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The Guardian
18 hours ago
- Sport
- The Guardian
Internazionale v Fluminense: Club World Cup quarter-final
Update: Date: 2025-06-30T18:00:41.000Z Title: Preamble Content: Neither of these teams have wowed 'em yet. In the groups, Inter drew with Monterrey then left it late against both Urawa Red Diamonds and River Plate, while Fluminense's admittedly entertaining come-from-behind 4-2 victory over Ulsan HD was sandwiched by two goalless draws against Borussia Dortmund and Mamelodi Sundowns. But both know their way around knock-out football: Big Flu won the Copa Libertadores in 2023 while Inter reached the final of Big Cup in 2023 and 2025. So this could still be fun … providing the North Carolina weather doesn't do a number on us again. Kick-off is at 8pm UK time, 3pm local, lightning permitting. It's on! Hopefully!
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Trent Alexander-Arnold takes Route 12 on his big day at Real Madrid
ROUTE 12 If the football doesn't work out for him at Real Madrid, Trent Alexander-Arnold can try his luck as a regular panellist on the Spanish version of Just A Minute, a popular BBC Radio 4 comedy show, in which assorted comedians and luvvies are challenged to speak for one minute on a given subject without 'hesitation, repetition or deviation'. Football Daily is prepared to concede that – written down like that – it actually sounds really boring, but readers who are unfamiliar with the show will just have to take our word for it when we say the show is actually very funny. Or at least it was when we last listened to it about 25 years ago. Of course there is no Spanish version of Just A Minute, almost certainly because most Spaniards of our acquaintance can speak for up to three hours uninterrupted on any given subject without hesitation, repetition or deviation. But we were certainly impressed when Alexander-Arnold stood behind a lectern in the bowels of the Bernabéu at his unveiling as a Real Madrid player, giving a welcome address of more than 60 seconds in what appeared to be perfectly fluent Spanish without once stuttering, pointing at a beer tap or bellowing 'EGG AND CHIPS!!!' at the top of his voice. Advertisement Short of clacking a pair of castanets or missing the presentation entirely because it clashed with his siesta, Madrid's new signing could scarcely have appeared more native, and his command of a language he appears to have been taking lessons in for a while will do little to allay [or should that be olé? – Football Daily Ed] the suspicions of Liverpool fans that he has been plotting his move to the Spanish capital for a very long time. He may even have been listening to Duolingo through his headphones on the team bus to Brighton a month ago. Either that or he's a very quick learner, because when one hack asked him how long he'd been learning Spanish, Alexander-Arnold smiled and replied 'a few months'. The 26-year-old later added that being a Real player is a 'dream', saying: 'It is something special, I don't take it for granted and I am very happy.' During his unveiling, it was also revealed his shirt number will be 12 (as opposed to his favoured 66) because Spanish rules preclude senior squad players from having anything higher than 25 and the nomenclature under which it will appear will be 'Trent' because why not? A big enough signing to merit a presentation but not so galactico that he had to live out Football Daily's recurring fever dream of being tossed a football and forced to do keepy-uppies in the centre-circle of a packed ground, prior to his Spanish masterclass, Trent and his nearest and dearest sat through a montage of his best bits. Featuring performances from Liverpool and England but mainly Liverpool, it included goals, free-kicks, raking 60-yard diagonals, that corner to tee up Divock Origi for his Big Cup winner against Barcelona, footage of Luis Díaz kneeling to buff his boot with an imaginary rag and almost as an afterthought … some boring defensive interventions. A showreel that left his mum dabbing her eyes with emotion, it was followed by a lengthy oration speech by Florentino Pérez that had her gazing intently at her phone. 'I want you to know that the defining trait of Real Madrid is that, in addition to being great players they are all true Madristas, you will quickly understand what Real Madrid is,' declared their president. At least that's what we think he said but we might need to check with a fluent Spanish-speaker like Trent. LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE Join Niall McVeigh from 8pm BST for hot MBM coverage of the Czech Republic 1-2 England at the European U-21 Championship. QUOTE OF THE DAY 9 June: 'I haven't been captain for a year or two. I've been wearing the armband for 11 years, and I've been playing for the national team for 17. It seemed to me that such matters should be handled differently. Everything was communicated over the phone. It really shouldn't be like this. The coach betrayed my trust' – Robert Lewandowski refuses to play for Poland under Michal Probierz after a row over the international captaincy. Advertisement 12 June: 'I have come to the conclusion that in the current situation the best decision for the good of the national team will be my resignation from the position of coach. Performing this function was the fulfilment of my professional dreams and the greatest honour in my life' – Probierz comes off second best in the power struggle and takes his leave. FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS If I send you £740,000, will you please send me $1bn, as per the exchange rate on yesterday's News, Bits and Bobs (full email edition) element about Gianni's Club World Cup?' – Chris Hale (and 1,056 others). The solution to England's problems is staring the FA in the face: sack Thomas Tuchel immediately, appoint Ange Postecoglou now and, as usual, you're guaranteed a trophy – mate, it's the 2026 World Cup – in his second season' – Adrian Irving. Re: Mike Slattery's call on naming suggestions for Gianni's latest behemothic construction (yesterday's Football Daily letters), it seems to me that, at least for this edition, Top Trumps would be appropriate' – David Ford. May I suggest Big Bucket? Or – with a bit more hype – the MegaMug?' – Derrick Cameron. Re: the question 'is it OK to play in vintage football boots' (yesterday's last line, full email edition), I still have my Puma boots bought in 1970 – and keep them in their original Puma box. These weren't bought because Pelé was wearing such boots at the 1970 World Cup, but because Leeds United's Allan 'The Sniffer' Clarke (surely the greatest player ever to bestride the Football League, and not to be confused with the lead singer in The Hollies) favoured a pair. I'm now 73, so unfortunately cannot test the OK-ness of playing in them' – Paul Sanderson. If you do have any, please send letters to Today's winner of our prizeless letter o' the day is … Adrian Irving. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we run them, can be viewed here. RECOMMENDED LISTENING Is the game ready for this Club World Cup? The Football Weekly team deliver an extra dose of podcasting action.
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
So much football! This weekend, two screens might not be enough
IT'S ALL HAPPENING Some phrases are commonised so quickly that it's easy to forget how new they are. The concept of the second-screen experience wasn't regularly discussed on these pages until 2012; a decade later it is much a part of our lives as privately WISHING TO HELL YOU'D PUT THAT BLOODY TABLET DOWN AND LISTEN TO THE DIALOGUE PROPERLY – IT'S CASSAVETES! But never mind the second-screen experience. We're now moving towards the age of the second first-screen experience, in which a dopamine fiend watches two football matches/episodes of Dawson's Creek simultaneously. We know this because, for the last few years, Football Daily has been that dopamine fiend. This weekend, two screens might not be enough. Advertisement We're struggling to recall 36 hours of football with such breadth and depth. Let's start with the most important: the final day of the National League South, where as many as six teams can still win the title. Six! Elsewhere, Celtic should and Bayern Munich could become champions of their designated land. There are two cracking teatime FA Cup semi-finals: Crystal Palace v Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest v Manchester City. There are also two Women's Big Cup semi-finals in which the English teams are probably doomed but you never know: Chelsea v Barcelona (first leg: 1-4) and Lyon v Arsenal (first leg: 2-1). Chelsea Men are one of five European hopefuls in action in the Premier League, where Ipswich are likely to be relegated. It's the penultimate weekend in the Football League, the ailing Serie A leaders Inter face in-form Roma and, last but not least, there's a Copa del Rey final between Barcelona and Real Madrid. Phew. Yes, yes, we saved the best for last. At Anfield on Sunday, Tottenham Hotspur will assume the position for a Liverpool title celebration that is both richly deserved – they'll win the league with four games remaining if they avoid defeat – and long overdue. Liverpool's astonishing performance in 2019-20, when at one point they had 79 points from 27 games, merited a month of open-top bus tours. The pandemic meant they had to celebrate alone. 'We are aware that the last time this club won the league was during the Covid time,' said Arne Slot, who will become the first manager since Antonio Conte in 2017 to win the Premier League in his first season. 'We know there's still a job to do. It's a nice game to look forward to but also a responsibility we have for Sunday.' Assuming all goes to plan at Anfield (lads, it's …), Liverpool fans will get to celebrate two titles under two brilliant and very different managers. Having only recently discovered the concept of empathy and wishing others well, Football Daily hopes Liverpool have lined up the departed linchpins of 2019-20 to be at Anfield on Sunday: Jürgen Klopp, Pep Lijnders, Sadio Mané, Roberto Firmino, Jordan Henderson, Gini Wijnaldum, Fabinho, the throw-in coach and, for the encore, Divock Origi. Sod it, get the squad players too. But maybe not Neco Williams, given he'll be at Wembley playing in Sunday's FA Cup semi. Those games kick off simultaneously, so you'll need two devices if you want to talk the talk at the watercooler on Monday morning. They also overlap with Lyon v Arsenal in Women's Big Cup, Leicester v Manchester City in the WSL and – fair enough, we're reaching a bit here – O'Higgins v Deportes Iquique in Chile's Primera División. Even so, look at this weekend fixture list. The Ten-Eyed Man would struggle to keep up. Nurse, the screens! QUOTE OF THE DAY It took me a while to get used to it and unfortunately I couldn't continue. It was really a matter of the altitude. It's surreal here' – Palmeiras forward Estêvão – who will join Chelsea for £29m later this year – had an 18th birthday to remember, netting his side's second in a 3-2 Copa Libertadores win over Bolivar before dropping to the turf, throwing up and leaving the field on a stretcher as the high altitude of La Paz took its toll. Reminds us of Football Daily's 18th … minus the goal, of course. FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS Are we to assume that the reason Manchester United Women are taking part in the new World Sevens tournament (yesterday's News, Bits and Bobs, full email edition) is because that's the size of their squad now thanks to The (Big Sir) Jim Reaper?' – Derek McGee. Following the preview of Saturday's FA Cup semi-final (yesterday's Football Daily), can I be the first of 1,057 pedants to point out that Wembley Way does not exist. The pedestrianised street leading from Wembley Park station to Wembley Stadium is (and has always been) called Olympic Way. Blackburn fans born before the 1995 Charity Shield (for example) could be forgiven the mistake, but everyone else (especially otherwise well-informed tea-timely football emails) should know better' – Chris Carter (and no others). Nice shout for the Human League, a terrific league (Wednesday's Football Daily). According to the band's Wikipedia page, the name came from a science-fiction board game. So, if a great league can get its name from a related activity, this suggests that an excellent name for a football league would be the Football League. Yes, that has a familiar and comforting ring to it' – Mike Wilner. Advertisement Send letters to Today's letter o' the day winner is … Derek McGee, who wins our last copy of The Scouting Game, by Chris Robinson and courtesy of Pitch Publishing. Visit their bookshop here. Terms and conditions for our competitions can be viewed here. BOLOGNA: OUR NEW FAVOURITE TEAM Bologna are fast becoming Football Daily's Italian team. They wear a range of exceptionally smart kits, are owned by a Canadian dairy magnate and have a manager called Vincenzo Italiano, whose players slap his bald head in celebration after a big win. And they don't come much bigger than Thursday's Coppa Italia success; a 2-1 home win over Empoli that sealed a 5-1 aggregate semi-final victory, and the team's first trip to the final since 1974. 'It was an objective, a dream of this city and the club. We achieved something wonderful,' cheered Italiano, who developed a knack for Cup runs in his previous job at Fiorentina. Their opponents at the Stadio Olimpico will be Milan, who haven't won the Coppa since – checks notes – 2003?! 'It's a one-off match and anything can happen,' the Bologna manager added, but his side could be seen as favourites, sitting fourth in Serie A, nine points above Milan in ninth. Italiano is likely to sign a contract extension in the summer, while predecessor Thiago Motta has been sacked by Juventus, and was last seen on a shortlist to replace Ange Postecoglou at Spurs. Life comes at you fast in football management. NEWS, BITS AND BOBS Eni Aluko has denied she 'attacked' Ian Wright with her comments over his involvement as a pundit in women's football. Advertisement Newcastle boss Eddie Howe has admitted he's still not 100% but is delighted to be back after returning to work post-pneumonia. 'I was very thankful that the doctor here, Paul Catterson, acted quickly because, without that quick intervention then, possibly, it could have been a different outcome,' he said. Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea, the referee for Saturday's Copa del Rey final between Real Madrid and Barcelona, was brought to tears on Friday by a critical video published by Madrid's in-house TV channel (RMTV). The video shows what RMTV says is a series of errors made by De Burgos throughout his career. 'When a child arrives at school and his mates tell him that his father is a thief, it makes you sick,' said De Burgos before threatening strike action. 'We are not going to continue to allow what is happening,' Media industry veteran Football Daily David Kogan has been selected as the government's preferred chief suit of football's new independent regulator. Interim Southampton manager Simon Rusk is not fixated on crawling beyond Derby's record-low points tally of 11. Nope. 'I'm not going to obsess about it … I don't think that's useful and it's actually negative energy,' he soothed while realigning Aaron Ramsdale's chakras. 'I can understand – my head's not in the sand around it.' Advertisement Bayern Munich can seal their 34th Bundesliga title if they beat Mainz at the weekend but Vincent Kompany is not dreaming of being drenched by buckets of beer just yet. 'All those scenarios are not yet in my head. I only prepare for the Mainz game,' he cooed, as Harry Kane signed for a couple of crates of Paulaner behind him. 'Only the game is important, those 90 minutes.' Crystal Palace boss Oliver Glasner is perhaps not as excited about Crystal Palace's semi-final with Aston Villa as he should be. 'It's just a semi-final,' he soothed. 'I don't care if we played at Selhurst Park or Villa Park, we would try to win. The approach is no different. It's a game. I don't want to make it bigger than it is.' Enzo Maresca has assessed Chelsea's season while winking in the direction of the boardroom. 'Compared to the last two years [the season] is not a failure,' he blathered. 'How many times in the last two years have Chelsea been in the [Bigger Cup] places? And this season we have been there almost all season.' Norwich interim Jack Wilshere feels he has what it takes to make an impact as a manager – but insists the final two games of a forgettable Championship season are not all about him. 'This is about the players feeling in a place where they can perform,' whooped Wilshere, who is running the London Marathon on Sunday. 'My job was to lift the players and focus on the next few games, rather than see this as an audition.' Advertisement With six teams vying for the title on the final day, the National League South has announced a trophy will not be standing by at any stadiums. 'The board has voted for clubs to arrange the presentation of the trophy at a later date, once the champions are confirmed,' said a league statement. And hats off if you had this on your bingo card: former France defender Patrice Evra will make his MMA debut in Paris next month. 'I've performed on the world's biggest stages, won every major trophy in football, but PFL Europe Paris will be an incredibly special night for me,' he roared. STILL WANT MORE? The kids are alright at Chelsea and Manchester United, while Morgan Gibbs-White has a City audition at Wembley. It's 10 things to look out for! Advertisement Crystal Palace defender Maxence Lacroix gets his chat on with Ed Aarons about a potential France call-up and why he is 'the pastor' at Selhurst. The 100-point runners-up, anger in Jersey and the rise of Real Bedford: here's Simon Burnton with some intriguing non-league tales. Cristiano Ronaldo has 933 career goals – but does he have time to reach 1,000 before retirement? The Daily says yes, but John Duerden takes a deeper dive. And Rafa Benítez failed at Celta but his replacement, Claudio Giráldez, has helped the team find its youthful vigour. Sid Lowe has more. MEMORY LANE July 1983: Arsenal manager Terry Neill introduces his new summer signings, John Lukic (left) and Charlie Nicholas in a physical manner that you couldn't imagine the modern-day Premier League footballer getting on board with. AND IT'S (ALMOST) LIIIIIIIIIIVE!
The Guardian
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
So much football!
Some phrases are commonised so quickly that it's easy to forget how new they are. The concept of the second-screen experience wasn't regularly discussed on these pages until 2012; a decade later it is much a part of our lives as privately WISHING TO HELL YOU'D PUT THAT BLOODY TABLET DOWN AND LISTEN TO THE DIALOGUE PROPERLY – IT'S CASSAVETES! But never mind the second-screen experience. We're now moving towards the age of the second first-screen experience, in which a dopamine fiend watches two football matches/episodes of Dawson's Creek simultaneously. We know this because, for the last few years, Football Daily has been that dopamine fiend. This weekend, two screens might not be enough. We're struggling to recall 36 hours of football with such breadth and depth. Let's start with the most important: the final day of the National League South, where as many as six teams can still win the title. Six! Elsewhere, Celtic should and Bayern Munich could become champions of their designated land. There are two cracking teatime FA Cup semi-finals: Crystal Palace v Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest v Manchester City. There are also two Women's Big Cup semi-finals in which the English teams are probably doomed but you never know: Chelsea v Barcelona (first leg: 1-4) and Lyon v Arsenal (first leg: 2-1). Chelsea Men are one of five European hopefuls in action in the Premier League, where Ipswich are likely to be relegated. It's the penultimate weekend in the Football League, the ailing Serie A leaders Inter face in-form Roma and, last but not least, there's a Copa del Rey final between Barcelona and Real Madrid. Phew. Yes, yes, we saved the best for last. At Anfield on Sunday, Tottenham Hotspur will assume the position for a Liverpool title celebration that is both richly deserved – they'll win the league with four games remaining if they avoid defeat – and long overdue. Liverpool's astonishing performance in 2019-20, when at one point they had 79 points from 27 games, merited a month of open-top bus tours. The pandemic meant they had to celebrate alone. 'We are aware that the last time this club won the league was during the Covid time,' said Arne Slot, who will become the first manager since Antonio Conte in 2017 to win the Premier League in his first season. 'We know there's still a job to do. It's a nice game to look forward to but also a responsibility we have for Sunday.' Assuming all goes to plan at Anfield (lads, it's …), Liverpool fans will get to celebrate two titles under two brilliant and very different managers. Having only recently discovered the concept of empathy and wishing others well, Football Daily hopes Liverpool have lined up the departed linchpins of 2019-20 to be at Anfield on Sunday: Jürgen Klopp, Pep Lijnders, Sadio Mané, Roberto Firmino, Jordan Henderson, Gini Wijnaldum, Fabinho, the throw-in coach and, for the encore, Divock Origi. Sod it, get the squad players too. But maybe not Neco Williams, given he'll be at Wembley playing in Sunday's FA Cup semi. Those games kick off simultaneously, so you'll need two devices if you want to talk the talk at the watercooler on Monday morning. They also overlap with Lyon v Arsenal in Women's Big Cup, Leicester v Manchester City in the WSL and – fair enough, we're reaching a bit here – O'Higgins v Deportes Iquique in Chile's Primera División. Even so, look at this weekend fixture list. The Ten-Eyed Man would struggle to keep up. Nurse, the screens! It took me a while to get used to it and unfortunately I couldn't continue. It was really a matter of the altitude. It's surreal here' – Palmeiras forward Estêvão – who will join Chelsea for £29m later this year – had an 18th birthday to remember, netting his side's second in a 3-2 Copa Libertadores win over Bolivar before dropping to the turf, throwing up and leaving the field on a stretcher as the high altitude of La Paz took its toll. Reminds us of Football Daily's 18th … minus the goal, of course. Are we to assume that the reason Manchester United Women are taking part in the new World Sevens tournament (yesterday's News, Bits and Bobs, full email edition) is because that's the size of their squad now thanks to The (Big Sir) Jim Reaper?' – Derek McGee. Following the preview of Saturday's FA Cup semi-final (yesterday's Football Daily), can I be the first of 1,057 pedants to point out that Wembley Way does not exist. The pedestrianised street leading from Wembley Park station to Wembley Stadium is (and has always been) called Olympic Way. Blackburn fans born before the 1995 Charity Shield (for example) could be forgiven the mistake, but everyone else (especially otherwise well-informed tea-timely football emails) should know better' – Chris Carter (and no others). Nice shout for the Human League, a terrific league (Wednesday's Football Daily). According to the band's Wikipedia page, the name came from a science-fiction board game. So, if a great league can get its name from a related activity, this suggests that an excellent name for a football league would be the Football League. Yes, that has a familiar and comforting ring to it' – Mike Wilner. Send letters to Today's letter o' the day winner is … Derek McGee, who wins our last copy of The Scouting Game, by Chris Robinson and courtesy of Pitch Publishing. Visit their bookshop here. Terms and conditions for our competitions can be viewed here. Bologna are fast becoming Football Daily's Italian team. They wear a range of exceptionally smart kits, are owned by a Canadian dairy magnate and have a manager called Vincenzo Italiano, whose players slap his bald head in celebration after a big win. And they don't come much bigger than Thursday's Coppa Italia success; a 2-1 home win over Empoli that sealed a 5-1 aggregate semi-final victory, and the team's first trip to the final since 1974. 'It was an objective, a dream of this city and the club. We achieved something wonderful,' cheered Italiano, who developed a knack for Cup runs in his previous job at Fiorentina. Their opponents at the Stadio Olimpico will be Milan, who haven't won the Coppa since – checks notes – 2003?! 'It's a one-off match and anything can happen,' the Bologna manager added, but his side could be seen as favourites, sitting fourth in Serie A, nine points above Milan in ninth. Italiano is likely to sign a contract extension in the summer, while predecessor Thiago Motta has been sacked by Juventus, and was last seen on a shortlist to replace Ange Postecoglou at Spurs. Life comes at you fast in football management. Eni Aluko has denied she 'attacked' Ian Wright with her comments over his involvement as a pundit in women's football. Newcastle boss Eddie Howe has admitted he's still not 100% but is delighted to be back after returning to work post-pneumonia. 'I was very thankful that the doctor here, Paul Catterson, acted quickly because, without that quick intervention then, possibly, it could have been a different outcome,' he said. Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea, the referee for Saturday's Copa del Rey final between Real Madrid and Barcelona, was brought to tears on Friday by a critical video published by Madrid's in-house TV channel (RMTV). The video shows what RMTV says is a series of errors made by De Burgos throughout his career. 'When a child arrives at school and his mates tell him that his father is a thief, it makes you sick,' said De Burgos before threatening strike action. 'We are not going to continue to allow what is happening,' Media industry veteran Football Daily David Kogan has been selected as the government's preferred chief suit of football's new independent regulator. Interim Southampton manager Simon Rusk is not fixated on crawling beyond Derby's record-low points tally of 11. Nope. 'I'm not going to obsess about it … I don't think that's useful and it's actually negative energy,' he soothed while realigning Aaron Ramsdale's chakras. 'I can understand – my head's not in the sand around it.' Bayern Munich can seal their 34th Bundesliga title if they beat Mainz at the weekend but Vincent Kompany is not dreaming of being drenched by buckets of beer just yet. 'All those scenarios are not yet in my head. I only prepare for the Mainz game,' he cooed, as Harry Kane signed for a couple of crates of Paulaner behind him. 'Only the game is important, those 90 minutes.' Crystal Palace boss Oliver Glasner is perhaps not as excited about Crystal Palace's semi-final with Aston Villa as he should be. 'It's just a semi-final,' he soothed. 'I don't care if we played at Selhurst Park or Villa Park, we would try to win. The approach is no different. It's a game. I don't want to make it bigger than it is.' Enzo Maresca has assessed Chelsea's season while winking in the direction of the boardroom. 'Compared to the last two years [the season] is not a failure,' he blathered. 'How many times in the last two years have Chelsea been in the [Bigger Cup] places? And this season we have been there almost all season.' Norwich interim Jack Wilshere feels he has what it takes to make an impact as a manager – but insists the final two games of a forgettable Championship season are not all about him. 'This is about the players feeling in a place where they can perform,' whooped Wilshere, who is running the London Marathon on Sunday. 'My job was to lift the players and focus on the next few games, rather than see this as an audition.' With six teams vying for the title on the final day, the National League South has announced a trophy will not be standing by at any stadiums. 'The board has voted for clubs to arrange the presentation of the trophy at a later date, once the champions are confirmed,' said a league statement. And hats off if you had this on your bingo card: former France defender Patrice Evra will make his MMA debut in Paris next month. 'I've performed on the world's biggest stages, won every major trophy in football, but PFL Europe Paris will be an incredibly special night for me,' he roared. The kids are alright at Chelsea and Manchester United, while Morgan Gibbs-White has a City audition at Wembley. It's 10 things to look out for! Crystal Palace defender Maxence Lacroix gets his chat on with Ed Aarons about a potential France call-up and why he is 'the pastor' at Selhurst. The 100-point runners-up, anger in Jersey and the rise of Real Bedford: here's Simon Burnton with some intriguing non-league tales. Cristiano Ronaldo has 933 career goals – but does he have time to reach 1,000 before retirement? The Daily says yes, but John Duerden takes a deeper dive. And Rafa Benítez failed at Celta but his replacement, Claudio Giráldez, has helped the team find its youthful vigour. Sid Lowe has more. July 1983: Arsenal manager Terry Neill introduces his new summer signings, John Lukic (left) and Charlie Nicholas in a physical manner that you couldn't imagine the modern-day Premier League footballer getting on board with.
The Guardian
15-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Luka Modric and the top table of celebrity Jacks
With bitter rivals Cardiff in the Championship drop zone and their club comfortably ensconced in mid-table after three wins put paid to any lingering relegation concerns, Swansea City fans could have been forgiven for being delighted even before news broke that Luka Modric had become a minority shareholder in their club. While he may lack the Hollywood glamour of Catherine Zeta-Jones and the comedy chops of podcasting's Elis James, by investing in the Welsh club the Real Madrid and Croatia legend has immediately catapulted himself into a VIP place at the top table of celebrity Jacks. 'Swansea has a strong identity, an incredible fanbase, and the ambition to compete at the highest level,' cooed Modric, stopping short of channeling his inner Robbie Keane and revealing that, growing up as a child in Zaton Obrovacki, he slept under a Cyril the Swan duvet and had posters of Andy Legg, Dave Penney and John Cornforth plastered over his bedroom. 'Playing at the highest level, I believe I can provide my experience to the club. My goal is to support the club's growth in a positive way and to help to build an exciting future.' While many Swans fans are almost certainly of a mind that the most effective way their new co-owner could support their growth in a positive way would be to come and play for them when his Madrid contract expires in June, it seems unlikely the 2018 Ballon d'Or winner would be satisfied with a bit-part role behind Gonçalo Franco and Lewis O'Brien in the pecking order. And let's face it, without regular minutes, the 39-year-old would have little to no chance of unseating Lee Trundle from top spot in the Club Legend stakes. The surprise news of Modric's decision to join American businessmen Andy Coleman, Brett Cravatt and Jason Cohen in the boardroom of a club that posted a pre-tax loss of £15.2m in the latest financial year has prompted a number of questions. Specifically 'Why?' and 'How much?' For now, the answers remain unclear, so we are left to conclude that he must have fallen in love with the (née Liberty) Stadium on his only recorded visit to the club, as a Tottenham player on New Year's Eve 2011. And let's face it, who wouldn't, seeing as there's a Harvester just a stone's throw away in the adjacent Morfa Parc. 'Luka's investment in the club is an endorsement of the club's ambition and vision,' honked a Swans statement. 'He will play a key role in helping the club garner global attention and progress both on and off the pitch.' While he may lack the showbiz credentials of the owners of another Welsh club that has its own popular award-winning documentary series, Modric is still almost certain to receive a very warm welcome to Swansea. Join Scott Murray from 8pm BST for hot Big Cup quarter-final coverage of Aston Villa 1-2 PSG (agg: 2-5), while Rob Smyth will be on deck for Borussia Dortmund 1-1 Barcelona (agg: 1-5). 'It's my style and mistakes can happen. Even the best make errors' – some impressive self-reflection from Deportivo Riestra keeper Ignacio Arce after he went walkabout and subsequently conceded their second goal during the 3-0 Primera División defeat to Instituto in Argentina. Your lead piece about the Premier League's end-of-season whimper (yesterday's Football Daily) should not cause fans to lose heart. As Liverpool sleepwalk towards their 20th crown, simply cast your eyes down a little to the battle atop the Championship. Four games to go … Leeds and Burnley both on 88 points … Sheffield United 'wobbling' a-la Forest in third place as demonstrated by their defeat at bottom club Plymouth the other day … the playoffs to come … and lo!! The relegation battle is also not yet a fait accompli. Football lives!' – Allastair McGillivray. Watching Vítor Pereira bringing the vibes to a Wolverhampton Wetherspoons (yesterday's Quote of the Day) brought a surge of warmth and some unexpected dust to my cynical and jaded eyes. Could he be the man to fill the Jürgen Klopp (early years)-shaped hole in British football culture? God knows the Premier League could do with someone to remind them of the humanity that forms the basis of its 'world leading' product' – Andrew Parker. It's interesting to see that West Ham are just one place above the relegation zone (scroll down). Apropos of nothing, David Moyes's win ratio there was 46% (compared with Julen Lopetegui's 32% and Graham Potter's 23%). With every week that passes, I think back to this Big Website piece' – Noble Francis. Re: yesterday's Football Daily letters. Let's stop messing around. I'd like to propose a 512-team men's World Cup: 211 nations, plus 211 'league' teams made up of players playing in the league of each nation (picking after the national squads have chosen theirs), plus 50 B squads from the top 50 nations picking third, then 50 under-21s picking last. Straight knockout, one country hosting, no seeding, two matches at any one time, played over a 16-hour day. If we're going to gorge ourselves and knacker out all the players, let's do it properly. It would be carnage. Come on Gianni, pull your finger out' – Tom Fleuriot. Send letters to Today's prizeless letter o' the day winner is … Allastair McGillivray. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we have them, can be viewed here. It's David Squires on a big week in Europe for the Premier League quintet. It was quite the week for Birmingham City's players after a long, hard season in League One. Promoted on Tuesday and then crowned champions with six games to spare on Saturday after Wrexham failed to win at Wigan, Blues travelled to Wembley for a date with Peterborough United in the LDV Vans Trophy final, where they were duly beaten 2-0. You might have expected Tom Wagner, Birmingham's co-owner, to strike a conciliatory tone following his side's defeat, given they'd achieved their main objective of promotion not 24 hours earlier. Instead, the players, already knackered and dejected as they stood on the famous Wembley steps, had to endure a dressing down from their overlord of Lukas Jutkiewicz proportions, which Football Daily suggests might have been a performative act in front of minority owner Tom Brady and the circling Amazon Prime documentary cameras. When pressed this week about the content of the speech, for which Peterborough players had to wait before collecting their winners' medals, Wagner clarified: 'Figure out how to [effing] win. We've done a lot of it this season but we haven't been able to win the match that matters the most. We need to learn to win at a higher level and we need to find a way to prepare ourselves for an even higher level than that. There's a lot of work to be done.' Al Pacino in Any Given Sunday, this was not. Former Wimbledon Crazy Gang member and Sunderland coach Carlton Fairweather has died at the age of 63. Renowned wallflower Jason Tindall is ready to take charge of Newcastle for the remainder of the season as Eddie Howe recovers from pneumonia. 'I am here to step into the shoes,' he humbly trumpeted. More hot assistant news: Arjan Veurink, assistant coach to Sarina Wiegman with England, will leave the Lionesses after July's European Championship to become the head coach of Netherlands. Click here for Coventry City manager Frank Lampard wearing a face of thunder (in the stands due to a touchline ban) following his side's 1-1 draw at Hull City. Somebody tell Manchester United that Napoli's Scott McTominay is good at football. Bournemouth are remarkably still in the hunt for Europe, despite their 1-0 victory over Fulham being their first league win in seven. 'We needed this performance,' roared Andoni Iraola. 'This win comes in the perfect moment for us.' And good news for Brian Sørensen's daughter: the Everton Women's manager admitted in November his little girl loves her school and 'has a scouse accent now so it's perfect'. Luckily, dad is getting a new contract. Check out the latest edition of our sister newsletter (delivered every Tuesday and Thursday), via this extract on the state of French football. And if you're not already subscribed, then get over here and do so. To February 1970, as the England squad get into the rock n' roll spirit, donning their trusty lounge suits to record Back Home, the World Cup song written for them by Bill Martin and Phil Coulter. From left, the singers are: Bobby Moore, Jack Charlton, Alan Ball, Emlyn Hughes, Tommy Wright, Peter Bonetti, Francis Lee, Martin Peters, Brian Labone, Geoff Hurst and Jeff Astle. Joaquín Caparrós has coached Sevilla more times than anyone, the first a quarter of a century ago. Now he's back for a fourth spell, as Sid Lowe reports. Rich Laverty asks Domènec Guasch why he left his dream job at Barcelona Femení, the two-time Big Cup champions, to join the NWSL's Boston Legacy. And St-Étienne may be staring relegation in the face, but that's not stopping them dreaming about Ligue 1 glory. Luke Entwistle has more.
