Manchester United have bigger problems to solve than getting ahead of the game when it comes to identifying an upgrade on striker Benjamin Sesko.

Winning their next match will be high on the Man United agenda, certainly. Deciding whether their captain should be allowed to play will be top-of-mind. Praying that head coach Michael Carrick can justify the patience of the higher-ups will take up some time too.

Nevertheless, goals are goals and the Red Devils are scoring too few as well as conceding too many. One of Europe's most in-form frontmen has been tipped as an unlikely candidate to put that right.

Victor Osimhen 'has the profile' to inspire Man United revival

Galatasaray's Nigerian international striker, Victor Osimhen, is on a goalscoring tear. The 27-year-old has scored nine goals in his last nine matches in all competitions for the Istanbul giants, including both in their derby win over Fenerbahce on Monday night.

He's scored eight league goals in fewer than 500 minutes. In Europe's top five leagues, only Barcelona's Raphinha is more prolific per 90 minutes in league football this season.

According to former Liverpool and Queens Park Rangers centre-forward Djibril Cisse, Man United should have Osimhen at the top of their transfer window shopping list.

"Victor Osimhen has the profile to play in England," the former French international told Mr Gamble. "I think Manchester United could suit him, and I believe there was already some interest at the start of the year or last year.

"He loves the Premier League. He’s unpredictable, he scores goals, he’s complete, he has the profile for English football, and I think that’s what United are missing right now."

Sesko might disagree. At 23 years old and with a considerable scoring record before his own move to Old Trafford, the Slovenian striker has struggled to stay injury-free and leave the desired impression.

'Profile' isn't really what's missing for Sesko and United's goals have been coming from Bryan Mbeumo, whose Premier League suitability is beyond doubt. Osimhen or any other striker following in the footsteps of Sesko, Joshua Zirkzee and Rasmus Hojlund would need genuine steel to rise above the circumstances.

Osimhen joined Galatasaray from Napoli last year after spending the 2024/25 season on loan at the Istanbul club. The masked man's relationship with Napoli deteriorated in the months after the club posted a video on TikTok that was interpreted as racially offensive.

There was significant interest in signing him from Napoli in the summer of 2024 but his options gradually fell away as teams turned their attentions elsewhere.

Galatasaray was seen as a premature sidestep out of the spotlight but Osimhen has thrived in Turkey's Super Lig, which he has won twice to add to his Serie A title in Naples.

Manchester United are working to clear the air before embarking on a difficult run of fixtures in the Premier League and Champions League, according to a report.

Michael Carrick has been under pressure after a sequence of disappointing results but it emerged on Tuesday that the head coach will have an opportunity to turn Man United's fortunes around.

Carrick avoiding the sack means that there are dressing room situations to resolve, not least with United captain Bruno Fernandes.

Man United 'players and staff' met for talks after a frantic fortnight of chaos

Fernandes was an unused substitute in the Red Devils' Premier League loss to Bournemouth on Sunday after he criticised Carrick's tactics in last week's defeat against Como in the Champions League.

The captain was criticised by a series of former players and received a frosty response at Old Trafford, where Carrick was offered the respect, if not the endorsement, of the United support.

"Sources say Carrick held a meeting of players and staff – not directors – to clear the air at Carrington and attempt to get people on the same page," report Laurie Whitwell and Chris McKenna for The Athletic.

"The idea was to galvanise everyone to the common cause of winning matches, whatever grievances they might have. The summit was said to be productive, but of course the proof will be seen on the pitch at Chelsea on Saturday."

United's fixture list is sure to provide a true test of their mettle with Carrick in charge. After their next Premier League match against the Blues, they will meet Roma, Aston Villa, Liverpool, Sporting CP and Brentford before the end of November.

The decision to leave Carrick in the dugout for that run was met with surprise this week. Man United have won two of their 12 matches in all competitions this season, a far cry from the positive form that saw his interim role commuted to the job proper in May.

"Carrick has his own decision on Fernandes: whether to back him or bench him. Those who know both men feel they will address the matter head-on," according to The Athletic.

"Sources say the mood as things stand is that a line will be drawn after Carrick dropped his captain on Sunday, which would make Fernandes available to start the trip to Stamford Bridge."

The United skipper was sidelined on Sunday as United slumped to their second three-goal defeat in a matter of days. They have now played eight matches without a win since beating Sabah in the Champions League at Old Trafford in December.

Yet to win away from home this season, the Red Devils have slipped back into the bottom five in the Premier League, face a tough challenge to avoid a play-off in the Champions League, and were knocked out of the Carabao Cup at the first time of asking despite leading against Brighton.

Watch Arsenal Women vs Benfica Women, with all the broadcast details right here in this guide.

Arsenal host Benfica on matchday three of the UEFA Women's Champions League league stage.

After a narrow 1-0 victory over HB Koge, Arsenal let a two goal lead slip away to draw 2-2 against Paris FC in their previous match, after a bizarre Leah Williamson handball led to a penalty.

The Gunners must now bounce back against the Portuguese side.

FourFourTwo has all the information on live streams and TV channels so you can watch Arsenal vs Benfica in the UWCL online, on TV, and from anywhere.

Can I watch Arsenal vs Benfica for free?

Yes. Arsenal vs Benfica is broadcast for free in Portugal on RTP2 and via RTP Play.

Outside Portugal? Use NordVPN to stream the game for free.

Watch Arsenal vs Benfica from anywhere

Away from home for the game? That doesn't mean you have to miss out on watching Arsenal vs Benfica. All you need is a VPN, a handy a piece of software that makes your devices appear to be in a different location.

Assuming it complies with your broadcaster’s T&Cs, you can use a VPN to bypass geo-restrictions and unblock your usual streaming services when abroad. It's also brilliant for your general internet security.

FourFourTwo’s colleagues TechRadar have tested hundreds of VPNs, and they say NordVPN is the best VPN you can get.

How to watch Arsenal vs Benfica the UK

Arsenal vs Benfica will be broadcast live in the UK on Disney+.

Watch Arsenal vs Benfica in the US

Fans in the USA can watch Arsenal vs Benfica via Paramount+.

Arsenal vs Benfica: Women's Champions League preview

Arsenal will be looking to get their Champions League campaign back on track as they return to Meadow Park, where they have home advantage against Benfica.

The Gunners have struggled for form this season but will be keen to secure a positive result as they look to climb the league-phase table, with Barcelona and Lyon among the difficult fixtures still to come.

Meanwhile, Benfica opened their campaign with a win away to Juventus. The Portuguese side will be hoping to put their defeat to Bayern behind them and take advantage of any uncertainty in the Arsenal camp.

Arsenal won the most recent meeting between the sides 2-0 in October 2025, giving them reason to believe they can secure another important result on home soil.

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Watch Liverpool vs Chelsea for free in the Carabao Cup 4th round, with FourFourTwo bringing you all the details on live streams and TV channels, wherever you are in the world.

Premier League rivals Liverpool and Chelsea meet in this re-run of the 2005, 2022 and 2024 League Cup finals.

Chelsea won the first of those, Liverpool the next two, and the Reds stand alone as the League Cup’s most successful club, with 10 wins.

This time, though, they face each other in the fourth round, and the big story revolves around Chelsea boss Xabi Alonso, who returns to Anfield for the first time since his appointment at Stamford Bridge.

Read on as FourFourTwo brings you all the information you need to watch Liverpool vs Chelsea in the Carabao Cup fourth round online and from anywhere, including for free.

Watch Liverpool vs Chelsea for FREE

Residents of the UK can watch Liverpool vs Chelsea for free in the UK on ITV1 and the ITVX streaming platform.

Watch Liverpool vs Chelsea from anywhere

Away from home right now? You don't have to miss Liverpool vs Chelsea.

The solution to your geo-restriction nightmares is a Virtual Private Network (VPN), a piece of software that can set your devices to appear to be in any country in the world.

FourFourTwo’s tech-obsessed office-mates over at Tom's Guide know everything there is to know about VPNs, and they rate NordVPN as the best VPN you can buy.

How to watch Liverpool vs Chelsea in the UK

As well as being covered by ITV, Liverpool vs Chelsea will be shown live on Sky Sports, with coverage on Sky Sports Main Event.

How to watch Liverpool vs Chelsea in the US

Paramount+ will broadcast Liverpool vs Chelsea in the US. Kick-off is at 4:00pm ET.

How to watch Liverpool vs Chelsea in Australia

Liverpool vs Chelsea will be live on beIN SPORTS 3 and the beIN SPORTS Connect streaming platform. Kick-off is at 7:00am AEST on Thursday.

Liverpool vs Chelsea: Preview

Matches between Liverpool and Chelsea always pack a punch and they come into this fourth round tie on the back of very different fortunes over the weekend.

The Blues were beaten by Tottenham Hotspur at Stamford Bridge, with stand-in goalkeeper Mike Penders credited with an own goal just a few minutes before Cole Palmer received a second yellow card. Mathys Tel added insult to injury.

Liverpool were a little vulnerable defensively, but blistering in attack as Ronald Araujo put in a sparkling performance to drive them past an in-form Brighton & Hove Albion. They leapfrogged Chelsea as a result.

SEE ALSO How to watch Carabao Cup 2026/27: TV Guide, Free Streams & Fixtures — Round 4

Without European football this season, Xabi Alonso's Chelsea have played twice in the Carabao Cup. They beat Luton Town and came back from the dead against Leeds United to reach the fourth round and are now within touching distance of the last eight. Liverpool knocked Spurs out comfortably in the last round.

Chelsea's last win at Anfield was behind closed doors in March 2021, when Mason Mount scored the only goal of the game in the Premier League. Emerson and Eden Hazard scored the goals in their last win there in front of a crowd, also in the League Cup, eight years ago.

Xabi Alonso's return to Merseyside is a chance to end that wait for the travelling Chelsea supporters a few weeks before Liverpool make the reverse journey to West London for the first league meeting of the season.

FourFourTwo's prediction

Liverpool 2-0 Chelsea

So much depends on team selection, but Andoni Iraola's Reds have responded well to their loss against Manchester City.

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The new Football Manager game is here and players everywhere are eagerly awaiting their next foray into the thrills of the virtual transfer market.

FM27 has some powerful new tactical and training features but millions of fans around the world play Football Manager to get stuck into transfers and discover the latest cult signings to give their teams a boost.

Prior to Thursday's launch of the full free preview of the new edition, FourFourTwo caught up with Sports Interactive developer Antony Farley to talk transfers.

Ajax academy 'always good' for Football Manager wonderkids

The developer prefers to keep his cards close to his chest when it comes to naming names but one young player in particular was identified as a possible candidate to be the next FM wonderkid.

"There's a kid at Ajax, a 17-year-old left winger, Abdellah Ouazane, who looks like he's going to be a very strong player this year," Farley tells FourFourTwo.

"Those absolute gems playing somewhere a little bit more far-flung are a lot harder to find, anecdotally. But certainly, at the Ajax Academy, there are always good players coming through. The fun of discovery is part of it, so I don't want to ruin too many surprises.

"I don't know that we've got to worry about the future of wonderkids already being at the top teams because we're a simulation. Ultimately, our job is to simulate the real football world: what the real football world does, FM does, and very often we're maybe influencing the real football world in some sense when it comes to wonderkids.

The Football Manager wonderkid has become a beloved phenomenon. Cherno Samba, Carlo Fierro, Kim Kallstrom and Ibrahima Bakayoko are names that will trigger memories for hordes of virtual gaffers.

Farley also likes to find other games within the game, painting himself into corners to help unleash the creative artillery of constraint.

"I don't think the wonderkid appeal will ever go away; that's always an extremely exciting part of the game," he adds. "But I really like the self-imposed constraints you can put on yourself in FM at times. I've got a rule for myself that I won't sign a player with a work rate under 15, for example.

"That very often starts me looking in the Championship for gems who are going to run through walls for me: players who might not have the technical ability of that elite level, but have the mentality bang on.

"That's where I'm going to put my effort into getting them up to that elite level. It just introduces new choices, rather than us being too concerned about the removal of existing ones."

FM27 will be launched as a free preview on PC, Mac, Steam and Xbox from October 29 to November 3. Every game mode will be playable, offering players a chance to make an informed purchase decision.

Erling Haaland is planning his next transfer move and has put La Liga titans Real Madrid and Barcelona on alert, according to reporting in Spain.

Haaland is committed to Manchester City until 2034 after signing a blockbuster new contract early last year but is sure to be a target for any club that gets a realistic sniff of signing him in the meantime.

Real Madrid and Barcelona are no exception to that rather obvious fact, and a transfer reporter has claimed that the Norwegian striker wants to head for Spain when his time in the Premier League comes to and end.

Erling Haaland 'undecided' between Real Madrid and Barcelona

"According to journalist Matteo Moretto, the striker plans to make the move to Spanish football in the future, although he has not yet chosen a team nor is there a set date for his departure," reports Fichajes.

"Moretto revealed during MARCA's 'Los 100' special that Erling Haaland considers the Spanish championship the next step in his career."

Haaland's contract and commitment to Man City do not paint the full picture. City were found guilty of 114 breaches of Premier League rules and are awaiting both the outcome of their appeal and confirmation of the potentially catastrophic punishment heading their way.

Football is a short career and City players, Haaland included, are sure to be reviewing their options if multiple seasons outside the Premier League became definite or likely as a result of the charges.

Most of them wouldn't be short of lusty suitors if the Man City situation were to evolve into a fire sale of their expensively assembled squad of top talents and household names.

"[Premier League] regulations stipulate that fines, point deductions, and other sporting measures could be among the consequences," reports Fichajes.

"A sanction that significantly impacts the team's competitive standing could alter the plans of some players. In Haaland's case, any departure would still depend on the financial terms demanded by his current club."

Haaland is regarded as one of the best strikers in the world. He has scored 121 goals in just 140 Premier League appearances and helped Pep Guardiola's City team to their last two Premier League titles and a historic treble.

Having fired Man City to a Champions Legue win in 2022/23, Haaland came second in the Ballon d'Or voting behind Lionel Messi. England's Harry Kane went one better in 2026 and the pair, along with Kylian Mbappe, are widely considered to be the world's most lethal marksmen.

Whether Haaland's departure is expedited by sanctions or forms part of his twilight adventure many years from now, he can be sure the top teams in his preferred league will be on the phone.

The new edition of the legendary Football Manager series packs a powerful new tactical effectiveness system that will really put top players through their paces and offers big reward for taking a successful risk.

FM27 will be available to try before you buy from Thursday, including the tactical effectiveness features that will govern the complexity of tactical innovations that can be trained into squads and the individual players within.

Prior to the launch of the free preview, FourFourTwo spoke to Sports Interactive and Football Manager developer Antony Farley about the new system.

'It's a measure of how well your players understand what you're asking them to do'

"It is quite a deep system, I would say, and one that the real hardcore – the people who really engage, think about FM, and leave no stone unturned – are going to have a lot of fun with," Farley tells FourFourTwo.

"To be really simple about it, it's a measure of how well your players understand what you're asking them to do and how well they're able to execute it.

"There are a lot of gauges in the experience to measure your progress in these areas. The two really important gauges we've added to your tactic give you a sense of its intensity (how physically demanding it is) and its complexity (more how mentally demanding it is). Then, a new gauge shows how effective you are at that tactic overall.

"Training has been reworked to be a little bit more about match preparation and working towards winning football matches. You'll see that breakdown of tactical effectiveness, and you may see that our pressing intensity is something we're a bit behind on at the moment: something the players aren't necessarily clicking with.

"You can then go in and cater your training sessions to work on that specifically, hopefully building their understanding of what you're asking them to do and becoming more effective at it."

Such detail isn't going to be for every FM27 player, but those who love to get down and dirty with the details should find that the time they invest in preparing their teams tactically can be time well spent.

"This is about risk-reward and new choices," says Farley.

"You might want to go into a club and ask them to do something really simple and straightforward, and you're probably going to get those players performing that tactic quite quickly, depending on the squad available to you.

"But it may be that that tactic has a bit of a ceiling to it: it's only going to be so good. Whereas you might go in and say, 'I've got something really complicated that I'm asking my team to do here.' It's going to take a while for your players to get up to speed with that.

"That's the balance of risk-reward and those new choices."

FM27 will be available to play as a free preview from October 29 to November 3. All game modes will be available within the preview, which can be accessed without proof of purchase for PC, Mac, Steam and Xbox.

A non-league football club in Scotland is set to field two teams at the same time after a failure to resolve a fixture clash.

Renfrewshire side Johnstone Burgh were promoted to the the Lowland League West last season and now compete with illustrious names like Clydebank, Gretna and Albion Rovers, as well as a Celtic B team.

Johnstone, who count Frank McAvennie among their former players, are holding their own in mid-table in the fifth tier but face a near-insurmountable challenge because of the scheduling of two of their cup ties.

Johnstone Burgh will play two matches at the same time

The Burgh are competing in the Scottish Communities Cup and the Lowland League Cup this autumn and both of their fixtures are slated for Saturday, November 21.

They are scheduled to play Tayport in the Communities Cup and Dunipace in the League Cup, both away from home, and in a bizarre turn of events that's exactly what's going to happen.

"We have explored every possible option to find a suitable solution that would allow us to play the tie outwith a Saturday afternoon as our schedule is already full," Johnstone said in a club statement as reported by the Daily Record.

"This has included attempting to rearrange league fixtures and South Challenge Cup ties, travelling to Tayport midweek, playing Tayport on a Friday night or Sunday afternoon, and, most recently, offering to play the Communities Cup tie immediately before or after our upcoming Lowland League Cup fixture.

"In addition, we offered to forfeit our share of the gate money to help cover any inconvenience caused by rearranging the fixture.

"Despite exhausting every option available to us, we have been unable to reach a solution that allows us to play outwith a Saturday afternoon.

"Regrettably, we now find ourselves in a position where our Communities Cup tie and Lowland League Cup tie must be played on the same day, at the same time, on Saturday 21st November."

Burgh manager Stevie Farrell, a former St Mirren and Stenhousemuir defender with a couple of Second Division matches in England to his name, will be required to split his squad.

One Johnstone team will make the long trip to the east coast to take on Tayport while another heads to Stirlingshire for their Lowland League Cup tie on the same afternoon.

The first round ushers in a new era for the competition after the league's expansion to form two geographical divisions, responsible for Johnstone's promotion in sixth place last term.

Arsenal wonderkid Max Dowman received a red card against Fleetwood Town – and an apparent earful from manager Mikel Arteta.

The 16-year-old was sent off after retaliating to a hefty challenge towards the end of the Carabao Cup tie, in what was widely condemned by pundits and on social media as a very harsh decision from referee Michael Salisbury.

In leaving the pitch, Dowman was approached by Arteta, who appeared to say something to the Arsenal youngster as he trudged down the tunnel.

Arsenal defeat clouded by Mikel Arteta reaction to Max Dowman

Speaking after the game, Arteta told his post-match press conference that he hadn't had a chance to rewatch the incident – but refused to blame the officiating for his side's exit from the Fourth Round of the competition.

“I haven’t seen it back, and with the camera you can’t really see what happens,” the Basque boss said.

“The decision was made by the referee, and that’s it. Even with 10 men, we had three big chances to score.”

When asked what he said to the teenager, Arteta replied, “It’s something that we discussed before the game,” but refused to go into further detail – though did say just before that “we’re very clear on what to expect” from Fleetwood and “emotionally, we have to dominate”.

“We’re not going to discuss that here and now,” he said, when asked about prior conversations with Dowman about being fouled regularly.

This is the second dismissal that the winger has had this month, after getting sent off for England's under-19s recently following a reckless challenge after being targeted.

“This didn’t look good to me at all,” former Gunner and pundit Paul Merson said on Sky Sports following the incident at Highbury.

“If that’s [Viktor] Gyokeres, who’s an experienced international, [Arteta] isn’t doing that – but he does that to a 16-year-old kid?”

The red card leaves Dowman with a likely one-game ban for the weekend's trip to Anfield, leaving Arsenal with a selection crisis at right-wing.

Bukayo Saka is facing a two-month layoff after a muscle injury picked up against Bayern Munich, with Noni Madueke left out of last night's cup trip after a knock himself.

Arsenal comfortably won their Premier League fixture at home against Everton on Saturday but exited the Carabao Cup in shambolic fashion on Tuesday evening.

The Gunners needed an equaliser from Viktor Gyokeres to take League Two side Fleetwood Town to penalties in their fourth round tie, losing 5-3 on spot kicks after Bruno Guimaraes failed to score.

Teenager Max Dowman was sent off for retaliating to a poor challenge and appeared to be scolded by manager Mikel Arteta as he left the field and headed down the tunnel.

Arsenal injury update ahead of Premier League clash with Liverpool

Dowman's suspension means he will join fellow wide players Bukayo Saka and potentially Christos Tzolis on the sidelines when Arsenal take on Liverpool in the Premier League this weekend.

Both players missed Tuesday's trip to the Fylde coast along with three others, whose absence at Highbury Stadium wasn't necessarily planned.

Arteta's wide options were further limited without England winger Noni Madueke, while midfielder Declan Rice and full-back Riccardo Calafiori both also missed the Fleetwood game.

The Arsenal boss told reporters after Arsenal's exit from the Carabao Cup that Rice, who played against Everton on Saturday and trained on Monday, was unavailable because of a minor injury.

According to The Standard, Rice should be fit and available to face Liverpool but a further update is expected from his manager when he meets the media again for his pre-match press conference.

"Madueke was not spotted in training on Monday and Arteta has revealed the winger picked up an ankle issue against Everton which prevented him from making the trip to Fleetwood," reports The Standard.

"As Arsenal have key injuries in wide areas and now Dowman’s suspension has been added to the mix, supporters will be desperate for a positive update on Madueke before the Liverpool game."

Meanwhile, Calafiori featured in the Champions League prior to Arsenal's league fixture against Everton but was not named in the starting line-up against the Toffees and didn't feature in the Fleetwood match.

The Italian left-back was evidently struggling with a knock at the end of the Everton game after coming off the bench, but Arteta revealed afterwards that any injury was 'slight'.

Arsenal will hope Calafiori is available on Sunday, when they and Liverpool play the second part of the weekend's top-four bonanza after Saturday's match between third-placed Brighton and leaders Manchester City.

The new edition of the legendary Football Manager game franchise will be unleashed on the world this week and FourFourTwo has been kept informed about what to expect.

FM27 will launch as a free preview at 6:00pm on Thursday, October 29, enabling prospective players to try before they buy on PC or Mac with no proof of purchase required.

Prior to the release of the new game and its free preview, Sports Interactive developer Antony Farley has revealed his best piece of advice for rookie Football Manager players looking to dip a toe into the vast waters of management simulation.

'Patience is a big part of it' for new FM27 players

"When it comes to new players, players who may be curious about FM but haven't given it a go before… advice I always give to new players is patience is a big part of it!" Farley tells FourFourTwo.

"FM is a game where the appeal reveals itself the more you spend time with it. You’re creating your own world, you're living out your own alternative reality, and very often the kind of hook be a moment that comes you eight, nine or 10 matches into a season – maybe that second transfer window.

"So spend time with it, be patient with it, and particularly for new players, I always recommend they make use of our delegation features. We’ve got a little bit more front and centre this year in the new user experience. It's the ability to kind of directly delegate to your staff members some of the key areas of responsibility.

"If you're feeling a bit overwhelmed, then you've got a backroom team that can help you out and take care of contract negotiations, training or what-have-you. You can have experience that you want to have!"

FM27 has a little something for everyone, from newcomers to obsessive Football Manager veterans who want total control over every aspect of their play.

Sports Interactive took the unusual decision to offer it all in a free-to-play preview, which will also be available via Steam and Xbox Game Pass. The trial will make every game mode playable, meaning players can take the whole thing for a spin.

Farley says that the trial is designed to give players a true and candid experience of the new game, and a chance to make an informed choice.

"Ultimately, we've done this free period so people can kind of try before they buy and make their own judgment call, on whether or not they want to commit to a purchase of FM27," he explains to FourFourTwo.

"That goes for new players to the game, people that maybe are still playing FM26, people that might still be playing FM24, our previous title, and we want to give people the opportunity to really get their hands on for quite a significant period, to make the decision as to whether or not it's resonating with them and whether they want to continue with it."

The FM27 trial period will end on Tuesday, November 3.

You can barely avoid Stick To Football if you're at all interested in football these days.

The YouTube show, fronted by Gary Neville, Roy Keane, Jamie Carragher, Ian Wright and Jill Scott - sometimes with guests filling in or joining the studio - has become the go-to source of punditry wisdom and football banter.

But as the show's founder, Neville admits he was not certain it would work before a proof of concept episode proved to be a hit.

Neville told FourFourTwo: "Initially [The Overlap] was just me for two years. I was interviewing people and got to a point where I thought ‘I’m a bit of a busy fool here, I’m just wandering around talking to people’.

"I thought I’d run out of guests and I’d get bored. I get bored easily.

"But we did something before one of the tournaments, with a few of us round a table – I thought it worked well and it grew from there.

“There are times you have to do things remotely, but generally I always think you’re better off being in the room with people, then you can see their faces and their excitement.

“I want five people sat around the bar, as if it’s almost like a pub after a match, and I just want us to have a chat.

“Five people shouldn’t really work, people would say it’s too many, but the one thing I was insistent upon was it would be five people and who they’d be.

“Getting them all together and to agree was difficult. It took time, but we did it.

"I was so nervous before the first recording, thinking ‘How’s this going to go?’ It was a massive gamble for us, but within the first couple of weeks I could see it was working.

"After we did the David Beckham episode, the first guest episode, I thought ‘This works’.

“It’s informal, it’s authentic, we’re just having a conversation, there’s no real order to it, which is what I wanted. I just want to Stick to Football to be free – you press record, press stop, and everything in between is fair game.

"If someone walks in with a pot of tea, if someone walks in to do someone’s makeup or the sound engineer walks in, we just keep going.

"We don’t stop; everything’s filmed. There’s a team in this room delivering this programme, and we just went for it from day one.”

Since 1992-93, the Premier League – under its various names – has been the top division of men's football in England. It's delivered countless iconic moments, all captured on television cameras and by an army of talented pitchside photographers. This FourFourTwo quiz will test your memory of those moments.

We've picked some of our favourite recognisable incidents and matches from the history of the Premier League and we simply want you to select the correct season from the four options provided.

There are 10 photographs in all and we're giving you a time limit of just 4 minutes to see how many of them you can pin down to a particular Premier League year.

Handpicked football quizzes we know you'll love

FourFourTwo has many more football quizzes, all courtesy of Kwizly. First up, can you take these 15 career paths and tell us which club is missing from the end of each one? We've supplied a picture of each player, but not their names. Good luck!

Next, we have a new club and country badge quiz. You simply need to name the team to which each badge is associated. We've switched up some colours and removed the team names - obviously - to make it a bit trickier.

Finally, let's find out if you're as hot on obscure-ish football trivia as you are Premier League history. You know the footballers the streets won't forget. But what about the streets football won't forget?

FourFourTwo's Weekend Crossword 72 features clues on Buccaneers, pirates and Vikings. Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter for your daily afternoon briefing of football trivia and analysis, and don't forget to join The Club: our free membership portal where you can secret hints and get on the leaderboard.

In February 2015, Tottenham Hotspur signed Dele Alli for £5m. The midfielder penned a five-and-a-half year deal with the north London side, and was immediately loaned back to MK Dons.

At 18 years of age for a player plying his trade for a League One side, it was a hefty outlay. Tottenham were taking a risk on the teenager. At the time, he’d struck 12 times in 25 appearances. He ended his final season for the Dons with 16 goals across 39 league outings. However, the step up from the third tier of English football to the Premier League was a big one to take. It was one he made with ease.

Dele scored 10 and provided nine assists in his debut season at the club. He added 18 goals and registered a further seven assists in his second campaign in the capital. Successive PFA Young Player of the Year awards served to highlight a player with the world at his feet. Nine goals and 10 assists across the 2017/18 season was another superb haul.

‘We’ve got Alli! Dele Alli!’ would reverberate around the old White Hart Lane. He forged a fine attacking partnership with Harry Kane, Son Heung-min and Christian Eriksen in Mauricio Pochettino’s favoured 4-2-3-1 setup.

The attacking performances attracted interest from Real Madrid at one stage. However, the showings began to deteriorate in the 2018/19 season. The quality of his displays slipped, owing largely to a series of hamstring complaints during Pochettino’s final full season at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium helm.

The Argentine’s Spurs exit in November 2019 was ultimately the beginning of the end for Dele. Jose Mourinho succeeded Pochettino in north London, and the Portuguese warned the midfielder that an unprofessional attitude could negatively impact his career. In the widely shared scene from the All or Nothing documentary focussed on the 2019/20 season, Dele didn’t necessarily adopt a relaxed attitude, nor did he look particularly receptive to Mourinho’s comments.

Rather, he sat in the manager’s office, arms crossed, and didn’t appear to be taking Mourinho’s advice on board. Things hardly improved for Dele during his time under the former Chelsea and Inter Milan head coach, though he refused to blame Mourinho for a lack of game time during his short stint at Spurs. “The only person I blame is myself,” he said back in 2021.

At one stage, he opened up on personal problems during an episode of The Overlap with Gary Neville, revealing he was sexually abused by a friend of his mother at just six years of age. Dele also admitted that, at one point, he suffered from an addiction to sleeping pills and alcohol. That said, the player himself never used his off-field issues as an excuse for a dip in on-field performances, though such trauma would have impacted anybody regardless of their mental fortitude.

Ultimately, a Spurs career that started with a bang ended with a whimper, and in January 2022, he completed a move to Everton. A fresh start with a change of scenery was seemingly the best course of action for the player. It failed to have the desired effect. Dele managed just one league start in the second half of the 2021/22 season before moving to Turkish side Besiktas later that year.

Everything seemed to be going well for him in Istanbul, though it took a turn for the worse when Senol Gunel took over the reins in October 2022. “Let’s not discuss Dele Alli as a player, but he is below expectations in terms of efficiency,” Gunel said of Dele shortly after his appointment. He didn’t play for Besiktas again after February having scored two goals across 13 league outings. Just as things looked to be falling into place for Dele, everything came tumbling down once more.

The 2023/24 campaign was a write-off due to injury, and while his Everton contract expired in June 2024, the club allowed Dele to use the training facilities as he continued his rehabilitation. A switch to Como followed in January 2025, and another opportunity for a new beginning.

Head coach Cesc Fabregas warned against Dele making an immediate impact, which is to be expected following an 18-month spell away from the game, but in March 2025; the midfielder made his first appearance in over two years as he took to the field in a Serie A clash with Milan. He lasted just nine minutes after a VAR review upgraded his yellow card for a foul on Lucas Da Cunha to a red. Dele was released in September 2025. He hasn’t played competitively since.

It’s not to say Dele hasn’t been trying to remain on top of his fitness in order to secure a move. He was training at Hotspur Way earlier this year. Some fans would even love to see Dele return to the squad to provide a confidence boost. He was reportedly set to move to West Ham United over the summer, while League Two contenders Barnet had been credited with an interest.

On potentially signing Dele, who had been using the club’s training facilities, head coach Dean Brennan said: “You’d be mad not to. Everyone deserves a second chance in life.” While a move to the Bees is yet to come to fruition, it’s an offer that remains on the table for Dele.

In the meantime, however, he has taken to live streaming on Twitch, attracting thousands of viewers as he calls former teammates on air, including James Maddison, Tammy Abraham and Harry Kane, though some, including Eric Dier, opted against answering the phone. It was the call with Kane, however, that really brought to light the fall from grace. “Working hard, I hope?” the Bayern Munich hitman asked, with genuine concern in his voice.

“Always bro. Come on, you know me,” Dele replied. He said so with a fragile smile.

Is there light at the end of the tunnel? The player himself confirmed as such on a live stream, stating that “developments are happening behind the scenes”. It’s not yet confirmed where his next destination will be, but fans everywhere are hoping the possible move comes to fruition, be it with Barnet or elsewhere.

It’s truly a sorry state of affairs for a player who, briefly, had the world at his feet. He played with the arrogance and flamboyance of an attacker who looked destined for the very top. The world-class strike against Crystal Palace in January 2016 feels like a lifetime ago. “It makes your heart smile, that sort of goal,” Ian Wright said on Match of the Day.

Ask any Spurs fan now, and all they’ll want to see is a happy Dele playing football again. At just 30 years of age, there is ample time to return to the game. He may not hit the same heights supporters witnessed in the opening years of his Spurs career, but just watching him back in action would make even the most apathetic of hearts smile.

It's another day, so it's another FourFourTwo Quickfire Quiz. It couldn't be simpler: 10 football trivia questions to answer and just 90 seconds to answer them.

Handpicked football quizzes we know you'll love

FourFourTwo has many more football quizzes courtesy of Kwizly. Let's start in the Premier League, where we'd like to ask you politely to identify the nationalities of 20 players of varying levels of memorability value.

More visually minded? Our twisted badge quiz takes some famous club and country crests and strips them of what marketing graduates might call their distinctive brand assets. Can you still identify them?

We're a few games into the European continental club season and we have a beat of a quiz that asks you to name every club competing in the league phase of the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League this season.

Next, a diversion from an old favourite. Forget the footballers the streets won't forget. Yes, you ready that correctly. We're not bothered by them for the purposes of this quiz. Instead, we want to know whether can answer questions about the streets football won't forget.

Our last quiz recommendation only applies for trivia brains with practical experience, because you're not going to get far with this one without it. If you know your stuff, take on our Big Quiz of English Football Grounds.

We have puzzles too. Our Weekend Crossword is a regular football teaser for your Sunday, and remember to sign up to the newsletter for more quizzes in your inbox. Don't forget to join The Club for free additional membership benefits!

2026 Ballon d'Or winner Harry Kane made light work of his competition as a young player at Tottenham Hotspur, a former teammate at the North London club has admitted.

Spurs legend Kane scored 213 goals for the club in the Premier League, leaving in 2023 as the league's second-highest goalscorer. His move to Bayern Munich laid the foundations for back-to-back Bundesliga titles, to 61 goals in 51 matches in 2025/26 and, ultimately, to the Ballon d'Or.

Kane played for Leyton Orient, Millwall, Norwich City and Leicester City before establishing himself as an all-time Spurs great and England great.

'He overtook us like a rocket'

According to Spanish striker Roberto Soldado, who played for Spurs between 2013 and 2015 just as Kane was emerging from his proving expedition around other clubs, the signs were there from the start.

Soldado told Deportes COPE Valencia via Sport Witness: "He’d come up to train with us, and in training you’d see him finish and you’d say, 'Damn, this kid.’

"We played in the Premier League, the Europa League, and the FA Cup and Carling Cup. The kid would come on, get minutes, and score goals, and score goals, and score goals.

"It crushed me, it crushed me. He kept earning more and more minutes in every competition, and well, he overtook us, like a rocket.

"Those of you who knew he was something special weren’t wrong, because look, even now, and it’s been quite a while, he’s still a world-class striker."

Soldado, now 41, is as good a judge as any. The Valencia-born frontman was seldom truly prolific but offered enough presence to build an impressive career that took him from Real Madrid, Getafe and Valencia to Spurs, and on to Villarreal, Fenerbahce, Granada and Levante.

He scored more than 200 league goals in his career and scored seven times in 12 appearances for the Spanish national team, albeit in a period spanning six years. Soldado had stiff competition at international level too.

Kane was voted the best footballer in the world and collected the Ballon d'Or trophy at the end of a glittering ceremony on Monday night.

The 33-year-old England captain scored six times on the way to the World Cup semi-finals, adding some international credibility to a phenomenal season in front of goal for Bayern.

Since leaving Spurs, Kane has scored 156 times in 159 appearances in all competitions and has won Germany's Bundesliga twice. Bayern also won the DFB-Pokal last season. Kane scored all three goals in the final against Stuttgart in May.

Real Madrid president Florentino Perez and manager Jose Mourinho have turned their attentions to the Premier League in the hunt for a marquee midfield signing, according to reports.

Los Blancos closed the gap on La Liga leaders Barcelona with a 2-1 El Clasico win on Sunday, but they have not won the title or Champions League since 2023/24. That's only a couple of years for any other club, but Real Madrid seldom suffer droughts without a throaty reaction in the transfer market.

Perez is a man of big promises and Liverpool could be the next club who can expect to have to resist Real Madrid's overtures for one of their most important players.

Real Madrid reportedly want Alexis Mac Allister to bolster their midfield

According to reports in Spain, Perez and Mourinho have 'once again' identified Reds midfielder Alexis Mac Allister as their top target for the summer of 2027. The Argentinian international's contract status is a factor in their temptation.

"Perez wants to take advantage of the fact that the player has yet to renew his contract to try and convince him to join in January 2027, although his contract expires in June 2028 and any early signing would require negotiating a transfer fee," reports Fichajes.

"The Argentine has rediscovered his form since Andoni Iraola took over at Anfield, but his contract situation remains uncertain. The English club has yet to initiate talks to extend his contract, a circumstance that Real Madrid could capitalise on.

"Mourinho would welcome the addition of a player capable of winning back possession and contributing to the team's attacking play.

"His profile fits the need for a midfielder who provides balance without sacrificing creativity. Mac Allister can play in front of the defence, press opposing midfielders, and link up with attackers through through balls."

Mac Allister, a World Cup winner, signed for Liverpool from Brighton & Hove Albion in 2023 and added the Premier League title to his personal honours list under Arne Slot in his second season at Anfield.

Now 27, the midfielder joined the Seagulls from Argentinos Juniors in 2019 and starred in the Premier League after loan spells with both his former club and Boca Juniors between 2019 and 2020.

Liverpool parted with an eventual fee in the region of £55 million to take him to Merseyside and he has lived up to his promise, albeit without being a perfect tactical fit at times under both Slot and his predecessor, Jurgen Klopp.

Mac Allister signed a five-year contract when he moved to Anfield and is now in the last two years of that deal, alerting potential suitors to the opportunity to test Liverpool's need to bring in a transfer fee if and when he leaves.

The looming interest from Spain could play a part in any contract negotiations that do take place, but Real Madrid can expect to spend big if they want to make their move before Mac Allister's deal runs out.

Harry Kane is the Ballon d'Or winner. He has been crowned the best player on Earth. He is the first Englishman since Michael Owen in 2001 to be awarded the Ballon d'Or. Life is good right now.

And perhaps in the last 25 years, we haven't been able to say that: the best footballer in the world right now is English. Yamal has a case to call himself the best right now; Haaland, too, at a push. But Kane's case is strongest based on the year he's had – and for all the tears for heroes, fake sheikhs, Iceland meltdowns and golden generations, the last quarter-century has produced plenty of solid footballers on Blighty – but never one who could rightfully claim to be in a league of their own.

Until now. The Ballon d'Or has served its purpose – if that's what you believe the purpose of the Ballon d'Or to be. And what do you believe? Because perhaps not even France Football really understand anymore what their baby really is or who it's supposed to represent.

“The Ballon d'Or rewards the best male and female player in the world, regardless of league or nationality,” France Football claims – and surely that should be enough. But no. There are three criteria: individual performances, decisive and impressive character; collective performances and titles won; and class and fair play. It feels, a little, like the criteria are at odds with the idea of simply voting for… “the best”.

If you were to vote for the best footballer in the world in 2009, it would have been Lionel Messi. It would have been Messi in 2010. It would have been Messi in 2011. In fact, Lionel Messi only really stopped playing like unanimously the best footballer on Earth around 2020, 2021, when Robert Lewandowski's ever-maddening goal haul started to ramp up a gear, and the GOAT started his long wind-down in club football at a dysfunctional Paris Saint-Germain. Yet it's cruel irony that Lewy missed out on a Ballon d'Or to Messi after the Argentine ended his international drought by winning a Copa America.

Somehow, Messi was also robbed along the way, missing out on five Ballons d'Or between his God-level peak of 2009 and 2020: four times to Cristiano Ronaldo, and once to Luka Modric. Ronaldo engineered himself into conversations of being the best on Earth through his sheer mentality, hard work and output. Was he ever a better footballer than Messi? No. Messi even outscored him twice out of his five BDO-winning seasons.

Haters gonna hate, but Ronaldo was simply a beneficiary of the voters wanting a different name on the trophy and the criteria considering team achievements. “The Ballon d'Or rewards the best male and female player in the world, regardless of league or nationality,” remember.

Modric, too, was one of the greatest midfielders on Earth at his absolute peak: but the best player on Earth in 2018? No. Certainly not better than, for example, Kevin De Bruyne that 12 months (not that De Bruyne was ever a better footballer than Messi over that time, either). Modric simply fulfilled the criteria of “collective performances and titles”, too, having won a Champions League and reached a World Cup final.

Because that's how it works. If you're by far and away the best player on Earth – Messi, Kane this year, Ronaldo Nazario, even, back in the day – then you get the award. If not, then is there a player who won multiple major trophies? If so, it's an Owen year. There's a very good case that had France made the World Cup final, Ousmane Dembele wins the 2026 gong once again. If Desire Doue gets the winning goal, it's him. If we're talking about 90 minutes deciding an entire season in a knockout competition, fair enough – but should it decide an award given to a player's entire calendar year?

The Ballon d'Or vote is an absolute mish-mash across categories: a competition where, in 2026, Julian Quinones is in the top 30 players on Earth. Because, of course, Siphiwe Tshabalala was one of the best players in the world in 2010.

Fabian Ruiz is not a better player than Jude Bellingham, and no, that's not English bias to say. But he's placed higher in the 2026 Ballon d'Or because he was the only player to have won both big competitions this year. Rodri has won two domestic cup competitions, plus the World Cup and the World Cup Golden Ball – yet he's somehow below Kylian Mbappe, who won a World Cup Golden Boot and absolutely nothing else with a Real Madrid side he hindered as much as helped, according to some.

So what are we voting for, here? Maybe Alessia Russo would like to know after she beat Aitana Bonmati in a Champions League final and a European Championship final last year, scoring in the latter… and still finished second to the Spaniard in the BDO, while images of Bonmati missing a penalty – no, really – were plastered on the big screen behind her.

Perhaps the strangest moment of the 2026 ceremony saw Unai Simon beat David Raya to the Yashin Trophy. While Raya picked up a third Golden Glove in a row in the Premier League, reached a Champions League final and has been the best keeper in the world over the past 12 months, Simon was picked ahead of him for Spain at the World Cup after finishing 12th with Athletic Club and bombing out of the league phase of the Champions League. Simon wasn't a hugely influential member of Spain's World Cup-winning squad, with a handful of saves after the quarter-finals and the highest line of any team in the tournament. But he got the award – and don't worry: if you think eight games is too small a sample size to receive such a nod, viral Cape Verde custodian Vozinha got a nomination, too.

Sadly, this isn't new. The Messi-Ronaldo era truly warped the award into becoming a ‘prom king’-style popularity contest – Michael Owen revealed last night that he learned he'd been given the award via a phone call in 2001 – but the list of Ballon d'Or winners is a weird mix of some of the best footballers who have ever lived (Ronaldinho, Kaka, Ronaldo) and those who were simply in the right place at the right time (Pavel Nedved, Matthias Sammer, Fabio Cannavaro). Scroll through the Wikipedia entry for the award, which lists every year's podium-placed players, and notice the glaring omissions of the greatest players of the 21st Century – Wayne Rooney, Sergio Ramos, Luis Suarez (who surely missed out on a nod due to the “class and fair play” criteria), Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Andrea Pirlo, Francesco Totti, Alessandro Nesta – then work out which years the likes of Jorginho and Deco were bumped up in, and how it aligns with them being influential cogs in successful machines.

It's unfortunately how voting panels operate. Colin Firth movie The King's Speech perfected a formula in cinema: if you do something so obviously 8/10, manage to steer away from controversy and offence and ride a good narrative, you may not be anyone's favourite – but on a voter's top 10, you can probably scoop a win from being everyone's second- or third-favourite.

The same goes in football. Erling Haaland finished second in the Ballon d'Or when he moved to Manchester City and climbed another level in everyone's perspective of him. He likely has to repeat that trick again – and win the Champions League in a non-tournament year, to boot – should he look to actually win the award. We've normalised his greatness far too much now to vote him the greatest player on Earth for simply what looks like “yet another very good Erling Haaland season”. The same maybe goes for Lamine Yamal, who will have to win a Champions League, maybe that and the Euros in 2028 to finally escape being the Golden Boy, and not the Golden Man.

That Kane's goalscoring momentum managed to carry him through to the prize without a Champions League or World Cup, despite Mbappe conducting a shameless, ‘Emperor's new clothes’-style PR tour, is a win for football. In years to come, the Ballon d'Or honours list should read as a who's who of GOATs: the best player in the world given the gong to honour everything they were and achieved that year.

Giving Kane the prize goes some way to restoring the Ballon d'Or to what it should be. A prize based on what happened on the pitch, not the campaign that followed. A prize for the footballer, not the team they played for. An award for the best player in the world.

Watch Fleetwood Town vs Arsenal for free in the Carabao Cup 4th round, with FourFourTwo bringing you all the details on live streams and TV channels, wherever you are in the world.

Arsenal are going back to Highbury. The Carabao Cup fourth round draw lined up a visit to the Lancashire coast for the Gunners, who face Fleetwood Town for a place in the last eight.

Matt Lawlor's Fishermen, 18th in League Two having lost their last two league fixtures, could do with the distraction.

Read on as FourFourTwo brings you all the information you need to watch Fleetwood Town vs Arsenal in the Carabao Cup fourth round online and from anywhere, including for free.

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Fleetwood Town vs Arsenal: Preview

Fleetwood’s defeats to Cheltenham Town and Exeter City both came away from home. Only fellow fourth-tier newcomers Rochdale have beaten the Fylde Coast club on their own turf in the league this season.

Lawlor is a rookie manager but an experienced coach. Like Manchester United’s head coach, for whom he previously worked, he took charge on an interim basis before being appointed permanently after making a positive impression.

This is the first meeting between Arsenal and Fleetwood. The latter’s Highbury Stadium is a coincidental namesake rather than a homage, but the visitors will wear red shirts with white sleeves this evening.

SEE ALSO How to watch Carabao Cup 2026/27: TV Guide, Free Streams & Fixtures — Round of 16

Arsenal’s record in the League Cup is surprisingly modest. They won the Littlewoods Challenge Cup in 1986/87 and the Coca-Cola Cup in 1992/93, completing a remarkable cup-final double against Sheffield Wednesday.

Last season brought a seventh League Cup final defeat for Mikel Arteta’s men, their fourth since the turn of the century. Given the relative experience of the side they fielded in the last round, compared with some of their line-ups in previous seasons, Arsenal appear determined to put that record right.

Max Dowman scored twice in the 4-2 win over Ipswich Town. He was born more than three years after Arsenal last played at Highbury.

Fleetwood Town vs Arsenal: Team News

Fleetwood XI: Lynch, Rooney, Bennett, Potter, Haughey, McLean, Neal, Helm, Batty, Evans, Loupalo-Bi.

Subs: Pradic, Andrew, Cannon, Davies, Thomas, Murphy, Coughlan, Robertson, Cirino.

Arsenal XI: Meslier, Timber, Salmon, Mosquera, Hincapie, Zubimendi, Lewis-Skelly, Dowman, O'Neill, Havertz, Gyokeres.

Subs: Arrizabalaga, White, Odegaard, Eze, Konsa, Guimaraes, Harriman-Annous, Washington, Hashi.

FourFourTwo's prediction

Fleetwood Town 0-3 Arsenal

Arteta went with a strong line-up in the third round. If he does the same again, Fleetwood could be in for a long night.

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Liverpool should be open to a shock return for former right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold, according to Reds legend Jamie Carragher.

Alexander-Arnold moved to Real Madrid on a free transfer after winning the Premier League under Arne Slot in 2024/25, ending a lengthy contract saga in a way that many Liverpool supporters were less than thrilled about.

After spending 20 years on Liverpool's books, the England full-back headed off to La Liga with some fairly fruity criticism ringing in his ears. He is reportedly reluctant to entertain a return to Anfield but his status at the Bernabeu could tempt him into a move.

Alexander-Arnold has dropped down the Real Madrid pecking order under Jose Mourinho

Returning Real Madrid boss Jose Mourinho has turned to other options at right-back in recent weeks, leaving Alexander-Arnold in the cold and sparking speculation about what would be a shocking and divisive return to Merseyside.

"I’d have him back anyway," Carragher revealed on The Overlap in association with Sky Bet. "I think he made a mistake, I do. I think he made a big mistake."

Carragher is broadly in favour but it's difficult to imagine Alexander-Arnold being warmly welcomed back to Anfield. The Sky Sports pundit suggested that bygones should be bygones in the case of a player who would serve a purpose.

"If something benefits Liverpool Football Club going forward… and we do have, when you think of the problems Liverpool have in terms of the right-back. Ronnie [Ronald Araujo] has been fantastic... but we do have a problem in terms of full-backs passing," said Carragher.

"At the moment, he’s actually third choice right-back for Real Madrid. They’re playing a midfield player at right-back, so even [on Sunday] night in El Clasico, Denzel Dumfries, the first-choice right-back, if you like, comes on as a sub.

"So when you’re third choice at a club, they’re obviously wanting you to… move on."

Alexander-Arnold was a beloved figure at Anfield for years. As a proud Merseysider and Liverpool youth product, he was a key player in two Premier League title wins and a Champions League triumph.

His relationship with the fans went south last year, and he's as likely as not to be inclined to continue fighting for his place in the Spanish capital. At 28, and with fully five years remaining on his contract, there's plenty of time for him to do so.

Alexander-Arnold has started just three times in La Liga this season, playing fewer than 270 minutes, and has played only once in the Champions League under Mourinho.

Real Madrid captain Federico Valverde was deployed at right-back against Barcelona on Sunday, with new signing Dumfries introduced to replace him on the hour while Alexander-Arnold was not in the matchday squad.

Arsenal have been handed a potential boost in their protracted transfer pursuit of Real Madrid and Brazil winger Vinicius Jr.

The 26-year-old, who finished second in the voting for the Ballon d'Or in 2024, has been an influential player for Real Madrid since joining from Flamengo in 2018. His standing at the Bernabeu has become diminished, however, and interested parties will be watching closely.

According to reports in Spain, Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has been told to consider selling Vinicius Jr in the January transfer window or next summer.

Vinicius Jr sale 'recommended' by Real Madrid board members

The Brazil international was sent off against Villarreal and slapped with a four-match ban, leaving the door open for 19-year-old new signing Yan Diomande to stake a claim on a starting spot.

Diomande has seized the opportunity with both hands, reportedly leading to conversations about Vinicius Jr's future behind the scenes at the Bernabeu.

"Diomande's rise has reportedly led several board members to recommend that Florentino Perez consider selling Vinicius. The asking price to initiate negotiations would be approximately €150 million," claims Fichajes.

"The deal would bring in a significant sum for a player who recently extended his contract until June 30, 2032. The club officially announced the renewal in August, guaranteeing his continued presence for another six seasons.

"This contract puts Real Madrid in a favorable position to negotiate. There is no immediate contractual obligation to sell, and any suitor would have to submit an offer that compensates for the loss of the Brazilian."

Vinicius Jr was suspended for Sunday's El Clasico win over Barcelona, which allowed Real Madrid and city rivals Atletico to close the gap on the La Liga leaders. Kylian Mbappe scored both Real Madrid goals and Diomande has been applauded for another encouraging display.

The Brazilian has scored once and laid on three assists in his eight La Liga appearances this season but Diomande's impact could present Arsenal and other suitors with another chance to sign a proven star with his prime possibly yet to come.

The Gunners were persistently linked with a move for Vinicius Jr in the last summer transfer window but ultimately pointed their focus elsewhere.

Mikel Arteta has no shortage of talented wide players at his disposal, with Max Dowman able to play on the right and joining Bukayo Saka, Eberechi Eze, Noni Madueke and Christos Tzolis as winger options for the Premier League champions.

But medium-term injuries for Saka and Tzolis have left Arsenal with limited immediate options on the right and left in a busy part of the season. Adding strength, depth and proven quality is always on the agenda for the top clubs and the Gunners could go after their man in Madrid after all.

Manchester United head coach Michael Carrick will have more time to rectify his team's miserable early-season form, according to reports.

Carrick has appeared to be on the brink of getting the sack after a shocking week for Man United, who lost back-to-back matches against Como and Bournemouth amid public dissent from senior players.

Lisandro Martinez and captain Bruno Fernandes have both spoken out this month. Martinez primarily targeted technical director Jason Wilcox and United's recruitment, but Fernandes went straight for the throat by criticising Carrick's tactics in the Champions League last week.

Michael Carrick gets a stay of execution at Manchester United

Neither Martinez nor Fernandez started the loss against Bournemouth and the captain ended the afternoon as an unused substitute at Old Trafford, where the United supporters appeared to be in agreement with the former professionals whose ire was reserved for the players breaking ranks more than the struggling boss.

Persistent speculation about the Red Devils nearing a decision between ex-Germany manager Julian Nagelsmann and former Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe has proved unfounded for the time being. Carrick, for now, is to remain in charge.

"Michael Carrick will be given more time to turn Manchester United’s fortunes around after a meeting of the club’s hierarchy on Monday," reports The Athletic.

"Following talks on Monday between the club’s senior leadership figures, including co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe, CEO Omar Berrada and director of football Jason Wilcox, the decision has been made to give Carrick and the players more time.

"Despite the [Bournemouth] result, Carrick’s name was sung by the home crowd at full time as he walked a lap around the pitch applauding them. The fans then turned to boo the players once he had walked down the tunnel."

The United hierarchy's decision is a surprise in the short-term but represents a stay of execution for a head coach who has been given the opportunity to improve results but has been unable to deliver them in the early part of the 2026/27.

Carrick was appointed as the club's head coach after a successful period as interim head coach in the second half of last season. The former United midfielder's players appeared more relaxed and assured after the sacking of Ruben Amorim, and battled their way to a third-placed finish in the Premier League and a Champions League return.

Rewarding Carrick's immediate results hasn't worked in United's favour up to this point. They have played 12 times in all competitions, winning just once each in the Premier League and Champions League.

The Red Devils have dropped back into the bottom five of the league table – a status to which they've become far too accustomed in the last few years – and face an uphill battle to finish in the top eight in the league phase of the Champions League.

If Carrick can breathe a sigh of relief this week, the fixtures from which he must achieve those improved results are a daunting prospect. United's remaining October and November fixtures pit them against Chelsea, Roma, Aston Villa, Liverpool, Sporting CP and Brentford.

Manchester United head coach Michael Carrick's future at Old Trafford remains up in the air in the wake of the Red Devils' loss to Bournemouth, but the question of who might replace him appears to be close to a resolution.

Man United are understood to have a liking for Aston Villa boss Unai Emery and Brighton & Hove Albion's Fabian Hurzeler, but both are considered beyond their reach. Consequently, the club's discussions have reportedly crystallised around former Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe and ex-Germany boss Julian Nagelsmann.

Howe is believed to be the preferred option of under-fire technical director Jason Wilcox. Having resigned from the Newcastle job in the summer, he's seen as both an achievable target and an appropriately steady hand.

Manchester United might have to dig deep to secure Eddie Howe as their new manager

Howe isn't currently in a job but appointing him won't come cheap for Man United, who are understood to face a hefty compensation bill should they elect to bring in the former Bournemouth gaffer.

"The Magpies did not want Howe to leave back in July when he informed the board of his decision to go but accepted he wanted to quit after five years in charge," reports Chronicle Live, which claims that Newcastle would be due 'significant' compensation because of the years left on Howe's contract when he left the club.

"Howe was on around £6m a year at Newcastle and serving a multi-year deal that was extended in summer 2024.

"It is a payout that could lead to millions coming the way of Newcastle given [they] agreed to allow staff members such as Jason Tindall, Stephen Purches and Simon Weatherstone to leave with him, amid rumours of them going back into management with Howe."

Howe performed well under the weight of expectation at St James' Park, steering the Magpies back into the Champions League and delivering the Carabao Cup, their first major trophy for 70 years.

His Newcastle team was built on capable players working hard and getting on the front foot, characteristics Wilcox and Man United would surely love to see as they attempt to rescue the 2026/27 season at Old Trafford.

Carrick took the Red Devils into the Champions League as interim head coach last season and was appointed on a permanent basis on the back of the team's positive form in the second half of the season.

The new season isn't going to plan. Carrick's team have won twice in 12 matches in all competitions, beating Sabah in the Champions League and Ipswich Town in the Premier League but succumbing to a succession of miserable results.

Captain Bruno Fernandes was left on the bench for Sunday's loss against Bournemouth after publicly criticising Carrick's tactics in the wake of a humbling at the hands of Como in midweek.

Defender Lisandro Martinez has also broken ranks to air his grievances in recent weeks. While many Man United fans and former players have been quick to condemn the players for speaking out in such a manner, Carrick's days appear to be numbered.

Aston Villa are reportedly in the market for another winger, casting further doubt on Alejandro Garnacho's future at the West Midlands club.

Garnacho joined Villa on loan from Chelsea with a conditional obligation to buy but has struggled for playing time in a team well stocked in his position.

Manager Unai Emery has commented that the Argentinian winger is progressing well with regards to the tactical demands he places on his players, but the weight of a reported £42 million price tag is significant in light of his lack of immediate impact.

Villa 'sent a delegation' to watch transfer target in Turkey

Emery is happy to bide his time with players he feels are short of what he needs but are moving in the right direction behind the scenes, and his vision for Garnacho is very different than last season's Harvey Elliott debacle.

Yet the 22-year-old faces a tough climb up a competitive pecking order, with Villa having quickly rectified a position that was occasionally a problem for them in 2025/26.

Emery plays with three men behind striker Nicolas Jackson and now has an embarrassment of riches in those positions. John McGinn and Emi Buendia were regulars along with former teammate Morgan Rogers last season, and Johan Manzambi is the long-term plan for the central spot.

But Villa now also have Ibrahim Mbaye, signed from Paris Saint-Germain in the summer, and in-form Alysson competing for those wide spots. George Hemmings has been moved from central midfield and has played in all three positions this season.

Garnacho faces a battle and it could get even tougher in January, according to reports in Turkey.

"Aston Villa have sent a delegation to Turkey to take a closer look at Oguz Aydin, after contacting Fenerbahce and his agent," reports Sport Witness, which claims that Villa representatives have met with Fenerbahce officials to discuss a potential move.

"Having held talks with the Istanbul club for Aydin, the Premier League side may make an offer for him in January. There’s no mention of the fee they may propose or Fenerbahce’s stance."

In FourFourTwo's opinion, it's extremely unlikely that Villa will look to sign another winger or attacking wide player during the January transfer window.

Garnacho, at 22, is the oldest of the players competing for places with McGinn and Buendia. Blocking Alysson, Hemmings and Mbaye will not be part of the club's strategy.

Villa's 'delegation' watched Monday night's Istanbul derby between Aydin's Fenerbahce and Galatasaray, which Fenerbahce lost 2-1 thanks to two goals from Nigeria striker Victor Osimhen.

Emery's team will play Galatasaray in the league phase of the Champions League, in the same stadium, in less than a month.

Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes is edging closer to a move to Atletico Madrid.

The reigning PFA Player of the Year found himself on the bench at Old Trafford this Sunday for criticising Manchester United manager Michael Carrick after last week's defeat to Como in the Champions League, claiming the tactical decisions that lost the Red Devils the game were “on the manager and staff to see”.

With United losing 3-0 to Bournemouth at the weekend and Carrick opting not to bring his skipper on in the second half, the home crowd cheered the manager's name before booing the players – suggesting a relationship with the beloved Bruno had taken a hit.

Manchester United looking like selling Bruno Fernandes to Atletico Madrid in January

Fernandes has come under significant criticism in recent days, with United legends vocal in their disapproval of how things have unfolded at the club this season.

After United crashed to a sixth defeat in all competitions on Sunday, Gary Neville stated that the Portuguese had “conned” Michael Carrick, following Roy Keane tearing into “the mindset of a Manchester United player” last week.

Spanish outlet Fichajes reports that the 32-year-old is “considering leaving”, and has been for some time, with Atletico Madrid monitoring the situation and “accelerating” a move this January.

Although Pablo Barrios is having a good season, Los Colchoneros have lacked a little creativity in advanced areas of the pitch since the departure of Antoine Griezmann to Major League Soccer, with Fernandes one of the most expressive players in Europe on his day.

The biggest obstacle remains negotiating with United over signing their captain and talisman at a time when fan opinion of the ownership and directors is at a record low.

Despite the plummeting public opinion of the Red Devils captain, selling a player midseason who contributed 20 assists last term, while the club are struggling this season, would be a monumentally unpopular decision.

Though Carrick has a contract at Old Trafford that runs until 2028, it is increasingly unlikely that the former midfielder is relieved of his services sooner rather than later, with a replacement boss beginning with a fresh slate and a better relationship with Fernandes.

The 32-year-old is out of contract at the end of the 2026/27 season, but the 20-time English champions have the option to extend his deal for another year, should they wish to exercise it.

In 338 fixtures for United, Fernandes has contributed 111 goals and 109 assists.

Fernandes is worth €35 million, according to Transfermarkt. United take on Chelsea this weekend when Premier League action continues.

2026 Ballon d'Or winner Harry Kane has been congratulated by Prince William, the Football Association patron and heir to the British throne.

Kane is the first English player to win the Ballon d'Or since Michael Owen in 2001, finishing clear of Kylian Mbappe, Lamine Yamal, Rodri and Lionel Messi in the 2026 voting to be crowned the best men's footballer in the world.

He is the first Bayern Munich player to win the award since 1981, when the great Karl-Heinz Rummenigge won the Ballon d'Or for the second consecutive year to complete half a decade of honours for players representing German Bundesliga clubs.

Prince William hails Ballon d'Or winner Harry Kane

Kane scored 61 goals in 51 matches in all competitions for Bayern last season, earning him a second European golden boot in advance of the World Cup. There, he led England to the semi-finals and scored another six goals.

When the 33-year-old parades the Ballon d'Or ahead of his record 126th cap against Croatia at Wembley next month, he'll be nine goals short of his international century.

On Monday evening William, Prince of Wales posted on Instagram: "What a fantastic achievement and so deserved. A brilliant captain, a remarkable player and someone who has given football fans across the world so many unforgettable moments."

William counts himself among those football fans and regularly attends Aston Villa matches in an unofficial capacity as well as England fixtures in his role as patron of the FA.

He has been watching on as Kane carved out a phenomenal career in the game. The Londoner is renowned for his intense focus on hitting the highest standards he can reach and his immutable thirst for goals.

Kane joined Tottenham Hotspur as a boy in 2004 and went on to become a legend in North London after cutting his teeth on loan at Leyton Orient, Millwall, Norwich City and Leicester City.

He left the Premier League as its second-highest goalscorer behind Alan Shearer and one of only three players to have scored more than 200 goals in the competition. At Bayern Munich, he has been able to collect the silverware and winners' medals he craved.

Kane is now a two-time Bundesliga champion and a DFB-Pokal winner, and the biggest individual accolade in football will be associated with him forever.

Mbappe scored 10 times at the World Cup but France were also eliminated at the semi-final stage and were beaten by England in the third-place play-off in July. Kopa Trophy winner Lamine Yamal was a World Cup winner in a Spain side that was almost the definition of a team effort.

Most footballers would take trophies over individual awards but Kane's claim to the Ballon d'Or was obvious. As he chases down the last few records and achievements of a stellar career, England's skipper now stands at the top of the world.

Harry Kane's Ballon d'Or win over Kylian Mbappe was closer than anyone thinks.

The England captain was crowned the best player on Earth last night at a glitzy ceremony at the London Palladium, to become the first Three Lions player in 25 years to lift the Ballon d'Or.

In doing so, he fended off heavy competition – with Kylian Mbappe a very close second indeed.

Harry Kane only just beat Kylian Mbappe to Ballon d'Or

Fichajes in Spain are reporting that according to Vincent Garcia, editor-in-chief of the Ballon d'Or's organisers, France Football, Mbappe led the rankings for much of the voting process.

The vote was decided by fewer than 41 points, making it one of the closest contests in modern history, after the voting process was revamped in 2024.

While Kane's 73 goals made the difference – a whole 15 greater than Mbappe's 58 – the Bayern Munich striker's team performances are said to have played a bigger part in his win.

While Bayern scooped yet another Bundesliga title and reached the final four of the Champions League, Mbappe's Real Madrid were dumped out of the competition by the Bavarians in the quarter-finals, and finished trophyliess for the second successive season since signing Mbappe.

Both Kane and Mbappe reached the semi-finals of the World Cup, with the Frenchman picking up the Golden Boot.

Mbappe and Spaniard Lamine Yamal campaigned harder for the Ballon d'Or than Kane, who even noted last week in an interview with FourFourTwo columnist Jules Breach on TNT Sports that he “doesn't like to talk about [himself]”.

Mbappe, however, declared that he would dedicate the award to Africa, while Yamal dismissed Kane's claim for the award, stating, “For me, Mbappe and I are the two best in the world”.

The World Cup-winning teenager finished third at the ceremony, winning a third Kopa Trophy on the bounce.

International team-mate Rodri came fourth, with eight-time winner Lionel Messi fifth.

Kane is the fifth Englishman to lift the prize, following Stanley Matthews (1956), Bobby Charlton (1966), Kevin Keegan (1978, 1979) and Michael Owen (2001).

If winning the World Cup is the pinnacle of football as a team sport, picking up the Ballon d'Or is the ultimate individual accolade. Doing both in the same year is the kind of thing dreams are made of - even for the best in the world, it doesn't always work like that.

There were a handful of World Cups before the Ballon d'Or era. The first time they both happened was in 1958, when a teenage Pele starred in Brazil's triumph. But watch out! The Ballon d'Or hasn't always been a global award.

In this quiz, we want you to name the Ballon d'Or winner in every World Cup year. There are 18 players to name and we're giving you a tough time limit of just 4 minutes.

Handpicked football quizzes we know you'll love

FourFourTwo has lots more football quizzes, all courtesy of Kwizly. First up, we want you to name every team competing in the league phase of the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League this season and every team playing in Australia's A-League Men in 2026-27.

We also have a Big Quiz of English Football Grounds. It'll test your knowledge of the stadiums, stands and streets that make up the architectural fabric of the national game. You'll probably need to have been to a few of them to hit the high notes.

If your expertise is based more in what happens inside those stadiums, try this one on for size. Can you name every player ever to have received three red cards in a single Premier League season?

FourFourTwo's Weekend Crossword 76 features clues on journeymen, Wembley and absolute screamers. Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter for your daily afternoon briefing of football trivia and analysis, and don't forget to join The Club: our free membership portal where you can secret hints and get on the leaderboard.

England international Alex Scott is proud to have followed in the footsteps of his step-sister after making his international bow in September.

The Bournemouth midfielder grew up alongside Le Tissier on Guernsey, with the latter earning her first Lionesses cap in 2022 and playing her part in the Euros-winning side of 2025.

Scott has meanwhile made the step up from regular Premier League football to making his England debut in September.

Scott told FourFourTwo: "She’s my stepsister, my dad’s with her mum, so we grew up playing football together.

"She’d travel over at the same time as me when I was at Southampton and she was always an unbelievable player.

"We knew she was going to go on to do what she’s doing now and I’m super proud of her.

"We keep in touch all the time – it’s nice to have someone close to you who’s in the same boots.

"I’ve seen how hard Maya has worked from a young age to get where she is now and I’ve been on that same sort of journey.

"She’s made it – playing for the Lionesses, captaining Manchester United.

"They’re big footsteps to follow in.

"But she’s an inspiration because I can see the work she’s put in, and it’s paying off."

Scott was speaking at PUMA’s store on Oxford Street in London, the brand’s first European flagship store.

Tottenham Hotspur supporters have become accustomed to the nervous wait for injury news. There aren’t many places in football where the words ‘scan this week’ are more feared.

Spurs are crossed their fingers and thumbs that attacking midfielder James Maddison will be back from his latest injury setback rather faster than usual. In these Kaneless, Son-free years, they need a spark more than ever.

Before Maddison’s early withdrawal against Chelsea, he starred in his first Premier League start for more than 500 days. The 29-year-old scored a brilliant opening goal in Spurs’ 3-1 win over boyhood club Coventry City. It was liquid Maddison.

James Maddison has a swagger Tottenham Hotspur can’t match without him

Spurs’ fresh start after dodging the drop under Roberto De Zerbi took some time to get going but they’re gradually finding their feet.

First came the goals, then the wins. Dejan Kulusevski’s return against Coventry is no coincidence but Maddison’s availability, brief though it was, gave Spurs a major boost. He’s a difference-maker and a wildcard, a player with that extra something special.

Maddison’s fabulous strike against the Sky Blues was a reminder of just one of the strings to his bow. He’s blessed with a natural charisma, a swagger, that courses through his game.

Attitude is the basis for Maddison’s creativity and impact. He’s a player for blockbuster moments and big matches, a talented damage-doer with an eye for the spectacular and an appetite for the attention and adulation that come with it.

It’s easy to forget that Maddison, fit and in full flow, is one of England’s foremost maverick midfielders. Football needs players like Maddison, like Jack Grealish, who play the game their way and on their terms without shunning their tactical responsibilities.

Maddison is into his leadership years. He’s a senior player for De Zerbi by any definition. Crucially, these are all characteristics Spurs at their worst have been lacking too. They need Maddison not only for what he can do, but for what he can mean.

Football is supposed to be fun. Players who deliver on that at the same time as being effective are worth their weight in gold to their teams and to the game as a whole. They are football’s great entertainers.

Rare is the team that thrives in unrepentant functionalism. For most, a little magic is a must. That’s what Spurs miss when Maddison is sidelined and injuries are affecting his prime.

Injuries are threatening to spike Maddison’s prime

Coventry-born Maddison has had star quality from the beginning, first with the Sky Blues and then with Norwich City. Loan spells back at Coventry and with Aberdeen were followed by a move to the Premier League and Leicester City, where he won the FA Cup and began what has, until now, proved a sadly meagre England career.

Injuries have been a sad reality of his career since he joined Spurs. His first season was interrupted when he missed the whole of December and most of November and January. In 2024/25, he sat out for a couple of weeks in the winter and then suffered a knee injury that knocked his pre-season off kilter.

Last season was a write-off because of a torn anterior cruciate ligament and Maddison’s 2026/27 has already been tripped up by two different injuries.

Spurs and their spark are back in scan purgatory. De Zerbi will be asked about Maddison in pre-match press conferences again. Supporters will see his name when team news is updated, and the player faces yet more days on the outside looking in while his teammates labour without the very skills he provides.

He went off early in the second half at Stamford Bridge, replaced by Conor Gallagher.

On that occasion it was the Blues who imploded. Stand-in goalkeeper Mike Penders punched the ball into his own net to give Spurs the lead before Cole Palmer, in some ways the inheritor of the unpredictable England artist role that might have been Maddison’s, finally got himself sent off.

In FourFourTwo’s opinion, those three points don’t detract from the fact that Spurs are a better, more potent, more entertaining team for Maddison’s involvement.

They’re in a nice groove after two wins in a row but getting Maddison back – again – would give them another lift as they strive to put the last two Premier League seasons behind them once and for all.

What has two thumbs, 10 football trivia questions and a 90-second time limit. This guy! It's the new FourFourTwo Quickfire Quiz.

Handpicked football quizzes we know you'll love

FourFourTwo has tons more football quizzes and they're all courtesy of Kwizly. Let's get started by asking you to name the top goalscorer of all 20 teams in the Premier League in the 1996-97 season and answer some questions about Coventry City in the Premier League.

We're now a couple of weeks into the new season of top-flight football in Australia and New Zealand and very entertaining it is too. But can you name every team competing in the A-League in 2026-27?

If Premier League punishments are your quizzing niche, this one will be right on the money and you'll have no trouble naming every player ever to have been sent off three times in a single Premier League season.

Here's one for international football lovers. 2026 was another mixed summer for the Three Lions and it ended in defeat inside 90 minutes. Can you name every nation ever to have beaten England in a World Cup match?

Lastly for now, we're wading into football's most divisive debate and bringing the data to the party. We've picked out some facts and we simply want you to give us an either/or answer: Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo?

We have puzzles too. Our Weekend Crossword is a regular football teaser for your Sunday, and remember to sign up to the newsletter for more quizzes in your inbox. Don't forget to join The Club for free additional membership benefits!

Bayern Munich and England striker Harry Kane is officially the best footballer in the world after being crowned the winner of the 2026 Ballon d'Or.

The Three Lions captain is the first English player to be given the award since Michael Owen 25 years ago. He joins Kevin Keegan, Bobby Charlton and Stanley Matthews as English winners of the biggest individual accolade in men's football.

Kane's England teammate Jude Bellingham was voted into third place behind Rodri and Vinicius Junior two years ago, but the 33-year-old Bayern frontman's phenomenal scoring exploits for club and country have taken him to the top of this year's Ballon d'Or voting.

Harry Kane beats Lamine Yamal and Kylian Mbappe to football's biggest individual prize

East London-born Kane joined the Tottenham Hotspur academy set-up in 2004 after brief junior spells with Arsenal and Watford. He was loaned to Leyton Orient, Millwall, Norwich City and Leicester City as a youngster, but made his Premier League debut for Spurs in August 2012.

Kane went on to appear in 317 Premier League matches for Spurs, many as captain, between 2012 and 2023. He left the Premier League with 213 goals to his name. Only Alan Shearer has scored more, and only Shearer, Kane and Wayne Rooney have scored more than 200 times.

He was the top goalscorer in the Premier League three times and has won the golden boot in all three of his seasons in the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich, who he joined from Spurs in search of trophies in 2023.

The trophies arrived, too. Kane is a two-time Bundesliga winner and also helped Bayern to the DFB-Pokal in 2025/26.

Since joining the Bavarian titans, the England skipper has scored an astonishing 156 goals in 158 matches in all competitions, and has scored more than a goal per game in the league.

While Kane has tasted defeat in three European finals – twice with England and once in the Champions League with Spurs, and all as captain – his performances in leading Bayern to the double and England to the World Cup final in 2026 won the appreciation of the world's football journalists.

He is the first Bundesliga player to win the award since 1996, when legendary Borussia Dortmund midfielder Matthias Sammer saw off Shearer and Ronaldo to claim the Ballon d'Or.

The latest Bayern player to win it was Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, who was crowned the world's best player in both 1980 and 1981.

Kane is the second former Spurs player to win the award. Croatia midfielder Luka Modric won the Ballon d'Or in 2018 after taking Croatia to the World Cup final.

They played together just once for Spurs. Modric scored a penalty in a Europa League defeat to PAOK in November 2011.

The striker has come on a long way since then.

Barcelona's domination of the Kopa Trophy has continued thanks to the success of 19-year-old Lamine Lamal.

The teenager was voted as the 2026 winner of the Kopa Trophy, which acknowledges the best footballer in the world under the age of 21. His triumph was announced on Monday and followed back-to-back wins for fellow Barcelona youngster Lamine Yamal.

Yama's win means that the Kopa Trophy is heading to the Camp Nou for the fifth time in six years, with Gavi and Pedri preceding Yamal as winners since 2021.

Lamine Yamal has been crowned as the best young footballer in the world

No club but Barcelona has had multiple winners of the award, which was first voted upon in 2018, and no country but Spain has had more than one winner.

Yamal is the only individual player with multiple wins and one of only four with multiple appearances on the podium.

The women's award was also won by a Spanish Barcelona player last year, when Vicky Lopez won the inaugural women's Kopa Trophy.

Many thought La Masia team-mate Pau Cubarsi was the closest challenger to Yamal this time. The young defender is going from strength to strength, establishing himself as a regular under Barcelona boss Hansi Flick and could reach more than 150 senior appearances before he turns 20 in December.

The Catalan teenager has already won back-to-back La Liga titles as a trusted Flick lieutenant, and followed Olympic Gold in 2024 with a vital contribution to Spain's World Cup win in 2026.

Cubarsi picked up the Best Young Player award at the World Cup this summer – but Yamal's status as the most exciting teenager in the world seems to have preceded him once more.

Kylian Mbappe was the first winner of the Kopa Trophy, demolishing the field to claim the inaugural award in the wake of France's World Cup win in 2018. Matthijs de Ligt of Juventus won by a smaller margin ahead of Jadon Sancho and Joao Felix in 2019.

England's Jude Bellingham won the 2023 award while at Borussia Dortmund.

The transfer market doesn't stand still for anyone, and even Manchester United are aiming to keep their plans on track while a decision on their managerial situation remains untaken.

Man United are still firmly in the blast radius after an explosively miserable Sunday afternoon at Old Trafford. The Red Devils' 3-0 loss to Bournemouth in the Premier League has left Michael Carrick on shaky ground as the club's head coach.

Should Carrick be dismissed, United technical director Jason Wilcox is reportedly prioritising former Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe over Julian Nagelsmann as his preferred realistic successor.

Man United could revisit a familiar transfer target if Eddie Howe gets the gig

If Howe does end up with the job, he's unlikely to disagree with United's apparent top transfer target. Having looked to strengthen in midfield instead at the expense of defensive additions in the summer, Man United are reportedly ready to turn their focus back to one of Howe's former players.

Magpies full-back Lewis Hall was the man the Red Devils wanted in the summer. According to Football Insider reporter Pete O'Rourke, their interest in the England international is as strong as ever.

"Hall remains a leading target for Man United and they could make a fresh move next summer," reports O'Rourke, who has revealed that the club can expect to pay at least £70 million if they're able to sign him next summer.

Former Man United full-back Gary Neville believes that the decision to spend on three midfielders rather than two was a mistake in the summer transfer window, and also suggested that his old club need to spend big money to rectify what he calls the 'absolute negligence' of leaving the team with Lenny Yoro at right-back and Diogo Dalot at left-back.

Hall is an obvious target for a club with financial clout and a major gap at left-back. Luke Shaw has been available more consistently in the last 18 months than the two previous seasons, but the Red Devils need a long-term replacement and have evidently identified Hall as their candidate of choice.

"He has since penned a new deal at St James' Park to extend his stay until 2031, but that has done little to deter the long-term interest in eventually luring him to Old Trafford," adds O'Rourke.

"His new contract has put Newcastle firmly in control of his future, and any deal will have to be on their terms, while he remains a crucial part of Matthias Jaissle's plans."

Hall has missed some football with an injury of his own but has been following a positive trajectory since leaving Chelsea for Newcastle, initially on loan, in 2023. The young full-back has made 80 Premier League appearances for the Magpies in the last four seasons.

A regular at under-age international levels, Hall was among the young players handed England debuts during Lee Carsley's Nations League campaign in 2024, and has made five senior appearances under Thomas Tuchel this year.

Howe can take a huge amount of credit for his former player's development into a Premier League fixture and senior international, and a reunion would be the stuff of dreams for Man United. Newcastle can be expected to resist their interest with a vengeance.

Manchester United are less than three months into a new Premier League season but have already reached the point at which the details of head coach Michael Carrick's contract are under the microscope.

Carrick was appointed on a permanent basis in May after a successful second interim spell that saw him lead Man United to third place in the Premier League and back into the Champions League, bringing a positive conclusion to a season that was just 40 matches long.

But the former United midfielder's tenure has quickly turned sour. His team have won just twice in their first 12 matches of the season in all competitions, and while the Old Trafford faithful were keen to turn the blame on the players and upper management after Sunday's loss to Bournemouth, the buck is bound to stop with Carrick sooner rather than later.

Michael Carrick's job is under threat after Man United's dismal start

United's supporters were vocal in the support for Carrick, and notably less so for the outspoken duo Bruno Fernandes and Lisandro Martinez. Other players felt the fury from the fans, whose spiciest ire was reserved, as ever, for United's hierarchy.

Yet the likes of technical director Jason Wilcox and part-owner Jim Ratcliffe will remain in their posts longer than the head coach they appointed, with United threatening to continue a cycle of failure when they do activate their latest change in the dugout.

According to talkSPORT reporter Alex Crook, who claims that the sack is indeed waiting in the head coach's immediate future, United were at least prepared for Carrick's two-year deal to go south more quickly than expected.

"Carrick only signed a two-year contract with United in the summer after piloting them to Champions League qualification but that deal is believed to include a break clause," reports Crook.

The Red Devils could be in for a turbulent few weeks, but futureproofing Carrick's deal against their habitually poor decisions, if indeed they did, is a rare example of solid judgement.

"United had already begun assessing potential replacements following Wednesday's 4-1 Champions League humbling at Como. These include former Germany and Bayern Munich boss Julian Nagelsmann and ex-Newcastle boss Eddie Howe," adds Crook.

"Nagelsmann's case is being pushed by United head of recruitment Christopher Vivell while technical director Jason Wilcox favours a manager with Premier League experience like Howe."

Wilcox's admiration for Aston Villa manager Unai Emery is bound to be fruitless on this occasion, while Crook also credits the former Blackburn Rovers winger with a liking for Brighton & Hove Albion boss Fabian Hurzeler.

Carrick's position has been under intense scrutiny since the Como match, after which United captain Fernandes openly questioned his tactics just a few days after Martinez had made some pointed comments criticising Wilcox.

Pundit Gary Neville joined the ranks of ex-players condemning Fernandes and Martinez for airing United's dirty dressing room laundry in public, though he didn't hold back in his own thoughts on the club's recruitment failings.

Tottenham Hotspur’s victory in the howling wind and rain was forged in a single destructive intervention.

Cole Palmer slamming his knee into Matheus Fernandes was a bolt of electricity sparking this game into life.

Within 15 minutes, Spurs had scored twice and Palmer had received his second yellow card.

Fully De Zerb'd victory

It was a gritty, muscular, emotional win for Spurs – yet it was built, subtly, on a tactical battle won by Roberto de Zerbi, whose high-octane football creates a psychological advantage by design.

The tactical pattern at Stamford Bridge meant Palmer’s aggressive act was only ever going to help Spurs.

Xabi Alonso, who has quietly abandoned his 3-4-3 recently, played a 4-4-2 with Morgan Rogers and Cole Palmer deployed as false nines, although they were so false they were more like ghosts, pressing erratically to leave Chelsea’s two-man midfield repeatedly exposed.

By contrast, De Zerbi’s false nine, Omar Marmoush, knew exactly when to drop back, notably providing the wall-pass to his teammates and, by joining the midfield three, creating a four-on-two in the centre of the field:

This was the foundation of Tottenham’s decisive tactical advantage – and Alonso had no answer, perhaps because he is not used to the Premier League’s speed and physicality, characteristics De Zerbi has embraced.

Had Alonso played his usual 3-4-3 then one of his spare centre-backs could have followed Marmoush and shut this down.

Or, had he acknowledged De Zerbi’s press-baiting tactics and told his forwards to hold their position, he could have shut this down.

That Alonso did neither tells us he is still very much in a learning phase.

The Ballon d'Or 2026 is the 70th edition of the most prestigious individual award in the football calendar.

Presented by Kate Scott and Thierry Henry live from the London Palladium, we recognise the very elite of the sport, as for just the fifth time in the history of the award, it will be given based on the results of the season instead of the calendar year.

With Harry Kane, Kylian Mbappe and Lamine Yamal leading the favourites for the gong, it's promised to be one of the closest contests we've seen in years…

Men's Ballon d'Or

The full standings for the men's Ballon d'Or 2026

The full standings/nominees for the men's Ballon d'Or 2026 are as follows:

• =29. Sadio Mane
• =29. William Saliba
• 28. Julian Quinones
• 27. Bruno Fernandes
• 26. Dayot Upamecano
• 25. Marquinhos
• 24. Luis Diaz
• 23. Nuno Mendes
• 22. Lautaro Martinez
• 21. Gabriel Magalhaes
• 20. Willian Pacho
• 19. Joao Neves
• 18. Marc Cucurella
• 17. Vinicius Junior
• 16. Ferran Torres
• 15. Declan Rice
• 14. Vitinha
• 13. Achraf Hakimi
• 12. Pau Cubarsi
• 11. Jude Bellingham
• 10. Fabian Ruiz
• 9. Michael Olise
• 8. Erling Haaland
• 7. Ousmane Dembele
• 6. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia
• 5. Lionel Messi
• 4. Rodri
• 3. Lamine Yamal
• 2. Kylian Mbappe
• 1. Harry Kane

Three English players have been nominated for the award this year (Declan Rice, Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane), with seven Premier League players on the shortlist, in Rice, Gabriel, William Saliba (all Arsenal), Marc Cucurella (of Chelsea last season), Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United), Rodri and Erling Haaland (both of Manchester City: the former having left over the summer).

Six of Spain's World Cup winners of the summer have been given the nod, with Yamal, Cucurella and Rodri jonied by Fabian Ruiz, Pau Cubarsi and Ferran Torres, while last year's winner, Ousmane, Dembele, is one again nominated after winning another Champions League title with Paris Saint-Germain.

Women's Ballon d'Or

The full standings/nominees for the Ballon d'Or Feminin 2026 are as follows:

• =28. Vivianne Miedema
• =28. Melvine Malard
• =28. Lorena
• 27. Rose Lavelle
• 26. Alex Greenwood
• 25. Caroline Weir
• 24. Kerstin Casparij
• 23. Momoko Tanikawa
• 22. Manaka Matsukubo
• 21. Scarlett Camberos
• 20. Selma Bacha
• 19. Tessa Wullaert
• 18. Barbra Banda
• 17. Esmee Brugts
• 16. Mapi Leon
• 15. Cata Coll
• 14. Wendie Renard
• 13. Mariona Caldentey
• 12. Klara Buhl
• 11. Yui Hasagawa
• 10. Temwa Chawinga
• 9. Alessia Russo
• 8. Claudia Pina
• 7. Pernille Harder
• 6. Caroline Graham Hansen
• 5. Patri Guijarro
• 4. Melchie Dumornay
• 3. Bunny Shaw
• 2. Ewa Pajor
• 1. Alexia Putellas

A host of Women's Super League players have been nominated for the women's award this year, with Alessia Russo, Mariona Caldentey, (both Arsenal) Alex Greenwood, Bunny Shaw, Yui Hasegawa, Kerstin Casparij, Vivianne Miedema (all Manchester City) and Melvine Malard (Manchester United) all nominated – along with London City Lionesses' Alexia Putellas, for her Barcelona exploits last term.

Russo and Greenwood are the only two Lionesses on the shortlist, with Aitana Bonmati not nominated this time around.

Kopa Trophy

The Kopa Trophy is given to the best young performing player in the world under the age of 21, with Lamine Yamal winning the award this year.

Men's nominees:

1. Lamine Yamal
2. Pau CubarsI
3. Warren ZaIre-Emery
4. Lennart Karl
5. Yan Diomande
6. Ayyoub Bouaddi
7. Kerim Alajbegovic
8. Eli Junior Kroupi
9. Ibrahim Maza
10. Johan Manzambi

Women's nominees:

1. Vicky López
2. Clara Serrajordi
3. Veerle Buurman
4. Lily Yohannes
5. Felicia Schröder

Men's Yashin Trophy

The Yashin Trophy is awarded to the best goalkeeper in the world for the last season.

Men's nominees:

1. Unai Simon
2. David Raya
3. Thibaut Courtois
4. Matvey Safonov
5. Emiliano Martinez
6. Vozinha
7. Joan Garcia
8. Yassine Bounou
9. Edouard Mendy
10. Gregor Kobel

Women's nominees:

1. Cata Coll
2. Ann-Katrin Berger
3. Ayaka Yamashita
4. Hannah Hampton
5. Lorena

Socrates Award

This year's Socrates Award – presented to the best humanitarian work by a footballer worldwide – has gone to Bukayo Saka, for his efforts of Big Shoe providing care to children who are in desperate need.

Strikers of the Year

The newly-rebranded Strikers of the Year awards are given to the men's and women's forwards who have performed best over the last year.

This year's winners are Charlyn Corral and Harry Kane.

Chelsea are eyeing up a battle with Spanish capital giants Real Madrid for their next headline-grabbing transfer, according to reporting in Italy.

The Blues invested heavily in new players during the summer transfer window, equipping new manager Xabi Alonso with a squad boasting the likes of Morgan Rogers, Emiliano Martinez, Maxence Lacrois and Valentin Barco, as well as the senior influence of Jordan Henderson and Danny Welbeck.

Now, Chelsea are looking to go big again. Tuttomercatoweb reports that the West London club are keeping an eye on talented Argentinian attacking midfielder Nico Paz.

Chelsea are reportedly watching Como star Nico Paz

The 22-year-old has been consistently impressive since joining Como from Real Madrid in 2024 and has flourished under the guidance of former Chelsea midfielder Cesc Fabregas.

Real Madrid have a buyback clause worth €80 million next summer but Chelsea are watching closely with a view to pulling a rabbit out of the hat to kick off their new ownership era in style.

"Nico is on a new path, even on a personal level: he is growing physically and athletically. He may have lost 5% of his brilliance, but he has gained it in muscle, center of gravity, stamina, and strength," reports Marco Conterio.

"This is why Europe's big clubs are constantly monitoring him. Sure, he'll cost a fortune, but Chelsea , for example, isn't afraid to invest. In their latest league outings in Serie A, and even in the Champions League, Blues [officials] have been keeping a close eye on him, both at De Kuip and during the last match in Florence.

"Real Madrid have an exclusive buyback agreement of €80 million set for the summer of 2027, otherwise they'll get a percentage of the resale price. In other words: if Chelsea want Paz, then they'll have to pay dearly."

Paz was the star of the show when Como thrashed Manchester United in the league phase Champions League last week, scoring twice and setting up a third goal in between.

He scored 12 Serie A goals last season, helping to lead Como into the Champions League for the first time in their history. He has two goals in his first seven league games this season and is on track to have his most productive season in terms of goals and assists combined.

Born in Tenerife, Paz developed in the local club's academy before he was picked up by Real Madrid 10 years ago. He played nearly 50 league matches for the club's second team and made a handful of appearances in La Liga before his switch to Italy.

The youngster has been one of Serie A's foremost talents over the past couple of seasons, during which Fabregas and Como have matched his evolution into a household name.

Paz chose Argentina over Spain at international level and was included in Lionel Scaloni's squad for the World Cup in 2026, playing twice in the group stage.

Watch Galatasaray vs Fenerbahce as the Turkish Super Lig rivals meet for the first time this season, with FourFourTwo bringing you all the details on live streams and TV channels, wherever you are in the world.

Eight games into the new Super Lig season, bitter rivals Galatasaray and Fenerbahce are just three points apart in first and third respectively.

They meet in Istanbul with Fenerbahce on a run of three consecutive league wins and a goal difference advantage; with a win, they will leapfrog Galatasaray and, perhaps, become favourites to win the league title.

There is a lot of football to be played before that's decided either way.

Read on as FourFourTwo brings you all the information you need to watch Galatasaray vs Fenerbahce online and from anywhere, in the Turkish Super Lig.

Watch Galatasaray vs Fenerbahce from anywhere

A good VPN is your ticket to the game, even when you’re abroad.

The solution to your geo-restriction nightmares is a Virtual Private Network (VPN), a piece of software that can set your devices to appear to be in any country in the world.

FourFourTwo’s tech-obsessed office-mates over at Tom's Guide know everything there is to know about VPNs, and they rate Proton VPN as one of the best for unlocking streams...

How to watch Galatasaray vs Fenerbahce in the UK

Fans in the UK can watch Galatasaray vs Fenerbahce with a subscription to Digiturk Play, which provides Super Lig coverage for Turkish fans all over the world and has the international rights for the top division.

Sports package subscriptions are available for €16/month. That translates to roughly £13.40 a month.

Kick-off arrives at 6:30pm GMT today.

How to watch Galatasaray vs Fenerbahce in the US

US viewers can watch Galatasaray vs Fenerbahce on beIN Sports in the US.

beIN Sports costs $5.99/month or $59.99/year and includes Süper Lig games as well as Ligue 1 matches.

Kick-off is at 2:30pm ET.

How to watch Galatasaray vs Fenerbahce in Australia

beIN Sports Connect is also broadcasting live coverage of Galatasaray vs Fenerbahce in Australia. Kick-off will be at 5:30am AEDT on Tuesday.

beIN Sports Connect prices start at AU$16.99/month or AU$169.99/year after a 7-day free trial for new users.

Galatasaray vs Fenerbahce: Preview

Ismail Kartal's Fenerbahce haven't allowed their Champions League setbacks to affect them in the Super Lig. They've drawn two home games in Europe and lost 6-0 at Aston Villa in between, but they've made ground on rivals Galatasaray at the top of the Turkish top flight.

Indeed, their winning run has been every bit as emphatic as their loss in Birmingham. In three matches against Eyupspor, Rizespor and Alanyaspor, Fener have scored 14 goals and conceded none, serving notice on Galatasaray and Amed Sportif above them.

Galatasaray came into the weekend top of the table, having won six of their eight league fixtures including the last two. The Lions will be keen to maximise their home advantage against in-form opposition this evening.

This is one of world football's great derbies, lively up to and beyond the limits, and never short of an edge. Fenerbahce have the slightly superior record over the fixture's history and Galatasaray have only beaten them twice at home in the league since 2015.

They did come out on top last time, however. Galatasaray won 3-0 in April thanks to goals from Victor Osimhen, Baris Alper Yilmaz and Lucas Torreira. They went on to win the Turkish championship for the record 26th time.

FourFourTwo's prediction

Galatasaray 2-1 Fenerbahce

FourFourTwo expects a close affair, but that Galatasaray will have enough to hit pause on Fenerbahce's progress.

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Former Manchester United captain Gary Neville has criticised the club's recruitment over a number of years in a brutal assessment of the line-up beaten by Bournemouth in the Premier League on Sunday.

United lost 3-0 thanks to goals from Rayan, Marcus Tavernier and Evanilson, with defensive errors making life easy for the Cherries at Old Trafford.

The Red Devils have won two of their 12 matches in all competitions this season and have dropped into the bottom five just a few months after Michael Carrick, then interim head coach, led them back into the Champions League.

Gary Neville condemns Manchester United's recruitment

Carrick stands on the brink of the sack, with results going against a United side playing poorly and breaking ranks by making public statements of discontent.

Neville, who played for United in a very different era, has been damning in his own comments, lambasting some of the players for their standards and attitudes. He has also taken aim at the club's transfer strategy.

"Tottenham [Hotspur] have taken the two star midfield players, the two main targets in midfield. Last night at Stamford Bridge... watching [Sandro] Tonali and {Mateus] Fernandes run a football match, and they should be out there in red shirts," Neville said on The Gary Neville Podcast.

"Manchester United decided not to buy them because they can't afford them because of the debt and all the other waste of money that's been spent... it's a series of bad mistakes.

"They'd have been better off signing Tonali and Fernandes rather than signing three [midfielders] that are okay. Sign two that are better than okay."

Neville's ire is not limited to Youri Tielemans, Carlos Baleba and Andrey Santos, who played in the middle in the absence of dropped captain Bruno Fernandes.

The former England right-back believes that United should have spent £100 million on defenders. The individual and collective errors, and the team's deteriorating goals-against record, appear to suggest he has a point.

"That is absolute negligence to leave that defence out on that pitch," Neville said.

"It's not easy sometimes but Lenny Yoro should not be playing right-back for Manchester United. Diogo Dalot should not be playing left-back for Manchester United.

"Ayden Heaven is still learning his trade but he should be learning his trade, developing, in certain matches, not these type of matches. Harry Maguire and [Lisandro] Martinez have been here for years now, five years or more, and still can't keep clean sheets consistently.

"So, how could they not bring defenders in? They had to bring defenders in."

Watch the Ballon d'Or 2026 ceremony for free as Harry Kane, Kylian Mbappe and Lamine Yamal lead the 30-strong list of contenders for the most prestigious individual prize in world football. FourFourTwo has all the details on live streams and TV channels, wherever you are in the world.

England captain Kane, France skipper Mbappe and Spain wonderkid Yamal are the clear favourites after each enjoyed an outstanding year for club and country, with all three aiming to lift the award for the first time.

Two-time Ballon d'Or Feminin winner Alexia Putellas is the leading contender for the women's prize at the London Palladium, as the ceremony takes place in England's capital for the first time in recognition of Sir Stanley Matthews, who claimed the inaugural award 70 years ago.

Read on as FourFourTwo brings you all the information you need to watch the Ballon d'Or 2026 awards online, on TV, and from anywhere, as well as a full list of nominees and the order of ceremony.

Can I watch Ballon d'Or 2026 for free?

Yes! The Ballon d'Or 2026 awards will be broadcast live and for free worldwide on DAZN, including in the UK, US and Australia.

You just need to sign up for a free membership to watch at no cost.

DAZN's coverage begins at 7:00pm GMT / 3:00pm ET / 6:00am (Tue) AEDT, with the ceremony starting an hour later.

Watch Ballon d'Or 2026 from anywhere

Away from home right now? You don't have to miss the Ballon d'Or 2026 awards. The solution to your geo-restriction nightmares is a Virtual Private Network (VPN), a piece of software that can set your devices to appear to be in any country in the world.

FourFourTwo’s tech-obsessed office-mates over at Tom's Guide know everything there is to know about VPNs, and they rate NordVPN as the best VPN you can buy.

Selected countries will show live coverage of Ballon d'Or 2026 on local broadcasters, rather than DAZN.

They are as follows:

• Armenia: FAST Media
• Azerbaijan: Quest Media
• Belarus: Quest Media
• Bulgaria: Btv
• Czechia: TV Nova
• France: L'Équipe
• Georgia: Setanta Sports / Silknet
• Hungary: RTL Hungary
• Kazakhstan: Quest Media
• Kyrgyzstan: Quest Media
• Monaco: L'Équipe
• Norway: TV2
• Romania: Clever Media
• Russia: Quest Media
• Slovakia: TV Nova
• Spain: Telefonica
• Tajikistan: Quest Media
• Turkey: Turk Telekom
• Turkmenistan: Quest Media
• Uzbekistan: Quest Media

Ballon d'Or 2026: Preview

The stars of world football will converge on the historic London Palladium this evening for the Ballon d'Or awards ceremony, which will crown the greatest player in the men's and women's game for 2026.

This year's ceremony is a little different, as organiser France Football marks the 70th anniversary of the award by swapping Paris for London in recognition of former England winger Sir Stanley Matthews, who won the inaugural prize in 1956 while playing for Blackpool.

Seven decades on, another Three Lions star could be crowned Ballon d'Or winner for 2026 as Harry Kane aims to lift the prestigious prize in the city where he made his name. The striker scored an incredible 73 goals for club and country in 2025/26, winning a league and cup double with Bayern Munich and captaining England to third place at World Cup 2026.

Kane is aiming to become the first English recipient of the Ballon d'Or since Michael Owen in 2001, and just the fifth of all time, with Sir Bobby Charlton and Kevin Keegan following Matthews as winners of the award.

SEE ALSO Should I use a VPN to watch football?

However, the Three Lions skipper faces strong competition from France and Real Madrid forward Kylian Mbappe, who this summer became the highest World Cup goalscorer of all-time, and Barcelona winger Lamine Yamal, now a world champion after helping Spain to global glory in North America.

Meanwhile, Spain's dominance of the Ballon d'Or Feminin looks set to continue with Alexia Putellas tipped to end Aitana Bonmati's three-year grip on the award. The midfielder, who swapped Barcelona for London City Lionesses this summer, claimed the prize in 2021 and 2022.

The Ballon d'Or awards are not the only prizes up for grabs, though, with 10 winners to be crowned in total. That includes the respective men's and women's prizes for the year's best young talent, goalkeeper, coach and club.

The ceremony will be hosted by Kate Scott and Arsenal and France legend Thierry Henry, who will be familiar to viewers of CBS' Champions League coverage.

Who are the men's Ballon d'Or 2026 nominees?

• Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid and England)
• Pau Cubarsi (Barcelona and Spain)
• Marc Cucurella (Real Madrid and Spain)
• Ousmane Dembele (Paris Saint-Germain and France)
• Luis Diaz (Bayern Munich and Colombia)
• Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United and Portugal)
• Gabriel (Arsenal and Brazil)
• Erling Haaland (Manchester City and Norway)
• Achraf Hakimi (Paris Saint-Germain and Morocco)
• Harry Kane (Bayern Munich and England)
• Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (Paris Saint-Germain and Georgia)
• Lamine Yamal (Barcelona and Spain)
• Sadio Mane (Al-Nassr and Senegal)
• Marquinhos (Paris Saint-Germain and Brazil)
• Lautaro Martinez (Inter Milan and Argentina)
• Kylian Mbappe (Real Madrid and France)
• Nuno Mendes (Paris Saint-Germain and Portugal)
• Lionel Messi (Inter Miami and Argentina)
• Joao Neves (Paris Saint-Germain and Portugal)
• Michael Olise (Bayern Munich and France)
• Willian Pacho (Paris Saint-Germain and Ecuador)
• Julian Quinones (Al-Qadsiah and Mexico)
• Declan Rice (Arsenal and England)
• Rodri (Barcelona and Spain)
• Fabian Ruiz (Paris Saint-Germain and Spain)
• William Saliba (France and Arsenal)
• Ferran Torres (Paris Saint-Germain and Spain)
• Dayot Upamecano (Bayern Munich and France)
• Vinicius Junior (Real Madrid and Brazil)
• Vitinha (Paris Saint-Germain and Portugal)

Who are the Ballon d'Or Feminin 2026 nominees?

• Selma Bacha (Lyon and France)
• Barbra Banda (Orlando Pride and Zambia)
• Klara Buhl (Bayern Munich and Germany)
• Esmee Brugts (Barcelona and Netherlands)
• Mariona Caldentey (Arsenal and Spain)
• Scarlett Camberos (Club America and Mexico)
• Kerstin Casparij (Manchester City and Netherlands)
• Temwa Chawinga (Kansas City Current and Malawi)
• Cata Coll (Barcelona and Spain)
• Melchie Dumornay (Lyon and Haiti)
• Caroline Graham Hansen (Barcelona and Norway)
• Alex Greenwood (Manchester City and England)
• Patri Guijarro (Barcelona and Spain)
• Pernille Harder (Bayern Munich and Denmark)
• Yui Hasegawa (Manchester City and Japan)
• Rose Lavelle (Gotham FC and United States)
• Mapi Leon (London City Lionesses and Spain)
• Lorena (Kansas City Current and Brazil)
• Melvine Malard (Chelsea and France)
• Manaka Matsukubo (Chelsea and Japan)
• Vivianne Miedema (Manchester City and Netherlands)
• Ewa Pajor (Barcelona and Poland)
• Claudia Pina (Barcelona and Spain)
• Alexia Putellas (London City Lionesses and Spain)
• Wendie Renard (Lyon and France)
• Alessia Russo (Arsenal and England)
• Khadija Shaw (Manchester City and Jamaica)
• Momoko Tanikawa (Bayern Munich and Japan)
• Caroline Weir (Lyon and Scotland)
• Tessa Wullaert (Como and Belgium)

FourFourTwo's Ballon d'Or Top Five Prediction

1. Harry Kane
2. Lamine Yamal
3. Kylian Mbappe
4. Rodri
5. Lionel Messi

FourFourTwo's Ballon d'Or Feminin Top Five Prediction

1. Patri Guijarro
2. Khadija Shaw
3. Alexia Putellas
4. Ewa Pajor
5. Melchie Dumornay

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

Arsenal were rejected by Nico Williams, after an offer came through.

That's according to the winger himself, who has revealed why he turned down a move to North London, along with other European giants to remain in the Basque Country.

Despite interest from Arsenal, Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona, Williams spoke over the weekend in comments relayed by Sport Witness about his commitment to hometown outfit Athletic Club, with whom he has a contract until 2035.

Nico Williams: "I told Barcelona, Arsenal, PSG, and many others… no"

Williams shot to prominence just before the 2022 World Cup, following in the footsteps of elder brother Inaki for Athletic – but unlike his sibling, he received an international call-up for Spain and has become a key player in two major titles for La Roja.

Arsenal are among a throng of European giants who have kept tabs on the 24-year-old in the past few years, with interest seemingly ending last year after the Athletic wide man penned an extraordinary decade-long extension to his deal at San Mames.

Earlier this month, Sport Witness reported on Williams’ agent, Felix Tainta, naming Barcelona, Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Liverpool and Paris Saint-Germain as interested parties in Williams in 2024 after the star won the European Championship – noting “having a player say no to all these clubs isn’t easy”.

Inaki Williams reportedly wasn't happy with Tainta's comments, with Nico now addressing the talk after Athletic smashed Getafe 4-0 over the weekend.

“Felix was wrong with what he said; things aren’t like that,” the World Cup winner assured. “The final decision is made by me, my brother, and the family. What happens at home, only the three of us know.

“I’ve never doubted being here. I’ve had countless offers. I could have left, and I’ve always been clear about staying here. My intention to be here cannot be questioned.

“I told Barça, Arsenal, PSG, and many others no, because I want to be here. I hope people understand.”

Over the summer, there were renewed rumours that Arsenal could return for the Basque star after failing to lure either Vinicius Jr or Julian Alvarez from La Liga – but the Gunners opted to stick to only bring in Christos Tzolis from Club Brugge.

Since European interest peaked in Athletic's No.10 after Euro 2024, he has scored just 12 league goals, however, as injury and poor form have prevented him from reaching the next level in the Basque Country.

Williams is worth €40 million, according to Transfermarkt. Arsenal travel to Fleetwood Town as Carabao Cup action continues this week.

Bruno Fernandes’ mutinous post-match comments at Como were widely and correctly condemned, most pertinently by an Old Trafford crowd who showed, once again, that their loyalty towards whoever is currently Manchester United manager is perhaps their most unique and commendable trait.

But just because Bruno shouldn’t have said it doesn’t mean the point itself was incorrect. Ultimately Fernandes was right – and the way Carrick deployed Mason Mount on Sunday afternoon tells us that, deep down, he knows it.

“Sometimes when you give too much of the ball to these teams, they get confidence,” Fernandes said on Tuesday. “I think sometimes we have to be more brave under pressure, take the risk of pressing high and making them uncomfortable.”

A pressing matter

Sitting back rather than pressing high: here is the simplest tactical summation of modern football’s great divide between the possession-heavy, hard-pressing super-clubs and the more low-block, counter-attacking teams who take them on. As Bruno suggests, Manchester United really ought to be in the former, not the latter.

Carrick, like Ole Gunnar Solskjaer before him, has coached Manchester United with the broad tactical brushstrokes of Sir Alex Ferguson, who, genius adapter that he was, would be the first to acknowledge that these old tactical ideas (midblock 4-4-2; counter-attack quickly down the flanks) are no longer suitable for a club of United’s stature.

Since Carrick’s appointment on January 13, Manchester United rank ninth in the Premier League for possession (51.5%), 13th for the best measure of pressing intensity we have: PPDA (13.2), and 12th for high turnovers (224). At the same time, they top the Premier League charts over the last nine months for direct attacks (105) and fast breaks (43). The data confirms that Carrick’s Manchester United have played like a Fergie team. But it’s 2026, and that makes Carrick a man out of time.

Clearly, the 3-0 defeat on Saturday had little to do with tactics. Nevertheless, Carrick’s plan was revealing, because by deploying Mount on the left – but instructing him to invert into the centre – Carrick created narrowness where usually he would want width on both flanks, preferring Giggs/Ronaldo/Nani types to explode on the break.

Instead we saw a box-midfield, and the foundations of a system that could help Youri Tielemans find passes through the lines (Emery’s Villa use this shape) and, more generally, help Manchester United seize the initiative. Here was a nod to modern possession-based football; to a way of playing that seeks control through meticulously planned passing networks. It was, of course, too little too late.

Criticism of Fernandes is perfectly reasonable. Nevertheless, the Manchester United board would do well to heed his advice when they pick the next one.

“You can stick your new stadium up your a*se.”

Of the many songs of defiance voiced by the Stretford End yesterday this was another strong railing against the club’s priorities. As one Manchester United season-ticket holder messaged me last night, “We had an email from the club this week asking us for our thoughts on the new stadium and I bet they get some interesting replies. Surely the team is the first priority.” Spot on.

The club will point to differing budgets, stadium and squad, but it is reflective of owners’ priorities. The gleaming new stadium is impressive, will accommodate more fans and generate more money but it is not the priority right now, and the consultation is particularly poorly timed. Why celebrate proposals for the construction of a new Theatre of Dreams, an arena not opening until 2030/31, when the current stage lacks performers?

United’s squad is one of the poorest in the club’s history in strength of match-winning quality and character. Where are the fighters, the Crerands and Robsons, Keanes and Rooneys? The captain Bruno Fernandes criticised Michael Carrick’s tactics. He’s the captain, supposedly the leader of a dressing-room of a club called and celebrated as Manchester United. Together. United.

Failing in loyalty to the shirt, too few of the current group are playing for Carrick, whose days looked numbered in the wake of surrenders to Como and Bournemouth. The priority for the owners should have been ensuring that Carrick had the right players to call upon: right in their positional fit, attitude and ability. The board’s priorities were wrong: they focused on midfield, not defence. They focused on mid-level players like Carlos Baleba, Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans for reasonable fees, low-hanging fruit, not reaching up for the real talent. In years gone by, when United were well run, their priority would have been in throwing resources at bringing in a commanding midfielder in Elliot Anderson from Nottingham Forest as they once did with Keane.

United’s priority should be to think big again, and invest big. This is Manchester United, the most famous club in the world along with Real Madrid. As the fans’ flag reads, they’re hated, adored, but never ignored. Big club, big news, but big problems.

The saddest part of the shambles is that those who care most about United, Carrick and the fans, are the ones suffering most, the ones most let down by the club and the players. After chanting against co-owners Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the Glazer family, the Stretford End sang in praise of Carrick. The midfielder who won five titles and a Champions League at the club first felt embedded in the hearts as well as minds of United fans on February 23, 2013 at Loftus Road. The away fans sang about Carrick, for almost an hour, during the second half and when filing out. “It’s Carrick, you know; it’s hard to believe it’s not Scholes”. It was the ultimate compliment, comparing Carrick to a beloved, homegrown legend in Paul Scholes. Carrick later described the moment as emotional and unforgettable, hearing that unconditional acceptance.

He heard it again yesterday, and looked similarly emotional at this show of support in his darkest moment. United fans were making a point. Carrick was not to blame. Greater culpability could be laid at the boardroom door. Ratcliffe overseeing such wretched recruitment. The Glazers appearing to focus on what they can take out of United not what they could put. It’s also the players.

In one of the most extraordinary moments in United’s history, the Stretford End serenaded Carrick en route to the tunnel after the final whistle sounded like the death knell on his managerial tenure. Then, when he disappeared from view, they tore into the players.

That felt a hugely significant moment and one that should force some United players, such as Fernandes, to look in the mirror. United fans are famously supportive of players, so their anger must have sprung up from the deepest source, from deep within.

Social media immediately sluiced with observers, many from overseas, lecturing United’s match-going fans on the need to take more direction against the owners, such as boycotting games. Where to start with such naive admonishing? Giving up their tickets – or missing a few games, which allows the club to take the ticket – would simply profit the Glazers even more. More tourists spending inflated sums on tickets, and spending substantial sums on merchandising in the megastore, just means more money for the Glazers.

Giving up their tickets, even scanning in but not taking up the seat, is anathema anyway to fans. Why should they be told to stage a walk-out in protest at the Glazers when all they want to do is watch their team and share moments and memories with friends forged in the furnace of match-day? They work hard to earn the money to support their team. Why on earth should they give that up?

Supporting a team is largely an unconditional relationship. Fans can’t change allegiance. It’s not like a relationship with a car manufacturer or supermarket chain, a connection you can break if you feel they’re letting you down on price, quality, service, level of satisfaction, etc. It’s an emotional connection, and United fans deserve admiration for their loyalty despite the owners and the players. Carrick will probably go, leaving the fans to face yet another grim cycle of life under owners and players whose priorities simply aren’t right for a club of Manchester United’s stature.

Manchester United legend Gary Neville has spoken out in support of Red Devils head coach and former teammate Michael Carrick in the aftermath of Sunday's 3-0 loss against Bournemouth.

Neville expects Man United to sack Carrick, who was appointed as head coach after a positive second interim spell last season, but places the blame for the club's difficulties on decisions behind the scenes and the application of the players on the pitch.

Goals from Rayan, Marcus Tavernier and Evanilson concluded a miserable week for United after a dismal Champions League loss at Como and the subsequent comments of captain Bruno Fernandes.

Gary Neville tells Man United players they shoulder the blame

"Michael's still very early in his managerial career and people like [Louis] van Gaal and [Jose] Mourinho have been eaten alive here," Neville said on The Gary Neville Podcast after Sunday's miserable defeat at Old Trafford.

"So for Michael, he's seen what's happened to Ruben Amorim, he's seen what's happened to Erik ten Hag, he's seen what's happened to Ralf Rangnick, he's seen what's happened to Ole [Gunnar Solskjaer]. The warning signs were there and they've fallen for it.

"This group of players who've been getting managers sacked for a number of years now and underperforming... they've teased him, haven't they? They've conned him for a few months. They have. They've conned him."

United's fortunes turned around after Amorim was removed and Carrick installed in his place. They lost just twice after the turn of the year and won five of their last six Premier League matches to secure third place and a return to the Champions League.

Having been brought up in the Alex Ferguson era, Neville is consistently outspoken and renowned for expecting high standards of Man United players. The current squad, with a few exceptions acknowledged by Neville in an emotional speech from the gantry at Old Trafford, falls short.

The Sky Sports pundit noted that Fernandes and Lisandro Martinez, who has also spoken out in public this month and was left out of the starting line-up along with the captain, have lost the vocal support of the Old Trafford crowd in a way Carrick has not.

Their comments represented a 'direct attack on Michael Carrick' and their speaking out in public probably amounts to just a fraction of what they're actually thinking.

A couple of senior players have criticised either the club or Carrick in recent weeks and Carrick is damning of the overall standards of the squad, hinting that there are players in the first team squad aren't meeting their behavioural expectations off the pitch and saying that living locally is all that's needed to know that.

Carrick is now on the brink. United have beaten Sabah in the Champions League and Ipswich Town in the Premier League, two wins in 12 matches in all competitions.

Their next four matches pit them against Chelsea, Roma, Aston Villa and Liverpool. How many of those games Carrick takes charge of is anyone's guess.

Michael Owen has never been one to shout. At his absolute fresh-faced turn-of-the-century peak, there was no swagger, no smug look-at-me celebration – just the sense of someone going about his job to the best of his considerable ability, banging in goals for club and country.

In 2001, Owen was irresistible. He picked up six trophies that year: the FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup treble, plus the Charity Shield and UEFA Super Cup – and then, just three days after turning 22, the Ballon d’Or. He remains the last Englishman to win the award.

The gong came on the back of 31 goals for a Liverpool side desperate to reinstate itself as a force domestically and in Europe. The bigger the game, the better he played. A highly intelligent footballer with brilliant movement, he could time his runs to perfection. He was also, despite his youthful stature, an absolute fiend to get off the ball.

Owen was blessed with a ruthlessness as well; a single-mindedness worthy of Roy Keane. Today, as he sits down to talk with FourFourTwo, the former marksman shrugs when we ask him for his memories of that incredible year. Despite all of the silverware, he rarely stopped to think about what he was accomplishing.

“To me, if you sit back and think about what you’ve just achieved, it’s a weakness,” says Owen. “To be very good, and consistently very good, you need to be greedy, and it has to become an obsession. It’s not so much about the enjoyment of winning something. It’s more about the pain of watching someone else take what should be yours.”

That 2000-01 Liverpool vintage has somehow slipped through the cracks, lost between the white-suited Spice Boys era of the mid-90s and the dramatic triumph of Istanbul. Owen’s old room-mate, Jamie Carragher, reckons the treble-winners were a much better team than the one that saw off Milan in the 2005 Champions League Final.

“It was definitely my favourite season,” the 41-year-old ex-defender tells FFT. “If you win three cup competitions and also finish 3rd in the league, it means you won most of the games you played. And we did. That’s probably the one team I look back at and think, ‘I was playing with all my mates’. Michael was there, Robbie Fowler, Danny Murphy, Steven Gerrard, Didi Hamann, Jamie Redknapp – people I’m still close with now were in that team. Sharing those things together is special.”

That particular Reds outfit wasn’t the easiest on the eye. The path to victory was often built on frustrating the opposition and grinding out results. With Manchester United and Arsenal frequently operating on a completely different level to everyone else, Gerard Houllier’s charges worked within their limitations, making the most of counter-attacking opportunities and a dogged team spirit. “We were a tough side, with a fantastic back four,” recalls Owen. “Sami Hyypia, Stephane Henchoz, Carragher – they were like trojans in every single match they played. We had Hamann and Gerrard too, of course. We had guts, and no one played more games than we did that season. We played every game that was available to us, and that in itself is no mean achievement.”

The first half of that mammoth 63-match campaign had been fairly humdrum, with little to suggest what was to come. Owen, unable to help England out of their Euro 2000 group, hit seven goals in his first six league appearances of the season, including a hat-trick against Aston Villa, but then scored only once in his next 13. A seven-month period from October to April brought him two Premier League goals. Liverpool weren’t pulling up any trees, either, losing to Ipswich and Middlesbrough in December. Then, something began to spark around the turn of the year. A lot of that was down to Owen clicking into gear.

“In that season, with Owen, Fowler, Emile Heskey and Jari Litmanen, we possibly had the best set of strikers in the world,” says Carragher. “Michael didn’t really have a great first half of the season, but as soon as he got his form back, it was scary.”

Owen actually didn’t feature in the first of Liverpool’s trophy wins that season: he was an unused substitute as Houllier started Heskey and Fowler in the League Cup final at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium. They eventually beat second-tier Birmingham in a penalty shootout. But while Fowler started in Cardiff, he found himself falling down the Anfield pecking order. Houllier clearly preferred the pairing of Heskey and Owen. The Frenchman had been steadily building his team since arriving on Merseyside in July 1998, initially as joint-manager with Roy Evans. Like his countryman Arsene Wenger, Houllier was something of a footballing Anglophile, keen to marry a Gallic eye for detail with classic English strengths of teamwork, resilience and belief.

“He really dragged the club into this new era of how you look after yourself and prepare,” explains Owen. “We were looking at Arsenal and they were mind-blowing. We were thinking, ‘These buggers don’t get injured, they run faster than us, they run longer than us, they’re never resting players – what the hell are they doing?’

“Houllier was the first to introduce those ideas at Anfield. He could never tell Gerrard how to pass a ball, or me how to finish, or Carragher how to defend, but what he was really good at was judging players. Tactically he was very astute. He was good at motivating and getting us working as a unit. He was a very good leader of people.”

After lifting the League Cup, it was full steam ahead on all fronts, with the UEFA Cup proving a particularly potent platform. The club sensed that it was back on the European stage once again, free from the long shadows cast by events at Heysel and the subsequent ban from Europe.

“The UEFA Cup was massive back then,” continues Owen. “We played Barcelona, Roma, Porto, Olympiakos – and that’s before we got to the final. It was a really difficult competition to win.”

Owen had scored twice against Fabio Capello’s in-form Roma at the Stadio Olimpico in February. Liverpool’s quarter-final tie against Porto began with a goalless draw in Portugal, but two quick first-half goals at Anfield from Murphy and Owen, heading in a Gerrard corner, gave Liverpool a comfortable lead that they protected without much grief.

Barcelona awaited in the semis, live on the BBC. Incredibly, kick-off for the first leg at the Camp Nou was put back to 8.10pm at the Beeb’s request, to avoid clashing with EastEnders and the revelation of who shot Phil Mitchell. Presumably all of Barcelona wanted to find out, too. But there was little drama on offer in Catalonia as the Reds defended in numbers to thwart a Barça side featuring Rivaldo, Luis Enrique, Pep Guardiola and Frank de Boer. The return leg brought a famous victory, with 36-year-old Gary McAllister scoring the only goal from the penalty spot following a Patrick Kluivert handball. It was to be Liverpool’s first European final in 16 years. “We could always take big scalps,” smiles Carragher. “That was the great thing about that team – we may not have been the best, but we could beat the best.”

They were also repeating the trick domestically, working their way to the FA Cup final against Arsenal, back at the Millennium Stadium. Owen went into the game in peak form: in his previous two matches, he’d scored three goals against Newcastle, then two against Chelsea. Liverpool faced a Gunners side above them in the league table, and Wenger’s side dominated for the most part. Arsenal had three shots blocked on the line – one by Henchoz’s hand, which went unnoticed by the match officials – and once Freddie Ljungberg had rounded Sander Westerveld to put Arsenal in front with 18 minutes remaining, time was rapidly running out for the Reds. Nobody was prepared for what happened next – except perhaps one man.

In the 83rd minute, McAllister launched a free-kick into the penalty area, Markus Babbel nodded the ball down and Owen found space in the crowd to fire in the equaliser. He looks back on that moment now with something approaching reverence; that it was meant to be, even when playing rope-a-dope in the blazing Welsh sun.

“Once I scored that first goal, I jogged back to the halfway line and this feeling came over me: I just knew,” he reveals. “It was like the Ali fight when Foreman was smacking him on the ropes and it seemed impossible, but suddenly, one punch and I knew that Arsenal were gone. They were gone. The only question in my mind was, ‘Have I got enough time to score before the final whistle goes?’ It wasn’t ‘if’, it was ‘when’. I’d never had that feeling before, and I’ve never felt it since.”

Was there time for a winner? Barely five minutes later, Owen had his answer. He latched onto a long pass from Patrik Berger, shrugging off Lee Dixon, before one touch took him away from Tony Adams. On his weaker foot, Owen coolly dispatched a shot into the small goal-bound gap just beyond David Seaman’s outstretched left hand. Michael Owen had won the FA Cup. The forward-flip goal celebration; the screaming, wide-eyed delight; the mayhem in the stands – it all belonged to him.

“It was such a magical day,” he says. “It’s funny: good things happen and you get caught up in the joy of winning for your team-mates and fans. There’s nothing bad about it when you have a day like that.”

Days were becoming a precious commodity at Liverpool. They had only three of them between the FA Cup showpiece in Cardiff and their third final of the campaign, against Alaves in the UEFA Cup. The club from Vitoria-Gasteiz, capital city of the Basque Country, were the big surprise package of the season: they had triumphed 2-0 at the San Siro against an Inter team boasting Christian Vieri and Clarence Seedorf, before shellacking Kaiserslautern 9-2 on aggregate in the semi-finals.

Although Liverpool’s players were now feeling the strains of a long season, they were quickly 2-0 up in Dortmund thanks to Babbel and Gerrard. Alaves pulled a goal back, but Owen tumbled in the box, and McAllister converted the penalty. Houllier’s side led 3-1 at the interval.

“I always remember coming into the dressing room, looking around and almost giggling,” Owen admits to FFT. “Some of us were thinking, ‘How good is this? It’s almost a gimme’. You’re expecting the final to be hard, and at half-time I was thinking that they were so easy to beat. Never, ever have I been so wrong. We almost blew it.”

Six minutes into the second half, the score was 3-3. Liverpool’s solid defence was suddenly a shambles. Fowler put them back in front, only for Jordi Cruyff to glance home another Alaves equaliser in the final minute of normal time. “On the way to the final, everyone was saying we were boring – lots of 0-0s and 1-0s – and then it all just went mad in the final!” recalls Carragher with a laugh.

In the end, Liverpool and Owen were able to complete their treble. Alaves had two men sent off in extra time, then Delfi Geli’s own goal gave the Reds a dramatic 5-4 win via the short-lived golden goal rule. It was the club’s first European trophy since Rome in 1984.

“It was where the club needed to be,” explains Owen. “It was such a buzz. The fans were amazing – it felt like we’d taken a million of them to Dortmund.” It was also an important moment for Houllier. “He was desperate to win the UEFA Cup, to put us back on the European map,” adds Owen. “He understood the club’s history and values.”

After two knackering cup finals, there was still a final Premier League match to play in May. Win at Charlton, and Liverpool would be in the Champions League for the first time, back in Europe’s elite competition for the first time since that fateful night at Heysel.

Three days after the UEFA Cup final, Liverpool emerged 4-0 victors at The Valley. Owen set up Murphy to net the third, and scored the fourth himself. The Reds had come 3rd in the table, 11 points off champions Manchester United but down from 24 the previous campaign. “We’d won all those trophies that season and went away that summer proud as punch,” says Owen. “We just needed one or two more players to get a bit better. We wanted to win the league with Liverpool so much. Me and Carra used to speak about it all the time. The desire within us was almost unbearable.”

Owen had the same desire to achieve something with England. With the summer over, and the 2001-02 season only one month old, the national team travelled to Munich to take on Germany in a World Cup qualifier. Trailing to a sixth-minute Carsten Jancker goal, Sven-Goran Eriksson’s men were soon back on level terms, with Owen finding the empty net after Nick Barmby had beaten Oliver Kahn to a high ball. Gerrard put England in front and then Owen ran riot, lashing a strike past a flat-footed Kahn before charging clear to wrap up his hat-trick. It confirmed the 21-year-old as Europe’s most dangerous marksman.

In December came recognition of that fact, as Owen was named the winner of the 2001 Ballon d’Or. He received a total of 176 votes from a panel of sports journalists across UEFA’s member countries. Raul was second with 140 votes, Kahn third with 114 and David Beckham fourth with 102. Francesco Totti, Luis Figo, Rivaldo, Andriy Shevchenko, Thierry Henry and Zinedine Zidane filled out the top 10, but none of them received even a third of Owen’s total votes.

Owen may not have been able to call himself the best player in the world – only in 2007 did the Ballon d’Or become a global award – but he could officially proclaim himself the best player in Europe. He was only the fourth Englishman to receive the honour and the first since Kevin Keegan, a back-to-back winner with Hamburg in 1978 and ’79.

Back in 2001, however, there was very little fanfare about Owen’s prestigious achievement. In England, the cult of the individual had yet to take hold. Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo had yet to emerge. Owen wasn’t even presented with the award at Anfield until April, on the pitch a few minutes before a run-of-the-mill 2-0 win over Derby. Owen scored twice that day, but that was as far as the celebrations went. No gala ceremony. No garish designer tux.

“I believe I don’t get the sort of credit that other people would get for winning the Ballon d’Or,” Owen admits today. “It’s never been that important in our country. When I was in Spain, they said I was a hero for winning it. I’m immensely proud of winning it. I look down the list of names, and I still have it saved on my phone – a photo of the points system and who was second, third, fourth and the rest of it.

“You look at that list and it’s awe-inspiring. That’s all I ever wanted as a kid. I didn’t just want to be a footballer; I wanted to be the best footballer. Winning it feels better now than it did when I was playing. You’re 22 – it’s just another trophy, and now I’ve got to win it again.”

He never did, of course. Injuries, bad luck and Liverpool’s below-par signings didn’t help, as finishing runners-up to Arsenal in 2001-02 was followed by a slide down the table. “We brought in El Hadji Diouf, Salif Diao and Bruno Cheyrou – guys who were expected to propel us, and it just went totally the opposite way,” says Carragher.

Owen and his team-mates struggled to push on from that cup treble of 2000-01 and Houllier eventually departed in 2004, having appeared to run out of ideas. When the chance of a fresh start presented itself to Owen that summer – and at Real Madrid, no less – the 24-year-old was ready to listen.

“The last thing I thought was that I was going to leave Liverpool,” says Owen. “We were on a pre-season tour in America and my agent phoned me while I was in my room with Carragher, who got wind of what we were talking about. I put down the phone and he said, ‘Pffft, don’t go. They’ve got Raul, Ronaldo and Fernando Morientes – you won’t get a game!’ I was 50-50, but I just had this overriding feeling towards it – and I’m blaming Ian Rush, actually! I thought, ‘If I do go, then I’ve already played for Liverpool for a long time and, hopefully, I could always come back, so just go and sample it – the Galacticos; that white kit, where everyone prances out like an angel; that amazing stadium; a different culture’.

“Eventually I agreed. But do you know when you sign something and think there’s no going back? When you think, ‘Oh my God, what have I done?’ I remember crying my eyes out as I went off to the airport, thinking, ‘What am I leaving behind?’”

Owen stops short of using the word ‘regret’, but leaving Liverpool still weighs heavily on him – as does the rather mixed opinions of some on the Anfield terraces towards their former player. His fine international career possibly didn’t help, never quite shaking the sense that he was England’s Michael Owen rather than Liverpool’s Michael Owen. Nor did that squeaky-clean image, with all of the rough edges smoothed out by PRs and agents.

John Gibbons, of Liverpool fan site and podcast The Anfield Wrap, thinks that it’s probably down to sheer numbers – that, and signing for Manchester United in 2009.

“We’ve always been spoilt for strikers,” says Gibbons. “We’ve found it a lot more difficult to find a decent left-back over the past 20 years than a centre-forward. That allows people to discard Michael Owen too easily. Robbie Fowler was more loved, but Owen was brilliant for Liverpool. He would always put so much into it when he was on the pitch. You could tell that he was desperate to win.

“I can understand why he gets so frustrated, because he probably sees players spoken of a lot more fondly when they didn’t put in half the work he did. A lot of it is about what happened afterwards. Going to Real Madrid didn’t go down very well, then when he came back to England and joined Newcastle, it was a surprise. But it was signing for Manchester United that really severed all ties.”

Carragher believes his former room-mate’s heroics of 2001 should place him alongside the Anfield greats; that he should get more love from the club’s fanbase. “I think in time that will come,” he suggests.

Virgil van Dijk had hopes of getting his own hands on the trophy in 2019. But for all of their legends, for all of the club’s European glory, only one player has ever bagged the Ballon d’Or while playing for Liverpool. Michael Owen.

When a World Cup quarter-final match has its own special Wikipedia page, it's either a very good sign or a very bad sign.

In the case of Portugal's victory over the Netherlands at the 2006 World Cup, it's very much out of notoriety.

That game still holds the record for the dirtiest game ever played at the tournament, with both sides earning an absolute raft of red and yellow cards.

Maniche told FourFourTwo: "Nuremberg witnessed an all-out battle.

"It was an ugly, hostile match – although for someone like me, it was a kind of enjoyment.

"Every action was played on the edge, with enormous and constant tension. Winning justified everything.

"It was an extremely difficult game for the Russian referee.

"He sent off four players (Costinha, Khalid Boulahrouz, Deco and Giovanni van Bronckhorst) and showed 12 yellow cards, the worst disciplinary record in World Cup history.

"We were fighting for a place in the quarter finals and, after what had happened two years earlier at the Euro 2004 [when Portugal won 2-1 in the semi-finals], there was a strong rivalry with the Netherlands."

Maniche had scored the opener in a 2-1 win over Mexico in the group stage, and he was at it again when he struck midway through the first half.

Maniche said: "I was fortunate to score again – the only goal of the match.

"I remember celebrating by kissing the badge in front of our fans.

"It was a hard-fought victory and that’s why it felt so special. It's match that will stay in my memory for the rest of my life.

Hull City came out on top of last season's dramatically disrupted Championship play-offs and hit the ground running in the Premier League. It's not their first rodeo. Sergej Jakirovic has settled nicely into life in the top flight, and that's the subject of this Tigers-focused FourFourTwo quiz.

Hull usually make a mark when they're in the top flight. Some of their away results in their first season in the Premier League, in London in particular, became one of the stories of that year. We have a question about that.

There are 10 questions in total, multiple choice - you just need to pick the right option and there's no time limit. So, there's no rush. Get stuck in, take your time, and see what you can pull from the memory banks.

Handpicked football quizzes we know you'll love

FourFourTwo has many more football quizzes and they're all courtesy of Kwizly. Sticking with the Premier League, we want you to tell us the nationalities of these 20 players in the world's most cosmopolitan football league.

Next, can you name every title sponsor the Football League Cup has ever had and complete these career paths from a list of previous clubs and a photograph of each nameless player. Don't worry, they're all perfectly recognisable.

We also want you to answer some questions about the streets football won't forget, about football's legendary one-club men, and about the Premier League season in 2016-17.

FourFourTwo's Weekend Crossword 72 features clues on Buccaneers, pirates and vikings. Don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter for your daily afternoon briefing of football trivia and analysis, and don't forget to join The Club: our free membership portal where you can secret hints and get on the leaderboard.

Few people outside of Brentford and Austria had heard of Jannik Schuster at the start of the season. But the rest of the Premier League took notice when the 20-year-old defender claimed an assist and won man of the match as the Bees dispatched Chelsea 3-0 in the Friday night spotlight.

“I loved him from the second I’d seen him,” head coach Keith Andrews purred post-match. While scouting him at RB Salzburg, Andrews admitted he loved his “fearlessness”.

“You could see his character from watching clips; you could just see how he reacted to mistakes in the game, and he's just wholehearted,” the Irishman continued. “The reality is, you never truly know how players are going to settle into a league like this and the level of opposition. So to say I'm delighted with him and the recruitment team is an understatement.”

The Bees, at it again

It’s early days – he’s only made four top-flight appearances in England – but the reported £16m deal to bring Schuster, who was 19 at the time, from Austria to West London in May already looks like shrewd business. It is the latest example of Brentford’s famed scouting network and their knack for convincing players to buy into the project.

The club had kept tabs on Schuster as a youth player and followed his development, and his breakthrough 2025-26 season in the Austrian Bundesliga prompted the Bees to make their move.

But no matter how impressed the scouts were with the 6ft 3in centre-back’s athleticism, composure on the ball, and underlying data, understanding Schuster’s temperament and personality was just as important to Brentford.

Thomas Frank famously had a ‘no d***heads’ rule during his seven years in charge, and that policy of bringing in the right characters has carried on under Andrews as a key pillar of the club’s recruitment process.

It matters so much to them that before signing stalwart midfielder Vitaly Janelt in 2020, technical director Lee Dykes called the owner of the German’s favourite restaurant as part of a meticulous character assessment.

“I absolutely wouldn't take someone into the group that I thought wouldn't fit into the rhythm of the way we are, the way we behave and how we play, for the potential benefits of abilities or attributes as a player,” Andrews admitted. “Jannik is a good example of how after we met him, we were very keen to get that deal done. He just ties into the type of profile of player and personality that we really, really like.”

Brentford were so impressed with Schuster from the first meeting that they promptly began their background checks, speaking to people who knew him to paint a clearer picture. Those close to Schuster describe him as a grounded, loyal character with a strong personality; direct, but with a sense of humour.

These traits partly stem from Schuster growing up in an elite sporting household. Older brother Jonas has won World Championship and Olympic medals in ski jumping at youth level, following in the footsteps of their father Werner, an Olympic champion as a coach with Germany. His grandfather Willy was also a ski jumper.

This upbringing helped instil drive in Schuster and a clear understanding of individual development, reflected by his decision to stay at RB Salzburg to complete his A-Levels despite interest from big clubs abroad.

Satisfied the defender would be a good fit for the dressing room, Brentford’s next task was to persuade the teenager to sign, when logic suggested staying in Austria for a bit longer would have been better for progression before stepping up to the Premier League straight away.

But Brentford’s willingness to give young players opportunities appealed to the player. Even in the worst-case scenario that Schuster got no first-team minutes this term, he was sure he would be a better player by the end of the season.

His Premier League debut came sooner than anyone expected, though. When Nathan Collins limped off with a calf strain in the 17th minute against Sunderland, Schuster was the only natural replacement on the bench: Sepp van den Berg was still nursing a groin injury, and Ethan Pinnock had been sold in the summer.

Brentford fans had seen him only once before in a 6-1 Carabao Cup win at Birmingham, where he was barely tested. Under the cosh against Sunderland, the young Austrian looked assured as Brentford weathered the storm to earn a 1-1 draw.

He quickly formed a partnership with Kristoffer Ajer, the only other fit first-team centre-half at the time, and made his first league start in a 2-2 draw at Bournemouth, putting in another solid display before emerging as the standout player against Chelsea.

It may have looked like a gamble to call on such an inexperienced defender, but for Brentford, it was anything but.

Brentford were astute when they signed Schuster before the summer window had officially opened, as the early business gave him time to settle into London and, crucially, meant he was there for the first day of pre-season. It was during this period Andrews learned he could throw Schuster into the deep end at any point, the willingness to sell club legend Pinnock to Coventry showing as much.

Schuster kept his starting berth at Aston Villa after the international break but was substituted at half-time, still nursing a knock picked up while captaining Austria U21s, and then missed their last outing against Liverpool with illness.

He is available again, but with Collins and Van den Berg back up to speed, Andrews has a selection dilemma ahead of their trip to Hull on Sunday.

Even if Schuster does not immediately return to the starting XI, Andrews is adamant he will play a key role this season and beyond. “I think he’ll be a big player for us for years to come,” he said.

Let's get the football trivia week started with another FourFourTwo Quickfire Quiz. You know how this works: 10 tricky questions and a total of 90 seconds to answer them all.

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FourFourTwo has many more football quizzes courtesy of Kwizly. We'll begin by testing your knowledge of a prodigal Premier League original. Can you ace this quiz about Coventry City in the Premier League?

The Sky Blues feature in just one of these three, as we dive into top-flight history from 30, 20 and 10 years ago. Can you remember the top goalscorer of all 20 Premier League teams in 1996-97, in 2006-07, and in 2016-17?

Those four are tough enough but here's one for the real English football experts. Our Big Quiz of English Football Grounds has questions about the stadiums, stands and streets that make up the bricks and mortar of the game. How many of them can you answer?

We also want you to name every title sponsor of the EFL Trophy in its entire history and every player ever to have been sent off three times in a single Premier League season. If you can find any overlap between those two quizzes, be sure to let us know!

Room for one more? Of course there is. Let's keep it light by asking you to name every nation ever to have beaten England in a World Cup match. That includes both knocking them out and beating them in the group stage, so it really is fun for all the family.

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