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He was widely credited for his role in the Champions Trophy win, but Pakistan’s wicketkeeper has struggled to make his mark on the Test team

Osman Samiuddin at Lord's23-May-2018Eleven months ago, Sarfraz Ahmed stood on the balcony of his house in North Karachi and we caught a passing glimpse of that which he is waiting to become. A small part of a big city – his constituency let’s call it – was massed below him on the street, rapt and united in adulation and celebration.Sarfraz has lived in that same house his entire life. The area is known as Buffer Zone (don’t ask). There were neighbours in that crowd and people who had known him and seen him grow up who may have realised at some point that he was special but who, until then, may not have realised quite how apart from them he could become.Somebody in the crowd started singing and Sarfraz eventually joined in this exquisite trolling of the trope of India’s dominance of Pakistan. Let’s agree that he’ll never be a dancer but in playing along, he gave this charged, jubilant scene the definition it had been seeking: a leader among his people, as one of them, but also apart from them.Today, a day on from his 31st birthday, a week on from the worst Test he has had personally, a day before the biggest examination of his fledgling Test captaincy, he is Pakistan’s undisputed captain but is still waiting to become their leader.***Nobody really knows what makes the perfect captain and if they tell you they do, don’t buy it. The one thing we do know – and in the case of Pakistan, the foremost prerequisite – is that, without performing himself, a captain is as pointless as a celebrity without an Insta account. Runs are what established Misbah. The example that Imran set is what made his side great. And runs are what smoothed the prickliness of Miandad.If it used to be complicated for wicketkeeper-captains, it isn’t anymore: they need to score runs like anyone else. Sarfraz knows it because, until he became captain, he was scoring runs. And they weren’t just runs – they were crisis runs, mood-shifting runs, runs for fun.On the 2016 tour to England, in fact, there were a handful of Test 40s considerably more significant than just their sum. And he bossed the ODI series. Those were the peak years, from the start of 2014 and his hand in the Sharjah chase, to the lost-cause fifties in Australia at the end of 2016.The batting hasn’t hurtled off a cliff since, but it has begun to trek down it. There was that fifty against Sri Lanka in the Champions Trophy on which the tournament turned (albeit he was helped on his way by Thisara Perera and his missed sitter at mid-on). The hand-eye coordination that can make his offside game so thrilling is now occasionally revealing the risks that make it appear wafty. The urgency that was so vibrant has, a couple of times already, looked hasty.Sarfraz Ahmed greets crowds outside his house in Karachi•AFPAnd then there’s the noose by which all wicketkeepers eventually hang. So deep are the scars of Kamran Akmal upon Pakistan that for a long time, anyone who could identify which gloves go on which hand was a good keeper. But we’re reaching a moment in Sarfraz’s wicketkeeping – and actually we’ve been here for a while. According to ESPNcricinfo’s records, Sarfraz has missed at least 19 chances in 26 Tests since the start of 2015. He’s dropped or missed 11 catches out of a total of 93 opportunities, but more damningly, has missed eight stumpings out of 19 that have come his way. All in all, that means he is missing roughly one in every six chances. Those are not figures to sweep away easily.Carry on like this for a while and it starts building up into a fair old storm. Everything gets sucked into it, like the constant haranguing of players. Some days, such as the third T20 in New Zealand earlier this year when he was shouting at Mohammad Amir to stop appealing and just pick the damn ball up to prevent a single, it’s okay. That is the alertness to match situations that is intrinsic to Sarfraz’s game.Other days, such as when he ran up to lecture Hasan Ali on his way back to the bowling mark only to be, apparently, ignored, it is OCD micromanagement. And the berating of fielders for poor throws … it’s not a great look if he’s dropping chances himself.Eventually the whispers about his fitness might gather the strength to become actual criticism. He is passing those fitness tests and working hard, no question. But he doesn’t look like the poster boy for the no-prisoners-taken fitness regime they’re trying to implement. And as the captain, you’d think he should be the poster boy.***The thing is, whether the PCB intended it as such or not, Sarfraz has been a captain-in-waiting for years. He’s the closest the board has come to grooming a captain from an early age. Sure, there have been bumps along the way, but he was Under-19 captain just over a decade ago and he is now the national captain in all three formats. That is as straight a line of leadership development as you’ll find in Pakistan cricket.And there’s no questioning that, under his command, Pakistan’s white-ball sides have, at the very least, halted an alarming slide and, at the most, turned into a modern outfit. And no matter how he can be with his players on the field, from a distance it does appear as if he has pulled off that other great captaincy trick – of appearing to be one of the boys while at the same time not.There’s a tale from that Champions Trophy win with which to finish. After the opening defeat to India and heading into their next training session at Edgbaston, Pakistan sat down in the dressing room for a bit of soul-searching. Words were needed – tough, unsparing words. Mickey Arthur had been dishing them out thus far but he now needed it to come from the players. The player who got up to kick that verbal ass? Shoaib Malik.Or, to put it more relevantly, not Sarfraz: the captain no question, but a leader in waiting.

Plays of the day from the second ODI between India and New Zealand in Delhi, featuring cramps, throws and blows

Alagappan Muthu20-Oct-2016Nothing but painRohit Sharma had used his backfoot cover drive to bully a reasonably good ball to the boundary. There was barely any swing. There was no reason not to try it again. At the start of the eighth over, he got in position for the shot again, but this time Trent Boult, from around the wicket, got the ball to straighten just enough to snatch the edge through to the wicketkeeper. It was a beautiful ball, but that matters little to the dismissed batsman. Less so when he suddenly cramps up. Rohit was turning back to see if the catch would be taken when he felt something in his left bicep. The arm went completely limp. He was left hunched over for several moments, clutching it, and needed the physio to tend to it before he could walk off.Avoiding painLately, umpire Bruce Oxenford has been turning up for limited-overs matches with a shield on his arm. He crosses his arms in front of his chest as he takes his stance at the bowler’s end, the shield in place to deflect the ball away from his face. It turned out that the extra protection would have served his partner well too. In the seventh over, Tom Latham drilled the ball down the ground, and fear of being hit made umpire Anil Chaudhary dash frantically to his right. He was on one foot, the other in the air, looking comically ungainly. Umesh Yadav, the bowler, was able to get a hand on the ball and send it off course. But Chaudhary gestured immediately to his partner, his elbow moving up to his face, as if he were saying, “I should get a shield too. Could have avoided pain – and looked cool to boot.”Only, when Oxenford had the chance to use the shield, he couldn’t act quickly enough. Corey Anderson’s throw from the deep at the bowler’s end headed straight at him and he was struck on the box.The Superman dive that went in vainManish Pandey seemed to have done enough to secure a couple of runs. He’d played the ball softly, placed the ball to deep midwicket’s right, and the fielder there was Mitchell Santner, who is left-handed and had to run around the ball. He did so with remarkable swiftness. Then came the throw which was brutally flat. Luke Ronchi had positioned himself between the stumps and the throw, but it came to him on the half-volley, which is hard to collect because you have to keep your eyes on the ball when there is a real chance it might bounce up and hit you. But in one fluid motion, he collected the ball and swung it back to catch Pandey short despite his full-length dive.And the fast bowler’s disdainNew Zealand were floundering in the final overs of their innings, and they could have done with some good, old-fashioned Tim Southee slogs. He had, after all, made his maiden fifty in his 100th ODI in Dharamsala. Except, in Delhi, he was bowled second ball by a superb yorker from Jasprit Bumrah. It was quick. It cramped the batsman for room. And it hit the base of off stump.The second innings provided opportunity for round two. And this time, the game was at stake. It was the final over. India needed 10 to win. New Zealand needed a wicket. Bumrah was given the strike in the third ball and Southee revved up. The ball curved into the right-hander at pace, sank below the bat and crashed into middle stump to seal New Zealand’s victory.

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Jun-2015Zulfiqar Babar ended a promising stand between Kaushal Silva and Dinesh Chandimal by removing Chandimal in the 85th over. When Mohammad Hafeez pouched Kithuruwan Vithanage’s return chance, Sri Lanka were 261 for 6•Ishara S.Kodikara/AFP/Getty ImagesSilva, though, was a steadying influence for Sri Lanka and his patient knock averted a collapse•Getty ImagesSilva went on to bring up his second Test hundred. He was unbeaten on 113 as Sri Lanka went to lunch on 273 for 6•Ishara S.Kodikara/AFP/Getty ImagesPakistan’s spinners ran through the lower order to bowl out Sri Lanka for 300. Silva, caught behind off Babar for 125, was the penultimate wicket•Ishara S.Kodikara/AFP/Getty ImagesPakistan were rocked by quick wickets in their first innings, Dhammika Prasad removing openers Hafeez and Ahmed Shehzad inside the first three overs•Ishara S.Kodikara/AFP/Getty ImagesVice captain Azhar Ali was trapped lbw by Rangana Herath for 8 as Pakistan went to tea on 38 for 3•Ishara S.Kodikara/AFP/Getty ImagesDilruwan Perera went through Younis’ defence, dismissing him three short of his 30th Test fifty, Misbah fell in the 35th over as Pakistan went to stumps on 118 for 5•Ishara S.Kodikara/AFP/Getty Images

South Africa squashed their opponents at home last summer. This year’s visitors are expected to be tougher, and Graeme Smith wants his team to be as ruthless

Firdose Moonda in Johannesburg17-Dec-20130:00

‘Hoping Tahir will make an impact’ – Smith

The summer of 2012 had some milestones for South African cricket.It was the first time Graeme Smith’s team played at home after winning the Test mace in England that August. It was also the first time since readmission that there was no Test in Durban: Kingsmead’s traditional Boxing Day fixture was cancelled in favour of a Twenty20 series. When the Tests began, South Africa won all of them in a home season for the first time in a decade. None of the matches lasted five days.That last point was the most notable of the lot. After becoming the top-ranked Test side and then winning a series in Australia, South Africa’s mission was to assert their authority over the rest. They were ruthless against New Zealand, who barely posed a challenge, and Pakistan, who worried them only on the first day in Johannesburg and when Saeed Ajmal took ten wickets in Cape Town.The summer of 2013 is expected to be trickier. South Africa are still No. 1, having ended a seven-month break from Tests with a drawn series against Pakistan in the UAE. It’s not mid-table teams they are up against at home, though, and they have to play in Durban, where they have not won a Test since January 2008. It is likely that matches will last longer than they did last summer.Tahir v Peterson

The Wanderers pitch promises to be seamer-friendly and as a result South Africa could have picked the holding left-arm spinner in Robin Peterson in the XI, instead of the attacking legspinner Imran Tahir. Graeme Smith and the coach Russell Domingo, however, selected the aggressive option.
“Imran has been bowling really well,” Smith said. “Even though we know the role of the spinner may be limited here, we felt that if an impact was needed, he could do it. We also felt our batting depth was good enough and Imran could really be effective against tailenders.”
Tahir was dropped for Peterson after conceding 0 for 260 in Adelaide in November 2012, but had an opportunity to make a comeback when Peterson was ineffective against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi.
Tahir took his chance, claiming eight wickets in Dubai to secure his spot. He is familiar with the Wanderers pitch because it is one of the home grounds for his domestic franchise, the Lions.

South Africa’s first opponents are the No. 2 ranked side. Though India’s rise in the rankings has been a result of victories at home, they have been competitive in South Africa in the past. There’s reason to believe they will be again, despite the transition they are going through after Sachin Tendulkar’s retirement.”Their line-up is hugely talented, although very different to the one I have become accustomed to playing against,” South Africa’s captain Graeme Smith said. Of the 27 Tests South Africa have played against India, only twice have they not come up against Tendulkar. In 2008, he missed the Kanpur and Ahmedabad matches with a groin injury.Tendulkar’s absence has got the South African bowlers excited. Morne Morkel said that without him and Rahul Dravid, India’s line-up lacked “guys who can bat time,” although he singled out Cheteshwar Pujara as being someone with the potential to do that. He expected the other batsmen to attack and said they may come unstuck if they adopt that approach.For Morkel, possibly South Africa’s gentlest soul, to issue such a stern warning shows the level of self-belief in this squad. They don’t think they can beat teams; they know they can.Smith said that was the major difference between this Test side and the one that could not beat India three seasons ago. “There’s confidence and composure now, and growth in terms of knowing that we can win from certain situations,” he said.Where South Africa have to be careful is in ensuring that their conviction does not become complacency. To guard against that, Smith has spoken about building a legacy – a term that is used to remind his team that every series is part of a bigger goal.”We play the game hard and there’s a big respect for the opposition. Hopefully we will be able to set standards,” Smith said. “If you look at the Ashes, it puts into perspective the type of performances we’ve been able to put in. It’s legacy and we need to have a care factor for that.”The Ashes winners, Australia, will tour South Africa later in the summer and that is expected to be a fiery affair. Smith does not want to look that far yet. “I don’t feel there is any hype around the dressing room for that. We need to overcome this first.”Smith’s focus is in the right place because South Africa have not won a series against India since 2006: the last three series were drawn. Their goal is crystal clear. Last summer, South Africa wanted to show they could win big. This year, they want to prove they can win hard.

Titans found the correct length with the ball on their home turf, making their bowlers far more effective than the Scorchers’

Firdose Moonda13-Oct-2012Local knowledge was going to be an advantage for South African sides at this year’s Champions League and the Titans showed why. A major factor in their 39-run win over Perth Scorchers was their ability with the ball, which helped them find the correct length on their home turf to far greater effect than Scorchers’ bowlers did.Evidence of that can be found in a simple score comparison. At the end of 12 overs, the Titans were 105 for 0. At the same stage of the Scorcher’s innings, they were 64 for 4.Scorchers’ bowlers pulled it back and gave away only 58 runs in the last eight over of the innings to restrict the Titans to 163 but their lapses earlier cost them at the end. On a pitch with good bounce, every bowler in the attack preferred length and full deliveries to ones just back a length, which the Titans later showed would have made it more difficult for the batsmen.Titans captain Martin van Jaarsveld was surprised at the lack of penetration from the Perth attack upfront, especially since he thought whoever had first use of the surface would make it count. “I was quite disappointed to lose the toss because I thought it was going to do quite a bit,” he said. “But at the beginning they bowled either too full or too short and our openers were electric.”For 73 balls, Scorchers allowed Henry David and Jacques Rudolph to dictate proceedings. Davids enjoyed shimmying down the track and hitting through the offside, and took the pressure off Rudolph, who was allowed time to show why he should not be labelled a Test player.Only when Davids was dismissed did Scorchers get measure of how to operate. Brad Hogg led the way, giving away only two runs of his third over and the Titans batsmen had to do more than just help themselves. “It was tough to hit the spinners,” van Jaarsveld said.With a rein on the innings, Nathan Rimmington did the rest of the containing and gave away only five singles in his last two overs. Scorchers’ captain Marcus North said that performance gave the team some belief as they went into the break and enhanced Rimmington’s reputation as his go-to man.”He is our banker. As a captain he is the guys you want to throw the ball to and you know he will get it right more often than not,” North said. “It comes with the confidence of having a few good games and it is down to hard work. He has worked really hard at those yorkers and trying to be a step ahead of the batsmen. He is very easy to captain and very clear and decisive about what he wants to execute and what fields he wants.”Van Jaarsveld must feel as though he has three Rimmingtons. His seamers, Alfonso Thomas, Ethy Mbhalati and CJ de Villiers did not put a foot wrong, after Eden Links set the tone with a tight first over. Links got the length right immediately as he beat Herschelle Gibbs with a short of a length delivery. And the rest of the attack very rarely swayed from that plan.”We decided to hit four-day lengths and aim for the top of off stump,” van Jaarsveld explained. “I found that the tall bowlers were able to extract a lot of bounce off the wicket.”CJ de Villiers, who will remind some of Marchant de Lange, was the tallest of the lot and had the most success. He used his variations well too, something a bowler like Mitchell Marsh was not able to do. “There is slight inexperience in their bowling line-up,” Van Jaarsveld said. “And we sort of took the wind out of the sails upfront.”North said the air stayed out, even in the batting department, where he would like to see improvement. “The wicket played really well and we left too much work for the middle order. The top four have to take responsibility. With the make-up of our side – five batsmen and the keeper at six – we really need the top four to fire.”

A look at the far-reaching life of Learie Constantine, which successfully captures his extraordinary achievements

David Conn23-May-2009

The premise of this illuminating biography is to revive appreciation of Learie Constantine, the original West Indies cricket icon and pioneer in so many fields that he seems to have packed four lives into the one he was born into, in Trinidad in 1901. Readable, well-researched, admiring but not wholly uncritical, the book achieves its purpose, bringing to vivid life a remarkable man and period of history.Constantine’s journey was epic. The grandson of a slave in racially segregated Trinidad, Constantine bowled, batted and most notably fielded his “panther-like” way to a distinctively West Indian cricketing style. He fought endemic English racism, became a writer and broadcaster, was a key political figure in Trinidad’s 1962 independence, becoming the first black man in the House of Lords, his national-treasure status confirmed by an appearance on . Peter Mason delivers the facts, stats and details comprehensively and sums up authoritatively.In childhood Constantine and his brother, Elias, would practise throwing and catching by hurling crockery at each other while washing up, but adult life was a struggle and cricket became Learie’s escape. At 26 he determined to make his name on West Indies’ tour of England in 1928 and win a professional contract.He landed it with heroics against Middlesex at Lord’s; 86 in the first innings, 7 for 57 in the opposition’s second innings, then a match-winning 103 that had Lord’s members “hoarse from cheering” and boys dashing on to the pitch. Denis Compton, who joined Middlesex years later, found the old pros in the dressing room still talking about it.Constantine, his wife Norma and daughter Gloria then spent 20 years as the only black people in the Lancashire mill town of Nelson – surely one of cricket’s great stories. He was one of Britain’s highest-paid sportsmen and delivered consistently good value for it in the Lancashire League. They were objects of curiosity, but bore it well and made crowds of friends. Constantine even experienced his political awakening there, helping to finance the publishing of the , written by his friend and collaborator CLR James.There are many other achievements: Constantine’s landmark 1944 legal victory after his family was turned away from London’s Imperial Hotel by a manageress saying “We will not have niggers in the hotel”; his welfare work for Caribbean workers during the war; a career in island politics for which he was not ideally suited, his contribution important nevertheless.This fine account thoroughly justifies Mason’s concluding judgment of Constantine as “a great man”, or in James’ words, “a man of character”.Caribbean Lives: Learie Constantine
by Peter Mason
Signal Press, pb, 212pp, £9.99

Saudi Pro League giants Al-Hilal have reportedly entered the race to sign Newcastle United star Alexander Isak. Al-Hilal, who are looking for a new forward, are ready to compete with Liverpool to secure a transfer for the Swedish striker. The club are reportedly preparing a massive €130 million (£112m/$151m) offer to convince the Magpies to part ways with Isak.

• Al-Hilal eyeing move for Isak
• Ready to compete with Liverpool
• Isak could consider moving

• WHAT HAPPENED?

  reports that Al-Hilal know that convincing Isak to move to the Middle East at just 25 years of age would be a daunting task, but despite that challenge, they have reportedly gotten in touch with the attacker's agent as the club look to bolster their frontline ahead of the 2025-26 campaign.

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  THE BIGGER PICTURE

  Liverpool had earlier shown interest in Isak, but they have now turned their attention to Eintracht Frankfurt's Hugo Ekitike after being informed by the Magpies that their star player is not for sale. Isak had a dream journey in the 2024-25 campaign as he scored 23 league goals and finished just behind Golden Boot winner Mohamed Salah. He also played a key role in Newcastle winning the Carabao Cup.

• DID YOU KNOW?

  Amid speculation over Isak's future, his representative has dropped a bombshell as it has been claimed that the 25-year-old is indeed going through all the offers and is considering his options.

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  WHAT NEXT FOR NEWCASTLE?

  Eddie Howe's side will be back in action on Sunday as they take on Arsenal in a pre-season friendly in Singapore. It will be interesting to see whether Isak is involved after he sat out the heavy defeat to Celtic due to being distracted by the speculation.

The Rossonere are yet to win a trophy on the women's side, but hope high-profile friendlies can help with their Serie A and Champions League goals

On Saturday, Chelsea’s preparations for the new season, in which they will be defending three domestic trophies, will come to a climax. The Blues will play their final pre-season friendly in front of their home fans at Kingsmeadow, who witnessed an unprecedented unbeaten domestic campaign in Sonia Bompastor’s first year in charge.

Chelsea did not lose a game in the Women’s Super League, FA Cup or League Cup as they scooped up an incredible treble in 2024-25, each player and staff member etching their name into the history books in the process. But they were not content. A Champions League semi-final defeat to Barcelona left the Blues unsatisfied despite the amazing work done across the board, as that trophy once again eluded them. That it instead landed in the hands of London rivals Arsenal will have only added to the hurt and the motivation to put forth a better European title charge this time around.

It's fair to say that it is a compliment to AC Milan, then, to have been chosen as the opponents for Chelsea’s final game before another highly-anticipated season kicks off next Friday, at home to Manchester City. The Rossonere have a young team – in that it was founded just seven years ago and also because it had the third-youngest squad in Serie A last term. But that it has been cherry-picked as the final test for Bompastor’s winning machine, a year on from playing three-time European champions Barcelona in the Joan Gamper Trophy, suggests it is doing something right…

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  Taking steps forward

  There are not many bigger clubs in world football than Milan. Only Real Madrid have won more European Cups on the men’s side, and only Juventus have enjoyed more success in the Italian domestic game than the Rossoneri. It’s a club synonymous with the big stage, big players and big titles.

  Now, it is looking to build success on the women’s side. Most clubs in Serie A Femminile are very young, with Italy a little behind other European nations in the women’s football world despite having more historic roots in it than most. Alongside Milan, all of Juventus, Roma and Inter also founded their women’s team in 2017 or later, with only three clubs in this season’s top-flight established before 2014.

  But there has been a lot of growth in the last six years in particular, starting with Italy’s surprise run to the Women’s World Cup quarter-finals in 2019. Both Juventus and Roma have made a splash in the Champions League since then, putting up good fights against Lyon and Barcelona in their respective maiden quarter-finals, while the Azzurre put women’s football even more firmly on the map across the nation this past summer with their run to the Euro 2025 semi-finals.

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  Tapping into success

  Like many, Suzanne Bakker, head coach of Milan, hopes Italy’s success in Switzerland can have a positive impact on the domestic league and the interest in it across the country. But the majority of her focus this past summer has been on how the Rossonere can improve and muscle in on the chase for silverware that has largely been dominated by Juventus and Roma in this new professional era of Italian women’s football.

  Milan had two players in the Italy squad at Euro 2025, in goalkeeper Laura Giuliani and defender Julie Piga, and to ask Bakker what they can bring to her team, which finished fifth in Serie A last season, elicits an interesting response. “One of the success points for them was to be a team, then you can reach a really high level together. What does that mean? To be a team and to be a team player?” she ponders, speaking to GOAL ahead of the club’s trip to England to take on Chelsea.

  “Now, in the pre-season, everyone is happy because all the players are playing, but you see that when they are disappointed, or maybe about an injury when that happens, or maybe they play less, then you see the true attitude of a player. Then we need all professionals, I think, and they can help, because Laura was, of course, the first goalkeeper, but Julie was more of a sub, but she comes in and she was also very valuable for the team because sometimes you forget that it's not only the players who play on the pitch that are important.

  “It's the whole team and each player has their own quality and some of the players are pushing every day on the pitch, and they play maybe less minutes during the games, but they are so important. The other players who are maybe long time injured can also bring the right mentality to other players who may be complaining because they play less. I think sometimes we forget that. They can bring that experience and also that high intensity, what it means to play on the highest level in Europe. They can bring that to the other players and they are doing that because they are both leaders in our team.”

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  Making her mark

  It's an interesting reflection on how a golden summer for Italy can connect to Milan’s upcoming season because, in truth, there are more differences than similarities between the two sides. That is particularly the case in the playing style.

  Bakker’s background is dominated by Ajax, the club where she was the head coach of the Under-19s for four years before stepping into the first-team job in 2022. In two seasons in charge, she led the club to its third and most recent league title, a Dutch Cup triumph and a first Women’s Champions League quarter-final. Incidentally, Chelsea were the opponents, emerging victorious over two legs, the second of which was a 1-1 draw.

  When Milan were searching for a new coach last year, it was Bakker they were drawn to. In the first conversation between her and the club, the Dutchwoman asked what was expected in terms of playing style, and the response was that they wanted her to bring what she learned at Ajax, a club with a philosophy that is universally revered.

  Understandably, exporting that unique brand of football comes with its challenges. Ajax leans heavily on a youth set-up where all its academy products spend years learning this style and, as such, come to understand it heavily. In Milan, Bakker is having to start from scratch. “It takes more time,” she concedes.

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  Steady improvement

  But the progress being made in that regard has been telling both on and off the pitch. In Serie A Femminile, the division splits in half for the final two months of the season, meaning the top five teams play each other home and away for the final stretch of the campaign, while the bottom five meet twice more. It’s a brutal run of games for those in the top half in particular, given the quality opposition they have to face every single week, but it’s a good learning curve for a team like Milan as it tries to bridge that gap to Juventus and Roma.

  The players can see the level needed and rise to it, as Milan did by losing just two of those eight matches. “With all respect to the [bottom five teams], the intensity is different,” Bakker remarks. “All the players have much more information and experience [from that] which will help them this season.”

  When the coach sat down with her players after her first campaign ended, she was given further indication that things were moving in the right direction.

  “They like the way that we are playing,” Bakker explains. “To be honest, in the first months, it took a little bit too much time to find the right connections on the pitch. Also for me, and for some of the other staff members, it was new. There are 26 players and I know only two players from the Netherlands – and I only know them a little bit. To understand them and also what it means to play in Serie A, it's totally different than in the Netherlands, for example. We learned a lot in the first weeks but it takes also too much time and we lost some points.

  “But if you see how we finish the competition against the top four teams, we are competitive with them. You can see that in the results and also in the way we want to play. I'm very proud of that.”

كشف صحفي شبكة سكاي سبورتس، فابريزيو رومانو، سبب فشل انتقال نجم خط وسط نادي كومو، نيكو باز، للعب في الدوري الإنجليزي الممتاز، خلال فترة الميركاتو الصيفي الحالي.

باز قدم عروضًا مميزة للغاية مع نادي كومو خلال الموسم الماضي، مما جعل الدولي الأرجنتيني محل اهتمام كبار الأندية الأوروبية الكبرى، حيث توج بجائزة أفضل لاعب شاب في الدوري الإيطالي عن موسم 2025.

طالع.. بعد تألقه مع كومو.. نيكو باز يوضح موقفه من العودة إلى ريال مدريد

وأشار رومانو عبر حسابه الرسمي في “إكس”، إلى أن باز قد تلقى أكثر من عرض رسمي من قبل نادي توتنهام هوتسبير للتوقيع معهم خلال فترة الميركاتو الصيفي الحالي.

وأكد رومانو أن قيمة عرض توتنهام للتوقيع مع باز بلغت 70 مليون يورو، لكن الصفقة فشلت وتمسك كومو ببقاء اللاعب البالغ من العمر 20 عامًا ضمن صفوفه.

وأوضح الصحفي الإيطالي، أن السبب الحقيقي وراء فشل انتقال باز إلى توتنهام هو ريال مدريد، الذي تدخل لمنع ذهاب اللاعب إلى صفوف السبيرز.

وأردف رومانو، أن ريال مدريد والذي يملك حقوق نيكو باز سيستعيد خدمات اللاعب بنسبة كبيرة عقب نهاية الموسم الجاري مع كومو.

ريال مدريد بإمكانه تفعيل خيار أحقية الشراء في عقد باز مع كومو، والذي يبلغ 9 ملايين يورو.

باز الذي يعتبر من أبناء ريال مدريد وقع مع كومو خلال صيف العام الماضي، لينفجر اللاعب مع النادي الإيطالي ويقدم عروضًا لا تنسى.

واستطاع باز تسجيل هدف رائع وصناعة آخر في فوز كومو على لاتسيو بهدفين مقابل لا شيء، ضمن منافسات الجولة الأولى من دوري الدرجة الأولى الإيطالي.