Real Madrid signs young left back Álvaro Carreras from Benfica on a 6-year deal
Madrid said the 22-year-old Carreras is arriving on a six-year contract. Financial details of the transfer were not immediately released.
Carreras played in Madrid's youth academy from 2017-20. The Spaniard joined Benfica from Manchester United after being named the English club's best under-23 player of the 2021-22 season. He won this year's Portuguese League Cup with Benfica.
Carreras will be officially introduced by Madrid on Tuesday.
Madrid was eliminated by Paris Saint-Germain in the semifinals of the Club World Cup. Madrid had a disappointing season by its standards, finishing runner-up to rival Barcelona in La Liga and being eliminated in the quarterfinals of the Champions League despite having signed France star Kylian Mbappé last summer.
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Winnipeg Free Press
5 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Phil Mickelson and Lee Westwood lead surprising days of the ‘older gentlemen' at British Open
PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland (AP) — Phil Mickelson delivered more magic Thursday in the British Open, leaving one shot in a bunker and holing the next one from 75 feet away for an unlikely par. He tipped his cap. He gave a thumbs-up to the crowd. It looked like the Mickelson of old, especially with all that gray stubble in his beard. Mickelson, who opened with a 1-under 70 at Royal Portrush, already holds the major championship record for oldest winner, capturing the 2021 PGA Championship at Kiawah Island when he was 50. Now he's at the oldest championship in golf, the one that least discriminates against age. The Open is where 53-year-old Greg Norman had the lead going into the final round at Royal Birkdale in 2008, and more famously where 59-year-old Tom Watson was an 8-foot putt away from winning at Turnberry in 2009. 'The Open gives the older gentlemen a chance to win more than any other tournament,' 52-year-old Lee Westwood said after a day in which he was tied for the lead early in the round until a few bogeys dropped him back to a 69. Westwood is playing the British Open for the first time since he joined Saudi-funded LIV Golf in 2022, going through final regional qualifying three weeks ago to earn a spot in the field. He has yet to win in LIV Golf and his results would suggest he is riding out the rest of his career. And then he showed up at the major he first played in 1995 — Scottie Scheffler was not even born then — and found some form. Links golf helps. 'There's not the premium on carrying traps. They don't make it unplayable for us older guys with length,' Westwood said. 'You can use your experience, guile and cunning on them.' Westwood tripped over his words on the Sky Sports interview and then added, 'Not easy to say, but easy to use at our age.' Mickelson, who has not won since that historic day at Kiawah Island, had missed the cut in all three majors this year. At age 55, he still has six more years playing the British Open as a champion at Muirfield in 2013. He started strong with a deft touch with his wedge to easy birdie range on the par-5 second, but the real Lefty showed up on the next hole when he put his tee shot into a bunker, plugged and not far from the steep lip. The first attempt barely got out, rolling on the edge of grass before tumbling back into the bunker. It looked like a bogey at best. But then he splashed out, carrying it some 25 yards and about 10 feet to the left, and the shot had enough side spin to drop into the cup. He raised both arms. Mickelson loves moments like these, and he's had plenty of them. 'That was a crazy one,' Mickelson said. 'It was really one of maybe two poor shots I hit, that bunker shot that buried in the lip. And then to make it was obviously a lot of luck. I was just trying to save bogey, and I got lucky it went in.' And then his name stayed on the leaderboard the rest of the morning — a birdie on the par-5 seventh, a couple of bogeys on the back nine, a 20-foot birdie on the 17th hole. Mickelson had gone 21 consecutive rounds in a major without breaking par until Thursday in the British Open. Sure, he had the advantage of missing the rain for all but the last couple of holes. But it was good golf. It's still there. 'I played really well, and I had an opportunity,' he said. 'I really enjoy playing these conditions and playing this tournament. It's just a lot of fun.' Not all of the 50-and-older gang had the best of times. Padraig Harrington, coming off his win in the U.S. Senior Open, had the honor and thrill of hitting the opening tee shot. He made birdie on the first hole. That was the highlight on his card when he signed for a 74. Thursdays Keep up to date on sports with Mike McIntyre's weekly newsletter. 'I got a little emotional when I was clapped on, and then I calmed down, and I was kind of fine when I was hitting it,' Harrington said. He three-putted two straight holes and had a lost ball on No. 10. It was an otherwise forgettable day, except for the unforgettable start of hitting the first shot. 'Yeah, it was a tough day on the greens, and it just ate into my game,' he said. 'Might have been a little bit of the fact that I was hyped up for the first tee box. Who knows? Certainly felt like I played better, could have played better, should have played better.' ___ AP golf:
Winnipeg Free Press
35 minutes ago
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Dubois says he's ‘the man' and vows to take Usyk's belts in rematch at Wembley
LONDON (AP) — Daniel Dubois said he's 'going to be the man' when he fights Oleksandr Usyk with all of the major world heavyweight belts on the line Saturday. The boxers met Thursday for what was a tame final press conference ahead of their rematch at Wembley Stadium. Dubois, who holds the IBF belt, turned away criticism from Usyk's camp that the Briton hasn't evolved since their first fight nearly two years ago. Usyk won in a ninth-round stoppage. 'Right now, I just want to get it on. I'm going to write my own script. I'm going to win these belts,' Dubois said. 'I'm going to be the man.' Usyk, the WBA, WBC and WBO champion, thumbed rosary beads as he listened to responses from both camps. The undefeated Ukrainian can become a three-time undisputed world champion. He did so as a cruiserweight, and at heavyweight for the first time by beating Tyson Fury in May 2024. He later relinquished his IBF title — which Dubois (22-2, 21 KOs) inherited — to focus on a Fury rematch. 'I respect this guy, this young guy,' said Usyk, who was 11 years older than Dubois. 'I'm not old guy, 38 is not old. We will see Saturday.' Usyk (23-0, 14 KOs) also seemed pleased to pepper his responses with the phrase, 'Don't push the horses.' Dubois' trainer, Don Charles replied: 'I need a translator.' The last British heavyweight to hold every major belt was Lennox Lewis 25 years ago. ___ AP boxing:
Winnipeg Free Press
35 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Why the US might finally start calling soccer ‘football'
It is the world's most popular sport and yet there is still debate over what it should actually be called. Is it football or soccer? U.S. President Donald Trump waded into the topic while at the Club World Cup final in New Jersey last Sunday. He joked that he could pass an executive order to bring the United States in line with much of the rest of the world and ensure that from now on Americans refer to it as football. 'I think I could do that,' he said with a smile during an interview with host broadcaster DAZN. It was a light-hearted comment, but at a time when the U.S. is playing an increasingly significant role in soccer the question of why Americans continue to call it by a different name to the one by which it is most commonly known has been raised again. 'They call it football, we call it soccer. I'm not sure that change could be made very easily,' Trump said. Soccer keeps growing in the U.S. and so does its influence on the sport. It is co-hosting the men's World Cup with Canada and Mexico next year — the third year in a row that it stages a major tournament after the 2024 Copa America and this summer's Club World Cup. Other factors are keeping soccer more often in the U.S. consciousness — and perhaps they will make saying 'football' more commonplace in a tough sporting landscape. One of the greatest players of all time, Lionel Messi, plays for MLS team Inter Miami; the popularity of the Premier League and Champions League is booming; and the documentary series 'Welcome to Wrexham' about a low-level Welsh club co-owned by Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, has attracted new eyeballs. Don't blame Americans for calling it soccer Despite 'soccer' being widely associated with the U.S., it is commonly accepted that the word was actually coined in Britain, perhaps as far back as the 1880s. The exact date when it was first used is not known, but it is believed 'soccer' was derived from 'association football,' which was the first official name of the sport. The charity English Heritage says the nickname may have first been used by pupils at the iconic Harrow School to 'distinguish the new association game from their older pursuit, known as 'footer.'' Numerous versions of football began to flourish, often involving handling a ball more than kicking it. One example dating back to the 1600s and still played today in England is Royal Shrovetide. Rugby is another example. The English Football Association was created in 1863 and drew up codified rules for associated football to set it apart from other versions being played elsewhere in Britain and, from there, soccer as we know it was born. Dr. Stefan Szymanski, a professor of sport management at the University of Michigan, wrote the book 'It's Football, Not Soccer (And Vice Versa)' and explored the origins of the name. In a lecture to the American University of Beirut in 2019 he said soccer was 'very clearly a word of English/British origin.' 'And bear in mind that the name 'association football' doesn't really appear until the 1870s,' he said, 'so it appears really very early on in the history of the game and the word 'soccer' has been used over and over again since it was coined at the end of the 19th century.' Soccer was a commonly used term in Britain 'Soccer' is not a commonly used term in Britain these days but that has not always been the case. It was the title of a popular Saturday morning television show, 'Soccer AM,' which ran from 1994 to 2023 on the Premier League's host broadcaster Sky Sports. England great and 1966 World Cup winner Bobby Charlton ran popular schools for decades, titled 'Bobby Charlton's Soccer School.' And Matt Busby — Manchester United's iconic manager who won the 1968 European Cup — titled his autobiography, which was published in 1974, 'Soccer at the Top, My Life in Football.' That book title suggests the terms 'soccer' and 'football' were interchangeable in British culture at that time. Perhaps the word 'soccer' isn't the real problem Szymanski suggested the problem some people have with 'soccer' isn't the word at all. But rather that it is specifically used in America. 'It's when Americans use this word that we get the outpourings of distress and horror, and one of the most popular thoughts that people throw at this is to say that American football is not really football,' he said in his lecture. He argued that given the overwhelming popularity of the NFL in the U.S. it makes perfect sense to differentiate between soccer and its own version of football. Not just Americans call it soccer The use of the word 'soccer' is a bit more confused in other countries. Australia, which has its own Australian rules football along with both rugby codes, commonly uses the term and its national men's team are known as the Socceroos. It's soccer federation, however, is called Football Australia. It's a similar situation in Ireland, where Gaelic football is popular. The term 'soccer' is used but the national soccer team is still governed by a body called the Football Association of Ireland. Canada, like the U.S. simply calls it soccer, which clearly distinguishes it from the NFL and Canadian Football League. Thursdays Keep up to date on sports with Mike McIntyre's weekly newsletter. The Associated Press stylebook says soccer is the preferred term in the U.S. but notes that 'around the world the sport is referred to as football.' ___ James Robson is at ___ AP soccer:
