分类： sports

As the UEFA Champions League final kicks off in Budapest this Saturday, reigning champion Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) has entered the final matchday with reinforced hunger to add a second consecutive continental trophy to its cabinet, according to key squad leaders.

The French Ligue 1 side lifted the Champions League trophy for the first time in club history last season, beating Inter Milan by a dominant 5-0 margin in the final. That first taste of elite European glory has left the entire squad craving a repeat experience, captain Marquinhos told reporters ahead of the matchup against Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal, who are still chasing their first ever Champions League title.

“Once you win the Champions League, once you taste that title, once you taste that moment, you want so badly to relive moments like that again,” the Brazilian center-back shared from Budapest’s Puskas Arena. “I still remember today the feeling and emotion in the dressing room after that final. And for us, as competitors, we always want to feel that emotion. And again, we have to be hungry, we have to have motivation.”

The passionate support traveling from Paris to Budapest for the final has only strengthened the squad’s resolve, Marquinhos added, noting that even his own father is making the multi-hour cross-continental road trip alongside friends to cheer the team on. “You have people who came from far away to push us on. So the motivation, the hunger, and the ambition to win this title have not changed since last year. And maybe it’s even stronger because we’ve tasted it.”

PSG forward Ousmane Dembele echoed his captain’s sentiment, emphasizing that consistent title wins are the mark of truly elite players. The 2023 Ballon d’Or winner, who picked up the award after spearheading PSG’s title run last season, confirmed his full fitness heading into the final despite a minor calf injury earlier this month. He pulled out of training immediately after noticing the niggle, leaving 10 to 15 days of recovery time to get back to full match sharpness, and says he never feared missing out on the decider.

Dembele, who previously played for Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona before moving to Paris, noted that winning the Ballon d’Or did not shift his focus or playing style, but it did deepen his sense of responsibility to the club. “Right now I’m trying to perform well on the pitch, whether it’s in the big matches or the smaller ones. I still have that desire, that hunger to win trophies with this club, with all the staff and this squad, and that’s the only thing in my head. Individual awards, I know people talk about them a lot, but those come afterwards,” he said.

The French international added that the entire young, talented PSG squad enters every competition with the same hunger for victory, regardless of whether it is the Champions League, domestic league, or national cup. “If we want to be great players, we have to win this kind of trophy several times. We’re hungry, and we hope everything goes well tomorrow,” he said.

Marquinhos acknowledged that Arsenal will pose a formidable test for the defending champions. The Gunners have kept a clean sheet far more often than any other side in this year’s competition, entering the final unbeaten throughout their Champions League run, and they have developed a reputation for converting dead ball situations into scoring chances.

“We know their strength, we know how hard and difficult it is to come up against this Arsenal side,” Marquinhos said. “In a match, especially in a final, it’s going to be decided on the details: knowing how to defend, how to attack, how to counter, how to defend a set piece, also how to attack a set piece. All the little details in a football match and in a final are going to be important. We’ve prepared ourselves for all those details.”

In a devastating turn of events that has sent shockwaves through Australian rugby league, rising star Blayke Brailey is facing a suspected broken forearm just days after achieving the career highlight of his State of Origin debut, casting doubt over his upcoming club and representative fixtures.

Brailey suffered the injury during Cronulla Sharks’ 28-22 home win against Manly Warringah Sea Eagles on Friday night, when he made a tackle on opposition winger Jason Saab and sustained direct blunt force to his right arm. The 28-year-old dummy-half left the playing field immediately with 27 minutes remaining in the match, heading straight down the tunnel for urgent on-site assessment.

The incident comes only 48 hours after Brailey earned his first call-up to the New South Wales Blues side for the opening game of the 2026 State of Origin series, where he delivered a standout performance that was central to the Blues’ comeback victory. During the match, the Sharks rake made a game-changing break through the Queensland defensive line to set up star halfback Nathan Cleary for a crucial try, cementing his role in the side ahead of the second game scheduled for June 17 in Melbourne.

Multiple sources within the club have confirmed the severity of the injury, with Sharks veteran lock Cam McInnes revealing an extraordinary show of toughness from Brailey immediately after the incident. “He’s the toughest player I’ve ever played alongside for his size,” McInnes told reporters post-match. “I don’t want to overshare, but one of the club physios said as he walked off the field, he put the bone back into place himself without flinching once. That sort of grit is unheard of. It’s a brutal injury, and I’m absolutely shattered for him.”

Fellow Sharks and Blues teammate Addin Fonua-Blake echoed McInnes’ sentiments, praising Brailey’s relentless professionalism and competitiveness. “He was so ready for this moment, he’d worked so hard to get his Origin debut, and he played out of his skin on Wednesday,” Fonua-Blake said. “He even tried to insist on going back out onto the field after getting injured. Coaches had to pull him back to stop him hurting himself worse. There’s no one tougher in this competition, and I’m heartbroken this happened to him. I know he’ll do everything possible to get back fit as fast as he can.”

Sharks head coach Craig Fitzgibbon confirmed that Brailey will undergo official scans on Saturday to confirm the fracture and assess its severity. Speaking after the win, Fitzgibbon said the early prognosis suggests a break, but the team is holding out hope for a shorter recovery period if the fracture is clean and non-displaced. “Right now, it’s not looking good, but we’re waiting on scans to know for sure,” Fitzgibbon explained. “If it is a break, the best-case scenario is a clean fracture that only needs 4 to 8 weeks out. He’s absolutely gutted, honestly – five minutes after that Origin win on Wednesday, he texted me to say he was good to go and ready to play for the Sharks tonight. That’s just who he is: he loves this club, he loves playing, and this hurts. But at the same time, this opens an opportunity for other guys to step up.”

Leading NRL physiotherapy experts have weighed in on the potential recovery timeline, noting that most forearm fractures in rugby league players require between one and two months out of action, depending on the exact location and severity of the break. If the scans confirm a fracture, Brailey will almost certainly miss the Blues’ second Origin game in Melbourne, with two experienced players already being linked as potential replacements: Wests Tigers veteran Api Koroisau and Sydney Roosters utility Connor Watson.

For Cronulla, the absence of Brailey represents a significant disruption to the club’s season, given the dummy-half’s extraordinary run of consecutive appearances. Before a head knock forced him out of Magic Round earlier this month, Brailey had started 139 straight NRL matches for the Sharks, an unmatched display of durability in the modern game. Hohepa Puru stepped into the role in the second half of Friday’s win, and young rake Jayden Berrell, who has already featured in four NRL games this season, is also on standby to cover the position if Brailey is sidelined. Fitzgibbon expressed confidence in his depth, even as he mourned the injury to his star player. “It’s a big blow, but we’ve got two ready-made options waiting in the wings who’ve already stepped up for us this year,” he said. “Blayke isn’t going to be out forever, and we’ll get him back fit and strong as soon as we can.”

The 2026 FIFA World Cup, co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, is on track to become the largest sports betting event in history, with industry analysts projecting total global betting revenue will surge past the $50 billion mark — far outstripping the totals from the 2022 Qatar edition of the quadrennial football tournament.

Two key factors are driving this unprecedented betting boom, according to Darren Small, Managing Director of Managed Trading Services at global sports technology firm Sportradar. First, the tournament has undergone a major expansion, growing from 32 competing nations to 48, creating far more matches, markets, and betting opportunities for enthusiasts worldwide. Second, shifting betting habits among modern punters have opened up massive new revenue streams that did not exist at previous World Cups.

Gone are the days when most bettors only placed simple wagers on which team would win a match, Small explained. Today, a growing share of interest centers on player-specific props and customizable betting options, often called bet builders, that let fans craft unique wagers tailored to their expectations of a game. These can range from simple bets on whether a star player will score, to more complex combinations that include the number of corners, tackles, passes, or even which foot a player will score with. “Customers are building out entire narratives for their bets,” Small noted in an interview with Agence France-Presse. “They might combine a bet on X team winning with both teams scoring, player Y scoring a header, and over 15 total corners in the match.” This segment has already become a major driver of growth for the industry.

David Stevens, head of public relations for leading UK bookmaker Coral, echoed this assessment, calling custom bet building “one of the fastest growing areas of our business.” The trend, he added, caters perfectly to a new, younger demographic of bettors who crave more dynamic, engaging wagering opportunities rather than traditional straight win/lose bets.

As early betting flows in, two defending champions top the list of most-backed teams: 2022 winner Argentina and 2018 winner France hold the largest share of early wagers placed through Sportradar’s network of 250 global sports book clients. England, which has not won the World Cup since 1966, remains a fan favorite, sitting third in early odds behind France and Spain. Should England end the 60-year title drought, Stevens noted, bookmakers face a sizeable payout — though the increasingly global nature of the industry means an England win would be far less costly than it would have been a decade ago.

In the race for the Golden Boot, awarded to the tournament’s top scorer, the bulk of early bets have gone to global superstars Kylian Mbappe of France and Erling Haaland of Norway. Small told AFP that more than 20 percent of early Golden Boot betting volume through Sportradar has been placed on Haaland alone. But one unexpected name has crept into the top 10 of early betting that has left analysts amused rather than alarmed: Ben Waine, a striker for recently relegated fourth-tier English club Port Vale, who qualified for the tournament with New Zealand. “It’s really strange, as in peculiar not sinister,” Small said of the unexpected run of bets on Waine.

Industry leaders do note one logistical challenge posed by the 2026 co-hosting format: the wide geographical spread of match venues across North America has created tricky kickoff times for European audiences, particularly for matches held on the U.S. West Coast, which will fall in the middle of the night for most European viewers. Even so, growing betting activity in South America, led by traditional football powerhouse Brazil, is expected to offset any dip from European viewership challenges.

For the host nation the United States, early betting interest on a U.S. title run remains low, with 40-1 odds of an American upset victory. Stevens even joked that if the U.S. did defy the odds to lift the trophy, former president and current 2024 presidential candidate Donald Trump would likely demand a spot in the trophy-lifting celebrations: “Should the USA defy odds of 40-1 and lift the trophy, expect very short odds about the President being at the centre of the celebrations!”

A decades-long friendship with a former Australian Football League umpire has landed a 36-year-old Melbourne man in legal trouble, after he pleaded guilty to running a two-year insider betting scheme that exploited confidential voting information for the prestigious Brownlow Medal.

William Forde entered guilty pleas to six corruption and betting-related charges during a Friday hearing at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court, linked to manipulated wagers placed on the 2021 and 2022 editions of the Brownlow Medal, the AFL’s highest individual honor for season-long player performance. Prosecutors agreed to withdraw 47 additional charges ahead of the plea, and the court approved an application to hear the matter through a summary proceeding rather than a full trial.

Forde’s case is one part of a wider investigation launched by Victoria Police’s specialist sporting integrity unit, which laid charges against Forde, former umpire Michael Pell, and two other co-accused in August 2023. The court confirmed that Pell and the two other defendants are currently contesting their identical charges, with a committal hearing scheduled for next month to determine whether their cases will proceed to a full criminal trial.

Prosecutor Greg Buchhorn outlined the Crown’s case to the court on Friday, laying out how the long-running conspiracy operated. Forde and Pell have been close since childhood, having grown up together and attended the same Melbourne schools. In 2021, Pell – who served as an umpire in AFL matches – began sharing confidential details of the three-vote selections he awarded after each game, a key component of the final Brownlow Medal vote count. Buchhorn explained that Forde recruited four additional associates to place wagers on the predetermined vote outcomes, to avoid drawing attention to the scheme.

To cover their tracks, the syndicate adopted multiple layers of concealment: they used end-to-end encrypted messaging platforms to communicate, shared handwritten notes of vote details as image files to avoid detection, placed decoy bets on unrelated match rounds to mask their activity, and on one occasion transported thousands of dollars in cash to a regional Victorian town inside a pillowcase to avoid money tracing.

After the full 2021 Brownlow Medal count was concluded and the winner announced, the scheme netted the group approximately AU$40,750 in illegal profits, which prosecutors allege were split between Forde, his four betting associates, and Pell.

The conspiracy expanded in 2022, after Pell was promoted to a full-time regular field umpire position, giving him access to a greater number of vote selections ahead of the annual count. Buchhorn told the court that on August 21, 2022, just after the final round of the regular AFL season, Forde met Pell and Pell’s infant son at a public park in the Melbourne suburb of Glenroy. During that meeting, Pell passed Forde AU$27,000 earmarked for betting, as well as color-coded notes that detailed which players had received Brownlow votes in every game Pell had officiated that season.

Profits from the 2022 round of betting exceeded the previous year’s takings, with the syndicate pulling in roughly AU$60,345 in illegal gains from bets placed directly by Forde or on his instructions.

The operation was uncovered later that year, when betting regulators flagged suspicious wagering activity during the 2022 Brownlow count. Police arrested Forde in November 2022, and he has been on public record with charges since August 2023.

Buchhorn told the court that during police interviews, Forde was fully forthcoming about his role in the scheme. He told investigators he had rationalized his actions by arguing that betting agencies had taken large sums of money from him through personal gambling in years prior.

Forde’s defense attorney, Heather Anderson, told the court her client accepts the prosecution’s summary of the offending as accurate, and has expressed deep shame and genuine remorse for his actions. Anderson described Forde’s involvement as opportunistic: he simply chose to exploit confidential information shared by a close childhood friend for personal financial gain. For the three and a half years since his police interview, Anderson explained, the knowledge of his impending prosecution has hung over Forde, and he has endured significant public humiliation from widespread media coverage of the case.

Defense counsel has argued that an appropriate sentence for Forde would be either a substantial financial penalty, or a community-based order requiring unpaid community work. The prosecution has confirmed it does not oppose this sentencing request. Magistrate Siobhan Whittle will hand down Forde’s sentence when he returns to court for a sentencing hearing on June 3.

It has been nearly four years since Lionel Messi etched his name into soccer immortality by lifting the FIFA World Cup trophy with Argentina in Qatar 2022, an achievement that capped what many thought would be the perfect final chapter of his legendary international career. Now, just months away from his 39th birthday, the Argentine icon is set to make history once more as he prepares to compete in a record-breaking sixth World Cup in North America, chasing an unprecedented back-to-back tournament victory that no other Argentine captain has pulled off in more than half a century.

Messi’s 2022 campaign was nothing short of iconic: seven goals, three assists across seven matches, including a clinical brace in the unforgettable final against France, and a coolly converted penalty in the decisive shootout that secured Argentina’s third World Cup title. After that historic win, Messi himself admitted he could not have asked for a better ending to his international journey. “Obviously I wanted to finish my career with this. I can’t ask for any more,” he said in the immediate aftermath of the Doha triumph, a comment that fueled widespread speculation he would hang up his international boots soon after.

But fueled by his enduring love for the game and a desire to continue competing as a world champion, Messi chose to extend his international career, a decision that has been widely celebrated by the Argentine camp. Head coach Lionel Scaloni has repeatedly emphasized that no replacement can ever fill the void left by arguably the greatest player to ever step onto a soccer pitch. “There can’t be. There won’t be. There won’t be an heir to Messi, for sure,” Scaloni told outlet Flashscore in September, making clear how critical the 38-year-old remains to Argentina’s title hopes.

Critics have questioned whether Messi still has the stamina and elite edge he displayed during his peak years in European soccer. After an uneven two-year spell at Paris Saint-Germain, Messi left Europe in 2023 to join Major League Soccer side Inter Miami, meaning he no longer competes at the highest club level week in and week out; his last win in a UEFA Champions League knockout tie stretches all the way back to 2020. But the Argentine legend has shown he still has the golden touch in MLS: he helped Inter Miami lift the MLS Cup last year, and has already notched 13 goals in 16 appearances for the club in 2026. A minor hamstring injury that forced him off during a recent match against Philadelphia Union is the only question mark over his fitness ahead of the tournament, and he is on track to lead Argentina into their opening group clash against Algeria in Kansas City on June 16.

Messi’s journey to this historic sixth World Cup began all the way back in 2006, when he made his World Cup debut as a teenager in Germany. He went on to captain Argentina to the 2014 final in Brazil, where they suffered a heart-breaking extra-time loss to Germany. Since Qatar 2022, he has added more international silverware to his cabinet, lifting the Copa America title on U.S. soil in 2024, and finished as the top scorer in South American World Cup qualifying. He is already Argentina’s all-time top goal scorer and most-capped player, and is just two matches away from hitting a remarkable 200 international caps – a milestone he could reach even before the World Cup kicks off, when Argentina plays pre-tournament friendlies against Honduras in Texas and Iceland in Alabama.

The 39th birthday of the Argentine legend falls just three days before Argentina’s final group stage match against Jordan in Arlington, Texas, capping a historic milestone in a tournament that is widely expected to be his final World Cup. Teammate Julian Alvarez, the 26-year-old Atletico Madrid forward who was part of the 2022 title-winning squad, says the entire camp is aware of the significance of the moment. “We’re all fully aware that this could well be Leo’s last World Cup, given his age, but it’s his decision at the end of the day,” Alvarez told FIFA.com. “It’ll certainly make for a special World Cup and I don’t just mean for us, his team-mates and the Argentinian people, but for everyone who watches and follows him, given that he’s the best player of all time. He’s made a colossal impact the world over.”

While the entire soccer world is focused on Messi’s final act, Argentina’s deep squad means the team does not have to rely solely on their ageing talisman. Alvarez himself is a world-class talent, and the squad also features a host of elite young players including Inter Milan striker Lautaro Martinez, who won the Serie A golden boot, midfield stars Enzo Fernandez and Alexis Mac Allister, defensive leader Cristian Romero, and star goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez. As proof of the team’s strength even without Messi, Argentina secured a marquee 4-1 home victory over bitter rivals Brazil in qualifying with their captain sidelined.

Alvarez says the team’s ambition remains the same as it was in 2022, regardless of Messi’s age or status. “As an Argentinian, the excitement is always there and we always want to be crowned champions. There’s no reason for this time to be any different,” he added. For soccer fans around the world, the upcoming World Cup will be a chance to say goodbye to a legend – and to see if he can pull off one more historic miracle.

Thirty-two years after he led the groundbreaking 1994 FIFA World Cup that first cemented soccer’s place in mainstream American consciousness, 87-year-old Alan Rothenberg — the tournament’s chief architect and one of U.S. soccer’s earliest pioneers — is convinced the sport is on an irreversible trajectory to dethrone the NFL as the nation’s most popular sport.

When the U.S. hosted its first-ever World Cup in 1994, Rothenberg recalls, soccer was widely dismissed across American media circles: derided as boring, low-scoring, and a foreign pastime that would never catch on with domestic sports fans. Speaking from his Beverly Hills home office ahead of the 2026 World Cup, where the U.S. will host the majority of matches, Rothenberg has watched that narrative flip dramatically over three decades.

Today, Major League Soccer (MLS) boasts 30 professional franchises, drawing an average of more than 20,000 fans per game — a figure that outpaces average attendance for both the NBA and NHL. Top European competitions, including the English Premier League, now air for free on national U.S. television, bringing elite soccer to millions of households weekly.

“Thirty years from now, I think we will have challenged, if not already overtaken, the NFL for prominence in this country,” Rothenberg told AFP. “I can’t imagine the NFL growing any further; it will eventually plateau. Mounting concerns over player injuries will slow its growth, while soccer just keeps soaring.”

To back up his claim, Rothenberg points to a visible shift at his alma mater, the University of Michigan, a longstanding powerhouse of collegiate American football. “When I was a student, and for decades after, any open field in Ann Arbor would be full of people throwing an American football,” he explained. “Drive past those same fields today, and they’re all playing soccer.”

Rothenberg has documented his decades-long role building U.S. soccer in a new memoir, *The Big Bounce: The Surge that Shaped the Future of US Soccer*, which traces his involvement back to the 1960s, when he helped manage the Los Angeles Wolves in the United Soccer Association, the precursor to the North American Soccer League. He later oversaw the wildly successful 1984 Los Angeles Olympic soccer tournament, which drew more than 100,000 fans to the Pasadena Rose Bowl for the gold medal match between France and Brazil.

As CEO of the 1994 World Cup, Rothenberg led the most well-attended tournament in FIFA history, with an average match attendance of 68,991 that still stands today. He credits part of that success to the U.S. men’s national team, which defied low expectations to reach the knockout round, falling to eventual champion Brazil in the round of 16. “If our team had been an embarrassment, no matter how many tickets we sold or how much revenue we generated, there would have been a permanent dark cloud over the sport here,” he noted.

Three decades later, Rothenberg says the pressure is off the 2026 U.S. squad, thanks to soccer’s far stronger standing in the country. “I’m confident we’ll get out of the group stage; how far we go after that depends on our development and our draw,” he said. “But I’m not worried about an embarrassment anymore — the sport has solid roots it didn’t have before. A great run will boost us even more, but a bad performance won’t kill soccer in America now.”

On the topic of World Cup expansion, Rothenberg has broken with common critics who argue the expansion from 24 teams in 1994 to 48 teams in 2026 has diluted on-field quality. He even supports a future expansion to 64 teams, and proposes scrapping group stages entirely for a full single-elimination format that would make every match do-or-die.

“It’s a radical idea, but it’s worth examining,” he said. “There will definitely be some blowouts, but it will also create more opportunities for Cinderella stories — underdog nations that come out of nowhere to upset top seeds, or even knock them out. That would bring a whole new level of excitement to the tournament.”

Rothenberg also pushed back on widespread fan criticism of FIFA’s controversial 2026 ticketing model, arguing the backlash will amount to nothing more than temporary media chatter. “In the U.S., we’re already accustomed to high and dynamic pricing for major events,” he explained. “People who aren’t wealthy still spend thousands of dollars to see Taylor Swift or Bad Bunny. This just reflects the actual market. Will pricing be out of reach for some people? Yes, but that’s unfortunately the case for many things in modern society.”

As the latest round of the National Rugby League (NRL) approaches, two of the Queensland Maroons’ biggest stars from the opening State of Origin clash are facing last-minute fitness questions ahead of Melbourne Storm’s Saturday night showdown with the Sydney Roosters, while the Newcastle Knights have locked in their full Origin contingent, including star fullback Kalyn Ponga, for their match against the Parramatta Eels.

Storm superstars Harry Grant and Cameron Munster, who were key contributors to Queensland’s dramatic State of Origin opener in Sydney earlier this week, skipped the team’s traditional Friday captain’s run, leaving their game status up in the air. Both players put in standout performances for the Maroons despite the side squandering a commanding 20-point first-half lead: Grant notched a match-high 46 tackles and produced a brilliant flick pass that set up a try for prop Thomas Flegler, while Munster made 14 attacking runs and created one try of his own.

Melbourne head coach Craig Bellamy confirmed Friday that the duo remain undecided for the round 15 clash, with the club waiting to assess their recovery from the high-intensity Origin fixture before making a final call. “Whether they play or not, I’m not quite sure yet. We’ll just see how they pull up tomorrow,” Bellamy told reporters. “They won’t be doing any training today. They’d like to play, but whether it’s best for them or not, we’re not quite sure yet. They need to have a few more checks and then go from there.”

If Grant and Munster are ruled out through fatigue or injury, youngsters Trent Toelau and Keagan Russell-Smith are in line to step into the starting lineup. One Queensland Origin forward that will be suiting up for the Storm this weekend is bench forward Trent Loiero, who only saw 15 minutes of game time in the Origin opener. “We think Trent’s going to be OK because he only played 15 minutes so he’s really keen to play, and I think he’ll train today,” Bellamy added.

Across the draw, Newcastle Knights head coach Justin Holbrook has confirmed that all of the club’s players who featured in the opening Origin fixture will be available to back up against the Eels this Saturday. That includes star Queensland fullback Kalyn Ponga, who was sent off early in the Origin opener and issued a fine for an illegal shoulder charge. Ponga is set to lead the Knights into this weekend’s clash after coming through the Origin fixture with no lingering fitness issues.

New South Wales Blues pair Jacob Saifiti and Dylan Lucas, who were named in the Origin squad but did not take the field, will also be available for selection, matching the squad the Knights named earlier in the week. “After Origin, Kalyn’s feeling good, so he’ll back-up,” Holbrook said. “The other boys didn’t get a run, so we’re all good to go as what we’ve named.”

For the Storm, the potential absence of their two star Origin representatives comes at a tricky time, as the club looks to bounce back from a frustrating loss to the Canterbury Bulldogs last round. Melbourne surrendered a substantial halftime lead against the Bulldogs to fall to defeat, a second-half collapse that left Bellamy frustrated and searching for answers. The coach noted that he has already implemented small adjustments to fix the side’s troubling second-half drop-offs, but those changes will need more time to take full effect.

“We’ve already tried to tweak a few things, but there are only so many things you can tweak. The tweaks we’ve made might take a week or two to work,” Bellamy said. “I can’t remember the last time in my coaching career that I’ve been so confused about that. We’ve tried a few different things, but we just can’t seem to get it right in the second half. If we keep talking about it and thinking about it, we’ve got to worry about the rest of the game.”

The Roosters, who will host the Storm, could also field a vastly changed side this weekend if head coach Trent Robinson opts to rest several of his own stars coming off State of Origin duties, making a Melbourne win even more dependent on whether Grant and Munster are able to take the field.

As the Sydney Roosters prepare to face the Melbourne Storm at AAMI Park this Saturday, veteran Roosters enforcer Naufahu Whyte says the 15th-place ladder position of the perennial powerhouse means nothing. For Whyte, who has followed the Storm since early childhood, the Melbourne side has been a consistent benchmark of excellence in the National Rugby League (NRL) for nearly two decades.

Calculated from when Whyte first started watching rugby league at age four, the Storm have only fallen short of a top-four finish on three occasions since the 2006 season. That long history of dominance is why Whyte admits he remains stunned by the club’s underwhelming 2026 form, even as he prepares his side for a brutal battle on the Storm’s home turf.

“I’ve watched Storm growing up my whole life and never once did I see them outside the top four. So it’s crazy, man,” Whyte told NewsWire. “But that’s footy sometimes, and things don’t always go your way. When we go down there this week, we’re not going to expect any less from them … On the ladder or whatever doesn’t mean anything. Melbourne Storm is still Melbourne Storm, and they’re still a hard team to beat down in Melbourne.”

Whyte knows firsthand how tough the Storm can be: he has only claimed victory once in six career appearances against them. The Roosters as a whole have also struggled against the NRL’s two modern powerhouses, Melbourne and the Penrith Panthers, notching just three wins from their last 27 combined matches against the two sides. Yet recent history gives the Roosters confidence heading into this weekend’s clash.

Last year, the Roosters righted their wrongs against the Storm with a stunning come-from-behind thrashing in Melbourne, where they scored 40 unanswered points in the second half to lock in the win. Earlier this 2026 season, the Roosters pulled off an upset against the Panthers in a round two clash, securing victory despite being missing several key starting players.

“I think people sleep on us a lot about going up against Penrith and Storm,” Whyte said. “I know stats-wise it hasn’t shown, but I’ll back our team to beat any pack at the end of the day. When we’re at our best, we can beat anyone that stands in front of us.”

Whyte added that those two upset wins have reshaped the squad’s belief that they can compete with the league’s elite. “That win towards the back end of the year going into finals and everything definitely was a huge leap for us and gave us confidence going into that finals series even if it didn’t come off the way we wanted it to,” he explained. “Even at the start of the season against Panthers, we didn’t have anybody and we still managed to come away with the win. So it just goes to show we can compete with the top teams, and I believe that we are a top team in this comp. I know when we’re at our best, I know a lot of teams fear us being at our best.”

Leading the forward pack this Saturday, Whyte will count on valuable support from impact substitute Nat Butcher, who is currently playing the best football of his 10-year NRL career. Butcher, who made his league debut in 2016, has filled multiple roles for the Roosters across his career, shifting between middle forward, edge position, and his current role off the interchange bench. This season, he is averaging a career-high 112 running metres per game, and put up a massive 182-metre performance with a try against Brisbane just weeks ago.

Whyte credits Butcher’s new status as a father of three for his elevated form, after Butcher and his wife welcomed twin daughters in January that expanded their young family to five children. “I think he is in his career-best form right now,” Whyte said. “I kind of look at him and he’s got a little family of his own now, and you obviously just see that dad strength in him coming out. That mentality of wanting to provide for his family, that’s how I see him, and he’s playing his best footy. Big minutes, big carries, big tackles. He’s been doing that for a very long time, but I feel like it’s just this time around he’s getting his flowers, and he’s getting his recognition of what he does in the game.”

Butcher himself says his career-best form comes after a frustrating injury-plagued 2025 season that forced him to miss extensive game time, which ultimately rekindled his appreciation for the sport. “I had a horrid year last year with the injury. That was super frustrating and I missed the game heaps, missed playing, missed being around the team, missed so many of those little things that you just don’t get to experience when you’re injured and on the sidelines,” Butcher said. “I had the amazing support of my wife, Harmony, and got to have some great time with my son, Beau, that you just wouldn’t get in the thick of the season. That was super grateful and it also put into perspective my love for the game, my love for the club, and my love for my teammates.”

“I’m not sure if I can pinpoint anything. I think I just love what I’m doing,” he added.

Four years after lifting the coveted World Cup trophy in Qatar, Argentine football icon Lionel Messi is set to make history this summer, after national team head coach Lionel Scaloni officially confirmed Thursday that the 38-year-old will wear the captain’s armband and lead the defending champions at the 2026 FIFA World Cup co-hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The announcement ends weeks of unofficial speculation, confirming that the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner will feature in a record-breaking sixth World Cup, a milestone only matched by Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Mexican goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa in this year’s tournament.

The 26-man roster unveiled by Scaloni retains 17 of the 26 players that delivered Argentina’s third World Cup title in 2022, blending veteran championship experience with exciting young emerging talent. Among the most notable inclusions is Tottenham Hotspur center-back and captain Cristian Romero, who earned a call-up despite suffering a season-ending knee injury last month that ruled him out of the remainder of the English Premier League campaign. Romero’s injury came after he was collided with by Sunderland striker Brian Brobbey, forcing him off the pitch prematurely, but Scaloni has opted to include the recovered defender in his final squad.

Young prospects stepping into their first World Cup include 21-year-olds Nicolas Paz and Valentin Barco, as well as Palmeiras forward Jose Manuel Lopez, who earned his first international cap only last year. The announcement, however, brought several surprising omissions that have drawn attention across global football. Most notably, 18-year-old Franco Mastantuono, one of the most hyped young Argentine talents in recent years currently plying his trade at Real Madrid, was left out of the final cut. Other high-profile absentees include in-form Aston Villa attacking midfielder Emiliano Buendia and AS Roma star forward Paulo Dybala, both of whom missed out on a spot in the roster.

In recent days, Messi has been the center of growing injury concerns after he was substituted early in Inter Miami’s 6-4 win over the Philadelphia Union in the 73rd minute. The Major League Soccer club confirmed this week that medical assessments diagnosed the forward with muscle fatigue in his left hamstring, but has yet to release a clear timeline for his return to competitive match action. Scaloni moved quickly this week to downplay fears over the issue, telling reporters the injury is not serious enough to threaten Messi’s participation in the tournament.

The 2026 World Cup, the largest iteration of the tournament in history with an expanded 48-team format, will kick off on June 11. Argentina will open their title defense campaign five days later on June 16, facing Algeria in a Group Stage match hosted in Kansas City. Before the tournament gets underway, the South American side will travel to the United States to play pre-tournament warm-up friendlies against Honduras on June 6 and Iceland three days later on June 9. Argentina’s Group also includes Austria and Jordan, as the side looks to become only the third men’s national team to win back-to-back World Cup titles in the modern era.