Serie A champions show fresh tricks in opening win but Milan suffer at hands of Schwarzenegger-inspired defender The new Serie A season was 17 minutes old and already it had started to look like the previous one: Matteo Politano crossing and Scott McTominay scoring, just as they did in Napoli’s title-sealing victory over Cagliari three months ago. Even their positions were practically identical, the Italian cutting in from the right as the Scotsman attacked the six-yard box. McTominay’s finish was less dramatic this time around, a header instead of a scissor-kick, but he dispatched it with equal conviction. Serie A’s Most Valuable Player in 2024-25, scoring the league’s first goal of 2025-26. “Winning the Scudetto changes nothing,” he had said in one interview earlier this month. “We need to recapture and maintain that mentality we found last year.” Continue reading...

Hoffenheim hit back in Bundesliga after Quansah opener Aubameyang scores double in Marseille romp Napoli launched their Serie A season in style with a 2-0 win at Sassuolo on Saturday, as Scott McTominay powered in a first-half header before Kevin De Bruyne curled home a free-kick after the break. The former Manchester United midfielder McTominay wasted no time in making his mark after last season’s impressive campaign, powering a header into the net from Matteo Politano’s curling cross after just 17 minutes to fire Napoli ahead. Continue reading...

Belgium’s national men’s football team the Red Devils have suffered a major blow of next month’s World Cup qualifying matches. On Monday Lukaku’s club Napoli announced that the striker will be out of action for “a significant period".

Team’s outstanding player last season is determined to help break the club’s near 30-year trophy drought The smile on Youri Tielemans’ face widens as he discusses the summer Unai Emery visited him in Quorn, the Leicestershire village he has called home since arriving in England six years ago. “The initial conversation was about my ideas as a player, where I wanted to play and how I saw myself and I think he quite liked me because he came back a second time,” Tielemans says, laughing. “It was really about understanding each other. And I think we clicked the first time we met.” Fast-forward two years and Tielemans, who joined Aston Villa as a free agent after leaving Leicester, has established himself as an indispensable cog in Emery’s machine. Tielemans has been considered a classy midfielder since making his Champions League debut for Anderlecht aged 16 and has proved a dependable force for Villa, an intelligent operator whether sniffing danger or shifting possession. The 28-year-old thinks carefully on and off the pitch, valuing sleep and nutrition; he is teetotal and those close to him highlight the only fizzy drink he may consume is sparkling water. In January, before Tielemans returned to his former club Monaco with Villa in the Champions League, Emery said Tielemans’s “best quality is in his mind, his mentality”. Continue reading...

Footballer Kevin De Bruyne will auction a piece of art from his personal collection for charity. The proceeds will go to a department at UZ Gent that treats and supports patients with metabolic disorders.

Timekeeping used to be an issue for the Frenchman but now his rapid pressing is pushing him towards a Ballon d’Or Ousmane Dembélé is right behind you and way ahead of everyone, which is just where Luis Enrique always imagined him. At the end of Paris Saint-Germain’s destruction of Real Madrid in the semi-final of the Club World Cup in New Jersey this week, the coach declared his No 10 the season’s best player “by far”; not so much for the 35 goals and 16 assists but for something more simple. So simple it has taken a decade to do. But then Didier Deschamps, his national team manager with France, did say that being late is “a little habit of his”. Well, it was. If there is a portrait that defines the PSG team potentially 90 minutes from winning it all, an image that embodies them and Dembélé’s transformation, it may be that shot of him poised, coiled, at the edge of Inter’s area in the Champions League final. Toes on the line, his eyes narrow and fixed on Yann Sommer like a leopard ready to pounce, a sprinter listening for the gun. It is a scene repeated relentlessly, opponents made prey, Wednesday at the MetLife another episode. “I told him he was pressing a lot; he told me he has to,” Madrid’s keeper, Thibaut Courtois, said. “I get half a second to think.” Continue reading...

Scott McTominay is relishing the prospect of playing with "incredible" Kevin De Bruyne, as Napoli look to "kick on again" after winning Serie A.

Quarter-final: Real Madrid 3-2 Borussia Dortmund G García 10, F García 20, Mbappé 90+4; Beier 90+2, Guirassy 90+8 Real Madrid have set up a date with Paris Saint-Germain in the Club World Cup semi-final, despite a chaotic last 10 minutes, giving Kylian Mbappé a chance to face his former side on a big stage after he scored a fantastic acrobatic goal in a 3-2 win over Borussia Dortmund. Xabi Alonso’s Madrid looked entirely in control for the vast majority of the match, until a remarkable stoppage time made things nervy and Thibaut Courtois’s last-gasp save preserved the victory. That incredible conclusion to an otherwise pedestrian match also included a late red card given to Real Madrid’s Dean Huijsen, the impressive new arrival in central defence, who will miss the semi-final as a result of bringing down Serhou Guirassy right after Mbappé’s stupendous volley for Real Madrid’s third. Continue reading...

Manchester City face All Ain in their second group game Manager also hints that Gündogan could leave the club Pep Guardiola has said he will select 10 new players to face Al Ain in Manchester City’s second Club World Cup group game on Sunday night, though Rodri and John Stones are not yet ready to start because of respective injury problems. City face Al Ain at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium at 9pm local time (2am BST) having beaten Wydad 2-0 in their opening Group G match. While goals from Phil Foden and Jérémy Doku beat the Moroccan team, Guardiola revealed only one player from the victory will be in Sunday’s XI. Continue reading...

After Scott McTominay was a hit, Napoli went back to the Premier League for Kevin de Bruyne, could more players follow them to Serie A?

The Belgian remains a superstar despite his age and will be a huge boost to Conte, Lukaku and McTominay Kevin De Bruyne’s move to Napoli this past week felt understated: one of the finest players of a generation switching clubs for the first time in a decade, to little fanfare. The arranging of his medical in Rome, not Naples, played a part, avoiding the crowds that would have turned out to greet him. A handful of fans still found a way to be there when he arrived at the Villa Stuart clinic, 140 miles from their team’s home ground. Confirmation of his move came first from the Italian team’s owner, Aurelio De Laurentiis, who posted a picture to social media of them sat side-by-side in director’s chairs. “Welcome Kevin!” were the accompanying words. Continue reading...

After 10 years with Manchester City, Belgian Kevin De Bruyne is moving south to Italy. He will continue to play in a sky-blue shirt, but now with SSC Napoli. Following an illustrious career in Manchester, the 33-year-old is embarking on a new chapter that will be watched closely.

Visitors’ spirited fightback thwarted by Kevin De Bruyne Manager praises players for their ambition and courage Craig Bellamy said Wales’s stirring comeback, despite Kevin De Bruyne inflicting the first defeat of his tenure in a seven-goal epic in Belgium, is evidence of his team’s changed mindset. The Wales manager said he played in hope across his career but now recognises belief in his squad. Bellamy praised his players after they roused from 3-0 down to draw level at 3-3 before De Bruyne snatched victory in the 88th minute. Continue reading...

Kyle pays tribute to Kevin de Bruyne and discusses England’s trip to the F1.