Sport

Football is no longer a game for the game's sake. ROB HUGHES writes how fans can but dream of it returning to this.

The Bayern Munich star is seldom a disappointment. Has he now broken this track record?

The case of an Italian Cambridge graduate who was murdered in Egypt has attracted the attention of Amnesty International. But protests to keep Giulio Regeni’s death in the public eye were kick-started in earnest by a little-known team made up of refugees and prisoners.

One thing's for sure, he's certainly ready to try.

Future generations of women players, of all colours and creeds, owe her a great debt.

Julian Nagelsmann has been managing the team from his kitchen, but Bayern Munich's spirits won't be dimmed.

From the Olympic field to Parisian concert calls, Micheline Ostermeyer never failed to provide that special something

It doesn't matter your intent, the sport will take your money anyway, argues ROB HUGHES

PETER TRUDGILL on the cricketer Michael Holding and Jamaican Patwa

Sporting talent can run in the family. Just take it from the Maldinis who have dominated football for generations...

Real Madrid remains focal to European football. Florentino Pérez, Real Madrid president, is both responsible for this and has hindered it

Like Emma Raducanu, Jamal Musiala has become the new Wunderkind of his sport, writes ROB HUGHES

Great Britain performed a reverse Brexit when they joined up with Europe to be competitive against the USA in golf’s biennial team event. But for a while, it seemed even that would not work and the Ryder Cup was doomed, writes RICHARD LUCK

Arsène Wenger has proposed the idea of having a World Cup every two years. ROB HUGHES asks if this his own voice speaking, or that of his paymasters at FIFA HQ

He spoke no English, and had never seen an American Football before but Toni Fritsch was a natural, and he went on to change the game forever.

Italy is not only in it's financial conundrum. The summer transfer window shows the unequal distribution of wealth in global football, writes ROB HUGHES

If Bryan Robson is right, the value of Cristiano Ronaldo’s return to Manchester United could extend beyond the pitch, writes Rob Hughes

Gerd Müller, who died earlier this month, was not only a Bayern Munich icon but a man who gave Germans their pride again. So when he fell, club and country helped pick him up By ROB HUGHES

The Argentine's departure from the Catalan club has been the saga of the summer. But as this exclusive extract from a new book by SIMON KUPER shows, the footballing and financial relationship had been dysfunctional for several seasons

Lionel Messi’s signing for PSG completes a glittering attacking line-up, but an ageing one, says TNE football writer ROB HUGHES

A tale of two Jurgens and the power of German coaching

Images of Ian Botham with his bat aloft and the pageantry of the Royal Wedding have created a popular memory of 1981 as a summer of national pride for Britain. But the reality was quite different

As he approaches 70, the veteran coach is ready to make the orange brilliant again

Boris Johnson’s role in wrecking the Rugby League World Cup might rank low in his long list of offences, but should not be overlooked.

Rob Hughes asks how long Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi will stay at the top before they finally retire from football Some day, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo will cease being the most extraordinarily gifted among more than 250 million men and women playing football around the world. Their body clocks are ticking. They face […]

A 13-year-old skateboarder, a German policewoman, an Afghani woman cyclist attacked for daring to ride her bicycle... some of the most absorbing European stories at this Olympic Games.

Instead of watching England in the Euros, WILL SELF went walking around London… and noticed something interesting about his fellow football sceptics Errol over the park coaches local lads in football – most of them black British. He’s pretty successful, and has placed at least 20 over the past decade or so as juniors with […]

ROB HUGHES examines England’s near-miss at the Euros and finds that for all their advantages, a change of mindset is necessary at the top So near, and yet so far. England released itself from the European Union, but remain far from the world-beaters some fans imagine it is their birthright to be as the motherland of […]

England's footballers have brought joy to the nation. Nonetheless, ROB HUGHES explains how our opponents still have much to teach us

Sometimes brooding, sometimes brilliant, sometimes bludgeoning, Roberto Mancini’s remoulded Italy face a Euros date with destiny against Belgium European football is never complete without Italy. Sometimes brooding, sometimes brilliant, sometimes bludgeoning, Roberto Mancini’s remoulded Azzurri will on Friday aim to make Roberto Martinez’s Golden Generation of Belgium suffer and perhaps be suffocated in Munich. The […]

With over 84% of Japan still waiting for their first jab, why are the Olympic Games being held there? Is the sporting world, and compliant politicians, playing fast and loose with the pandemic? The European football tournament across 11 countries, the Copa América in Brazil, the fast-approaching Tokyo Olympics, might all be seen as brave defiance […]

The medical protocols that helped saved Denmark’s Christian Eriksen are partly down to the work of one man, football doctor Michel d’Hooghe It was a Swedish writer, Erik Niva, who observed last Saturday: “Denmark lost but life won”. He reported on the collapse, the apparent death, and then the resuscitation that saved the Danish playmaker […]