Innehållsförteckning för November 2020 från World Soccer

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ANSU FATI A year after becoming the youngest goalscorer in Barcelona’s history, the 17-year-old winger did the same for Spain. Fati made his international debut in a1-1 draw with Germany, then three days later scored against Ukraine – breaking the 95-year-old record held by Juan Errazquin. VICTOR LINDELOF The Manchester United defender has been praised by Swedish police for catching a thief who robbed an elderly woman. According to reports, Lindelof witnessed a man snatch an elderly woman’s handbag, then pursued him, caught him, and held onto him until the police arrived. VEDAD IBISEVIC After moving from Hertha Berlin to Schalke, the veteran striker has pledged to donate his salary to charity. The Bosnian striker said: “I’m not here to earn money, but to play in the Bundesliga. My basic…

Something’s got to give European football is teetering on a knife-edge. One positive COVID test too many, and the entire tightrope could sever with consequences far more financially damaging than even this year’s initial lockdown. This has come as no surprise to FIFPRO. The international players’ union has been warning FIFA, UEFA and the European leagues and clubs about the increasing risks of a fixtures logjam to players’ short-term fitness and long-term health. Those warnings were repeatedly drowned out by trumpets proclaiming the equation of more competitions + more matches = more money. After all, came the response to FIFPRO, it’s your members whose pay packets will benefit. Why deny them the rewards of their extra labours? The fixtures confusion created by the COVID-19 pandemic sparked a mixed response in…

1 DROPPED 36-year-old veteran Giorgio Chiellini might have thought he’d heard every excuse in football, but even he must have been surprised to hear why he’d missed out on Italy’s Nations League clash with Bosnia & Herzegovina. When asked after the game why he’d chosen to drop the World Cup winner, Azzurri boss Roberto Mancini told Football Italia: “It was my fault. They showed me the line-up, I didn’t have my glasses on and just said it was fine. I didn’t notice Acerbi was there rather than Chiellini.” 2 CZECH B TEAM COVID-19 once again had a big impact on a football match, this time in the UEFA Nations League clash between Czech Republic and Scotland. The Czech’s first-choice squad was quarantined after two players tested positive for coronavirus, forcing…

The lush mountains of Austria would normally seem an unlikely destination for a growing hive of supporter activity. But thanks to an inspired approach, it is now. Third division amateur club FC Pinzgau Saalfelden – an hour’s drive from Austrian juggernauts Red Bull Salzburg – have come up with an original idea to spark excitement. The club was12 years old when, in July 2019, American Mark Ciociola stepped in to become their CEO. Formed in 2007 by struggling rivals Saalfelden SK and ESV Saalfelden, who settled their differences to create a name worthy of attracting the best local talent, Pinzgau have yo-yoed between the third and fourth tier, but finally have something considerable to shout about. Disillusioned with the fan experience at MLS side Real Salt Lake City – the…

In 2010, RB Leipzig were making their debut in the fifth tier of German football. Fast-forward a decade, and they have just lost to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League semi-finals. It’s that level of meteoric rise that energy drink giant Red Bull are hoping to replicate with Bragantino, having invested around $11.5 million into the Brazilian club since taking over last year. As well as Leipzig, Red Bull have already invested heavily into New York Red Bulls and Red Bull Salzburg. Bragantino are not, however, the first Brazilian team that the Austrian company have invested in. In 2007, Red Bull Brasil were created, competing in the Sao Paulo state leagues. Despite some early promise, they ultimately failed to achieve their objective of reaching the top flight. As a result,…

Nathan Ake (Manchester City) Flexibility is a key chapter in the football instruction manual of Pep Guardiola, which is partly why he wanted the 25-year-old Dutchman. As well as excelling at centre-back, don’t be surprised to see the £40 million man deliver in a holding midfield role or at left-back. Faustino Anjorin (Chelsea) The Dorset-born attacking midfielder could well be the next luxury model off the Chelsea academy production line. A sight for sore eyes in the technical department, he does not just run with the ball, he glides. Made his first-team debut in the Carabao Cup last season. Marcos Antonio (Shakhtar Donetsk) Talented up-and-coming Brazilian midfielder, 20, with lots of strings to his bow. Disciplined and energetic in a deep-lying enforcer role, an accurate passer and a maker of…

NOV 23, 2004 Plays his first senior game, completing 60 minutes of Troyes’ 2-1 victory over Ligue 2 rivals Gueugnon. JUL 30, 2005 Following Troyes’ promotion to Ligue 1, Matuidi is also promoted from the reserves and starts his first topflight match. JAN 11, 2006 Scores his first-ever professional goal with a well-taken volley, sealing a1–0 victory against Lille. AUG 15, 2006 Earns his first France U21s call-up under coach Rene Girard, appearing as a half-time substitute against Belgium. JUL 12, 2007 Following Troyes’ Ligue1 relegation, Matuidi joins Saint-Etienne, making his club debut against Valenciennes on August11. SEP 18, 2008 Plays in European competition for the first time, starting in a UEFA Cup tie with Israeli side Hapoel Tel Aviv. AUG 8, 2009 Named Saint-Etienne captain by manager Alain Perrin,…

Predrag RAJKOVIC Reims In a sentence Much in-vogue Serbian keeper, rated the best custodian in Ligue1 last season and a brilliant penalty-saving specialist. What they say “He has the big size and I’m not over-exaggerating when I say he reminds me of Bayern and Germany’s Manuel Neuer. He has the same attitude and posture. He is comfortable with both feet and exudes assurance and personality.” Sebastien Hamel, Reims goalkeeper coach. “He’s a young keeper with huge potential. As a person, he is very open and wants to listen. He already has tremendous mental toughness. He really imposes himself in his penalty area.” David Guion, Reims head coach. The story so far Grew up in Negotin, eastern Serbia, with a former goalkeeper for a father, coach and mentor. Rajkovic senior, first…

Bulgaria v Hungary 1 Sizzling Szoboszlai RB Salzburg attacking midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai is, to put it simply, the most accomplished young player to come out of Hungary in many a long year. This all-or-nothing clash is an opportunity to grab the spotlight for the elegant playmaker, who only turns 20 at the end of October. Hungary coach Marco Rossi confidently predicts that the teenager will be a world-class performer in two or three years. 2 Bulgaria’s fab full-backs In the line-up put together by coach Georgi Dermendzhiev, Bulgaria look the strongest in the full-back department. On the left, Ludogorets’ Anton Nedyalkov combines grit, resourcefulness and experience while on the opposite flank, newly-naturalised Brazilian Cicinho – also a key figure for domestic champions Ludogorets – offers all the flamboyant attacking qualities…

It is an old cliché that six months in sport can prove an eternity. In African football it can be even longer. That holds particularly true for the World Cup qualifying process, which was set to resume in November with the start of the group phase, but which has since been postponed to next June. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been harshly felt across Africa, with borders firmly closed from the lockdown in March right through towards the end of the year, with none of the easing of travel restrictions that was seen across the European summer and allowed European football to return to action over a brief hiatus. What it means for Africa, is that there will likely be much change by the time the 40 countries,…

Manuel Nascimento is a vocal critic of the Confederation of African Football and FIFA’s attempts to exert greater control over CAF, but the world body’s attempts to sideline the controversial president of Guinea-Bissau’s Football Federation (FFGB) look to have backfired. Once an African football backwater, Guinea-Bissau’s qualification for their debut Africa Cup of Nations in 2017 and a second successive appearance last year gave Nascimento a platform to voice concerns over alleged corruption in CAF. Known locally as Manuelino, Nascimento also supported Jerome Champagne as a rival candidate to Gianni Infantino in the 2016 FIFA presidential elections, but frequently ran into problems at home. These ranged from a rebellion by clubs over financial irregularities that caused the 2018 Campeonato Nacional to be postponed, to allegedly firing a pistol at academy…

It was quite a season for Iranian strikers in Europe. Zenit’s Sardar Azmoun finished joint-top scorer in the Russian Premier League; Mehdi Taremi did the same in Portugal and has promptly been snapped up by Porto; while only three players scored more than Kaveh Rezaei in Belgium. For a national team whose recent relative success was built on a strong defence, these are encouraging signs. If only Arabian nations in West Asia could say the same. The biggest and best talents in Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates tend to stay at home, where they are lauded and paid very well. Even those that still wished to leave often had dreams dashed by all-powerful owners reluctant to lose their biggest stars. Qatar were supposed to be different. A few years…

AFRICA *Black Leopards enter the relegation play-offs with National First Division sides Ajax Cape Town and Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila. *Club Africain were deducted six points. ASIA *Al Khor beat Qatari Second Division’s Al Markhiya 2-0 in the relegation play-off. Final Series Elimination Finals Aug 22: Wellington Phoenix 0 Perth Glory1; Brisbane Roar 0 Western United1 Semi-Finals Aug 26: Melbourne City 2 Western United 0; Sydney FC 2 Perth Glory 0 Final Aug 30: Sydney FC1 Melbourne City 0 EUROPE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE 2020-21 Preliminary Qualifying Round Aug 8: Tre Fiori (Smr) 0 Linfield (Nir) 2; Drita (Kvx) 2 Inter Club d’Escaldes (And)1 Aug 11: Drita 0 Linfield 3 (awarded) First Qualifying Round Aug 18: Celtic (Sco) 6 KR (Isl) 0; Legia Warsaw (Pol)1 Linfield 0; Red Star Belgrade (Sbr) 5 Europa…

“If you look at that schedule, it isn’t showing any care for players’ physical welfare.” It is difficult to disagree with Tottenham defender Eric Dier. To say that games are coming thick and fast this season is an understatement, as football attempts to recover from the impact of COVID by squeezing in as many matches as possible. As Keir Radnedge points out on page 14, the players need protecting. The games keep on coming though, and we’ve tried to keep across all the major ones in the coming weeks. Starting with the Champions League. In the first of two issues previewing the 2020-21 edition, Nick Bidwell picks out the players that could make a name for themselves in this season’s competition (page 32), and poses ten questions lingering over the…

“I got some stick from the fans and I woke up and I was raging. After training I planned to go and speak to Dean Smith about things, but then I went and headbutted Jota.”Chelsea midfielder Danny Drinkwater opens up to The Telegraph about his loan spell at Aston Villa Darwin NUNEZ (Benfica) It has been a busy summer for Benfica. By signing Nunez for €24 million, the Eagles have broken the Portuguese transfer record and taken their total summer spending to almost €80m. This year, they have been responsible for three of the most expensive transfers in Portuguese history, with Nunez joining Everton Soares and Julian Weigl at the Estadio da Luz. So highly rated is the Uruguay striker, they have inserted a €100m release clause into his contract.…

“As captain of this football club I’m gutted, angry and sad that Grady [Diangana] has left, great kid with a great future!!!!!”West Ham skipper Mark Noble voices his displeasure over the club’s transfer business “After my first training session at Manchester United, I got home and asked my agent if I could tear up the contract and go back to Arsenal”Alexis Sanchez, speaking after leaving Manchester United for Internazionale permanently IN EUROPE Ronald Koeman’s overhaul of the Barcelona backroom staff began with the appointment of HENRIK LARSSON as assistant coach. Lazio signed former Spain, Liverpool, Napoli and Aston Villa goalkeeper PEPE REINA on a free transfer from Milan. Everton strengthened their midfield with the signings of ALLAN from Napoli, JAMES RODRIGUEZ from Real Madrid and Watford’s ABDOULAYE DOUCOURE. Several players…

Anderlecht, once Belgium’s most potent club, has a new messiah – again. Vincent Kompany, long-time ex-captain of Manchester City and ambassador for an ebullient generation of Belgian players, is the new head coach at the Brussels-based club. In August, Kompany unexpectedly announced his retirement as a player following a career that spanned 17 years at the highest level, marked equally by triumphs and recurring injuries. He led City to their first-ever Premier League title and won a bronze medal with Belgium at the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Kompany’s shock decision prompted a debate on his place in the pantheon of Belgian football gods, but his more immediate concern will be to restore Anderlecht to their former glory. For too long, internal power struggles, financial mismanagement and a woeful transfer…

TRANSFER FEES Troyes to Saint-Etienne (2007) Saint-Etienne to Paris Saint-Germain (2011) Paris Saint-Germain to Juventus (2017) Juventus to Inter Miami (2020) FRENCH PLAYER OF THEYEAR 2015 BLAISE MATUIDI (Paris Saint-Germain) 2016 ANTOINE GRIEZMANN (Atletico Madrid) 2017 N’GOLO KANTE (Chelsea) 2018 KYLIAN MBAPPE (Paris Saint-Germain) 2019 KYLIAN MBAPPE (Paris Saint-Germain) FRANCE 84 CAPS 9 GOALS DESCHAMPS CAPS MLSWORLD CUPWINNERS 1 Matuidi will be the only World Cup winner in this season’s Major League Soccer HONOURS LIGUE1 2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16 COUPE DE FRANCE 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17 COUPE DE LA LIGUE 2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17 TROPHEE DES CHAMPIONS 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 SERIE A 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20 COPPA ITALIA 2017-18 SUPERCOPPA ITALIANA 2018 WORLD CUP 2018…

KAI HAVERTZ (Bayer Leverkusen to Chelsea) The 21-year-old is technically flawless, athletically impressive and tactically versatile. The question is when, not if, he will be considered among football’s elite. ETHAN AMPADU (Chelsea to Sheffield United) Ampadu has 15 Wales caps, yet began this season with just12 league games to his name – eight of which came at League Two Exeter. The 20-year-old has big potential, but needs regular football. OLLIE WATKINS (Brentford to Aston Villa) Villa’s record signing will link up with the manager that brought him to Brentford, Dean Smith. Scorer of 26 Championship goals last season, there is big pressure on Watkins to step up to the Premier League. ANTONY (Sao Paulo to Ajax) This deal was agreed in February, but Antony had to wait until September for…

The best teams are traditionally built around a spine: centre-back, centre-midfield, centre-forward. By the time Lyon arrived in the Champions League final in San Sebastian, they had lost starters in all three positions to injury, and their back-up striker to suspension. Rather than collapse without their first-choice spine, they simply tore Wolfsburg apart down the right flank instead, lifting their fifth successive European crown and seventh in total. No Ada Hegerberg, no Amandine Henry, no Griedge Mbock Bathy, no Nikita Parris – no problem. This was supposed to be the year that Lyon were vulnerable. It was not just the injuries; better-resourced clubs such as Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea and Manchester City are all stepping up their investment in their women’s teams. Lyon are a wealthy club, but not in…

One of the most important years in South American football is 1996, which marked the start of the marathon format of the continent’s World Cup qualifiers, with all ten nations playing each other home and away. It provided the type of calendar European national teams take for granted – regular competitive matches, guaranteed income, and it brought about a dramatic improvement in the traditionally weaker sides. South America can now boast the most competitive qualifiers around. No one is making up the numbers. All ten teams go into the competition with dreams of going all the way. But the format could be at risk this time. The coronavirus has already taken away the March and September matches. And while FIFA have ratified the October dates, there must be big doubts…

There was some jealousy in Asia when, on August 25, European coaches started naming squads for the Nations League. There hasn’t been any Asian international action since last November and won’t be any until March – at least that is the hope. “2021 is going to be crazy and that’s if everything goes well,” said one Asian Football Confederation (AFC) official in August. It was just after the organisation decided to postpone the four 2022 World Cup qualifiers that were supposed to take place in October and November to 2021, games that had already been pushed back from March and June. Coronavirus has played havoc with Asia’s World Cup qualification, a campaign that should be approaching the final stages by now. Instead, 40 Asian teams are still on the road…

In one corner, you have Gianni Infantino: president of the billion dollar world governing football body, FIFA. In the other, a recently retired school teacher, William Wallace, whose organisation, the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA), is functionally bankrupt. If this were boxing, it would be difficult to get this supposed mismatch sanctioned. And yet, six months after FIFA threw the first blow by declaring that Wallace had been removed as president – via the Infantino-headed Bureau of the FIFA Council – the TTFA president is still standing, to no small embarrassment of FIFA’s. Suspicious of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), FIFA’s preferred referee, Wallace invited the governing body to see them in a Trinidad courtroom instead. Their legal claim is that FIFA has no authority to “normalise”…

UEFA NATIONS LEAGUE Sep 4 - Florence Italy1 (Sensi 68) Bosnia & Herzegovina 1 (Dzeko 90+1) HT: 0-0. Ref: Sidiropoulos (Gre) Italy: Donnarumma - Florenzi, Bonucci, Acerbi, Biraghi, L. Pellegrini (Kean 86), Sensi, Barella, Chiesa (Zaniolo 71), Belotti (Immobile 73), Insigne. Bosnia & Herzegovina: Sehic - Cipetic, Sunjic, Sanicanin, Kolasinac (Civic 84), Cimirot, Hadziahmetovic, Gojak, Visca (Milosevic 86), Dzeko, Hodzic (Besic 77). Sep 4 - Amsterdam Netherlands1 (Bergwijn 62) Poland 0 HT: 0-0. Ref: Kabakov (Bul) Netherlands: Cillessen - Hateboer, Veltman, Van Dijk, Ake, De Roon, Wijnaldum, F. De Jong, Bergwijn (Van de Beek 74), Depay, Promes (L. De Jong 90+2). Poland: Szczesny - Kedziora, Glik, Bednarek, Bereszynski, Klich, Krychowiak, S. Szymanski, Zielinski (Moder 77), Jozwiak (Grosicki 71), Piatek (Milik 63). Sep 7 - Zenica Bosnia & Herzegovina 1 (Hajradinovic…

“The only regret I have is not hitting that a*****e in the face. VAR catching my “aggression” is easy… Now I want to see the image of the racist”Neymar’s outburst on Twitter after receiving alleged racist abuse ITALY Golden Boy shortlist The final 40 contenders for the Golden Boy award, a prize for Europe’s best young footballer, have been revealed. Voted for by a panel of European sports publications, the shortlist for the award is essentially a who’s who of the continent’s best young talent, with previous winners including Wayne Rooney, Lionel Messi, Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbappe. The final 40 for 2020 are:…

Magic moments define the biggest games – not tactics I happened to see the Champions League final on television in Italy, where the programme covering the match was called “Pressing”. It is the buzzword of modern football, the tactical style preferred by men like Hansi Flick and Jurgen Klopp. As soon as the match had finished, the conversation among pundits was insistent: are we now in a period of domination by German coaches? Flick and Klopp, victorious in the last two finals; Thomas Tuchel, this year’s runner-up; Julian Nagelsmann, coach of semi-finalists RB Leipzig. It is a seductive thought. Among pundits, coaches, aficionados and ordinary fans, there is an endless search for the latest trends, a quest for explanations, and a desire to see empires built and legacies created. Few…

The end of La Liga’s Champions League dominance? It’s never wise to read too much into the results of one season, and particularly not one as unusual as 2019-20. Still, it felt significant that, for the first time since 2007, there wasn’t a single La Liga side in the semi-finals of the Champions League. Odd things can happen in knockout football – having provided all four finalists of the two European competitions the previous season, there were no Premier League semi-finalists either – but what was striking was how the Spanish teams went out. Manchester City were eliminated following a surprising and destabilising tactical switch from manager Pep Guardiola; Liverpool went out through a goalkeeping error after a slightly freakish game; Chelsea cannot defend against counters and met an excellent…

Leszno is a small, quiet town in Poland with a population of around 4,000 people, 30 kilometres from the capital city of Warsaw. Until recently, it had relatively few claims to fame; now it is known as the place where Robert Lewandowski lived and grew up. “In 2016 we gave him Honourable Citizenship, the first such title in our history, because we are very proud of him,” declared former Leszno mayor Andrzej Cieslak. Playing in the streets of Leszno, Lewandowski fell in love with football. When he was just eight, his father, Krzysztof, took him to Varsovia, a youth club in Warsaw. “I remember him as the smallest, skinniest boy,” recalls Lewandowski’s first coach, Marek Siwecki, who passed away last year. “His legs looked like two thin sticks. But I…

The strange case of Atalanta star Josip Ilicic has become one of the great footballing enigmas of this COVID-driven 2020. Ilicic fell right off the radar, out of the team and out of sight, at the very height of a fabulous Atalanta season which took the Bergamo club to unprecedented heights, not only finishing third in Serie A but ending their season in Lisbon with a Champions League quarter-final elimination by Paris Saint-Germain. Depression, anxiety and mental stress are nothing new for top-flight professional athletes. It is part of the price some players pay for the joys of a pressurised, physically demanding profession, lived out in the constant, unforgiving glare of the public eye. Not, indeed, that we know for certain that Ilicic has suffered from some form of depression.…

Frank Lampard is not the first Chelsea manager of the Roman Abramovich era to begin a new season with a selection headache after a big summer of transfer spending. The £200 million that the Blues spent this year is the biggest summer outlay in their history, overtaking their previous record of around £190m that was spent in 2017. Accounting for inflation, both figures are dwarfed by the £222m from 2003. Then, it was Claudio Ranieri who had the conundrum of accommodating a raft of new boys – Hernan Crespo, Damien Duff, Juan Sebastian Veron, Claude Makelele, Adrian Mutu, Wayne Bridge, Geremi, Joe Cole – alongside established performers, including Lampard himself. This time it is Lampard’s turn to juggle a boatload of talent, with the arrivals of Kai Havertz, Timo Werner,…

CONCACAF’s rejig of the 2022 World Cup qualifiers assuaged some criticism in the region, but the big guns still have a head start. Changed due to the pandemic, the new format puts the five highest-ranked nations – Mexico, USA, Costa Rica, Jamaica and Honduras – straight into a final round, dubbed the Octagonal. The remaining 30 eligible CONCACAF members play each other once in six groups, with games to commence in March 2021 after a late decision to postpone the original October and November dates. Group winners then play home-and-away for three places in the Octagonal, where the top three qualify for Qatar and the fourth-placed side faces an inter-confederation play-off. The original format had lower-ranked countries battling off for one inter-confederation play-off spot, but the early rounds will still…

The continent that brought us love in the time of cholera has been ploughing ahead with football in the time of coronavirus. The pandemic has posed serious problems for South America. Indeed, the presidents of the Bolivian and Venezuelan FAs lost their lives to COVID-19. The virus has proved hard to bring under control. In early September, South America contained all of the top five in the ranking of coronavirus deaths per population size over the previous week. But the continent’s football often lives close to the financial edge even in normal times. A long shutdown put a massive strain on the health of the industry and increased the pressure for a return to action. Watching football’s restart in Europe only served to scratch the itch still further, and by…