Read for 5 minutesUpdated: June 13, 2026 08:00 PM IST They call him Bambi. Not for delicacy, but for the way he carries the ball in traffic, the particular cleanliness of those movements. Jamal Musiyala He had 40 Germany caps and was touted as the next Lionel Messi before he turned 20. Then on July 5 last year, Gianluigi Donnarumma went for a loose ball and collided with him. Musia fell screaming. He fractured his fibula, dislocated his ankle. Donnarumma held his head in his hands. In the months that followed, Nagelsmann visited him at home. No phone calls. He

Read more

Carlo Ancelotti has restored confidence, but will Brazil’s 24-year World Cup drought end? Since the last time they lifted the World Cup, Brazil have only reached the semi-finals once (AP Photo) Brazil’s 24-year World Cup drought has made Brazilian fans deadly, with streaks of luck and accidents of luck on the rise. Their previous longest wait for a World Cup title was 24 years and that too ended on American soil. The tournament was last co-hosted (by Japan and South Korea in 2002). In 1970, they played with the leading four; Also under Carlo Ancelotti’s reign, the Italians sought to

Read more

Read 3 minutes13 Jun 2026 09:15 PM IST Australia and Turkey kicked off their FIFA World Cup campaign in Vancouver on Sunday morning (India time), but before that, the war of words began. Turkey captain Hakan Calhanoglu didn’t mince words when he predicted his side would dominate the Socceroos because they have “more points and a more talented squad”. If this is a ploy to tease the opposition ahead of the big game, it certainly got the attention of the Australian team. However, they did not respond to the taunt, with coach Tony Popovic simply stating that his team was

Read more

Read for 2 minutes13 Jun 2026 05:09 PM IST Portugal captain Cristiano RonaldoSet to play his 6th consecutive World Cup, said he is fit and motivated to perform well with the national team. “Physically? I’m fine. Haven’t you seen my matches?”, the 41-year-old told reporters. “It’s good but tiring because we’ve worked hard. We’ve had the upper hand in our matches, but the most important thing is that the ball starts rolling on the 17th in the first game and then when the pressure really starts – that’s when we see the real champions,” he added. Ronaldo, who played in

Read more

Read 3 minutes13 Jun 2026 03:31 PM IST When Scotland faced Haiti FIFA World Cup The opener at the Boston Stadium in Foxborough on Saturday was Craig Ferguson, a 22-year-old Scotland fan who walked more than 4000km from Los Angeles to Boston to watch the match and raise money for charity. As Scottish fans flock to the USA this week to see their country play in the World Cup after 28 years, Ferguson embarked on what he calls ‘The Tartan Trek’ in February to support Scotland and raise more than £1 million for Scottish Action for mental health. Ferguson, who

Read more

Dickens Nazon was already strapped into his seat on the tarmac at Tehran Airport when his phone caught fire. A friend who plays in Israel. The alarm of war was sounding. “I said, wow, I’m so lucky because I’m on the plane right now, ready to take off,” Nazon, Haiti’s all-time leading scorer, recalled to Reuters. Ten seconds later, his luck ran out. “The cabin chief said, ‘Everybody has to get off the plane. The war has started. The skies are closed,'” Nazon recalled. “And now you start survival mode.” He eventually saw a strike land 100 meters away before

Read more

Read 6 minutesUpdated: June 13, 2026 09:55 AM IST When the final whistle blew, there was a blizzard of miniature US flags flying across the beautiful Los Angeles stadium. The stands enjoyed a blockbuster evening to the fullest, the most official display of World Cup co-hosts. 4-1 scoreline, with Giovanni Reina splashing the icing on the cake in the final minute, fully capturing their dominance over an unusually flustered Paraguay. Such was the joyous occasion that the festivities brought bedlam. They piled on each other near the corner flag, some crying, some shouting, before crashing into the middle of the

Read more

Bosnia looked set to walk away from Toronto Stadium with all three points when Jovo Lukic gave them the lead in the 21st minute and Larin fired home. This edition marks Canada’s third appearance at the World Cup. In the past two World Cups, Canada has never earned a point, making their single point at Toronto Stadium on Friday historic. Canada lost all three matches at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico and four years earlier in Qatar 2022. Canada has also scored just twice in their last six World Cup group games (one of those goals was an own

Read more

Growing up in Rajkot’s railway colony in the 1980s next to an all-purpose sports facility that was the centerpiece of our young lives – we had our own football heroes. There was a Siddi boy named Rafiq Baloch, whose legs were attached to a tree. Parasottam, fondly called Passio, was a fearless defender with an ambition to score goals. And Anandi Ahmed, a compulsive dribbler, loved to dodge goalkeepers and tap the ball into the goal. All of them played for our team — called Jagjivan Ram Railway Institute. We rarely won the local league because the other sides outside

Read more

Read 6 minutesMexico CityUpdated: June 13, 2026 06:30 AM IST A band of Brazil fans in their canary yellow shirts, their names printed on the back, waded through the stream of Mexicans ahead of the World Cup opener in Azteca. Their transit from Sao Paulo to Mexico City on the way to Brazil’s opening match in New Jersey against Morocco has a superstitious purpose. “Back home, we visit the church, we attend in large numbers before we leave for something important. The Aztec is a shrine for us Brazilians, where we won our biggest World Cup (1970),” says Rafael, in

Read more