分类： sports

MILAN, Italy – At the glitzy Italian Football Players’ Association Awards held Wednesday night at Milan’s iconic La Scala theater, Inter Milan’s star left-back Federico Dimarco claimed the league’s highest individual honor – but the ceremony was undercut by the defender’s public disappointment over stalled contract talks with his boyhood club.

Dimarco earned the top award after a standout 2023-24 campaign, where his explosive attacking contributions from the left flank powered Inter to a dominant Serie A title, finishing 11 points clear of second-place Napoli. This accolade marks the second major individual honor for the 26-year-old, who already won Serie A’s official MVP award in May this year.

Despite his on-pitch success, Dimarco’s contract with Inter is set to expire at the end of the current 2024-25 season, and the fullback admitted he had expected a new deal to be finalized after his title-winning run. “We haven’t discussed it yet. I was hoping that would happen after last season,” Dimarco told reporters on the red carpet ahead of the awards.

The award night also came hours after Inter announced a major shakeup to its front office: long-serving sporting director Piero Ausilio, who played a key role in building Inter’s recent title-winning squad, was replaced by Dario Baccin. Dimarco said he was caught off guard by the sudden management change, learning of the move through media reports after finishing a team training session. “I wasn’t expecting that. (Ausilio) is someone who I have a close relationship with. We won a lot together,” he added.

Amid widespread transfer speculation linking him to Spanish giants Barcelona, Dimarco pushed back against rumors he was seeking an exit from San Siro. A product of Inter’s youth academy, he has cemented his place in the first team after multiple loan spells early in his career, and is currently in his sixth season as a regular starter for the club. “It’s always nice to be mentioned alongside these great clubs. But you know my history with Inter. I grew up here,” Dimarco said, reaffirming his loyalty to the Nerazzurri.

The awards ceremony, which celebrates the best performances across Italy’s top two professional leagues, handed out a raft of other honors, with Inter dominating the first-division selections. Three Inter players – Dimarco, Alessandro Bastoni, and Manuel Akanji – earned spots among the league’s top four defenders, alongside former Cagliari rising star Marco Palestra, who recently signed for Chelsea. Inter striker Lautaro Martinez was named one of Serie A’s best forwards, alongside Como’s Nico Paz and Roma’s Donyell Malen, while Inter midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu took home midfield honors alongside Napoli’s Scott McTominay and AC Milan’s Luka Modric. Roma’s Mile Svilar rounded out the top awards as the league’s best goalkeeper.

In coaching awards, former Arsenal and Barcelona star Cesc Fabregas took top honors after an extraordinary debut season leading Como to a shock Champions League qualification. The 21-year-old Paz was named Serie A’s best young player, while 19-year-old Mattia Liberali, who moved from Catanzaro to Como ahead of this season, took home the best young player award for Serie B. The 2023-24 Goal of the Season went to Juventus winger Francisco Conceicao for his blistering long-range strike against Roma back in March, the only award decided by fan vote rather than player polling. All other honors were determined by a vote of active professional players across the Italian league system.

As Italy continues to grapple with lingering extreme heat following a brutal summer heatwave, Formula 1’s iconic Italian Grand Prix at Monza has received an official heat-hazard designation from race organizers. This special classification is triggered when forecasts confirm ambient temperatures will exceed 31 degrees Celsius at any point during Sunday’s race weekend, a threshold that is all but guaranteed to be crossed at the historic northern Italian circuit.

Located northeast of Milan, the Autodromo Nazionale Monza is projected to see mid-30s Celsius temperatures across all three days of on-track action. The region already hit a staggering 36 degrees Celsius near Milan’s Linate Airport just last Wednesday, underscoring the severity of the ongoing heat conditions.

The heat-hazard ruling brings with it adjusted rules to protect driver safety: competitors will be permitted to use a specialized personal cooling system that pumps cooled glycol liquid through a network of small pipes integrated into a fireproof undershirt worn beneath their racing overalls. Importantly, the cooling kit is not mandatory, but drivers who opt out of using the system must add an extra 5 kilograms of ballast to their cars to maintain equal competitive weight across the grid, preventing any unfair performance advantage for those who skip the gear.

This weekend’s Italian Grand Prix marks the second Formula 1 race of the 2024 season to receive the heat-hazard designation. The first came earlier in the summer at the Austrian Grand Prix, when a widespread European heatwave pushed temperatures into dangerous territory for drivers.

While the cooling system is designed to reduce heat stress, many drivers have opted to avoid it in past events for two key reasons. First, the fitted undershirt can cause physical discomfort over the course of a 300-kilometer grand prix. Second, there have been previous incidents where the limited volume of coolant ran out before the checkered flag, leaving the liquid sitting in the pipes to warm up to the temperature of the car — which can climb far higher than already dangerous ambient air levels.

The risk of severe overheating is not an overstated concern for F1 drivers. Even in milder conditions, cockpit temperatures inside the tightly packed modern Formula 1 car regularly climb above 40 degrees Celsius. On top of that, drivers must wear multiple layers of fireproof protective gear, plus a nylon balaclava and heavy carbon fiber helmet, creating a perfect environment for heat exhaustion and dangerous dehydration during long races in high heat.

In the industrial city of Gelsenkirchen, Germany, matchdays bring local life to a standstill. Every road, tram and sidewalk leads to the 62,000-seat Veltins-Arena, where crowds clad in the club’s iconic blue and white flood in to cheer on their beloved FC Schalke 04. This unbreakable bond between the club and its community has been tested more than ever over the past six years, a period marked by two promotions, two relegations, near-insolvency and constant upheaval – but it has only grown stronger through every crisis.

The chaos of recent years traces back to a pattern of reckless financial decision-making. Years of overspending to chase instant success, combined with missed opportunities to qualify for lucrative European competitions and the financial shock of the Covid-19 pandemic, left Schalke drowning in massive debt. When the club dropped to the second-tier Bundesliga 2 for the first time in 21 years, even the worst-case scenario of total insolvency felt like a real possibility. Through it all, one thing remained certain: the fans never wavered.

That fierce loyalty is more than just casual support – it is woven into the identity of Gelsenkirchen’s working-class community. “It’s a kind of religious feeling that people have towards Schalke,” explained Professor Frank Eckardt, who grew up in the city’s Schalke-Nord neighborhood. “It feels like people think, ‘OK, we don’t have anything else, but we have Schalke. It’s our club.’ If you go to graveyards, for example, you will find that people have Schalke on their graves in one way or the other. So it is really something deep. You can take everything from us, but you will never take Schalke from us. That’s what they really believe.”

Even after the 2021 relegation, the club bounced back to the Bundesliga at the first attempt in 2022, giving fans hope that their struggles were over. That joy proved short-lived: a dismal campaign sent Schalke back to the second tier just 12 months later, where they would spend the next three seasons stagnating. A 10th-place finish was followed by an even grimmer 14th-place result in 2024, leaving the club just two spots above the drop to the third division.

German football analyst Mark Lovell argues that Schalke’s repeated struggles were largely self-inflicted, brought on by the weight of unmet expectations and years of living beyond their means. “They were expected to basically walk the league every season despite having huge financial problems,” Lovell noted. “There’s sympathy for Schalke, but they’ve been their own worst enemies by chasing success and extending themselves too far. When you do suffer relegation something has to give, and they haven’t been able to buy their way out. They had to live more to their needs, get rid of their best players, and then sort of start again with a real skeleton type operation.”

That rebuild began in earnest after the 14th-place finish in 2024, when the club turned to a new, unproven leadership team to turn their fortunes around. Tasked with engineering a promotion push was head coach Miron Muslić, a little-known Austrian manager who had just suffered relegation to England’s third tier with Plymouth Argyle. Few gave him a chance to succeed, but he quickly defied every expectation.

“He is the face of the Schalke promotion. He is the hero because his way of coaching is so powerful. He gave the people the belief back,” explained Robin Haack, a Schalke correspondent for local outlet WAV. “Nobody knew him before. Some Austrian who was relegated to the third league in England – he must be bad. But he proved all the haters wrong in an incredible way. Fans love him like I’ve never experienced a coach has been loved before.”

Muslić built his side around a high-pressing, hard-working style of play that perfectly aligns with Gelsenkirchen’s blue-collar identity, turning a group of underrated and discarded players into a cohesive promotion-winning unit. Working quietly behind the scenes alongside Muslić was newly appointed sporting director Frank Baumann, a former Germany international and ex-Werder Bremen sporting director who joined the club in June 2025.

Andreas Ernst, another WAV reporter covering Schalke, described the task Baumann walked into: “He had the whole club, but it lay on the ground. They said do whatever you want to do. But with no money. We have a bad team. But come here – a very great club. Frank Baumann did everything out of nothing.”

Lovell echoed that praise, noting that Baumann brought the steady, intelligent leadership Schalke had lacked for years: “At Schalke right now there’s some very intelligent football people behind the scenes. Frank Baumann’s a real top football man, and just a decent person, which Schalke didn’t have.”

Baumann’s most high-profile and impactful signing was experienced veteran striker Edin Džeko, who joined Schalke in January 2025 after a difficult spell at Italy’s Fiorentina. Now 40 years old, Džeko has already proven his worth, netting eight goals in his first 13 appearances for the club, including two strikes in this season’s DFB Pokal cup win.

For Muslić, Džeko is far more than just a goalscorer – he is an idol and a role model that has lifted the entire squad. “I grew up in Austria, but I’m from Bosnia. And Edin Dzeko for us is Gary Lineker. He’s our Johan Cruyff. He’s our Franz Beckenbauer. He’s just an idol,” Muslić told the BBC’s Euro Leagues podcast. “He’s 40 years old, and he’s still able to perform. That means he was super professional the last 25 years. That’s why he’s a role model and that’s why he will also have his impact and he will leave also his fingerprints in this upcoming Bundesliga season.”

Schalke defender Christian Fuchs added that Džeko’s biggest contribution has been building a stable, accountable club culture, a vital foundation for long-term success. “Where it’s a player like this… there’s so much respect towards him from his team-mates. It’s so important to build a club culture, to hold players accountable, to keep them all in check,” Fuchs explained. “Even if it’s a small piece in the bigger puzzle, there is so much value that you need to give to that. Dzeko plays an important part in growing stability in the club.”

While Džeko is a seasoned star rebuilding his legacy at Schalke, the club has also become a fresh start for players who had fallen on hard times. That is perfectly embodied by former Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius, who had repeatedly questioned whether to retire from football after years of struggle. At Schalke, Karius has earned a starting spot and emerged as a symbol of the club’s new resilient mindset.

“He is the face of this new Schalke, the face of this new resilience, this new mindset,” Muslić said. “After tough years behind him, he found a new home. He found new trust – like so many other players from Schalke who had some rough moments in their careers. They found a safe heaven. And then it was just about, let’s do this together and let’s start from scratch and let’s do it in our way.”

Schalke’s 2025-26 Bundesliga campaign got off to a tough start with a 3-0 defeat away to Augsburg, but even in defeat, the loyalty of the fanbase shone through: 6,000 visiting supporters stayed behind after the final whistle to cheer on the new squad. This weekend, the club will host reigning champions Bayern Munich for their first home game of the season, where a packed Veltins-Arena will create a typically raucous atmosphere.

Unlike past seasons, where fans and the club expected an immediate push for European football or even the title, expectations are far more grounded this time around. Most supporters are simply hoping the club can avoid relegation and secure a long-term foothold back in Germany’s top flight. It is a far cry from the glory days of the past, but it is a mindset that fits this new, rebuilt Schalke.

“We know the glory of the past. But we know also the present and the future,” Muslić said. “We are very humble but ambitious. Right now it’s all about playing another year in the Bundesliga.”

As Fuchs put it, Schalke 04 belongs in the Bundesliga – and after years of chaos, the whole city is ready to prove they are back to stay.

The 2026 US Open’s women’s singles draw saw defending two-time champion Aryna Sabalenka deliver a masterclass in dominant tennis on Wednesday, dispatching qualifier Polina Iatcenko in just 53 minutes to book her spot in the third round — but the quick-fire win was overshadowed by a tense post-match exchange between the world No. 1 and a reporter.

Sabalenka, 28, entered the final Grand Slam of the season chasing a piece of tennis history: only two women, Chris Evert (1975-1978) and Serena Williams (2012-2014), have ever claimed three consecutive US Open titles, a feat the Belarusian is now one win closer to achieving. Her 6-1 6-1 rout of 22-year-old debutant Iatcenko stands as one of the fastest Grand Slam wins of her professional career, a display of unrelenting pace and power that left the world No. 160 outmatched from the first point.

The young Russian qualifier, playing the biggest match of her career to date, struggled for rhythm early on, managing only three total winners across the match compared to Sabalenka’s 24. She earned a small win by holding serve to get on the scoreboard at 5-1 in the first set, breaking out in a relieved smile after the breakthrough, but it was only temporary respite. Sabalenka closed out the opening set in less than 30 minutes, and though Iatcenko took a bathroom break after the first set — widely seen as a chance to reset mentally rather than just change clothing — Sabalenka maintained her focus by practicing serves while waiting, and raced out to a 3-0 double break lead in the second set. Though Sabalenka dropped her serve once in a sloppy fourth game, she quickly reclaimed control, breaking Iatcenko twice more to close out the match.

For Iatcenko, the lopsided loss still came with silver linings: she earned valuable big-stage experience against the world’s top player on the US Open’s biggest court, and will walk away with a $190,000 paycheck, doubling her career prize money ahead of the tournament.

Despite the lopsided win, Sabalenka made it clear she was in no mood to entertain questions about off-court activity. When a reporter implied she had attended frequent parties in the lead-up to the tournament, referencing social media posts of brand events, Sabalenka pushed back sharply. “What kind of question is that? Just because I posted some activities with brands, you think that I’ve been partying [and] not training?” she said. When pressed again on whether she was only now “getting serious” with the tournament underway, she retorted: “Oh yeah, I wasn’t serious before that. Next question.”

The 2026 season has been an unusual one for Sabalenka. She got off to a historic start, dropping just one match — a loss to Elena Rybakina in the Australian Open final — in her first 27 outings, and claimed back-to-back titles at Indian Wells and Miami to solidify her hold on the world No. 1 ranking. But since completing the Sunshine Double, her form has dipped: she has posted a 17-7 win-loss record leading into the US Open, and has only reached one WTA semi-final in the past five months. Sabalenka has previously acknowledged she has been “dealing with several things” during this slump in form, and is still working to return to her best.

Sabalenka also faces significant ranking pressure in New York. Rybakina can overtake her for the world No. 1 spot if she reaches the semi-finals, even if Sabalenka defends her title. Third seed Jessica Pegula and fourth seed Coco Gauff also have chances to claim the top ranking if they win the tournament.

Up next for Sabalenka is a third-round match against Uzbekistan’s Kamilla Rakhimova. She said after the match that she was pleased with her performance: “I’m happy with the level I played, happy with the focus and happy to be through this match.”

In other women’s singles action on Wednesday, Pegula kept her dream of a first Grand Slam singles title alive with a comfortable 6-3 6-1 win over fellow American Sofia Kenin. Wimbledon champion Linda Noskova, Wimbledon runner-up Karolina Muchova, two-time major semi-finalist Marta Kostyuk and teenage American standout Iva Jovic all also claimed straight-set wins, extending the run of few upsets through the opening two rounds of the women’s draw.