Walking into Brighton’s Elite Football Performance Centre, I was swiftly approached by a member of the club’s communications team. “Have you got the frames?” he asked this bemused writer, who only had his phone, laptop and notepad with him. It turns out he was after a different Will; not from The Independent, but from Guinness World Records. We were both here for James Milner.

For Milner, his record-breaking 654th Premier League appearance was just another game. “Massive victory on the road, delighted for the boys and travelling fans, thanks for the support,” read his very ordinary Instagram post, with the comments limited, after Brighton’s hard-fought win at Brentford. No self-congratulations, no fuss. It was very run-of-the-Milner.

The 40-year-old had his priorities straight. “I’ve always just tried to get on with my job and keep my head down really,” Milner said, ironically surrounded by journalists – and the aforementioned GWR dignitary, adorned in the trademark blue blazer and tie – who had all congregated on the south coast to discuss his remarkable milestone. “I know obviously there’s been a lot of talk around this sort of thing, but for me, I just want to do my job and [was] especially pleased to get the win, that was so important for us at the weekend. So to contribute to that, that’s always number one.”

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Of course, Milner meant no disrespect and emphasised he was incredibly grateful for the tidal wave of congratulations that had come his way. “I’ve had so many amazing messages, you want to thank people and there’s nice posts like the clubs have done,” he stressed. But it was Gareth Barry, the man whose record Milner had surpassed, who seemed to really get the “no biggie” vibe.

“He sent me a message after the game and then it was his birthday yesterday, so I sent him a message saying happy birthday,” Milner said. “He just said congrats, and he said he’s going away and golfing somewhere, so that sounded good to me.”

You don’t get many football bingo cards more filled out than Milner’s (and that’s not a quip at his age).

Across a Premier League career that has spanned 23 years, 109 days and counting, the Englishman has won every trophy under the sun, including three Premier League titles and one Champions League during his glory-laden stints with Manchester City and Liverpool. He even has an Intertoto Cup to his name with Newcastle.

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He’s been deployed in every outfield position possible. “I’d say I needed goalkeeper to play every single one,” he joked.

Milner collected three framed world records on the day of our visit: one for most Premier League appearances (654), another for longest time between first and last Premier League goal (22 years and 248 days), and a third for most consecutive Premier League seasons of any player (24). He’ll get a fourth in 217 days, at the time of writing, if he surpasses Teddy Sheringham as the oldest outfield player in Premier League history. But while that box remains one of the few unmarked, so does another: retirement.

“I think things change very quickly in football, and I think when you get to my age, things change very quickly as well,” Milner admitted when asked if he will be around long enough to become the top flight’s eldest ever statesman.

“When I look at where I was last year, not being able to lift my foot for six months, to where I am this year, it’s easier to turn around and say, ‘Yes, I’d love to do another year.’

“I’m pretty open at this moment in time – whether I will or whether I won’t, I’m not sure. We haven’t had any conversations, so obviously the club have to be interested as well. It’s all right me saying I want to play another year if the club don’t want you.”

Whether it’s sooner or later, and whether it’s his decision to make or Brighton’s, Milner is under no illusions: “I know the end’s getting closer.” The veteran, however, asserts that he doesn’t “fear” retirement, even if the question of “when’s the right time?” does play on his mind. “I feel like I still can do it now, but do you go to the point where you can’t? Is that too long?”

As such, Milner is in the thick of considering his life after football, all while keeping a piece of advice from former boss Jurgen Klopp in the back of his mind. “Jurgen always said, whenever you finish, you need to have a rest and a break straight away,” he reflected. “I think that’s pretty appealing at this moment in time.”

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The workhorse deserves his break, but knowing his character, it will only last so long.

“I think most people say you miss the structure and what you’re training for every day. You’re going in the gym and it’s hard, it’s for a reason, it’s for the next game and things like that,” Milner said with a sense of pre-emptive nostalgia, before reassuring that his world-class engine will not be detuned in retirement.

“When you haven’t got that, I think I’d probably look towards doing marathons or something like that to give me something to go for again.”

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Milner will leave football with arguably the most fabled work ethic in the English game. At Liverpool, the yearly pre-season lactate test under Klopp – which tasked players with doing laps of their training ground – came with an award named after him, having won it at a canter for every season he was at Anfield, even into his mid-thirties.

He boasts longevity that with the modern fixture schedule will be nigh-on impossible to replicate, fuelled by a drive to prove his doubters wrong – something his dad used to play on.

“He knew what I was like and he used to say, ‘you don’t work hard enough, you’re not gonna make it’,” Milner remembered. “He knew what he was doing and it [his drive] probably comes from that, to be fair.

“He’d never say it in a horrible way or anything like that, but he knew what I was like, and he’d be like, ‘you’ve got no chance of scoring the goal from there’, and then like two shots later it’s in the top corner. He knew how to get the best of me.”

Silencing the sceptics is part of the reason Milner is still going today. “Some things don’t change,” he laughs.

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It’s that burning desire to push himself that has him now pondering a career in management. Milner has been earning his coaching badges but knows the hellfire that the job can pose.

“There are some times I think it’d be great and I’d love to put my stamp on a team, and I think I could do this and that,” he says. “But it’s such a hard gig, isn’t it? It’s so hard. Even the amount of press you’ve got to do to be honest – press conference before the game, after the game, like eight times a week.

“It’s one that the competitive guy in you thinks, ‘yeah, I wouldn’t mind giving that a go and taking on’. I know it’s difficult but… and I feel like I’ve got a fantastic knowledge of people I’ve worked under, from back to your Terry Venables and your Sir Bobby Robsons, and then you go through to the current manager now.

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“I’ve got a great array of different managers from different countries and different personalities to lean back on, so in one way I think it’d be a big shame to lose all that knowledge and experience I’ve built up, to not be able to use that.”

There are no guarantees on next steps from Milner, who wants to focus on the present. But incredibly, his career could yet be charged with some footballing firsts.

A win over Borussia Dortmund on Saturday would send Vincent Kompany’s Bayern Munich 11 points clear of their opponents and all but seal back-to-back Bundesliga titles for the Belgian coach.

While the football is his focus, Kompany’s powerful, forthright and eloquent monologue on racism and victim-blaming last week struck a chord beyond the game.

The 39-year-old condemned Benfica coach Jose Mourinho for his suggestion that the alleged racist abuse by Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni that compelled Real Madrid forward Vinicius Jr. to walk off the pitch was provoked by Vinicius’s celebration of a goal. Kompany then went on to share his own experiences of racist abuse as both player and coach.

“I go to Club Brugge [while coaching Belgian side Anderlecht in 2021]. And I played for the national team; I was the captain for the national team. Me, my staff, we get called brown monkeys and so on. And after I complain, I see how all these politics happen again to kill the story. So, no consequences, no nothing. And I have a voice. What do you think for the people without a voice?”

Kompany’s upbringing in Brussels and his father’s influence

Kompany’s decision to use that voice to speak out has its roots in his parents and upbringing.

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“I come from Brussels, and we speak so many different languages. Just in Brussels alone, you could be speaking French, Dutch, maybe a little bit of Arabic or Lingala from Congo, Italian, Spanish, it’s all mixed,” he told UEFA.com in 2024. “And you find that unless you communicate with people, nobody will do what you want them to do, and that’s a big part of what we learn. I take it with me when I communicate with the group [of players].”

While a multicultural city helped Kompany develop his sense of social justice and awareness of discrimination, such notions also come from his father.

“Where I come from is my dad,” he once said. “His experiences give me strength.”

Pierre Kompany fled what was then the Belgian Congo (now DR Congo) in 1975 as a political refugee after serving 13 months in jail for his involvement in a student protest against the ruling regime. He was elected to the Brussels parliament in 2014 and became the country’s first Black mayor four years later.

Racism a part of Kompany’s childhood

As a young man, Pierre married Vincent’s mother, Jocelyne, a white Belgian who died in 2008, something that shaped his own politics.

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“My dad wasn’t accepted in the family at the beginning,” explained Vincent in a 2019 Guardian interview. “My mother comes from the most rural village you can imagine and when she arrived, in the 70s, with my dad, straight from Africa, it was a shock. It was ignorance. My dad always ended up being accepted because of his personality. It was normal for us to go to youth tournaments and be called monkeys; parents shouting it. That would nearly cause a fist fight with my mother. We were taught to be stronger.”

That family trait of standing up for their rights and beliefs is something that has been a feature of Kompany’s career. After leaving Belgian giants Anderlecht for a two-year spell as a player in Hamburg, he became the on-field leader of a routinely successful Manchester City side, winning four Premier League titles. Kompany gained admirers both within and outside City, before returning to Anderlecht to take his first steps in coaching.

Kompany’s coaching rise with help from his friends

His upbringing is even reflected in his choice of coaching staff. Childhood friend, Rodyse Munienge, is on the staff at Bayern. Floribert N’Galula, who also came through Anderlecht’s academy and played professionally in Belgium, has followed Kompany to Anderlecht, Burnley and is now with him at Bayern Munich.

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Kompany was not Bayern’s first choice for the coaching role in 2024, having overseen Burnley’s relegation from the Premier League but has been a success so far. Bayern have lost just three league games since the start of last season and are on course for a league and cup double with a first Champions League title —  the only thing that appears to offer any Bayern coach more job security —  since 2020 very much a possibility.

After Vinicius and his teammates got the better of Benfica in their Champions League playoff on Wednesday, Real Madrid could meet Bayern at the quarterfinal stage. Among the hype such a fixture would produce would be two men, in Kompany and Vinicius, prepared to make a stand against racism regardless of the personal cost.

Edited by: Jonathan Harding

Will Jacks and Rehan Ahmed starred as England defied a sluggish pitch to lay down a marker for the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup following an unlikely four-wicket win over New Zealand.

Already guaranteed a top-two spot in their Super 8 group following wins over Sri Lanka and Pakistan in Pallekele, England were staring defeat in the face as they required 42 from the last 17 balls.

On a Colombo surface where run-scoring was difficult, man of the moment Jacks and the recalled Rehan, both of whom took two wickets apiece in New Zealand’s 159 for seven, went in full-on attack mode with an astonishing unbroken 44-run stand in 16 deliveries.

The pair each took sixes in a Glenn Phillips over which yielded 21, while New Zealand captain Mitch Santner leaked 16, before Jacks hit the winning runs off Matt Henry to get England home with three balls to spare.

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Gilberto Ramirez has sparred Canelo Alvarez and David Benavidez, both at different stages of his career, and credits one of them for hitting particularly hard.

Unified world cruiserweight champion Ramirez will face Benavidez on May 2, defending his WBO and WBA titles at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena.

Since suffering his only professional blemish, a points loss to Dmitry Bivol in 2022, Ramirez has firmly cemented himself as an elite operator at 200lbs.

Consecutive victories over Arsen Goulamirian and Chris Billam-Smith saw him topple two world champions in 2024, before defending his titles via another unanimous decision, this time against Yuniel Dorticos, in June 2025.

Benavidez, meanwhile, secured two-division world title status last year after being upgraded from ‘interim’ to full WBC light-heavyweight, with Bivol having relinquished his belt.

The 29-year-old then made a maiden defence of his crown in November, stopping Anthony Yarde in round seven, which led to him negotiating a cruiserweight clash with Ramirez.

During his time as the WBC ‘interim’ champion at 168lbs, many felt that Canelo, the then-super-middleweight king, was avoiding a mandatory title defence against Benavidez.

But while we can only imagine how a matchup between Alvarez and Benavidez would unfold, Ramirez has kindly offered an insight into his sparring sessions with the both of them.

Speaking with Fight Hub TV, the 34-year-old hinted at the power being more apparent with Canelo than it was with his next opponent.

“[The sparring was] way different because Canelo is short and, at that time, I was [at] 168[lbs]. I was super skinny.

“Then I moved up [in weight] and moved to the US, and I started sparring with David and different guys – bigger guys.

“Canelo – he’s good. He has power; he has a lot of faints; he moves really well. And Benavidez, he presses you all the time; you don’t have time to breathe. You have to just keep going. And [Benavidez] likes to be [on the] inside.”

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Ramirez shared rounds with Canelo during his reign as the WBO super-middleweight champion, while the Benavidez sparring seemingly came following his brief excursion to 175lbs.

If memory serves, the wizards at Hogwarts were hesitant to utter the name of Voldemort. Is there a similar dynamic at play with those around the Vikings and the words Super Bowl?

If so, then nobody told the Vikings’ fill-in GM.

Rob Brzezinski has been an executive in Minnesota for a long time. Several decades, in fact. The assignment has most commonly been to function as a numbers nerd, working the books behind the scenes to make the money work. After the decision to fire Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, the Vikings needed a temporary top decision maker, leading to Brzezinski getting his bump up. He isn’t shy about what he’s chasing.

Vikings’ Fill-In GM Chasing a Super Bowl

Mr. Brzezinski chatted with the team media, kicking things off with an interview with Tatum Everett.

The conversation moves through different topics before Brzezinski is asked about whether Minnesota’s roster is that of a championship team. He was fairly political and evasive before declaring, “Just want to be a small part of delivering that Lombardi to our very, very special fans.”

Note that the Lombardi quip gets shoehorned into the end of the interview. He does so while connecting the feat to fans, perhaps suggesting that this is merely a throw-away comment that plays well with the crowd but isn’t particularly sincere.

Fast forward through the NFL Combine a bit further.

Interviewers Paul Allen and Pete Bercich get to chat with Rob Brzezinski. Check out what he says less than five minutes into the interview: “I just want to be a small part of helping deliver a championship to our fans. They’ve been waiting a really, really long time and it’s going to mean so much to them when it finally does happen. And it will.”

Toward the end of the same interview, Brzezinski reflects on his desire for his legacy with the franchise: “I want to be a small part of delivering a championship to our fans. I just try to envision what that would look like. I can see it.”

“I just want to be a small part of finally delivering that Lombardi,” Brzezinski concludes.

Rob Brzezinski doesn’t lack for ambition. The charming part is that he tethers that massive ambition — winning it all — to a personal humility, commonly describing his part as “just” a tiny portion of the overall effort. A lot of the time, quotes on the page don’t convey tone very well, so do note that his words are that of someone who comes across as being sincere in his passion.

Currently, the Vikings appear pretty far off from winning it all. The 2025 season finished off at 9-8 but was on the brink of fully unravelling due to a 4-8 record toward the end of the year. The outlook was grim before the year ended with a five-game winning streak.

Most concerning has been the QB play. Somehow, the position needs to experience massive improvement. The strategy is going to involve bringing in enhanced competition (as the Vikings’ fill-in GM has acknowledged). A trade is an option. So is a free agent signing. What can’t be missed is that the Vikings actually need a pair of things to occur at quarterback: a higher floor and ceiling. Quite possibly, that means adding two quarterbacks.

Rob Brzezinski will then need to see the roster stay healthier. So, too, will several players need bounce back seasons. Jonathan Greenard being a pass rushing terror, Byron Murphy a turnover machine, and Justin Jefferson a weekly 100-yard receiver is what’s required (alongside plenty of other developments).

Meanwhile, the coaching staff needs to elevate. In particular, Kevin O’Connell needs to commit to running the football.

Rob Brzezinski has plenty of work ahead of him. He has promised to be thorough and to make wise decisions. Do well enough and maybe the dream of a Lombardi is no longer a dream before too long.

NFL free agency begins in less than two weeks.

Senior Editor for Vikings Territory & PurplePTSD . Twitter & Bluesky: @VikingsGazette. Email: k.joudry[at]vikingsterritory[dot]com. Canadian. Jude 1:24-25.

Man Utd U18s have reached the quarter-finals of the FA Youth Cup, which will be played at Old Trafford next month.

Manchester United Under-18s will play Sunderland at Old Trafford in the quarter-finals of the FA Youth Cup on Wednesday, March 18, with a kick-off time of 7pm. The U18s’ league fixture against Sunderland which had been scheduled for Saturday, March 13, will be re-arranged.

Darren Fletcher’s side progressed to the quarter-finals thanks to a 4-1 win against Oxford City earlier this month. JJ Gabriel, Albert Mills, Chido Obi and Noah Ajayi were on the scoresheet that night.

Gabriel’s performances have made headlines this season. The youngster is the top goalscorer in the U18 league, despite playing years above his age group, and has netted 16 goals in all competitions.

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The 15-year-old has already trained with the first team on several occasions and has been tipped for a bright future. “JJ is a fantastic talent. I’ve enjoyed working with him immensely, getting to know him,” said Fletcher when he was asked about Gabriel in December.

“He’s a young lad with a massive sort of hype, you know there’s a lot of noise around him and deservedly so because he’s a real talented kid. He works hard. First thing I’d say is he loves football.

“He loves training, he loves playing, he loves having the ball, he loves expressing himself. He makes fantastic decisions. He’s just got an enthusiasm for the game that’s just amazing.

“15-year-old, a bright future ahead of him. I’m super excited by his talent, but the most important thing is that he keeps developing, and he’s in the U18 team, and he’s doing fantastically well, but he’s still got lots to learn.”

Obi has dropped down to play for the U18s in the Youth Cup. The 18-year-old made seven first-team appearances last season, but Fletcher has involved him in the Youth Cup this term. The U18s reached the semi-finals of the Youth Cup last season, losing to eventual winners Aston Villa.

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The United States came away with 33 total medals at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games, and many came from the female athletes who showed out in Italy this month. 

There were 17 medals won by the U.S. female athletes, including eight of the 12 gold medals.

As many Americans enjoyed watching the events at home, LPGA Tour legend Michelle Wie West was in Milan watching the U.S. reach the podium in several events. 

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Michelle Wie attends Netflix’s “Happy Gilmore 2” New York Premiere at Jazz at Lincoln Center on July 21, 2025, in New York City.  (Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)

“I had the honor to be in Milan with Nike and got to see some Winter Olympic Games for the first time in person. It’s amazing to see all these competitors,” she told Fox News Digital in a recent interview. “Got to see [silver medalist] Chloe [Kim] do her halfpipe, and that was incredible. 

“Women’s hockey, I mean, incredible. I got to go to the first game, and it was just lights out.”

From Mia Manganello in speed skating, to Alysa Liu’s captivating gold medal in figure skating, Wie West admitted the Olympics made her a bit emotional seeing the athletes achieve their dreams.

“This whole Winter Olympics season has been so — I think every Olympic season is so uplifting,” she said. “But this one in particular was so inspiring, and it feels like the female athletes really knocked it out of the park.

“I feel like every Olympics gets me really emotional. I can see athletes achieve their dreams and it’s so cool. It was really cool to see it in person.”

Gold medalist Alysa Liu of Team United States poses for a photo during the medal ceremony for the Women’s Single Skating on day thirteen of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at Milano Ice Skating Arena on Feb. 19, 2026 in Milan, Italy.  (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

Wie West also added that Lindsey Vonn’s “heartbreaking” crash, after competing through a torn ACL, was hard to see. However, “seeing her journey up until that moment and even afterwards has been so inspiring to me.”

Breanna Stewart, a three-time gold medalist with Team USA women’s basketball, shared Wie West’s sentiments about seeing American success overseas. 

“I think there were so many events I really learned a lot about, whether it was bobsledding, or curling, or watching hockey,” she said. “Just wanting to cheer on the USA in whatever event they were doing, and see the pride and passion the athletes were having whenever they stepped up to compete with their sport.”

LPGA player Michelle Wie West plays her shot from the 14th tee during the Golden Bear Pro-Am prior to the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday 2025 at Muirfield Village Golf Club on May 28, 2025, in Dublin, Ohio. (Michael Reaves/Getty Images)

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Stewart even mentioned getting “goosebumps” thinking about what it feels like getting a medal around your neck, and better yet, seeing the flag raise with the national anthem playing. 

“It’s really just satisfaction and justification of why you’re doing it and why you’ve gone through those hard moments and times,” she explained. “To me, the Olympics is the highest of the high. You’re playing your sport at the highest level against everyone else in the world, and you see that. It’s just a goosebump feeling no matter how many times you do it. Just the pride and knowing you’re representing something bigger than yourself always comes through full circle.”

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The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has clarified that goalkeeper Arthur Okonkwo has not yet completed his international switch to represent the Super Eagles.

Reports in recent days suggested that the former Arsenal player had been cleared to play for Nigeria, but senior NFF officials say the process is still ongoing and has not been officially approved by FIFA, the world football governing body.

Okonkwo, who currently plays for Wrexham AFC, has previously represented England at youth level. FIFA’s formal clearance is required before he can appear in competitive matches for Nigeria.

NFF Head of International Competitions, Dayo Enebi, confirmed the situation to Footy Africa: “The process is still ongoing and has not been completed yet. Okonkwo is one we are looking at, but as of today, his international switch has not been concluded.”

Enebi added that Okonkwo is among several players under consideration as the coaching staff evaluate areas of the squad that may need strengthening.

While he remains ineligible for official fixtures until FIFA approval is granted, Okonkwo could still be invited to join the national team for training ahead of upcoming tournaments in Amman. Enebi explained that such camps provide an opportunity for potential players to integrate with the squad even if administrative matters are still being finalised.

Okonkwo, 24, has been in excellent form this season, featuring in 35 matches across the English Championship (31), FA Cup (2) and EFL Cup (2).

This development keeps Nigerian fans hopeful about adding another promising goalkeeper to the Super Eagles’ roster once all formalities are completed.

Anthony Richardson Sr.’s future in Indianapolis faces more uncertainty than ever. 

The Indianapolis Colts granted Anthony Richardson, the team that used the fourth overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft on the quarterback, permission to explore a trade. His agent, Deiric Jackson, confirmed the latest development in the 23-year-old’s tumultuous career to ESPN on Thursday.

Veteran quarterback Daniel Jones beat out Richardson in a preseason competition for the starting job. Jones made the most of another opportunity as an NFL starter, helping the Colts win eight of their first 10 games of the 2025 regular season. 

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Indianapolis Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson heads off the field after an NFL football game against the Denver Broncos on Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024 in Denver, Colorado. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

However, his season was ultimately derailed by an Achilles injury. The setback came two years after he tore an ACL with the New York Giants. The Colts appear ready to move forward with Jones, clouding Richardson’s future in Indianapolis.

Jones is set to become a free agent in March, meaning the Colts must either use the franchise tag or sign him to a new deal. Richardson has started just 15 games in three seasons with the Colts, his tenure largely shaped by injuries. 

A shoulder surgery limited Richardson to four games during his rookie campaign, while a series of setbacks cost him four games in 2024. 

Indianapolis Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson (5) looks for an open receiver during the game against the Houston Texans at NRG Stadium. (Troy Taormina/Imagn Images)

Richardson suffered what was described as a “freak pregame incident” during warmups last season, landing him on injured reserve after attempting just two passes in two games in 2025. He has thrown 11 touchdowns against 13 interceptions in his NFL career. 

Colts general manager Chris Ballard said Tuesday that the vision problems stemming from Richardson’s orbital fracture last October are “trending in the right direction.” He added that Richardson has been “cleared to play.”

Indianapolis Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson (5) celebrates his touchdown against the New York Jets during the fourth quarter at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Brad Penner/Imagn Images)

Riley Leonard, a sixth-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, is expected to return to the Colts next season.

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When asked about Richardson’s standing with the Colts moving ahead, Ballard replied, “I still believe in Anthony.”

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