Latest news with #DonyellMalen
Irish Times
5 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Times
Triumph and disaster for you, soft power for the Premier League: fantasy football is back
Perhaps you're a template kind of guy. Perhaps, by contrast, you're spurning the triple Liverpool consensus and stacking your team with handy differentials like Jarrod Bowen and Donyell Malen. Perhaps even Erling Haaland could be considered a differential given his historically low current ownership stats. Perhaps you're feeling a cheeky BB GW1, followed by a FH GW2. Perhaps, by contrast, you're furiously stabbing at the 'close tab' button on your browser in the hope of purging these words from your eyes as expeditiously as possible. In which case, relax. This is actually a column about sport: what it is, what it isn't, how we watch it, where it's going. Most important, you can rest assured I shall not be relating any details of my Fantasy Premier League exploits, for the same reason I will not be sharing my dreams, my Wordle stats or the contents of my belly button. However fascinating you may find your own, it is genuinely no excuse for wasting anybody else's time. At which point, we may just have lost the other half of the audience. Because there does seem to be a weird cultural divide over this stuff: a kind of snobbery/infantilism binary. So you get the increasingly prevalent view that obsessing over made-up teams in a made-up game is basically trite nonsense, the stuff of civilisational downfall, a parasite on the body of football. Often these accusations will be levelled by the very same people who argue that shouting at horses to run faster somehow constitutes the highest form of sporting endeavour. And then at the other end of the scale you have the argot and arcana of the self-styled 'FPL community': a weird, idiosyncratic and above all deeply obsessive place, a rabbit hole of game theory and sprawling colour-coded spreadsheets, where grown men are brought to the brink of insanity by late fixture rearrangements, where Eddie Howe press conference footage is parsed in microscopic detail. Did he say Anthony Gordon 'is being assessed' or 'has been assessed'? Please. My family is dying. READ MORE People earn their living from fantasy football these days. People write PhDs on it. There are interminable FPL podcasts, FPL YouTube channels, bespoke analysis tools, live events. Younger fans, who we constantly hear have little appetite for 90-minute games, will spend many multiples of that watching a bloke on a webcam in his mum's kitchen weighing up the merits of Murillo v Ola Aina, or whether Cody Gakpo constitutes a rotation risk. Even traditional media have begun to take the hint. FPL content has infiltrated the Sky Sports News ticker, the BBC Sport website, the Google search algorithm, player interviews, radio commentary. Celebrities play it. Footballers play it. Ange Postecoglou dolefully admitted on arriving at Tottenham that he'd been forced to leave his friends' fantasy league for the first time in 20 years. Gradually, insidiously, fantasy football has seeped into the way we cover and consume football: a shadow game that has become almost inimical to the real thing. In a way this is a development that has taken place in parallel with the Premier League itself. Frank Skinner's and David Baddiel's Fantasy Football League was first broadcast in 1993, the Daily Telegraph introduced its seminal play-by-mail game in 1994, and in hindsight these were the first evolutionary twirls of what we now have to describe as the EPL global cinematic universe. Games, jokes, daydreams and deep dives, idle chatter and hot takes: an empire of content centred on the weekend fixture list but slowly rumbling into every corner of our lives. Ange Postecoglou with the Europa League trophy after Tottenham's win over Manchester United at the Estadio de San Mames in Bilbao, Spain in May. Photograph: Andrew Milligan/PA For the Premier League itself, the game and its 11 million players constitute not so much a revenue stream – the game is free to play and always has been – as a kind of awesome soft power. In an age when viewers are increasingly selective about the football they watch, fantasy football gives every minute of every game a certain relevance. Whether Bournemouth claim a late consolation while losing 3-0 at Manchester City has almost zero relevance in the real world. But if you're counting on a Josko Gvardiol clean sheet, you may just carry on watching to the very end. And so fantasy sport occupies a kind of strange middle status: utterly contingent on the action while somehow entirely detached from it. In this regard it is not a million miles from the fan fiction and user-generated narratives that populate so many youth-oriented subcultures, a way of putting your own stamp on the game, a vehicle for expression and cognition, a way of being an active participant rather than a passive consumer. Naturally the whiff of condescension will always follow fantasy football, in the same way video games have always been regarded as a lower and more banal form of cultural output. But frankly, is it any less valid a way of consuming Premier League football than the other forms of obsession associated with it? Is it any more trivial or frivolous than living vicariously through transfer gossip, or writing long boring threads about football accountancy, or taking an interest in who Morgan Gibbs-White's partner has decided to unfollow on Instagram, or where referees come from? Like all forms of mass culture, football generates hinterlands in abundance. Perhaps in a certain light it is possible to see fantasy football as the least toxic of them: not as aggressive as social media discourse, not as socially harmful as gambling, not as demented as conspiracy theory. For its most devoted practitioners it offers a form of community and agency, a weekly microdose of triumph and disaster, an emotional stake in a game that so often regards its fans as raw consumers. At least, for now. As with anything wildly popular, the explosion of FPL has been accompanied by the usual agents of greed and grift, exploitation and opportunism. Money leagues, while theoretically banned, continue to flourish. The market in artificial intelligence tools and insider knowledge, paywalled by premium subscriptions, has gone through the roof. In recent years professional poker players have increasingly begun to migrate to FPL. Meanwhile the passageway from fantasy sport to problem gambling is smoothed by the numerous betting companies targeting FPL content for advertising and partnerships. And perhaps none of this has ever moved you in the slightest, never has, never will. But on some level FPL does articulate what has always been one of the great unexplored tensions in football. To what extent do the ephemera and subcultures of a sport enrich the true essence of the game, and to what extent do they dilute it? What happens when the sideshow dissolves into the main show? Established as a harmless bit of fun, built through community, grown through popular demand, and now under assault by big money and big tech: on reflection, perhaps fantasy football is a pretty good model for the game itself. – Guardian
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Sport
- The Guardian
Triumph and disaster for you, soft power for the Premier League: fantasy football is back
Perhaps you're a template kind of guy. Perhaps, by contrast, you're spurning the triple Liverpool consensus and stacking your team with handy differentials like Jarrod Bowen and Donyell Malen. Perhaps even Erling Haaland could be considered a differential given his historically low current ownership stats. Perhaps you're feeling a cheeky BB GW1, followed by a FH GW2. Perhaps, by contrast, you're furiously stabbing at the 'close tab' button on your browser in the hope of purging these words from your eyes as expeditiously as possible. In which case, relax. This is actually a column about sport: what it is, what it isn't, how we watch it, where it's going. Most important, you can rest assured I shall not be relating any details of my Fantasy Premier League exploits, for the same reason I will not be sharing my dreams, my Wordle stats or the contents of my belly button. However fascinating you may find your own, it is genuinely no excuse for wasting anybody else's time. At which point, we may just have lost the other half of the audience. Because there does seem to be a weird cultural divide over this stuff: a kind of snobbery/infantilism binary. So you get the increasingly prevalent view that obsessing over made-up teams in a made-up game is basically trite nonsense, the stuff of civilisational downfall, a parasite on the body of football. Often these accusations will be levelled by the very same people who argue that shouting at horses to run faster somehow constitutes the highest form of sporting endeavour. And then at the other end of the scale you have the argot and arcana of the self-styled 'FPL community': a weird, idiosyncratic and above all deeply obsessive place, a rabbit hole of game theory and sprawling colour-coded spreadsheets, where grown men are brought to the brink of insanity by late fixture rearrangements, where Eddie Howe press conference footage is parsed in microscopic detail. Did he say Anthony Gordon 'is being assessed' or 'has been assessed'? Please. My family is dying. People earn their living from fantasy football these days. People write PhDs on it. There are interminable FPL podcasts, FPL YouTube channels, bespoke analysis tools, live events. Younger fans, who we constantly hear have little appetite for 90-minute games, will spend many multiples of that watching a bloke on a webcam in his mum's kitchen weighing up the merits of Murillo v Ola Aina, or whether Cody Gakpo constitutes a rotation risk. Even traditional media have begun to take the hint. FPL content has infiltrated the Sky Sports News ticker, the BBC Sport website, the Google search algorithm, player interviews, radio commentary. Celebrities play it. Footballers play it. Ange Postecoglou dolefully admitted on arriving at Tottenham that he'd been forced to leave his friends' fantasy league for the first time in 20 years. Gradually, insidiously, fantasy football has seeped into the way we cover and consume football: a shadow game that has become almost inimical to the real thing. In a way this is a development that has taken place in parallel with the Premier League itself. Frank Skinner's and David Baddiel's Fantasy Football League was first broadcast in 1993, the Daily Telegraph introduced its seminal play-by-mail game in 1994, and in hindsight these were the first evolutionary twirls of what we now have to describe as the EPL global cinematic universe. Games, jokes, daydreams and deep dives, idle chatter and hot takes: an empire of content centred on the weekend fixture list but slowly rumbling into every corner of our lives. For the Premier League itself, the game and its 11 million players constitute not so much a revenue stream – the game is free to play and always has been – as a kind of awesome soft power. In an age when viewers are increasingly selective about the football they watch, fantasy football gives every minute of every game a certain relevance. Whether Bournemouth claim a late consolation while losing 3-0 at Manchester City has almost zero relevance in the real world. But if you're counting on a Josko Gvardiol clean sheet, you may just carry on watching to the very end. And so fantasy sport occupies a kind of strange middle status: utterly contingent on the action while somehow entirely detached from it. In this regard it is not a million miles from the fan fiction and user-generated narratives that populate so many youth-oriented subcultures, a way of putting your own stamp on the game, a vehicle for expression and cognition, a way of being an active participant rather than a passive consumer. Naturally the whiff of condescension will always follow fantasy football, in the same way video games have always been regarded as a lower and more banal form of cultural output. But frankly, is it any less valid a way of consuming Premier League football than the other forms of obsession associated with it? Is it any more trivial or frivolous than living vicariously through transfer gossip, or writing long boring threads about football accountancy, or taking an interest in who Morgan Gibbs-White's partner has decided to unfollow on Instagram, or where referees come from? Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion Like all forms of mass culture, football generates hinterlands in abundance. Perhaps in a certain light it is possible to see fantasy football as the least toxic of them: not as aggressive as social media discourse, not as socially harmful as gambling, not as demented as conspiracy theory. For its most devoted practitioners it offers a form of community and agency, a weekly microdose of triumph and disaster, an emotional stake in a game that so often regards its fans as raw consumers. At least, for now. As with anything wildly popular, the explosion of FPL has been accompanied by the usual agents of greed and grift, exploitation and opportunism. Money leagues, while theoretically banned, continue to flourish. The market in artificial intelligence tools and insider knowledge, paywalled by premium subscriptions, has gone through the roof. In recent years professional poker players have increasingly begun to migrate to FPL. Meanwhile the passageway from fantasy sport to problem gambling is smoothed by the numerous betting companies targeting FPL content for advertising and partnerships. And perhaps none of this has ever moved you in the slightest, never has, never will. But on some level FPL does articulate what has always been one of the great unexplored tensions in football. To what extent do the ephemera and subcultures of a sport enrich the true essence of the game, and to what extent do they dilute it? What happens when the sideshow dissolves into the main show? Established as a harmless bit of fun, built through community, grown through popular demand, and now under assault by big money and big tech: on reflection, perhaps fantasy football is a pretty good model for the game itself.
Yahoo
05-08-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Five Premier League players impressing in pre-season
Pre-season provides a chance to get up to speed and several Premier League players have hit the ground running during the summer schedule. Here are five names who have been in fine form this pre-season. Donyell Malen (Aston Villa) Donyell Malen appears to have the bit between his teeth this summer. The Dutchman joined Aston Villa from Borussia Dortmund in January, but opportunistic loan deals for Marcus Rashford and Marcos Asensio in the same window limited his football. Malen was excluded from the Champions League squad in a surprise snub and looks to have a point to prove in pre-season. Malen has a goal and three assists across Villa's summer games, as he looks to nail down a position in Unai Emery's forward line. In this form, he'll be tough to leave out when the season starts next weekend. Yasin Ayari (Brighton) Yasin Ayari is growing in importance at Brighton and 2025/26 promises to be another positive season of progression for the 21-year-old. After 22 league starts last season, Ayari looks set for a big role under Fabian Hurzeler this time around. The Swede has shone during an encouraging pre-season campaign for the Seagulls, scoring twice and providing two assists. He's one to watch heading into the new campaign. Jean-Philippe Mateta (Crystal Palace) As teams near the top of the table battle it out to sign strikers, it's perhaps surprising that there has not been more concrete interest in Jean-Philippe Mateta. The Frenchman has netted 30 goals over the last two Premier League campaigns and has already his his stride in pre-season. Mateta has four goals and an assist for the Eagles this summer, with no corner flag safe… Harry Wilson (Fulham) Harry Wilson cut a frustrated figure at Fulham last term but the Wales winger is doing his most to get back into favour. Wilson started just 12 times in the Premier League in 2024/25, though developed a reputation as a 'Super Sub' for Marco Silva. He scored five times of the bench, behind only teammate Rodrigo Muniz across the entire Premier League, but will want to regain a regular starting role. A return of five goals in pre-season has done his chances no harm. Darwin Nunez (Liverpool) Despite the distraction around his future and new signing Hugo Ekitike adding competition, Darwin Nunez has got to work this summer. The Uruguayan has hit five goals for Liverpool over the pre-season campaign, including a first-half hat-trick against Stoke City. It looks likely to be the end of Nunez's chapter at Liverpool this summer, but he's certainly a player that could thrive in the right environment. Al-Hilal are pushing for a deal as the Saudi side look to land a marquee frontman. Read – See more – Follow The Football Faithful on Social Media: | | | |
New York Times
08-07-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Donyell Malen's Aston Villa career has had a curious start. What comes next?
Aston Villa's players are filtering back from their summer break. The emphasis on the final word of the sentence would have been warmly welcomed by Donyell Malen. Time can change the sense of feeling and, for Malen, the six weeks since Villa's final-day disappointment at Old Trafford can provide renewed optimism that this campaign will be much better than his last. Advertisement Malen will be back next week following his involvement in the Netherlands' World Cup qualifying fixtures. Smiles will be captured by the social media teams when players return. They will wave and laugh, happy to be back and fully recharged. The mood will have no resemblance to the hollowed-out figures Villa cut at Old Trafford or Malen's ashen face whenever glued to the bench. The 26-year-old was Villa's first signing of the January 2025 window and the quickest forgotten. His acquisition from Borussia Dortmund had been a long time in the making before an agreement was struck, worth €23million (£19.4m, $23.5m) plus €3m in add-ons. Malen had pushed to sign for a year. He was close to joining in January 2024 and hoped it would only be delayed until the summer. Yet Villa were short of cash and the lack of financial headroom brought skirmishes with profit and sustainability rules (PSR). The Netherlands forward changed agents once the summer window closed in 2024, indicating his will to move and his disappointment in not doing so sooner. Coming to England was a priority, as he had done as an academy graduate at Arsenal between 2015-17. Back then, he was a teenager but left with one forgettable pre-season appearance to his name. It had bugged him that he had not experienced England as a senior player, with several of his Netherlands team-mates now in the Premier League. Malen had noted how forwards of his ilk, like Ollie Watkins, Carlos Bacca and Edinson Cavani thrive under Unai Emery's coaching, which was pertinent considering his form at Dortmund was tailing off following a sprightly first year. The lure of the Champions League carried significant appeal. Malen only knew Ian Maatsen from Villa's dressing room, having been together at Dortmund the season before and playing in the 2024 Champions League final against Real Madrid. Advertisement 'It's a big thing, the Champions League,' Malen said to a group of reporters shortly after signing a four-and-a-half-year contract. 'It's the biggest competition in the world. I played in it for the last few years so it was a very important thing when deciding to move. This is where you want to play.' Malen was speaking at a time when Villa were only expected to make two additions, one of which was him. Malen and his representatives did not countenance he would be omitted from Villa's updated 25-man Champions League squad for the knockout stages. With UEFA guidelines stating they could only register three new additions — Marcus Rashford, Marco Asensio and late signing Axel Disasi, who gave defensive cover — got the nod. Malen and 22-year-old right-back Andres Garcia were omitted. Garcia expected to miss out but Malen, a scorer at the Bernabeu stadium three months earlier, did not. Sources close to the player, who have spoken on the condition of anonymity, described it as a 'hammer blow' and it took some time for Malen to comprehend. 'It was not easy, the conversation with him,' said Emery a day after confirming his Champions League squad. 'I spoke with him (Malen) and tried to be honest and knowing it was not fair for him.' Emery and his staff held regular conversations with him. Still, being left out amplified Malen's difficulties in moving countries, which was going to be more challenging than the first time round, given that he was coming back with a young family. Malen and his wife, Delisha, have three children and finding schools, nannies and a house, despite the assistance of Villa's player liaison team, made it a taxing start. Villa and Dortmund's negotiations meant he missed out on matches he would have played earlier in January, predating the other new signings and giving him a greater window of opportunity. This was viewed as important, as Malen just had time off following the Bundesliga's winter break. Advertisement There was sympathy from coaches, the dressing room and supporters. Malen was going to start February's FA Cup home fixture against Cardiff City only to come down with a fever a day earlier. He tried desperately to sweat out the cold, knowing how a positive performance could put him in the reckoning for a league start, but did not make it. Tellingly, after he scored his first league goal, away to Brighton & Hove Albion, little more than a month later, team-mates pushed him to the front during full-time celebrations with the away support. There has been more than one instance where Malen was going to come on only for the match dynamic to change. This included the FA Cup semi-final against Crystal Palace, where he had been called back to the bench just as Ismaila Sarr made it 2-0, and away to Bournemouth, before Jacob Ramsey was sent off. Those restrictions in game-time were keenly felt when minutes — 392 of them since joining — were so scant. Malen started twice in the league and came off the bench 12 times. A full pre-season will afford Malen the chance to grasp the finer details of Emery's coaching, as opposed to the fast-tracking of a signing midway through a campaign. Malen has bought a house in the region, with his children settled. He is taking inspiration from Youri Tielemans' teething issues, transforming from a peripheral figure into Villa's best player last season. Besides, Malen was impactful when he did play. Operating as a striker or as a right winger, he scored three league goals and, as a byproduct of his directness in possession, no Villa player averaged more shots per 90 minutes (5.09). He even had time to establish a trademark attacking movement and finish; firstly bending his run between the opposition's left centre-back and left-back. Malen would then take a touch before drilling a low, powerful shot towards the far corner. Those close to the player insist he has possessed the finish across the goalkeeper since playing in Netherlands' youth teams. Two of his three goals were scored in that manner. A curious beginning should not define Malen's Villa career. The groundwork will be laid in pre-season as he attempts to force his way into Emery's plans. The well-worn cliche of being 'like a new signing' rings true because, effectively, Malen is.
BBC News
10-06-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Netherlands hit eight to thrash Malta in qualifying
Aston Villa forward Donyell Malen scored twice with Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk and Tottenham defender Micky van de Ven also on target as the Netherlands crushed Malta 8-0 in a World Cup Manchester United midfielder Memphis Depay scored twice in the opening 16 minutes to move on to 50 international goals and equal Robin van Persie's record total for the Dijk scored from 20 yards in the 20th minute to make it 3-0 as it became a question of just how many the Dutch would Simons added a fourth just after the hour mark before Malen, who came on in the 72nd minute, finished off two minutes later after good work from Van de Ven to make it five. Malen set up Noa Lang for the sixth, before the Villa man grabbed his second goal and the hosts' seventh in the 80th centre-back Van de Ven sealed the rout in the second minute of injury time with his first international Dutch have now won both of their Group G matches, scoring 10 times and not conceding any, after they won 2-0 away from home against Finland on Saturday. Finland beat Poland 2-1 on Tuesday night to top the group with seven points from their four matches, although the second-placed Netherlands have two games in were without Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski after he said he would not play for his country while Michal Probierz was manager after being stripped of the captaincy at the led 2-0 with a Joel Pohjanpalo penalty and a 64th-minute goal from Benjamin Kallman, before Poland pulled one back through Arsenal defender Jakob Kiwior. The game in Helsinki was suspended for 20 minutes after a spectator needed medical attention, before the rest of the match was played out and the hosts held on for their success.
