Indholdsfortegnelse for Summer 2025 i World Soccer

The World Soccer season review always gives us the chance to cram in as many interesting and exciting stories as we can, and this year was no different. As well as covering all of Europe’s biggest leagues (and its smaller ones too), plus a few from further afield, we sent Tom Kundert to two of the biggest Lisbon derbies of all time, and Alec McQuarrie to an historic Greek Cup final. But this issue would not be complete without a few words for the iconic Brian Glanville, who passed away at the age of 93 in May. Keir Radnedge and Henry Winter, to whom he was an inspiration, colleague and friend, have both paid tribute to him.…

Life presents itself in terms of facts and logic. But then there is football. Pragmatists doubtless lined up behind Arsene Wenger when he handed down his wisdom decrying UEFA’s inter-tournament promotion system; his old Arsenal loyalists may have considered him vindicated when Tottenham vaulted from just above the Premier League relegation zone and alongside them into next season’s Champions League. Tottenham, after all! But the beautiful game, as Danny Blanchflower once stated in words that will long outlast Wenger’s whinge, is all about glory. True, Tottenham’s latest despatch of Manchester United in Bilbao in the Europa League final was about as far from the glory game as possible; in fact, it was the worst match I saw all season. Yet the ecstatic response of their fans after17 years without a…

Per BARTRAM (1944-2025) Denmark forward who played only once for his country despite a solid club career at home and in Scotland with Odense BK, Morton, Crystal Palace and Bonnyrigg Rose. Was a Danish champion with Odense and man of the match in defeat in the1974 Danish Cup final against Vanlose. Chic BATES (1949-2025) A Shrewsbury Town legend, having started and finished his playing career with the club and, as manager, going on to guide the Shrews to their highest-ever league finish in1984-85. Also played for Swindon Town and Bristol Rovers and managed Stoke City. Colin BOOTH (1934-2025) Hard-working inside-forward who never quite established himself as a regular first-teamer at Wolves despite spending nine valuable years under Stan Cullis in the1950s. Later made his mark briefly at Nottingham Forest before…

“We’ve capped off an extraordinary season…we’ve brought this club where it deserves to be, which is among the best in Europe”Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca after the Blues won the Conference League to become the first club to win all five major UEFA men’s club competitions $275m Estimated earnings by Cristiano Ronaldo over the past12 months according to Forbes, making him the highest-paid athlete in the world for the fifth time. €15m Reported value of package submitted by former Germany goalkeeper Oliver Kahn to take over beleaguered French club Girondins de Bordeaux. The side was demoted to the fourth tier last year, and failed to win promotion in 2024-25. 2026 Confirmed date for the second edition of the Finalissima between the European and South American international champions. Spain will face Argentina…

There are more relaxing ways of celebrating a 66th birthday than throwing yourself into the maelstrom of South America’s World Cup qualification campaign, but that is the choice that Carlo Ancelotti has made for himself. After winning everything everywhere in European club football, the Italian now sets off on an intriguing tropical adventure as Brazil’s first-ever permanent foreign-born coach. Brazilian FA president Ednaldo Rodrigues spoke of the union between two icons: Ancelotti and the only team to have won the World Cup five times. The last of those, though, was back in 2002. Since then Brazil’s campaign has ended as soon as they have come up against a European team in the knockout stages. This is the hurdle that Ancelotti has been employed to overcome. There are no half measures.…

Eyebrows were raised last summer when Malta introduced a new format reminiscent of the domestic football systems used in Latin America. The Premier League would be slimmed down to12 clubs, and the season split between an opening and a closing round (or Apertura and Clausura, as they say across the Atlantic). The teams played each other once, then split into a top six and a bottom six, and played teams from their half once more. Then that process was repeated in the closing round. The champions would then be determined by three possible outcomes: if the same club won both rounds, they were declared champions outright; if the same two teams occupied the top two spots in both stages (but in reverse order), a play-off final would be played; or…

Robbie Keane’s managerial career is off to the perfect start. After winning the Israeli Premier League with Maccabi Tel Aviv last season, he’s gone back-to-back, lifting the Hungarian league title with Ferencvaros this campaign. Keane didn’t have an easy job. He was thrust into Ferencvaros in January after PascalJansen left to join New York City FC in MLS, with the team second in the table and in danger of missing out on the league for the first time in seven years. He didn’t get off to an easy start either, picking up just two points from his first four league matches. Some might have buckled under the pressure, but Keane persevered. He brought into the starting line-up ex-Liverpool midfielder Naby Keita, who had arrived on loan from Werder Bremen in…

Falkirk sealed a return to Scotland’s top flight for the first time since 2010 after securing their second promotion in a row. Having gone the whole of the previous year’s League One campaign unbeaten, the Bairns followed that up with another successful season in the second tier. Leading the way for much of the season, a late wobble of a draw and two consecutive defeats left the door ajar for Livingston to catch them – albeit with a huge goal differential to make up – but a 3-1 win over relegated Hamilton on the final day ensured glory for Falkirk. It was a particularly sweet end to the season for 36-year-old midfielder Scott Arfield, who returned to his first club in February, 15 years after his last spell ended with…

There appears to be no end in sight for Ludogorets’ domination of football in Bulgaria. By winning their 14th league title in a row, they equalled the all-time European record jointly held by Skonto Riga (Latvia) and Lincoln Red Imps (Gibraltar), and show little sign of stopping there. The11-point margin over second-place Levski Sofia wasn’t even in their top five biggest leads; only on four occasions has the gap been any less than seven. This time they secured the title with five games left, at which point they appeared to put their feet up, drawing four and losing one of those matches. There was also little surprise in Red Star Belgrade winning Serbia’s crown once again, extending their winning streak to eight. This was one of their most emphatic to…

Only one point separated league leaders Krasnodar and second-place Zenit on the final day of the Russian Premier League season, with both sides facing home games against Dynamo Moscow and Akhmat Grozny respectively. Although Zenit applied the pressure by going 2-0 up before half-time, in the end both sides ran out 3-0 winners with Krasnodar’s first-ever title ending Zenit’s title-winning streak at six. For the second season in a row, the Superliga in Denmark went right down to the wire, with Copenhagen a point above holders Midtjylland. But the leaders ensured that there would be very little to concern their supporters or excite Midtjylland’s, taking the lead against Nordsjaelland inside just two minutes, before sealing a 3-0 win and collecting their third title in four years. After their1-1 draw in…

African club football has seen a significant changing of the traditional guard in recent years, and the process was speeded up this season with several first-time champions. None more so than Renaissance Berkane, who won the Botola Pro in Morocco with weeks to spare, finishing 13 points ahead of second-placed Royal Armed Forces (ASFAR) for a maiden championship success, and following that up with another victory in the CAF Confederation Cup (Africa’s Europa League equivalent). They beat Simba of Tanzania 3-1 on aggregate over the two legs of the final to win the continental competition for a record-equalling third time in what was their fifth final appearance in seven years. Next season, they will get a first tilt at the Champions League. Berkane’s ascent to the top breaks the monopoly…

Never before had there been a European final between two teams so low in their domestic tables. Perhaps it was fitting that the match, contested between the16th and17th best sides in England at the time of kick-off, should be decided by such an untidy goal. It came in the 42nd minute, as Brennan Johnson did just enough to ensure that Pape Sarr’s cross was diverted in off Luke Shaw’s arm. Even the Welshman’s goal celebration was botched, jarring his knee into the turf as he attempted to slide towards the corner flag in front of the Spurs fans. Yet it was enough, proving the difference in a drab final that saw Tottenham Hotspur end a17-year wait for a trophy, book their place in next season’s Champions League and finally shake…

For the fourth season in succession, Barcelona and Real Madrid continued in their familiar pattern: one winning the league title and the other finishing as runners-up. The 2024-25 campaign was the Catalan club’s turn to take the much-coveted top spot. Much of the pre-season hype naturally surrounded the league’s newcomers. Two high-profile “free” signings joined the Spanish top tier – one for the pitch, one for the dugout; one kitted in white, the other, mostly, in black. One named Kylian Mbappe, the other Hansi Flick. Dress code actually became an important element for the Barca coach. He cancelled the club’s “tunnel fits” culture, imported from NBA, where players would parade past matchday photographers in outlandish outfits on arrival at the stadium. A new sportswear style, which returned the focus to…

All manner of emotions bubbled to the surface as Bavarian behemouth Bayern Munich secured a 34th German league title, their12th Schale (championship shield) in the past13 years. There was pride in a fine set of results and achievements: just two defeats all season, topping the table for all but the opening three rounds of the campaign, and piling up a mightily impressive 99 goals, with Harry Kane, the league’s top goalscorer, responsible for 26 of them. There was satisfaction, mixed in with a good pinch of relief, at reasserting their domestic pre-eminence after being ground into the dust by Leverkusen in the 2023-24 title race. And there were wide smiles of joy on the faces of a number of players – Kane, Aleksandar Pavlovic, Michael Olise, Eric Dier, Jonas Urbig…

There was a familiar look to the honours boards in the main European leagues when the season concluded. In Spain and England respectively, Barcelona and Chelsea secured their sixth successive titles; in France, Lyon took their fourth on the spin; in Germany, Bayern claimed their third. Only in Italy was there a change, with Juventus reclaiming the crown after two in a row for Roma, but even there it was a sixth triumph in eight seasons for La Vecchia Signora. It was a similar story in UEFA’s other winter leagues. Benfica claimed a fifth successive Portuguese title, defending champions Twente made it five out of six in the Netherlands, and St Polten extended their hegemony in Austria to a decade. While Twente only edged out PSV on goal difference, the…

Egypt’s Pyramids became first-time winners of the African Champions League at the end of a gruelling campaign where their grit and opportunism saw them become the 27th club to take the continent’s top club title. Victory over South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns was secured in Cairo as they won the second leg of the final 2-1 for a 3-2 aggregate triumph, having scored a dramatic stoppage-time equaliser in the first leg eight days earlier in Pretoria. Pyramids had also come from behind at home to edge out South Africa’s other representatives Orlando Pirates in a riveting semi-final with two goals from the Congolese striker Fiston Mayele, whose haul of nine – including three in qualifying – meant he finished as the competition’s top scorer. It was his strike after 23 minutes…

Football has been a feature of the Island Games since1989, and has grown so much in popularity that the 2023 tournament in Guernsey was oversubscribed. A draw was introduced for that16-team tournament, which resulted in some sides missing out. The problem was exacerbated for this summer’s Games in Orkney, which will take place from July12 to 18. A shortage of accommodation meant that the tournament had to be cut down to 12 sides but, with rooms remaining scarce, there has been a rash of withdrawals. “Yes, it is unfortunate we have lost a couple of teams,” admits organiser Karl Adamson. “Generally speaking it is mostly an accommodation issue.” Three-time gold medallists Guernsey pulled out in November and were initially replaced in Group B by Aland, only for the Finnish island…

The last time Switzerland hosted a major football tournament, the men’s Euros in 2008, Spain were crowned winners after defeating Germany in the final. Few would be surprised if there were a repeat in the women’s Euros this summer. That last tournament was shared with Austria, and Spain celebrated their success in Vienna. This time Switzerland have the event to themselves with the final in Basel. A home venue for Nyon-based UEFA then, but for a while it was shaping up as a bad choice. The Swiss government tried to renege on financial promises, cutting the budget from15m Swiss francs (£13.7m) to four million. After an outcry, this was reversed, but it did not reflect well on their commitment. Crowd sizes are also an issue. Total attendance more than doubled…

Spain The World Cup winners and Nations League champions remain the team to beat, but there have been signs of vulnerability. They missed a medal at the 2024 Olympic Games, were held to draws by Canada and Italy, and in February lost1-0 to England. Fatigue may be a factor. This will be their fourth successive summer finals, and many key players have also reached the Champions League final each season with Barcelona. While Barca’s domestic dominance enables rotation, there are a lot of games to be played (49 this season). Plus there is the emotional fallout of both the player boycott and the Jenni Hermoso-Luis Rubiales case. Nevertheless, Spain have enviable squad depth despite injuries to Teresa Abelleira and Arsenal’s Laia Codina. That, however, can cause selection headaches for Montse…

France Is this finally the year? Despite all their talent, France are yet to reach a major tournament final, let alone win one. After five successive defeats in tournament quarter-finals dating back to Euro 2013, reaching the last four at the Euros in 2022 seemed like a breakthrough. But normal service soon resumed with last-eight exits at both the 2023 World Cup and on home soil in the Olympics. In between, Les Bleues did make the Nations League final, but few are counting that as a major tournament yet. After Herve Renard’s brief reign, his former assistant Laurent Bonadei is at the helm. Having experimented with 3-4-3 he appears to have settled on a 4-3-3 formation. Real Madrid’s Maelle Lakrar is putting pressure on Wendie Renard in defence and Melvine…

This has been a very strange season for the Premier League. On the one hand it’s been one of the most competitive seasons for years, with a wealth of the middle-ranking sides putting in good performances and achieving good results. Brentford, Brighton, Bournemouth, Crystal Palace and Fulham have all been very watchable. But unfortunately for any sense of drama in the two key areas, at the very top and the bottom, there have been clear outliers. Liverpool have been much better than everybody else, and Southampton, Leicester and Ipswich much worse. The result has been a slightly underwhelming feel to the end of the season; by the end of April, European qualification was the only issue still at play. Liverpool will not care, and nor should they. They have been…

This June is the 40th anniversary of arguably the greatest football match of all time. Or, at the very least, soccer’s forgotten masterpiece. Some people will tell you the finest game was the1970 World Cup semi-final when Italy beat West Germany 4-3 in extra-time. Veteran aficionados may recall Hungary’s 3-2 win against Uruguay at the1954 tournament. Argentina’s triumph against France in the 2022 World Cup final was clearly a modern classic. They were all incredible games but, for me, the pinnacle is Denmark’s 4-2 win against the Soviet Union in a World Cup qualifier on a blazing summer afternoon in June1985. I was there. I saw the 45 shots on target – yes, 45. I saw two outstanding teams wholly dedicated to attack at the atmospheric old Idraetsparken in Copenhagen.…

There’s never a dull moment in Moldovan football. And this season was no different, as the all-powerful Sheriff Tiraspol from the shadowy breakaway republic of Transnistria somehow contrived to miss out on the Super Liga title for the second year in a row. Sheriff won the regular season by 11 points and did not suffer a single domestic defeat all season, but still finished as runners-up. Meanwhile Milsami Orhei, who ended the opening phase of the campaign in fifth position and suffered six defeats overall, were declared national champions. This bizarre set of circumstances is down to the format introduced by Moldova’s FA three summers ago. The top six teams qualify for the final phase and the points are then reset to zero, meaning the title is decided entirely by…

After yet another dramatic final day of the season, Union Saint-Gilloise won the league title for the first time in 90 years with a 3-1 victory against Gent. The dominant force in Belgian football before World War II, Union slid down the pyramid before returning to the top flight in 2021 following a 48-year absence – and how. In the previous three seasons, they competed for the league title, only to suffer heartbreak on the last day of the play-offs – but not this time. Back in November, Union were tenth in the table but, with the unassuming and efficient football of head coach Sebastien Pocognoli, the club fought their way back into title contention. Canadian striker Promise David lived up to his name by firing the team to a…

A round 100,000 supporters poured out onto the streets of Aberdeen to celebrate their team’s first Scottish Cup triumph in 35 years. In a tale of two goalkeepers, Celtic’s Kasper Schmeichel diverted a cross into his own net to level the scores at1-1 at Hampden Park, then in the subsequent penalty shootout the Dons’ Dimitar Mitov made two saves to give managerJimmy Thelin a trophy in his first – somewhat topsy-turvy – season in charge at Pittodrie. In Italy, Bologna won their first major domestic trophy in 51 years. Dan Ndoye’s 53rd-minute goal gave them a 1-0 win over Milan and their third Italian Cup. An historic powerhouse of Italian football, the club has won seven league titles, though six of them were before 1941. The last was in 1964,…

Back in October, World Soccer’s Steve Menary reported on FC Noah, the club from Armenia who had made history by qualifying for the Conference League just seven years after being formed. Although they went on to finish 31st of the 36 teams in the league phase, they were completely dominant at home, securing their first-ever league title with a 23-match unbeaten run that lasted from October until May. In Albania, the remarkable rise of Egnatia continued apace as they defended their title, a year on from their first-ever top-flight crown. Eight years ago, they were a third-tier side that had never won a major honour – now they are the dominant force of Albanian football. Similarly, in Luxembourg, last season’s maiden winners also doubled their collection of league titles. Differdange…

In May, Al Ittihad celebrated a tenth Saudi Pro League (SPL) title with two games to spare of the 34-game season. It wasn’t a perfect campaign, but they had luck and timing – plus Karim Benzema, N’Golo Kante and plenty of other talents on their side. The Tigers, led by Laurent Blanc, showed resilience to bounce back from an early season 3-1 loss to the defending champions Al Hilal, and then rose to the occasion when it mattered, taking points from the other members of the “Big Four”. A 4-1 win over their nearest rivals Hilal in February was the turning point for both teams and, from that point, the trophy was always heading west from the capital to Jeddah. Benzema missed much of his first season inJeddah through injury,…

For once, the latest Liga MX season was not business as usual. America, winner of the last three titles, reached the final of the 2025 Clausura and had the chance to win an historic fourth consecutive crown. But ultimately, it fell to Toluca, a deserved winner in one of the most evenly-matched tournaments in recent years. For much of the regular season, it looked like America would reassert their usual dominance. They went into the home stretch on top, but a string of injuries saw them win just three of their last six games, and Toluca took advantage. The Diablos clinched first place, a position that would later prove crucial in the title play-offs, allowing them to play the second leg of the final at home. Historically, the Diablos have…

Many expected Chelsea to win the Conference League from the moment the club were entered into it, and they made fairly light work of reaching the final. After getting past Servette, they topped the table during the league phase having won every game, scoring eight goals more than anybody else and conceding the joint-fewest. The Blues then beat Copenhagen by one goal in both legs of their last-16 tie, suffered their only loss of the competition against Legia Warsaw after winning the first leg 3-0, then emphatically beat Djurgarden by a 5-1 aggregate scoreline in the semis. For Real Betis, winning a European trophy was a dream they had never previously got close to realising. Their route to the final was a far more taxing one after their dominant victory…

Napoli’s heroic last-day Serie A success seemed highly unlikely this time12 months ago, when the then-reigning champions had just finished a wretched season in tenth on 53 points, 41 behind champions Internazionale and out of all UEFA competitions. At the time, the best you could say about Napoli’s prospects for this season was that at least they would have a less crowded fixture list, with no midweek European football to balance their domestic campaign against. In reality, after a relentless ding-dong season-long battle with Inter (and, for a while, Atalanta), the title contest went down to a dramatic last day. Napoli began the day just one point clear of Inter, knowing that victory against14th-placed Cagliari would secure a second Scudetto in three years. Anything less would open the door to…

In April 2024, a euphoric Andre Villas-Boas was elected the new Porto president. “I hope to correspond fully to the demands of all Porto fans: to win trophies and build a sustainable club for the future,” he said after his landslide victory endedJorge Nuno Pinto da Costa’s 42-year reign. He appointed a new manager, Vitor Bruno, giving him his first chance as a head coach. The long-time assistant of former manager Sergio Conceicao was a very different personality to the firebrand character he replaced, and Villas-Boas himself adopted a far less confrontational stance towards Porto’s two major rivals from the capital. His goal was to try to indoctrinate a more urbane culture into the club while retaining the fierce competitiveness that defines the very identity of FC Porto. And the…

On May 3, Al Ahli of Saudi Arabia defeated Japan’s Kawasaki Frontale 2-0 to become Asian champions for the first time in their history. Past European winners shone. Roberto Firmino was Tournament MVP, Riyad Mahrez scored nine goals and Edouard Mendy was solid between the sticks. It was a deserved win for a team who had lost in two previous finals, were in the second division just two years ago and went through the entire tournament unbeaten. There were 60,000 delighted fans in Jeddah who danced until the early hours. It was not a surprise that the trophy went to Saudi Arabia for the seventh time. Al Hilal have taken four trophies to Riyadh whileJeddah rivals Al Ittihad had two and now the Greens have theirs. Al Ahli were too…

…and where they are…

To read Brian Glanville in World Soccer was an education. To meet Glanville in person was a joy and a precious time for listening and learning. To be able to pay tribute to Glanville in these pages is a supreme honour. My first reaction on hearing that the great man had passed away on May 16 aged 93 was, naturally, to think of Brian’s grieving family and friends. The second reaction was to consider the immense size of his legacy, and the remarkable body of work Brian leaves behind. He was incredibly prolific, from ghosting Cliff Bastin’s memoirs in 1950 to still penning match reports into his late ’80s. At the heart of his greatness was a sustained hunger to perform through words, to make his mark and fortune through…

“Every story has a beginning and an end. I wanted to tell you myself that, after many years at the club, it is time for me to say goodbye”Lille’s Canadian striker Jonathan David announces that he will leave the French club when his contract expires this summer TRANSFERS ★ LOANS ★ SACKINGS ★ HITINGS ★ SWITCHES ★ RETIRMENTS Imanol ALGUACIL Real Sociedad’s long-serving head coach, who took charge in 2018 and led them to the 2020 Copa del Rey and into the Champions League, will leave the club this summer. Domenec TORRENT On the eve of the Club World Cup, Mexican participants Monterrey sacked Martin Demichelis as head coach and replaced him with Pep Guardiola’s former assistant Torrent. Fernando DINIZ The ex-Fluminense and Brazil head coach took charge of Vasco…

“Some of us are old enough to remember a time when colleagues often sniggered at Brian Glanville’s ability to pronounce the names of foreign footballers – particularly those of Italian players – correctly. They stopped laughing when English teams were suddenly filled with foreign players, and the ability to avoid mangling their names became a necessary part of a football reporter’s skillset. I often felt that the rest of us should have been paying him some sort of pathfinder’s royalty. A sophisticate as much at home at the Chelsea Arts Club as at Stamford Bridge, he came from a time before football became gentrified but played and wrote about it with wholehearted commitment and without condescension towards those who’d come to it via routes very different from his own.” Richard…

The 2024-25 Primeira Liga season may not have been a vintage year in terms of the quality of football played by Portugal’s top teams, but it did produce a thrilling title race between Lisbon giants Sporting and Benfica. And it all came to a crescendo at Benfica’s Estadio da Luz on May10, 2025 in what was billed as the most important clash between the city rivals this century. Even allowing for the modern-day proclivity for hyperbole, there was logic behind the headline. For the first time in living memory, the result of the Lisbon derby could crown either team as champions. Reigning champions Sporting had started the campaign imperiously, seemingly strolling to back-to-back league titles as Ruben Amorim’s irresistible team reeled off11 victories right off the bat. In contrast, Benfica…

When Sturm Graz ended Salzburg’s decade of dominance and became Bundesliga champions in 2023-24, the response from the Red Bulls was swift. In came the likes of Joane Gadou from Paris Saint-Germain and Bobby Clark from Liverpool – for a combined fee of €21.8m, astronomical money by Austrian standards – while Jurgen Klopp’s highly respected former assistant at Liverpool, Pepijn Lijnders, assumed the coaching reins. But following a string of poor results Lijnders was gone by Christmas and, despite faring slightly better under his successor Thomas Letsch, Salzburg were not even among the three title contenders heading into an enthralling final day of the season. Instead, it was reigning champions Sturm, surprise Austrian Cup winners Wolfsberger and capital club Austria Vienna competing for glory in the final round of Austria’s…

Going into the last round of the 2024-25 Polish league season, Lech Poznan led Rakow Czestochowa at the top of the table by a single point, knowing that victory against Piast Gliwice would secure the title. With two minutes of stoppage time remaining, they led1-0 through Afonso Sousa’s stooping first-half header, when Piast sent every player forward for one last attack. From a deep free-kick, the ball was launched into the box and was failed to be properly cleared, before sitting up perfectly for Piast defender Miguel Munoz on the edge of the six-yard box. “My whole life flashed before my eyes in one moment,” said Lech goalkeeper Bartosz Mrozek, who would be named the league’s best keeper the following day. On this occasion, though, Mrozek was not called into…

One of Europe’s longest title-winning streaks was finally brought to an end by the barest of margins. Dinamo Zagreb, Croatian champions for the past seven years, and18 of the last19, were usurped by Rijeka. The two sides finished level on 65 points, but a 4-0 victory against the holders in February gave Rijeka the title on their head-to-head record. Dinamo were eight points off top spot – and seemingly without hope – in early April when opting to fire their coach, former Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro. Caretaker boss Sandro Perkovic then won six of his eight games in charge to drag them back into contention, but a draw with Zagreb neighbours Lokomotiva in the penultimate game proved costly. There was heartbreak also for Hajduk Split, who last won the title…

The promotion and relegation pictures across the continent also provided some intriguing plotlines. Belgian football has a new team to watch in 2025-26 after RAAL La Louviere secured promotion to the top flight for the first time in their history. As recently as 2018, they were down in the fifth tier, but finished second in this season’s second tier to complete a remarkable rise. In contrast, Hamburg made a long overdue return to Germany’s top flight after finishing second in the 2. Bundesliga. One of only three German clubs to win the European Cup, they spent seven years in the second tier before finally getting over the line this time. Italian side Pisa have waited even longer for their top-flight return, but they will be back in Serie A after…

When top-flight football returned to Ukraine for the 2022-23 season, it was expected that Dynamo Kyiv would dominate. Instead, their great rivals Shakhtar Donetsk took charge, winning two titles in a row, but that came to an end this season. Not only did Dynamo win the league, they did it without losing a single game – their fourth invincible season since Ukraine’s independence in1992. They somewhat crawled over the line, drawing four of their last five league games, and lost to Shakhtar on penalties in the cup final, but that didn’t stop them from celebrating a record-extending17th league title. In the Czech Republic, Slavia Prague endured an agonising period of finishing second three years in a row, the last two of which ended in city rivals Sparta finishing in top…

There is a new champion in Iran. Tractor SC lifted the trophy for the first time after finishing eight points clear of Sepahan and Persepolis at the end of the 30-game Persian Gulf League season. The team from Tabriz, up in the northwest of the country, is one of the best supported in Asia, averaging crowds of over 42,000 this season. Founded by a state-owned tractor company in1970 in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province, and seen by the local Azeri-Turk community as a way to express their identity, the win has not only been wildly celebrated all over the region but has also been a long time coming. Back in 2018, billionaire Mohammad Reza Zonouzi took over the club, hired John Toshack as coach and brought in Harry Forrester from Rangers…

The original European Cup was created in France 70 years ago. Finally, after all those seven decades, the French have come up with worthy champions. Reims came close in1956 and1959, so too Saint-Etienne in1976, and Marseille’s victory in1993 was shrouded in scandal, but Paris Saint-Germain, rebuilt after final defeat in 2020, are the real deal. Certainly it has taken €2 billion in player purchases and probably as much again – maybe even more – in wages, agents’ fees and infrastructure investment. This is the way of the modern elite professional football world, whether the largesse comes from Qatar or the United States or socio-approved commercialisation. All the multi-sector investment was distilled into the 90 minutes PSG needed to put Internazionale to the sword. Five goals was a record winning margin…

Liverpool won the Premier League title in a race that became a procession. Arsenal threatened for a while but their own flaws, and Liverpool’s strengths, settled the argument early. In the marathon of a title race, Liverpool enjoyed the luxury of completing the final stretch waving to their crowd, basking in their achievement. Having won their last title behind closed doors during the pandemic, Liverpool celebrated loudly with their fans. The celebrations had even more of an added intensity because victory took Liverpool back alongside Manchester United on 20 league titles. Sir Alex Ferguson had famously promised to “knock Liverpool off their perch” when becoming United manager, and achieved it, but their great rivals are now back on top. And slightly unexpectedly. Few people predicted a Liverpool title at the…

Even despite domestic dominance in the past decade, there have always been undertones of discord, disharmony, and at times outright disunion at Paris Saint-Germain, where jostling for influence is more befitting of a Machiavellian drama. Yet, under coach Luis Enrique and football advisor Luis Campos, those days now feel like a distant memory. Handed the keys to the project, not through scheming or political manoeuvring but – finally – empowering those in place to simply go about their job uninhibited, Luis Enrique and Campos have brought PSG’s domestic dominance to the European stage. While others were fretting about PSG’s capacity to extend their era of dominance following the departure of the final Galactico of the “bling-bling era”, Kylian Mbappe, Luis Enrique was calm, even confident: “I was brave when I…

It is one thing to see one team give up a commanding lead at the top of the league, but it is rare to see two teams collapse in the same way. Yet that was the story of the Dutch title race in 2024-25, as both PSV and Ajax did their best to throw away the crown. In the end, the Eindhoven club had the last laugh, recovering from a seemingly hopeless situation to gain their 26th national title. PSV began the season as the clear favourites. As defending champions, it was clear that they possessed the best squad, while rivals Ajax and Feyenoord had their problems. By the winter break, all but two of PSV’s17 league games had been won and the holders were six points ahead of Ajax.…

Mexican side Cruz Azul went into cruise control to win the biggest prize in CONCACAF club football, defeating a stunned Vancouver Whitecaps 5-0 in the Champions Cup final. Despite performing well in Liga MX during most of the 2024-25 season, Cruz Azul emerged from the domestic season trophyless. But they more than made up for that with continental success and a dominant final performance. They had twice suffered defeat to familiar foes Club America in key moments during the 2024-25 season, losing to them in the semi-finals of both the Apertura and Clausura. But they managed to get one over on their rivals in the Champions Cup, knocking them out at the quarter-final stage thanks to a brace from tournament top scorer Angel Sepulveda in the second leg. From there,…

Spain vEngland Euro ’96 quarter-final, Wembley This June marks 29 years since Stuart Pearce’s famous penalty for England against Spain at the 1996 European Championship on home soil. Here, he looks back on that redemptive moment… “We hadn’t had a major tournament on home soil prior to that since1966. We were almost showcasing that we could put on great tournaments in this country that we could be proud of. As players, we were acutely aware of that. I was 34 years old at the time. When you’ve been around the block a little bit, you appreciate it more. The atmosphere inside Wembley grew as the tournament went on. The catalyst, for me, came somewhere between David Seaman’s penalty save against Scotland and Gazza’s goal in that game. That’s when the…

Switzerland The last two European Championships have been won by the host nation, but no one is expecting the Swiss to make it three in a row. They have only won three matches in major tournaments – against Ecuador, Iceland and the Philippines – and failed to escape the group stage at their two previous Euros. That record should change though, given home advantage and modest group opposition. To enhance their chances, veteran coach Pia Sundhage has been hired. The 65-year-old won the Olympics twice and reached the World Cup final with the US, and reached the Olympic final with her native Sweden, but in her last role led Brazil to a group-stage exit at the 2023 World Cup. She has a mixed bag to work with, the key players…

Germany After winning this event eight times in nine attempts between1989 and 2013, it has now been nine long years since Germany last won a major title (2016 Olympics), with more managers in that period than in the previous 34 years. Christian Wuck took over in August after12 years coaching national age-group teams and adopted a 4-2-3-1 formation with the XI built around players of Bayern Munich, Wolfsburg and Eintracht Frankfurt. He is gradually introducing youngsters but, while some fresh blood was needed following several retirements, drastic action was not required given that Germany swiftly bounced back from the disastrous World Cup 2023 group stage exit to win Olympic bronze. Selection issues include where to use Chelsea’s versatile Sjoeke Nusken, and who will replace Lena Oberdorf who has been absent…