Kane hits landmark to beat Ronaldo and Haaland Marseille go top after late 2-1 victory at Strasbourg Harry Kane scored his 100th goal for Bayern Munich on Friday night, reaching the landmark in just 104 matches to become the fastest player this century to reach 100 goals for a single club. The England captain was on target twice in a 4-0 home win against Werder Bremen, taking him to three figures and extending Bayern’s 100% record after five Bundesliga outings. In doing so Kane has nudged ahead of Erling Haaland and Cristiano Ronaldo, who took 105 matches to reach three figures for Manchester City and Real Madrid respectively. The pair had jointly shared the scoring record in Europe’s top five leagues but Kane has now gone clear on his own. Continue reading...

Veteran striker on target twice in 5-0 win against Armenia Nigeria keep hopes of reaching 2026 finals alive Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 139th and 140th international goals as Portugal thrashed Armenia 5-0 in their first match since the death of Diogo Jota in a car accident in July. A minute’s silence was held before the World Cup qualifier in honour of Jota, who won 49 caps for Portugal, and banners were on display around the Vazgen Sargsyan Republican Stadium in Yerevan. Continue reading...

American investment has recently arrived and the ‘big five’ clubs will contest the title in an increasingly strong league The Saudi Pro League season kicks off on Thursday, just before the international break, when Cristiano Ronaldo will probably make headlines by saying the Saudi Pro League is one of the top five in the world. If so, the 40-year-old is bound to reference Al-Hilal reaching the quarter-finals of the Club World Cup, drawing with Real Madrid then beating Manchester City 4-3. There is now something else, though, that the league has in common with its European counterparts – US money. In July the ministry of sports announced that three clubs had passed into private hands. Al-Kholood, the only one in the top tier, have been taken over by an American investment company, the Harburg Group, run by the venture capital investor Ben Harburg. “The first three Saudi sports clubs have been privatised through a public offering – Al Ansar, Al Kholood, and Al Zulfi – with their ownership transferred to investment entities,” the ministry said Continue reading...

After years spent in striker-less formations, the Premier League’s top teams are seemingly all set to rely on a big body (or two) up top Sign up for Soccer with Jonathan Wilson here It’s only been a decade since it seemed the center-forward was being refined out of existence. Spain had won Euro 2012 with Cesc Fàbregas as a false nine, and Germany, who largely took Spain as a model, were less than convinced they needed one at the 2014 World Cup. They fielded Thomas Müller as a false-ish nine until the quarter-final, when Jögi Löw finally went back to basics and turned to Miroslav Klose. That he was 36 only seemed to confirm that the old-fashioned No 9 was an old-fashioned phenomenon – a dying breed. Yet this summer, the main interest in the transfer market has been the carousel of strikers. Of course, strikers never entirely disappeared. The four leading scorers in the Premier League in 2014–15 were Sergio Agüero, Harry Kane, Diego Costa and Charlie Austin. Mauri Icardi and Luca Toni topped the charts in Italy, while Cristiano Ronaldo, his conversion to A No 9 complete, was top scorer in Spain (although that he was followed by Lionel Messi, Antoine Griezmann, and Neymar suggested a greater variety of goalscorer there). Continue reading...

Today’s rumours are the very modern man It is very difficult to find a top quality No 9 in the game and with Paris Saint-Germain’s Randal Kolo Muani available, a fun three-way battle could be heading the way of rumourmongers. Juventus have already had a bid rejected, although they are expected to return with a second offer. While they are crunching the numbers, Manchester United and Chelsea may sneak in with a superior financial package and steal the France international from under the Old Lady’s nose. João Felix is on his way out of Chelsea after making absolutely no impact at the club for a second time, leaving many to wonder why they bothered signing him in the first place. It looked as if he was heading back to his boyhood club Benfica but Al Nassr have stepped in with a €50m bid to lure the benchwarmer to Saudi Arabia, where he will join his international colleague Cristiano Ronaldo at the club. Continue reading...

Today’s fluff is propelled by a fan Alejandro Garnacho wants to leave Manchester United but is not too eager on moving to the Saudi Premier League, even if it means teaming up with Cristiano Ronaldo. Al-Nassr approached the Argentina winger to suggest a change of scene and a massive wage but Garnacho wants to play in Europe. The same reportedly goes for his United colleague Marcus Rashford, with the England forward waiting for Barcelona to make a bid. One United winger finally getting to leave permanently is Jadon Sancho, who has joined Juventus for £17.3m, only £60m or so less than they paid for him four years ago. Continue reading...

Ronaldo says teammate’s death ‘doesn’t make any sense’ Wolves say ‘memories he created will never be forgotten’ Tributes paid after accident in Spain – latest updates Jürgen Klopp and Cristiano Ronaldo led the tributes from across the football world to Diogo Jota after the Liverpool and Portugal forward was killed in a car accident in Spain. Jota’s brother, André, also died in the crash in the province of Zamora. Jota was 28, a father of three young children and had married his long-term partner, Rute Cardoso, less than a fortnight ago. Klopp, who signed Jota for Liverpool in 2020 and managed him for four seasons, posted on Instagram: “This is a moment where I struggle! There must be a bigger purpose! But I can’t see it! Continue reading...

In the social media age, football is a fraction of the Portuguese Übermensch’s appeal and he is untroubled by his paymasters’ morals The winners of next season’s AFC Champions League Two, Asia’s second-tier club competition, will receive about £1.8m. The winners of the Saudi King’s Cup will receive just over £1m. Prize money for the Saudi Pro League is not disclosed, but by the most recent available figures (for 2022-23) is in roughly the same area. Weekly attendances at the King Saud University Stadium, where top-tier ticket prices start at about £12, range between 10,000 and 25,000, although of course you also have to factor in pie and programme sales above that. And so you really have to applaud Al-Nassr’s ambition in handing an estimated £492m to Cristiano Ronaldo over the next two years. Even if they sweep the board at domestic level, if they fight their way past Istiklol of Tajikistan’s 1xBet Higher League and Al-Wehdat of the Jordanian Pro League, if they extract maximum value from merch and sponsorships, you still struggle to see how they can cover a basic salary that comes to £488,000 a day, even before the bonuses and blandishments that will push the total package well beyond that. Continue reading...

Portuguese star will be 42 when deal ends in June 2027 News brings recent transfer speculation to a close Cristiano Ronaldo has signed a new two-year deal at Al Nassr, extending his stay with the Saudi Pro League team to June 2027, when the forward will be 42. “Al Nassr Club Company officially signed a contract extension with Cristiano Ronaldo,” the Riyadh-based club posted on X. “[The] Al Nassr captain’s contract will be valid until 2027.” Continue reading...

What was once simply a garment that declared your affiliation to a club is now a global business earning millions from collectors of vintage kits On the second floor of an unprepossessing building on the outskirts of Amsterdam, there is a metal cabinet that destroys footballers’ DNA. The contraption belongs to MatchWornShirt and was part of a deal to sell the kits of Real Madrid players to the public. To allay concerns that the genetic material of Cristiano Ronaldo might escape into the wild, the steel wardrobe was built so that every shirt could be blasted by a germicidal lamp. For new, read old, because MatchWornShirt sells precisely what the company’s name suggests: kits that have been stuck to the bodies of professional athletes. Want the jersey Son Heung-min pulled on against Manchester United in the Europa League final? You can have it, if you beat the current auction price of £22,000. The very shirt Cole Palmer had on when he scored four first-half goals against Brighton last season? That went for £34,000. Continue reading...

Cristiano Ronaldo got the winner after Francisco Conceição’s wonder strike had cancelled out Florian Wirtz’s header in Munich “Will Cristiano Ronaldo leave Al-Nassr at the end of the month and sign with Inter Miami?” asks Kurt Perleberg. As wild as that may sound, none other than Gianni Infantino himself has suggested Ronaldo wants to play in next month’s Club World Cup, which Al-Nassr failed to qualify for. Whether he ends up playing alongside Lionel Messi in the 305, we’ll have to wait and see. 6 mins: Neto gets more joy up against Germany’s back three, galloping into space and crossing for Ronaldo, whose first touch sets up a shot at goal … which is just too close to Ter Stegen. A decent opening for each side in the opening minutes. Continue reading...

The Portuguese’s Al-Nassr chapter could end without silverware but whispers of a Club World Cup cameo means his Saudi Pro League story is far from over For a social media post described around the world as “cryptic”, it doesn’t seem all that hard to decipher. Minutes after Al-Nassr’s last game of a disappointing season ended in defeat on Monday, Cristiano Ronaldo – who had previously said that he was happy to finish his career in Saudi Arabia – posted on social media. “This chapter is over. The story? Still being written. Grateful to all.” The biggest star in the Saudi Pro League (SPL) looks to be on his way out of Riyadh after two and a half years of personal milestones but no major trophy with Al-Nassr. With the Yellows no closer to a first title since 2019 than when he joined in December 2022 and no place in Asia’s Champions League next season, the 40-year-old may not, as the club had long expected, extend his contract – which ends on 30 June – for another year. Continue reading...

New Seleção springs surprise with Casemiro recall and sets sights on reviving Vinícius Júnior’s international career One of the best coaches in history working with the best national team in the world. This is how Carlo Ancelotti was introduced as new head coach of the Brazil national team. Despite having worked for the biggest clubs in the world, the Italian did not hide his joy at the new challenge of leading the Seleção in their hunt for a sixth World Cup title. “It is an honour to lead the best national team in the world. I have a great mission, so that Brazil can be champions again. I have always had a very special connection with Brazil. The reception yesterday was incredible,” Ancelotti said. Continue reading...

The two best players of their generation suffered same-day disappointments that show the game is starting to move on Not long ago, the results might have been seismic. Or at the very least, worthy of an eyebrows-raised remark. Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, the two leading lights of their generation, the dominant on-field forces for most of this century, both going out of continental competition in the semi-finals? Both in upsets? On the same day? On Wednesday, it actually happened. Messi’s Inter Miami fell to Vancouver 5-1 on aggregate in the Concacaf Champions Cup, and Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr lost 3-2 to Kawasaki Frontale in the AFC Champions League Elite at a nominally neutral site in Saudi Arabia. Continue reading...