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Real Madrid and Manchester United put their faith in familiarity but the lesson of Ferguson is dynastic greatness rests not in tradition but ditching principles

“It is all too easy to make mistaken inferences unless the process involved is already very well understood.” Francis Crick, molecular biologist

“This club is about winning, winning and winning again. It’s in our DNA.” Álvaro Arbeloa

• Unlicensed betting has surged over the last four years

• Gambling Commission accused of underestimating issue

The number of illegal streams of sports events in Britain has more than doubled to 3.6bn in the past three years according to a new report, which provides a stark illustration of the challenge facing broadcasters and leagues in combating piracy.

The Campaign for Fairer Gambling’s national 2024-25 report also highlights that there is a symbiotic relationship between sports piracy and unlicensed gambling, with 89% of illegal streams in this country featuring adverts for black-market bookmakers.

Today’s rumours are air-tight

David Moyes is a keen admirer of massive centre-forwards, so it should not come as a surprise that Everton want to bring in all 6ft 2in of Youssef En-Nesyri from Fenerbahce. An initial loan offer, with a £20m option, is on the table for the Moroccan, leaving a decision to made in Istanbul. There is a chance Callum Wilson could swap West Ham for Merseyside to join up with Moyes, too.

Nottingham Forest are also interested in En-Nesyri but their main striking target is Olympiakos’ veteran forward, Mehdi Taremi. Sean Dyche was hoping for a quiet month but needs must and that could include sending Oleksandr Zinchenko back to Arsenal after a very forgettable loan spell at the City Ground.

It’s damning that Chelsea, despite spending vast sums on their squad, are still reliant on such a skittish goalkeeper

Martín Zubimendi had as much time as he wanted against the team forever building for tomorrow. Taking a flick from Viktor Gyökeres in his stride, the Arsenal midfielder danced into the area, weighed up whether to shoot and thought better of it. Instead there was a sauntering move away from Andrey Santos, a feint to throw Wesley Fofana and then, only when Zubimendi had decided he was ready, was there the calm to beat Robert Sánchez and leave Chelsea with a mountain to climb in this Carabao Cup semi-final.

It was swaggering from Zubimendi. In that moment it was Arsenal demonstrating why they are so far ahead of this occasionally thrilling but often baffling Chelsea side, who have faint hope of a turnaround after battling to a defeat that was 3-2 going on 4-0. Mikel Arteta’s side had, after all, done the dirty stuff. The first goal came from a corner, the second from Sánchez’s error, but the third was different. It was silky from Arsenal, the ball pinging between Mikel Merino and Gyökeres before Zubimendi applied the graceful finishing touch, and a reminder that they are top of the Premier League because they perform both sides of the game.

• Last 16: Albacete 3-2 Real Madrid

• Stoppage-time winner secures huge upset

For 20 minutes of Álvaro Arbeloa’s debut as manager of Real Madrid, the fog came down and no one could see any football. For the other 70, they couldn’t either. Not from his team, at least. From Albacete Balompié, 17th in the second division, they witnessed something magical. An outrageous goal scored with single second to go was the perfect end to the greatest story they ever told, history made. When the final whistle went, Madrid headed straight down the tunnel, defeated again, while the party began in the Carlos Belmonte.

Arbeloa had said he wanted to see Vinícius Júnior dance; instead, it was Albacete’s fans who would, long into the night of their lives. This could not have been any better; at Madrid, things can always get worse, the crisis deepening. Careful what you wish for and all that. “At this club every defeat is a tragedy, so imagine one like this,” Arbeloa said. “Failure is the road to success,” Madrid’s new manager added, insisting he was not afraid, that he had suffered eliminations even worse, but this had hurt.

Morocco advanced to the Africa Cup of Nations final on penalties, beating Nigeria 4-2 in the final shootout after their semi-final ended goalless after extra time.

Yassine Bounou saved two spot kicks for the tournament hosts, keeping out Samuel Chukwueze and Bruno Onyemaechi’s efforts. Nigeria keeper Stanley Nwabali denied Hamza Igamane with the first save of the shootout, but it proved to be in vain.

Some day, perhaps, Mohamed Salah will get the better of Sadio Mané in a major game, but not on Wednesday, not in the Africa Cup of Nations semi-final.

When Senegal beat Egypt in a shootout in the 2021 Afcon final, Mané scored the winning penalty before Salah had the chance to take his. In the shootout in the qualifying playoff for the 2022 World Cup, Salah missed his effort and Mané scored the winning penalty.

• Inter 1-0 Lecce, Cologne 1-3 Bayern Munich

• Ajax thrashed 6-0 by AZ Alkmaar in Dutch Cup

Francesco Pio Esposito was the hero for Inter, the substitute’s 78th-minute goal earning a 1-0 home win over lowly Lecce to boost their title hopes.

The Serie A leaders laboured against stubborn opposition before Esposito scored from a rebound with 12 minutes remaining. Inter move six points clear of Milan and Napoli with victory in what could be a major turning point in this season’s title race.

• Midfielder signs long-term deal after move from Atlético

• Thomas Frank: ‘Conor will bring leadership and maturity’

Conor Gallagher has pledged to bring “special moments” to Tottenham after completing a £34.6m transfer from Atlético Madrid. Spurs moved quickly for a midfielder they have long admired after losing Rodrigo Bentancur to a hamstring injury at Bournemouth last Wednesday, beating off competition from Aston Villa. Bentancur has since undergone surgery.

Tottenham looked at Gallagher at the end of the 2023-24 season only for him to go from Chelsea to Atlético for £34m. Before the Premier League game between Chelsea and Spurs in May 2024 at Stamford Bridge, the home fans unfurled a banner of Gallagher. “Chelsea since birth,” read the caption about their academy product. The subtext was clear: do not sell him to Tottenham.

For Mehdi Taremi and others playing abroad, showing solidarity with their home nation can mean threats and possible detention

Mehdi Taremi did what he does best. On Saturday, the Iranian striker turned inside the area and scored for Olympiakos, a well-taken eighth goal of the season for the 33-year-old that clinched a 2-0 win at Atromitos and a place at the top of the Greek Super League. Usually, millions of people in Iran follow every step of Taremi’s European career, one that took off with Porto and has settled in Piraeus via Milan, but not this time.

The ruling regime in Tehran has cut the internet and all communications, which meant that residents of the football‑loving nation also missed the non‑celebration that followed. “It actually has to do with the conditions in my country,” Taremi said. “There are problems between the people and the government. The people are always with us, and that’s why we are with them. I couldn’t celebrate in solidarity with the Iranian people. I know that Olympiakos fans would like me to be happy, but I don’t celebrate the goals, in solidarity with what the Iranian people are going through.”

Uefa’s limitations have set hurdles for women keen to take the next step in coaching despite the increasing demand

Mariana Cabral has a coaching CV to be proud of. Born on the small Azores island of São Miguel, she has been in charge of the women’s teams at clubs including Benfica and Sporting, but the 38-year-old is frustrated. “We want more women coaches,” she says. “Who won the Euros? Who won the Champions League? Women – but we are losing so many.”

Cabral has her A licence but is stuck in limbo. Unable to get on a pro licence course that would clear a path to more senior head coach roles in an era when women’s teams are increasingly demanding that qualification, she stepped back to become a No 2 in the US. But after one National Women’s Soccer League season with Utah Royals, she left in December in the hope that expanding her experience at another club would help to open a pro licence door.

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, NWSL, Liga F, Frauen-Bundesliga, Première Ligue and Serie A Femminile as well as a club-by-club guide

• Men’s transfer interactive – all the January deals

Today’s tell-all has got its ducks in a row

Liam Rosenior has been Chelsea manager for a whole week without making a signing. That is bound to be remedied soon enough, and one name that has been bandied about is that of Lucas Paquetá. The Brazilian midfielder is set to leave West Ham in this transfer window and has said he wants to leave the Premier League and join Flamengo because of his disillusionment with how he was treated over the spot-fixing allegations of which he was cleared. But the Brazilian journalist Renan Moura reports that people around Paquetá want to persuade him to stay in Europe, and Chelsea could move for him.

The future of Marc Guéhi was always likely to be one of the main plotlines of this transfer window, with original suitors Liverpool tussling with Manchester City over the defender’s services as he enters the last six months of his Crystal Palace contract. Arsenal have also shown interest but now entering stage left are Bayern Munich, whose sporting director, Max Erbl, has been having cosy chats with Guéhi’s agent at the Bundesliga champions’ training ground, according to Sky Italia.

• USA mainstay in move from Portland Thorns

• ‘I couldn’t be more ready and happy about everything’

Manchester City have signed the USA midfielder Sam Coffey on a three-and-a-half-year deal.

The 27-year-old won gold at the Paris 2024 Olympics and has accrued 42 caps and scored five goals for the USA, becoming a key part of Emma Hayes’ national team. After graduating she joined Portland Thorns and lifted the 2022 NWSL Championship in her debut season.

A January camp for domestic players allows Jesse Marsch to boost a development system that will outlast his tenure

Men have stood broken on her piers. It can be a desolate place, too, especially in winter, which is of course when the lobster boats do the bulk of their fishing. But the weather had improved by the time Canadian men’s national team head coach Jesse Marsch ferried his squad from around the world to Halifax, Nova Scotia, for a training camp ahead of last summer’s Gold Cup. It was the first time the men’s national team had visited the province.

But it was not Marsch’s first time in town, having previously kicked off a cross-country coaching clinic – a whirlwind tour meant to share with local soccer communities what he’d done with the national team at Copa América in 2024 – at a local hotel and convention centre. He’d promised, and pitched a vision, to make the national team truly national in a way no coach had before him. And he was delivering, having also made similar coaching stops in Québec City, Saskatoon and Calgary.

• Sydney-born striker heads equaliser in Coppa Italia tie

• Teenager comes off bench to level score before Torino hit late winner

Australian football has a dazzling new star to follow, with teenager Antonio Arena making a stunning – and immediate – impact for Italian side Roma.

The 16-year-old was brought off the bench to make his club debut in the 80th minute of Roma’s Italian Cup clash against Torino, and scored with his first touch for the Serie A side.

Coroner’s court hears how Ollie Long, 36, became ensnared in debt after using offshore operators run by ‘international criminal networks’

A football fan took his own life after his love of the sport fuelled a gambling addiction that led him to bet with illegal offshore operators that “prey on” vulnerable people, a coroner has heard.

Ollie Long, from Wendover in Buckinghamshire, died in February 2024, aged 36, after struggling with his addiction for eight years.

The scoreline was far more convincing than Liverpool’s performance against League One opposition. Barnsley made Arne Slot’s side battle for the right to host Brighton in round four while their head coach, Conor Hourihane, accused Dominik Szoboszlai of disrespect for gifting his team a goal while showboating. Slot appeared inclined to agree.

Liverpool were grateful for a late Florian Wirtz-inspired flourish for an ultimately comfortable margin of victory and banishing any anxieties. But this had been another slog against a low defensive block until the expensive substitute swept home a fine third goal and created a stoppage‑time fourth for Hugo Ekitiké. There was no more relieved man inside Anfield than Szoboszlai.

Ousmane Dembélé becomes our seventh winner as he beats Lamine Yamal into second and Vitinha into third on our list of the best players on the planet

• Premier League dominates list | How every judge voted | Our methodology | The top 100 female players for 2025

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The Frenchman, who has been named the best male footballer in the world by the Guardian, has benefitted from PSG’s focus on the team rather than individuals

What makes a good player great, and a great player the best? This question has been occupying me since 2014, when the Guardian first asked me to contribute to its inaugural Next Generation feature. My job was to look for a France-based talent born in 1997 who could go on to have a stellar career.

After a great deal of research, I narrowed it down from my shortlist of five by asking questions not about the players’ football ability, but about other attributes: resilience, adaptability, decision-making, creativity, work ethic, response to feedback and willingness to learn. Qualities we cannot see, and are harder to measure.

Aitana Bonmatí has been voted the best female player on the planet by our panel of 127 experts ahead of Mariona Caldentey and Alessia Russo

• 2024 list | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018

• Meet the judges | See how every judge voted

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The margin may have got smaller but the brilliant Spanish midfielder makes it a hat-trick of No 1 finishes

They say the best things come in threes, and Aitana Bonmatí has written herself into the Guardian’s top 100 history as the first player to finish at the top of the tree for a third consecutive year.

Last year the majestic midfielder emulated her Barcelona and Spain teammate Alexia Putellas by winning for a second year running, but the 27-year-old has now gone one better, establishing herself once again at the top of the women’s game.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Wilson and Osasu Obayiuwana as the Africa Cup of Nations reaches its last four.

On today’s pod: it’s an Afcon special as the final four are decided. Hosts Morocco look increasingly like favourites after seeing off Cameroon; the panel asks whether Brahim Díaz’s remarkable form is a surprise, and questions how far long-term investment has taken them. Nigeria, meanwhile, remain perfect so far as they brush aside Algeria to set up a heavyweight semi-final clash.

Elsewhere, the panel discusses Egypt's chances as Mohamed Salah looks to enter African football folklore by winning the tournament, after Egypt beat Côte d’Ivoire. The panel ask if Senegal overthink their midfield after they squeezed through against Mali to tee up another chapter in the Salah v Mané rivalry.

Plus, a wider look at CAF’s decision to move Afcon back to a four-year cycle, the impact of winter scheduling, infrastructure in Morocco before the 2030 World Cup, and more

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In terms of cold, hard silverware, domestic cups might be as good as it gets after Carabao Cup semi-final first-leg loss

There is nothing quite like the first time. Or the first time in living memory, at least. Of all the strides taken by Newcastle since the Saudi takeover in 2021, the Carabao Cup will always be the stop on the road sprinkled with the most magic. Champions League football is more than nice, the return of adventure to following this club appreciated as much as the swelling of the club coffers, in these days when every fan at every club feels like a de facto bean counter as well as a cheerleader.

But after those 56 years without a trophy, how could it be any other way? When Eddie Howe’s team finally broke that desperate drought on 16 March last year, it was a lifetime highlight for all different generations.

Plus: high-ranking nations where Ballon d’Or winners have never played and an own-goal scoring hat-trick hero

• Mail us with your questions and answers

“Last month, Lazio scored a late winner (in the 82nd minute) against Parma despite having two players sent off earlier in the game,” writes Bogdan Kotarlic. “I wonder if any team has scored a goal (or maybe more) with eight players and with three players receiving red cards before that?”

There’s only one place to start: Boghead Park, Dumbarton. “In August 1991, Premier Division Airdrieonians played Dumbarton in the Scottish League Cup,” writes Bill Hall. “What looked like an innocuous tie was anything but - especially for Dumbarton’s Colin McNair, Stephen Gow and Jimmy Gilmour, who were shown red cards in what must have been a bad-tempered affair (I was there but it was 34 years ago, and I was in the pub beforehand, so memories are a bit vague).

In a weekend where most favourites triumphed, Paris FC beating the holders was a welcome win for the underdogs

By Get French Football News

This year’s Coupe de France was in need of a spark and Paris FC were on hand to provide it. Their league match against Paris Saint-Germain last weekend – the first derby between the clubs in 43 years – was somewhat anticlimactic. The rivalry between is tepid, bordering on amicable, and the difference in quality was stark as PSG ran out fairly comfortable 2-1 winners. Stéphane Gilli’s men are a long way off challenging the reigning European champions over a full season but, on Monday night, that was irrelevant. Paris FC returned to the Parc des Princes and won 1-0, progressing to the last 16 of the Coupe de France at their neighbour’s expense.

It was a derby once again lacking in derby feel. Jonathan Ikoné scored the winner but did not celebrate against the club from whose academy he graduated. Luis Enrique even wished Paris FC “all the best for the rest of the competition” after the match – all very cordial. The PSG manager was left ruing his side’s wastefulness as he succumbed to his first defeat in the competition since arriving in France in 2023. As far as the cup is concerned, though, PSG’s slip-up was a welcome one.

Hired as a systems coach, the manager was undermined at a club where players – and Florentino Pérez – call the shots

Pep Guardiola sat in the press room at the Santiago Bernabéu and told Xabi Alonso to do it his way but around here, he knows, it tends not to work out like that, which is precisely why he said so. Saying it is one thing, doing it another, doing it successfully something else entirely and a month and day after being offered that advice, handed that defence, Alonso was gone. On Monday afternoon, not long after landing from Saudi Arabia, a meeting was held at Valdebebas and then came the statement, short and unsentimental. He was a “legend” as a player, but no longer coach at Real Madrid.

Alonso is the 11th manager to last less than a year in two decades under the president, Florentino Pérez. He had begun work only seven months before, and that was earlier than he intended. It had started with the Club World Cup in the US, his first big decision to accept the demand to take over sooner than he wanted, and it ended with the Spanish Super Cup in Jeddah, where it was an open secret that final judgment awaited. For a month it had been impossible to avoid the feeling of a manager on borrowed time, especially for the manager himself, exposed and undermined, and you cannot go on like that. There will be hurt pride, regret, but release too.

Club furious after being sanctioned for paperwork error regarding Canada international Florianne Jourde

Paris Saint-Germain have lost only one league game all season yet are still only fifth in the Première Ligue. How is that possible?

On Monday 22 December, just after the final league game of 2025, the French Football Federation issued a bombshell statement: three of PSG’s wins this season had been turned into defeats (0-3) because of a licensing issue regarding the Canada international Florianne Jourde.

Former England midfielder needs to avoid the same pitfalls as Ruben Amorim, but he showed a dogmatic streak at Boro

In many ways Michael Carrick is the antithesis of Ruben Amorim but Manchester United’s soon-to-be-appointed interim head coach does have something significant in common with his Portuguese predecessor.

Like Amorim, Carrick has proved remarkably resistant to tactical change. So much so that at Middlesbrough the former United and England midfielder’s determination not to compromise a philosophy constructed around a patient, possession-heavy passing game arguably cost him his job.

• ‘Leaving the club had nothing to do with football,’ says Australian

• ‘Extremely disappointed’ club rejects allegations of homophobia

Josh Cavallo has accused his former A-League club Adelaide United of homophobia and blocking him from playing after he came out as gay in 2021.

The 26-year-old left the Reds last year and moved from Australia to England where he now plays non-league football. He signed with Stamford AFC in the Southern League Premier Division Central last month.

• Qatar has no Fifa women’s ranking after lack of games

• January tournament will disrupt domestic seasons

Qatar is in talks with Fifa about staging the inaugural Women’s Club World Cup, which is in line to cause major disruption to domestic seasons in 2027-28, including in Europe.

Fifa announced last month that its latest new club competition would take place from 5 to 30 January 2028, but the governing body has not said where it will be held or whether it will run a formal bidding process.

For Barcelona’s Uruguayan defender, the 3-2 victory over Real Madrid in the Super Cup wasn’t just about the title

Not many people saw the exact moment Ronald Araújo lifted the Super Cup to the sky and a weight from his mind but the men that matter most did: they were right there, standing by him. They had welcomed him back, 47 days later and in a final, lifted him up towards the light, and handed him the captain’s armband. Now, after they had beaten Real Madrid 3-2 together in Jeddah, they handed him the captain’s responsibility and a captain’s honour, inviting him to raise the trophy for all of them. Which was when someone walked in front of the camera, went whoops and walked back again.

By the time the shadow left the screen, Araújo was holding with the cup over his head, teammates roaring around him, and the Real Madrid players who stayed to watch had turned down the tunnel. They had been close to trading places. In a final of sudden storms – three clear chances and a goal in 2min 54sec after half an hour, three goals in 3min 33sec of first half added time, three golden opportunities saved in 10 second-half minutes – theirs had been the last. Some 134 seconds passed between Marcus Rashford smashing wide and two glimpses of salvation appearing before Madrid but they couldn’t grasp either, on 95.04 and 96.42. So Barcelona had the first trophy of the season.

Celtic’s firing of the Frenchman brings back memories for two US coaches who faced similar struggles

Bob Bradley has never seen Ted Lasso, the TV show set around an American college football coach who finds himself leading a soccer team in England.

“Everybody tells me that I should watch it but I have not,” Bradley said from his home in New Jersey, almost nine years on from his experience. “I lived that a little bit, so I’m not ready to watch it yet.”

We can relate to the struggles their club has experienced in recent years so can only wish them well in the FA Cup

By The Football Mine

“And that is the last kick of the match. One of the greatest FA Cup giantkillings has happened here in the sunshine at the Moss Rose. The holders, Crystal Palace, have been knocked out. What a turnaround of fortunes for Crystal Palace: winners at Wembley in May, losers in Macclesfield in January.” John Murray, speaking on BBC radio, provided the epitaph to Palace’s dismal, desperate defeat by a mid-table team from the National League North.

As everyone now knows, the gap of 117 places in the football pyramid is the largest ever to be overcome by a lower-placed club in 155 years of the oldest competition in the football world. The fact that the last kick was propelled into the sky by the Silkmen’s captain Paul Dawson was apposite. Dawson had set the tone from the outset. Within 10 seconds of kick-off he had put in the first of countless robust challenges, which ended up with him and Palace centre-back Jaydee Canvot requiring treatment after an accidental clash of heads.

Football has to be held to account: we cannot have another generation of qualified black coaches being ignored

Football’s start to 2026 has been seismic, with the festive season soon replaced by sacking season. At times this week it has been hard to keep up. The lifetime of a head coach or a manager seems to be getting shorter, with pressure for positive results apparently never greater.

In among the churn came a landmark moment, with Liam Rosenior taking on the head coach role at Chelsea, making him the first permanent black English manager at a big-six club.

Bournemouth will find it hard to replace a player at the peak of his powers, an attacker polished up perfectly for the elite

Antoine Semenyo’s rise is a reminder the big clubs’ scouting systems are not infallible, that not all players will flower at the same time. Fulham, Arsenal, Crystal Palace, Millwall, Reading and Tottenham rejected the schoolboy Semenyo. At 15, he took a year’s absence from the game.

A decade on, a circuitous route to the top alights at Manchester City, who beat a queue of big hitters to his signature. Bournemouth’s ability to find talent the elite passed over continues to prove profitable. Pep Guardiola’s squad has another player who pairs physical power with a high skill level. It also adds a long-throw specialist to the armoury; City are towards the bottom of the metrics in that voguish category.

Our cartoonist looks back on a glorious day for the non-league side as they knocked out the FA Cup holders

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League One club offered behind-the-scenes access for FA Cup tie and manager Gary Caldwell will not let crushing loss at Manchester City define them

“The team to win today, lads” begins Gary Caldwell. Exeter City are two hours from kicking off against Manchester City in the FA Cup third round, and their manager is addressing his players at a hotel shortly before they travel to the Etihad.

“You know why I said that?” he continues, his thick Scottish accent filling the room. No one knows. He explains the phrase is borrowed from Roberto Martínez, under whom Caldwell won the competition with Wigan in 2013. It was used to bring humour and break tension when his team were inevitably written off.

Why is the film of Ireland’s 2002 World Cup falling-out not a documentary but a drama that takes liberties with events?

All history is to some extent narrative. You cannot tell a story without in some way editing it, reducing it, compressing it. Which means that anybody telling a story about a historical event, particularly one from the relatively recent past, risks outraging those who have studied it or who remember it. Often those complaints are pedantic, trivial, but sometimes they are not. It’s one thing to elide two minor characters or to tweak the timeline to simplify a story, quite another to imply misleading motivations.

Saipan, Glenn Leyburn’s and Lisa Barros D’Sa’s film about the cataclysmic row between Roy Keane and Mick McCarthy shortly before the 2002 World Cup, came out in Ireland on Boxing Day and will be released in the UK on 23 January. It is obsessed by detail: the tracksuits, the sweatshirts, the kits are all right. It’s startling when the film cuts between reproductions of interviews and press conferences and actual footage to realise just how accurately these scenes have been recreated. Which raises two questions. What is the point? And how can such care have been taken over the look of the film when there are such grotesque inventions and inaccuracies in the plotting and motivation?

Tottenham totem shone under Bill Nicholson’s tough love, inspiring League and Uefa Cup triumphs, but struggled with the stresses of fame

The Martin Chivers route from record signing to Tottenham legend was anything but simple. White Hart Lane needed time to learn to love him and Bill Nicholson, who paid Southampton £125,000 in 1968, never understood either the player or the man until years later. Yet it says everything for the curative power of time that the pair walked out arm-in-arm when it came to Nicholson’s second testimonial against Fiorentina in 2001.

Chivers arrived at Spurs with a headline-grabbing century-plus goals for Southampton. Initially he appeared weighed-down by the fee and the expectation. This was a time when English football was only slowly coming to terms with a “new football” which was abandoning the archetypal battering-ram centre-forward expected to be toe-to-toe with an equally robust centre-half. Chivers stood 1.85 metres (6ft 1in) yet a firm touch and game intelligence enhanced a deceptive physical strength and eventually contributed to his “Rolls-Royce” aura.

England defender publicly confronted racist abuse at the Euros and ended 2025 a title winner with club and country

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.

Jess Carter has spent her life grappling with when to hold back and when to speak up; wrestling with being naturally herself, embodying the characteristics her parents instilled in her of being open, honest, vocal and confident, and subduing herself because, while society values those traits, in a black woman they can be viewed negatively.

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Having started this season at Real Madrid with 13 wins from his first 14 games, Xabi Alonso could be forgiven for thinking he was on to a good thing in his new role of Kindergarten Cop, tasked with instilling discipline among the spoilt and unruly brats in his care. While this excellent run was punctuated by a tonking at the hands of Atlético and a diva strop thrown by Vinícius Júnior, Alonso seemed to have pulled off the unthinkable by introducing something approaching a work ethic into a group of players who had previously been powered on ego and vibes. It wasn’t until November that the passengers on board the Madrid wagon began to unscrew the wheels, when a series of poor results led to revelations that all was not well in the camp. Leaks suggested the squad was split between the few players who were entirely sold on the 43-year-old’s ethos and the apparent vast majority who took exception to this José Come-Lately’s tyrannical demands that they turn up on time, run around a bit and occasionally sit through boring tactical presentations that lasted longer than a FaceSpace Snap.

The suggestion that Manchester United hve taken/should take advice from Seinfeld [yesterday’s Football Daily] got me thinking. There was an episode about a competition during which, um, refraining from certain personal activities led to a temporary increase in intelligence (note: for male participants only!). As I recall, one of the outcomes was that George Costanza became fluent in Portuguese. Does this explain why the United board hired Messrs Mourinho and Amorim and signed Cristiano Ronaldo in recent years? And, does the hiring of Mr Carrick signal the, um, the end of the competition?” – Mike Wilner.

Following Dan Westacott’s letter about JR (yesterday’s letters), surely a growing number of Manchester United’s fans are praying that they will wake up back in 2013, where Sir Alex Ferguson will be getting out of the shower one morning, preparing himself for a press conference when he will announce that he isn’t actually retiring” – Simon Dunsby.

Not only did Dan get a letter published with a joke from 40 years ago, but he won letter of the day! And you didn’t even have to look it up! Oh, wait …” – Z Snook.

Seriously guys? Only two options and you gave letter of the day to the writer not called Gumley Slats!?!” – Adam Sherlock.

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The Africa Cup of Nations has been a brilliant display for a continent carrying no doubt about quality on the pitch

More than any other continental tournament, there is always a sense with the Africa Cup of Nations that it is a referendum on the continent’s football generally. Perhaps it’s because so many of the players are familiar to those who habitually watch the European leagues or the Champions League, but the question is less about individual quality of players – that is a given – than it is about organisation and structures. Somewhere in the background, perhaps, lurks Pelé’s notorious prediction, made in 1977, that an African team would win the World Cup by the end of the 20th century. Is a World Cup win for Africa any closer than it was half a century ago?

In Morocco at this year’s edition of the tournament, there has been an extra element: the country’s status as World Cup co-hosts with Spain and Portugal in 2030. What are facilities like? Is the infrastructure there? This question is readily answered: in terms of stadiums, pitches and hotels, Morocco is already well on the way to being able to stage the World Cup. All six cities hosting games at this Cup of Nations are candidates for 2030.

‘She has everything to be a world-class striker – fast, two great feet, good with the head and strong,’ says the coach who set the forward’s career rolling

Since they were promoted to the Women’s Super League in 2019, no Manchester United player has managed to score more than 10 league goals in a single season. In Lea Schüller they have signed someone who has surpassed that mark seven seasons in a row in Germany’s Frauen Bundesliga, so it is easy to understand why United are so enamoured with their new striker.

With a formidable 54 goals in 82 internationals, the Germany forward arrives at Carrington with a prolific record and the match-winner profile the club have been craving. At 28 years old she could spend the best years of her career at United, where she has signed a contract until June 2029.

Once they seemed an unstoppable force but a huge gap between the Nordic leagues and Europe’s elite has emerged in the past 20 years

For a brief period in the early 2000s, Scandinavian clubs seemed unstoppable in European women’s football. Umeå lifted the Uefa Women’s Cup in 2003 and again in 2004, using a blend of technical skill and tactical intelligence. The Swedish side were a powerhouse and attracted top talent from around the world, including Marta, widely regarded as the greatest ever female player.

That dominance feels very distant. In 2025, a Norwegian, Swedish or Danish club winning the Women’s Champions League is almost unthinkable. Vålerenga were the only Scandinavian team to reach the Champions League league stage this season and they did not qualify for the knockout phase.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Wilson and Osasu Obayiuwana as the Africa Cup of Nations reaches its last four

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On today’s pod: it’s an Afcon special as the final four are decided. Hosts Morocco look increasingly like favourites after seeing off Cameroon; the panel asks whether Brahim Díaz’s remarkable form is a surprise, and questions how far long-term investment has taken them. Nigeria, meanwhile, remain perfect so far as they brush aside Algeria to set up a heavyweight semi-final clash.

Elsewhere, the panel discusses Egypt's chances as Mohamed Salah looks to enter African football folklore by winning the tournament, after Egypt beat Côte d’Ivoire. The panel ask if Senegal overthink their midfield after they squeezed through against Mali to tee up another chapter in the Salah v Mané rivalry.

Earring-gate prevents Estelle Cascarino from making her West Ham debut while City continue to lead the pack

The sight of coaches issuing a tactical team talk while their goalkeeper receives medical treatment has become increasingly common in the WSL but it became particularly controversial after the goalless draw between Arsenal and Manchester United, especially when the visiting defender Dominique Janssen appeared to admit in an interview with Sky Sports that they had orchestrated it on purpose. Janssen said: “Phallon [Tullis-Joyce] went down for us to discuss tactical changes,” when asked about how United adapted to going down to 10 players. Marc Skinner later said that Tullis-Joyce had felt something and needed treatment, but Renée Slegers said perceived time-wasting was “frustrating for the players”, adding: “There’s so many people investing so much to come and watch us, in the stadium, on TV. I think the product needs to be attractive and I think this is probably one of the areas that brings the entertainment down a little bit.” Tom Garry

Match report: Arsenal 0-0 Manchester United

Match report: Chelsea 5-0 West Ham

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, John Brewin and Sam Dalling as sixth-tier Macclesfield FC beat the holders Palace

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On the podcast today: what a moment for Macclesfield. The club were out of existence six years ago and have now beaten Crystal Palace, the holders, to book their place in the fourth round.

From PSG’s Ibrahim Mbaye to Brazil’s next hope, we select some of the most talented players born in 2008. Check the progress of our classes of 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 … and go even further back. Here’s our Premier League class of 2025