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Edwin van der Sar shares Man United job truth after holding talks – ‘Two good conversations’

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23 February 2026

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Former Manchester United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar has revealed that he held talks about a possible return to Old Trafford

Former Manchester United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar has revealed that he has previously held talks with the club over returning in an executive role.

The Dutchman spent six years at Old Trafford after joining from Fulham in 2005. He made 266 appearances for United, keeping 135 clean sheets, before retiring in 2011 at the age of 40.

Shortly after hanging up his gloves, he joined former club Ajax as a director. He became Chief Executive Officer in 2016. He resigned from his role in 2023 after the club missed out on a Champions League spot with a third-place finish in the Eredivisie.

The now 55-year-old has revealed that he may have had the chance to join United in a similar role, having held two rounds of talks with the club.

Speaking on The Overlap, he revealed: “Yes, I spoke to Ed Woodward twice about taking up a role at Manchester United, but at that point, I didn’t think my job was finished at Ajax with the path we were going on – we were not there yet.

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“But I had two good conversations with him on two separate occasions about a role, probably alongside him.”

The goalkeeper position has been a big talking point at Old Trafford for the last few seasons. This summer saw Andre Onana join Turkish side Trabzonspor on loan, with Senne Lammens coming in as his replacement.

The Belgian has earned praise for his performances, and Van der Sar has backed him to be a long-term fixture at the club “He’s doing well. Of course, it’s only been seven or eight months,” he said.

“But it certainly looks like he knows the physicality of the Premier League – I see him coming for balls in the penalty spot and he claims them with confidence, makes saves when needed, not looking to make saves when not necessary.

“I’m not here day-to-day and I don’t see all of the games, but he looks like he has a good package with him to be here [Manchester United] for a long time.”

Van der Sar suffered a health scare just weeks after leaving Ajax, with a bleed around the brain. He is now recovered and is enjoying more time away from work.

“What was nice for me was that I wanted to have a rest, take a year out of football, go to some other clubs and learn some new things,” he said.

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“Now it’s almost three years ago, so I’ve had time to recover with no stress, no phone in my hand – just doing the stuff that I’ve wanted to do.

“Wake up when you want, walk the dog, go swim in the sea, go on holiday. I went to New Zealand for two months with Annemarie [his wife] – nice things that I never had the chance to do before.

“I started playing at 18 or 19, finished at 40, and at 41 I became one of the directors at Ajax until 53, so I thought it was the right time to take a step back. That’s taken a little bit longer than I originally thought, to be fair, but we are enjoying ourselves very much.”

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Secretary of War Pete Hegseth praises Connor Hellebuyck after victory

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23 February 2026

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NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

After watching Team USA defeat Canada in the Olympics men’s hockey gold medal game, United States Secretary of War Pete Hegseth bestowed his old title on American goaltender Connor Hellebuyck.

Hellebuyck collected 41 saves to help keep the game tied at 1-1, forcing overtime. Jack Hughes ultimately scored the game-winner past Canada’s netminder Jordan Binnington.

One of Hellebuyck’s saves saw him somehow stop a wide-open Devon Toews shot in front of his crease with only his stick, turning quickly with his right hand to stop the puck and keep the game tied in the second period. Without that save, and many others, the result may have been different.

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U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth salutes

U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said the IRS news points to ‘what we’re doing to rebuild our military.’ (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

A social media account dubbed Hellebuyck the “Secretary of Defense,” and Hegseth, who held that title before the agency he heads became known as the Department of War last September, endorsed the designation.

“Now we have a Secretary of War…and a Secretary of Defense!” Hegseth said over the post showing Hellebuyck’s incredible efforts.

CONNOR HELLEBUYCK’S MIRACLE STICK SAVE HELPED TEAM USA CAPTURE FIRST HOCKEY GOLD SINCE 1980 AT OLYMPICS

Hegseth was one of many showing American pride when the U.S. took down Canada, which couldn’t capitalize on some grade-A chances on Hellebuyck, including assistant captain Nathan MacKinnon missing a wide-open net in the third period.

For the save on Toews, the Canadian Colorado Avalanche star lifted the puck just a bit for Hellebuyck’s paddle to get right in the way for the save. At the time, the score was 1-1, and it held there through the end of the second period and throughout the third before overtime was needed.

Connor Hellebuyck of Team United States saves the shot taken by Devon Toews #7 of Team Canada in the third period during the Men’s Gold Medal match between Canada and the United States on day 16 of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic games at Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena on Feb. 22, 2026 in Milan, Italy. (Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)

“It’s a dream come true,” Hellebuyck said, via NBC, after the game. “We grinded, we battled, and this was some of the best and most fun hockey that I’ve ever played.”

The 32-year-old Hellebuyck did let up a goal to Avalanche star defenseman Cale Makar in the second period, but he made save after save following that game-tying score to allow his team the chance at glory.

After the game, Hellebuyck was skating around the ice alone with an American flag on his back, as the crowd roared its approval.

Goalkeeper Connor Hellebuyck of United States celebrates winning the gold medal during the Ice Hockey Men’s Gold Medal Game match between Canada and USA on day sixteen of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic games at Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena on Feb. 22, 2026 in Milan, Italy. (Andrea Branca/Eurasia Sport Images)

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Both the men’s and women’s hockey teams are coming home with gold in what was an historic Milan Cortina Games for the U.S.

The U.S. finished with 33 total medals, including a record 12 golds in the Winter Olympics.

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Scott Thompson is a sports writer for Fox News Digital.

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Inside Jacob Bridgeman’s terrifying Genesis finish

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31 minutes ago

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23 February 2026

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PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — The scariest putt in golf is somewhere between three and four feet.

Short enough that you expect to make it.

Long enough that you might not.

It gets tougher, I’d imagine, to hit a three-and-a-half footer with 5,000 people watching from the hillside in front of you.

Tougher when they’ve just gasped in horror at what you’ve just done.

Tougher still when one of those people is Rory McIlroy, who just so happens to be one stroke behind you.

And tougher when another is Tiger Woods, your childhood hero, looking on from a perch beside the clubhouse, 50 yards and 500 miles away, waiting to shake your hand as long as you can somehow get your ball to the bottom of that hole.

It gets tougher when you’re on the brink of winning your first PGA Tour event, something you’ve dreamt of your entire life, something you know you can do but also know isn’t guaranteed.

And tougher knowing that missing wouldn’t just mean letting an opportunity slip by — it would mean blowing a six-stroke lead, crashing on the final turn, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

It gets tougher when the pressure hasn’t slowly mounted, but instead, after three rounds and 15 holes of low stress and many birdies, it hits like a freight train, with a shrinking lead, a growing crowd, decibels, nerves and heart rate rising by the minute.

And it gets tougher when you can’t feel your hands.

SUNDAY BROUGHT THE MOST GLORIOUS WEATHER in the history of Los Angeles, tied for first with 80 percent of all days in L.A. history, 70 degrees and sunny, deep blue cloudless sky matching the deep blue ocean just visible from the balcony of Riviera Country Club’s iconic clubhouse.

That was the setting for the final round of the Genesis Invitational, which felt like it could go one of two directions. Jacob Bridgeman began the day with a six-shot lead over Rory McIlroy and seven-plus over the rest of the gang, having played nearly flawless golf through three rounds. Bridgeman has been very good and very steady since last season, but entering Sunday he’d never won. Would he succumb to the pressure, blow up and yield to the chase pack? Or would he keep his foot on the gas and continue speeding away from the rest of the field? Those felt like the two options.

Instead, much of the day settled in the awkward in-between.

There are few better golf settings than the iconic old-school cool of Riviera, though early tee times plus an L.A. crowd living up to its get-there-in-the-fourth-inning reputation led to a slightly muted early stretch.

Fans were pulling for McIlroy, wanting to will him into a comeback, but they were quietly supportive of Bridgeman, too, an impressive unknown without an ounce of villain in him. Bridgeman matched McIlroy’s birdie at No. 1 to keep his lead at six. He birdied the third to stretch it to seven. Even that was greeted with light applause. McIlroy’s early birdie tries slid by, doing little to ignite the crowd. Hollywood seemed unimpressed with this particular bit of anticlimax.

(One star among them: Ben Affleck, who walked the entire front nine inside the ropes with his son and tried multiple times to frame up the perfect iPhone photo of a McIlroy tee shot. The stars, they’re just like us!)

Bridgeman has been forged in the fires of competitive golf, first growing up in South Carolina, then at Clemson and more recently on the game’s top circuit. He’s been on a steady upward trajectory. He’s made it clear that success isn’t all his own.

When he first started working with his swing coach Scott Hamilton, he had some work to do. “I didn’t hit the ball straight, didn’t hit it high, didn’t have a lot of control with my irons,” he said.

When he settled on his first-choice caddie, G.W. Cable, there was just one problem: he’d have to take a pay cut to join Bridgeman on the Korn Ferry Tour.

“He took a gamble on me and luckily we only spent one year down there and I think he’s pretty pleased with his gamble,” Bridgeman said.

He earned $4.4 million on the course last season. He was playing for a $4 million winner’s check on Sunday. Good pressure to have.

But just because he’s been good doesn’t mean it’d be easy. As the day lingered, Bridgeman let the rest of the field do the same. He bogeyed 4. He bogeyed 7. He hit the middles of greens, he scared the hole, just missing putts that he’d watched fall the first three days.

McIlroy finally made some semblance of a push early on the back nine. Birdie at 11 cut the lead to five before a highlight-reel hole-out birdie from the bunker at 12 electrified the crowd for the first time all day.

Up ahead, several other contenders made their presence felt. Aldrich Potgieter got to 15 under with an eagle at 11. Adam Scott played stunning golf, stacking eight birdies and zero bogeys to post the clubhouse lead at 16 under. And then, just as Bridgeman found himself in a spot of bother, Kurt Kitayama made his seventh and eighth birdies of the day in the group ahead to post 17 under par.

Bridgeman wobbled with a wayward tee shot at No. 16, dumping his iron into the front right bunker, an inescapable jail.

“It was honestly easy until I got to about 16 and then it got really hard,” Bridgeman said post-round. His caddie, looking at his lie, didn’t hesitate. He had to aim right and play for bogey. His lengthy par putt wandered past the hole; he negotiated in a nervy try for bogey. The lead was suddenly one.

Things only got tougher at the par-5 17th, where Bridgeman’s second shot sailed right and found a bunker, leaving him with no good options. He did well to play a sensible shot.

“Definitely around the green, that was the first time that I had to play defense,” he said.

It was around this time that Bridgeman lost feeling in his hands.

“I didn’t really feel really crazy nervous until I had a five-footer for bogey on 16; that one was sketchy,” he said. “I hit a really good putt and luckily it went in, and then I was really nervous from there on out. I couldn’t even feel my hands on the last couple greens, I just hit the putt hoping it would get somewhere near the hole.”

But on full shots, Bridgeman said, he still felt okay.

“I felt like I was just kind of in robot mode and autopilot, I could just swing the club and it would do exactly what it’s supposed to do,” he said. An envious feeling.

That’s what he did on No. 18, sending driver up the left-center fairway off the tee and playing a towering approach right at the hole, 20 feet short, straight uphill.

And then he left it three and a half feet short.

The crowd groaned. They murmured. Suddenly, a tantalizing possibility was back in play: a miss would mean a three-way playoff between Bridgeman, Kitayama and McIlroy, whose dramatic birdie putt had dripped over the front edge just moments before.

Bridgeman is good friends with Chris Gotterup, a rising star on Tour and a recent multiple-time winner. He recounted watching the WM Phoenix Open, where Gotterup poured in a winning birdie putt with aggressive speed.

“We were like, what were you doing? You hit your putt so hard, it was going to go four feet by the hole. He said, ‘I have no idea, I couldn’t feel my hands.’

“I thought he was kind of crazy until I got to this moment and then I was like, yep, I understand what you’re talking about now, Chris. I had no idea what to do.”

It’s tough to make a three-and-a-half footer, and it’s tougher if you can sense that some portion of the crowd around is suddenly hoping that you will.

Tough for you or me.

But, as he and we suddenly realized, easier for Jacob Bridgeman.

“The hole’s really white and it looked pretty big for whatever reason on 18,” he said. He had his read — hit it at the middle of the middle — and he knew what he could control.

“I was just hoping that the ball would roll where it was supposed to roll.”

Most of the time, nothing good can happen with a three-and-a-half-footer. It’s a multiple-choice test with two options: Relief or disaster. This time, though, salvation lay within. The ball rolled as it was supposed to. Bridgeman’s triumph was official. He plunged into the winner’s whirlpool; his wife greeted him on the green, he floated through his CBS interview, he climbed the stairs, shook Woods’ hand, didn’t process whatever he said.

“This is way, way better than I’ve ever dreamt it,” he said.

He also offered an admission.

“I’m glad it’s done now.”

Dylan Dethier welcomes your comments at dylan_dethier@golf.com.

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Premier League: Arsenal pass derby test of nerve against Tottenham

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23 February 2026

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Eberechi Eze and Viktor Gyökeres allowed Arsenal to restore their lead at the top of the Premier League table to five points with victory in the North London derby (4-1).

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Zinedine Zidane’s Man United stance, learning English and ‘verbal agreement’ to take job

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23 February 2026

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Zinedine Zidane has reportedly agreed to a managerial role after long-term speculation over his move to Manchester United

Zinedine Zidane’s reported agreement to become France’s manager after the World Cup will finally put an end to rumours about his potential appointment at Manchester United. This week, reports emerged claiming Zidane has verbally agreed to take over the France national team following this summer’s World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico.

His former international team-mate, Didier Deschamps, currently holds the reins, but his contract is due to expire after the tournament. Deschamps, 57, has led Les Bleus since 2012, taking them to back-to-back World Cup finals and glory in 2018.

Yet, in recent years, there has been a growing belief that Zidane is biding his time to step in once Deschamps departs. The 53-year-old has been out of management since leaving Real Madrid for the second time in 2021.

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The former Ballon d’Or winner’s remarkable first stint at the Santiago Bernabeu from 2016 to 2018 saw him win nine trophies, including three successive Champions League titles. Those managerial feats haven’t been forgotten during his five-year absence from the game, with him regularly linked with the United job dating back to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s dismissal.

That was the case again before Ruben Amorim’s arrival at Old Trafford in 2024 and once more earlier this season. Zidane has even spoken publicly about the prospect of managing United in the past.

When asked if he would consider taking a Premier League job in 2022, the 1998 World Cup winner told L’Equipe: “Never say never. Especially when you are a coach today. If I go back to a club, it is to win. I say this with all modesty.

“That’s why I can’t just go anywhere. For other reasons, too. Certain conditions make things more difficult. When someone says to me, ‘Do you want to go to Manchester [United]?’ I understand English but I don’t fully master it.

“I know there are coaches who go to clubs without speaking the language but I work differently. To win, many elements come into play. It’s a global context. I know what I need to win.

“Of course, I might not always win but I know that you need to have this, this and this. And I want to do everything on my side to optimise my chances of victory.”

Another of Zidane’s former France team-mates, Arsenal icon Emmanuel Petit, later fuelled speculation over the legendary midfielder’s potential move to United by suggesting he had been taking English lessons.

Petit said: “If you are a manager of a football club, you need to speak different languages. I know Zinedine speaks different languages but, I’m pretty sure English is not one of them.

“There are so many examples of wrong decisions in football, not necessarily the wrong decision about someone’s ability, but about the dressing room being a right fit given all the different nationalities.

“Communication is very important, so if you do not speak the language when you arrive at a club like Manchester United, that could be a big problem.

“I’ve been told that he has been learning English recently, so I think he knows it’s important for his career. But Zinedine being linked with Manchester United, I don’t believe it, to be honest.”

The Frenchman, who usually avoids the spotlight, caused a stir when he made a surprise appearance at a Real Betis training session in 2024, prompting speculation that the former Real Madrid manager was gearing up for a managerial comeback. It later emerged that the visit was simply to watch his son, Elyaz, train with the senior team for the first time since leaving Real Madrid.

His name has resurfaced among the contenders for the United job, which is vacant at the end of the current campaign. Michael Carrick was appointed as interim boss last month, leading to speculation over who will assume the role on a permanent basis in the summer.

However, even before the latest reports of an agreement with France put an end to speculation linking him with United, Zidane had recently reiterated his ambition to take charge of the national team.

“I will definitely return,” Zidane said during an appearance at Festival dello Sport in Trento last year. “In terms of the future, I don’t know. My feeling is that I want to be able to coach the national team in the future, even though I don’t mean right now. I would like to one day, but we’ll see.”

Earlier this season, when discussing his stance on returning to management, Zidane revealed: “It will happen soon. Very soon.”

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“I love that he’s disappointed”

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23 February 2026

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Barcelona manager Hansi Flick has responded to his star player Lamine Yamal’s frustration at being substituted off in the victory over Levante. The Blaugrana returned to the summit of the LaLiga standings with a 3-0 win against Levante on Sunday, February 22.

Yamal seemed visibly frustrated when he was taken off for Roony Bardghji in the 88th minute. The Catalan giants already established a 3-0 lead at the point and looked pretty much certain to take all three points.

However, Yamal looked irritated with the substitution and shook his head as he took his seat. Following the game, Hansi Flick was asked to comment on the youngster’s reaction and the German downplayed the incident.

Flick insisted that he was happy to see Yamal’s mentality of always looking to score and assist. He also reminded that the Spaniard is only 18 years of age and his legs needs to be protected. The Barcelona manager said, as quoted by The National:

“I love that he is disappointed. It shows his mentality. He always wants to score, to assist, to help the team. That is good. That is what we want from our players.”

He added:

“He is 18 years old. We have to take care of him. He plays a lot of minutes and today the game was under control. It was the right moment to give him some rest.”

Marc Bernal, Frenkie de Jong and Fermin Lopez scored for the Blaugrana as they leapfrogged ahead of Real Madrid at the top of the table. Los Blancos suffered a 2-1 loss against Osasuna and are now one point behind their arch rivals.

Yamal has been excellent for Barcelona this season scoring 15 goals and producing 14 assists in 33 appearances across competitions. He provided the assist for Barca’s third goal against Levante, scored by Fermin Lopez.

Manchester United eyeing a €40m bid for Barcelona defender in the summer: Reports

Manchester United have reportedly emerged as big admirers of Barcelona left-back Alejandro Balde. As claimed by Mundo Deportivo, Barca view Balde as an important player but not untouchable.

The Catalan giants would reportedly sell Balde if they receive the right offer and Manchester United have already registered their interest. The Red Devils are looking for a long-term successor to Luke Shaw who has entered the final 18 months of his deal.

The Premier League giants are reportedly ready to offer Barcelona €40 million for Balde’s services in the summer. Aged only 22, Balde is mostly known for his attacking forays, having scored thrice and provided 21 assists in 158 games for Barca till date.

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2026 Genesis Invitational purse: Prize money, payouts for winner Jacob Bridgeman, field from $20 million pool

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2026 Genesis Invitational purse: Prize money, payouts for winner Jacob Bridgeman, field from $20 million pool

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