The former world No 1 shares how a traumatic year has shaped him as a darts player and a father and insists he can recapture his glory days at the world championship

“I can be a miserable bastard sometimes,� Michael van Gerwen says with a grin and a shrug as he tries to explain his new burst of optimism after a horribly testing year. “But I can also be quite positive. If you asked me this question a month ago, and we did this interview then, you would find me a bit different to today. But I feel good now even if, 100%, this has been a very tough year for me both on and off the oche.�

Rather than being miserable, the 36-year-old is amiable company – which seems remarkable as in 2025 he has been through a divorce after 17 years with his wife, Daphne, witnessed the devastating effect of cancer on his father, endured intense scrutiny in the Dutch media, and struggled to regain his once imperious form with the arrows.

McLaren were the obvious choice for team of the year but Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari were a big disappointment while Williams exceeded expectations

Lando Norris had gone into the season as favourite and he emerged on top after a gruelling contest. Securing his maiden world drivers’ title was no easy feat given how hard he had been pushed by his McLaren teammate, Oscar Piastri, and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. Closing it out was testament to a driver who maintained his nerve and confidence even as at times it seemed the title had slipped from his reach.

The Australian is pragmatic about his chances of winning a major in the Alcaraz-Sinner era but knows he plays his best tennis when he doesn’t put pressure on himself

It’s hard to think of anyone in tennis who works harder than Alex de Minaur, the Australian who next month will once again carry the hopes of a nation as he tries to become the first home winner of the men’s title at the Australian Open for 50 years. No one is faster around the court, no one more diligent off it than the 26-year-old. It’s a work ethic that has helped him to 10 titles so far in his career and he ends 2025 as the world No 7, his highest year-end ranking, and having won the prestigious Newcombe medal for a fourth time.

But in a sport where success at the very top level is ultimately judged by performances at grand slams, De Minaur has so far fallen short. He has made the quarter-finals of a major six times – including five of the past eight – but with Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner having split the last eight majors, opportunities are scarce.

Champ club have a plan to reach the top flight and hope investors will recognise their untapped potential

It is too early to declare it the feelgood British sports story of the decade. There remains much work to do and a lot more money to raise. But to be in the tented clubhouse at the Mennaye Field in Penzance is to feel a flicker of something genuinely interesting. While the flame may be faint, the dream of a top-level Cornwall-based professional rugby team is still alive.

Regular readers may recall embarking down this coastal path before. The Cornish Pirates’ longtime owner Dicky Evans, now Sir Richard, had hoped to move the club to a brand new Stadium for Cornwall near Truro, only for withdrawn government funding and local council politics to intervene. In March 2022 Evans, who turned 80 last month and is battling Parkinson’s, announced a three-year “sunset plan�, at the end of which his majority financial backing would cease.

Our cartoonist on the trouble at Anfield after Egyptian’s stinging response to being dropped by Arne Slot

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• And his latest book, Chaos in the Box: get it now

This year’s London Marathon winner deserves credit for offering more than enough proof he is clean while setting a new standard for other athletes to follow

Last week the world’s best marathon runner, Sabastian Sawe, looked me straight in the eye and told me “doping is a cancer�. Then he insisted he was clean. You hear such oaths and affirmations all the time. But, uniquely, Sawe recently backed up those words by asking the Athletics Integrity Unit to test him as much as possible.

You see, Sawe believed he could break the world record in Berlin in September. And he also understood that Kenya’s abysmal doping record meant that success would be met with more raised eyebrows than a plastic surgeon’s clinic in Hollywood. So the call went into the AIU. Test me. Repeatedly. Throw everything at it. My sponsors, Adidas, will pick up the bill.

• Fast bowler says: ‘My knee just hasn’t held up’

• Matthew Fisher called up in buildup to Adelaide Test

The blows just keep coming for England in Australia. On Tuesday came confirmation that Mark Wood will miss the remainder of the Ashes tour because of a knee problem that resurfaced after the first Test defeat in Perth.

It represents a heartbreaking setback for Wood following a lengthy battle to be fit for a series that England now find themselves trailing 2-0. The 35-year-old underwent surgery on his left knee in March, sent down 11 overs in the series opener, only to then miss the eight-wicket loss in Brisbane.

The former England striker on stepping up to tackle racism, protecting his sons and Liverpool’s woes

Emile Heskey was about 14 years old when he was chased from Leicester City’s old Filbert Street stadium all the way into town by a man shouting racist abuse. He was a Leicester fan who had no idea he was abusing a player who would go on to help his club win promotion to the Premier League and two League Cups before a move to Liverpool for what, at the time, was the club’s record transfer fee.

“Fast forward three years that same guy would’ve been chanting my name in the stadium,� Heskey says now. “This is our reality.�

• Philadelphia Eagles 19-22 Los Angeles Chargers (OT)

• Eagles quarterback throws four interceptions

• Super Bowl champions lose third game in succession

Cameron Dicker kicked a go-ahead 54-yard field goal – one of his five in the game – and Tony Jefferson intercepted Jalen Hurts in overtime at the one-yard line, lifting the Los Angeles Chargers to a 22-19 victory over the slumping Philadelphia Eagles.

Hurts also made some unwanted history in the game as he became the first player in NFL history to turn the ball over twice on the same play.

In an exclusive interview the younger Chawinga sister talks about missing her older sibling Tabitha, her hopes for Malawi and life at Kansas City Current

Kansas City Current’s Temwa Chawinga has doubled up as the NWSL’s top scorer and MVP for the second year in a row – just two years after Tabitha, her elder sister and mentor, was the Golden Boot winner with Internazionale in Italy’s Serie A Femminile. It is no exaggeration to describe the duo, from Malawi, as football’s equivalent of the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena.

“I hope Temwa and I get to meet them someday,� Tabitha says of the tennis legends. Now with French side OL Lyonnes, the 29-year-old insists that her younger sibling will have a more distinguished career despite setting an extremely high bar in the Swedish, Chinese and Italian leagues, in which Chawinga has won several Golden Boot and MVP awards.

Brendon McCullum’s regime may be unravelling but there is rarely any suggestion of what to do next and how the team can be improved

Overprepared. Overconfident. Overblown. Over there. And now just over. We know how this goes from here, don’t we? We know this cycle.

The days since England’s defeat in Brisbane have boiled down to a real-time competition to become the hate-click boss, to describe in the most sensual, eviscerating detail the depth of England’s badness – not just at cricket, but at the molecular, existential level.

Handing the Egyptian a contract extension while also bringing about a new identity has backfired terribly

• Sign up for Soccer with Jonathan Wilson here

There is perhaps nothing in a career as hard as the leaving of it. Unless something utterly remarkable happens, Mohamed Salah has played his last game for Liverpool. Left out of the starting lineup for each of the last three matches, he trained on Monday after his extraordinary post-match tirade following the 3-3 draw with Leeds but he has not been selected for the Champions League against Inter on Tuesday. He may or may not be with the team for Saturday’s game at Anfield against Brighton (“I don’t know if I am going to play or not but I am going to enjoy it,� he said). After that, he will be in Morocco for the Africa Cup of Nations with the Egypt national team and the transfer window will have opened by the time the tournament is over.

How has it come to this? Salah is one of Liverpool’s all-time greats. He lies behind only Ian Rush and Roger Hunt in their all-time goalscoring charts. Across all clubs, only Alan Shearer, Harry Kane and Wayne Rooney have scored more Premier League goals. He played a key role in two Premier League titles and a Champions League. He’s won the Premier League Golden Boot four times and been named player of the year three times by both his fellow players and soccer writers – including last year. He’s only 33 and there has been no obvious sign yet of him fading with age. This is not the end anybody would have wanted.

Our editors’ favourite sporting images from the past week, from the spectacular to the powerful, and with a little bit of fun thrown in

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• Austrian key to Vettel and Verstappen world title wins

• ‘Now is the right moment,’ says influential 82-year-old

Red Bull’s influential auto racing adviser Helmut Marko is retiring from his role at the age of 82, ending a 20-year stint in which he helped Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen develop into four-time Formula One world champions.

Marko’s departure leaves Red Bull without the two main guiding personalities from its 2005 entry into F1 after the team principal Christian Horner was ousted in July and replaced by Laurent Mekies.

• Paceman has struggled with hamstring and achilles issues

• ‘It’s really flat for him,’ says Australia coach Andrew McDonald

Australia “really feel for� Josh Hazlewood after confirmation the luckless bowler would miss the remainder of the Ashes with hamstring and achilles tendon injuries. Injuries have thwarted the right-arm quick in recent years and had forced him to watch from afar as Australia took a 2-0 series lead at the Gabba last week.

Hazlewood hurt his right hamstring playing for NSW in November but was expected to play some part in the Ashes until a fresh achilles issue clouded his availability last week. The injury prevented him from reuniting with the squad during the day-night Test in Brisbane as planned.

• Fly-half labels change a ‘backward step’ for sport

• ‘Unfortunately I think it’s changed how everybody plays’

The Gloucester fly-half Ross Byrne believes international head coaches could convert second-rows into wings for the next men’s Rugby World Cup in 2027 to capitalise on the crackdown on escort defenders.

Last October World Rugby instructed referees to scrutinise and punish defending teams obstructing opponents chasing high contestable kicks, a move that has had a profound tactical impact on the elite game.

• QB last played in NFL for Indianapolis in 2020

• Colts have suffered series of injuries to quarterbacks

• Team are on playoff bubble after three straight losses

The Indianapolis Colts, who have been ravaged by injuries to their quarterbacks, plan to work out 44-year-old Philip Rivers, according to multiple reports.

NFL Network reported that the Colts could sign Rivers – who last played in the 2020 season – to the practice squad. Since his retirement he has coached high school football. This season he led St Michael Catholic Cardinals in his native Alabama to the Class 4A state semi-finals.

• Seven-time world champion could not ‘wait to get away’

• First year without podium for Brit in Ferrari debut season

A despondent Lewis Hamilton said he could not wait to get away from Abu Dhabi after enduring what has been the worst season of his ­Formula One career. He finished in his lowest championship position of sixth place and is looking forward to the winter break and disconnecting from the sport as he attempts to reset and regroup.

In the final race of the season in he qualified in 16th place and finished in eighth, while the young British driver Lando Norris claimed his first world championship, the first Briton since Hamilton last did so in 2020.

The young Australian is a gifted driver racing in an exceptional car, but was prone to error this season and in 2026 will face new adversity

Tumbling from the Formula One precipice, ultimately Oscar Piastri was not the first Australian in 40 years to be crowned world champion. The man from Melbourne finished a narrow third in the driver standings this year behind his McLaren teammate Lando Norris and four-time champion Max Verstappen. Now, he is back to square one.

Midway through the season Piastri lead Norris by a comfortable 34 points and Verstappen by a chasm. But a run of six rounds without a podium left him on the outside looking in, and by the end at Abu Dhabi he finished 13 points behind his teammate.

Australia’s superior basics have shattered expectations and pushed the broader philosophy into the spotlight

Brendon McCullum hated the term Bazball from the moment it entered the lexicon, deeming it to be reductive and perhaps knowing how it might be weaponised down the line. Now, 2-0 down in an away Ashes series that began with high hopes, it has become the butt of Australian jokes.

But McCullum has not helped himself, either. After the gutting at the Gabba, his insistence that, if anything, England trained “too hard� before the day‑night match was like trying to put out a bin fire with petrol. It risks becoming his epitaph as England head coach if performances do not take an upturn.

The minimum bet rule model is there in Australia for all to see and the Gambling Commission should act now

Racing enjoyed its biggest win for many years in last month’s budget. The threatened harmonisation of duty rates for betting and gaming was not simply seen off, but routed, with the differential between the two rates significantly increased. As an added bonus, meanwhile, racing was excluded from the small rise in the duty rate for bets on football and other sporting events.

Having celebrated the win, though, the next step is to ensure that the benefits are maximised. And since, in relative terms, racing has just become a more attractive product for bookmakers, what better moment could there be to address one of the major obstacles that many punters face when they want to bet on the horses?

Kildunne is known for her startling speed and audacious tries, but there’s more to the talented full-back than rugby, from a passion for photography to a sideline in DIY tattooing

Ellie Kildunne says it’s not quite sunk in yet. A couple of months on from winning the Rugby Union World Cup with her England teammates, she’s still on a high. I ask if she slept with her winner’s medal by her bed the night they won. “That night?� She gives me a look. “It’s still by my bed. Every day. I wake up and the medal’s next to my bed. And it’s, like, as if!�

But Kildunne is not resting on her laurels. She says the medal is also a reminder of what’s left to achieve – for her, and for women’s rugby in general. “Your heart’s telling you that you’ve done it, but I need to refocus. So it’s about how can we win the prem, how can we win another Six Nations, more World Cups? How can we keep fans coming to games? We’ve sold out Twickenham, so how do we do it again?�

English manager says ‘it’s not the time to panic’ but Alsace club want a return on their €100m+ summer investment

By Get French Football News

As one of the few areas of France which celebrate Saint Nicholas Day, Alsace had festive processions and performances taking place across the region last Saturday. The travelling Strasbourg fans, though, were in no mood for a party on their way back from Toulouse after a third consecutive defeat.

“It’s not the time to panic,� Liam Rosenior insisted after his Strasbourg team failed to find a response to Emersonn’s early opener for Les Violets. “We have to stay consistent and keep working hard. I won’t change our style of play, because it’s brought us success.�

Egyptian’s calculated outburst is a challenge to management and their support for embattled Arne Slot

Mohamed Salah’s relationship with Liverpool is broken. That is abundantly clear after the incendiary interview at Elland Road on Saturday night that also poses a test of the club’s relationship with Arne Slot. The next revelation will be the extent of internal support for the coach who delivered Liverpool’s record-equalling 20th league title eight months ago.

Salah may have been emotional having been on the bench for the third successive game, but stunning waiting reporters not only by stopping to speak but by dropping a series of grenades during a post-match interview lasting more than seven minutes was not a case of heart ruling head. It never is when one of the greatest players to pull on the red shirt deigns to address the media. Whether it is criticism of contract negotiations, applying a little more pressure to get an agreeable deal done or, in this instance, piling more problems on Slot, Salah’s words are calculated to achieve what he wants.

For Manchester United, a soothing return to winning ways to avert any sense another mini-crisis was brewing. Victories are scarcely this comfortable, even if Ruben Amorim’s side needed to navigate the briefest of scares when Wolves equalised with half-time looming. United turned on the style after the break, the manager clenching his right fist when Mason Mount made it 3-1 with a smart volley, building on goals by Bryan Mbeumo and Bruno Fernandes, who also rounded off the scoring from the penalty spot.

For Wolves, this was yet another demoralising defeat, a 13th in 15 league matches. The last time they tasted victory, in April, Matheus Cunha, who enjoyed his return to Molineux in United’s all-black strip, opened the scoring. Nine fan groups totalling thousands of supporters protested against the Wolves owner, Fosun, by boycotting the first 15 minutes. Supporters voiced their anger at the players, too. “You’re not fit to wear the shirt,� they sang, and jeered Jørgen Strand Larsen when he was taken off. There were pantomime laughs when the fourth official indicated at least nine minutes of stoppage time.

Club gets boost for development of Racecourse Ground, but move comes months after it received £14m state aid

The Wrexham AFC owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney have sold a stake in the company to the US private equity investors Apollo, less than three months after the football club was given £14m in state aid.

The Welsh club on Monday announced the investment by Apollo Sports Capital, part of the New York-listed investor. It did not reveal the size of the investment, but said Reynolds and McElhenney, who has changed his name to Rob Mac, would remain majority owners.

• Naz sustained injury against Aston Villa on Sunday

• She will have surgery and will not play again this season

The England winger Jessica Naz will miss the rest of the season after sustaining an anterior cruciate ligament injury in her right knee.

The 25-year-old was withdrawn injured during Tottenham’s Women’s Super League victory over Aston Villa on Sunday. Spurs released a statement on Tuesday saying that Naz would undergo surgery.

• Draw also features League One Exeter at Manchester City

• Aston Villa will go to Tottenham in all-Premier League tie

The non-league club Macclesfield will host the FA Cup holders, ­Crystal ­ Palace, in the third round of the tournament this season, in one of the standout ties of the draw.

Macclesfield, who are 14th in National League North, will face Oliver Glasner’s Palace, fourth in the ­Premier League, in a classic David and Goliath pairing when the fixtures are played on the weekend of 10-11 ­January 2026.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, John Brewin and Seb Hutchinson to discuss Mohamed Salah’s explosive interview, Arsenal’s late defeat at Villa and the best of the weekend’s Premier League action

On today’s pod: Mohamed Salah goes nuclear after being left out at Elland Road, questioning his head coach, his role and seemingly everything around him, as Liverpool throw away another late lead in a chaotic 3-3 draw with Leeds. The panel discuss the fallout of Salah’s words and reflect on Liverpool’s dismal run of form.

Meanwhile, Arsenal slip up at Villa thanks to an injury-time scramble, while Rayan Cherki’s rabona (or rotunda) helps keep Manchester City in the title hunt. The panel discusses all the weekend’s action, including the battle for fourth, as Palace move up into the top four, Everton somehow rise to sixth, and Spurs finally win at home.

Plus: Brighton bans the Guardian from the Amex after a week of revelations, as John Brewin discusses not being at the game. Plus reflections on the World Cup draw, including England’s path, Scotland’s group of doom and Gianni and Trump’s unforgettable stagecraft.

Sport’s famous rivalry began in 1877 and since then 853 men have featured in Australia v England Tests. But who are the very best of the best?

• Barney Ronay on the No 1 | Video: review the top 10

• Check how all the judges voted | Our methodology

• Every ball of the Ashes, no spin. Support us today

He coaxed greatness from teammates, bent occasions to his will and mastered the most complex of arts, but best of all he connected like few others in sport

• The 100 greatest men’s Ashes cricketers of all time

Raise the Playboy pants like a pirate flag. Twirl the big brimmer in celebration. It was always going to be Shane, really, wasn’t it.

We did of course have a countdown first, because people love countdowns, because cricket is basically one unceasing countdown, an endless pencil stub ticking off names and numbers. There were 99 members of the supporting cast to be ushered to their spots, the non-Shanes of history, meat in the Ashes room.

Australians dominate at the very top of our list but the overall numbers are split evenly and England lead the way for all-rounders

• The 100 greatest men’s Ashes cricketers of all time

• Barney Ronay on the No 1 | Video: review the top 10

More than 800 men have played in an Ashes Test. England picked most of them in the summer of 1989. But the process of selecting the Guardian’s Ashes Top 100 required something more scientific than that infamous shemozzle.

Let’s start with the small print. We asked 51 judges to select their top 50 men’s Ashes cricketers, from which we calculated a top 100: 50 points for No 1, 49 for No 2 and so on. The voting rules were simple. Players were assessed solely on their performances in Ashes cricket, though judges could interpret that any way they liked. (Yep, someone did vote for Gary Pratt.) The judges had to pick at least 15 players from each country and a minimum of five from each of five different eras: players who made their debut before the first world war; in the interwar years; from the second world war to 1974; from 1975 till 1999; and from 2000 onwards.

Our 51 judges have picked Shane Warne, Don Bradman and Ian Botham as their top three. Who gets your vote?

It had to be one or the other: the man who has scored the most runs in Ashes history or the man who has taken the most wickets. In the end, Shane Warne’s 195 wickets beat Don Bradman’s 5,028 runs. But, Warne is about more than numbers. His style, humour and charisma made him the kind of player you rooted for even when he lined up against your team. He was a joy to watch.

In the spirit of joy, then, who is your favourite cricketer in the history of the men’s Ashes? Who gave you the best memories and biggest smiles? Botham for his sixes and wickets? Ricky Ponting for his centuries? Andrew Flintoff for his sledging and sportsmanship? This week our 51 judges have chosen their top 100. Who is your personal favourite?

Cricket has always been my lullaby, my shorthand for belonging. And in Starcy I have another legend to admire

Growing up in the late 1990s, I insisted my younger nephews and nieces call me Imran Khan instead of my real name – our own playful twist on traditional respect rituals. A few years later, I upgraded to Wasim Akram (naturally) and they obligingly followed. They’re all grown now, but they still call me “Mama Khan� or “Wasin Akral�- the clumsy childhood pronunciations that stuck to me the way cricket has.

Last week, witnessing the magnificent Mitchell Starc overtake Akram as the leading left arm wicket-taker, made me pause – isn’t it about time for another upgrade?

Perhaps the data-soaked discourse of modern football actually does this Premier League centurion something of a disservice

Stack them up. Pile them high. Sort them and arrange them, parse them and categorise them, order them to your table like items in a Chinese restaurant. Personal favourites? Give me the No 33 against Arsenal, the one with the flowing hair. I’ll also take a No 81 against Chelsea, when he spots a hapless Robert Sánchez out of goal, and lobs him deliciously from the edge of the area.

Give me a No 98 against Bournemouth, in which he deliberately slants his run around the keeper, slots it in from a tight angle, tries to clamber atop the advertising hoardings in triumph, loses his balance, collapses in peals of giggles. And maybe chuck in a No 53 against Brentford, in which Kristoffer Ajer somehow manages to fall over without being touched, spooked into incoherence by his very presence.

John Ridgeon believes I was downbeat about state of his sport. He may have a point … so we thrashed out our differences

It really is quite the scene. Midnight in Tokyo, Usain Bolt is DJing and the launch party for the World Athletics Ultimate Championships is in full swing. And then the World Athletics chief executive, Jon Ridgeon, walks up to me and says: “I read your recent Guardian column, and I thought it was very unfair.�

Imagine Gary Lineker going in two-footed, having never picked up a yellow card in his career. This is the track and field equivalent. Ridgeon, a former world silver medallist over the 110m hurdles, is one of the smartest and most reasonable people in sport. He is saying, in a polite way, that he is really rather annoyed.

Smith stood up to West Indies bowling and scored centuries against Australia in the most demanding of circumstances

A Robin Smith square cut was more than a whip‑crack snap of the bat. For English cricket fans of the late 80s and early 90s, it was a nudge in the ribs that, underneath the pastings, the dismal collapses and Rentaghost selections, the national team would fight another day.

Smith’s cut, alongside a David Gower cover drive, gave hope where there was little left in the bucket. Those famous forearms – half oak, half baobab – the white shirt unbuttoned past the clavicle, the chain glinting through his chest hair, smelt enticingly like bravery, and old spice and one last throw of the dice.

Our cartoonist on what inspired him to draw some of his finest cartoons this year

• Buy a special print from his collection here

• David’s new book, Chaos in the Box: buy it now

“Denis Law is one of the few footballers I’m too young to have seen play live, but like all followers of the game, I’m aware of his impact and talent. What I hadn’t fully appreciated was what a kind and generous person he was – something that became obvious as I read the many tributes to his character, in preparation for this cartoon�.

British No 1 on home comforts of Bromley, joys of commuting and being ‘creeped out’ by paparazzi

Emma Raducanu has garnered many endorsement deals in her nascent career, but there is perhaps one elusive sponsorship that would be most pleasing to the British No 1 women’s tennis player: ambassador of the London borough of Bromley.

During a roundtable discussion with tennis journalists at the end of a gruelling yet satisfying season, Raducanu is merely attempting to describe a quiet off-season spent in her family home when she finds herself delivering a sales pitch about the benefits of living in Bromley. “I’m just so settled,� she says. “I’ve barely been in the UK this year because I’ve been competing so much, but I think just spending really good quality time with my parents has been so nice. I have loved just being in Bromley. It just reminds me of when I was a younger kid and it’s the same bedroom, same everything.

That he stayed after relegation in 1978 and lifted the FA Cup with the team still in Division Two typified his commitment

Some players embody a club but few have ever embodied their side more than Billy Bonds, who died on Sunday at the age of 79. He was not a one-club man but by the time he finally retired, at the age of 41, in 1988, he felt like one, having racked up a record 799 appearances for West Ham. Just as significantly, he had lifted the FA Cup twice as captain.

There was applause at the London Stadium on Sunday as a montage was shown on the big screens. It featured a number of spectacular long-range strikes because it’s easier to show somebody scoring goals than preventing them, and still harder to somehow sum up leadership.

There have been many good points – challenging orthodoxies and Ben Stokes talking openly about male emotions – and even when it was bad, it was unignorable

The Life Cycle of a Cult
1. The Big Idea. A charismatic leader or leaders propose a new and transcendent idea that promises a panacea for alienated and vulnerable people.

So here we are then. They’re getting ready to storm the compound down in Brisbane. The gunships are circling. Smoke is rising from the out-houses. A lone figure, naked, shivering, the words HIGH RELEASE POINT smeared across his chest in chicken blood, has come staggering through the lines and is being led away under a blanket towards an inconclusive loan stint at Derbyshire.

A pension-pot World Cup looms and with Trump in the White House and a crown prince at his back, it is now a safe space

It was hard to choose one favourite photo from football’s double-header at the White House this week. In part this is because the pictures from Donald Trump’s state dinner with Mohammed bin Salman and his in-house hype men Cristiano Ronaldo and Gianni Infantino were everywhere, recycled feverishly across the internet, dusted with their own drool-stained commentary by the wider Ronaldo-verse.

Mainly there were just so many jaw-droppers. Perhaps you liked the one of Trump and Ronaldo strolling the halls of power, Ronaldo dressed all in black and laughing uproariously, like a really happy ninja. Or the one of Ronaldo and Georgina Rodríguez standing either side of a weirdly beaming Trump at his desk, holding up some kind of large heraldic key as though they’ve just been presented with their own wind-up wooden sex-grandad.

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Out there in the extended WhatsApp metaverse, an exclusive group of footballers send each other memes, jokes and probably much else besides. What goes encrypted stays encrypted but it was only last week that Christian Fuchs, reliable left-back turned Newport County manager, revealed his appointment to the Welsh club had set the notifications buzzing on the “Champions� group, made up of the 2015-16 Leicester City players. Ten years ago today, a Riyad Mahrez hat-trick at Swansea sent the Foxes to the Premier League summit. Jamie Vardy was denied a goal but had just completed a record-breaking streak of scoring in 11 consecutive matches. The following Monday, a 2-1 win over Chelsea sent José Mourinho through the Stamford Bridge door marked Do One. “I want to stay and I hope Mr Abramovich and the board want me to stay because I want to stay,� squealed José. “All at Chelsea thank José for his immense contribution …� came the reply.

That season, everyone trailed in the wake of a Vardy, Mahrez and N’Golo Kanté-charged wrecking ball. Next summer there will doubtless be a 10th anniversary celebration. Their story continues to defy belief. No tactical manual or chalkboard wonk ever divined the sheer inspiration of Claudio Ranieri’s “dilly ding dilly dong� motivational techniques. The problem with football is that you can never truly bask in the past. Just look at Manchester United’s constipations or the deleterious fall of Liverpool, actual champions whose performances have turned even the cheeriest Anfield fan into a Samuel Beckett tragicomedy. Though if you are mining for misery look no further than Leicester in 2025. There is the possibility that the 10th anniversary party will take place in League One.

Did the downfall begin the very next season? Where did it all go wrong, Mr Vardy? An opening-day loss at Hull, a team with no manager, was soon followed by Ranieri’s defenestration: dilly ding, dilly gone. Since then, there’s been tragedy in the 2018 helicopter crash that killed Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, the club’s owner. And good money thrown after bad: Leicester have walked a financial tightrope that may lead to docked points soon, plunging them into the Championship’s relegation zone. When Vardy departed for Cremonese last summer, the last of the immortals departed the tower. The doom has doubled. Ruud van Nistelrooy’s failure to find any fight against relegation last season has been replicated by Martí Cifuentes.

Dawid Malan ‘smiles at the memory’ of taking on Australia’s relentless fast bowler under the lights

That tall, fast and slim kid, sure bowls a mean pink ball.

Leading into Thursday’s crucial second Test match, a day-night affair at Brisbane’s Gabba, much has been made of Mitchell Starc’s pink-ball wizardry. With 81 wickets at an average of 17.08, the lissom-limbed southpaw seamer has more wickets than any other with the pink’un in hand. Just what English supporters want to read as their side pitches up at a ground where they haven’t won a Test match in 39 years.

Bloodgate, the ‘Hand of Back’ and a drop goal off ‘someone’s arse’ are among the tournament’s delightful eccentricities

On the eve of a new Champions Cup season it is worth remembering when and where it all began. The answer is 30 years ago on the shores of the Black Sea where Farul Constanta of Romania hosted France’s mighty Toulouse in the opening pool game of the old Heineken Cup on 31 October 1995.

Let’s just say they were different times. The match was played on a Tuesday and, while the crowd was recorded as 3,000, eyewitnesses were focused on the large number of security personnel with barking Alsatian dogs straining at the leash. Toulouse, boasting an array of internationals including Émile Ntamack and Thomas Castaignède, duly registered eight tries and won 54-10.

Unbeaten in Europe and with eight wins in eight games domestically, the club are aiming high after name change

When the Olympique Lyonnais women’s team officially became OL Lyonnes on 19 May, they came with a new mantra: “New story, same legend�. The eight-time European champions, now owned by Michele Kang and part of Kynisca – a multi-club ownership group dedicated to women’s sports that also already includes the Washington Spirit – are a “new project� with the aim of “developing as a women’s club with our own model�. As Kang put it: “The women’s team cannot just be a little sister to the men’s section.�

The OL Lyonnes era kicked off on 7 September, coinciding with the Lyon’s 1,000th match in the French women’s top division, against Marseille. Kang was present, alongside Mikel Zubizarreta, Kynisca’s global sporting director, who was poached from Barcelona Femení last year. On the pitch, new recruits snatched from other European clubs this summer – Jule Brand, Lily Yohannes, Ashley Lawrence, Ingrid Engen, Korbin Shrader and Marie-Antoinette Katoto – discovered what it will be like to play at the Groupama Stadium, where the men’s team plays, for the entire season.

Manchester City show their resilience, Spurs eye the Champions League and Liverpool look to splash the cash

How much has Manchester City’s mentality evolved and strengthened? After they overcame a stubborn Leicester City side 3-0 on Sunday to claim a ninth straight win, it would appear the answer to that question is “significantly� compared to recent seasons, as they demonstrated a unity and a composure that has perhaps evaded many title hopefuls of old. December last year brought moments when Manchester City’s campaign began to unravel, through a combination of injuries and surprise defeats. On Sunday they looked like potential champions in the sense that they found a way to win what could very easily have become a frustrating game, against a back five in a low block. Andrée Jeglertz pointed to this professionalism and calmness at full time: “I’m very proud and pleased with the patience the players are showing, the trust, the belief. They are not starting to yell at each other, they just keep believing in each other and believing in what we are doing.� Tom Garry

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