Benfica and Leipzig reviews, Wirtz and other moves, World Cup, Serie A fixtures – GAME OF THE PEOPLE
IT is the silly season, of course, so we should not be surprised that there’s a lot of strange activity going on across Europe. In Italy, for example, eight of Serie A’s club have changed their manager since the season ended. The latest change is Roma’s appointment of Gian Piero Gasperini as successor to dear old Claudio Rainieri. In England, Ange Postecoglou, despite winning the Europa League, has been shown the door at Spurs, while in the Bundesliga, Erik ten Hag has been named Bayer Leverkusen’s new coach. His predecessor, Xabi Alonso, has joined Real Madrid. There’s more to come…
World Cup Qualifiers: Shock for Italy
ITALY seem to be good at making their life difficult in the World Cup. Having failed to qualify for the last two competitions, they made a bad start to the 2026 qualifying campaign, losing 3-0 to Norway in Oslo. If they don’t make it to the North American World Cup, a 48-team format, they will be very short on excuses. Norway scored all three of their goals in the first half through Alexander Sørloth, Antonio Nusa and Erling Haaland. Italy’s captain and goalkeeper, Gianluigi Donnarumma, was outraged, claiming his team’s performance was “unacceptable”. Norway have played three games and have a 100% record in their qualifying group. Meanwhile, the future of Italy’s coach, Luciano Spalletti is in doubt and he has even told some sections of the media that he has been sacked.
Club Review: Benfica – so close, but so far
AS they prepare to take part in the Club World Cup, Benfica can look back on a season where they became the nearly men. They were runners-up to Lisbon rivals Sporting in both the Primeira Liga (just two points behind) and Taça de Portugal and enjoyed a run to the last 16 of the Champions League. They won some silverware in the form of the Taça da Liga, in which they beat Sporting on penalties in the final. Benfica remain Portugal’s biggest club and averaged almost 59,000 at their home games. They went into the season with Roger Schmidt at the helm, but sacked him after the first four league games. Bruno Lage took over in September. In the new-look Champions League, Benfica put on some good displays, notably when they beat Atlético Madrid 4-0 and Monaco 3-2 away from home. They had three exciting clashes with Barcelona, one of which ended 5-4 to the Catalans. Off the pitch, Benfica made a € 30 million loss in 2023-24 and generated € 179 million in revenues, of which 62% was paid to players. The club has over € 200 million of debt. They continue to sell players at very healthy fees, the most recent deals including João Neves to Paris Saint-Germain for € 60 million and Marcos Leanardo to Al-Hilal for € 40 million. Benfica went very close in their domestic competitions, underlining the fine margin between success and failure.
Serie A: Opening day fixtures
ITALIAN champions Napoli kick-off the defence of their title with an away game at newly promoted Sassuolo on the weekend of August 24. The other promoted sides, Pisa and Cremonense are away to Atalanta and AC Milan respectively. Inter Milan, who finished runners-up in Serie A and the Champions League, begin with a home game against Torino. Juventus are also at home, welcoming Parma to the Allianz Stadium.
Transfers: Wirtz for Anfield?
THE summer’s most sought-after player, Bayer Leverkusen’s Florian Wirtz, is wanted by Liverpool but at present, the two clubs cannot agree a figure for the 22 year-old Germany international. Liverpool have bid three times and Leverkusen have rejected them all. It is thought the Premier champions will return with a £ 118 million offer for Wirtz in the next few days. Inter Milan have been busy in the summer and have signed winger Luis Henrique (23) from Olympique Marseille for € 25 million and midfielder Petar Sucic (21) from Dinamo Zagreb for € 14 million. Chelsea continue to search for young talent and have acquired Dário Essugo (20) and Geovany Quenda (17) from Sporting for a combined fee of around € 70 million. Manchester City have agreed to pay £ 31 million for Wolves defender Ryana Aït-Nouri (24). West Ham United have signed 25-year-old centre back Jean-Claude Todibo from Nice for £ 32 million after a successful loan spell in 2024-25.
Club Review: RB Leipzig – strangely out of sorts
AFTER almost a decade of progress, RB Leipzig had to deal with disappointment in 2024-25. They failed to qualify for European competition for the first time since their promotion to the Bundesliga in 2016. The lack of Champions League football in 2025-26 will cost them in excess of € 70 million in revenues. Leipzig had a miserable Champions League, losing seven of their eight league phase games and suffering the humiliation of being the first team to be eliminated in the 36-team format. They finished seventh in the Bundesliga and reached the last four of the DFB Pokal. Nevertheless, Leipzig have some top talent in Xavi Simons, a € 50 million signing from Paris Saint-Germain and Benjamin Šeško. Once more, they sold players for high fees in the market, the most noteworthy being Dani Olmo’s move to Barcelona for € 55 million. Manager Marcus Rose was sacked at the end of March and the Hungarian Zsolt Löw was installed as interim coach. Leipzig won just 13 times in the league but drew 12 – the highest number in the Bundesliga – which clearly cost them a higher place. They scored only 53 goals in 34 games. A new manager will be hired before the start of 2025-26 and his first target will surely be to ensure RB Leipzig are back in Europe in a year’s time.
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