As the president of the Football Association and all around soccer lover, it seemed likely that Prince William would want to tune into Wednesday’s major Women’s World Cup semifinal match, where the Lionesses of England took on Australia. England eventually won, 3–1, and soon after the prince took to social media to send out a personal message, signed “W,” congratulating England’s team and consoling Australia’s Matildas.
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“What a phenomenal performance from the @Lionesses – on to the final!” he wrote. “Commiserations to @TheMatildas, you’ve played brilliantly and been fantastic co-hosts of this World Cup.”
Because King Charles III is the monarch of both Britain and Australia, his message was a bit more even handed. “My wife and I join all our family in sending the mighty Lionesses our warmest congratulations on reaching the final of the World Cup, and in sharing our very best wishes for Sunday’s match,” he said. “While your victory might have cost the magnificent Matildas their chance for the greatest prize in the game, both teams have been an inspiration on and off the pitch –and, for that, both nations are united in pride, admiration and respect.”
When the Lionesses were in the finals of the 2022 Euro Cup last July, it took place in London’s Wembley Stadium, and William was in the stands as they won a nail-biter against Germany. Soon after his Wednesday tweet, The Telegraph reported that he won’t be making the trip to Australia this time around and will watch England take on Spain from home instead. In June, he visited the women’s team at their training camp and surprised manager Sarina Wiegman with an honorary OBE.
Sweden has been a fierce rival of the United States in international women’s soccer, but that didn’t stop one of its players from jumping to the Americans’ defense when a U.S. journalist bashed them.
Swedish midfielder Kosovare Asllani was still basking in the afterglow of the Swedes ousting the two-time defending champions from the Women’s World Cup when she said the reporter shaded the U.S. squad.
“I had an interview with an American journalist yesterday and he was talking so much in a question,” Asllani said on “The Re―Cap Show” podcast this week.
“I was like, ‘How can you ask me this?’ He asked basically, ‘Oh, the U.S. are talking about the American team is so over, you know, la, la, la.’ And I was like, ‘Don’t talk shit about the American team.’ That’s basically what I said. I was like, ‘You can’t say this.’”
While conservatives led by Donald Trump turned the team’s demise into anti-woke blather, Asllani wasn’t having it. The team’s off-field campaign to boost pay for female players and advocate for LGBTQ rights will long outlive its disappointing showing at the World Cup, she said.
“The U.S. Women’s National Team, they’re pioneers,” Asllani said on the show, hosted by two-time World Cup winners Tobin Heath and Christen Press. “I mean, you are raising the game. You are opening doors for the rest of the community, the rest of the world. You are first with everything.”
Asllani also had positive words for the U.S. right after the Swedes’ shootout victory.
“They will come back for sure, they have so much quality on their team,” Asllani said. “This defeat will not take them down.”
Kosovare Asllani of Sweden plays against Crystal Dunn of USA (R) during a knockout match in the Women’s World Cup.
The U.S. women’s national soccer team lost to Sweden in the round of 16 at the 2023 Women’s World Cup, the team’s earliest exit from the tournament. While the players are disappointed, they also expressed hope for the future. Nancy Chen reports.
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Before Argentina won the World Cup last fall, fans scrambled to complete the tournament’s sticker collection, so-called Panini stickers, which have become central to the World Cup experience.
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This is an updated version of a story first published on Nov. 20, 2022. The original video can be viewed here.
Before Argentina won the World Cup last fall, before all manner of “Oles” and “Allezs” broke out across Qatar’s stadiums, the soundtrack for soccer’s premier event went like this: got, got, need. It wasn’t scalpers hawking tickets, it was the refrain of fans sifting through packs of World Cup stickers. Think soccer’s answer to baseball cards. Leading up to the 1970 World Cup, four brothers in Italy, the Paninis, began printing collectables featuring images of players from every country in the competition. More than 50 years later, fans from all over the globe scour for that obscure Serbian goalkeeper or elusive Lionel Messi – hoping to complete their albums. As we first reported in November, the panini sticker phenomenon has become a booming, international business and a central part of the World Cup experience.
For millions of soccer fans, the World Cup unofficially begins weeks in advance, when the Panini stickers for this quadrennial event shoot onto the market.
In a classroom in the town of Sudbury, England, in the thrumming cities of Sao Paulo and Mexico City, fans of all stripes embarked on a common treasure hunt: collecting 670 stickers depicting the players and teams from this World Cup.
All so they can complete their album.
Francesco Furnari: Listen. If you have gold or Panini sticker today, people will go for the sticker and not the gold.
Jon Wertheim: Panini sticker’s more valuable than gold you’re saying?
Francesco Furnari: Today, yes.
Francesco Furnari is the biggest official Panini distributor in the United States. An Italian Venezuelan American, he is the ultimate Panini sticker evangelist.
Francesco Furnari
He’s completed every sticker album since 1974, including the 2022 vintage, many times over.
Francesco Furnari: I have already seven.
Jon Wertheim: You’ve- you’re a man in your 50s. You have seven albums completed?
Francesco Furnari: And still counting.
A pack costs a $1.20, and Furnari predicts sticker sales from 2022 will reach 100 million packets in the U.S. alone, nearly a billion worldwide.
Jon Wertheim: We’re talking about a little piece of paper with some adhesive on it. What makes this so special?
Francesco Furnari: Jon, you gotta understand that you have all your legends. You have all your best players at a distance of, you know, your hand. You can touch them, you can talk to them It’s fantastic.
How coveted are these things? When Argentina ran out of stickers in September, its secretary of commerce called an emergency meeting to solve this national crisis.
Jon Wertheim: We live in a digital world. How are these paper stickers still this popular?
Francesco Furnari: This sensation, Jon, to get a pack, to rip it out, to smell it, to open it, and to find the players right here, there is no way you can replicate it in an electronic way.
Jon Wertheim: So you even have a method for how you’re ripping that packet open—
Francesco Furnari: Every single pack has to be done (LAUGH) in the same way. By the way, I’ve opened at least—
Jon Wertheim: You’ve done this before.
Francesco Furnari: –probably 2,000 packs up until now. Oh my God. Germany
Jon Wertheim: This was a good one? Good pack…
Francesco Furnari: That was a good pull. I love it.
Panini stickers
We went to Modena, Italy, to Panini’s headquarters. The equivalent of Willy Wonka’s factory.
Paninis rolled off the press 21 hours a day, 11 million packets a day, each containing five stickers. The headliners: Mbappe, Messi, Modric. And the coming stars, players with four names, and there’s Fred.
Fred
The phenomenon started here, next to the cathedral, at a newspaper kiosk in the center of town. After World War II, Olga Panini, a widow, ran the newsstand with her four sons. Not unlike a soccer team, each had a special skill. The oldest son, Giuseppe, was the dreamer with the big plans.
We met Giuseppe’s son, Antonio, and Giuseppe’s nieces, Laura and Lucia Panini in Modena.
Laura Panini: He was like a volcano. He had many, many ideas.
Jon Wertheim: A volcano?
Laura Panini: A volcano, yes.
Giuseppe’s initial idea was to sell cards depicting flowers.
Antonio Panini: And was a disaster (laugh). But they realized that the formula was okay, not the subject.
Laura and Antonio Panini
Short of lire, Giuseppe had, as it were, one last shot on goal. It was 1961 and he turned to a new subject: Italian soccer. It was a hit, especially with the kids.
Even if production was rudimentary.
Lucia Panini: All the stickers were printed and then were cut. And they were mixing with a shovel at the beginning.
Jon Wertheim: To make sure there were no duplicates (laugh) they mixed with a shovel.
Lucia Panini: Then they replaced a shovel with a churn, the one they use normally for making butter or cheese..
Jon Wertheim: With a butter churn?
Lucia Panini: Yes, yes. (laugh) And they had a handle, and they were moving this handle and it was working.
Lucia Panini
Giuseppe’s brother Umberto, the family engineer, invented machinery that mixed stickers to prevent dreaded duplicates in each pack, his contraptions were so successful, the designs are still in use today, 60 years later.
And they enabled the brothers to scale up their ambitions. Before the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, they paid a thousand dollars cash to soccer’s governing body to buy the rights to produce stickers of the players, not least the great Pele.
Suddenly “Panini” became chiefly associated not with a sandwich but with a worldwide pastime. The growth of the stickers mirroring the growth of soccer.
Antonio Allegra, Panini’s marketing director, told us how collecting the World Cup albums over the decades became a rite of passage; also a way to mark time.
Antonio Allegra: Wow. It’s the first appearance for Diego Armando Maradona in the World Cup.
Jon Wertheim: This is Maradona’s first World Cup?
Antonio Allegra: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Antonio Allegra: This one is Germany 2006. And here we have a very, very young Messi.
Jon Wertheim: This, this teenager right here.
Antonio Allegra: Yeah, yeah, yeah, he is 19.
Antonio Allegra
There are countries that have fallen off the map and hairstyles that have fallen out of fashion.
Jon Wertheim: He looks like the drummer.
Today, Panini sticker photo shoots are the World Cup equivalent of school picture day.
Back in Italy, Marcella Mannori is Panini’s project manager overseeing image control.
Marcella Mannori: Sometimes these pictures are not perfect. Might be too dark, maybe there’s a pimple on someone’s face. And we’re asked to remove it.
Jon Wertheim: Little Photoshop?
Marcella Mannori: Correct.
Marcella Mannori
Jon Wertheim: Heard one story of a federation once getting in touch and saying, ‘This guy’s really ugly. Can you do something about that?’
Marcella Mannori: Yes. It’s the truth.
Jon Wertheim: Should we name names?
Marcella Mannori: No, I’m still working with these people. (laugh)
Jon Wertheim: So what do you do when you get that call…
Marcella Mannori: We…First reply is of course, ‘No, no worry. I mean, we’re gonna change the picture.” Second time, third time, fourth time. The fourth time I will say, ‘Listen, this is his face (laugh) it’s his face, I’m sorry. I mean we did all we co-could.
What do players think of sticker madness? We asked Gigi Buffon, who literally saved Italy during its run to the World Cup trophy in 2006.
One of the greatest ever goalkeepers, at age 44, he’s not only still playing, but, let’s keep this between us, he’s still collecting stickers, a hobby since childhood.
Gigi Buffon
Jon Wertheim: When you still collect, where are you getting your stickers?
Gigi Buffon (Translation): Now and again I like the ritual of going to the kiosk to buy say 10 packets of stickers. It’s a little embarrassing, but now I can say to the kiosk owner the stickers are for my kids, and he believes me.
Buffon let us in on another secret.
Jon Wertheim: Do the players swap stickers in the locker room?
Gigi Buffon (Translation): Yes, I think if we were really to investigate all the players in the locker room, I think 60 to 70 percent filled the album.
Buffon appeared in four World Cup albums, aging before our eyes, and his.
Jon Wertheim: We have visual aids…
Gigi Buffon: Ooh!
His favorite sticker was for the 2006 album, the last time Italy triumphed at the World Cup.
Jon Wertheim: You’ve had your picture taken thousands of times, but you understood this is for generations
Gigi Buffon (Translation): Yes, for sure. For me it was a solemn moment, because there was a kind of respect that I had to show towards Gigi the child and to the dreams of Gigi the child.
Part of Gianni Bellini’s Panini card collection
An hour from Buffon’s practice field in Parma, we met another child at heart, Gianni Bellini. Considered the most prolific Panini collector in the world.
The debut edition, Mexico 1970, is the holy grail of World Cup sticker albums. This guy has five of them. And he ain’t sellin’.
He lives in what is less a home than a sticker repository. You might have baseball cards in your attic, he has half a million stickers spilling out of every drawer. Bellini even has whole sheets of them hidden under a tablecloth, no one is allowed to eat on the table because it’s too sacred.
Lucky for Gianni, his long-suffering wife, Giovanna, has a sense of humor.
Jon Wertheim: Heaven forbid there were a fire tonight, you had to go back into your house, what would you rescue first?
Gianni Bellini (Translation): Obviously the stickers, if there is a fire my wife would run away with her own legs.
Jon Wertheim: Your wife can fend for herself, but the stickers can’t.
Gianni Bellini: Exactly.
Correspondent Jon Wertheim with Giovanna and Gianni Bellini
Saturday nights are all right for sticking at the Bellini household. While Giovanna watches a movie, Gianni fills his album, and never forgets a face.
Jon Wertheim: You remember 50 years later what the last player was you needed to complete the album?
Gianni Bellini (Translation): I also remember the first sticker that I got in a pack which was Sergio Carantini, a defender from Vicenza.
Jon Wertheim: It’s like your first girlfriend.
Gianni Bellini (Translation): Her I don’t remember.
He’s not alone in his soccer nostalgia, those kids who grew up in the 70s collecting stickers are now grandparents and parents, passing down the tradition – like Francesco Furnari in Florida.
Francesco Furnari: Think about this. There is no way you can find a product that you can have different generations doing at the same time. It’s fantastic. (big smile)
Here’s what else makes it exceptional, almost everyone that completes their album does so not through purchase power, but through old fashioned, face-to-face trading. Around the world, there are Panini sticker swapping sessions that are organized; others that are impromptu.
At World Cups past, present and future, one country lifts the trophy, but millions feel their personal version of World Cup glory.
Jon Wertheim: You’ve seen people complete their albums. What is that feeling like when you get that very last sticker?
Francesco Furnari: Let me put it this way. Whenever you play soccer and you score a goal in the final of the tournament, that’s kind of the feeling you have whenever you complete an album.
It’s an old-timey, analog hobby, no screen required. It relies on the humanity of touch and the value is largely sentimental. But in these tribal, polarized times, leave it to stickers to take people, and countries, and bind them together.
Produced by Draggan Mihailovich. Associate producer, Emily Cameron. Broadcast associate, Elizabeth Germino. Edited by Sean Kelly.
The U.S. women’s national soccer team barely advanced to the knockout stage of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup with a 0-0 draw against Portugal on Monday morning. But the two-time defending champions have already notched one of its biggest wins off the field — playing in their first World Cup with equal pay to men.
Prior to this year’s tournament, some veteran U.S. women’s national team players had been earning just 38% of what veteran U.S. men’s national team players were making per game.
“It meant a lot to be able to achieve what we’ve done,” two-time World Cup champion Kelley O’Hara said. “We still have more progress to make and ways to go.”
That includes bringing in more money for women’s sports.
“It feels like a real opportunity to blow the lid off,” Megan Rapinoe said during June’s media day. “Like, this is actually a terrible business move if you’re not getting in on it. If you’re not investing.”
FIFA sponsorship has grown 150% since the last Women’s World Cup. On TV, the matches are forecast to reach 2 billion viewers worldwide — a nearly 80% increase from the last tournament in 2019.
“From a business perspective, it’s all upside,” said Ally Financial chief marketing and PR officer Andrea Brimmer.
The company recently announced it’s working to spend equally on paid advertising across women’s and men’s sports over the next five years.
“Eighty percent of all purchase decisions in a household are made by women,” Brimmer said. “This is who the consumer is today, and women’s sports are at a tipping point of really becoming massive.”
Haley Rosen, founder and CEO of Just Women’s Sports, a media platform devoted solely to covering just that, said it’s about both bringing women’s sports into the mainstream and building on their existing audience.
“When women’s sports gets proper attention, coverage, people watch,” she said. “It’s so easy to be a fan of the NBA, fan of the NFL. That’s really what we’re trying to do.”
USWNT’s Lindsey Horan said that the country has “grown into loving the game now.”
“You see so much more investment and you see people actually, like, wanting and learning. It’s incredible,” she said.
Team USA’s final group-stage game at the Women’s World Cup will be on Tuesday against Portugal. The U.S. is currently in the top spot but could face elimination. CBS News producer Elizabeth Campbell joined to discuss what’s at stake in the match.
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Lindsey Horan, angry over being knocked down minutes earlier by Danielle Van de Donk, scored a revenge goal minutes later in the second half Thursday to help the United States squeeze out a 1-1 draw with the Netherlands at the Women’s World Cup.
The Dutch struck first with a goal from Jill Roord in the first-half to surprise the Americans, who remained unbeaten in 19 consecutive matches with Horan’s second-half score.
Horan’s goal on a header off a corner kick in the 62nd minute followed several minutes of jawing between the two teams: Horan was angry after she was knocked off her feet and even cursed in the direction of Van de Donk — her teammate for club team Lyon.
Lindsey Horan #10 of the United States celebrates scoring during the second half against the Netherlands in the Women’s World Cup Group E match at Wellington Regional Stadium on July 27, 2023, in Wellington, New Zealand.
Getty Images
The Americans tried to calm Horan, who responded with her 29th international goal, fourth in the World Cup, and second consecutive in this tournament.
Before the ball even crossed the goal line, Horan’s expression showed she know she was on target.
With the draw, neither team secured a spot in the knockout round yet with one group match remaining. Both the Americans and the Dutch sit atop the Group E standings with a win and a draw, but the U.S. has the edge for the lead with more goals.
The game was a rematch of the 2019 Women’s World Cup final, a 2-0 win for the Americans in a game played in Lyon, France. It was the Americans’ second straight trophy in the tournament, and fourth overall.
Roord’s strike from atop the box went though Horan’s legs to put the Dutch ahead in the 17th minute.
Dominique Janssen had a good chance from distance in the 29th minute, but U.S. goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher jumped for it and the ball skirted above the crossbar and into the netting.
Horan’s header off a cross in the 36th minute went wide left as the pace became more frenzied with halftime looming.
Rose Lavelle, who was hampered by a knee injury in the run-up to the World Cup, was subbed in for the United States at the half. Lavelle scored one of the goals in the World Cup final four years ago, replaced Savannah DeMelo.
The Netherlands went into halftime with that single goal lead. It was just the sixth time the United States had trailed at the half in 52 World Cup matches, and first time since trailing Sweden at the break in the opening round in 2011.
Skies were sunny but temperatures were in the 50s in New Zealand’s capital city of Wellington, and there was a stiff breeze for the match. The crowd was announced at 27,312.
The Americans, vying for a record third consecutive World Cup title, defeated Vietnam 3-0 in their tournament opener. Sophia Smith scored a pair of goals and Horan added the other.
U.S. coach Vlatko Andonovski used the same lineup for the Dutch that he used against Vietnam. He’s turned to Julie Ertz, normally a midfielder, to play at center back in the absence of veteran Becky Sauerbrunn, who injured her foot and was not able to play in the World Cup.
The Dutch were without forward Lineth Beerensteyn, who was hurt early in her team’s 1-0 victory over Portugal to open the tournament. Katja Snoeijs replaced her in the starting lineup against the United States. .
The Dutch was also missing leading scorer Vivianne Miedema, who ruptured her ACL while playing for Arsenal in December. She has 95 career goals for the Dutch.
The United States was undefeated in all but one of its meetings with the Dutch — the first game in 1991.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with the team at their hotel on the eve of the match and was at the game. Blinken was in Wellington for a formal bilateral meeting with New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Nanaia Mahuta, and he will also meet with Prime Minister Chris Hipkins.
The top finisher in Group opens the knockout round in Sydney against the second-place finisher in Group G, which includes Sweden, South Africa, Italy and Argentina.
The second-place finisher heads to Melbourne against the top Group G team.
The U.S. women’s national team poses for a group photo before the Australia and New Zealand 2023 Women’s World Cup Group E football match between the United States and Vietnam at Eden Park in Auckland on July 22, 2023.
Saeed Khan/AFP via Getty Images
The 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup has officially begun. The soccer tournament, running from now through August 20, will see the top 32 national teams face off in multiple rounds of play. Will the U.S. women’s national team, already off to a strong start, win their fifth FIFA Women’s World Cup championship this year? You’ll have to tune in to find out. Here’s how to do it.
When does the U.S. women’s national team play in the World Cup?
The No. 1 ranked U.S. women’s national team is part of Group E, which also includes Vietnam, Portugal and Netherlands. The team will play three games in the initial round of 32:
United States vs. Vietnam: U.S. won, 3-0
United States vs. Netherlands: July 26 at 9 p.m. EDT (Fox)
United States vs. Portugal: August 1 at 3 a.m. EDT (Fox)
The top two teams in Group E will advance to the round of 16 knockout stage. That stage begins August 5.
Best way to stream the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023: Sling TV
FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 games will be broadcast on Fox and FS1. While Fox is available over-the-air in most media markets, you’ll need cable TV or an online streaming plan to catch the games airing on FS1.
If you don’t already have cable or a satellite package such as DirecTV, the most cost effective way to watch FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 games will be Sling TV. The Sling TV Blue tier includes access to 42 channels, including your local Fox station (where available) and FS1. Sling TV also includes 50 hours of DVR storage, which comes in handy for recording all the early morning games.
You can get your first month of SlingTV Blue tier for $20. (The regular price for Sling TV Blue is $45 per month.) There’s no contract, so you can cancel at any time.
The first stage of the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023, jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand, began on July 20 and runs through August 1. Here are all the remaining games in that stage.
For more on the FIFA Women’s World Cup, including odds and predictions, check out our sister site CBSSports.com.
Tuesday, July 25
Group A: New Zealand vs. Philippines: 1:30 a.m. EDT (FS1)
Group A: Switzerland vs. Norway: 4 a.m. EDT (FS1)
Wednesday, July 26
Group C: Japan vs. Costa Rica: 1 a.m. EDT (FS1)
Group C: Spain vs. Zambia: 3:30 a.m EDT (FS1)
Group B: Canada vs. Ireland: 8 a.m. EDT (FS1)
Group E: United States vs. Netherlands: 9 p.m. EDT (Fox)
Thursday, July 27
Group E: Portugal vs. Vietnam: 3:30 a.m. EDT (FS1)
Group B: Australia vs. Nigeria: 6 a.m. EDT (FS1)
Group G: Argentina vs. South Africa: 8 p.m. EDT (FS1)
Friday, July 28
Group D: England vs. Denmark: 4:30 a.m. EDT (FS1)
Group D: China vs. Haiti: 7 a.m. EDT (FS1)
Saturday, July 29
Group G: Sweden vs. Italy: 3:30 a.m. EDT (FS1)
Group F: France vs. Brazil: 6 a.m. EDT (Fox)
Group F: Panama vs. Jamaica: 8:30 a.m. EDT (Fox)
Sunday, July 30
Group H: South Korea vs. Morocco: 12:30 a.m. EDT (Fox)
Group A: Switzerland vs. New Zealand: 3 a.m. EDT (Fox)
Group A: Norway vs. Philippines: 3 a.m. EDT (FS1)
Group H: Germany vs. Colombia: 5:30 a.m. EDT (FS1)
Monday, July 31
Group C: Japan vs. Spain: 3 a.m. EDT (Fox)
Group C: Costa Rica vs. Zambia: 3 a.m. EDT (FS1)
Group B: Canada vs. Australia: 6 a.m. EDT (Fox)
Group B: Ireland vs. Nigeria: 6 a.m. EDT (FS1)
Tuesday, August 1
Group E: Portugal vs. United States: 3 a.m. EDT (Fox)
Group E: Vietnam vs. Netherlands: 3 a.m. EDT (FS1)
Group D: China vs. England: 7 a.m. EDT (Fox)
Group D: Haiti vs. Denmark: 7 a.m. EDT (FS1)
Wednesday, August 2
Group G: Argentina vs. Sweden: 3 a.m. EDT (Fox)
Group G: South Africa vs. Italy: 3 a.m. EDT (FS1)
Group F: Panama vs. France: 6 a.m. EDT (Fox)
Group F: Jamaica vs. Brazil: 6 a.m. EDT (FS1)
Thursday, August 3
Group H: South Korea vs. Germany: 6 a.m. EDT (Fox)
Group H: Morocco vs. Colombia: 6 a.m. EDT (FS1)
More ways to watch the FIFA Women’s World Cup
If you want to watch all the games of the FIFA Women’s World Cup, you’ll need a streaming plan that includes both Fox and FS1. Here are your top options, which include access to many more live sporting events (such as the PGA Tour Open Championship).
Digital antenna
Amazon
The U.S. women’s national team will play all their Group E games on Fox, which means you can watch them over-the-air on your local Fox affiliate with a digital antenna.
This one supports smart TVs in 1080p, 4K and 8K displays and works with older models too. It’s also currently discounted at Amazon. Rated 4.3 stars.
FuboTV is a streaming service built around live sports coverage. The entry level Pro plan, which costs $75 per month, includes 162 channels (Fox and FS1 included) and 1,000 hours of cloud-based DVR storage. Fubo is currently offering a seven-day free trial, so you can test out the service and watch FIFA Women’s World Cup games without risk.
It’s not as affordable as rival Sling TV, but the Hulu + Live TV bundle features access to 90 channels, including both Fox and FS1. Unlimited DVR storage is also included. If you’re going this route, you might want to consider the Disney+ and ESPN+ bundle that starts at $70 per month.
DirecTV Stream has all the networks a sports fan could want, including FS1, FS2, Golf Channel, USA Network, ACC Network, Big Ten Network, MLB Network, NBA TV, SEC Network, ESPN, ESPN2 and more. If you want to watch the FIFA Women’s World Cup live, you’ll need a Entertainment level plan or higher. That plan starts at $65 per month.
Managing editor Fox Van Allen is an expert in tech, laptops and computers, toys and video games for CBS Essentials. When he’s not writing about (or playing) the Nintendo Switch and PS5, Fox’s hobbies include reality TV podcasting, designing board games and hanging out in his favorite warehouse stores.
Sophia Smith scored twice for the United States in the opening half and the two-time defending champions kicked off the Women’s World Cup with a 3-0 victory over tournament first-timers Vietnam on Saturday.
Lindsey Horan added a goal for the favored Americans, who have won four World Cups overall and are vying for an unprecedented three-peat in this year’s tournament.
Vietnam drew comparisons to Thailand, the team the Americans routed 3-0 in in their 2019 World Cup opening game. But Vietnam was surprisingly resilient, kept the game closer than expected, and goalkeeper Tran Thi Kim Thanh stopped Alex Morgan’s first-half penalty attempt.
U.S. forward Sophia Smith, No. 11, celebrates scoring her team’s second goal during Women’s World Cup Group E football match against Vietnam at Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand, on July 22, 2023.
SAEED KHAN/AFP via Getty Images
Morgan was knocked to the field clutching her calf after trying for the rebound off her missed penalty, but she quickly returned. It was just her second penalty miss for the United States.
Smith, one of 14 Americans playing in their first-ever World Cup, showed why she was named both U.S. Soccer’s Player of the Year and the National Women’s Soccer League MVP last year with her two first-half goals.
Smith scored off a pass from captain Lindsey Horan in the 14th minute. Smith and Horan celebrated with a choreographed handshake after the goal. She scored again in first-half stoppage time to make it 2-0 going into the break. The United States was at first flagged as offside before a video review confirmed the goal.
The U.S. team was infused with young talent including Smith and Trinity Rodman after settling for a disappointing bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics. Among the veterans, 38-year-old Megan Rapinoe made her 200th international appearance against Vietnam.
Rapinoe, who scored in the World Cup final in France and was named that tournament’s best player, did not start. She announced before the team left for New Zealand that this would be her last World Cup and she would retire from her professional team at the end of the season.
Rapinoe and midfielder Rose Lavelle, who were both limited by injuries in the run-up to the tournament, both came in as substitutes in the 63rd minute. Rapinoe sported bright blue hair.
The youngest player on the team, 18-year-old Alyssa Thompson, was also a second-half sub.
Horan scored into a wide-open net off a pass from Smith, who was rushed by the goalkeeper and deftly sent the ball back to her. Horan, who was recently engaged, kissed her ring in celebration.
There was early drama when Rodman, the daughter of former NBA great Dennis Rodman and one of the young newcomers on the team, appeared injured after falling hard on her back when she was tackled by defender Tran Thi Thu. Rapinoe warmed up on the sidelines and a stretcher was brought out on the filed, but Rodman stood and returned to the match a few moments later.
Saturday’s game was the first meeting between the United States and Vietnam. The Vietnamese lost two exhibition matches ahead of the tournament and fell 9-0 to Spain in a closed-door tune-up match in Auckland last Friday.
Also in Group E are the Netherlands and Portugal, which meet Sunday in Dunedin. Portugal is also making its first World Cup appearance.
The group plays all of their matches in New Zealand, which is co-hosting the tournament with Australia. The United States plays the Netherlands in a 2019 final rematch on Thursday in Wellington.
Should the United States top the group, the team will head to Sydney for the round of 16.
Back home in the United States, a sign was erected on the North Lawn of the White House that said “Go Team USA! We are all behind you.”
The 2023 Women’s World Cup is officially underway in Australia and New Zealand. The U.S. is looking to win its third straight World Cup — a feat that would make it the first team in men’s and women’s history to do so. 1999 World Cup champion Briana Scurry joined CBS News to discuss the team’s chances, and reflect on her athletic career.
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A gunman killed two people at a downtown construction site in New Zealand’s largest city of Auckland on Thursday, as the nation prepared to host the FIFA Women’s World Cup tournament. Authorities said the shooter was also dead.
Police said six other people, including at least one officer, were injured during the shooting, which took place near hotels where Team Norway and other soccer teams have been staying.
New Zealand Prime Minster Chris Hipkins said the tournament would go ahead as planned.
“Clearly with the FIFA World Cup kicking off this evening, there are a lot of eyes on Auckland,” Hipkins said. “The government has spoken to FIFA organizers this morning and the tournament will proceed as planned. I want to reiterate that there is no wider national security threat. This appears to be the action of one individual.”
Hipkins said the shooter was armed with a pump-action shotgun. Police arrived one minute after the first emergency call and had to run into harm’s way to save lives, he said.
“These kinds of situations move fast and the actions of those who risk their lives to save others are nothing short of heroic,” Hipkins said.
Acting Police Superintendent Sunny Patel said the gunman began shooting at the site on lower Queen Street at about 7:20 a.m. That’s when police swarmed the area.
The man moved through the building, firing at people there, Patel said.
“Upon reaching the upper levels of the building, the male has contained himself within the elevator shaft and our staff have attempted to engage with him,” Patel said in a statement. “Further shots were fired from the male and he was located deceased a short time later.”
It wasn’t immediately clear if police had shot the gunman or he had killed himself.
Armed police officers had the commercial business district on heavy lockdown with streets cordoned off surrounding the tourist harbor ferry terminal area. Police demanded bystanders disperse and ordered those already inside their office buildings to shelter in place.
The incident comes as soccer teams and fans have gathered in New Zealand for the FIFA Women’s World Cup. The opening match is scheduled for Thursday between New Zealand and Norway.
Team Norway captain Maren Mjelde said people woke up quickly when a helicopter began hovering outside the hotel window.
“We felt safe the whole time,” she said in a statement. “FIFA has a good security system at the hotel, and we have our own security officer in the squad. Everyone seems calm and we are preparing as normal for the game tonight.”
Team USA said all its players and staff were accounted for and safe. It said the team was in communication with local authorities and proceeding with its daily schedule.
In 2019 New Zealand banned assault weapons, weeks after a gunman slaughtered 51 people at two mosques in the city of Christchurch during the nation’s worst mass shooting.
A subsequent buyback scheme saw gun owners hand over more than 50,000 AR-15-style rifles and other assault weapons to police.
The ban does not include all semi-automatic weapons. Hipkins said he wasn’t immediately clear if the weapon the gunman used would have been covered by the ban.
Officials at Eden Park, where the opening match is taking place, said they were encouraging ticket holders to arrive early since there will be an increased security presence at the venue.
Tourism New Zealand canceled a media welcome party, which was scheduled to be held Thursday afternoon at a location within the cordoned off area.
For the last few years, women’s soccer has grappled with, well, a lot. Sophia Smith is a microcosm of the sport’s resilience, positioning herself both at the forefront of the competition—and addressing challenges off the field. “It’s time to move forward,” the Portland Thorns star says, reflecting on the league’s systemic abuse scandal and long fight for pay equity.
With the preternatural field vision of Mia Hamm and lovability of a Ted Lasso character, no one is better suited to lead the charge. After all, Smith is the reigning league MVP, the first Black woman to win player of the year, and the youngest to lead the U.S. in scoring since Hamm in 1993. She also has a self-awareness that her impact is measured by more than just the number of goals she scores. “It’s definitely a responsibility,” Smith confides.
The 22-year-old powerhouse has been described more than once as the “future” of the sport, but her moment is now. As the U.S. vies for a record-breaking threepeat victory at the World Cup in Australia this summer, Smith is poised to make even more history. “Honestly, I like the pressure,” she says. “All those expectations just mean that people believe in me.”
Omar Vega//Getty Images
Resilience runs deep in the Fort Collins, Colorado native. Her hometown, nestled at the base of the Rocky Mountain foothills, is idyllic, though not necessarily ideal. “It’s a very, very white area,” says Smith. But on the field, it was the color of her jersey that mattered. “It’s where I could be myself,” she says. Her father, Kenny, played basketball at the University of Wyoming, and her two older sisters followed in his footsteps by participating in youth sports. Smith gave basketball a go, but after lacing up her soccer cleats for the first time in kindergarten, she never looked back. “I fell in love,” Smith says. “It was instant.”
With dizzying dribbling abilities and a fierce competitiveness, Smith was the whole package on the pitch—and really fun to watch, too. “I wanted to be a player that, when I got the ball, people were on the edge of their seats,” she says. “It’s more entertaining that way.”
She’s…a fierce competitor.”
When Smith declared that she wanted to become the greatest soccer player of all time, her parents immersed themselves in the highly-competitive world of club soccer. Her father studied strategy and recited motivational speeches to her. “She’s a kind, very compassionate kid who is a fierce competitor,” he says. “Seeing her happy and doing what she loves to do is what matters to me.”
For her part, Smith’s mother, Mollie, quit her job of over 20 years and found a different one that allowed her to drive her daughter to practice two hours away in Denver. “I can’t repay my parents for doing all of those things for me,” Smith says. Instead, she showed appreciation the best way she knew how: by winning.
John Todd/ISI Photos//Getty Images
In high school, Smith was always faster, stronger, and smarter than the competition. She was also usually the only Black girl on the field. While professional soccer has made strides to become more representative, the pipeline to get there has a long way to go. “Not everyone has the same opportunities [that I did],” Smith says. “I hope that can change, because there’s so much undiscovered talent we don’t see.”
Youth soccer is still seen by many as suburban and predominantly white. “I was honestly one of two, maybe three people of color on all of my club teams,” Smith says. It could get lonely—and not just because she was at the top. “Most girls had long, straight hair,” she says. “I always felt like my hair was too crazy or too wild.” At night, she begged her mom to let her straighten it. “Otherwise, I would literally cry, because I didn’t want to go to school the next day with curly hair,” she says. Looking back now, Smith feels sad for her younger self. “I don’t want anyone to feel like they don’t fit in, or it’s not good to be different or [that], like, there is a normal—because there’s not,” she says.
It wasn’t until Smith started at Stanford in the fall of 2018, that she began to embrace her natural curls. “I looked around, and more people had curly hair,” she says. “I was like, okay, wait, maybe I like my curls. I’m going to leave them and learn how to style them.”
By then, she had cemented her place as the country’s top collegiate player. Off the field, she continued to strengthen her relationship with hair—something many Black athletes are embracing as a form of self-expression after decades of being discriminated against and punished for wearing their natural textures. Reaching that point of pride has been a “journey,” Smith says, “but I love my hair now.”
Last year, a pre-game experiment with a bubble braid quickly turned into a signature look. But it got to the point where the hairdo became too enmeshed in her identity. “I would do photoshoots and they would require me to have a bubble braid in, and I was like, ‘No, this is my hair. I can wear my hair how I want,’” she says. “It was like I couldn’t be me without my bubble braid.” Her entire life, Smith refused to be defined by stereotypes. She certainly wasn’t going to be pigeonholed now. “You don’t have to have your hair a certain way,” she says. “It doesn’t mean anything about who you are or how you’ll play.”
Paola Kudacki
With an NCAA championship already under her belt by sophomore year, Smith felt ready to take on a new challenge. In 2020, she was selected by the Portland Thorns during the NWSL draft. Not only was she the first pick in the first round, but she was also the youngest player ever drafted in league history. “Especially at the time, the [Thorns] were so above every other team in the league,” Smith says. With access to top-notch resources, a devoted fan base, and the country’s best players as teammates, Smith felt right at home.
But shortly into her professional career, Smith suffered a devastating foot injury, COVID stalled her first season, and the city of Portland was thrown into turmoil following George Floyd’s murder. “I started to worry whether I made the right decision,” Smith says.
It was hard to figure out how to be okay.”
Behind the scenes, women’s soccer was experiencing its own unrest. A number of disturbing allegations surfaced across multiple teams in 2021, sparking controversy over transparency, ownership, structure, and abuse of power in the league. As a result, five male head coaches were either fired or forced to resign. Four of those coaches later received lifelong bans due to alleged sexual misconduct, racist remarks, verbal and emotional abuse, or the perpetuation of toxic work cultures. The league’s commissioner, Lisa Baird, also announced her resignation. “It was just one new thing every day,” Smith recalls. “It was definitely a tough year.”
The Thorns became the unwitting face of the tumult following the release of an investigation by former Deputy U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates in October 2022. The report detailed inaction by Thorns owner Merritt Paulson and at least two other team executives over player complaints about a former Thorns coach. Calls for accountability reverberated across the league, with players like Alex Morgan demanding that top brass accept responsibility. Paulson resigned, and both the team’s president of soccer and president of business were relieved of their duties. “It was hard to figure out how to be okay,” Smith says.
Paola Kudacki
Just one month after the Yates investigation, Smith’s former Stanford teammate Katie Meyer died by suicide, thrusting women’s soccer back into the limelight—this time, in connection to mental health. As many as 35 percent of all professional athletes experience problems with their mental health, according to recent sports medicine data. That rate is even higher among college athletes. In particular, female athletes experience depression, eating disorders, and anxiety. Research is still ongoing as to why, but it has to do with a “perfect storm of factors that compound and feed on each other, creating risks for these high- achieving individuals, who can overcome such great physical and mental odds during their peak and hit such tragic lows,” Dr. Caroline Silby, a sports psychology consultant for Team USA, previously told ELLE. Dr. Sibly notes that, historically, sports have been rife with sexism and perfectionism, which can exacerbate struggles.
“I’ve been lucky to go [through] most of my life pretty happy,” Smith says. Still, it can be hard to “give all of you to everything,” she says. “There were a lot of times where I was in a dark place.” Smith leans on her boyfriend Michael Wilson, an NFL player she met at Stanford, for support. She uses the meditation app Calm and reads sci-fi fantasy novels. “If things are out of your control, you just have to deal with it and make the most out of every situation,” Smith says.
Last year, the Thorns beat the Kansas City Current, 2-0, to take home a historic third championship trophy. Smith, who was crowned MVP, flooded the field with her teammates, shouting in celebration and crying tears of joy. “We struggled, but we stuck together and got through it,” Smith says.
Paola Kudacki
Her next goal: winning the World Cup. Starting July 20, 32 nations will compete, making it the largest, most competitive tournament to date. The U.S. has never finished lower than third, and they’ve come out victorious the last two World Cups. Picking up a record third consecutive title will cement the squad’s place in history. One of several team members championed by Nike, a major partner to women’s football federations competing in the World Cup, Smith says she has never felt more ready. “Like, let’s go,” she says.
As she packs up her dreams, waves goodbye to her parents in Colorado, and makes the long journey to Australia, the pressure is building. “If I look too far forward, it will just cause me anxiety,” Smith says. “The best thing for my mental health is to be in the moment right now, and to take each day as it is.” That means training smarter, focusing harder, and blocking all the outside noise.
Smith is squaring up to this Rocky Mountain-sized moment and giving it her best shot. “I feel ready,” she says. When she needs reassurance, she turns to her dad. “He’ll remind me to just be myself,” she says. “He’ll say that I don’t have to do anything I’ve never done before—that I just need to go do what I do, and be Soph.” If she stays true to herself, she can’t miss.
Senior Editor
Rose is a Senior Editor at ELLE overseeing features and projects about women’s issues. She is an accomplished and compassionate storyteller and editor who excels in obtaining exclusive interviews and unearthing compelling features.
There’s an obsession with incremental changes and bullet-point features in the sports game scene, one which challenges fan’s ability to take a step back and assess each game as its own standalone title. It’s something I try and address in my own sports reviews on this site, and it’s something I’m taking to its logical conclusion here in this Quixotic attempt to pluck one game out of hundreds and call it the “best”.
Sports games by their nature don’t turn up for each new season as entirely fresh products. The economics of the industry have determined that they re-use the same engine and models for years at a time, which means the difference between them can often be limited to current uniforms, a few new features and some adjustments to ball physics. And those changes are usually influenced as much by fan feedback as they are by the development teams working on them.
So it’s tough looking at say Madden 17 as something entirely separate, since its creation was heavily influenced by the sales and reception of Madden 16, and it will in turn play a big part in how Madden 18 is designed. How do you pick one of those games and say, ok, THIS ONE is the best, when much of what made it great may have been inspired by—or come directly from—an entirely different video game?
Then you have to take into account the way sports games have changed their entire outlook over the last 20 years. In the 90s, series like FIFA and NBA Live were perfectly happy being fast, accessible, almost arcadey. Fast forward to today and advances in technology have turned blockbuster sports games into simulations, each one trying its hardest to replicate the on-field experience as best it can (or, if it can’t, then the broadcast experience instead). This makes direct comparisons between games in long-running series pretty damn hard!
Making matters worse is that each sport is different, with its own set of fans, style of play and culture. What makes the #1 baseball game better than the #1 hockey game? Is football better than basketball?
……Image: FIFA 98
I think I’ve found one way to compare all sports games, though, and as weird as it may sound at first, it’s through the one thing they all have in common. The one thing they’re more fixated upon than anything else, and which in many ways defines sports video games as their own distinct space in video games. And that’s content.
Every sports game is stingy. It’s possibly the most defining thing about the business, and is often the first thing that non-fans will mock. The genre’s business model is built entirely around balancing the need to make gamers happy with the game they just bought, but unhappy enough that they’ll turn around 12 months later and buy an incredibly similar product.
So after lingering over a short list of truly great sports games—Madden 2002, NBA 2K11, Pro Evolution 6, NBA Jam, NFL 2K5—I’ve settled the tie by going with one that wasn’t just a very good sports game in its own right, but one which decided to just say “fuck it” and give fans everything they could have wanted or needed for years to come, all in the one box.
That game is FIFA: Road to World Cup 98, as bizarre but beloved a major sports game as I think we’re ever going to see.
At the time of its release in 1997, it was a damn fine football game. It had very flash polygonal visuals, audio commentary, all the things we’ve long associated as being hallmarks of the FIFA series. But it’s where the game went above and beyond what we expect of a sports game can include, whether at the time or today, that marks it as truly great.
INDOOR FOOTBALL – In addition to regular 11v11 football, FIFA 98 also included an entirely separate 5v5 indoor mode, with its own rules and conditions, like the fact the ball never went out of bounds. It was just as fun as the actual FIFA. Maybe more fun. And while it had actually been introduced in FIFA 97, the fact it stuck around in 98 when there was so much else in the box is one of the things that helped cement this game’s legacy.
AN ACTUAL WORLD CUP – The reason for the game’s longer title was the fact that the development team decided to include, alongside domestic leagues, the 1998 World Cup. Not just the finals in France, but the entire qualifying system as well. That meant over 170 nations and their squads made it into the game, an absolutely ridiculous number that literally represented every football-playing country on Earth at the time (modern FIFA games usually only include a few dozen). You could, if you wanted, play as one of the smallest nations on the planet, take them all the way through qualifying then win the tournament itself, a feat so monumental that after FIFA 98 it would only be seen again in standalone video games specifically made for World Cups.
Image: FIFA 98
CUSTOMISATION: Besides the 170+ national teams, there were almost 200 club sides included in the game as well. And you could customise the lot. Home kits, away kits, even a player’s appearance. I remember spending what must have been weeks tinkering with this, making sure that every major team’s kit matched its actual design, and that player haircuts had been accurately recreated. This wasn’t just useful in 1997, either; people were playing FIFA 98 for years to come because as 1998, then 1999 rolled around, you could just update the kit designs again.
Here’s the most incredible thing about all this: FIFA 98 was so big it made another of EA’s own video games completely pointless. In addition to FIFA 98 (released in 1997), EA Sports had a game in development designed to cash in on the World Cup itself, due for release in early 1998. Simply called World Cup 1998, it had official branding throughout, from the tournament mascot to branded kits (a first for the series). But with only 40 teams, what was the point of buying it it when you could just fire up FIFA 98, edit some kits and enjoy much the same experience?
To get non-FIFA fans up to speed on just how crazy this was, it’s like NBA 2K18 shipping on four blu-rays, or the next MLB game deciding to include the entire Japanese and Korean pro leagues, just for one year, just for the hell of it.
This kind of thing just isn’t supposed to happen with sports games, because it gives fans everything they need to not buy your game the next year. Yet here we have, for one beautiful year, EA sports giving away the keys to the kingdom. Amongst the blur of year-to-year releases, FIFA 98’s largesse looms large like no other sports game’s inclusions ever have.
But it’s not just the excess content that’s helped FIFA 98 endure. Quantity would be nothing without quality, and the game includes several other series favourites, from the humble free kick arrow (still somehow superior to anything EA comes up with these days) to the ability to slide tackle a goalkeeper and get instantly sent off, which despite its punishment ranks as one of the most cathartic moves in all of video games.
Then there’s the matter of the game’s soundtrack, beginning with its intro, perhaps the most iconic in sports game history:
Don’t let Blur’s cameo overshadow the game’s real musical hook, though, which is the fact much of the menu music was provided by The Crystal Method:
Sports games using popular music is nothing new today, but in 1997 it was a coup for FIFA (for reference, check out FIFA 97’s tragic attempts at hip-hop and rock). Indeed, you could trace the series’ current place on the pop culture landscape back to FIFA 98 and its soundtrack, which dared to suggest that, hey, maybe these sports video games can be cool.
In a world where sports games are and always have been seen as disposable, FIFA 98 stands apart. By including so many teams across such a breadth of competition, and allowing for such a degree of customisation, people were able to dig in and play it not just throughout 1997, but well into the next few years as well.
Even today, when the FIFA series is known as much for its licensing as it is its football and has over 20 years of experience under its belt, you’ll find fans still talking about FIFA 98 in reverent tones. Amazing what some decent music, tiny teams and the ability to let try and murder a goalkeeper will do to a fanbase…
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Megan Rapinoe, a U.S. Women’s National Team legend, will retire from professional soccer, she and the organization announced Saturday.
The 38-year-old, who is known for her clutch performances on the field, will retire after the 2023 National Women’s Soccer League season in October with her team, the OL Reign, following her final appearance in the Women’s World Cup this summer.
“I feel incredibly grateful to have played as long as I have, to be as successful as we’ve been, and to have been a part of a generation of players who undoubtedly left the game better than they found it,” Rapinoe said in the USWNT statement.
Rapinoe, who began her career in 2006, is an Olympic gold medalist and has won two World Cups. She will be playing for USNWT’s third consecutive World Cup win before retiring —an opportunity she has called “incredibly special.”
On the field, Rapinoe is recognized for her creative strategy and dedication to her team, the announcement described. She has represented the U.S. internationally 199 times, and will become the 14th U.S. player in history to make 200 appearances for the team internationally before retiring. In her 199 international appearances, also known as “caps,” the U.S. team has had an 86% winning percentage.
She famously scored two “Olimpicos,” or goals directly off corner kicks, in two Olympic games, 2012 and 2021 —an extremely difficult feat that the USWNT says is “probably never to be repeated.”
Megan Rapinoe #15 of the United States inters the field during the SheBelieves Cup game between Japan and USWNT at GEODIS Park on February 19, 2023 in Nashville, Tennessee.
Brad Smith/ISI Photos/Getty Images
“Megan Rapinoe is one of the most important players in women’s soccer history and a personality like no other,” said U.S. Women’s National Team head coach Vlatko Andonovski. “She has produced so many memorable moments for her team and the fans on the field that will be remembered for a very long time, but her impact on people as a human being may be even more important.”
The Redding, California, native is tied with Abby Wambach for third-most assists in USWNT history. She is also one of just seven players in USWNT history with 50+ goals and 50+ assists, although she is the only player in the 50 goal/50 assist club with more assists than goals, according to the organization.
In 2019, Rapinoe won best FIFA Women’s Player of the Year, France Football Ballon d’Or and the Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year.
In addition to her accomplishments on the field, Rapinoe has been recognized for her activism for LGBTQ+ rights, racial inequality, voter rights, and gender and pay equity. She came out as gay in 2012 and has been a vocal advocate for those in the community ever since.
She was also the first White athlete, as well as first female athlete, to kneel during the national anthem in solidarity with NFL player Colin Kaepernick, the statement said.
In the summer of 2022, President Joe Biden awarded Rapinoe the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is the nation’s highest civilian honor. She is the first soccer player to receive the award, and one of just six female athletes or coaches to get the honor, according to USWNT.
“When you talk about players performing on the biggest stages, she’s right up there with the best to ever do it for the U.S. Women’s National Team,” said USWNT general manager Kate Markgraf in the statement. “And that’s just her contributions on the field. Her contributions off the field are the epitome of someone who saw that she had a large platform and used it for good.”
Cristiano Ronaldo, one of soccer’s greatest players ever, has signed a deal to play for a Saudi Arabian club. While financial terms of the contract were not disclosed, sources told CBS Sports last month that soccer club Al Nassr had offered the 37-year-old Ronaldo a staggering three-year contract worth $225 million.
The club made the announcement Friday, posting a photo of the Portuguese star holding up his new No. 7 Al Nassr jersey.
“I’m thrilled for a new experience in a different league and a different country, the vision that Al Nassr has is very inspiring,” Ronaldo said in a statement. “I’m very excited to join my teammates, and to help the team achieve more success.”
Al Nassr described the signing as “history in the making.”
“This is a signing that will not only inspire our club to achieve even greater success but inspire our league, our nation and future generations, boys and girls to be the best version of themselves,” the club wrote.
History in the making. This is a signing that will not only inspire our club to achieve even greater success but inspire our league, our nation and future generations, boys and girls to be the best version of themselves. Welcome @Cristiano to your new home @AlNassrFCpic.twitter.com/oan7nu8NWC
It has been a tumultuous few months for Ronaldo. In November, just prior to the start of the Qatar World Cup, Ronaldo parted ways with Premier League giants Manchester United following a very public spat with the club. He accused Manchester United of “betraying” him, while also saying he had “no respect” for head coach Erik ten Hag.
The controversy surrounding Ronaldo continued to swirl into the World Cup, when he was controversially pulled from the starting eleven by Portugal coach Fernando Santos ahead of the team’s Round of 16 match against Switzerland over his negative reaction to being substituted in Portugal’s final group game against South Korea. Ronaldo came on as a second-half substitute during Portugal’s shocking 1-0 quarterfinal loss to Morocco. Ronaldo, who was never won a World Cup, was in tears as he exited the pitch.
Ronaldo is the only player to score in five World Cups. He also holds the record for the most goals in international football, with 118, and the most goals for both club and country, with 819.
On Thursday, following news of the death of Brazilian soccer legend Pelé at the age of 82, Ronaldo paid tribute to Pelé writing that “a mere ‘goodbye’ to the eternal King Pelé will never be enough to express the pain that the entire football world is currently embracing. An inspiration to so many millions, a reference yesterday, today and forever.”
Brazilian soccer legend Pelé died Thursday at the age of 82. “CBS Mornings” takes a look back at his life and extraordinary stardom as one of soccer’s greatest players and the only man to ever win three World Cup titles.
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Brazilian soccer legend Pelé, a three-time World Cup champion who’s largely considered to be one of the best players ever, has died. He was 82 years old.
“All that we are is thanks to you,” she wrote. “We love you forever. Rest in peace.”
Brazil has planned 48 hours of national mourning. Pele, whose full name was Edson Arantes do Nascimento, is expected to be buried in Santos, southeast of Sao Paulo, where he played for the city’s club from 1956 to 1974.
The club said in a statement the public will be able to pay their final respects at Vila Belmiro Stadium, according to the Associated Press.
Santos said the coffin carrying the star will leave Albert Einstein hospital in Sao Paulo early Monday morning and will be placed in the center circle of the field. Visitation will start Monday at 10 a.m. and finish the next morning, the AP reported. A private funeral will follow attended by his family.
Pelé had been in and out of the hospital over the past year as he fought colon cancer. In November, Albert Einstein Hospital announced that his cancer had advanced and that he was in palliative care.
The hospital confirmed Pelé died at 3:27 p.m. local time from multiple organ failure as a result of colon cancer.
Brazilian striker Pele before playing a friendly soccer match with his club against the French club of “Racing”, June 13, 1961 in Colombes, France.
AFP via Getty Images, FILE
The soccer star was hospitalized in December 2021 shortly after undergoing chemotherapy to treat a reported colon tumor. He had posted on Instagram that he was recovering.
Over the past year, Pelé had dismissed fears over his health and continued to thank fans for their support.
“Dear friends, it’s been a while since we talked about this. I want to let you know that I’m fine. I feel better every day. I don’t think even the mask for my protection can hide my happiness. Thank you very much to all of you who send me good energy daily,” he wrote in a November 2021 post on Instagram.
Named FIFA co-Player of the Century in 1999 along with Diego Maradona of Argentina, Pelé spent his retirement as a global ambassador for the sport and devoted to other humanitarian causes. In 2020, when Maradona died, Pelé remarked, “One day, I hope we can play football together in the sky.”
Pelé was born on Oct. 23, 1940, in the town of Tres Coracoes in the southern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. His parents named him after U.S. inventor Thomas Edison. Pelé’s father, João Ramos do Nascimento, nicknamed Dondinho, was also a professional soccer player.
The young Edson received the nickname Pelé in school when schoolmates mocked his pronunciation of the popular Brazilian goalkeeper Bilé, he explained in a 2016 column for The Players’ Tribune.
He began playing at 13 with a youth team in Bauru. He was scouted by Santos at 15 and began playing professionally with the team.
Edson Arantes Do Nascimento Pele of Brazil celebrates the victory after winning the 1970 World Cup in Mexico.
Alessandro Sabattini/Getty Images
At just 17, he emerged as a superstar with his performance during Brazil’s victorious 1958 World Cup, and he played his entire career in Brazil with Santos. He scored an astounding 618 goals in 636 games with Santos and won six Brazilian league titles.
Pelé won two additional World Cup titles — in 1962 and 1970. He is the only player to win three World Cups and one of only two players — alongside teammate Vava — to score in two World Cup finals for winning sides.
He scored 77 goals in 92 international appearances. Neymar tied his national record during the 2022 World Cup, just weeks before Pelé’s death, by tallying his 77th goal in a match against Croatia.
“I would say before Pelé football was just a sport. Pelé has changed it all,” Neymar wrote on social media. “He turned football into art, into entertainment. Gave voice to the poor, blacks and mostly gave visibility to Brazil…He’s gone, but his magic remains.”
He ended his storied career with the New York Cosmos in 1977, generating a previously unmatched buzz for soccer in the U.S. The club, bankrolled by pioneering TV executive Steven Ross, brought in stars like Pelé, Italian striker Giorgio Chinaglia and German defender Franz Beckenbauer. The Cosmos was the only club besides Santos that Pelé ever played for.
His last game on Oct. 1, 1977, an exhibition game between the Cosmos and Santos, was played before a sellout crowd at Giants Stadium. The game was televised on ABC’s “Wide World of Sports.” Pelé played one half for each team.
“Pelé’s name will forever be synonymous with sporting artistry and genius,” the Cosmos said in a statement. “His lasting impact on the sport of soccer is inestimable. Rest in peace, O Rei.”
He later starred in John Huston’s 1981 World War II sports film “Escape to Victory” alongside Sylvester Stallone and Michael Caine.
A biopic about his life, “Pele: Birth of a Legend,” was released in 2016.
“A mere ‘goodbye’ to the eternal King Pelé will never be enough to express the pain that the entire football world is currently embracing,” Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, the only man to score in more World Cups than Pelé, wrote. “An inspiration to so many millions, a reference yesterday, today and forever. The love you always showed me was reciprocated in every moment we shared even from distance. He will never be forgotten and his memory will live forever in each and every one of us football lovers.
Pelé is largely credited for sparking interest in the game in the United States during the 1970s, a legacy that lives on to this day.
“Pelé had a magnetic presence and, when you were with him, the rest of the world stopped. His life is about more than football. He changed perceptions for the better in Brazil, in South America and across the world,” Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, said in a statement Thursday.
He is survived by wife Marcia Aoki, as well as seven children: Brazilian soccer coach and former player Edson Cholbi do Nascimento, better known as Edinho; daughter Sandra Regina Machado Arantes do Nascimento; soccer player Joshua Nascimento; son Celeste Arantes do Nascimento; and three other daughters, Kely Cristina Nascimento, Flávia Christina Kurtz Nascimento and Jennifer Nascimento.
One of Pelé’s daughters said Wednesday she and her family are enduring moments of sadness and despair as the 82-year-old Brazilian soccer great’s hospitalization nears one month.
The three-time World Cup winner’s cancer has advanced and doctors at Albert Einstein hospital recently said he’s under “elevated care” related to “kidney and cardiac dysfunctions.”
“These moments are hard to explain. Sometimes it is a lot of sadness and despair, in other moments we laugh and speak about fun memories,” Kely Nascimento said on Instagram.
“And what we learn the most from all of this is that we have to seek one another, hold each other tight. That’s the only way this is worth it. Everyone together,” she wrote.
Other family members are also at the hospital.
One of Pelé’s sons, Edson Cholbi Nascimento, who is known as Edinho, visited on Saturday but returned on Tuesday to a southern Brazil city where he works as a soccer coach. He has not spoken to journalists since he left Sao Paulo.
Edson Arantes do Nascimento, who is globally known as Pelé, had a colon tumor removed in September 2021. Neither his family nor the hospital have specified whether it had spread to other organs.
Newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reported last weekend that Pelé’s chemotherapy was not working and that doctors had decided to put him on palliative care. Pelé’s family has denied that report.
Pelé led Brazil to victory in the 1958, 1962 and 1970 World Cups and remains one of the team’s all-time leading scorers with 77 goals. Neymar tied Pelé’s record during the latest World Cup.
