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☆ Kylian Mbappé, P.S.G. and the Dangers of a Loveless Marriage
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-16 | by ( Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

This time, Kylian Mbappé means it. The reports on Thursday of his decision to leave Paris St.-Germain, his hometown team, might have carried with them an unmistakable sense of déjà vu. They might have been copied and pasted, almost verbatim, from the last time this happened, and the time before that. It is less than two years since he and P.S.G. last came to the brink, his boxes packed, his desk emptied, his goodbye card signed.

Persons: Kylian, Germain, He’s, P.S.G Locations: Paris St

☆ An English City Gave Soccer to the World. Now It Wants Credit.
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-14 | by ( Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As far as the man in the food truck is concerned, the patch of land he occupies in Sheffield, England, is about as humdrum as they come. To him, the spot — in the drab parking lot of a sprawling home improvement superstore, its facade plastered in lurid orange — is not exactly a place where history comes alive. John Wilson, an academic at the University of Sheffield’s management school, looks at the same site and can barely contain his excitement. He does not see a parking lot. He can see the history: the verdant grass, the sweating players, the cheering crowds.

Persons: John Wilson, Monty ” — Organizations: University of Sheffield’s, Sheffield Locations: Sheffield, England

☆ Is Soccer Ready to Retire Its Last Taboo?
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-09 | by ( Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For as long as he could remember, his ambition had been to become a professional soccer player, to make a living doing the thing he loved. Martin was gay, and there were — as far as he knew — no gay soccer players. Forever.” Or at least, he thought, long enough “for me to live out my dream.”In reality, that contrast was not quite that stark. In 2018, at age 23, and while he was playing for Minnesota United in Major League Soccer, Martin came out as gay. He was thought to be the only openly gay male professional soccer player in the world at the time.

Persons: Collin Martin, Martin, —, ” Organizations: Minnesota United, Major League Soccer

☆ When Soccer’s Content Mine Loses Sight of Reality
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-27 | by ( Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The show, depicting Liverpool’s preparations for the 2012-2013 Premier League season, ran for only one series, amounting to just six episodes. Its subsequent cultural half life has been limited, too; those few elements which have lingered illustrate perfectly why it was not renewed. It would emerge later, of course, that both incidents were a little more nuanced than first assumed. The envelope trick had been adapted from a method once used — albeit with considerably more success — by Alex Ferguson. The portrait had been a gift from a disability charity with which Rodgers had worked closely during his time at his previous club, Swansea.

Persons: Marc Andreessen, ruefully, Brendan Rodgers, …, Rodgers, Alex Ferguson Organizations: maven, League Locations: Liverpool, Swansea

☆ A Message From the Premier League’s Rules-Free Future
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-19 | by ( Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In the summer of 2025, after Manchester City’s acquittal via appeal on 115 charges of breaching the Premier League’s financial regulations, the league’s clubs voted to abolish their discredited Profit and Sustainability Rules, the set of guidelines created years earlier in the failed hope they might prevent teams from spending themselves — and everyone else — into ruin. The decision brought an end to more than a year of increasingly bitter infighting among the league’s members, and even the final vote was hardly unanimous. Six teams lobbied furiously to retain the cost controls, though that number did not include City or Chelsea, two members of the supposed “elite” whose status was effectively protected by the rules. The outcome was attributed largely to public pressure. Punishments applied in previous years to Everton and Nottingham Forest for more minor breaches had been deemed as unjustly “punishing the fans,” despite the fact that the same could be said for the existence of the red card.

Persons: Manchester, ” Organizations: Everton, Nottingham Forest Locations: Chelsea

☆ Loyal to Their Soccer Team, and to Their Burger Van
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-13 | by ( Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Surveying his territory, Tony Aujla is pleased. His business, after all, is all about location, and he has a prime one. Like a general surveying a battlefield, he points to his right: a short walk that way is Aston train station. Over to the left is Villa Park, with its grand, brick-lined facade, home of the city’s Premier League soccer team, Aston Villa. Should any of them require sustenance to complete their (not especially arduous) trek, he is there, spatula in hand, to sell them a burger.

Persons: Tony Aujla, amble, Aujla, Burger Organizations: Aston, Villa Park, city’s Premier League soccer, Aston Villa Locations: Villa

☆ At P.S.G., a Coach’s Vision Collides With a Star’s Power
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-01 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ultimately, a single wrong answer cost Rafael Benítez his job, the one he had coveted for most of his working life. Perhaps Benítez was trying to be clever. Ronaldo was certainly one of the best players in the world, he responded. “It would be like asking my daughter if she prefers my wife or me,” he said, by way of explanation. Barely four months later, Benítez was out at Real Madrid.

Persons: Rafael Benítez, Benítez, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, ” Organizations: Real, Real Madrid Locations: Real Madrid

☆ Watching People Watch a Game. With 100,000 Friends.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-25 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

With the lights adjusted and the cameras rolling, the production team gives Joe Smith his cue. In five seconds, he will be broadcasting live to a couple thousand people. Mr. Smith’s mind, though, is elsewhere. “Slate is definitely the best way to build a roof,” he mutters to his co-host, Jay Mottershead, as the countdown hits three. “All these years on, they haven’t topped it.”And with that, they are on air.

Persons: Joe Smith, mutters, Jay Mottershead, Mottershead Organizations: Manchester United, F.C, Copenhagen Locations: Danish

☆ The Premier League Needs a Commissioner
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-24 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Pete Rozelle’s immediate reaction could not accurately be described as unbridled enthusiasm. He had, for the last three years, been the general manager of the Los Angeles Rams. They wanted to put him in charge of the whole league. It was an offer, in Rozelle’s mind, that he had to refuse. “You’ve got to be kidding,” he told them, according to Michael MacCambridge’s magisterial history of the league, “America’s Game.” “That is the most ludicrous thing I have ever heard.”

Persons: Pete Rozelle’s, Mara, Jack, Dan Reeves, Paul Brown, “ You’ve, ”, Michael MacCambridge’s Organizations: Los Angeles Rams, Giants, Rams, Rozelle Locations: Kenilworth, Miami, Wellington, Cleveland

☆ Swedish Soccer Prioritized Fans Over Finances. Now, Business Is Booming.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-19 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The warning sounded over and over, first in Swedish and then in English. But in the stands, as a thick cloud of smoke wreathed and coiled in the floodlights, nobody moved. The fans were going to make the game happen by sheer force of will. The top two teams in the Allsvenskan, Sweden’s elite league, had gone into the final day of the season separated by just three points. It has not happened in England since 1989, and Italy has not produced such a denouement in more than half a century.

Organizations: Allsvenskan, Elfsborg Locations: Malmo, England, Italy

☆ Xabi Alonso Isn’t Coming to Save Your Team. Not Yet.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-17 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Xabi Alonso has always done things at his own speed. As he contemplated the idea of becoming a coach, he saw no reason to change. He did not start out on the second phase of his career with a five-year or a 10-year plan in mind. “But I had not really mapped anything out.”There were plenty of people who were more than happy to do it for him. Everything about Alonso seemed to indicate not only that he would go into management when his playing days drew to a close, but almost that he should.

Persons: Xabi Alonso, “, ”, Alonso Organizations: Champions League, Liverpool, Real, Madrid, Bayern Munich Locations: Europe, Real Madrid, Spain

☆ Megan Rapinoe, Emma Hayes and a Women’s Soccer Crossroads
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-10 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Emma Hayes first met Megan Rapinoe before she was Megan Rapinoe. Or, rather, just as she was becoming Megan Rapinoe. Rapinoe was not even a professional soccer player back then, not quite. In 2008, she had been appointed head coach and director of soccer operations of the Chicago Red Stars, one of the inaugural franchises in the start-up league Women’s Professional Soccer. The Red Stars drafted Rapinoe second overall ahead of the league’s first season.

Persons: Emma Hayes, Megan Rapinoe, Rapinoe, Hayes Organizations: Chicago Red Stars, Women’s Professional Soccer, University of Portland, Red Stars Locations: California, Chicago, Lake Michigan

☆ Is Fluminense the Team of the Future?
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-03 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Everything that has followed and everything that might yet — the glory and the acclaim, the opportunity and the revolution — has unspooled from a simple text. What is not entirely clear, though, is precisely which message was the one that counted. One night in April last year, the soccer coach Fernando Diniz sent a message to Mario Bittencourt, the president of Fluminense, one of the traditional giants of Brazilian soccer. Fluminense had just fired its coach. Diniz had both played for and managed the team already, and he had fond memories of his time working with Bittencourt, a 45-year-old lawyer.

Persons: Fernando Diniz, Mario Bittencourt, Diniz, ” Organizations: Fluminense

☆ At Barcelona, Timing Is Everything
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-27 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As he rose through the ranks at Barcelona, Gerard Deulofeu seemed to have everything. Luis Enrique, his manager, regarded him as his “standout.” He was fast-tracked into the senior side at the age of just 17. Deulofeu, though, never quite made it at Barcelona, not really. He felt Luis Enrique, previously such an ardent advocate, did not “trust” him now that he was in charge of the senior team. Deulofeu played six times for Barcelona, and was sold.

Persons: Gerard Deulofeu, Barcelona’s, Deulofeu, Luis Enrique, ”, Lionel Messi, Neymar, Luis Suárez, Cesc Fàbregas, Alexis Sánchez, Pedro, Andrés Iniesta Organizations: Barcelona, Everton, Sevilla Locations: Barcelona

All of a sudden, after a single summer, the pink jersey is everywhere. Tor Southard was better placed than most, but even he was caught unaware. As Adidas’s senior director for soccer in North America, he had been receiving emails from colleagues for nearly a year asking if the company’s biggest star, Lionel Messi, would be joining Inter Miami, also a client of Adidas. As far as he knew, it was just a rumor. Like the rest of the planet, Southard learned it was true only on June 7, the day Messi announced his intentions in a rare interview with two Spanish news outlets.

Persons: Tor Southard, Adidas’s, Lionel Messi, Messi Organizations: Inter Miami, Adidas Locations: Buenos Aires, Bangkok, England, Southeast Asia, North America

☆ When Saying Nothing Is Saying Something
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-20 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

By the end of last week, England’s Football Association doubtless felt that it had done the best it could, that after hours and hours of talks, it had settled on what might best be described as the least worst option. Last Friday night, England’s men’s team was playing an exhibition match against Australia. Most expected that the game would take note of the violence crackling across Israel and Gaza, commemorate the victims and acknowledge the suffering. They had weighed the risk that a minute’s silence, soccer’s traditional manifestation of grief, might be interrupted, but they determined that having it was the appropriate thing to do. The most difficult decision, though, was to do with the Wembley Arch, the soaring steel beam that rises above the stadium.

Persons: England’s Organizations: England’s Football Association, Australia, Wembley Locations: Israel, Gaza

As the players idled by the chain-link fence at the side of the field, taking great gulps of air and water and conducting an immediate autopsy of the game that had just finished, they focused their attention on three outstanding bones of contention. The first considered whether a penalty that had not been awarded absolutely should have been, as an aggrieved plaintiff was claiming. The second investigated if a particularly egregious foul was premeditated (yes) and/or warranted (also yes). Each player had to dig into wallets or pockets to find five pounds — just over $6 — to pay their share for the use of the field. As they strolled stiffly to the parking lot, the squabbling gave way to discussion of plans for the rest of the evening, and for next week.

Persons: stiffly

☆ Selling Saudi Soccer, One Like at a Time
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-15 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

There has always been a discrepancy between live soccer’s value as content and the number of people who actually watch it. Even the most mouthwatering Premier League games attract only a couple of million viewers in Britain, and roughly the same number in the United States. It seems unlikely that Saudi Arabia is ignorant of that. The country’s approach has been sufficiently considered that it is reasonable to assume it has been factored into its plans. Quite what that means for the future of the sport itself — of all sports, in fact — is not clear.

Persons: Ronaldo Organizations: Premier League Locations: Britain, United States, Saudi Arabia

Nobody was surprised that Megan Rapinoe took the Golden Ball, for the tournament’s best player, in 2019, or that Lionel Messi did the same in 2022. Some World Cups are, after all, very obviously dominated by one central character. This has not been one of those World Cups, though. Several Spain players might be contenders: Aitana Bonmati, Mariona Caldentey, Teresa Abelleira. Japan’s Hinata Miyazawa will likely win the tournament’s Golden Ball, the award handed out to the most prolific goal-scorer.

Persons: volubly, Nobody, Megan Rapinoe, Lionel Messi, Aitana, Mariona Caldentey, Teresa Abelleira, Millie Bright, Kosovare Asllani, Sam Kerr, Mary Fowler, Australia’s, Hinata, Lauren, Alessia Russo, Lauren James, Alba Redondo, Jenni Hermoso, Bonmatí, Mary Earps, Zecira, Salma Paralluelo, James, Fowler Organizations: FIFA, Spain —, Spain, Nigeria Locations: Sydney, Spain, Georgia, Sweden, England

☆ For Spain, a World Cup Title Built on Talent, Not Harmony
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-20 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

To win a World Cup, everything usually has to be perfect. The manager and the players have to exist in harmony. The squad has to be in delicate balance: between talent and tenacity, youth and experience, self-belief and self-control. Spain, in the year preceding this year’s Women’s World Cup, had none of those things. In its circumstances, it seemed simply not possible for it to become world champion.

Persons: Jorge Vilda Locations: Spain, Spanish

☆ Wanted: Female Athletes. Multiple Vacancies.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-19 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Brooke Walker spent that first night watching as much Australian rules football as she could. She did the same the next night, and the night after that. Walker had not grown up playing what is, depending on whom you ask, Australia’s most popular sport. As a child, she had played touch, the minimal-contact version, and rugby league. “Even when I was 14 or 15, I wouldn’t ever have seen it,” she said.

Persons: Brooke Walker, Walker, ”, “, — Organizations: league, Australian Football, — Carlton Locations: New Zealand, Australia, Melbourne

☆ For Spain and England, a Swift Rise Is Also a Warning
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-18 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Not long after he had taken up his post as president of the Spanish soccer federation, Luis Rubiales called a meeting with the organization’s head of women’s soccer, Rafael Del Amo. Like his boss, Del Amo was new to his role, but Rubiales wanted to gauge his first impressions. He wanted to know what the Spanish women’s team needed in order to succeed. Spain, Del Amo told Rubiales, needed “everything.”That conversation took place in May 2018. On Sunday, for the first time, Spain will take the field in a Women’s World Cup final, separated from the sport’s ultimate glory only by another debutante on the grandest stage in women’s soccer, England.

Persons: Luis Rubiales, Rafael Del Amo, Del Amo, Rubiales Organizations: Spanish Locations: Spanish, Spain, soccer, England, Nigeria, Jamaica, Morocco, South Africa, Colombia, Australia

☆ England Ends Australia’s Run and Reaches World Cup Final
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-16 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It all, in that moment, felt destined, as if there was someone, somewhere, writing a script. Only one thing had been missing from Australia’s World Cup. The last three weeks had been filled with exhilarating highs, exquisite tension, intoxicating hope. The country had fallen, head over heels, for the Matildas, grown unapologetically invested in their story, been captivated not just by their success, but their spirit. All that remained was for Sam Kerr to fulfill her promise.

Persons: unapologetically, Sam Kerr, Cathy Freeman, Kerr, Mary Earps Organizations: Australia Locations: Australia

☆ Australia’s Matildas Unite a Nation and Crack the Code Wars
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-15 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Inside the vast sweep of the Melbourne Cricket Ground, almost nobody was paying attention to what was happening on the field. Those fans who remained in their seats were staring up at the big screens, absorbed by a game a thousand miles away. The live sporting event playing out in front of them could not compete with the appeal of the Matildas. Over the course of the last three weeks, Australia has fallen — and fallen hard — for its women’s soccer team. Images of Matildas players beam out from billboards and television screens and the front pages of every newspaper.

Organizations: Melbourne Cricket, Australian Football League, Carlton, France, soccer Locations: Melbourne, Brisbane, Australia

☆ Spain Gets Last Word, and Reaches First World Cup Final
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-15 | by ( Rory Smith | More About Rory Smith | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The players streamed from the substitutes’ bench and onto the field, the coaching staff not too far behind them, swarming around the teammates who had rescued their dream. At last, celebrating together, they could release all of the stress and strain of the last couple of days, the last three weeks of this World Cup, the last year or more. This time, though, it was not Sweden celebrating, but Spain. They had barely had the chance to relish the sensation of relief before it was extinguished, cruelly and instantly. It will be Spain, then, that takes its place in a maiden World Cup final — against either Australia or England — in Sydney on Sunday, thanks to a 2-1 victory in the mist and drizzle of Auckland.

Persons: Rebecka Locations: Sweden, Spain, Australia, England, Sydney, Auckland

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