IN UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Barcelona star Marcus Rashford made a spectacular Champions League bow for the team as Newcastle United’s campaign got off to a two-one losing start at St James’ Park.
Rashford, on loan from Manchester United, became Newcastle’s tormentor when he broke open a tight encounter with two swift second-half goals.
Rashford produced an even better moment nine minutes later when he hammered home a stunning 20-yard drive in off the crossbar past the helpless Pope.
It was Rashford ‘s first Champions League goals in almost four years, while Newcastle’s only goal was scored by Anthony Gordon.
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Manchester City star Erling Haaland broke another record by becoming the quickest player to score fifty Champions League goals as the team was made to work hard in its two-nil victory over Napoli.
Haaland took only forty-nine games to reach the milestone, lofting home a header in the second half to set City on their way to three points, as Kevin de Bruyne’s much-anticipated return to Etihad Stadium lasted a disappointing twenty-six minutes.
Jeremy Doku showed quick feet to add a second and seal victory, as returns to Manchester for former United players Scott McTominay and Rasmus Hojlund ended in dismay.
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Eintracht Frankfurt fought back from conceding an early goal to convincingly beat Galatasaray five-one in its first Champions League game of the season.
The victory leaves Eintracht Frankfurt top of the 36-team league phase after the first of eight match weeks.
Galatasaray, whose side included former Manchester City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan, suffered their first loss since 29th March and the defeat ended their run of thirteen successive competitive victories.
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Club Brugge got their 2025-26 Champions League campaign off to a perfect start as they ran riot with a four-one win against Monaco.
Three goals within the space of ten minutes all but put the game out of Monaco’s reach by the time the half-time whistle blew at Jan Breydelstadion.
Nicolo Tresoldi, Raphael Onyedika and Hans Vanaken were on the scoresheet for the Belgian side in a chaotic first half.
French teenager Mamadou Diakhon added a fourth with a fierce finish before Ansu Fati, on his debut for Monaco, slammed in a consolation goal in stoppage time.
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Bayer Leverkusen has snatched a point in its Champions League opener with an own goal from Copenhagen’s Pantelis Hatzidiakos in the 91st minute after a thrilling finish.
It came after the hosts thought they had won the match when substitute Robert Silva restored Copenhagen’s lead in the 86th minute with a diving header when unmarked six yards out.
The home side struck first and took a ninth-minute lead when Jordan Larsson did well with a controlled half-volley following Elias Achouri’s cross.
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The Professional Footballers’ Association is in talks with Chelsea over the handling of squad outcasts Raheem Sterling and Axel Disasi.
The players are training away from the club’s first-team set-up after head coach Enzo Maresca made it clear they are not part of his plans.
Sterling has just two years left on his deal at Chelsea, which is worth about three hundred and twenty-five thousand pounds-per-week, while 27-year-old Disasi’s contract expires in 2029.
The Association wants to ensure Sterling and Disasi have the platform to train to an optimum level despite not being involved with the senior team.
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Wolves manager Vitor Pereira has signed a new three-year contract at Molineux.
Pereira guided the West Midlands club to the safety of a 16th-place finish last season after arriving in December 2024 with Wolves 19th in the Premier League.
The 57-year-old’s previous deal had been set to expire in the summer of 2026.
Wolves sit bottom of the table after losing their opening four league matches.
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Manchester United women star Elisabeth Terland’s hat-trick fired the team into the main draw of the Women’s Champions League for the first time with victory over Norwegian side Brann.
It is a historic and significant victory for United, who have come through opponents PSV, Hammarby and Brann in qualifying to book their place in Friday’s draw alongside English rivals Arsenal and Chelsea.
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IN NIGERIA
Super Eagles has dropped again in the FIFA World ranking as the team moved one step down from 44th to 45th.
The latest ranking was released by FIFA on their official website on Thursday.
In Africa, the Super Eagles currently rank sixth, behind Morocco in first place, Senegal in second, Egypt in third, Algeria in fourth, and Côte d’Ivoire in fifth.
Lesotho who will host the Eagles on matchday 9 of the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers in October dropped to one hundred and fifty-three.
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Former Nigeria international Yakubu Aiyegbeni has disclosed that the Nigeria Football Federation, should not blame Super Eagles defender William Troost-Ekong for Nigeria’s struggle in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.
Aiyegbeni made this known amid reports that Troost-Ekong’s own goal against South Africa in Bloemfontein, may have dented the team’s chances of qualifying for the World Cup.
The former Everton striker stated Troost-Ekong was a true leader in the Super Eagles and that mistakes are bound to happen in football.
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The Federation of International Football Association, FIFA, has officially opened disciplinary proceedings against the South African Football Association, SAFA, and Teboho Mokoena.
FIFA said Mokoena, who plays for South African club, Mamelodi Sundowns was fielded by Bafana Bafana while under suspension in a 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Crocodiles of Lesotho on 21st March, 2025.
Mokoena had earlier accumulated two yellow cards against Squirrels of Benin Republic, and Warriors of Zimbabwe, which, under FIFA rules, triggered a one-match ban.
FIFA confirmed that both the player and the association face charges of breaching several disciplinary regulations, including the fielding of an ineligible player.
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The Chief Executive officer of the South African Football Association Lydia Monyepao has confirmed they have received communication from FIFA over the Teboho Mokoena suspension investigation.
He said the Association was preparing to respond to the FIFA Disciplinary Committee.
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Super Falcons captain Rasheedat Ajibade, and defender Osinachi Ohale have hailed former captain of the team Onome Ebi after she announced her retirement from professional football.
Ajibade, and Ohale celebrated the veteran defender on the social media.
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Flying Eagles has settled down in Santiago, Chile for their final preparations ahead of the 2025 FIFA Under-twenty World Cup.
The seven-time African champions had their first training session at the Cancha Liga Training Pitch in Santiago.
The session, which lasted for two hours, was supervised by head coach Aliyu Zubairu.
The Flying Eagles will take on Chile in a friendly on Saturday and also do battle with Australia in another friendly next week Tuesday.
The West Africans will begin their campaign at the Under-twenty World Cup against Norway on Monday, 29th September.
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Flying Eagles head coach Daniel Bameyi says the team wants to make history by winning the title at the 2025 FIFA Under-twenty World Cup.
Bameyi is confident they can go all the way this time around.
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Former Super Eagles defender and Sporting Director of the newly promoted NPFL side, Kun Khalifat, Ifeanyi Anaemena, says the ‘Pride of Imolites’ are primed for greater things after their hard-fought three-one win against El-Kanemi Warriors.
Anaemena described the triumph as a sweet materialisation of the team’s hard work after their initial winless run of three games in their NPFL debut season.
He insisted that the victory marks a turning point in their elite league campaign.
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Super Eagles star Ademola Lookman has resumed training with his Atalanta teammates.
Lookman had a meeting with head coach Ivan Juric on Thursday.
The 27-year-old also spoke with his teammates before the training session, and informed them he was motivated to play for the team again.
Lookman is now in contention to make his first appearance of the season for La Dea against Torino on Sunday.
Nigeria on Thursday welcomed the Commonwealth Sport Bid Evaluation Committee to Abuja, a major step towards hosting the 2030 Commonwealth Games.
President Bola Tinubu, through his Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, formally received the delegation at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja.
He reaffirmed Nigeria’s commitment to hosting an inclusive, diverse, and world-class 2030 Commonwealth Games on African soil.
World record holder in the women’s 100m hurdles, Tobi Amusan, has dedicated her silver medal at the 2025 World Athletics Championships to her fans.
Amusan clocked 12.29s to finish behind Switzerland’s Ditaji Kambundji, who set a national record of 12.24s to claim gold, while America’s Grace Stark took bronze in 12.34s.
Anthony Joshua is set to fulfil his long-held dream of fighting in Nigeria after promoter Ezekiel Adamu has revealed plans to stage the heavyweight superstar’s first bout in Africa in early 2026.
Dr Adamu, CEO of promotional group Balmoral, hopes to bring the British-Nigerian home for what would be a historic homecoming fight in the first quarter of next year.
The ambitious promoter, who is behind Nigeria’s “Chaos in the Ring” event on October 1 in Lagos, told The Ring that discussions with Joshua’s camp have been overwhelmingly positive.
Nigeria’s 15-man contingent to the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo is facing one of the toughest anti-doping regimes in the sport’s history as the Athletics Integrity Unit intensifies scrutiny on countries with the highest risk of doping.
In a press statement made available, the AIU confirmed that Nigeria, alongside Bahrain, Ethiopia, Kenya and Ukraine, is classified as a Category A nation under World Athletics Rule 15.
This category, according to the AIU, requires athletes to meet the strictest testing standards before being cleared to compete at major championships.
Following a protest by some athletes representing the state, the Lagos State Sports Commission insists that the claims of rewards for winning medals at the 2020 and 2022 National Sports Festivals are unfounded.
This also comes a few weeks after the state’s triumph at the 2025 National Youth Games in Asaba, where Lagos achieved the unprecedented by displacing Delta State at the top of the medal table by winning 51 gold, 31 silver, and 24 bronze medals.
In the wake of the protest, the Director General of the Lagos State Sports Commission, Lekan Fatodu, dissolved the ‘senior athletes’, in what was said to be a move aimed at injecting fresh energy, renewed discipline, and a stronger competitive spirit into the state’s sporting programmes.
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OTHER LEAGUES
South Korea forward Son Heung-min scored his first Major League Soccer hat-trick as Los Angeles FC won four-one at Real Salt Lake on Wednesday.
Son struck twice in the opening sixteen minutes to put LAFC two-nil up before completing his treble to make it three-one on eighty-two minutes.
It took the 33-year-old’s tally to five goals in six games for LAFC since ending his 10-year spell with Tottenham to move to the US last month.
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Benfica has appointed Jose Mourinho as their manager on a deal until the summer of 2027.
Mourinho succeeds Bruno Lage, who was sacked after the shock Champions League defeat against Qarabag.
The former Chelsea boss returns to management less than a month after being dismissed by Fenerbahce following a Champions League play-offs defeat by his new club Benfica.
Mourinho began his managerial career with Benfica in two thousand but took charge of only ten games and left following a dispute with the club president.
The Portuguese, who famously gave himself the moniker ‘the special one’ in 2004, returns to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea in the Champions League on 30th September.
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OTHER SPORTS
In Tennis, Emma Raducanu has missed three match points as former Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova fought back to reach the Korea Open quarter-finals.
British number one Raducanu will be left to rue a missed opportunity after losing 4-6, 7-6, 6-1 in two hours and fifty-two minutes.
Krejcikova, ranked 39th in the world, saved two break points in the third game of the deciding set before reeling off five successive games to secure victory.
The Czech will face world number two Iga Swiatek of Poland in the quarter-finals.
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In Athletics, Great Britain’s Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson began her pursuit of a first world title by cruising through to the semi-finals of the women’s eight hundred metres in Tokyo.
Hodgkinson is the gold-medal favourite after running a world-leading time on her return to action in August, despite enduring a 376-day wait to make her competitive return following last summer’s Games.
Two hamstring tears later, she secured back-to-back wins in her only two pre-championship races in August.
Returning to the stadium where she won Olympic silver as a teenager four years ago, the 23-year-old controlled her heat to reach Friday’s semi-finals.
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In Formula one, Oscar Piastri says McLaren are very aligned on their approach to racing in the title fight between him and team-mate Lando Norris.
The Australian said he trusted the team in the wake of discussions following the events of the Italian Grand Prix, where Piastri was asked to hand second place to Norris after a pit-stop problem for the Briton.
Piastri leads Norris by thirty-one points heading into this weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
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In Cricket, Josh Tongue, bowling with great pace and huge stamina to take 5-100, bowled Nottinghamshire to a highly dramatic 20-run victory against Surrey at The Oval the win that could bring Notts their first championship title since 2010.
Surrey, needing 315 in the fourth innings of a great contest, were bowled out for 294 after a final day of continually fluctuating fortunes and packed with incident, and it was Tongue who grabbed the last three wickets to haul his side over the line despite a defiant thirty-three at the end by Tom Lawes.
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In Rugby, England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales have gained control of their autumn fixtures as part of World Rugby’s alterations to the women’s global calendar.
The new WXV Global Series, which will replace the WXV competition, will run from 2026-2028 and feature the top twelve teams in the world.
Seeking to build on the success of the Women’s Rugby World Cup in England, national federations and unions will be able to choose their own home and away games in September and October.
Alongside each of the home nations, Australia, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States qualify as the top twelve sides.
The twelve nations are locked in to the WXV Global Series until the next Rugby World Cup in 2029.
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In Golf, Britain’s Charley Hull says she will look forward to playing golf with President Trump after speaking to him in his US state visit banquet.
World number five Hull and six-time major champion Sir Nick Faldo were among the one hundred and sixty guests at the lavish dinner in Windsor Castle.
Hull recently won her third LGPA Tour title by overhauling world number one Jeeno Thitikul on the final hole of the Queen City Championship and chatted to the United States President about their mutual love of golf.
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In Cycling, Great Britain’s Zoe Backstedt says she is excited to compete in the Road World Championships despite the expectation that it will be the toughest on record.
The competition will travel to Africa for the first time in its history and athletes will bid for the rainbow jersey in Rwanda’s capital Kigali, known as the ‘Land of a Thousand Hills’.
The men’s road race will have five thousand, four hundred and seventy-five metres of elevation over the two hundred and sixty-seven point five kilometres circuit, while there is four hundred and sixty metres of climbing across thirty-one two metres in the women’s time trial and six hundred and eighty metres in forty points six kilometres in the men’s event.
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SOCCER ACTION CONTINUES THIS WEEKEND
IN ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE
ON SATURDAY
Liverpool vs Everton
Brighton vs Tottenham Hotspur
Burnley vs Nottingham Forest
West Ham United vs Crystal Palace
Wolves vs Leeds United
Manchester United vs Chelsea
Fulham vs Brentford
ON SUNDAY
Bournemouth vs Newcastle United
Sunderland vs Aston Villa
Arsenal vs Manchester City
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IN SPANISH LA LIGA
ON SATURDAY
Girona vs Levante
Real Madrid vs Espanyol
Alavés vs Sevilla
Villarreal vs Osasuna
Valencia vs Athletic Club
ON SUNDAY
Rayo Vallecano vs Celta Vigo
Mallorca vs Atletico Madrid
Elche vs Real Oviedo
Barcelona vs Getafe
FOOD FOR THOUGHT.
Success is not owned – it is leased. And rent is due every day. Every single day, someone’s coming for your job. Someone’s coming for your greatness. If you are the greatest, someone wants to be the greatest, and so if you are not constantly improving your game, somebody else is…words from J.J. Watt.
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