Barcelona
Guardiola Tops 1,000 Matches as City Recorded a 3–0 Win Over Liverpool
Guardiola reached 1,000 managerial games as Manchester City beat Liverpool 3–0 on Sunday afternoon.
Pep Guardiola reached 1,000 games in management on Sunday when Manchester City defeated Liverpool 3–0. The milestone arrives after a managerial path that began with Barcelona B and continued through Barcelona and Bayern Munich before his prolonged spell in the Premier League.
“To reach 1,000 games in management is something very special for me,” he said, recognising his achievement. “When I started managing Barcelona B all those years ago, I never thought for one second about reaching 1,000 games. You just want to do a good job, play football the right way and see what happens.”
Guardiola’s managerial identity traces back to Barcelona’s decision 17 years ago to appoint a relative novice to replace Frank Rijkaard, despite José Mourinho’s strong push for the job. He guided Barcelona B back into the Spanish second tier in 2007–08 and, after promotion, led Barcelona to a historic sextuple in 2008–09. Those first six trophies were the opening chapter of a haul that has reached 40 trophies in his managerial career. A Mourinho-influenced burnout contributed to his departure after 247 games.
After a year out he joined Bayern Munich, managing 161 matches across three seasons. Guardiola helped perfect a modernising Bayern team influenced by Louis van Gaal; while they dominated domestically, they came up short in Europe. His move to the Premier League has further enlarged his record: Sunday’s statement win served as his 550th in charge of the Cityzens, by which point he had guided Manchester City to 15 major honours, including six league titles and a Champions League crown.
“Reaching 1,000 matches and achieving such longevity in football is a landmark that can never be underestimated and, to continue to deliver league, Champions League and domestic cup titles in three of Europe’s most competitive leagues is outstanding,” Sir Alex Ferguson commented, welcoming Pep to the club.
The wider list of long-serving managers underlines how rare such tenure is. Ferguson finished his 39-year career in 2013 with 2,155 games. Neil Warnock retired after a brief spell with Aberdeen in 2024 having overseen 1,960 games with 15 clubs. Vanderlei Luxemburgo managed 1,819 games between 1983 and 2021 while overseeing 21 clubs, including Real Madrid, and the Brazil national team between 1998–2000. Others noted include Guy Roux (1,754), Arsène Wenger (1,702) and Manuel Pellegrini (1,566 at Real Betis).
Arsenal
Rice and Yamal Headline 2025 Puskas Award Shortlist
Rice and Yamal lead the 2025 Puskas nominees; Marta and Mariona head the women’s list. Voting 50/50.
FIFA has released the shortlists for the 2025 Puskás Award and the Marta Award, with Declan Rice and Lamine Yamal prominent among the men’s nominees and Marta and Mariona Caldentey highlighted on the women’s list. The winners will be announced at the 2025 The Best FIFA Football Awards.
The Puskás Award has a history of high-profile winners. Cristiano Ronaldo was the inaugural recipient in 2009. Neymar, Zlatan Ibrahimović and Mohamed Salah have also taken the prize, and the most recent winner is Alejandro Garnacho.
This year Rice and Yamal stand out on the men’s list. Rice earned his nomination for the second of his two incredible free kicks against Real Madrid. The midfielder curled an unstoppable strike into the top-right corner of the net in what wound up being a 3–0 victory for Arsenal in the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinals.
Yamal is nominated for a curling effort of his own. The teenager received the ball in space against Espanyol, quickly cut inside and curled home a left-footed strike that ultimately sealed the La Liga title for Barcelona last season.
The selection process for both the Puskás Award and the Marta Award will be determined by an equal 50% split between fan votes and those cast by FIFA Legends. That balance will decide which of the shortlisted strikes is named the standout goal of the year on the men’s side and which moment earns the equivalent honour on the women’s side.
The shortlists again draw attention to individual moments that shaped the previous season, from decisive free kicks in the Champions League to title-sealing efforts in La Liga. Fans and FIFA Legends will now weigh in to decide which of the nominated finishes claims the 2025 prizes.
Aston Villa
Solskjaer on Rashford: management responsibility, public fallouts and a return to form
Solskjaer: managers must address unhappiness; Rashford has rediscovered form while on loan in Spain.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has suggested Ruben Amorim could have done more to try to help Marcus Rashford before the forward was effectively banished and sent on successive loans. The former Manchester United manager framed the issue as one of duty and proximity, arguing a manager should probe a player’s wellbeing when form and mood change.
Rashford has this season been rediscovering his goalscoring output while on loan with Barcelona. Solskjaer, who led United when Rashford scored 20-plus goals in successive seasons in 2019–20 and 2020–21, said he sees renewed enjoyment behind the improved output in Spain.
“I’ve not spoken to Marcus since, since I left… texting a little bit. It’s circumstances,” Solskjaer said on the new episode of Stick to Football , on The Overlap network. “I don’t know what’s happened in Marcus’s life, but you can see he’s enjoying himself now in Barcelona. It looked like he didn’t enjoy himself [at Manchester United ] at the end.”
Solskjaer did not name Amorim directly while offering his view that managers must try to understand why a player is unhappy, particularly when it affects performance. He warned against handling such issues publicly and described a manager’s role in addressing off-field and on-field pressure.
“All the pressures, every single one is different… the pressure of life, the pressure of football. We don’t know what’s happened to players when you walk in, in the morning, and see them grumpy,” he said. “That’s the manager’s job, [to] speak, ‘What’s up? I can see something’s wrong.’ And you don’t talk about that in the media most of the time.
“We don’t really know what’s happened, you just want him to do well because he’s an incredible player when he’s in form and he’s happy, and when he’s got energy.”
Solskjaer also referenced a public falling out elsewhere at United, that between Jadon Sancho and Erik ten Hag. Sancho, signed under Solskjaer in 2021, is on a third consecutive loan this season at Aston Villa. “We wanted players who could break teams down, and Jadon, with his skill, link-up play, and little passes around the box, gave us that,” Solskjaer explained.
Arsenal
CIES’s Top Ten Teenage Values: A Season-by-Season Snapshot
CIES lists the ten most valuable teenagers: Bergvall, Endrick, Quenda, Lewis-Skelly and others. 2025
Scouting, data and transfer inflation have pushed more teenagers into football’s economic foreground. CIES Football Observatory’s valuation of the ten most valuable teens captures that shift, and the list reads like a map of recent transfers and early breakthroughs.
Tottenham Hotspur’s Lucas Bergvall arrives first in this story. Spurs paid £8.5 million for the Djurgarden midfielder and, after a breakthrough in 2025, his market value has risen sevenfold. CIES ranks him among the top ten teenagers after a spell adapting to London life when Ange Postecoglou had no choice but to trust the fearless Swede.
Palmeiras produced Endrick and Estêvão. Endrick moved to Real Madrid in a deal reported at $69.4 million, made 37 appearances mostly from the bench in his debut season and has since seen first-team chances limited under Xabi Alonso; a loan to Lyon was mooted. Estêvão joined Chelsea in the summer for an initial £29 million ($38.1 million) and has made an encouraging start at Stamford Bridge.
Sporting CP’s Geovany Quenda will join Chelsea next summer after a £44 million ($57.8 million) agreement. Quenda broke through in Lisbon under Ruben Amorim, became Sporting’s youngest-ever goalscorer and has transitioned from wingback to final-third operator.
Arsenal’s Hale End continues to supply talent. Myles Lewis-Skelly moved from youth central midfield to operate at left back for Mikel Arteta, has been encouraged to come inside and is now a fully fledged England international. Ethan Nwaneri, who made Premier League history in September 2022 at 15, finished 2024–25 with nine goals in all competitions and remains a key young playmaker.
Paris Saint-Germain’s Warren Zaïre-Emery has earned praise from his manager, who described the then-17-year-old as “humble” and “very intelligent” back in September 2023. “He’s a leader, not with his words but on the pitch,” the PSG manager recently said of Zaïre-Emery, who is adding goals to his game.
Real Madrid paid as much as $73.2 million for Franco Mastantuono after a 2025 Apertura that included a memorable free-kick in the Superclásico. Barcelona’s Pau Cubarsí is the only centre back in the top ten, noted for his passing and partnership with Iñigo Martínez. CIES also highlights Feyenoord’s Givairo Read as the second most valuable teenage fullback, valued at $32.2 million.
