Before Arsenal’s Ethan Nwaneri it was Fulham’s Harvey Elliott, and before Elliott it was Fulham’s Matthew Briggs. For 12 years Briggs held the mantle of youngest Premier League debutant, feeling both the joy of the accomplishment but also its considerable weight.
“I’m proud to have had that title and I wouldn’t take it back for the world,” says the 31-year-old. “But there is a part of me that wishes I’d just progressed slowly up the ranks.”
Arsenal’s Ethan Nwaneri becomes youngest Premier League player at 15Read more
Briggs was aged 16 years and 65 days when he replaced Moritz Volz in Fulham’s 3-1 defeat at Middlesbrough in the final game of the 2006-07 season. On the Saturday he had trained w…
Alessandro Del Piero made the cut on Tuesday as Italy coach Roberto Donadoni trimmed his Euro 2008 list of possibles down to 24 though he has to drop one name by May 28.
Veteran attacker Del Piero has been regularly overlooked by the world champions recently, but scored twice at the weekend for Juventus to give him a Serie A best goal tally for the season of 21.
Italy have six forwards in the 24 but Del Piero is easily the most experienced with his 85 caps, although Bayern Munich hitman Luca Toni is nowadays top dog.
Marco Borriello of Genoa has won just two caps, Sampdoria s Antonio Cassano just 10 and Udinese s Fabio Quagliarella only eight.
Antonio Di Natale of Udinese has won 17.
There are no reserves, insisted Donadoni. There are 24 pla…
Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are the two top players in the world but 2018 belongs to Luka Modric, according to Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic.
Modric collected the FIFA Best Men s Player award this week to follow the Golden Ball he claimed at the World Cup for his inspirational performances in Croatia s run to the final.
The Real Madrid midfielder pipped Ronaldo and Liverpool star Mohamed Salah to the Best award and is tipped to be a contender for the 2018 Ballon d Or.
Messi and Ronaldo have dominated the honour in recent history, winning the last 10 between them, but Dalic suggested Modric could be the man to break their duopoly.
He totally deserved it (the FIFA Best award). He was the best player at the Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi, and then he won …
Having finally eclipsed rivals Chelsea at the top of the table, Manchester United will be looking to continue their fine run of form with another victory this weekend, but Fyulham manager Roy Hodgson will have different ideas as he continues to produce superb results on a hsoestring.
Manchester United Looked a bit short at the beginning of the season, but as usual their form over the christmas period and beyond has been superb. Wayne Rooney s form has been magnificent this season and he is well on his way to being the Premierleague s top scorer by the end of the season. Having already started 43 games this season he is obviously having to tailor his training regime to suit such a busy season but he shows no signs of flagging yet, having scored two goals in each of his side s ma…
Tottenham captain Son Heung-min has voiced his concerns about the increased workload on players, saying his fellow professionals are not robots .
Son has become the latest player, after Manchester City pair Manuel Akanji and Rodri and Liverpool s Allison, to urge decision-makers to implement changes.
Rodri, who suffered a knee ligament injury in City s draw with Arsenal last weekend, even suggested that players could resort to striking against the hectic schedule.
Last season, only Guglielmo Vicario (38), Dejan Kulusevski and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg (both 36) played more games for Spurs in the Premier League than Son (35 level with Pedro Porro).
Furthermore, since 2009-2010, only Hugo Lloris (361) and Harry Kane (317) have made more appearances for Spurs…
Napoli have firmly denied they rejected the chance to sign talented Salzburg striker Erling Haaland for a modest €5million in 2018.
In an interview published in Italian newspaper Il Mattino, footballer turned scout Loris Boni claimed the Norwegian teenager was offered to Napoli and Juventus before his move to Austria was agreed in August of last year.
Former Molde youngster Haaland arrived at Salzburg in January and has been starring for his new side, with 20 goals in all competitions to his name this season.
Napoli witnessed his ability in the Champions League on Wednesday, the 19-year-old netting twice against them in a 3-2 defeat for Salzburg, but the Serie A side insist they did not previously pass on him.
We have read that Il Mattino has interview…
Chelsea won the Champions League for the first time in their history on this day in 2012.
The west London club, who were beaten in the 2008 final by Manchester United, made it second time lucky as they got the better of Bayern Munich on penalties after the game ended 1-1 after extra time.
The tie was played at Bayern’s Allianz Arena and it looked like the German side would capitalise on home advantage after Thomas Muller’s 83rd-minute goal put them on the brink of glory.
But, under the stewardship of Roberto Di Matteo, the Blues hit back five minutes later as Didier Drogba headed Juan Mata’s corner past Manuel Neuer.
Bayern squandered a big chance to regain the advantage just five minutes into extra time when former Blues winger Arjen Robben saw his…
The Cleveland Browns visit the Cincinnati Bengals for an AFC North showdown that had a lot more of a shine to it this time a week ago.
The Bengals are a half-game out of first place in the division but are coming off a shocking collapse to one of the NFL’s worst teams, although NFL betting lines still have the kitties as 2.5-point home chalk against a Browns team that fell flat on its face last week and is at the bottom of the divisional standings.
Here are our best free NFL picks and predictions for Browns vs. Bengals on Sunday, November 7.
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The first NFL Sunday of the season comes to a close when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers visit the Dallas Cowboys under the prime-time lights.
The Bucs have had a bumpy summer, with the in-and-out status of Tom Brady and a slew of injuries to the crew tasked with keeping the veteran QB clean. On top of those ailments to the O-line, receiver Chris Godwin is a game-time decision for the season opener.
In the same vein, Dallas also lost bodies on the offensive line this summer and the Cowboys are thin at wide receiver, leaving this offense to lean heavily on the run game against one of the best run-stopping units in the land.
It all makes for a tough game to tackle on Sunday Night Football. I break down the point spread, Over/Under total, and give my best N…
Welcome to the Week 1 NFL Trends Report! This will be a weekly article where I provide you with my favorite trend for every single game that week.
In most cases, these will be playable trends that make sense to apply to your handicap. So, none of this silly “team X has covered in 75% of its non-divisional road games in October when playing at a stadium that has a retractable roof” crap. Trends like that with multiple qualifiers are almost always coincidental and anyone who sees value in them is not a serious person.
Instead, I’ll mainly provide trends that can be backed with stats that the NFL odds market hasn’t shown an overwhelming reaction to. For full transparency, we won’t always have a lights-out trend to consider back…