Fireworks Expected when On-form Harry Kane and Bayern Meet Exciting Frankfurt

Bayern's Harry Kane, right, with teammates applaud their fans after the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Pafos FC and FC Bayern Munich at Alphamega stadium in Limassol, Cyprus, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
Bayern's Harry Kane, right, with teammates applaud their fans after the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Pafos FC and FC Bayern Munich at Alphamega stadium in Limassol, Cyprus, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
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Fireworks Expected when On-form Harry Kane and Bayern Meet Exciting Frankfurt

Bayern's Harry Kane, right, with teammates applaud their fans after the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Pafos FC and FC Bayern Munich at Alphamega stadium in Limassol, Cyprus, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
Bayern's Harry Kane, right, with teammates applaud their fans after the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Pafos FC and FC Bayern Munich at Alphamega stadium in Limassol, Cyprus, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Expect goals when the most on-form striker in European soccer meets an opponent whose every game is a goal-fest.

Bayern Munich and Harry Kane — who has 17 goals in nine club games this season — take on Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday in the Bundesliga.

Second-placed Borussia Dortmund faces third-placed Leipzig as they compete to be Bayern's closest rival, The Associated Press reported.

Key matchups Bayern has won every game it's played this season but hasn't won in Frankfurt since 2022. Win or lose, Frankfurt is always entertaining. Its eight games in all competitions have yielded a total of 47 goals — almost six per game — after a 6-4 win last week over Borussia Moenchengladbach.

Dortmund is two points off the top and the only undefeated team except for Bayern as it prepares to host Leipzig on Saturday. Leipzig has recovered from losing 6-0 to Bayern on the opening day and won four in a row since.

Kasper Hjulmand hasn't lost any of his first five games as coach of Bayer Leverkusen but the team still hasn't found its rhythm. Tightening up a defense which has conceded in each of those games could be key against Union Berlin on Saturday.

Players to watch Kane's goals grab the attention but Michael Olise's contribution to Bayern has been almost as important. A goal and two assists in Bayern's 5-1 win over Pafos on Tuesday kept up Olise's run of either scoring or setting up a goal in each of his Bundesliga and Champions League games this season.

Nicolas Jackson finally scored in his fifth game for Bayern on Tuesday, his first goal since arriving from Chelsea on loan. With Kane in such strong form, the Senegal striker's chances to make an impact have been limited.

Can Uzun is Frankfurt's key player with five goals and three assists in five Bundesliga games as the 19-year-old attacking midfielder starts to fulfil his potential.

Who’s out Leverkusen will be without striker Patrik Schick for the first time in the Bundesliga this season. He has a hamstring injury and missed Wednesday's 1-1 draw with PSV Eindhoven.

Mainz goalkeeper Robin Zentner misses his team's game with Hamburger SV on Sunday as he serves the first game of a two-game ban. Zentner was red-carded for a reckless foul on Dortmund's Karim Adeyemi last week.

Off the field Last-placed Borussia Moenchengladbach is winless and drifting. Caretaker coach Eugen Polanski is heading into his third game in charge on Sunday against Freiburg. That's as many as Gerardo Seoane managed before he was fired last month.

Gladbach sporting director Roland Virkus resigned on Tuesday and the club has said it will sort out the director role before appointing a coach.



Sabalenka Apologizes for Outburst During Loss to Svitolina

13 November 2026, US, Indian Wells: Belarusian tennis player Aryna Sabalenka in action against Ukraine's Elina Svitolina during their women's singles group stage match of the FAGE WTA Finals tennis tournament at Indian Wells. Photo: Charles Baus/CSM via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
13 November 2026, US, Indian Wells: Belarusian tennis player Aryna Sabalenka in action against Ukraine's Elina Svitolina during their women's singles group stage match of the FAGE WTA Finals tennis tournament at Indian Wells. Photo: Charles Baus/CSM via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
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Sabalenka Apologizes for Outburst During Loss to Svitolina

13 November 2026, US, Indian Wells: Belarusian tennis player Aryna Sabalenka in action against Ukraine's Elina Svitolina during their women's singles group stage match of the FAGE WTA Finals tennis tournament at Indian Wells. Photo: Charles Baus/CSM via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
13 November 2026, US, Indian Wells: Belarusian tennis player Aryna Sabalenka in action against Ukraine's Elina Svitolina during their women's singles group stage match of the FAGE WTA Finals tennis tournament at Indian Wells. Photo: Charles Baus/CSM via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

Aryna Sabalenka apologized on Saturday for her angry outburst during her defeat by Ukraine's Elina Svitolina at the WTA Finals.

Television footage appeared to show the Belarusian swearing during Friday's round-robin match, with some social media users interpreting her remarks as being directed at Svitolina or Ukrainians. The loss eliminated Sabalenka from the season-ending tournament.

"My comment was not directed at Elina," Sabalenka said in a social ⁠media post.

"I was ⁠frustrated with a small group of spectators who were aggressively cheering my mistakes, and I reacted emotionally in the moment.

"That said, I should have handled my frustration differently, and I apologize to anyone I offended.

"Elina played a great match, ⁠and I wish her all the best for the rest of the tournament."

Svitolina did not shake hands with Sabalenka after the match, maintaining her policy of not doing so with Russian or Belarusian opponents following Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow launched with Belarus as a staging ground.

Asked about her reaction to Sabalenka's apology, Svitolina called for mutual respect, acknowledging that fans' passions ⁠can ⁠sometimes run high.

"We've played many times with Aryna. She has her fans, I have my fans," she told reporters after her semi-final win over Linda Noskova on Saturday.

According to Reuters, she expressed hope that matches between the two of them would be respected, "because yes, sometimes in some matches that we've played, also been not great comments towards me in regards of the war."

Svitolina, the 2018 WTA Finals champion, faces Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva in Sunday's final.


Portugal Changes How No. 7 Is Written to Honor Cristiano Ronaldo

Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates after scoring the 1-2 goal during the FIFA World Cup qualifying match against Hungary, in Budapest, Hungary, 09 September 2025. (EPA)
Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates after scoring the 1-2 goal during the FIFA World Cup qualifying match against Hungary, in Budapest, Hungary, 09 September 2025. (EPA)
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Portugal Changes How No. 7 Is Written to Honor Cristiano Ronaldo

Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates after scoring the 1-2 goal during the FIFA World Cup qualifying match against Hungary, in Budapest, Hungary, 09 September 2025. (EPA)
Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates after scoring the 1-2 goal during the FIFA World Cup qualifying match against Hungary, in Budapest, Hungary, 09 September 2025. (EPA)

The Portugal football team is making a change to how the No. 7 is written to honor the recently-retired Cristiano Ronaldo.

Ronaldo, who wore the number and went on to make it his own as “CR7,” retired from international soccer last week, ending a remarkable career that spanned six World Cups, a European title, and the men’s all-time international scoring record.

“Time to debut a new 7. Because there’s one that will be eternal,” the Portuguese national team wrote on social media on Saturday. The post included a goat emoji to signify “Greatest Of All Time.”

It also included a video that showed a horizontal crossed line through the No. 7 as it’s commonly written in Europe, suggesting that Ronaldo’s successors will all have that cross to bear when they wear the number.

Portugal, already assured of reaching the quarterfinals, was hosting Denmark in the Nations League later Saturday.

The 41-year-old Ronaldo quit on Nov. 5 after falling out with coach Jorge Jesus. His last appearance with Portugal was Sept. 24 in a 1-0 home win over Wales in the Nations League.

Jesus kept him on the bench for the following match and said he didn’t plan to start him in the next one, so the superstar forward decided to leave the team’s training camp.

Jesus later said Ronaldo would be welcome back and the decision to return was up to him.


Ronaldinho Poised for Ravenna Start and, Perhaps, One Last Goal

Brazilian football legend Ronaldinho waves during Ravenna FC’s team presentation for the 2026-27 season in Marina di Ravenna, Italy, Aug. 20, 2026. (AFP)
Brazilian football legend Ronaldinho waves during Ravenna FC’s team presentation for the 2026-27 season in Marina di Ravenna, Italy, Aug. 20, 2026. (AFP)
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Ronaldinho Poised for Ravenna Start and, Perhaps, One Last Goal

Brazilian football legend Ronaldinho waves during Ravenna FC’s team presentation for the 2026-27 season in Marina di Ravenna, Italy, Aug. 20, 2026. (AFP)
Brazilian football legend Ronaldinho waves during Ravenna FC’s team presentation for the 2026-27 season in Marina di Ravenna, Italy, Aug. 20, 2026. (AFP)

Ronaldinho will roll back the years this weekend when the 46-year-old Brazilian starts his first competitive match in over a decade, and in the unlikely setting of an Italian third-tier derby the World Cup winner may realize his dream of scoring one last time.

The Brazil great and Ballon d'Or winner signed for Ravenna in June, also taking a stake in the club, but because he had not played since his final appearance for Fluminense in 2015, doubts remained over whether fans would ever see him in action.

Ravenna revealed ‌three weeks ago ‌that the former Barcelona and AC Milan player ‌would ⁠make his return ⁠in Sunday's home clash with local rivals Forli, and on Friday, manager Andrea Mandorlini told reporters that Ronaldinho would start the match.

"He will play from the start, there's no doubt," Mandorlini said.

"Then together we will decide how long he plays. He is one of the greatest players of the modern era. And we have to get a ⁠result. We always play with three forwards. He will ‌be one of the three."

Ronaldinho was ‌welcomed by the Ravenna fans in August, without committing to a return ‌to the pitch. He returned to Italy on Friday afternoon and ‌will have just one training session with his teammates on Saturday before making his club debut.

A temporary stand has been erected at the Stadio Bruno Benelli to cater for the crowd, and if this does turn out ‌to be one last hurrah for Ronaldinho, he may well get the chance to score his 300th ⁠professional goal.

"I ⁠scored my first Italian goal in the derby," Ronaldinho told Corriere della Sera, referring to his first official goal for AC Milan, which came against Inter Milan.

"It was a special evening that will remain in the memory of all AC Milan fans. It was September 28, 2008. I scored with a header, which is not my specialty. Who knows if I'll be able to repeat that feat tomorrow."

"... Returning to the pitch at 46 is the best move of my career."

Simone Rabbi will play alongside the Brazilian up front for Ravenna, and in Friday's press conference he said that if his side are awarded a penalty on Sunday, Ronaldinho will take the spot kick.