Sep 8, 2026
Mourinho won a treble at the Bernabeu with Inter, and Chivu was his left-back that night
Sixteen years after the 2010 final, the two men are back at the same ground on opposite benches. Real Madrid host Inter at 12.30am IST on Wednesday.
Football Features
Latest features articles covering football.
Sep 7, 2026
Sabah were founded in 2017, and on Thursday they play Manchester United in the Champions League
Matchday 1 runs across three nights from Tuesday, six games a night, and four clubs are about to play the first Champions League match in their histor...
Sep 6, 2026
Senegal national football team: the full squad and key players, from three centurions to four under-21s
Patrick Vieira inherits a squad that took an unusually high number of under-21s to the World Cup, and is still appealing to CAS for the Africa Cup of...
Sep 5, 2026
Netherlands national football team: the full squad and key players Xavi has inherited
Xavi Hernandez took over the Netherlands in August and names his first squad this month. Here is the group he inherits, with caps, goals and current c...
Sep 5, 2026
Japan national football team: the full squad and key players after nine summer moves
Japan took 26 players to the 2026 World Cup and nine of them have changed clubs since. Here is the current squad with caps, goals and corrected clubs,...
Sep 4, 2026
Chelsea moved on 39 players this summer, and 22 of them are still theirs
Seventeen sold, 22 loaned out and more than £500m recouped by the club’s own count. The loans are the part that comes back next summer.
Sep 3, 2026
Sancho has been unattached for two months, and the window closing does not stop anyone signing him
The summer window shut on September 1, but a genuinely unattached player can still be registered as long as his contract ended before the deadline. Sa...
Sep 3, 2026
Manchester City spent a record £458m this summer, and Haaland is still their only striker
City broke their own transfer record twice and rebuilt an entire midfield. They came out of the window with one recognised centre-forward, and a net s...
Sep 2, 2026
The Premier League spent £3.48bn this summer, and the other four big leagues combined spent less
A record window closed at 11pm on Tuesday. The gross figure beat last year’s record by nearly £300m, and £2.17bn of it came straight back through sale...
Aug 26, 2026
Lalrindika scored three inside 34 minutes, and East Bengal’s 22-year Durand Cup wait was over by half-time
Five goals at the Salt Lake Stadium, none of them after the 44th minute, and a derby hat-trick of a kind nobody in red and gold had managed since Baic...
Aug 26, 2026
The Champions League draw is on Thursday, and four of the 36 places are still open
Monaco hosts the league-phase draw at 9.30pm IST on Thursday. Five English clubs are in the pot, PSG go in as back-to-back winners, and four ties on W...
Aug 25, 2026
The Hand of God ball sold for a third of its estimate, and the shirt got nearly three times as much
Heritage Auctions wanted close to $10m for the ball Maradona punched past Peter Shilton in 1986. It went for $3.35m, and the reasons are more interest...
Aug 21, 2026
Ronaldinho said he was not signing to play, and at 46 he has just registered as a player
Two months after Ravenna insisted he was only a shareholder, the Brazilian is in their squad and chasing a 300th career goal that no two record books...
Aug 20, 2026
Nine Premier League clubs start with a new manager, and the last time it was this many was 1946-47
Maresca, Iraola, Alonso, Arbeloa, Sage, Rose, Glasner, Jaissle and O’Neil all take charge of their first league game this weekend. Opta say no top-fli...
Aug 18, 2026
The Premier League has spent £2.14bn before its first match, and a third of it went to other Premier League clubs
English clubs are £2.14bn into the summer window with the season still two days away, but almost £785m of that was paid by one Premier League club to...
Aug 14, 2026
The ISL restarts on 4 September with 13 clubs, and the clubs now hold the commercial rights
India’s top division returns on 4 September after a summer in which it nearly did not happen at all. Thirteen teams will play it, one fewer than plann...
Aug 14, 2026
Barcelona are selling the World Cup final’s matchwinner, and the accounting explains why
PSG have agreed around €50 million for Ferran Torres and he has agreed a five-year deal. Barcelona offered him a new contract instead. He asked to go,...
Aug 13, 2026
Coventry open at Arsenal 25 years after relegation, and they filled Wembley on the way down
Coventry City start the 2026-27 Premier League season at the Emirates on Friday 21 August, their first game in the division since May 2001. The 25 yea...
Aug 10, 2026
Mourinho signed for Manchester United in 2013, phoned Ferguson in tears, and went to Chelsea instead
A new Netflix documentary has Mourinho and Ferguson both confirming what almost happened in 2013: a signed agreement to succeed Ferguson at Old Traffo...
Aug 9, 2026
East Bengal have scored 13 and conceded one, and Mohun Bagan still win Group A
Six points, 13 goals scored, one conceded, and second place. East Bengal’s Durand Cup group is finished, and Mohun Bagan have already won it with a ga...
Aug 5, 2026
Chelsea have six strikers and want three, and Nicolas Jackson is the expensive one
Unai Emery gave him his debut at Villarreal and Aston Villa want him now. Chelsea’s asking price is the only thing in the way, and Tottenham’s reporte...
Aug 4, 2026
The Premier League voted through its biggest funding deal in a decade without confirming what is in it
Twenty clubs unanimously backed a ten-year funding package for the EFL on 30 July. The league confirmed the term, the start date and the mechanism, th...
Aug 2, 2026
An 8-0, three hat-tricks and a 1-0 derby: the Durand Cup group stage so far
Why the group stage of Asia’s oldest football tournament keeps producing lopsided scorelines, and what it means for the quarter-final race that starts...
Jul 30, 2026
Belgium national football team: full squad and key players
A new manager, an old core and one breakout forward. Here is Belgium’s full 26-man World Cup squad with every club, the players who matter most, and w...