List of All Articles with Tag 'sport'

Lawrence Shankland is hoping to end his “really strong season” by helping Scotland take another big stride towards Euro 2024. The 27-year-old has enjoyed arguably the best campaign of his career as he scored 28 goals and earned the captaincy in his first year at Hearts, whom he joined last summer from Belgian club Beerschot. Shankland’s form at Tynecastle earned him a first Scotland cap for two and a half years in the victory over Spain in March, and he has retained his place in the squad for this month’s Euro 2024 qualifiers away to Norway and at home to Georgia. “When you get to the end of a season you get the chance to look back and assess it,” Shankland told the Scottish Football Association. “For me, it was a really strong season. My performances throughout the season were to a really high standard and I was really happy with them. “The number of goals I managed to chip in with was great. It was my first season at Hearts as well so it was good to get off to a good start. The captaincy was an opportunity that I probably didn’t expect when I first went to Hearts but when it was offered to me I was keen to take on that role. “I felt it was something that would improve my all-round game, improve me as a person, and I felt I took it in my stride and handled it really well. It’s been a huge learning opportunity for me and hopefully it stands me in good stead for the future.” Shankland has won five Scotland caps but he admits such a scenario would have been a pipe dream when he found himself without a club and pondering getting a job away from football when he was released by Aberdeen in 2017. He eventually joined Ayr and set about rebuilding his career. “There’s been a lot of rejections along the way but it comes down to hard work and determination really,” he said, reflecting on his rise. “You have your end goals and what you want to achieve in your career. “There have been times when I couldn’t have dreamed of getting a Scotland cap. But you just need to knuckle down and if you keep working hard, things pay off and you get these opportunities. “I’ve taken most of them first time and did well at most of the clubs I’ve been at. It has been a bit of an up-and-down journey but I’ve worked hard and I feel like I deserve what’s come my way.” The Scotland squad are currently at a training camp in Spain gearing up for their showdown with Norway in Oslo a week on Saturday. Steve Clarke’s side sit top of their qualifying section after winning their opening two matches and know that a good share of points from their two outings this month will leave them firmly on course for the finals in Germany next summer. “It’s been good to meet up and get everybody back together,” said Shankland. “The wee break in between (the end of the club season) gives us a bit of time to do a training camp and I think that’s important for us before we go into the game week next week. “The training’s been good and the weather’s been nice. The last two games we had really good results and we’ve given ourselves a really good opportunity going into these two games. If we get positive results we could be in a really good position.”

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From goalkeeper of the year to out for a year. From elite to club exile, from No.1 to drugs ban, from sought-after to released on a free. And all the way back again. Andre Onana is bidding to hit the pinnacle of the sport and become a European champion, 855 days on from first being handed a ban for a doping violation. It’s a journey which would make some shrink from the challenge or play havoc with their mindset, yet setbacks - which feels too understated of a word - seem part and parcel of the Cameroonian’s career. Indeed, it’s less that Onana’s story is one of a rise-fall-rise, and more of a non-stop, chaotic rollercoaster which travels an upward trajectory even as the stomach still feels like it’s heading the opposite direction. And all of this is even before he gets to attempt stopping Erling Haaland and co. For starters, the many months spent not being allowed to train or play with Ajax wasn’t the first time he had suffered such a fate. Back after he joined his first club in Europe, Barcelona, Onana was one of the group of youngsters unable to play after the Spanish club were found to have breached recruitment laws, effectively banning him until 18 years of age. Coming back from that and then seeing Marc-Andre ter Stegen signed meant an exit was a certainty if he wanted first-team football. The Eredivisie came calling and Onana signed for Ajax in 2015, then still a teenager. After a season and a half with the second string team, he was straight into the senior line-up and barely missed a game for four-and-a-half years. Despite not signing for Inter Milan until this term, 2022/23, Onana’s last full season for Ajax was 18/19. The following year the Dutch top flight was curtailed early due to the Covid pandemic, while 20/21 saw him hit by a Uefa doping ban for accidentally ingesting his wife’s tablets, which contained a prohibited substance. The ban was originally 12 months, brought down to nine, but it meant he missed the rest of that campaign and much of the next, only featuring in six league games in 21/22. All that, and still he had picked up a league and cup double and reached the Europa League final before matters started to go awry once more. And so to a new comeback, a new attempt to scale one of his own mountains. “I can’t say anything but thanks to [Simone] Inzaghi for giving me the chance to play for Inter. “Being here is a source of pride for me, and I hope that we can go on and win everything,” Onana said ahead of the Champions League final. “Without any fear, as I always say.” And why would he have any? For someone who has been forced by others to miss so much football, getting to actually play a game - even one of the biggest matches - certainly won’t be a situation to back down from. Inter certainly rely on him, the man to finally take over the gloves from the seemingly eternal Samir Handanovic. That said, the club laughably glossed over the reason for his most recent enforced absence when he signed: “There have been wonderful moments and particularly onerous ones [in Onana’s career], too, such as having to train on his own before returning to the action in between the sticks.” Yes, train on his own he effectively did, taking a mini team with him to Spain to keep him in shape for months and preparing for his return. Again it has paid off, with a move to Italy secured and this latest run in Europe offering a second shot at continental glory. Yet, even as Onana’s club situation has spiralled wildly from one extreme to the other through misfortune or misjudgement, there cannot be doubt he has one way or another contributed to it too. He absolutely acknowledges that the error with his wife’s medicin was his own responsibility. Onana had no intention of cheating - the tablet he took offers no athletic advantage and Uefa accepted his explanation - but, as he said at the time, the “human error” doesn’t ultimately matter when “you’re responsible for everything in your body”. That instance would have led to Onana missing the Africa Cup of Nations, had the sentence not been reduced. Ten months later, he did miss the World Cup after a more direct confrontation: a disagreement with Cameroon head coach Rigobert Song and a dismissal from the squad. After playing the first game, the pair argued over tactics and Onana subsequently retired from international duty, just 34 caps to his name. Samuel Eto’o has been asked to play the peacemaker to lure the goalkeeper back by former captain Stephane Mbia, but at present it seems the Indomitable Lions squad will continue with stoppers playing in Latvia, Saudi Arabia and on home soil, rather than one ready to feature in the Champions League final. It’s likely he’ll have a crucial role to play there with his side very much second favourites against Manchester City. Onana already has one club record wrapped up, becoming the first Inter Milan No.1 to keep seven Champions League clean sheets in the same season. One more feels like an extraordinary ask, but given the mountains he has already scaled to reach this point in his career, it would be remarkably on-brand if he did so to complete his most dramatic and unexpected turnaround yet. Read More The trick that made Erling Haaland the ultimate finisher — in more ways than one Inter and the impossible task of the Champions League final A World Cup-winning striker and mean defence – Inter’s strengths and weaknesses Bastoni at the back with Martinez in attack – Inter Milan’s key players The trick that made Erling Haaland the ultimate finisher — in more ways than one

Sir Alex Ferguson signed some of the greatest players the Premier League has ever seen during his time in charge of Manchester United, but there’s one star who he still wishes he’d brought to Old Trafford. The legendary manager looked back at his 27 years in charge at the club and named the one star he wished he’d signed during his career. When asked about the player that got away, he said it was Paul Gascoigne. "Paul Gascoigne, without question. He was the best English player since Bobby Charlton, he was a fantastic player," Ferguson said back in 2021 [via Sportbible]. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The manager attempted to bring the midfielder to Old Trafford after watching him play for Newcastle against Man Utd. However, he’s already agreed a move to Tottenham and United missed out on the deal – which Ferguson claimed the player lived to regret. "We didn't get him and I think, looking back now, he made a big mistake. He recognised it himself years later,” said Ferguson. "We had Geordies in the camp – Bobby Charlton, Bryan Robson, Steve Bruce – even Gary Pallister from Middlesbrough. We had people there that would have taken care of him, particularly Bryan Robson – he was fantastic with players, as you know. "So he goes to an island, London, and you're easily swallowed up there, for a young lad. I think that was a big mistake by him. "He was a marvellous player. I loved his strength. We played at Newcastle up there on Easter Monday and he'd just come back from injury. They were near the bottom of the league and as soon as he came back they started winning games. Ferguson went on to say: "I went there and played three in the middle of the pitch – [Norman] Whiteside, Robson and Remi Moses. He destroyed them, and then he nutmegged Moses right in front of the dugout and patted him on the head! I'm jumping out the box going… "Honestly he was unbelievable and I said to [former Manchester United chairman] Martin Edwards on the way home: 'Sign this boy. Get on the phone to him on Monday.' "But by that time, he had already done a deal with Tottenham, which was really unfortunate. That was a disappointment because he agreed to sign and then Tottenham changed his mind by buying his mother and father a house.” After coming through the ranks at Newcastle, Gascoigne played for the likes of Tottenham, Lazio, Rangers and Middlesborough over the course of his career. He was capped 57 times for England. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

West Ham enjoyed a heroes’ welcome as fans lined the streets of east London to celebrate their Europa Conference League glory. The Hammers won their first major trophy since the 1980 FA Cup, and a first European title since 1965, when they beat Italian side Fiorentina 2-1 in Prague on Wednesday night. And their jubilant supporters, decked out in the famous claret and blue on a warm and sunny evening in the capital, packed the pavements as the players paraded the silverware on an open-top bus.

A few months after Manchester City’s last Champions League final, when it became clear there would be no deal for Harry Kane - and, crucially, that no other Premier League club was in for him - one senior executive closed a meeting and the matter with two words. “Erling Haaland.” The club decided there and then they were going all in on the Norwegian. Now, mere hours before their next Champions League final, so much comes down to Haaland. He is certainly the player that Simone Inzaghi has been most obsessed with figuring out how to stop. The 22-year-old is the finisher, in so many more ways than with the instinct and technique that has brought 52 goals in his debut City season. That ensures he also represents the final piece in a brilliant team, that now stands on the brink of an achievement that would represent total domination and the culmination of this entire Abu Dhabi project. The scale of City's last three months - where the team have simply brutalised their closest rivals as well as any sense of sporting competition - would have been impossible to imagine for most of football history. It is ironic that this has coincided with Haaland’s lowest goal return, because the key has been how the Norwegian fired Guardiola’s own imagination. Or, more relevantly given the last Champions League final, Haaland has clarified his manager’s thinking. There’s been no messing about in this run-in, either in terms of Guardiola’s tactics or - consequently - the games. Everything comes from fitting in Haaland. Guardiola knows the No 9 has to go into the team in a specific way, so figures out the team from that. Those who have worked with the Catalan say it has brought about a satisfying symmetry to his own career, in that he eventually went back to his football roots. Locking himself away in front of match footage for hours on end, Guardiola ruminated on a lot of tactical possibilities behind Haaland. He gradually realised that the defensive box Johan Cruyff played to win Barcelona their first Champions League final in 1992 was perfect. Everything flowed through that, from the ball itself and the smooth control of space to Kevin De Bruyne’s positioning behind Haaland. It is all the more fitting that Guardiola himself stood at the top of that box for Cruyff, to win his sole Champions League as a player. That system may now bring him his third as a manager, as part of a treble. Three into nine goes very cleanly - if, in this case, after a time. Guardiola has also been seeking to evolve Haaland as a player over this period, adding other attributes to his game. That could be seen with the cross for Bernardo Silva against Arsenal. Such contributions are a consequence of training sessions where Guardiola humorously calls his player “Haaland!” rather than by his first name, as he does with most other squad members. It should of course be stressed that considerable perspective is required on the nature of the “problem” this posed. City scored 99 goals in the league last season, and missed two glaring chances at Real Madrid late on, which would have otherwise brought another Champions League final. To this, they added a player who can already be described as perhaps the greatest goal machine in modern football. He is after all the first that has even threatened Dixie Dean’s season record of 64. That is about as good a "problem" as you can have. The focus on the mere £51m transfer fee as if this was some bargain has also been misleading, since this still came down to money in the most reductive way possible. That fee was a release clause specifically requested by the late Mino Raiola in order to give the player an even greater control of his future. It also meant this came down to the attractiveness of the offer to Haaland’s camp, both in terms of finance and football, with the latter of course entirely dependent on the former. They involved sensational sums, as regards basic wages and potential bonuses, and a reported agent fee of £34m. With Guardiola, though, it’s never just a case of throwing money at something and just throwing a player into a team. He simply doesn’t think that way. It was why the Catalan for a long time preferred Kane for his build-up play. Guardiola doesn’t just want to find a place for a player. He tries to find a way for everything to be maximised within his ideology. This is what he gradually did with Haaland, although that also required a bit of a shift in thinking. Even Guardiola had to get his head around a certain image he had in his head. It is admittedly a powerful image - literally. Haaland’s sheer size at six foot four inches inevitably creates the perception of a power player, like a modern football version of the late Jonah Lomu; like he is playing to a totally different scale and level. The Norwegian can do that but the reality is that most of his goals come from a very different mindset. Haaland’s great trick is really that he is a stealth player, with the movement of a more diminutive striker who has had to think about it. This is maybe not a surprise since this is exactly what Haaland was. It comes from figuring out the game as he grew. “Erling was almost too good for his own age, so he played more and more with older boys,” Alf Ingve Berntsen told the Independent before, from coaching Haaland at Bryne FK. “He was a bit shorter than them, and skinny, so in order to keep scoring he had to be smarter in the box. He knew early on what movements he had to make, when to make a feint, when to wait, when to get away. And he has gradually increased his explosiveness, and his smartness. He is a mix of both instinct and education.” He now has Guardiola’s coaching to amplify that further. It has also created an interesting discussion within football, that will influence this Champions League final. Haaland’s unprecedented impact has naturally led to defenders talking about him a lot, and a growing belief is that it’s a mistake to fixate on his physical size. Most players after all think they can’t win a battle with the Norwegian, so naturally give him that extra space. This is actually playing into his feet, since Haaland’s movement will always be superior. He’s a few steps ahead mentally. So, as Antonio Rudiger realised, the trick is to try and distract the forward by drawing him into a physical battle. A few players feel this can lean on Haaland’s sense of pride, and means he gets caught up in the fight rather than making himself uncatchable by simply streaking away. Inzaghi has already been considering this for the Champions League final, and does have some ideal defenders for this in Alessandro Bastoni and, perhaps, the returning Milan Skriniar. It might be the only way to prevent what has become one of the most awesome sights in football. That is Haaland at full pace. Again, it is like Lomu in 1995. Even Haaland’s teammates have stopped in training and gone “wow”. It’s something you just have to see. It’s box office. However you describe it, it’s something that hasn’t really been said of this City before, and that’s important for reasons beyond football. The club has obviously had a series of world-class individuals, but the nature of the football project has meant even those like Sergio Aguero get subsumed into the whole, where it's all seen as a collective. They have been appreciated on an aesthetic and technical level. That isn’t the case with Haaland. The reaction is almost instinctively emotional. It is, again, “wow”. He is captivating. This is particularly powerful for a project such as this, which is ultimately about normalising the emirate of Abu Dhabi. It also puts Haaland in a complicated position, given that Norway has been one of the countries where “sportswashing” has been most debated. “Haaland’s transfer to Manchester City, which in practice is owned by the UAE, was controversial,” explains Frank Conde Tangberg, policy advisor for Amnesty Norway. The transfer went through not too long after the Norwegian national team consistently protested against the human rights violations in Qatar. “There has also been a bit of backlash against the media coverage, as it has been very focused on Norway’s two superstars; Erling Haaland and Martin Ødegaard. Many will agree that the coverage of their performances this season, to a certain extent, has come at the cost of stories that have a more critical approach to sportswashing. “Manchester City were bought to improve the UAE’s image, to create positive associations which would build legitimacy and open doors that would allow the UAE to diversify its economy. This ultimately also helps consolidate the power of the regime, especially when they’re able to do this without too many questions being asked about their human rights record. "That reputational improvement happens by attracting superstars and winning titles. Haaland gives City and its owners both; superstar quality off and on the pitch. That also gets you that loyalty from many fans who not only are willing to look away from those human rights violations, but they actively praise the owners.” Tangberg is one of many who thinks the focus should be on authorities who have allowed the situation, and that it isn’t fair to put this at the players - albeit with a caveat. “In the absence of action from the governing bodies, players can use their platform and fame to exert enormous influence. That doesn’t mean they have a responsibility in terms of international human rights. Nor does it mean that they should put their head in the sand.” That is one debate that hasn’t really started yet. On Saturday, however, Haaland can play a huge part in bringing this stage of the Abu Dhabi project to a close. It's something that has long been said of Guardiola's long 12 years without a Champions League, after all. That, in that game, in that moment, he could just do with a finisher to put the ball in the net. He now has the ultimate finisher. Read More How to cure ‘City-itis’? Pep Guardiola has new template to end Champions League woe The fresh perspective driving Kevin De Bruyne to Champions League glory First golf, now football? Saudi Arabia’s grand plan and the 72 hours that changed everything

What the papers say The pursuit of West Ham captain Declan Rice, 24, has stepped up after he lifted the Europa Conference League trophy on Wednesday. Arsenal are in pole position for a £92 million move and The Daily Telegraph reports they hope to have the England midfielder in time for the start of pre-season training. Fulham’s Portuguese midfielder Joao Palhinha, 27, is high of West Ham’s list of potential replacements, according to the Daily Mail. England duo Kalvin Phillips, 27, and James Ward-Prowse, 28, are also among their targets. James Maddison is a priority for new Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou, reports the Daily Telegraph. Leicester want in excess of £50 million for the 26-year-old England midfielder. Maddison is also wanted by Newcastle with the Daily Telegraph saying the club is looking at players from clubs relegated from the Premier League. Maddison’s Leicester colleague Harvey Barnes, 25, and Leeds’ USA midfielder Tyler Adams, 24, are among their targets. Social media round-up Players to watch David Raya: Manchester United and Tottenham want to sign the Brentford goalkeeper but are not willing to match their £40million valuation, according to Sky Sports. Ivan Fresneda: Arsenal are reportedly looking at a summer move for the 18-year-old right-back from Valladolid. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live

When Pep Guardiola and his staff began to properly prepare for this Champions League final, they found something they haven’t really experienced in, well, years. It has been very difficult to identify patterns or trends in Inter’s play because there don’t appear to be any. During the quarter-final against Benfica, it became clear that the Portuguese side had much more of an idea of play, in that they had an idea at all. Inter’s forward players, by contrast, didn’t seem to be coordinated. There were moments when some would press and some wouldn’t, as if it was completely ad hoc. A few figures in the game have quipped that it is like something out of the turn of the millennium, or even 1990, and that it certainly shouldn’t be working in 2023. It is most definitely not a product of the pressing-dictated world that Guardiola himself has been so central to creating. It is not the only way that Inter have defied the norms of the modern game in reaching their sixth Champions League final. They may be one of football’s grandiose names and one of the most successful clubs in the competition’s history, having already lifted the European Cup three times, but they are currently not a “super club” and very far from one of the better eras in their own 115 years of existence. It is actually funny how football works, even as it has changed. None of the stellar Inter squads that featured - among others - Ronaldo, Roberto Baggio, Christian Vieiri, Lothar Matthaus, Jurgen Klinsmann, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Youri Djorkaeff or Karl-Heinz Rummenigge ever got within a breeze of a Champions League final and yet here they are with Robin Gosens and Matteo Darmian. There are enjoyably nostalgic threads you could follow there about how the club was run, how former owner Massimo Moratti was too fixated on stars, how one of their best European runs came in the Uefa Cup just before the Champions League was expanded and how the sport as a whole had a greater competitive balance. Even allowing for all that, though, Gosens and Darmian are part of a squad that is currently the oldest in Serie A. It also has 12 players out of contract this summer just at a point when Inter badly need to sell. That points to how financially stretched the club are, with many potential buyers understood to be circling in the belief that such a historic name can be bought for a relatively low price. Previous issues have already ensured Inter are part-owned by the Chinese state, even if that is not for reasons of soft power or “sportswashing”. It does mean the club almost represent a cautionary tale in what can happen when an autocratic country suddenly abandons a huge international football plan, which has never been more relevant. It also means it should never have been more difficult for Inter to get this far. They may have part state-ownership, just like Manchester City, but they almost represent the total contrast in every element of the football club. The 2023 Champions League final arguably features the greatest mismatch in this fixture since 1989. Everything at Inter was supposed to be coming apart, and Simone Inzaghi is not one of those coaches who brings everything together under a unifying tactical ideology. He didn’t even have a particularly rallying message before that epochal semi-final against AC Milan. It was pretty much to “go out and do the club proud”. And yet it is that very lightness that has played into this run. Uncertainty about so much of the club has fostered a strange focus. Even the one constant of this run, which is the surges from deep by the burgeoning Federico Dimarco, are impossible to predict or pin down. He can attack any space out of nowhere, suddenly driving 50 yards up the pitch before a one-two that wreaks havoc. It may be something Guardiola’s staff can point to, but - in the words of one source - there’s “an anarchy to it that makes it impossible to accommodate in any gameplan”. That focus from uncertainty has been gently nurtured by a manager who may be the first since Jose Mourinho to lift Inter to this stage but is “absolutely nothing like” the Portuguese. There hasn’t quite been that defiance or anger. Inzaghi has instead sought to use the circumstances to nurture a “family atmosphere”, that very much comes across in the spirit in the group. Even the directors and general staff are all quite close with the players, something that could be sensed on the club’s mandated media day before this final. That formality involves squads having to go through open training for 15 minutes, but all finalists of course use that for warm-ups, with the serious business behind closed doors. Not that you would have noticed that much of a difference with Inter. There are no drills instilling a grander idea. Inzaghi never plays the same way twice. His approach is entirely reactive, to arguably a greater degree than anyone in this modern systemised era. That is possibly why so many league games are battles, and they have never looked like reclaiming the title delivered by Antonio Conte in 2020-21. It can be hard for players to buy into that approach for a game against Spezia, and they run out of ideas and impetus. The Champions League meanwhile fosters something very different. Conscious of the stakes, the players become charged for the changes that Inzaghi makes. That is where the age of the squad is an advantage, as so many players sense a last chance or even redemption. Much has been made of how Edin Dzeko and Romelu Lukaku have been almost in a relay as regards the number-nine role, the Bosnian accentuating his age-old qualities through experience, the Belgian in arguably the best physical condition of his career. This is also where there is at least something of a 2010 vibe, at least in terms of so many seasoned individuals applying an emotional intensity to the competition. They are the ultimate “cup team” in that way, and have got into their heads that they are one of those vintage Champions League sides. No matter the form in the league, they have that rare momentum in this competition. Many might fairly say that comes from the most forgiving run of fixtures in a split knock-out stage, but it actually goes back further. City may have had a harder series of opponents in getting to Istanbul, but Inter first came through one of the hardest groups you are going to get. Squeezing through to the last 16 between Bayern Munich and Barcelona first fostered this conviction. It was seen as “ridiculous for the group - and huge”. From that, and especially the grand show in the first leg against Milan, you just would not guess there is such a cloud over the club above a professional executive department. “It is like many are almost embarrassed to talk about the ownership situation,” one source said. None of that was visible on the San Siro pitch in the immediate aftermath of the semi-final. There, the employees and families came together with the players for a true moment of community. It was glorious, one of the club’s great nights, even when the very stadium surrounded them with so much illustrious history. That points to the present difference. Some warned that it could be like Tottenham Hotspur at Ajax in 2019, where the emotional peak could only ever come in the semi-final. This Inter squad just don’t see themselves like that, though. They see themselves as winners, even if the rest of the world doesn’t. It goes against everything building up to this final. That very contradiction, however, is what has got them to Istanbul. Read More First golf, now football? Saudi Arabia’s grand plan and the 72 hours that changed everything How to cure ‘City-itis’? Pep Guardiola has new template to end Champions League woe How John Stones sparked his Man City revival by looking in the mirror Erling Haaland on a mission to realise Champions League dream with Man City John Stones relishing key role as Manchester City chase treble glory Alexis Mac Allister believes he can add to trophy collection with Liverpool

Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz are scheduled to play against each other for the first time in more than a year when they meet in the French Open semifinals

Liverpool signed Jordan Henderson from Sunderland on this day in 2011. The deal for the 20-year-old England midfielder was reported to be worth £16million. “Obviously it’s hard to leave your local club. I’m a Sunderland lad, I’ve supported them all my life,” Henderson told the Liverpool website. “But this is a massive opportunity for me. I’m really excited by it. “Coming to a massive club like Liverpool, there is always going to be competition. “Hopefully I can keep working hard, keep improving, and get my chance on the pitch.” Henderson picked up a winners’ medal in his first season at Anfield as Liverpool beat Cardiff in a Wembley penalty shoot-out to win the 2012 League Cup. He became Liverpool’s vice-captain in September 2014 and was appointed skipper the following July after Steven Gerrard’s departure. Henderson has gone on to lift seven trophies as Liverpool captain under Jurgen Klopp – the Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup, Carabao Cup, FIFA Club World Cup, UEFA Super Cup and Community Shield. He was named the 2019-20 Football Writers’ Association’s Footballer of the Year as Liverpool ended a 30-year wait to become champions of England. The 75-times capped Henderson has played 492 games for Liverpool, with only Jamie Carragher and Gerrard making more Premier League appearances for the club. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live