. 'And a really special thing about it is that not many fans were filming (on their phones). People were really living that moment.' True raw emotion, fans really living the moment. As I joined in the stands to film this video, there were hardly any fans with their phones out. Grown men and women hugging and crying. Amazing atmosphere. #CrystalPalace beautiful ⚽️#Wembley #FACup — Joao Castelo-Branco (@j_castelobranco) May 18, 2025 Following Palace's triumph at Wembley, there were similar scenes a few days later in Bilbao, where Tottenham Hotspur beat Manchester United to win the Europa League. A couple of months earlier, it was Newcastle United's turn after they defeated Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final. But it doesn't have to be a long wait for a trophy that tips people over the edge at a football match. Gary Pickles remembers being in the away end at Brighton in 2019, when Manchester City were on the verge of winning their fourth Premier League title in eight seasons, holding up his phone, filming the fans all around him, and suddenly being stopped in his tracks. 'I noticed my son, Niall, had his hands on his head and tears were streaming down his face. We were winning the league. But he's really sobbing. I was like, 'What's up?' Whatever it was just triggered him. He was about 25 — it's not like a young kid doing it.' Pickles, who has been following Manchester City since the 1970s, makes an interesting point when we discuss whether his son's behaviour at Brighton is not as unusual as it would have been in the past. 'That video was just before Covid,' he says. 'But I think certainly since Covid, when there was a lot of talk about mental health issues, it's helped men to speak about that and maybe show their emotions.' Looking back provides a bit of context. In an article on the BBC website in 2004, under an image of the former England international Paul Gascoigne crying at the 1990 World Cup, a clinical psychologist talked about how 'a lot of men know more about how a car works than their own emotions'. Reading that quote again now, a couple of decades later, makes you realise how much life has changed – and in a relatively short space of time too (either that or all my mates are especially useless when it comes to knowing how to change a tyre). 'I think men have moved on hugely,' Baker, the senior therapist, says. 'I guess the old stereotype is that if men and sports were going to exhibit any emotions, it was normally anger. And there were apocryphal stories of women living in dread of their menfolk coming back if their team had lost. But men are more willing, and able, to express a fuller range of emotions than just anger. Advertisement 'I think they've changed a lot in the last 20 years. And I know that by the number of men I see. It used to be one man for every nine women I saw. And now it's much more like I'll see two men for every three women, so it's coming up to parity. There's a willingness to explore their own sense of self, what drives them and who they are.' That's not to say that men never cried at football in years gone by. When this topic of conversation came up in the office, my colleague Amy Lawrence told a story about being in the away end at Anfield in 1989, when Michael Thomas scored a dramatic late goal to clinch the league title for Arsenal against Liverpool on the final day, and how she was nowhere near her friends when she eventually came up for air amid the chaotic celebrations that followed. 'I found myself next to a guy who looked like your absolute classic 1980s football hooligan,' she said. 'He was massive. He was a skinhead. He was covered in tattoos. He looked terrifying. But he had tears rolling down his cheeks and he was blubbing like a baby. I can still see his face today. It was beautiful because he was the last type of person that you would ever expect to break down emotionally at a match.' The same can't be said for young Ricky Allman, who was only 11 years old when Leeds United were on their way to being relegated from the Premier League in 2004. With his shirt off and 'Leeds Til I Die' written across his chest, Allman was heartbroken as the television cameras homed in on him in the away end at Bolton Wanderers. Leeds were losing 4-1 and it was all too much for him. 'My bottom lip came out. A full-on, uncontrollable lip,' Allman told The Athletic in 2020. His mother, Beverley, was watching at home. 'She rang me in tears, 'Are you alright?' she said. You've been on telly. They panned on the crowd and you were crying — I haven't stopped crying since.'' Plenty of Palace fans were saying the same thing for a week or more after beating Manchester City. In Kevin Day's case, the initial sense of shock eventually gave way to tears in, of all places, his local supermarket. Advertisement 'For the first minute (after the final whistle) I couldn't speak,' the writer, comedian and lifelong Palace fan says. 'Then I looked around me and I was the only one not in tears. It was incredible. Mates of mine who I've known for so long, stoic people, who normally wouldn't cry… they were just broken. 'I've never felt elation like it. My son came round at 9am the next morning. He's 29. He threw himself into my arms like he hasn't done since he was a five-year-old. He was sobbing. 'And then, Monday morning, I was in the Co-op buying a pint of milk and I just suddenly burst into tears. I just thought to myself, 'The last time I was in here we hadn't won the FA Cup'.' Thinking about those who are no longer with us and unable to share a landmark moment can often trigger our emotions at football, as was almost certainly the case with the PSG coach Rafel Pol Cabanellas in Munich. It could be the memories of a grandparent who introduced someone to a club in the first place or, for Day, of his late father, who was always at the end of the phone to discuss the Palace match afterwards. 'Everyone I spoke to on that Saturday evening had someone they wished they could have called,' he says. 'There must have been about three million Palace fans looking down from heaven. 'On a serious note, though, I do wonder whether all the posters put up in pubs in south London over the last five years, about how it's alright to talk, have actually had a positive impact and that this generation of men do think it's alright to show their emotions. Maybe that message is finally getting through. 'Or maybe it's just any group of men where something happens that they've waited 120 years for, finally happens. I don't know. 'But I'm starting to get goosebumps thinking about it all again now.' (Illustration: Eamonn Dalton / The Athletic; Manan Vatsyayana/AFP, Odd Andersen, Jacques Feeney/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)
New York Times
44 minutes ago
- New York Times
Club World Cup team guide – Bayern Munich: A powerhouse progressing under Kompany
The inaugural Club World Cup kicks off in the United States on June 14, with its 32 teams split into eight groups of four for the opening phase. As part of our guides to the sides who will feature in this summer's tournament, Seb Stafford-Bloor gives you the background on Bayern Munich. Bayern are the 34-time German national champions. Only one of those titles was won before the domestic league's current Bundesliga structure came into place in 1963. In the years since, they have won the title in 33 of the 62 league seasons contested (53 per cent), including 12 of the last 13. They are also six-time European champions and won the Club World Cup twice in its former guise as an annual event. They are on their way back. Bayern's imperial era ran from 2012 to 2023, when they won 11 straight Bundesliga titles. They also won the Champions League in 2020, but had been in decline for a few years before Bayer Leverkusen ended their domestic dominance in 2024. Last season saw them reclaim the Bundesliga, though, and make big strides in the right direction. Advertisement Their domestic success still needs context. Bayern have won more Bundesliga titles than every other German team combined. They also enjoy a significant financial advantage over even their nearest rivals; Bayern hold the country's transfer record, with the €95million (£80.1m/$108.5m at current rates) spent on English striker Harry Kane in 2023, and have completed eight of the most expensive incoming deals in German football history. It's hegemony whichever way you look at it and so European competition, not domestic, will always be the measure of how good Bayern are. They made limited progress back towards the top in the 2024-25 Champions League, with eventual finalists Inter eliminating them at the quarter-final stage, while showing they still possess too many flaws to be considered a truly elite team. First-year head coach Vincent Kompany inherited a weak defensive group full of issues he is yet to cure and the centre of his midfield lacks the muscularity and definition that the club had there under some of his predecessors. So, this is still a team between eras. Bayern are good, but they are not as outstanding as they were. Through their placement in European football governing body UEFA's four-year ranking, having got as far as the Champions League quarter-finals three times and the semis once in that time. They want the ball, and they want control. A feature of their attacking play under Kompany has been to use attackers Jamal Musiala and Kane in deeper positions, often receiving passes well inside their own half, and then deploying their respective playmaking attributes at the start of moves, rather than just at the end of them. The wide forwards, particularly Michael Olise, are especially important and provide a lot of movement and thrust in the attacking third. With influential and incendiary full-back Alphonso Davies unavailable through long-term injury, Bayern will be even more reliant on Olise at this tournament. Elsewhere, Joshua Kimmich is the heart of the midfield and will want to orchestrate the possession phases from the middle of the pitch. Leon Goretzka, who will likely start alongside him, is a more vertical, physical player who will occupy a deeper No 8 role and arrive late into the opponents' penalty box. Advertisement One of Kompany's successes has been to vastly improve his players' work without the ball. Bayern are a high-pressing team who will try to lock opponents into their own third or force them to play long to get out of it. Are they always good at doing this? No. It's a work in progress, and that could still be a weakness. Kompany, the former Manchester City captain and one of the finest central defenders of his era, was a surprise choice when he was appointed in 2024. He came to Bayern directly from a Premier League relegation with Burnley and without any major trophies on his managerial record. The now-39-year-old Belgian was seen as lacking the credentials for the role, and his arrival was met with plenty of doom prophecies. But he has exceeded expectations. The players like him, and the younger ones have enjoyed his communication style and the instructive, detailed nature of his coaching. Off the pitch, he has adapted well to the environment. Bayern are always fraught with political issues and Kompany has navigated them smartly, staying away from the public arguments and media rucks that so undermined his predecessor Thomas Tuchel. Olise was Bayern's best player last season and Kane their top scorer, but Musiala is the star. The 22-year-old is a doubt for this tournament having not played since a hamstring injury in April, but at his best he is a fabulously gifted playmaker and one of the most elusive ball-carriers in European football. He had already equalled his best goalscoring season before that injury, too, a measure of not just his form but also the evolution in his game under Kompany. Olise is one of them. He was signed from Crystal Palace of the Premier League last summer, and even though he cost €50million, a big fee in Bundesliga terms, there was a sense he was coming in as a two- or three-year project, rather than as an immediate difference-maker. As it happened, Olise was outstanding almost from the get-go. He was one of the reasons Bayern were more watchable, more subtle and ultimately more dangerous than their 2023-24 team had been. The London-born France international is right on the cusp of stardom. Advertisement Bayern fans would also point to Aleksandar Pavlovic. The 21-year-old is a deep midfielder with a lovely feel for the game. His season was disrupted by a series of minor injuries and a bout of glandular fever, but when fit and healthy he passes the ball as well as anyone at the club and seems likely to be at the heart of their team for the next decade. And he's homegrown, too. Pavlovic was born in Munich and developed by Bayern's youth academy — something that already makes him extremely popular with their supporters. There are different answers to this. Locally, Munich is a two-club city, comprising Bayern, the Reds, and 1860 Munich, the Blues. However, 1860 have been plagued by financial dysfunction during the modern era and have fallen on hard times, currently playing in the German football's third tier. As a measure of how dormant the rivalry is, the two teams have not faced each other since 2008 — a year before Thomas Muller, who will leave Bayern this summer as their record appearance-maker with 751 (so far), had even made his competitive debut. Borussia Dortmund are a rival of sorts, even though Der Klassiker, as games between the two are called, is more of a marketing construct than a reality. Dortmund, a six-hour drive from Munich, would certainly consider neighbours Schalke to be their biggest rivals, though they are in Germany's second division. Bayer Leverkusen's rise under Xabi Alonso has made them a rival, with recent seasons breeding animosity among the respective players and even some rival board members, but that is very new and likely to disappear as quickly as it appeared with Alonso now gone to manage Real Madrid and Leverkusen selling star players. Bayern and Borussia Monchengladbach had a fascinating back-and-forth in the 1970s. Advertisement It was a political rivalry in a sense. In public perception, Bayern were the established power and Gladbach the younger, free-spirited challenger. The latter's informal nickname, 'the foals', is a reference to those teams and their coltish youth. But those dynamics have been embellished and do not bear much scrutiny at all — Bayern's teams of that era scored lots of goals and were full of rebellious, counter-culture characters. The rivalry was real enough, though, and games between the two have a habit of producing strange results, even today. Bayern were formed in response to pejorative attitudes towards competitive football. The club's 11 original members had originally belonged to Manner-Turn-Verein 1878 (MTV) and were the footballing department of what was principally a gymnastics club. At the beginning of the 20th century, organised gymnastics — 'turnen' — was wildly popular in Germany, and seen as a way of fostering collective, nationalistic spirit. By contrast, football was a game imported from England which bred competitive instincts many saw as vulgar. So, in February 1900, when MTV's football players moved to start playing competitive games and indicated their desire to join the local football association, their fellow members were aghast. In response to an impasse over the issue at a club meeting, the footballers walked out, went down the street to a nearby restaurant, and founded Football-Club Bayern Munchen. You can still visit the place in the city where it happened. The restaurant itself is long gone and most of the area looks very different, having been rebuilt after the bombing during the Second World War, but there's an obelisk marking the spot just a few yards from Odeonsplatz square, upon which the club's founding document is mounted. They are still majority-owned by their members. Business-world giants Audi, Adidas and Allianz each owns an 8.33 per cent stake in Bayern's football division, but the club's fans retain voting control. Bayern are a commercial powerhouse and hardly an underdog, but in a football world of sovereign wealth funds, sports washing and troubling morality, they manage to exist as a superclub without ethical quandaries. (Top photos: Getty Images; design: Kelsea Petersen)
New York Times
2 hours ago
- New York Times
Game, Set, Match: Jannik Sinner sets up Carlos Alcaraz final
Recap the men's singles semis at the 2025 French Open as top seed Sinner beat Djokovic to set up Sunday's final against Carlos Alcaraz in Paris Getty Images Jannik Sinner's classic win against Novak Djokovic saw the world No. 1 set up a mouthwatering men's singles final against Carlos Alcaraz (2) on Sunday at the 2025 French Open. Top seed Sinner beat seven-time finalist Novak Djokovic (6) in straight sets, 6-4, 7-5, 7-6(3) to make his first French Open final. Afterward, Djokovic admitted it could be his last ever match at Roland Garros. Defending champion Alcaraz reached the showpiece after Lorenzo Musetti (8) retired with an injury when down 6-4, 6-7(3), 0-6, 0-2 on Court Philippe-Chatrier. It will be the first time that Sinner and Alcaraz will meet in a Grand Slam final. The Spaniard is looking for major No. 5, while the Italian aims for his third consecutive slam. GO FURTHER Jannik Sinner's formula for mastering tennis on clay? Ignore the red brick entirely Connections: Sports Edition Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Getty Images Jannik Sinner secures the win in straight sets, 6-4, 7-5, 7-6(3). Novak Djokovic's tournament is over. His bid for 25 Grand Slam singles titles is over. At least for now. He applauds the crowd but leaves Philippe-Chatrier the vanquished rather than the vanquisher. Sinner 6-4, 7-5, 7-6(3) Djokovic Jannik Sinner, ball on his own serve, three match points to play with. And Novak Djokovic nets! Sinner 6-4, 7-5, 6-6 (*6-3) Djokovic Djokovic errs. 5-2. Fans' hands are on their faces, covering their mouths, on their heads. That's poor from Novak Djokovic. He slashes at a central forehand. Four match points to Sinner. Now three. It's reassuring in a way that the athlete who has come as close to anyone to sporting perfection can still have a weakness. Novak Djokovic will have nightmares about that missed smash if he loses this set. Getty Images Sinner 6-4, 7-5, 6-6 (4-2) Djokovic These are crucial points for Novak Djokovic. He wins two points in a row, the second of which after Sinner goes marginally long. Sinner's serve at 3-2 just before they swap ends... And Djokovic drags it wide left into the tramlines. 4-2 at the changeover. Novak Djokovic's overhead has a bit of a reputation. Not letting that bounce may be the end. Getty Images Sinner 6-4, 7-5, 6-6 (3-0*) Djokovic Novak Djokovic serves first, goes 1-0 down and concedes the serve to his opponent. Jannik Sinner slings his racket at four shots in a row, Djokovic returns three before the voltage overwhelms him. So much juice on them. 2-0. HOW has Djokovic missed that?! He plays a wonderful point, Sinner crabbing desperately behind the baseline, Djokovic can wait an age for it to drop and he shoves it into the net. Why not wait for it to bounce? He's 3-0 down. Getty Images Sinner 6-4, 7-5, 6-6* Djokovic A Mexican wave swings around Court Philippe-Chatrier! Top-level tennis isn't always this fun. But the sheer gleeful disbelief of being able to watch an encounter this good is bringing these fans so much joy. Anyway, to the tennis, as patrons hold blankets over their knees in the Parisian chill. Ace from Sinner, out wide. 15-0. Sinner misses a backhand by a mile, so uncharacteristic, 15-all. Djokovic return long, and he knows it's out as soon as he hits it. 30-15, but Sinner is thrashing at the ball a little bit, slightly overeager to wrap this up maybe, and it's wide. 30-all. Return to centre of court, Sinner disguises his intentions, forehand winner, his 25th to Djokovic's 22. Game point at 40-30. Djokovic long and we have a tiebreak! Getty Images The level here is so good, you just hope that whoever wins isn't completely destroyed physically and emotionally by the time they come to play in Sunday's final. Djokovic surely wouldn't be able to rebound after winning in five in less than 48 hours, and don't underestimate how much this will be taking out of Sinner. Even without the three-month doping ban, he's played so few matches like this in his career. Getty Images Sinner 6-4, 7-5, *5-6 Djokovic Djokovic imbues an open-body forehand with the frustration and angst and stress of around 30 years of playing tennis and it zips beyond Sinner. Massive serve and he holds. On the chair, Djokovic moans to the umpire about a Sinner serve in the previous game that was 'clearly out'. Even if this ends in a straight-set result, it's one of the highest-quality men's matches in recent times. Getty Images Sinner 6-4, 7-5, *5-5 Djokovic Djokovic 15-0. Overhand smash, he has the whole court to aim at, but with Sinner in no man's land he pulls it needlessly wide. 15-all and Djokovic grins, baring his teeth, without a shred of humour or jocularity. Djokovic rather hits it straight back to Sinner, who unleashes a sliding forehand winner from another galaxy. Andromeda, perhaps. But Sinner, on the stretch, nets and sticks his tongue out in annoyance. Three hours on the match clock now! Getty Images Sinner 6-4, 7-5, 5-5* Djokovic Djokovic, exhausted, pulls one wide. Sinner holds. Sinner unflinching and unblinking in the face of arguably the most successful men's tennis player of all time. Getty Images The crowd are so with Djokovic here, even more so after that little contretemps about a line call. Djokovic needs to harness this energy, and he knows better than pretty much anyone how to do that. Sinner 6-4, 7-5, 4-5* Djokovic Djokovic, on advantage, on break point and set point, sees the space to Sinner's left... but he overcooks it. Back to deuce. Now Djokovic's shot is called out. The umpire confirms it's out. As does HawkEye, by three millimetres, in fact. The crowd on Chatrier don't like it, though! Boos and jeers echoing around the show court. We play on, Sinner advantage. But Djokovic is enlivened by that frustration and sense of injustice and he smashes away the volley! Deuce. Nearly 10 minutes gone in this game! Serve wide to the left, returned, winner scorching to the right. Advantage Sinner again. I haven't seen Djokovic being actively coached like this in a match for... I don't even know how long. Sinner 6-4, 7-5, 4-5* Djokovic Sinner power, 15-30. I don't know if Novak Djokovic is a Bee Gees fan but he's just about Stayin' Alive out there. And he forces Sinner to go long! Two set points! Some goon in the crowd screams some nonsense and the umpire tells them off. Djokovic can only pull it high, backing off a little, and Sinner volleys it away venomously. One set point still. Not anymore! Massive serve, again pulled out of the top drawer exactly when he needed it. Deuce. Ooh, Sinner pulls it wide, advantage Novak... Nearly every tennis match has a hinge moment. This one has it now. And the thing about it is, it might not change the result — but it could change the course of the Coupe des Mousquetaires. Sinner 6-4, 7-5, 4-5* Djokovic Sinner long. 0-15. Djokovic three points from the set, but even a glimmer of light down a lengthy tunnel is greeted with widespread cheers by 15,000 people, give or take, around Philippe-Chatrier. Now then! 0-30! Sinner goes long, the decibels amp up a notch, and Djokovic pumps his fist. He's squandered positions of 0-30 several times so far this match. Can he hang on?
