Latest news with #KikaNazareth
The Guardian
30-05-2025
- General
- The Guardian
England v Portugal: Women's Nations League
Update: Date: 2025-05-30T17:45:21.000Z Title: Preamble Content: Hello and welcome to live coverage of this Women's Nations League match between England and Portugal at Wembley. It's the reverse fixture of group A3's opening game in February that saw a sublime goal from Kika Nazareth hold England to a draw after Alessia Russo's opener. England's preparation for this game and the Euros in July has largely been overshadowed by Mary Earps' decision to retire from international football on Tuesday. The 2022 and 2023 winner of Fifa's Best goalkeeper award said: 'Ultimately this is the right time for me to step aside and give the younger players an opportunity to thrive.' All eyes will be on the England No.1 Hannah Hampton and the rest of the team as they adapt to Earps' exit. For Portugal tonight's game marks an opportunity to go level on points with England in the group. Even with a win, it's unlikely that they'll leapfrog England after Spain thrashed them 7-1 in their last game. Their clash with England will be good preparation for their opening game of the Euros against their Iberian rivals. Kick off is at 7:45pm. Send me an email with your predictions.
New York Times
29-05-2025
- Lifestyle
- New York Times
Andreia Jacinto: Portugal's young starlet carrying a nation's Euro hopes
Andreia Jacinto is a young woman of superstitions. There is the hair — those long, brown tussles untamed behind a dark headband — and the socks, which are slipped on one at a time (right first, of course), and her position in the pre-match warm-up circle (second spot from the left of the physio). There are times the Real Sociedad midfielder considers changing her routine. But those moments are fleeting. Advertisement 'I get nervous,' the 22-year-old Portugal international tells The Athletic. 'If I change and something goes a bit different, I'm like: No, no, it can't be! 'Maybe, also, it's kind of an excuse not to change,' she adds. 'Like, I started with the headband now, right? I feel that if I change too much, I'm changing my personality as a player. And I don't want that. It's like, I started with this. I'm going with this 'til the end.' Jacinto will be at Wembley on Friday as Portugal take on reigning European Champions England in the Nations League. Her strengths were clear for all to see during the reverse Nations League fixture in February. A second-half substitute along with Barcelona forward Kika Nazareth and Sporting CP striker Ana Capeta, her influence in Portugal wresting control from England and securing a 1-1 draw was significant. 'I really felt that we could beat England if we kept pushing. But also in that game, we didn't feel the pressure at all about entering against England,' Jacinto says. 'We were just enjoying football, playing off each other, combining. I feel we brought that bit of happiness and freedom in our play, and it made a bit of a difference in the game.' Ahead of Euro 2025, Jacinto represents for many Portugal fans their route through the group stages — where they will play Belgium, Spain and Italy — which would be a first since the nation made its European debut in 2017. Jacinto is speaking to The Athletic over FaceTime from her apartment on a grey afternoon in San Sebastian in northern Spain. 'The city here, it's small, so kids recognise me and my team-mates when we're walking on the beach,' she says. 'It's so cute but, for me, sometimes it's hard. I get shier than the kids. Because I can still see myself as the kid that I was, just playing football for fun, not this version of life.' Advertisement This season, Jacinto has been one of the most consistent creative forces in Liga F, Spain's women's top flight, despite playing for a club that finished seventh in the table, 43 points off leaders Barcelona. At the time of our interview in April, Jacinto was nearing the end of her three-year contract, which meant heads were turning and moves away considered, but she has since signed a one-year extension. The midfielder swapped her girlhood club of Sporting CP in Lisbon, Portugal, for the northeast corner of Spain in 2022 and adjusting to her new life was not easy. Sporting was the club of her roots, from the days of capering after her older brother, Leandro, on the pitches of her hometown Cascais, just a 20-mile drive from Lisbon, and captaining the local boys' team, to wearing the Sporting colours herself at 14 and signing her first professional contract at 17. That her father does not fly made the move all the harder. Family visits demand nine-hour journeys. 'We have the Euros in Switzerland,' she says, smiling. 'He said he's going to drive there. I looked… it's 19 hours!' Ultimately, her decision to move was made in the same way she makes passes: prompt and without hesitation. 'When I was a kid, I always said to my parents that I'd like to play abroad, (that) when I turned 18, I'd go,' Jacinto says. 'They never believed me. But then came the point that I was ending the contract with Sporting, and while we had won two titles that season, Real Sociedad finished second (in Liga F in 2021-22). They were going to play Champions League. And Spain is a championship that I like, and I identify with the profile of player. As a kid, I always had that in my mind. So my decision took 20 minutes.' Three years later, another decision awaited — ultimately, choosing to remain in Spain for another 12 months to continue honing her playing style. Advertisement 'Technically, players from Portugal and Spain are not much different. But here (in Spain), you receive the pressure way, way faster and you have to act way faster and decide,' she says. According to FBref, Jacinto finished in the top 10 for progressive passes (third with 238), key passes (joint eighth with 49), passes into the final third (fifth with 221) and passes into the penalty area (seventh with 43) That Real Sociedad have only scored 40 goals and struggled to execute in the final third is seen as more evidence of her promise. Jacinto does not hesitate in listing out her areas of improvement: being more aggressive in defence, winning more aerial duels, becoming less reliant on her right foot, honing those long, raking passes with her left. But she is also just as clear about her strengths: her vision on the ball, the calm with which she picks a simple pass as seamlessly as a challenging one, the way matches move through her, her eyes forever scanning for an opening. This summer, Jacinto believes the right things will come to fruition in Switzerland, despite the absence of Nazareth, who sustained an injury to her left ankle in March. Jacinto, who will now carry the pressure as Portugal's young starlet, knows the pain of injury before a major tournament, having been forced to miss Euro 2022 with a hernia. Fluent in Spanish and English as well as her native Portuguese, she is also returning to studying, having had to shelve her pursuit of physiotherapy upon her move to Real Sociedad. 'There was a time not long ago when I spent a lot of time on my phone. I was like: OK, no, I'm wasting my time. Instead of being on TikTok, I should read a book. Maybe it's weird to say, but I miss studying,' she says. At this admission, Jacinto offers a grin not unlike the one given after admitting she'll probably stick by her superstitions, however many times her mum asks why she doesn't consider a ponytail. There's value in knowing what makes her, her.
Evening Standard
24-05-2025
- Sport
- Evening Standard
Arsenal vs Barcelona: Women's Champions League final prediction, kick-off time, TV, live stream, team news, h2h results, odds today
Both sides will come into the final with their squads close to fully fit. Barcelona have just one notable absentee in Kika Nazareth, who was subbed off in the second leg of the Copa de la Reina semi-final against Real Madrid with an ankle injury.
Coin Geek
22-05-2025
- Business
- Coin Geek
Visa teams up with Ubisoft; AI dApps outperform DeFi, gaming
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... Payment processor Visa (NASDAQ: V) has announced a partnership with video game publisher Ubisoft (NASDAQ: UBSFF), designed to blend digital payments and gaming for consumers. Under the three-year deal, Visa and Ubisoft will offer gamers various functionalities to enhance users' gaming experience, including the prospect of mainstream gamified payments. A series of initiatives to improve consumer experiences, cutting across entertainment and digital commerce, are also in the pipeline. The partnership follows the release of Ubisoft's new title, Just Dance, with both parties releasing a raft of marketing campaigns for the game. Currently, Visa and Ubisoft have released a promotional dance featuring Visa's brand ambassador, Portuguese footballer Kika Nazareth. In its official statement, Visa also announced that its cardholders will enjoy exclusive access to in-game content for Just Dance. Furthermore, cardholders will enjoy the additional perks of game codes and Ubisoft+ subscriptions for established and budding gamers. 'Today marks the first step in our partnership with Visa to bring exclusive in-game content to cardholders, and we look forward to sharing more soon,' said Chris Early, senior vice president of Strategic Partnerships at Ubisoft. However, the collaboration appears to be Eurocentric, with benefits applicable only to the European Union and the United Kingdom card users. For now, it remains unclear if Visa and Ubisoft will extend the scope of the joint offerings to other regions. 'I am delighted that Visa will be bringing its expertise to the gaming world through our partnership with Ubisoft and offering exclusive opportunities to our cardholders and beyond,' said Visa Europe CMO Kimberly Kadlec. Experts say the partnership may lead to the rise of Visa-based loyalty programs for Ubisoft game titles. Furthermore, Ubisoft's foray into blockchain-based gaming and Visa's Web3 capabilities may support digital asset in-game transactions. Blockchain gaming has surged to new highs, racking up 7.4 million new wallets in 2024 alone. While new developers are powering the trend, established gaming companies like Ubisoft are increasing their footprint in the space with a non-fungible token (NFT)-based game with Immutable. Despite the growing metrics, a report notes that 80% of gamers have yet to play a blockchain-based game, creating room for seismic adoption figures. The three-year deal between Visa and Ubisoft provides potential upside for blockchain gaming adoption despite a dip in funding across the ecosystem. AI dApps pose challenge to DeFi, gaming The spike in AI dApp user wallets over the last month has far-reaching consequences for the dApp industry's rankings. Analysts at DappRadar say AI's meteoric rise is snatching a significant piece from the traditional dominance held by DeFi and gaming dApps. 'For the first time in several months, gaming and DeFi each hold 21% dominance, while AI has climbed to 16%, its highest yet,' said Sara Gherhelas, analyst at DappRadar. 'If this trend continues, AI could soon challenge the traditional dominance of DeFi and Gaming, signaling a new era in the dApp landscape.' While AI dApps enjoyed a stellar performance between March and April, on-chain analytics reveal that social-based dApps racked up 3.6 million new users in the same period. On the flip side, DeFi and gaming dApps saw their user metrics tumble by 16% and 10%, respectively. Gherhelas attempted to rationalize the jarring figures in the dApp ecosystem, describing April as a month of 'recalibration' for the industry. The rise of AI dApps in recent months is not a flash in the pan but the effect of several underlying factors. The mainstream AI adoption trend and rising utility of AI dApps is powering interest across the board, with users noting a significant improvement in user experience. On the other hand, previous bearish sentiments at the end of Q1 2025 saw investor interest in DeFi protocols fall to new lows, while others blame rug pulls and a slew of scalability issues for the decline. AI and blockchain are opening new vistas for enterprises embracing emerging technologies. Previously, pioneers have pushed for their adoption in silos, but integrating them is powering new utilities across several verticals. Enterprises are integrating these two technologies to verify AI-generated images and deepfakes. Others are turning to the combination to improve the scope of cybersecurity offerings, while utilities in the Internet of Things (IoT) technology have yielded early progress. In order for artificial intelligence (AI) to work right within the law and thrive in the face of growing challenges, it needs to integrate an enterprise blockchain system that ensures data input quality and ownership—allowing it to keep data safe while also guaranteeing the immutability of data. Check out CoinGeek's coverage on this emerging tech to learn more why Enterprise blockchain will be the backbone of AI. Watch: Focusing on gaming and unveiling HandCash's future plans title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen="">
Finextra
13-05-2025
- Business
- Finextra
Visa and Ubisoft sign three-year gaming deal
Leading video game creator and publisher, Ubisoft, and Visa, a global leader in digital payments, today announce a three-year strategic partnership in Europe, delivering exciting opportunities to enrich gaming experiences. 0 Through its partnership with Ubisoft, Visa will be launching co-branded marketing promotions on renowned games, including the recently launched Just Dance™ 2025 edition, offering exclusive content, Ubisoft+ benefits, and game codes in Europe and the UK. These features will be accessible to select consumers through special Visa promotional campaigns. Additionally, over the next three years, this strategic collaboration will see both companies exploring innovations that extend beyond gaming through various joint initiatives. To celebrate the launch of Just DanceTM, an exclusive celebratory dance will be created featuring Kika Nazareth, Team Visa footballer. Kimberly Kadlec, Chief Marketing Officer, Visa Europe comments: 'I am delighted that Visa will be bringing its expertise to the gaming world through our partnership with Ubisoft and offering exclusive opportunities to our cardholders and beyond. It's the beginning of an exciting journey for both Visa and Ubisoft, and we look forward to seeing it unfold'. Chris Early, SVP, Strategic Partnerships & Business Development, Ubisoft comments: 'Today marks the first step in our partnership with Visa to bring exclusive in-game content to Visa cardholders, and we look forward to sharing more soon.' This collaboration will build on Visa's 40-year history of world-class leadership in sports and entertainment sponsorships and partnerships by adding one of the leaders in the gaming industry, further driving impactful experiences for clients and cardholders.
