Questions about a potential FIFA ban on Indian football have been looming for some time. Indian football faces probably its darkest time, with the All Indian Football Federation (AIFF) and...
It started in the streets of Hyderabad before weaving its way through the world, gathering riches on its way. The story of Sania Mirza’s tennis journey is one of the...
A professional sports coach is often the most authoritative figure in a young athlete’s life, even more so than a teacher. It is their instructions and guidance that ultimately proves...
The 22-year-old Portuguese midfielder has become Arsenal’s second summer signing. The Gunners are reportedly also preparing bids for Youri Tielemans and Gabriel Jesus as Mikel Arteta looks to put an...
The club-football calendar has finally come to an end with the denouement of the UEFA Champions League. Real Madrid unexpectedly concluded their season with a treble of silverware, adding to their mighty trophy cabinet LaLiga, Spanish Super Cup and UEFA Champions League titles. Usually called the Kings of European football, Real Madrid were the underdogs to win any silverware this season because of the revamp they were going through. They were restructuring not only their main squad but also their managerial department. Out-of-contract club captain Sergio Ramos leaving for Paris Saint-Germain was the first big blow for the team last summer, as Los Blancos lost in him a leader after his sixteen years of service to them. Ramos made the much-talked-about move to PSG on a free after his contract talks with the Real Madrid board broke down. Along with Sergio Ramos, his centre-back partner Raphaël Varane also made a move away from Madrid, leaving for Manchester United after spending ten years in Spain.
After months of speculation, Darwin Núñez has finally joined Liverpool on a six-year deal, with the club reportedly paying a club-record fee of €100 million to acquire his services. It...
After months of endless speculation, with different suitors taking the lead every other week, Erling Haaland will be (finally) entering the next phase of his career when he plays for...
To say it’s been a fall from grace for Mercedes would be an understatement. The German team were nearly untouchable in the turbo-hybrid era between 2014 and 2021. Such was...
Despite having Champions League football within their grasp for so long, Arsenal’s wait to return to Europe’s elite club competition will go on for at least another year. The disappointment was evident on the faces of the players and fans following Arsenal 5-1 demolition of Frank Lampard's Everton on the last of the season, as Tottenham Hotspur’s 5-0 thumping of long-relegated Norwich City made Arsenal’s emphatic win all but irrelevant. Mikel Arteta’s young Gunners fell at the final hurdle, with injuries and perhaps inexperience taking their toll at crucial moments. Five defeats in their last seven games and a slew of injuries to key personnel completely derailed Arsenal’s bid for a top-four finish. 69 points in the last two seasons would’ve secured a top-four finish, but this season it just wasn’t meant to be. Thus, it is difficult to really assess Arsenal’s season, and that is why their fifth-place finish has created such a debate. It’s 50-50. While half of the Arsenal fanbase views it as a failure, the other half believes there have been clear signs of progress. At the end of the day, both sides' arguments hold value.
There aren’t enough superlatives to articulate the extent of bravery it must have taken for Daniels to make this decision, that too at the very beginning of his career. After all, there’s a reason there haven’t been any openly gay male footballers in the UK in over three decades; there are very few of them across the world at all. Unlike its female counterpart, men’s football is plagued by homophobia to its very core. Troubled by the prospect of having to endure abuses and vile chants their entire lives, players have for long chosen to live closeted, lead a life of lies and refrain from simply being who they truly are. Even in retirement, very few footballers have chosen to come out and try to foster an environment that would encourage people of the LGBTQ+ community to live openly. It hasn’t been easy, however. Societal discriminations percolate into sporting communities, as is their wont. Matters of abuse on racial, communal and religious grounds have only recently become subjects of import, and even slower is the rate at which changes take effect. It is no surprise, therefore, that having openly gay male footballers in the game is almost unheard of, let alone being something that should have long been normalised.
