Copenhagen enter race to sign Celtic's Taylor
Copenhagen have joined Greek side PAOK in the race to sign Celtic defender Greg Taylor. (Scottish Sun), externalRangers face competition from 25 other clubs around Europe for out-of-contract Peterborough winger Kwame Poku. (Daily Record), externalEnglish Championship clubs Norwich City, Birmingham City and Wrexham are all interested in Rangers target Harry Darling, whose contract at Swansea City expires at the end of the month. (Scottish Sun), externalDanny Armstrong has had "options from all over the world" since deciding to leave Kilmarnock amid reported interest from Hearts. (Scottish Sun), externalHaving left his role as Rangers assistant after just five months, Issame Charai is now favourite to become head coach at Belgian club Westerlo. (The National), externalHearts goalkeeper Craig Gordon hopes new manager Derek McInnes can replicate the impact George Burley had on the club at the start of the 2005-06 season. (Daily Record), externalNew Dundee head coach Steven Pressley says the club must develop their own talent given the financial gulf to clubs throughout the English pyramid. (The Courier), external
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Scotsman
10 minutes ago
- Scotsman
Former Rangers star appointed new head coach of Italian national team
47 y/o 'symbol of Italian football' handed top job Sign up to our Football newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Former Rangers midfielder Gennaro Gattuso has been appointed Italy head coach. The Italian Football Federation (FIGC) announced the 47-year-old had been handed the reins following Luciano Spalletti's departure. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad A statement on the FIGC's official website said: 'The Italian Football Federation announces that it has appointed Gennaro Gattuso as head coach of the Italian national team. The Calabrian coach will be presented on Thursday 19 June at 11am at the Hotel Parco dei Principi in Rome.' Former Rangers midfielder Gennaro Gattuso has been appointed the new head coach of Italy. (Photo by) | Getty Images Spalletti revealed in the wake of a 3-0 World Cup qualifier defeat in Norway on June 6 that last Monday's home clash with Moldova, which Italy won 2-0, would be his last at the helm. Former Leicester boss Cladio Ranieri said he had rejected the job as the FIGC looked for Spalletti's successor and it has ultimately turned to 73-cap midfielder Gattuso, a World Cup winner in 2006. President Gabriele Gravina said: 'Gattuso is a symbol of Italian football. The blue is like a second skin for him. His motivation, his professionalism and his experience will be essential to better face the next commitments of the national team. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'Aware of the importance of the goal we want to achieve, I thank him for the availability and total dedication with which he has accepted this challenge, sharing the FIGC's project for the overall development of our football, in which the Azzurri jersey plays a strategic role.' Gennaro Gattuso signs for Rangers in July 1997. | SNS Group 0141 221 3602 Gattuso enjoyed a glittering playing career which included spells with Rangers and Salernitana before a 13-year stint with AC Milan which brought two Champions League successes and two Serie A titles among a host of honours. He joined Rangers under Walter Smith in 1997 and made 49 appearances across a 15-month spell before being sold by Dick Advocaat. His managerial career to date has taken him back to Milan, Napoli, Valencia and Marseille and he left his most recent post at Croatian club Hajduk Split earlier this month. Gattuso inherits an squad which lie in third place in World Cup qualifying Group I after their opening two fixtures, with Norway top having taken a maximum 12 points from their four games to date and Israel second on six after three fixtures.
The Independent
11 minutes ago
- The Independent
Tatjana Maria crowned queen of Queen's as women's tournament celebrates triumphant return
Fifty-two years ago Olga Morozova was the last woman to lift the Queen's trophy. Her stint as defending champion lasted until Tatjana Maria lifted an enormous new trophy – the old one lost to the mists of time – on Sunday. It crowned a week in which the traditions of one of tennis' most hallowed tournaments merged with the contemporary drive to push women's sport to ever-greater heights. This time a year ago there was outrage from some quarters at the thought the women would return to Queen's after a fifty-year absence. Members of the prestigious west London club objected to their facilities being taken out of action for even longer than usual; there were concerns over wear on the grass ahead of the men's event. A bloc of Queen's members even attempted to force the board to resign over the concept of dragging the tournament into the 21st century. If that felt hideously backward last year, it appears even more near-sighted today, after a triumphant week for the rejuvenated women's event. (Even the British weather largely cooperated, barring a couple of rain delays early on.) And it felt fitting that the tournament's debut would have two trailblazers, in different ways, in the final. The surprise package of the week has been qualifier Tatjana Maria. A 37-year-old veteran of the tour, she took two breaks from the game to have daughters Charlotte, 11, and Cecilia, four, who accompany her – along with her coach-husband Charles-Edouard – to every tournament. The German reached the semi-finals of Wimbledon in 2022 but hasn't found the same level since, enduring a nine-match losing streak before coming to Queen's. 'It's the perfect example to never give up and always keep going, because I'm still here and living this dream,' she said on Friday. It certainly is. On the other side of the net was 23-year-old Amanda Anisimova, a former teenage prodigy, who showcased her incredible potential with a run to the French Open semi-finals aged just 17. Tennis abounds with cautionary tales of young stars who burn brightly and then burn out; Anisimova, struggling with the stress of life on tour, took a break in 2023 to look after her mental health and rediscover who she was. Taking a step back worked wonders, and she has reached new heights since her return, winning her maiden WTA 1000 title earlier this year and moving up to a career-high ranking of 15th. World No 86 Maria was the underdog by ranking going into this final. Then again, she has been in every match she has played this week, but her guile and experience have seen her through. The low bounce of grass perfectly suits her crafty, unconventional game, built on a slice that has been confounding the world's best players all week. She dispatched 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina and Australian Open champion Madison Keys in the quarter- and semi-finals; she rapidly got on top of Anisimova, a player with a similar power-hitting style. Maria denied Anisimova any rhythm, taking all the pace off the ball, and earned a chance to break early with a crunching topspin forehand. She took the chance and raced to a 4-1 lead in 15 minutes, with Anisimova already baffled at how to deal with this most bamboozling of opponents. The young American's formidable groundstrokes helped get her back on serve, but she could not build any momentum, and Maria immediately broke back, holding to love to seal the first set. The German – now the oldest WTA 500 finalist, and oldest champion – broke at the start of the second, her ability to mix slice and spin with a deft touch at the net continuing to get the better of her big-hitting opponent. One point, on Maria's serve at 2-1, summed up the match: Anisimova fired down smash after smash, only for Maria to dig each one out at the baseline, before the American eventually hit long. She looked on the verge of tears. Maria held after a mammoth 20-point game, then broke again, picking up a backhand volley that was mere millimetres away from bouncing twice to seal it. Anisimova reduced her deficit to just one break and stuck with the German in the latter stages of the set, but there was no getting past an inspired Maria. The American blasted a forehand wide on championship point, and Maria sealed the biggest singles title of her career, 6-3, 6-4. 'I wouldn't be surprised to see you in the Wimbledon final,' Anisimova said afterwards, jokingly adding, 'I think that bigger champagne bottle is for me, because I need it more.' Maria, whose speed and agility on the court belied her age, jumped for joy and raced to celebrate with her family – although her four-year-old may have missed the moment of her mother's biggest triumph, sleeping peacefully in the player's box. 'Queen of Queens', the 37-year-old wrote on the camera lens. Both players thanked the appreciative crowds, Anisimova adding, 'For you to come out and support women's tennis so much, it means a lot'. The crowd has certainly got behind the new tournament: around 80% of tickets were sold ahead of the first day's action, with the Andy Murray Arena filled to bursting on quarter-finals day on Friday, even before Emma Raducanu – third on the schedule – took to the court. Semi-finals day on Saturday sold out. The response from the players, too, has been resoundingly positive. Second seed Keys, one of the most high-profile women to feature, said after her quarter-final win on Friday that 'I think it's the best 500 that I have played'. She noted that the fact that it had already attracted such a competitive field in its first year – including six Grand Slam champions and three of the current top 10, despite taking place immediately after the French Open – made it a 'pretty high-level 500 right away'. Heather Watson, a veteran of British tennis, went further: 'I think it's huge for tennis in this country.' Katie Boulter, whose battle with Raducanu for the British No 1 spot has taken centre stage this week, said, 'Queen's is everything that I kind of dreamt it would be. I feel like it's a moment for women's tennis and women's sport in general right now.' Both Boulter and Maria called it a 'privilege' to play here. At times the tournament proved unable to handle the scale of demand. The doubles partnership between Boulter and Raducanu proved such an attraction that punters queued for over an hour to access their first-round match. Warned that once they were let in, they would be unable to leave, fans opted against loo breaks and refills of Pimm's in favour of watching British tennis' two biggest stars. Their matches would likely have filled the 7,700-capacity Andy Murray Arena too, but due to the tournament's contractual obligations with the WTA, which prioritises singles matches on main courts, 'Boultercanu' were stuck on the standing-room-only Court 1. A thousand fans crammed in to cheer them on. Unlike the majority of mixed tournaments, Queen's is running its women's and men's events on separate weeks. That has meant that the thousands of spectators descending on west London each day have turned up in their masses solely to watch women's tennis. Those punters have had their faith repaid. Perhaps in the future the two tournaments will integrate fully – although Keys quipped, 'I like when we don't have to share with the boys'. For now, the spotlight has been solely on the women; they have made sure it has been a blinding success.
Scottish Sun
24 minutes ago
- Scottish Sun
I became a Celtic Invincible after Rangers resurrected my career – here's why I REFUSED to play for Ibrox club
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) HE won a dozen trophies for Celtic and picked up forty one Scotland caps. All in a 12-year period he probably wouldn't have had if it hadn't been for RANGERS. 4 Craig Gordon playing for Celtic in 2017 Credit: Getty - Contributor 4 He was part of the famous Invincible team in Brendan Rodgers' first season Credit: Kenny Ramsay - The Sun Glasgow Craig Gordon has been reflecting on his career as he builds up to next month's Hearts testimonial against Sunderland. And while the 42-year-old was the one who put the hard yards in to get fit again after a serious knee injury had him on the verge of quitting. It was the work of Auchenhowie physio Steven Walker who saved his career - and made the later years possible. Gordon recalled: 'If I say one person who got me back playing again it would be Steven Walker at Rangers. 'When I went in there he was really good with me. 'He spent a bit of time trying to figure out how I could rehab my knee without it hurting. 'He gave me exercises that I could do which were less painful but were still building up my leg, and just his thought process around the injury. 'It all came through Jim Stewart, who had been a goalkeeping coach at Hearts and Scotland, and he was at Rangers at the time. 'Rangers had already rehabbed a guy with a very similar injury to me, a Norwegian guy called Thomas Bendiksen. 'He went back to Norway, I think, but Steven had managed to get him back from a very similar injury. Russell Martin's to-do list in first week as Rangers boss PLUS Lawrence Shankland and Greg Taylor latest 'He said to come in to see if he could help, and he did. 'I'd had all the different treatments I could possibly do to chuck everything at it, but he worked it out. 'I think it was a kind of unusual injury at the time. 'If I didn't get back, then I knew I'd given it absolutely everything. 'If I gave it one more go and still couldn't get back, then I would have retired and been at peace with that decision.' When Gordon was training with Rangers, most people expected him to sign there and get his career back on track. But their League One status and financial situation stopped that happening, with a potential move to Raith Rovers on the cards before Celtic came calling. The rest is history, as he claimed the number one spot for club and country once again. 4 Gordon explained: 'Rangers were in League One at the time and they already had two senior goalkeepers. 'To add another one at that stage probably wasn't financially the right thing for them to do. 'They wanted me to play in a couple of reserve games to prove that I was fit enough to stay. 'If I had done that, then my injury insurance would have been invalid. So I couldn't do that. 'That was the reason why that never happened. 'Then it was about looking for a club and I didn't know what level I could get back. 'I spoke to Raith Rovers, they were interested. 'Hearts had Jamie Macdonald here at the time, they didn't know if he was going to be leaving and I think Neil Alexander came in. 'Then Celtic came in. So that was the the reason I went there. 'I knew I wasn't going to be first choice when I first went in with Fraser Forster being there. 'But I knew I'd have, again, really good medical care. 4 Gordon with Forster Credit: Kenny Ramsay - The Sun Glasgow 'I knew there was obviously speculation about Fraser, so there was a little chink of light there to potentially him moving on and getting a chance to see what I could do. 'That's your sliding doors moment, it all fell into place all in exactly the right time. 'I managed to go in and play 50 games my first season back after not playing for two years, which I didn't know was possible until I managed to do it. 'What was it like being rehabbed at Rangers then signing for Celtic? At certain times as a footballer you've got to be a bit selfish and go and do the thing that's best for you. 'That was the best thing for me, for my career, to play at the highest level. 'Rangers took another three years to come to the Premier League. 'So I managed to get those three years playing in the Premier League and playing for Scotland that perhaps maybe I wouldn't have had. 'It was a difficult thing to do but sometimes you've got to do what's best.' *** Tickets for the Craig Gordon Testimonial Match – Hearts v Sunderland, Tynecastle Park, 3pm, Saturday 26th July – are on sale now through Supporters can keep up to date with all of the latest Craig Gordon Testimonial information at Keep up to date with ALL the latest news and transfers at the Scottish Sun football page
