Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty (ANI Photo)

NEW DELHI: India’s star men’s doubles badminton pair, Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, ended a 742-day wait for a BWF World Tour title by winning the Singapore Open. The former world No. 1 duo fought back from a game down to beat Indonesia’s Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Shohibul Fikri 18-21, 21-17, 21-16 in the final. It was their third Super 750 title and a reward after a difficult period that included injuries, four final losses and eight semifinal exits.Despite not winning a title for over two years, Chirag rejected suggestions that the pair had become inconsistent.“I wouldn’t call it inconsistency. I think we, on the contrary, were quite consistent. To be calling number three in the world inconsistent, I think everybody else beyond number one should stop playing badminton,” Chirag said.He explained that injuries and time away from competition affected their rhythm, not their quality. The pair even dropped to world No. 27 in June 2025 before climbing back to No. 3 by November.“Yes, obviously, everybody enters the court to win. Likewise for us, we wanted to go out there and win titles. But it wasn’t like we weren’t able to, and it wasn’t that we were playing badly or anything. It’s just that maybe some days luck wasn’t on our side.”Satwik also pointed to injuries as a major challenge but said they are a normal part of elite sport. “It’s part and parcel of the game. It’s not like nobody will have injuries,” he said.The Singapore Open win came after the pair voiced disappointment over the lack of attention given to badminton achievements, including India’s Thomas Cup bronze medal. Chirag welcomed the increased coverage but said the sport deserves regular recognition.The duo also credited coaches Mathias Boe and Tan Kim Her for helping with match planning and tactical preparation. Looking ahead to the World Championships and the road to the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, confidence is high.“On a good day, we can beat anyone,” Satwik said.For now, the pair are focused on maintaining their form, with Chirag saying: “Right now it’s going well. Fingers crossed.”

Oklahoma City Thunder’s Isaiah Hartenstein (55), Aaron Wiggins (21), and Chet Holmgren (7) watch the closing moments of their loss to the San Antonio Spurs during the second half of Game 7 of the Western Conference finals of the NBA basketball playoffs series, Saturday, May 30, 2026, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

OKLAHOMA CITY — Chet Holmgren attempted two shots in Game 7 of the Western Conference finals. He absorbed plenty of shots from critics afterward.

And the Oklahoma City Thunder spent Day 1 of the offseason making clear that they support him.

If the ballyhooed matchup in the West finals was Holmgren vs. San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama, then it was a one-sided one. Wembanyama had the superior numbers in the series and the Spurs wound up prevailing, while Holmgren was barely a factor offensively with the Thunder season on the line Saturday night.

READ: Wembanyama, Spurs dethrone Thunder in Game 7 to reach NBA Finals

“Every minute Chet Holmgren’s been on the team, we’ve been the 1 seed in the Western Conference,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said Sunday, when the team gathered for end-of-season meetings. “And it wasn’t the case before Chet was healthy.”

Holmgren had likely his best season, with career-highs of 17.1 points and 8.9 rebounds per game. He made All-NBA for the first time, All-Defensive for the first time as well, got his first All-Star nod, plus was second in the Defensive Player of the Year balloting.

He finished second in that voting behind Wembanyama — just like he did for Rookie of the Year in 2024, and just like the Thunder did in these West finals.

“We need Chet. We need Chet Holmgren,” Thunder guard and back-to-back reigning NBA Most Valuable Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Before Chet was here, we weren’t who we are today. We didn’t have the success we had today. When he’s the best version of himself, we’re the best version of ourselves and it’s no secret.”

It’s easy to envision the West finals matchup — Thunder vs. Spurs — becoming a rivalry for years to come. Both teams have young, obviously highly talented corps, and now they have the ingredient that all rivalries truly need, that being a playoff matchup, to help provide fuel.

READ: NBA: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander tips his cap after Game 7 loss

“I definitely think that they’re different in terms of I don’t think there’s another team that has their play style, their personnel,” Holmgren said. “They’re unique in that way. You can’t just kind of play like a base normal, ‘this is what we kind of do on an average Tuesday night’ type of thing.”

And while the outside world might have looked at Holmgren as one of the reasons why Game 7 didn’t go Oklahoma City’s way, the rest of the Thunder disagreed.

Gilgeous-Alexander, for example, pointed to himself — and that was after he had a brilliant 35-point effort in the deciding game against San Antonio. He even went as far as to describe a second straight MVP season as “a failure.”

“I failed at my goal,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “I didn’t achieve what I wanted to achieve, but through my experiences, I learned the most about myself and I make the greatest amount of increases I have in my career when I fail at my goal and don’t get what I want. And I look at this no different. I didn’t get where I wanted to go this season. There’s a reason for that. Now I have to look at that reason and try to make sure it never happens again.”

Following his impressive victory over Juno Nakatani, Naoya Inoue is being linked to a showdown with Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez, and fellow pound-for-pound contender Shakur Stevenson has shared his prediction for the proposed fight.

Inoue defended his undisputed super-bantamweight crown with a unanimous decision victory over Nakatani at the Tokyo Dome a month ago, strengthening his claim to the pound-for-pound number one spot, particularly after Oleksandr Usyk’s close shave against Rico Verhoeven.

With the Japanese star having cleaned out the 122lb division, fight fans are now discussing the prospect of a clash against unified super-flyweight champion Rodriguez before a planned move to featherweight.

Speaking to Matchroom Boxing, WBO super-lightweight champion Stevenson believes ‘Bam’ could prove to be Inoue’s ‘Kryptonite’, highlighting that Inoue has been knocked down by the left-handed Luis Nery and that Rodriguez, who is also a southpaw, possesses the power to floor the unbeaten sensation.

“I like Bam, I can’t go against Bam. I know Bam, Bam is my guy. I think that Inoue is a great fighter but I think that Bam may be his Kryptonite.

“I have seen him [Inoue] get dropped by a southpaw and I think that Bam punches hard enough where he could drop him too.”

Rodriguez is already set to move up from super-flyweight when he challenges for Antonio Vargas’ WBA bantamweight world title at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona next weekend. If he is successful, it is believed that the undefeated American will call for his shot at Inoue in the aftermath, moving up one more division to make it happen.

Promoter Eddie Hearn has said preliminary talks have taken place and that his man Rodriguez is more than willing to travel to Japan for the showdown.

Naomi Osaka revealed another new look at this year’s French Open, this time for her blockbuster night session match against world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka under the lights on Court Philippe-Chatrier.

Four-time grand slam champion Osaka’s outfits have been the talk of the tournament at Roland Garros, and this time she revealed a slightly altered design that saw the section of sparkly gold sequins continue into a flowing gold train, which was then removed before the start of the match.

Following her jellyfish-inspired walk-on at the season’s Australian Open and her show-stopping collaboration with Beyonce’s regular couturier Robert Wun at May’s Met Gala in New York, Osaka has revealed a series of outfits inspired by the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

The Japanese star walked onto court wearing a flowing black skirt ahead of her first-round match against Laura Seigemund, before revealing a sparkling gold sequined playing dress that was designed to look like the Eiffel Tower at night.

For her second-round match against Donna Vekic, Osaka retained the gold playing dress but topped it with a metallic gold bomber jacket and an ivory train reminiscent of a wedding dress.

Osaka hinted that she had an additional look prepared in the event of a night match, with her fourth-round encounter against world No 1 Sabalenka becoming the first women’s singles match to be scheduled in the night session in three years.

The French Open has faced criticism in recent years for almost exclusively scheduling men’s singles matches in the prime-time slot since its introduction in 2021, with Osaka-Sabalenka ending a run of 33 consecutive men’s matches.

”You guys keep asking and I keep providing, like why are we still asking?” Osaka replied with a laugh when asked if she would have a “night” look prepared. “I mean, I think it’s fun, like and every silhouette is inspired by something different.”

The 28-year-old Osaka also explained that her custom Nike kits are planned and designed up to 18 months in advance, with this particular design requiring at least four different fittings before arriving at Roland Garros, where she is through to the fourth-round for the first time.

“I have a lot of meetings with Nike and I don’t think people realise how much time and like effort they put into every outfit,” she said. “They plan it like a year and a half in advance, and that’s like minimum. There’s a lot of effort that goes into it.”

Osaka, an introvert, has said she uses fashion to “talk through my clothes” and says walk-ons at the grand slam tournaments are “the only time that I possibly feel like I’m an entertainer” and said there’s a “community that has been built over my on-court outfits”.

Not everyone is a fan, though. After her defeat to Osaka in the first round, Laura Siegemund questioned how much time her opponent was allowed to take to change her clothes and claimed the former world No 1 was receiving special treatment.

“I couldn’t care less,” Siegemund told TNT Sports of Osaka’s catwalk-like entrance. “I come here to play tennis, not to put on a fashion show. And if others want to put on a fashion show, then they should go ahead and do it. That’s totally fine with me.

“I find something else problematic. In our sport, at every tournament they count every second, right up until you’ve unpacked your water bottle. But she can have a minute and a half to change. I have a problem with that, because these rules simply exist and they are what they are – every second is now being watched so closely for us.

“And I also think that with performances like these, every second should be accounted for. That’s the only thing regarding the rules that I don’t think is okay and where, once again, bigger names are treated differently.”

Odell Beckham Jr. signed with the New York Giants on Monday, marking a reunion seven years after the team traded him to the Cleveland Browns.

There’s no guarantee Beckham will be on the 53-man roster when September rolls around. For now, he’ll be added depth to a team that may not have Malik Nabers back before Week 1 following a knee injury he suffered last season.

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Odell Beckham Jr. of the New York Giants celebrates after scoring a 10-yard touchdown pass against the San Francisco 49ers at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Nov. 12, 2018. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

Beckham also sat out the entire 2025 season as he worked to get in shape for an NFL roster. He played nine games for the Miami Dolphins in 2024, making nine catches for 55 yards.

“The thing I love about Odell is right now he’s in such a good place in terms of his humility,” Giants head coach John Harbaugh said in April when Beckham worked out for the team before the draft. “He wants to be part of a team. He wants to contribute. He wants to help the young guys. That’s what he’s talking about doing. He still thinks he has some juice, and he looked good in the workout. You still got to be able to play. It’s not going to be the old Odell. It’s going to be a different version, the 2.0 Odell I guess you would say.”

Harbaugh coached Beckham when the two were with the Baltimore Ravens in 2023. Beckham played 14 games that year, coming off a torn ACL he suffered in Super Bowl LVI with the Los Angeles Rams. He had 35 catches for 565 yards and three touchdowns in 14 games in 2023.

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New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. reacts during the third quarter against the New Orleans Saints at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., on Sept. 30, 2018. (Brad Penner/USA TODAY Sports)

The Giants selected Beckham with the No. 12 pick of the 2014 draft out of LSU. He quickly emerged as one of the most dynamic receivers in the league and his numbers were on par with Jerry Rice before injuries and general disarray plagued his time with the team.

Beckham made one of the greatest catches in NFL history, battling through a pass interference penalty to make a wild touchdown grab against the Dallas Cowboys.

He had 390 catches for 5,476 yards and 44 touchdowns while with Big Blue for the first five years of his career. He was a Pro Bowler three times and the 2014 Offensive Rookie of the Year.

For all his faults, Beckham was named one of the top 100 Giants players of all time by an independent committee, according to the team.

Right now, he would join a team that has Nabers, Darius Slayton, Calvin Austin III, Darnell Mooney and rookie Malachi Fields on the depth chart.

The team also added Braxton Berrios to the roster.

New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. makes a catch despite pressure from Tampa Bay Buccaneers safety Isaiah Johnson in the first quarter. (Danielle Parhizkaran/NorthJersey.com Syndication)

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If the Jaxson Dart-Abdul Carter controversy wasn’t going to make training camp fun, having a veteran like Beckham around certainly will.

The Super Bowl favorites just got better. The Los Angeles Rams are at it again.

In a blockbuster move, the Rams are trading for reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett, multiple sources tell CBS Sports. In exchange for the future Hall of Fame pass rusher, the Cleveland Browns will receive former Defensive Rookie of the Year Jared Verse, a 2027 first-round pick, a 2028 second-rounder and a third-round pick in 2029. 

The seismic move takes place on June 1, an important accounting day on the NFL calendar. Garrett, who set the NFL single-season sack record with 23 sacks this past season, agreed to a contract restructure in March that pushed option bonus payments from March into late summer. Now the Browns can spread his $41.09 million dead cap hit across two seasons instead of absorbing it all in 2026 by doing the deal after 4 p.m. Eastern on June 1.

This is a trade without a modern precedent. Garrett is coming off a career year and just won the top defensive player award for the second time in three years. Twice, he has earned the title of highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history in his nine seasons with the Browns as the former top pick in the 2017 draft. He is well on his way to becoming a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

Adding Garrett makes the Rams the most formidable team in the NFL on paper, and it continues a busy offseason for a Sean McVay team that finished as the NFC runner-up.

Ahead of free agency, the Rams traded a first-, third-, fifth- and sixth-round pick to the Kansas City Chiefs for All-Pro cornerback Trent McDuffie before signing him on an extension that made him the highest-paid corner in the league. They then used their other 2026 first-rounder to take Alabama QB Ty Simpson, a luxury pick for L.A. that sets up the franchise for what it hopes will be a seamless quarterback transition.

And not to forget the reigning NFL MVP Matthew Stafford, who less than two weeks ago officially signed his extension worth $55 million in new money. Stafford, 38, essentially continues on a year-to-year deal with the team.

All this comes as the franchise is set to host Super Bowl LXI in February at SoFi Stadium. The Rams won Super Bowl LVI in their building following the 2021 season, and now they have a game wrecker in Garrett added to their arsenal for this title run.

What it means for the Browns 

Cleveland is trading away one of the franchise’s all-time greats, who is arguably the most impactful non-quarterback in the league today. But before getting into what Cleveland is missing, let’s look at what the Browns are adding.

Verse was the 19th pick in the 2024 draft and easily won the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of the Year award that season with the Rams. Though he has just 12 sacks through two seasons, Verse ranks fifth among all players in quarterback pressures since 2024 with 143, trailing only Garrett, Danielle Hunter, Micah Parsons and Josh Hines-Allen in that category according to Next Gen Stats.

While Garrett’s deal averages $40 million per year, Verse has a cap hit of just $4.1 million this season thanks to his rookie contract. He is not extension-eligible until after this year at the earliest. There is significant cash and cap savings in sending away one of the best players in the sport, but the Browns are getting a promising replacement who is five years younger.

Along with Verse, there are three picks, including a first-round selection next year, which can now help the team potentially secure a franchise quarterback in 2027. Browns GM Andrew Berry has done well in the draft each of the past two years, earning early praise for this year’s class while taking the top defensive rookie last year in Carson Schwesinger, along with Mason Graham, Quinshon Judkins and Harold Fannin Jr.

The haul for Garrett is substantial, and it must be. In a trade not involving Garrett, a player of Verse’s caliber, age and contract would likely yield a first-round pick and then some. The combination of Verse plus the picks can reasonably add up to at least three first-rounders. When the Raiders traded Khalil Mack 18 months after he was named the league’s top defensive player, they received two first-round picks, a third-round pick, and a sixth-round pick, while sending a second-round pick and a conditional fifth-round pick.

Just last year, the Packers sent two first-rounders and then-29-year-old Kenny Clark to Dallas to acquire Micah Parsons and then make him the highest-paid player in the league.

But it is impossible to construe the 2026 Cleveland Browns being better without Garrett than with him, and losing him is a significant blow for the team’s prospects this upcoming season, regardless of the return. The Browns have a quarterback battle between Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders that may yield a winner later this month under new head coach Todd Monken.

The Browns have won just eight games since going to the playoffs in the 2023 season. After a putrid 3-14 season in 2024, Garrett demanded a trade out of Cleveland during Super Bowl week. That ended when he signed a record four-year, $160 million deal the following month, and he delivered with 23 sacks in 2025 to set a new record.

Then came March, when the Browns adjusted Garrett’s contract to pay his option bonuses just a week before the start of the regular season, rather than 15 days after the new league year. Garrett’s pay did not change a cent, but it did make trading Garrett at this point in the calendar far more digestible for the Browns. The contract tweak lowered what would have otherwise been a $64.5 million dead cap hit in 2026 by dealing Garrett. Now that it’s past June 1, the $40 million dead cap hit can be spread over this year and next.

Behind the scenes, at the time, the Browns were adamant they were not trading Garrett. When Berry spoke at the league meetings in late March, he took it a step further.

“Myles is a career Brown,” Berry said then. “He is one of the faces of our organization. I think we’ve been very clear both past and present in terms of our goals.”

The Browns are now going back on that. The five-time first-team All-Pro who has had double-digit sacks in every season since his second year could retire now and be in the Hall of Fame within five to seven years. But as he stated in his 2025 trade request, his “goal was never to go from Cleveland to Canton, it has always been to compete for and win a Super Bowl.”

There is little question he will get that chance starting right away.

What it means for the Rams 

Eff them picks, right? Rams GM Les Snead famously went seven years without taking a player in the first round of the draft thanks to this philosophy. That strategy ultimately netted him veterans like Stafford, Brandin Cooks and Jalen Ramsey.

But Snead broke his streak in 2024 by taking Verse before trading out of the first round in 2025 with a deal with the Falcons that couldn’t be passed up. That draft-day trade last year gave the Rams the ability to make the move for McDuffie ahead of free agency and still have the 13th overall selection in this year’s draft.

And with an aging Stafford, a QB-rich 2027 draft class and the belief they won’t be picking anywhere close to the top of that draft, the Rams took Simpson to lock in their succession plan.

Though the Rams mulled trading for A.J. Brown this offseason, they decided to keep their assets and move forward with veteran receiver Davante Adams and Puka Nacua, who is also due a major-money extension this offseason that will eclipse the $40 million-per-year mark.

L.A. has been able to deal draft picks like this for several reasons. Owner Stan Kroenke has deep pockets to pay guaranteed money to veteran players. Snead is unafraid to send picks for proven blue-chip players. The team’s location makes it a magnet for free agents. And McVay is a force multiplier as a coach.

By 2021, the Rams had already sent two first-round picks to Jacksonville for Ramsey when the team sent two future first-round picks for Stafford. At the trade deadline, Snead dealt a second- and third-round pick to Denver to secure future Hall of Famer Von Miller. Shortly after, he signed Odell Beckham Jr. to a one-year deal to go with a young Cooper Kupp. That team would beat the Bengals and secure the franchise’s first Super Bowl since moving back to Los Angeles.

Now Snead has dealt future picks for an All-Pro corner in McDuffie, still has Stafford, has the veteran Adams to go along with the young Nacua and just dealt for a Hall of Fame pass rusher in Garrett as SoFi prepares to host the Super Bowl five years later. Of course, there is no Aaron Donald this time around.

Even at age 30, Garrett has the league’s best get-off, and he now joins Chris Shula’s defense in the most competitive division in football. The Rams play a quarter of their games against the reigning Super Bowl champion Seahawks and the perennially contending 49ers.

This is the sort of blockbuster that can only be made in Hollywood.

Devin Haney has offered his take on David Benavidez possibly fighting Dmitry Bivol, explaining why their potential undisputed light-heavyweight clash could be a catastrophic mistake.

‘The Mexican Monster’ comes off a destructive sixth-round stoppage victory over Gilberto Ramirez, becoming a three-weight world champion in his first outing at 200lbs.

His dominant performance last month has therefore afforded him several options, one of which being a three-belt unification match at cruiserweight, where he currently holds the WBO and WBA titles.

It was announced last week that Benavidez has become the WBC mandatory challenger, piling pressure on champion Noel Mikaelian to either vacate his title or face the 29-year-old.

With Benavidez still holding the WBC title at 175lbs, though, he could instead move back down in weight and target a showdown with Bivol.

The unified champion successfully defended his belts against mandatory challenger Michael Eifert on Saturday, winning by a margin of 120-107 on all three judges’ scorecards.

When speaking with Ring Magazine about their potential fight, however, Haney strongly advised Benavidez to remain at cruiserweight.

“I don’t love that for him, because we’ve seen guys like Roy Jones [Jr] go up in weight and come back down, and they just aren’t the same.

“[Benavidez] was already killing himself to make the weight. I’ve seen him do the weight cuts; I think those weight cuts are brutal on him.

“We’ve seen the best of him [at cruiserweight]. He should stay up there.”

Interestingly, it does appear that Bivol is set to enter a rubber match with Artur Beterbiev later this year, with IBA promoter Umar Kremlev looking to stage their trilogy bout in Russia.

This would leave Benavidez targeting the WBC cruiserweight title, which is likely to become vacant if Mikaelian enters his expected encounter with Jai Opetaia.

Such an outcome could result in Benavidez facing the next available contender, so possibly Michal Cieslak, for the WBC, WBO and WBA titles.

Some of the best young talents at the World Cup this summer include Bayer Leverkusen’s Ibrahim Maza and Malik Tillman, Eintracht Frankfurt’s Can Uzun, and Bayern Munich’s domestic-double winner Josip Stanisic. There’s also Juventus’ Kenan Yıldız and PSV’s Paul Wanner. Despite either being born in Germany or having gone through the academy system in the country, none of them will be playing for Germany on the world’s biggest stage this summer.

They all hold dual citizenship and have opted to take the field for Turkey, Algeria, the USA, Croatia or Austria. Whether for sporting, emotional, or family reasons, or because they hoped doing so would give their own careers a boost, their choice is also a conscious choice against Germany. This development has shaken German FA (DFB) Director Andreas Rettig.

Are Germany’s best young players opting to play elsewhere?

Most of the aforementioned footballers are regular starters at their clubs, and some of them are among the best players in their respective positions. Given, as Rettig notes, that youth international players spend between 50 and 70 days a year under the care of the DFB, all of them could have played a pivotal role in the Germany team.

“More than 40% of children under the age of five in Germany have a migrant background. This gives them the option of choosing one country over another,” Rettig told DW.

This figure, he fears, is bound to lead to a rising number of potential international players willing to switch allegiances.

“We must address this issue seriously to ensure that we don’t end up in a situation where many of those players who trained here go on to seek their fortune elsewhere,” said Rettig.

‘Trending in the wrong direction’

Last year, Rettig unveiled his vision of a “training compensation” scheme intended to change the current situation.

“Training must pay off—both for the person being trained and for the trainer,” the 63-year-old insisted. “I would like to see us develop a system in which training is rewarded, and where we can then reinvest that training compensation back into grassroots development.”

The idea behind this is simple. Training costs per player per day would be calculated precisely, leading to a compensation claim. This would be communicated transparently to all parties involved, with the aim of raising the barrier against countries poaching players from other nations.

Rettig emphasized that his objective is not merely to secure financial compensation for the DFB, but rather to benefit to the entire football world.

“We need to raise awareness that every association needs to invest in training,” said the DFB director, who noted that some national associations “invest more money, time, and effort into scouting players than they do into training them themselves.”

Rettig believes this is a move in the wrong direction, and hopes that a transparent training compensation system as he is proposing would curb this behavior and lead to increased investment in domestic youth development.

‘The eagle on the chest is no more important than the crescent moon’

High-profile cases, such as Maza, who had 13 caps for German youth teams but opted to represent Algeria, or US international Tillman (21 youth caps for Germany), or Özcan, who was capped an incredible 61 times for Germany in his youth but will be heading to the World Cup with Turkey, have sparked considerable debate within the DFB. Nevertheless, Rettig emphasized that he respects every decision, provided it was not made in haste.

“We are not saying that the eagle on the chest is more important than the crescent moon or any other national symbol,” Rettig explained. “I simply wish to make an urgent appeal, such a decision [switching national allegiances] must not be based solely on the question: ‘Where can I get playing time sooner?’”

Instead, he believes it is crucial to offer players a credible long-term outlook.

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“I do not believe we would be well-advised to offer pipe dreams to young players too early on,” said Rettig.

After all, a player’s development path is rarely linear, and not every player will appear in a Champions League or World Cup final by the age of 17. For this reason, Rettig would like to see more patience from players when considering a switch of nationalities.

Decision needs to come from the heart

“Playing for one’s country is the greatest achievement a player can aspire to,” Rettig said.

“It should be a decision from the heart—one made in favor of the country with which one feels the deepest connection.”

The DFB’s ultimate goal is to get to a point at which young players coming through its system never even entertain the idea of ​​switching national associations in the first place.

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“We need to solidify this emotional bond—to redouble our efforts across all age groups,” Rettig told the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger.

Next stop: FIFA

For Rettig’s plan or anything similar to take effect, FIFA would have to impose new rules on a global level. The DFB’s next move will be to formally submit its proposal to football’s international governing body. Although it’s still not clear when this could happen, Rettig is optimistic that his idea will get a fair hearing. After all, Germany is by no means the only country affected by “nation-hopping.”

“Surely, even FIFA has no interest in seeing the sense of identification with—and the overall value of—its own competitions eroded by an increasing number of nationality switches,” he said.

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This article was adapted from German.

PSG’s Desire Doue, left, and Warren Zaire-Emery walk onto the center court with Chgampions league trophy at the French Open tennis tournament in Paris, Monday, June 1, 2026. (AP Photo)

Fresh from Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League triumph, Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembele and three of his teammates brought the trophy to the French Open on Monday and presented it to fans at Roland Garros.Dembele was joined by fellow France internationals Bradley Barcola, Warren Zaire-Emery and Desire Doue. The quartet received a standing ovation as they walked onto the Philippe-Chatrier court carrying the Champions League trophy. PSG secured European club football’s biggest prize for a second straight season on Saturday after defeating Arsenal in the final. The match ended 1-1 before PSG won 4-3 in a penalty shootout at the Puskas Arena.PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi was also present at Roland Garros. The French Open venue is located close to PSG’s home ground, the Parc des Princes. Al-Khelaifi, a former tennis player, competed in two ATP Tour matches during his career, including one against Thomas Muster, the 1995 French Open champion. He also represented Qatar in the Davis Cup.Wearing sunglasses, Dembele addressed the crowd and led a chant familiar to PSG supporters.“Ici c’est Paris!” (This is Paris!),” Dembele shouted, prompting many fans in the stands to join in.Reflecting on PSG’s achievement, he said: “We worked every day throughout the season to win this trophy once again. We’ll try to win another one next season but before that there is the World Cup with the France team.”France will now turn its attention to the World Cup, which begins on June 11 and will be hosted by the Mexico, Canada and the United States.Dembele, Zaire-Emery, Barcola and Doue are scheduled to join France’s training camp on Tuesday ahead of the tournament.France will play warm-up matches against Ivory Coast in Nantes on Thursday and Northern Ireland in Lille next Monday before travelling to the United States for the World Cup, which runs from June 11 to July 19.France have been drawn in Group I alongside Senegal, Iraq and Norway.