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In response to Feyenoord’s Europa League defeat by Celtic, Robin van Persie claims that his decision to hand Shaqueel his senior debut was made “as a coach” rather than “out of sentiment.”

The 19-year-old forward signed a first professional contract with the Dutch club in 2022 after two seasons at Manchester City’s academy.

In the Eredivisie defeat by NEC Nijmegen on Sunday, Shaqueel was named in Feyenoord’s first-team squad for the first time in 2025.

In the 81st minute of Feyenoord’s Europa League defeat to Celtic, he made his senior debut four days later.

Afterward, former Arsenal and Manchester United forward Robin said, “I made that call as a coach, not as a father because we needed a goal.”

Shaqueel is a player who can score goals from all directions. I brought him on for that reason.

From the perspective of a father, it’s always a special moment when your son makes his debut. But I wasn’t all that focused on enjoying that moment; instead, I was engaged in my craft like Shaqueel.

The London-born teen only had one shot in Celtic’s box, meaning he had no chance to make an impact.

One minute after his introduction, Martin O’Neill’s side scored their third goal, bringing the score to 2-1.

“Added Robin,” Shaqueel, as one of the players, is how I see him. When we both already worked together a few years ago, we both agreed on this. I think Shaweel handled that really well, too, in my opinion.

“We will have a nice moment, when we are proud of each other, when we are home, of course.” Shaqueel deserves my respect because, like every player who makes their debut, there is a whole process unfolding before he does. He put in a lot of effort, deserved it, and it’s a special moment for him.

Johan Cruyff, a hero as a player and manager with Ajax and Barcelona, is one of football’s most renowned names.

During Johan’s time as Barca boss, his son Jordi played 54 games for the Spanish giants before leaving the club in the summer of 1996.

By standard standards, Jordi had a respectable career, having played for Manchester United and nine times for his country, but he was unable to live up to his father’s renowned status.

Jamie Redknapp started and ended his professional career with various clubs, where he totaled 38 games. At the age of 16, he survived at Bournemouth under the direction of his father before relocating to Liverpool in 1991. And he left Southampton at the age of 31 in 2005 after retiring due to an injury six months later.

Under his father Steve, Alex Bruce managed more games than any other manager, registering for 116. That was in 2005-2006 at Birmingham, followed by three years of work at Hull.

Zinedine Zidane, a legend at Real Madrid, actually played two of his sons. Goalkeeper Luca and midfielder Enzo both scored in Copa del Rey games while goalkeeper Luca also played two La Liga games.

Darren, a midfielder for Manchester United before joining his father’s squad for the 1992-1993 Premier League championship, left in 1994 for Wolves.

Giuliano Simeone has previously played on loan at Zaragoza and Alaves, but hasn’t played for his father Diego at Atletico Madrid for the majority of his career.

James Tavernier, the captain of Rangers, insists that despite losing just one point in their first five games, their team can still advance to the Europa League knockout stages.

After Rodrigo Zalazar was sent off for headbutting Nicolas Raskin, the Ten-Man Sporting Braga capitalized on Nasser Djiga’s defensive error to draw 1-1 at Ibrox.

After Gabri Martinez handled, Tavernier scored the opener for Rangers in the first half injury time, matching Ally McCoist’s club record of 21 European goals scored.

Tavernier rebuffed Tavernier’s claim that “it almost feels like a loss.” You must win every game to be a Rangers player. From the beginning to the end of this competition, we must do that.

We must build from this, they say. “It’s definitely not over.

In a match where Martinez was unable to score, Djiga made a pointer and the defender appeared to have lost the ball’s flight in the tumultuous circumstances.

With the injuries to John Souttar and Derek Cornelius, Emmanuel Fernandez and Djigi were paired, ultimately causing Rangers to lose.

Everyone makes mistakes, but we should end up tied-up before that even happens, Tavernier continued. “I’ve got no complaints with Nasser, everyone makes mistakes,” she continued.

We must be more patient, looking at their final third rather than trying to shoot when it isn’t on, she said. We have to do that because I’ve already talked about being clinical in both boxes.

I thought we had some control of the game in the second half. Then, for a moment, we made a mistake and conceded a goal. This objective appears to be very inexpensive. In this situation, I’m not looking for justifications. The wind, I am aware, caused a lot of issues in the second half.

“We need to get better so we can play 90 minutes at our best.”

You can see the table, I say. Just today, we didn’t miss out on this opportunity. The last four games are the subject. After four weeks, I can tell a lot has changed.

“I really can see the improvement in our team’s performance today. There is no denying that it is headed in the right direction. You can’t make many mistakes in European competition, so we need to work on this.

“You can’t commit errors like they did with the goal,” they retorted. These players aren’t capable of advancing Rangers to the next level, in my opinion. There is a lot of work still to be done.

Andy Halliday, a former Rangers midfielder, said, “I think that’s one of the biggest criticisms you’ve received.” There just seems to be these lapses in concentration.

Jonny: Djiga and Fernandez aren’t good enough. Danilo and Aarons are both better, but they’re not good enough. Chermiti isn’t good enough. This team needs to be gutted. I’m sick of Tav yell and bang at them all while he loses it.

Gary, that Rangers team is terrible. One of the worst sports teams ever to wear a blue jersey. Not one of them is qualified to play for the club. That’s how much our economy has fallen.

What a load of rubbish, Rangers. There are many players who are simply not good enough, and the team lacks the backbone. January is never going to arrive quickly enough. Hopefully, the manager will receive the necessary backing to recruit better players.

David, I’m not sure how fans can afford to pay to watch that team every week because of another subpar performance from Rangers.

On January 24 in Las Vegas, Paddy Pimblett will face Justin Gaethje for the interim lightweight title.

Following champion Ilia Topuria’s decision to not fight in the first quarter of 2026 due to a “difficult moment” in his personal life, Pimblett and American Gaethje have agreed to host the fight.

With Gaethje, 37, one place ahead of Pimblett, 30, in the lightweight division of the UFC, he ranks fifth.

Topuria, who won the title after defeating Charles Oliveira in July, said that in his absence, the UFC will “make the match-ups needed.”

In the first quarter of the following year, I won’t be fighting. The Georgian-Spaniard wrote on X that she is experiencing a challenging time in her personal life.

“I want to concentrate on my kids and get this resolved as quickly as possible.”

I don’t want to distract the division, I say. I’ll let the UFC know when the issues are resolved that I’m ready to return.

Even though he has lost to any fighters in the top 10 right now and has other prospects in the rankings ahead of him, his title shot comes.

Arman Tsarukyan of Armenia defeated Dan Hooker of Qatar last week, establishing his top ranking before calling for a title fight against Topuria.

Gaethje last fought in March, defeating Rafael Fizief by unanimous decision, and he has now won nine of his past nine UFC fights.

After defeating Tony Ferguson for the belt in a 2020 unification fight, he is a former interim champion. Khabib Nurmagomedov succumbed to his defeat five months later.

The UFC’s first fight will take place at T-Mobile Arena under its seven-year agreement with Paramount, a departure from the pay-per-view model.

American bantamweight champion Kayla Harrison will face Amanda Nunes, who has returned, for the co-main event.