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Leclerc Staying with Ferrari for Years to Come

Formula One F1 - Canadian Grand Prix - Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal, Quebec, Canada - May 22, 2026 Ferrari's Charles Leclerc arrives ahead of practice. (Reuters)
Formula One F1 - Canadian Grand Prix - Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal, Quebec, Canada - May 22, 2026 Ferrari's Charles Leclerc arrives ahead of practice. (Reuters)
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Leclerc Staying with Ferrari for Years to Come

Formula One F1 - Canadian Grand Prix - Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal, Quebec, Canada - May 22, 2026 Ferrari's Charles Leclerc arrives ahead of practice. (Reuters)
Formula One F1 - Canadian Grand Prix - Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal, Quebec, Canada - May 22, 2026 Ferrari's Charles Leclerc arrives ahead of practice. (Reuters)

Charles Leclerc will race for Ferrari for years to come after the Italian Formula One team announced a long-term contract extension on Wednesday ahead of his home Monaco Grand Prix. The 28-year-old Monegasque has driven for the Maranello-based outfit in F1 since 2019, winning eight races.

"I couldn't be happier to continue this journey with Scuderia Ferrari HP. It has always been so much more than just a team to me," Leclerc said in a statement issued by Ferrari.

Leclerc is currently third in the 2026 drivers' championship but 56 points behind Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, who is 43 ahead of teammate and closest rival ‌George Russell after ‌winning the last four races.

He has raced more times ‌for ⁠Ferrari (155) than any ⁠other driver in the team's history other than now-retired seven-times world champion Michael Schumacher, and also ranks second for pole positions behind the German.

PART OF THE FERRARI FAMILY

Ferrari did not specify the duration of his new contract, saying only that Leclerc would continue for the "coming seasons" in the championship.

"Charles has been part of the Ferrari family for many years now and this renewal feels like something very natural for us," ⁠team principal Fred Vasseur said.

"Over these seasons we have ‌seen him grow, to become not only one ‌of the strongest drivers in Formula One, but also a person who is completely at ‌one with the team and everything Ferrari represents.

"We know how much this project ‌means to him and we are happy to continue working towards our shared goals."

Leclerc joined the Ferrari Academy in 2016, won the Formula Two title in 2017 and made his F1 debut with Ferrari-powered Sauber (now Audi) in 2018.

Leclerc's teammate is Britain's seven-times world champion ‌Lewis Hamilton, who joined from Mercedes last year on a multi-year contract and is expected to continue next season, when ⁠he will be ⁠41 years old.

Hamilton is fourth in the standings, three points behind Leclerc.

Ferrari have not taken a grand prix victory since 2024, or a championship since 2008, but Hamilton won a Saturday sprint race in China last season and finished second in Canada last month.

Leclerc has had two podium finishes this season -- third in Australia and Japan -- and will be heavily fancied for his home race this weekend, with Ferrari expected to be competitive at the slowest circuit on the calendar where top speed is less of a factor and grid position is crucial.

Growing up in the principality, Leclerc in 2024 became the first local to win the Monaco Grand Prix in the championship era and has taken pole there three times in the last five years.

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Egypt Believes It Has a Strong Roster Around Salah as It Prepares to Face Belgium in World Cup

Egypt's Mohamed Salah exercises with his teammates during a training session ahead of their team's World Cup Group G soccer match against Belgium in Seattle, Sunday, June 14, 2026. (AP)
Egypt's Mohamed Salah exercises with his teammates during a training session ahead of their team's World Cup Group G soccer match against Belgium in Seattle, Sunday, June 14, 2026. (AP)
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Egypt Believes It Has a Strong Roster Around Salah as It Prepares to Face Belgium in World Cup

Egypt's Mohamed Salah exercises with his teammates during a training session ahead of their team's World Cup Group G soccer match against Belgium in Seattle, Sunday, June 14, 2026. (AP)
Egypt's Mohamed Salah exercises with his teammates during a training session ahead of their team's World Cup Group G soccer match against Belgium in Seattle, Sunday, June 14, 2026. (AP)

Egypt's World Cup opener against Belgium on Monday will pit former Liverpool standout Mohamed Salah in an underdog role against longtime Manchester City stalwart Kevin De Bruyne and his talented teammates.

Egypt has never won a World Cup match and has led only once in seven games. Still, the Pharaohs insist they are to be taken seriously in Group G.

Aside from Salah, who has yet to decide where he will play next after a nine seasons with Liverpool, Egypt’s attack features Omar Marmoush of Manchester City. The tandem of Salah and Marmoush has caught the eye of Belgium manager Rudi Garcia, who coached the former when he played for Roma.

“Obviously, they’ve got other qualities, they’ve got other players,” Garcia said Sunday in French. “This is a team that is always raring to go. They’re a solid team that needs to be respected.”

Egypt coach Hossam Hassan was quietly confident ahead of the match. Hassan, Egypt's career scoring leader with 69 international goals, netted one against Algeria in 1990 to propel Egypt to one of its four World Cup appearances.

Hassan said Egypt's goal is to advance past the group stage in the expanded field.

“We have some negative perception here because we have not participated, except for four times in the World Cup,” Hassan said in Arabic. “But I think now we have a generation that deserves to be here.”

Even so, the odds will be against Hassan’s squad for reasons beyond having to play at noon local time amid a heat wave in Seattle. The Belgian side features holdovers from the “Golden Generation” like De Bruyne and goalkeeper Thibault Courtois, as well as rising stars such as winger Jérémy Doku.

“As I said at the outset, the Belgian squad is an amazing one, a star-studded one,” Hassan said. “I respect the Belgian national team. It goes without saying that the entire world is very well aware of what they are capable of.”

Yet Egypt believes it can compete, having beaten Belgium three times in four exhibition matches.

“We would like to have history repeat itself,” Hassan said.

Belgium faces pressure to avoid repeating its performance in 2022 in Qatar, when it did not advance beyond the group stage. The Belgians finished third in 2018 in Russia.

Belgium will need to shut down Salah, or at the very least slow down the four-time Premier League Golden Boot winner. Salah, who slumped by his standards in his final season with Liverpool, had nine goals and three assists in six World Cup qualifying matches.

“It goes without saying that Mohamed Salah is important,” Hassan said. “(But), everyone is important.”

Hassan believes Egypt can pull off an upset because of the players around Salah.

“We have many talents besides Salah, besides Marmoush,” Hassan said. “We have very good players, and, God willing, people will watch them and they will be a contributing factor to their country.”

Sports

Netherlands Coach Koeman Defends Tactics After Frustration Against Japan

FIFA World Cup 2026 - Group F - Netherlands v Japan - Dallas Stadium, Arlington, Texas, US - June 14, 2026 Netherlands coach Ronald Koeman reacts. (Reuters)
FIFA World Cup 2026 - Group F - Netherlands v Japan - Dallas Stadium, Arlington, Texas, US - June 14, 2026 Netherlands coach Ronald Koeman reacts. (Reuters)
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Netherlands Coach Koeman Defends Tactics After Frustration Against Japan

FIFA World Cup 2026 - Group F - Netherlands v Japan - Dallas Stadium, Arlington, Texas, US - June 14, 2026 Netherlands coach Ronald Koeman reacts. (Reuters)
FIFA World Cup 2026 - Group F - Netherlands v Japan - Dallas Stadium, Arlington, Texas, US - June 14, 2026 Netherlands coach Ronald Koeman reacts. (Reuters)

Netherlands coach Ronald Koeman defended his tactics and substitutions after Dutch hopes of victory in their World Cup opener were foiled by a late Japan goal in the 2-2 draw on Sunday.

Two well-taken goals by captain Virgil van Dijk and Crysencio Summerville either side of Keito Nakamura's conversion put the Netherlands in the lead twice, but a deflected Daichi Kamada strike two minutes from time saw the spoils shared.

Six minutes after Summerville's 64th-minute ‌goal, Koeman took ‌off the winger in a triple ‌substitution ⁠and later added ⁠a third center back in Nathan Ake.

The more defensive setup backfired, though, with Japan seizing the initiative and Ogawa firing a header goalward to set up Kamada's equalizing deflection.

Koeman, however, said he had no regrets about his tactics and that shoddy defending was to blame.

"There was also a problem ⁠with pressure on the flanks. So if ‌you look at the game, both ‌goals, well, we didn't defend well," he told reporters.

"Football is ‌a funny game because, after Japan scored the second goal, ‌they started defending as well.

"So we could have scored a third goal. So I don't regret my choices."

A day after declaring Memphis Depay as fit to start after recent thigh trouble, Koeman ‌had Netherlands' all-time top goal-scorer come off the bench in the second half, replacing ⁠the lively ⁠Donyell Malen.

Depay earned a yellow card for a rough challenge and was unable to make a difference.

The Netherlands, quarter-finalists at Qatar 2022, have nearly a week's break before they face Sweden in their second Group F match in Houston.

Koeman said the Netherlands played at a "minimal standard" against the Japanese and accused the media of under-rating their Asian opponents.

"Of course, we can perform better and we need to grow during the tournament," he said.

"This definitely was not our best performance.

"Of course, we would have preferred to win the first game. We expected to."

Sports

Sweden Smash Five Past Tunisia in World Cup Opener

Sweden's Yasin Ayari (18) scores his team's fifth goal during the World Cup Group F soccer match between Sweden and Tunisia in Guadalupe, near Monterrey, Mexico, Sunday, June 14, 2026. (AP)
Sweden's Yasin Ayari (18) scores his team's fifth goal during the World Cup Group F soccer match between Sweden and Tunisia in Guadalupe, near Monterrey, Mexico, Sunday, June 14, 2026. (AP)
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Sweden Smash Five Past Tunisia in World Cup Opener

Sweden's Yasin Ayari (18) scores his team's fifth goal during the World Cup Group F soccer match between Sweden and Tunisia in Guadalupe, near Monterrey, Mexico, Sunday, June 14, 2026. (AP)
Sweden's Yasin Ayari (18) scores his team's fifth goal during the World Cup Group F soccer match between Sweden and Tunisia in Guadalupe, near Monterrey, Mexico, Sunday, June 14, 2026. (AP)

Sweden's Yasin Ayari scored ‌two sensational goals and Alexander Isak and Viktor Gyokeres also got on the scoresheet as they cruised to a 5-1 World Cup Group F victory over Tunisia on Sunday.

After scraping through to the finals after a dismal qualifying campaign, they responded by scoring five goals in a World Cup match for the first time since 1938 when they defeated Cuba 8-0.

Ayari – the son of a Tunisian father and a Moroccan mother – put Sweden ahead in the seventh minute after goalkeeper Mouhib Chamakh fluffed his lines trying to clear under pressure from Isak, and what ‌followed set the ‌tone for the evening.

The ball fell to Gyokeres, ‌whose ⁠shot was blocked, ⁠but Ayari picked up the loose ball and blasted home a rocket of a shot to send the yellow-clad fans in the stands into raptures, though the player's own celebrations were more muted.

Set up to defend and hit Sweden on the break, Tunisia then got a taste of their own medicine as they committed players forward and chased an ⁠equalizer on the half-hour mark, only to come undone ‌on the counterattack.

The Swedes won the ball ‌in their own box and played it to Gyokeres, who took it ‌on his chest and instantly released Isak down the left. The ‌striker ran at defender Montassar Talbi before cutting inside and slotting the ball past Chamakh, who should have done better.

The Tunisians did little in the opening half but still managed to pull a goal back before the break, defender ‌Omar Rekik scoring with a superb glancing header that was his side’s first effort on target.

After a ⁠number of miscues ⁠between Isak and Gyokeres, the two clicked again on the hour mark when Isak stole the ball from Ellyes Skhiri and teed up his strike partner to make it 3-1 with a simple finish.

Substitute Mattias Svanberg then scored straight after coming off the bench in the 84th minute. Though the goal was initially disallowed for offside, it was allowed to stand after a VAR review.

Ayari then closed the show in stoppage time with another wonder strike, firing a thunderous shot from outside the box that Chamakh was powerless to stop, and this time the midfielder celebrated with abandon.

The result means Sweden top Group F on three points ahead of Japan and the Netherlands, who drew 2-2 earlier.