Author: Barkha Roy

Les Bleus’ disappointing start to the Nations League continues as they earned a 1-1 draw against Ralf Rangnick’s Austria on June 10, courtesy of Kylian Mbappe’s 83rd-minute goal. Bristol City’s Andreas Weimann opened the scoring in Vienna to net his first international goal on his 17th appearance for his country. The 30-year-old striker finished off a slick forward move in the 37th minute with a one-touch build-up from Marko Arnautovic and Conrad Laimer. Credit: UEFA Nations League holders France, however, dominated the game as expected but were off-colour once again. Only after Mbappe and Christopher Nkunku were introduced in the closing 30 minutes did France…

The Dutch international, who arrived at Camp Nou from ACF Ajax for 75 million euros in 2019, has been the subject of transfer speculation given the Spanish club’s dire finances this season. Spanish media outlet Sport had last week reported that the Premier League giants were close to closing on the deal for the midfielder for an estimated fee in the region of 80 million and that this deal would be closed in a matter of days. And on June 3, the same daily had reported the LaLiga giants had accepted that offer “after a few weeks of many doubts”. And now,…

Eight English fans were arrested in Munich ahead of Tuesday’s Nations League tie away to Germany, according to local reports. Three of the fans were arrested for performing the Nazi salute, one for letting off a flare in his hotel room, one for urinating in public and two others were arrested for insulting a police officer. It is a crime to perform the Nazi salute in Germany, with an offender getting punished up to three years in prison for the offence committed, although tourists are often just fined for the offensive gesture. As per the Munich fire brigade, the fan…

Paris Saint-Germain’s Kylian Mbappe has been declared the most expensive football player in the world currently, followed by Real Madrid’s Vinicius Jr and Manchester City’s latest signing Erling Haaland. This is according to research group CIES Football Observatory. Mbappe, who recently rejected a move to 2022 UEFA Champions League winners Real Madrid to remain at Parc des Princes, tops the list with an estimated transfer value of 175.7 million pounds. Credit: Getty Images Meanwhile, Madrid’s attacker Vinicius Jr, who scored the only goal in the final of the recently concluded Champions League final against Liverpool, is second at 158.3 million, followed by former Borussia…

Mithali Raj, veteran Indian cricketer, who has made a significant contribution towards popularizing the women’s game, ended her glorious career with a record of 7805 runs from 232 ODIs, the most in the format. The 39-year-old is also the leading run-getter in women’s cricket across all three formats, having scored 10868 runs. The ex-India skipper appeared in 89 T20 Internationals, 232 ODIs and even featured in 12 Tests for her nation. She remains the only Indian batter to register a double hundred in the longest format of the game, having done so against England in Taunton in 2002. Earlier, Raj had decided to retire from the…

Former and current Chelsea players have taken to social media to pay tribute to academy kit man Eric Asiedu, who passed away on May 8. The Blues confirmed the news in a statement as the club described him as a ‘humble and warm character’, who was well-loved by players and staff at the Cobham training ground. “Eric was a hugely popular figure at our Cobham training ground in his role as Academy kitman, always going about his work with an infectious smile and wonderful positivity. He will be sadly missed by us all and the pain of his sudden passing…

Barcelona centre-back Gerard Pique and his Colombian superstar-partner Shakira have jointly confirmed that they were calling time on their relationship of 11 years after the former was allegedly caught cheating on the singer. The couple announced the development in a statement via their PR agency on June 5.”We regret to confirm that we are separating. For the wellbeing of our children, who are our highest priority, we ask that you respect their privacy,”it read. It was reported last week that the couple were reportedly living separately for a few weeks after the Spain international was caught cheating on the pop…

Barcelona wingman Ousmanne Dembele is reportedly close to joining Paris Saint-Germain on a Bosman, with reports stating that his move to Paris is 95 per cent done. According to reputed Spanish journalist Adrian Sanchez, Dembele has nearly completed his agreement with PSG, and Barca are now preparing for his exit as a free agent. “Dembele is closer than ever to #PSG. Today the deal is 95% closed and there are people in #Barça who already know it,”  he tweeted. https://twitter.com/_AdrianSnchz/status/1532799336236695554 Dembele’s contract with the Catalans expires at the end of June and it has been reported that there has been no development…

AS Roma forward Tammy Abraham has dropped a hint that he might join Liverpool this transfer window after being caught on camera telling his English teammate Trend Alexander-Arnold that he is “joining you next season”. The 24-year-old and the Liverpool full-back were preparing for England’s trip to Hungary for their UEFA Nations League game when he made the comments. As per the video shared by England’s official YouTube channel, the Liverpool defender, during a training session, played the decisive ball in a small-sided victory for his blue team.  Abraham, who was on the losing side in red, then approached Alexander-Arnold and shaking…

According to El Periodico, Barcelona centre-back Gerard Pique and his singer-partner Shakira have been living separately since a few weeks after the Spain international was caught cheating on the singer. During the live stream podcast of Mamarazzis, journalist Emilio Perez has claimed that the Colombian performer caught her partner cheating on her with another woman a few weeks back, which has reportedly led to the separation of the couple. Переглянути цей допис в Instagram Допис, поширений Gerard Piqué (@3gerardpique) The report further states that the four-time Champions League winner has moved out of the place he used to live-in with Shakira and…