Response to strained schedule has been more football than ever, and a danger that the best will have nothing left to give at the World Cup Cole Palmer and Ousmane Dembélé looked great when they were photographed sitting on Top of the Rock on the eve of the Club World Cup final but it is not being wise after the event to suggest that both might have been better off spending their summer lying on sunbeds. Top players struggling with fitness issues was foreseeable before the first edition of Fifa’s expanded tournament took place. “The worst idea ever,” was Jürgen Klopp’s take, citing concerns over the long-term impact of squeezing even more football into an ever expanding calendar. “Last year it was the Copa [América] and the European Championship, this year it’s the Club World Cup, next year it’s the World Cup. That means no recovery for the players involved.” Continue reading...

Real bounce back from derby defeat with 5-0 away win Atalanta fight back to beat Club Brugge 2-1 at home Kylian Mbappé scored a hat-trick as Real Madrid eased to a 5-0 away win over Champions League debutants Kairat Almaty on Tuesday. Xabi Alonso’s side bounced back from Saturday’s humbling 5-2 La Liga loss to Atlético Madrid in style, with Mbappé taking his Champions League tally to five goals in two European games this season. Continue reading...

Bonmatí scoops top honour for third successive year Sarina Wiegman and Hannah Hampton win awards On a breathlessly glitzy night in Paris, Ousmane Dembélé won the men’s Ballon d’Or award for the first time. It was a victory that brought the audience in a fever‑pitch – Théâtre du Châtelet to their feet, reward both for Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League triumph and Dembélé’s own stellar form since Christmas. Otherwise it was a night of flowers and gongs for English football in Paris as the women’s game swept the opening half of the ceremony. There were awards for the England head coach, Sarina Wiegman, the England goalkeeper Hannah Hampton and Arsenal, the Champions League winners, as club of the year. Such was the degree of Anglo-dominance in the opening hour there were even scattered boos from the Parisian crowd as Arsenal’s – players went up to receive their gong. Continue reading...

Nayef Aguerd’s early header settles delayed Ligue 1 tie Antonio Conte’s side stay perfect in Serie A with 3-2 win Paris Saint-Germain suffered a 1-0 defeat at Marseille in Monday’s rearranged “Le Classique”, with Nayef Aguerd’s early header proving decisive in his side’s first home league win over their bitter rivals since 2011. After Sunday’s weather-enforced postponement of the match amid heavy rain and storms, PSG fell to their first league defeat of the season on a night where winger Ousmane Dembélé was presented with the 2025 Ballon d’Or men’s award in Paris. Continue reading...

Ousmane Dembele won the Ballon d'or as the world's best player. Guillem Balague looks at his rise to the very top.

Kylian Mbappé converted two penalties to secure Real Madrid a 2-1 victory against Marseille in their Champions League group-stage opener despite playing the final stages with 10 men after their captain, Dani Carvajal, was sent off. Carvajal had not started the match, coming on after five minutes when Trent Alexander-Arnold pulled up with an apparent hamstring injury. More to follow Continue reading...

Real Madrid coach Xabi Alonso stated Monday that Kylian Mbappé is "not anxious" ahead of his Champions League debut with Los Blancos. Madrid face Marseille on Tuesday, with Jude Bellingham returning to the team after shoulder surgery. Alonso also emphasised that the club’s European legacy serves as motivation rather than added burden.

PSG have been flawless this season – something they never achieved with Leo Messi, Neymar and Mbappé in the team By Get French Football News “It’s only the start,” said Lucas Hernández as Paris Saint-Germain wrapped up their fourth consecutive Ligue 1 title in muted fashion against Angers on Saturday. To be crowned league champions is the crescendo of a season for many clubs; for PSG, it is merely the starting gun. This isn’t the earliest that PSG have won the title. In March 2016, Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored four of his 38 league goals that season in a 9-0 win over Troyes, ensuring Laurent Blanc’s side wrapped up the title with eight games to spare. This term though, there weren’t the same fireworks as Désiré Doué’s solitary goal was enough to secure the all-important win but, make no mistake, this has been PSG’s most emphatic title win. Continue reading...

Four Real Madrid players, including Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Jr, are cleared to face Arsenal in their Champions League quarter-final despite three being punished by Uefa.

France winger Louis Bielle-Biarrey was named Six Nations Player of the Championship on Tuesday after scoring a record eight tries to help his team win the tournament. The win means Les Bleus have won the best player award four times in the past six editions.

It was double Kylian Mbappe at Madame Tussauds as the Real Madrid and France star sees his waxwork figurine for the first time.

The Bayern Munich forward scored and set up another as France beat Croatia to reach the Nations League semi-finals By Get French Football News “​The Olympic Games allowed people to get to know me,” said Michael Olise, who grew up in England but announced himself for France last summer as Thierry Henry’s side earned a silver medal at the Olympics.​ A few weeks after Paris handed the Olympic torch to Los Angeles, Olise received his first senior call-up from Didier Deschamps and, unbeknown to almost everyone, there was another passing of the torch. The September international break, during which Olise made his debut for France’s senior side, was ultimately Antoine Griezmann’s last. The Atlético Madrid forward’s chapter with Les Bleus, which spanned over a decade, was coming to an end. Olise was ​given the daunting task of replacing a man who had accumulated 137 caps, 84 of which came in consecutive matches, an omnipresence that stretched back over half a decade. Continue reading...

Paul Pogba is looking for a new club after serving a ban for failing a doping test and Manchester United have been encouraged to move for the French international once again

Mirror Football were among a small group to meet popular striker Olivier Giroud at LAFC's state-of-the-art training facility before watching their opening-day win over Minnesota United in Los Angeles