Latest news with #FernandoTorres
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Liverpool 2025-26 kit: New home, away, third & goalkeeper jerseys, release dates, shirt leaks & prices
Liverpool will be partnering with Adidas again, starting from the 2025-26 season. The club's current contract with Nike is coming to an end soon, paving the way for the return of the 'Three Stripes' to Anfield after 13 years. The new deal is projected to bring in over £60 million annually and is set to officially begin on August 1, 2025. This will be Adidas' third time as Liverpool's official kit partner. Their previous collaborations were from 1985 to 1996 and then again from 2006 to 2012, before the partnerships with Warrior, New Balance and Nike. The Adidas kits from Liverpool's earlier Premier League period were famously worn by club legends such as Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher, Fernando Torres, and Luis Suarez, among others. During that time, the club secured one trophy, the 2012 League Cup. Along with a different crest on every Liverpool shirt for 2025-26, Adidas could revive some of their older kit designs from when they took over from (Adidas-owned) Reebok as the club's official partner. Here, GOAL brings you everything you need to know about the new Liverpool kits, including where to buy, prices, leaks, rumours and more. READ MORE All the outstanding 2024-25 football kits Liverpool 2024-25 home, away, third & goalkeeper kits Liverpool 2025-26 home kit, release date & price As leaked by Footy Headlines, the 2025-26 home shirt is said to be a strawberry red, featuring the classic adidas stripes on the shoulders, reminiscent of the shirts worn by legends like Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher back in 2006-07. The main differences will be the absence of a collar and the inclusion of a debossed graphic. It is suggested that the Liverpool crest, adidas logo, and sponsor will all be in white, complemented by white trim and piping on the sleeves and torso, respectively. Another interesting detail is that the Premier League logo on all Liverpool shirts is expected to be gold on account of their 2024-25 title win. While the 2006-07 shirt famously featured Carlsberg, the upcoming season's strip will once again be sponsored by Standard Chartered. The club's current agreement with the bank is set to continue until the conclusion of the 2026-27 season. The Adidas Liverpool 2025-26 home football shirt will be available on the shelves from August 1, 2025, or after the current Nike deal expires. Like last season, Liverpool kits will be priced around £80 ($105) for adults, with a match version available for £125 ($165). Liverpool 2025-26 away kit, release date & price For the away kit, Adidas is aiming to make a strong first impression. The rumoured design is a reverse of the home kit, with a predominantly off-white shade called 'Wonder White', complemented by black and some red accents. The trend of a modified crest will continue, with the sketch potentially echoing the 2010-11 away shirt, with the exception of the pine stripes. The Liverpool logo on the away shirt might appear within a shield. The strip is likely to be completed with black shorts and white socks, and the launch is expected to take place in August 2025. Liverpool 2025-26 third kit, release date & price The possible third kit has certainly generated some buzz. It is said to be a striking sea green, featuring white, black and mint green stripes on the collar and sleeves. Drawing inspiration from the 1980s with striped trim, this design could be a modern take on the classic green Liverpool x Carlsberg shirts, although this version should feature Standard Chartered on the front. Furthermore, besides an adidas Originals trefoil logo, the third kit is set to showcase the current Liverbird inside the old crest. Hence, the vintage Liverpool crest will make for a present-day interpretation of the one used on kits from 1987-1992, a period when Adidas was previously the kit partner. The Adidas Liverpool 2025-26 third jersey is likely to be available from August 2025. Liverpool 2025-26 goalkeeper kit release date & price The primary Adidas Liverpool 2025-26 goalkeeper kit will feature a combination of two shades of light green with black logos. Additionally, there's consideration for Liverpool's goalkeepers to have a pink kit option. Both of these kits are expected to incorporate a soundwave design, which is a standard feature of the Adidas Competition 25 GK kit. The third goalkeeper kit is slated to showcase black/gloss stripes complemented by white logos, collar, and stripes. Adidas has chosen to use the Trefoil logo for this third kit, aligning with the 25-26 third jersey design. These Adidas Liverpool 2025-2026 goalkeeper shirts are anticipated to be available in stores starting in late summer 2025.
New York Times
24-07-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Do Premier League clubs ever successfully replace big-money sales with cheaper replacements?
'Movement is part and parcel of football, but the most important people at Liverpool Football Club are the ones who want to be here.' The words of Kenny Dalglish on January 31, 2011, were a clear attempt to soothe the sensitivities of Liverpool supporters who were about to deal with the loss of their star goalscorer. Advertisement Fernando Torres' impending £50million ($68m) move from Anfield to Chelsea was one of the Premier League's most talked-about transfers. The Spaniard swapped one of England's traditional behemoths for a club that, at the time, offered a better chance of trophies. For Liverpool fans, it was a kick in the teeth. It could have been seen as a sign that the club, who had won the most recent of their 18 league titles over 20 years before, could not hold onto their top players in the face of pressure from moneyed and successful relative newcomers at the top table. If Dalglish's words were intended to be short-term reassurance, the real comfort arrived as Torres departed, and it came in the form of a striker from Uruguay, via Amsterdam. At a fee of around £23million, Luis Suarez cost Liverpool less than half of the money they received for Torres. While their goalscoring records for the club were remarkably similar — 65 Premier League goals in 102 appearances for Torres and 69 in 110 for Suarez — the majority of Liverpool fans would class Suarez as an upgrade on his more expensive predecessor. Torres went on to struggle badly at Chelsea and his career never truly recovered. It could have been the ultimate Premier League example of perfect transfer business had Liverpool not spoiled it by spending the rest of the Torres fee and more on Andy Carroll, who looked like a sensible signing but turned out to be unsuccessful. Replacing a star performer with an equal or superior player and walking away with change can be an elusive art, but several clubs have pulled off the feat down the years. In 1995, when the Premier League was in its infancy and transfer fees were tiny in comparison to today, Newcastle United, serious title contenders, enraged their supporters by selling leading goalscorer Andy Cole to Manchester United for £6million plus winger Keith Gillespie. Advertisement The decision led to protests and the famous spectacle of manager Kevin Keegan speaking on the steps outside St James' Park to try to placate unhappy fans. What did the job better, however, was reinvesting £5million of the money to sign Les Ferdinand from Queens Park Rangers. Cole was prolific at Old Trafford, and it would be too simplistic to label Ferdinand as a better player, but he hit 25 goals in his first season on Tyneside to help the club finish in second — a four-place improvement on their final season with Cole. When Everton sold Wayne Rooney — the best player to emerge from their academy in the Premier League era — to Manchester United for an initial £20million in the summer of 2004, they reinvested just £500,000 of it on a direct replacement in the form of Marcus Bent, who had an unspectacular time on Merseyside. But the £1.5million spent on Tim Cahill and the loan fee paid for Mikel Arteta not only helped replace some of Rooney's goals and creativity but also brought two players to the club who went on to be Goodison Park icons. Everton claimed a fourth-place finish in their first season without Rooney — their highest in the Premier League. In more recent times, Nottingham Forest can claim double success. Having banked £47million from Tottenham Hotspur for Brennan Johnson two summers ago, they reinvested £15million on Anthony Elanga from Manchester United and a maximum of £5million (if add-ons are realised) on Chelsea's Callum Hudson-Odoi. Forest went on to enjoy their most successful two seasons in recent times. They capped it off with qualification for the Conference League — and potentially the Europa League. The arrival of two excellent wingers in place of one excellent winger — and £27million in change into the coffers — worked out on many levels for Forest. Advertisement Yet an even more advanced skill can be not waiting for a star player to leave but signing a replacement in advance, as a former Premier League director explained in a recent piece for The Athletic on the art of selling clubs' best players. The director, speaking anonymously to protect relationships, explained how signing players before a star had left prevented other clubs from taking advantage of them. 'We didn't have to go out and buy a direct replacement when selling clubs knew we had a big chunk of money in our pockets. 'In an ideal world, you get your replacements first and give them a chance to adapt and settle in without any of the pressure of starting every week and being expected to replace your best player. 'And because they are already at the club, when the time comes, the fans don't necessarily view them as the direct replacement for 'Player X', so that takes some of the pressure off, too.' Again, Liverpool can boast one of the most successful instances of 'future-proofing' against a potential sale, even if it was more of a happy coincidence than a planned move. When they paid an initial £36.5million to buy Mohamed Salah from Roma in the summer of 2017, Liverpool did not know that Philippe Coutinho was set to leave for Barcelona for more than £100m in January 2018. Coutinho's exit also unlocked Jurgen Klopp to pick what would become his famed front three of Salah, Sadio Mane and Robert Firmino. That trio drove Liverpool to win the Champions League in 2019 and a first Premier League title in 2019-20. Again, on several levels, swapping a talented forward in Coutinho for Salah, who has become a club legend and helped them win their 20th overall English league title last season, turned out to be a masterstroke. In more recent years, Wolverhampton Wanderers had Mario Lemina and Joao Gomes in place as a new-look midfield-in-waiting before selling modern-day icon Ruben Neves. Advertisement And Brighton & Hove Albion have turned the practice into a fine art, especially in midfield. They sold Yves Bissouma to Tottenham for £30million in the summer of 2022, having spent just £4million on Moises Caicedo a year earlier. Bissouma's exit meant Caicedo went on to play 37 Premier League games for Brighton in 2022-23 as they finished sixth — the highest finish in the club's history. Not that the process stopped there. Brighton then sold Caicedo in 2023 for a British record £100million fee at the same time as signing Carlos Baleba for £23million. The Cameroon international is a work in progress, but is on track to maintain the trend, leaving Brighton with another top player and a combined profit of almost £100m to show for their evolution. Clubs can find success whether the replacement comes before or after the big sale. And at times, a cheaper replacement can be the better option than keeping hold of the star asset.
New York Times
22-07-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Can Hugo Ekitike be the No 9 Liverpool have lacked since Fernando Torres?
The first goal is a piece of typical centre-forward play. Liverpool's No 9 drops a few yards from his marker and serves a winger, whose pass is met by an onrushing midfielder. The No 9 heaves himself to the edge of the six-yard box and makes it 1-0. Later in the game, he scores again from almost the same position, needing only one touch to fire a shot into the roof of the net. The result at Molineux is Wolverhampton Wanderers 0 Liverpool 3 and the date is January 22, 2011. The player in red with an illustrious number printed on his back is Fernando Torres; the last classic Liverpool No 9 brought to the club to score goals, and to prove an unqualified successful signing. #OnThisDay 2011 #WolvesLiverpool 🔴⚽⚽🔥@LFC #OTD #TorresLegacy #TBTorres — Fernando Torres (@Torres) January 22, 2020 Hugo Ekitike is the latest to try and break that trend, as Liverpool edge closer to formally confirming his arrival in a deal that could be worth up to £79million. Liverpool are not the only major club to have struggled to find a centre-forward to lean on consistently — Arsenal have struggled to fill the position in recent years while Chelsea have never really replaced Didier Drogba (with the possible exception of Diego Costa). Advertisement One who tried and failed to do just that was, of course, Torres, who left Liverpool nine days after his brace against Wolves in a record £50million ($57.7m) deal. His replacement at Anfield, Andy Carroll, who signed from Newcastle United for £35m, was a No 9 in a traditional sense because, well, you could not exactly miss him. He would deliver key moments for Liverpool, two of them against Everton, ensuring fewer bad words are said about him, but 18 months after his arrival, he was moved out, initially on loan before eventually joining West Ham United in June 2013 for £15m. Iago Aspas was the next No 9 but it was difficult to determine which sort of forward he really was because he barely played, and when he did, he scored only once: against third-tier Oldham Athletic in a third-round FA Cup tie in 2014. He lasted only a season, as did Rickie Lambert, the boyhood Liverpudlian who failed to register a goal at Anfield before sloping off to West Bromwich Albion in 2015. Around this period, Liverpool had Daniel Sturridge and, before Lambert's arrival, Luis Suarez, the Uruguay forward, who, it should be remembered, was originally brought in to supplement Torres. Instead, Suarez and Sturridge became a partnership, and each was worth every penny Liverpool paid for them because they became stars in their own right. But were they No 9s in the truest sense? Suarez's goalscoring record in his last campaign at the club (31 goals in 33 Premier League games in 2013-14) would suggest he was, but his best work, like Sturridge's, was in the channels. Judged against history, they were more Kenny Dalglish than Ian Rush, the club's all-time leading marksman. After Lambert, there was Christian Benteke, who arrived in July 2015 from Aston Villa for £32.5m, the third wearer of the No 9 shirt to last only a season. Under Brendan Rodgers' management, Benteke's job was to operate in central areas and stay high up the pitch. But Rodgers' successor, Jurgen Klopp, wanted something different. Advertisement Roberto Firmino would become Liverpool's No 9 but he did not join as one in July 2015 and, across eight years, his role was not easy to define. Rather than putting the finishing touches to Liverpool's moves, he was instead an orchestrator of their best play, giving others the opportunity to score more than him. Darwin Nunez, who in June 2022 arrived from Benfica for a fee rising to a club-record £85m, would take Firmino's shirt but his troubles in front of goal mean he has not established himself as a first pick and is likely to leave this summer. There have been other contenders since Torres. Divock Origi scored in a Champions League final even if others were always ahead of him. But for a short period following Klopp's arrival, he ended up playing wide as much as he did in the centre. The late Diogo Jota undoubtedly proved himself as a pure No 9, with Jamie Carragher saying last year that he considered him to be the best finisher at the club ahead of even Mohamed Salah. But Jota, for all his obvious gifts, did not join Liverpool as a No 9 in 2020: he had played more from the left for Wolverhampton Wanderers, where Liverpool spotted his potential as a goalscorer. Last season, Arne Slot won the Premier League despite not having a settled centre-forward, with the responsibility shifting according to availability between Jota, Nunez and Luis Diaz. Though Ekitike has played in wider areas for Reims and Paris Saint-Germain, it is likely he will now slip into that role, having scored 15 Bundesliga goals last season, mainly playing through the middle for Eintracht Frankfurt. Omar Marmoush scored the same amount — but the Egypt forward left the club for Manchester City halfway through the campaign. Slot has spoken before about 'multi-functional' forwards, but surely he knows that when you spend north of £80m on a player who has done reasonably well for goals in another top league, he will be judged primarily by the same metric at Anfield. Advertisement It will be interesting to see which number Ekitike inherits because the No 9 will only become available once it is inevitable Nunez is leaving and, aside from Firmino, three other players have not had much luck with it since Torres. Lambert has since spoken not only about the weight of the shirt but also the number as well as the actual position, because he felt as though everyone relied on him, especially after Suarez's departure. Lambert's interest in the club started when Rush was leading the line with the No 9 on his back, and this explains why it was so difficult for so many to initially get their head around the idea that Firmino was not just there to score goals, even though Rush forged a lot of opportunities for himself because, like Firmino, he was a hard worker and an an outstanding presser. Ekitike, though, is not Firmino. He is leaner and quicker, the sort of striker to play off the shoulder of the last defender. His reckoning will come when he is one-on-one with the goalkeeper, very much like Torres. (Top photos: Getty)
Yahoo
05-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Atletico Madrid poach 23-year-old talent from rivals Real Madrid
Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid continue their battle of signatures, and Los Colchoneros are the latest to strike. Goalkeeper Mario de Luis, whose contract was up at the Santiago Bernabeu, has signed for Atletico. The 23-year-old goalkeeper was a free agent this summer, and with Fran Gonzalez operating as the third-choice for Real Madrid, and Diego Pineiro also in contention for Castilla, de Luis and Los Blancos decided to part ways. Atletico have signed him to a two-year deal until 2027, with Spain under-21 goalkeeper Alejandro Iturbe set to leave the club. Advertisement De Luis to have role under Fernando Torres De Luis, who has earned a cap for the under-21 side himself in the past, is set to become the starter for Atletico's B side under Fernando Torres. The former Liverpool striker has taken over as the B team manager this summer, and will be familiar with de Luis' work having faced him with the under-19 side. Image via Atletico Madrid He stands out for his reflexes in goal, and in the 2022-23 season, was the starter under Raul Gonzalez for Castilla, keeping 13 clean sheets in 34 games. However de Luis has fallen out of favour for the starting role in the last two seasons, making eight appearances last year, and 11 this season in relief for Gonzalez. Advertisement Atletico Madrid B name change As reported by Diario AS, Atletico B will also change their name this coming season. The affiliate side will be known as Atletico Madrileno from now on, returning to the name they until 1991, 34 years ago. That was also the name they played under from their foundation, in 1970. Many are excited to see what Torres can do with Atletico Madrileno, having enjoyed success with the under-19 side. With Alvaro Arbeloa also earning promotion to the Castilla side, replacing Raul, the two will do battle again in Primera RFEF, the third tier of Spanish football.
New York Times
20-06-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Transfers that shook the world: A new podcast series from The Athletic FC
What's the transfer that stung you the most? Every football fan will remember a moment in their lives when they've been let down, betrayed, scorned — pick your appropriate adjective accordingly — by a player who turned their backs on their clubs in favour of a controversial new challenge elsewhere. Advertisement Across a six-part series on The Athletic FC Podcast, we'll recall six deals that truly shook the entire industry — and explain how they happened. We'll take you on a trip back in time, providing insider perspectives and fierce debate from expert reporters from The Athletic, including David Ornstein's memories of breaking the news when the stories were developing. You'll hear about the secret deals that saw furious fans burning shirts of their heroes who turned into villains overnight. Starting today with Fernando Torres' blockbuster switch from Liverpool to Chelsea in January 2011, a fresh episode will be released every Friday over the next six weeks. Listen for free wherever you get your podcasts, including on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and The Athletic app. (Top photos: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)
