Luciano Spalletti handed four players their senior call-up to the Italy national team ahead of their Nations League fixtures next week.

Italy take on Belgium and Israel in the next round of games, hoping to build on their impressive start in Group A2 after winning their opening two matches, which included a 3-1 win over France.

Milan defender Matteo Gabbia has been included after an impressive run of performances at centre-back under new head coach Paulo Fonseca.

Gabbia is also the first player from the Rossoneri to be named in the Italy squad in almost 600 days, with Sandro Tonali, who joined Newcastle in 2023, the last Milan representative to feature for the Azzurri.

There was also a place in the squad for Monza s Daniel Maldini, who could follow in t…

Ange Postecoglou has insisted that his full focus remains on bringing success to Tottenham after being linked with the England job.

It was announced on Tuesday that Gareth Southgate had resigned from his position as the England head coach after an eight-year tenure.

Southgate managed 102 games in that time, taking charge of his century fixture in the Three Lions penalty shootout win over Switzerland in the quarter-finals of Euro 2024.

The 53-year-old, however, became the first manager in European Championship history to end up on the losing side in two finals following their defeat to Spain in Berlin on Sunday.

Under Southgate s tenure, England reached more major tournament finals in four attempts (two) than they did in their first 23 appearances at th…

It took time, but with less than a week to go before the start of Euro 2008 and with sunny weather bringing people out in droves, Vienna is starting to show some football fever.

Preparations for the 100,000-square-metre fan mile enclosing City Hall Square, Heroes Square and the Ring road in between, which is to be closed for a whole month starting on Monday, are in full swing.

Stages and giant screens are being set up and the still-shuttered food huts are already in place, ready to be opened for business.

Euro 2008 banners, which already greet visitors at the luggage claim area at Vienna s international airport, line all the main arteries of the city, while every other shop window seems to have a football theme, whether the products on sale are ladies shoes, …

Luka Modric has been crowned the winner of the Ballon d Or, capping a wonderful 2018 for the Real Madrid and Croatia midfielder.

The Ballon d Or has been dominated by Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi for the past decade, the rivals winning the award five times apiece.

But Modric s impact in Croatia s run to the World Cup final, coupled with Madrid winning the Champions League for the third year in a row, saw him triumph.

Modric also crowned FIFA s Best Men s Player this year  pipped World Cup winners including Raphael Varane, Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann to the award.

Griezmann made it into the top three but he was beaten to second place by Ronaldo, who moved to Serie A champions Juventus from Madrid in July.

Messi finished fifth in the…

Mamadou Sakho says his drugs ban was the reason he was not selected for France s Euro 2016 squad.

The defender tested positive for the fat burner higenamine in April last year and was handed a 30-day suspension, although it has since transpired that the substance was not on WADA s banned list.

Sakho, who is on loan at Crystal Palace from Liverpool, missed the Europa League final due to his ban and believes he would have been picked for Euro 2016 were it not for the suspension.

I worked so hard to prepare myself for the European Championship, to help my country, to wear the France shirt in a tournament on home soil, Sakho told the Guardian. Now I ll never do that. 

Whatever they say or do, they cannot replace what they took away from me. My lawyer …

Spain midfielder Santi Cazorla said on Friday he sees Sunday s Euro 2008 final against Germany as too close to call, telling reporters there s no favourite.

The 23-year-old Villarreal star was a surprise inclusion in the squad of coach Luis Aragones. But he has seized his chances, coming off the bench in four games to take his cap tally to six and getting two-and-three-quarter hours of action.

Cazorla says that the 3-0 destruction of Russia in the semis gave the team a great feeling but that the squad say they know they have achieved nothing yet.

We celebrated but remained calm. Because we have a match to play Sunday, he noted candidly, both feet planted firmly on the ground.

Now we re going to stay and rest up in the hotel. We have to retain our en…

Manchester United completed the signing of Harry Maguire from Leicester for £80million on this day in 2019.

The England international, then 26, signed a six-year contract at Old Trafford with the option of a further year in a deal that involved a world-record fee for a defender.

Maguire was strongly linked with both Manchester clubs but Leicester held out for their valuation and the fee surpassed the £75million Liverpool paid Southampton for Virgil van Dijk in January 2018.

Maguire told United’s official website: “I am delighted to have signed for this great club. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at Leicester and would like to thank everyone at the club, and the fans, for their fantastic support over the past two seasons.

“However, when Mancheste…

Week 4 kicks off with a Thursday Night Football showdown between the Jacksonville Jaguars and Cincinnati Bengals at Paul Brown Stadium.

There will be plenty to watch in this contest, such as the last two No. 1 overall picks, quarterbacks Trevor Lawrence and Joe Borrow, going head-to-head, and whether Cincinnati’s defense can remain an early-season force.

The Bengals, 7-point favorites over winless Jacksonville, have one of the top-ranked defenses in the NFL and they are coming off a two-touchdown victory after holding the Pittsburgh Steelers to 10 points.

Find out if we like Cincinnati’s D to stay hot and cause issues for Lawrence in our free NFL picks and predictions for Jaguars vs. Bengals on September 30.

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The Big Game goes down today, and the FanDuel Super Bowl promotion is readily available for potential bettors — new customers can claim a bonus of $280 in real cash should they place a wager on either the Cincinnati Bengals or the Los Angeles Rams to win the game and choose correctly (56-1 odds).

How-to claim $280 in bonus cash from FanDuel

You can sign-up here to begin the process of claiming FanDuel’s Super Bowl promotion if you live in a state where the sportsbook is active. There is no FanDuel promo code necessary, but it will be important to have personal information on hand, and you’ll need to be ready to deposit a minimum of $10 before placing any bets. Make you sure you download the FanDuel app (you will be prom…

The second of Sunday’s two Conference Championship games could be an absolute classic, with the Cincinnati Bengals facing the Kansas Chiefs for a trip to the Super Bowl. 

There’s plenty of scoring opportunity in this game for bettors, so why don’t we get right into the action? Don’t miss our NFL anytime touchdown prop picks for the Bengals vs. Chiefs on January 29.

For more, be sure to check out Jason Logan’s full AFC Championship betting preview, as well as our Bengals vs. Chiefs prop picks. 

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