Pep Guardiola has reportedly emerged as Italy’s top choice for the national team job after holding talks with football legends Paolo Maldini and Leonardo in Barcelona.

According to Sky Sports Italia, Maldini and Leonardo travelled to Spain to meet the former Manchester City manager and discuss the vacant Italy head coach position. The meeting reportedly lasted longer than expected and may have continued throughout the weekend.

Photos of Maldini and Leonardo in Barcelona circulated on social media, fuelling reports that they were trying to convince Guardiola to take charge of the Azzurri.

However, Guardiola has repeatedly said he is enjoying his break from football and is not ready to return to management.

Speaking recently, the 55-year-old explained that he wanted to step away from the game to focus on his personal life.

“From a mental standpoint, I don’t miss anything at all,” Guardiola said.

He added that he wanted to spend more time with his children and his 95-year-old father while adjusting to life away from football.

Although Italy see Guardiola as their preferred candidate, his decision to remain on sabbatical has made any potential move difficult.

The Italian Football Federation is also considering other options. Former Italy coach Roberto Mancini and Juventus legend Andrea Pirlo have both been linked with the role, while recent reports claim Antonio Conte has already reached an agreement to become the new Italy manager.

Guardiola has also been mentioned as a possible future England coach following the Three Lions’ disappointing World Cup campaign, with several football pundits suggesting he could replace Thomas Tuchel if the role becomes available.

From Madrid to Barcelona, Spanish fans were out in full force to celebrate their team’s win. It took 11 shots to get them the 1-0 victory over Argentina. Meanwhile, in Buenos Aires, fans still celebrated late into the night, despite coming in second place for Lionel Messi’s last World Cup outing.

Terence Crawford cemented his place amongst the pound-for-pound greats when he dethroned Canelo Alvarez last year, and now fellow modern boxing legend Oleksandr Usyk has revealed how he believes ‘Bud’ would have fared against the iconic Sugar Ray Leonard.

Crawford became boxing’s sixth five-division world champion when he got the better of super-middleweight poster boy Canelo back in September.

There, he also became the only post-war fighter to have captured the undisputed crown in three different weight-classes – having already achieved the feat at both super-lightweight and welterweight.

Shortly after that history-making triumph, Crawford made the decision to walk away from the sport with his undefeated record intact, content with a career that finished with a record of 42-0.

Meanwhile, Sugar Ray Leonard is hailed for his efforts in the 1980s, when he battled with his fellow ‘Four Kings’ and got the better of each of Robert Duran, Thomas Hearns and Marvin Hagler. 

After Hearns became boxing’s first five-division champion on November 4, 1988, Leonard joined him as the sport’s second quintuple champion just three days later when Leonard got his hands on both the WBC super-middleweight and WBC light-heavyweight gold in a knockout win over Donny Lalonde.

Yet, despite the skill, will and legacy of Leonard, Usyk told Daily Mail Sport that he thinks Crawford would have got the better of the Wilmington-born sensation if they were to meet in their primes.

Usyk also predicted that Crawford would have overcome Pernell Whitaker, Floyd Mayweather and Sugar Ray Robinson – a testament to the regard in which the Ukrainian holds Crawford, who had been considered as his pound-for-pound rival before his retirement.

Rodri, like anyone who has ever played football, had dreamed of this moment. The Spain captain held the World Cup in his hands, surrounded by jubilant teammates. But, before he could lift the trophy, he had to find a way to politely usher the world’s most powerful man off the stage.

He didn’t quite succeed. In the end, it required FIFA President Gianni Infantino to jog in front of the players to try and move Donald Trump on. Still the US president lingered next to Barcelona midfielder Pedri, bathing in the adulation he had been denied when walking on to boos with Infantino moments earlier. Trump had overstayed his welcome in similar fashion at the Club World Cup last year.

Though Sunday’s final, in which Spain beat Argentina 1-0, was the first match of the tournament that Trump attended, he declared it “the most successful sporting event maybe in the history of the world” and was a constant presence even in his absence.

“Trump cast a shadow over the entire tournament, weaponizing it for domestic political purposes, regardless of whether he showed up at matches in person,” Jules Boykoff, a professor in the Politics and Government Department at Pacific University in the US state of Oregon, told DW.

Trump’s ‘notorious’ intervention

Trump administration policies denied entry to the United States for a Somali FIFA referee, forced Iran to train in Mexico and travel to games in Los Angeles and Seattle, and barred fans from around the world from attending matches. On top of all that, Boykoff said, Trump’s knockout-stage phone call to FIFA “will most assuredly go down as one of the most notorious political interventions in World Cup history.”

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Though Trump’ successfully lobbied to overturn the red card suspension of star striker Folarin Balogun, the strategy backfired on the field, with the US losing its last-16 match against a fired-up Belgium 4-1. “I knew it was going to cause a lot of controversy,” Balogun said. “I could almost see within my teammates a bit of nerves because it was something that’s so unique.”

Boykoff said the sporting implications would not have been at the forefront of Trump’s mind. “Intervening in the red card situation allowed him to deliver the message to his political base that he could get international bodies like FIFA to bend to his will,” said Boykoff, who represented the US at the youth level as a player. “Most of Trump’s actions during the World Cup should be read as efforts to influence a domestic political audience ahead of a key midterm election, not as an attempt to convince an international audience that he’s some great guy.” 

2026 World Cup, the tournament that changed football forever

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Trump insisted that the tournament has boosted the US’s international reputation. “All over the world, people have come and they love our country,” he told reporters. 

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Was Balogun call a mistake for Trump?

The US midterm elections are set for November 3 and, with the war in Iran ongoing, Trump’s approval rating is below 40%. Though a “shakedown” of a global organization such as FIFA may have an appeal with a base he’s already won over, Karim Zidan told DW that the Balogun intervention was a political misstep for Trump.

“I think that, in boasting about this when the United States men’s national team gave an opportunity for him to rally behind a team that seemed to be unifying Americans, he managed to find a way to taint it, and those who dislike him hated him just that little bit more,” Zidan, an investigative journalist who has long covered Trump’s use of sports in his politics, said. 

Such unprecedented and direct political intervention in a footballing decision drew scorn and fury from most of the rest of the world — with politicians, football federations, fans and coaches all piling on to criticize. But that won’t bother Trump, Boykoff said.

“Based on his actions, Trump does not appear to care much about what the rest of the world thinks of him. His anti-immigration policies stained the World Cup and undercut FIFA’s slogan that ‘Football Unites the World.’ Trump used the tournament to further fracture the world while stoking his base’s worst instincts ahead of the midterm elections,” he said.

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Sports-shaping as US strategy

The Balogun incident was Trump’s first real foray into the tournament and came over three weeks after it had begun. Given how present he was in the buildup, that came as a surprise to some. But Zidan said the geopolitical situation had been keeping him busy, while the 250th US independence day also occupied Trump’s time during the tournament. 

“All he’s really interested in is making this about himself or reaping any sort of personal prestige from an event,” Zidan said. “So I’m not really surprised at all that he wasn’t very present at standard World Cup games.”

Despite his apparent lack of interest, Trump made a play for future World Cups immediately after the 2026 tournament ended. “I had a great idea for Gianni: You have to do two countries. Announce us again next time and then announce another country after that. It’ll take out some of the anger and the shock,” he told Fox Sports. “Based on the numbers, we will be requesting it again immediately.”

The earliest the US could host the men’s World Cup again is 2038, but Los Angeles will host the Summer Olympics in 2028, with Trump still in power ahead of the presidential election that November. The US is hosting the 2034 Winter Olympics in in Salt Lake City and is likely to win the Women’s World Cup for 2031. 

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UFC a safe sporting haven for Trump

Zidan thinks that Trump will first retreat to the safety of the mixed-martial-arts Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), which he managed to include in the celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the United States.

“Whenever he has shown up at a sports event that is not a UFC event, he’s received resounding boos. It’s not the massive warm welcome he is used to receiving at the UFC,” said Zidan, whose latest book, “The Ultimate Strongmen,” focuses on Trump’s relationship with the UFC. 

“That’s why he shows up so often there, why he’s hosted a UFC event at the White House. He understands that is his perfect audience and his safe space, and, no matter how poorly he’s performing and no matter what he’s doing in the world, no matter if there’s a war going on, he will be welcomed.”

Though FIFA and its president rolled out the red carpet for Trump and the 2026 World Cup made more profit than any tournament before, it is the US voters, not the executive bodies of football organizations, whom Trump must impress now. Whichever way the midterms go, it’s unlikely he’ll be ushered off the political stage anytime soon.

Edited by: Milan Gagnon 

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As an incredible World Cup comes to an end, everyone here at the BBC wanted to say thank you.

Thank you to the 42.8 million people who tuned in to our live match coverage on television or streamed games on iPlayer, the BBC Sport app and website 237 million times. That’s a lot of football.

Whether you were one of the 24 million who watched England v Argentina in the semi-final, the late-night 9.1 million who stayed up until 4am for England v Mexico, the 2.4 million who saw Scotland beat Haiti in the middle of the night, or part of the hardcore crew of half a million who gave Iran v New Zealand a chance at 2am and were rewarded with a four-goal thriller.

Thank you to those of you who trusted us to not spoil your mornings, coming to iPlayer or the BBC Football YouTube channel every day for our eight-minute highlight packages. There were so many of you that we saw the biggest ever day and week in iPlayer’s history.

Thank you to the 57.2 million unique browsers who used our app and website 1.7 billion times, watching clips of our games, interviews and journalism, following our amazing live pages and reading stories from our journalists covering everything from the Trump-Fifa-Balogun scandal to tactical trends and the US entry denial of Somalian referee Omar Artan.

🏆🇪🇸 After Spain’s World Cup 2026 victory over #Argentina, Donald Trump appeared determined to stay in the spotlight during the trophy presentation, with #FIFA President Gianni #Infantino stepping in so the champions could take centre stage. 🎤

With the World Cup now all over, a clear message has been sent to FIFA by one Manchester City and England star

Marc Guehi became the first England player to publicly slate FIFA’s pricing for tickets at the World Cup. Guehi was at the heart of England’s run in the competition, which saw the Three Lions finish third.

The Manchester City defender started all but one match in the competition for the Three Lions. Aside from the opening 4-2 victory over Croatia, where he only played for three minutes, Guehi played every minute in the competition.

After English hearts were broken by the 2-1 loss to Argentina, Guehi and his teammates motivated themselves to beat France 6-4 in the bronze medal match. It was a bonkers affair and, arguably, the most exciting match of the World Cup.

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Yet, only 64,478 fans made it to the Miami Stadium, which was built to hold 71,000 supporters. As of 10am on Friday, the day before the England versus France clash, 7,000 tickets remained unsold, including 1,246 available on general sale, reports the Express.

This left tickets priced at £657 and £855 on general sale for the third-place play-off fixture. Having played his part in England’s victory over France, Guehi seized the moment to acknowledge the travelling supporters while also taking aim at FIFA over the cost of tickets for the match.

“It’s always hard, especially when you feel like you should have been in the final, so it was down to us to try to do the best that we could,” Guehi told reporters after the victory over Les Bleus.

“We owe it to fans back home for the support. We definitely owe it to everyone who came and watched, especially here in Miami. Because ticket pricing was rubbish. I don’t know what they were thinking, FIFA, to be honest. So at least they could enjoy a fairly entertaining game.”

England’s triumph over France secured them third place at the World Cup, leaving Spain and Argentina to contest the final on Sunday. Spain ultimately came out on top, clinching a 1-0 win against Argentina at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, courtesy of a goal from ex-City star Ferran Torres during extra time.

Before the final, many ticket prices for the showpiece at New York City’s MetLife Stadium surged to around $2,000 (£1,490). Last minute tickets were even ranging from $10,000 – $60,000 (£7,451 – £44,706), while on FIFA’s official ticket resale site, the cheapest tickets were just over $6,000 (£4,471), according to ESPN.

FIFA boss Gianni Infantino defended the prices before the competition started, insisting they were not unusual compared to other events in the US. He said: “We have to look at the market – we are in the market in which entertainment is the most developed in the world.

“So we have to apply market rates. In the US it is permitted to resell tickets as well. So if you were to sell tickets at the price which is too low, these tickets will be resold at a much higher price.

“And as a matter of fact, even though some people are saying that the ticket prices we have are high, they still end up on the resale market at an even higher price, more than double of our price.”

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Defending World Cup champions Argentina faced Spain in Sunday’s 2026 FIFA World Cup final. However, in a match the Argentina faithful were hoping would be Lionel Messi’s international swan song, the Argentine squad was completely outclassed. Although the regular time ended in a scoreless draw, Spain outshot Argentina 20-2 en route to its 1-0 win in extra time, dominating with 65% possession. After the match, ESPN’s ESPN FC studio crew was astonished by how poorly Argentina performed with history on the line.

“In one of the worst World Cup finals we have ever seen, Spain in the end deservedly get the victory and defeat Argentina. It was Ferran Torres’ well-taken goal that proved to be the difference between the two sides,” Dan Thomas said to start the segment.

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“Two shots from Argentina, none in regular time. Both of those came in extra time. Enzo Fernández sent off. Spain with the victory as they lift the title and get a second star on their shirt.

Winning consistently as an underdog at home creates an atmosphere of intimidation for favored visitors.

When that happens, the home team’s chances seem to increase with the quality of the opponent.

The table below show the wins, losses, and win percentages as the underdog for the region’s top programs over the last 10 seasons.

BYU leads the way, followed by Air Force, San Diego State, ASU, and Oregon.