In the summer of 2008, Barcelona appointed Guardiola, Dortmund appointed Klopp, Chelsea appointed Scolari, and Qarabag appointed Gurban Gurbanov. And his is still there, more than 17 years later, building an incredible empire. The story for @theguardian.com : www.theguardian.com/football/202...

Let football be the only religion in the world in 2026. Happy New Year!

Asked ChatGPT what was the best 2025 transfer in its opinion. It said Mats Wieffer to Atletico Madrid and provided analysis of his performances there. Unreal stuff.

My daughter is watching the entire Dortmund game tonight because she is looking for a leopard. Great job promoting football by Julian Ryerson!

Dynamo Kyiv have signed a Moldovan-Romanian striker who shared posts of the worst and vilest pro-Putin propagandist and allegedly wanted to play for a Russian club. The fans are furious! www.theguardian.com/football/202...

Trent Alexander Arnold moves from Liverpool to Real Madrid. Livepool sign Jeremie Frimpong from Bayer Leverkusen to replace him. Now Leverkusen sign Lucas Vazquez, released from Real Madrid, to replace Frimpong. What a bizarre triangle!

I have never cared less about any final, as obscure as it could possibly be, than I care about this Infantino garbage today. It takes pure evil to invent a tournament that makes football lovers hate it.

Peter Zoontjes was the greatest Telstar fan since the club was established in 1963. He died today, aged 86, less than a week after Telstar won insanely sensational promotion to Eredivisie - for the first time in 47 years. What a timing. He deserved to be there next season.

The amazing story of third division FC Biel-Bienne, from the watch capital of Switzerland, who reached the Cup final less than a decade after going bankrupt. www.theguardian.com/football/202...

This is pretty wild. Achraf Hakimi played for 4 teams in his career. 2 of them played in the Champions League final last season, and the other 2 play in the Champions League final this season.

One of the most surprising moves is to be announced today - Arda Turan signs as the new Shakhtar Donetsk coach. Sporting director Darijo Srna made the decision. Here they are negotiating.

Lads, it's Tottenham.

Bochum have been relegated in an awful season. They only have 1 win in the last 11 matches. That win was 3-2 at Bayern Munchen in March. Which happens to be Bayern's only home Bundesliga defeat all season. And Bochum's first win at Bayern since 1991. Try to explain that :)

Sunday: Pippo Inzaghi is promoted to Serie A. Tuesday: Simone Inzaghi qualifies for the Champions League final. The best week for the Inzaghi family.

Today we are celebrating a decade since the Finnish league had this perfect table.

Assists for Barcelona: Lamine Yamal (2), Luka Modric. The youngest and the oldest.

Kylian Mbappe's April: 0 goals 1 red card 1 injury

Donnarumma loves penalty shoot-outs in England. And Chiesa is always there.

Bochum against Bayern - they are thrashed, or they win. Nothing in between. 21/22 Bayern v Bochum 7:0 Bochum v Bayern 4:2 22/23 Bochum v Bayern 0:7 Bayern v Bochum 3:0 23/24 Bayern v Bochum 7:0 Bochum v Bayern 3:2 24/25 Bochum v Bayern 0:5 Bayern v Bochum 2:3

That's one of the best ever, I guess. Go Ahead Eagles haven't beaten PSV Eindhoven since 1983. More than 41 years. Arie Haan, Willy van de Kerkhof and Huub Stevens played for PSV when they last lost. And now Go Ahead Eagles have won 2 games vs PSV in 3 days!!!

Stuttgart have 11 Germans in the lineup vs Bayern tonight. Quite brilliant.

Alexander Sørloth's last 4 away matches vs Barcelona: Goal and assist, 2-1 win with Real Sociedad Goal and 2 assists, 5-3 win with Villarreal Injury time winner, 2-1 win with Atletico Madrid Injury time equaliser, 4-4 with Atletico Madrid Overall: 4 goals, 3 assists, unbeaten

Every time I feel sorry for Milan I remind myself that they are managed by Zlatan, and it becomes obvious that they deserve it.

Diving in the VAR era is a sign of a low IQ. Seriously.

Corsica want to be accepted by UEFA. Really. The story for @11freunde.de www.11freunde.de/internationa...

Waldemar Anton: 0 away goals for Stuttgart in the Bundesliga during 4 seasons at Stuttgart. 1 away goal for Stuttgart after moving to Dortmund.

Ousmane Dembele scored 3 hat-tricks in his career. Once in 2016. And twice this week.

Congratulations to Slovan Bratislava who lost 8 matches with a goal difference of -20, but didn't finish last.

Giorgi Mamardashvili conceded 7 goals in a game for the second time in his career. Georgia lost 7-1 to Spain in October 2023, now Valencia lost 7-1 to Barcelona. They only player who played against him in both fixtures is Lamine Yamal.

Guys, this is insane. Magdeburg are TOP of the table in 2.Bundesliga with ZERO home wins. They the only team in the league without home wins. And they are the leaders. Statistically, the chances of that happening are zero.

The strangest table ever. Magdeburg are joint top of 2.Bundesliga, when they are the only team in the league with no home wins. They would be bottom of the league if only home matches are taken into account. However, they lead the away games table by a huge margin.

Manchester United might think that the most appropriate tribute to Denis Law is to get relegated again.

Patrick Kluivert never scored a hat trick at St James' Park. Justin Kluivert has just done that, without playing for Newcastle.

The incredible journey of Abdukodir Khusanov expained. 4 years ago he wasn't rated at Uzbek academy. 2 years ago he played for a tiny club in Belarus. Lens paid 100 thousand for him. Now he is off to Manchester City for 40 million. He is worth it. www.theguardian.com/football/202...

"Accept Corsica in UEFA"! Bastia striker Félix Tomi with a special message after scoring in the Corsican derby vs Ajaccio.

Antonin Kinsky 2022/23 - In the second division in Czechia. 2023/24 - At relegation strugglers in Czechia. Autumn 2024 - Starter for Slavia Prague. January 2025 - Keeps a clean sheet against Liverpool on his Tottenham debut. What next?!

Russia allow criminals to get pardoned if they go to their bloody war in Ukraine as cannon fodder. Tens of thousands of them had been killed, and the latest casuality is special. Aleksey Bugaev was a star at Euro 2004. For @theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/football/202...

Let football be the only religion in 2025. Happy New Year!

Bentancur thinks Tottenham lead 3-0 because Son scored and Hwang missed a penalty.

Liverpool first with 39 points and a game in hand. Manchester City with 27 points. Wolves 18th with 12 points. If Liverpool beat Everton in their postponed match, Manchester City would be equally distanced from the top and the relegation. At Christmas!

Happy birthday to Mario Basler, the greatest footballer ever.

December 14: Eyal Berkovic is appointed as "professional adviser" at second division Hapoel Raanana. December 15: Hapoel Raanana fire their coach and appoint Berkovic's brother Nir in his place. What an unexpected advice!

Interview with Shakhtar keeper Dmytro Riznyk for @11freunde.bsky.social . His son was born 10 hours before the Russian invasion started. His brother was killed at war. www.11freunde.de/internationa...

Rodrigo Bentancur has been banned from football indefinitely for saying that he doesn't care who is the president of South Korea because they all look the same.

Manchester United vs Bodo/Glimt An intriguing contest between a coach who must play 3-4-3 and a team who must play 4-3-3.

Kim has punished the Qataris' Russian keeper for their cooperation with North Korea.

Basically, even the top team in 2.Bundesliga are in midtable.

Christian Ilzer led Sturm Graz to the championship title in Austria last season, ending 10 years of Salzburg's domination. He has now joined Hoffenheim, and won 4-3 against Leipzig on his Bundesliga debut. Ilzer is the greatest conqueror of Red Bull.

Nadal retired in 2005, guys.

Would love it if Viktor Gyökeres overtakes Zlatan as Sweden's all time top scorer. Zlatan only has 62 goals in 122 games, mostly against minnows and in friendlies, which is a rather poor record. Gyökeres has 16 goals now, 10 of them in 2024. No reason why he won't make it.