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Straits Times
27-05-2025
- Sport
- Straits Times
Betis chase history as chance to overshadow Sevilla fires up fans
WROCLAW, Poland - Real Betis supporters are revelling in their team's achievement of reaching a European final for the first time in the club's history and the chance to overshadow local rivals Sevilla and enjoy their own chapter of continental success. Betis face Chelsea in the Conference League final on Wednesday, with supporters savouring every moment of the journey to a long-awaited European showpiece in one of the side's biggest matches since the club was formed almost 118 years ago. As far as the local rivalry in their city is concerned, the Betis and Sevilla trophy cabinets tell the story. While Betis have won three Spanish Cup titles and a LaLiga crown, Sevilla have lifted five Copa del Rey trophies, one league title and seven UEFA Cup/Europa League crowns. However, this season has marked a shift in the fortunes of the clubs in the city known as the 'The Pearl of Andalusia.' While Betis finished in a respectable sixth place and secured Europa League football for next season, Sevilla ended up just one point above the relegation zone, with their frustrated fans storming the club's training ground earlier this month. Betis followers hope their team can also lift a European trophy and stake a claim to be the city's top side. "Nowadays we feel we're better than Sevilla. We're higher in the league, have better players and a better-run team," Betis supporter Jesus said. The fans were also proud to be the first Betis supporters to wear the club's white and green colours for a European final. "We have dreamed about it for so many years and now we are living it. We will enjoy this time with friends and families, and drink a lot of beer," said supporter Alvaro. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
The Star
27-05-2025
- Sport
- The Star
Soccer-Betis chase history as chance to overshadow Sevilla fires up fans
Soccer Football - Conference League - Final - Real Betis Training - Wroclaw Stadium, Wroclaw, Poland - May 27, 2025 General view during training REUTERS/Dylan Martinez WROCLAW, Poland (Reuters) - Real Betis supporters are revelling in their team's achievement of reaching a European final for the first time in the club's history and the chance to overshadow local rivals Sevilla and enjoy their own chapter of continental success. Betis face Chelsea in the Conference League final on Wednesday, with supporters savouring every moment of the journey to a long-awaited European showpiece in one of the side's biggest matches since the club was formed almost 118 years ago. As far as the local rivalry in their city is concerned, the Betis and Sevilla trophy cabinets tell the story. While Betis have won three Spanish Cup titles and a LaLiga crown, Sevilla have lifted five Copa del Rey trophies, one league title and seven UEFA Cup/Europa League crowns. However, this season has marked a shift in the fortunes of the clubs in the city known as the 'The Pearl of Andalusia.' While Betis finished in a respectable sixth place and secured Europa League football for next season, Sevilla ended up just one point above the relegation zone, with their frustrated fans storming the club's training ground earlier this month. Betis followers hope their team can also lift a European trophy and stake a claim to be the city's top side. "Nowadays we feel we're better than Sevilla. We're higher in the league, have better players and a better-run team," Betis supporter Jesus said. The fans were also proud to be the first Betis supporters to wear the club's white and green colours for a European final. "We have dreamed about it for so many years and now we are living it. We will enjoy this time with friends and families, and drink a lot of beer," said supporter Alvaro. (Reporting by Tommy Lund in Wroclaw; Editing by Ken Ferris)
Daily Mail
01-05-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mail
Lamine Yamal has played 100 games for Barcelona, won the Euros and mesmerised fans in the Champions League, writes PETE JENSON... at just 17 is he ALREADY the best in the world?
When Lamine Yamal scores he usually celebrates by making the number 304 with his fingers — they are the last three digits of the postcode of Rocafonda in Mataro just outside Barcelona, where he grew up. On Wednesday night in the Olympic Stadium he forgot the tribute to his old neighbourhood — there was too much going on. He had just scored arguably his greatest goal yet on the occasion of his 100th match for Barca, with his team reeling from conceding twice in the first 21 minutes of their Champions League semi-final with Inter Milan. The teenager flashed a grin to the stands and then appeared to point back to the Barcelona half as he made his way there for the restart. There was a tie to salvage and he was leading the mission. The boy with the golden hair is heading for a golden ball sooner rather than later. He looked like the best player in the world on Wednesday, as he has done all season as Barcelona threaten to pull a treble out of the ashes of their financial meltdown. The Spanish Cup has been won, they are four points clear in LaLiga with five games to play and on Tuesday in Milan they will seek to secure a place in the Champions League final. A 3-3 draw at home in the first leg is not ideal but Yamal plays with the same nerveless bravado away as he does at home. Barca have beaten Real Madrid 4-0 and Atletico Madrid 4-2 on the road this season and he scored in both games. The San Siro will not intimidate him. 'I left fear behind in the park at Mataro,' he said this week in another reference to where he grew up. 'You have to think about enjoying yourself on the pitch. If you do that there is no pressure.' If Yamal does win the Ballon d'Or this year, he will do it four years before Lionel Messi managed to lift the first of his eight. Being ahead of the Messi curve will be nothing new. Messi scored his first goal for Barcelona 20 years ago yesterday, aged 17 years and 10 months. At the same age Yamal has already played 100 times for Barcelona. He has won a Euros with Spain, scoring that brilliant equaliser last summer against France in the semi-final, and has been involved in 68 goals (26 goals and 42 assists) between club and country. Messi had not yet made his debut, much less scored for Argentina, at the same age. When Messi scored his first Barca goal he climbed on the back of assist man Ronaldinho, and in those first seasons there was a sense the Brazilian was the Argentine's big brother. There is no Ronaldinho figure for Yamal — he is the leader of this team and already seen as a cultural icon too. His importance goes beyond football. He is the focus of a documentary called Revolution 304 — another nod to that postcode — all about his childhood neighbourhood. The streets are full of murals in his honour after his success with Spain last summer and kids swarm around the cameras doing his 304 celebration. Local teacher Ignasi Mangue says: 'I can think of very few young sportsmen who have made this sense of belonging to the place they grew up in such a big part of their identity.' Son of Moroccan father Mounir Nasraoui and Equatorial Guinean mum Sheila Ebana, Yamal is a symbol for the fight against discrimination on the pitch and in society, and he has accepted the role with the same calm as he has the call to be Barca's talisman. His competitive nature has helped him with the latter and it was on display at the end of the draw with Inter. Team-mates surrounded him to give him a commemorative shirt for his 100th match while several tugged at his face to try to force a smile, but he was having none of it knowing that conceding three goals at home had made next week's second leg more difficult. He recovered his smile for the post-match television interview with Thierry Henry, charming everyone in English and Spanish and promising Henry his shirt at the league 'Clasico' against Real Madrid on May 11, provided Henry brings an Arsenal one. Will we ever see him wear an English club shirt competitively? He has taken English classes to complement the finishing of his formal education, but Barcelona president Joan Laporta only just survived losing Messi to Miami. Neither he nor any subsequent club president would survive losing Yamal. The kid with the braces on his teeth will come of age very soon. His contract runs out next year but it will be renewed once he has turned 18 on July 13. His salary will increase from £1.7million to something closer to the £25.5m paid to Barca's top earner Robert Lewandowski. Yamal's buy-out clause will be set at £850m. Adidas made sure they signed him to a 10-year deal after he won the Euros. They did so with help from Messi, who sent a 'come and join our family' message in a promotional video. Now Barcelona need to make sure they, too, tie him down for the long term. Agent Jorge Mendes has already begun negotiations and although Barcelona are still operating in a financial straitjacket after years of mismanagement, it would be far costlier to lose Yamal than to keep him. As the world witnessed on Wednesday night, he is their golden ticket. Barca were blessed with Messi for so long and now they sense that once again the best player in the world is theirs.
Daily Mail
01-05-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mail
Inside Lamine Yamal's meteoric rise: From getting over 'messy' break-up with TikTok star to supportive dad who was stabbed in car park brawl... and it will take £1BILLION to prise the 17-year-old from Barcelona
Projections of Lamine Yamal 's future talent are unimportant. If his career ended today the winger would have achieved more than 99 per cent of footballers to play the game. In a couple of months, he may well add a continent treble to the LaLiga title, Spanish Cup and European Championship he already has in his cabinet. Comparisons to Lionel Messi are redundant. As the teenager has been at pains to stress, 'the comparison makes [no] sense'. In fact, of late comparisons to Yamal, not Argentina great, feel unfair. The winger's rise in the game over the past couple of years has been truly astounding. The precocious talent got his start in the Barcelona first team under former manager Xavi at a time when the Catalan club's financial mismanagement rendered them a laughing stock among European football's elite. Amid the endless levers and failures to register signings for their league squads, Barca happened upon an extraordinary talent. Indeed, it appears La Masia's recent graduates - which include the likes of current first-teamers Gavi, Pau Cubarsi, Fermin Lopez, and Alejandro Balde - could rival the crop that spearheaded Pep Guardiola 's stunning roster in the late 2000s. Xavi reportedly played a key role in ensuring Yamal remained in Barcelona as French giants Paris Saint-Germain caught wind of the then-15-year-old's talent. According to Mundo Deportivo, Xavi promised the teenager that he would give him first team minutes if he signed his first professional contract with the club. The Barcelona legend was good to his word and handed the youngster his debut in April 2023, when, at just 15 years, nine months, and 16 days old, he became the youngest player to represent the club. Yamal too followed through on his commitment and penned his first pro deal that remarkably included a release clause worth €1bn (£868m). 'We're receiving crazy bids for players like Lamine Yamal around €200m and we're rejecting, of course,' said Barca president Joan Laporta last March. 'We trust Lamine and we don't need to sell'. Forget his age, Yamal has enjoyed a two-year run very few players will ever experience. His debut campaign yielded just those seven LaLiga minutes against Real Betis as Xavi's men secured the league title. The next season saw him become a favourite of football fans around the world but also attracted the unwanted attention - and peril - that often accompanies fame. Yamal was born to Mounir Nasraoui and Sheila Ebana in 2007 and raised in the Spanish town of Mataro. During his startling Euro 2024 run, he continued to honour his hometown with his '304' celebration and his dad, an immigrant from Morocco, was a constant supporter. But not long after the competition where his son had been named Young Player of the Tournament, Nasraoui was attacked in a car park and subsequently rushed to hospital. According to La Vanguardia, local residents claimed Nasraoui got into an argument with some individuals while walking his dog, with the dispute resulting in a fight before Nasraoui was stabbed multiple times. The 35-year-old was admitted to an intensive care unit in a serious condition but several hours after the shock stabbing was said to be stable. Catalan police confirmed four people were arrested shortly after the incident. The episode, which took place a month after Spain's triumph over England in Berlin, would certainly have shaken Yamal and his family to their core. His parents, whose relationship ended in 2010, appear amicable publicly and have been ardent defenders of their son. Nasraoui was discharged from hospital on August 16 and has continued to laud the teenager. He too had aspirations of becoming a footballer in Spain's professional ranks, but was unable to make the grade and subsequently moved into employment where he took up several jobs to make ends meet. His stabbing marked the second post-Euro low for the youngster following the very public and messy breakdown of his relationship with TikTok star Alex Padilla. Padilla had joined Yamal's family on the pitch of the Olympiastadion as La Roja celebrated their fourth continental crown in July. The pair were inseparable but just weeks later she was spotted seemingly sitting on another boy's lap in an Instagram live video which sparked a fevered speculation on the status of their relationship. Padilla, who boasts a TikTok following of 1.9million, was in attendance for several of La Roja's group stage matches in Germany and was often seen sitting alongside the Barcelona winger's family. According to the Sun, the couple had also jetted off to Milan and Greece as the 17-year-old made the most of his well-earned break. But their budding romance came to an abrupt end following the video on social media, with Spanish outlet Mundo Deportivo claiming that Yamal unfollowed the influencer. The footage of Padilla with another boy led some on the platform to accuse her of cheating on the footballer. However, it appears that Yamal's tumultuous summer did little to affect his on-field performances. The winger returned to his club and set about producing a jaw-dropping campaign. When it comes to the raw numbers, Yamal still has plenty of room to grow. In 49 appearances for the Blaugrana this term he has registered 15 goals and 24 assists. What is more remarkable about the youngster is his ability to perform when the lights shine brightest. 'In the big matches, he shows up, and I think he enjoyed the situation,' said his manager Hansi Flick after his superb display in the 3-3 draw with Inter Milan on Wednesday night. The German agreed with his counterpart Simeone Inzaghi's claim that the winger is a 'genius', adding: 'I'm really happy that this talent, if it only comes every 50 years like Simone said, I'm glad it's for Barcelona.' Wednesday's clash also marked the 100 appearances for the teenager in Barcelona colours. In that time he has 22 goals to his name and a further 27 assists. Comparisons to Messi are understandable, indeed, they have been fueled by Yamal's own family. Last year his dad claimed that his son could be even greater than the eight-time Ballon d'Or winner, while his mother took part in a now infamous charity calendar alongside the Argentina great, where he can be seen bathing a baby Lamine. But too close of an inspection does neither any good in the long run. Football has drastically changed, even since Messi reigned supreme as the world's best not six years ago. Yamal, a 17-year-old, already has commercial relationships with global brands including Beats Electronics, Powerade, the electronics company Oppo and Konami in addition to his huge deal with Adidas. He is one of the most recognisable faces in the game and ascending at a time when one poor performance attracts torrents of derision on social media - and a great one can vault you into Ballon d'Or contention. Progress isn't linear. There is no guarantee that Yamal will continue to improve for years to come. How much better can he? What is clear is that he is already among the finest footballers on the planet, perhaps even the very best.
The Independent
30-04-2025
- Sport
- The Independent
How Manchester United and Tottenham can thrive again thanks to a Europa League lesson
When Bodo/Glimt prepare for a game like Tottenham Hotspur, one policy is to try and not look at the names. The tiny Norwegian club has plenty of experience there, having faced Lazio, Arsenal, Manchester United and Ange Postecoglou's Celtic during their recent rise. The aim is to just see players as units, and their various strengths and weaknesses. It is a very rational way to look at something that could otherwise involve a lot of emotion, particularly for an Arctic Circle town that has a population of just 55,000 - almost 8,000 less than the 62,850 capacity of Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. 'We only think it's funny to show we can be as good as any name in the world,' says defender Odin Bjortuft. The general perception of these four Europa League semi-finalists, and how they view football, is going to hugely frame the outlook of these ties. On either side of both semi-finals - Bodo/Glimt v Tottenham Hotspur and Athletic Club v Manchester United - there are two fan-owned clubs who organically built on what they've got. Bodo are authentically one of the great stories of modern football. Their run to become the first Norwegian club to reach a semi-final is not just something that shouldn't be possible. It is all the more impressive since it has been achieved after years of sustained progress. This is no one-off. They are a model of diligently building on what you have, and being "smarter" about it. 'If you go back 10 years, the club was nearly bankrupt,' says director of football Havard Sakariassen. 'Nobody has given us money outside of prize money or us doing well. There is no owner here. Nothing like that.' Athletic have meanwhile enjoyed a rebirth, as their famous recruitment policy feels like it now offers even greater value in the modern game. By only selecting players who are connected to the Basque Country, they have benefited from the area's burgeoning talent production. Club legend Ernesto Valverde is meanwhile a coach who just fits, and last year's Spanish Cup win is seen as having given the club a badly-needed new confidence, as they lifted their first trophy in 40 years. They're now going for a second in two as well as a first European trophy, all in their own stadium. There's considerable romance to all this. On the other side, there are two billionaire-owned clubs that have burnt through billions of Premier League and Champions League money in the last few years alone. And yet here United and Spurs are, desperate for a Europa League to save their seasons - and maybe more. While there are obviously pure football and emotional reasons for both to want to win this trophy, there's also an inescapable financial reality. They both need the victory, and Champions League qualification, to satisfy PSR rules and future growth. It isn't quite what the great glory of European football is supposed to be about. These two semi-finals have nevertheless become about admirable diligence against extreme waste; immense over-performance against jaw-dropping under-performance. It's hard to know what should be more unlikely: Bodo getting this far, or both United and Spurs being so low in the Premier League. The English two are somehow disproving Sakariassen's true point that 'it's easier if you have money, that's for sure'. While none of this is to argue that it would be better for two Premier League clubs to go out, many in European football are only too keen to talk about potential moral lessons. It was following last season's Europa League final, after all, that Gian Piero Gasperini described his Atalanta's win as a victory for 'meritocracy'. 'There is still scope for ideas and football doesn't have to come down to cool, hard money,' he said. While so much of the modern game seems to be going in the opposite direction, especially with the expanded Champions League, there are figures in Uefa who were conscious of this. These semi-finals show why seemingly innocuous regulations are so important. Had the original idea for the expanded Champions League been in place, where two positions would have absurdly been awarded based on past performance, clubs like United and Spurs could well have had a safety net. Senior voices like Theo Theodoridis worried this might be going too far. Fan pressure was crucial. Now, both Spurs and United might be forced into more calculated thought about what next, just like their semi-final opposition. It is why Bodo can be 'an inspiration', as Sakariassen puts it, for even clubs much bigger than those in Norway. They might also show the way football is going. Much like Liverpool on a different scale in this season's Premier League, Bodo have made a virtue of 'performance culture'. It really is that simple in terms of explanation, if obviously difficult to execute. They began to think about how they could maximise every area of the club. 'They have used their limitations as advantages,' says Jens Haugland, chief executive of the Norwegian league. 'We need to be driven by very strong performance culture, because we can never compete in terms of money. Bodo is a clear example. They have done it for many years and are also able to repeat the performance. You can never buy a performance culture from money, you can never buy an attitude from money, you can never buy a collective from money. You need to work in a very detailed and systematic way for many years.' Athletic, famously, have an identity you can't buy with money, either. It is similarly instructive that, when Michel Platini first tried to get Financial Fair Play through 18 years ago, he turned to a prominent Athletic fan. The then Uefa president received crucial legal support from European Union Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia. This wasn't out of any club bias, but really about what football culture should encourage. It is impossible not to wonder what some of the Premier League executives might make of being forced into Athletic's recruitment policy, given that there are now voices at United who want PSR loosened. Bodo pursue a strategy that is similar to Athletic almost by definition, in having mostly Norwegian players, because that's just the market they're in. "Their main pitch to me was they could help make me better.' Bjortuft says. 'Bodo/Glimt have been really good at picking players who can give everything for the team.' Praise isn't universal, of course. There has been some criticism for how Bodo have benefited from that same Uefa prize money mechanism, with Sakariassen admitting 'a lot of Norwegian clubs probably see it as a big obstacle'. Some rivals around the Basque region meanwhile "despise" Athletic for "poaching" their players. Euro 2024 star Nico Williams was taken from nearby rivals Osasuna at 11. On the other side, both Arsenal and Chelsea are looking at him for the summer. Wealthy English clubs want Bodo manager Kjetil Knutsen. Money does tend to win out. The likelihood is that one of United or Spurs will win to reach the final. If they do, however, there are still considerable lessons to take from their opposition. Neither Bilbao nor Bodo see it that way. They have full belief. It's the conviction that comes from commitment to a unique identity. They are convinced they can give the best lesson possible.
