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Madrid's 'Greedy' Bellingham Ready for Dream Champions League Final

Real Madrid's English midfielder Jude Bellingham has been a key figure in his team's charge towards the double this season. JAVIER SORIANO / AFP
Real Madrid's English midfielder Jude Bellingham has been a key figure in his team's charge towards the double this season. JAVIER SORIANO / AFP
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Madrid's 'Greedy' Bellingham Ready for Dream Champions League Final

Real Madrid's English midfielder Jude Bellingham has been a key figure in his team's charge towards the double this season. JAVIER SORIANO / AFP
Real Madrid's English midfielder Jude Bellingham has been a key figure in his team's charge towards the double this season. JAVIER SORIANO / AFP

Jude Bellingham's first year at Real Madrid started in unbelievable fashion amid a whirlwind of goals, but the ending could be more incredible still.
With the Spanish title in the bag Madrid are aiming for a fifth La Liga and Champions League double, against the England international's former team Borussia Dortmund in Saturday's Wembley final.
"It's such a big game, my first Champions League final, back home in England against my old team -- it's a crazy one, I couldn't have dreamed it any better," Bellingham told reporters this week.
The 20-year-old midfielder was voted La Liga's player of the season on Wednesday. Bellingham scored 19 league goals and four in Europe on the way to the final, AFP said.
Arriving at Real Madrid last summer, he revealed his love of former midfield great Zinedine Zidane and even took the Frenchman's number five shirt in homage.
However Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti had other plans for Bellingham, a classy center-midfielder at Dortmund, putting him straight into the space vacated by striker Karim Benzema's departure.
It paid instant dividends, with 13 goals in his first 13 games, getting him off to a flying start with Madrid's fans, quick to serenade him with Beatles song 'Hey Jude'.
Bellingham struck twice, including a 91st minute winner, in his first Clasico to snatch victory over then-champions Barcelona on Catalan soil.
Did he anticipate this kind of impact? "I came here expecting to win," admitted Bellingham.
"I came here because I wanted to win, and to expect it, it's a bit greedy almost, but you have to be confident when you're playing with so many great players."
With another late winner in the second league Clasico and three goals in two matches against shock title challengers Girona, Bellingham delivered in key moments.
His goalscoring slowed as Ancelotti tasked him with more defensive responsibility, chastened by a loss against Atletico Madrid -- their only defeat in La Liga. In the Champions League Madrid are unbeaten.
"What you've seen from me this year is a lot of different kinds of roles and positions," said Bellingham.
There were some concerns around his fitness towards the end of the season following an ankle injury, but he says he feels "very close" to 100 percent after resting once Madrid claimed the title.
'He's going places'
Bellingham joined Dortmund from Birmingham City aged 17. He was the English side's youngest ever player and they retired his number 22 shirt in tribute to him.
Initially outshone by team-mates Jadon Sancho and Erling Haaland, Bellingham still managed to establish himself as a regular starter in his first season in Germany.
Dortmund coach Edin Terzic praised Bellingham's maturity, saying he could "hardly believe that he's only 17".
Before his final season at Dortmund, Bellingham was included in the captaincy group alongside skipper Marco Reus and Mats Hummels.
He led them out against Cologne in October 2022, aged just 19, becoming the youngest captain in Bundesliga history.
"You have the feeling he's got three kids at home -– he's going places," marveled Dortmund center-back Niklas Suele, a Champions League winner with Bayern Munich.
Bellingham established himself as a world-class talent at the 2022 World Cup, driving England to the quarter-finals.
Bellingham and Dortmund took the 2022-23 title race to the wire but lost out to Bayern on the final day, with the midfielder named Bundesliga player of the season.
A fortnight later Bellingham joined Madrid for 103 million euros ($112 million).
"He plays very grown-up football, even though he's so young," said Dortmund's Karim Adeyemi this week.
"I'm very happy for Jude, he played a great season," added Emre Can. "But on the pitch we think just about winning for our club."
Record 14-time champions Madrid are firm favorites though, and if they win, what is next for Bellingham?
"Hopefully the European Championship," he said. "I just talked about being greedy... I'm focused on the final."

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Chelsea Announces Premier League-record Losses of $350M

Chelsea players react disappointed after the English Premier League soccer match between Everton and Chelsea in Liverpool, England, Saturday, March 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Jon Super)
Chelsea players react disappointed after the English Premier League soccer match between Everton and Chelsea in Liverpool, England, Saturday, March 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Jon Super)
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Chelsea Announces Premier League-record Losses of $350M

Chelsea players react disappointed after the English Premier League soccer match between Everton and Chelsea in Liverpool, England, Saturday, March 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Jon Super)
Chelsea players react disappointed after the English Premier League soccer match between Everton and Chelsea in Liverpool, England, Saturday, March 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Jon Super)

Chelsea made pre-tax losses of 262.4 million pounds ($350 million) in its latest financial results, the club announced Wednesday, a record high in the Premier League era.

Chelsea, whose owners are from US private equity, attributed the losses in part to “increased operating costs” in 2024-25 compared to the previous year.

The previous highest recorded pre-tax loss in the Premier League was the 197.5 million pounds (now $263 million) posted by Manchester City for the 2010-11 season, Britain’s Press Association reported, The AP news reported.

Revenue for the year ending June 30, 2025, was 490.9 million pounds ($650 million), Chelsea said — the second-highest on record for the London club. That included some of the money earned from its title-winning run at the Club World Cup.

Chelsea was deemed to be compliant with the Premier League’s financial rules for the three-year period ending 2024-25, which allows for maximum losses of 105 million pounds ($140 million) over that block. Spending on things like infrastructure, youth development and women’s football, for example, isn’t included when the league assesses clubs’ losses.

Sports

Ailing Italy at New Low After Missing Out on Yet Another World Cup

Italy players react during a penalty shootout during the World Cup qualifying play-off final soccer match between Bosnia and Italy in Zenica, Bosnia, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP)
Italy players react during a penalty shootout during the World Cup qualifying play-off final soccer match between Bosnia and Italy in Zenica, Bosnia, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP)
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Ailing Italy at New Low After Missing Out on Yet Another World Cup

Italy players react during a penalty shootout during the World Cup qualifying play-off final soccer match between Bosnia and Italy in Zenica, Bosnia, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP)
Italy players react during a penalty shootout during the World Cup qualifying play-off final soccer match between Bosnia and Italy in Zenica, Bosnia, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP)

Italians will once again be forced to watch a World Cup from the sidelines after another play-off disaster highlighted just how far one of the great footballing nations has fallen.

Four-time world champions, the football-mad country finds itself at its lowest ebb and without a clear path to a brighter future after missing out again through the play-offs, this time following a penalty shoot-out defeat to Bosnia and Hercegovina.

Gattuso the scapegoat?

Gennaro Gattuso knew he had a tough job on his hands when he was appointed in June, asked to replace Luciano Spalletti and take Italy to the World Cup with automatic qualification looking near-impossible after a 3-0 hammering at the hands of Erling Haaland's Norway.

One of the heroes of Italy's 2006 World Cup triumph, Gattuso remained vague on his future as coach even as Gabriele Gravina, the head of Italy's football federation (FIGC), asked him to stay beyond the end of his current contract which expires this summer.

Gattuso was a curious appointment given his spotty coaching career but Italy did not perform all that badly under him, with six wins from eight matches and 22 goals scored.

He has created a strong team spirit which was lacking under the volatile Spalletti, but another humbling defeat to Norway in November, 4-1 at the San Siro of all places, laid bare the limits of a team sorely missing the star power of years gone by.

And Gattuso could yet pay the price for his team's failure, which came after being outplayed almost from the first minute by the exuberant Bosnians, as Gravina's position at the head of the FIGC is not completely safe.

A board meeting next week will decide on whether Gravina, who was elected FIGC chief in 2018 after Carlo Tavecchio stepped down following Italy's first World Cup play-off defeat to Sweden the previous year, will stay in place.

Twenty years of hurt

The 20th anniversary of Italy's last World Cup win falls on July 9, during this summer's finals in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

But, if anything, that dramatic win on penalties over France feels even further away than that.

Faced with an empty summer, even Italy's victory at Euro 2020 has been devalued as the country fails to produce world class talent and its clubs, once the European elite, slip further behind their rivals, and above all the moneybags Premier League.

Italy, whose European title defense ended at the last 16 in 2024 with a footballing lesson by Switzerland, have not played a knockout match at a World Cup since 2006: for context, the iPhone was introduced to the market one year later.

"Today's results are the consequence of our attitude from 20 years ago, when we clung onto our best players like (Fabio) Cannavaro and (Francesco) Totti, thinking they would last forever," said Gianluigi Buffon, another World Cup winner from 2006 involved with the national team.

"Right then we should have been rethinking our tactical and technical models."

Grassroots reform

Too late to have any effect on the current senior team, the FIGC announced earlier this month a new project for youth football, led by long-term coach Maurizio Viscidi, who has had success with Italy's national youth teams.

Cesare Prandelli, Italy coach for the dismal display at the 2014 World Cup, is now involved in the FIGC's efforts to reform youth football after having criticized the way clubs coach the spontaneity out of young players.

"If 10 years ago we'd have had the good fortune to have a talent like Lamine Yamal, we would have let him get away," Prandelli said last year.

"Our coaches would have taken away his joy of playing."

The new project announced on March 18 centers on offering training for coaches at a vast number of youth football clubs who train some 700,000 children.

Simone Perrotta, who reports to Viscidi, told AFP on Monday that the aim is "to get the federation inside the clubs" and harmonize training methods in such a way as to encourage the development of individual skills and encourage invention.

Just 33 percent of Serie A players are eligible for national team selection.

That number is higher than the 29.2 percent of English players in the Premier League, while Germany (41.5 percent) and France (37.5 percent) both have a higher proportion of locals in top division squads.

Sports

Infantino Says Iran Will Play World Cup Matches in US as Planned

FIFA President Gianni Infantino follows a friendly soccer match between Iran and Costa Rica, in Antalya, southern Türkiye, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP)
FIFA President Gianni Infantino follows a friendly soccer match between Iran and Costa Rica, in Antalya, southern Türkiye, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP)
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Infantino Says Iran Will Play World Cup Matches in US as Planned

FIFA President Gianni Infantino follows a friendly soccer match between Iran and Costa Rica, in Antalya, southern Türkiye, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP)
FIFA President Gianni Infantino follows a friendly soccer match between Iran and Costa Rica, in Antalya, southern Türkiye, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP)

FIFA president Gianni Infantino said on Tuesday that Iran will play their World Cup matches in the United States in June as scheduled despite the country's ongoing armed conflict with the tournament co-hosts.

The Iranian FA (FFIRI) has been pushing to relocate the team's three World Cup group matches from the US to Mexico, citing the American military involvement alongside Israel in strikes that sparked the current regional war.

The FFIRI said earlier this month they were in discussions with FIFA about a venue switch, while Iran's sports ministry has banned national and club sports teams from travelling to countries it considers hostile ‌until further notice.

Infantino, ‌however, was dismissive when asked about the possibility of a venue ‌switch ⁠during a surprise ⁠visit to Türkiye to watch Iran's 5-0 friendly win over Costa Rica.

"No, no, the matches will be where they should be according to the draw," he told reporters in the Turkish city of Antalya, where the Iran squad has been holding a training camp.

"It looks like we'll be in the right grounds. We're delighted because they're a very, very strong team, as we saw today. I'm very happy. I saw the team, I spoke to the ⁠players and the coaches."

Iran, who booked their place at the tournament ‌in March last year, are scheduled to play all ‌of their Group G matches on American soil -- two in Los Angeles and one in Seattle -- ‌against Belgium, Egypt and New Zealand.

US President Donald Trump said earlier this month that ‌while Iran's national team were welcome to play in the US, it might not be appropriate for their "life and safety".

Trump later made clear that any threat to the players would not come from the United States.

United Arab Emirates-based striker Sardar Azmoun was omitted from the squad for the training ‌camp amidst Iranian media reports that he had been expelled for a perceived act of disloyalty to the government.

Speaking directly to the Iranian players on Tuesday, Infantino pledged his support but steered clear of the wider issues surrounding the war.

"From now until the World Cup, I will do whatever I can to support the Iran national team," Infantino said, according to the FFIRI.

"If you want to organize a training camp or if there is any matter related to activities outside the country, whatever it is, I will help.

"Whenever you want, please stay in contact. I am at your service and will help with anything you need."

The World Cup takes place in the US, Mexico and Canada from June 11 to July 19.