logo
'Just Relax And Enjoy': Wayne Rooney's Mantra For Man United Ahead Of UEL Final

'Just Relax And Enjoy': Wayne Rooney's Mantra For Man United Ahead Of UEL Final

News1821-05-2025

Published By :
Siddarth Sriram
It is certainly a must-win game for both clubs, who are going through a horror season domestically with United and Spurs lingering at 16th and 17th place respectively.
Wayne Rooney says he is amazed by Manchester United fans, and he just wants Ruben Amorim's side to enjoy the occasion at San Mames, despite the intense pressure, and get the job done against Tottenham Hotspur in the final of the Europa League
The club's all-time leading goalscorer joined former Man Utd players Wes Brown, Andy Cole, and Denis Irwin on stage at the club's fan park in the Basque city, as he shared some advice for the team and previewed the final.
'I think there's a lot of pressure on both teams," explained the legendary striker. 'Obviously, both teams, United and Tottenham, have struggled and not had a great time in the Premier League.
'It's an opportunity for one of them to end the season on a high, with a trophy, and to get into the Champions League. So just relax and enjoy the game. If they enjoy it, they will play better," said Rooney to MUTV.
advetisement
It is certainly a must-win game for both clubs, who are going through a horror season domestically with United and Spurs lingering at 16th and 17th place respectively, as it would see some relief to their respective fanbases, given that the winner of the final automatically qualifies for the UEFA Champions League next season.
Rooney clearly enjoyed speaking in front of the supporters who still idolise him, following his trophy-laden career at United.
'The fans amaze me, really, because it's been a hard season. Over the past few seasons, it's been quite difficult. To see the fans and how they are still supporting the team, the passion and hunger to get behind the players, is incredible. To see them and be part of it here is brilliant," he added.
The last time Manchester United reached the Europa League final was in 2021 when they lost out on penalties after playing a 1-1 draw against Villarreal.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed - IANS)
First Published:
May 21, 2025, 22:34 IST

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Inter Milan gamble on novice Chivu after end of Inzaghi era
Inter Milan gamble on novice Chivu after end of Inzaghi era

Hindustan Times

timean hour ago

  • Hindustan Times

Inter Milan gamble on novice Chivu after end of Inzaghi era

Inter Milan have chosen Cristian Chivu to lead the Serie A club into a new era, confirming the former Romania defender as Simone Inzaghi's replacement ahead of the upcoming Club World Cup. Still reeling from humiliation at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final, Inter have gambled on novice Chivu after failing to get Cesc Fabregas from Como. "Inter Milan is pleased to welcome Cristian Chivu as the new head coach of the first team. The coach has signed a contract with Inter until 30 June 2027," Inter said in a statement. Chivu has agreed a deal with Inter worth a reported 2.5 million euros a season, taking charge of one of Europe's biggest clubs only a few months after beginning his senior coaching career with Parma. Parma confirmed Chivu's departure earlier on Monday, setting up his arrival at Inter where he won three Serie A titles and the 2010 Champions League as a player. Chivu was part of the iconic Inter team which won the treble under Jose Mourinho 15 years ago, a feat which the San Siro club tried and spectacularly failed to repeat this season. In total Chivu played 169 times over six seasons with Inter, and he also knows Serie A well due to the four seasons he spent at rivals Roma before moving north in 2007. The 44-year-old replaced Fabio Pechia in February and guided Parma to Serie A safety in his first job in football of any form since leaving Inter's youth set-up last summer. "I thank the club, staff, players and fans for having believed in me and our project," said Chivu on Instagram. "Together we overcame obstacles and wrote a page which will remain in my heart." Chivu's first match in charge of Inter will be against Monterrey in the Club World Cup next week, in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. He will lead a group of players who looked dead on their feet during their 5-0 hammering against PSG in the Champions League final late last month. Inzaghi left Inter in the wake of the Italians' thumping in Munich, taking the job at Saudi Pro League club Al Hilal who are also participating the Club World Cup. He had made light of serious financial problems in turning Inter into one of Europe's best teams in his four seasons at the Milan giants, but his final campaign ended in a bitter fashion and with no trophies. Inter had looked a decent bet for the Serie A, Champions League and Italian Cup treble when they booked a place in the semi-finals of Europe's top club competition by knocking out Bayern Munich. At that point Inter were three points clear at the top of Serie A, but they ended up conceding the Scudetto to Napoli on the final day of the season and were knocked out of the Italian Cup by AC Milan. That left the Champions League as Inter's only hope of a trophy but they lost in embarrassing fashion their second final in three years under Inzaghi. td/ea

Nashville grows from 'not a soccer city' to hosting Club World Cup matches
Nashville grows from 'not a soccer city' to hosting Club World Cup matches

Hindustan Times

time2 hours ago

  • Hindustan Times

Nashville grows from 'not a soccer city' to hosting Club World Cup matches

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Soccer enthusiasts in Music City once numbered so few that when a fan spotted someone with a soccer bumper sticker, they could probably recognize the car's driver. Now? Don't wave. Odds are it's a stranger. Soccer has grown by leaps and bounds from the immigrants who played at a park decades ago through semi-pro to teams drawing only a couple hundred diehard fans eager to watch. That thirst for soccer helped Nashville go from an outside chance at a Major League Soccer expansion franchise to taking the pitch February 2020 before the biggest crowd to see a match in the state of Tennessee. Now, Nashville SC will be hosting Club World Cup games at its GEODIS Park in June. Ian Ayre, hired in May 2018 as Nashville SC's first CEO and now vice chairman of the MLS team, got a quick dose of skepticism about soccer on his cab ride from the airport to his hotel on his first day in town. "The driver heard my accent and he's like, what are you doing here? I said, 'Oh, I've come here to build a soccer team,' and he started laughing. And he said, 'This isn't a soccer city.' Like that's not going to work here. Like you may as well kind of go home sort of thing. And little by little, we chipped away." Now Nashville has the largest soccer-specific venue in the U.S. The 30,000-seat venue has hosted a Leagues Cup Final with Messi booed by local fans in 2023, and Aston Villa of the Premier League visits in August. Ayre said FIFA President Gianni Infantino had only compliments for what Nashville has created. 'He said to me, 'I think it's incredible not only that you guys built this, but it feels like a truly authentic soccer experience,'' Ayre said. In the 1970s, Jose Fernandez and Fred Eckhardt helped build six soccer fields south of Nashville. Otey Smithson, now a board member of U.S. Adult Soccer, vice president of the Tennessee State Soccer Association's adult programs and a high school boys' soccer coach, grew up playing for Fernandez. "They started the transformation of soccer in Tennessee,' Smithson said. Steve Klein also played on Fernandez's fields before high school, where the soccer team often drew more fans than the football team. After college, he played for the Nashville Metros in 1998 with crowds reaching up to 2,000 for games. Klein remembers the team's owner trying to get Nashville's help building a stadium that never came for the Metros. 'His vision was a little bit earlier than what the city wanted maybe, because obviously now they've got things really rolling,' said Klein, now director of coaching and MLS Next for Pennsylvania Classics. MLS was interested in Nashville in 1999, and Devinder Sandhu asked billionaire John Ingram to invest the $3 million franchise fee. Now the principal owner of Nashville SC, Ingram's group paid $150 million for the Nashville franchise granted in December 2017. Sandhu, who played club soccer at Vanderbilt in the 1970s, helped start local youth programs, the Blues in 1978 and the Metros in 1989. The roster had players like three-time MLS Cup winner Richard Mulrooney and MLS goalkeeper Eddie Carvacho. 'It's a rocket ship that had been sitting on the launching pad for 70 years,' Sandhu said of the sport's explosive growth in Nashville. The roots kept growing in 1976 when the Tennessee State Soccer Association opened. High schools followed with sanctioned championships in 1986-87. When Hans Hobson was hired as a coach for the Olympic developmental team, practices were held at the Metros' field next to a prison. Hobson had to reassure parents it was safe to practice there. 'You were willing to take whatever,' Hobson said. "We've kind of gotten kind of snobby now. ... 'Why are we playing on this field? It's ratty, it doesn't have enough grass.' When we were growing up, we'd take whatever we could get.' Now the executive director of the state soccer association, Hobson says Tennessee had approximately 35,000 registered players when he was hired about 14 years ago. Now? That's the number for the Nashville area alone, not counting independent groups or adults. USA Soccer also helped with the U.S. women first playing in Nashville at Nissan Stadium, home to the NFL's Tennessee Titans, in 2004. They are 5-0-1 all-time in Nashville with their latest game here in February 2023 at GEODIS Park. The U.S. men's national team didn't play in Nashville until 2009 and are 5-2-2 all-time. Rain led fans to stand for that 2009 game featuring a then-19-year-old Jozy Altidore and again through a 2011 match. Clay Trainum, founder of the Nashville Soccer Archives, worked as a press officer for the U.S. team for the 2011 match against Paraguay. He said fans standing alerted people nationally to the local interest in soccer. 'I think that that kind of queued off, whether subconsciously in folks' heads, 'If we can do this right, we can find a community that will support this team,'' Trainum said. Cindy Parlow Cone, president of the U.S. Soccer Federation, is a native of Memphis claimed by Nashville soccer folks as one of their own. Mulrooney coaches the Memphis men's soccer team, while Stanford coach Jeremy Gunn played for the Metros in 1998. Klein coached U.S. national team star Christian Pulisic both with the Pennsylvania Classics and the U.S. youth national team. 'The tentacles have grown so much, and it's amazing to see where it started,' Smithson said. Tailgating is key piece of American-style football in the South, and that's become a tradition for Nashville SC and the Backline featuring seven different supporters' groups now. Stephen Robinson, president of the Roadies' group between 2020 and 2023, recalls getting permission to tailgate with a friend in the parking lot at Vanderbilt University for Nashville SC games. Now he commutes to Nashville from Washington D.C. for games with people he considers family. 'There's way more than two people nowadays, but you get that sense of just being a part of something,' Robinson said. They do more than just party before matches and chant and sing through games. The Roadies, a non-profit group, help fund local youth soccer through Soccer for the Nations in an outreach started when one of their founders, Kyle Mountsier, took soccer balls to Haiti in 2014. 'We're the dumb idiots that want to make a city better," said Newton Dominey, a Roadies founder and original president in 2014. Nashville is hardly alone among Southern locales embracing soccer culture. In North Carolina, the North Carolina Courage in the National Women's Soccer League has an enthusiastic fan base. Charlotte FC, which joined Major League Soccer in 2022, averaged 33,383 fans per game last year. The Southern love of soccer extends beyond the pro teams. The University of North Carolina women's soccer team has won a staggering 23 national championships and regularly ranks in the top 10 in average home attendance. Nashville missed out on the 2026 World Cup with the Titans building an enclosed stadium, taking the only venue big enough to host Cup matches off the market. That opens in 2027, and yes, Nashville wants the 2031 Women's World Cup with Ayre helping recruit future events. Add to that a NWSL team to the list. Ron Deal, among the founders of the Nashville Roadies' supporters group, is among those confident that is coming: 'We will have a professional women's soccer team. ... I'm disappointed it hasn't happened yet." Soccer Writer Anne M. Peterson contributed. soccer: /hub/soccer

Chelsea FC sign French defender Mamadou Sarr from sister club Strasbourg
Chelsea FC sign French defender Mamadou Sarr from sister club Strasbourg

Business Standard

time5 hours ago

  • Business Standard

Chelsea FC sign French defender Mamadou Sarr from sister club Strasbourg

Chelsea signed a top young player from its sister club by bringing in French teenage defender Mamadou Sarr from Strasbourg on Monday. AP London Chelsea signed a top young player from its sister club by bringing in French teenage defender Mamadou Sarr from Strasbourg on Monday. Strasbourg, which plays in France's top league, is owned by the consortium led by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital that bought Chelsea in 2022. The 19-year-old Sarr is a France under-20 international who was a regular last season as Strasbourg finished in seventh place to seal a place in the Conference League playoffs. He was previously at Lens and Lyon. Chelsea won the Conference League last season and will play in the Champions League after finishing in fourth place in the Premier League. Strasbourg was bought by Chelsea's ownership group, BlueCo, in 2023. Chelsea said Sarr had signed a contract until 2033 but didn't disclose the transfer fee. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store