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Ballon d’Or Power Rankings: Harry Kane’s does enough to make case
And so we come to the final round of power rankings for the 2026 Ballon d’Or. Of course, the eligibility period for the competition long since ended with Spain crowned world champions. On Oct. 26, the consensus best player in the world for last season will be announced.
Who exactly that might be seems far more up in the air than in most years. Twelve months ago, for instance, the narrative had swung irresistibly behind Ousmane Dembele. It did not matter that Mohamed Salah and Raphinha had better pure output. Dembele had a better story, the long-admired talent finally putting it all together and at just the right moment to be the best player in the best club side in the world. All the major honors — frankly, that’s just the Champions League — were his.
If you are wondering why you are hearing so much from Lamine Yamal, Kylian Mbappe and Harry Kane in recent weeks, well it’s because they all know there are likely swing voters to be won before the deadline of Sept. 28. Neither they nor anyone else have an unassailable candidacy after a season of many excellent individual campaigns but few, if any, legitimately great ones.
The very best performers of the club season did not take home that one extra trophy to buttress their campaign. Bayern Munich and Barcelona won their domestic leagues. Big whoop. The English champions almost exist as a counter to the individual qualities the Ballon d’Or glorifies. Arsenal won the league in spite of the absence of their star forwards, a triumph of depth and resilience that is unlikely to earn them many podium spots. Paris Saint-Germain repeated the league and Champions League double but half their strongest XI barely showed up in Ligue 1. Dembele can hardly repeat off around 2500 minutes for club and country last season.
As is always the case, the World Cup promises to warp voting. It clarifies little among the front runners. Kane and Mbappe had great individual tournaments but one of the Ballon d’Or’s three criteria is “team performances and achievements”. England and France fell short there. Yamal fulfills that but Spain’s triumph was one of the collective, the greatest prize in the sport won despite their forward struggling with injury.
Meanwhile, the best at the tournament do not sit easily in this ranking. Rodri might have held Spain together but his domestic season was hampered by injury. Lionel Messi’s historic standing was only buttressed by what he did as a 39-year-old, but your mileage may vary as to the significance of an MLS Cup-winning run beforehand.
This year more than most, then, there is no right answer. This, at least, is the least wrong I can offer. And we’ll end this preamble with a customary reminder: this is not a prediction for who will win the Ballon d’Or. If you want that, consult your preferred sportsbook, I guess. This is who ought to win it. You will probably disagree.
1. Harry Kane, Bayern Munich and England
Perhaps it was the endings to his tilts at the Champions League and World Cup that make it so hard to lock in on Kane as the best player in the world last season. If the 33-year-old really were that good, would he not have found a way to bend the biggest games in his direction? That semifinal against Argentina in particular was one of those late-summer Kane games where he looks too leggy to impact the game either in the penalty area or the midfield roles he drops into, usually with such success.
That’s one game though. There are another 64 where he was frequently spectacular. A remarkable 73 goals for club and country is the sort of output that belonged back in Messi’s prime years. The absolute biggest game may not have gone his way but Kane was unforgettable against the Ivory Coast, thrilling in both legs against PSG and incisive in putting Real Madrid to the sword.
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Then there are the Bundesliga numbers. Gaudy output is the baseline for a Bayern striker against domestic opposition but still the only players to have bettered Kane’s 36 goals in 31 league games are Gerd Muller and Robert Lewandowski. The former won the Ballon d’Or, the latter probably would have if it had been awarded in 2020. There is no reason why Kane should not get it this time.
2. Vitinha, Paris Saint-Germain and Portugal
PSG were ultimately the best side in Europe last season and yet judging which of their players deserves the Ballon d’Or is a challenge. Ligue 1 might not demand much of them but it does feel unreasonable to reward a player who spent half his weekends watching on from the sidelines because his head coach can afford to save him for the trickier tests that come with retaining the Champions League. At some point there has to be a minutes restriction. If you’re not seeing the pitch for half of your team’s league minutes, then it is really hard to make a case for you to be one of the 10 best performers in the world last season. Either you were injured, unfortunate but still a disqualifying factor, or your team are not frequently playing opponents of a sufficient standard.
All of which is to say that Dembele, Joao Neves, Nuno Mendes and even you Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, you’ve got to go. Yes, you looked like some of the best players in the world in the spring. It’s just that you had most of the autumn off.
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As for Vitinha, there’s a reason why he played nearly 4000 club minutes and only one other starter in the Champions League final cleared 3000. The Portuguese midfielder was the engine without which his side could not motor forward. Across Europe’s top five leagues, he ranked third for progressive carries per 90 minutes and second for progressive passes. Unlike most tempo setters in midfield, he also weighed in with crucial goals and assists, firmly establishing himself as the best midfielder on the planet.
3. Michael Olise, Bayern Munich and France
The sport’s assist king last season. If we consider domestic cups and leagues, European matches and the World Cup, then Michael Olise ended the year with 10 more goals laid on for his teammates than anyone else. The summer definitively proved that he could be the lead attacker in a frontline made up of some of the best forwards in the world, but then again, his form with Bayern Munich had shown as much.
In general, when we’re reflecting back on the season, we shouldn’t lean too heavily on expected goals and assists. What we’re really looking at is actual returns and if that meant a player was out over the skis, well, more power to them. Having said that, I mean, talk about separating yourself from the field.
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4. Lamine Yamal, Barcelona and Spain
In pure output terms, Yamal, still just 19 years of age, was perhaps a little off the peak of Europe’s attackers, 37 goals and assists when Kane, Olise and Mbappe were all in the 40s or higher. Still, it was enough that a starring role in the World Cup might just have swung Yamal into top spot. Unfortunately, a biceps femoris injury put paid to the prospect of him showing more than flashes of his best self in the summer.
Unfortunately for Yamal, that was the story of his 25-26, where 96 days were lost to injuries that included a nagging groin issue in the autumn. That is among the most common problems faced by young footballers who are still growing into the bodies of seasoned athletes. On the evidence of when he was on the pitch, Yamal will be a Ballon d’Or winner when he has reached full physical maturity.
5. Kylian Mbappe, Real Madrid and France
Here’s maybe the trickiest candidacy to get a read on. In terms of goal contributions, only Kane beats him, and when the lights shone brightest at the World Cup, Mbappe was phenomenal. By the time he retires, likely with at least two more tournaments under his belt, his high watermark for World Cup scoring might look a bit like Michael Phelps’ Olympic gold record or Wilt Chamberlain’s scoring titles.
For an individual award, individual output really matters. If the Ballon d’Or were about team performance, then you would have the ludicrous scenario where Real Madrid campaigned for Dani Carvajal to win the prize in 2024 if Rodri was going to get it anyway. After all, he was there for the Euro 2024 win and the Champions League too. That’d be mad. Aaah.
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However, team success is one of the criteria and it’s one that needs to be at least partially weighed when you play for Real Madrid and France. You can’t make the Russell Westbrook 2017 case for Mbappe. His goals and assists need to lead to something. In the summer they very nearly did.
6. Gabriel Magalhaes, Arsenal and Brazil
A reminder once again that this is not a prediction. Gabriel Magalhaes probably is not going to make the top 10. The best odds you can find of him winning the Ballon d’Or are +6600, an implied probability of 1.5%. That’s defenders and this prize, folks. Only three of them have won it in history. Franz Beckenbauer is the only one to have managed it without winning the major international tournament of that year.
There is a reason for that. The most valuable and difficult skill in this sport is scoring goals. In the era of three points for a win, attack tends to deliver the biggest prizes. That’s what made Arsenal’s Premier League win so remarkable. It and the near miss in the Champions League final were built on one of the most exceptional defenses in the history of this sport, anchored by the brilliant Gabriel, whose blend of skill and tenacity made him the best Arsenal player last season.
With shot-disrupting qualities that are Victor Wembanyama-esque — 13.2% of shots Arsenal faced when Gabriel was on the field were blocked by their No. 6 — the man the Emirates Stadium calls the king of Brazil made it far harder for the other team to do that most valuable and difficult thing on the pitch. It takes something special for a defense to carry an injury-riddled team to a league title. That Gabriel anchored that something special merits a very high place in the final voting.
7. Luis Diaz, Bayern Munich and Colombia
Now, here’s a weird one. As what might broadly be viewed as the third attacker on Bayern Munich, it’s really hard to make a case for Luis Diaz winning the Ballon d’Or. Even he has been arguing that his teammate Kane should get it. “For me, he’s number one to win it,” Diaz said earlier this month. “Hopefully he gets it. We’re trying to make his case to win it.”
What we are really arguing here is that Diaz was so excellent in his particular role that it makes him one of the 10 best footballers in the world last season. With 39 goals and assists combined, it is not that hard a case to make. Diaz was also an exceptional passer, an outstanding creator for others and vital at moving Bayern into dangerous areas. There are players below him in this list who have more of a case to have been the best player in the world but really no one ranked sixth, seventh or eighth is actually going to win the Ballon d’Or. Consider this a reflection on how impactful Diaz was.
8. Bruno Fernandes, Manchester United and Portugal
The inverse of a player such as Diaz might be Bruno Fernandes, who took a far inferior team on his back and propelled them to levels that they would not have gotten close to otherwise. When Fernandes started moving through the gears in the back half of the season, Manchester United flew from midtable to the Champions League.
Along with Gabriel, Fernandes is the player who tells the story of the great tactical trend of 2025-26 as well as anyone. Nine of his record-breaking 21 Premier League assists came from set pieces and for a time there might have been no attacking scenario more difficult to defend than Fernandes standing over a corner, lobbing it into a mass of bodies from which Casemiro would often rise the highest.
It wasn’t just set pieces for Fernandes, whose 99 open-play chances created were 22 more than any other player in Europe’s top five leagues last season. For a sense of just how impactful he was, one need only observe how United are struggling now that he has come back down to earth.
9. Lionel Messi, Inter Miami and Argentina
For these last two, the question really is how much importance you place on the World Cup. Obviously, it is the peak of the sport but what happens when you’ve spent the rest of your time playing at a level that ClubELO and Opta would consider to be a fair way below England’s second tier, at or around the level of the Norwegian, Ecuadorian and Swiss domestic leagues? If you’re as historically excellent as Messi, you’re probably going to look sprightlier and more incisive than those who have spent the preceding nine months slogging their way through the Champions League and European domestic seasons.
If that sounds like a means of diminishing Messi’s brilliance at the World Cup, it shouldn’t be. Being the best player on the runners-up at 39 is an exceptional achievement, one that only serves to reinforce his status as the greatest of all time. It also should have resulted in him being named player of the tournament. The Ballon d’Or, however, is awarded for the period from Aug. 3, 2025 to July 19, 2026. For too much of that, Messi was playing at a level that was simply beneath his talents.
10. Rodri, Manchester City and Spain
Somewhat as above, really. At the World Cup, Rodri was Rodri, the player who was so eminently worthy of winning the 2024 Ballon d’Or. When Spain had the ball, Rodri, now at Barcelona, was the man who moved them through the lines, who carried the ball almost as effectively as he passed it. When Spain didn’t have the ball, Rodri got it back for them.
Flashes of that Rodri had emerged as he stepped up his recovery from an ACL injury in his final months as a Manchester City player. He was brilliant for a half against Chelsea in January, the best player on the pitch when City beat Arsenal in the EFL Cup final. Even Pep Guardiola, however, knew that the “real Rodri” would not emerge until later on in the season. That puts a hard cap on where he can rank.
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To understand the Vancouver Canucks’ pre-season game Tuesday, understand this: the Calgary Flames dressed a lineup in which every skater is projected to make their National Hockey League roster, while the Canucks sent a lineup from which only two or three skaters could be with them on opening night.
The Flames’ ability to take over the game in the second period and eventually build a 3-1 victory at the Saddledome was not a surprise. That it was still scoreless through 35 minutes, and that the young Canucks pushed back a little in the third, was.
It was a good start for the Canucks, and an admirable finish. But the middle portion of the game was dominated by the Flames, who exploited Vancouver’s inexperience for a pile of outnumbered rushes.
Goalie Kevin Lankinen, expected to be the Canucks’ Game 1 starter, was excellent. He made 27 saves that included point-blank stops on Martin Pospisil and Ryan Strome and looked sharp tracking pucks through traffic that frequently jammed his crease.
After Calgary scored three times in four minutes near the end of the middle period, Vancouver pulled a goal back in the third when Arshdeep Bains neatly finished from Braeden Cootes‘ nice setup in the low slot.
In his first pre-season start — and likely one of only two — Lankinen got lots of work as he prepares again to fill-in for injured Canuck starter Thatcher Demko. It was an encouraging performance after Lankinen struggled in the only scrimmage of training camp on Saturday.
Lankinen got a chunk of Joel Farabee’s breakaway shot that opened scoring for Calgary and had no chance on Samuel Honzek’s rebound goal that made it 3-0. Matt Coronato beat Lankinen from close range on an outnumbered rush for the other Flames goal.
Under immense pressure with Demko still working his way back from major hip surgeries, and demanding a bounce-back season from himself after a subpar campaign last year, Lankinen has some positivity to build upon after Tuesday.
Nineteen-year-old centre Cootes has been involved in all three goals the Canucks have generated in their first two exhibition games, combining with Bains on all of them. His hockey sense and playmaking skills were on display when he intercepted a Flames’ rim-around in the third period, skated the puck into the corner before hooking a pass between defenders and out to Bains in the low slot.
A year ago, Cootes became the first Canuck in 25 years to make the team in training camp as an 18-year-old. He lasted only three NHL games before being sent back to junior, and obviously is aiming for more now this fall.
But as a 19-year who was drafted in the first round in 2025, Cootes is eligible to play this season in the American Hockey League, which may be too appealing an option for the Canucks under patience-preaching general manager Ryan Johnson not to exercise.
“Management is going to make a decision that they think is best for me in the long term,” Cootes said after Tuesday’s morning skate in Vancouver. “I want to play in this league for a long, long time. But if that’s what they think is best for me, to do that and be the best player I can in (the AHL), then I’m going to do that. But I don’t control that, so I’m not really too worried about it.
“Like, I fully believe in R.J. and what he wants me to do. This is his decision. So whatever he thinks is best for me is what I believe in. I’ll just just leave it at that. But my mindset doesn’t really change; I’m trying to make the team.”
But if it’s a choice between fourth-line minutes in the NHL or first-line minutes in the AHL, Cootes conceded the better option for his development might be the latter one, which he said would still be a big upgrade on spending another season in the Western Hockey League.
HALFWAY DOWN SHORT RUNWAY
As every prospect in the NHL understands, a four-game pre-season and less than two weeks from the start of training camp to the start of the regular season makes for an awfully short runway. But fighter jets launch from aircraft carriers in 100 metres.
“I think it kind of goes without saying that the guys have a very clear understanding that there’s not a lot of runway leading up to the season,” Canucks coach Manny Malhotra said before the game. “I think we calculated (there are) between eight and 10 ice sessions, you get your two games, and, you know, that’s what you have to show.
“It makes it that much more important to show (well) in our skates, in our morning skates, the attention to detail. And then, once we get into these games, you know, put everything out there.”
To be clear, the new two-game pre-season limit for players applies only to those who have appeared in at least 100 NHL games. Players like Cootes and 18-year-old first rounder Adam Novotny, as well as experienced minor-league hopefuls like Bains, Victor Mancini and Guillaume Brisebois are not restricted to two games.
The Canucks, however, are expected to dress NHL-heavy lineups on home ice for their final two rehearsals, starting Thursday against the Edmonton Oilers.
“It’s been a topic of discussion,” Malhotra said of the two-game limit. “And they’re the ones that are bringing it up to us. A lot of veteran guys. . . would like to get into three or four games potentially, so the limiting factor on not being able to get games is definitely a topic of conversation among the players.”
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Bains, Brisebois and Tom Willander were the Canucks’ alternate captains in Calgary, which was interesting. Brisebois is 29 years old, and Bains 25. But Willander is just 21 and starting his second professional season. . . Willander has looked more assertive and confident with the puck in his second pre-season, but he missed what should have been a basic boxout on Morgan Frost in the third period. Both players ended up falling on Lankinen. Boxouts were a noticeable problem for Willander as a rookie. . . If Aatu Raty wasn’t the best Canuck skater in Calgary, at least he was the most involved. With the Canucks overmatched physically by the more experienced Flames, the centre looked highly engaged. Raty also went 15-5 on faceoffs and was an effective penalty-killer. . . Through two games, Mancini has failed to make much impact as the 24-year-old competes for a depth spot on defence. He has excellent size and mobility, and a great attitude, but he has been outplayed by some others. . . With so much focus on Cootes, it’s easy to overlook the ongoing all-around development of minor-league centre Ty Mueller. . . Russian hopeful Ilya Safanov continues to get noticed as he competes for a depth spot. In Calgary, he led the Canucks with six hits.
Malhotra post-game: “Obviously, they have a very veteran lineup and give them credit for being relentless on pucks. There were spots throughout the game that we can look back on and say, you know, we executed the way we wanted to. But overall, just not good enough.
“The messaging between second and third was just, ‘We can’t go away.’ And that’s my takeaway from the third, that we had a pushback. You know, obviously we shuffled the lines a little bit just to try to jolt the guys, and they responded well. We had a little bit more pushback, won a few more puck battles, spent a lot less time just carouseling around our D-zone. So it was a good response. Obviously, too little, too late.”
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Tijjani Reijnders admits he quit Man City to move to Saudi Arabia for money: ‘Why wouldn’t I do it?’
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Dutch midfielder Tijjani Reijnders has revealed dissatisfaction over his tactical position at Manchester City, along with a lucrative financial package, prompted his surprise £51 million transfer to Saudi Arabia’s Al Qadsiah.
The 28-year-old preferred playing as a dynamic midfielder moving between attack and defence, but was increasingly deployed in advanced central roles, leading to him leaving City after just one season in the summer.
“In pre-season, I noticed that things were heading in that direction again at City, and I started thinking about whether I wanted another season like that,” he told reporters as the Dutch national team prepared for Thursday’s Nations League game against Germany.
“The honest answer was no. I wanted to look elsewhere, and then I heard from the club that I was allowed to do so.”
On switching to the Saudi Pro League, Reijnders admitted he had initial concerns: “I think a lot of people have the idea that your career as a top footballer is over when you make a move like this. I initially felt that way too.”
However, conversations with Al Qadsiah coach Brendan Rodgers changed his mind.
“He said I could have three or four very enjoyable years here and then return to Europe. There are enough examples of that now. That is my goal too,” Reijnders said.
“With all the big names, I actually rate the Saudi league higher than the Eredivisie (Dutch league). If people want to judge the football there, they should watch it first.”
Reports suggest Reijnders signed a four-year contract worth roughly 100 million euros (£86 million) in Saudi Arabia.
“You can always play the moralist, but I think everyone would say yes to that,” he said.
“I don’t want to have to work anymore after my career. I didn’t need to after City either, but now I can also set up future generations of my family well.
“If this choice means my grandchildren can also live comfortably, why wouldn’t I do it?”
Despite defeating HB Koge 1-0 to kick off the league phase of the UEFA Women’s Champions League thanks to a stoppage-time penalty from Mariona Caldentey, Arsenal look nothing like the club that won this competition in the 2024-25 season. While Koge have become regulars in this competition, appearing each year since 2021, Arsenal are among the class of women’s soccer, and after already looking to regain the Women’s Super League title from Manchester City, this won’t be the start that manager Renee Slegers would have wanted.
The season may be young, but Arsenal have now played five games in all competitions, scoring three goals, struggling to put their efforts on target, taking 19 shots with only two testing the Koge keeper, Alberte Vigum. Capitalizing on a mistake to get all three points is something that good teams do, but with a league phase that will see them face Olympique Lyonnais, Benfica, Paris FC, Barcelona, and Inter, continuing to have performances like this one won’t be good enough for Arsenal to make it deeper into Champions League play. Arsenal dominated possession, having the ball for almost 70% of the match, but despite being massive favorites, they were unable to convert it into good chances facing Koge.
Fans can watch all the UWCL action across CBS Sports platforms. Paramount+ will live stream matches all season, while select fixtures also broadcast on CBS Sports Golazo Network and CBS Sports Network.
Beth Mead’s departure to Manchester City is one that is looming large on the attack, and these are games where it shows. It had been a summer of change for the club after coming in second in the Women’s Super League and making it to the semifinals in the Champions League, but they’re only one season removed from lifting this very competition, and you wouldn’t know it watching this game in a vacuum. It’s a result that feels even worse, especially after also seeing Mead score her first Manchester City goal against contenders for the UWCL crown, Bayern Munich, and the disappointment could be seen on the faces of Arsenal players who knew that they needed to have a better showing than this.
On the bright side, even with massive squad turnover, the defense does look solid, only allowing four shots for an xG of 0.36 in the match, but to defeat the best teams in the world, the attack has to be up to the challenge. These are the challenges that come with being as successful as Arsenal have been, and the departure of top players can create a leadership void that may need to be filled. Securing the win gives Arsenal more time to do that, but the next challenge is around the corner with facing Chelsea away from home on Sunday.
Want to watch WSL? Fans can watch all the action across CBS Sports, as Paramount+ will live stream all 183 matches, the most matches ever made available in the competition’s newly expanded format. CBS Sports Network will additionally air one match per week, with select fixtures also broadcast on CBS Sports Golazo Network.
The schedule won’t get any easier as an improving Paris FC and Manchester City follow as well. To show that they’re still contenders, even with the schedule being hard, Arsenal will need to get results, which only adds to the pressure on these players, and Slegers has to determine what has to change in order to get her side back to their best. Koge were able to stay compact, challenging Arsenal for most of the match, but when the pressure built, it was tough to withstand, with a foul eventually leading to a penalty for the hosts.
At the end of the day, if the team’s name in the game wasn’t Arsenal, the performance would be taken as a job done and a good result in European competition, but that’s how high the expectations are when you’ve won a Champions League title. If signings gel, there’s no reason why Arsenal won’t be up for it again, but with so many tough games on the horizon, time isn’t on their side. The improvement of teams like City and the London City Lionesses also means that struggles in the domestic league will be punished, as time waits for no one in soccer. If the goals from open play don’t come soon, tough conversations will follow.
Waiver wire runs are going to be very difficult in Week 3. Saquon Barkley left Week 2 with a stinger, and as of early Tuesday afternoon, we haven’t heard about his test results. J.K. Dobbins left Week 2 with a hamstring, but the team sounds optimistic that he could be okay for Week 3. Jadarian Price left Week 2 with a chest injury, but X-rays came back negative, and he could play in Week 3. That is a whole lot of coulds and maybes, which makes waiver wire decisions regarding Tank Bigsby, Jonah Coleman, and Emanuel Wilson extremely risky. I’ll break down how I am prioritizing those three in the waiver wire section below.
Two guys who aren’t on the waiver wire, but could be big risers because of injury this week, are Jaylen Warren and Chuba Hubbard. I wrote about them in yesterday’s projections, risers and fallers. One guy I didn’t write about was Travis Etienne, who had perhaps the most troubling Week 2 of all.
In Alvin Kamara’s first game back, Kamara led the team with a 33% rush share. He also had an 18% target share, tripling Etienne’s workload. It was shocking after the contract they gave Etienne, and it has probably had everyone wondering if they can even flex Etienne. One reason I am not completely panicked yet is that Kamara’s 14 touches produced 22 yards. It is hard to imagine a less efficient outing. Also, Etienne led the Saints running backs in both snap share (53.1%) and route share (33.3%).
Those last numbers could be both good news and bad news. On the plus side, Etienne is still the back on the field the most and the back in position to catch the ball the most. On the downside, there are few must-start running backs that are playing half of the snaps and running a third of the routes. For this week, view Etienne as an extremely borderline RB2. Hopefully, Kamara’s usage shrinks due to his ineffectiveness. If not, Etienne has few outs to avoid being a bust.
Now let’s get to the rest of the Week 3 RB Preview:
Week 3 RB Preview
- 476 — Kenneth Walker is on pace for 476 touches this season. The Chiefs are probably going to have to give Emmett Johnson a few more snaps.
- 78% — Emanuel Wilson played 78% of the offensive snaps after Jadarian Price left Week 2.
- 36.4% — Rhamondre Stevenson’s 36.4% snap share would have been his second-lowest snap share last year. Have the fumbles finally caught up with him?
- 39.3% — Bhayshul Tuten’s 39.3% avoided tackle rate is second only behind Kenneth Walker.
- 2.7 — David Montgomery is averaging 2.7 yards per carry. If he can’t get going against the Colts, we’ll have a real reason for concern.
- 4.05 — Blake Corum leads all running backs with 4.05 yards before contact per rush attempt. Kyren Williams is sixth at 2.13.
- 11 — Bucky Irving’s 11 receptions are tied with Jahmyr Gibbs and Bijan Robinson for the lead amongst running backs.
- 12.5 — Jeremiyah Love has averaged 12.5 touches per game so far. He’s not more than a flex until his role increases, but he’s also a good buy low because I expect he gets more touches soon.
RB Preview
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Heath’s Projections
My full set of Week 3 Fantasy football projections for every position is now available here. Find out which of my favorite plays are projected to score higher than consensus rankings and which don’t live up to their draft hype, at least in Week 3. Projected stats for all starting running backs will be updated throughout the week, so check back regularly.
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Roy Jones shares new Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua verdict ahead of announcement: “He can hurt him”
Roy Jones Jr believes Anthony Joshua “has a lot left” but that, if he is to defeat Tyson Fury, the 36-year-old will need to adapt his style.
The two British heavyweights are expected to finally lock horns on December 11, with Cardiff’s Principality Stadium the most likely destination.
Several weeks ago, fans were told their long-awaited showdown would be heading to New York’s Madison Square Garden but, now, it would appear that both combatants have agreed to collide in the UK.
More importantly, it seems Netflix and Saudi Arabian organisers Sela are committed to abandoning their American dream and staging the event on British soil.
Whatever the location, though, Fury is likely to be made a sizable favourite following his seventh-round stoppage of Mariusz Wach in July.
Joshua, on the other hand, was compelled to survive two knockdowns before scoring a second-round finish against Kristian Prenga that same weekend.
But while many have since accused ‘AJ’ of being ‘shopworn’, or words to similar effect, pound-for-pound legend Jones has told Parimatch that he believes the knockout artist remains capable of stopping Fury.
“I want to see whether Joshua is able to land a big punch to knock Fury out, or if Fury’s able to be smart enough to get in his head and outbox Joshua.
“I don’t know how it’s gonna play out but, to win the fight, I think AJ needs to win it by knockout. Fury could also hurt Joshua early to get Joshua afraid, then Fury’s gonna be able to outbox him. So whoever goes out and implements their plan first is gonna win the fight.
“Joshua has a lot left. It’s just that they’re not getting him ready physically and mentally to deal with taking punches or be defensively inclined. If you made him defensively inclined before he attacks, he wouldn’t get caught with those big punches.
“With Tyson Fury, SugarHill [Steward] has helped him develop his punching power a little bit.”
In terms of Joshua’s training camp, the two-time world champion was previously working with Team Usyk but, now, it appears he could be leaning on the assistance of former head coach Ben Davison.
Arch Manning has come a long way since his inauspicious debut as the full-time starter last August.
He grew into the immense pressure he faced because of his last name and the hype surrounding him being the top-ranked recruit in the 2023 class, with 1,368 passing yards, 11 touchdowns and one interception in his final five games of the 2025 campaign.
And he’s carried that over to the first three games of the 2026 season. A Texas squad that started last season at No. 1 before missing the College Football Playoff is now back up to No. 1 after its thrilling 24-23 win over then-No. 1 Ohio State which saw Manning lead three fourth-quarter touchdown drives.
Through three games of his fourth season at Texas, Manning has 664 passing yards, seven touchdowns and two interceptions.
But he still isn’t quite living up to all of the hype he had no choice but to deal with due to his multiple generations of NFL ties.
Manning still needs to prove it
Look at his performance in Saturday’s 30-6 win over UTSA. He completed just 17 of 33 passes (51.5%) for 164 yards.
Mind you, he’s surrounded by some of the best talent in college football. With a pair of sensational receivers in Ryan Wingo and Cam Coleman, a pair of coveted running back transfers in Hollywood Smothers and Raleek Brown and a much improved offensive line from a season ago, he’s guiding one of the highest-paid rosters in the nation.
Manning admitted postgame that he knows that performances like he delivered against the Roadrunners won’t help the Longhorns reach their goals this season.
“(My performance was) not good enough,” Manning said after the game. “I didn’t play well. Offense, we were a little sloppy. We’ve got to be better if we want to beat Tennessee.”
It’s true of more than just this week’s Southeastern Conference opener in Knoxville against the 14th-ranked Volunteers. That game begins a stretch of six of the next seven games set to be played against currently ranked teams.
The only game against an unranked team in that stretch? Texas’ rivalry game against an Oklahoma team that started the season ranked 10th before falling out of the poll this week after consecutive subpar performances.
That brutal schedule ahead — paving the path for what should be a CFP appearance — leaves Manning plenty of chances to prove he’s worthy of consideration of being the No. 1 pick in next April’s NFL Draft.
Because while that has been discussed as a near-certainty since he was a budding prospect, he hasn’t yet shown much in terms of production which makes that likely to happen.
Sports
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Mirabai Chanu finally ended her long wait for an Asian Games medal, winning silver in the women’s 49kg weightlifting event at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Wednesday. The Olympic silver medallist lifted a combined 198kg to finish second behind North Korea’s Ri Song Gum, who claimed the gold medal.
Chanu’s silver marks her first podium finish at the Asian Games after she missed out in her previous two appearances. She finished ninth at the 2014 Incheon Games and was forced to miss the 2018 edition because of injury, before narrowly missing a medal with a fourth-place finish at Hangzhou in 2023.
A medal that had eluded Chanu
Chanu made her Asian Games debut at Incheon in 2014, finishing ninth in the women’s 48kg category. She missed the 2018 Jakarta Games because of a back injury, before returning at Hangzhou in 2023, where she finished fourth in the 49kg event.
The Hangzhou campaign ended in disappointment after Chanu competed despite a thigh injury. The result left her without an Asian Games medal despite having already established herself as one of India’s most successful weightlifters on the global stage.
Her record includes an Olympic silver medal, a World Championships gold and three Commonwealth Games gold medals. The Asian Games, however, had remained unfinished business.
Silver adds another chapter to decorated career
The Aichi-Nagoya medal comes after another successful season for Chanu. She won her third consecutive Commonwealth Games gold earlier this year, lifting 190kg in Glasgow with an 85kg snatch and a 105kg clean and jerk.
The Asian Games presented a different challenge, with Chanu competing against some of Asia’s leading lifters in the 49kg category. North Korea’s Ri Song Gum won gold, while Chanu secured silver with her 198kg total.
For Chanu, the result completes a significant part of her international medal collection. She now has an Olympic medal, a World Championships title, Commonwealth Games gold and an Asian Games medal to her name.
More importantly, the silver closes a chapter that had stretched across three Asian Games cycles.
After finishing ninth at Incheon, missing Jakarta and narrowly missing the podium at Hangzhou, Chanu finally stood on the Asian Games podium in Aichi-Nagoya.
Sports
No confidence in Ratcliffe and a lost message – Manchester United Muslim Supporters’ Club set record straight
In the latest chapter of Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s descent in popularity at Manchester United, the club’s official Muslim supporters’ club released a statement insisting they had no confidence in either the Ineos founder, or the Glazer family. The lengthy release outlined the group’s unhappiness about the ‘years of decline’ overseen by the United owners, citing ticket prices, Old Trafford’s deterioration and wasteful spending, as reasons for their thinking.
However, a paragraph in the middle of the statement has led to the group’s message being misconstrued. Over the weekend, Ratcliffe was interviewed by the BBC. During it, he claimed that no politician was ‘tough enough’ to deal with two problems in the UK – immigration and benefits. This came off the back of Ratcliffe apologising in February for declaring that the UK had been ‘colonised by immigrants’.
“We hoped a lesson had been learned. Clearly, it has not,” the Manchester United Muslim Supporters’ Club (MUMSC) wrote. “This week, Sir Jim has again placed immigration and people receiving benefits at the centre of his explanation for Britain’s problems, arguing that nobody is ‘tough enough’ to deal with either. We find these latest comments deeply disappointing and completely unacceptable.”
Since then, MUMSC’s chairman Asif Mahmud tells MEN Sport the purpose of their statement has been lost, insisting it is far wider than Ratcliffe’s political views.
“This has been bubbling for quite some time. It’s not something that’s a knee jerk reaction,” he said. “We’ve had frustrations at the ownership model for a long, long time.
“We were very much, genuinely, excited about Jim coming in because he was a Manchester lad, seemed to actually support and care about the club. But since they’ve [Ineos] arrived, it’s just a vicious cycle of hiring and firing, managers not getting backed fully, staff at the club being unhappy, it’s just the overall atmosphere and the feeling around the club, it’s just not good. And that’s been reflected on the pitch.”
Mahmud said that things came to a head in two parts. The first was at the end of the summer transfer window when himself and MUMSC felt Michael Carrick had been left short in terms of new recruits. Then, after the derby day defeat to Manchester City, Mahmud felt the time was right to say something.
“It was actually that evening that I reached out to some of our committee members and said: ‘Look, I feel we should put out a statement about not being happy with the way the club’s being run and how things are going,’” he said.
“I reached out to a friend who runs another supporters’ club, an official one, and said to them: ‘Look, I think something needs to be done’, and I threw some suggestions, and one of them was that collectively, all supporters’ clubs put out a statement of no confidence.
“Now, I know it’s just words, and words don’t seem to bother the ownership, but I just felt doing something together would be quite powerful. I also reached out to another fan group and I waited all weekend. There was no interest or anything coming back.
“On that Monday [September 14], a statement was drafted, and it was sent to the two groups that I mentioned. I said: ‘Look, I explicitly stated that it was an idea, it doesn’t have to be our idea. You don’t have to give us any credit. We just feel that something needs to be done. If this is a good idea, then speak to the others and see if they’re interested in doing it’. It wasn’t about speak to the others and see if they want to get in with us and they’ll do it on the back of us. It was, if the other supporters’ club groups think it’s a good idea, let’s just do it.
“Unfortunately, nothing came back and then on Saturday [September 19], Sir Jim comments about immigration and just the overall ill feeling, again, [that] he brought up comments he’d made previously. We just felt, enough is enough. We need to do something.”
Mahmud explained the response to the statement has been mixed. This has included hate mail stating members of MUMSC should ‘leave the country’. However, the issue for Mahmud and his group is that the main thrust of the message has now altered.
“I just feel like a lot of what we’ve said has been lost,” he said. “All the focus has all been about his comments on immigration, but we can put that to one side.
“You don’t have to like us, you don’t have to like our religion, you don’t have to like anything about us, but one thing we all have in common is that we hate and we dislike what we’re seeing at Manchester United. Surely we can get behind each other and we can rally and have one voice about what’s going on.
“We were prepared to put out the statement even before Sir Jim said what he said, risking our official status as a supporters’ club. People have said: ‘Why is there a Muslim supporters’ club?’ And: ‘Why do you need to do this? Do you need to do that?’ Well, to be honest, we were willing to forego even being an official supporters’ club for Man United because we knew that putting out a statement came with risk.”
Mahmud explained that United have reached out to him after the statement was released to see if everything was okay. MEN Sport understands there are no plans to strip MUMSC of their official status, following their no-confidence statement.
Moving forward, Mahmud insists that United fans need to unite to make their feelings on the ownership heard. “I’ve got a season ticket. I have been going to Old Trafford for over 12 years, supporting the club through everything, up and down, since Sir Alex [Ferguson] left,” he concluded, “and I see it and I hear it.
“I hear people at the ground complaining about the ownership. I was at the game against Fulham. People in the crowd, I could hear them complaining about the ownership.
“Now, if they can’t say it out loud because they don’t have the platform, then the supporters’ clubs need to speak on behalf of the fans, because it’s not just us. Yes, we’re talking about our statement right now because we published it, but we know that others feel the same way and they need to make their voice heard.”
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