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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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Jota’s Sons to Join Mascots When Liverpool Face Wolves at Anfield

Jota died ‌in ⁠a ​car ‌crash alongside his younger brother in July in northwestern Spain. (AFP)
Jota died ‌in ⁠a ​car ‌crash alongside his younger brother in July in northwestern Spain. (AFP)
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Jota’s Sons to Join Mascots When Liverpool Face Wolves at Anfield

Jota died ‌in ⁠a ​car ‌crash alongside his younger brother in July in northwestern Spain. (AFP)
Jota died ‌in ⁠a ​car ‌crash alongside his younger brother in July in northwestern Spain. (AFP)

Diogo Jota's two sons will join ​the mascots at Anfield when Liverpool face Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premier League on Saturday, the club confirmed on Friday.

Portuguese forward Jota, who played for both ‌Premier League ‌clubs, died ‌in ⁠a ​car ‌crash alongside his younger brother in July in northwestern Spain. He was 28.

Jota joined Wolves on loan from Atletico Madrid in 2017 and made ⁠a permanent move to the club ‌the following year. ‍He then ‍signed a five-year deal in ‍2020 with Liverpool, where he won the league title earlier this year.

Saturday's match marks the ​first time Liverpool and Wolves have met since Jota's ⁠death.

Jota's wife Rute Cardoso and her two sons, Dinis and Duarte, were present for the Premier League home openers for both Liverpool and Wolves in August.

Liverpool also permanently retired his jersey number 20 following his death.

Sports

Too Hot to Handle? Searing Heat Looming Over 2026 World Cup

A view of the field is seen from the stands at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, on December 9, 2025. (AFP)
A view of the field is seen from the stands at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, on December 9, 2025. (AFP)
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Too Hot to Handle? Searing Heat Looming Over 2026 World Cup

A view of the field is seen from the stands at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, on December 9, 2025. (AFP)
A view of the field is seen from the stands at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, on December 9, 2025. (AFP)

With less than six months to go before the 2026 World Cup kicks off, organizers are bracing for what could be their most challenging opponent yet: extreme heat.

Soaring temperatures across the United States, Mexico and Canada pose safety issues for players and fans and a host of logistical issues that remain far from settled.

In the depths of the $5.5 billion SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, which will host eight World cup matches, around 15 industrial misting fans more than two meters sit in storage, waiting to be deployed. If temperatures climb above 80F (26.7C), the fans will be rolled out around the stadium.

A roof suspended some 45 meters above the SoFi Stadium pitch offers some shade for spectators, while large openings along the sides of the stadium allow for breezes from the nearby Pacific Ocean to provide a form of natural air conditioning.

"Knowing that you can put 70,000 people into a building, the energy, the excitement, the activity that comes with that, and the higher temperature, that's where we want to make sure we respond," Otto Benedict, vice president of operations for the company that manages the stadium, told AFP.

Not all of the World Cup's 16 stadiums are as modern. And Southern California is not considered to be among the highest-risk areas for a competition scheduled from June 11 to July 19, three and a half years after a winter World Cup in Qatar.

- Automatic cooling breaks -

A study published in the International Journal of Biometeorology in January warned of "serious concern" for the health of players and match officials at the 2026 World Cup due to extreme heat.

The study identified six "high-risk" host cities: Monterrey, Miami, Kansas City, Boston, New York and Philadelphia.

The "Pitches in Peril" report by the Football for Future non-profit noted that in 2025 those cities each recorded at least one day above 35C on the wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) scale, which factors in humidity and is considered the upper limit of human heat tolerance.

The issue of heat featured prominently at this year's FIFA Club World Cup in the United States, which drew complaints from players and coaches.

Extreme heat also marked the 1994 World Cup, the last men's edition held in the United States.

FIFA has responded by mandating cooling breaks in the 22nd and 67th minutes of all matches at the World Cup, regardless of conditions.

The World Cup match schedule released after December's draw in Washington shows daytime games largely assigned to air-conditioned stadiums in Dallas, Houston and Atlanta, while higher-risk venues are set to host evening kickoffs.

"You can clearly see an effort to align the competition schedule planning and venue selection with the concerns around player health, but also player performance," a spokesperson for the FIFPro players union told AFP. "This is a clear outcome, which we welcome, and a lesson learned from the Club World Cup."

- 'High-risk matches' -

FIFPRO says the biggest takeaway is that heat will play an increasingly central role in organizing competitions on a warming planet.

The union believes though that several World Cup fixtures remain "high-risk" and recommends postponements when WBGT readings exceed 28C.

Among those fixtures causing FIFPro concern: group-stage matches scheduled for mid-afternoon in New York, Boston and Philadelphia, as well as the final, set for a 3:00 p.m. kickoff in New York.

While teams and players work to mitigate effects of the conditions, some officials say the risks to spectators both inside stadiums and in fan zones have been underestimated.

"There is a risk and importantly, we feel like it's an underappreciated risk," said Chris Fuhrmann, deputy director of the Southeast Regional Center of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"When you're cheering, you're actually generating a lot of metabolic heat and your heart rate's going up. Spectators obviously compared to professional athletes are generally not in as good physical health.

"They have a lot of comorbidities that increase the likelihood that they would have a negative health outcome or succumb to heat stress."

Stadium temperatures are also amplified by the "urban heat island" effect of concrete, asphalt and metal.

Adequate air circulation, plenty of shaded areas and access to hydration are crucial, Fuhrmann said.

FIFA has yet to clarify whether fans will be allowed to bring refillable water bottles into venues or whether water will be sold inside. FIFA did not respond to requests for comment.

- Prevention -

For National Weather Service meteorologist Benjamin Schott, who has advised FIFA and its World Cup task force, the priority is prevention, particularly for foreign visitors unfamiliar with local climates.

Another lesson from the Club World Cup, he said, is the need for multilingual messaging to ensure heat-safety warnings are clearly understood.

"The lesson learned is just trying to maybe better educate fans as they come to the United States to have a better understanding of what the weather could be like during those two months," Schott said.

Sports

Palladino’s Atalanta on the up as Serie A Leaders Inter Visit

Atalanta's Italian head coach Raffaele Palladino looks on during the Italian Serie A soccer match between Genoa Cfc and Atalanta BC at Luigi Ferraris stadium in Genoa, Italy, 21 December 2025. (EPA)
Atalanta's Italian head coach Raffaele Palladino looks on during the Italian Serie A soccer match between Genoa Cfc and Atalanta BC at Luigi Ferraris stadium in Genoa, Italy, 21 December 2025. (EPA)
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Palladino’s Atalanta on the up as Serie A Leaders Inter Visit

Atalanta's Italian head coach Raffaele Palladino looks on during the Italian Serie A soccer match between Genoa Cfc and Atalanta BC at Luigi Ferraris stadium in Genoa, Italy, 21 December 2025. (EPA)
Atalanta's Italian head coach Raffaele Palladino looks on during the Italian Serie A soccer match between Genoa Cfc and Atalanta BC at Luigi Ferraris stadium in Genoa, Italy, 21 December 2025. (EPA)

Atalanta are on the comeback trail ahead of Sunday night's visit of Serie A leaders Inter Milan, with coach Raffaele Palladino leading the charge for the revitalized Bergamo club.

Since Palladino replaced Ivan Juric last month Atalanta have rediscovered their groove, as witnessed by the way they dealt with Eintracht Frankfurt and Chelsea in the Champions League.

Atalanta sit fifth in the Champions League, level on points with mega-bucks Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City, and now they're heading back up the Serie A table.

A last-gasp win at Genoa last weekend put Atalanta back in the top half of Italy's top flight and only three points off the European spots.

"It wasn't one of our better performances but today winning was what counted," said Palladino after the victory over Genoa.

"Those three points were hugely important for us to keep our run going and get us up the right end of the table."

Sunday's clash in Bergamo is the first of three fixtures against direct rivals for Champions League football.

Fourth-placed Roma, who are eight points clear of Atalanta, travel north at the turn of the year before the short journey to Bologna, who sit in the Conference League spot.

Atalanta have won six of their eight matches in all competitions under Palladino, who already looks more like the right replacement for Gian Piero Gasperini than Juric ever did.

However, Palladino will be without key attacker Ademola Lookman and defender Odilon Kossounou who are representing Nigeria and Ivory Coast at the Africa Cup of Nations.

"We keep scaling a mountain that a month ago seemed impossible," said Palladino.

"Let's enjoy the moment because we've got three big matches coming up and we can take them on in the right spirit."

Inter lead local rivals AC Milan -- who host Verona -- by a single point at the top of the table with champions Napoli a further point back in third ahead of their tricky trip to Jamie Vardy's Cremonese.

But Inter have been on a trip to Saudi Arabia for a failed attempt to win the Italian Super Cup, a tournament won by Napoli which has further clogged up their schedule and left them, Milan, Napoli and Bologna with a game in hand on Roma and fifth-placed Juventus.

The first two weeks of January each have midweek rounds of matches in store for the Super Cup clubs, with the following two weeks containing the decisive final fixtures of the Champions League's expanded league phase.

Inter coach Cristian Chivu has lost Ange-Yoan Bonny to a knee injury picked up in training, the Frenchman joining Denzel Dumfries, Franceco Acerbi and Hakan Calhanoglu on the treatment table.

Man to watch: Daniele De Rossi

De Rossi will make an emotional return to the Stadio Olimpico on Monday night when his Genoa team travel to the Italian capital hoping to bounce back after two unfortunate defeats to Inter and Atalanta.

The Roma icon and World Cup-winning midfielder took his boyhood club to the 2024 Europa League semi-final but was fired after a poor start last season.

He was sacked following a draw at Genoa in September last year, sparking furious protests from Roma fans, and he will be given a hero's welcome from home supporters.

Genoa sit two points above the drop zone while Roma are three points behind Inter having played a game more.