Many may remain bemused by the spectacle of Premier League teams travelling halfway around the world to play each other in friendlies- see the likes of Manchester United's recent 4-0 pre-season win over Liverpool in Bangkok to start the Erik Ten Hag era- but lest we forget there was a time when the league themselves actively encouraged it!
As the dust settled on what will most likely be regarded as a flop Nations League campaign for the Three Lions, Gareth Southgate could be forgiven for questioning whether it’s worth staying on at St George's Park beyond the World Cup. Instead, should he take the admittedly left- field step of leaving it all behind, and might he do as at least two of his predecessors have and seek career rehabilitation, of a sort, in Holland?
The 13th UEFA Women’s European Championship has just begun, taking place this summer between 6th and 31st July .The tournament is already the biggest yet, smashing multiple records. Millions of people will be tuning in worldwide and thanks to that I have put together a list of sixteen players, one from each nation.
This is a list of both the star players for their country and players who may go under the radar due to the amount of talent on show.
Ralf Rangnick has waved goodbye to the offer of a consultancy role at Old Trafford and taken the decision to succeed fellow countryman Franco Foda, to make a first step into international management with Austria, rather than staying on with Manchester United following a lukewarm at best spell as caretaker. It's probably safe to say his first order of business from the OFB- or Osterreichischer Fussball-Bund (their FA) will be remarkably similar to the job he's just left, to revive the fortunes of Unsere Burschen (Our Boys) and get them to the major tournaments on some sort of a consistent basis, given their comparative lack of recent success in doing so.
This coming weekend will see the Olympiastadion host the 79th edition of the German cup final. The 2022 DFB-Pokal final is due to be contested by SC Freiburg and RB Leipzig and, whatever happens, this season will see a 1st time winner hoisting that famous goblet-esque trophy above their heads. It will also deliver a 1st major domestic success for either side, so in many ways this match represents a holy grail.