Championship
Championship grind is sharpening Canada and US forwards for the 2026 World Cup
Physical intensity and promotion chase have made the Championship a proving ground for North America
The English Championship has quietly become a practical training ground for Canadian and American internationals preparing for the 2026 World Cup. Liam Millar, now a seasoned presence at Hull City after spells with Liverpool, FC Basel, Charlton Athletic and Preston North End, offered a blunt assessment of the competition.
“The Championship is one of a kind,” Millar says, after a long pause. “It’s a league where, genuinely, you don’t need to play good soccer. You just need to know how to win, and I think we’ve figured that out exceptionally at Hull City.”
His view captures why North American players have migrated to the second tier. Prior to the 2025–26 season, Patrick Agyemang, Haji Wright and Daryl Dike found Championship clubs. The winter window added Cyle Larin and Ali Ahmed. In total, six Canadians and seven Americans are active in the league; five of those players, including Millar, Ahmed, Larin, Agyemang and Middlesbrough midfielder Aidan Morris, were in March international camps as they build toward the World Cup.
On the surface the Championship ranks highly in global competition. Opta’s League Power Rankings placed it 10th in the Top 30 leagues in November. Beyond rankings, players point to the league’s pace and physicality and the straight path it offers toward Premier League exposure.
Ahmed, who joined Norwich City from the Vancouver Whitecaps after scoring in the 2025 MLS Cup final, calls the new league “brutal” and “cutthroat,” and added: “We might not play well all the time, but we’re learning how to win, and in the end, that’s really what matters in the Championship.” He has four goals and three assists in his first 15 appearances for the Canaries. Millar added: “You don’t always have to outperform the other team,” Millar says. “Playing the Championship, it’s tough, it’s challenging, it’s not easy … Ali and Cyle are there now; they’re both doing very well, but the longer it goes on, the harder it gets.”
Strikers have seen particularly rapid returns. Derby County paid upwards of $8 million for Agyemang after his MLS form and Gold Cup showing; he has 10 goals in 36 games for Derby. Haji Wright has 16 goals in 27 league matches for Coventry City. Larin, at Southampton, has four goals and an assist in 11 games and said, “I’m happy to be scoring goals again,” Larin said. “I went through a difficult period in my football career… nobody always stays scoring goals, and you can have your down moments, and mine was longer.”
Championship
Carrick and Maresca renew an old rivalry in Manchester derby build-up
Carrick has won both previous meetings with Maresca, and they meet again at Old Trafford.
For the first Manchester derby in a decade without Pep Guardiola on the touchline, attention turns to another managerial meeting. After Guardiola stepped down from Manchester City at the end of last season, Sunday’s match at Old Trafford will place Enzo Maresca opposite Michael Carrick.
It is not the first time the two have crossed paths. Their previous encounters came before this Premier League setting, and before Carrick’s current role at Manchester United. The head-to-head record already carries a clear edge for Carrick, who has twice got the better of Maresca.
Their first meeting arrived in November 2023 in the Championship, when Middlesbrough hosted at the Riverside Stadium. That match was decided by a moment of quality from Sam Greenwood, whose 83rd-minute free kick proved enough to settle the contest. His strike, curled from long range into the top corner, was later chosen by fans as the club’s Goal of the Season.
The game itself was far less polished than the winning goal. It was a bruising, disjointed affair that produced seven bookings and 33 fouls, underlining how little rhythm either side managed to establish.
When the fixture was reversed later that season at the King Power Stadium, Carrick again came out on top. Middlesbrough won 2-1, extending his perfect record in the pairing and giving him another result to lean on ahead of this latest derby occasion.
With Maresca now preparing to face Carrick in a very different setting, the past meetings offer a useful reminder that this is not an unfamiliar rivalry. The names may be attached to a new stage, but the competitive pattern remains the same.
Championship
Grading the Major USMNT Moves of the 2026 Summer Window
USMNT transfer grades from a summer of World Cup momentum, fresh starts, and one Deadline Day collapse.
The 2026 World Cup changed the market for several U.S. men’s national team players. Strong performances on the biggest stage helped open doors across Europe, while others used the summer to secure fresh opportunities after productive domestic seasons. From MLS exits to moves inside Europe’s top leagues, the window produced a mix of progress, promise and one Deadline Day saga that never quite became a transfer.
Sebastian Berhalter was among the clearest beneficiaries. He was not a regular starter under Pochettino this summer, but he still logged five World Cup appearances, finishing with a goal and an assist. That followed a career-best 21 goal contributions for the Vancouver Whitecaps in 2025, and he backed it up again in 2026 with seven goals and four assists in 18 matches. Middlesbrough moved quickly, paying $2 million in July for the midfielder’s signature. The switch to England’s second tier gives him a major step up from MLS and a possible pathway toward the Premier League.
Gio Reyna needed a reset, and he got one. After managing only 20 appearances for Borussia Mönchengladbach in 2025-26, he went to the World Cup and delivered five appearances, capped by a standout goal against Paraguay. That was enough for Strasbourg to hand him a five-year deal. Reyna has already shown encouraging signs, setting up the only goal in a preseason match against Newcastle United before making his Ligue 1 debut off the bench. He then earned a start against Lens and helped Strasbourg take three points. For a player who needs rhythm, that kind of continuity matters.
Zavier Gozo’s move carried a different kind of weight. The 19-year-old left Real Salt Lake for Crystal Palace on a five-year contract, scored for the club’s U-21s against Arsenal’s youth side, and then made his Premier League debut six days later in a 4-1 loss to Manchester City. The numbers were modest, but the age profile and upside remain obvious.
Folarin Balogun did not move in the end, but his Deadline Day story was impossible to ignore. A permanent switch from Monaco to Everton fell apart after a failed medical, a brief pivot toward Joshua Zirkzee, renewed contact over Balogun, and Monaco pulling back from a separate sale involving Lamine Camara. In the end, Balogun stayed put.
Championship
PFA Awards 2026: Fernandes and Shaw lead the honours
Fernandes and Shaw headlined the 2026 PFA Awards after standout seasons in England.
The 53rd PFA Awards took place on Tuesday night at the Manchester Opera House, with the game’s leading players across England recognised for their 2025-26 seasons. The ceremony covered the Premier League, the EFL Championship, League One and Two, the Women’s Super League and the Women’s Super League 2.
Bruno Fernandes claimed the men’s Player of the Year award after a remarkable campaign for Manchester United. The midfielder set a Premier League record with 21 assists in a single season, and he became the first United player since Wayne Rooney in 2010 to win the prize.
In the women’s category, Manchester City forward Khadija “Bunny” Shaw was voted Player of the Year for a second time. Shaw scored 21 goals in 22 matches last season and played a key role as City won the title. Her recognition completed a double after she was also named women’s Player of the Year by the Football Writers’ Association in May.
Fernandes also completed a double of his own after being selected as men’s Player of the Year by the Football Writers’ Association in May.
City youngster Nico O’Reilly, 21, received the men’s Young Player of the Year award, while Arsenal forward Olivia Smith, 22, won the women’s Young Player of the Year honour for the second straight season.
Elsewhere, former Middlesbrough midfielder Hayden Hackney, now with Everton, was named Championship Player of the Year. Birmingham City forward Lily Crosthwaite collected the WSL2 Player of the Year award, while former Leyton Orient forward Dom Ballard, now at Championship side Bristol City, was named League One Player of the Year.
The event also included the Premier League, WSL, Championship, League One and WSL2 Teams of the Year, with the full line-ups listed separately.
