Football Features

Latest features articles covering football.

Oct 8, 2026

Messi was sent off on his Argentina debut, and 208 games later he signed off with a goal and two assists

Argentina beat Benin 3-0 at the Monumental as Lionel Messi scored his 126th international goal and set up the other two in his final game for the nati...

Oct 6, 2026

Poland national football team players: Urban’s squad, and Lewandowski’s 92 goals to the rest’s 58

Jan Urban’s 23-man Poland squad for the Nations League, with every player’s club, caps and goals, the key players, who is missing and why Lewandowski...

Oct 4, 2026

Uruguay national football team players: Forlán’s first 26, and why none of them play in Uruguay

Diego Forlán’s 26-man Uruguay squad for Japan, South Korea and India, with every player’s club, caps and goals, the key players, who is missing and wh...

Sep 23, 2026

Australia national football team players: the 26 Popovic picked for Brazil, and the seven yet to play

Tony Popovic has left out Mathew Ryan and called up seven uncapped players for Australia’s two friendlies against Brazil. Here is the full Socceroos s...

Sep 22, 2026

Italy national football team players: the 34 Mancini picked after a third World Cup miss

Roberto Mancini is back as Italy coach and has named 34 players for the Nations League, 11 of whom have never been capped. Here is the full squad, and...

Sep 22, 2026

Mbappe’s mother walked round Anfield and wanted him at Liverpool, and he signed for PSG instead

Nine years after Liverpool flew the whole family around the Mediterranean in a private jet, Mbappe has given his own account of the move that never ha...

Sep 22, 2026

There is no Premier League until 10 October, and the October break has been swallowed by this one

Club football stops for 19 days because FIFA has merged two international windows into a single 16-day block. England play four matches inside it, one...

Sep 21, 2026

Turkey national football team: the full squad and key players, and the five who have never played

Vincenzo Montella has named his first squad since the World Cup, and the group waiting for it is the hardest in the competition. Here is who made it,...

Sep 20, 2026

Egypt national football team: full squad and key players

Hossam Hassan named 24 players on 16 September for Egypt’s opening Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Angola and South Sudan. The full squad wit...

Sep 20, 2026

Iraola took Bournemouth into Europe and left, and he goes back on Sunday with a Liverpool side that has drawn three of four

Andoni Iraola’s three years at Bournemouth ended with a sixth-place finish and a first European campaign. He returns to the Vitality Stadium in the aw...

Sep 20, 2026

Monaco have already beaten both of them, and Le Classique arrives with Marseille on three points

Marseille have three points from four games and Paris Saint-Germain five, while the club sitting top of Ligue 1 has beaten both of them. Kick-off at t...

Sep 17, 2026

Paraguay national football team: the full squad and key players, and the 56 goals behind 772 caps

The 26 Gustavo Alfaro took to Paraguay’s first World Cup in sixteen years, position by position, with the caps, the goals and the clubs. The experienc...

Sep 17, 2026

India’s Asian Games began two days before the ceremony, on a curved table, with a football

Declan Gonsalves and Mohamed Anas Beg were the first Indians in action at Aichi-Nagoya 2026. Two group matches later, the World Championship bronze me...

Sep 16, 2026

Ivory Coast national football team players: Renard’s first squad, and the nine who have never won a cap

Herve Renard picked twenty-five players for Ivory Coast’s first matches since the World Cup, and nine of them have yet to play for the country. Here i...

Sep 16, 2026

India are ranked 138th, and Panama, Brazil and Uruguay are all coming to play them

Brazil have never played a senior match in India and will be the best-ranked opponent the Blue Tigers have faced since 1992. Three World Cup nations a...

Sep 14, 2026

Harry Kane needed 104 games for his first 100 Bayern goals, and 49 more for the next 50

Kane’s 72nd-minute winner at Elversberg was his 150th goal in 153 matches for Bayern Munich. His Bundesliga hundred is one game away.

Sep 11, 2026

Manchester United have been four different teams in four matches, and Manchester City arrive on Sunday

City are top of the Premier League with a perfect nine points in Enzo Maresca’s first season. United are eleventh, having lost at Hull, beaten Ipswich...

Sep 10, 2026

Saudi Arabia national football team: the full squad and key players, and why 25 of the 26 play at home

Georgios Donis took 26 players to the 2026 World Cup and 25 of them play their club football in Saudi Arabia. Here is the full squad, the eight clubs...

Sep 9, 2026

South Korea national football team: the full squad and key players, and the 14 leagues they play in

Robert Moreno has taken over a group drawn from more national leagues than any other Asian side at the World Cup. Here are all 26 players, where they...

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.

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,...