Innehållsförteckning för August 2020 från World Soccer

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“It doesn’t matter what colour or race you are. What we’ve seen in the movement is for real and it’s on a global spectrum. I don’t see any reason why any players should be rejecting to take the knee”Dwight Yorke lends his support to the Black Lives Matter movement on beIN SPORTS’ Keys & Gray Show Jude BELLINGHAM (Birmingham City) It has been widely known for some time that the teenager is playing his last season in the Championship, with Manchester United and Borussia Dortmund chasing his signature, but the German side are close to announcing that they have won the race. Having scored on his senior debut in August, becoming Birmingham’s youngest debutant and goalscorer in the process, Bellingham only turned 17 in June. Yet, despite his tender years,…

Jadon Sancho (Borussia Dortmund) “Sancho is unbelievable: the speed, the goals, the passing and his eye for the pass. He isn’t selfish – if you have over15 assists it must be because you play the ball when you have the chance and someone is in a better position. He moved to Germany at a very young age and it looks to be paying off massively. That was maybe the best decision he has made so far. He is developing and now big teams are coming after him, but I don’t know if now is the right time for him to go to Manchester United, because they already have Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford and Daniel James. It’s good to have competition for the team but I would imagine if he moves…

Didier Drogba had some tumultuous battles on the African football stage during his storied career with the Ivory Coast, but his bid to become president of the country’s football federation could be his toughest yet. The 42-year-old is one of three candidates for the August 22 poll – if he obtains the requisite endorsements in time – as he seeks to set out on a political career that has as its ultimate aim the presidency of the Confederation of African Football. In order to do so, Gianni Infantino told him last year, Drogba must first look to head his own country’s association (FIF), but despite his popularity in the Ivory Coast, that is going to be tough to achieve. In his favour, Drogba has star appeal and the trappings of…

Newcastle fans have long grown weary of the saga: inflated rumours of a buyer to relieve the club of the burdensome ownership of Mike Ashley followed by the pin-pricking reality of yet another consortium – Chinese, American, Russian, whoever – collapsing. Blame was appointed in both directions: that Ashley set the financial bar too high to repay his original purchase and subsequent investment, or that interested investors thought they could use his desperation for an exit to drive down the price. All those reservations fell away once it emerged that Amanda Staveley, the businesswomen exploring a deal for the past four years, was ready to deliver an offshoot of the state of Saudi Arabia. No worries about oil-rich ready cash this time. In addition, billionaire brothers David and Simon Reuben,…

It’s the start of a new era, so I’d like to personally welcome you to the first issue of this prestigious magazine overseen by Kelsey Media’s football hub. Ably assisted byWorld Soccer stalwart Nich Hills for the first couple of issues, we will ensure it continues to remain true to the principles that have madeWorld Soccer an institution of football journalism for 60 years. Our well-connected network of worldwide correspondents will continue to deliver the inside track from all corners of the globe, while Kelsey’s new team of writers will complement that with their own hard-hitting stories, such as unearthing the planet’s hottest new young talents – see Assistant Editor Jamie Evans’ Young Brits Abroad (page 58). The theme of “newness” permeates throughout this issue. From on the pitch –…

Project Restart Sooner or later, one week or month or another, normal service had to be resumed. That applied for sport in general and football in particular as much as everyday life in cities, towns, villages and communities across Britain, Europe and the world in general. Coronavirus has not killed at the massive rate of so-called “Spanish flu,” which claimed 50 million victims worldwide just after the First World War. But it has undermined daily life in a manner unimaginable even as it began to take its fatal grip. Worldwide and national economies have been radically altered, and inevitably that has included sport. In England, Friday, March13, was the date football stopped. Three Brighton players tested positive for COVID-19 and so did Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta. Two weeks earlier, the…

“Playing without fans is sadder than dancing with your sister”Spain coach Luis Enrique laments the lack of passion in stadiums without fans IN EUROPE Paris Saint-Germain paid the €60million buy-out clause of on-loan Internazionale striker MAURO ICARDI. Lyon signed on-loan Cameroon striker KARL TOKO EKAMBI from Villarreal for €11.5m. Former Arsenal and Germany goalkeeper JENS LEHMANN joined Hertha Berlin’s supervisory board, replacing Jurgen Klinsmann. ALEKSANDAR RANKOVIC replaced Alan Pardew as coach of Dutch side ADO Den Haag, while THOMAS LETSCH took over from Edward Sturing at Vitesse. Rangers signed IANIS HAGI for £3m on a permanent deal from Genk, with the midfielder having been on loan at the Scottish club since January. New Ligue 2 side Pau appointed DIDIER THOLOT as coach after deciding not to extend the contract of…

Brentford to Beijing is not a well-worn football route and neither is England Under-19s to the Chinese national team, but these are the journeys that have been undertaken by Nico Yennaris, known in China as Li Ke. There have been plenty of headlines written internationally about the big-name foreign imports that have headed to the Chinese Super League, but much more discussed inside the country of late is the naturalisation of a growing number of football players. Three years ago, Guangzhou Evergrande chairman Xu Jiayin said that he wanted a team full of Chinese players by 2020. It is a dream that is coming closer to reality for one team, but not in the way that people expected. Yennaris was born and raised in England to a Chinese mother, and…

For Barcelona, 2020 has been less mes que un club, and more “mess of a club”. The sacking of Ernesto Valverde in January – the club’s first mid-season change of coach since Louis van Gaal was replaced by Radomir Antic in 2003 – preceded director of football Eric Abidal and Lionel Messi taking swings at each other on social media, the I3 Ventures “Barca Gate” scandal and the subsequent resignation of six of current president Jose Maria Bartomeu’s board. “I would very much like Guardiola to come back, but now he is at City and it is a decision that Pep should take” Among all that disarray, Joan Laporta saw an opportunity. With Bartomeu’s turbulent reign set to end in the summer of 2021, Laporta offered himself as the solution…

What has it been like for a young Englishman living and playing in Germany? From a young age I was used to moving away from home, so that’s what made me take that a step further, to move outside of England. It helped that I had moved before. With stuff like seeing friends – obviously I can’t just go down the road to see them anymore. And leaving my mum behind and my sisters – I miss them a lot. It’s very tough because moving from home is not easy, especially moving away from your mum. But being a professional footballer is what I want to do for the long term, so I had to do what I needed to do to be successful and what’s best for me and…

The ninth Women’s World Cup will break all manner of records, not least for distance covered by an expanded field of 32 teams. Spanning five time zones, two nations and more than 3,000 miles, the 2023 finals will take FIFA into previously uncharted territory. The first female finals in the southern hemisphere will also be the first joint-hosted women’s tournament, with Australia and New Zealand’s combined candidacy defeating Colombia. They were the last two standing from a nine-strong field when FIFA convened electronically in late June to determine the hosts. In the end the vote was comfortable, and deservedly so. After issues with the Japan-South Korea men’s World Cup in 2002, FIFA has reservations about joint-hosting. But Australia and New Zealand share a common language and heritage, and have previously…

South Korea’s K-League has had a spring to remember, a period unparalleled in its 37-year history. On May 8, Jeonbuk Motors and Suwon Bluewings met at Jeonju World Cup Stadium, with the champions taking on the cup holders. But there was little that was familiar in this traditional season-opening fixture. In a league that started the year struggling to find a decent domestic broadcasting deal, no less than 19 million people around the world watched former Middlesbrough striker and record K-League goalscorer Lee Dong-gook head the only goal of the game for Jeonbuk with six minutes remaining. Three million followed on official Twitter and YouTube accounts, with the rest watching in the 36 countries that had purchased broadcasting rights. The reason for the interest was simple: this was the biggest…

A decision to abandon the season, despite the coronavirus almost disappearing by May, has created schisms in the Cypriot game. Out of 20 clubs, only Anorthosis Famagusta – second on goal difference to leaders Omonia Nicosia when games stopped in mid-March – and AEK Larnaca, who were chasing a Europa League spot, voted to continue. Instead, there will be no champions. Omonia enter the Champions League and Anorthosis, APOEL and Apollon go into the Europa League. “Everyone saw their own interest,” says Larnaca president Andros Karapatakis. “We were saddened but it was a democratic decision. We want the championship to be judged on the field and we wanted it to continue. “Every decision is made with the data of the time. Three months ago, when we had 50-60 cases per…

MARCUS RASHFORD Rashford joined forces with FareShare, helping the charity to feed children who have been unable to access free meals while schools are closed, and caused a U-turn in UK government policy. He followed that by reaching out to an autistic teenager being bullied on social media, before taking on the role of “Celebrity Supply Teacher” on CBeebies. For his efforts, he was awarded the High Sheriff Special Recognition Award for services to Greater Manchester. HARRY KANE It’s been an impressive couple of months for England strikers. Kane will sponsor the shirts of Leyton Orient next season in a deal that will financially support three charities, as well as the English League Two side. “I was born only a couple of miles from the stadium and I’m really happy…

Does home advantage exist with no fans? Football without fans is, well, if not nothing then certainly different. It looks different, it sounds different and, if the early weeks of the Bundesliga resumption were anything to go by, it produces different results. The sample size is small and it would be wrong to be too definitive about anything just yet, but results have been remarkable: home advantage appears to have been all but eradicated. The first six rounds of fixtures after the restart yielded11 home wins, 16 draws and 28 away wins. That is 20 per cent home wins, 29.1 per cent draws and 50 per cent away wins set against a season average before the resumption of 43.3 per cent home wins, 21.9 draws and 34.5 away wins. There…

■ GERMANY The return of the Bundesliga Organised, rigorous and resourceful, while always at pains to put the science first, Germany has proved just as successful in dealing with the coronavirus at large as getting their domestic football up and running again. The first major European nation to emerge from sporting lockdown was only out of commission for a couple of months before resuming the season with a calendar of fixtures behind closed doors. The Bundesliga’s mid-May restart went remarkably well, offering the watching world a study in best emergency practice. We were entertained by high-quality play at a good tempo; tactical competence remained high – especially in the pressing schemes in the upper echelons of the table – and in a refreshing change of emphasis, wild challenges, player dissent…

Athletic Bilbao legend Aritz Aduriz has given up hopes of ending his career in the perfect way. The 39-year-old was due to play his final game against hometown rivals Real Sociedad in an all-Basque Copa del Rey Final but, with a revised date for the clash not yet in sight, the striker has admitted defeat in his race to recover from a hip injury and announced his retirement. As the “grandfather of La Liga”, it’s fitting that the forward’s career ends with him needing a hip replacement. In an Instagram post, Athletic’s third-top goalscorer of all time said: “Unfortunately, my body has said enough is enough. Let’s forget about the dream endings – this is where the journey ends for me.” While he was robbed of the fairy-tale ending that…

Having matched the recordbreaking feat of Jock Stein’s Celtic winning nine successive Scottish titles between 1966 and 1974, and Rangers’ run from1989 to 1997, Neil Lennon’s focus is already on next season. “Even when I took over and we got to eight, people were talking about ten,” says the Celtic manager. “We had to get the nine first and thankfully that’s been accomplished now. The supporters are talking about ten, and we can now go for the ten – I know that’s been on the tip of a lot of our supporters’ tongues.” A winner of five league titles as a player with the club, Lennon led the Hoops to the first of the nine in 2012 during his first spell as manager. Two more followed before he headed south…

Portuguese midfield ace Bruno Fernandes, already established as a Manchester United talisman after swapping the green-and-white hoops of Sporting CP in Portugal for Old Trafford red in the January transfer window, has been a footballing head-turner for as long as he can remember. Even as a fresh-faced seven, eight or nine-year-old schoolboy – growing up in the northern town of Maia, some 10km to the north of Porto – his talent attracted admiring glances like moths to a flame, with Porto’s two elite teams, FC Porto and Boavista hell-bent on luring him away from mother club, FC Sao Mamede de Infesta. The odds at the time were heavily stacked in favour of FC Porto. Not only were FCP the bigger, more prestigious outfit – reigning Portuguese champions and en route…

Rabbi MATONDO Schalke In a sentence “The new Jadon Sancho”: just like the Borussia Dortmund star, Matondo is an exciting young winger that walked away from Manchester City to join a Bundesliga club. What they say Wales manager and former winger, Ryan Giggs: “He is a talent. If he is half as successful as Sancho has been so far, I’ll be happy. He has electrifying pace, and that always keeps you interested.” Former Schalke boss Domenico Tedesco: “He has huge potential. He’s extremely quick and good technically, but we mustn’t forget he’s still very young. We’ll give him the time he needs to find his feet in the Bundesliga.” The story so far Born in Liverpool, Matondo moved to Cardiff at an early age, giving him the option to play…

Thursday May 7 SOMALIA: Goalkeeping coach for Somalia’s national youth team, former international Abdiwali Olad Kanyare is shot dead in a mosque in the town of Afgoye, 30km south of the capital Mogadishu. Friday May 8 IFAB: The International Football Association Board agrees to a temporary amendment to the Laws of the Game to allow five substitutions per team. However, to avoid disruption, each team will only have three opportunities to make substitutions during play. Monday May 11 BELARUS: The only country in Europe to continue playing, the Premier League game between FC Minsk and Neman Grodno is postponed following suspected COVID-19 cases among the home team. BELGIUM: City Football Group, who own Manchester City among others, complete a deal to buy Belgian second-tier side Lommel SK. CHINA: Said to…

On April 18, after several days of speculation, Liga MX president Enrique Bonilla announced that the Mexican top flight will suspend promotion and relegation for the next five seasons. Ascenso MX, as the second tier was known, will disappear and give way to Expansion MX, which will essentially be a glorified Under-23 tournament. This news – surprising in itself for anyone who is not Mexican – is actually one more step towards an even more shocking plan which haunts the minds of some leaders of Mexican football: to join Liga MX with MLS and create a North American super league. The reason, as might be expected, is economic. Liga MX is by far the most popular league in the United States. In 2018 it registered an audience of 105 million…