Archive June 1, 2025

In 2022, Oldham Athletic’s 116-year association with the English Football League came to an end.

The Latics became the first former Premier League team to leave English football’s top four divisions after an unenviable track record.

One man who witnessed the club at its lowest ebb three years later has started leading the charge back to league football.

The 31-year-old joined the club from Oldham in the disastrous 2022 season, but injuries prevented him from making two starts.

Fondop continued to play the club despite losing its EFL status, and he has since scored 37 goals in 113 National League games.

But what motivated him to remain in Boundary Park?

After the season’s conclusion, John Sheridan, the manager at the time, called me and said, “I need you to come back.” Because I signed you and you only played two games, you owe me. I want you to place this club back where it belongs, Fondop said.

That is why I came, and I didn’t have a chance to help them stay in League Two, so that’s always been my goal.

The club “must be in League Two; they must be higher than that,” the statement read. “It is a step-by-step process.

A takeover of the Latics by local businessman Frank Rothwell was completed between their demise from League Two and the start of the 2022-23 National League season.

Fondop said the difference between then and now is obvious and that Abdallah Lemsagam’s leadership of the club came to an end.

“The club is completely different now. More family-oriented ownership is now being used. The owners approachable and want everyone to feel like family, he continued.

It used to feel toxic. I was a player, but the environment at the time made it seem bad to me. It’s completely different now.

Oldham are not a club that has had much to celebrate in recent years because they have floated around the lower divisions of English football both before and after the turn of the century, having spent 21 years in the third tier before being elevated to League Two in 2018.

Their most recent advancement came in 1991 when they captured the then Division Two second-tier championship.

Their recent performance is depressing to read. The National League finished 12th in their first season, marking their first appearance in the top half of a division since 2009.

Fondop said he was inspired to attend a team meeting with manager Micky Mellon about the club’s tenure and the club’s promotion success.

“Promotion has been ongoing for 34 years. Since I’m 31 years old, I wasn’t even born when they promoted me,” Fondop continued.

“I left the gaffer’s instructions, went home, and wrote 34 years in bold on a piece of paper with my season goals on it,” I wrote on my kitchen wall. My thoughts are always with me.

Because I want to be a part of history and for fans to relive Oldham’s legacy, I keep thinking about it every day. More is being said than is known. It’s been sitting in my kitchen all day, but I won’t take it out until it is finished.

Fondop has an eclectic and varied musical palate and is considering how to ease his aches before leaving Wembley.

He said, “On gamedays I listen to gospel and that is what calms me down.”

Time to Say Goodbye is one of my favorite songs by Andrea Bocelli.

Paris St-Germain’s journey to Champions League glory started when the final giant symbol of the club’s so-called “bling bling” era was swept away.

The only remaining member of the superstar attacking trio, which included Lionel Messi and Neymar, left Paris following Kylian Mbappe’s decision to join Real Madrid last summer, allowing PSG to change their approach and direction.

Luis Enrique took his chance, persuading PSG’s president Nasser al-Khelaifi and Luis Campos, that he could create a younger, better, more cohesive side in the post-Mbappe era. He was referred to as “a footballing architect.”

Luis Enrique walks barefoot on the grass of Campus PSG, the club’s training ground 25 minutes away from their Parc des Princes home, every morning as part of his devotion to “earthing”, believing it brings him closer to nature and helps fight off allergies.

The 55-year-old Asturian has just completed the Champions League in Paris, leading to PSG’s devoted supporters who think he can walk on water.

His appointment in July 2023 was a clear sign that PSG were abandoning the superstar culture, a significant change in direction that appealed to a coach who had abandoned the team spirit.

French football expert Julien Laurens told BBC Sport: “They wanted someone to build something for the future, with patience. The best choice was him.

“The considered people of Antonio Conte and Jose Mourinho’s caliber. These guys are winners but they win now. They don’t actually construct anything. Luis Enrique was in line with PSG’s requirements.

Former Brazil midfielder Rai, who was a member of the only PSG team to win a European trophy in the Cup Winners ‘ Cup in 1996, is also a Luis Enrique admirer.

For a team to be regarded complete and have a good chance of winning major titles, according to Rai, they need both talent and 100% commitment from all players, whether they are defending or attacking, with or without the ball.

The fact that Luis Enrique managed this in such a short amount of time, especially with such young players, is what is most impressive about the company. This shows that his tactical scheme was well understood, that the players believe in him, and that his system is very effective”.

The coach also demanded a degree of control that had previously been averted by Mauricio Pochettino, Thomas Tuchel, Unai Emery, and Christophe Galtier away from the field.

Luis Enrique has absolute dominance over PSG’s playing situation.

Pierre-Etienne Minonzio, a Paris-based journalist for the renowned sports publication L’Equipe, told BBC Sport: “People at PSG understood there had been a problem of authority in the last few years.

” Galtier was a French manager, and a good one, but lacked the experience to impose his views. Although he was a very good manager, he was weak enough to confront Mbappe and direct him.

“Mauricio Pochettino and I were the same.” It was always said his obsession was to have peace in the dressing room. He made no choices that were in opposition to Messi and Mbappe.

Enrique didn’t possess that, though. He told PSG clearly ‘ If I am the boss and I will be the boss’. He is now the embodiment of the entire club and entire team.

Luis Enrique is obsessive about PSG and his own self-control down to the utmost standards, even getting his watch to notify him if he doesn’t stretch or move for 30 minutes.

In 2007, he successfully took on the Frankfurt Ironman challenge – a 2.4-mile swim, a 118-mile cycle and a full marathon. He completed the grueling Marathon de Sables, a 155-mile race that took place in the Sahara Desert in 2008.

After losing his nine-year-old daughter Xana to a rare form of bone cancer in 2019, he is, however, someone with true perspective.

Luis Enrique has said:” Her body is gone, but she hasn’t died. She is still with us.

She may not physically exist, but she does. Because every day we talk about her, we laugh, and we remember because I think Xana still sees us”.

PSG’s clear the air moment was Mbappe’s departure. The landscape at Parc des Princes changed after the French superstar left, despite his additional goals and a little genius.

Luis Enrique saw it as the opportunity to exert complete control on how PSG played, with brilliant, but ultimately individualistic, Mbappe gone.

Luis Enrique focused on developing young talent he could mold rather than established, frequently ego-driven, figures, despite the fact that this control was over a new “team” in the literal sense of the word.

A slow start to the campaign supported the coach’s belief that competing for the biggest prize, namely the Champions League, might require more than this season.

He may regard the Champions League victory as being ahead of schedule.

The new era of PSG, led by Manchester City, was officially inaugurated when they defeated them 4-2 on a rainy night in Paris. As a stand-in for his Barcelona struggles, Ousmane Dembele made a stunning comeo.

And so it went on, as this trio helped PSG take a wrecking ball to the Premier League’s elite, Liverpool, Aston Villa and then Arsenal beaten in the knockout stage to reach Munich.

Kvaratskhelia arrived from Napoli in January for 70 million euros (£59 million) plus add-ons to complete the puzzle.

Former Scotland winger Pat Nevin, a long-time Kvaratskhelia fan, said: “He has everything I want from a winger, but a little more as well.”

” He always wants to take players on. He desires to attack opponents. He performs numerous tricks and movies. He does unusual things and he breaks lines. Never ever fearful, always upbeat, and interested in entertainment.

Although Doue had a slow start, the coach was completely invested in the young talent that would make up his new team, along with Barcola and Dembele, because Luis Enrique gave him one-on-one attention.

Rai remarked, “The young forwards at PSG [are] outstanding because they combine technical quality, tactical obedience, and physical intensity with personality. All of them have an impressive ability to dribble and improvise”.

Additionally, there is no preference for treatment. In Luis Enrique’s eyes, everyone is equal.

Dembele was dropped before the Champions League game at Arsenal in October after Luis Enrique expressed dissatisfaction with his work-rate in a Ligue 1 game against Rennes.

Dembele came back to PSG in a transformed and upbeat state, leading them to the Champions League, Coupe de France, and now Champions League.

At 24 years, 262 days, PSG is the youngest team to have advanced beyond the Champions League play-off round this season, according to average age.

And their intense, high-pressing style is illustrated by the fact they rank first in the tournament this season for shot-ending high turnovers – they frequently turn high-presses into attacking opportunities.

The famous Virage Auteuil, where PSG’s ‘ ultras ‘ gather at one end of Parc des Princes, was transported to Munich for one night only for this final.

To witness PSG cut through the Premier League’s best on their way to Munich, one had to experience the same level of expectation that was displayed in a wall of sound and color kaleidoscope of every game.

PSG’s supporters were denied the opportunity to watch the club’s only previous Champions League final, which occurred at Portugal’s Stadium of Light during the Covid pandemie, which they lost 1-0 behind closed doors to Bayern Munich.

So a special welcome awaited PSG’s players of the sort that has become familiar at Parc des Princes. Together, We Are Invincible, translates to “Ensemble, Nous Sommes Invincibles.”

Third-round leaderboard for Memorial Tournament

-8 S Scheffler (US), -7 B Griffin (US), -5 N Taylor (Can)

Other notables include -2 S Lowry (Irl), -2 X Schauffele (US), -3 T Fleetwood (Eng), 8 J Rose (Eng), and -9 M Fitzpatrick (Eng).

In a “challenging” third round of the Memorial Tournament in Columbus, Ohio, world number one Scottie Scheffler shot a four-under-par 68 to take the lead.

The 28-year-old American resurrected his impressive run of form, going three shots ahead of his compatriot Ben Griffin, who he had led by three early in the day.

Scheffler is chasing a third victory from his last four tournaments, so he went bogey free on Saturday, paring on the first 13 holes, and birdies the next 17 and 18 holes in style.

He held the lead on eight under overall thanks to that surge.

In his level-par 72, Griffin made five birdies and five bogeys.

Nick Taylor, from Canada, is three shots clear of the lead, while Shane Lowry, from Ireland, is in seventh place after one-over 73.

Scheffler described his low-scoring round as “incredibly difficult and proud of how I came out.”

Today’s score of par would have been a pretty good score, in my opinion, around this course.

“I felt like I could have gotten a little bit more out of the round,” he said, “but I felt like I was playing nice and a few lips here and there might have a little bit changed the score.”

I’ll be attempting to chase him down,” Taylor said of the difficulty of the title challenge against Scheffler on Sunday.

Billie Sky has just promoted her team, but she is no longer able to play for them.

Sky is one of 28 transgender women who are prohibited from playing FA-affiliated women’s football and are one of 28 registered for amateur football with the Football Association in England.

The governing body of English football announced that only those who were born biologically female will be able to play women’s football starting on June 1st, in accordance with the UK Supreme Court’s ruling from April 16 that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex.

Due to the ruling, Sky must no longer play competitive 11-a-side football for one of her teams, the London Galaxy. Due to the new policy, Goal Diggers FC, which the club has exited from all FA-affiliated leagues, will still allow her to play informally for her other team.

“I just took part in a season with London Galaxy and helped them earn promotion,” she told BBB Sport. “Now I can’t play with them, which is really sad. I put a lot of commitment into that club.

What should I do, exactly? Play with the men, then? because I don’t feel secure there. And I’m wanted by my team-mates in full.

BBB Sport approached a number of grassroots footballers who support the ban.

One football player, who plays in the sixth tier of the women’s game, was willing to provide an anonymous voice to the media while the majority of people did not want to disclose their opinions because they were afraid of reprisals.

Georgie (not her real name) believes that the FA’s new policy “protects the integrity of women’s football,” something we have worked for a long time to achieve.

When Sky, a devoted football fan, first started to transition, she had given up on the sport when she was offered the opportunity to join Goal Diggers FC, a club with a London footprint.

“I believe that this is where I spent my first life, when I didn’t consider myself trans or different or weird or whatever. The 28-year-old said, “I just felt like another person here.”

I discovered and adored the community. And that’s how I’ve lived ever since. My main trait is that I am a football player.

Sky, who first admitted to being transgender four years ago, claimed she “had a feeling” the ban was about to come.

She said, “It does feel frightful.” My safety net seems to have just been taken away, in my opinion.

As I’ve grown more confident on the field, I’ve become more confident as a person, and I felt like there was a real empowering nature to playing football for me. And I worry about squandering some of the chance to carry that story.”

The FA has written to transgender players facing a ban and offers “online talking therapy” or assistance with pursuing a career in women’s football, such as coaching or refereeing. The offer has been turned down by Sky.

As a graphic designer, Sky said, “I guess I could go into coaching or refereeing, but that’s not what my passion for the game is.” It’s being present on the pitch, interacting with people, and giving it everything until the last minute.

Georgie’s two brothers and uncle, who were heavily involved in the sport, and her family started playing football when she was five years old.

She said, “When I learned about the FA’s decision, it gave me a great sense of reassurance.

I was relieved that something was done to safeguard the integrity of the game, which is a place where I and many other women and girls rely so heavily.

“It’s not about excluding anyone,” he said. It’s about acknowledging the value of fairness and safety in sport.

Georgie, who is in her early 20s, claims that the scientific evidence supports her theory that the physiological differences created during male puberty have advantages that cannot be fully reversed by hormone therapy.

Because there are so few transgender athletes, there is only limited research on the possible impact of transitioning. However, research is still being done right now.

Georgie also told BBB Sport that her opinions are shared by the rest of her team and have been shaped by their experiences.

Two transgender women made up one of the teams we faced. She said, “I’ve witnessed first-hand how the physical differences on the pitch played out.”

None of us had consented to play in that kind of match-up, and yet we were put in that position. This isn’t something we see week in, week out in the women’s game.

Worse, we are told not to speak up when we try to. My coach made it clear as a captain that any insult I made to the FA or match officials, even politely, would likely lead to punishment. Many of us are silenced by that fear of retribution.

The FA changed its rules on April 11 to allow biologically male trans women to play in women’s football following stricter criteria before changing its policy a few days after the Supreme Court’s decision.