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Paulo Fonseca failed to meet his own expectations but was treated poorly by Milan, who will appoint Sérgio Conceição

It was Paulo Fonseca who announced his own sacking shortly after midnight. Driving out of the parking lot at San Siro, he stopped briefly to answer questions from a reporter. “Yes, it’s true, I’ve exited Milan,” he said. “That’s life. Life goes like this. My conscience is calm, because I did everything I could.”

Such phrasing might make it sound like Fonseca took the decision himself. He did not. Milan eventually confirmed they had relieved the head coach of his duties in an official statement published on Monday morning.

With a failure to do the right thing a consistent thread, an expert explains how we got here and how to fix it

What do the following have in common? Falling to the ground and clutching your head without having been touched. Shouting abuse at a teenage referee. Staging tournaments without an open bidding process. Setting up a breakaway league. Punching a Sunday league opponent.

Each example showcases a side of football that harms the health of the game (not to mention those on the wrong end of such behaviour). According to Dr Dan Hough, however, they are also indicative of a problem that particularly afflicts football: a consistent lack of integrity.

• Manager dismisses fears over January transfer window
• Mohamed Salah on contract: ‘Nothing really moved on’

Arne Slot has said the January transfer window will not become a distraction from Liverpool’s fine run of form or cause a loss of control in his relationship with his players, even though Mohamed Salah admitted a conclusion to his own contract situation remains “far away”.

A steamrollering 5-0 win at West Ham put Liverpool eight points clear at the top of the Premier League table, the same day that reports surfaced in Spain suggesting Trent Alexander-Arnold is now close to formalising a much-discussed move to Real Madrid when his contract expires in the summer.

• Spurs face further absences after 2-2 draw with Wolves
• Manager gives squad two days off before Newcastle clash

Ange Postecoglou is not ready to write off Tottenham’s Premier League campaign just yet despite more dropped points on Sunday.

Spurs were held to a 2-2 draw at home to Wolves after they conceded with three minutes left on another difficult afternoon that saw Destiny Udogie become the latest player to limp off.

• Scot replaces Neil Harris on ‘long-term contract’ at Den
• Neil has managed Norwich, Preston, Sunderland, Stoke

Millwall have appointed Alex Neil as their new head coach. The 43-year-old Scot replaces Neil Harris, who stepped down from the role earlier this month. Neil had been out of work since being sacked by Stoke last December, having previously managed Hamilton, Norwich, Preston and Sunderland.

Millwall, who were led by caretaker manager David Livermore in their last three fixtures, sit 13th in the Championship table following Sunday’s goalless draw at Coventry. Neil will take charge of the team for the first time when Oxford visit the Den on New Year’s Day.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Lucy Ward and Troy Townsend as Liverpool beat West Ham 5-0 away from home to go five points clear at the top of the Premier League.

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On the podcast today; Mo Salah continues his unbelievable season and the panel try and think of something new to say about how well he’s playing and figure out just how he took that ball around Konstantino Mavrapanos.

• Savinho and Haaland on target in champions’ 2-0 victory
• ‘We will improve as the results improve, that’s for sure’

Pep Guardiola has said Manchester City’s return to winning ways will “clear our minds and souls” as he insisted the Premier League champions will get back to their best after a welcome 2-0 victory at Leicester.

Guardiola expressed his relief after City halted their miserable run of results by recording their first win in six matches and only their second in 14 in all competitions.

Nottingham Forest continue their remarkable ascent under Nuno Espírito Santo. A club that was one place above the relegation zone when Nuno arrived 12 months ago climbed to second in the Premier League with a comfortable win against Everton. The Champions League might not be a fanciful dream after all.

The outstanding duo of Chris Wood and Morgan Gibbs-White scored the goals that secured Forest’s fifth victory in a row, equalling the club’s Premier League record set in April 1995. A controlled and incisive team performance also enabled Forest to win at both Everton and Liverpool for the first time in the same league season since 1898-99. Sean Dyche’s team were unbeaten in six home league games before Forest’s visit but were ineffective and vulnerable throughout.

• Forward is on loan at Marseille from parent club Everton
• ‘Whenever I’m having a bad day I check Everton’s score’

Marseille’s on-loan forward Neal Maupay has sparked outrage among Everton fans by taking a swipe at his parent club in a post on social media. Maupay also had a dig at Everton when he departed on loan to the French club in the summer and his latest taunt has further angered the Premier League team’s supporters.

The 28-year-old posted on X after Sean Dyche’s side had lost 2-0 to Nottingham Forest at Goodison Park on Sunday: “Whenever I’m having a bad day I just check the Everton score and smile.”

When Aaron Ramsdale swapped warming the bench at Arsenal for a relegation battle with ­Southampton, even the England goalkeeper couldn’t have imagined it would be this bad. Another defeat – a 15th in 19 ­Premier League games – was ­especially hard to take after Tyler Dibling had given them a surprise lead to end a four‑match wait to score a goal and their first under the new manager, Ivan Juric.

But while Ramsdale was angered by the decision not to disallow Trevoh Chalobah’s equaliser for a perceived push on the ­Southampton goalkeeper, it was only a string of fine saves that kept the scoreline respectable as Palace secured only a second home victory of the campaign thanks to Eberechi Eze’s brilliant winner.

All the latest Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 and Serie A deals and a club-by-club guide

• Women’s transfer interactive – all the January deals

Every deal in the WSL, Liga F, Frauen-Bundesliga, Première Ligue and Serie A Femminile as well as a club-by-club guide

• Men’s transfer interactive January 2025
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• Motherwell pegged back for 2-2 draw after eventful game
• Celtic win 4-0; Dundee United beat Aberdeen

A second-half double from substitute Hamza Igamane rescued a 2-2 draw for Rangers at Motherwell but the disjointed visitors fell further behind Premiership leaders Celtic.

Philippe Clement came under fresh fire following the 2-1 Boxing Day defeat at St Mirren and there was uproar among the travelling supporters as Apostolos Stamatelopoulos put the hosts ahead in the 16th minute before Tawanda Maswanhise added a second in the 35th minute. Half-time replacement Igamane reduced the deficit in the 50th minute before Well boss Stuart Kettlewell was shown a red card by referee Kevin Clancy, possibly for dissent.

Andoni Iraola lauded Dango Ouattara’s impact off the bench as he came on to score an 89th-minute equaliser in Bournemouth’s 2-2 draw with Fulham.

After Raúl Jiménez scored his sixth Premier League goal of the season, Evanilson struck early in the second half to level proceedings.

• Raspadori scores after Romelu Lukuku has penalty saved
• Fiorentina’s Sottil pegs back Juventus in 2-2 draw

Giacomo Raspadori came off the bench to score the only goal in Napoli’s 1-0 home win over relegation-battling Venezia, a result which moves them to second in the Serie A standings and level on points with leaders Atalanta.

Antonio Conte’s hosts were on the attack from the off, with Filip Stankovic twice denying the home side with close-range saves from Amir Rrahmani and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. Venezia began to find a footing in the game, almost taking the lead but Alex Meret pulled off a reflex save with his leg to keep out John Yeboah’s effort.

• Cannon fires Stoke past Sunderland for rare win
• Burnley extend unbeaten run with Middlesbrough draw

Leeds will head into 2025 top of the Championship after a hard-fought 1-0 win at Derby. Sheffield United had briefly returned to the summit following their lunchtime kick-off against West Brom, which ended 1-1 at Bramall Lane.

However, Leeds closed out the year in pole position in the race for automatic promotion after Brenden Aaronson’s solitary second-half strike secured them an eighth win in their last 10 matches.

When does a stutter become a ­stumble? After a first home defeat of the season against Burnley on ­Boxing Day, the Championship high-flyers ­Sheffield United dropped two more home points against managerless West Brom.

Chris Wilder has been around long enough not to overreact but, with a trip to their promotion rivals Sunderland on New Year’s Day, this is shaping to be an uncomfortable period for his blunted Blades.

Decision to move midfielder into deeper position has paid off to reignite hopes of Champions League qualification

Eddie Howe kept flicking switches and pressing buttons but the power refused to do anything more than blink sporadically into life before swiftly fading once more. Newcastle had slipped to 12th in the Premier League and, with José Mourinho said to be on friendly terms with the Saudi Arabian-owned club’s chair, Yasir al-Rumayyan, Howe’s hold on the manager’s job looked to have loosened slightly.

Then Sandro Tonali turned the lights back on and everything changed. A month after Howe decided to deploy the Italy midfielder in a deep-lying No6 role in a 1-1 draw at Crystal Palace, Newcastle have risen to fifth. With Champions League qualification suddenly back on the agenda, they travel to Old Trafford for Monday night’s match against Manchester United having scored 11 goals while keeping a trio of clean sheets in their past three league games.

• Defender concedes that Arsenal will miss Saka’s threat
• Timber: ‘Martinelli has showed he can play both sides’

Jurriën Timber is confident Arsenal will rise to the challenge of playing without Bukayo Saka as he insisted there will be twists and turns to come in the Premier League title race.

Arsenal began what will be a lengthy spell without the injured Saka on Friday when they beat Ipswich 1-0 at the Emirates, closing to within six points of Liverpool, albeit having played one more game than the leaders.

Rodri has beaten Vinícius Júnior and Erling Haaland to top our ranking of the most talented players in the world this calendar year

• How all the judges voted | Rodri heads 2024 list | Our methodology | The top 100 female players in the world
• 2023 edition | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012

The Manchester City midfielder becomes the sixth player to top our ranking of the world’s best 100 male footballers

• The 100 best male footballers in the world 2024

One of the worst things about seeing Rodri in agony on the pitch against Arsenal in September – and the subsequent news that he had ruptured an anterior cruciate ligament – was that in the buildup to the injury he had criticised the workload being put on players. It was as if he knew something bad was about to happen.

In April, after an epic 3-3 draw at Real Madrid the Manchester City and Spain midfielder said: “I do need a rest.” He added: “Let’s see how we speak, how we live the situation. Sometimes it is what it is. I need to adjust. It [rest] is something we are planning, yes.”

Aitana Bonmatí finishes top of our rankings for a second consecutive year, with Caroline Graham Hansen second and Sophia Smith third

• Bonmatí on top of world again | How every judge voted | Video top ten | 2023 list | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018
• Subscribe now to our free women’s football newsletter

The Spanish midfielder wins for a second consecutive year on a fast-moving list that sees 15 players appearing for the first time

• The top 100: check out the full list for 2024

Aitana Bonmatí emulates her Barcelona and Spain teammate Alexia Putellas and takes back-to-back wins in the Guardian’s 100 best female footballers in the world list.

The double Ballon d’Or winner received votes from all 99 of this year’s judges, finishing 667 points clear of her club teammate Caroline Graham Hansen, the Norwegian climbing to her highest ranking after a superb individual year for both club and country.

Euro 2024 champion reflects on sealing Spain’s triumph and how a team without big names were stronger together

After breakfast on the morning of the Euro 2024 final, a small group of players stayed in the dining room on the first floor of Spain’s hotel on Marlene-Dietrich-Platz and talked. They had sat together most days over the five weeks spent at their Der Öschberghof HQ outside Donaueschingen and all round Germany, from Gelsenkirchen to Düsseldorf, Cologne to Stuttgart and Munich, a bunch of friends chatting about everything and nothing, but 14 July wasn’t most days. Back in Berlin where it had all begun, this was the last. It was also the best day of Mikel Oyarzabal’s life and theirs, too. And somehow they knew.

“There was some feeling inside,” Oyarzabal recalls five months on, strolling across the pitch at Zubieta, Real Sociedad’s training ground, and into the warmth of a small office. “Álvaro Morata says I’m going to score. Álex Remiro too. And that morning the five of us from la Real were sitting at the table: Remi, [Mikel] Merino, Zubi [Martín Zubimendi], Robin [Le Normand] and me. We would always hang about after eating and chat. I’d been saying it for a while and I said it then: one of us was going to be important, we would have our moment.”

Dutch right-back on why she feels at home in Manchester, the workings of Gareth Taylor and excitement for Euro 2025

The Manchester City full‑back Kerstin Casparij grins when her girlfriend, Ruth Brown, is asked whether she can keep up with the elite athlete when they go on runs together in the off-season: “Yes, I can slow down for her,” Brown quips, remarkably straight-faced.

Life is good for Casparij and Brown. They have bought a house in Manchester which, bar the new sofa hunt, they have nearly finished decorating; their cats, Kiwi and Mango, have got to grips with the stairs after moving from their flat and have picked out their favourite window sills for lounging on; and they recently completed the cooperative video game It Takes Two. When we sit down over coffee in London, they are arguing over who has to deal with the giblets when they cook for Casparij’s family on Christmas Day and are getting ready to host their families together, for the first time, on Boxing Day.

Fans rate the best and worst of the season so far – the stars, the flops and what needs to change in 2025

• Part two: Leicester to Wolves

We’re being called the “new Stoke City” for our set pieces – but for as long as Martin Ødegaard is around we’ll keep the Tony Pulis comparisons quiet. There’s been no better example of his all-round brilliance than in the dazzling 5-1 demolition of Sporting. There have been some frustrations over the blunders that set us back in the title race but it’d be churlish to complain while we’re still in contention in all competitions and enjoying such sumptuous entertainment.

Bernard Azulay onlinegooner.com; @GoonerN5

Jonathan Pritchard

Fans rate the best and worst of the season so far – the stars, the flops and what needs to change in 2025

• Part one: Arsenal to Ipswich

Well, we’re not bottom, but there’s no getting away from the fact that we have, at times, looked like the worst team in the league, and by some distance. Danny Ward, Wout Faes and James Justin have turned in some astonishingly bad performances this season. Facundo Buonanotte has been a rare bright spark.

Chris Whiting clippings.me/chriswhiting; @ChrisRWhiting

Steph Jones

Coaches such as Arteta, Iraola and Emery play variations of the Guardiola model – flexibility and adaptability are in vogue

Spain are the European champions. Real Madrid won the Champions League. Rodri won the Ballon d’Or and has only come to seem more important since suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury. Spanish managers won the Premier League, the Bundesliga and Ligue 1 last season. No fewer than five Premier League clubs are managed by Spaniards.

It has been another year of Spanish domination but the manager who more than anybody has been the architect of what is now considered the Spanish style is facing the biggest crisis of his career.

The Inter and Denmark player wins the award for her climate activism and being behind an open letter to Fifa regarding Saudi Arabia’s human rights issues

The Guardian Footballer of the Year is an award given to a player who has done something remarkable, whether by overcoming adversity, helping others or setting a sporting example by acting with exceptional honesty.

If the football had not worked out, perhaps Sofie Junge Pedersen could have run away to the circus. When her after-school youth club in Aarhus put on its annual week of performances there was one challenge that struck her in particular: the chance to juggle with fire torches and mock knives. “It was quite serious,” she laughs. “We practised a lot beforehand and I thought it would be fun. I just wanted to be the best.” So it proved and there is no evidence that anyone has beaten the time she set, aged 13, for keeping the two airborne simultaneously.

Ruben Amorim knows his job will be at risk if Manchester United's results do not improve but said he enjoys the pressure. 'The manager of Manchester United can never, no matter what, be comfortable, and I know the business that I’m in,' Amorim said after a third consecutive defeat and fifth in seven games. 'You can say I am here one month and I’ve had four training [sessions], but we are not winning. That is the reality and I’m quite comfortable with that.'

• ‘Every coach is in danger’: Amorim wary of job risk if United’s poor form rolls on

Arne Slot urged his players to keep their foot on the accelerator after Liverpool extended their lead at the top of the Premier League to four points with a wild 6-3 victory against Tottenham. Although the manager felt his team produced their best attacking performance in an away game under him, he was not happy with a drop in intensity at 5-1 that gave Spurs brief hope of a comeback. The score was pulled back to 5-3 and Liverpool, who ended up capitalising on Chelsea’s draw with Everton earlier in the day, were reminded that they must maintain their focus if they are to win the league.

• Arne Slot warns against complacency despite Liverpool’s six-goal display

• Ange Postecoglou’s unserious Spurs exposed by serious Liverpool

Ruben Amorim said Manchester United's players and fans were 'suffering' after a damaging 3-0 Premier League loss to Bournemouth at Old Trafford. Dean Huijsen exposed United's frailties from set pieces with a first-half header before Justin Kluivert and Antoine Semenyo added goals after the break to secure three points for the visitors

• Semenyo seals stunning Bournemouth win to add to Manchester United misery

Pep Guardiola has defended Manchester City striker Erling Haaland after his team fell to their ninth defeat in 12 matches. CIty have now lost six of their past eight Premier League games following a 2-1 loss to Aston Villa. After the game, in which he failed to find the back of the net, Haaland told TNT Sports that he hadn't been scoring his chances and that he needed to do better.

• Manchester City’s bleak midwinter rolls on as Rogers seals win for Aston Villa

In 2024 the world of football was filled with incredible skill as well as some unique moments. From stunning strikes to own goals and animals on the pitch, here are some of the most entertaining moments the sport had to offer.

Arsenal and England star Bukayo Saka reunited with his first ever grassroots football coach, Colin Nixon, to celebrate the amazing impact coaches can have on individuals and their local communities. Nixon identified a six-year-old Saka’s talent and gave him the opportunity to play at his local west London club, Greenford Celtic. The pair reminisced about their time together with Nixon testing Saka on a drill they used to do, exclaiming 'he's still got it' as Saka rolled the ball

• João Pereira sacked on Boxing Day after poor run
• Rui Borges takes over at Portuguese champions

Sporting have appointed Rui Borges as head coach, after the Portuguese champions sacked João Pereira on Boxing Day. The new head coach has signed a contract until June 2026, with an option to extend a further year.

Pereira, who took over after Ruben Amorim’s departure to Manchester United in November, was in charge for eight matches, of which Sporting won just three, enduring successive Champions League defeats and falling to second in the Primeira Liga behind their rivals Benfica.

Diego Simeone summons Alexander Sørloth from the bench to finish off anyone daring to hold up his title charge

The first time Diego Simeone met Alexander Sørloth, he told him he had come up with a name for him. “He calls me Hitman, I hope to live up to that,” the Norwegian said, and so when the boss needed a really big job doing this weekend, there he was: 6ft 4in and 15 stone of ice cool striding past the bodies lying at his feet. He had sat in the shadows silently watching, biding his time, working out where the opportunity would arise and he could appear and then, at just the right moment, he did. He had known and now it was done, plan executed to perfection. Sørloth shotgun. “Cold,” Simeone called him.

There were 23 seconds left on Saturday night when Sørloth scored the goal that beat Barcelona 2-1 at Montjuïc and it had to be him: a single shot, the aim as true as the timing, sending Atlético Madrid to the top of the table, a little bit of history made and title credentials confirmed. It is 13 years since Simeone became coach and he has transformed the club, leaving the Camp Nou in 2014 with a league title that may still be the greatest feat the competition has ever seen, and taking another title seven years later. But he had never actually won a La Liga game against Barcelona there and Atlético had not done so since February 2006, back when Fernando Torres was a player not a plasterer. Sørloth on the other hand had: in 2022-23 he had come with Real Sociedad and scored the second in a 2-1 win, in 2023-24 he had scored in the 99th minute to take Villarreal to victory, and now this. Three years, three clubs, three wins. “I told him: you had to come for us to win here,” Jan Oblak said.

Gian Piero Gasperini’s project embodies a mentality that echoes an NFL legend after 11-game winning run

The game had not even kicked off and it was starting to feel like a prize ceremony. Ademola Lookman held up the trophy he won as the African men’s footballer of the year. Atalanta’s president, Antonio Percassi, beamed as he handed over Serie A’s coach of the month award to Gian Piero Gasperini.

Percassi’s son, Luca, the club’s CEO, spoke for the TV cameras about the recent quality of life survey conducted by the newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore. It had ranked Bergamo, where Atalanta are based, as the best place to reside in all of Italy. “As a Bergamasco, I can confirm those statistics,” he replied with a laugh.

Celebrations were dampened by tragedy in Germany but two 5-1 wins left two teams in the Bundesliga title race

The celebrations were not what they might have been. Bayern Munich had planned a Christmas display after the Friday night game with RB Leipzig, the full stop to their calendar year, which was swiftly cancelled after news filtered through of the awful attacks in Magdeburg, as the club’s CEO, Jan-Christian Dreesen, explained on the pitch at full time. While the mood was understandably dampened, Bayern had said what they wanted to on the field, just as Bayer Leverkusen did later on Saturday. In case you were in any doubt, there are just two to watch in the title race in the second half of the Bundesliga campaign. The team of 2024, and the team that is determined to make 2025 theirs.

A 5-1 statement by the leaders answered in kind less than 24 hours later by the champions. Leverkusen needed their equally resounding win over Freiburg to keep pace with Bayern after their demolition of RB Leipzig. They also needed it to cut away the rest of the pack, to clarify the title race to come. Never mind the four points by which Leverkusen trail Bayern. It is the five that separate the second-placed Werkself from Eintracht Frankfurt in third, after the latter’s surprise home defeat to Mainz (last week’s conquerors of Bayern), which mean that the table has been adjusted to more reflect reality going into the Winterpause.

They were 95 minutes into the battle that been built as the clash that would decide the title, the final seconds slipping away, when a man who looks for all the world like a norse warrior delivered the decisive blow. Atlético Madrid had suffered, they had resisted and, in truth, they had probably longed for that final whistle to go, and then suddenly Alexander Sørloth thumped in another late winner. In doing so he sent Atlético Madrid top the table at Christmas and their coach, staff and subs sprinting on to the pitch.

Barcelona’s fans, meanwhile, turned and headed straight for the exit, unable to believe what had just happened. What had happened was this: on a night when they had hit the bar and had more than enough chances to win it, including deep into added time, in which Jan Oblak, the goalkeeper had been the best player on the pitch, with Pedri, they had somehow been beaten. It is the third time in a row that they have lost here in La Liga and the first time they have ever fallen at the hands of a Diego Simeone-led Atlético team and it hurt.

The Saudi Pro League could very well be too big and important to Mohammed bin Salman’s plans for his country to fail. But how long can the poorly attended party last?

Last week’s confirmation that Saudi Arabia will host the 2034 World Cup was met with a strangely muted reaction throughout the footballing world – and at the Fifa Congress itself, which took the form of an extended Zoom call. Mostly this was because the announcement itself was a foregone conclusion; with no other countries bidding to host the 2034 tournament, and the vote in favor of the 2030 hosts effectively dependent on simultaneous approval of the Saudis’ 2034 bid, there was little of the fanfare that usually accompanies Fifa’s biggest proclamations, and none of the shock that accompanied the revelation of past World Cup bid winners like Qatar. The debate about the Saudis’ suitability as a World Cup host was lost well before last week’s Fifa Congress; the country’s appalling human rights record and odious history of internal oppression are no secret to Fifa, but football’s peak body brushed all that aside and went ahead with last week’s formalities regardless.

If the spectacle of Fifa member states raising their hands to applaud over Zoom in support of the Saudis’ 2034 bid felt like a strange way to seal the petro-monarchy’s footballing coronation, however, it’s perhaps because a vague sense has started to come into focus that all is not well with the Saudi sporting project. This is not to suggest that the Saudis will not succeed in holding the 2034 World Cup; the tournament is the showpiece event in crown prince Mohammed bin Salman’s long-term initiative to wean the Saudi economy off oil and turn his country into a hub of the global leisure economy, so no expense will be spared in ensuring it is a success.

Powerful acceptance speech for best male player at CAF awards matched specially designed agbada for occasion

Ademola Lookman couldn’t help reminiscing on Monday night. Crowned best male player at the Confederation of African Football’s award ceremony in Marrakech, thanks in large part to his stunning hat-trick for Atalanta in May’s Europa League final, the Nigeria forward’s acceptance speech referred to one of the lowest moments of his career.

It came while Lookman was on a season-long loan at Fulham from RB Leipzig in November 2020 and during injury time of a televised Premier League game against West Ham at the London Stadium. Trailing to a late goal from Tomas Soucek, the visitors were awarded a penalty in the final seconds and Lookman stepped up to take it – only to see his weak Panenka chip loop straight into the arms of Lukasz Fabianski. “I couldn’t even describe the devastation,” Lookman told the Guardian in an interview a few months later.

Match will be remembered for the keeper’s horror injury but may also come to be seen as the day the title was decided

By Luke Entwistle for Get French Football News

Title deciders don’t usually come in December but this certainly had the air of one. Paris Saint-Germain’s draws against Nantes and then Auxerre had opened the door to challengers but it was slammed shut on an eerie evening in Monaco.

Initially scheduled to take place in early January, this match was brought forward due to an addition to the calendar – the Trophée des Champions. The French equivalent of the Community Shield, pitting the winners of Ligue 1 against that of the Coupe de France (or the second-placed team in Ligue 1 in the event of a domestic double, a feat PSG achieved last season), it was set to take place in China before the start of the season. However, Chinese authorities pulled out of hosting the event at the last minute.

• Rodrygo and Vinícius also on target in 3-0 victory
• Real Madrid win their ninth global title in Qatar

Kylian Mbappé helped fire Real Madrid to Intercontinental Cup glory with a goal in Wednesday’s 3-0 win over Pachuca at Lusail Stadium.

The 25-year-old had been a fitness worry having suffered a thigh injury during last week’s Champions League win over Atalanta. Mbappé missed Saturday’s 3-3 draw at Rayo Vallecano in La Liga, but was deemed fit enough to travel to Qatar.

From the Den to Old Trafford, via Craven Cottage and the Emirates, I saw it all during my years pulling pints for fans

I was 17 when I started working at football grounds for some extra cash on the weekends. As the youngest of three girls, I could easily have followed my older sisters into a Saturday job at a local cafe. Instead, I signed away my life (and social life) to a hospitality agency, in exchange for a tenner an hour, flexible shifts and a variety of unflattering uniforms.

As a diehard Hull City fan, I was no stranger to the concourse, but I wasn’t prepared for the trials and tribulations of working in them. From Millwall to Manchester, I’ve seen it all – proposals, tears (mainly my own) and flying pies.

As I focus my energy on the political landscape in Lincolnshire, experiences at Grimsby can assist shaping a sense of identity

In May 2021, Andrew Pettit and I took on what would prove to be one of the hardest challenges of our lives when we bought our home-town club, Grimsby Town. The difficulty wasn’t just in turning the club around, it was in grappling with an economic system that simply doesn’t work. Most importantly, and unlike the business world we come from, the stakeholders are not abstracted customers but our family, friends and the wider community of which we are part.

Football isn’t just a game, it offers a sense of history, rootedness and connection far beyond what happens for 90 minutes on any given Saturday. It’s a crucible for human stories, a reflection of society and an arena where ambition, frustration, identity and community collide.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Rodri’s injury, Erling Haaland and Pep Guardiola all play a role in this champion team’s profound collapse

Eight weeks, 12 games and nine defeats into Manchester City’s descent into the footballing upside down, Pep Guardiola has at least identified the problem.

“We haven’t scored the goals we scored before, and we have conceded the goals we didn’t concede,” Guardiola told the BBC cameras after the defeat at Villa Park on Saturday, speaking in that now-familiar watery, rambling drawl, the voice of a man being encouraged by paramedics to talk about defensive injuries and midfield duels in order to keep himself awake until the ambulance arrives.

Max Rushden is joined by Will Unwin, Jonathan Fadugba and Lars Sivertsen after a batch of intriguing results on Boxing Day including losses for Chelsea and Manchester United

Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.

On the podcast today; a Boxing Day for the ages as Chelsea, Manchester United and Spurs all lose while Manchester City drop points against Everton.

From Tickle Me ElMou to Tiny Tears, our cartoonist has you covered if you need a last-minute football-related present

• Buy this cartoon in our Print Shop
• David’s new book, Chaos in the Box: order it now

Give the one you love something special: a free subscription to Football Daily. The gift that never starts giving

Welcome to the third Football Daily Christmas Awards. This is the bit where, in our old guise, we would bang on about becoming so jaded that we’d lost count of how many years we’d been churning out this old tat. Hmm … So OK, here we are, refreshed and ready to go! Pour yourself a pint of wine, throw your boots up on the desk, decompress, de-depress, and enjoy!

Plus: the QPR player signed on Christmas Day, footballers doing panto and more in a festive special

“How many teams have rallied to survive after being bottom of the English top flight at Christmas?” asks George Jones. “And did any of these clubs do it without sacking a manager.”

“Nigel Pearson’s great-escaping Leicester City team of 2014-15 fit the bill – and then some, since as per George’s follow-up question, he survived the entire season (though not much longer),” writes Jack Hayward, who has gone above and beyond in answering this question. “On Christmas Day 2014, the Foxes were bottom of the Premier League, with only two wins and 10 points. They were still bottom as late as 18 April, when a 2-0 win over Swansea, plus QPR and Burnley dropping points, lifted them into 18th. A few weeks later, they had finished a lofty 14th and laid the foundation for the most extraordinary story in English top-flight history.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Liew and Sam Dalling as Arsenal, Newcastle and Liverpool progress to the League Cup semis

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On the podcast today: the League Cup semi-finals are shaping up to be quite interesting, with four teams who’ll definitely feel a trophy will help their cause this season guaranteed to feature.

They only have a pool of 60 players to choose from, but the team are getting set to roll in the Women’s Nations League

“It’s one of those things that you don’t look back on until it’s gone,” the Gibraltar Women’s manager, Scott Wiseman, tells Moving the Goalposts. “One thing we say to the girls is to just go out there and enjoy every moment because you never know when it is going to be your last. You know when it’s your first … and you’re never going to get this moment again.”

The date of 21 February 2025 will soon be one etched into the young history of Gibraltar’s national women’s team. When the players step out on to the pitch in Moldova to begin their inaugural Women’s Nations League campaign, they will be playing in their nation’s first ever competitive women’s fixture.

This is an extract from our free weekly email, Moving the Goalposts. To get the full edition, visit this page and follow the instructions.

Sixteen stadiums and not a home fan in sight, but how good is your knowledge of football away-days?

It may have been an absolute mess, but McClair’s two-yard wonder strike was a window into the human soul

The reality of corporeality is a hard thing to process; just look at what we look like! But somehow, the agglomeration of weird shapes and freaky textures that comprises us responds to instructions from the quivering lump of jelly that really comprises us, and thus does football eventuate. Jesse Armstrong once said that if a joke isn’t working, one thing to try is sticking it an enclosed space so “the characters are up in each other’s physicality” and such is our beautiful game: a chaotic, hilarious gumbo of bodies controlled by brains that are fickle, stressed and distractible, having been socialised into the fanatical pursuit of an arbitrary aim to which has been ascribed inherent moral value.

Many of the most preposterous events I’ve seen in my life have been football-related: consider John Terry arranging for himself to take a Champions League-winning penalty and adjusting his captain’s armband en route, then slipping and crying, or Steven Gerrard coming on for his last appearance against Manchester United after spending the entirety of the first half being wound up by the away end, then getting himself sent off 38 seconds later. For balance, I was also at the Stadium of Light on the last day of 2011-12, but we all have our own favourites: those moments when players, asked to process footballing obsession multiplied by the human condition, simply cannot.

From thunderbolts to delicate dinks, chips and flicks, via team goals and more – enjoy our pick of 2024’s best goals

Here’s a sublime wallop from just inside his own half by Heracles’ Mario Engels against Ajax on 21 October. Unfortunately his side let their lead slip and lost 4-3.

In Germany Fanprojekte play a crucial social-work role with football fans but a court case in Karlsruhe is threatening their existence

In a section of woodland next to Wildparkstadion, this winter’s festivities are in full swing. It is a cold, crackling December day and Karlsruhe’s ultras have set up their version of a Christmas market. Warm glühwein may be the best bet in conditions such as these but one of their number has also brought a portable outpost of the brewery that he runs.

Further along, children are served pancakes; anyone needing to augment their colours before the match against second-tier promotion rivals Hamburg can buy scarves or hats. The game is important but the proceeds from these stalls, which will go to local organisations supporting refugees, will outlive any football result.

On Sunday, aged 39, Sevilla’s Jesús Navas brings down the curtain on Spanish football’s most glittering career

A little after 9am in Montequinto, Seville, and Jesús Navas walks past the Jesús Navas Stadium and up the little slope in the sunshine, gym to the left, training pitch to the right. The first to arrive and he’s moving OK this morning, which isn’t something he can say every day, but still he comes. Soon, too soon, he won’t. “It’s my life,” he says, “what I’ve always done, who I am.” The stand bearing his name wasn’t here when he first turned up, a quarter of a century ago. Most of this wasn’t; the trophies at the Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán, three miles north, certainly weren’t. Everything changes, except him. “I’m the same as the first day,” he says.

That day, Navas was 15, a small, skinny, shy boy from Los Palacios, 15 minutes south. It was 2000 and he has been coming almost every morning since, apart from four seasons in Manchester which he enjoyed more even than you might imagine. He is still small, slight: 5ft 7in and 67kg. Still quiet, too: warm company, but not a man with any desire for the spotlight, any delusions of grandeur. Only he is the grandest footballer of all here at Sevilla Fútbol Club.

The plan for more games between bigger clubs is dull and loses context while making a few people rich

A few years back I walked out of my front door very early in the morning to go to work and watched sleepily as a large car endlessly reversed, went forward, reversed, then went forward, trying to escape a wrong turn down the driveway.

It was an engrossing spectacle: urgently and skilfully done, but also expressive of some kind of epic, cinematic impatience. Eventually I went to squeeze past. At which point a striking image loomed against the steamed-up window: a face, instantly recognisable as belonging to the celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, shouting what was clearly the word “Fuck”, caught in the glow of the streetlights at 5.30am in the privacy of his own car.

From Franco Mastantuono to Estêvão, we select some of the most talented players born in 2007. Check the progress of our classes of 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 … and look at the editions from further back

We pick the best youngsters at each club born between 1 September 2007 and 31 August 2008, an age band known as first-year scholars. Check the progress of our classes of 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 … and look at the editions from further back

From Warren Zaïre-Emery to Endrick, we select some of the best players born in 2006. Check the progress of our classes of 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018

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