24/09/2025

SPORTS WEDNESDAY | SEPT 24, 2025

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Napoli maintain perfect Serie A start

TOUCHLINES FORMER Man City forward Julian Alvarez, 25, is considering leaving Atletico Madrid next summer, with Liverpool and Barcelona interested in signing the Argentina international. WEST HAM’S concerns over Nuno Espirito Santo’s financial demands could open the door for Slaven Bilic to replace Graham Potter, who is clinging on to his job after the Hammers’ poor start to the season. BARCELONA want to do a deal with Man United to sign on-loan England forward Marcus Rashford, 27, for £26m (RM147m) – a fee short of United’s valuation, which is closer to £35m (RM198m). REAL MADRID watched Arsenal centreback William Saliba, 24, in action against Man City on Sunday and maintain their interest in signing the France international. CRYSTAL PALACE captain and England centreback Marc Guehi, 25, is still eager to join Liverpool as a free agent next summer, having nearly signed for the Premier League champions on deadline day. ENGLAND captain Harry Kane, 32, has a clause in his contract which means the striker could leave Bayern Munich for £56.7m (RM321.5m) next summer – but only if he announces his intention to depart the German champions before the end of the winter transfer window. TOTTENHAM retain an interest in Manchester City winger Savinho, 21, and could revisit a potential deal for the Brazil attacker in January. Liverpool issue immediate response to Salah’s award snub LIVERPOOL had a touching message for Mohamed Salah after it was confirmed that the forward had missed out on the 2025 Ballon d’Or award. The Egyptian didn’t even secure a spot in the top three. Salah, Liverpool’s No. 11, finished fourth, his highest ever position in the rankings for the individual accolade, despite contributing a combined total of 57 goals and assists last season as his team clinched the Premier League title. The Reds announced the news across their social media platforms with an initial post, followed by a heartening message for Salah, should he have been disheartened by the result. The caption read: “A season to savour from Salah,” accompanied by a red heart emoji. The message was particularly poignant on Instagram , where Liverpool posted a carousel of memorable moments from the 33-year-old’s successful 2024/25 campaign. The first image showed the Egyptian sitting in front of The Kop at Anfield on the final day of last season, proudly wearing his Premier League winners’ medal, with the league trophy, Premier League player of the season award, Golden Boot award, Playmaker award, and the FWA footballer of the year prize displayed before him. The second photo featured Salah with his PFA player of the season award, which he received at a ceremony in Manchester last month. Following this, a series of photos showcased the player’s jubilations after securing the Premier League trophy at Anfield, his triumphs at various award ceremonies over the past year, and moments of goal celebrations from the previous season. Conor Bradley, Hugo Ekitike, Luis Diaz, Milos Kerkez, and Ryan Gravenberch, all current and former Reds team-mates, were quick to show their appreciation for the Instagram post by ‘liking’ it. – Express Newspapers

NAPOLI maintained their lead at the top of Serie A with yesterday’s 3-2 win over promoted Pisa which continued the champions’ perfect start to their domestic campaign. Lorenzo Lucca’s first goal for his new club, thumped home in the 82nd minute, ended up being the winning goal in a narrow win for Napoli who have 12 points from four league matches. That put Napoli two points ahead of second-placed Juventus following their great

carries pressure.” Conte has a reputation for struggling with the rhythm of playing European and domestic football and it was an underwhelming performance from Napoli in the wake of Thursday night’s 2-0 defeat at Manchester City in the Champions League. “The teams that play European football every year are settled in, we’re not. That’s why playing every three days can create physical and mental stress,” added Conte. “We need to have patience.” – AFP

rivals’ draw at Verona on Saturday, and three ahead of Roma and AC Milan who complete the top four in Italy. Napoli head to the San Siro next weekend to take on Milan who have an Italian Cup fixture against Lecce on Tuesday night. “Obviously we’re happy for four wins out of four in a league where there are six or seven teams at a really good level,” said Conte to Sky . “We’ve got a lot of new players who have come here and have the Scudetto (for winning last season’s title) on their shirt. And that

Marseille down PSG Moroccan defender Aguerd inflicts first defeat of season on PSG in Ligue 1 A N early goal by defender Nayef Aguerd gave Marseille a 1-0 win over reigning champions Paris Saint Germain yesterday, a rare suc

well as possible for the next match.” The fixture, the biggest in French football, was scheduled to go ahead on Sunday but was called off because local authorities feared fore cast heavy rainfall would be a significant risk for both players and spectators. With little space in a packed calendar and both clubs involved in the Champions League, the match was put back just a day. That proved awkward for PSG as it meant a clash with the Ballon d’Or awards ceremony in Paris, at which a host of their squad were nomi nated for the men’s player of the year prize. Among them was Ousmane Dembele, the top scorer for the Champions League winners last season who was able to attend the cere mony having been ruled out of the Marseille clash due to injury. Luis Enrique could have done with Dembele in the game, as well as his fellow injury absentees Desire Doue and Joao Neves. Achraf Hakimi was pushed forward from his usual right-back position to the wing, but it was still a strong Paris team. Nevertheless, Marseille held onto the lead following the early goal to claim a first home league victory against PSG since November 2011. Aguerd’s goal was the first time they had even found the net at home to PSG in Ligue 1 since 2017. Amine Gouiri hit the bar soon after as Marseille sought to add to their advantage. The home side also had a goal disallowed for offside in the first half, before goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli made a couple of key saves to deny the visitors after the break. Marseille saw the game out, although not before fiery coach Roberto De Zerbi was shown a late red card on the touchline. It is a first loss of the season for PSG, who had won their first four matches in Ligue 1. They fall off the top of the table, behind Monaco on goals scored. Both teams have 12 points, as do Lyon and Strasbourg who complete the top four. Marseille are up to sixth, three points adrift of the leading quartet. “I think we deserved to win against a team who are defining an era, a bit like Arrigo Sacchi’s Milan did, or Guardiola’s Barcelona,” said Marseille coach Roberto De Zerbi. “They play football differently and that gives added value to my players’ performance.” – AFP

cess against their great rivals in a game delayed 24 hours by storms in south ern France. Moroccan defender Aguerd, signed just before the

recent transfer deadline from West Ham United, scored his sec ond goal in as

many 1 appearances for his new club with five minutes gone at the Velodrome. PSG goalkeeper Lucas Chevalier came for a deflected Mason Greenwood cross but got nothing on the ball, allow ing Aguerd to head into the unguarded net and score the only goal of the game. “We are not used to losing games,” said PSG coach Ligue

Luis Enrique, whose side were unde feated in Ligue 1

last sea son until the end of April. “ I thought we played well and deserved a bit more. It is

Marseille’s Timothy Weah (left) in action with Paris St-Germain’s

always difficult to lose a game like this but we are a team of champi ons and we need to carry on and prepare as

Nuno Mendes. – REUTERSPIC

Yamal’s dad issues ‘very strange’ statement LAMINE YAMAL’S father has slammed Ballon d’Or chiefs for snubbing his son and handing the prestigious prize to Ousmane Dembele. The PSG forward won the award for the first time after helping the French giants to win the Champions League last season. Yamal finished in second place, having enjoyed a stellar campaign with Barcelona. Yamal’s father, Mounir Nasraoui, seemed to accept defeat after the ceremony by telling media outside the venue that ‘next year it will be ours’. However, in a separate interview with Spanish outlet El Chiringuito , he appeared to suggest that an injustice had been carried out. He claimed that ‘something strange’ must have happened for Yamal not to win the Ballon d’Or yesterday. “I wouldn’t say it was a robbery, but a moral prejudice to

considerable with nobody else coming close to securing top spot. “There wasn’t really a contest, Ousmane won it quite comfortably,” he said, before adding that voting on all continents was heavily in favour of the Frenchman. The full voting breakdown will be published by France Football this weekend. – Express Newspapers margin,

a human being because I think Lamine Yamal is the best player in the world by far, by very far,” said Nasraoui. “It isn’t because he is my son that he is the best player in the world; he doesn’t have a rival. It’s Lamine Yamal. Something very strange happened here.” Meanwhile, it has been revealed by France Football editor-in-chief Vincent Garcia that Dembele won the Ballon d’Or by a