They are led by a Euro 2016 hero, have a Giggs in their starting line-up, and boast a goalscorer who is exciting many at Manchester United.

While Wales’ new era continues under Craig Bellamy, the country’s next generation is making a significant step in Scotland this week.

Containing some names that are already familiar to many and some that could yet prove to be household ones of the future, Wales Under-19s have begun their latest European qualifiers.

Managed by 109-cap defender Chris Gunter, their campaign started with a win against the hosts in Stirling.

They clearly impressed former Scotland midfielder Nigel Quashie – whose son, Arsenal’s Brayden Clarke, played at centre-back in the 1-0 win.

“This Wales squad showed signs that this group of players are only going to better,” he posted on X , externalof a team, many of whom – including Clarke – reached the Under-17s Euros finals last summer.

Clarke is not the only former professional’s offspring in the side; Zach Giggs had a hand setting up Wales’ only goal as he donned the same dragon worn 64 times by his father, Manchester United great Ryan.

But, as Wales look ahead to games against France (Saturday, 16 November) and Liechtenstein (Tuesday, 19 November) seeking to progress to the elite round qualifiers in spring and then possibly the first major finals at this age grade, they are not the only youngsters that Welsh football bosses are hoping could be senior stars in the not too distant future.

If Raducanu is picked against Germany as expected, she will be tasked with putting her team ahead in the three-match tie before Katie Boulter plays in the second singles match.

It has been a winning formula. Raducanu and Boulter won three of their four singles matches as GB beat France in April’s qualifier.

Boulter, ranked 24th in the world, is the nation’s leading player, with Harriet Dart, Heather Watson and doubles specialist Olivia Nicholls completing the team in Spain.

Raducanu, though, has not played since 21 September when she retired from her Korea Open quarter-final against Daria Kasatkina, but on Thursday she insisted she was ready.

“I’m in a place where I feel good and confident to give it my all if I’m to be on the match court,” said Raducanu, who is “in discussions” about bringing Naomi Osaka’s former fitness trainer Yutaka Nakamura into her team.

“I’ve been training in the last three weeks on it, properly building up and last week I was throwing myself around the court. It’s feeling good.

“I’m happy to be in this position especially because it did take longer than we think. I feel really fit.”

Raducanu has played just 33 matches this year after returning from the wrist and ankle surgeries which ruled her out of most of last season.

There have been moments of encouragement on her climb back into the world’s top 60, but plenty of patience has also been required.

As she recovered from the foot problem, Raducanu used the time away from the match court to “detach”.

She spent quality time with her grandma who lives in China, brushed up her skills on the piano and read a stack of books.

The mind is rested. But will the body be sharp?

“Sharpness is something which comes with matches and although I haven’t played in a while, it will be good to find out,” said Raducanu, who lamented not playing enough matches before her painful US Open first-round exit in August.

“On the practice court and practice points, I feel sharp and pretty good.

“I don’t feel too far behind even though the second half of the season I have been a lot lighter on tournaments.”

If Jon Jones plans to fight again after facing Stipe Miocic at UFC 309, he only has one option and that’s a showdown with interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall.

That’s according to UFC CEO Dana White, who responded to Jones’ comments leading up to his fight on Saturday where he’s repeatedly shut down a potential fight against Aspinall and instead favored a matchup with UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira. Jones even went as far as saying Aspinall is “such an assh*le that I don’t want to do business with him.”

“He’s not fighting Pereira,” White told Jim Rome when asked about Jones’ plans for the future. “[Pereira] was a middleweight that moved up to light heavyweight. He’s also a kickboxer who has done very, very well in MMA. His wrestling isn’t even near the level of Jon Jones and Jon Jones is way bigger than him.

“If Jon Jones wants to fight again after Saturday night, he will fight Tom Aspinall.”

That’s great news for Aspinall, who is currently in New York to play the backup for the fight between Jones and Miocic on Saturday,

Aspinall claimed the interim heavyweight title almost exactly one year ago after Jones suffered a torn pectoral muscle that forced him to delay the fight against Miocic. In the meantime, Aspinall defended his interim belt with a stunning first-round knockout over Curtis Blaydes back in July.

Since then, Aspinall has repeatedly called for the fight against Jones while stating that he’s facing Miocic for the “most disputed title” in the UFC.

Everything Aspinall said has only caused Jones to dig in his heels that much more whenever he addresses the potential fight but White says that’s the only matchup he’s willing to make.

“Jon’s weird in how he deals with this type of stuff,” White said. “Like he’ll show up for a fight like this, he’ll be prepared mentally, physically, and everything else and then when the fight’s over, he sort of goes and disappears and he wants to challenge himself again and Tom Aspinall is there. He’s doing the whole ‘he doesn’t deserve it’ … but Jon when was 23 years old and he became the youngest champion ever, somebody gave him the opportunity for greatness. I think Jon will eventually come back and face Tom Aspinall.

“But if he decides Saturday night that’s it, it’s over, it’s his right to make that decision. What this guy has accomplished, nobody else has even come close to accomplishing and he’s the greatest of all time. So we’ll see.”

White is rather adamant when addressing Jones either taking the Aspinall fight or calling it a career but he refuses to believe that the reigning UFC heavyweight champion is actually ducking anybody.

That narrative has plagued Jones in the days leading up to his fight against Miocic but White promises that couldn’t be further from the truth.

“For anybody to say he’s ducking anybody, Jon Jones is like 37, 38 years old, he’s fought everybody,” White said. “He’s fought all the best in the world, in their prime, been doing it since he was 23 years old. He doesn’t duck. And he’s undefeated, he’s never lost a fight, which is unbelievable in like 16 years.”

For all the ways Jones has refused to even acknowledge Aspinall as a potential opponent, White won’t close the door on that fight actually happening down the road.

If Jones wins on Saturday, White expects him to take some time off before deciding whether or not he wants to compete again. Assuming Jones wants to return for another fight, White is confident he’ll take on Aspinall.

“That is classic Jon Jones right there. Classic Jon Jones,” White said. “Jon will do what he does on Saturday, if he wins, he’ll disappear for a while and then that competitive spirit will start bubbling up again and then money will talk. If he doesn’t decide to retire, he absolutely, positively fights Aspinall.

Despite some teething issues — Formula 1‘s first Las Vegas Grand Prix on and around the gambling haven’s iconic Strip was both an on-track and commercial success. After several hiccups during practice the race turned out to be entertaining, and the marketing and hospitality-driven hype around the race ensured the event generated more tax revenue than any other event in Las Vegas history, with the economic impact estimated at $1.5b. It turned what had been one of Vegas’ quietest weekends of the year, one week before Thanksgiving, into one of its rowdiest.

But that commercial success, a significant part of which flowed back to the Strip’s giant casinos and F1 itself, also came at a price for many of Sin City’s residents. 

Locals faced nine months of disruptions as F1 commissioned road resurfacing, built an entire paddock on the plot of land it acquired adjacent to the Strip, and then closed off some of Vegas’ main arteries for the race itself. The numerous construction projectsIt sent commuter traffic into disarray and also came at a huge cost for several local businesses who saw their properties largely cut off.

Some of them, like Battista’s Hole in the Wall and the Stage Door Casino, were unlucky to be based on Flamingo Road on the inside of the circuit, being pincered in between the Strip and Koval Lane, both of which form part of the 3.8 mile track. They jointly sued the Las Vegas Grand Prix, citing “wrongful interference with business rights” and demanding compensation for lost revenue, which they claim amounted to approximately $5 million over the course of 2023.

A view of Las Vegas

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Tonya Markin, the co-owner of Battista’s Hole in the Wall, told the Nevada Current some local businesses were suffering from “F1 PTSD” when the build-up started for next week’s second running, fearing they will see “another big drop in our revenue.”

F1, which promotes the race itself, is well aware of the trouble it caused in year one, with Greg Maffei, the outgoing CEO of F1 owner Liberty Media issuing an apology for the disruption brought to the city after last year’s event. For year two,organisers have promised a smoother build-up, which started much later than last year as a lot of the ground work had already been done in 2023, including the one-off repaving process.

Steve Hill, the CEO and president of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA), the destination’s marketing organization, said reducing disruption to a minimum was one of the event’s main priorities this time around.

“We had eight months building a circuit and lining the barricades and all that, so it was an amazing accomplishment that Liberty Media and the Formula 1 folks did, but it was tough on the city,” Hill acknowledged.

“It’s a tough race to put on, down one of the busiest streets in the world. We didn’t want to have to do that to the community on a repetitive basis, and we knew we weren’t going to have to because we don’t have to build a new road way every year. […] We learned a lot from last year and the grand prix learned a lot from last year, and this year has really been very smooth and has not been disruptive.”

Work in Progress at the Las Vegas F1 course

Photo by: Jim Utter

It’s the communication breakdown over 2023 that seems to pain residents the most, leaving many in the dark over the level of disruption as work on the circuit progressed and fluctuated week to week. 

Hill explains, “It was a pretty remarkable achievement to go from making an announcement on March 30 2022 to 17 months later having a race. There was a lot of communication but there was a lot of learning along the way. It was not a linear process that first year, it just couldn’t be. We thought one thing this week and then two weeks later we thought, ‘that was wrong and we need to change that’, so there was a lot of spaghetti being made that everybody was experiencing.

“The first five months of the congestion last year was just building the road, the circuit itself. That was really disruptive, it’s a hard thing to do. It’s hard to communicate that construction process because it’s moving. Most construction projects it’s like, ‘don’t go there for the next two years’. Well, we were two weeks here, and two weeks here, that’s a very difficult thing for people to react to.”

A lot of the confusion, according to Hill, came down to organisers learning by doing as they tried to bring the event to life in a compressed timeframe, which caused “U-turns” in the process. To better accommodate and inform local residents this year, organisers implemented an interactive map that allows anyone to navigate construction, barriers or closures up to and on race weekend. Little adjustments and solutions like the map, puts the event much closer to achieving a balance, where organising the race ticks enough boxes for the wider community.

“This year the community knows more [on] what to expect,” he said. “It needs to work for everybody, it needs to work for the businesses, the sponsors of the race, the resort community and it needs to work for the community itself. This year I think we are much closer to that balance than we were last year.”

A welcome to Las Vegas Max Verstappen sign in the paddock

Photo by: Jake Grant / Motorsport Images

Another point of criticism was the notion that most of the economic benefits stayed within the Strip’s resort and casino community, with little planned outside the direct environment of the circuit to support the rest of the area. That’s changing this year with an NFL game on Sunday between the Las Vegas Raiders and the Denver Broncos at Allegiant Stadium, on the south side of Las Vegas Boulevard.

None of us were sure what the city was going to look like, [or] what would be possible last year and most of the city outside of the race, went dark,” Hill added. “This year we have a Raiders game and a partnership with the Raiders and the race. On Sunday there is a concert series downtown to complement [it]. It will be Adele’s last weekend [of her residency] in Las Vegas too. So, the properties have brought entertainment back outside of the circuit area and all of those things will elevate that weekend too and I think it will help elevate the race as well.

“They have added [10,000] more general admission tickets, which I think responds to a demand that showed up last year and we heard a lot about, but was really too late to do anything about. There is a fan experience this year, that is a free experience for both visitors and community alike. That helps build both goodwill in the community and an additional fanbase in the south west, which is important for the race going forward.”

UFC fans were all left gobsmacked by Jon Jones’ X-rated rant about Brit Tom Aspinall.

Aspinall, 31, has been chasing the pound-for-pound great since claiming the interim heavyweight title last November.

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But undisputed king Jones has repeatedly dismissed the prospect of sharing the octagon with the burly Brit, who he believes hasn’t earned the right to face him.

Fan favourite Aspinall has been relentless on social media in his bid to poke the ego of the MMA icon.

But his antics have drawn the ire of the former long-reigning light-heavyweight king, who defends his title against Stipe Miocic in the main event of UFC 309 at Madison Square Garden early on Sunday morning.

He said: “If I’m being completely honest, I feel like Tom’s been such an a**hole that I don’t want to do business with him.

“His fans have been so annoying and obviously you don’t get this far in a career being affected by fans or what not.

“But he’s just an a**hole.”

MMA fans were up in arms over Jones’ savage dig at Aspinall, who is regarded by many to be one of the nicest people in the sport.

One wrote on X: “Jones calling someone an asshole? Ironic.”

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How to Watch UFC 309

The UFC makes it’s annual visit to New York City on November 16 for another blockbuster pay-per-view card.

UFC 309 will take place at the iconic Madison Square Garden, which provided some unforgettable moments since mixed martial arts was legalised in New York state in 2016.

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Topping the bill at the ‘World’s Most Famous Arena’ is the eagerly-anticipated heavyweight title fight between champion Jon Jones and former titleholder Stipe Miocic.

And in the co-main event of the evening, Michael Chandler will throw down with former lightweight champion and fellow fan favourite Charles Oliveira.

UFC 309 is undoubtedly one of the most anticipated cards of what has been another massive year for MMA’s top promotion.

And fans in the UK and Ireland can watch all the action from what promises to be an incredible night at MSG live on TNT Sports Box Office.

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The penultimate pay-per-view card of the year will be available to purchase for a mere £19.99.

UFC 309 will also be available to buy on Discovery+, EE TV, Prime Video, Virgin Media TV and Sky Sports.

And fight fans don’t need to subscribe to TNT Sports to buy the star-studded event.

Watch UFC 309: Jones v Miocic exclusively live on TNT Sports Box Office from 1am on Saturday 16 November.

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For more info visit: tntsports.co.uk/boxoffice

Another said: “Takes one to know one I suppose, Jon.”

And another said: “He’s outdoing himself with the ducking every day.”

One remarked: “Never thought I’d see the day the great Jon Bones Jones would be ducking and making excuses to this magnitude.

“It’s sad to watch.”

Another chimed in: “Ok this is trolling. It has to be. GOATs and ducks can’t share that much DNA.”

Despite being repeatedly dismissed by Jones, Aspinall – who is the backup fighter this weekend – has been nothing but respectful of the American.

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He said: “If he thinks that I don’t deserve it, show me that I don’t deserve it. Show me.”

“If you kick my arse in front of the whole world, I’m happy to stick my hand out and go, ‘Listen, you’re the better man.’

“No problem. You took my dreams away from me, but at least I tried.’

“But this ducking and diving is something that I don’t really have respect for.”

Watch UFC 309: Jones v Miocic exclusively live on TNT Sports Box Office from 1am on Saturday 16 November.

For more info visit: tntsports.co.uk/boxoffice.

When Jon Jones steps into the cage Saturday at UFC 309, it’ll mark more than 16 years that he’s competed as a professional fighter.

The UFC snagged him within his first year of competition. He fought six times regionally before the promotion came calling. All eight of those bouts occurred between April and July 2008.

One of those fights was against fellow future UFC fighter Parker Porter in Wilmington, Mass., for World Championship Fighting (now Combat FC). Jones, then 20, would sign with the UFC one win later.

Up until now, the only footage that existed in the public forum was a grainy handheld angle from cageside. However, promoter Joe Cavallaro released professional footage of the fight Thursday for all to enjoy – for as long as it lasted.

Ahead of UFC 309, check out the previously unreleased video of Jones vs. Porter in the video above.