The Guardian

Rayo Vallecano’s fascinating forward on his unique club, his musical passions and the goalscoring form that puts him among Europe’e elite An 11-year-old, second-hand VW Beetle with more than 300,000km on the clock pulls over on Clown Fofó Street in the heart of Vallecas. The music goes off, the Smiths silenced, and out gets Sergio Camello: movie aficionado with 156 films reviewed , part-time phot…

This long-awaited fight is happening exactly as intended: at the sweet spot where commercial potential meets a genuine absence of jeopardy The 1912 Olympic marathon was held in a brutal Scandinavian heatwave, and before long Shizo Kanakuri of Japan was flagging. His journey to Stockholm had been debilitating; he had barely trained and struggled to sleep. At around the 16-mile mark he finally gave…

Record try-glut in round one suggested all-out attack is en vogue, but maybe you can defend well and still concede tries in the modern game? After one weekend of the Prem season the feeling was we had crossed the Rubicon. A remarkable 52 tries, eclipsing the previous record for round one despite the fact that fewer matches were played added further weight to the argument – a criticism and a compl…

Cadillac driver rode between Malaysia and Singapore Bottas says four-day trip helped him acclimatise Valtteri Bottas has revealed the details of an incident-packed 418km bike ride including encounters with snakes, being chased by dogs and the eerie atmosphere of riding through the jungle at night as the Cadillac driver cycled between Malaysia and Singapore this week. The 37-year-old is a keen cyc…

Manchester United midfielder was left out of initial squad First leg of World Cup playoff is on Friday in Crete Sarina Wiegman heaped praise on Ella Toone for her positive reaction to being left out of England’s initial squad for their Women’s World Cup playoff against Greece, after recalling the Manchester United midfielder for Friday’s first leg in Heraklion, Crete. An injury sustained by Lucy …

With the Premier League back on Saturday, football writer Ed Aarons answered your questions on what the Man City verdict means, whether referees will be stricter, and whether Don’t Look Back In Anger was prophetic Fearandloathingpart2 asks : Given the political pressure that is inevitably going to be placed on Man City, do you think the independent regulator will take action? If they don’t, they …

Teenager almost certain to leave despite fresh offer Compensation for move to European rival would be low Manchester United have made JJ Gabriel an official scholarship contract offer, but remain at risk of losing the teenage forward for as little as £350,000. The prodigy, who turned 16 this week, stunned the club when he asked for his registration to be cancelled last month, setting in motion a …

Confederation president clarifies his intentions to staff Canadian was eyed as potential rival to Gianni Infantino Victor Montagliani has told Concacaf staff he intends to stand for re-election as the confederation’s presidentnext year, which will rule him out of going up against Gianni Infantino for the top job at Fifa. The Canadian businessman is understood to have relayed the message to most o…

The story from the 2018 Test in South Africa will stay alive for years more, unless it is finally put to sleep with the truth of what happened Add it to the immeasurable list of things that you can blame Covid for. Without the pandemic, Australia’s Test team would have headed to South Africa in February 2021, less than three years after the 2018 sandpaper scandal saw them come home from Johannesb…

Jorge Messi wanted his country to fall in love with his son. That ambition was fulfilled during a brilliant international career that ended this week “What Argentina is doing in this World Cup is of a sacred order,” Brazilian writer Milly Lacombe posted at the height of the tide of anti-Argentinian sentiment during this year’s tournament. She was exploring the contradiction she felt around her su…

The US have been defined for so long by the next singular player. This past perfect window shows that era may be over Sign up for our free newsletter here In 1990, then-United States men’s national team manager Bob Gansler made a critical and somewhat controversial choice. He left three of the program’s laureled veterans at home and brought a young and little-tested team to the World Cup in Italy…

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now! The recent international break has proved to be a goldmine for punishment admin, nicely wrapped up on Wednesday night with the latest chapter of the Southampton Spygate saga. It sounds like a three-part Netflix documentary – and almost certainly will be one day – but for now, here’s a reminder of what went down; feel free to add your own hauntin…

Manager says he has made team ‘play-off ready’ since taking over in March. They now face Portugal in their quest to reach World Cup For seven and a half years, Michael McArdle worked in the construction industry while playing semi-professional football, studying for a degree in building services engineering and raising three young children together with his wife. Any leftover earnings he put into…

Manchester City’s chair is key to the project of making Abu Dhabi a secure world power but his next move may be the sale of the club No one better understands the precarious tightrope Abu Dhabi walks when it tries to balance its relationships with western Europe while weighing the complex geopolitics of the Gulf region than Manchester City’s chair, Khaldoon al-Mubarak. He was eight when his fathe…

Plus: two political leaders at the same club game, a very long-term suspension and extremely quick equalisers Mail us with all of your questions and answers “Oli McBurnie is back in the Scotland squad,” noted John Cant last week. “With his record of 16 appearances [now 20] and zero goals, he said in a recent interview, ‘a tap-in on Saturday or one that goes in off my backside would be lovely’. Th…