Category Uncategorized

Without the large shadow cast by their captain, the attention was diffused across a big cast of characters

Osman Samiuddin22-Jan-2021I can’t pinpoint the exact moment. At a guess, it was somewhere between Ajinkya Rahane’s century at the MCG and the almighty battering Hanuma Vihari and R Ashwin took at the SCG. As with the business of growing old, it probably wasn’t a moment, per se but, a gradual realisation. Incrementally, surreptitiously, and then it was done: this India team had become .No filter in Statsguru will give you a measure for likeability, but nor can the lack of one – or the combined might of all metrics – dispute that this has definitively happened, and that it stands this Indian side apart from many modern Indian sides. I haven’t been drawn to one like it since the days of peak Virender Sehwag – and I don’t think it’s me alone. Not if various WhatsApp groups, scrolls down social media timelines, and Zoom calls across borders, with Indians and otherwise, is any sample.The harder-nosed among us will argue this is trivial. Sport is not a popularity contest and athletes and sports teams don’t play to be liked. They play – no, they function – to be effective, to win. Everything else – about whether they play with panache or are dour, whether they make friends or enemies – is secondary, an inconsequence. It is a valid, if slightly buzzkill way, to interpret sport.Related

• The India-England series will come down to a battle of the top orders

• Cheteshwar Pujara: 'You can punch me as long as you can. Then I'll punch back'

• Ajinkya Rahane: 'Virat was and will always be the captain of the Test team, and I am his deputy'

• Virat Kohli's absence creates a hole and a plot twist

• Ravi Shastri: 'This will go down in history as one of the greatest series ever played'

But – and don’t tell them this – it is in this very grand inconsequence that life lives itself out. This is where sport actually happens, where we carefully tend to our loves and meticulously nurture our hates. It is also here, further away but not completely removed from that tribal heat, that we come to admire, fear and respect sides. Or, as is the case with this India side, we come to like them, in the way of that old idea of everybody’s second-favourite side, be it West Indies in cricket or Brazil in football.Even if it isn’t important that India is liked, it needs acknowledging as a notable development because it has not been that way for a while. Not since India realised that its behemoth nature was a strength not a sufferance. Somewhere along the way, as the BCCI started flexing those muscles off the field, not liking what the board was doing simply – if unfairly – melded into not liking its team on the field. Admired, respected, feared, but liked? How do you like the classroom bully?This is not the new normal, let’s not get carried away. It’s important to be precise and identify side as the one that has slowly been bound together by falling apart over the last three Tests, because the next India side will be fundamentally different in personnel and spirit – more of which later. India were, for much of this series, genuine underdogs, and everybody loves an underdog. That hasn’t been the case with India for a long time. Twenty years ago, arguably, they were, in the series that kicked off this rivalry. India went into that series no longer the home dominators of the 90s (nine wins and seven losses in their previous 25 home Tests), not far from the stink of match-fixing, and unsure about a still fresh captain who was meant to drag them out. Anil Kumble was missing too. So thinly resourced were they that they became, literally, a one-man attack. A different world.Now it’s almost impossible for them to be that ever again, given that they are in the employ of the world’s richest board and selected from the largest talent pool in the sport.
They still don’t travel as well as they should, but with a full-strength side that status brings an entitlement and expectation of success. And when they don’t win, they put up with a tremendous global outpouring of schadenfreude. It would need, literally, an unparalleled plague of injuries, an epidemic, to weaken them so much that they were considered underdogs. Which is precisely what happened on this tour, leaving them with a combination of a 2nd and 3rd XI, for whom even underdog status felt like an aspiration. (Of course, you could take the fact that they won the series with this side not as extraordinary but as what is to be expected from a country with as much resource and depth, as Justin Langer sort of did, but where’s the romance in that?)Undoubtedly it helped they were playing Australia, fellow member of the Big Three in which each side is on rotation to be the most disliked. When they play each other, it isn’t unknown for people to wonder if both sides can lose. Not this time, though, because Australia currently are a bit Ned Flanders. Homer Simpson’s neighbour, you might remember, was revealed to once have undergone anger-management therapy as a child. All that anger was pushed away inside, deep beneath the exterior of the jolliest guy you’ll ever meet. There it remained, waiting to burst out, until one day it did. Australia aren’t there… yet. There’s much to admire about Australian cricket but the handwringing over culture and elite honesty turns them into a natural target for the schadenfreude that otherwise might have been shared between the two teams.Nothing, though, helped form this impression as much as the fact that this series represented a rare and sustained opportunity to better acquaint ourselves with a team that otherwise finds itself perennially under the shadow cast by Virat Kohli. If we break down Kohli to be Sourav Ganguly’s attitude plus Sachin Tendulkar’s batting, then it’s easy to understand why he can swallow whole any scene he happens to be in, unlike any Indian leader before him.Not just the team either – shadow is so vast and infinite, it eclipses cricket itself. How unhealthily invested cricket is in him was clear from some of the panicked reportage around his absence from part of the tour. It became the new twist to some old scaremongering. No longer was it that every team needs an India tour to survive and thrive. It now needed Kohli to tour to survive. This is not Kohli’s fault. This one is on the media, and we at ESPNcricinfo have not been blameless.Attention magnet: people’s eyes and minds are drawn towards Virat Kohli inevitably•Daniel Kalisz/Getty ImagesThe more relevant tendency has become to kind of see the entire side in his image: a bristling presence, bathing each situation in its own tensile force until it breaks and gives way, most times in some burst of genius but also sometimes in moments of crude chauvinism and confrontation.Over the course of this series, it became clear that wasn’t the case, and instead, here was a collective presence of far less motion and agitation but no less action. Here emerged Rahane, narrow-shouldered and droopy-eyed, as if created specifically to contrast Kohli’s fierce eyes and chest-out stomp. There was something inherently human – rather than superhuman – in Rahane’s blending of fallible batting with sharp captaincy. This, too, was representative of a team that worked with its humanness, in spilling catches, in Rishabh Pant being Rishabh Pant, in breaking down but in not being broken. And Cheteshwar Pujara, who in taking as many blows on the final day as he did, stood up to the challenges Kohli had said his “new India” stands up to, except on the literal and figurative back foot, in almost the opposite way to the what the idea of the new India implies.Or Ashwin, who outside of this shadow, it should be easier to acknowledge, is the most impactful player in the Indian side – and if that is arguable, it is probably because you identify as a batting person. He was part of a leadership collective too with Rahane and Rohit Sharma, and was instrumental in tackling the racist chants directed at Mohammed Siraj.Siraj, Shardul Thakur, T Natarajan, Vihari, Pant, Washington Sundar – countless others, which is precisely the point. None of them are anonymous, but because they ordinarily would not get as much attention, they brought an unexpectedness to how this series played out. And with the focus diffused across all of them, it wasn’t about any of them as much as it was truly about the whole of them, pleasant relief from the usually intense gaze hung on one man as the prism through which an entire team, sport and country is seen.The facelessness was endearing and it left this team feeling like one from a less frantic age, before that of the Indian Cricket Superstar. Before Kohli, MS Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar, when India series went ahead without pinning a billion hopes on one pair of shoulders, or talk of how the BCCI was leveraging an opportunity to get richer, or of some new, shiny India. All that was left was a side of cricketers banding together to do extraordinary things in an extraordinary sport. What’s not to like about that?

MatériaMais Notícias

O Grêmio planeja qual será o local para retomar os treinamentos, após a destruição causada no CT devido às intensas chuvas no Rio Grande do Sul, e conversa pela utilização da infraestrutura do RB Bragantino.

continua após a publicidade

➡️ Siga o Lance! no WhatsApp e acompanhe em tempo real as principais notícias do esporte

As conversas estão em andamento e são consideradas complexas. Não há confirmação de datas, por exemplo, exatamente pela dificuldade logística que envolve a mudança dos gaúchos para o interior paulista. Atualmente, jogadores e outros trabalhadores do clube estão realizando ajuda humanitária à população do RS, além de prestar suporte às suas próprias famílias.

A questão logística também envolve mais obstáculos. Até porque uma mudança poderia envolver as famílias dos atletas e funcionários.

A cessão do espaço do Bragantino ao Grêmio vem através de uma relação colaborativa e não envolve aluguel ou qualquer negociação em dinheiro. O próprio clube paulista, nas últimas semanas, foi um dos que se disponibilizou a ceder as estruturas para contribuir com as equipes gaúchas. Além do Massa Bruta, Palmeiras, São Paulo e Corinthians foram outros que se colocaram à disposição dos times gaúchos.

continua após a publicidade

A ideia seria para o Grêmio treinar no novo e moderno CT do Bragantino, além de utilizar o Estádio Nabi Abi Chedid como casa provisória.

A informação sobre a conversa entre as partes foi publicada inicialmente pelo jornalista André Hernan e confirmada pelo Lance!.

As melhores e mais variadas ofertas para o Brasileirão estão no Lance! Betting! Abra já a sua conta!

O centro de treinamento está em terreno de em torno de 157 mil m², tem seis prédios, 86 quartos, três refeitórios, piscina e banheiras de hidromassagem, mini estádio e auditório. Clique aqui e veja fotos do espaço.

Os jogos de Grêmio, Internacional e Juventude, além de todos os outros clubes gaúchos, estão adiados em competições da CBF até 27 de maio.

CHUVAS NO RS

Segundo a Defesa Civil do Rio Grande do Sul, são 148 mortes confirmadas, 124 pessoas desaparecidas e quase 540 mil desalojados, em decorrência das enchentes no estado.

continua após a publicidade

Tudo sobre

Futebol NacionalGrêmioRB Bragantino

The Rajasthan Royals opener grabbed headlines by scoring the fastest century by an Indian in the IPL

Ashish Pant29-Apr-20254:12

Jaffer: Have advised Suryavanshi to always play his natural game

[Has it ever happened that you’ve hit the first ball you’ve faced for six]?Vaibhav Suryavanshi is seen asking this question – much before his IPL debut – to a fellow Rajasthan Royals (RR) player in a video posted by the franchise. On April 19, the 14-year old lived this dream when he flat-batted Shardul Thakur over the extra-cover fence off his first ball on IPL debut.Suryavanshi has played just three games in the IPL. But, he’s already wowed people in every step of the way, with his six-hitting skills, with his bat speed, with his ability to rip apart bowlers of international repute. On Monday, he took down a Gujarat Titans bowling unit which had in their ranks Mohammed Siraj, Ishant Sharma, Rashid Khan, Washington Sundar and R Sai Kishore – all bowlers who have at least one international cap, to become the youngest men’s T20 centurion. It was also the second-fastest hundred in IPL history, off 35 balls.Related

Suryavanshi, 14, shatters records to keep RR alive

Suryavanshi rewrites men's T20 records

A star is born (to bat)

But who is this 14-year-old sensation?Suryavanshi hails from a village named Tajpur in the Samastipur district of Bihar. With facilities limited in Samastipur, Suryavanshi travelled close to 90 kms almost every day to Patna along with his father, Sanjiv Suryavanshi. It was hardly easy, but backed by his father, he was determined to make it big.Vaibhav Suryavanshi, 14, became the second-fastest centurion in IPL history•BCCI”I am what I am because of my parents,” Suryavanshi said in a video on the official IPL site after his 38-ball 101 in Jaipur. “My mother used to sleep for three hours, wake up at 2am, prepare food for me. My father quit his job, my elder brother took over the job. We had limited means, but my father backed me to succeed. Whatever results you are seeing today, my success is all because of my parents.”Suryavanshi’s rise has been swift. He was just 12 years and 284 days old when he made his first-class debut for Bihar in the 2023-24 Ranji Trophy season. Before that, he had left a good impression at the Vinoo Mankad Trophy for Bihar, which got him a spot in the Under-19 Quadrangular series in late 2023, also involving Bangladesh, England, and two India teams, A and B, in Mulapadu, Andhra Pradesh.Watch – Highlights of Vaibhav Suryavanshi’s record-breaking hundred on JioHotstar (only in India)Playing for India B U-19, Suryavanshi scored 53 against England U-19 in the first game, followed by 75 against Bangladesh U-19s. It was during this second game that former India opener Wasim Jaffer, who was the head coach of Bangladesh U-19 then, spotted him and was “taken aback” by the youngster.5:27

‘Otherworldly’ Suryavanshi wows Bishop, Aaron

“I was really impressed that somebody so young has been picked and then also he got runs, “Jaffer told ESPNcricinfo. “I was actually pleasantly surprised, especially coming from Bihar.”Jaffer and Suryavanshi regularly chatted about batting, with Jaffer offering him tips on building an innings. “He used to keep messaging every now and then whenever he felt like asking certain things or when he felt like wanting to ask about his batting,” Jaffer said. “He is somebody who plays free-flowing cricket. But suddenly, when you go to a higher level, sometimes you are scared, especially when somebody is so young. So, he might think that he needs to change certain things or that he needs to play differently.Vaibhav Suryavanshi with Wasim Jaffer•ESPNcricinfo Ltd”I always encouraged him to be positive and play positive cricket. If the ball is there in your arc, and you feel you can hit it, I always told him to back yourself, irrespective of what standard of cricket you are playing. That’s how our relationship started.”Not that I personally coached him or anything. I won’t take undue credit.”Suryavanshi was picked up in the IPL 2025 auction for INR 1.1 crore after impressing batting coach Vikram Rathour and director of high performance Zubin Bharucha at RR during trials. He didn’t play the first seven games of the season and only came into the team because of an injury to captain Sanju Samson, making him the youngest IPL debutant.Suryavanshi had also messaged Jaffer before his IPL debut against Lucknow Super Giants.5:13

What’s the best way to handle Suryavanshi?

“He messaged me and said, ‘Sir, I am getting a chance’. I, in fact, told him to take seven to eight balls because there is so much adrenaline when you play in the IPL for the first time. Take a bit of time, let your nerves settle down. Sometimes you play certain shots because the occasion gets the better of you. But he went out there and played first ball for six. So it’s not that he takes every advice of mine. But he is a wonderful kid. And he is talented. In this format, for him to hit 11 sixes in IPL, says so much about his ability and talent.”Don’t get me wrong. A player of his ability, the manner in which he plays, he is going to fail sometimes, and he will look bad when he gets out. But when he comes good, he is a match-winner like yesterday. So we’ve got to take the good with the bad.”Jaffer also believes Suryavanshi has what it takes to become an all-format player. “He has got all the ability and he has got all the time. He has shown what he can do in this format [T20s]. And I am sure he will adapt to one-day cricket and four-day cricket pretty soon. I believe he has got a good defence as well. It’s just playing that format a little bit more.”He still has a long way to go but for now, there is obvious celebration in the Suryavanshi household back home in Samastipur.”He has made our village, Bihar and the whole of India proud. We could not be happier and are celebrating,” his father Sanjiv said in a video released by the Bihar Cricket Association. “I want to thank the Rajasthan Royals who worked on him extensively in the last three-four months. I want to thank head coach Rahul Dravid and the rest of the support staff for improving Vaibhav’s game. He himself has worked very hard on his game and this hundred is a result of that.”

Fran Wilson, the former World Cup-winning batter, has been named as Gloucestershire Women’s head coach after ending her playing career with Somerset.Wilson, 33, made 64 international appearances across formats between 2010 and 2021, including eight of England’s matches at the 2017 World Cup, en route to their victory over India at Lord’s in the final.She also featured in the 2020 T20 World Cup in Australia, and made the last of her international appearances on England’s tour of New Zealand in February 2021.Domestically, Wilson made her Somerset debut in 2006, before joining Western Storm in 2016, and also represented Gloucestershire in the 2022 and 2023 Vitality Women’s County T20 competitions while developing her coaching skills through the county’s Girls Emerging Players Programme.In the course of her career, she also represented Sunrisers, Middlesex, Kent, Hobart Hurricanes, Sydney Thunder, Welsh Fire, Trent Rockets, Oval Invincibles and Birmingham Phoenix.Now, she will be taking full-time charge of Gloucestershire in Tier 2 of the new women’s county structure, having worked with the first team on a consultancy basis during the 2025 season.”I’ve done a lot of coaching alongside playing over the last five or six years, but it’s really exciting to now step into that journey fully,” Wilson said, “especially with Gloucestershire, a great club that I’ve been involved with for a long time.”We all want results, but the real goal is to build sustainable success and to put the foundations in place that allow us to compete and thrive as a Tier 1 Club.”A huge part of my role is about building those foundations from the first team right through to the age groups, having a genuine influence across that pathway.”By developing the resources we already have in the county and creating a strong network and structure around the players, I believe we can achieve long-term success.”Jon Lewis, Director of Cricket at Gloucestershire Cricket, added: “Everyone at Gloucestershire is really excited about the appointment of Fran Wilson as Women’s Head Coach.”We went through a thorough recruitment process, and Fran was the standout candidate throughout. With strong roots in cricket across the South West, a deep passion for Bristol and Gloucestershire, and a long-standing connection with the Club, that understanding of the region was an important factor for us.”Fran demonstrated an exceptional range of qualities during the process and this marks a hugely significant appointment in an area where we have serious ambition. It also comes at the start of a landmark year for the Club, with Bristol set to host England Women v India in May, followed by six matches during next summer’s ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in June.”An outstanding playing career, a history of success at both club and international level and a deep understanding of elite performance make this an appointment we are extremely proud of. The environment Fran will build will be welcoming, driven and true to the ‘Gloucestershire way’.”Our aim is to provide the best possible environment for our players to learn and develop and we believe Fran is the ideal person to lead that journey.”

Manchester United legend Paul Scholes has suggested that Liverpool's sharp decline in form has come off the back of the Reds partying in Ibiza before their Premier League title-winning season had ended. The Reds were deservedly English champions just over six months ago as Slot's swashbuckling team swept aside the competition. Now, the outlook is far bleaker and the Dutchman has come under fire.

• Liverpool's results spiral out of control

  After Liverpool won the league at a canter in late April, they failed to win any of their last four Premier League matches. Before the season was up, manager Slot took a trip to Ibiza, and ended up partying with Wayne Lineker. Fast forward to the present, and Liverpool are 12th in the table and have lost six of their last seven league matches in 2025-26. Now, Red Devils icon Scholes has hit out at Slot for his end-of-season actions.

  He said on The Good, The Bad and The Football podcast: "I think this started towards the end of last season, do you remember when they won the league? The bad form started, they went away, went to Ibiza or something. Honestly, Arne Slot was DJing. DJing in Ibiza. But that’s before the season’s done, that’s what I mean. I think that’s disrespectful, before the season’s done. I think it’s classless."

Advertisement

• Getty Images Sport
  

  Slot blames himself

  While Slot hasn't addressed the topic of going to Ibiza, the Dutchman did admit he is feeling responsible for his side's "ridiculous" slump in form. The former Feyenoord boss has a lot of credit in the bank after guiding the Reds to the title last season, especially without properly strengthening the squad. But after spending more than £400 million ($527m) on players this summer, his position in the Anfield dugout is increasingly being scrutinised. 

  Ahead of Wednesday's Champions League clash with PSV Eindhoven, he said: "I would describe it as ridiculous, almost. Something I did not expect to be in. Not at any club I was going to work at, let alone Liverpool. That is unbelievable. If you can find an excuse, you will never find enough excuses to make you perform like this. Unexpected for the club, for me and everyone. But I am working at a club where if you need to face it, this is the best club to face it. The harder it gets at a club like this, the more we are together to achieve the things Liverpool usually achieve."

• Liverpool's leaky defence

  They come into this PSV test off the back of a 3-0 hiding at the hands of lowly Nottingham Forest. Captain Virgil van Dijk said the players are letting their manager down and together they have to get the club out of this "mess". Incidentally, last season, Liverpool conceded 41 goals on their way to the Premier League title. This term, they have already shipped 20 goals in their opening 12 matches. As a result, manager Slot said this was unacceptable and took responsibility for their soft underbelly. 

  "Conceding far more goals than last season. The amount of goals we have conceded and the amount of goals from set-pieces is close to ridiculous for a club like us," he told reporters. "The biggest one is the goals we concede. From open play, we are still able to generate enough chances to get a result. I take the responsibility and feel guilty for it.

  "It's difficult to say at this moment [what we can learn from these defeats]. I have said quite a lot of times, there are certain things that you can do better but this hasn't helped and hasn't been of use. You can think of quite a lot of reasons why you have lost. From our perspective, at Liverpool Football Club, it is not acceptable. It is a situation you do not want to have. Now it is time to start winning matches again but you have to do a lot to win a match. The simple things, they must do better. That is what we are not doing and that is quite easy to solve. Simple football is the most difficult thing."

ENJOYED THIS STORY?

Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting

• Getty Images
  

  What comes next for Liverpool?

  Wednesday's home clash against PSV provides a perfect opportunity for Liverpool to bounce back from their latest defeat. They then round off the month away to West Ham in the Premier League on Sunday. If they can win both of these fixtures, the gloom may lift a touch around Anfield. If not, Slot could be under huge pressure to keep his job.

Aston Villa are now prepared to make an offer for FC Barcelona forward Ansu Fati following a request from manager Unai Emery, but a clause in his loan deal at Monaco may complicate matters.

Villa’s interest in a new forward comes amid Ollie Watkins & co flattering to deceive, with the striker scoring just one Premier League goal in ten matches so far this season, having fallen way short of his usual lofty standards.

Despite Liverpool struggling from a defensive point of view this season, having already conceded 14 goals, Emery’s forward line barely caused the Reds any issues at the weekend, failing to create a single big chance in the 2-0 defeat.

Some of the manager’s summer signings are yet to hit the ground running too, with Jeff Stelling ripping into the Spaniard for his decision to substitute Jadon Sancho against Manchester City, having only been brought on himself in the first half.

With Harvey Elliott being omitted from the squad entirely for the victory against City, Emery clearly has doubts over some of his summer signings, and he has now made a plea to the board…

Aston Villa prepared to make offer for Ansu Fati in 2026

According to a report from Spain, Aston Villa are now prepared to make an offer for Barcelona forward Fati, who is currently on loan at AS Monaco, in light of the fantastic start to the season he has made in Ligue 1, but there could be competition for his signature.

Sunderland are also willing to make a move for the Monaco loanee, while the French club retain a clause to make his stay permanent for a fee of just €11m (£10m), which is viewed as an affordable fee, given the form he’s in.

Emery has personally requested the signing of a top-level forward, in order to compete for the European places, and Villa are now poised to make a move for the 23-year-old, should he not join Monaco permanently.

Once hailed as “extraordinary” by former Barcelona manager Xavi, the Spaniard was ultimately unable to make the grade at the Camp Nou, but he is still young, and the start the left-winger has made to the season has been very impressive.

Fati at Monaco

Appearances

Goals

Ligue 1

7

5

Champions League

3

1

Indeed, the Guinea-Bissau-born attacker has put in a number of eye-catching performances already this season, showcasing that he could still be capable of reaching the very top, if he steers clear of injuries, having spent too much on the treatment table at Barcelona.

There may be some concern over the fact the 10-time Spain international didn’t set the world alight during his previous stint in the Premier League, registering just two goals and zero assists in 19 top-flight outings for Brighton & Hove Albion.

However, Fati’s recent performances have been much-improved, and if he continues to perform at this level, Aston Villa should undoubtedly make a move.

Aston Villa now join race for "insane" former Bayern Munich striker Aston Villa now join race to sign "insane" £35m former Bayern Munich striker

The Villans are looking to sign a centre-forward, with Unai Emery keen on greater strength in depth in attack.

ByDominic Lund Oct 28, 2025

Manchester City are reportedly prepared to challenge European giants Real Madrid and Juventus for the signature of Elche wonderkid Rodrigo Mendoza. The Spain U21 international, who has a €20 million release clause, has attracted widespread interest following his eye-catching performances in La Liga, with Arsenal also reportedly in the picture.

Manchester City, Real Madrid, and Juventus target Rodrigo Mendoza

City are reportedly in a fierce battle with Real Madrid and Juventus to sign Elche's highly-rated midfielder Mendoza. The 20-year-old Spanish international, who has a €20 million release clause in his contract, has emerged as a top target for several European powerhouses.

According to Tuttosport, Manchester City have "been moving on" Mendoza, who has also been "followed by Real Madrid for a while." Juventus are also strongly interested in the youngster, challenging top clubs for his signature. A report from AS further adds Arsenal to the list of clubs monitoring the Elche talent.

Mendoza joined Elche's academy in 2019 and was promoted to their first team in 2022. He was part of the squad that secured promotion to the top flight. This season, he has already made 10 appearances for the La Liga side, including nine in the league where he has scored one goal, and one in the Copa del Rey where he also found the net, as per Transfermarkt. His rapid rise has not gone unnoticed by scouts across Europe.

AdvertisementGetty Images SportElche's efforts to retain Mendoza amid growing interest

Elche recognised Mendoza's burgeoning talent last summer when they reportedly turned down offers from Saudi Arabia for his services. In August, they moved to secure his long-term future by offering him an improved contract, extending his stay until 2028. This new deal, however, includes a €20 million release clause, which, while substantial, is considered "negotiable" and "certainly affordable" for clubs like Manchester City, Real Madrid, and Juventus.

Mendoza's performances have been particularly notable, including a goal in nine La Liga matches and another in the Copa del Rey this season. He also impressed at the U20 World Cup and recently contributed an assist for Spain U21s in their 7-0 victory over San Marino, further cementing his reputation as a rising star.

Despite Elche's efforts to tie him down, the mounting interest from Europe's elite clubs suggests that his future at the club beyond the current season is increasingly uncertain.

Mendoza's playing style and tactical fit for interested clubs

Tuttosport describes Mendoza as a player who "needs a physical and dynamic midfielder next to him to perform at his best." This tactical insight offers a glimpse into how the interested clubs might integrate him into their respective systems.

For Juventus, the report notes that the club has "plenty of them," referring to dynamic midfield options such as Khephren Thuram, Manuel Locatelli, and even Teun Koopmeiners, should he be deployed in midfield after his successful stint in defence. Observers have also compared Mendoza's skillset to that of Barcelona star Pedri, suggesting a highly technical and creative player.

Real Madrid, known for their penchant for signing young, talented midfielders, have been tracking Mendoza for some time. Manchester City, under Pep Guardiola, are also known for developing technically gifted players who can thrive in possession-based systems. The €20 million release clause makes him an attractive proposition for clubs seeking a long-term investment in midfield.

The race for Mendoza's signature extends beyond just the three European giants. Tuttosport also revealed that clubs from the Saudi Pro League and the Red Bull group had shown interest, with the latter attempting to bring him to Paris FC. Como, under the tutelage of Cesc Fabregas, were also reportedly hoping to add Mendoza to their youth Spanish contingent.

ENJOYED THIS STORY?

Add GOAL.com as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting

Getty Images SportWhat next for Rodrigo Mendoza?

Mendoza's immediate future remains with Elche, where he is under contract until 2028. However, the upcoming January transfer window and the summer market of 2026 will likely be crucial in determining his next career move. With a €20 million release clause and fierce competition from top European clubs, a move to a major European powerhouse seems increasingly probable.

For Elche, the challenge will be to either retain their prized asset against overwhelming interest or to maximise his transfer fee. For Mendoza, the decision will involve choosing a club that best suits his developmental needs and tactical preferences, allowing him to continue his ascent in European football. Juventus, Manchester City, and Real Madrid will undoubtedly be closely monitoring his performances in the coming months as they prepare their strategies for his signature.

تعرض أحد لاعبي فرقي الكرة الأول بالنادي الأهلي، للإصابة، خلال مباراة الزمالك، في نهائي بطولة السوبر المصري.

وانطلقت مباراة الأهلي والزمالك، في تمام الساعة الخامسة والنصف مساء، على ملعب آل نهيان بالإمارات، في نهائي كأس السوبر المصري للأبطال. 

ويتقدم الأهلي بهدفين دون رد على غريمه التقليدي الزمالك، أحرزهما كل من أشرف بن شرقي ومروان عطية. 

طالع.. فيديو| لاعب الأهلي يغادر مباراة الزمالك مصابًا

وغادر محمود تريزيجيه أرضية ملعب المباراة مصابًا بعد شكواه من شد في العضلة الخلفية، ليحل محمد علي بن رمضان بدلًا منه، في الدقيقة 75 من الشوط الثاني.

وجاء هدف الأهلي الأول في الدقيقة 44 من تسديدة من داخل منطقة الجزاء بعد استلام أشرف بن شرقي لتمريرة رائعة من زميله أحمد سيد زيزو، ليمنح التقدم للأحمر في الديربي، بينما جاء الهدف الثاني بعد عرضية من طاهر محمد طاهر، وضعها مروان عطية في الشباك.

وكان نيتس جراديشار، قد غادر مباراة الأهلي والزمالك، في تغيير اضطراري أول للمارد الأحمر، بسبب الإصابة، وحل بدلاً منه طاهر محمد طاهر.