Latest news with #LukaModric
Wales Online
a day ago
- Sport
- Wales Online
Swansea City's powerful pull, the European factor and Luka Modric's role in it all
Swansea City's powerful pull, the European factor and Luka Modric's role in it all Swansea has become a significantly more appealing destination for players in recent weeks The signing of Cameron Burgess has turned plenty of heads this summer (Image: Getty Images ) "I think that we need to give ourselves more credit. Swansea has an incredible story that the rest of the world can connect with. "This is a really, really special place and it's darn near impossible for anybody not to connect with this place once they spend some time here." At the time, Andy Coleman's comments back in November felt an attempt to play to the gallery. A predictable eye-roll-inducing prologue for the 'new chapter' he had promised for the club shortly after the change of majority ownership. Sign up to the Swansea City WhatsApp service to get breaking news and top stories sent to your phone Before stepping back from his role as chairman, Coleman was always consistent in his disdain for suggestions he didn't care, and while mis-steps under his watch open the door to cynicism, the sincerity behind those remarks is difficult to disprove. In a way, the motivations behind his glowing assessment don't really matter. The point itself increasingly feels like it carries some degree of truth. Article continues below Swansea City is, even in these recent years of the mid-table Championship wilderness, a club still capable of turning heads. "I didn't know so much about the pull of the club," director of football Richard Montague said recently. "I didn't know so much about how important the club is to the community here, which has always been a wonderful thing to experience. "Talking to players and talking to agents and things like that. The pull that Swansea still has is incredibly powerful, especially in Europe. "You speak to agents and players across Europe. They all know Swansea and they all associate Swansea as a place where you want to play football, and that's something that we need to lean into and continue to build upon, because it's a real selling point." Perhaps the latest case in point is the eye-catching capture of Cameron Burgess, who as recently as last season was plying his trade in the Premier League, which both renders him a 'coup' and subsequently leaves us all wondering quite how such a move has managed to materialise. After all, the likes Valencia and Rangers were allegedly among what Montague recently referred to as a 'considerable number of clubs' keen on the 29-year-old. The exact motivations behind his decision to move to south Wales aren't yet known, but the early indications suggest the opportunity of regular game-time, and indeed a leading role in a side that's quietly hoping to build towards a top-six challenge, played a significant role in his decision. But there already feels like there's a bit more to it. After all, there surely wouldn't be a shortage of Championship suitors that would jump at the opportunity to make the centre-back a first-team regular in their side, some of which one suspects might be in a position to offer more attractive financial packages. Head coach Alan Sheehan noted the player's enthusiasm for the project at Swansea in the wake of the move's confirmation. "During our conversations Cameron really bought in to what we are trying to do at Swansea," he said. It again alludes to the 'pull' Montague mentions, and perhaps the allure of Sheehan's vision, which clearly drove the popularity in the dressing room that ultimately helped him land the job full-time. But without taking anything away from Sheehan and his method, developments behind the scenes have clearly elevated Swansea's appeal to another level in recent weeks. The involvement of Luka Modric as a minority investor in particular, has surely caused many to sit up and take notice of what's going on in SA1. Zeidane Inoussa revealed shortly after arriving at the club earlier this summer that he'd spoken to the Croatian, who's understood to have also held talks with other potential new recruits in a bid to convince them that Swansea is the best place for them to continue their career. It clearly helped convince the Swedish winger, and it's entirely plausible Burgess may also have been similarly taken in. One suspects more could easily follow. Modric's powers of persuasion do have some limits, mind. His efforts to persuade Harry Darling to stay at the club eventually proved futile. But his presence is still seen as a pretty powerful endorsement, and it's not difficult to see why a player might be drawn to that. Sign up to our Swansea City newsletter here. Article continues below "It's had a really positive impact," Montague added when asked about the impact of the Croatian's involvement. "I think it sets a tone from the new ownership that they're serious and that they are trying to think strategically about how we best enhance our profile. How we bring new investment to the club that will allow us to put a better outfit on the pitch and allow us to compete. "I think the Championship is just so incredibly demanding now and the financial realties are such that you need something a bit different, and I think that comes down to how you want to play or how to want to recruit players, how you want to operate or how you want to run your business side, and how you bring extra eyeballs onto your product. "Again, that name does resonate with people the world over really. He's a superstar so that's a really powerful thing to be able to leverage and say 'look, Luka believes in this project so you should as well'.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
How to watch Al Ain vs Juventus: TV channel and live stream for Club World Cup match tonight
Juventus get their Club World Cup campaign underway in Washington DC (Getty Images) Juventus will get their Club World Cup campaign underway tonight as they face Emirati heavyweights Al Ain in Washington, D.C. After a challenging Serie A campaign, where the Bianconeri finished fourth in Serie A and failed to escape the Champions League league phase, Igor Tudor will hope to brighten the mood in Turin with a strong Club World Cup run. Advertisement They face Al Ain, the 14-time UAE Pro League champions and two-time AFC Champions League winners. They finished second at the Club World Cup in 2018, falling 4-1 to Real Madrid in the final thanks to goals from Luka Modric, Marcos Llorente, and Sergio Ramos. Their predominantly Emirati squad features a handful of talented South American youngsters who could pose a threat to Juve, though they trail the Italians by 591 places in Opta's global rankings. Audi Field, home of DC United, sits in the heart of the nation's capital, and will host the first of its three matches in the tournament tonight. The 20,000-capacity ground was purpose-built for the MLS side in 2018 and was home to the earliest days of Wayne Rooney's coaching career. How to watch Al Ain vs Juventus TV channel: In the UK, the game will not be televised live. Advertisement Live stream: Viewers can watch the action live online via and the DAZN website. Coverage starts at 1am BST ahead of a 2am kick-off. DAZN is the global broadcaster of the new-look Club World Cup. No subscription is required to watch the game, with the entire tournament available to their 'Freemium' members, which means you only need to sign up for a free DAZN account.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
How to watch Al Ain vs Juventus: TV channel and live stream for Club World Cup match tonight
Juventus get their Club World Cup campaign underway in Washington DC (Getty Images) Juventus will get their Club World Cup campaign underway tonight as they face Emirati heavyweights Al Ain in Washington, D.C. After a challenging Serie A campaign, where the Bianconeri finished fourth in Serie A and failed to escape the Champions League league phase, Igor Tudor will hope to brighten the mood in Turin with a strong Club World Cup run. Advertisement They face Al Ain, the 14-time UAE Pro League champions and two-time AFC Champions League winners. They finished second at the Club World Cup in 2018, falling 4-1 to Real Madrid in the final thanks to goals from Luka Modric, Marcos Llorente, and Sergio Ramos. Their predominantly Emirati squad features a handful of talented South American youngsters who could pose a threat to Juve, though they trail the Italians by 591 places in Opta's global rankings. Audi Field, home of DC United, sits in the heart of the nation's capital, and will host the first of its three matches in the tournament tonight. The 20,000-capacity ground was purpose-built for the MLS side in 2018 and was home to the earliest days of Wayne Rooney's coaching career. How to watch Al Ain vs Juventus TV channel: In the UK, the game will not be televised live. Advertisement Live stream: Viewers can watch the action live online via and the DAZN website. Coverage starts at 1am BST ahead of a 2am kick-off. DAZN is the global broadcaster of the new-look Club World Cup. No subscription is required to watch the game, with the entire tournament available to their 'Freemium' members, which means you only need to sign up for a free DAZN account.
The National
4 days ago
- Sport
- The National
Club World Cup: New era at Real Madrid and Al Hilal as Alonso and Inzaghi begin reigns
If spectators at Miami's Hard Rock stadium are in luck, the best Club World Cup final of recent memory will be reimagined on Wednesday night, Florida time. If precedent is a sound guide, the new-look competition should prepare for plenty of goals – the last time Real Madrid and Al Hilal met they shared eight of them over 90 minutes, Europe's finest pipping Asia's grand dukes for the trophy. That Club World Cup, in early 2023, was still being organised in its slimmed-down form, but turned out to be seminal in many respects. It was staged in Morocco, to where the joint hosting rights for a World Cup – the 2030 edition – would be awarded by Fifa a few months later. That Al Hilal team was about to be transformed by a huge financial injection that would raise the club's global profile. And Real Madrid … well, they did as Madrid tend to do in these major events. They found a way of winning while offering the opposition a sniff of an upset. The final score in Rabat was 5-3 but for over half an hour Al Hilal were within a goal of parity. Vinicius Junior and Fede Valverde scored twice each for a Madrid whose line-up, two and half years on, will likely include that pair and several other longer servants of the club, although there is no mistaking the significant rebuild ahead at football's most glamorous institution. At the Hard Rock, under what is forecast to be a fierce summer heat, Trent Alexander-Arnold, signed from Liverpool, anticipates a debut while Luka Modric will be embarking on his farewell competition at a club where he has collected six Club World Cup or Intercontinental Cup titles and half a dozen European Cups among his 28 trophies with Madrid. Above all, there's a new manager, Xabi Alonso, making his bow, his employers boasting that they have captured the best manager still in his 40s. Al Hilal might contest that. Their new coach, also making his touchline premiere, is 49-year-old Simone Inzaghi, whose time at Inter Milan came to an end earlier this month just after he had guided the Italians to a second Uefa Champions League final in the space of three years. Inzaghi spoke of his 'affection for Saudi Arabian football,' at his presentation, citing his trips to the kingdom as Inter coach, notably for a series of Italian Super Cups staged in Riyadh, but he does not have the background of familiarity that Alonso, an ex Madrid player, enjoys. So Inzaghi reached out to touchstones from his European experience. The Italian says he will relish working with the dynamic Al Hilal midfielder Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, an ally when Inzaghi coached Lazio while also surveying a squad that, even after a disappointing season – Al Hilal were dethroned as Saudi champions by Al Ittihad in May – has a comforting worldliness. That starts at the back, with a goalkeeper greatly coveted, two years ago, by Madrid. Real's strategists based their high estimation of Yassine Bounou, or 'Bono' as he is universally known, on his brilliant body of work over five seasons with Sevilla. His heroics were responsible for two Europa League victories, and his masterly shot-stopping for Morocco was also influential in their historic march to the semi-finals of the 2022 World Cup. But in the summer of 2023, Bono said 'no' to joining Europe's most decorated club, choosing instead the bold ambition of Saudi Arabian football. He promptly won a domestic treble of league, King's Cup and Super Cup, and added extended runs in the Asian Champions League to a rare CV of global experience, one that stretches from an African Champions League final, when he was 20, with Casablanca's Wydad, or WAC, and on to those Europa League odysseys with Sevilla. At this, the inaugural supersized Fifa Club World Cup, Bono gets to trace many of the contours of his long professional journey. He was born in North America, where 34 years ago, his father, a professor of science, was working in academia in Montreal, returning not long into Yassine's childhood to Morocco. As an aspiring footballer, he grew up with WAC, who are among the four African contenders at the Club World Cup, but was courted from there by Atletico Madrid – Spain's other representatives in the tournament – his first stop on a voyage through La Liga that ended up with his fruitful Sevilla spell. There are compatriots in Bono's immediate sightlines, too. Al Hilal's second group game is against Pachuca, of Mexico, where Morocco international winger Oussama Idrissi has made an intrepid, impressive mark over the last two seasons. In Miami, the goalkeeper confronts a formidable Madrid strike-force that may at some stage include Bono's celebrated teammate with the Atlas Lions, Brahim Diaz. The coming weeks are significant for Brahim. Xabi Alonso's appreciation of what the player offers, across a variety of attacking positions, is unknown. A proposed extension of Brahim's Madrid contract, which currently expires in 2027, has been outlined to the player within the short time Alonso, who left Bayer Leverkusen last month, has been in charge. What will be clearer in the course of the Club World Cup is whether Brahim can expect more playing time under the new coach than he saw under Carlo Ancelotti, whom Alonso has replaced. Ancelotti always made it plain he valued Brahim highly and he frequently recognised that the player's regular impact, from the bench and starting a little less than 50 per cent of matches, was always a key part of his plan. But Brahim wants to be in Madrid's initial line-up for more than one game in every two. Alonso knows that. In Miami, we'll start to learn about how the coach intends to resolve that issue, among others, and to maximise the combined potency of Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius, Rodrygo, Brahim, Arda Guler, Endrick and Alexander-Arnold.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
AC Milan reportedly interested in Leverkusen's Xhaka
Leverkusen's Granit Xhaka in action during the German Bundesliga soccer match between Bayer Leverkusen and FC Augsburg at BayArena. Bayer Leverkusen could face another prominent departure as experienced midfielder Granit Xhaka has been linked with a move to AC Milan. Federico Gambarini/dpa Bayer Leverkusen could face another prominent departure as experienced midfielder Granit Xhaka has been linked with a move to AC Milan. La Gazzetta dello Sport reported on Tuesday that transfer talks between Leverkusen and Inter could start this week. Switzerland's Xhaka has a contract until 2028 at the Bundesliga runners-up. Advertisement The report said that Milan sporting director Igli Tare aims to have Xhaka in midfield alongside 39-year-old Croatian veteran Luka Modric whose future at Real Madrid beyond summer is unclear. Xhaka, who helped Leverkusen win a maiden Bundesliga title in 2024, is reportedly not adverse to a Milan move. Hed has left his future in Leverkusen open after the departure of coach Xabi Alonso to Madrid, defender Jonathan Tah to Bayern Munich, full back Jeremie Frimpong to Liverpool, and playmaker Florian Wirtz also close to a Liverpool move. He said playing a key role in a new-look Leverkusen team would "cost a lot of energy. I am no longer 25 but turn 33 in September." He added that club bosses would find good solution, "whether with or without me being another question."
