Top Sports News

Sep 26, 2026 - Sports

Club’s owners FSG move swiftly to fill key postMove comes amid upheaval in Anfield hierarchyLiverpool have appointed Julian Ward as their sporting director for a second time after the departure of Richard Hughes to Al-Hilal. Ward, who was Liverpool’s sporting director for the 2022-23 season, has spent the past two years as technical director for Fenway Sports Group, the club’s owners.The process of finding a successor to Hughes, who left for the Saudi Pro League after two and a half years at Anfield when the summer transfer window ended, was led by the FSG president, Mike Gordon. Continue reading...

Sep 26, 2026 - Sports

Our writers pick the champion, key players and dark horses as the WNBA postseason tips off on SundayAt least big-picture, as the end of one era of the league and the beginning of another, in part because of Cathy Engelbert’s announcement earlier this month that she will step down as commissioner at the end of this year. It’s fair to say this season has been a microcosm of her up-and-down seven-year tenure: more growth than ever, excellent basketball, breakthroughs for a new generation of stars, and high highs, but also low lows – refereeing controversies and manufactured culture-war hysterics chief among them. EB Continue reading...

Sep 26, 2026 - Sports

She left her Indian Ocean island home at the urging of her current manager and now they are working together again in pursuit of trophies at Stamford BridgeIt is rare to see Melvine Malard without a grin and she has a mountain of reasons to keep it that way. A wedding in June, a big-money move to Chelsea, a Ballon d’Or nomination and a first taste of a London derby against Arsenal at Stamford Bridge on Sunday. The France forward is loving life and the personality behind the smile that instantly connects her to teammates is infectious.“Goals,” says Malard, with a laugh, when asked what keeps her happy. “Seriously though, it’s seeing the kids, the families, my family, in the stands. It is crazy. I love my life, I love my job, I’m happy with my wife and everything is good. I smile because of those things, because I’m happy.” Continue reading...

Sep 26, 2026 - Sports

Thomas Tuchel wishes his team could play more like the world champions, but, as he put it, they may have to ‘embrace the chaos’ insteadEngland are about to face the hardest challenge in international football, maybe at any level of the game. They are going to try to score against Spain. Spain conceded one goal in eight games on the way to winning the World Cup while allowing their opponents 2.37 expected goals, a mere 0.30 per 90 minutes played.Thomas Tuchel has said he hoped his side “became for 10 minutes more like Spain” to comfortably dominate possession when the heat was on. A fine aspiration for those situations, but it is not an approach that will help England unlock the Spain backline. The pass masters cannot be toppled that way. The solution may lie elsewhere within the same Tuchel press conference. Continue reading...

Sep 26, 2026 - Sports

Spain and Barcelona wonderkid has won World Cup and European Championship but says there are no limits for his careerLike the kid he is, Lamine Yamal just wanted to keep playing. This wasn’t Plaça Joan XXIII, wasn’t El Parque de Rocafonda either; it wasn’t the Mataró neighbourhood where it all began, but it might have been. “We’re in a World Cup final and I wanted to carry on,” he says, and there’s the smile again, the braces. Really? “Yes”. No nerves? “No. I never thought: ‘Just blow the whistle’. I was enjoying it.” No fear, just fun: 19 July, New Jersey and he knew: this 19-year-old who had happily been asleep on the bus to the biggest match of his life.And now he sits in a first-floor office in Las Rozas, surrounded by tactics boards and stats sheets. There’s a Spain keyring hanging from the door and a second star on his shirt. In the corridor, crates loaded for London. Son of Mounir and Sheila, named after the family friends who helped them, “touched by God’s wand” in the words of the coach whose office is next door, there’s something about Lamine Yamal. He turned 17 the day before the final of Euro 2024, a schoolboy sitting exams, and 19 the day before the semi-final of the World Cup. Asked what he wanted, he said a trip to New York, so there he was, about to be a champion again. Continue reading...