Jürgen Klopp is the overwhelming favorite to be Germany’s new head coach. In recent years, the charismatic 59-year-old was seen as the ideal candidate. In recent weeks, he has been the boss in waiting. With Julian Nagelsmann’s departure now confirmed, Klopp’s arrival looks a formality, especially after the German FA (DFB) announced talks had begun and that Klopp had shown a “willingness” in principle to take up the job.

Germany’s last three World Cups have ended in disappointment, with two group-stage exits and the most recent knockout defeat to Paraguay in the round of 32. Euro 2024 was more positive, but generally Germany have not enjoyed a successful tournament since Euro 2016. For a four-time World Cup winner and a three-time European champion, a decade long span of disappointment sits far below expectation.

A candidate in waiting

Klopp’s approach to the Germany job has been a long time coming. Even as far back as late October 2024 when he took the job as “Head of Global Soccer” for Red Bull, there were reports that either his contract included a clause allowing him to become Germany head coach in the future or he had a gentleman’s agreement to do the same.

And during this World Cup, his role as a pundit for MagentaTV seems to have moved him ever closer to the job. His analysis has been seen as on point, but Klopp caused a stir whe he said, “Luckily, it’s Julian Nagelsmann who’s picking the team. For now.” Those two words hung over Nagelsmann, and even though Klopp apologized, it almost felt like he knew his time was fast approaching.

After the loss to Paraguay, Klopp continued to distance himself from the job, saying it wasn’t time to talk about that.

“When the next tournament comes around and whoever is head coach is asked, what is your goal? If they don’t say, ‘European champion’ then people will say, ‘have you got no ambition? We are Germany!’ No, we were football Germany. In order to become that force again, we’ve really got to give it our all,” Klopp said on MagentaTV.

Klopp had been providing “strategic vision and support” as well as helping “coaches develop” in his job at Red Bull. However, his role in the dismissal of RB Leipzig head coach Ole Werner after just one season has been seen critically in the media. Werner guided RB Leipzig to third place in the Bundesliga and returned the club to the Champions League.

A popular figure

His success in the dugout combined with his warm, funny character has made him a fan favorite in most places in Germany. After playing in Mainz, he took the club to the Bundesliga for the first time. His departure was emotional, as both Klopp and many of the crowd shed tears.

At Borussia Dortmund, he won back-to-back Bundesliga titles, and took the club to the Champions League final in 2013. More recently, he spent nine years with Liverpool, where he delivered a first league title in more than a quarter of a century, as well as glory in the 2019 Champions League final. He has a history of leading clubs with strong working-class roots to success, allowing him to maintain a bond to the core values of the clubs in question. In combination with his holistic style of coaching, Klopp is seen as one of the best coaches in the world.

During his break from coaching, Klopp was awarded the highest civic award in Germany as a result of his outstanding contribution to democracy and his impact on the football world. He was credited with becoming a role model, a football ambassador and someone who has improved the image of Germany around the world, particularly  in the United Kingdom.

Recently, his face has been hard to miss. Famous for being in a raft of adverts, Klopp has cemented his status as one of the most famous Germans rather than just a great football coach from Germany.

Could Klopp lead Germany to Euro 2028 glory?

With Euro 2028 in the United Kingdom and Ireland, Klopp will be familiar with a lot of the stadiums and the way football works in the country. He will have a long run-up at the title, though.

His first game in charge would be in Amsterdam on September 24 against the Netherlands in the Nations League. This will mark the start of a new format of international break. Unlike in previous years where there have three two-week international breaks in September, October and November, the 2026-27 season will see September and October’s breaks merge into one. November’s will be the same.

This means Klopp’s first time in charge of the team would be for a three-week break in late September, which will see Germany play Greece in Augsburg three days after the Amsterdam game. Four days after that, Germany will play Serbia in Munich before closing out the international break in Thessaloniki against Greece on October 4. This longer break would offer Klopp a chance to hit the ground running and generate a real clarity over his playing style and who the core of his Germany team would be.

While it might be a while before the official announcement comes, there will be no stopping Germany fans daydreaming of what their team will look like under Klopp. Heavy metal football, as Klopp once famously described his style of play, might well be on the way for a team that is currently out of tune.

Edited by: Chuck Penfold

In an 11-year Major League Baseball career, Aaron Hicks flashed more than warning-track power. The former outfielder launched 109 home runs, most of them during his tenure with the New York York Yankees.

These days, though, it’s on the golf course where he really lets it fly.

Since stepping away from baseball after the 2024 season, Hicks, 36, has returned to the game he excelled at as a kid, and the results have been impressive. He is already a multiple winner on the Pro Tour, a circuit for current and former professional athletes from other sports. His prodigious length — he can drive it more than 400 yards — has become a calling card.

Appearing this week on GOLF’s Subpar podcast with Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz, Hicks revealed that he routinely produces ball speeds north of 200 mph, with a personal best of 207 mph. For perspective, the average PGA Tour player hovers around 175 mph. Hicks’ numbers are north of those of Rory McIlroy, closer to the neighborhood of Bryson DeChambeau.

Power has never been his problem. Neither, it seems, has golf.

Growing up in Southern California, Hicks was a standout junior player. He learned the game from his father, Joe, a former minor leaguer and avid golfer, and competed on many of the same courses where Tiger Woods honed his skills. (These days, Hicks has another connection to the Woods family: He’s married to former LPGA player Cheyenne Woods, Tiger’s niece.)

Why did he not stick to golf as a kid?

On Subpar, Hicks shared the story of the moment he abandoned the game for baseball.

His father had promised him a new set of clubs if he won a junior tournament. Hicks did exactly that. But when it came time to collect, Joe Hicks had changed his mind.

“Clubs don’t make the player,” his father told him. “The player makes the clubs.”

His dad may have been right, but the lesson was lost on his young son.

“‘You ain’t kept your promise,’” Hicks recalled thinking. “‘I’m going to play baseball.’”

That decision worked out pretty well for him. But after hearing the kind of speed Hicks now generates with a driver, it’s hard not to wonder what might have happened had he stuck with golf all along. You can listen to the entire episode here. You can watch the entire video below.

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Fenerbahce announced on Friday that they had agreed a deal to sign Manchester City defender Nathan Ake

Fenerbahce sensationally announced the signing of Nathan Ake from Manchester City on Friday – before a deal had been agreed. The two clubs are in talks over a transfer but have not yet finalised the details.

Given the confidence of the Turkish club, the move is expected to happen this summer to bring an end to Ake’s six years at the Etihad. A fee of around £7m, potentially rising to £8.5m, has been talked about in discussions between the clubs.

However, there is still work to be done on the transfer and there will have been bemusement in Manchester on Friday that a deal had been announced. The Fenerbahce statement read: “Our club has reached an agreement with Nathan Aké, a player of the Netherlands National Team, and has signed a contract with the footballer.

“The player, who wore the Netherlands jersey in the 2026 FIFA World Cup, will join our team in the Austria camp following the permission process. We present this to the information of the public.”

Ake’s departure will leave City with four senior centre-backs following the exit of John Stones on a free transfer. Ruben Dias, Josko Gvardiol, Abdukodir Khusanov and Marc Guehi are still a formidable quartet of centre-backs, yet they will need to be bolstered by Enzo Maresca to ensure the Blues have the numbers to compete in multiple competitions.

That could come in the form of returning Brazilian defender Vitor Reis, who spent the year on loan with Girona. Homegrown centre-back Max Alleyne is another option, having answered an emergency call from City in January and terminating his loan at Watford in order to make his debut for the Blues.

When I walked into my PXG iron fitting, I wasn’t expecting to replace the irons in my bag. In fact, it was the first club fitting I’d ever gone into genuinely happy with my current set. But still, I was curious to see whether they could actually outperform the clubs I already trusted.

The fitting started with a question from GOLF’s Johnny Wunder that set the tone of the session:

“What’s the miss that scares you the most?”

For me, it’s the big slice that creeps into my game every now and then. Nothing rattles my confidence faster than watching my shot peel off to the right. As we talked through my tendencies, my fitter explained that the goal of the session wasn’t to chase the occasional perfect shot — it was to make my misses look more like my good shots, both in distance and dispersion.

We started with PXG’s 0311T GEN8 irons in a configuration close to my current setup, pairing the head with a slightly heavier shaft and neutral weighting. It only took a few swings to notice a difference. Right off the bat, my ball speeds jumped, my carry distance increased, my launch window came down and I still had plenty of stopping power into the green.

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The added distance was impressive, but the forgiveness was what really stood out. Shots struck low on the face maintained more ball speed than I expected, flew nearly their full distance, and stayed on line enough to keep me within scoring distance.

From there, we began dialing in the weighting. By adding more mass to the heel, we introduced a slight draw bias that offset my tendency to leave the face open. These weren’t dramatic changes, but they made a noticeable difference. I watched as my dispersion tightened, my start lines became more consistent and my misses finished in better spots.

We also compared the 0311T GEN8 against PXG’s Players option (0311P GEN8). At address, the two looked remarkably similar, with the Players iron offering just a touch more offset. Both performed well, but the T consistently produced a tighter dispersion and more predictable start lines, making it the clear winner.

By the end of the session, we landed on a blended set: 0311T GEN8 irons from 6-iron through pitching wedge, a 0311P GEN8 5-iron, lofts bent one degree stronger, SteelFiber 95 shafts, and a heel-biased weight setup built specifically for my swing.

When I walked into the fitting, I wondered if PXG could outperform a set of irons I already loved, and now I had my answer.

The biggest difference wasn’t the extra ball speed or even the added length — it was the confidence this set of irons gave me. My good swings were rewarded, but more importantly, my mishits were no longer at risk of wrecking my rounds.

FIFA introduced a wild rule for this year’s World Cup in which players could receive red cards for covering their mouths while speaking; however, one of soccer’s largest governing bodies will not be following suit.

FIFA established the new rule to prevent players from hiding abusive, discriminatory or offensive language while on the field.

But the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) announced Thursday that players will not be sent off the field for the infraction during Champions League, Europa League and Conference League matches next season.

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Miguel Almiron of Paraguay reacts after receiving a red card for covering his mouth while talking to another player during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Group D match between Türkiye and Paraguay in Santa Clara, California, on June 19, 2026. (Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

UEFA did say, however, that players could receive a yellow card if they are “attempting to conceal communication as an act of unsporting behaviour.”

“This is obviously without prejudice to any disciplinary investigation or proceedings that may follow as a consequence of or in connection with such behaviour,” a statement said.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino pushed for changes after Benfica winger Gianluca Prestianni tried to hide verbal insults toward Real Madrid forward Vinícius Júnior in a Champions League match. Soccer’s rulemaking panel, the International Football Association Board, agreed that players can be penalized with a red card if they cover their mouths when verbally confronting another player.

Piero Hincapie of Ecuador (R) covers his mouth while arguing with Santiago Gimenez of Mexico (L) during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Round Of 32 match between Mexico and Ecuador at Mexico City Stadium on June 30, 2026, in Mexico City, Mexico. (Martín Fonseca/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images)

FORMER TEAM USA STAR WANTS TO SEE RED CARD RULE CHANGE AFTER FOLARIN BALOGUN CONTROVERSY

The rule is not mandatory within the Laws of the Game but gives tournament organizers like FIFA the option to use it at their discretion.

The rule change was unanimously approved by IFAB, which includes officials from FIFA and the four British soccer federations, at a special meeting ahead of the FIFA Congress. FIFA’s proposal followed Vinícius, backed by Real Madrid teammate Kylian Mbappé, accusing Prestianni of making a racially charged insult while raising his jersey to cover his mouth during the game in February.

Paraguay’s Miguel Almiron and Piero Hincapie of Ecuador are the only players to be red-carded for mouth-covering.

Slovenian referee Slavko Vincic expels Ecuador’s defender Piero Hincapie during the 2026 World Cup Round of 32 football match between Mexico and Ecuador at the Mexico City Stadium in Mexico City on June 30, 2026. (Yuri Cortex / AFP via Getty Images)

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If a player is shown a red card by an official, the player is ejected from the match and must serve a one-game suspension in the following match. The team is also forced to play the remainder of the match with 10 players.

OutKick’s Matt Reigle and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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A major experiment will be going on during this year’s NBA Summer League.

The NBA announced Thursday that the “one free throw rule” will be used at the Summer League events happening this month in Salt Lake City, Northern California and Las Vegas.

The G League has used this rule since the 2019-20 season, which is designed to speed up play.

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Jalen Brunson of the New York Knicks shoots a free throw during the game against the San Antonio Spurs during Game 5 of the 2026 NBA Finals on June 13, 2026 at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Texas. (Juan Ocampo/NBAE via Getty Images)

Any foul that would typically result in the awarding of one, two or three free throws will instead result in a single free-throw attempt. That attempt will be worth the same total number of points as the free throws it replaces.

The rule doesn’t apply to the entire game, though. Standard free-throw rules — two shots for a two-shot foul, etc. — will be used for the last two minutes of fourth quarters and in all of overtime.

Victor Wembanyama #1 of the San Antonio Spurs takes a foul shot against the New York Knicks in Game Four of the 2026 NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden on June 10, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images) ((Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images))

It’s unclear whether the one-free-throw rule will make it into NBA games, but similar to the minor and independent leagues and Major League Baseball, the Summer League has been a proving ground for eventual rule changes.

Among those that started at those levels and eventually got to the NBA are the coach’s challenge, resetting the 24-second shot clock to 14 seconds after offensive rebounds and the one-shot award for a transition take foul — which is when a defender intentionally commits a foul to halt a transition opportunity for the opposition.

Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers shoots a free throw during the first half of Game 4 against the New York Knicks in the second round of the NBA playoffs in Philadelphia on May 10, 2026. (Matt Slocum/AP)

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The G League also plays 10-minute quarters, something NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has openly advocated for. The league once tested 11-minute quarters in a preseason game, while exhibition games prior to the “bubble” in 2020 used 10-minute quarters.

The Summer League begins on July 9.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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