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Thanks to Chris Greenhough and Nick Whitbread, who emailed me within seconds of each other to nominate Paul Warhurst – as both noted, a utility phenomenon in the Premier League and Championship Manager, where he could play pretty much anywhere.

“One memorable utility shift was Ryan Bertrand, moved up to left wing in the 2012 Champions League final, sitting in front of Ashley Cole to track Arjen Robben. I believe he’s still the only player to have made his Champions League debut in the final,” says Rob Hobson.

The Frenchman, who has been named the best male footballer in the world by the Guardian, has benefitted from PSG’s focus on the team rather than individuals

What makes a good player great, and a great player the best? This question has been occupying me since 2014, when the Guardian first asked me to contribute to its inaugural Next Generation feature. My job was to look for a France-based talent born in 1997 who could go on to have a stellar career.

After a great deal of research, I narrowed it down from my shortlist of five by asking questions not about the players’ football ability, but about other attributes: resilience, adaptability, decision-making, creativity, work ethic, response to feedback and willingness to learn. Qualities we cannot see, and are harder to measure.

• Antoine Semenyo thought to favour move to Liverpool

• Neves would cost around £20m but wages may be issue

Manchester United are monitoring Al-Hilal’s Rúben Neves and Atlético Madrid’s Conor Gallagher as potential January signings to strengthen Ruben Amorim’s squad. Bournemouth’s Tyler Adams is also of interest but any deal for the American is not likely until the close season.

United are also vying with Liverpool and Manchester City to sign Antoine Semenyo from Bournemouth in early January but the forward is thought to favour joining Liverpool, with City his second choice, so Amorim faces a fight to convince him.

Dane wants time but before Saturday’s match against Liverpool, faithful are frustrated by stodgy performances

There are plenty of well-known checkpoints in the life cycle of a Tottenham manager and we have reached one with Thomas Frank. It is the pleading for time bit. “If nobody gets this, nobody will be able to turn this around,” he said after last Sunday’s 3-0 Premier League defeat at Nottingham Forest. It is not a “quick fix,” he added. And nobody was about to disagree.

Frank is veering towards another – the one where it is as if he wants to scream, to release the inner hurricane that he referenced in Nottingham. Is anybody seeing what he is seeing? In other words, the immense difficulties that he faces.

The Celtic manager wants to focus on the things that matter but after starting with four defeats he may not have the chance

Years ago when sport was good, you didn’t have optics. You just had what happened. And what happened was what you had seen happen.

Things are different now. If you haven’t lent into optics when discussing your underperforming team, then you’re missing out. One dictionary definition for you: Optics (1) “The way in which an event or course of action is perceived by the public.”

Press conference updates on Viktor Gyökeres, Tyler Adams and Arne Slot discussing Mohamed Salah

It’s not a derby but there is needle and passion as teams meet in League Cup quarter-finals a week after tasty 3-3 draw in WSL

Manchester United against Tottenham can never be labelled a derby. The 200-plus miles between their home grounds will see to that. Watch their six-goal thriller in the Women’s Super League last weekend, though, and it had all the hallmarks of a classic derby: some needle, some squaring up to one another and, amid a high-intensity contest, a subtle undertone of increasingly passionate dislike. Luckily for any fans who enjoy seeing the odd late challenge or feisty exchange, the teams meet again a week on from that engrossing 3-3 draw, in Sunday’s League Cup quarter-finals.

It appears to have been brewing long before these sides played out one of the most dramatic games in the WSL era, United coming from 3-0 down to claim a late draw on a day when they hit the crossbar four times. It seems to stem from before Martin Ho, the former United assistant manager, was appointed as Tottenham’s head coach last summer, and before United coasted to a 4-0 win over Spurs in the 2024 Women’s FA Cup final. Perhaps we need to cast our minds back to 12 February 2023.

• Spaniard approaches sixth anniversary in charge

• Arteta ‘has to earn the right to be here tomorrow’

Mikel Arteta has conceded his long-term future at Arsenal is dependent on winning silverware as he prepares to celebrate his sixth anniversary in charge.

The Spaniard was appointed on 20 December 2019 and led Arsenal to the FA Cup a few months later but that remains his only major trophy since replacing Unai Emery. Arteta will mark six years in the job against his former club Everton on Saturday night – the same opponents Arsenal faced a day after he was announced as their manager. He watched that game from the stands before officially beginning his role the next day.

• Liverpool teammate discusses fallout from interview

• Slot says Wirtz is adapting by bulking up in the gym

Curtis Jones has revealed Mohamed Salah apologised to the Liverpool squad for the fallout from his interview criticising the club and Arne Slot.

Salah was omitted from Liverpool’s Champions League win against Inter having accused the club of throwing him under a bus in response to a poor run of results. The striker also claimed his relationship with Slot had broken down and that he had earned his position in the team after eight phenomenal seasons.

The former Liverpool winger speaks about his hot start at Bayern, playing with Harry Kane, and hopes for the 2026 World Cup

After leaving Liverpool this past summer, Luis Díaz has had a strong start at Bayern Munich under Vincent Kompany, having accumulated 18 goal contributions (12 goals, six assists) in all competitions. Bayern manager Vincent Kompany gave Díaz a few days off to press the reset button after his sending off against PSG, but now the 28-year-old winger is back and ready to wrap up the year as Bayern play their final game of 2025 this Sunday when they travel to Heidenheim. I spoke to the Colombian star about his new club, life in Germany and next summer’s World Cup, which includes a headline matchup against Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

A crowded international calendar is undermining domestic leagues and WSL Football has been left to figure it out

When the League Cup quarter-finals are played on Sunday it will probably be the last time they look this way. West Ham v Manchester City, Liverpool v Chelsea, Manchester United v Tottenham and Crystal Palace v Arsenal means the top four in the Women’s Super League are involved. With clubs having voted to remove teams competing in the Champions League from next season, major changes are afoot.

The future format of the League Cup is still to be finalised and is subject to Football Association signoff but this forms part of plans for a revamp of an underloved competition that has an identity crisis. The changes include ditching the confusing group stage with its uneven number of teams, weird point scoring and odd geographical groupings. It is understood proposals have been put together in consultation with a competition working group that included clubs and was reviewed by representatives from fan associations through the Football Supporters’ Association.

Here’s how to follow along with our coverage – the finest writing and up-to-the-minute reports

It is a case of north London against Merseyside as Tottenham host Liverpool and Everton face leaders Arsenal

Saturday 12.30pm TNT Sports 1 Venue St James’ Park

• ‘We will not take that long,’ says Amorim in response

• Amorim criticises sense of ‘entitlement’ at United

Sir Alex Ferguson has stated it could take Manchester United another “10 or 11 years” to win the title, prompting Ruben Amorim to ­publicly ­disagree with the club’s most ­successful manager.

Ferguson won 13 of United’s 20 league titles, the last in 2013, and was asked when a 21st may be added to the trophy cabinet.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Sanny Rudravajhala and George Elek as Manchester United and Bournemouth play out a thrilling 4-4 draw. On the podcast today; lots of fun to be had at Old Trafford as Manchester United and Bournemouth draw 4-4. But how to analyse a game that wild? Let’s hope the panel have some ideas. Elsewhere, Coventry City lead the Championship with a reinvigorated Middlesbrough led by Kim Hellberg in second. Plus, Cardiff City and Walsall lead the way in Leagues One and Two respectively and your questions answered.

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Ngumoha could step up for Liverpool, injury-hit Newcastle need to bounce back and Parker feels the heat

• Top scorers: check the latest Premier League standings

Chelsea are fourth in the Premier League and Newcastle 12th but the gap between them is only six points. It dictates that, given Eddie Howe’s ambitions of qualifying for the Champions League via the league, this is a pivotal fixture. How Newcastle’s manager must hope Enzo Maresca’s recent cryptic hints about potential discord behind the scenes at Stamford Bridge somehow help to undo the visitors on Tyneside, cutting the aforementioned gap in half. If off-pitch harmony endures at St James’ Park, Newcastle’s Saudi Arabian ownership will, nonetheless, be keen to see Howe and his players make further amends for last Sunday’s ignominious defeat at Sunderland. Falling nine points behind Chelsea may not be well received in Riyadh. Howe might have been tempted to start with a back five but with Tino Livramento the latest victim of a defensive injury crisis, he only possesses sufficient fit personnel to staff a four-man rearguard. Assuming Howe sticks with his preferred 4-3-3 it will be intriguing to see whether he drops a winger and fields Yoane Wissa to Nick Woltemade’s left in attack. Or does he opt for a potentially more fluid 4-2-3-1 with Woltemade as the No 10 and Wissa at No 9? Louise Taylor

Newcastle v Chelsea, Saturday 12.30pm (all times GMT)

Bournemouth v Burnley, Saturday 3pm

Brighton v Sunderland, Saturday 3pm

Manchester City v West Ham, Saturday 3pm

Wolves v Brentford, Saturday 3pm

After 16 games they are yet to win and are on course to break Derby’s record of securing 11 points in a season

By WhoScored

At what point does a relegation scrap turn into a scramble to prevent a historic crisis? Wolves appear to be answering that question this season. Sixteen games into the season they are without a win, have just two points, and are threatening to relieve Derby County of the unenviable label of the Premier League’s worst ever team. This isn’t just another bad side going down; this is a club threatening to become the Premier League’s ultimate cautionary tale.

Wolves may have already crossed that line. They became the first team in Premier League history to start consecutive campaigns with 10 or more winless matches, and now they stand on the brink of further infamy. Failure to beat Brentford this weekend would mean Wolves had equalled Sheffield United’s record 17-game winless start in the 2020-21 season.

Fifa’s lack of concern for African football’s key money-spinner has led to inadequate preparation time

With the hosts, Morocco, taking on the island nation of Comoros in the Africa Cup of Nations opener in Rabat on Sunday, there is no mistaking the excitement across the continent. Football is akin to a religion among Africa’s largely young population, with 60% of its 1.5 billion people under the age of 25.

But the timing of this Afcon, to be played over the Christmas and New Year period in Rabat, Casablanca, Marrakech, Agadir, Tangier and Fez, has never happened since the tournament began in 1957, igniting a storm of anger throughout the African football community.

The US host city’s resolve in maintaining its ‘Pride Match’ should be commended as exactly the sort of thing this tournament is for

There are two World Cups. The product, marketed and monetized for all it will yield, and the experience.

Only one of those is the real thing. And in one case, it’s holding strong. In Seattle, the local organizing committee long ago designated the 26 June game slated for Lumen Field as the “Pride Match” to mark the city’s LGBTQ+ pride weekend celebration.

A Guardian study of past ticket prices for the men’s World Cup, compared with current 2026 figures, shows how the barrier for entry has been raised for most fans

In the past, a fan’s ability to attend a World Cup hosted in their nation hinged more on bid books than their checkbooks. For 2026 in the US, Mexico and Canada, even the least expensive tickets are a luxury commodity by comparison.

An analysis by the Guardian of men’s World Cup ticket pricing shows that amid the general rise in ticket prices for the 2026 World Cup, the most extreme of those hikes have often applied to the cheapest tickets. The analysis is based on official Fifa pricing dating back to 1994, with more robust data available starting in 2006. Prices for 2026 games are accurate as of 16 December 2025, and do not include the 1.6% of sellable tickets for each game that Fifa recently made available for a fixed $60 price.

Morocco are the hosts and favourites for this year’s Afcon. How well do you remember previous tournaments?

• Which Premier League teams will be affected by Afcon?

Latest Liverpool alumnus to join Saudi Pro League will not have to worry about a lack of funds at Al-Qadsiah

The path from Liverpool to the east of Saudi Arabia is becoming increasingly well-worn, but Brendan Rodgers has a bigger job on his hands than Robbie Fowler, Steven Gerrard and Jordan Henderson. On Tuesday, the 52-year-old was confirmed as the new head coach of Al-Qadsiah, with the target in his new job simple: to turn the Big Four in Saudi Arabia into the Big Five.

If he had concerns about the lack of investment at Celtic, the club he left in October, then that shouldn’t be an issue at the Khobar-based Al-Qadsiah. In July, they splashed out a reported €65m (£57.15m) on the Italy striker Mateo Retegui. Few clubs around the world have an owner with pockets – or oil wells – as deep as those that belong to Aramco. The state-owned oil enterprise usually makes the top 10 lists of the world’s biggest companies.

• All 48 competing nations to get minimum of $10.5m

• Fifa Council approval comes amid ticket price row

Fifa has announced a 50% increase in World Cup prize money for next year’s tournament, with the champions set to take home $50m (£37.5m) as a reward for their success.

The news comes days after there was widespread public outrage over the price of seats at the tournament, to be held in the US, Mexico and Canada. Fifa this week announced a limited number of discount tickets for fans of participating countries.

The former Liverpool and Barcelona striker, who turns 39 in January, has been productive but was benched for the tail end of Miami’s title run

Inter Miami have re-signed striker Luis Suárez through the 2026 season, the MLS Cup champions announced Wednesday.

The legendary Uruguay international had 17 goals and 17 assists in 50 appearances for the team in 2025. However, Inter Miami became a buzzsaw after Suárez was dropped to the bench by head coach Javier Mascherano. Replaced by Mateo Silvetti after Miami’s 2-1 loss at Nashville SC in Round One, Miami won their next four games and outscored opponents 16-2 in route to the MLS Cup title.

Six Sunderland players are off to the tournament but Chelsea, Arsenal and Aston Villa are not losing anyone

By Opta Analyst

The Africa Cup of Nations begins on Sunday in Morocco. Thirty-two Premier League players have been selected to represent their national teams at the tournament but some clubs will be hit harder than others.

Sunderland have enjoyed an excellent return to the Premier League, with their derby win over Newcastle on Sunday taking them to 26 points from 16 games. They have already picked up more points than the three promoted clubs did last season – Leicester (25), Ipswich (22) and Southampton (12). However, they will have some key absentees over the next month. Six Sunderland players will be with their national teams, representing nearly a fifth of all Premier League players at the tournament, and double the tally of any other club.

Fifa has made big mistakes over 2026 tournament but it can afford to slash prices and even give some tickets away

Who is the World Cup for? Fifa appeared to share some of its thinking on this topic in the past week. On the one hand, there was the revelation that spectators are being asked to pay more than twice as much for match tickets than they were in Qatar. On the other, the news that prize money for competing teams is to rise by more than 50% on four years ago. Stakeholders are doing good! Fans? Not so good.

It hasn’t taken long for some of those watching to wonder whether things could be done differently. Tom Greatrex, the chair of the Football Supporters’ Association, which represents fans in England and Wales, argued that the ability to pay expanded prize money, itself a result of expanded revenue, showed “there is no need to charge extortionate ticket prices to the supporters who bring the vibrancy to the World Cup”. You could go so far as to say there was never a real need to do it in the first place.

If action is taken, the so-called ‘banter’ used to victimise women who take part in the sport will soon diminish

After six days in which a former player was held accountable in court for sexist comments and a current manager was charged by the Football Association with using sexist language, are we seeing a change in how that behaviour is tackled?

For years, talk of so-called “banter” has been used to silence complaints and it has been a struggle to convince football that sexism and misogyny even exist, but there are signs the sport is finally waking up.

Spurs have faced low moments in their history, and this is one of them. How will the club respond in the post-Daniel Levy era?

• Sign up for Soccer with Jonathan Wilson here

Tottenham Hotspur, Thomas Frank said after Sunday’s 3-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest, are “not a quick fix”. That’s been true for probably 40 years, since they lurched into financial crisis amid boardroom shenanigans in the 1980s, becoming the first soccer club to list on the stock exchange and embarking on a disastrous programme of diversification (the highlight perhaps being becoming Hummel’s distributor in the UK, a role they performed so badly that Southampton took a page of their own programme to blame Spurs for the fact that their shirts were not being delivered).

Right now, Spurs would probably settle for even a little bit of a fix, a slow hint of progress, a flicker of hope, anything to break them out of the current grim spiral. They have won just one of their last seven league games. When they beat Everton on 26 October, they were third, five points behind the leaders. Sunday’s defeat leaves them 11th, 14 points behind Arsenal. Given that Spurs finished 17th last season, perhaps that is not so unexpected – and the compacted nature of the table means they are only four points off fifth and probable Champions League qualification. But, equally, 22 points represents their lowest Premier League tally after 16 games since 2008.

Forward made an emotional lap of honour at Anfield after a week that put his future at the club in doubt

Mohamed Salah and Liverpool have put politics to shame by showing what a long week truly looks like. It ended with the Egyptian doing a one-man lap of honour at Anfield, an attempt to rebuild trust with the supporters after creating a ceasefire, if not a complete truce, with Arne Slot.

Over the past seven days a lot has changed, but one thing remained the same, Salah started a Premier League game on the bench, not that he needed to wait long for a chance to do his talking on the pitch. He would finish with an assist after playing 75 minutes against Brighton in a game in which he desperately wanted to score. Maybe his parade was the beginning of the end, but it felt more like the start of the apology that should continue after the Africa Cup of Nations, giving both parties space to breathe.

Our cartoonist on exorbitant World Cup ticket prices and peace breaking out on Merseyside

• David’s favourite cartoons of 2025 | Buy one here

• And his latest book, Chaos in the Box: get it now

Women’s football is booming – but the bigger it’s got, the messier it’s become for players. Through it all, the hot tip for Sports Personality of the Year has kept a cool head

At the end of last year, Chloe Kelly was seriously considering stepping away from football. She was deeply unhappy at Manchester City, her team since 2020, where it seemed as if they wouldn’t let her play, nor let her leave. She wasn’t getting enough time on the pitch, so wasn’t sure that she would be selected for England, who were preparing to defend the title she had helped win in 2022 in the Euros tournament. She was 26, about to turn 27. She had been a professional footballer since she was 18, but her mother was starting to get concerned. She desperately wanted her daughter to be happy again. “I remember my mum coming up to see me and she was meant to go home, but she didn’t go home, because she was so worried,” recalls Kelly.

Less than a year later, and things are very different. At the time of writing, Kelly is favourite to win Sports Personality of the Year after a history-making comeback. At the end of January, she was loaned to Arsenal and in May she lifted the Champions League trophy with the team, very much the underdogs in the final against Barcelona, whom they defeated 1-0. At the end of July, she scored that penalty for England, securing them a second Euros title, against arch-rivals Spain. She was fifth in the Ballon D’or Féminin, and named in the Fifpro World 11 squad for the first time – a peer-voted list of the best footballers in the world. Against the odds, then, 2025 has turned out to be a great year. “For sure,” Kelly smiles. “To bounce back, that’s what makes it the best year of my career.”

German striker was given a sarcastic ovation by the Sunderland fans after his inadvertent match winner

On numerous occasions during the 75 minutes he spent on the pitch during the Wear-Tyne derby, Nick Woltemade cut an extremely isolated, peripheral and forlorn figure in the opposition box. A bad afternoon for Newcastle’s German striker got significantly worse shortly after half-time when he cut an even more isolated, peripheral and forlorn figure in his own team’s box after inadvertently heading a Nordi Mukiele cross past Aaron Ramsdale from six yards out.

Woltemade’s embarrassing own goal proved to be the unwitting match-winner in a contest that had until that point been high on full-blooded aggression but low on moments of real quality. As he made way for Yoane Wissa, it was no surprise the Sunderland fans granted the visibly deflated 23-year-old a sarcastic ovation. A fan favourite on Tyneside until the 46th minute of this match, Woltemade has now pulled off the unlikely feat of winning a permanent, bitterly ironic place in mackem hearts.

How each team qualified, who will be favourites to progress to the knockout stage and which games to look out for

The opening game in the Azteca will be a repeat of the opener in 2010 when South Africa drew 1-1 with Mexico in Soccer City, Soweto. Mexico have won one knockout game at the World Cup, beating Bulgaria last time they hosted, in 1986. Their manager, Javier Aguirre, was a forward in that side and will be targeting their third quarter-final as hosts. South Africa, coached by the veteran Belgian Hugo Broos, qualified for their first World Cup since hosting, finishing above Nigeria and Benin, despite having a game against Lesotho they appeared to have won awarded against them for fielding a suspended player.

Aitana Bonmatí has been voted the best female player on the planet by our panel of 127 experts ahead of Mariona Caldentey and Alessia Russo

• 2024 list | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018

• Meet the judges | See how every judge voted

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Give the one you love something special: a free subscription to Football Daily. The gift that never starts giving

Welcome to the fourth Football Daily Christmas Awards. This is the bit where, in our old guise, we would bang on about becoming so jaded that we’d lost count of how many years we’d been churning out this old tat. Hmm … So OK, here we are, refreshed and ready to go! Pour yourself a pint of wine, throw your boots up on the desk, decompress, de-depress, and enjoy!

With 11 games played our writers assess what has been good and not so good in England’s top flight as the league takes a winter break

This was a tough one, and an honourable mention has to be given to Martin Ho, who, despite only two summer signings, has taken Tottenham one point past last season’s 20-point total with half the season to play. However, Andrée Jeglertz arrived at Manchester City after managing Denmark at the Euros, where his team failed to pick up a point, and has had an instant impact. City look a different beast under the 53-year-old. The league leaders’ opening-day defeat by Chelsea is firmly in the past: they have won all 10 games since, have scored eight more goals than any other side and have built a six point lead at the top. Where previously City had struggled to kill off matches against title rivals, this season there has been a ruthlessness epitomised by their late winner in a 3-2 defeat of Arsenal, after they had twice given up the lead, and a comprehensive 3-0 win over Manchester United. SW

Crowds at women’s football in England are the envy of the world but there is a curious gap between number of tickets sold and attendances

When the stadium announcer reads out the attendance during England home games, the immediate question that follows relates to the drop-off between the number of tickets sold and the number of fans through the doors.

In 2025, on either side of a phenomenal European title defence in Switzerland, the Lionesses played eight home games, including three at Wembley. Across those fixtures, almost 48,000 bought tickets but stayed away.

Plus: which European champions were top at Christmas, players giving each other presents and other festive trivia

• Mail us with your questions and answers

“Just reading a book about Christmas No 1s,” begins Paul Savage. “The section about Wham!’s Last Christmas says Andrew Ridgeley was watching football at George Michael’s parents on a Sunday, when George got the melody and wandered off to record it upstairs. Greatness obviously awaited but I want to know: which match was it? It’s 1984, a Sunday and presumably on terrestrial TV. Was the second half worth Ridgeley not getting involved in the recording?”

Last Christmas by Wham! didn’t become a Christmas No 1 until 2023, having been kept off top spot by Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas in 1984. As Paul mentioned, George Michael wrote the song in his childhood bedroom while his parents and Andrew Ridgeley watched football on TV downstairs.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Sanny Rudravajhala and George Elek as Manchester United and Bournemouth play out a thrilling 4-4 draw

Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on email.

On the podcast today; lots of fun to be had at Old Trafford as Manchester United and Bournemouth draw 4-4. But how to analyse a game that wild? Let’s hope the panel have some ideas.

Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzy Wrack, Ameé Ruszkai and Tom Garry to review a dramatic final WSL weekend before the winter break. Plus, Zarah Al-Kudcy joins in part two to discuss Panini’s expansion into the women’s game

On today’s pod: a final WSL weekend before the winter break, packed with goals and drama. Manchester United and Tottenham share six in a chaotic draw at Leigh Sports Village, while Manchester City go six clear at the top after hitting Aston Villa for six, with Bunny Shaw scoring four in a record-breaking performance. The panel discuss the action from the weekend’s WSL games and ask why Bunny Shaw has never been shortlisted for a Ballon d’Or.

Plus: we’re joined by WSL Football’s Zarah Al-Kudcy to discuss Panini’s decision to include WSL 2 players in its sticker album for the first time, what that means for visibility and revenue, and how commercial growth could shape the future of England’s second tier.

From PSG’s Ibrahim Mbaye to Brazil’s next hope, we select some of the most talented players born in 2008. Check the progress of our classes of 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 … and go even further back. Here’s our Premier League class of 2025

We pick the best youngsters at each club born between 1 September 2008 and 31 August 2009, an age band known as first-year scholars. Check the progress of our classes of 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 … and go even further back. Here’s our 2025 world picks

Every deal in the NWSL, WSL, Liga F, Frauen-Bundesliga, Première Ligue and Serie A Femminile as well as a club-by-club guide

• Men’s transfers summer 2025: all the moves