Adidas managed to bring together Rio Ferdinand, Patrick Viera, Zinedine Zidane, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Alessandro Del Piero in one frame as they announced the third kits for Manchester United, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Juventus for the 2024-25 season.
Speaking to the media at the launch, Handy said: “Football and fashion currently co-exist in a proximity that has never been seen before.
“Our adidas trefoil logo stands for sporting elegance, authentic style and, for many fans, the collective memory of football. As we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the brand, it’s the perfect time to further mesh these two worlds and bring the trefoil onto the pitch.
“It was important for us to extent the legacy of the trefoil by creating new fashionable icons. Third jerseys allow our team to collaborate with the clubs to dig deep into their history and modern culture for new inspiration, and they are often worn by fans as a fashion statement away from the stadium environment.
“We designed these new kits with one simple mantra in our mind – beautiful kits for the beautiful game.”
The Joan Gamper Trophy is not something that resonates much outside of Spain. Named after one of Barcelona’s founding members and former presidents, it is awarded to the winner of an exhibition match that is hosted by the Blaugrana ahead of every season. Once a four-team competition, it is now just a single match, with Monaco the visitors for Monday’s 2025 edition.
Twelve months ago, Tottenham were Barcelona’s opponents. The Catalans included 16-year-old winger Lamine Yamal on their bench; a player very few outside of Spain knew of. There was probably some information out there the casual football fan might have picked up on about the La Masia kid who had made his Barcelona debut at 15, but so what? Barca were too broke to fill a hole on the wing, so Xavi probably had no choice but to play him.
That whole narrative changed on August 8, 2023. Yamal had been on the fringes of Barca’s team on their pre-season tour of the United States, shielded well away from the spotlight. But then, in the Gamper Trophy, he was unleashed. What ensued was perhaps the most important 15-minute cameo in recent Barca history, as Yamal tore Tottenham apart, thus proving he was ready to become a regular in the first team and, perhaps, take Spain and Europe by storm..
Suddenly, there was hope. Barca, short of cash and lacking in any real reason for optimism, had a singular, central figure to piece everything around. It would prove to be a risky strategy – it still is – but since then, Yamal has become the European star that those around Catalunya always felt he could be.
There had been a sense within La Masia for some time that Yamal would be a star. Xavi called him into training as a 14-year-old, having the winger – then basically still a child – work with the first team in September 2022. And even then, there was a sense that a senior debut wasn’t too far off, as Yamal spent most of the 2022-23 season proving that he was already too good for first Barca’s youth sides, and then their reserve team, Barca Athletic.
There was a certain romanticism to all of this. Yamal, for better or worse, had spent his life intrinsically connected with Lionel Messi. There were the easy comparisons in terms of position and playing style – both were languid left-footers who liked to operate off the right. But there were also freakish coincidences that seemed to point to something larger.
A baby Yamal had been photographed in the arms of Messi as a child, while another photo later emerged of a 12-year-old Yamal – ironically wearing Spurs sweatpants – standing next to Barca’s best ever. This all seemed too good to be true.
Barcelona have reportedly found new confidence in their race to sign Spain and Athletic Club star Nico Williams.
As per SPORT, sources inside the club have said that Williams is eager to join Barcelona this summer and join forces with the Catalan side as they look to continue their rebuild under new boss Hansi Flick. The club has already signed Dani Olmo from RB Leipzig for a reported fixed fee of €55m (£46m) and €7m (£5m) in add-ons and will have to make space in their already tight budget for Williams’ potential signing.
Charlotte FC is finalizing an $8.7 million (€8 million) deal to sign Dutch international Calvin Stengs.
Sources have confirmed to GOAL that Calvin Stengs is set to undergo a medical on Monday ahead of a proposed $8.7m move to Charlotte FC. Additionally, Reports out of the Netherlands mentioned Stengs would then sign a four-year contract with the MLS club.