Spanish small forward Hugo Gonzalez is a perfect fit for the Boston Celtics
While he does not yet have a clear-cut, Association-level skill to his repertoire, the Madrid native has one of the highest motors we have ever seen a player maintain on the court, and the athleticism and strength to make good use of it against some of the best competition in the world.
Simone and LaFrance take some time on a recent episode to highlight what it was that likely got the Celtics front office to take the European forward in the first round. Check it out below!
If you enjoy this pod, check out the "How Bout Them Celtics," "First to the Floor," and the many other New England sports podcasts available on the CLNS Media network: https://ytubl.ink/3Ffk
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NBC Sports
25 minutes ago
- NBC Sports
USMNT-eligible players in Europe: Latest transfers, current homes of American men's players abroad
European club football is kicking into gear for the 2025-26 season, with USMNT-eligible players all over the continent including several in the Premier League. Tyler Adams, Antonee Robinson, and Chris Richards have become fixtures in their PL clubs' fixtures, and several new faces have joined them abroad this summer. MORE — All Premier League transfers so far this summer Gold Cup breakout star Patrick Agyemang has signed by Championship side Derby County, while fellow young striker Damion Downs is in the same division following a transfer to Southampton. Timothy Weah has swapped Italy for France and a new spot at Marseille, while goalkeeper Matt Turner's hopped from Nottingham Forest for Lyon. Elsewhere, Malik Tillman is back in Germany after Bayer Leverkusen splashed the cash to relocate him from PSV Eindhoven. Below, see all of the current spots of the Americans players abroad in some of Europe's top leagues. USMNT-eligible players in Europe Brenden Aaronson, Leeds United Tyler Adams, Bournemouth Matai Akinmboni, Bournemouth Luca Koleosho, Burnley Chris Richards, Crystal Palace Antonee Robinson, Fulham Gabriel 'Gaga' Slonina, Chelsea Championship Patrick Agyemang, Derby County George Campbell, West Bromwich Albion Daryl Dike, West Bromwich Albion Damion Downs, Southampton Ethan Horvath, Cardiff City Aidan Morris, Middlesbrough Josh Sargent, Norwich City Caleb Wiley, Watford (on loan from Chelsea) Haji Wright, Coventry City Tyler Adams, #12 of AFC Bournemouth, is tackled by Iliman Ndiaye, #10 of Everton F.C., during the Emirates FA Cup Fourth Round match between Everton and Bournemouth at Goodison Park in Liverpool, England, on February 8, 2025. (Photo by MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images) NurPhoto via Getty Images Paxten Aaronson, Eintracht Frankfurt Noahkai Banks, Augsburg Cole Campbell, Borussia Dortmund Timothy Chandler, Eintracht Frankfurt Kristoffer Lund, Koln (on loan from Palermo) Lennard Maloney, Mainz Kevin Paredes, Wolfsburg Giovanni Reyna, Borussia Dortmund James Sands, St. Pauli (on loan from NYCFC) Joe Scally, Borussia Monchengladbach Malik Tillman, Bayer Leverkusen John Brooks, Hertha Berlin Santiago Castaneda, Paderborn Maximilian Dietz, Greuther Furth Johan Gomez, Eintracht Braunschweig Julian Green, Greuther Furth John Tolkin, Holstein Kiel Weston McKennie, Juventus Yunus Musah, AC Milan Christian Pulisic, AC Milan Gianluca Busio, Venezia Jonathan Klinsmann, Cesena Andriya Novakovich, Venezia STADIO GIUSEPPE MEAZZA, MILANO, ITALY - 2024/09/14: Christian Pulisic of Ac Milan celebrates after scoring a goal during the Serie A football match between Ac Milan and Venezia Fc. Ac Milan wins 4-0 over Venezia Fc. (Photo by Marco Canoniero/LightRocket via Getty Images) LightRocket via Getty Images Ligue 1 - France Matt Turner, Lyon Folarin Balogun, AS Monaco Mark McKenzie, Toulouse Jordan Pefok, Reims Tanner Tessmann, Lyon Timothy Weah, Marseille Johnny Cardoso, Atletico Madrid Segunda Division Jonathan Gomez, Albacete (on loan from PAOK Thessaloniki) Taylor Booth, Twente Sergino Dest, PSV Eindhoven Ricardo Pepi, PSV Eindhoven Cameron Carter-Vickers, Celtic Dante Polvara, Aberdeen Jonathan Tomkinson, Norwich City Auston Trusty, Celtic Jonathan Amon, Velje Boldklub Matthew Hoppe, Sønderjyske Andres Jasson, Aalborg George Bello, LASK Linz Quincy Butler, WSC Tirol Michael Lansing, Kristiansund Marlon Fossey, Standard Liege Julian Placias, Westerlo Bryan Reynolds, Westerlo Griffin Yow, Westerlo Kahven Zahiroleslam, Sint-Truden Nicholas Gioacchini, Asteras Tripolis Erik Palmer-Brown, Panathinaikos Rokas Pukstas, Hajduk Split Konrad de la Fuente, Lausanne
New York Times
2 hours ago
- New York Times
Giovanni Leoni: Italy's next great defensive hope is ready to learn from Virgil van Dijk at Liverpool
It was winter in the Spanish capital. Fabio Cannavaro was leaving Real Madrid's training ground when a stranger flagged him down. An autograph hunter, he thought. A piece of paper was produced from a pocket. But there was no pen to apply the accompanying signature. Instead, he was presented with what turned out to be a business card. Cannavaro saw the red lettering of France Football, the magazine behind the Ballon d'Or. Their reporter asked if he could get in the Italian defender's car. He was insistent. The vote for that year's award was happening in real time and a tipping point had been reached. Advertisement He thought Cannavaro was going to win. Cannavaro thought it was a joke. This was 2006 and, only a few months earlier, Cannavaro had captained his country to World Cup final glory. Still, he didn't think much of his chances. Zinedine Zidane's red card in that final gave him a shot. But a defender had never won the award, given to the world's best footballer over the previous year (and none have since). Franco Baresi had come second in 1989, Paolo Maldini 'only' third in 1994. But it was to be different for Cannavaro. During that tournament in Germany, he earned the nickname 'The Berlin Wall'. As the fourth and, so far, final Italian to collect the Ballon d'Or and the most recent man to skipper the country's national team to victory at a World Cup, Cannavaro is often asked about Italy's travails. Why have they gone from winning the greatest tournament of all to not even qualifying for the finals in 2018 and 2022? On some occasions, he has been critical: Italy has lost itself. It has tried to be different when it does not need to be ashamed of its football DNA. In others, he has been more diplomatic: football is cyclical and, sooner or later, a new generation will bring renewed competitiveness. Giovanni Leoni, the Parma centre-back on his way to Liverpool for an initial £26million ($35.3m), was born less than a month after Cannavaro was presented with the Ballon d'Or in November 2006, so he is too young to have seen him in his prime. Aged only three when Italy's defence of their title ended in a bottom-of-the-table and winless group-stage exit from South Africa 2010 (a point below New Zealand), he was seven when they made it to their most recent World Cup in Brazil, again going out after three first-phase games, beating England but losing to Uruguay and Costa Rica. In truth, producing defenders such as Leoni has never been an issue for Italy in the meantime. It's the Baggios, Tottis, Vieris and Del Pieros they have lacked. Advertisement Leoni, who after only 14 starts in Serie A is already being hastily talked about as a future captain of Italy, grew up in the era of the BBC defence — Leonardo Bonucci, Andrea Barzagli and Giorgio Chiellini — at Juventus. They have been succeeded by Alessandro Bastoni and a late bloomer in Francesco Acerbi as a pair at Inter. It has been a time of European Championship finals lost (2012) and won (2021) and Italian back lines being the bedrock of Champions League runners-up in 2015, 2017, 2023 and 2025. Only one of those great centre-backs played outside of Italy going into their peak years. The reason for that is quite simple. For many Italians, it doesn't get any bigger than playing for one of their country's big three. Few stages are greater than San Siro. Few clubs, historically, guarantee you success like Juventus. Cannavaro, for instance, only moved to Madrid on the back of that World Cup, the Calciopoli scandal and Juventus' subsequent relegation. Chiellini and Bonucci departed Turin in their twilight years for experiences in Los Angeles (for Chiellini) and Berlin then Istanbul. The exception is Barzagli, and it's Barzagli to whom one Italian sporting director, speaking on the condition of anonymity, compares Leoni. A squad player at that 2006 World Cup and a member of the Wolfsburg team that upset the odds to win the German Bundesliga three years later, the Tuscan heart-throb, now a pundit and wine-maker, was Andrea Agnelli's favourite signing throughout his chairmanship of Juventus — and not just because he cost as little as €300,000 (£258,000; $350,000 at the curent rates) in January 2011. Chiellini and Bonucci were already at the club when Barzagli arrived a few months before his 30th birthday. Juventus were floundering, finishing seventh for a second season running, and wouldn't start a nine-year Scudetto winning streak until Antonio Conte was appointed and Andrea Pirlo arrived from Milan on a free that summer. Advertisement But within Juventus, Barzagli continues to be recognised as a foundational piece. He is lesser spotted than Chiellini and Bonucci, and yet both credit him with making them better centre-backs. Both bow to him. When Barzagli retired in 2019, Juventus' manager at the time, Max Allegri, called him 'the professor of defenders'. It chimed nicely with Jose Mourinho's comment about the club being the Harvard of defending. And so for Leoni to draw comparisons with Barzagli at only 18 is no faint praise. It is rare for the big three in Italy to let a talent like him get away, and perhaps there is a parallel to be drawn with Marco Verratti here. Paris Saint-Germain gazumped Juventus in 2012 and Verratti, then a 19-year-old at second-division Pescara, never looked back. Is that what's happening with Leoni? On the one hand, the powerlessness to stop his move reflects the financial state of Serie A and the gulf in spending power between Italy's elite and their English peers. Serie A clubs have spent €860million (£742m; $1bn) gross so far this summer. A fair amount. Premier League teams, though, have cut cheques for nearly €2.4bn… At the same time, better choices could have been made by the domestic candidates for Leoni's signature. For example, the commitment made by Juventus' old sporting director Cristiano Giuntoli to sign Lloyd Kelly from Newcastle is one to rue. In that they only have themselves to blame. On the other hand, England is no longer the road less travelled for Italian players. It is more and more the direction of travel, especially for the young. If, like Leoni, Cannavaro had been playing for Parma in 2025 instead of 2002, his next move would probably have been to the Premier League, not Inter. The financial pull is too great but, regardless of the economics at play, it is where up-and-coming Italians are being encouraged to test themselves. When champions Italy were eliminated from Euro 2024 at the round-of-16 stage last summer, their coach at the time, Luciano Spalletti, said if the opportunity presents itself to go abroad, particularly to England, then Italians need to seize it. They'll be better for it, he argued, such is the standard and competitiveness. Flash forward 13 months and the Premier League has never been able to count on so many. Sandro Tonali, Riccardo Calafiori, Federico Chiesa, Michael Kayode, Luca Koleosho, Wilfried Gnonto, Diego Coppola, Guglielmo Vicario, Destiny Udogie. Maybe Gianluigi Donnarumma soon. This should be a source of optimism in their homeland. Advertisement Kayode, who got the only goal of the final when Italy won the Under-19 Euros two years ago, was an under-the-radar signing by Brentford from Fiorentina on an initial loan in January. Coppola, a 21-year-old who plays the same position as Leoni, has been picked up this summer by Brighton. Both signing clubs are renowned for talent identification. As for Liverpool, well, their reputation in that regard precedes them. Leoni's rise, it must be said, has been stratospheric — so rapid, he has played just eight times for Italy at youth levels. He is the son of a banker and a physiotherapist, who both played water polo to a high level. One of his brothers, Edoardo, has followed in their wet footsteps and also competes in that sport in Italy's second division. A sporty family, they fostered a basketball player, Mahamadou Diarra, who made it onto their local professional team, Petrarca. Leoni is their only footballer. He made his debut for Padova, then in the third tier, at 16, showing himself to be even more precocious than Alessandro Del Piero, the future Italy great who came through at the same club as a teenager in the very early 1990s. One of Leoni's role models around then was Smalldini. No, not Paolo Maldini, who he never saw play. For the uninitiated, 'Smalldini' is the nickname bestowed upon Chris Smalling during the Englishman's head-anything-that-comes-into-the-box phase with Roma at the start of this decade. The other? One of his new team-mates at Anfield, a certain Virgil van Dijk. Even amid their current dysfunction, Sampdoria spotted Leoni early and snapped him up in February last year. Pirlo, their coach at the time, quickly brought him into a promotion-chasing first team where Leoni, benefiting from some injuries to more senior players, partnered 22-year-old Daniele Ghilardi. Although Sampdoria didn't go up that summer, Leoni and Ghilardi did. One joining Parma, the other Verona. Ghilardi played more regularly last season, next to the aforementioned Coppola. They clocked up more than 2,000 Serie A minutes each; Leoni, by contrast, scraped to just over a thousand in 17 appearances. For now, Coppola is the only one of them to have been capped at senior level, but neither of the Verona duo made the impression Leoni did when he established himself in the Parma team under Fabio Pecchia, then stayed here when Cristian Chivu took over in February. Leoni stood out for defending one-v-one and winning duels in big open spaces. Advertisement Such was the impression he made in a short space of time, it came as no surprise when Chivu, a former centre-back himself, expressed his desire to bring the kid with him to Inter, where he replaced Simone Inzaghi there earlier this summer. While Leoni can improve in terms of guile and edge in his own penalty area, the prevailing sense is that he has what it takes to partner Bastoni at international level in the near future. No doubt, the likes of Arsenal's Calafiori and Alessandro Buongiorno at Napoli will have something to say about that. Both of them, unfortunately for them, are injury-prone. Leoni, so far, is not. In moving to Liverpool, the talented teenager addresses both immediate and long-term needs; a combination that perhaps makes it the ideal time and place for him to develop and learn from one of his heroes, a now 34-year-old Van Dijk. Leoni means Lions in Italian. It is a surname that calls to mind one of the most famous (now defunct) ultras groups in Italy, the Fossa dei Leoni at Milan, which translates as The Lions' Den. We'll have to see if that's what Liverpool's penalty area becomes in the Leoni era: a place to fear, a place nobody gets near. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle
USA Today
2 hours ago
- USA Today
2025-26 Houston Rockets complete schedule, broadcast information
Starting with a highly anticipated regular-season opener in Oklahoma City, here's where you can watch each game of Houston's 2025-26 NBA season. The NBA's complete 2025-26 season schedule has arrived — and with it, the ability to plan for at least seven months of Houston Rockets basketball. For the Rockets, it begins with a four-game preseason slate in early October before transitioning to the 82-game, regular-season grind on Tuesday, Oct. 21. In a matchup of the top-two teams from last season's Western Conference standings, that opener at Oklahoma City takes place on 2024-25 championship ring night for the Thunder. For Kevin Durant, who leads the new-look Rockets, it will be a reunion night with the franchise where he played eight elite seasons earlier in his Hall of Fame career. Starting with that NBA on NBC opener in Oklahoma City, Houston will have 28 nationally televised games. The list includes four on ABC; seven on Amazon Prime; six on ESPN; seven on NBC; and four on Peacock. Of that total, 15 will be exclusively national broadcasts. The Rockets' local broadcast partner, Space City Home Network (SCHN), will air Houston's entire preseason schedule along with all regular-season games that are not exclusive to national TV. Each game will also be available on the team's radio broadcast home, SportsTalk 790 KBME and NewsRadio 740 KTRH, as well as in Spanish on TUDN 93.3 FM. Nationally, most games will be available to stream on NBA League Pass. For fans wanting to attend in person, tickets can be purchased at Of the 82 regular-season games, 80 are currently known. Two will be added between Dec. 9-16, pending Emirates NBA Cup 2024 results. Going month by month, here is the complete schedule. All tipoff times are Central. Preseason October 2025 November 2025 December 2025 January 2026 February 2026 March 2026 April 2026 More: Key takeaways as Rockets learn complete 2025-26 season schedule
