Soccer

6:35 PM ET Moving to a three-man defence at the 2018 World Cup was widely acclaimed as a masterstroke by Gareth Southgate. The jury is still out, however, on whether returning to a similar shape will prove equally effective when it matters most. As a disciple of former Three Lions boss Terry Venables, Southgate is

7:19 PM ET Paul Pogba has said that his time away from Manchester United when he is playing with France is a “breath of fresh air.” In an interview on Sunday the midfielder admitted he was going through the toughest period of his career at the moment at United and that joining the French national

7:50 AM ET FOR AMERICAN SOCCER FANS, Oct. 10, 2017, still lives in infamy. In front of roughly 1,500 spectators at a slapdash pitch in Trinidad, the U.S. men’s national team failed to qualify for a World Cup for the first time since 1986. The Americans had advanced from the group in three of the

4:55 PM ET France handed defending Nations League champions Portugal a rare defeat on Saturday, winning 1-0 in Lisbon with N’Golo Kante‘s second-half strike to reach the competition’s final four at the expense of the holders. – Stream LIVE games and replays on ESPN+ (U.S. only) Kante scored only his second France goal in the

2:47 PM ET Sergio Ramos has become the most capped European footballer ever, making his 177th appearance for Spain in their UEFA Nations League match with Switzerland on Saturday. The Real Madrid defender — who captains both club and country — has now played one game more than the previous record holder, former Italy goalkeeper

9:00 AM ET Austin LindbergESPN FC On Thursday, the United States men’s national team played its first match since February and gave fans a solid look at the Yanks’ future. Head coach Gregg Berhalter gave debuts to six players — including a pair of 17-year-olds, Yunus Musah and Giovanni Reyna (who turned 18 on Friday)

11:45 AM ET Agents in football are nothing like Jerry Maguire. It’s not that they don’t develop heartfelt bonds with their representatives: Mino Raiola, who represents Paul Pogba, Erling Haaland and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, famously has no written contracts tying him to his clients but relies on handshakes instead. No, the difference is that in Maguire’s

2:52 PM ET Didier Deschamps’ weekends have become really tricky in 2020. The France head coach wants to watch as many of his players featuring for their clubs every Saturday or Sunday, but the problem is that there are too many contenders now to make the squad that he and his assistants are struggling to

4:36 AM ET Liverpool’s troubles at the hands of VAR headlines this week’s ESPN’s Insider Notebook. PLUS: Lionel Messi is set for a huge Barcelona payday. Jump to: Messi’s bonus after trying to leave Barca | Man United track rising star defender | Spurs, Eriksen cool on reunion | FA staff reeling from Clarke chaos

4:07 PM ET As we find ourselves immersed in international break No. 17 of the young European soccer season (OK, it’s No. 3), it’s a pretty good time to step back and absorb the chaos that we’ve witnessed one-fifth of the way through. The funkiness resulting from a blink-and-you-miss-it offseason, along with a loaded schedule

6:36 PM ET In the 285 days since the U.S. men’s national team last played, it seemed like there was a sea change for the Americans. The U.S. now has a player at Juventus in Weston McKennie, while Sergino Dest and Konrad de la Fuente are on the first-team roster at Barcelona. That’s to go

4:50 AM ET The climax of the UEFA Nations League is here — stream LIVE on ESPN+ (U.S. only) — with some of the continent’s biggest teams fighting for a place in the finals in October 2021, as well as preferable seeding ahead of the World Cup 2022 qualifying draw. This year, preparations have been

4:00 AM ET Rob DawsonCorrespondent Louis van Gaal still says he should have seen his dismissal coming at Manchester United six months before it happened, and while Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is not there yet, the similarities are striking. Two managers wrestling with the suspicion they were not backed by the club when it mattered, an

2:31 PM ET United States midfielder Christian Pulisic will not play in Thursday’s friendly against Wales, and will leave camp on Wednesday night as he recuperates from a hamstring injury, the U.S. Soccer Federation announced. The Chelsea midfielder had always been unlikely to play in the match after sustaining the injury while warming up prior

8:30 AM ET Ronaldo, Pele, Zidane and Messi are all legends, but are they the greatest from their own countries? ESPN Illustration Lionel Messi or Diego Maradona? Is Pele the undisputed best from Brazil? Clint Dempsey or Landon Donovan? What about the No. 1 from England? After asking our writers to nominate the most iconic players

4:57 PM ET United States men’s national team goalkeeper Zack Steffen feels he’s already grown on the field with club side Manchester City, even though he’s only been with the first team for a little over two months. Steffen, 25, signed with Man City back in July of 2019, but spent the 2019-20 season on

12:36 PM ET England Football Association chairperson Greg Clarke has resigned from his role following the use of a racist term during a press briefing. When asked why there isn’t an openly gay men’s footballer at the elite level in England, Clarke said, “The answer is I don’t know, right, because I’ve spent a lot

11:05 AM ET Sergino Dest flew into Barcelona on a Tuesday and finally signed for the Catalan club that Thursday. Between landing at El Prat airport and penning a five-year deal at Camp Nou, Bayern Munich were on the phone trying to resurrect a deal they had been working on since January. The German giants