Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2023 i World Soccer

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1 UEFA titles won by AZ Alkmaar, after the Dutch club’s Under-19s lifted the Youth League, thrashing Hajduk Split 5-0 in the final. 15 Serie A points restored to Juventus after their deduction for allegations of false accounting was reversed. Their case will now return to the Italian Football Federation appeals court. 3 Premier League Player of the Month awards won by Marcus Rashford this season, matching Mohamed Salah’s record for a single campaign. $355m Value of payments that clubs will receive from FIFA in exchange for releasing their players for the next two World Cups, an increase of almost 70 per cent on Qatar 2022. 2 Managers that are now in the Premier League Hall of Fame following the inductions of Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger. 178 Number…

On the face of it, applying any logic that has applied in the first 160 years of football’s existence, there is something absurd about Julian Nagelsmann being sacked by Bayern Munich having lost just three of 36 games this season. He won the league last season and had won eight out of eight in the Champions League this season – a run that includes pairs of wins over Inter, Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain. Nagelsmann and various players spoke of their “shock” at the club’s decision. And that’s reasonable enough. This was not, in any sense, a normal sacking. But then the Bundesliga is no longer a normal league. Nagelsmann had just seen Bayern slip into second, behind Borussia Dortmund, after a defeat to Bayer Leverkusen. When your revenue is 83…

“You have to work with what you have. You wouldn’t say as a five-year-old at Christmas you want a Ferrari…there are moments when you have to accept it’s not possible”Jurgen Klopp discusses Jude Bellingham after reports emerged Liverpool would not pursue a move for the England midfielder Evan FERGUSON (Brighton & Hove Albion) Ferguson has been on the radar of Irish fans ever since he played his first senior game for Bohemians in a friendly against Chelsea at the age of 14, helping to set up a goal with a neat stepover. He signed for Brighton in January 2021 and, after racking up the goals in academy football, has been a key addition to the Seagulls’ attack this season. Still only 18 years of age, his maturity and development are…

Agoal against England on his international debut. Another goal in his second outing against Malta. Two goals in his first two international appearances in March for Italy catapulted 23-year-old Mateo Retegui into the limelight. “We were looking for a goalscorer,” said Roberto Mancini, “and we have found one.” The Azzurri coach went even further in his praise. “He reminds me of [Gabriel] Batistuta when he first came to Italy.” Retegui may be a classic number nine like “Batigol”, which is exactly the type of player that Italy have been struggling to find, yet Mancini’s decision to call up the striker was a gamble and something straight out of left field. “My dad called me after training to tell me he had important news. I never imagined it would be a…

Nigeria’s wealth of options in attack is well documented. As well as Victor Osimhen of Napoli, who continues to evolve into one of the world’s premier strikers (more on him on page 44), they have Kelechi Iheanacho and Emmanuel Dennis playing in the Premier League, Ademola Lookman scoring goals for Atalanta, and Samuel Chukwueze lighting up the wing for Villarreal. Now though, there is another young attacking starlet ready to join them: Gift Orban. Since joining Gent from Norwegian side Stabaek in January, the 20-year-old has been a total revelation, scoring 14 goals in his first14 games in all competitions, particularly catching the eye in the Europa Conference League. In the last-16 win over Istanbul Basaksehir he scored four times across the two legs, including hitting the fastest hat-trick ever…

For many years, FC Basel dominated Swiss football, looking down on their rivals from the top of the mountainous country’s summit. Since 2003, they have won the Swiss Super League 11 times, including eight in a row between 2010 and 2017. With more wins came more prize money, particularly from competing in the Champions League, and as their finances grew ever greater so did their dominance. Between 2009 and 2018, Basel made it into the group stage of the Champions League seven times, advancing to the last 16 on three occasions, alongside a run to the Europa League semi-finals in 2013 and the quarter-finals in 2014 and 2020. Regular European football – and facing the continent’s biggest teams – brought more money, more attention and made the club attractive to…

“You could see the determination in him right away. At that particular time you’re just looking for intelligence, for decision-making with and without the ball. I think these are the key things that I was mostly emphasising and looking for, and Victor had them. Most importantly, he was coachable, and he was hungry. “We looked at Victor as a striker and how we could improve his positioning, his running, his realisation that there are times you only need to touch the ball once, his decision-making in pressing situations. We had to work on all that, and thankfully he was able to adapt and demonstrate at the World Cup the quality in him. “As you watched him at that World Cup, you quickly discovered something about him. As a striker, it…

In June you have the chance to seal qualification when you take on Angola in your penultimate AFCON 2023 qualifier. Can you do it? It won’t be easy because we play Angola, who must win the game if they are to have any chance, and they are a good team. They have more experience than us because our team is very young. But Angola are under pressure because they know if they draw or lose, it will be tough for them. They have to fight to win this game. And for us, we are going to do all we can to qualify. It’s a big chance for us to qualify for the first time and write some history. You have to play the match in Douala, Cameroon because the Central…

Panama and Canada will make their debuts in the finals of the CONCACAF Nations League in June after impressively topping their respective groups in League A. A1-0 win away to 2021 semi-finalists Costa Rica, courtesy of a goal from Jose Fajardo, helped Thomas Christiansen’s Panama qualify with three wins out of four in Group B. Group C also went to the final game but Canada were more decisive in dismissing their closest challengers Honduras, with a brace from Real Valladolid’s Cyle Larin securing a 4-1 win and denying the Central Americans a second successive finals appearance. Panama and Canada will face each other in the semi-finals on June 15 at the Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada, which also hosted the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup final. The sponsor, unsurprisingly, given the…

For once, a season in Lebanon was approaching the finish line with the focus on the football. Empty stadiums, crowd violence and financial issues have all come to dominate the football headlines, particularly since the pandemic, but this season it seemed that the 12-team top flight was in for a normal end to the campaign. But it was not to be. Al Ansar and Al Ahed met on the last day of the season with both having a chance of lifting the trophy at the end of the 90 minutes. However the title decider never finished and, once again, the headlines at the end of the season were negative. Going into the game, Al Ansar needed a win to become champions for a record 15th time while Ahed needed just…

“Playmaker who arrived in Colombia with a reputation and more than lived up to it. Runs with the fluidity of the truly gifted and shows flashes of class with his left foot.” That’s how Tim Vickery described a 17-year-old Lionel Messi in World Soccer’s March 2005 edition covering the South American Under-20 Championship. Then in December 2015, reviewing Nigeria’s Under-17 World Cup triumph, Oluwashina Okeleji wrote: “The biggest star in Chile was Golden Boot and Silver Ball winner Victor Osimhen. His ten goals eclipsed the previous best mark of nine.” Football’s youth championships, be it at world or confederational level, have always helped unearth generational talents, and many aspirational youngsters will be hoping to stake their claim as the next big thing at this year’s Under-20 World Cup. Tim Vickery…

Sisyphus, in Greek mythology, was condemned by the gods to push a boulder up a hill and then repeat the task eternally after it always tumbled back down just as he was about to reach the top. In football terms for Sisyphus read FIFPro. The world players’ association has been railing for much of the last three decades about the inequitable burden on its members. These range from the indignity of being treated like cattle in the transfer market to, most important, the health-battering ever-escalating pressure of fixtures. FIFPro has long called for better management of player workload by clubs, leagues and governing bodies to ensure the health and well-being of players. Every time the issue of fixture congestion has been raised, the custom for FIFA presidents has been to…

MARCH 2023 SEASON RANKINGS Cumulative votes through the season GOALKEEPERS Marc-Andre ter Stegen (Barcelona) 14 Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid) 13 Emiliano Martinez (Aston Villa) 7 Wojciech Szczesny (Juventus) 6 David de Gea (Manchester United) 5 Alex Meret (Napoli) 5 Mike Maignan (Milan) 4 Yann Sommer (Bayern Munich) 4 Alisson (Liverpool) 3 Gianluigi Donnarumma (PSG) 3 Gregor Kobel (Borussia Dortmund) 3 Kepa Arrizabalaga (Chelsea) 2 Diogo Costa (Porto) 2 Ederson (Manchester City) 2 Nick Pope (Newcastle United) 2 Aaron Ramsdale (Arsenal) 2 Rafal Gikiewicz (Augsburg) 1 Bernd Leno (Fulham) 1 Simon Mignolet (Club Brugge) 1 Juan Musso (Atalanta) 1 Andre Onana (Internazionale) 1 Rui Patricio (Roma) 1 Frederik Ronnow (Union Berlin) 1 Geronimo Rulli (Ajax) 1 Brice Samba (Lens) 1 Kevin Trapp (Eintracht Frankfurt) 1 Robin Zentner (Mainz) 1 DEFENDERS Kim…

Three years younger than club captain Dante, OGC Nice interim coach Didier Digard is one of France’s more unexpected managerial success stories. So minimal is Digard’s experience that, until recently and in circumstances similar to Reims boss Will Still, his lack of French football’s BEPF coaching diploma meant the Riviera club were fined €25,000 for every game he oversaw. However, since Digard’s January arrival, Nice have progressed from cup humiliation by third-tier Le Puy and fretting over the four-team relegation zone to vibrant European hopefuls. As a result, despite the price tag, Nice quickly extended Digard’s stay to at least the end of the season, impressed by an opening run of 14 games unbeaten which produced away victories over podium-chasing Lens, Marseille and Monaco. The former Middlesbrough midfielder has amped…

Hungary is often the location for big Hollywood movies. Dune, Blade Runner and The Martian were all filmed in studios around the country. But at the moment, it’s a football pitch in Kecskemet, a city some 50 miles south of Budapest, where a Hollywood script is being written. Back in 2015, when the Hungarian Football Association (MLSZ) expelled Kecskemeti TE from the top flight due to financial reasons and demoted them to the third tier, few would have envisaged that just eight years later the club would be a few games away from qualifying for European football thanks to a dramatic rebirth. In those dark times, Kecskemeti went into liquidation and essentially ceased to exist. The team’s future was on a perilous precipice. A team who only four years prior…

New York is a city where sport never sleeps. Awaiting the hockey or basketball results from a late night in Madison Square Garden in the heart of Manhattan or Barclays Centre in Brooklyn, local papers prepare the next day’s first editions’ back pages. These are read bleary-eyed before a baseball matinee at Yankee Stadium (NY Yankees) in the Bronx or Citi Field (NY Mets) in Queens begins the process again. The clamour for sporting narrative only increases during the NFL season as the Jets and Giants take to the field across the Hudson River in New Jersey. It’s a sporting melting pot of a city where success is demanded but in recent years rarely achieved. It’s a city that boasts two teams in each of the four major American leagues…

IRAN Mehdi Taremi If Asia’s top striker participates in the tournament, it will instantly give the competition credibility. TURKMENISTAN Arslanmyrat Amanow The winger has experience in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and scores and creates most of Turkmenistan’s goals. TAJIKISTAN Manuchekhr Dzhalilov Striker who has also played in Russia and Indonesia. AFGHANISTAN Ovays Azizi The keeper has played most of his career in Scandinavia and has been a consistent presence for his country. KYRGYZSTAN Tamirlan Kozubayev The cultured and much-travelled centre-back plays his club football in Hong Kong for top-tier outfit Eastern. UZBEKISTAN Eldor Shomurodov The big forward left Italian side Genoa for Roma in 2021 and is still in Serie A on loan at struggling Spezia.…

NAPOLI’S RECORD SIGNINGS €75m VICTOR OSIMHEN 2020 (from Lille) €45m HIRVING LOZANO 2019 (from PSV) €39m GONZALO HIGUAIN 2013 (from Real Madrid) CAF YOUTH PLAYER OF THE YEAR AWARD WINNERS 2019 ACHRAF HAKIMI (Morocco) 2018 ACHRAF HAKIMI (Morocco) 2017 PATSON DAKA (Zambia) 2016 ALEX IWOBI (Nigeria) 2015 VICTOR OSIMHEN (Nigeria) NIGERIA 25 CAPS GOALS 15 NAPOLI’S TOP SCORERS (Correct as of April 28) SERIE A AFRICAN GOAL RECORD 21 Osimhen is only the second African player to score 21 Serie A goals in one season, after Samuel Eto’o in 2010-11…

1 Giuseppe AMBROSINO (ITALY) Through instinct and execution, the young Neapolitan striker is a first-rate converter of chances. On Napoli’s books but on loan this campaign at Serie B outfits Como and Cittadella, he has an excellent record as a finisher: the leading goalscorer in the domestic youth championship last season (19) and regularly on the scoresheet for Italy in this season’s Under-20 Elite League. All the right people rate him. From Azzurri Under-20 boss Carmine Nunziata to Napoli first-team coach Luciano Spalletti, who selected him for bench duty in Serie A and the Europa League last season. Part of Italy’s squad at last summer’s Under-19 European Championship, the 19-year-old striker scored and helped guide Nunziata’s side to the semi-finals – where they went on to lose to winners England…

You began life in Zambia with two victories against Lesotho in the AFCON 2023 qualifiers. How pleased were you with that start? I had watched many of the games that the Zambia national team had played before, so I knew the weaknesses and strengths. But I had a very short time to prepare them. I had monitored players in Europe and in the league here, in which time I saw a lot of games. And then I needed to make the selection. We had some targets about how to improve our game but a very short time to do so. That is actually something that Africa needs to think about. They lose days at the start of the international break while the majority of the players are travelling from Europe,…

World Soccer’s July 2023 edition provides you with the ultimate guide to the 2023 CONCACAF Gold Cup. With must-read previews of the prelims and main tournament, plus the stars to watch, you won’t miss a beat. We also preview the UEFA Nations League finals, have the latest from the Euro 2024 qualifiers, review the Asian Champions League final and take a closer look at the XIX Island Games in Guernsey. Plus, don’t miss dispatches from Luxembourg and Uruguay, talent scouting at the U21 and U19 Euros, and all of our regular features such as World Service, Headliners, Face to Face and EyeWitness. Print £5.99 Digital £3.99 ORDER NOW shop.kelsey.co.uk/WSC23 Or Call: 01959 543 747 You may have missed… February 2023 March 2023 April 2023 May 2023 SAVE 10% when you…

Morocco did not even need to kick a ball to become the first team to join hosts Ivory Coast in the field for next year’s Africa Cup of Nations finals, followed quickly by neighbours Algeria, then Burkina Faso, South Africa, Tunisia and defending champions Senegal. Perennial contenders Egypt, Mali, Guinea and Ghana sit on the brink of qualification while 2012 champions Zambia are set to return to the finals after missing out on the past three editions. But there were major scares for giants Cameroon and Nigeria, who will have to wait until the penultimate round of matches in June to secure their places at the 24-team finals. Nigeria, a side brimming with exciting young attacking talent, were handed a 1-0 defeat at home to tiny Guinea-Bissau in a shock…

Helping players on small Caribbean islands make a living from football is a perennial problem holding back the game’s development in the region, but Saint Lucia is on the verge of a breakthrough. The Saint Lucia Football Association (SLFA) is developing plans for a new league and offering to put in $500,000 a season, which they want the island’s government to match. The long-term plan is for two divisions – one of ten teams and a second tier of nine clubs – drawn from the SLFA’s district associations. If an agreement can be reached, a debut season could start between August and November this year and run for eight to nine months. “One of the challenges for football in a lot of the Caribbean islands is that [when] kids get…

EURO 2024 QUALIFIERS Group A Mar 28 – Batumi Georgia 1 (Mikautadze 60) Norway 1 (Sorloth15) Georgia: Mamardashvili – Kakabadze, Kvirkvelia, Kashia, Tabidze (Zivzivadze 59), Azarov (Gocholeishvili 70); Davitashvili (Lobzhanidze 59), Kvekveskiri, Aburjania (Gagnidze 90); Mikautadze (Beridze 90), Kvaratskhelia. Norway: Nyland – Pedersen (Ryerson 90+5), Strandberg, Ostigard, Meling; Odegaard, Berg (Thorstvedt 90+5), Aursnes; Solbakken (Brynhildsen 82), Sorloth, Elyounoussi (Berge 77). Mar 28 – Glasgow Scotland 2 (McTominay 7, 51) Spain 0 Scotland: Gunn – Porteous, Hanley, Tierney (Cooper 75); Hickey (Patterson 82), McTominay, McGregor, Robertson; McGinn (Ferguson 83), Dykes (Shankland 90), Christie (McLean 75). Spain: Kepa – Porro (Carvajal 46), D. Garcia, Martinez, Gaya; Merino (Aspas 57), Rodri, Ceballos (Gavi 79); Yeremy, Joselu (Iglesias 66), Oyarzabal (Williams 46). Current standings Group B Mar 27 – Rotterdam Netherlands 3 (Depay 23,…

Real Madrid1 Ajax 4 2018-19 Champions League round of 16, Bernabeu, Madrid On a magical Champions League night in Madrid in March 2019, Ajax tore defending champions Real Madrid apart. With two assists and a goal, the star of the show was Dusan Tadic, playing in his first-ever Champions League knockout tie just months after leaving Southampton for the Dutch giants… We went to Madrid after a 2-1 defeat in the first leg at home, but we had the feeling that nothing was decided yet. Whoever watched the first game could see that we were the better side and that we deserved more; at least a draw. One thing was really puzzling in that game. It was when Sergio Ramos, late in the game, obviously deliberately picked up a yellow…

“Justice has been done and this sends out a great message to the whole world of sport and beyond. This has shown that the desire is there to fight racism”Romelu Lukaku on having his one-match ban overturned by the Italian Football Federation in a bid to fight racism ENGLAND No more gambling sponsorship on front of Premier League shirts Premier League clubs have agreed to end gambling sponsorship on the front of their shirts by the end of the 2025-26 campaign. Currently, eight of England’s top-flight sides have betting companies on the front of their matchday shirts. Opponents of gambling advertising welcomed the move, but argued that more needs to be done. Clubs will still be able to pursue sponsorship between now and the deadline, while the ban has no…

DIVIDED CITIES By Kevin Pogorzelski (Pitch Publishing, £14.99) Rivalry is everywhere in football, from battles on the pitch to boardroom politics, regional quarrels and fights for silverware. These conflicts spark countless debates over the “biggest” and “best” fixtures on the globe, but derbies involving teams from the same city are especially intense, both on and off the pitch. Divided Cities is a game-by-game account of the good, bad, but always eventful experiences of journeying to 11 of the world’s most prominent same-city derbies. A NATION AGAIN By Andy Bargh (Pitch Publishing, £18.99) A Nation Again is the absorbing, revealing tale of the Scotland men’s team’s return to a major tournament after more than 20 years in the wilderness. Ten major tournaments had come and gone since France ’98, but the birth…

“The football calendar is getting fuller and busier. If I’m honest with myself, I have to come to the conclusion that this is having more and more impact”Netherlands striker Vincent Janssen explains his decision to retire from international football “I spoke to Antoine because he was disappointed and frankly it is understandable…I told him that as long as I am captain and he is vice-captain, I won’t be superior to him”Kylian Mbappe responds to reports that Antoine Griezmann was disappointed not to be appointed France captain PEOPLE ON THE MOVE IN EUROPE In the Premier League, FRANK LAMPARD was appointed Chelsea’s caretaker manager after Graham Potter was fired, while Leicester City named DEAN SMITH as their new boss following the departure of Brendan Rodgers. In the Championship, Watford hired CHRIS…

Maybe too much was expected of Bayern Munich’s end-of-term fireman Thomas Tuchel, who was recently parachuted in following the surprise sacking of previous incumbent Julian Nagelsmann. Tuchel, one of the best tacticians in world football, had more than enough acumen to help mastermind a 4-2 Bundesliga victory over arch-rivals Dortmund in his first game in charge, a win that many saw as the first step in a new dawn of triumph at the Allianz Arena. So what a shock it was to see Tuchel’s Bayern subsequently implode, dumped out of the German Cup at the quarter-final stage by Freiburg, then succumbing to a 4-1 aggregate defeat to Manchester City in the Champions League last eight. In ditching Nagelsmann in favour of Tuchel, the Bayern boardroom had clearly been banking on…

There was so much to talk about that it’s difficult to know where to start. The Dutch Cup semi-finals made more than enough headlines and most of them for the wrong reasons: the hostility between arch-rivals Feyenoord and Ajax, who met at De Kuip, culminating in Davy Klaassen being struck on the head by an object thrown from the stands, or the homophobic chants aimed at PSV’s Xavi Simons. It all provoked another social discussion about how to tackle these issues in Dutch football. Again. With so many shadows cast over the competition it would be easy to forget that there was also something to smile about. A remarkable fairy tale from an amateur club reaching the semi-finals that gave Dutch giants PSV a run for their money and almost…

Scoring five goals in your first two starts as an international striker is guaranteed to win you instant attention – anywhere, anytime. When your country ignored you for the World Cup a few months earlier and then flopped badly in the tournament, and when you are a Scandinavian who resembles nobody so much as the new superstar of football Erling Haaland, the spotlight will be intense. Rasmus Hojlund had only just turned 20 years old when he hit a hat-trick for Denmark in their opening Euro 2024 qualifier in March and then two more in the next match. So, where did he come from? The proper answer to that question indicates why comparisons with Haaland, and any temptation to crown the young Dane as a new prince of strikers, should…

HOBOKEN Founded: 1912 2022-23: EPSL SC EINTRACHT Founded: 1933 2022-23: Division 2 East NY GREEK AMERICAN Founded: 1946 2022-23: EPSL NY UKRAINIANS Founded: 1947 2022-23: Division 2 East NY SHAMROCK SC Founded: 1960 2022-23: Division 1 NY PANCYPRIAN-FREEDOMS Founded: 1975 2022-23: EPSL FC JAPAN Founded: 1992 2022-23: Division 2 West LANSDOWNE YONKERS Founded: 1997 2022-23: EPSL ZUM SCHNEIDER FC Founded: 2003 2022-23: EPSL WILLIAMSBURG INTERNATIONAL Founded: 2011 2022-23: Division 2 East RICHMOND COUNTY Founded: 2016 2022-23: Division 1 NY INTERNATIONAL Founded: 2019 2022-23: Division 2 East…

Ismael GHARBI Paris Saint-Germain In a sentence Pocket-sized PSG playmaker with the capacity for imaginative assists and ruthless finishing, notching six UEFA Youth League goals this term. What they say “He’s a youngster with a strong personality. He displays this strength of character on the pitch. He’s a leader who loves a challenge.”Said Aigoun, ex-PSG academy coach “His most important quality is that when he’s on the ball in the opposition penalty area, time seems to stop for him.”Mathieu Bodmer, ex-PSG midfielder and now Le Havre’s sporting director The story so far Something of a citizen of the world, Gharbi was born and raised in Paris by a Tunisian father and a Spanish mother. He cut his footballing teeth in the infant ranks of Paris FC prior to joining PSG’s…

As a new event, the Women’s Finalissima will take time to establish itself. But the inaugural version, like the rebranded men’s edition in 2022, benefited from a spectacular start. Last June, Lionel Messi inspired Copa America champions Argentina to a 3-0 victory over European titleholders Italy in front of 87,112 at Wembley. This year England levelled the score for Europe, the Euro 2022 winners beating Copa America Femenina champions Brazil on penalties. Wembley was again the stage with 83,132 braving a chilly night. Argentina’s men, of course, went on to lift the World Cup, a feat England hope to emulate this summer. However, in a proverbial match of two halves questions were raised against this aspiration. Those doubts deepened a few days later when England suffered their first defeat in…

Brazil’s state championships – one for each of the 27 states that make up the giant country – are a controversial part of the footballing calendar. Many see them as hopelessly out-dated, cluttering up the fixture list with a procession of largely meaningless matches between clubs who do not belong in the same category. Played in the first few months of the year, whatever the limitations of the preamble they do typically come to a gripping conclusion between well-matched historical rivals. This year, though, in the heartlands at least, a sequence of surprises meant that there were few big clashes in the two-legged finals. The obvious exception is Rio de Janeiro, where for the fourth consecutive year Flamengo and Fluminense duelled for the title, and for the second season in…

Mexico v USA The semi-finals of this year’s CONCACAF Champions League – Tigres UANL v Leon and Philadelphia Union v LAFC – took place after this issue went to print, but it means that the final will be a showdown between Major League Soccer and LigaMX. Last year, Seattle Sounders ended Mexico’s 16-year domination of the competition after defeating Pumas UNAM in the final – will normal service be resumed when the two-legged final takes place on May 31 and June 4? Elsewhere, the African Champions League final (also a two-legged affair) takes place on June 4 and 11, although the quarter-finals were not finished at the time of writing. Under-17 championships Hungary will host this year’s UEFA Euro Under-17 Championship, where France will attempt to defend their title after…