Welcome to Inside Barcelona, a new weekly series of articles to follow throughout the 2025-26 La Liga season. Every week, we will bring you our latest information and analysis on the biggest talking points, cutting through the noisy world of all things Barca with reporting you can trust. This week, our writer Dermot Corrigan explores…
Welcome to The Briefing, where every Monday during this season, The Athletic will discuss three of the biggest questions to arise from the weekend’s football in England. This was the round of matches when a boy who should be getting his feet measured for a new pair of school shoes about now threatened to break a Premier…
On Friday, just hours before President Donald Trump and FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s latest joint briefing in the White House, the MGM Resorts group in Las Vegas received a courtesy correspondence. It came from FIFA. It was a short and generic email. It said, essentially: Thank you, but no thank you. The expectation of many…
Among the many nice stories surrounding Real Oviedo’s return to the Spanish top flight after 24 years away is the reunion between club hero Santi Cazorla and new signing Salomon Rondon. Before last weekend’s season start Rondon himself had been away from La Liga for 13 years, and his last goal in the competition was…
The 2025-26 season has already begun, but it is not yet clear where Barcelona are going to play their home matches. Barca have not played at their Camp Nou ground since starting a €1.5billion (£1.3bn; $1.8bn) refurbishment project in June 2023, hosting games at the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys across the city while works progress….
BARCELONA, Spain — Atletico Madrid revamped its already deep squad this summer with its hopes set on mounting a title challenge in La Liga. But it is already trailing Barcelona and Real Madrid after losing its season-opener for the first time since Diego Simeone took over as coach more than a decade ago. It will…
Welcome back to The Alternative Premier League Table, a new series you can enjoy on The Athletic every Thursday during the season. We all know how compelling it is to stare at standings. Whether your team is in the middle of a winning run or mired in terrible form, five minutes looking at the table can convince you…
When Martin Scorsese saw Fellini’s 8½ for the first time he was a student at New York University. Upon returning home, he tried to sketch his favourite scenes from memory and then set about thinking what the film was about. “Then you realise you don’t have to because it’s very simple really,” Scorsese explained. Dreams….
ISTANBUL, Turkey — José Mourinho and Fenerbahce were left Wednesday with a difficult final test in their quest to return to the Champions League, which looks sure to be heading inside the Arctic Circle next month. Fenerbahce drew 0-0 at home against Benfica in the first leg of their qualifying playoff, despite the Portuguese team…
One team has installed three rows of new seats, another has a new corner-taker and one side began the 2025-26 campaign by deliberately smashing the ball out of play. Yes, the Premier League is back and on the opening weekend we asked our reporters in addition to covering the games and the new signings to…