Champions League finalists Borussia Dortmund deserved their 3-0 defeat at Mainz 05 in the Bundesliga as they lack the drive to achieve consistency in their performance, manager Edin Terzic said.

Lee Jae-Sung scored a brace after Leandro Barreiro had opened the scoring to hammer Dortmund 3-0 on Saturday.

Terzic's side had the opportunity to sink Mainz into the relegation zone but Mainz climbed up to 15th place, two points clear of the relegation play-off spot they previously occupied.

Terzic had said he wanted his team, in fifth place, to maintain their intensity levels after Tuesday's 2-0 aggregate win over Paris St Germain set them up for the June 1 final of Europe's top club competition against Real Madrid.

"Let's let Paris be Paris and talk about last week and this week," Terzic told reporters. "We were the team that were always late to the ball and always losing out in the tackles.

"That's why it was a deserved defeat. Mainz fought for every inch, didn't give us any peace in possession, whereas we did.

"We demonstrated that we could play really good and mature football, but we didn't prove it regardless of the opponent, competition, weekday and stadium and this is what makes me angry...

"There's so much inside of us and we can't get it onto the pitch every time."

Dortmund's fifth position has secured their Champions League participation next season. They host bottom side Darmstadt 98 in their last league game next Saturday.

The Grand Smash 2024 World Table Tennis Championship, "Saudi Smash", which was organized by the Saudi Table Tennis Federation, supervised by the Ministry of Sport, in cooperation with the World Table Tennis Organization (WTT), concluded at the King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah.
Assistant Minister of Sports for Sports Affairs Adwaa Al-Arifi crowned the Chinese player Wang Chuqin, ranked first in the world, with the men’s singles title, after defeating Patrick Franziska of Germany, ranked 16th in the world, with a score of 4-2. Wang now holds the distinction of being the first player to achieve three titles in the same tournament, SPA reported.
Chinese player Meng Chen, ranked fourth in the world, also secured victory in the women's singles title, after defeating the top-ranked player in the world, Yingsha Sun, with a score of 4-2. Meng Chen was presented with the championship cup by WTT Board Member Khalil Al-Muhannadi. Chen solidified her position in the world rankings, moving up from the runner-up position.
“Saudi Smash” is part of Saudi Vision 2030, which aims to promote the concept of sporting excellence and encourage a healthy lifestyle among citizens, while also showcasing the Kingdom’s capabilities in hosting major sporting events.

Under the patronage of the Governor of Tabuk Region, Prince Fahd bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz, the Deputy Governor of the Tabuk Region, Prince Khalid bin Saud bin Abdullah bin Faisal bin Abdulaziz, crowned the winners of the "Tabuk Toyota Rally 2024" on Saturday.
The event marked the conclusion of the second round of the Saudi Toyota Championship rallies, in the presence of the President of the Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation (SAMF) Prince Khalid bin Sultan bin Abdullah bin Faisal, at the Grand Millennium Tabuk Hotel, SPA reported.
The Deputy Governor commended the success of the rally, affirming that the current sporting events in the Kingdom underscore the leadership's dedication to positioning the nation on the map of global sports.
Furthermore, he praised the efforts of Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al-Faisal, Minister of Sports, and the President of the SAMF, for their unwavering support for motorsports and its participants.
He also crowned the winners of the first places in the Tabuk Toyota Rally 2024 competitions.

Down the years, it has been common for US Soccer to track young English talent who also hold American passports. From Fulham’s Antonee Robinson to Milan’s Yunus Musah, the US has benefited from players gaining an education across the Atlantic. But New York City’s Christian McFarlane looks set to do the reverse, a sign of the growing influence of MLS academies.

The left-back was born in England but moved to New York at three years old. Over the past 18 months, McFarlane has represented the USMNT and England at youth level, keeping his options open before committing to any one country. The 17-year-old also has the option of playing for Jamaica, but why complicate matters more?
“The more he can adapt, the better for him,” says New York City FC II head coach Matt Pilkington. “He has done well when he has had those opportunities. To play for any national team is a special opportunity but to play for such a high calibre team with top, top talent, I think he’s really embraced the challenge and stepped up to it and done well. Different environments can create different talents and there is something he is quite strong at which the national team has taken a liking to. We are really proud of his achievements so far and hopefully he can continue to push.”

The teenager is yet to appear in MLS but he was selected in the first-team squad four times last season, although he is yet to make it on to the pitch in a competitive game. NYC FC only have one senior left-back, Kevin O’Toole, meaning if anything should happen to him, McFarlane could be next in line.

Born in Basildon, Essex, when his mother was working for Goldman Sachs in London, McFarlane left England behind when his family moved to New York. Living in Queens and Long Island, he was spotted by the NYC FC academy and signed for them at the age of 11. Three years later, such was his potential, he was given a first-team contract, becoming the third-youngest player in MLS history to sign such a deal – NYC FC broke their own record a year later by inking Máximo Carrizo to a full-time contract on his 14th birthday.

McFarlane’s accent is more Studio 54 than China Whites, but he has shown his openness to playing for England, scoring in a recent Under-17 international against Hungary. In fact, he’s not the only MLS teenager in the England setup, with New England Revolution midfielder Noel Buck representing the Under-19s. Like McFarlane, Buck will probably be a target for Premier League clubs in the summer transfer window.

McFarlane was originally a winger, but City were eager to test him in a number of different positions. He learned the roles up and down the left side, in addition to centre-back before the club settled on full-back. The skinny on McFarlane is that he’s dynamic, quick and good in one-on-one situations. As a youngster, he regularly played above his age group, representing the Under-17s as a 14-year-old in a bid to accelerate his development.

“He had a lot of experience playing [in older age groups] and dealt with it quite well,” Pilkington says. “We often measure talent by how well they adapt to the level of intensity and speed of play, and he was able to do that quite well and has a really good physical profile that also allowed him to play up as well. It was all part of his journey. As a relatively young player he plays and trains against people that are much older than him.”

The feeling at NYC FC is that McFarlane will eventually end up across the Atlantic at Manchester City. There has been interest from Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich but once City Football Group (CFG) have such a talent in their midst, they are unlikely to relinquish their hold. CFG own numerous clubs where the teenager can gain experience – perhaps Girona in La Liga if the coveted Miguel Gutiérrez departs this summer – or head somewhere outside their family tree.

Academies in the US are becoming targets for European clubs who recognise the increased level of professionalism they have brought to North America – CFG have agreed a deal for 14-year-old Cavan Sullivan to move to Manchester from Philadelphia Union’s academy once he turns 18.

Since its implementation in 2015, New York City’s academy has produced a number of first-team players, including James Sands, who recently made his 100th appearance for the club. USMNT’s Gio Reyna spent time with the club as a teenager before moving to Borussia Dortmund. Alphonso Davies may be the most successful graduate any MLS academy has so far produced. He rose through the ranks at Vancouver before moving to Bayern Munich in 2018 – and will soon be on his way to Real Madrid.

“I think the academies in the US and US soccer in general have taken massive strides in the past decade,” says Pilkington. “Since they mandated academies within the MLS clubs and increased the level of competition and professionalised it – not just with the professional academies but with other high-level youth academies. With the demographic of the US, it is such a large landscape that they opened it up to top level clubs. US Soccer created this academy system and really evolved this level of coaching, level of professionalism and the daily environment players can train in and really focus the ability for players to compete.

“We see players matriculating from the US system into Europe, and it has continued to evolve. Look at the US national team, there is a lot of young talent and the majority are plying their trade in Europe but have grown up in US academies and US systems.”

NYC FC are helped by that fact that they are owned by CFG, helping bring a Premier League-like structure to their academy. Global staff ensure a smooth operation, bringing expertise from Manchester City, whose youth setup is one of the most envied in the world. New York City age-group teams have travelled to England to help with their development and where coaches can share knowledge.

McFarlane is next in line for New York City, and the conveyor belt shows no sign of slowing down.

-The Guardian Sport

Erik ten Hag arrived at Manchester United promising to inspire flowing, thrilling transition football. And, you have to say, mission accomplished. You only had to watch Crystal Palace pouring forward at speed on Monday night, or Sheffield United bombing up the pitch at Old Trafford a couple of weeks ago, or indeed Coventry City in the recent FA Cup semi-final. Thanks to Ten Hag, United fans are being treated to sumptuous counterattacking fare on a near-weekly basis, even if – unhappily for Ten Hag’s job prospects – most of it these days seems to be getting played by the opposition.

Yes: it’s an even-numbered year, so we’re discussing whether the Manchester United manager should be sacked. And so to David Moyes (2014), Louis van Gaal (2016), José Mourinho (2018), Ole Gunnar Solskjær (a pandemic-delayed 2021) and Ralf Rangnick (2022) can almost certainly be added Ten Hag (2024), another well-credentialled manager who just didn’t have what it takes to manage a massive club like United. Seriously unlucky! How do they keep ending up with these guys?

Ten Hag talks a lot about “following the script”, and if he has read this particular treatment to the end, he will know the moment of reckoning is probably close at hand. And of course there would be a satisfying structural circularity to it: a reign bookended by two stunning 4-0 defeats in London, 30-year-old and 32-year-old Christian Eriksens floundering alike in midfield, a coach as bereft of explanations at the end as he was at the start.

“Individual mistakes; we had a good plan but put it in the bin,” Ten Hag said after the Brentford game in 2022. “Big mistakes; not following the plan or the script,” he said after the Palace defeat in 2024. Sometimes you just have to submit to the pull of the narrative.

So barring a miraculous victory in the FA Cup final against Manchester City or an unlikely reprieve by the new Ineocracy, Ten Hag will probably go at the end of the season. And – you know – fair enough. You simply cannot play this badly, this often, and expect to keep your job. The most defeats in any season since 1977-78. The most goals conceded since 1976-77. A now familiar inability to prevent teams from shooting: indeed, in the time since you started reading this article André Onana has saved another four shots, and flapped at two more.

But more damning even than the statistics are the optics. The general sense of panic and disarray that spreads through the entire team when someone runs at them. The reliable Jonny Evans, reliably perched 10 yards behind the rest of his defence, as if auditioning to be their drummer. The forlorn sight of Casemiro sliding in on Michael Olise on Monday night and missing not just Olise but the memory of Olise: like a man walking into a room and immediately forgetting why he entered it.

Of course, everyone knows why United keep conceding. The front three press high, the defence fail to push up, and so enormous gaps open up in the middle of the pitch that far better midfielders than Sofyan Amrabat would struggle to cover. Beat the first press, and you have 60 yards of clear, beautiful air. The full-backs can overlap. Quick switches and through balls magically open up. The result: crosses, shots, mayhem, fume.

If some bloke off YouTube can see all this, then let’s assume that a former coach at Bayern Munich, Ajax and PSV Eindhoven – a man once described by Pep Guardiola as the ideal candidate to succeed him at Manchester City – can too. So why hasn’t he fixed it? Personnel is one reason. Lisandro Martínez, a defender signed to be Ten Hag’s general on the pitch, has only played nine league games all season; Luke Shaw 12, Tyrell Malacia none.

That’s three-quarters of Ten Hag’s first-choice backline. In their absence he has been left with more reactive, last-line defenders like Evans, Victor Lindelöf and Harry Maguire, or non-defenders like Amrabat and Casemiro, who lack the capability to play a sophisticated, organised, high-line defence. Could Ten Hag have tried it anyway, even if the personnel didn’t fit? Could he have reconfigured the entire setup, gone back to a low block, abandoned his principles entirely? Could United have helped him out with an emergency signing in January? Perhaps. But we have to recognise that none of these felt like guaranteed solutions at the time.

And then we come to what Mourinho so beautifully expressed as “football heritage”. Ten Hag has probably gone further than any of his predecessors in trying to work out how a United team should play, rather than simply bolting their own ideas on to the existing squad. His stated desire to make United the “best transition team in the world” springs not just from his own principles but from an assessment of what United fans – and importantly, United plc – would demand. A game of back-and-forth, lightning counterattacks, pace and verve in attacking areas, exciting wingers, heroic comebacks, lots of goals, late drama.

And again, you have to say – with less sarcasm – mission accomplished. United have scored eight times in the first 10 minutes, won seven games in the last 10 minutes, conceded 13 times in the 87th minute or later. They’ve failed to close out a winning position 11 times in all competitions. Their games this season have averaged 3.4 goals. This may not be the optimum outcome for United the team. But it is a clear win for United the global entertainment product.

Meanwhile players like Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo have blossomed into indispensable talents, Rasmus Højlund has found his feet in a tough league, Diogo Dalot has improved, Willy Kambwala has impressed. Bruno Fernandes has come through for them again. Onana, Amrabat, Marcus Rashford and Mason Mount have struggled, but are not so bad as to be utterly irredeemable. The point is this: for all the horrors of the last 12 months, United have won a trophy and reached two finals, and are probably a functioning defence, a firing Jadon Sancho and a few other incremental improvements away from being quite good.

But of course this is not what moves the dial at a club like United. Recently there have been multiple stories about how everyone at the club is theoretically up for sale, about how the new regime of Dave Brailsford and Jim Ratcliffe wants to clear the decks, starting but not ending with Ten Hag.

This stuff feels good and cathartic. Purgation, bloodletting, burning it all down and starting again. Drain the swamp. Flush the bowl. By a happy coincidence, this is also the approach that drives the most content, incites the most transfer gossip and late-night panel discussion, feeds the most performative online chatter, shines the flashlight of attention most gloriously and most lucratively upon the hallowed name of Manchester United Football Club.

So the cycle starts again. Thomas Tuchel, Gareth Southgate, Graham Potter. A tranche of new signings. New dawns and new hope. Give the new manager time. Give the new players a chance to settle. Late goals, heroic wins. Rashford is back. But is the football really an improvement? Are United going backwards? Drubbings, humiliations, cup exits. Players unhappy with training, reports unnamed dressing room source. Mark Goldbridge is trending. Official club statement. New manager search begins. Welcome to Manchester United, where the transition never ends.

- The Guardian Sport

French President Emmanuel Macron said Saturday he hoped star footballer Kylian Mbappe would be freed up by his likely future club Real Madrid to take part in the Paris Olympics for France, AFP reported.

"I'm counting on Real Madrid to free up Kylian for the Olympic Games so he can come play with the French team," Macron said in a video posted on X, formerly Twitter.

Mbappe confirmed on Friday that he will leave French champions Paris Saint-Germain at the end of the season, with Real Madrid widely expected to be his next destination.

Real Madrid has already said that it will not lift its players' obligations to the club in favour of their participation in the Olympics Games which are not part of the FIFA-designated international tournaments for which clubs must free up their players.

The 25-year-old World Cup-winning forward and France captain said himself last week that he wasn't "thinking much" about the Games.

Mbappe will lead France at Euro 2024 which runs from June 14 to July 14 in Germany.

The Olympic football competition begins on July 24 and runs to August 9, with France in a group alongside the United States, New Zealand and another side still to be determined.

Pep Guardiola insists Manchester City will be prepared for whatever conditions come their way at Fulham on Saturday after training on long grass.

City, bidding for an unprecedented fourth successive English title, are renowned for a possession-based passing game suited to the slick, watered surfaces they are guaranteed at their Etihad Stadium home.

City manager Guardiola said his side benefited from a slower pitch when they won at Nottingham Forest last month because it led to the home team missing several excellent chances, AFP reported.

But many observers interpreted the Spaniard's words as a slight dig at Forest for not preparing a pitch conducive to free-flowing football and Guardiola expects more of the same when City, bidding to move two points clear of leaders Arsenal, kick off at Craven Cottage on Saturday.

"Here we are, one week left to give all we have," said Guardiola, whose side will be guaranteed the title if they win all three of their remaining league games.

"I don't know about the grass, last season it was so, so high and dry. We have to adapt like with Nottingham, try to fight back with three points.

"Yesterday (Thursday) we trained part of the session with a dry, high (grass) to feel it, to adapt, and after we went to another normal pitch.

"It's a massive difference, massive. It's another game, another game. You have to adapt."

The Spaniard, comparing the situation to tennis, added: "I saw the forecast, it's a sunny day in London so you have to adapt in that situation, play in another rhythm and way. The passes must be stronger, faster, quicker. The control must attack the ball more.

"It's completely different, it's not basketball. It's like Wimbledon (grass) or Roland Garros (where the French Open is played on clay) -- ask a tennis player, the speed of the ball is different."

City head to London trailing Arsenal by a point but with a game in hand.

The Gunners then face Manchester United on Sunday before wrapping up their campaign against Everton.

City play their game in hand at Tottenham in midweek and then face West Ham in their final match of the league season.

Rafael Nadal was knocked out of the Rome Open in the second round on Saturday with a 6-1, 6-3 loss to Poland's Hubert Hurkacz.

Defeat to seventh seed Hurkacz casts doubt over whether clay-court icon Nadal will play at the upcoming French Open, where he has won a record 14 titles.

Nadal has said that he will only play at Roland Garros if he feels competitive after a raft of injury problems over the last two years which have left him languishing 305th in the world rankings, AFP reported.

And the manner of his elimination in his first ever encounter with 27-year-old Hurkacz was a step backwards after reaching the last 16 in Madrid.

Nadal held his own in the first two games in the first set, which took 26 minutes to complete, but then fell away as errors handed Hurkacz points.

The 37-year-old twice gave away breaks of serve with miscued drop shots in the first set which Hurkacz closed out in 49 minutes as he blew through five straight games.

And the match was as good as done when Hurkacz, who did not drop a single service game, broke Nadal in the third game of the second set to set up a famous victory.

That level of dominance over Nadal on clay, much less a court where he has won a record 10 titles, would have been unimaginable a few short years ago.

But Hurkacz will face Tomas Etcheverry in the third round after likely ending Nadal's love affair with Rome as the 22-time Grand Slam winner looks set to call time on his career at the end of the season.

The good news for Tottenham is that they did not concede a goal from a set play against Liverpool on Sunday. But there wasn’t much else. A 4-2 defeat meant they had lost four successive league games for the first time since 2004 and if Tottenham are to clinch fourth place from Aston Villa, they have to win their remaining three games, one of which is against Manchester City, and hope that Villa don’t win either of their two.

A measure of perspective is essential. Spurs finished eighth last year and the season ended in rancour and recrimination. Antonio Conte had left at the end of March, by which point he had made clear he didn’t much want to be at the club, while fans had tired of his grindingly negative football; what can be tolerated when it’s bringing results soon palls when those results dry up.

Ange Postecoglou is different, not just from Conte but from most coaches. He sounds like a human. He can be tetchy but he doesn’t go in for orchestrated rants. At 58, this is by far the highest level at which he has coached; this could be the culmination of a life’s work that took him from Australia to Japan to Celtic. For Postecoglou, this is not just another couple of years on the CV. This is his legacy. He wants, desperately, to be at Spurs. The attitude is refreshing, and so initially, was the football. His Spurs have attacked, recklessly so at times. He took 26 points from his first 10 league games in charge. Nobody really thought Spurs could win the title, but a quarter of the way through the season they were top.

There was always going to be a reset. That sort of form was never sustainable. After 2.6 points a game for 10 games, they have taken 1.36 from the next 25. Newcastle, Chelsea and Manchester United feel ominously close. They hit last season’s points tally on 7 April, and haven’t picked up another one since. Given the sale of Harry Kane last summer, a new manager, a revolution, Tottenham would surely have happily accepted 60 points at this stage with a restored sense of fun; the problem is the order. Everything since the end of October has felt like drift.

The first grumblings against Postecoglou have begun. His stubbornness regarding set pieces seems bizarre. “I don’t see it as an issue,” he said after conceding twice to corners in the north London derby last weekend, which made it inevitable that Spurs would concede to a header from a set piece against Chelsea on Thursday. His side have now conceded 16 goals to set pieces this season; as a proportion of total goals conceded, only Nottingham Forest have a worse record.

What Postecoglou was surely saying was not that he didn’t think set plays were worth bothering about but rather that if Spurs were to bridge the gap to the Champions League qualifiers, it wasn’t going to be by getting better at defending corners but improving their general pattern of play. That’s a far more understandable position than pretending set plays don’t matter but, still, imagine that figure of 16 conceded could be halved: how many more points would that have brought? Probably enough to make the race with Villa for the top four neck and neck.

The bigger issue, though, as Postecoglou said, is probably the other area in which he is dogmatic, which is in playing a high-tempo, high-possession game. Liverpool, despite their recent stumble remain the most aggressive pressing side in the Premier League, while Tottenham have conceded possession in their defensive third more than any other team. That this patched-up, low-confidence version of Tottenham might struggle at Anfield, a ground where their recent record is terrible, was predictable. In such circumstances, may it not be worth a coach compromising on his principles just a little, on not simply insisting that’s the way we play, mate?

That elides with a general openness – nine sides in the Premier League have conceded fewer goals than Spurs – to create a concern that Postecoglou has given fans their Tottenham back all too precisely, that the best they can ever be under him is an occasionally thrilling team who are generally good to watch, but too open ever to really challenge for titles.

The improvement from a year ago, though, shouldn’t be forgotten. There are caveats but given the turmoil of last summer, it’s only fair to give Postecoglou at least one more window before passing too firm a judgment. The squad still lacks a little depth and is not yet fully designed for the sort of football he wants to play. Postecoglou’s problem is that those caveats loom larger because of the recent downturn. The season as a whole has been promising but the end has been disappointing. The issue now is to prove that he was the reason for the early season bounce, rather than just the absence of Conte.

- The Guardian Sport

Robert Pires will never forget what it was like coming to terms with being a retired footballer. “You don’t want to say stop because I had been playing for 19 seasons and football meant everything to me,” says one of the stars of Arsenal’s Invincibles, who was part of the France team that won the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000. “Even now, football is my life and it’s in my blood, so that’s why when I said it was game over, it was very difficult to accept.”

Luckily for Pires, help was at hand. He first met Stéphane Ehrhart – a former player who is now Uefa’s career transition expert – in 2009 while playing for Villarreal, when the decision to hang up his boots had barely even crossed his mind.

“I always said: ‘I have time.’ But time goes very quickly,” Pires says. “When you are playing it’s the best job in the world. You are very focused on your club and you need to be very good every game, so you aren’t thinking about life after football. So that’s why when I met Stéphane it was very important for me – he made me think about what will happen when everything is over. He gave me good advice and explained to me in advance what the challenges were going to be. He helped prepare my brain.”

Ehrhart, having heard countless stories about how unprepared players felt as retirement loomed, has collated the advice he has dispensed over the years into a book, The Footballer’s Guide: Optimising your career on the pitch and beyond. It offers detailed information, educational tools and advice on practical ways to manage the transition.

“When I talked to Robert the first time I was quite surprised – this guy was at the top of his game and had played at the highest level in several countries but really had no clue what he wanted to do when he retired,” Ehrhart says. “I thought that if someone at the stage of his career doesn’t have any idea what to do next then there are definitely some holes in the system.

“Not every player is ready to receive it – at the start with Robert, he used to laugh about it and not take things seriously. But all my career I’ve had players asking me for that kind of advice and they didn’t really know where to find information. Some clubs and national associations do have some kind of support for their players but I thought it would be useful just to have one place where they can find some good tips.”

With chapters covering how to safely choose investments, developing a life plan and “the science of happiness”, its author hopes that professional players can be guided into making informed choices.

“Many players have spoken about how it feels like they have died when they stop playing,” he says. “We try to present them with the challenges that they will face. It’s like you’re driving on a motorcycle and there’s a wall at the end of a road but you don’t know that it’s there. We are explaining to them that there is a wall and you’re going to hit it, no matter what. There are different ways to go around the wall or over the wall but if you don’t do anything you’re going to hit it full speed.”

The statistics back that up. About 30% of former players end up getting divorced after retiring, and it has been estimated that 40% of former professionals are declared bankrupt after five years.

According to Ehrhart, three particular areas are an issue: declining physical health because they are no longer training every day, missing out on the network of friends provided by being in the dressing-room environment and the effect on family life.

“For many years you have been the family’s provider but now you’re at home with nothing to do and feeling a bit lost. You have to reinvent your social position. We’re trying to help players realise that it’s a bit more complicated than just trying to find a new job. For most, all three of these things are going to happen at the same time within six months of retiring so it’s not a good moment to think strategically about what they are going to do for the next 20 years. That’s why we explain to the players: ‘This is what is coming and why it’s so important to plan in advance.’”

Pires, who works as a pundit for French television and is an ambassador for Arsenal, admits his transition was helped by Arsène Wenger allowing him to train with the club’s first team after he had retired. “It was very difficult for me,” he says. “My contract with Aston Villa came to an end and the day after I said: ‘No, come on. I want to play football.’ I may have lost my speed but I still thought I could play, although that’s football. So I said to Wenger: ‘Boss, can I train with you every morning please?’ And he said: ‘Yes, of course.’

“It was very good for me but very hard to not be a real player any more. For me it was very special to be in the dressing room every day. But now I don’t have this every day and it feels like I’ve lost something.”

At 50, Pires remains a regular on the charity match circuit – “playing makes me feel alive,” he says – but believes more advice should be given to the current generation of players about life after football. “You have to be very careful because money goes very fast – you earn a lot when you’re playing but the second life is very long and you need to prepare for this,” he says. “That’s why it’s important that young players are given good advice about how to invest sensibly.”

As for Arsenal, Pires has been impressed with their progress and insists Mikel Arteta is building something special whatever happens in the title race. “I’m very positive and believe in Arteta. He’s a very good manager. To begin your career at Arsenal is a very tough place to start but I think he learned a lot from Arsène Wenger and especially Pep Guardiola. It was a very good idea to become his assistant because it has really helped his development. Now he is one of the best managers in the Premier League. He’s very passionate and sometimes a little bit stubborn, but I like that.”

- The Guardian Sport