• Brooklyn Beckham joins QPR academy

    Queens Park Rangers have been criticised for splashing the cash on expensive signings - but their latest capture has not cost a penny and comes with pretty good genes.

    The recently relegated club have snapped up Brooklyn Beckham for their academy side, according to the Daily Mail, as he looks to shoulder the family's football hopes after his father's retirement last weekend.

    It is quite a coup for Rangers, who may have expected the young Beckham to join a Premier League side.

    His dad, of course, will forever be associated with Manchester United in this country - while Brooklyn himself is said

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  • The home and away kits that Barcelona will wear next season have been unveiled, revealing a take on tradition.

    La Blaugrana will maintain blue and red colouring for the home jersey, as well as switching back for next season to a regular and more traditional striped pattern, with a yellow V-shaped collar marked out. The shorts and socks are blue, with the socks including yellow detailing.

    The away style, as reported as far back as last September, adopts the colours and design of the Senyera, the flag that represents four of Spain’s autonomous communities - Catalonia, Aragon, Valencia and the

    Read More »from Barca offer up ‘Homage to Catalonia’ with new kits
  • Ahead of the Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, we take a look at some of the key battles on and off the pitch.

    First let's start with the men behind the teams - they couldn't provide more of a contrast.

    1. Heynckes v Klopp

    Jupp Heynckes is a wise old head, with a glittering CV boasting titles in several countries. He is a Steady Eddie as opposed to charismatic genius, although his success highlights how underrated a stable guiding hand can be for the big clubs with messy dressing rooms. It is a shame he is retiring as he has turned Bayern from a bickering

    Read More »from Bayern v Dortmund: Champions League final key battles
  • Much is made of Borussia Dortmund's attacking verve, but their success - particularly in the final third - is as much a result of hard work as flair.

    Juergen Klopp's free-flowing youngsters are easy on the eye and on the league table, and their ability to overwhelm the best defences has got them to the Champions League final, where they face domestic rivals Bayern Munich.

    But they are as much a product of Klopp's system, which demands an intensity unrivalled in European football and insists on the so-called flair players to quite literally put in the hard yards.

    Defensive forwards -

    Read More »from Are Dortmund the hardest-working team in Europe?
  • Real Madrid is a complicated club at the best of times.

    Much like Bayern Munich, a long-standing culture exists where the players - particularly those from the local area - are little princes and even kings, a culture that can be seen to develop beyond their careers on the pitch and into the fabric of the club.

    Sporting directors, special advisors, members of the technical staff... ex-players form the structure of the club, its history.

    As a result coaches, no matter how impressive their CVs and reputations, come and go, rarely lasting more than two or three seasons and often barely completing

    Read More »from Love over money – why Mourinho had to leave Real Madrid
  • parkergerrard

    There are three kind of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics. But these bunch of stats from our friends at Opta certainly make for interesting reading.

    Suppose every shot that hit the woodwork this season had counted as a goal, the Premier League table would have taken on a very different look.

    Tottenham Hotspur fans would have been partying hard thinking of the Champions League next term and the riches it bring rather than the slightly impoverished Europa League.

    Andre Villas-Boas's side would have finished third in the Premier League table with 76 points netting 83 goals if not for those

    Read More »from Woodwork denies Liverpool Champions League place
  • Atletico Madrid winger Arda Turan decided to shave his head after his side's 2-1 win over local rivals Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey final.

    Turkey international Turan had promised to shave his head before the match if his side could overcome the odds to upset Jose Mourinho's men.

    Joao Miranda thumped home an extra-time winner as Atletico Madrid secured a 2-1 win over Real Madrid to claim Copa Del Rey glory in a fiery final that saw both Jose Mourinho and Cristiano Ronaldo sent off.

    The Brazilian defender headed in a 99th-minute cross to clinch a first victory over Los Blancos since 1999 and

    Read More »from Arda Turan shaves his head to celebrate Atletico triumph
  • Events in the French capital last week during Paris Saint-Germain's Ligue 1 title celebrations were a serious blow to the prestige of the club's Qatari owners and brought the issue of football-related violence back to the top of the agenda in the country.

    Pictures of the destruction caused by troublemakers and of their clashes with riot police were seen all across the world last Monday night, completely removing the focus away from PSG's on-field success.

    What the bemused PSG players and staff must have thought as they were ushered away from the stage set up for them at Trocadéro, across the

    Read More »from The enemy within? Old problems return for PSG
  • Caja Rural's Fabricio Ferrari was pushed off his bike during the final stage of the Tour of Norway by an unnamed rider from a rival team.

    The incident was captured on camera 12.5km short of the finish to the stage when the Uruguayan was sent crashing to the ground by a clear push.

    Ferrari manages to escape from the group of riders, but is then pushed from his bike after pedalling next to the Topsport Vlaanderen rider, who continues to look back as Ferrari attempts to scramble back on his bike.

    Roberto Ferrari was blamed for a similar incident 12 months ago when Mark Cavendish and others were

    Read More »from Rider pushed off bike by rival in Tour of Norway
  • A football fan has bought 700 West Bromwich Albion programmes marking Sir Alex Ferguson's final match as Manchester United manager.

    West Brom published a 144-page programme to mark the occasion - the biggest produced for fixture in England.

    The match programme contains a 40-page tribute to the legendary Scot with 5,000 sold online on Friday before Sunday's match.

    One fan bought 700 copies for £2,800 at a cost of £4 each. Another shelled out £1,200 for three copies. 20,000 copies were printed for the momentous match.

    The game ended in an astonishing 5-5 draw at the Hawthorns.

    Read More »from Fan spends £2,800 on 700 programmes for Ferguson’s final match

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