FC Barcelona are set to enter into 2026 with the league position that Hansi Flick would have hoped for at the beginning of the season. Top of La Liga, 46 points from 18 games and a four-point cushion over Real Madrid make for good reading. The numbers are loud: 51 goals scored already, but the feeling is even louder. This is a team that plays with incisive attacking power, sometimes, even at the cost of defensive solidity.
The best goalkeepers in the world used to be easy to sort but the position has evolved so much in the last decade or so. Once the madmen and mavericks of your club, the position has become sanitised in the modern game: goalkeepers are no longer quite so different to outfielders, since they have to build from the back and rush out to help a high line like a traditional sweeper used to decades ago. It makes lists like these difficult
For us goalkeepers, it means being more alert throughout the entire match. It's a risky strategy, we have to acknowledge that. But if it's done well and you work hard, it pays off. You force the opposition to play and think faster. If they play with less space, you force them to make more mistakes, and your team has more possession. But you have to train it well because it all comes down to centimeters,
It was a huge upset, right? Right? Whether you find it maddening or irresistible, MLS's fine margins remain a key part of the league. Even against the best of the best, like last year's Miami team that set a single-season points record, struggling teams still have a chance to win thanks to closely controlled roster rules designed to maintain parity.
England felt like such a safe space for me. It was usual to have a team review after a big tournament and after the Euros in 2022 we came together in the Club England meeting room at St George's Park, the team's headquarters. The emotional security that I felt within England was bolstered by the culture and values that had underpinned and contributed to our success.
Until he was 19 years old, Maik Taylor had never played a game in goal. Until he was 24, he had not been a professional footballer, but a lance corporal in the British Army. Until he was 27, when he appeared for their under-21 side as an overage player, he had never even set foot in Northern Ireland. Yet, when all was said and done, with assistance from the likes of Ray Clemence, Graeme Souness
But 11-year-old Ena didn't want to listen. When the goalkeeper at her youth club Duisburg couldn't play, she made the surprising announcement that she wanted to step in as cover. "I think I saved almost everything, including the decisive penalty," she recalls. Her coach then knew she had a new goalkeeper, and her dad probably groaned, but his objections had to take a back seat.
The 2025 Yashin Trophy has been awarded to Gianluigi Donnarumma. The Italian is in the running for the Ballon d'Or vote in his own right but following a stunning Treble-winning campaign with Paris Saint-Germain, he has been awarded with the Yashin Trophy, which is given to the best goalkeeper in the world. Donnarumma capped off his summer with a move to Manchester City, yesterday starring for the Sky Blues with a dominant performance in goal in a 1-1 draw with Arsenal.
Two matches are behind us and forgotten. The focus is entirely on the next game; there are no excuses. We need to play a great, serious match. If we play at 100% and we impose ourselves, we can win. If we drop to 90%, we struggle. We need an extraordinary performance to achieve what we want, with no excuses.
Manchester United's slow start to the season has increased the pressure on head coach Ruben Amorim, who has won only 25.8% of his Premier League games in charge. The Reds have just two victories from their past 13 top-flight matches and produced another lacklustre display in Sunday's 3-0 loss to neighbours Manchester City. Despite the growing external unease around Amorim, not helped by the derby defeat, senior officials remain fully supportive of the Portuguese. And club sources insist that on most statistics United are performing better than last season despite sitting in 14th place, after their poorest start to a league campaign since 1992-93 with four points from the opening four games.
