By SuperWest Sports Staff
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Ran Binyamin scores late winner as FC Dallas tops Real Salt Lake
May 9, 2026; Frisco, Texas, USA; FC Dallas midfielder Ran Binyamin (6) and Real Salt Lake defender DeAndre Yedlin (2) reach for the ball during the second half at Toyota Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Chris Jones-Imagn Images Ran Binyamin ripped a shot from outside the box into the right corner of the net in the 90th minute for the game-winner in FC Dallas’ wild 4-3 victory over Real Salt Lake on Wednesday in Sandy, Utah.
Binyamin, who entered the game as a substitute at the beginning of the second half, scored his first MLS goal to help the Toros (9-5-6, 33 points) win their second straight road game and improve to 2-1-2 since the World Cup break.
RSL (8-7-4, 28 points) remains winless in MLS play since the break, losing for the third time in five matches with two draws.
The Toros ruled the match’s opening 22 minutes, bursting out to a 2-0 lead on goals by Joaquin Valiente and Petar Musa. On the first, Valiente passed deep into the offensive zone before working his way to a favorable spot just outside the center of the box as the ball moved from Musa to Ramiro Benetti.
Benetti then bounced a pass off an RSL defender and right to the left foot of Valiente, who whipped it into the middle-left of the goal past goalkeeper Rafael Cabral to give Dallas a 1-0 lead in the 17th minute.
Musa doubled the lead just three minutes later when he leapt over an RSL defender at the far post to head home a curving pass from far outside the box by Valiente, who had received the ball after an assist by Bernard Kamungo.
Sergi Solans got the home side on the scoreboard in the 38th minute with a blistering shot through traffic that Dallas keeper Jonathan Sirois had little chance to stop after a sterling pass on a free kick by Diego Luna.
But Musa had more to offer, turning around another pass from Valiente and beating Cabral to the bottom-right corner in the 45th minute to push his goal total to a league-leading 16. The play sent FC Dallas to a 3-1 lead at the break. Salt Lake roared back to tie the game in the first 19 minutes of the second half. Morgan Guilavogui started the rally with a nifty goal in the 50th minute on a pass from Noel Caliskan after an assist by Luna.
Luna then provided the equalizer, taking a pass by Saba Lobjanidze in the 64th minute and beating Sirois to the top-left corner. Guilavogui also got an assist for the pass that began the scoring play.
–Field Level Media
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As we count down to the first college football game of the 2026 season, we continue our series on the records of each top CFB program in the West against all others in the region.
Some schools have met many times over the years, while others are beginning new rivalries in the wake of recent realignment.
For each opponent in the table below, we provide the total games played, wins, losses, ties, winning percentage, first year played, and most recent contest.
We continue with UNLV, which has played 409 games against regional foes, winning 151, losing 256, and recording 2 ties, for a winning percentage of .372.
The Rebels have recorded the most wins (23), played the most games (51), and lost the most games (28) against Nevada.
Here is a breakdown of UNLV’s records vs. the region’s teams.
UNLV Football Wins vs. the Top Programs in the West
| Opponent | Games | W | L | T | Win % | First Game | Most Recent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Air Force | 26 | 8 | 18 | 0 | 30.8 | 11/21/1981 | 10/11/2025 |
| Arizona | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 00.0 | 09/22/2001 | 08/29/2014 |
| ASU | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 50.0 | 09/13/2008 | 09/11/2021 |
| Boise State | 16 | 3 | 13 | 0 | 18.8 | 09/16/1972 | 12/05/2025 |
| BYU | 20 | 3 | 17 | 0 | 15.0 | 12/02/1978 | 11/10/2017 |
| Cal | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 50.0 | 09/10/2022 | 12/18/2024 |
| Colorado State | 26 | 8 | 17 | 1 | 32.7 | 10/21/1978 | 11/08/2025 |
| Fresno State | 27 | 8 | 19 | 0 | 29.6 | 11/03/1979 | 09/28/2024 |
| Hawai’i | 35 | 16 | 19 | 0 | 45.7 | 10/25/1969 | 11/21/2025 |
| Nevada | 51 | 23 | 28 | 0 | 45.1 | 11/22/1969 | 11/29/2025 |
| New Mexico | 28 | 15 | 13 | 0 | 53.6 | 09/23/1978 | 11/01/2025 |
| New Mexico State | 12 | 9 | 3 | 0 | 75.0 | 09/15/1984 | 11/18/1995 |
| Oregon | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 00.0 | 10/25/1980 | 09/26/1992 |
| Oregon State | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 66.7 | 10/01/983 | 10/19/2024 |
| San Diego State | 33 | 11 | 22 | 0 | 33.3 | 10/22/1977 | 11/16/2024 |
| San Jose State | 29 | 8 | 20 | 1 | 29.3 | 09/05/1981 | 11/22/2024 |
| UCLA | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 33.3 | 09/12/2015 | 09/06/2025 |
| USC | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 00.0 | 10/04/1997 | 09/01/2018 |
| UTEP | 9 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 77.8 | 11/18/1978 | 09/23/2023 |
| Utah | 16 | 2 | 14 | 0 | 12.5 | 10/20/1979 | 09/11/2010 |
| Utah State | 28 | 10 | 18 | 0 | 35.7 | 09/25/1971 | 11/15/2025 |
| WSU | 6 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 00.0 | 09/09/1978 | 09/14/2012 |
| Wyoming | 27 | 13 | 14 | 0 | 48.1 | 11/11/1978 | 10/04/2025 |
Former India player Mohammad Kaif has expressed concern about Kuldeep Yadav’s place in the playing XI for the second Test against Sri Lanka. He pointed out that the visitors had to use Devdutt Padikkal with the ball in the first Test because they lacked an off-spinner.
India registered an emphatic 165-run win in the first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle. The second Test will be played in Colombo from Sunday, August 23, onwards.
During a discussion on Sony Sports, Kaif opined that Saransh Jain might replace Kuldeep in the playing XI for the second Test.
“I am worried about one player – Kuldeep Yadav. He might not play the next match. That’s also possible. Whenever he was given bowling, he was given short spells. He didn’t get long spells. Saransh Jain is an off-spinner. Why did Padikkal come to bowl? It was because the lack of an off-spinner was seen in the middle,” he said.
The former India batter pointed out that an off-spinner’s absence was felt in Galle and Kuldeep wasn’t used effectively either.
“When the two left-handers were batting, they were searching for an off-spinner. If they get a turning track and a slow pitch, considering that the absence of an off-spinner was felt and the way Kuldeep was used, I feel that decision might have to be taken. I feel Kuldeep Yadav might not get a chance in the XI. Saransh Jain might get an entry in Colombo,” Kaif observed.
Kuldeep Yadav registered figures of 1/65 in 14 overs in Sri Lanka’s first innings of the Galle Test. He went wicketless and conceded 38 runs in 11 overs in the second innings.
“I want Team India to back Kuldeep Yadav” – Ajinkya Rahane
In the same discussion, former India batter Ajinkya Rahane urged the team management to persist with Kuldeep Yadav if the second Test is played in similar conditions.
“If the wicket is like this, I want Team India to back Kuldeep Yadav because he is a high-quality bowler. He is a match-winner and a wicket-taker. He will have to be played here because he has come into the team after a long time. So he will have to be given a chance again,” he said.
The cricketer-turned-commentator added that the left-arm wrist-spinner needs to be backed to boost his confidence.
“How do you build a player’s confidence? Replacing someone is very easy. When there are three spinners, one guy will bowl fewer overs. Manav Suthar and Ravindra Jadeja bowled very well here, but if the conditions are the same, I feel Team India should back Kuldeep Yadav and increase his confidence,” Rahane observed.
Manav Suthar (4/76 in 21.4 overs in the first innings and 6/55 in 23.4 overs in the second innings) was the visitors’ star performer with the ball in the first Test. Ravindra Jadeja registered figures of 3/57 in 21 overs in the first innings and 1/71 in 23 overs in the second innings.
Edited by Kartik Iyer
Xabi Alonso is at Stamford Bridge with the Blues. Chelsea and Napoli are in contact over a potential transfer for striker Nicolas Jackson, according to Gianluca Di Marzio.
Napoli manager Max Allegri has made signing a new striker his top priority for the final weeks of the transfer window. Following Romelu Lukaku‘s permanent move to Fenerbahce, Napoli are keen to add depth and competition for Rasmus Hojlund. Alongside exploratory enquiries for Arsenal‘s Gabriel Jesus and Manchester United‘s Joshua Zirkzee, Jackson has emerged as a highly feasible and attractive option for the Partenopei.
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Chelsea are open to selling the Senegal international, provided their steep valuation is met. Jackson spent the 2025/26 season on loan at German champions Bayern Munich, but they opted not to make the deal permanent. Since returning to West London, Jackson’s place in Xabi Alonso’s plans is uncertain, especially after being omitted from Chelsea’s final pre-season fixtures.
With the Blues keen to trim their squad and generate funds, Chelsea have placed a £65 million price tag on the forward. Napoli’s entry into the race could prove highly beneficial for the Blues, as it threatens to spark a genuine bidding war.
Atletico Madrid, Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa have all monitored Jackson’s situation this summer, but so far, interested parties have been reluctant to meet Chelsea’s asking price.
Napoli and Chelsea enjoy a good relationship, having recently agreed a loan-to-buy deal for French defender Benoit Badiashile earlier this summer.
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While direct talks remain ongoing, Napoli must clear squad space before making a concrete move for Jackson.
Noa Lang is the prime candidate to be moved, with Turkish giants Galatasaray and Dutch side Ajax both showing interest.
Napoli begin their 2026/27 campaign with an away fixture against Genoa on Saturday.
Germany international Jamal Musiala has collapsed during a match for the second time in four days. He was helped off the pitch looking dazed just six minutes after coming on as a subsititute in Bayern Munich’s 4-2 friendly win at Heidenheim on Tuesday. Musiala collapsed in similar fashion in a match against RB Leipzig a few days earlier.
After the Heidenheim game, Musiala explained in an Instagram post that the blackouts were caused by a “neurological dysfunction” known as “absence seizures.”
“I’ve been diagnosed with temporary, brief, but easily treatable absence seizures, which are due to a neurological dysfunction,” he wrote in the post, which drew support from many in the football world, including Bayern keeper Manuel Neuer and former Germany and Bayern forward Thomas Müller.
“These can lead to the recent episodes, like the one against Leipzig or now in Heidenheim. I know they seem scary at first glance but for me, they’re currently just part of my everyday life.
“I’m receiving excellent medical treatment and am very optimistic. FC Bayern and my family and friends are always by my side and supporting me on this journey.”
What are absence seizures?
Once known as “petit mal” seizures, absence seizures are split in to two types — typical and atypical. It is not yet clear which of these Musiala is experiencing.
Typical cases cause a person to stop anything they are doing in an instant and appear to “switch off.” Sometimes their eyes may look upwards or flutter. They last between 10 and 20 seconds, and may cause some confusion for a few seconds afterwards, before the person returns to their usual state.
Atypical cases usually last a little longer and may also include chewing or lip smacking movements, hand motions or repetitive blinking.
Both are a type of epilepsy and, according to the Epilepsy Foundation, are caused by “brief abnormal electrical activity in a person’s brain.” They are most commonly found in children but can occur in adults, and the foundation said they can be occurring for a long time before being diagnosed, depending on the environment in which they occur.
The foundation added that some people may have “hundreds of brief absence seizures a day.” Treatment is not generally required, but some medicines are available for more serious cases.
Is Jamal Musiala’s career at risk?
Bayern Munich told German press agency DPA that the absence seizures were no threat to Musiala’s career, but it seems apparent that collapsing on the pitch will be difficult to manage if it doesn’t clear up.
Although very different in nature, the seizures are another setback for a player who has struggled with fitness in recent years. Musiala, 23, broke his leg in the Club World Cup last July and found it difficult to regain fitness and form. In March he was hit by an ankle injury.
He did make the Germany World Cup squad in June, but looked off the pace for much of the tournament. He then required a small operation to remove a metal plate from his foot, left over from last year’s leg operation.
What’s next for Jamal Musiala and Bayern Munich?
Bayern’s season begins on Saturday with the German Super Cup, rebranded as the “Franz Beckenbauer Supercup” this season. The match usually pits the German champions against the German Cup winners but, with Bayern having won both last year, they face league runners up Borussia Dortmund. They open their Bundesliga title defense the following Friday, August 28, against Stuttgart in Munich.
It’s unclear whether Musiala will play any part in either of these games and how Bayern and the player will manage the seizures, but Musiala remains upbeat.
“It has been my personal desire to take on this challenge and, with the approval of the neurologists, to continue focusing on what helps me most in my recovery: simply living my everyday life and continuing to pursue my passion for playing football,” he wrote.
“I have taken responsibility for this. Overall, I feel very positive and am on the right track. What helps me most on this journey is continuing to chase victories and titles with my team and your amazing support.”
Edited by: Chuck Penfold
VANCOUVER — The red-hot Houston Dynamo climbed to the top of Major League Soccer’s Western Conference standings with a 1-0 win over the Vancouver Whitecaps on Wednesday night.
Franco Negri gave the visitors the lead in the 34th minute and the Dynamo (12-6-2) didn’t look back, claiming their fifth straight victory in MLS play.
The ‘Caps (11-4-4) appeared to score midway through the second half but Rayan Elloumi’s goal was called back after video review.
The home side controlled 61.9 per cent of possession across the game and outshot the Dynamo 16-7, but managed just one shot on target.
Vancouver came in sitting first in the conference standings following a 2-0 victory over their regional rival Seattle Sounders on Sunday.
Houston is unbeaten in its last eight contests and has not conceded a goal since battling D.C. United to a 1-1 draw on July 22.
The Dynamo nearly opened the scoring in the 16th minute Wednesday off a free kick in the midfield.
The ball fell in the penalty area and rolled to Hector Herrera, who hammered a shot on target, but ‘Caps centre back Mathias Laborda blocked it on the goal line.
Houston had a breakaway later in the half where Laborda poked the ball off the foot of Mateusz Bogusz just above the 18-yard box.
It then popped out to Negri, who fired a long bomb into the top corner of Vancouver’s net to give the Dynamo a 1-0 lead in the 34th minute.
The Whitecaps got a prime opportunity to respond five minutes later after Agustin Resch was shown a yellow card for taking down Cheikh Sabaly, gifting Vancouver a free kick inside the penalty arc.
Oliver Larraz took the set piece, sending his attempt into Houston’s wall.
Sabaly came close to levelling the score in first-half injury time with a shot from the top of the six-yard box that pinged off the left post.
Vancouver controlled 57.3 per cent of possession across the first half and outshot the visitors 5-4, but Houston had the edge in on-target shots at 2-0.
The home side had another solid chance early in the second half when captain Ryan Gauld sprang Elloumi with a long ball up the middle of the field.
The teenage striker sprinted through a pair of defenders to get to it and took a couple of strides into the area before sending a rocket just wide of the post.
The ‘Caps briefly appeared to knot the score at 1-1 in the 64th minute.
Emmanuel Sabbi put a shot through a pair of defenders and Elloumi slid in from just above the goal line to direct it into the Houston net.
Referee Ricardo Montero Araya went to a sideline monitor for a video review and the play was overturned for a foul by Larraz in the buildup.
There was pushing and shoving in the game’s final moments after Larraz was taken down inside the penalty area without a call, prompting chants of “ref you suck!” from the announced crowd of 22,849.
Whitecaps: Host FC Dallas on Saturday.
Dynamo: Visit St. Louis City on Saturday.
Tommy Paul saved a match point on the way to a 4-6, 7-6 (8/6), 6-4 upset of top seed Alexander Zverev on Wednesday to reach the quarter-finals of the ATP-WTA Cincinnati Masters. The match was interrupted for 90 minutes in the seventh game of the second set by rain and had two more five-minute pauses as drops were dried from the court. French Open champion Zverev had a chance to close out a victory at 6-5 in the second-set tiebreaker but stuffed a volley into the net.
The German again gained an edge in the deciding set with a break for 4-2, but Paul broke back in the next game and again for a 5-4 lead.
He served out the victory with confidence for his third win over Zverev in their last four meetings.
“I’m not sure how I did it,” Paul said. “I put some returns in, he gave me some looks at second serves and he threw in a few doubles (faults). That always helps a ton.
“I went after the ball a bit more, I was having fun out there. I hope I can keep building on this and peak at the US Open.”
Paul next faces Roland Garros runner-up Flavio Cobolli, who labored two and a half hours to engineer a turnaround against red-hot Spaniard Rafael Jodar 4-6, 7-6 (7/3), 6-3.
Cobolli has won all three of his matches in Cincinnati in three sets.
The durable Italian reached his second Masters-level quarter-final of the season after Madrid, and he prevented 19-year-old Jodar from reaching an eighth quarter-final in nine events.
“At the end of the second set and start of the third I told myself to believe, try on every point,” Cobolli said. “I knew I had a chance.
“Rafa has had an unbelievable season but maybe he was a bit tired. At the end I deserved to win as I was fresher than him.
“I pushed to my limit to get through. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I’m really strong.”
Thiago Tirante, who upset Novak Djokovic in the second round, continued his surprise run at the last big event prior to the August 30 start of the US Open.
He recovered to defeat Jakub Mensik 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 and book his first Masters quarter-final.
Australian Alex de Minaur was no match for Frenchman Arthur Fils, who cruised to a 6-3, 6-4 victory over the fifth seed.
Solid Swiatek
Defending women’s champion Iga Swiatek needed four match points to get past Diane Parry of France 6-3, 6-3.
The seventh-seeded Pole claimed her fourth consecutive quarter-final in Cincy and her 30th at the 1000 level.
She now faces a re-run of last week’s Toronto final against Elena Rybakina, who beat Diana Shnaider 6-4, 6-4.
Swiatek was broken as she served for victory leading a set and 5-2.
It took three additional chances in the next game to break Parry, who hit the net with a backhand to lose in 88 minutes.
“I was solid, even if I had to put more energy into my shots since she was hitting so much slice,” said six-time Grand Slam winner Swiatek, who captured her first title of 2026 with her victory over reigning Australian Open champion Rybakina in last week’s Toronto final.
Two other current Grand Slam champions bowed out.
Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk rallied from a set down to beat fifth seeded French Open winner Mirra Andreeva 4-6, 6-0, 6-2.
Sixth-seeded Wimbledon champion Linda Noskova fell to Amanda Anisimova 6-1, 6-4 in another weather-disrupted match.
Anisimova will face third-seeded fellow American Jessica Pegula, who missed a chance to serve out a quick win but held on to beat Romanian veteran Sorana Cirstea 6-2, 4-6, 7-5.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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Sanju SamsonI (Image: BCCI)
Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Cricket League (KCL) enters its third season on Thursday with a question that goes beyond who will lift the trophy: Who steps up to own Kerala’s T20 stage in the absence of Sanju Samson?Sanju, the league’s biggest star and a key figure in Kochi Blue Tigers’ title-winning campaign last season, has opted out citing “personal reasons”. It leaves a void, but also opens the door for a new generation to seize the spotlight. Kochi, led by Sanju’s brother Saly Samson, will have to prove they can defend their crown without their biggest match-winner.“Sanju will be missed. His experience was invaluable last season during our title-winning run. But we have a core team of 10 players who performed for us, with seniors like Basil Thampi,” Saly said.The defending champions, who face Kollam Sailors on Thursday at the Greenfield International Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram, however, are not looking beyond the immediate task. “There’s added pressure on us because of the defending champions tag, but we’re confident. We have prepared well for this tournament,” he said.The search for the next breakout star could be the defining subplot of KCL 3. Young players will have an opportunity to turn the league into a springboard to Kerala’s senior side, the IPL and beyond. Saly reckoned the tournament’s unpredictable nature could produce a surprise package.“I believe that KCL has a knack for throwing up surprises. How you perform on the given day is what makes it count. Some young, relatively unknown player might come good and score a ton or pick up a five-for,” he added.The auction has added another layer of intrigue. Alleppey Ripples’ ₹11.8-lakh purchase of Sibin Gireesh made him the league’s most expensive player, while Krishna Devan and Sachin Baby also commanded big bids. Baby’s move to Alleppey, where he will captain the side, adds another interesting storyline as the former Kerala skipper begins a new chapter.The KCA has assembled a 15-member umpiring panel, including former Kerala captain and ICC elite panel umpire K N Ananthapadmanabhan and BCCI Level 2 umpire Tony Emmatty. Two BCCI-panel umpires will officiate in every game.Adding another layer of technology is the Hawk-Eye, which will be used to assist reviews and improve the accuracy of decision-making. With four umpires assigned to every game and Hawk-Eye enhancing the review process, KCL is aiming for greater professionalism.As six teams converge on Greenfield, the moot question remains: Without Sanju, who becomes the new face of Kerala’s T20 cricket?
Thus far, 2026 has been chastening for the fallen giants of world football. For Italy, it has been the year of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Bodo/Glimt, the Balkan team meaning a third consecutive World Cup took place without the Azzurri, the Norwegian side eliminating Internazionale from the Champions League. There were other indications of decline – a Champions League table with the reigning Scudetto winners Napoli in 30th or Italy’s sole representatives in the last 16, Atalanta, going down 10-2 on aggregate to Bayern Munich – and they combined to paint a bleak picture.
So if Serie A returns with the sense its best days are behind it, some of its historic forces have the same feel. And yet that provided some of the drama last season: two of Italy’s three most decorated clubs, AC Milan and Juventus, spurned promising positions to miss out on Champions League qualification. They will instead be the biggest clubs in the Europa League after being leapfrogged by Cesc Fabregas’ insurgents from Como. The third of Italy’s traditional powers, Inter, cruised to their 21st Scudetto in Cristian Chivu’s first campaign in charge; equalling his predecessor Simone Inzaghi’s total of Serie A titles was at least compensation for faring far worse in Europe.
His rivals this year are set to be a mixture of the familiar, with Serie A’s capacity to recycle its managers, and an intriguing newcomer. A division where clubs have been starved of funds features two expensive arrivals from Paris St-Germain, charged with bringing goals to the underachievers, and a further influx of English defenders.
Chivu will share San Siro with Ruben Amorim who, in the way Serie A’s fortunes have nosedived, seemed the man AC Milan ended up with rather than perhaps wanted, given interest in Oliver Glasner and Andoni Iraola. It is nevertheless an opportunity the Portuguese did not earn with his wretched spell in charge of Manchester United.
He will presumably import his flagship 3-4-3; whether Luka Modric, who turns 41 next month, wants to be in a central-midfield duo remains to be seen but Milan have backed Amorim by allowing him to make the biggest signing in the Serie A summer: his fellow Portuguese Goncalo Ramos for a club record €74m (£63.3m). It at least should ensure wingers Rafael Leao and Christian Pulisic are no longer an ersatz strike duo, even if Amorim’s record with centre-forwards was better in Portugal than England.
Ramos was liberated from the PSG bench. He used to be joined there, before an unsuccessful loan at Tottenham, by Randal Kolo Muani, who has returned to Juventus, another to borrow him before. A potential €50m (£42.8m) fee means he has to spearhead a new-look attack, with the younger talents of Kenan Yildiz and Kerim Alajbegovic, a €32m (£27.4m) arrival from Bayer Leverkusen. Luciano Spalletti, who walked into a struggling side when Igor Tudor was sacked, is reshaping his forward line with Dusan Vlahovic going after an underwhelming and expensive spell and after last year’s striking additions Jonathan David and Lois Openda struggled.
Inter, meanwhile, already had the capocannoniere last season, Lautaro Martinez, and the player with most assists, the division’s MVP Federico Dimarco. The presence of players at their peak allows Chivu to continue his task of making the nerazzurri younger. Buying back his old teammate Dejan Stankovic’s son Aleksandar is a nod to a Champions League-winning past. Four of Inzaghi’s veterans are gone, in Francesco Acerbi, Matteo Darmian, Yann Sommer and Stefan de Vrij, who have a combined age of 146. The buccaneering wing-back Denzel Dumfries, who has joined Real Madrid, may be the greatest loss of the departures. Djed Spence, less of a goalscorer but fresh from a remarkable World Cup, makes for a different replacement.
Even with Spence, Inter’s defence may not be that youthful next season. Signing John Stones, and reuniting him with Manuel Akanji, gives them a player who should suit the pace of play as well as Chivu’s 3-5-2. It also provides Thomas Tuchel with reasons to visit Italy on defensive scouting trips, with Trevoh Chalobah moving to Como, though it remains to be seen if Fikayo Tomori, potentially the latest in the list of players exiled by Amorim, will still be at AC Milan.
At Como, Fabregas has also kept the precocious Nico Paz, though Real Madrid retain an option to buy the playmaker back. A challenge for the Spaniard will be to juggle domestic and European football. Roma, propelled by the goals of the mid-season arrival Donyel Malan, will join them in the Champions League. Gian Piero Gasperini, who won his power struggle with Claudio Ranieri, has further bolstered his attack with the €35m (£30m) signing of Bologna’s Santiago Castro, while Portuguese wonder kid Rodrigo Mora brings more potential to the Eternal City.
Napoli’s big summer striking signing was one set up last summer: Rasmus Hojlund, after a successful loan, and his purchase triggered now. An issue for new manager Massimiliano Allegri, however, is that his predecessor Antonio Conte’s capacity to spend big meant much of his transfer budget was already committed. Though Romelu Lukaku is gone to Fenerbahce, Allegri, sacked by Milan, will have to use many of his predecessor’s players, Scott McTominay and Kevin De Bruyne among them, in his search for his seventh Scudetto. That the sixth came back in 2019 suggests he is in decline; Napoli may be too.
But Serie A can specialise in finding new homes for its familiar faces on the managerial merry-go-round. Maurizio Sarri, who left Lazio for a second time, is now at Atalanta, and shorn of the Chelsea-bound Marco Palestra. Ivan Juric, who joined the Bergamo club last year, is now at promoted Monza; it may not bode well that his last three jobs have only spanned 12, 16 and 15 games respectively.
There are reminders of the happier days when Italy were World Cup winners; of the 2006 team, Gennaro Gattuso is now manager of Lazio, replacing Sarri, and Fabio Grosso has joined Fiorentina, who have moved on from Paolo Vanoli, even though he kept a team who failed to win in their first 15 games up. They should not be in a second successive relegation battle: the Viola have spent heavily and also borrowed Franco Mastantuono from Real Madrid.
That seven different clubs have finished in the top four in the last three seasons can offer encouragement to the ambitious. That Inter look overwhelming favourites suggests the battle for fourth could be contested more than the one for first; Juventus may be their closest challengers. But while Serie A can be compelling in itself, its standing and self-esteem will depend in part on results against outsiders. The Italians could do with making the right kind of impression in Europe again.
Paul Pogba and AS Monaco have officially parted ways after just one season. The 2018 World Cup winner joined in June 2025 after nearly two years out of the game, but injuries limited him to just six appearances and 115 minutes last season.
The Principality club begin their season this Thursday in the first leg of their Conference League play-off against Gornik Zabrze. New Monaco coach Filipe Luis will take charge of his first competitive match.
In the transfer market, Diego Moreira is set to join AC Milan for €50 million, excluding bonuses. At Barcelona, new signing Rodri received an ovation at the Camp Nou during Barça’s 2-1 win over Al Ahly.
Atlético Madrid began their La Liga campaign with a 2-0 win over Málaga, with goals from Lee Kang-in and Álex Baena.
In tennis, Nick Kyrgios has been provisionally suspended after testing positive for cocaine.
At the Cincinnati Masters 1000, Arthur Fils beat Alex de Minaur, while Tommy Paul pulled off an upset by eliminating Alexander Zverev.
In the women’s draw, Iga Swiatek beat Diane Parry and will face Elena Rybakina in the quarter-finals after the Kazakh defeated Diana Shnaider.
Finally, Victor Wembanyama has been named captain of the French national team, while Isack Hadjar will miss this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix with a wrist injury.
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Peyton Watson trade grades: Cavaliers grab breakout wing, Nuggets have serious questions around Nikola Jokić
The Cleveland Cavaliers trading Dennis Schröder to the Charlotte Hornets last week certainly looked like a setup deal. Well, now we know what the Cavaliers are setting up. According to ESPN, the Cavaliers are acquiring Peyton Watson from the Denver Nuggets.
They will send Max Strus to the Los Angeles Clippers, and the Cavaliers will send a 2031 unprotected first-round pick and a 2032 second-round pick from the Sacramento Kings to the Nuggets to complete the trade. Additionally, the Cavaliers will send Tre Mann, cash and a 2027 second-round pick from the Clippers to the Washington Wizards for Cam Whitmore. The Wizards are sending Julian Reese to the Nuggets.
As part of the arrangement, Watson will sign a four-year, $88 million deal with Cleveland that includes a player option and a trade kicker.
To recap:
Peyton Watson trade details
|
Cavaliers |
Peyton Watson (who agreed to a four-year, $88 million deal) |
|
Clippers |
Max Strus |
|
Nuggets |
2031 first-round pick (via Cavaliers), 2032 second-round pick (via Kings), Julian Reese |
|
Wizards |
Tre Mann, 2027 second-round pick (via Clippers), cash considerations |
|
Hornets |
Dennis Schröder |
So, how did everyone fare in the trade? Let’s grade it to find out.
Cleveland Cavaliers: B
Watson was a breakout player last season, but is his success repeatable?
The Cavaliers have essentially spent the entire decade looking for an athletic small forward who could shoot 3s and defend. Just think of all the resources they’ve poured into that exact archetype. A top-five pick on Isaac Okoro. A big contract for Strus. A deadline deal for De’Andre Hunter. Smaller investments in players like Dean Wade and Georges Niang. This has been their white whale during the Donovan Mitchell era. Watson represents their biggest swing yet.
A year ago, a trade and contract like this would have been crazy. Watson was barely even in Denver’s 2025 playoff rotation and had never been a full-time starter. But in 40 starts last season, Watson averaged 17.3 points on just under 50% shooting from the floor and 43% from deep.
Now, most of that 3-point success came from the corners, where he made over half of his attempts. But he shot over 45% from the corners during the 2024-25 season, so it’s reasonable to assume at this point that he’s a reliable corner 3-point shooter at this point. Being a reliable shooter makes him that much more dangerous as a backdoor cutter, a skill any athletic forward who plays with Nikola Jokić tends to pick up. He started to really grow as an individual shot-creator when Jokić was hurt in January. During that stretch, almost 33% of his points were unassisted. That’s not a star figure, but it’s a meaningful one.
Watson’s defense has always been a bit more theoretical than real. He has excellent athletic tools, and he’s been good on that end of the floor, but remember who he’s replacing here. Cleveland lost its two best on-ball defenders in free agency: Wade and Keon Ellis. Watson will now presumably be tasked with guarding just about every opposing star in the Eastern Conference, regardless of position. Remember, Cleveland’s two other perimeter starters are Mitchell and James Harden. They’re not stopping a nosebleed. That means Watson will have to be similarly adept at guarding point guards (which he tends to do well) and forwards (an area he’ll need to improve in). The bar here is going to be high even with Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen behind him.
The cost here isn’t exactly trivial. Strus was a different sort of player, one less in line with what Cleveland needed, especially given the development of Sam Merrill, but an important one nonetheless. His absence for most of last season wasn’t the biggest reason the Cavaliers fell from 64 to 52 wins, but it was significant. Trading any first-round pick five years into the future is precarious. That 2031 pick will convey after Mitchell’s age-34 season, when he will make almost $76 million. They’d better have another plan at guard by then, because James Harden will be 40.
They’re also betting on a fairly small sample here. Remember, the Nuggets could have given Watson a rookie extension last offseason and chose not to. We’ve only really seen about half a season’s worth of starter-level play from Watson, and while the upside he displayed in that window was considerable, it was followed with a hamstring injury that effectively ended his season. Can he hold up physically with the workload Cleveland will expect him to carry? Only time will tell.
But Cleveland was dying for this sort of player. They badly needed athleticism and size on the wing and they got the best available player who offered it. Given the improvement in the Eastern Conference and the frankly embarrassing way they went out against the New York Knicks, this was the sort of swing Cleveland had to take if it was going to keep up with the Joneses in the standings.
Denver Nuggets: D-
Losing Watson closes Denver’s championship window with Nikola Jokić even more
Any unprotected pick five years into the future is valuable. Nobody is denying that. Its value to Denver, specifically, is pretty minimal. Nikola Jokić is a 31-year-old three-time MVP. His time to win is now. In theory, a 2031 pick is at least a helpful trade chip they could use to add another win-now piece. In practice, the money is going to make that extremely difficult.
The Nuggets technically create a $10.2 million trade exception by making this deal… except as a second apron team already, they can’t use it. They also can’t aggregate salaries without getting under the second apron, which will be fairly tough. So realistically, their path to using that pick as a trade asset this year would most likely involve trading away a starter. I just ranked Christian Braun as the NBA‘s ninth-worst contract. It would cost that pick just to get someone to take him. They could move Cam Johnson on an expiring contract, but this is already a low-volume 3-point shooting team. They really can’t afford to lose him. Aaron Gordon is Mr. Nugget. He’s also stylistically irreplaceable.
Maybe they can pull a rabbit out of the hat. Maybe they wind up trading that 2031 pick for a pick in an upcoming draft, as Calvin Booth did with future Nugget picks in the past. But even then, such a prospect would take time to develop that Denver likely doesn’t have. And of course, such a player would almost certainly be worse than Watson.
Regardless of Jokić’s age, Denver’s window is going to get smaller with each passing year. So will everyone’s in the Western Conference. The older the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder get, the harder it will be to genuinely compete with them. On paper, that makes this season the single most important year remaining in Jokić’s career. His best chance at a second championship is right now.
Frankly, those championship hopes were reliant on Watson. Braun’s five-year, $125 million contract was a disaster. He is a backup-level player. Johnson was a downgrade on Michael Porter Jr., a downgrade they paid a 2032 first-round pick to make. Denver’s only real chance of keeping up with the Thunder and Spurs was Watson maintaining his performance from last season, but over a fully healthy year. He was their upside, their only meaningful young player with room to grow.
And they didn’t even get a player back for him because they were so expensive that they technically couldn’t. When signing-and-trading a player of your own to another team, taking back another player in the trade using the trade exception that player creates triggers a second-apron hard cap. The Nuggets are already over the second apron. Even if they could have taken back an inferior replacement player, they probably wouldn’t have. Remember, the Nuggets are a repeater tax team. As of right now, with only 13 players under contract, they have a $285 million payroll, according to Yossi Gozlan.
Paying Watson what Cleveland paid him or taking back an equivalent salary would have taken the Nuggets above $400 million, giving them the most expensive payroll in NBA history. There was just never any reasonable indication that Denver was willing to pay that much for its roster.
But they should have. Remember, the Nuggets are already over the second apron. All of the restrictions it imposes already apply. At this point, we’re only really talking about money, and money from the family that also owns the Colorado Avalanche, Los Angeles Rams and Arsenal FC. They could have let Johnson walk next summer to reset the finances, making this year’s payroll a giant, one-off tax bill.
But that tax bill would likely pale in comparison to the surplus value Jokić has generated for this organization through his below-market contracts (even at the max, he has never been fairly paid for his production, and he arrived in the NBA as a second-round pick earning a relative pittance) and what he has added to the franchise’s valuation. I bring this up because Jokić could technically become a free agent next offseason. All signs thus far have indicated that he plans to stay in Denver. Making the team worse by trading an important player without getting one back is a way to make him reconsider those plans.
At this point, I’m not sure it’s ever fair to consider the Nuggets fringe contenders. They’ll have the same opening night starters that they did a year ago, but have since lost their Sixth Man of the Year finalist (Tim Hardaway Jr.), their backup center (Jonas Valančiūnas) and now, their best young player (Watson) following a first-round loss to a Minnesota Timberwolves team that ended that series essentially without its entire guard rotation. It’s a sad decline for a team that once had dynastic potential.
Los Angeles Clippers: C+
The Clips joined the deal and grabbed a useful player
Is Max Strus all that consequential here? Probably not. The Clippers are expected to fall out of the Western Conference postseason picture without Kawhi Leonard, yet they don’t control their 2027 first-round pick, so there was no real need to protect themselves against the relegation zone. This is a pretty straightforward acquisition: the Clippers saw a useful player available that they had the tax room to afford, so they grabbed him.
It never hurts to have a wing surplus, especially when it comes to players on expiring deals. The Clippers can now go into the season with Derrick Jones Jr., Rui Hachimura, Max Strus, and Kris Dunn all effectively on one-year deals. They should be able to squeeze contenders for a couple of second-round picks for one or two of those wings without hurting their on-court product too much. Remember, they also got Brandon Ingram in the Leonard deal, so they have stable minutes at forward ever before factoring in all of those veterans on expiring contracts. All in all, it’s a reasonable swing on a productive player.
Washington Wizards: C+
The Wizards filled a need with the ball-handling Tre Mann
The Wizards have been looking all offseason for another ball-handler, and the reporting has suggested they’ve been looking in some less-than-ideal places. They reportedly tried to bring back Russell Westbrook before he retired, and they’ve been linked to DeMar DeRozan as well. The last thing the Wizards need are accomplished, veteran players who will expect a certain amount of minutes and shots. The priority here should be the young players, especially with Trae Young and Anthony Davis already checking the “competent veterans” box.
That’s why Mann is a nice get for Washington. Though he struggled mightily last season following back surgery, he was a reasonable scoring backup point guard before that who can give the Wizards an emergency option without demanding all that much from them. Having another mid-sized salary (Mann will make $8 million and has a team option for the same amount for the 2027-28 season) never hurts at the trade deadline, and they picked up a second-round pick in the exchange. All in all, it’s a nice if small bit of business.
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