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Tag: Ligue 1

  • London has several major football clubs. Why does Paris only have one?

    London has several major football clubs. Why does Paris only have one?

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    When European club competition was originally devised back in 1955, it was in the form of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, the predecessor to the UEFA Cup and Europa League.

    As the name hints, the competition was originally designed to promote European trade fairs, and had a strict ‘one club per city’ rule. On that basis, this week’s Champions League clash between Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain is, in basic terms, pretty much what you’d expect. On the basis of domestic titles won, this is the most successful club from each of Europe’s biggest two cities (discounting Russia) playing each other.

    But there are several complications.

    First, PSG might be France’s biggest club today, but back in 1955, they were 15 years away from being formed.

    Second, Arsenal are one of seven top-flight London clubs in 2024-25, and have often finished behind Chelsea and Tottenham in recent seasons. PSG, meanwhile, have been the only top-flight Parisian club for the last three decades.

    And when you look at the average attendances of the biggest clubs in both cities last season, the difference is stark.

    So how have western Europe’s two major cities managed to do club football quite so differently? Or, more to the point, how come Paris can only support one major club?

    The British clubs

    London is unique, in terms of boasting so many major football clubs. If we’re slightly generous with our definition of city boundaries, Madrid and Lisbon often feature four top-flight sides, Athens effectively has five this season, while Istanbul can offer six. But London’s seven is highly unusual, and a further three London clubs — Charlton Athletic, Queens Park Rangers and the old Wimbledon FC — have previously played in the Premier League since its formation in 1992. Millwall featured in the top flight between 1988 and 1990 too.


    London has a network of intense football rivalries (Marc Atkins/Getty Images)

    Paris, on the other hand, is highly unusual in contributing just one top-flight club. The standard approach for big cities — Rome, Milan, Manchester — is generally two. But while Paris is an outlier in European terms, it isn’t in French terms. In 2024-25, France’s top-flight features 18 teams from 18 different settlements.

    In keeping with many other major European cities, the first Parisian football clubs were formed by Britons. Sides with English-language names like the Standard Athletic Club and White Rovers came into existence in the final decade of the 19th century, and primarily featured British players. In comparison with Nordic, Mediterranean and central European nations, football was slow to develop in France. The authorities considered the rugby version of football to be more sophisticated, and association football was barely played in schools.

    The first Olympic football tournament was held in Paris in 1900, and won by Great Britain — or, in reality, by an East London outfit named Upton Park. They had no link to nearby West Ham and were an amateur side, as professional athletes were, at that stage, not allowed to compete in the Olympics. Britain had a hold over Parisian football already.

    Meanwhile, as noted by Chris Lee in his book Origin Stories, when France formed a cup competition in 1910, quality and interest was so low from within France that the tournament was an invitational event open to English sides. Therefore, while this was not the Coupe de France — which would be formed in 1917 — the first three winners of a major cup in Paris were Swindon Town, Clapton Orient (now Leyton Orient) and Fulham. They defeated Barnsley, Millwall and QPR respectively at the Parc des Princes, the same site PSG play on today, between 1910 and 1912.

    In that sense, you can reasonably argue that London was more influential than Paris in the rise of French football. While the key figure in France’s belated footballing development was Henri Delaunay, the man after whom the European Championship trophy is named, he was inspired after attending the 1902 FA Cup final at Crystal Palace between Sheffield United and Southampton.


    Scenes from the 1902 FA Cup final between Sheffield United and Southampton, an inspirational match for Henri Delaunay (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

    The French clubs

    So what about actual Parisian clubs themselves?

    Well, the other famous French football innovator of this time — and another with a major international trophy named after him — was Jules Rimet. He formed Red Star, a Parisian multi-sport club, in 1897. They are the only true constant of the last 125-odd years.

    When Ligue 1 was originated in 1932, Red Star were one of four Parisian clubs in the top flight. The others were Club Francais (as the name suggests, the first Parisian club formed by French players, and represented France at the aforementioned 1900 Olympics), Cercle Athletique de Paris and Racing Club de Paris.

    But these clubs struggled to grow. The Tour de France was created in 1903 and cycling was unquestionably the biggest sport in France. Rowing and gymnastics were also favoured, and rugby was still more popular. Football was, in contrary to what was happening in England, not the sport of the working class — it was favoured by the anglophile liberal metropolitan elite of the early 20th century. Paris was clearly the centre of that, but the game was treated as a pastime rather than to build a town around.


    Cycling became France’s most important sport in the 20th century, not football (AFP via Getty Images)

    Intra-city rivalries didn’t develop anywhere in France. With some early French competitions only accepting one club per region, combined with minimal public support and a reliance on local councils for income and building stadia, French clubs found that mergers were more conducive to success than city rivalries. Of the aforementioned four clubs, Club Francais were relegated from the inaugural Ligue 1 season and essentially ceased to exist after a merger in 1935. Cercle Athletique de Paris were also quickly relegated, managed another three decades and then also fell victim to a merger, becoming an amateur side.

    It was really only Red Star and Racing Club which survived.

    Red Star are more notable for being a left-wing club than a successful one, attracting a committed cult support and experiencing a turbulent time on the pitch. In the 21st century, they’ve competed at every level between the sixth and the second tiers.

    Racing Club, meanwhile, were briefly managed in the 1930s by Jimmy Hogan — referred to as ‘the most influential coach in football history’ by Jonathan Wilson in his history of football tactics, Inverting The Pyramid — and won a single Ligue 1 title three years after his departure in 1936. They suffered serious financial problems in the 1960s and tumbled through the divisions, but were revived by a famous French businessman, Jean-Luc Lagardere, in the 1980s. He was most notable for his stewardship of Formula 1 team Matra, who won the world championship in 1969.

    Lagardere threw money at the side, signings the likes of David Ginola, Luis Fernandez, Pierre Littbarski and Enzo Francescoli, and even appointed Artur Jorge as manager immediately after he’d led Porto to the European Cup in 1987. Lagardere was serious about Racing Club, although it attracted few supporters. After a desperate attempt to increase the profile of the club, and his brand, by renaming it Matra Racing, Lagardere eventually conceded defeat and withdrew his financial support. The club was relegated from Ligue 1 in 1990, and financial problems meant they were double-relegated to the third tier.


    David Ginola playing for Matra Racing in the 1980s (Marc Francotte/TempSport/Corbis via Getty Images)

    There’s a wider question about quite how football-crazy France is, compared to other European nations. The country didn’t really capitalise on the national side’s fine performance in finishing third at World Cup 1958. Then the national side didn’t qualify for a major tournament between 1966 and 1978. David Goldblatt, in his seminal book The Ball is Round, writes that, “While in Britain the new youth and musical cultures of the 1960s interacted with football, in France they stood as an alternative and an opponent. The counter-cultures of the late 1960s explicitly rejected football and its antiquated provincial hierarchies.”

    The lift-off moments were the national team successes on Parisian soil in 1984 and 1998, but the boosts to domestic football — and in particular, domestic support — were negligible. The heroes of those sides soon moved abroad, if they hadn’t emigrated already, in part due to high taxation rates in France.

    The modern clubs

    So where did PSG come from?

    Well, in a sense it was a new club, and in another sense it was another merger. While generally mocked for a relative lack of history — even before the Qatari takeover in 2011 — PSG are interesting in that they were born due to a crowdfunding campaign that attracted startup capital from 20,000 ‘supporters’ who were prepared to contribute to the foundation of a new club, although two wealthy businessmen were the figureheads.

    Slightly confusingly, PSG was originally a merger of Paris FC (a club only formed the previous year) and Stade St Germain, although two years after the formation of PSG, Paris FC split from the new club because the city’s mayor refused to financially support a club which technically played outside the boundaries of the city. Paris FC re-established themselves as an independent entity, retained the club’s players and Ligue 1 status, while PSG were relegated to the third tier and had to work their way through the divisions again.

    PSG’s first golden era came in the 1990s, when they were taken over by television giants Canal+, but attendances were always relatively modest considering the size of the city they represented. PSG, of course, are unlike any clubs in London in that they carry the name of the city, something they’ve been increasingly keen to take advantage of over the last decade. They’ve made ‘Paris’ more prominent on their crest, and like their name to be abbreviated to ‘PAR’ rather than ‘PSG’ on television graphics.


    PSG won the Coupe de France three times in the 1990s (Christian Liewig/TempSport/Corbis via Getty Images)

    Also worthy of mention is US Creteil, from the south-eastern suburbs of Paris. Formed in the 1930s, they played in the second tier regularly at the start of the century, and as recently as 2016, although even at that stage only attracted attendances of around 2000. They’re now back in the fourth tier.

    But Parisian football is at its strongest point for many decades. Red Star won the third-tier Championnat National last season and are competing in Ligue 2 alongside Paris FC — who are currently top of the table, and aiming for promotion to Ligue 1 for the first time since relegation in 1979. Paris FC also have a strong women’s side, who regularly finish third in the Premiere Ligue (formerly known as Division 1 Feminine) behind PSG and Lyon, and eliminated Arsenal in the Champions League qualifiers last season, although they were soundly beaten by Manchester City this time around.


    Red Star’s players celebrate winning the 2023-24 Championnat National (ANTONIN UTZ/AFP via Getty Images)

    But those two clubs are still struggling for support. Paris FC averaged 5,500 last season, the 13th-highest attendance of the 20 clubs in Ligue 2. Red Star attracted around 3,500. And the reality is that their dual rise owes little to local support, and more to what many would consider the twin evils of modern football: state ownership and multi-club ownership.

    Since 2020, Paris FC have been 20 per cent owned by by the Kingdom of Bahrain, who have seemingly been inspired by PSG’s Qatari-led dominance. Bahrain also act as the club’s main sponsors. “They join us for many objectives — mainly to help them to spread the image of Bahrain in France and Europe,” said director general Fabrica Herrault said in an interview upon the takeover.

    The situation at Red Star also feels familiar, and somewhat unsatisfying given their long history of being a left-wing club. In May 2022 they were purchased by a US investment firm, 777 Partners, who also own the likes of Genoa, Hertha Berlin and Vasco da Gama. That attracted serious opposition from supporters, and their protests led to the postponement of a league match two years ago.

    With a major fraud claim recently brought against 777, Red Star have been the subject of interest from another American, Steve Pagliuca, who owns Atalanta and is part-owner of the Boston Celtics. According to Bloomberg, Pagliuca “saw opportunities to invest in French football, where lower broadcast revenue has left clubs in need of capital.”

    Average attendances in French football are currently positive. Ligue 1 recorded its highest-ever attendance last season of 27,100, while Ligue 2’s figure was 8,650, the best figure for 15 years — although that was boosted by two traditional giants, Saint-Etienne and Bordeaux, unusually, being in the second tier. The Ligue 2 stadiums, in general, were still only 55 per cent full.

    In the capital, Paris FC’s 20,000-capacity stadium is only around a quarter full most weeks, while Red Star at least manage to make a modest 5,600-capacity ground in the northern suburbs look busy.

    And while the nature of these clubs’ ownership is relatively modern, this is the history of Parisian football. The financial investment arrives before the support — if the support ever arrives at all. Of course, PSG have won 10 of the last 12 Ligue 1 titles and attract an average attendance of over 45,000, although there have been waves of unhappiness from supporters in recent years, and there are sporadic reports that Qatar might consider rethinking its investment.


    Arsenal’s Ian Wright taking on PSG in March 1994 (Anton Want/Getty Images)

    In general, French clubs are still struggling to generate their own money. Ligue 1’s new television rights deal represents a 12 per cent decrease on the previous agreement, and that’s a joint agreement with DAZN and BeIN Sports, the latter being Qatar-owned and surely less likely to stick around if Qatar isn’t investing in PSG. Unlike in England, domestic football has never become appointment television viewing in France.

    If Paris FC continue their fine start to the campaign, next season there will be a top-flight Parisian derby in Ligue 1 for the first time since Racing Club’s relegation in 1990. But with seven top-flight sides, London boasts 42 derbies a year. The difference owes to many factors, including the historic structure of competitions and clubs’ reliance on local councils for funds.

    But more than anything else, it’s simply a reflection on wildly varying levels of interest in football.

    (Header photo: Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images)

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    The New York Times

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  • 100 days until the Olympic Games – is Paris ready?

    100 days until the Olympic Games – is Paris ready?

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    Follow The Athletic’s Olympics coverage here.

    In 100 days, Paris will host the most famous sporting jamboree on the planet: the summer Olympic Games.

    There will be action across 32 sports watched by millions of visitors, as well as an unprecedented opening ceremony set to take place on the River Seine, which runs through the city’s heart. At least, that is plan A, anyway — Emmanuel Macron, the French president, confirmed an off-river contingency for the first time on Monday.

    Excitement has not quite taken hold in Paris yet. Decorations around the city remain discrete for a Games awarded to the French capital in September 2017. The City Hall has been plastered with Olympic regalia, but the focus of messaging has primarily been on practicality — “anticiper les jeux” (anticipate the Games), as posters on the Paris Metro, the city’s subway system, depict it.

    The past few years have seen plenty of focus on staging the Games, but there has been much more discussion about the practical impact. Authorities have battled and quarrelled to meet deadlines and targets. There have been fears around security, heightened by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Israel-Gaza conflict, with the audacious, river-based opening ceremony — set to be the first time a Games has not opened in a stadium — a particular area of concern.

    Add in worries about transport disruption and the threats of strike action from unions with public sector workers, including police, demanding pay concessions for the extra work anticipated for the Games, and the build-up has been anything but smooth. Even ‘les bouquinistes’, the booksellers who maintain a 400-year tradition on the banks of the River Seine, erupted in protest at the prospect of temporary removal for the opening ceremony.


    Booksellers have lined the Seine for more than four centuries (Mohamad Salaheldin Abdelg Alsayed/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

    But now, the focus should turn to what else the Games has to offer before the Olympics begin on July 26 (although the men’s and women’s competitions for soccer and rugby sevens begin on July 24), with the Paralympic Games to follow from August 28 until September 8.

    “This is the French edition,” joked Emmanuel Gregoire, the mayor of Paris’ first deputy, when asked about optimism before the Games at a press briefing this month. “At the beginning, we have been talking only about problems — but we feel that the joy is growing.”

    The Olympic flame is now ablaze, lit on Tuesday on Mount Olympia in Greece before beginning its journey across 400 towns and cities in 65 regions of the French territories and landing in Marseille on May 8.

    “Paris 2024 begins on May 8, that’s kick-off,” said Pierre Rabadan, the deputy mayor in charge of sport, the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and the Seine. 

    Olympics


    The first torch runners with the Olympic flame in Olympia on April 16 (Socrates Baltagiannis/picture alliance via Getty Images)

    It has been a long journey to reach this point. Since Paris was awarded the Games, there has been a global pandemic — which first postponed the Tokyo Olympics and then forced it behind closed doors — conflicts in Europe and the Middle East, inflationary pressures, and screaming headlines about bedbug infestations hitting Paris.

    It is safe to say the world could do with a little bit of joy and maybe the Games can provide that.

    The question now is whether Paris is ready.

    Are the sporting venues ready?

    The permanent sites are ready. Paris is aiming to host a sustainable, green-focused Games, with 95 per cent of tournament venues either temporary or using already existing infrastructure.

    The new permanent sites — the ones built specifically for the Olympics — are nearly there. The only new sports venue within inner Paris, the Adidas Arena at Porte de la Chapelle in the 18th arrondissement, opened in February. The two-hectare site will host badminton, rhythmic gymnastics, para-badminton and para-weightlifting.

    The other two new sites, the Olympic Village and the Aquatic Centre, are in Saint-Denis, north of Paris and near the Stade de France, the national stadium. The Olympic Village was handed over to the organising committee in February and the Aquatics Centre opened this month.

    Olympics


    The Aquatics Center in front of Stade de France in February (Stephane de Sakutin/AFP via Getty Images)

    “I thought it was not possible, but we delivered them two weeks or one month before the (due) date,” said Rabadan. “So that’s a good point for two things. First, because we are not late and less pressure. Second, because we want to respect our budget.”

    Not everything is finished, however. The temporary and renovated venues are in the process of completion, while some training sites are not yet ready. Rabadan added: “Some of the renovations for training camps and venues, we are finishing. For example, we have a massive swimming pool in the north of Paris (20th arrondissement), Piscine Georges-Vallerey. That will open up at the end of April.”

    Redeveloped venues include the renovated Yves du Manoir Stadium, used for the eighth Olympiad in 1924, which will host field hockey competitions. Temporary sites are also being put together around famous landmarks, such as the Eiffel Tower (beach volleyball), the Place de la Concorde (which will become an urban park and host 3×3 basketball, BMX freestyle and skateboarding), the Champ de Mars (judo and wrestling) and the Hotel de Ville (archery, athletics, cycling). The Grand Palais, on the Champs-Elysees, will host taekwondo and fencing.

    Existing infrastructure is also being used and sometimes re-purposed, such as the home of tennis’ French Open, Roland-Garros (tennis and boxing), and La Defense Arena, which is home to rugby union side Racing 92 and holds major concert events but will host swimming and water polo.

    “We are exactly where we would like to be 100 days before the Olympic Games,” said Rabadan.

    What about other infrastructure, such as transport?

    The extension of Metro Line 14 is due to be ready. This will link Saint-Denis, the heart of the Games, with Paris-Orly airport. Capacity is being increased through more trains and other developments, such as an extension of the tramway to Porte Dauphine, which will allow access to Porte de la Chapelle. That is now complete. The group of new lines, named the “Grand Paris Express”, will not all be ready. The new lines 15, 16, 17 and 18 will open before 2030.

    “We’ve known for a very long time that the Paris Express could not be ready for the Games,” said Gregoire. “So it’s not a problem, but of course, it could have been better. But these lines don’t serve Olympic sites. The major aspect is we are guaranteed to have the 14th line in Paris. This will open in May or June.”

    “We will have 15 per cent more offerings of trains and metros during the Games,” said Rabadan.

    The Charles de Gaulle expressway, a new line that will speed up links between Charles de Gaulle airport and the Gare de l’Est, will not be ready. “It was supposed to be delivered for the Olympic Games,” said Gregoire. “But five years ago, we knew it would not be ready. It would be ready at the end of 2025-26.”

    More trains and more people will mean more cost. During the Games, transport fares will be doubled.

    Will the opening ceremony actually happen on the Seine?

    As it stands, athletes will parade outside a stadium for the first time, as part of a large flotilla of boats along the River Seine.

    The event will start at the Bibliotheque Nationale and conclude at the Trocadero, the site of the Palais de Chaillot, on the opposite bank of the river to the Eiffel Tower.

    It promises to be an eye-catching spectacle, but questions have been raised about feasibility — particularly given heightened security risks. Last month, following an attack at a concert hall in Moscow that killed more than 130 people, France raised its terrorist alert warning to its highest level.

    The complexity and uncertainty are mainly due to the large numbers set to attend and the challenge of securing the river. Initial hopes of more than a million in attendance were quickly dashed, but the capacity is still set to be more than five times that of the Stade de France (which can hold 80,000 people).

    As well as 10,500 athletes, around 600,000 people will attend the ceremony. Of those, 104,000 are paid tickets sold by the Olympic Committee, 220,000 are distributed across the organising parties (the state, city of Paris and Paris 2024), and 200,000 will be for those on barges or watching on balconies.

    Seine, Paris


    (Emmanuel Dunand/AFP via Getty Images)

    Other considerations have had some impact. Les bouquinistes, the booksellers who have lined the Seine in some capacity for almost 400 years, caused a bit of a headache when they refused to remove their box stalls, some of which are a century old, for the opening ceremony. This dispute has been resolved, albeit at a cost, after Macron intervened. “We lost 70,000 spectators to guarantee security,” said Rabadan.

    So is there a plan B? There have been mixed messages. This month, Paris city officials insisted the event will not be taken off the water. “We can reduce the impact and the facilities of the opening ceremony if the international risk becomes harder,” said Rabadan. “We can reduce it, the show, the number of people. But there is no plan B.”

    But on Monday, Macron said there were contingencies — potentially even off the river. Asked what would happen if security risks made the river procession too risky, he told BFM TV/RMC: “There are plan Bs and plan Cs. We have a ceremony that would be limited to the Trocadero so it would not cover the entire Seine. Or we could return to the Stade de France. This is what is traditionally done.”

    In a statement on Monday, city officials said: “While announcing alternative projects, the president reiterated his priority commitment to the ceremony on the Seine. This is an objective shared by all stakeholders.”

    If Paris can pull off the ceremony in full, it will be spectacular. The opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games will take place along the Champs-Elysées.

    What do we know about security plans?

    France’s interior minister, Gerald Darmanin, outlined this month that an “anti-terrorist” perimeter would be set up around the Seine one week before the opening ceremony. It will be several square miles in size and closed to traffic unless authorised, while 15 metro and tram stations will shut, too. Only four bridges will stay open. This will then ramp up again on July 26, with no entry permitted after 1pm. Those living inside this security cordon will need a QR code to enter. “If you have not registered, you will not be able to return,” said Darmanin.

    “The police need to check who they are in case they represent a threat to security,” added Gregoire. “They will have strong security measures days before. The idea is to maintain the possibility that neighbours can welcome friends and family. At the same time, to guarantee security.”

    Checks are underway for volunteers and torchbearers. This month, Darmanin told broadcaster LCI that they had “excluded 800 people, including 15 on ‘Fiches S’ (the list of the most serious threats)”.

    What about swimming in the Seine? 

    Paris wants to host the cleanest Olympic Games in history and plans to clean up the River Seine and use it to host events, such as triathlon and open-water swimming. Swimming in the Seine has been banned since 1923, but organisers hope they will be able to open three bathing areas in the river before 2025, a key legacy target of the Games.

    To help offset severe waste run-off during heavy rain, a new multi-million dollar storage basin is being constructed near the river, designed to store enough wastewater to fill 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Concerns have been raised about the suitability of the river in a worst-case scenario, such as after intense heavy rain. “You need a plan B in case it’s not possible to swim,” said reigning Olympic 10-kilometre open-water champion Ana Marcela Cunha, speaking to AFP last month. “The health of athletes must come first.”

    City officials insisted they are confident the river-based events will take place without hazard, but the risk of one leg of the triathlon (swimming, cycling and running) remains.

    “We know if there is a problem we can delay the event by two days,” said Rabadan.

    “We will finish all the work and the quality of water (will be suitable). Unless we have two months of continuous rain during the summer, we will be ready.” 

    How much will this all cost?

    Last month, credit rating agency S&P Global estimated that the Paris Olympics is “unlikely to do any lasting damage to France’s finances”.

    According to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), 96 per cent of the budget for organising the Games has come from the private sector, “namely the IOC, partner companies, the Games ticket office, and licensing”.

    A 2022 budget review by Paris 2024 cites a total of €4.38bn (£3.74bn, $4.66bn) for the Paris 2024 Organising Committee, with an IOC allocation of €1.2bn (including TV rights of €750m and partnerships contribution of €470m). Ticketing, hospitality and licensing will contribute €1.1bn, €170m and €127m and partnerships will bring in €1.226bn, according to the review. There will be a further four per cent of public funding to finance the organisation of the Paralympic Games.

    Macron, Paris


    President Macron views a model of the Aquatics Centre on April 4 (Gonzalo Fuentes/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

    The rest of infrastructure spending and modification should double that budget, according to reports, to around €8.8bn. It has risen from a reported €6.7billion, but that is still below London, Rio and Tokyo.

    This month, the former president of the French court of auditors, Pierre Moscovici, told France Inter that the Games “should cost” between €3bn and €5bn, although the true cost will not be known until after the Games have concluded.

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    What’s the legacy vision?

    Paris wants to host the Olympics and Paralympics using predominantly existing infrastructure, but more broadly, an environmentally-friendly approach is central to these Games.

    This is defined by the cleaning of the Seine, but also by an increase in the number of bikes. There will be “10,000 more bikes” in Paris, according to city officials, with the network expanding to 1,400 kilometres (870 miles). Of those, there will be 60 ‘Olympistes’ — cycle routes dedicated to the Games and moving between venues.

    Paris is aiming for a 50 per cent reduction in carbon emissions compared with the averages of London 2012 and Rio 2016. They want to use 100 per cent renewable energy and intend to achieve this using modifications such as connecting all venues to the grid, therefore limiting the use of temporary diesel generators. They want all sites accessible by public transport and are even “doubling the plant-based food to reach a target of 1kg of CO2 per meal, compared with the 2.3kg French average”, according to Paris 2024.

    Paris


    Ugo Gattoni, artist of the Paris 2024 Official Poster (Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

    Ensuring a lasting impact in disadvantaged communities is also on the agenda. Saint-Denis, in particular, is set to benefit, with the athletes’ accommodation planned to be turned into 2,800 homes after the Games, 25 per cent of which will be social housing. The area also stands to gain renovated pools, including the Aquatics Center, which will replace a 50-year-old 25-metre pool.

    This, along with cycling, will assist a sporting legacy. There will also be more access for disability sports. “Four years ago, only four sporting clubs (in Paris) could welcome young people with disabilities,” said Gregoire. “Before the Games, we are speaking of almost 50.”

    The other new arenas will be repurposed. The Adidas Arena will become the headquarters of the Paris Basketball Club, and will host concerts and schoolchildren.

    Fundamentally, though, Paris wants to breathe life back into the Olympic movement, which suffered due to the pandemic at the Tokyo Games.

    “The world needs some joy and if the Paris edition of the Olympic Games helps a little for that, that would be good for everyone,” said Gregoire.

    (Top photo: Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)

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    The New York Times

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  • How do you know if a football manager is actually good at their job?

    How do you know if a football manager is actually good at their job?

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    An important thing to remember about Andre Villas-Boas is that he had ridiculously good hair.

    You don’t spend a record-shattering €15 million (£12.9; $16.3m) fee to sign a rookie manager away from Porto unless you’re pretty sure you know what you’re getting, and one thing Chelsea knew for certain, back in the heady days of 2011, was that the man with a swirling, fox-red side-parting looked impossibly cool getting tossed in the air during trophy celebrations.


    Villas-Boas at Porto in 2010 (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images)

    Hair like that had sexy new ideas — a philosophy, perhaps. It had the sort of rakish sweep that could command a press conference, smouldering volcanically above the jagged peaks of an unbuttoned collar. But when the 33-year-old prodigy conducted his first interview as the world’s most expensive manager, all of the glamour quickly drained away.

    “Don’t expect something,” Villas-Boas warned gently, “from one man.”

    True to his word, he was sacked by March.

    Villas-Boas to Chelsea might have gone down as a historic blunder if not for all the other managers teams have squandered transfer fees on in the last few years alone: Marco Rose to Borussia Dortmund (€5 million up front for one lacklustre season); Adi Hutter to Borussia Monchengladbach (€7.5 million, ditto); Julian Nagelsmann to Bayern Munich (€25 million for 19 months); Graham Potter to Chelsea (let’s not talk about it). These were the cream of the crop, the head coaches clubs couldn’t afford to wait around for, yet in their new jobs they had the shelf life of a bunch of bruised bananas.

    How do we know if a manager is good? The question sounds almost too obvious to ask — anyone down the pub will be happy to explain it to you loudly over a pint — but professional organisations with millions at stake whiff on it every year. Apparently the answer isn’t great hair. It can’t be trophies, either, since those are pretty much only available to managers already at top clubs. If the study of up-and-coming coaches can be called a science, it remains a largely theoretical one.

    “We’ve done work with football clubs and leagues, actually, around what predicts head coach success and it’s very, very hard,” says Omar Chaudhuri of the sports consultancy 21st Group. “There are very few strong predictors.”

    Everyone loves a winner, so it makes sense that employers would start by looking for coaching talent toward the top of the table. But we also know that in the grossly unequal world of European football, wage bills are destiny for most teams, no matter who’s in the technical area. The managers we admire most are the ones who find a way to punch above their weight.

    To pick out those overachievers, we can start by modelling the relationship between squad strength and success using crowdsourced “market values” from Transfermarkt, which are a decent proxy for player quality when you don’t have wages handy. We’ll average this season’s values with last season’s, where available, to give coaches some credit for player development, then weight the values by minutes played to account for absences.

    For the performance side, we’ll use a 70/30 blend of non-penalty expected goal difference and actual goal difference, which captures team strength pretty well and puts more emphasis on the parts of the game coaches are likely to have some influence over (creating and denying chances) than the parts they probably don’t (finishing, saving shots, successfully lobbying for penalties by doing the VAR rectangle thing with their fingers).

    The results are striking. Over the last seven seasons across Europe’s top leagues, our simple player quality model can explain around 80 per cent of teams’ success.

    But what about the remaining 20 per cent — who should get credit for that?

    When we look at the outliers on the chart above, it seems fair to say that Gian Piero Gasperini’s freewheeling style helped elevate Atalanta’s mid-budget squad into a Champions League contender a few years back, and the whole platoon of head coaches and interim guys who oversaw Schalke’s disastrous 2020-21 campaign probably weren’t so hot at their job. Maybe performance over squad value is a fair measure of what a manager brings to the table.

    Reassuringly, this season’s list of top teams for adjusted goal difference over expected is a veritable who’s who of coaching legends and the game’s hottest up-and-coming managers.

    Xabi Alonso has turned down overtures from Bayern Munich and Liverpool to stay at German champs-in-waiting Bayer Leverkusen, while Brighton’s Roberto De Zerbi, whom no less an authority than Pep Guardiola called “one of the most influential managers of the last 20 years,” remains a strong contender for both jobs.

    In Catalonia, Barcelona have been making eyes at Girona’s Michel. Sebastian Hoeness, Paulo Fonseca, Thiago Motta and Will Still have flocks of admirers, and maybe we should all be paying more attention to whatever Eric Roy’s got cooking at Brest.

    So is that it — have we cracked the not-so-secret formula to finding Europe’s next top manager?

    Well, hang on a second.

    One important trait for a good sports stat is stability, or how much it varies from season to season. If last year’s performance can’t predict next year’s because the number is too sensitive to context, you probably don’t want to make it the sole basis for any expensive hiring decisions.

    By that standard, our manager metric is a bust. For head coaches who change jobs, there’s no correlation whatsoever between the previous year’s performance above or below expectations at their old club and their first season at their new club. Even though goal difference added seemed pretty good at identifying this season’s hottest managers, it has zero predictive value for new hires.

    When Chelsea spent £21.5 million to sign Graham Potter, he was coming off one of the best runs by any head coach in the last seven years: in 2020-21 and 2021-22, Brighton finished 22 and 13 adjusted goals better than expected. His seven months in London went, er, not quite as well.

    Brighton, meanwhile, signed Roberto De Zerbi even though his final season at Sassuolo had been about average compared to their squad value. He’d had a pretty good season the year before that, and a respectable stint outside the top five leagues at Shakhtar Donetsk in between, but nothing that might have hinted that his first season at Brighton would be the fourth-best out of hundreds in our dataset.

    What can explain the difference between these two very different hiring stories? Maybe there’s a clue in how Brighton’s famously analytical owner Tony Bloom explained his process. “I am confident,” he said of the De Zerbi hire, “his style and tactical approach will suit our existing squad superbly.”


    De Zerbi (facing camera) and Potter in 2022 (Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)

    Smart clubs don’t just hire successful managers in hopes that they possess some innate knowledge of how to win. They’re careful to match a coach’s tactics to the players they already have, knowing that changing styles will cost them money and time.

    “I don’t want to have to replace 15 players or something like that over two years,” says one veteran analytics consultant, who requested anonymity to protect client relationships. “Because then it becomes a project of just kind of cycling through players and hoping things work out.”

    Not every club is as careful about this step as Brighton. Chaudhuri explains that searches often start with a “performance piece” to determine whether managers are making the most of their current squad, but “then you have a playing style piece, which clubs generally tend to be quite vague on how they want to play. They say, ‘We want games to be attractive and exciting,’ whatever that means. And then you go, ‘Okay, tell us what you think that looks like.’”

    The other consultant agrees. “I had this meeting yesterday, I gave five candidates, like, ‘What do you think of these five?’” he says. “And he was like, ‘Well, I like these four.’ But I said, ‘One of these four is actually not the style you said you want.’”

    Figuring out which managers have exceeded expectations is the easy part. You can watch their players flinging them into the air at a trophy celebration and envision your club doing the same next season. But success, on its own, is fickle. It also tends to be expensive. The right question isn’t “How do we know if a manager is good?” but “How do we know if a manager will be good for this group of players?”

    The secret ingredient in hiring the right coach is style — and not just the kind that comes with really good hair.

    (Header photo: Lars Baron/Getty Images)

    The Athletic recently profiled six of European football’s most innovative up-and-coming managers.

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  • Mbappe is leaving PSG: Thank god that’s finally over

    Mbappe is leaving PSG: Thank god that’s finally over

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    Ice ages haven’t lasted as long as this.

    Kylian Mbappe to Real Madrid… it has been a thing for about a decade at least.

    The Athletic was not even in existence when the pair began courting each other. Twitter was still fun (and called Twitter), Taylor Swift hadn’t heard of American football and the closest thing we got to a global pandemic was from watching Contagion.

    It has been an inexorably long saga, the very worst kind of transfer saga in fact, with endless posturing, incessant lies and spin and thousands upon thousands of stories claiming that it is finally happening.

    Well now, once and for all, it surely is. Mbappe will leave PSG and you’d have to assume that next season, he will play in the Bernabeu (assuming another club doesn’t have the opportunity to pip them and he ends up at, say, Osasuna) and the football world can concentrate on talking about other stuff like, you know, football matches.

    The world’s best player will not rot in PSG’s reserves, believe it or not. He won’t be put on gardening leave either. Instead, he’ll play for the club he’s wanted to play for forever and Real Madrid will sign the player they’ve wanted to sign forever. Imagine that.

    If you think we have had it bad here, try living in Spain where the coverage has been akin to the kind we would get for the death of a royal family member in the UK.

    In recent months, since Mbappe did not take up the option to extend his contract until 2025, things have gone feral. On TV and radio, whether Real Madrid are winning matches or losing matches, whether Jude Bellingham is scoring goals or not, whether Carlo Ancelotti is staying as manager or leaving, Mbappe news trumps the lot.


    Do not fret, the saga is almost over (Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)

    Ancelotti will regularly face questions about Mbappe in press conferences, which you kind of expect. But Real Madrid players, Javier Tebas (the president of La Liga), even Xavi and Joan Laporta over at Barcelona, they have all been quizzed for their Mbappe opinions. Honestly, who cares? Other than the TV producers who need to quench an insatiable need for 24/7 rolling football coverage.

    Why would anyone want to know what Laporta thinks about another club signing another player? Just ask Nick Knowles what he thinks of the UK slipping back into recession while you’re at it. It’s pointless to the point of utter saturation, a stage we reached with this on/off transfer yonks ago.

    go-deeper

    Front pages have been dominated by Mbappe in Spain for ages, focusing unremittingly on ‘the decision’.

    “Mbappe will want to play for Real Madrid,” one Marca headline screamed in April 2020. Presumably “in 2024” was in the small print.

    “Mbappe takes the step” followed in September of that year, implying he was on his way to Madrid. Presumably just on holiday.

    “The game of the summer” was last year. Maybe they meant the Ashes.

    There has even been a saga within the saga, with Madrid feeling betrayed by Mbappe when he chose to sign his last extension with PSG. Madrid fans said they wouldn’t forgive Mbappe… for choosing to stay with his current employers. Grow up.

    The journalists were at it too. Mbappe’s decision to remain in Paris was called “the biggest mistake in his career”; even if he won the Champions League and another World Cup, it wouldn’t be enough. Oh, and the fact he wanted to stay in the fifth-best league in the world indicated “he holds himself in very low esteem”.


    Mbappe in 2022 committing his future to PSG for, well, another couple of years at least (Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)

    That does feel like a very Real Madrid thing, though; sheer indignation at any player in the world daring to turn them down. It’s a very special kind of attitude, one that has fuelled and exacerbated the dullest soap opera storyline since Ian Beale’s weight loss struggles on Eastenders.

    There has never been a moment when it did not seem as if Mbappe was heading to Real Madrid at some point soon. It has always been when, not if — even when he tweeted “LIES” about a report saying he wanted to join Real last summer. “I have already said that I will continue at PSG where I am very happy,” he added, while doing the David Brent long nose mime.

    To be honest, we say it’s a done deal, but no doubt we should be prepared for the next chapter. Which club will Mbappe join now that he has confirmed he is leaving PSG? Within minutes of today’s news breaking, an odds comparison website sent out an email (in such a hurried fashion that the email subject mistakenly read “Kylian Mbappe set to leave Real in summer 2024”) stating there was an “implied chance of 83.3 per cent” that Mbappe was off to Madrid, but also a 3.8 per cent chance he could go to Barcelona, a move that would involve more lever pulling than an octopus running a train station.

    But for now, it feels like it’s finally over. And when we see Mbappe, at last, holding aloft that famous all-white kit, we’ll all be relieved. Unless it’s Leeds United on a Bosman from PSG in 2034.

    (Top photo: Julien de Rosa/AFP via Getty Images)

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  • The big stars with contracts expiring in 2025

    The big stars with contracts expiring in 2025

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    What do Mohamed Salah, Neymar, Kevin De Bruyne, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Lionel Messi have in common? Their contracts are all expiring in 2025.

    While the summer transfer window looks set to be headlined by Kylian Mbappe and the saga of his potential switch from Paris Saint-Germain to Real Madrid, the world’s biggest clubs will be on alert as they attempt to navigate the contract situations of some of the best players in the world.

    Who might move? Who looks likely to stay at their club? Which teams are interested in Alphonso Davies and Joshua Kimmich, whose contracts also expire in 2025?

    The Athletic explains below.

    Mohamed Salah

    Who is the player most synonymous with Liverpool’s success during the Jurgen Klopp era, if not Salah?

    The Egypt international is out of action after suffering a hamstring injury during the Africa Cup of Nations. Still, he remains as important as ever to his club as they aim to win their second Premier League title.

    The 31-year-old was the subject of significant interest during last summer’s transfer window, with Saudi club Al Ittihad testing Liverpool’s resolve with a bid of £150million ($188m), and this saga appears likely to continue into next summer providing the prolific forward does not sign a new contract.

    GO DEEPER

    Salah, Van Dijk and Alexander-Arnold contracts: What we’re hearing

    Sources close to Al Ittihad indicated they had not given up hope and were prepared to pay up to £200million for the most famous Arab footballer on the planet — a move that would place him alongside Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar as poster boys for the Saudi Pro League. The package offered, understood to be worth around £1.5million ($1.9m) per week, around four times his current salary, would help grease the wheels, too.

    Salah appears to be in his prime years, unlike Fabinho and Jordan Henderson, whom Liverpool sold to Saudi clubs last summer, and has shown no signs of agitating for a move. However, with Liverpool’s future uncertain in light of Klopp’s upcoming summer departure, Salah may want to wait for key roles to be addressed before committing his future to the club.

    Mohamed Salah, Liverpoool


    (John Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

    Neymar

    All is not well for Brazil’s biggest star in Saudi Arabia.

    Two months after joining Al Hilal from PSG in an £80million ($102m) transfer last August, he suffered an injury to his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and meniscus in his left knee, requiring surgery. The 32-year-old is not expected to play again this season.

    In recent weeks, he has addressed claims from Saudi supporters that he has put on weight during his injury rehabilitation, with Neymar responding in Portuguese, “Overweight, great. But fat? I don’t think so!” in a video posted on Instagram.

    Due to his unfortunate start to life in Saudi, Neymar’s long-term future is in the air. With the World Cup coming to the United States in 2026, Brazil’s record goalscorer may want another attempt to win one of the only trophies that has evaded him, potentially opening the door for a return to Europe to ensure he plays at the highest level before the tournament. A homecoming to Brazil cannot be ruled out either, nor can staying with Al Hilal, where Neymar is due to earn an estimated $300million (£235m) over two years.

    Lionel Messi

    Fresh from being named men’s player of the year at the FIFA Best Awards in January, Messi is travelling the world on a pre-season tour with Inter Miami and a few of his best friends — Luis Suarez, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba.

    His decision to depart Europe for Major League Soccer before staying with PSG, returning to Barcelona or following in the footsteps of Cristiano Ronaldo and going to Saudi Arabia looks like the right one.

    While his move has been an undoubted commercial success, the prospect of rejoining his hometown club in Argentina, Newell’s Old Boys, retains its appeal.

    Messi will be 38 on the expiry of his contract, leaving the prospect of staying in Miami, returning to Rosario, or even retiring as genuine possibilities. As is customary for MLS players, his contract expires in December (the end of the American soccer season) rather than June, with an option to extend his deal until 2026, which would take him to the age of 39.

    Lionel Messi


    (Francois Nel/Getty Images)

    Joshua Kimmich

    Before Harry Kane’s arrival, Kimmich was arguably Bayern’s most important player.

    Since joining the club in 2015 from RB Leipzig, the 28-year-old has made 248 league appearances and won eight Bundesliga titles, as well as the Champions League once. With Manuel Neuer and Thomas Muller approaching the end of their careers, all seemed set for Kimmich to take over the mantle as club captain and play the remainder of his career in Bavaria — which makes it more surprising that his contract situation is not yet sorted.

    Manchester City are exploring a move for the midfielder as they look for someone to play alongside Rodri, as well as providing cover for his position, but they know a deal will not be straightforward. If Kimmich does not sign a new contract with Bayern in the coming months, with negotiations yet to begin, the German giants are expected to put him up for sale in the summer. That would be a shocking development for a player that former club executive Karl-Heinz Rummenigge described as “the embodiment of world class” in 2021.

    Like in 2014, when Toni Kroos was allowed to depart for Real Madrid, Bayern could lose a top-class player in his prime for under market value.

    Trent Alexander-Arnold

    Like Jamie Carragher or Steven Gerrard — up until his late-career move to the LA Galaxy — it is difficult to see Alexander-Arnold, who grew up a 10-minute drive away from Anfield, ever playing for a club other than Liverpool.

    Having been promoted to vice-captain by Klopp before the start of the season, Alexander-Arnold has grown under the extra responsibility and he looks set to wear the armband permanently in the future. With 18 months remaining on his contract, Liverpool will look to tie down the 25-year-old to a long-term deal that reflects his importance to them.

    While the departures of Klopp and his staff may complicate things slightly, given the German coach gave him his debut and has retained faith through more challenging moments in recent seasons, Alexander-Arnold is a bedrock for Liverpool to build on when they enter a new era.

    Alphonso Davies

    Alongside Kimmich and Leroy Sane, Davies rounds off the trio of world-class talents whose contracts are set to expire with Bayern in 2025.

    Still only 23, Davies broke into Bayern’s first team in 2019 at 18 and has since won five Bundesliga titles and a Champions League. He’s already considered among the best full-backs in the world and there are few players, if any, who can replicate his pace and attacking quality in his position.

    Bayern are expected to put him up for sale in the summer if they cannot agree a contract extension beforehand. Many clubs will be interested in a move this summer and Real Madrid are monitoring his situation. Considering he has started in all but one of the 27 games he has played for Bayern this season, they will not let him depart easily.


    (Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)

    Kevin De Bruyne

    Despite missing half of the season through injury, it has not taken long for De Bruyne to find his best form. In his first appearance since suffering a hamstring injury on the season’s opening day, he scored and assisted in City’s 3-2 win against Newcastle United in January.

    On January 31, in his first start back, he assisted Julian Alvarez as City made light work of Burnley in a 3-1 win. For almost any other player with De Bruyne’s injury history, a club with City’s resources would likely be searching around Europe for his immediate replacement. Still, the Belgian is arguably the best midfielder in the world and any alternative in the same position would be a certain downgrade.

    Given De Bruyne’s age (32) and injury history, it would be irresponsible for City not to be preparing alternatives. With most clubs in Europe unable to offer a salary he would demand, there are very few realistic options available, particularly if he can put his recent injury woes behind him, and City will be keen to keep their star creator.

    Leroy Sane

    After three years in Munich, Sane has found his best career form under Thomas Tuchel. In 20 Bundesliga matches this season, he has scored eight goals and laid on 11 assists, an excellent return for the wide player who has adjusted brilliantly to the arrival of Kane.

    Yet if his contract is not renewed in the coming months, Sane will likely be put up for sale in the summer. Expect Bayern to be keen to renew his deal, given his immediate connection with Kane, but the former Manchester City man will have suitors.

    The prospect of attracting the versatile 28-year-old — a left-footed wide player capable of playing on either wing — at a cut price means top European clubs will keep an eye on his situation before this summer’s transfer window.

    Son Heung-min

    Following the departures of Hugo Lloris and Kane from Tottenham Hotspur in the summer, Son has taken on the mantle as club captain and star player this season. Under Ange Postecoglou, the South Korea international has put last season’s struggles behind him — scoring 12 goals and adding five assists in 20 league games.

    Son signed his most recent deal in 2021, a four-year contract with an option to extend by a year — something Tottenham are expected to do. But this will likely be Son’s last major contract as he will turn 34 in 2026.


    (Julian Finney/Getty Images)

    Virgil van Dijk

    Since being given the captain’s armband by Klopp in pre-season, Virgil van Dijk has quietened suggestions that his prime years are behind him with some dominant performances at the heart of Liverpool’s defence. But with 18 months remaining on his contract, he and Liverpool are caught in a dilemma.

    Van Dijk is one of the Premier League’s greatest centre-backs, combining athleticism, technical quality and defensive anticipation in a way that few have ever done, making Liverpool’s decision whether to invest heavily in the future more challenging.

    He is turning 33 this summer and there will be question marks on whether he can replicate his best form as his physical qualities decline, particularly as Van Dijk is one of the club’s highest-paid players.

    With Klopp’s departure this summer, Liverpool’s future is still being determined. Asked whether he sees himself as part of the next era, Van Dijk responded: “That’s a big question. I don’t know.” He later clarified that he is still “fully committed to the club”, indicating he is not considering his long-term future while Liverpool remain in the hunt for four trophies this season.

    Ivan Toney

    It seems the right decision for all parties for Toney to depart Brentford this summer. After serving an eight-month ban for betting offences, the England striker has returned to action in excellent form, scoring two goals in two league matches — immediately picking up where he left off last season, where he was one of only three players to score 20 Premier League goals or more.

    Fortunately for suitors, Toney has made it clear he sees his long-term future away from Brentford several times.

    “You can never predict when the right time to move elsewhere is but I think it’s obvious I want to play for a top club,” Toney told Sky Sports in January. “Everybody wants to play for a top club, (one) fighting for titles. Whether it’s this January that is the right time for a club to come in and pay the right money, who knows?”

    In January, Brentford head coach Thomas Frank said it would take an “unbelievable price” to take Toney away from the west Londoners. Still, with one year remaining on his deal in the summer, it would be in the club’s best interests to facilitate a move, with their star striker seemingly seeing his future elsewhere.

    Warren Zaire-Emery

    PSG are known for producing some of the best talent in Europe. Kingsley Coman, Adrien Rabiot, Christopher Nkunku, Patrice Evra and Nicolas Anelka have all graduated from the Parisians’ academy in the last three decades. Zaire-Emery could turn out to be the best out of the lot.

    The 17-year-old has already made his international debut, becoming the youngest player to be called up for France since 1914, scoring a goal in a 14-0 win over Gibraltar. As a versatile midfielder capable of playing as a No 6, 8 and 10, he has drawn comparison to Jude Bellingham, three years his elder. Zaire-Emery is a different type of player but they share world-class potential.

    So PSG, who are preparing for the eventual departure of Mbappe, will be keen to tie Zaire-Emery down long term. Born in Montreuil, an eastern suburb around 6km from the centre of Paris, he is the ideal face of a post-Mbappe PSG. If discussions stall, however, expect all of Europe’s top clubs to react quickly.


    (Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)

    Weston McKennie

    For those who followed Leeds United’s relegation from the Premier League last season, it might be a shock to see McKennie starting regularly for Juventus. Under Massimiliano Allegri, however, he has developed into a critical cog in Juventus’s midfield as they compete to win Serie A.

    With a home World Cup in 2026, McKennie will want to play regular club football to ensure he retains an important role for the United States. Clubs needing a high-energy midfielder will monitor his situation if he falls out of favour. Until then, though, McKennie looks settled and happy in Turin.

    Thiago Almada

    If Almada departs Atlanta United this summer, he will likely become the most expensive player to leave Major League Soccer in its history. The record is Miguel Almiron’s transfer from Atlanta to Newcastle United for £21million ($27m) in 2019, and Almada, already a World Cup winner with Argentina, is expected to fetch around $30m.

    Like Toney, Almada is keen to secure a move to a top European club. Eager to take advantage of a franchise-altering fee, Atlanta will facilitate a transfer, providing a club meets their valuation. They will have slightly more time than Brentford, however, as the 22-year-old’s deal expires in December 2025. Still, given the potential for a big sale, the MLS outfit will be keen not to let the value decline by allowing Almada’s contract to run down.

    Conor Gallagher

    At the beginning of 2023, Chelsea tried to sell Gallagher to Everton. Last summer, Chelsea rejected a £40million bid from West Ham. Tottenham were interested in January but a move never materialised. If Gallagher’s future is not sorted before the summer transfer window, his future may lie away from Stamford Bridge.

    As the England international is an academy-trained player, a fee received for Gallagher will count as pure profit in the club’s accounts. Having spent over £1billion since Chelsea’s owners took over in May 2022, the money will help when it comes to Profit and Sustainability rules. However, Gallagher has played regularly under Mauricio Pochettino and has worn the armband several times this season — indicating the manager’s trust in him.

    A potential departure may upset Chelsea fans, who have seen academy graduates depart frequently in recent seasons, but if there were a decision to part ways, the 23-year-old would not be short of suitors.

    (Top photos: Getty Images)



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  • Which players can now sign pre-contract agreements for Bosman moves?

    Which players can now sign pre-contract agreements for Bosman moves?

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    Follow live coverage of Liverpool vs Newcastle in the Premier League today

    This season’s winter transfer window is now open, meaning clubs can officially start the scramble to add reinforcements or offload players deemed surplus to requirements.

    Premier League sides can do business until 11pm GMT on Thursday, February 1 — and, following discussions with the major leagues around Europe, that will also be deadline day in La Liga (Spain), Serie A (Italy), Ligue 1 (France) and the Bundesliga (Germany).

    But while clubs who want to sign players under contract must negotiate and, usually, pay a transfer fee during a FIFA-determined transfer window, wise forward planning allows ‘pre-contract agreements’ in some circumstances.

    The Athletic explains what these are and which players due to be out of contract in the summer could now step up transfer plans…

    What is a pre-contract agreement and when can players sign one?

    A pre-contract allows clubs to get ahead with their recruitment, with a player and an interested club able to commit to a move before that player’s current deal expires.

    Talks can begin up to six months before a contract expires — meaning January 1 is a key date for the many players whose deals end on June 30 — but only with teams other than the one the player concerned is currently registered with (their parent club if presently out on loan).

    GO DEEPER

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    Domestic transfers are regulated by each country’s football association as opposed to world governing body FIFA — and in a further restriction, the English FA cuts longer pre-contract timeframes in a bid to avoid conflicts of interest in the event a player might face their future club before leaving their current one.

    Any player looking to move from one English team to another as a soon-to-be free agent can only open talks a month before their contract expires.

    Which notable players can sign a pre-contract agreement?

    Note: Some players below have club options in contracts that are yet to be triggered.

    Premier League

    Raphael Varane

    Manchester United have a decision to make about a player who has won one World Cup final, played in another and won the Champions League four times. Varane’s contract expires this summer, with the option of an additional year to extend his stay until 2025.


    Varane is in the third and final year of his contract (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

    Thiago

    Thiago’s consistent injury problems played a part in Liverpool signing four new midfielders in last year’s summer window. He rejected offers from Saudi Arabia at that time but, as things stand, it seems more probable he will leave Liverpool after this season rather than stay.

    Jorginho

    It is common for clubs to include the option of an extra year in a contract and Jorginho, who was signed by Arsenal for £12million on deadline day in January 2023, is no exception, with an option to extend the Italy midfielder’s stay at the Emirates by an additional year should Arsenal choose to.

    Thiago Silva

    Chelsea are heavily reliant on Silva, despite his age. The 39-year-old remains a regular starter halfway through their first season under Mauricio Pochettino. It is not yet known if Silva will be offered a new contract. Chelsea’s current centre-back options beyond the long-time Brazil captain include Alex Disasi, Wesley Fofana, Benoit Badiashile, Levi Colwill, Trevoh Chalobah, Bashir Humphreys and Malang Sarr.

    Fabian Schar

    Having started all 19 of Newcastle’s Premier League games this season, Schar looks set to stick around beyond June when his current contract expires. Newcastle are expected to offer him a new deal in the coming months.

    Eric Dier

    The Tottenham defender was offered to Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest in the summer transfer window but ended up staying in north London. Dier has featured in only four Premier League games this season, starting one, and seems likely to continue as a backup option who rarely plays under Ange Postecoglou.

    Anthony Martial

    Martial became the world’s most expensive teenager when Manchester United signed him from Monaco in 2015 in a deal worth £36million, potentially rising to £58m. He then signed a five-year contract in 2019 with an option of an extra year. But, like David de Gea, who left in the summer despite having an optional year on his deal, United do not intend to prolong Martial’s stay under the terms of his current agreement.

    Ivan Perisic

    After featuring in all but four of 38 Premier League games last season, with 23 starts, Perisic, who was originally signed for Tottenham by his former Inter Milan coach Antonio Conte, had not featured as much during the current campaign even before an ACL injury in September. Spurs are not expected to offer him a long-term extension.

    Joel Matip

    “I’m pretty sure the club will show their class,” manager Jurgen Klopp said in December when asked if Liverpool plan to offer Matip a new contract. Originally signed on a free transfer in the summer of 2016, Matip has a long-term knee injury that means he might have already played his last game for Liverpool.

    Seamus Coleman

    Coleman is now into his 15th season at Everton after signing an extension last summer. The 35-year-old defender is club captain but is now a peripheral figure in terms of the first team, having made just two Premier League appearances this season.

    Willian

    Like others, Willian was offered the opportunity of a pay rise via a move to a club in Saudi Arabia last summer. Al Shabab were willing to offer the now 35-year-old Brazilian winger a salary of £200,000 per week. In the end, he signed a new one-year deal at Fulham, which includes the option to extend by an additional 12 months.


    Willian could yet extend his stay in London (Alex Davidson/Getty Images)

    James Milner

    Jurgen Klopp was interested in keeping Milner last summer but Liverpool opted against it, which paved the way for Brighton to swoop in and sign him as a free agent. With more than 600 Premier League appearances under his belt, the ever-present midfielder continues to be an important player under Roberto De Zerbi.

    Mohamed Elneny

    Arsenal’s longest-serving player signed a contract extension in February 2023 that will keep him at the club until June. Opportunities for first-team action this season have been limited, with Elneny making only four appearances in all competitions; just one as a substitute in the Premier League.

    Adam Lallana

    If Lallana, who turns 36 in May, decides to call time on his playing career, a pathway into coaching with current club Brighton could be his next venture. During the international break in September last year, Lallana joined up with the England Under-21s squad in a coaching capacity, and Brighton have a reputation for hiring former players in coaching roles.

    Serge Aurier

    Following the recent appointment of Nuno Espirito Santo, it remains to be seen if Aurier will feature as prominently for Nottingham Forest as he did under predecessor Steve Cooper. If Forest do want to keep the now-31-year-old full-back, they have an option to extend his current agreement by an extra year.

    Idrissa Gueye

    Everton brought Gueye back to the club from Paris Saint-Germain in summer 2022, three years after he left them for the French side, and signed him to a two-year contract. The midfielder has featured in the majority of Everton’s games so far under Sean Dyche.

    Danny Welbeck

    As one of Brighton’s most senior pros, Welbeck’s contributions extend beyond what happens on the pitch. Despite not being a regular starter, he is still considered a valuable player at Brighton.

    Tosin Adarabioyo

    Tosin was on Tottenham’s radar last summer and with his contract now running down, he is likely one of most coveted free-agents-to-be over the coming months. Signed for a bargain fee of just £1.5million, Fulham could lose a player they thought they would be able to make a sizeable profit from, for free.

    Felipe

    The Brazilian defender was signed on an 18-month contract a year ago after moving from Atletico Madrid to Nottingham Forest. It was expected that he would be a key player during the current campaign, but Felipe has made only four appearances during 2023-24.

    Nathaniel Clyne

    Clyne, an academy graduate at Crystal Palace, has signed successive one-year contracts during the past two seasons having returned to them in 2020 after three years with Southampton and five at Liverpool. His latest agreement is set to expire soon. The former England full-back, who will be 33 when the season ends, has featured sparingly (nine league appearances with six starts) but could still be retained for the seniority and leadership he offers.

    Lukasz Fabianski

    In 2022, Fabianski signed a one-year contract at West Ham with the option to extend it by an additional 12 months. That option was activated last summer. The goalkeeper has predominantly been used in cup competitions this season, with five appearances in the Europa League group stage and two in the Carabao Cup to go with three Premier League starts.


    Fabianski has been second-choice at West Ham this season (Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

    Ben Mee

    Brentford are expected to keep 34-year-old defender Mee at the club beyond this summer’s expiry of his current contract. Mee, signed on a free transfer from relegated Burnley after the 2021-22 season, is considered to be a leader under head coach Thomas Frank.

    Aaron Wan-Bissaka

    Wan-Bissaka has a 12-month extension clause in his current contract, but Manchester United are yet to announce if they will trigger that option or not. The defender became United’s fifth-most-expensive signing when he moved from Crystal Palace for £50million in the summer of 2019.

    Bertrand Traore

    Traore spent last season on loan at Turkey’s Istanbul Basaksehir and finds himself on the fringes of Unai Emery’s Aston Villa squad in this one, with just two Premier League appearances – both as a substitute. It is expected that the winger will be allowed to leave in the summer once his contract expires.

    Michail Antonio

    West Ham’s longest-tenured player signed a two-and-a-half-year contract in January 2022 that included the option of an extension to 2025. The forward came close to leaving the club last January — Wolves and Nottingham Forest wanted to sign him permanently, and Chelsea submitted a loan offer.

    Ryan Christie

    Bournemouth have a few players whose deals will expire at the end of the season. Of that group, Christie, who has featured prominently this season under new coach Andoni Iraola, seems the most likely to stick around. Other players whose contracts run out in June are Darren Randolph, Ryan Fredericks, Emiliano Marcondes and Adam Smith.

    Will Hughes

    Hughes joined Crystal Palace for £6million in the summer of 2021 and finds himself entering the final few months of the contract he signed upon arrival from Watford. His team-mates Joel Ward, Nathan Ferguson, Jairo Riedewald, James Tomkins and Remi Matthews are also set to become free agents when this season comes to a close.

    Dele Alli

    The former Tottenham and England midfielder is yet to feature for Everton this season, after spending the previous one out on loan at Turkish club Besiktas. Any future contract extension will likely depend on how often Dele features during the latter half of the season.

    Adrian

    Goalkeepers often spend the final part of their career as the third-choice at a club, providing intangible contributions for others. Adrian falls into that bracket. “I know the situation and my role in the squad,” he said during an interview with The Athletic in June. He is firmly behind Alisson and Caoimhin Kelleher at Liverpool and his contract situation is assessed on a year-to-year basis at the end of each season.

    Jonny Evans

    Northern Ireland’s fourth-most capped player originally signed a short-term contract back at Manchester United before the deal was extended for the duration of the current season on deadline day last September. The 35-year-old defender has made 12 appearances in the Premier League and two in the Champions League.

    Josh Brownhill

    Having started all but three games for Burnley this season following their return to the Premier League under Vincent Kompany, it would seem likely that the club will activate the option to extend Brownhill’s contract by an additional year. Jay Rodriguez, Jack Cork and Charlie Taylor are also set to be out of contract, while Johann Berg Gudmundsson has an additional one-year option.

    Josh Brownhill


    Brownhill has been a regular for Burnley (Jan Kruger/Getty Images)

    Vladimir Coufal

    West Ham are in negotiations with Coufal to keep him around beyond the summer. Aaron Cresswell and Angelo Ogbonna are also set to be out of contract, but the club are unlikely to offer them new deals.

    Chris Wood

    The loan agreement Forest had in place for Wood was made permanent for £15million because of a clause in the agreement with his previous club Newcastle. Eighteen months later, the striker finds himself out of contract soon, alongside Ethan Horvath, Cheikhou Kouyate, Ola Aina, Wayne Hennessey, Willy Boly, Scott McKenna and Harry Arter.

    go-deeper

    GO DEEPER

    David Ornstein’s January transfer window guide: The plans for the Premier League’s top teams

    La Liga

    Luka Modric

    A staple of Real Madrid’s dynastic run in the Champions League that yielded five trophies between 2014-22, Modric does not have much left to accomplish at club level. Croatia’s record cap holder is out of contract soon, turns 39 early next season and received offers from clubs in Saudi Arabia last year.

    Toni Kroos

    Modric’s long-time Madrid midfield partner finds himself in a similar position, but there is an interesting difference between the two players in terms of their contracts. When Madrid gave Kroos a new deal last summer, they wanted to sign him until 2025. But the 2014 World Cup winner, who’ll turn 34 this week, opted to sign just a one-year contract instead.

    Sergio Ramos

    In April 2022, Ramos said he wanted to play at the top level for another “four or five years”. Basic maths tell us the former Real Madrid defensive stalwart, who is now back at his first pro club Sevilla, is intent on extending his career until 2026 at the earliest, which suggests retirement is not on the cards in June.

    Koke

    Atletico Madrid are the only club Koke has ever played for. The midfielder, who turns 32 in a week, still features regularly for Diego Simeone’s side, which would suggest he may be set to continue his career in Spain’s capital.

    Serie A

    Olivier Giroud

    Giroud is still making meaningful contributions at AC Milan, having scored eight goals to go along with five assists in Serie A. The now 37-year-old signed a new contract in April that runs to the end of this season. Given that he is still in good form, he will not be short of suitors in a few months.

    Adrien Rabiot

    Manchester United have tried to sign Rabiot twice in the past two years. Last summer, he chose to remain at Juventus for another season instead. The terms of that agreement will see the France midfielder again become a free agent in June.


    Rabiot has been courted by Manchester United (Isabella Bonotto/AFP via Getty Images)

    Leonardo Spinazzola

    An Achilles injury during Italy’s triumphant European Championship finals campaign in summer 2021 derailed Spinazzola’s climb towards becoming a household name across the continent. Since his recovery, the Roma full-back has continued to deliver under coach Jose Mourinho and was part of their side that won the first Europa Conference League in 2022.

    Alexis Sanchez

    Sanchez left Manchester United for Inter Milan, initially on a season’s loan, stayed two more years, left for Marseille, then rejoined Inter 12 months later last summer. With just two goals, both of which came in the Champions League, and zero assists in 13 overall appearances at age 35, his value to Simone Inzaghi’s team appears to be declining.

    Ligue 1

    Kylian Mbappe

    When Mbappe signed a new deal with Paris Saint-Germain in 2022, it was for two years with the option of an additional one. Usually, it is the club who decides whether or not to extend an agreement. But in this case, Mbappe has the final say. That contract is set to expire at the end of this season and he is yet to announce if he will activate the option to stay in Paris for an extra year.

    Keylor Navas

    Navas left PSG on loan last January in search of first-team football but after that spell with Nottingham Forest now finds himself back on the bench in Paris, and without any first-team appearances so far this season. A move away would seem probable, given that he is now 37 years old and Gianluigi Donnarumma, 24, is unlikely to be displaced as the club’s undisputed starter.

    Bundesliga

    Marco Reus

    Having spent more than a decade of his career at Borussia Dortmund, a logical assumption would be that Reus would be more interested in staying put rather than playing elsewhere. For now, there is no official word about where the midfielder, who turns 35 in May, will play next season, if at all.

    Mats Hummels

    Hummels’ next move has not yet been decided either but his age does not appear to be limiting his opportunities. The now 35-year-old continues to feature regularly for Dortmund and he was also named in new coach Julian Nagelsmann’s first Germany squad this past October.

    Which other players will soon be free agents?

    (Top photos: Getty Images)

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  • Kheira Hamraoui suffered an attack of ‘violent jealousy’. Two years on, this story is far from over

    Kheira Hamraoui suffered an attack of ‘violent jealousy’. Two years on, this story is far from over

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    After moving back to Paris Saint-Germain from Spain in the summer of 2021, midfielders Kheira Hamraoui and Aminata Diallo had lots in common.

    Both France internationals, they followed the same Muslim faith, stayed in the same hotel in their first few weeks at the Paris club and shared a summer holiday to Tanzania. They were also in the same place at the same time when a brutal attack occurred in Chatou, west of Paris, on November 4, 2021.

    On that day, two years ago, the footballers’ lives took very different paths.

    On the journey back home from a team dinner, Hamraoui and Diallo were stopped by two masked men. One hit Hamraoui with an iron bar, targeting her legs, and the other held Diallo to the steering wheel.


    Lawyer Said Harir holds up images of client Hamraoui’s injuries in November 2021

    Reports soon emerged that Diallo was linked to the attack so she could take Hamraoui’s place in the PSG team.

    Follow live coverage of AC Milan vs Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League today

    In September 2022, 10 months on, Diallo and five men were arrested and charged with three counts of aggravated assault and criminal conspiracy. According to a police report, Diallo instigated the attack on Hamraoui, her motive being “violent jealousy”.

    One man admitted to beating up Hamraoui and another is suspected of pinning Diallo to the steering wheel. The men claim to have acted on the orders of an unknown person whom they have not identified. They said Diallo instigated the attack.

    Diallo has always maintained she is innocent.

    The story has received global media coverage, with claims and counterclaims on both sides. Le Monde reported the theory of a revenge attack based on the relationship between Hamraoui and Eric Abidal, the former France men’s international and Barcelona men’s director of football, which was initially investigated as a lead by police. The public prosecutor confirmed Abidal has never been implicated in the investigation but was heard as a witness.

    Police and psychiatric reports have been leaked, with French media reporting Diallo was found by one psychiatrist to have “undeniable personality disorders”. The player’s lawyer says that is “bull****”.

    Details have emerged, again through French media, of malicious anonymous phone calls made to PSG players. Diallo’s home and car in Paris were also tapped and she was recorded saying, “They missed her… break her face.” Her lawyer does not dispute she said those words but argues the phrases are taken in isolation without context.

    There has been what has been described as “collateral” damage too, with changes in the management at PSG and France’s national team thought to be further fallout from the incident. And, as well as criminal charges, Hamraoui and PSG are pursuing civil actions related to the case.

    Diallo


    Diallo playing for PSG in May 2022 (Aurelien Meunier – PSG/PSG via Getty Images)

    The aftershock has been felt far and wide.

    A man referred to in initial reports as “Cesar M” — Cesar Mavacala, Diallo’s former advisor — is under police investigation for charges including threatening PSG with violence and “obtaining the departure of players (Hamraoui) and sports managers (Didier Olle-Nicolle) from PSG by coercion”. There have been claims of organised gang fraud said to be linked to Mavacala’s case, and an allegation of sexual assault against former PSG coach Olle-Nicolle that is strenuously denied.

    Mavacala, who has never been a registered agent, is the partner of former PSG player Kadidiatou Diani and the sporting advisor of PSG and France striker Marie-Antoinette Katoto.

    “My client categorically denies any involvement whatsoever in the acts of which he has been unjustly accused,” Mavacala’s lawyer Sandrine Pegand told The Athletic.

    But at the centre of it all are the two former PSG team-mates, Hamraoui and Diallo, forever linked by the events of that night in November two years ago.

    Hamraoui, now 33, has written a book — ‘Kheira a contre-pied’, which roughly translates to “Kheira on the counter-attack” — and is filming a documentary about the case. She left PSG in May 2023, saying the club had “abandoned” her, and joined Club America in Mexico in September.

    “Would they (PSG) have done the same to me if I’d been a man?” she wrote in her book. “Certainly not… My story is very revealing of what women represent in the world of football today.”

    Diallo, 28, now plays for Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia. It is unclear when the investigation will end and too early to confirm if or when the case will go to a trial.

    “This period is very complex for her,’ says Diallo’s lawyer, Romain Ruiz. “On the one hand, she has all the pressure (of the case) and on the other hand, Kheira, she was a friend, said to the police: ‘Aminata did that to me and I’m sure of that’.”

    Hamraoui’s lawyer denies her client told the police she thought Diallo was behind the attack.

    The Athletic has spoken to those close to PSG, the players’ lawyers and the public prosecutor to unpick the tangled web of what has happened to Hamraoui, Diallo and Mavacala since November 4 2021.

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    GO DEEPER

    Eleven months since PSG’s Kheira Hamraoui was beaten with an iron bar, this is where we are

    Kheira Hamraoui

    When her PSG contract expired in May 2023, Hamraoui said in a social media post she was turning a page after two years of “an infernal storm” at a club that “abandoned” her and “did everything it could to make (her) leave”.

    In January 2022, two months following the attack, Hamraoui returned to the pitch for PSG but experienced a turbulent second half of the season. On February 11, during a PSG men’s game against Rennes, supporters held banners which read: “Aminata Diallo, we strongly support you”, and “Kheira Hamraoui, whose turn is it?”, referring to claims about the number of lovers Hamraoui has allegedly had.

    PSG


    (FRANCK FIFE/AFP via Getty Images)

    “The goal was to be sure that Kheira would no longer play at PSG,” says Hamraoui’s lawyer Julia Minkowski.

    “She has been psychologically assaulted for 10 months,” her agent Sonia Souid told L’Equipe in September 2022. “She has been dragged through the mud, threatened with death, insulted, harassed at her workplace by several team-mates.”

    Hamraoui had a year left on her PSG contract and was determined to honour it but felt the club were trying to force her out.

    “Perhaps PSG were unable or unwilling to deal with all the media attention for reasons other than sporting ones,” Hamraoui told AFP in September this year. “They chose the easy way out by trying to push me out before the end of my contract.”

    This was a marked change of tone from Hamraoui. In an interview with L’Equipe in June 2022, Hamraoui had said: “The vast majority of (players) supported me. I was also touched by the support of the whole staff and the club. My return would have been much more difficult if I had not been supported.”

    However, in Hamraoui’s book, in a chapter titled ‘PSG, an inhumane club’, she claims she could not appear in any club footage, she was not called up at the same time as her team-mates in June ahead of the 2022-23 season and was not informed of planned squad meetings. She says her physio appointments were delayed and she was initially not invited to complete compulsory medical tests in July.

    The 33-year-old also says she was given one T-shirt — not two — at the start of the 2022-23 season, when usually players receive new kit. Hamraoui claims that when the team went to Spain for a pre-season trip, the new sporting director Angelo Castellazzi told her to stay in Paris.

    Those close to PSG, who like others in this article wish to remain anonymous to honour the legal process, maintain they acted as responsibly and sensitively as possible. They acknowledge Hamraoui was always considered to be the victim of the attack and their priority has always been to support the player. They have fully complied with the police authorities and have refrained from commenting publicly out of respect for the judicial process. They believe Hamraoui was treated on an equal footing with her team-mates. She also appeared in some of the club’s social media posts during the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons.

    PSG changed the women’s manager, assistant coaches and sporting director after deciding to take the club in a different direction, appointing the former Lyon head coach Gerard Precheur as their new boss on August 1 2022. He left his role by mutual consent in September 2023 with the club citing “personal reasons” for his departure.

    The new coach and sporting director assessed the team and decided which players would stay. Midfielder Hamraoui was told she would no longer be part of the new project, and that the club intended to recruit players with different technical profiles. They signed other midfielders, including Jackie Groenen from Manchester United and Lieke Martens from Barcelona.

    Hamraoui claims Castellazzi told her agent that she would not be part of the team and she had to leave. But she turned down offers for a loan move from Manchester United, Juventus, Inter Milan, Roma and Parma to stay at PSG.

    She made only five league starts in the first half of the season. When the transfer window opened in January 2023, Hamraoui claims PSG’s sporting director informed her agent they were going to recruit other midfielders and she had to leave.

    But Hamraoui stayed, and in February the then-France manager Corinne Diacre surprisingly named her in the squad for the Tournoi de France, a friendly international tournament.

    On February 15, Hamraoui started in France’s 1-0 win over Denmark. It was her 40th cap, one year after her previous national team appearance.

    France


    Hamraoui playing for France against Denmark (JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER/AFP via Getty Images)

    Three days after a disappointing 0-0 draw with Norway in the final match of that tournament, France captain and defender Wendie Renard announced her withdrawal from the France squad with the World Cup only five months away.

    Renard said she could “no longer support the current system which is far from the requirements of the highest level. It is a sad day but necessary to preserve my mental health.”

    Diani and Katoto followed.

    “If profound changes are introduced, I’ll be back,” said Diani.

    “I am no longer in line with the management of the France team nor the values it promotes,” added Katoto.

    Diacre was sacked as France’s head coach on March 9 and was replaced by Herve Renard (no relation to Wendie) on March 30. On the same day, police interviewed Diacre as a witness concerning the Hamraoui case.

    Diacre, France


    Diacre (right) with Diani in July 2022 (FRANCK FIFE/AFP via Getty Images)

    Diacre said she was the target of intimidation in the spring of 2022 to remove Hamraoui from the national team. This was confirmed by Diacre’s lawyer Christophe Ayela and the public prosecutor.

    Hamraoui did not make France’s 2023 World Cup squad. After the announcement, she told radio station France Inter: “I’m very sad and angry. I see it as an injustice.” The once Champions League winner still dreams of returning to the national team for next year’s Olympics in Paris.

    “One day, we may find out what was behind my ousting,” Hamraoui told AFP. “I am convinced that if I had been Swedish, English or Spanish, I would never have been abandoned by my federation or my club, as I was after my attack. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: in France, we don’t like victims.”

    Hamraoui thinks she was dispensed with by PSG so the club could protect their reputation.

    “They wash their dirty laundry as a family, and try to hush things up or get rid of troublesome elements in order to save face,” she wrote in her book. “Nothing must show in public. On the other hand, I’m a woman, and the sad reality is that the club doesn’t give a damn about women’s football.”

    Sources from PSG firmly deny all of these claims. It is to be noted that the club invested in their women’s team much earlier than many others. In January, the women’s team will move into the new state-of-the-art training centre in Poissy alongside the men’s.

    A PSG spokesperson said: “Kheira Hamraoui explained in her own words in an interview with L’Equipe on June 15 2022 how she was touched by the support of the whole staff and the club (PSG) and how things would have been much more difficult if she had not been supported.

    “The club acted responsibly and sensitively to support and provide care while adhering to the proper legal process. The club’s priority was to support Kheira Hamraoui and maintain the best possible climate within the dressing room, despite the circumstances and legal proceedings.”

    Aminata Diallo

    “She’s in the middle of a media crisis,” says Ruiz. “People are saying that she is a witch, guilty, and what she has done to Kheira is a disgrace. She’s under pressure.”

    Following the attack, Diallo played 15 more times for PSG and her contract expired in the summer of 2022. She stopped playing solely to focus on the case, according to one of her lawyers, Mourad Battikh, and was charged in September last year.

    Diallo was put under strict judicial supervision but a judge accepted her lawyers’ request to modify her bail conditions to allow her to work abroad. In January 2023, she joined Liga F side Levante on a six-month contract but her 12-month option to extend was not triggered.

    In August this year, Diallo joined Al Nassr, the club Cristiano Ronaldo plays for, in Saudi Arabia.

    According to Ruiz, she decided to move to the Middle East for some “fresh air”, to experience a new league, be closer aligned with her Muslim values and escape the scrutiny from the French media.

    Diallo, though, is still on bail and is forbidden to enter into contact with the possible co-perpetrators or accomplices of the case, Harmaoui, witnesses or particular members of the PSG team and management. She could be summoned by the judge at any point.

    PSG


    Diallo on November 9 2021 (Johannes Simon – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images,)

    In June 2023, Diallo saw a psychiatrist — a requirement of French law in cases such as these, according to her lawyer Ruiz. She had three appointments, some of which lasted nine and a half hours, an occurrence her lawyer says he has never seen before.

    Dr Isabelle Teillet, the psychiatrist, noted, according to a report in Le Journal du Dimanche, Diallo “shows no particular psychopathological traits” but did present “undeniable personality disorders”.

    “That’s bull****,” said Ruiz. “The psychiatric report shows that it is not Diallo’s personality that the expert considers to be disturbed, but it is only on reading the file sent to her by the judge that she speaks of a ‘personality disorder’”.

    Another police report, quoted in Le Parisien, described Diallo’s hatred for Hamraoui as “a slow, downward psychological spiral that has become pathological”.

    “That’s real bull****,” Ruiz tells The Athletic. “The police are not doctors or psychiatrists. They are not really great investigators. My advice to them is to keep in their field.”

    Diallo’s lawyers want the recordings of Diallo’s conversations in her car and flat to be disregarded from the case. French media have reported she was wiretapped for six months from April 2022, when she was living in Paris. The judge’s decision will be heard on November 24.

    The recordings from after the assault appeared particularly damning. Diallo is heard saying: “She had nothing, brother. We don’t give a damn… Her attack, who cares… She didn’t even stay a day in hospital… She didn’t get anything, brother… They missed her… break her face.”

    Her lawyers confirm Diallo said these things but maintain her words are taken out of context. They argue the way in which the police acquired the recordings from her car and flat was illegal. “The police asked for authorisation but based on false hypotheses,” says Ruiz.

    It is a legal technicality but Hamraoui’s lawyer Minkowski believes the recordings are relevant.

    “That is why they want them out,” she tells The Athletic. “Usually, if you ask something to be out of a file, you have a good reason for that.”

    Cesar Mavacala

    Mavacala is Diani’s partner and advises Katoto — two of the three players who stepped down from the France national team before Diacre’s dismissal. He was also very close to Diallo and, although not a registered agent, was her advisor in 2022.

    He is also facing criminal charges: Mavacala is suspected of trying to gain a financial or other advantage by violence, threats of violence or coercion by claiming that Katoto would only extend her contract if Hamraoui left PSG at the end of the 2021-22 season.

    Hamraoui would not leave the club for another year, but Katoto signed a three-year contract anyway worth a reported €600,000 (now £521,000; $643,000) gross annual salary in July 2022.

    Mavacala denies any wrongdoing, and while the investigation continues he is under judicial supervision — similar to conditional bail — and banned from appearing at PSG’s headquarters, the women’s training centre and any football stadium. He is also forbidden to make contact with Hamraoui, Diallo and four former and current PSG employees.

    France


    Diani and Katoto playing for France at Euro 2022 (Sarah Stier – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)

    “He (Mavacala) represents other players of the team — even if he has no formal licence to be an agent,” says Hamraoui’s lawyer Minkowski, claiming: “He tried to negotiate these contracts with one condition: Kheira leaves the team.”

    Mavacala is also suspected of having been behind claims that led to the departure of former PSG head coach Olle-Nicolle. On May 24 2022, PSG suspended Olle-Nicolle by mutual consent after saying some of the club’s players were allegedly exposed to “inappropriate actions and comments”.

    The public prosecutor announced the opening of a judicial investigation for “sexual assault by a person in authority” in May 2022 but no charges were brought.

    PSG also launched a formal investigation and then released a statement on July 31 which said the club and Olle-Nicolle had “decided to end their collaboration by mutual agreement”. It added: “Paris Saint-Germain specifies that, following the internal investigation carried out on May 24, no fault or misconduct has been found against him.”

    On June 23 of this year, however, former PSG player Diani, Mavacala’s partner, lodged a complaint of sexual assault against Olle-Nicolle and the public prosecutor opened another investigation.

    Le Parisien reported that, in August 2021, Olle-Nicolle was alleged to have touched several players’ bottoms — including Diani’s — with a miniature baseball bat, and also put his hand on Diani’s bottom. Olle-Nicolle firmly denies all the accusations and said he knows nothing about the incidents.

    “The investigation into who is behind these unfounded accusations revealed the active role played by Ms Diani’s partner,” claimed Olle-Nicolle in a statement provided by his lawyer, Guillaume Traynard.

    “Didier Olle-Nicolle notes that the new complaint against him comes only a few weeks after he filed a civil action against Ms Diani’s partner, in the case in which the latter is under investigation for organised fraud.

    “He deplores the fact that this complaint is being used as a means of settling scores and condemns the attempt to manipulate the justice system, of which he is once again a victim.” Olle-Nicolle has subsequently filed a complaint with the public prosecutor for libel.

    PSG


    Olle-Nicolle in April 2022 (FRANCK FIFE/AFP via Getty Images)

    Diani’s complaint against Olle-Nicolle was filed on June 23, seven days before her PSG contract expired. She joined Lyon on a four-year deal on August 1.

    The police, L’Equipe report, believe Mavacala — Diani’s partner — threatened PSG with the public release of the sexual assault story if the club did not agree to his demands for Diani’s contract renewal. Mavacala’s lawyer Pegand denied this, telling L’Equipe: “Cesar Mavacala protests his innocence.”

    Regarding Diani’s complaint, Pegand told Le Parisien: “Like many victims of sexual abuse, the first option is to remain silent. So we had to encourage people to speak out and give my client the time she needed to bring her case before the courts.”

    “I was used…” Olle-Nicolle told L’Equipe in September 2022. “(I am) a collateral victim of the Hamraoui case.”

    So what happens now?

    Given there are now two main criminal cases (Hamraoui’s attack and the charges against Mavacala), the judge will conduct further investigations.

    “What the investigation has to now determine is whether Mavacala just jumped on the opportunity of the attack or if there were other things,” says Hamraoui’s lawyer, Minkowski.

    If there is a trial, it could be at least another year for a date to be set. It would be public with three judges. All those charged and civil parties seeking damages would also be present and questioned.

    Diallo’s lawyer says she maintains her innocence and will not plead guilty for a lesser sentence.

    “Since day one, the police have decided that it was Aminata Diallo,” Ruiz tells The Athletic. “They ended all of the leads that used to be real at the beginning of this case. That’s the reason why I feel the police do not do their jobs properly. It’s too late (now) to follow the other leads.”

    Diallo’s fear of going to prison and serving a sentence — which could be up to 10 years for criminal conspiracy — weighs on her shoulders.

    “It’s a big fear for her,” Ruiz says. “She doesn’t want to be sent to jail. Her main fear is that she can be found guilty of something she didn’t do.”

    Diallo’s lawyers say the police have still not found the person who ordered the attack on Hamraoui.

    As for Hamraoui, her lawyer believes it is too long for a victim to wait three years for a trial.

    This case is far from over.

    (Top photos: ANP/Getty Images; Aurelien Meunier/PSG via Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)

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    The New York Times

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  • EA’s Next Soccer Game Is Turn-Based And Looks Like An RPG

    EA’s Next Soccer Game Is Turn-Based And Looks Like An RPG

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    Screenshot: EA

    EA’s next soccer game is going to be a bit different than most of its countless sports releases. That’s because, unlike FIFA or Madden, its upcoming FC Tactical is a turn-based RPG-like soccer game featuring magical-seeming special moves. Weird, but intriguing!

    The Week In Games: What’s Coming Out Beyond Madden NFL 24

    Announced on October 11, EA Sports’s FC Tactical is a free-to-play soccer game for mobile devices launching in 2024. But to be clear: This new game isn’t replacing FC Mobile 24 Soccer, the pre-existing EA soccer game on phones that plays like the console version. Instead, FC Tactical is something very different, described by EA in a press release as a turn-based game that will contain over 5,000 authentic players across 10 leagues, including Premier and Ligue 1.

    According to EA, matches are “simulated, with turn-based opportunities” where players will choose to defend, attack, pull off “skill moves,” or take shots at scoring a goal. Screenshots reveal an interface that looks a lot like other turn-based strategy games, just instead of tanks or fantasy warriors, there are soccer players in sports arenas.

    A screenshot shows the turn-based RPG-like interface of FC Tactical.

    Screenshot: EA

    EA says FC Tactical will feature a variety of modes including online friend matches, ranked play, leagues, and guilds. Folks will have to “train players” to “master high-skill moves” or unlock specific traits. That sounds a lot like this is some weird soccer RPG, and things only get weirder when you look at some of the screenshots featured on the game’s website and Google Play Store page.

    Some of the images show soccer players pulling off what I would describe as special attacks, complete with magical-looking visual effects like flames and energy pulses. I don’t expect any of these players are going to be summoning massive monsters to help them score a goal, but who knows?

    EA Sport’s FC Tactical launches next year. Players can pre-register via the Google Play Store or Apple App Store.

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    Zack Zwiezen

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  • Kylian Mbappé becomes Paris Saint-Germain’s all-time top scorer in Ligue 1 | CNN

    Kylian Mbappé becomes Paris Saint-Germain’s all-time top scorer in Ligue 1 | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Kylian Mbappé has already achieved much in his young career. The 24-year-old has won a World Cup, scored a hattrick in a World Cup final and is captain of France.

    On Saturday, he added more to his résumé by becoming Paris Saint-Germain’s all-time leading scorer in Ligue 1.

    Mbappé was the star of the show in a crucial 3-1 victory against Lens, scoring the opener for his 139th league goal for the club. He also beautifully set up Lionel Messi – who scored three minutes after Vitinha had put PSG 2-0 up – in a brilliant team goal.

    The Frenchman has achieved his feat in 169 Ligue 1 games, overtaking Edison Cavani who netted 138 times in Ligue 1 for the club in 200 league games.

    Second-placed Lens is challenging PSG for the Ligue 1 title but now nine points adrift of the Parisians it is looking likely that PSG will win an 11th title.

    Salis Adbul Samed’s red card in the 19th minute didn’t help Lens.

    PSG had been going through an indifferent period, losing two home games on the bounce to give title rivals Lens and Marseille hope.

    PSG coach Christophe Galtier told PSG TV after the match: “If there was a match we had to win, it was this one, after the two straight losses at the Parc. Lens are one of our rivals and obviously it was important to win.

    “There are seven games left. I know that Lens and Marseille will not give up. We must continue to be focused. I just saw that we have been in top spot since the beginning of the season.

    “We have to continue like that and prepare well for the Angers game, which comes early, on Friday. Our fixture list looks favorable, but it is only favorable if we invest ourselves fully and show a great determination to win.”

    PSG next plays Angers at the Stade Raymond-Kopa on April 21.

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  • PSG facing familiar Champions League fate after first-leg defeat against Bayern Munich | CNN

    PSG facing familiar Champions League fate after first-leg defeat against Bayern Munich | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    It may be the start of a new knockout phase in the Champions League, but it looks to be the same story for Paris Saint-Germain.

    The French side has failed to progress beyond the round of 16 four times in the last six seasons and could be facing the same fate this year after a 1-0 first-leg defeat against Bayern Munich at the Parc des Princes.

    Kingsley Coman, who also condemned PSG to a 1-0 defeat in the Champions League final two and a half years ago, scored the only goal of Tuesday’s game in the French capital, putting Bayern in control of the tie ahead of the second leg in Munich on March 8.

    The German champion controlled possession for most of the contest and saw that dominance rewarded early in the second half when Coman, unmarked in the PSG box, volleyed Alphonso Davies’ cross under Gianluigi Donnarumma.

    PSG responded by bringing on star striker Kylian Mbappé, who had been carrying a thigh injury ahead of the game.

    Pushing for an equalizer, Mbappé, the top scorer in the Champions League this season, used his pace to get behind the Bayern defensive line but had a shot saved by the face of goalkeeper Yann Sommer.

    He then had the ball in the net minutes later, only for the video assistant referee to rule that Nuno Mendes was offside in the build-up.

    By now, PSG had started to come alive and Mendes was proving a lively presence on the left wing. With six minutes remaining, the Portuguese international evaded Serge Gnabry and Joshua Kimmich and found Lionel Messi free in the box, but a brilliant block from Benjamin Pavard denied the equalizer.

    As the chances kept coming for PSG, Pavard was red carded after receiving a second yellow card for a late challenge on Messi. Although it made no difference to the scoreline, it does mean the defender will miss the second leg in Munich in three weeks’ time.

    “We said we had to take the positives, it’s a two-legged tie,” Mbappé told reporters after the game. “We can’t change what happened in the first leg. We will go there to qualify. We know that there is a possibility. There is always a good possibility to qualify.”

    While the defeat conjured up memories of PSG’s past shortcomings in the Champions League, fans did also get a glimpse into the future with Warren Zaïre-Emery becoming the youngest player to start a knockout stage game in the competition at the age of 16 years and 343 days.

    The midfielder was born in 2006, more than a year after the 35-year-old Messi made his Champions League debut.

    Zaire-Emery (left) takes on Davies at the Parc des Princes.

    After defeats against Marseille and Monaco, PSG has now lost three matches in a row for the first time since 2020 and faces Lille in the league on Sunday in a bid to get its season back on track.

    Bayern, meanwhile, has won all seven of its Champions League games this season and will feel confident about reaching the quarterfinals ahead of the second leg.

    “Overall, we did a good job,” said manager Julian Nagelsmann. “We’ve taken the first step and want to follow it up by taking the second.”

    In Tuesday’s other Champions League game, AC Milan defeated Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 at the San Siro thanks to Brahim Díaz’s early goal, giving the Italian side the advantage in its bid to reach the quarterfinals for the first time since 2011.

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  • Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo both score in thrilling exhibition match in Saudi Arabia | CNN

    Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo both score in thrilling exhibition match in Saudi Arabia | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo put on a show as they came head to head in Paris Saint-Germain’s 5-4 win over a Riyadh All-Star XI on Thursday.

    The exhibition match was played in Saudi Arabia’s capital and saw the two superstars renew their storied rivalry for possibly the last time.

    Despite being a friendly, the game was played at a furious pace as a packed out crowd inside the King Fahd Stadium was treated to a goal-fest between the French champion and a team consisting of the best players from Saudi’s domestic league.

    It was Messi who opened the scoring with a well taken finish within three minutes before Ronaldo equalized from the penalty spot after colliding with PSG goalkeeper Keylor Navas.

    Juan Bernat was then sent off for the French giant after bringing down Salem Al Dawsari as the last man, before defender Marquinhos reestablished PSG’s lead by turning in a wonderful cross from Kylian Mbappé.

    The breathtaking action continued with Neymar seeing his penalty saved before Ronaldo leveled the scores 2-2 before the break when he reacted quickest after his initial header hit the post.

    The Portugal international has yet to make his debut since moving to Al Nassr after the World Cup, but he delighted the crowds on Thursday by performing his trademark celebration.

    The 37-year-old is set to make his debut on Sunday as Al Nassr hosts Ettifaq at Mrsool Park.

    There was no let up in the second half with Sergio Ramos putting PSG back ahead after more brilliant work from Mbappé, before Jang Hyun-soo’s header leveled proceedings again.

    Mbappé then got on the score sheet himself after converting another penalty before both Ronaldo and Messi were substituted after the hour mark.

    Even without the two big names on the pitch, the game continued at a frantic pace and youngster Hugo Ekitike eventually put PSG out of sight after calmly finishing off a counterattack.

    There was still time, though, for Anderson Talisca to convert a long-range effort which ended up serving as little more than a consolation.

    The exhibition game was more than organizers could have dreamed of with all the biggest stars playing a part in a thrilling encounter.

    “Players from our league relished the opportunity to pit their talents against some of the best players in the world, such as Kylian Mbappé, Neymar, Achraf Hakimi, and, of course, Lionel Messi,” Saudi Pro League chairman AdbulAziz Al-Afaleq said in a statement.

    The game was played in front of a packed out crowd inside the King Fahd Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

    “Backed by an incredibly passionate crowd at the King Fahd International Stadium, the Saudi Pro League players truly put in a performance to be proud of that showcased the strength of Saudi Arabian football.”

    However, the match has been criticized by Amnesty International, which says the game was another example of sportswashing – a phenomenon whereby corrupt or autocratic regimes invest in sport and sports events to whitewash their international reputation – from both Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which bankrolls PSG through the company Qatar Sports Investments.

    “Ronaldo’s big-money transfer to Al Nassr and Messi’s engagement by the Saudi authorities as a tourism ambassador are both part of Riyadh’s aggressive sportswashing programme, with the authorities seeking to exploit the celebrity appeal of elite sport to deflect attention from the country’s appalling human rights record,” Peter Frankental, Amnesty UK’s economic affairs director, said in a statement.

    He added: “Saudi Arabia’s extensive use of sport as an exercise in soft power is well-known, but with Qatari-owned PSG appearing in Riyadh we effectively have two sportswashing superpowers – Saudi Arabia and Qatar – flexing their muscles.

    “Saudi Arabia and Qatar have both poured vast amounts of money into sporting ventures in a bid to rebrand themselves and switch international attention away from their human rights records – efforts which have been only partially successful.

    “Footballers like Ronaldo and Messi have huge profiles and we’d like to see them resisting being used as the famous faces of sportswashing, including by speaking out about human rights issues in both Saudi Arabia and Qatar.”

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  • MATCHDAY: Madrid, Man City seek 3rd wins in Champions League

    MATCHDAY: Madrid, Man City seek 3rd wins in Champions League

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    A look at what’s happening in the Champions League on Wednesday:

    GROUP E

    Chelsea is one of the top teams in early trouble in the group stage heading into a double-header against AC Milan, with the first match taking place at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea has just one point from its first two games and has a recently hired manager, Graham Potter, who is still working out his best team and best formation just two matches into his tenure. In the 1-1 draw with Salzburg in the second round of group games, Potter went with a 3-5-2 but reverted to a 4-3-3 for the win over Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Saturday. He has some tough choices in defense, with Kalidou Koulibaly — one of Chelsea’s many expensive offseason signings — yet to play a minute under Potter and the likes of forwards Christian Pulisic and Hakim Ziyech pushing for starts. Marc Cucurella could return from illness. Milan leads after collecting four points from games against Salzburg and Dinamo Zagreb, who meet in Austria in the other game.

    GROUP F

    Real Madrid can take full control of the group with a home win against Shakhtar Donetsk, which would give the defending champions a five-point lead after only three matches. Madrid got off to a perfect start to the season in all competitions but was held 1-1 at home against Osasuna in the Spanish league on Sunday for its first setback. Leipzig hosts Celtic for a clash between the two bottom teams in Group F. Leipzig is bottom after losing both of its games so far, but new coach Marco Rose has restored some confidence and overseen a marked improvement since taking over. Leipzig warmed up for Celtic with a 4-0 win over Bochum at the weekend.

    GROUP G

    Manchester City can move to the brink of qualification for the last 16 with a home win over FC Copenhagen and might not need Erling Haaland to do so. The Norway striker, who has taken the Premier League by storm with 15 goals in eight games, played the entire match in the 6-3 win over Manchester United on Sunday while a number of key players were brought off midway through the second half. Haaland may be kept fresh for bigger matches ahead, while City manager Pep Guardiola has injury concerns over right back Kyle Walker and holding midfielder Rodri. City has already beaten Sevilla and Borussia Dortmund in the group stage and would advance with back-to-back wins over Copenhagen. Dortmund is in second place on three points and travels to Sevilla in the other match.

    GROUP H

    With Presnel Kimpembe out injured for several weeks, Paris Saint-Germain coach Christophe Galtier doesn’t have many options at center back for the trip to Benfica for a match between two teams on a maximum six points. After missing out on signing Milan Skriniar this summer, PSG has to deal with makeshift solutions until the next transfer window opens, with midfielder Danilo Pereira or right back Nordi Mukiele available to play alongside Sergio Ramos and Marquinhos. In contrast, Juventus has zero points after losing its opening two Champions League matches for the first time. Massimiliano Allegri’s side travels to Maccabi Haifa, which is also pointless. Juventus is also struggling in Serie A but appears reinvigorated after the international break and beat Bologna 3-0 this past weekend.

    ___

    More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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